Christmas in the Netherlands

Can you believe it two posts in one week!!! At least one resolution I have kept! The countdown to Finland continues, I was questioning my sanity in choosing such a trip in the middle of winter until I heard the following story. In Finland they have a wife carrying race-in which.......(this is the good part) the winner gets his wife's weight in beer!! After hearing such a snippet I wondered how I could get Finland on my next bid list. I digress...back to Christmas in the Netherlands. On December 16th it is Sinter Klaus day-this is the day Sinter Klaus (a distance cousin of our own Santa Claus) arrives at the beach, of course Sinter Klaus does not arrive alone. He arrives with his friend from the Moors known as Scharte Pete. There are two tales of how Scharte Pete became Scharte (Black) Pete. First is he comes from the Moors, second is that he is black faced because he slid down the chimney. In anticipation of Scharte Pete's arrival all of the Dutch folks line the streets and wear black face. As Pete and Sinter Klaus (who arrives on a white horse) parade down the street Pete throws candy to the good children (one of which would be me). But on the other hand he collects all of the bad children in his giant bag and takes them back to the Moors with him! Unfortunately I was in Portugal (close to the Moors) on December 16th so I didn't get to partake in the festivities. I will be ready to collect my candy next year. I had a great time in Portugal, the sky was blue and the sun actually shone. I went with one of my neighbors from the building and we did quite a bit of shopping, eating and sight seeing. Well that is enough for today. I promise more to come.......

New Years Resolution-more blogging

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated. So many trips so little time! Since I last blogged I have: jumped into the North Sea with 6,500 of my closest Dutch friends, gone to London and worked in the Embassy for a couple of days, headed to Portugal for some sun and fun, and increased the coffers of every Christmas Market throughout Germany!

I'll start with the craziness that was New Years day. Every year at the beach (which is only about 15 minutes from my house) they have a New Years day dunk where as many as 10,000 crazy people run into the North Sea for a refreshing start to the New Year. There had been talk of some of us joining in and I wasn't interested but then....I found out you get a free hat if you dunk and to sweeten the deal the free hat is ORANGE! I needed no other incentive (but when I found out you also got free pea soup there was no stopping me!) Of course this year happens to be one of the coldest years in recent memory, but orange hats and pea soup prevailed. At about 11:45 we made our way onto the beach and picked up our bag of goodies. To prove that I had made the right decision there were ORANGE gloves in our goody bag as well. Does life get any better than orange gloves, orange hat and pea soup as you dive into the frigid North Sea with 6,500 of your closest friends? As we gathered Dutch Techno music was blaring over the loud speakers and the beach was packed with both people watching and the dunkers. Everyone was wearing the orange stocking caps and jumping up and down to keep as warm as possible. At about 11:55 the stripping down commenced (just to swim suits I promise, this IS a family event!), at 11:59 we got into our ready to run stances and at 12:00 we all started towards the beach. The tide was out so we had to run further than I thought we would and I just kept laughing at the whole crazy situation. By the time I got to the water people had already been in and were heading back out to the warmth and free pea soup. After a waist high dunk I ran back and starting layering back up as quickly as I could, there was no frolicking and splasing around for me! On the way home that afternoon we all wore our new hats and gloves as a badge of honor (as if the blue lips weren't sign enough).

I had a great Christmas, a friend came to visit in December and we went on a Christmas Market cruise through Germany. It was a fantastic time, we were worried there we were going to be the youngest on the cruise but it was not to be the case! We met up with some other women traveling on their own and we became fast friends. There was much frivolity surronding table number 14 in the dining room (I'm afraid we may have even gotten a reputation as being a touch rowdy!). This was a great way to travel, we only had to unpack once, all the food you could eat (and great food at that) and we docked blocks away from the Christmas Markets. Luckily on the first day we discovered the charms of chocolate covered strawberries on a stick! That was our first goal each new market we found, the chocolate covered strawberry stand. On the trip back we resembled pack mules as we made our way back across Germany and home to the Netherlands. Luckily I still have about 3,000 lbs I didn't use in my household effects, but it is filling up quickly.

My next trip is Finland in a couple of weeks. We are flying into the Northern most airport in Europe and have already signed up for a dog sled adventure. From what I understand it is dark for 24 hours a day so it is going to be a very interesting trip. I have my Stillwater Newspress front pages so I can get my picture taken and hopefully be famous.

All is well here, I can't believe how fast time seems to fly. I promise to be better at blogging in the New Year.

Too many places too little time

I have returned from Milan and leave for London next weekend! The weekend after London I head to Portugal and the first week of December I am on a Christmas Market cruise.....but the icing on the cake is a trip to Lapland (Finland to see the northern lights)!! Every once in a while I work and put your tax dollars to work!

Milan was amazing, I remember thinking there are not enough superlatives to describe this city and everything it has to offer. I flew to Milan on Saturday and once I was checked into my hotel I went to the city center. Unfortunately on the way to Milan I realized that despite all of my good intentions I had forgotten the battery to my camera! So my first stop was the camera shop....I then went to La Scala which is the most famous Opera house there is. I didn't have a spare $445 to attend the opera so I went on a tour during the day. It was an amazing site, I was able to walk inside and see the stage-which was tiny. I then walked over to the Duomo (cathedral), this Duomo is very unique in that you can walk around on the roof. It was amazing-the sky was picture perfect and the views spectacular (once again not enough superlatives). I spent quite a bit of time just enjoying the view and the peace and quiet. After one or two or maybe even three gelato stops I made my way back to the hotel.

On Sunday I had a reservation at 8:30 to see the Last Supper-I didn't realize until I started researching Milan that the Last Supper is not a painting (embarrasing I know) but a fresco on a wall in a room next to a church. Sadly the fresco is slowly crumbling. They only allow 15 people into the room at a time and you have to be "sprayed" before you go in the room. When you walk into the room the Last Supper takes up a whole wall and it is breathtaking. You are allowed to be in the room for 15 minutes and can't take any pictures. Luckily there are benches so you can sit down and just drink it all in. Believe it or not at some point in history someone thought it was a good idea to cut a door into the fresco. After enjoying my short time with the Last Supper I headed to the train station and Lake Cuomo. At Cuomo I hopped onto a boat and headed to a little town called Bellagio. The two hour trip was (need a new superlative) spectacular. The Alps are visible in the background and the shore is dotted with little towns. I decided not to take time out of my touring to visit George Clooney-who famously has a villa on Lake Cuomo. Once I arrived in Bellagio I walked around the town and had a gelato or two or three. The town is built onto a hill which means quite a bit of up and down (which is a good thing when eating your weight in gelato)!

I have been enjoying listening to my beloved Cowboys on the internet! I still get nervous, even 3,000 miles away.

I am looking forward to Halloween, we have a party at the Marine House on Saturday I have decided to go as "joe the plumber" I have a plunger and a grey t-shirt what else do I need!!!

A quiet Sunday night

Greetings from The Hague. Not much going on here in The Hague. I will be in Milan in two weeks and I am very excited. Usually I plan and research and prepare for every trip I take (those that have traveled with me understand......)but I have hardly done any preparation for this trip. I have my tickets, a hotel room, two passports and a couple of guide books, what else does one need? I did try to get tickets to the Opera but did not have any luck. I am trying to get a reservation for the Last Supper (not my Last Supper of course but the famous painting). You can make a reservation to see it for 15 minutes, after you have been sprayed down for any chemicals you may have on you-I think it sounds very interesting and very blog worthy. Work continues to be busy and interesting-before my next move I am going to research employment law and that will play a large part in my preference list. Who cares if it is a third world country and I won't have internet-I want to know if my new post has unlimited sick leave! I am still in awe of a country that allows employees to have unlimited sick leave, AND if an employee is sick they are paid for TWO years (granted the second year is only 70%). AND as you get older you accrue additional annual leave. When you are 65 an employee earns 32 days of annual leave a year on top of the 22 days of holidays we have. But enough about that.....I have a new "it's not possible story". I joined the gym down the street from my apartment. I went in the first day to look around and see what it is all about and decided I wanted to join for 1 year, after all it is cheaper and we all know about the dollar vs. the euro. I soon found it "it is not possible" to join for an entire year until you have been with the gym for a year paying a monthly fee. I just don't say anything any more, I just file the newest "iinp" (it is not possible abbreviation for future blogs) away, smile and nod and remind myself I am living in Europe! I have been entertaining alot and will be hosting an Embassy wide Wine and Cheese party on October 17th, I had my very fun dress rehersal W&C (wine and cheese abbreviation for future blogs....) but I have found that entertaining in a foreign country is like preparing for a party with one hand tied behind your back and a blind fold on. The simplest things that you take for granted are nowhere to be found-for example tooth picks-who knew that Dutch people don't believe in tooth picks? I was making brownies only to find it was not possible to fit my 9X12 inch pan into my oven! What can you do but laugh and serve brownie batter for dessert and tell people it is an Oklahoma thing? Well I am off to bed-I am still trying to recover from staying up until 4:00am to listen to OSU demolish Troy, then get up at 8:30 to go to a 3 hour brunch, come home to prepare for a group of 6 to come over and have dinner and watch football (do you know I am becoming quite adept at planning meals that don't require tooth picks OR my oven).

It's not possible......

The most well used words in the Dutch language...it's not possible. When I first arrived many expats told me about the favorite words for anyone related to customer service but I didn't believe them. I must say I am now in the "it's not possible" camp. I will share with you a few examples. Ziggo (internet/cable/landline company THE only internet/cable/landline company in existence) coined the phrase. One of my colleagues was having trouble with their tv-so they blocked 3 hours out of the day to call ziggo, which charges per minute if you call them using your cell phone, she was so frustrated because nothing they tried worked. They were able to get the tv picture but no sound. After the second call she finally asked if it was possible to send a technician to fix the problem, there was silence on the other end and a small voice said-but that is not possible, we only send out technicians for big problems!! Then I heard the story (true) of a friend who went to purchase a cell phone and a cell phone plan. She went the first day and found it was not possible to sign the plan AND leave with a phone on the same day. So being a true believer she went back the next day actually believing she would have a cell phone THAT day. The salesman said I can't give you your phone, nor can I tell you why I can't give you a phone, we have mailed you a letter that will tell you why you can't get your phone today. The logical line of thinking would be for the sales person to divulge the contents of this mysterious letter.....but it was not possible. But I must say the it's not possible to end all it's not possibles happened last week when a group of us went to a restaurant. I felt like I had fallen onto the front page of the Onion. There were 6 of us and we were going to *gasp* order dinner. The waiter came over and leaned over the table and imparted this gem...he says...with a table this large we could only order 3 different hot main meals after all we don't want to overwhelm the kitchen. As a newly minted member of the it's not possible club I wanted to say "well we had better not pay at the end of the meal after all I don't want to overwhelm the kitchen" instead we all just ordered another glass of wine and a every appetizer on the menu....it turns out all things are possible!

How 'bout them Cowboys

I must say I was very happy Sunday morning when I woke up to find that my beloved Cowboys had won-as I like to say we are still in the hunt for a National Championship!

All is well in the Hague-as soon as September hit we have had cold, windy and wet weather. The heat in my apartment is already on! Yesterday 4 of us went to the Army base about 2 and 1/2 hours away. You would have thought we had been stranded on a desert island for years rather than living in a first world country for 3 months! We could barely fit everything into my Jeep for the trip home-of course between all of us we probably had 35 bottles of wine but MOST importantly 2 jars of pickled okra. When I saw the pickled okra I think my cheeks became damp with tears I was so happy. The funniest part is that we all shopped as though we were going BACK to a desert island, after all I know I am going to need 7 brownie mixes and 5 cans of cream of chicken soup.

I have already planned my Columbus day trip, I am going to go to Milan. I was going to just go up to Lake Como but have decided to stay in Milan and then go up to the Lakes next time I go. I don't know what I am going to do in November when we don't have a 3 day weekend, we have to work the Friday after Thanksgiving and I am duty officer that week so can't go anywhere.

Paris was great-I went with 3 friends and we had a fantastic time. Lots of wine and cheese. I was very proud of myself, I was relaxed and didn't feel the need to organize and plan (for any of you that have traveled with me you know that is quite a coup). On the first day we walked to the Eifel tower and sat in the park and drank some wine, then we walked to the Champs de Elysses to go to the Louis Vuitton store, off to Sacre Cour-the best view in Paris. We then sat in the grass, ate our picnic and you guessed it drank some wine....the next day we slept in (what a surprise given all of the wine). We had our omelets for breakfast and made our way to the Orsay museum-which is my favorite museum. We then went to lunch, while at lunch we ordered some Asparagus as an appetizer. The waiter asked us how pink we wanted our appetizer-at this point you would have thought that we would have thought something was wrong at this point but nnnnoooo...we asked for our asparagus to be not so pink. Imagine our surprise when our 9 Euro aspargus turned out to be 24 Euro PINK lamb chops. Once again who has heard of pink asparagus?? We headed over to Notre Dame and walked around the Latin Quarter. For dinner we went to the park at the Eiffel Tower and had dinner which consisted of wine and cheese! When in France! Upon my return from France I learned that I am a true Cowboy fan. I settled on to the couch to watch the game against Washington State (I love Slingbox). To my dismay, even though I knew the score I was convinced the Cowboys would some how manage to not win the replay!!

I have to get ready for my (don't laugh) wine and cheese party on Friday night. I have invited all of the my coworkers that live in my apartment complex. It is really sad but I schedule my hosted social events around the week my housekeeper comes!

Hello from the Hague

I wanted to impress you with a few fabulous pictures of my apartment, some of you may pick up a few decorating tips. Of course one of which is: use avacado green as sparingly as possible. I am sad the Olympics are over, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics, of course it is much different watching BBC (British Broadcasting Company) I have never seen so much rowing and badminton in my life! Did you even know badminton (or even hand ball)was a sport? But this is after the great Dutch Cable saga was over...I have yet to quite understand how anyone stays in business over here. So I am sure you are hoping to hear about the great Dutch Cable saga....I will begin at the beginning. After waiting for 6 weeks my cable was FINALLY turned on-but what no one tells you (or maybe they did tell me but I was too fascinated with on of my SIX adult channels)is that even though you have already ordered your cable and you are already paying for your cable you have to send in a postcard telling them what cable you want! If you do not turn in said postcard they turn off your cable (SIX adult channels and all). So I call the cable company and after waiting 30 minutes I finally talk to a real person, said real person says I am not in the system. I asked myself, how can one not be in the system but ones bank account can be in the system??? We finally straightened that small problem out and after much gnashing of teeth and unplugging and replugging I have traded my SIX adult channels in for ONE NASN (North American Sports Network!). I was able to watch Lee Corso and the rest of ESPN's game day crew the other day (it sure beat the first round of Latvia VS. Guatemala in badminton).
I am off to Paris for the weekend and I am trying to decide where to go for Columbus Day-I can't decide between Portugual or Italy. I am planning on Malta for Christmas.

Hope all is well in Stillwater.....