Things I Don't Miss

As promised here is my list of things I don't miss!

Driving

I love not having to drive here! It's so easy to bike everywhere and in many places it can be just as fast as driving there. No having to worry about one way streets (bikes can usually go the wrong way on one streets) or finding a parking spot. Although once it gets colder here or snows I might be wishing I had a car instead of a bike.

How I feel biking

Obscenely Hot Weather
Temperatures in the 70s are considered hot here...enough said

No more of this as soon as you walk outside

America's Public Transportation
Public transportation is practically non existent unless you live in a big city. D.C. has the metro but that is limited and it always seems like they're doing construction. The public transportation here is great! There's a whole network of trams, buses and trains that can take you practically anywhere in the Netherlands and to the surrounding countries.

Things I miss

I've been craving goldfish all week (they don't sell them here...I have to go the British and American supermarket in the Hague and hope they have them in stock!) so I decided to do a post on other things I miss. This will be followed by a post on things I don't miss.

This will be me once I get goldfish

Store closing times
Everything closes so early here! Most stores are only open until 5 or 6 and many are closed on Sundays. A lot of grocery stores are even closed on Sundays and if they're open it's only for a few hours. And a lot of museums are closed on Mondays for some reason.

You close at 6:00 every night?

Actual malls
What they call malls here are actually strip malls. It's not very pleasant shopping there when it's cold, windy, and rainy!

I have to walk around in this?!?

Eating with you hands
This one might sound a little strange but I do miss it! It's so much easier to just pick up a slice of pizza or some bread with cheese or peanut butter and eat it than cut it up into little pieces and use your fork. I guess that's just me being an unrefined American...

My family and friends
Even though I'm having a great time here, of course I miss everyone from back home. Luckily In October and November several family members and a friend will be here at different times and I think I'll be able to meet up with them all!

Hugs to everyone!

Hamster Balls, Bunkers, and Horses

This weekend there were tons of the things going on in the area. There was a festival in Leidschendam and Voorburg, it was Open Monument Day across the Netherlands with many participants in the Hague, and there were preparations for Prinsjesdag on Tuesday. Prinsjesdag is similar to the State of Union address given by the U.S. president.
On Saturday I met up with Melissa, another au pair who also lives in Voorburg. We went to the festival in Leidschendam and it was raining so much! We got some food and decided to go in these huge inflatable hamster balls on the water. They were so much fun but it's really difficult to stand up in the them so you just keep falling down...
I also got a delicious cupcake with a salted caramel frosting. It's a good thing I bike so much here or I think I'd gain weight from the food here! Later in the day I had a huge Stroopwafel which is definitely my new favorite sweet thing and I've eaten so many of them the past few weeks.

On Sunday I went into the Hague to go to some sites for Open Monument Day. The first stop was an old Nazi bunker. It was really cool to see it still preserved so well and they had a lot of artifacts on display

One of the rooms

Even the sheets had the NAZI insignia!

The bunker

 

An interesting grave in the old section. It's a
skull and crossbones at the top and I'm
pretty sure that's a skeleton at the bottom.

Then I went to an old Jewish cemetery that's near the Peace  Palace. It was a really calm, quiet place and it was nice to walk  around and look at all the old graves.

The grave of Solomon Leonard Verveer,
a 19th century artist, and the most ornate graves
 in the cemetery. Most of the other graves are
 just flat stones laid on the ground.  

  

The horses entering the courtyard.
That's the Ridderzaal in the background.

On my way to the Binnenhof to go into the Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights) I got stuck behind a procession of horses practicing for Prinsjesdag. Finally they took a left and I took a right so I could actually cycle instead of walking my bike. Once I  got to the the Binnenhof the horses were entering it  from the opposite side. I stayed there for a bit and  watched part of the run-through for Prinsjesdag. It was really neat to see!

All the horses and soldiers lined up. 

The inside of the Ridderzaal. The King will
sit on the throne on the right.

Then I went to the Ridderzaal which is where the King will give his speech to the Staten-General (Parliament) outlining the government's plans for the upcoming year and is also where they have special government events throughout the year.

Alter of the church

Next up was the Jacobus De Meerdere Kerk which was was built between 1875 and 1878. The church was gorgeous inside, especially the alter.

This weekend was my cousin's wedding back in Maryland that I unfortunately missed but I'm so happy for Nicole! And congrats to my sister for catching the bouquet!

A week of crafting

As you can tell from the title this post isn't about traveling or life in the Netherlands, it's about crafts! A few days ago I decided to make some crafts to brighten up my rooms. The rooms are pretty much all white and didn't have any decorations on them. That was fine by me since it means I get to decorate it how I want!

                                                                                             Craft #1 

It was kind of hard to take a picture of it...and you can't
even see the braided yarn. 

I brought a small photo album here of pictures with my family and friends so that I could put them in picture frames or just have them in the album to show people. I got an idea to make some frames out of paper and then decided to make it a photo chain. On Monday I went to a craft store, got some decorative paper and some yarn and set about cutting and gluing my photos and paper. I decided to braid the yarn that I was going to hang it up with. I thought it would take just a few minutes to braid it but NOPE! It took close to an hour. They were long pieces of yarn and it kept getting tangled and I had to keep undoing it when it wasn't tight enough. I made it double sided so that I could display more photos and I think it looks really good in my room.

                                                                                          Craft #2

Not that impressive but I think it's pretty good for some
vegetable cans and a cereal box!

Next up were things to keep my desk organized. I used vegetables cans (Clumsy me cut my fingers twice cleaning them out...) and wrapped them in yarn to make pencil/pen holders. Then I cut a cereal box and glued decorative paper onto it (silver to match the cans and yellow to match my desk chair) to make a paper holder.

                                                                                    Craft #3

This is hanging in the little hallway when you come up
the stairs to where my rooms are. 

On Wednesday I went out shopping with some vague ideas and to see what materials I could that would give me inspiration. I found a picture of a wine bottle on canvas with a wood backing for only €1! I bought that with the idea to cover it in paper and decorate it somehow. This took kind of a long time because after I cut out all the little triangles I kept rearranging them trying to figure out what design to do before I decided on my initial. I really like how it turned out! 

The shelf is organized now!

 Craft #4

The shelf by my sink needed some organizing so I went through the glass recycle here and came up with three glass jars. On Wednesday I had also bought paint because I knew eventually I'd think of something to do with it. It worked really well on the glass. Since there were 3 glasses I decided to do my initials. The lines on the letters need a bit of cleaning up but other than that I like how they came out. 

I still have a lot of paint, yarn, and decorative paper left and some more jars and cardboard so I'm trying to think of some other things to do. Anyone have any ideas (specifically Elizabeth aka Ms. Pinterest)?