Netherlands Update #2

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July. Of course, the Fourth isn't celebrated here... but that is OK we relaxed and had some fun this weekend and celebrated in our own way with a very American dinner of pizza and margaritas! Since the last update, I have been doing basically the same activities: walking the dogs, domestic chores, and exploring new shops and food. We discovered some great walks in our area. I am impressed at how well the city is laid out in terms of open green spaces, sidewalks, and bike paths all woven throughout residential and commercial areas. Steve and I have ridden bikes a couple of times. We took the dogs with us on one ride and made them run alongside us. It was great fun and we will be doing it again soon.

However, one irritation I have is that while private, individual houses and apartments seem to be clean and meticulously taken care of, public areas are not. There is a lot of litter and generally people seem to have little respect for shared spaces (I have seen people throw trash on the ground just a few steps from a trash can and adults tell children to throw trash on the ground - urgh!!!). I am not sure why it is this way or whether it is true for other parts of the country as well. I am surprised and disappointed by it.

On a more positive note, one of the great things about this city, especially compared to Olympia, is the cultural diversity. Food from many different cultures is readily available in restaurants and at the markets. We recently joined Steve's colleagues for dinner a couple of times and tried different foods as we were out and about. It was all very good... Indian, Japanese, Turkish, and even a few Dutch foods. I am looking forward to having Malaysian, Lebanese, and Ethiopian food soon. Of course, McDonalds, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are available as well (there is also a place called Miami Fried Chicken???). And then there are the ubiquitous Dutch french fry stands. I have never seen more people walking down the street eating french fries and dipping them in gobs of mayonnaise. Another dipping option is ketchup curry... it is not ketchup. It is strange. A few days ago for breakfast we tried another common Dutch food – chocolate sprinkles on toast. The sprinkles made it taste like eating a crunchy whole wheat cupcake. The cheese here is wonderful. Dairy products in general just taste better here. One thing I do miss is good chips and salsa.

Saturday we rode our bikes to the Haagse Markt; it is only 15 minutes away via bike. It is one of the biggest open air markets in Europe. It seems you can buy everything at this market... produce, meat, fish, cheese, flowers and plants, clothes, small appliances, bikes, toys, fabric, etc. It is wonderful! I will send an invitation to view pictures soon, some of them will be of the market. Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures; I will go back soon and take more. On Sunday, we took an 11k walk with the dogs. We walked to a beautiful park that has off leash areas for dogs and great walking and bike paths through wooded areas and wetlands.

In my last message I mentioned that we planned to meet our "housedoctor" and convert our drivers' licenses. We successfully arranged an appointment to meet the house doctor, but the driver's license thing is mired in bureaucracy. We are waiting for some forms to be processed before we can even apply to get Dutch licenses. Some of you asked what a house doctor is. A house doctor is somewhat like a primary care doctor. Everyone must first visit a house doctor for any health care issues. If the house doctor cannot treat the problem, he or she will make other arrangements for your care. And, yes, there are times when the doctor will come to your house.

Yesterday I toured the MC Escher museum. I will share some of the photos. It is a small but lovely museum. I have gained a new appreciation for Escher's art. I like the idea of a museum being dedicated to just one artist.

We are continuing to adjust and learn how things are done here. I have a growing respect for people who move away from their native countries, especially if they don't speak the language or have well established friends and family in the new place. I think it is very helpful to be a native English speaker, but it is almost too easy to not speak Dutch. Everyone (from the cashier at the pet store to the customer service person for the cable company!) speaks English, and most people speak English better than I will ever speak Dutch. Sometimes I forget I am not in a country where the primary language is English. Steve is learning Dutch pretty quickly; he has to – the folks in the office where he is working generally conduct all their business, including emails to and meetings with Steve, in Dutch. Since March, he has had one week-long immersion course, weekly lessons at work, and is now taking intensive lessons three times a week for the next month. I just enrolled in a course that starts September 30... until then I am relying on Steve, Google translator, and my guidebooks and dictionaries. And of course I rely on the fact that everyone I encounter will speak some English.

The language barrier isn't the only thing we grapple with. Behaviors and expectations are different too. For example: Steve's friend James gave him a ride home from a company dinner a few nights ago. The dinner was in Den Haag about 15 minutes from where we live, and James lives in Amsterdam. Keep in mind that Amsterdam is almost an hour from Den Haag and it was late on a Monday night, both Steve and James work in Rotterdam, which is also about an hour from Den Haag in the other direction and they had been working all day before attending this event. James parked in our parking garage to come up to the apartment and say hello to me because I had not seen him since I go there (we knew James in Seattle). When they arrived the parking garage was still open, and they pulled right in and parked. The gates close at 11:00 p.m. When they are closed, a person needs a coded remote to open the gate to enter. Leaving the garage, the gate is triggered by a motion sensor, no remote is required. When James left, the gate was closed and would not open. The motion sensor was broken. The remote didn't work either. Steve called the after hours emergency number the property manager gave him. The paging service operator took his information and said she would call back in a few minutes. She did call back, but she reported that there was no one available to send to fix the gate and she suggested that we wait until morning. Obviously, this was not an acceptable option. You can imagine how upset we were. She didn't seem to think it was unreasonable. About an hour passed and the number of people who were "trapped" in the parking garage grew. It took five calls before one of the other people who was trapped called the security company directly and got someone to come open the gate. Eeergh. Of course the number for the security company is posted on the outside of the garage... not on the inside where it might have been useful in this case. So, I would like to think that back home, the property manager on call after hours would have called the security company the first time a person called and said he was unable to leave the garage. I hope it would not have taken multiple phone calls from different people and then someone having to call the security company directly. But, who knows, maybe it would have. (Note, we are not yet at the point where this story is funny to us...it might be someday.)

We hope you all are doing well and thanks for the emails - we love hearing from you. More to come soon.

Take care,

Candi and Steve