The Bulgarian bus adventure and Dutch birthdays

Today was a very good day. It started out a bit early. See, today is the day that the potential new au pair has arrived to stay for a week or so. She's going to see if she thinks she can do the job, and Jack and Danielle will decide if they also think she can do it. Anyway, this girl, Ralitza, is from Bulgaria and took a bus to get here. This bus was scheduled to arrive in Utrecht, a nearby city, at 4:00 this morning. That's no problem. Danielle was planning to pick up Ralitza. However, when 4:00 rolled around it seemed apparant that the Bulgarian bus was not yet in Holland, and we couldn't be sure how long Danielle would have to wait for it. I had offered to go with Danielle to keep her company the night before, and even though she said it wasn't necessary I ended up going anyway. It's not exactly wise for a woman to be hanging out around Utrecht at 4:00 in the morning, alone, and for an indefinite amount of time. So we decided that two women hanging out around Utrecht at 4:00 in the morning for an indefinite amount of time was infinitely and significantly safer (even though I am one of the two mentioned women). So away we went and arrived in Utrecht. It was dark. There were few people around. And if there were people they looked either a little scary or drunk. Needless to say, we were sure to keep the doors locked. We waited. We waited some more. We drank some ice tea, which unfortunately managed to fill our feminine bladders. The stores were all closed. We waited. Finally, at 8:00 we decided to go home. In the course of the four hours we saw 2 Polish buses, a Spanish bus, and a couple of Dutch buses. Oh, and it finally became light. But, we went home. (We were finally able to get ahold of someone who told us that the bus was late {duh!} and would be arriving at about 10:15.)

At home, I got a shower, drank coffee, dressed, rushed and went to church. After church, my friends and I had an appointment to practice a drama that we learned a month ago. We did that for a few hours. We were short on people, which made practicing quite a challenge, especailly for the part I played (an angel...suitable, eh?). But we made it through with only one disappointment on my side, which I will not write about because it's not that interesting and it's quite irrelevent to the above title. We finally finished.

After church I went to the birthday party of my friend, Oscar. He's now 24. I and four other friends rode there together. Now, Dutch birthdays are quite odd to us American girls. And even the Dutch find their traditions odd when I'm around them because then they actually start thinking about the tradition. Mainly, the oddest birthday tradition ever is the giving of congratulations. Why is this odd? This is odd because the Dutch don't only congratulate the happy birthday boy or girl. They congratulate every single person that is attending the birthday party. Why? I don't know. That's just the way it is. Everyone goes to everyone, shakes everyone's hand, and says "Gefeliciteerd", or in my language "Congratulations". So, I've been congratulated about 6 or 7 times today because Oscar turned 24 years old.

I remember my first Dutch birthday party. It was August 19th, 2004. I was visiting Holland for two weeks, and just happened to be here for my adopted little brother's birthday. I remember sitting in the kitchen, trying to play a game and understand that game at the same time, when suddenly, the doorbell rang. In came family members of my adopted little brother. I remember they came up to me and said, "Congratulations" (in English) and I remember responding, "...thank...you...". I was so confused!! However, they did tell me later what my response should have been. (It was also an important night because it was the first time I drank an alcoholic beverage, but that's besides the point...hee hee). And so, I feel compelled and honored to say "Congratulations" to all you readers because today Oscar turned 24 years old.

Blogs and Templates

Ok then, I just spent the last few hours learning a little bit about blogs. There appeared to be something very wrong with the layout of my blog and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. In the blog you could see my main content, my posts, towards the top of the page and the sidebar containing my profile and such were all the way towards the bottom of the page. I couldn't figure out how to get them side by side. As a result, I did a lot of playing around with the Template and the location of some things. Well, I still didn't manage to get them side by side, though I did manage to get the sidebar on top and the posts underneath. Finally, I decided to ask the Help menu. I finally found the problem. My pictures for the last post were too wide. Good grief!! All that moving around and playing with Templates (for the first time ever and with no training) was just so I could learn that I needed to make my pictures smaller. Unbelievable. But, I also learned a very important thing through it. Templates can be understandable if you just set your mind to learning the language. So perhaps I'll one day write a a Template. Ha ha. I wouldn't mind. It'd be worth knowing. Well, then, I guess it's bed time. I'm tired after the Template nightmare and I'm ready to sleep. Tomorrow is Sunday and with it comes my potential replacement, Church, drama practice, and a birthday party. It ought to be a long and pleasant day, but I do want to be well rested for it.

No-bake cookies and Dutch transportation

Today I made some no-bake cookies. I found the recipee on the internet. These types of cookies were a personal favorite during my childhood and I was wanting to share them with the kids that I watch here. Well, they seemed to turn out alright. It's a bit difficult to cook in the Netherlands. I always want to make an American recipee or something but there usually seems to be a key ingredient that the Dutch grocery stores doesn't carry. That can create a problem because I don't improvise much. But it seems that the cookies are a success. They taste good (really chocolatey). I've had one kid try them so far. He took a couple of nibbles and gave it back. It's much sweeter than what he's used to, so I think that is why he didn't like it. The mother, Danielle, can't ingest milk, so she can't try it. I've yet to see what Jack, the family father, thinks. We'll see. I liked them. And if nobody else does then I'm free to eat them on my own. This isn't a disturbing thought to me.

Ok, one of the reasons that I wanted to create this blog was so that I could share some of my Dutch experiences with my peoples back home. So, the first thing I'll talk about is trasportation. In America I have my own car. It's a cute little Hyundai Accent, and I like it very much. Well, now I'm in Europe. I now have two modes of transportation for the most part. I will show an image of both to give a good idea of what they are like...

So here you have it everyone, my two ways of transportation. First and foremost is my feet. Yes, those are my feet on the cobble-stones of Holland. And to the left you have my bicycle. Yes, a bicycle. I never thought I'd be riding a bike at the age of 22 years old, but I guess there are always great surprises around ever corner. I did come to learn that people are right when they say, "It's like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to." I still knew how to ride the bike, though I will also mention that I did get into a few accidents along the way. They are relatively few, but I've been in more bike accidents then car accidents. I ran into a friend of mine once. I even ran into a wall at one point, while trying to start riding in a small alley way. However, I've succeeded and can ride. I've even ridden it while carrying an umbrella on a windy and rainy day. Now THAT is an accomplishment. That day I drove into the alley wall about 3 times before I could get going. But the important fact is that I got going. Yes, getting around in Holland is an adventure all in itself. One that I hope to never forget. Of course, for greater distances there's always the trams, buses, and trains that you can find nearly everywhere. But for the shorter distances, it's always cheaper, more environmentally friendly, fun, wet, windy, and adventurous to ride the bike.

The adventures begin

I suppose as a first post there should be a sort of introduction or something. I can't really just begin in the middle of life with a blog, so I think that a beginning is smart to create. I mostly wanted to create this blog because I realized that my friends and family would have the opportunity to view it. I come from America, but I'm living in the Netherlands for a little while. I've been here since January and will be here until December. I decided that it'd be cool if my family and friends could have a cool as to what's going on here, rather than send the occassional email to everyone on the planet and wonder who knows what. And so is the beginning. An American girl that lives in Holland, working as an au pair for four little kids. I'll bring more details a little at a time, slowly, but surely. And when I finally catch up it's likely that it'll be time to go back home to continue the adventures further.