Hey Mambo, Mambo Italiano!

So we confirmed last week that we are going to Sicily next month!!!! Dan has a conference there and he knew if he went to Italy without me, he'd have a slim chance of making it to his 31st birthday:). The best part is that his work pays for our hotel, all of Dan's food and Dan's airfare! So we have to fork over minimum cash! 

We will spend our first week in Cefalu, which is a small town in Sicily. (For those who don't know, Sicily is an island part of Italy.) It is right on the Mediterranean and boasts of black sand beaches and beautiful sights to see.

 I am so excited about this trip, I can hardly wait! After spending a week in Cefalu, we will be taking a ferry across to the Aeolian islands (if you look at the map above it is called isole Eolie). We'll be staying on the island of Lipari and as is Italian custom, we'll be renting a scooter to get around.

 This will probably be us

 Apparently the mafia used to be pretty big in Italy but not too much anymore. It used to be considered a more dangerous place to go, but not these days! They say to watch out from catcalls from Italian men, but little do they know that I'm married to one so I'm already used to that :). 

Europe is as great as it sounds but there is one negative side to living here and I'm afraid that I will experience this in abundance in Italy.

I mean really, who ever thought the speedo was a good idea???

Ciao!!!

International Relations

 
So anyone who says God does not have a sense of humor, clearly hasn't read this blog to hear about my International faux pas. The latest one has to do with my interactions with one of Dan's co-worker's. We had a Japanese friend over for dinner the other night for a "real American meal" (which is a lot more difficult to come up with than you might expect...we had lasagna. I know, it's Italian, just go with it). It's a good time for him to practice his English and we enjoy getting to hear about Japanese culture and develop this friendship.

At the close of the evening, as we were saying goodbye, Dan was shaking his hang and giving him a pat on the back. He explained that this is how we might say goodbye in America and asked him if there were any traditional ways that Japanese people say goodbye. He thought about it for awhile and said, "well a more formal way to say goodbye is Sayanora". At this point I got really excited because I had heard the word Sayanora so before I could grab my foot it was inserted into my mouth, I said, "OH! yeah! we know Sayanora! Sometimes in America we say 'Sayanora Sucker!' ... Our Japanese friend kind of stared at me and then said, "what? really? say it again!" By this time, Dan is looking at me wide-eyed and I have realized that it probably wasn't the most intelligent comment to make. I was forced to repeat myself and then stumble over my words to try and explain why we sometimes use that phrase. You know, action movies. . .eek. It was a mess. But hilarious and we spent the rest of the night laughing about how I should not be allowed out of America.

Anyways, Sayanora Suckers!!

Keukenhof

Today we went with some friends to the famous Keukenhof! This is a world renowned park that has some amazing landscaped flowers. It has over 100 different types of tulips. There were some tulips that were so tall, they came up to my chest! Beautiful colors, amazing designs, and we got to go into a real, working windmill! We all piled into a wooden shoe, while other tourists looked on and took pictures. I also heard more American accents in one day than I have the whole time I've been here! We saw wooden shoes being made and people in traditional Dutch clothing (which, now that I'm thinking about it, I didn't get any pictures of!) Words can't really do the flowers justice so here are the pictures. Make sure you view them full screen for the full effect:)

Koninginnedag

Today was Koninginnedag in the Netherlands, otherwise known as Queen's Day. It's a day where the entire country celebrates the Queen's birthday. Yes, you may not have known it but the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy, meaning they have a royal family. Queen Beatrix is currently the reigning Queen.  This is her

So, every year, the country throws a huge party and the Queen shows up in some random cities. Everyone dresses in orange, bands play, and there is a countrywide yard sale. No joke. It's mostly kids stuff but we did get a few antiquey type things. 

We had a good time walking around Leiden, experiencing our first Queen's Day. The real parties are in Amsterdam and The Hague, where people fill the streets and canals and party into the wee hours of the morning.

A few things you'll see in my pictures is Dan using the bathroom in an "outdoor urinal". He's not really using it, only for artistic purposes:) But the urinals are set up all over the city during big events like these and they are definitely outdoor. It's very weird, to say the least. Also, we found a Wheel of Fortune game. . .IN DUTCH! Naturally, we had to buy it, even if we can't play it because all the phrases are in Dutch. Maybe by the end of our time here, we'll know enough Dutch to win that game too:)

Overall, our first Queen's Day was a fun experience but not really sure what all the hoopla was about. I'm pretty sure my mom would've loved it though, as it really was one big yard sale. Not sure how she would get everything back home though :)

* Remember, click on the photo album to make it full size!

Tulip Fields

2 weekends ago, we went with a few friends on another long bike ride up to the flower fields. They were amazing! The air was full of sweet smelling hyacinths and the fields of color just seemed to go on forever! I am definitely loving this time of year here!! Here are some pictures we took on our trip. Click on the pictures to see them full size!!

Huisarts

The other week I had my first doctor's appointment in the Netherlands. I always gear myself up for adventures like these because I never know what they have in store. The general practitioners here are called Huisarts, which literally means home doctor. I believe they used to make house calls and some still do.Most of them operate out of a house, like the ones you in the picture. Sometimes it's even their own house!  But the idea is that you choose a huisart that is near your home. So I looked up the list of doctors and called one in my postcode. I had a difficult time understanding the woman on the phone but was able to schedule an appointment and explain that I was a new patient.

The following day I went to my appointment, where I discovered what I had really scheduled was my registration. The receptionist handed me a clipboard and told me to fill out the top half of the paper, which was basically demographic information. My "appointment" was over. Now, to be fair, I'm pretty sure this was a lost in translation issue between us so I asked her if I could schedule a time to see the doctor. She scheduled me for the following morning. They are very good about getting you in here. You can typically get in that day or at the latest the following day.

The next day I showed up (again) to see the doctor. She was a very nice older woman who took me into her office, which looked like a real home office. In one corner, there was a patient bed that was half enclosed with a decorative room separator. She led me over to her desk and I sat down and sort of felt like I was in the principal's office. We talked for a few minutes about what I needed, she wrote me out a prescription and an order for an X-ray on my knee and that was that! There was no co-pay, no wait, none of the usual hassles we get back in the States. It was great!

So today I went to get my knee x-rayed (minor mishap with tripping over my too long of pants and falling up, yes up, the steps about a year ago). It's always an adventure to follow google map directions in this town because roads curve slightly and then are named something different. I finally found the hospital, which confused me because I thought I was going to a place that just did X-rays (again with the communication barrier) but I walked through the revolving doors and was able to read the dutch word for radiology (don't be impressed, it's radiologie) and made my way to the department. When I came out of the elevator, I walked into a large waiting room that was filled to the max, behind a long line to sign in. So I inwardly sighed and got in line.

When I finally made it up to the desk and handed the woman the note from my doctor, she asked for my card. I started to pull out my insurance card but she stopped me and asked for my registration card. Hmm?? Apparently at hospitals you get registered and then receive a little folder that you bring with you everytime you come to the hospital and it already has your information on it as well as stickers to go in your chart. Pretty nifty actually but it was a pain because it meant I had to go back down to the main lobby and register. 

Finally, after registration, which took no more than 10 minutes, I was back in action. This time though, everyone in the waiting room had magically disappeared and no sooner had I checked in and sat down, my name was called. So they had me take my pants and shoes off, which I thought was a little weird. I mean, the machine can see through my skin but my cotton sweat pants are just too much?? But whatever, the x-ray was done.

All in all, it was a very pleasant first time experience with the health care system in the Netherlands. The only money I had to pay out was 13euros for 3 months worth of medicine, that would cost me $75 in the States, WITH a discount card. Now, don't be too fooled though, we do pay like 42% of our income to taxes so . . .they get you somehow.

Hopefully this great experience continues with whatever health care needs that arise. I'm sure I will have interesting stories to tell whenever we decide to have children. Did you know nearly 50% of Dutch women give birth at home?? And you don't see OBgyn's here except in high risk pregnancies. You work with a midwife. But these are stories for another time, far down the road.

Beach Ride!

On Saturday, the sun was brightly shining and it was the warmest day of the year so far! It was 22 degrees Celsius, which for those non-metric system users (aka every sane person in America :) ), it translates into 71 degrees Fahrenheit. It was beautiful. So what better way to spend the day but biking to the beach in Nordvijk!! We are pretty close to it and the trip allowed us to bike through parts of Holland I hadn't seen before.

Right after we got out of the city limits of Leiden, some boys-who will remain unnamed but both might have been the only 2 American men with us, started their horseplay. Despite Kimberly's best efforts to reign them in with her teacher's voice, someone got hurt. Ed's bike. His brakes were basically rammed off the wheel. So for the rest of the ride (and remember, we were only 2km into it, so total round trip, we still had about 26km more to go), Ed was grabbing onto others for dear life when faced with sudden stops. The rest of the time we all yelled out "Braaaaaake"! to give him time to Fred Flinstone it and use his feet. We were determined to get to the beach.

We passed some beautiful flower fields. The tulips weren't up yet but you could see them getting ready to bloom. The other flower fields were just as beautiful with their rows and rows of colorful blooms.

We were very close to our destination and it hardly seemed like we had been biking long at all. That is the great thing about biking in the Netherlands-no hills!! But just shy of the beach, we came across a mini-golf place. Naturally we had to stop and play a round. I lost horribly but I believe I was thrown off by the ridiculousness of the Dutch "midget-golf" course. Each hole ran into the next one so if you would go to hit your ball and you overshot the hole (which, you do on nearly every first shot) your ball would roll onto the next green, where someone might be getting ready to take their shot. So we had to implement a system where a few of us would stand at the end of the hole and guard our ball from going onto the next green. Annoying, to say the least.

But after mini-golf, we were beach bound! It was amazing, we came through a parking lot and BAM, there was the North Sea! Tons of seaside restaurants, people sunbathing, children swimming in the water (even though it was only 70 degrees and we are as far north as Canada, making the water pretty chilly). It was beautiful!! We had lunch at a beachside restaurant and then made our way to the water. No one but me wanted to get their feet wet. Weird right? I mean, we were at the NORTH SEA for the first time!!! But I had a fabulous time and splashed around as much as one can who hds no friends in with her and who was freezing.

Then we decided to take a different route back so we could bike along the coastal route and go through Katvijk (another seaside community). While this seemed like a great decision at the time, once we got going we realized that there are in fact about 4 km worth of hills in the Netherlands and we were biking them! We followed a path through sand dunes, that had all of us shouting at the injustice it was that the country had tricked us into believing that riding your bikes was a great means of transportation. Then we finally exited the sand dunes and all was right with the world again and we continued on our flat way home. Once we got through Katvijk, which is about 9km from Leiden, we all started to feel the burn in our bums. We prayed there wouldn't be red lights that would force us to have to get off of our bikes. As long as we didn't lift up or move in any way, we were all right.  But one wrong move up or to the left or right, shot shooting pains through our backsides.

By the time we got home ,we were tired, sunburnt, sore, and ready to plop down on a doughnut pillow. It was a fabulous day. One of my best days in the Netherlands I think. I can't wait to go back with a picnic lunch, when the tulips are in full bloom.

Here are a few pics from our trip!