Laurie In Holland

Girls day out

2011-07-08T20:37:00.000+02:00

Click on the arrow below or on this link to see a slide show of all of our summer activities to date.

This entry is all about Leah, but first some cute Finn pics...

Leah and I had our first Girl's day out. We went out on the town while the men-folk (papa and Finn) stayed at home.

Here we are ready to begin our adventure.

Every time we see a bus, Leah points and says she wants to go on the bus. We began by going on a bus ride (Leah still talks about it 2 weeks later!)
Here Leah is waiting at the bus stop.

We then went on a train ride (only Leah's second). Here Leah is very excitedly pointing to the train is coming, and here she is on the train pointing out the cows as we pass them.

After an very long train ride of 15 minutes, we go off the train. What girl's day out would be complete without a great meal. We each had a sandwich, and Leah got to have lemonade and an ice cream!

A very good start to many more to come.

Happy Summer Days (and restaret of the blog)

2011-06-26T20:12:00.000+02:00

Happy Finn

Hi all, sorry for the long absence. I PROMISE regular updates now (hopefully weekly)...so many things to show...Finn is now 10 months old and crawling. Leah is 3, and able to do so many things...and of course Laurie and Rob and our adventures too...

Farmer Leah

Well, here are some pictures from Open Farm Day. Large dairy farms partnered up with dairy companies. THe result was a fun day of pony rides, face painting, cow feeding, toy tractor riding. And free samples of yogurt (OK, it was sponsered by the milk companies)

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2011!

2011-01-11T20:12:00.000+01:00

Latest news here: Finn officially turned onto his stomach for the first time on January 11th, at a little over 16 weeks old!

Big sister Leah knows most of her colors now, and is speaking in Dutch and English!

The proud mama and papa are enjoying the start to a new year with the 4 of us.

Did I move to antartica by mistake?

2010-12-23T23:11:00.000+01:00

For someone who was only in snow 2 times in her entire life until the move to Holland, I am now making up for it. There are record levels of snow, record levels early this year. We have more than 12 inches of snow, making some interesting challenges unknown in LA...

If you dare drive, before driving you have to 1) excavate your car from under an avalanche of snow 2) run defroster for a few minutes while trying to pull frozen doors/trunk open to load kids/stuff 3)scrape ice off windows 4) drive very slowly on snowy slippery streets

Finn and Leah in snow in the stoller

There is so much snow, you cant push a stroller or even ride you bike...a first in bike-obsessed Holland. To take Leah to the market, I pulled her on a sled. She also had a lot of fun sledding down little hills. Finn will have to wait until either the snow melts or he can sit up to leave the house. Not sure which will happen first!

Happy Finn photo

St. Martin's Day (Dutch trick or treating)

2010-11-17T20:23:00.000+01:00

First, great news with Finn... he went for a checkup today, and the pediatrician gave him a clean bill of health. He is 100% better, smiling, and growing like crazy!

In the US, October 31st is Halloween. Kids dress in costumes, and "trick or treat" door to door to collect candy. While they dont celebrate Halloween in the Netherlands, Dutch kids have another holiday where they get to collect candy and give parents nightmares of dentist bills...

November 11th is St. Martin's day. Children make paper lanterns and go door to door singing St. Martin songs for a treat. Leah made her own lantern (lampion in Dutch), and learned a little song roughly translated as:
    "11 November is the day that my light, that my light burns bright"

An even more popular song, popular with kids but maybe not the parents:
    Saint Martin knick knack
    Your mother is a fat sack
    Your father is a thinnie
    Give me a pepermintie

I wont go into the whole history of the holday, but for those historians wikipedia has this great article on it:

Finn in the hospital

2010-11-06T13:32:00.000+01:00

Finn's hospital room

First, and most importantly, Finn is now home and is almost back to full health! He is doing better and better each day.

Last Friday morning, Finn was more sleepy than normal, and was not able to keep any of his milk down. I made an appointment for that afternoon with our family doctor. In the course of the day he also went through about 4 changes of clothing and a complete bedding change. By the time we got to the doctor, he had not kept any food down and was looking pale and lethargic. After a brief examination and a consult with the local hospital pediatrician, he told me to take Finn to the hospital for further examination, as he was very dehydrated. I had to call Rob at work to say "Meet me at the hospital, I think they may be admitting Finn!"

Finn's feeding tube

At the hospital, we found out that in just the course of 24 hours Finn was dangerously dehydrated. Its scary how quickly an infant can become dehydrated!! He had an intestinal virus, and was not keeping any fluids. He had a feeding tube from his nose to his stomach to slowly rehydrate him over the course of 24 hours. By Monday morning, he was looking much better, and could come home.

Now, we have to be very careful to keep him hydrated with a sort of "baby gatorade" called ORS (oral rehydration salts), and make sure he drinks enough. He is alert, smiles at mama and papa, and cries nice and strongly when he is hungry.

Healthy Finn enjoying a bath

So....it did take me a while to update the blog, but this time I had a reason. Promise, less time to update next entry.

Grandma and Grandpa meet Finn

2010-10-06T16:42:00.001+02:00

Click here to see full-screen slide show of the visit

Grandma and Grandpa arrived on September 20th to meet their grandson Finn - 2 weeks old in they're arrival day.

Leah, a 2 1/2 can understand both Dutch and English, so she has no problem understanding her Nama and Napa. Leah's term from grandma and grandpa are Nama and Nampa. She only speaks in Dutch at this point, so she is giving Nama and Nampa a crash course in toddler-dutch. She has learned in English "Nama book" for a story from Nama and "Nampa fix" for handy Nampa to help her put something together.

So far in the visit, we have gone on a few family outings. Highlights have include a trip to the zoo and to the beach.

Birth of Finn!!

2010-09-26T20:43:00.004+02:00

We welcomed our son (and little brother to Leah) Finn Simon Kaptein on September 7th 2010 at 2:45 PM. Please enjoy the slideshow with commentary on Finn's birth!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2010-01-10T22:09:00.001+01:00

We are having the snowiest winter in 40 years in the Netherlands.

The fun side is sleding and playing in the snow. We went sledding today, and its like Nature's Roller coaster! Yes, I am a bit of a kid on the sled, but hey, this LA girl only went sledding once or twice before, so I am entitled!

Leah loves stomping in the snow, and had so much fun she did not want to go home!

The roads are icy enough that I sometimes bring Leah on errands in the sled instead of the stroller!

A white Hanukkah

2009-12-20T18:55:00.000+01:00

This year, we had snow on the last 4 days of Hanukkah. We had the family-in-law join us for a Hannukah celebration.

I made latkes from scratch, lit the manorah and told the story of Hanukkah in Dutch!

We then played in the snow - Leah touched snow and said "fish ice" at our frozen-overfish pond.

Happy 41 yr. Anniversary Jan & Nettie

2009-11-29T19:49:00.001+01:00

Congradulatoins Jan and Nettie on 41 years of marriage! Jan still brings Nettie breakfast in bed every morning (taking notes there, husbands?)

After a delicious lunch, the whole crew went to the local petting zoo/play ground. They have the usual barnyard set of cows, sheep etc... and a little petting area with bunnies.
Leah especially loves seeing lively chickens cluck and walk around.

Leah felt the "need for speed" on the big-kids slide. No little baby-slide for this girl!

Femke travelled to the celebration in true Dutch style. She has baby Stine on the front of her bike, Quinten in a seat on the back of the bike. Like a true Dutchie, she comes home from grocery shopping w/bike saddle bags bulging, shopping hanging from the handle bars AND both kids on the bike!

2009-11-15T20:17:00.002+01:00

Here is part II of our New England trip - the sight seeing part:

Click here to see the slideshow

family at USS Constitution

Rob & Laurie at Battery Park

We took a great historical tour of New England sights. We saw the Fall Foliage, and walked in the gorgous New England woods.

We walked the Boston Freedom trail and say the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor.

We experienced 18th century colonial life at Old Sturbridge Village and Canterbury Shaker Village.

Old Sturbridge Village

Canterbury Shaker Village

We toured famed revolutionary war sights at Lexington/Concord and Morris Town. We experienced the hustle and bustle of New York city, and the intellectual center of Harvard University in Cambridge.

Rob in Times Square

East Coast Trip - grandma and grandpa guest bloggers

2009-11-01T18:59:00.002+01:00

Slide show of grandma and grandpa pics with Leah

We recently got back from an incredible trip to the East Coast of the US. Rob, Leah and I met my parents for a 2 week trip through Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. We introduced both sides of the family to Leah, and were greeted so warmly it was like we knew everyone for years. We also had some great sight seeing...so many memories and stories! THe story will be told over a few blogs.

For the first - Guest blog by Grandma and Grandpa:

Grandpa was the navigator in chief when Rob drove, and grandma sat next to Leah.
This involved playing (probably 75 games of peek-a-boo), singing, handing out and retrieving car toys, as well as fruit, cheerios, and water.

We took Leah to the zoo, and she really liked watching a monkey swing and climb, and the kangaroos at play, an eagle perched on a limb, and one talkative parrot. She liked the miniature train ride, especially the tooting of the whistle.

At the Boston children's museum, Leah played with a gigantic train set, had fun in a convertible car, turning the wheel, and pushing the 3 red buttons, for the sound of a horn, radio, and traffic noises. As the music came on , she shook her head, and waved her free arm to the music.
She crawled in and out of tunnels, climbed stairs and ramps, observed a turtle tank, did innumerable puzzles, pushed doll carriages and shopping carts , and tried to catch the bubbles grandpa blew.

Obligatory Diaper change - grandpa has do do 1 diaper change per trip

Grandma and grandpa had the most wondderful time with Leah, (and her Mama and Papa). .

Shopping with a toddler

2009-10-10T09:47:00.000+02:00

Shopping with a toddler is always an exciting adventure - especially with a "free range" toddler not confined in a stroller...FYI, photos are cute pics, not related to this blog

Cousins Stine and Leah

Leah and I were running errands Dutch style, with Leah on a baby-seat on the back of my bike.

In the shops, she was not confined to her stroller, but was able to rome freely - very freely - in the shops. Leah is a very independant shopper - she wants to go in all directions and touch all the merchandise. I use a "baby leash", for lack of a better word. It has a bracelet on each of our wrists and a coiled plastic "chain" connecting us... This means the tiny hurricane is confined, but not conquered.

In the drug store, she immediatly went for the display of shampoos, knocking them over like dominoes. She wanted to hold and carry everything, except the items I actually wanted to buy, so let her hold. That was much too boring. While trying to pay at the register, Leah went to explore the display of feminine hygiene - not for a few years Leah! After paying, the clerk escorted us to the exit with a huge sigh of relief!

Rob SCUBA diving

2009-10-04T22:27:00.002+02:00

This blog guest starring my adventurous husband Rob...

We've many many blogs with our family star Leah, and also of course ones by this blog's author...but here we have the first...and more to follow...

On late September, Rob went SCUBA diving with our friend Oscar. They first dove under a 3-mile long bridge in Zeeland (middle of Holland). THey swam under the concrete pillars and saw the North Sea estuary.

The second dive was in a dammed estuary. The water was clear (for Holland), which means not too muddy. They saw a sea-food lover's delight... foot long crabs and lobsters, baby shrimp and sea anemonie.

Happy (gulp) 38th bday to me

2009-09-29T19:48:00.001+02:00

On September 13th we celebrated my 38th birthday on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Here are the 3 of us all dressed up for the occasion...

Where's the cake, asks Leah

We had a "come when you want" party between 11 am and 6 PM. We had about 35 guests come over to share in the celebration. It was a very fun day (and the cake was very yummy too!)

Party girl on rocking horse

Of course, most of the pics of the day would up being of Leah. She did her bit to entertain the under 5 crowd, gracious hostess that she is.

Leah entertains the guests

Heemskerk Kermis (Annual town carnival)

2009-09-22T20:23:00.000+02:00

Each year in September our local town has its annual Kermis. A large field is filled with roller coasters, spook houses, ferris wheels and games of chance and luck. They serve fresh "syrup waffles" , cotten candy and all sorts of sweets.

Rob and I went on our annual trek to the carnival. I protected Rob in the spook house, and we went on the roller coaster together.

Click here to see the previous keremis I attended

This was Leah's first year joining us. She (along with mama) went on the carousel and the plane rides. Her favorite activity was looking at all the people and colorful roller coasters. Next year she will be demanding all sorts of sweets as well as the rides.

The carnival employees lead a gypsy life-style, travelling from local carnival to local carnival. Those with kids bring the kids along to each new location. The kids attend a sort "carnival school" with a dedicated teacher who moves with the carnivals.

Baby Book Club

2009-08-25T19:37:00.000+02:00

Baby Book Club

This weekend, cousins Stine and Quinten came to play with Leah. Leah and Stine formed the Baby Book Club, Heemskerk chapter. They also had fun playing on the rug together. Big school boy quinten went on the rope bridge and zip line in our local playground.

Leah and Stine playing

I also cook a meal that was dedlared "delicious" - a rarity for me! I made broiled Morrocan chicken with cuscus and spinach.

Rob went Scuba diving off a near-by peer. He say thousands of tiny baby mackrel, but not much else except very murkey water. I'm glad I stayed home with Leah!

Cousins Melanie and Michael visit Amsterdam

2009-08-10T19:08:00.000+02:00

We recently got the opportunity to show Amsterdam to cousins Melanie and Michael from New York. Melanie and Michael visited Amsterdam as the last stop on a tour of Scandinavia (and 2 days in Amsterdam)

We met them for a delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel - this was the highlight of the trip for Leah! All that yummy fruit, bread and yogurt and 4 willing servants to feed her.

We all took a canal boat tour of the canals and 17th century mansions of Amsterdam. Rob and Leah went back home (Leah wanted her morning beauty sleep)

Melanie, Michael and I went to the Van Gogh museum, and then enjoyed a sandwich while listening to street performers in the old Jewish section of the city.

We had a great time hosting them, and are really looking forward to seeing them in October when we come to the East Coast for a visit!

Trips to beach on the bike, the zoo and new shoes

2009-07-26T20:30:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, we bought Leah her first pair of big-girl shows. She had so much fun stomping around in them!

Leah on mama's bike

Today we went to the beach with Leah on the bikes. Leah rode on the back of mama's bike, in her new bike-seat. Now I am officially a dutch mama!

2 princeses and a brave knight

We went to the zoo earlier this week with cousins Quinten and Stine, with Aunt Femke/Uncle Thomas and Oma. It was the rainist day in months, so we spent a lot of time running for cover! Leah had a lot of fun watching the seals show, and the monkey feeding. SHe did not like the plastic rain cover on her stroller though!!

3 cousins and Oma

Leah walks!

2009-07-12T20:20:00.003+02:00

Watch out world, Leah is fully mobile now. She can walk (with a few falls) more confidently every day! Our little girl is growing up so quickly.

Leah has a little plastic car she likes to ride in the garden.

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T22:37:00.000+02:00

Happy 4th to everyone in the US. I hope you all have a great time at bbq's, fire works, and enjoying the summer weather.

Here, of course, we dont have 4th of July, but we are having beautiful summer weather.

The Lemonade Cow

Leah's day care had a summer party for the children. Oma and mama went to celebrate with Leah. Leah had her first taste of a popsicle - cold!! They had activities like a ball-bath, cup-cake decorating, crayon drawing, and a "lemonade cow" (where lemonade came out of "udders" of a life-size rubber cow.

A moderatly famous Dutch children's performer (who I had not surprisingly not heard of) performed catchy self-written tunes as "bucket and spoon band", "dont be mad" and "this is how we brush our teeth". It was a fun experience.

Family weekend at home and beach

2009-06-22T21:24:00.002+02:00

THe last 2 weekends have been pretty quiet and relaxing for us here. We have had some beautiful weather, nice and warm but not too hot. Rob rigged up a little swing in our shed door for Leah to try - she loves it!

We took Leah to the beach last week. She had fun feeling the waves on her legs, and playing in the sand with her new shovel.

Leah also went to the 4th birthday party of our neighbor. Leah is play-friends with the 1 1/2 year old sister of the birthday boy. There were a few little girls of 1-2 years old. THey all sat next to each other, babbled and toddled around each other. We went to a local slide, where Leah had fun climbing and sliding down (with a little help from mama).

Sarah's visit to Holland

2009-06-13T22:52:00.003+02:00

Click here to see the full slide show

My good friend Sarah from LA came to visit us for 2 fun-filled weeks! This is Sarah's second trip out to visit us, but her first staying in Rob's home town of Heemskerk (muuuuch prettier than Dordrecht!).

Sarah settled in quickly, amazingly getting over her jet lag in just a day or 2. She got along wonderfully with her "little buddy". Auntie Sarah played with, fed and very importantly gave wardrobe advice to Leah. And of course we caught up on all the stories in each others lives (we were almost caught up by the end of the trip, but not quite..., so many things to share)

Sarah saw some of the local sights with Rob, I and Leah. Rob showed us his college town Haarlem. Sarah and I saw the 300 year old factory where Delft pottery is made (in Delft of course!). Sarah and I also went for 3 days to Brugge and Brussels in Amsterdam. We saw the famous statue the "mannikin pis", and took in all the other sights.

It was a very fun trip - we cant wait to host Sarah again!

Sarah's visit to Holland

2009-06-13T13:27:00.001+02:00

My good friend Sarah from LA came to visit us for 2 fun-filled weeks! This is Sarah's second trip out to visit us, but her first staying in Rob's home town of Heemskerk (muuuuch prettier than Dordrecht!).

Sarah settled in quickly, amazingly getting over her jet lag in just a day or 2. She got along wonderfully with her "little buddy". Auntie Sarah played with, fed and very importantly gave wardrobe advice to Leah. And of course we caught up on all the stories in each others lives (we were almost caught up by the end of the trip, but not quite..., so many things to share)

Sarah had a full time touring, visiting Delft, Haarlem and Alkmaar in the Netherlands. She also visited Kas

Luxembourg vacation

2009-05-12T22:57:00.004+02:00

We had an incredible vacation in Belgium and Luxembourg. Enjoy the slideshow of our trip:

Click here to see enlarged slideshow with commentary

Sailing the dutch canals

2009-05-01T22:01:00.002+02:00

Today we too a tour of the local dutch canals in an electric "whisper boat". It was a 3 hour tour, but we made it back and were not stranded like Gilligan. We had a picnic lunch, complete with white wine, quiche and fresh fruit salad.

As we sailed through the narrow dutch canals, we went under some bridges with only a few inches of head room. Rob and Tomas at over 6 feet tall each had to duck quite often.

Sailor Leah was all decked out in a life vest and sun cap to enjoy the cruise. Leah and Quinten enjoyed crawling and playing in the boat while 6 month old Stine slept in the fore of the boat.

I even took a turn steering the boat. I sailed us through some twisty canals and even a bridge! For the toughter parts, the experts Rob and Jan took over!

Sailing the dutch canals

2009-05-01T22:01:00.001+02:00

Welcome to Holland Grandma and Grandpa!

2009-04-30T22:32:00.003+02:00

Time flies so quickly when you are having fun! Mom and Dad have been here for a week now. Its been busy, but very fun.

Most importantly, they are enjoying spending time with the star of the show. They sing songs, play puzzles and play peek-a-boo all day with a very happy Leah. She has 4 devoted servants at her beck and call here!

My Mom went gliding with Rob for 30 minutes. They flew up to 1500 feet. Rob reports that Naomi was a calm passenger, and Naomi that Rob was an excellent pilot. She enjoyed seeing the spring tulips and dutch coast line from a bird's eye view.

Happy Birthday to all the March bdays

2009-04-06T20:37:00.001+02:00

Happy Birthday all the March bdays - Auntie Sarah (March 9th), Leah (march 25), Jeremy (March 27), Rob (March 29) and Mom (aka Grandma Naomi, March 31)... Here are a few pics of Rob/Leah's combined bday party.

The birthday girl got her own cake. It was her first taste of cake, and she had a lot of fun playing with the cake with her hands.

It was also beautiful spring weather the last few days. Here is a video of Leah feeding the gold fish in our garden pond, crawling in Oma/Opa's garden and the first garden bbq of the year.

Happy 1st Bday Leah!

2009-03-25T20:35:00.003+01:00

Singing Happy Birthday in Dutch

Leah celebrated her first birthday today! Exactly one year ago at 10.45 PM Leah made her grand entry into the world, to her mama and papa's eternal delight.

Leah walks for the first time(1 day before her bday!)

Wooden push-kart from oma and opa

She has learned so much in just one year - sit up, crawl, stand, now starting to walk. She has such a sunny personality, always laughing and smiling. She brings so much joy to us - Happy Birthday Leah!!!

Carousel music box from mama and papa

A trip to a vacation house

2009-03-15T20:30:00.000+01:00

Jan, Nettie, Femke & the kids rented a holiday house for the week. Leah and I joined them for Thursday to Friday. I am especially pround of myself for driving the entire 2 hr. trip with the GPS to guide me - on all the Dutch freeways.

We stayed in a vacation park. They had an elaborate indoor play park with a ball bath and baby play area for Leah. For Quinten, they had rope bridges, climbing walls, slides...I joined him for some of the adventures - luckily I fit in the kid-sized crawl ways.

We also did a little walk, stopping to enjoy a petting-zoo flock of sheep. It was then time to go home. Leah was a bit of a back-seat driver, telling mama "ba ba ga gooo" for a good part of the trip. After a while, she figured Mama can get her home after all and went to sleep.

Leah is playing a new favorite game - taking putting socks and small toys into and out of a bucket. She is a pretty low-maintenance baby toy-wise. Her favorites are socks, pieces of paper and some plastic cubes in a bucket.

Visit to the pool, aquarium and mariners museum

2009-03-08T17:44:00.003+01:00

We had a water-themed weekend. It was a clear, sunny spring weekend. It was very windy, but "warm" (about 60 degrees, much warmer than the 30 degrees of a few months ago!)

We went to an aquarium of local marine life yesterday (Saturday). We saw bass fish larger than Leah swimming around. We then went to the Mariner's museum with Jan and Nettie . It is now much more of a challenge to go to museums with Leah. She wants to crawl and explore, and not sit in the stroller all day. Luckily the museum was not crowded, so Leah crawled all over the second floor. She especially loved holding on to an old ship's cannon.

We went swimming at the local pool today. Rob and I took turns playing with Leah in the baby pool and swimming laps. Leah is her father's daughter...she loves the water, had a great time splashing around!

3 year wedding anniversary

2009-03-01T10:53:00.002+01:00

Click here to see a slideshow of Leah 6 months - 1 year pics

Rob and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary this weekend. Yes,for those that were thare, it was actually on Feb. 19 2006. We went out last night for a romantic dinner for 2 (Leah was by Femke & family).

We have also had cold, but clear, weather the last 2 weekends. In order to go out in Holland winter, Leah has more layers than years. On top of her indoor clothes, Leah gets 2 sweaters, extra socks, shoes, snow cap, scarf and mittens...then I have to bundle the Abominable Snow Baby into her stroller. The walks are fun, but the prep work can take a while!

We went for a walk in a local nature reserve with Nettie and Quinten. We walked the kiddie Kebouter (dutch Gnome) route.

2009-02-15T21:24:00.002+01:00

Winter baby at the beach

You will notice the next blog (or a few depending) will not have anything to do with the pictures. The pictures will (of course) will show the star of the family doing what she does best - being very cute!

I will be writing about my experiences in "Dutch Integration Class".

New rocking horse

I have not written much about it, but it has taken up a LOT of my time for the last 6 months or so....well, to start with...when I was 6 months pregant with Leah, the Dutch law was changed. All non-EU people living in the Netherlands have to pass a compulsory "integration test".

Leah and her babysitter Janneke

I went to the city hall to discuss my options. If I attended a course, the government would pay for both course and exam. If I did the course via self study, I would have to pay for all the study materials and about 400 Euros for the exams...so I decided to take the government-paid version.

Fast forward to July...Leah is now born, I am going back to work, and ready to enroll in my course... (OK, getting late here, more on this next blog)

For anyone curious to read more on the topic, click here:

Leah is 10 months old

2009-02-08T17:28:00.002+01:00

Click here to see a slide show of Leah age 6-10 months

Leah is amazing us every day with her developments! She is 10 months old, and seems more a toddler and less a baby all the time. She now has 4 teeth, which have to be brushed daily to her dismay sometimes. She has mastered the art of standing, so no coffee table or 1-foot high surface is safe anymore. She managed to climb up the first step the other day, so all stairs going up and down are now gated.

We keep all of her toys on a toychest downstairs. Last week she figured out that climbing into the toy chest is a much more efficient way to get to the toys!

Leah has inherited her parent's love of books. She loves to go to the bookshelf and pull out all of the books and crumple the pages.

Tenrife Vacation

2009-01-24T22:25:00.005+01:00

Here is a slideshow of the vacation.

If you cant see it, click here to see the slide show in full screen
(there are 4 videos at the end.)

Click here to see pictures with commentary

We just got back from a beautiful vacation to Tenerife to celebrate Jan and Nettie's 40th wedding anniversary. They took the whole clan to the beautiful Tenerife Island. Tenerife a Spanish island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

Happy 2009!

2009-01-04T21:54:00.000+01:00

Happy 2009!

Click here to see more New Years photos

We celebrated New Years Eve at our house with family and friends. We lit fireworks, toasted with champain, and had a very fun time.

Leah celebrated until about 9 PM, then went to sleep. She had fun playing with the other children here.

We did a very wintery activity - ice skating on natural ice. All the streams and canals were frozen. Rob took me skating on the canal where he learned to skate. It was my first time on natural ice - which can be wet, muddy, bumpy, and make cracking noises, but is much more interesting than skating rink ice. It was only my 3rd time on ice skates at all, but I did pretty well.

There are a number of special skating routes here. The area where I skated is called the "Wind Mill Tour" or Molen Tocht in Dutch. Part of it involves ducking under bridges, and crossing roads in your skates. It is 40 km long. I skated a grand 3 kms. Next year, I'll try for 5!

Femke was out with Quinten on the sled. Jan and Nettie also went out skating. Nettie still wears the same skates Jan bought for her 40 years ago!

Grand premier: More Leah Films

2008-12-30T21:38:00.002+01:00

Who's afraid of the big bad washing machine?

Not satisfied with just crawling, she is now trying to stand!

Leah In Motion!!!

2008-12-25T18:42:00.001+01:00

Watch out world, Leah is now mobile!! she's crawling everywhere!

Happy Holidays all! Happy first night of Hanukkah!

2008-12-21T21:35:00.000+01:00

Happy Holidays all! Happy first night of Hanukkah!

Click here to see many pictures from 2008

Its now December, time for cold weather and end-of-year parties and celebrations.
As well as celebrating the Jewish holidays at home, we join Rob's family in traditional Dutch celebrations at their homes.

On December 5th, we went to Jan and Nettie's house to celebrate "Sinter Klaus". In the Dutch tradition, Sinterklaus lives most of the year in warm Spain. In December, he comes to Holland via steam boat. He has Moorish helpers calles Zwarte Petes (Black Petes). People write poems as well as exchanging gifts. I even wrote mine in Dutch! Presents are sometimes given in a Surprise, where the packaging is more elaborate then the gift. This year, Rob made Quinten a cardboard airplane. In years past, Rob made a castle and a 3-foot tall windmill as Surprises.

We also had a family holiday party at my office. Rob and Leah joined me there. Afterwords, we went to the Steam Train museum for a fun visit. No, there is no Dutch tradition of visiting steam trains during Sinter Klaus. We just did it for the fun.

Welcome to the world Celestine

2008-11-30T17:08:00.000+01:00

Welcome Celestine!

3 Cousins

Leah is no longer the youngest Kaptein grandchild. On November 8th, Celestine Noa Kaptein arrived in the world, weighing in at 9 lbs. Femke had a home birth, as the majority of Dutch ladies prefer. She was attended by a midwife, and had a completely natural birth (no pain medication), as is also the Dutch preference. On the very day of little Stine’s birth, the whole family was invited to admire the new member. Femke, amazingly strong woman that she is, was downstairs drinking tea with us less than 6 hours after the birth!

High Tea

The ladies Kaptein went out to celebrate the birth this weekend with a High Tea. Well, OK, only those Ladies who have teeth. We had a delicious high tea at a local restaurant. The papa’s stayed home to spend a fun day with the kids, modern papas that they are.

Stine and Tante Laurie

Little Stine is doing wonderfully. She is now 3 weeks old, and in perfect health. Leah is explaining all the ins and outs of babyhood to her, and how to get your parents to jump when you want them too.

Leah experienced her first snow today

2008-11-22T15:04:00.000+01:00

(written by guest blogger Rob)

Leah experienced her first snow today, November 22, 2008. At first she didn't notice while observing traffic. When enough accumulated on the strollers canopy window she stared at in in amazement (see picture). Seeing the beauty of it all she started laughing as Leah can, as if the whole meteorological phenomena was only there for her entertainment. She did not even feel the flakes on her hand.

Hard to believe that a month ago she was swimming with Grandpa in 90 degree temperatures!

Reunions with friends and family

2008-11-06T06:05:00.000+01:00

It took a few days for me to adjust to being in LA again… The strangest part for me to adapt to was that everyone spoke this weird language, English – why arent they all speaking Dutch?

We are trying to fit a years worth of socializing into just 1 week. We have so many close family and friends who want to greet us and see Leah for the first time. They are all amazed at Leah’s constant smile and sunny personality. If she knew how to write, I think she’d be asked for her autograph!

We have had a constant stream of visitors this week, as many as 10 in one day. I think we had over 60 people coming over to visit is. It really makes me appreciate all of our incredible friends and family! It feels a little like I was only away for a few weeks and calling everyone to catch up.

To help fit everyone in, we even had 2 Leah “open house” days where people could drop by casually to see her on the weekends. We have also had wonderful meals out, learned all the happenings of the last year (including 4 pregnancies that I know of so far!)

Next blog will be about the Mexico cruise….until then Hola amigos

California sunshine

2008-11-04T05:52:00.000+01:00

We have been having such a wonderful time visiting with my family in LA! The time is just flying by. We are all enjoying the California sunshine and the hospitality of Hotel Flieder. Definitely worth a repeat visit! It was a full house, with my parents, the 3 of us and Jeremy down from San Francisco.

We had a direct flight to LA on KLM, the most child-friendly airline in my opinion. Leah had her own little baby-bed to sleep in. I wanted one too!

At LAX we had such a happy reunion with my parents. Leah was smiling and giggling with grandma and grandpa The last time they had seen her she was barely a month old. She was mainly sleeping and eating at that point. Now she is so eager to observe and play with people and “speak” to them in her very own language.

We had Leah’s baby-naming at our family Temple the Friday after we arrived. Leah is now named Leah N’Tanya after my Mom and Dad’s parents for her Hebrew names. There was a beautiful service, where Rob and I brought Leah up to the Bima for the blessings of the Rabbi and Cantor. We gave a little speech about her Grandmothers Leah and Dorothy and why they were so special. Many of my friends and family friends came to the naming to celebrate with us.

We met Jeremy at my parents house the next day, also a very joyful reunion. We all shared our stories of the past year and introduced Leah to her uncle.

Movie of Leah

2008-10-12T16:05:00.000+02:00

I can eat on my own
Originally uploaded by LaurieInHolland

Making her small-screen appearance for the first time, here is a little movie of Leah eating. Click the image to see the movie.

California here we come!

2008-10-12T15:54:00.000+02:00

We are getting ready to visit Grandma and Grandpa in L.A.!! Leah’s first trip on an airplane, and 3 weeks of fun in the sun.

Here are some pictures of a day-trip to Amsterdam. Leah and I went with Femke and Quinten on a rainy Friday last week. Femke had a special offer for riding first class for the 4 of us. Luckily the train was pretty empty. We took up 10 seats with all of our gear.

We met Tomas for lunch, then wandered Amsterdam for a little while. It is very different pushing a baby stroller in busy Amsterdam then when I am on my way to work. We had to dodge lost tourists, kamikazi taxis, trams, cars, narrow ancient streets with high curbs…it was definately an adventure!

Leah's first meals

2008-09-27T15:05:00.000+02:00

eeewwww, carrots

Click here to see all the “Leah’s first meals” pictures

(by guest blogger Leah, translated by Mama)

Happy half-birthday to me, happy half-birthday to me! I have this baby thing down pretty well after 6 months of practice. I am an expert at both bottle and breast feeding, can almost hold my own bottle, and have my loyal servants (mama and papa) trained pretty well in prompt meal delivery.

Pears taste better than carrots

Play time after dinner

I thought I had this all under control when Mama and Papa sudden starting putting weird things in my mouth. What is this orange glop? Carrots, who needs carrots! Give me a good bottle any day! Well, OK, the yellowing glop called “fruit medley” was pretty good, but that thing called a banana was down right weird. I wonder what weird colors and flavors are in store for me this week? I saw some brown glop labeled beans and green glop labeled peas…hope that’s not on this weeks menu.

Oma Nettie feeding Leah

Happy 37th Bday to Me

2008-09-20T13:21:00.000+02:00

When do I get a bike asks Leah

I celebrated my 37th birthday last week, on September 12th.
Watch out, I am turning into a real Dutch girl. I got a new bike for my birthday, with bike bags as a gift from Jan and Nettie. I actually ride my bike almost daily here, as Holland is the Bike capitol of the world. My $60.00 Target Special kids bike was on its last wheels, so time for a new bike. I now have the ONLY adult bike made in a smaller frame in Holland, land of the giant bikes as well as people.

Taking a spin on my new bike for a spin

Baby on the beach

This was my first bday celebration with Leah (for MY birthday, I was of course there for HER birthday!). I went out with the Dutch family to a restaurant by the beach. We went for a stroll along the beach first, then went to have a delicious meal.

Our city of Heemskerk had free guided tours of the local castles this weekend, arranged for my birthday I am sure. We did a very interesting tour of Castle Marquette. The tour was all in Dutch, but I could actually follow quite a bit of it.

Castle Marquette

Click here to see all the photos of my bday weekend

Commuting to work Dutch Style

2008-09-08T20:37:00.000+02:00

Leah ready to leave

In LA, commuting to work brings visions of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405 for miles on end…Yes, of course they have rush-hour in the Netherlands, and many people commute by car in traffic…but we do it a bit differently.

Mom and Leah getting ready

Rob stays home w/Leah on Monday, and works 9.5hrs/4 days a week. I stay home with Leah on Thursday/Friday. On Tuesday and Weds., Rob and I go to work and Leah to the baby sitter.

Leah’s luxury travel

Getting out of the house on those days is an entire production that took some getting used to. We all get up at 6am. I breast-feed Leah, and all of us eat, dress, get a clean diaper (well, OK, only one of us gets that, guess which one?)…Then we prepare for our commute on bikes. Yes, in Holland, the bike is a very popular form of transportation. Holland has the highest bike/person ratio in the world I think.

Hit the snooze, I’m still sleeping

Leah’s car-seat is strapped securly into a bike trailer which is attached to Rob’s bike. We all head out together for the first part of the trip. Then Rob brings Leah to the baby sitter, and bikes on to work. I branch off and bike to the train station. From there, it’s a train and then tram commute to the office. The bike trip is about 10-15 minutes one-way. If there is a stiff head-wind, it can take longer. I definatly build my fitness more outdoors than in the gym. If it is starting to rain, I have real incentive to bike faster to get dry!

Fairytale Wonderland

2008-08-27T12:42:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday we visited Fairytale Wonderland (Sproojkes Wonderland in Dutch). It is the Dutch “disney-esque” theme park for the under-6 set.

It features life-size cottages that depict scenes from fairy tales. Well, life-size for a 6-year old. Of all of us, I had the least trouble bending to see into the little windows. They had all the classics like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and also a bunch of little Kebouter (gnome) houses.

Leah and I took a turn driving Cinderella’s magic coach. Leah preferred being an equestrian than sitting in the coach. By next year, Aunties Sarah and Grace will help her choose a ball-gown so she can go to the ball at the palace.

They also had little rides, like boats and a “hobby horse” on a track. Quinten needed an adult to accompany him, so of course it was 6’5” Tomas who scrunched on that tiny horse behind Quinten!

Trip to Bouillon (Belgium)

2008-08-10T20:20:00.000+02:00

Click here to see all the photos from the trip

Best Jousting Tournament Ever

We did a 4 day mini-holiday to Bouillon, Belgium for a 4 day weekend. One of the cool things about living in Europe is you drive a few hours and you are in another country! We stayed in Bouillon, at the French/Belgium border. Never did find out though if the soup was named after the town.

Bouillon view from our hotel

Bouillon is a pretty little town set in the Belgium hills. A change of scenery after being in flat Holland for a while. Our hotel was on a hill and had a gorgeous overview of the town and historical castle. The hotel was not as impressive as our Gent B&B, but it had a great view! We visited the castle, museum and the tourist movie about the local hero (leader of the first Crusade in 11th century)….well, I use we a little loosley. Leah did not feel like seeing a film or museum, so Rob got his museum and I got my crusader film, and Leah got to hang out with the other one and enjoy the outdoor scenery.

Rob & some lazy guards

We all had an incredible time on our day trip into Sedan, France. They had a fun castle tour, with audio tour and life-sized dolls set up in various rooms to show the historical events. They had the coolest jousting tournament ever!!! They had 5 nights doing about 6 sorts of historically accurate jousting events, a non-very-historical-but-still-incredibly-cool fire breathing dragon, princess in danger, sword fighting….anyways, it was really spectacular. We all enjoyed it, the highlight of the trip for me!

Family at Bouillon castle

Leah is in all a well-traveled baby. In the first 4 months, she has been in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. She may be up for the baby award for most castles visited before 6 months old!

A tale of 2 Leah’s (my family history)

2008-07-14T21:52:00.000+02:00

click here to see the slideshow of family history

click here details and comments of family history

As many of you know, Rob and I are carrying on the Jewish tradition our kids in memory of beloved relatives. Our little Leah is named for her great-grandmothers Leah – my mom’s mother and Cornelia (Rob’s mother’s mother)…but our little family is just one branch of a pretty extensive group on both sides of the family…

4 generations (Anna, Leah, Naomi and baby Laurie)

My parents just came back from a family reunion of what really amounts to a dynasty founded by Leah Sr.’s mother Anna and Father Reuben. They had 6 daughters (Leah the eldest >> my Mother’s generation of about 15 kids from the 6 girls>> my generation of about 40 >> Leah’s generation of about 32 great (3X’s removed) grandkids of Anna/Reuben…and the latest generation is still growing!

My branch of the family history is:
(Anna’s parents – not sure of the names)

Anna/Reuben (with 2 eldest girls Leah and Sunny):

Leah (eldest of 6 girls)

Naomi (and her brother Stanly)

Your’s truly

Leah Caroline:

BBQ with Pregnancy Class Mommies

2008-06-30T22:10:00.000+02:00

enjoy all the baby bbq pics here

We hosted a barbeque for all the “graduates” of my pregnancy class. We hosted 4 sets of new parents with of course Leah’s new friends. It was a very fun evening, and the first of many to come with the group. Our living room was bursting with maxi-cozis, strollers and baby gear and of course babies. We had one in the playpen, 2 in strollers, one in Leah’s bouncer and at least one in a mommy’s arms at one time.

We had a bbq in the garden, but all the Mom’s and Dads took turns eating and doing Baby Holding duty. We eventually got about 2/3’s of them to lay down and rest…until one started crying. Then they all though it would be fun to chime in and get some nice milk and attention.

Even more impressive – I actually cooked (well, prepared at least) the chicken, shish-kebabs and appetizers, and they were edible!! I guess 4 years under Rob’s tutelage has taught me to make more than macaroni with ketchup and cheese.

Yes, I know, what pregnancy class?? Promise a later blog entry with more details. The readers digest version is I attended a pregnancy exercise and information class before and after Leah’s birth. All the ladies in the class had due-dates within the same 6 week time period.

Gent vacation

2008-06-23T21:21:00.000+02:00

Gent sky line

Click here to see all of our Gent pictures

Leah’s vacation gear

Leah had her first international trip last weekend. We went to the Belgium town of Gent for the weekend. We definatly learned that you don’t travel light with a baby. The baggage ratio was:
2 adults: one smallish suitcase
1 baby: 1 diaper bag + 2 other bags + stroller + maxi-cozi + baby-bjorn + misc.
Our hotel was in a pedestrian only area, so I carried the baby + suitcase, and Rob pushed the stroller loaded with all of her gear – we made quite a parade down the Gent streets!

Our delicious B&B breakfast

We stayed at an incredible B&B. It was very small, with 2 rooms in the main part, and a private cottage in the back. The owners are also gourmet chefs. Our breakfast included a wide assortment of homemade pastries, home-made jellies, fresh fruit and cheese, and a yogurt/fruit sorbet. Each night, we had a fresh made dessert waiting for us – choclate cake one night, and strawberry tart the other night – yummmmm!!! And to complete the gastroninic delights, we had incredible sushi dinner. (the first I’ve had in over a year).

Baby Bjorn

We toured the city with Leah in the Baby Bjorn. We started the trip with a tour of the local castle (of course, what else??). Our previous trips involved entire days of running around from castle to museum. With Leah, we returned to the hotel every few hours for eating and napping, so it was more about the family trip than the sights. We did go on a canal-boat tour . With the sudden changes in the weather, it went from clear to rainy. We waited out the storm beneath a little bridge on the boat, then continued the tour. Leah was warm and dry beneath 2 coats + an umbrella, while Mom and Dad were a little damp.

Leah is already asking when we go to Paris to buy her a haute-couture baby wardrobe.

Dutch birth celebration traditions

2008-06-13T12:43:00.000+02:00

Look what the stork brought

The Dutch have a different way to celebrate a baby’s birth than in the US. To start with, the new arrival is proudly announced to the neighborhood with a flag and optional stork. Most people hang the Dutch flag outside the door to announce the birth. Many these days also rent giant storks, and hang “hurra a baby” in the window. We rented a cute 3-D stork.

Rob, My boss from work, with a giant teddy bear from the department

After the baby’s birth, people come for Kraam Visite (after-birth visits). People make an appointment to come individually to visit the baby after the birth. We serve them tea and snacks. They bring a little gift and coo at the cute little creature (or howling as the case may be). I like the Dutch way, since people are sure to see the baby, they come in small groups and spread out to entertain Mom during her 3 months of pregnancy leave.

Biscuit and Muisjes

The last tradition I will describe here is the food…Kraam visites are served “biscuit met muisjes” – literally translated to biscuits with little mice. Everyone gets a round biscuit with blue or pink sprinkles (yes, the color/gender match same as in the US). If you like black licorice, you’d like the flavor muisjes.

Rob’s co-workers celebrate the birth

Next is the Dutch version of a baby-shower. They do not do baby showers before the baby’s birth. If I had a dollar for every time someone said “you do it BEFORE the birth???!!!” then Leah could have some of Suri’s wardrobe (the baby of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ).

How the dutch treat new mommies

2008-06-08T20:19:00.000+02:00

Family Portrait

The Dutch know how to treat new mothers. All of the American mommies will be jealous after reading the standard benefits here in the Netherlands. All women get 4 months paid leave (usually 4 weeks before and 3 months after birth). In comparison to the 4 months Mom gets off, Dad gets off a grand total of 2 days! In Denmark, the parents get an entire year of paid pregnancy leave, but I don’t think that will be coming here or to the US any time soon.

Ready for Lunch!

To make sure mother and baby are well cared for after the birth, all insurance companies cover about 10 days of “home care”. A trained “kraamzorg medewerker” (roughly translated as after-birth care person) comes to your home for 6-8 hours a day for about 10 days. She cares for the baby and gives the new parents a crash course in Diapering for Dummies. She also does light housework, and brings mom breakfast and lunch in bed. You could get used to treatment like that!

Ready for the first walk

During those 10 days of home-care, all the health-care professionals also come to your house. We had the midwife (verloskundige in Dutch) visit almost every other day to check up on Mom and baby. A woman came to check Leah’s hearing, and another to explain how medical care works for children in the Netherlands. Here, all children under 18 insured by the government and have special resources for care.

Midwife weighing newborn Leah (she is in the little white bag)

As a special treat for the new mom, she is usually given a “kraam maand” (after-birth gift basket) by her family. It contains 7 little presents, one for each day of the first week home. Nettie and Femke gave me a beautiful basket with gifts for Leah and me…
The Netherlands defiantly know how to treat new mommies!

Grandma and Grandpa's Holland Visit Part 2

2008-06-01T23:23:00.000+02:00

Click here to see all the photos from the trip

Laurie, Leah and Naomi enjoying an ice cream

Yes, I know, my parents have been back in LA for almost a month...well, here is a bit more about their visit in April...

Pretty Leah Pic

It is a little known fact that you are contractually obligated to visit a windmill in Holland as a tourist. Being law-abiding tourists, my parents visited an entire outdoor park of windmills, the Zanseschanse.

Bill, Naomi and a windmill

Following further in the outdoor park theme, we also visited an archeological theme park and a second outdoor park of historical buildings. Leah had so much fun at these parks, we also saw costumed actors in one of the local castles (one guess who suggested that one).

Us and the Urk Islanders

Also good for a tourist to know - you are not allowed to board your departing plane from Amsterdam without admiring at least one tulip. To be thorough, we visited Holland's famous Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. We saw thousands of exotically colored tulips.

To celebrate a successful visit sadly coming to an end, the entire Kaptien and Flieder clans went to a pancake restaurant. In Holland, pancakes are eaten for dinner. They are similar to crepes, and topped with everything from vegetables to meat to fruit and honey. Our restaurant had over 30 varieties of pancakes to choose from. It was a delicious meal, filled with great stories of my parents trip...and plans of course for their next one.

The clan at pancake restaurant

A day in Amsterdam with Leah

2008-05-24T23:01:00.000+02:00

My Mom, Rob and I thought we would have a leisurly Dim Sum meal in Amserdam, and a calm stroll through the museum…Leah had other plans.

We had found at may other outings that if we gave her a bottle first, she happily slept in her stroller or maxi-cozi. At the Dim Sum restaurant, she decided “Hey enough is enough, you are not shoving me under another table while you enjoy a meal”. Even after another bottle, she wanted to be held and look aroud. You try holding a wiggling baby while try eating with chop-sticks one-handed. A real challenge!

Team work eating with Leah

One handed chop-stick eating

After the Dim Sum, we put Leah into our new sling-wrap for the antiquities museum visit. The wrap makers promised “fussy babies love the wrap, and calm down in it feeling close to Mom or Dad”. Sometimes maybe, but not today. Leah continued to fuss no matter what we did. I guess she is more of a modern-art kind of baby. I normally breast feed her at home, or in private places, but she was so unhappy I thought I’d try it with the wrap. I had carefully studied th wrap video on how to discretely do this.

Leah in the sling

I choose an very out-of-the way part of the museum where there were no other people. My moher jokingly said “watch out, here comes the tour group.” Well, no sooner had she said that then along came a tour group! And with impecable timing, Leah began to fuss and cry at just that moment. Here I was feeding Leah, and the new center attraction of the tour group. I tried to move to another part of the museum, but I had just sat down when along came another tour group!

We decided that Leah had the final word, and called it a day. Leah makes each day an adventure!

My first Mother’s day

2008-05-18T14:29:00.000+02:00

Click here to see all the Mother's day photos
Click here to see more Leah photos

I’ve celebrated many wonderful of Mother’s Days, but this special as it was my first time on the receiving end. I awoke last Sunday to be pampered with a delicious breakfast in bed. Rob made french toast, fresh grapefruit and strawberries with sugar. In a few years I am sure Leah will cook me the same delicious meals I made for my Mom – burned toast, runny eggs and under-cooked french toast…and I will relish every bite!

Mother's Day sail

We spent the afternoon celebrating with all the Mommies Kaptein. We rented an electric boat and cruised the local canals and wild life preserve on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Leah enjoyed her first boat ride in her umbrella-shaded travel-basinnette. She is following in the footsteps of her intrepid Papa, who went on his first boat trip at 5 weeks old. After the boat trip, We ended the day with a barbeque at Femke and Tomas’s house.

BBQ with Oma and Opa

The day before, our little family enjoyed a Saturday stroll down the local outdoor market street. Rob bought beautiful yellow roses for me and his mother. To help with our grocery shopping, Leah generously loaned some space in her stroller to help with the carrying.

Shopping with Leah

It was an ideal first mother’s day weekend. Lets see if we can top it with Rob’s first Father’s Day!

The newest American Citizen

2008-05-03T10:31:00.000+02:00

Click here to see more photos
Grandma and Grandpas visit from the US

The other title of this blog would be “Official Message From the Embassy: Call your mother”…but this will be explained later. Last week, Leah officially became a dual citizen of the Netherlands and the US. We learned very valuable tips and tricks – the best advice for speedy service at the US Embassy is bring a crying infant!

2 loyal servants carry Her Highness

The first task to getting Leah’s passport was passport photos. We had to get a 3-week old baby to look into the camera, hold her head up and have her eyes open. It took me kneeling behind her holding up her head, my Mom kneeling at her side holding Leah up and my Dad and the photographer waving madly and calling her name. We had some redoes since you could not see my fingers holding up her neck, but after about 1200 shots we got a good picture.

Mom and Baby ready for a day out in Amsterdam

The 4 loyal servants take a lunch break

Next step – make appointment and visit the US Consulate in Amsterdam. Leah’s 4 loyal servants ran around madly to get the car packed and us off to make the 9 am appointment. Bill and Naomi went off to see the Van Gogh museum, and Rob and I went to the Consulate with Leah. We got to skip to the front of the rather lengthy line because of Leah, and were escorted up to our window. The teller was very charmed by Leah and happily said all our documents were in order while cooing over the baby. We had to wait for another official to affirm that I had lived in the US for more than 5 years. After 5 minutes of waiting with the crying baby, I politely asked at the window if the official was ready, as the baby was crying. He came out right away, also cooed over the baby, and barely glanced at my documents before pronouncing the cute little baby a citizen.

3 of the loyal servants enjoy the fresh air

The only problem…her picture was European standard size, not US…Rob and I had to walk to a nearby photo shop to get a US size photo. After the same rigamoral, we got the picture and went back to the Consulate to drop it off. At the gate, the guard told me “Call your mother, she is worried about you”…It turns out that my parents were so worried about missing us, they did not go to the museum at all. They asked at the consulate after us then waited at the garage…and the guard recognized the daughter of the distresses Mom and did his patriotic duty to pass along the message…

So this tale has its happy ending. Mom was reassured, Leah got her passport and everyone went home happy…Well besides a little grumbling from Dad over not seeing Van Gogh.

To see Leahs first week, click here:
Leah’s first week

A working holiday for Grandma and Grandpa

2008-04-29T22:35:00.000+02:00

A working holiday for Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa meet Leah for the first time

Welcome to Hotel Kaptein. The perfect relaxing holiday get-away. Amenities include a semi-private room – private unless you have a 1-month old roommate every few days. Then you can have a relaxing night, waking only twice at 2 am and 6 am for diapers and feedings. You are welcome to unlimited use of the laundry and dining facilities – so unlimited you can get to pleasure of doing all the household laundry and shopping if it suits you.

Its hard work being a Grandpa

This is how every new grandparent envisions for visiting their new grandchild, right? Grandma and Grandpa are here visiting Rob and I and baby Leah for almost a month. They have been giving Leah lots of expert Grandma and Grandpa cuddles. Grandma Naomi also leapt right in with diaper changes, midnight feedings and endless loads of baby laundry. Grandpa Bill is chief cook and bottle washer, in charge of washing and preparing nightly bottles. He did his single obligatory diaper change, then decided a grandpa’s place is in the kitchen not the changing table.

Cant you go any faster Grandma?

We did release them from service on a few days for some touring of the local sites. We have been to historical parks, museums and flower gardens. These will be the subject of another blog or two. Its time for me to see if Grandma and Grandpa are still earning their room and board.

Hard at work in the kitchen

Welcome to the world Leah!

2008-04-24T10:07:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to my blog page after a hiatus. This time I promise to keep up more regularly, with weekly updates. And why have I not updated my blog in so long?

A. The dog ate my blog
B. Rob and I got caught in a time-warp continuum (for those star-trek fans)
C. We had a new baby

For those that answered C, Yes, give yourselves a gold star! Our beautiful daughter Leah was born on March 25th in our local hospital in Beverwijk. She has been a constant delight and definite learning experience for her new parents over the last month! Here are a few pictures of her to start out the blog again.

I promise in short order to write about: Leah’s birth, my parents visit from the US, all the new stories, and the backlog of stories of what happened over the last half-year.

For a preview of coming attractions, here are slide shows of:

Leah’s first week

Grandma and Grandpas visit from the US

Greetings from Laurie, Leah and Rob

Heemskerk Keramis Carnival

2007-09-30T15:02:00.000+02:00

This month, I celebrated the local carnival, or "Keramis", of Rob's home town Heemskerk. The festival began in the middle ages, and today is celebrated as part Oktober-fest part carnival. It runs from Wednesday to Friday. Rob and I met up with friends Yolande and Wouter to celebrate.

We began the evening at the carnival portion, held on a large field on the edge of town. They had the standard roller coasters, ferris wheel, game booths and food stands. As well as gargantuan sticks of cotton candy and ice creams, some of the food was more dutch - Olliballes - a sort of large powderded donout ball, and fresh "stroop vaffels" (Syrup Waffels).

We enjoyed a ride in the “sprooks huis”, or ghost house – a little taste of Halloween. We also rode the ferris wheel, which gave a beautiful overview of the town and carnival site. We played carnival games and Rob got me a cute “I love you” balloon.

We then moved on to the "Oktober-fest" part, which took place on the main street of the town. There were a few huge party tents with music and dancing, and all bars were open. The hard core celbrants take 3 days off work to get the full celebration in. They go to the pubs when they open at about noon, and party until 1 am when they close. Not being as dedicated, Rob and I only went for a few hours on the Friday evening.

In the party tent, it was crowds of happy people dancing and celebrating. Some of the music was a familiar mix of top 40, oldies, and hip-hop. They also had some very odd german "ski beer party music" which consisted of - no I am NOT kidding- accordian music and YODLING for one song!!! It was very bizarre. I felt like grabbing my liederhozen and little feathered cap and doing a german jig.

Well, it was all in all, a very fun evening and a taste of the local traditions.

2007-08-26T20:42:00.000+02:00

OK, finally a bit more of my daily life here in Hollland, my trip to work and office...

Me at my office cafeteria

My daily trip into work is a little like playing "planes, trains and automobiles". It takes a variety of public transport to get me to my down-town amsteram office.

My bike trip to the train station

First off, I bike the 15 minutes to the train station for my exercise. I get to bike through the historic part of my home town (heemskerk) and some pretty meadowland.

Amsterdam Central Station

From there, I take the train which takes aboutr 1/2 hour, to get into Amsterdam Central station. Here, myself and thousans of other daily commuters pour onto the streets to get to work. Since downtown Amsterdam is very crowded, with limeted parking and many narrow 1-way streets, most people take public transport in.

Amsterdam rush hour metro

I take 10 minute tram ride to my office. The tras are very nice, and come complete with TV's to watch on your journey into work. I take the underground "metro" back from work, and you dont know crowded until you have been on a Dutch metro at rush hour!!

My office on Herengracht

My office is located chic Herengracht, or "lords canal", where the merchant lords of the 17th century kept they're mansions and ran they're trade empires. A house along this canal would run you a few million euros!

My office back yard fountain

My office is in a 300 year Dutch merchant's house, with a huge yard complete with fountain. The cafeteria dining room looks out over the yard. I work around the corner from the historic Rembrandt Square, and of course as it is Amsterdam, a "coffee shop" as well.

A coffee shop (had to have one!)

One Year In Holland

2007-07-23T10:55:00.000+02:00

One full year in Holland

Just about 1 year ago (OK, 1 year and 2 weeks), I flew into Amsterdam airport to begin my sojourn in the Netherlands. I arrived with much trepidation, but Rob and his familymet me with much needed love and support on my part. My family and friends were an ocean away, everything I owned except for a suitcase of clothes was crossing the ocean in a cargo container, I could barely say “Hello, do you speak English” in Dutch, and had just quit my US job to study Dutch for 6 months then see how employable I was here. …And what occurred over these last 12 months?

My first month here was more of an extended vacation. The Kapteins welcomed me with a 4-day trip in a holiday cottage, with sailing and sight seeing in the beautiful July weather. Then Rob and I went on a 2-week trip to the UK, seeing Stone Henge, Bath, Salisbury and many wonderful sights. There can be worse ways to start my time here!

My dutch class

After all those vacations, I settled down to being a student again after many years out of the classroom. I met a great group of people from all over the world in my Dutch language course, and of course learned to speak basic Dutch. By the end of the course in December, I could order food and shop in Dutch, hold basic conversations, and read at about an 8-9 year old reading level.
Holland Wedding Reception

Laurie, Mom and Dad in Amsterdam

Rob and I celebrated a second wedding party in a real medieval castle here in October. I was happily re-united with my parents and Jeremy for the celebration.

Granada Castle, Spain

New Years celebration with Kapteins

1-year anniversary in Paris

I then went on even more vacations – a week long trip to Spain with Rob in late December, New Years in am Dutch manor house with the Kapteins and family friends, then back to California to visit everyone in January. In February, Rob and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary in Paris (where else!)
Official Dutch driver

Back in Holland after my second round of vacations, I settled down to “life after school”. I passed my Dutch driving test (not an easy feat in a stick shift!) Attempting to find the right job, I interviewed at a number of companies before accepting an offer at Bank Artesia in the heart of Amsterdam in early March.

Flieders and Kapteins in Epidourous, Greece

Laurie and Sarah in Keukenhof, Netherlands

Between March and July were also very busy months: Rob and I went to Greece with my parents for an incredible 10-day trip in April, then Sarah flew out in May for a week in Holland and 1 in London. (you can never have to many vacations!). Rob accepted a new position closer to Amsterdam and we moved to Rob’s hometown Heemskerk (1/2 hour out of Amsterdam)…

So now it brings me to the start of my second year here – quite a lot happening in just 12 months!! For the blog, this year I want to tell more of my daily life. Moving into our new house, my job, our friends and family and daily activities. Thank everyone for reading my blog this last year. Let me know what you think and what else you would like to read!

Laurie and Sarah in London

2007-07-05T20:46:00.000+02:00

After our time here in Holland, Sarah and I jetted off to for to Merry Old England for a week in London.

We stayed in a lovely area right next to Kensington Gardens, about 5 minutes from the tube station.

Sarah at Windsor Castle

One of our sights was Windsor Castle. You can see the living history here, from the oldest part of the castle built in the 11th century to the new memorial for the Queen Mother. Our brochures said we would get to see the changing of the guard, including a parade of arriving new guards and as well as the changing. They must have been lazy that day, because all we saw was the guard pulling up in a minivan and 1 guy replacing the guard. Oh well, as they did extensive repairs and restoration after the terrible fire about 10 years ago, so we got to see all the beautiful baroque ceilings and ornate furniture.

St. Georges Cathedral, Windsor Castle

A close second in favorites was Westminster Cathedral. We signed up for the cathedral tour, which really made us feel like VIPs! We had this happy little elf of a guy as a tour guide (he was about 5’3, and leaped instead of waked everywhere and was REALLY enthusiastic about everything!!). Since we were on the tour, we got to see the gated off original portion of the cathedral, and jump the line ahead of the long line of visitors to see Queen Elizabeth I’s tomb. We even go to set in the roped off seating next to where the Queen sits to observe the ceremonies.

Anne Boleyn re-enactor at Hampton Court

We went our own ways 1 day and each had a wonderful time in our own way. Sarah toured Harrods, toured the sampled the beautiful London fashion and did some of her own shopping. I went to one of Henry VIII’s castles where it was Ren Faire Day!! I saw costumed actors portraying Henry, Katharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. They had live dancing (I got to dance with one of Henry’s nobles!!), and toured the restored kitchens to see how medieval cuisine was prepared. I also wandered the Elizabethan gardens and saw the 17th century portion of the castle.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

We also toured the Globe theatre, built as close to it was in Shakespeare’s time as possible. We opted not to buy a ticket as a “groundling”, where you stand for about 5-6 hours and watch the complete and uncut plays done as they originally were.

We also saw beautiful works of art at the London Gallery (with a great Curator’s choice audio tour describing the highlights). We went to the Tower of London & crown jewels (need any gift ideas Rob??). We saw Princess Diana’s couture gowns at Kensington Palace, and saw some beautiful Regency gowns.

Laurie at Trafalger Square

We also went to see a musical, Fame. You can get last-minutes discounts on musicals and plays in London. We sampled some of the variety of delicious London restaurants. They have great food from all ethnicities – Italian, Mexican, Indian, Pub, Asian Fusion….

Hampton Court Gardens

We had an incredible time, and bid a sad farewell at the end of our wonderful 2 weeks together…until my trip back to LA in October when we can have new adventures.

Sarah’s visit to the Netherlands:

2007-06-18T21:58:00.000+02:00

Click here to see all the photo’s from our trip

Guest starring in this blog: my good friend Sarah. Rob and I had the pleasure of hosting Sarah for a week in May, then Sarah and I went for a girl’s week-away in London.

We started Sarah’s visit with a few days in Amsterdam. Sarah and I took a canal boat tour down the historic Dutch canal’s (and even cruised by my office on one of the poshest canals of course!). We went to the Heinekin Brewery Experience , and got to see the Heinekin horses that pull a famous company cart around town and experience “life as a beer bottle” ride. We each got 3 drink vouchers, after 1 attempt each at a beer , and 1 soda , we made some German guys happy with 2 free drink vouchers. We also saw the Van Gogh museum and the Red Light district, and the Amsterdam fashion street Kalver Straat.

Sarah was treated to an authentic , gourmet dinner of Dutch Pancakes by master-chef Rob, and enjoyed the hospitality of Hotel Kaptein for the week. She, I and Rob all went to the Dutch version of Disney Land, the Efteling Fairy Tale Park. We wandered through grottos life-size fairy tale cottages and castles, detailed dioramas with trains and (of course) wind mills. We went on an Arabian Nights themed ride that was strangely remeniscent of a certain pirate ride (Yo, Yo Ho anyone??). The one big difference of course is all the fairy tales were in Dutch, and little children looked at us strangely when we spoke English! We were amongst the only non-Dutch in the park!

Over the weekend, Rob, Sarah and I also went to the Keukenhof, the famous tulip garden exhibition spot. We did see many beautiful non-tulip flowers, and displays including the Queen’s flowered hats and award winning flowers. We missed the tulips though, and saw freshly cut stems in the tulip fields. Oh well, Sarah will have to come back next year for the tulips!

After a day at the gardens, Sarah got to see Rob’s home town, and enjoy a Dutch dinner with Jan, Nettie, Femke, Tomas and little Quinten. She was the first person from the US to see our new house (promise, pics of the new house very soon!!) and our old house.

Sarah and I also went to Delft (where I had studied for my language program), for an outdoor market and tour of the famous sights. She enjoyed a few more days of touring Amsterdam while I jealously sat in my office.

Then we jetted off to London for a fun filled week…tune in for the next blog entry for full details

New jobs, new city, new house, new trip....

2007-06-10T21:51:00.000+02:00

Sorry I have been behind on my blog entries to all my loyal friends & family reading this blog. Things have finally settled down here, so I will have time for regular blog updates again....For those that enjoy reading these, please email me to say Hi and let me know how you are doing. I miss hearing from everone!

A readers digest of goings on (with expanded blog entries very soon!). I have been at my new job for a bit under 3 months now, and Rob began his new job 1 month ago. Moving closer to our jobs, Rob's family, and the fun activities in Amsterdam, we sought and successfully found a house in Heemskerk (Rob's home town). We survived the "interesting" setting up our new house (with a lot of help from Robs parents) and move in.

In the midst of all this insanity, my friend Sarah came for a very fun week to visit us in Holland, then Sarah and I travelled to London for a week. More on that exciting trip soon.

All these & more will be in my upcoming blogs. Our digital camera died, so I will beg and borrow one for some pics until we have one of our own)

Greece part II….

2007-05-10T16:54:00.000+02:00

Our first challenge getting out of Athens was the rental car. We took a death-defying ride in a taxi to the car rental place, very glad seat belts have been invented. I think our taxi driver was a former INDY 500 driver. After signing the papers, the said “get in the car VERY FAST”. The did not have a parking lot at the building, just pulled the car in front of traffic at the busy corner in front of the rental agency. We threw bags and ourselves into the car in record time and were off.

View of Delphi from Hotel

Our first stop was Delphi. This was a beautiful little town situated in the tree covered mountains about 2.5 hours out of Athens. We could see miles of olive-tree covered mountains from our hotel. All 1000 inhabitants of Delphi have they’re own olive tree grove, from which they make olive oil for mainly home use. They each also work in the tourism industry (it’s a busy ski town in the winters season and tourist attraction in the summer).

Laurie the tour guide

In Delphi, we saw the famed site of the Oracle of Delphi. This was one of the most important sites in antiquity. Rulers came from all over to consult with the oracle before making any important decision. Today, only the foundations of buildings, a race track and a theater remain. You really need a book or guide to know that this pile of stones was once the famous temple of whoever 3000 years ago. We guiding abilities of yours truly (with a little help of a guide book).

Rob ready for the olympics

After Delphi, we drove on to ancient Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics. I had studied this in college, but it was a huge difference actually being there. We saw where the ancient athletes trained, competed in the running events, and where they light the modern Olympic torch every year. A major part of the income of the town is from tourism. In the off season (like when we were there), the shop keepers outnumber the tourists 10-1. They stand in the shop and almost drag you into the shop if you accidentally look in they’re direction.

Mom and dad hard at work touring

The hotel guy told us of a great scenic route to get to our next destination. He did NOT tell us that it involved off-roading up these steep windy roads with virtually no signage. The roads were not paved, and our rental cars tiny engine barely made it. At some intersections there were sings in greek, at others no signs. We wound up in a few tiny towns of about 100 people where I don’t think they spoke English. Not enough to help us find our way at least. We did see women in the local garb entirely black riding donkeys, men hearding sheep by either foot, donkey or truck, sheep without shepherd…it felt a little like we stepped back in time 100 years ago.

Its all greek to me

We did make it safely to our next destination, the lovely sea-side resort town of Tolo. From Tolo, we did day trips to see the ruins of Ancient Mycnae (from around 1400 BC), the harbor town of Napthlion, and the best preserved ancient theater at Epidorous.

After this week long adventure into ancient Greece, we navigated our way back to Athens and survived the return of the rental car. The 10 days just flew by for us on this incredible trip. The following day, Rob and I sadly bid my parents farewell and returned to Amsterdam…where I have lots of exciting blog entries to post about.

Kapteins and Flieders in Greece - part 1

2007-04-30T21:21:00.000+02:00

Rob and I met my parents in Greece for an incredible trip to Mainland Greece!

Click here for a slideshow

We arrived in on Friday afternoon to Athens and met up with my parents. I have not seen them for 3 months, and Rob for 6, so it was a very joyful reunion.

Birds eye view of Athens

Over the next 3 days, we explored Athens together before leaving to see part of the mainland. We took a funicular up a mountain to get a birds eye view of Athens. I saw mile upon mile of white and cream apartment buildings. About 4 million of the estimated 10 million Greeks live in Athens, so it is a very densley populated city. Unlike other European cities, it does not really have an "old city center". There are ancient Greek ruins scattered all over the city. You can turn a corner and see an ancient column in between apartment buildings.

The Greeks are famed for Mediteranian cuisine for a reason. We ate delicious Greek traditional food like Greek salad, mousaka, rice in grape leaves and others I had never heard of before. My parents have a good nose for restaurants, and even found a great chinese/thai restaurant.

We saw the famous Greek Guards at the parliament building. The scots are not the only "manly men in skirts!"

Greek parliamentary guards

Athens flea market

There is a main tourist section near the Acropolis. You find with restaurants, shops and a gigantic flea market selling every Greek tourist chachki in the universe. We wandered narrow streets where shop owners stand in the door and try and entice you in, and listening to languages from all over the globe.
Parthenon

Rob and I visited the Acropolis (my parent seen it before we arrived). It is on an elevated hill you can see for miles. There area actually a number of buildings on the site. The Parthenon is the most obvious, and it is gigantic. In ancient times, it contained a 3 story tall gold and ivory statue of Athena and was the heart of Athens. Now it is really just a shell of columns. It was heavily damaged in the 1800s when explosives stored in it exploded. It is slowly being restored.

The four of us visited the Greek archeologichal museum. There you can see the top collection of Greek antiquities in the world. We saw pottery, bronze statues, marble statues, and incredible gold masks and jewlery.

Next blog entry: Our trip to ancient Delphi, Olympia and Mycnae

new jobs, family trip and moving

2007-04-11T22:03:00.000+02:00

NeA quick update on lots of exciting news (promise, more details with pictures to follow!)

Rob and I are meeting my parents in Greece tomorrow for a 10 day tour Athens and the Greek mainland. Many pictures and travel stories to follow...

I have now completed the first month of my new job in Amsterdam. I am enjoying it a lot, but still finding challenges like all the settings and program menus on my computer are in dutch!
Just yesterday, Rob recieved an offer from his first-choice job (he was also interviewing these last few months)...so now Rob will be a Project Leader/Mechanichal Engineer in he 5th largest steel company the world (his grandfaters both worked at the same company 50 years ago!).

We will be moving to Rob's home town Heemskerk(site of his new job and very close to mine in Amsertdam)...many blogs to follow on the crazy Dutch housing situation.
Bom Voyage for now until I get back from Greece....

Rob’s 37th Birthday Party

2007-04-01T22:26:00.000+02:00

The social event of the season - Rob’s 37th birthday party. We had about 25 guests, with the first arriving at 2:30 PM and the last leaving at 1:30 AM! The party was done Dutch style. Rob was de “verjaardag varkken”, or “birthday pig”, as the birthday person is known as in Dutch. Our little mini-fridge was stuffed full of dinner, sweets and drinks for all the guests.

In the Netherlands, birthdays are kind of an “open house” for all friends and family. You a start time, and they come anytime after that. Our “early shift”, the family and friends with kids mainly, started arriving at 2:30 PM. We served cake, and then a bbq and soup at about 5:00 PM. By 8, most of the families went home, and the “late shift” started arriving. They came anywhere from 8-10:30, and mainly stayed until 1:30 am. A truly epic birthday!

A few different traditions here: In the US, you sing happy birthday and have the cake at the end of the night. Here, maybe because of the open house thing, you get your cake first thing when you walk in. Best cake goes to the first guests! You also wish congradulations to the birthday person to each guest, not just the birthday boy/girl. Fresh and potted flowers are very popular gifts in nature loving netherlands as well.

Carnival - Dutch Style

2007-03-13T21:30:00.000+01:00

Click here to see all the carnival photos

A few weeks ago, Rob and I celebated Carnival. No, we did not go to Rio, or to New Orleans. They celbrate a uniquley Dutch variant of Carnival here. To me, it is a is a mixture of New Year's Rose Bowl Parade, Haloween and Rio Carnival. We were given a great guided tour and parade commentary by Rob's friends.

As the origins of Carnival are Catholic, it is mainly celbrated in the Catholic southern part of the Netherlands. Entire cities shut down between Saturday and Tuesday for a 3-4 day celebration.

THe bars fill each evening people in colorful, and often silly costumes. Its kind of like haloween, but the emphasis is much more on very colorful and silly rather than scary or gory. Some work for months on beautiful, but very bright, costumes and elaborate face masks. Others just put on a funny had or bright, colorful shirts. I saw one guy with a flower pot, complete with flower, tied to his head.

It is also kind of like the Rose Bowl parade. Each city holds a parade with floats and music. Within that city, local neighboords compete with each other for the best float. The town even changes its name during Carnival! Instead of flowers, the floats are made of paper mache, and mounted on truck beds and pulled by tractors. Each float is in psychadelic colors, and playing loud discotech music. Unlike the Rose Bowl, there are entries from as small as 1-2 guys, to the huge floats that take a over 100 people months to work on.

Bonjour from Paris

2007-03-01T21:56:00.000+01:00

A little over a year ago, on February 19th, many of you were there to celebrate our wedding with us in Malibu in the US. We decided the best way to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of that magical day could best be done in the city of romance, Paris.

Click here for a slideshow
Click here for photos with commentary

Last weekend we took a 3 hour bullet train from Rotterdam to Paris. Rob was fascinated with the speeds it reached and the technical workings. I was loving that I only live 3 hours away from Paris!!

Bullet train to Paris

After checking into our hotel, we took a bus tour of the city to get a general overview. We saw the wide, stately avenues Paris so famous for, lined with trees and beautiful white marble buildings. We saw ornate baroque buildings like the Paris Music Academy, the posh Champs De Elyses, and medieval Paris districts like Notre Dam. We then went to Notre Dam cathedral, and underground roman ruins found beneath the church.

Academy of Music

On Friday, we visited Versailles, the incredibly ornate palace built in the 18th century by Louis 14th, the “Sun King”. This was the height of sophistication and decadence in 17th century Europe, each room gilded, ornately painted, with priceless furniture and decorations. The king even had 2 opera halls, and a mile long canal dug in the gardens for his summer parties!

Laurie in King’s Bedroom at Versailles

obligatory Eiffel Tower pic (required for a Paris blog!)

After we returned from Versailles, Rob and I took a sunset boat cruise down the Seine river. We saw the famous old sites in the glow of the setting sun, like Notre Dam. After the cruise, we walked hand in hand along the Eiffel Tower park while the tower flickered with a light show. We ate a delicious Parisan dinner in a small café along the way – the French really know how to cook!

On Saturday, we visited Rob’s Dutch friend Wouter, along with his french wife Patricia and they’re 2 year old Emeric. They took us for a very enjoyable trip to the medieval city of Provins. This was like stepping into the pages of Ivanhoe – the town is surrounded by medieval wall, and the narrow streets are lined with old stone and wooden Shakespeare-like buildings. We ate delicious crepes and saw the town museum about life in the Middle Ages (loved every minute of it!!). We then went back to Wouter’s house for an evening of delicious french cuisine and warm hospitality.

On our last day in France, we went to see the famous “Lady and Unicorn Tapestries”. The Lady & Unicorn tapestries are a series of 16th century tapestries portraying a lady and unicorn - one of the few, and best preserved, of an entire series of tapestries. We got a copy of “Love” themed tapestry when Rob proposed 2 summers ago in Belgium. For the wedding anniversary, we say the real deal!

Watch out Holland, I'm Legal to Drive

2007-02-21T22:15:00.000+01:00

I FINALLY got my Dutch driving license, topic of this blog. In other news, just 3 hours ago, I got a new job (DBA for a Dutch Bank), and going to Paris with Rob tomorrow to celebrate 1 year wedding anniversary!

For those that like pictures better than text, I'll tell the funny part of story first. For the rest, read on and hope you like my take on Dutch driving...

My driving teacher Jasmine

Here, you take the exam in a driving school car, picked up at your house by your driving teacher. I thought my exam was on Thursday, so stayed up late Monday night watching TV. I was awoken on Tuesday at 8:15 am by my driving instructor, and stumbled to the door...she said "Its TODAY, not Thursday at 9:00 am!!!" Luckily, they book an hour before the test to practice drive. I dressed and ran to the car in 3 minutes flat, and the benefit was I did not have time to get nervous. Good thing I don’t need my morning coffee to wake up, the adrenaline jolt was all I needed! Oh, funny side note - Dutch cars are the size of Dutch people, so I sit on a 5 inch thick sofa cushion to see over the dashboard! Well, it all came out well in the end and license obtained (big, huge sigh of relief)

In the US, the reaction is "Great, now you've got wheels". In the Netherlands, even complete strangers give you a "Wow, congratulations, that’s a real accomplishment!". The average fail rate for first time exam takers is over 60%, and some take as many as 4 tries to get the license. For yours truly, it was 2 tries.

Student car with huge warning sign (STUDENT DRIVER!)

Yes, I know I've been driving in the US for over 15 years...but not it a stick shift, and NOT with Dutch driving rules. I had to learn to not sit and wait for the car to shift gears for me, and not to stall the car by shifting to slow/fast/not right gear. Dutch way, I had lessons with a teacher who has a set of pedals on the passenger side of car, and huge letter "L" for learner on top of car (talk of Scarlet Letters!). The Dutch have about 3 times as many signs posted on roads, round abouts, and some pretty weird (to me) driving rules.

Old mode of transport - my Bike!

My exam was in English, great thing as Dutch have totally different words for driving maneuvers. “Invoerg strook” means “acceleration lane” , and some other really funky ones! On the exam, as in the US, I had to do the usual stop sign, turn left, turn right, parallel park. But the fun was just starting. I also had to do a "Hellings Proef" - stop the car on a sloping hill, turn of motor, then restart car without stalling or sliding backwards with hand break (not foot break). Also, entering the freeway - where you have an acceleration where you have to go from about 15 MPH to 65 MPH in about 10 seconds or less, then merge into very aggressive traffic who don’t want to let you in. I failed on my first exam for not speeding up enough. You also have to deal with kamikaze bikes all over the Dutch roads (and horses, and a tractor or 2 even!). On the second exam, I did everything safely and without error, but was still told "you are too cautious, but I'll pass you anyways".

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2007-02-08T21:54:00.000+01:00

First snow day in Holland this year !

Click here to see all the Snow Day pics

For the first time in my life, snow in my back yard. It has snowed for the first time here in the Netherlands this year, and this quite a snow day. We had about 3 inches of snow today (yes, I know, not exactly an Alaskan blizzard, but very snowy for this LA girl!).

Our backyard before snow

Our backyard after snow

It began at about 10:00 am with a light sprinkle of snow. By 2:00 PM, the entire yard, car, and neighborhood was a winter wonderland. It was fun for about 20 minutes to walk out and take pics and catch snowflakes on my tongue. Then I rebreed that snow is COLD, and snowy cloths turn into cold soggy clothes, so I then went home for a warm hot chocolate and change of clothes.

Our car after snow

Canal house during snow

Very quick update on last weeks job interview - STUPID RECRUITERS. He said the job was not on call, and looking for someone with my skill set. It was an on-call job looking for a totally different skill set, so needless to say, neither of us wanted a 2nd interview. Well, another interview tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Brrr!

Job Interviewing in Holland

2007-02-01T16:12:00.000+01:00

On the hunt for a job

As a few of you requested, I am going to put more of my daily life and goings on into the blog as well as the travel stories.

One of the most immediate things for me is finding a job. I graduated from my language course in December, and had a great visit back to LA in January. Now it is time to look for a job.

I am lucky to be in the tech industry - there are job possibilities and Dutch fluency is helpful but not a requirement. For some of my Australian friends here, it is next to impossible to find a job in other industries without Dutch fluency.

I got my interview "power suit" in the US during my last visit home, as none of Dutch clothes fit me here. I certainly cant get a professional suit in the kid's section, and sometimes even kids clothes are too long for me!!

So, some things are pretty much the same...hunt online job boards, email resumes, work with headhunters who range from incompetent to actually helpful.

OK, now how do I get there?

Some things are different here. Much more personal info, that is off-limits in the US, are commonly asked in interviews and even included on the resume. I have been asked for my age, marital status, children (or lack there-of), and once even religion (to see if I needed to take any additional religious days off). I was asked once to submit a photo, so they could put "a face to the name". Resumes can stretch 4 pages as people often put hobbies, every job they had from the first flipping burgers to last professional job.

My interview prep is a little different here. I get directions (by train, bus & local city map). I also usually have to have Rob help translate the job sites for me. You know its not a good sign when he scans pages of info and says only "they are a tech company founded 10 years ago".

Well, I have an interview tomorrow the largest European car and hand-held GPS company TomTom (www.TomTom.com). I'll put up a post-interview blog on how it went. Wish me luck all!!

Visit to LA

2007-01-25T22:09:00.000+01:00

I just got back from an incredibe visit back home to LA - I loved seeing my family ahd friends after 6 months away in Holland.

I did not realize how much I missed my parents until I met them at the airport. Even with phone and email, its just not the same as a hug and conversation in person.
I was actually a bit disoriented as my parents drove me home from the airport...I was used to seeing Dutch scenery. The first thing I noticed was how big the cars were - SUV's everywhere! The second thing I noticed was how modern and modular everything looked - no old city centers or grey/white stone row houses as you find in Holland. Also, everything was set up for cars, from drive-through fast-food to strip malls to wide modern streets. Very different from Holland, where most shopping is centered in foot-only old city centers.

I came with a bag full of T-shirs to enjoy the warm california sunshine, but it turned out to be one of the coldest weeks on record. The week before I got there it was in the mid 80's. The time I was there it was more like in the low 40's. It even snowed in Malibu for the first time in maybe ever. Well, I got to borrow some turtlenecs from Mom's closet and did not touch the t-shirts. Maybe next trip.

The first morning after I arrived my Mom and I hit the Petitie departments of the local stores. Finally, stores full of clohes that actually fit me!! In the Netherlands, the average women is 5'8" I think, and they have no clothes that fit me. In LA, I got some beautiful winter interview and professional clothing for my (hopefully soon) job in the Netherlands. I also enjoyed a manicure for the first time in 6 months, as they are 3 as expensive in the Netherlands and hard to find salons to do them.

I spent the following days getting to meet all my friends and former co-workers. In some ways it seemed like I'd only been gone a few weeks, as we fell right back into our good friendships. It was so great to see everyone and speak in person after 6 months of phone and email. It was hard to say good-by at the end of our evenings out, knowing it will be another 6 months before I'd see them again.

I ate my fill of delicious food as well. The Dutch are reall not known for they're cuisine, and restaurants I feel are more expensive with less variety (and not as tasty food). Along with catching up with friends, I also fulfilled my food cravings such as for American pancakes with maple syrup, fresh salads in a varit of flavors, and egg roles. Wierd carvings, as I dont eat them that often in US, but somehow I reall miss them.

The only other adventures was with my plane ticket. I had a paper rather than e-ticket for return trip (and last time with paper ticket ever!) I'd forgotten my return ticket in the Netherlands, and Rob mailed it to me, but it did no arrive in time. I spent over 8 hours calling between the airline and the website I bought it from before I got it resolved. I was not totally certain I'd actually get the ticket correctly re-issued until I got to the airport.
It was a sad farewell to my parents, feeling like I wanted to stay another few weeks to enjoy they're company. Well, I will see them in a few months in Greece, for a trip with Rob and I.

Happy 2007!!

2007-01-07T20:04:00.000+01:00

Click here to New Years holiday pics

To celebrate the New Year, I went to a vacation cottage in Limburg. We had a festive group of 8 adults and 3 kids. Rob and I went with his parent Jan & Nettie, sister Femke with her husband Thomas and 1 ½ year Quinten, and family friends Rene and Miriam with 3 year old Rika and 4 year old Sven.

In the Netherlands, everyone has they’re own box of fireworks. No danger of wildfires in wet Dutch landscapes. We all lit sparklers, and our own cans of fireworks. Everywhere you looked you see bright fireworks lighting the sky. A local resturaunt had an elaborate display of high flying, spectacular fireworks as well.

We stayed in a 400 year old manor house. They converted the former barn into a cozy vacation cottage, and we also had some rooms in the main manor house. I stayed in a room in the main manor house, in a room with seemed like 200 year old wooden shutters and pretty view of the courtyard. The vacation house had an antique koo-koo clock that was the highlight of the kids’ hour!

On Saturday, we went in to the pretty town Maastricht. It is the most southern town of the Netherlands, and has some Belgium characteristics as well as Dutch. We visited a beautiful 600 year old church, where they burn offering candles to brighten the dim interior of the church. There were 100s of people out shopping the day before new year! We also went to a café where you could pick from about 30 kinds of chocolate to have fresh chocolate milk made from. Yummmm!! On Sunday afternoon we went for a nature walk and petting zoo with the kids.

In the evenings, we played board games and read by a warm fire. I love board games, but playing in Dutch was a new challenge! Some times, like for pictinary, I had to have the word translated before I could draw it. For another board game, we had to make exceptions for me – like all the sport questions were who won the Dutch/German soccer match of 1997, which team did some famous soccer guy play for (not Beckam unfortunately, the only Soccer player I know). We also played a Dutch kind of “shuffle board”, with a long wooden board and about 30 wooden disks to get into slots.

It was a very fun weekend!

Spanish Vacation impressions and pics

2006-12-28T23:55:00.000+01:00

Rob and I were Spain for a week in early December. Here are my general impressions:

Click here to see slide show of spain pics
Click here to see pictures with comentary

Fisherman at sunset in Cadiz

Spain was pretty incredible, and had so many different facets to it. In some ways the Mediterranean architecture and ocean seemed like part of LA, in some ways picture-postcard Spain, and in some ways (particularly some of the castles) out of a fairy tale.

Rob and I at Alhambra castle

We were in Andalusia, the southern party of Spain. You drive through mile upon mile of olive trees and rolling green hills. They have been cultivating olives here for the last 3,000 years! The cities are all built with gleaming white houses, in the local style. Many are purched on hilltops, so the rise atop the mountain from the green hills. Many of the cities retain the Middle-eastern Moorish influence even almost 900 years after the Moors left Spain. Houses have a plain white outside with characteristic "keyhole" doorways, but inside is beautifully tiled with gardens and fountains.

The castles are unbelievable. At the same time the Western Europeans were living in drafty stone castles, the Moorish Sultans were living in glistening white palaces with heating, plumbing and beautiful gardens. Every square inch of the walls and ceiling area decorated in mosaics, plaster art or paintings. The most incredible, something everyone should see once in a life time, is the Alhambra, the palaces in Granada.

Alhambra castle "Court of Lions"

he Siesta is alive and well in Spain! Every day from about 2-5 all the shops all close (including tourists shops) for the afternoon break. The Spanish eat at a totally different schedule too - small breakfast in the early morning, snack at about 11, a heavy meal at about 2-3 (during Siesta), then dinner after 9 PM. Woe to the tourist hungering for a meal at 6 or 7 PM, most restaurants are not even open yet! A must try in Spain is Tappas - small plates with of just about anything - you can make a whole meal out of the small plates of a variety of foods!

We saw many Sea-kitties in Spain. There seems to be a large population of feral cats living on the rocks near the water. I think they live on the offal from the local fisherman. We also saw locals coming to feed them. They all looked pretty well fed, but must not enjoy the rain!

Spanish Sea Kitties

For those that like chic clothes, Spain is the place for you! I think it is a law that women have to wear stylish heels or leather boots, even to do grocery shopping. You see shoe shops with beautiful shoes on every corner, about the same rate as Starbucks in LA. Grannies walk down the street in fur coats and stylish leather flats. Tweens and teens wear stylish "skinny jeans" and sweaters, ladies wear stylish coats and slacks. Even the little kids looked like something out of a winter postcard, with bows in the little girls hair and matching little coats and tights. I felt downright dowdy in my regular jeans and Dutch winter jacket, but I bought some pretty Spanish sweaters and shirts.

Torromolinos

Driving in Spain is not for the faint of heart. Traffic lights and signs are more warning than law, as running red lights seems a national sport. Mopeds race around every corner and between cars. I think the street sign department had major cutbacks, since we never really saw street signs or directions, and every few streets your road could randomly end in a dead end of construction. Finding your way is more a matter of Harry Potter magic and trial/error. Somehow, Rob would look at the sun, say "I think we are going North, that seems about right" - all those years of sailing navigation paying off! I'd madly look for a monument, any monument, and see if I could find the picture on the map to see where we were.

Spanish vacation and preview of coming attractions

2006-12-23T00:52:00.000+01:00

Hello all,

Sorry its been 2 weeks since the last blog entry. It seems like both such a short and a long time ago. A lot has happend in the last 2 weeks. I'll write a brief update here, and promise more details to follow shortly.

In chronological order;

1. Dec. 8th - took the final exam for my Dutch language course and graduated. Yes, I know, I have not written anything about school yet. Details to follow shortly soon, promise.

2. Dec. 9th - 17th - week long tour of spain
Click here to see slide show of spain pics
Click here to see pictures with comentary

3. Dec. 20th - Passed my dutch Theory exam. Only 2/14 taking the test passed. Much more difficult than in US - blog entry to follow about this.

4. Dec. 21-22th - Had first 2 job interviews, with more pending.

Well, its well after midnight, so quick update given. Promise more details very soon.

2006-12-08T11:02:00.000+01:00

I celebrated a belated Thanksgiving with Rob’s family last Sunday, Dec. 3rd. We also celebrated the Dutch holiday “Sinter Klaus”.

Click here to see all the photos of the holiday fun

This was the first time I tried to cook a turkey without the Master Chef , a.ka. Mom. After many hours of expert consultation the day before with my Mom, Rob and I set out to cook our first turkey. We had some authentic American imports brought in my parents suitcases in October like stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn bread and gravy. Luckily I thought to bring our US measuring cup, as the instructions were US measure of cups and teaspoons, but Rob’s mom only had a cup in metric measure. We made stuffing, fresh corn bread, potatoes, green beans and warm grravy.

And of course, you need a turkey. Nettie had to go to the wild game specialty shop to order our turkey a week in advance, as in Holland very few people order an entire bird. It was a delicious free-range turkey. The 7-lb turkey filled Rob’s parents oven almost entirely. The plastic turkey-bag my Mom brought burned a bit on the top of the oven, it was such a tight fit. Luckily after a minute of burnt-plastic smell, it all cleared up and the turkey came out beautifully!

At dinner, I had to provide a bit of epicurean advice – corn bread is traditionally eaten with honey or butter, cranberry sauce is for turkey, gravy is for turkey, potatoes and stuffing….and everyone had a wonderful meal.

After the meal, we celebrated the Dutch tradition of Sinter Klaus. The Dutch Sint is different than Santa Claus, much more practical. He lives in Madrid instead of the cold north pole. He arrives each year in the Netherlands on December 5 by steamboat instead of outmoded sleigh and reindeer. With the assistance of his “zwarte petes”, he delivers gifts to homes on his horse. Kids leave hay for the horse in they’re wooden clogs, and receive a gift in the shoe in place.

We did a “Secret Sinter Klaus” with Rob’s family. We each drew a wish-list randomly out of a bowl. You write a poem with the gift. Gifts are sometimes wrapped in “surprise” packaging. Rob the engineer created an entire 2-foot tall cardboard windmill to contain the gifts of 4 egg-cups and some small clothing…never would have guessed the gift by the packaging, a real “surprise”. Quinten received a masterfully written 8 line rhyming poem (in Dutch naturally) from yours truly. He was very impressed by it!

We also sang some traditional holiday songs, drank hot chocolate and ate traditional cookies. It was an incredible evening celebrating 2 traditions. I think all Dutch should try Thanksgiving and Americans try Sinter Klaus once, a holiday exchange program!

Beach Party in November?

2006-12-02T22:38:00.000+01:00

Click here to see all the weekend's photos

Last Saturday (Nov. 26th). I went to a beach party, Holland style. Yes, of course they have beaches in Holland, the land of water. But its about 40 degrees outside, not exactly time to pull out the bikini and work on your tan. A co-worker of Rob’s rented a warehouse, and had sand trucked into the warehouse. He rented palm trees, a volleyball court, a drink-cabaña and a hammock, and most important, heat lamps!. They had a DJ playing, and beach volleyball going. So, digging to the bottom of my boxes, I dug out some Cali-style sun gear and went partying. Well, California with a bit of Holland winter…I had tights on under the shorts, and my winter coat over the tank top, but hey, it was a beach party!

The next day we celebrated Rob’s parents’ 38th wedding anniversary. First we went to a petting zoo so baby Quinten could pet a little goat that was almost as big as he was. After that, I went with him on the swings to work up an appetite. After an intense swing session, we ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and wished Jan/Nettie a very happy 38th anniversary. They then went on a 3 day trip to Germany to celebrate (but for some odd reason did not take us with them, gee, wonder why?)

At the end of the evening, Quinten felt we all had too much celebratory wine and said he'd drive us home.

World championship wood cutting?

2006-11-24T23:36:00.000+01:00

Holland REALLY does not have “Must See TV” on Friday Nights! I am sitting here at 10:00 trying to find anything to watch on TV.

We have:

1. Soccer (there is always soccer on somewhere)
2. Sinter Klaus (Dutch Santa show)
3. A Dutch version of American Idol – “Tarzan”. Audition really pale, skinny guys to be the “lord of the jungle” in a musical. Desperate enough….maaaaybe, NO, not that desperate.

Moving on…
4. News in Dutch or English(5 stations of it) – read it on internet, don’t need recap.
5. entire show devoted to weather….WHY? You can sum it up in 1 word: rain.
6. Discovery Channel – this is really should be named Discover the Manly Man Channel. They find 24 hours a day on car shows. I did not know they made that many car shows

7. Animal Channel – OK, sometimes good shows here. Now is “Meercat Manor”. Watching the little fellows dig in the dirt gets a little old after a minute, even with the cool sound track.

8.Our local porn station – no, we did not ask for, or pay for it, dutch cable just gives it to you. What can I say, its Europe.

9. Sport Channel – World Wood Chopping Championships.
No, I DID NOT make this up, serious, google it!

After 2 edge-of-seat excitement minutes watching the Australian guy beat the German wood-cutter I decided I really cant be this desperate. I tuned off the TV and wrote this blog instead. Since you’re reading this, guess nothing good on TV there either.

Cubist homes, Sinter Klaus, and a very boring train station

2006-11-18T15:08:00.000+01:00

Today I went on a day trip to Rotterdam with 2 of my class mates from Dutch class. I went with Paula from Spain and Delilah from England.

See the entire exciting photo collection!

The trip there went a bit of plan. I was supposed to meet them at “Rotterdam Blaak”. I forgot there are 5 Rotterdam XXX stations, and got off 1 to soon at “Rotterdam Zuid”. If you want the most boring train station in Holland, maybe in all Europe, this is it! As the train pulled out, 2 things: a. wrong station, b. next train in 30 minutes. Well, I put the time to very good use, I discovered I have solitaire on my cell phone!

30 minutes later, I joined Delilah and Paula. They were not as fortunate as I to have experienced the life altering wait at Rotterdam Zuid, so they waited for 30 minutes at the correct station.

We went to visit one of the architectural points of interest in Holland, the “Cubist Houses”. Rotterdam was almost totally destroyed by bombing in WW2. After the war, many of the buildings were rebuilt in experimental style. A perfect example are the cubist houses, built in the 1980’s at a 45 degree angle. Going inside the museum house was like walking into a Picasso painting. The walls slope, and windows look out at all sorts of odd angles. The 3rd floor, a sort of “sun room”, had an entire skewed ceiling and walls of little glass windows. And they even had an entire wall of “Lord of the Rings” memorabilia on display (Oh, I AM in heaven!). Interested in living in a cube? Well, for the bargain price of $260,000, you too can live here.

On the way home, I say Holland’s answer to sitting on Santa’s knee. The Dutch have “Sinter Klaus” instead of old St. Nick. Instead of elves, he has “Swarte Petes”, or “Black Petes”….more on Sinter Klaus in another blog…. Kids still line up to sit on his knee just like a US mall-Santa.

Dutch Ship Museum & St. Martins Day

2006-11-14T17:23:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday, Rob and I visited the Dutch Ship Museum in Amsterdam. Yes, this was Rob’s turn to choose a museum to visit, but next time we are going to the “Costume History Museum” in Antwerp!

Clickhere to set sail and see all the pics

This was actually a very interesting museum. This is an actual life-sized replica ship built in the same style as the 17th century Dutch trade ships. It took 400 volunteers over 15 years to build. You get a real feel for what ship life was like on board. As a sailor, you slept below decks with 200 other sailors. Your dinner was something like porridge, moldy bacon and beer.

Crew Member Laurie slacking off at work

Is this all I get for dinner? I'm striking!

The captain’s life was much better. He had a huge cabin, and a roomy office below decks. He ate meals such as broiled chicken, wine and veggies. Passengers had they’re own cabins, but they were not exactly first class by today’s standards. There was barely room for a bunk bed, and this is where you lived for the 8 month journey. Better not be too tall, the bunk beds are only about 5 feet 8” long!

Its good to be the Captain, says Rob

Later that evening, we had dinner at Femke’s and I experienced Holland’s answer to Halloween. It is “St. Martins Day”, where little kids with lanterns come to your door. They don’t wear costumes, but they sing you a little song, and you give them a treat. At least in Holland they have to work a little for the treat!

St. Martin's kids singing for a treat

My first driving lesson

2006-11-05T21:37:00.000+01:00

On Monday I had my first driving lesson. No, you don’t need new glasses, you did read this correctly. My US license is only valid 6 for six months. Then I need to take a theory and road exam (luckily both offered in English). Since 99.9998% cars in Holland are stick shift, and when in Rome…., thus I’m learning stick shift. Also, Dutch exams are notoriously difficult, so I’m taking some driving lessons first.

A school Rob know promised an English speaking teacher. Well, they did not totally lie, she did know enough English to say “I have not spoken English in 5 years” as soon as I got in the car. So, it was an interesting experience. In fact, it reminded me in a lot of ways of high school exams.

We had multiple choice questions:
Teacher says “Push him in”. Does “him” refer to
a. stick
b. clutch
c. break
d. gas
I must not have done very well on this part, because the teacher repeatedly asked me this question at various times as the car good imitation of a bucking bronco, or coming to a dead halt.

True/False
Teacher says “Go left”
True: Left is in fact a bike path
False: Right is a street
Well, rebellious American that I am, I answered False, and went right onto the street

And for the bonus round, a short essay question:
“Turn left on the roundabout”….
In 200 words or less, please explain this sentence
“Turn right on the roundabout, go ¾ way around, put on left blinker and turn onto street”
OK, I must admit, I had the True/False section down, was batting about 50/50 on the multiple choice , but I missed the short essay. I tried to turn left on the round about before aforementioned teacher went into conniptions and corrected me. Geesh, some people are really perfectionists!

My Magic Castle - Holland Wedding Reception

2006-10-29T21:25:00.000+01:00

My day as Princess of the Castle, with my Knight in Shining Armour

Click here to see the all images from the Fairy Tale

If you know me (and of course you know me, or you would’t be reading my website), knows of my love (OK, OK, some say obsession) with all things medieval. Well, today I got to combine 2 dreams in one – a wedding reception with my magic prince in a real 15th century castle

Assumburg Castle - my magic castle for the day

Its normal to take photo’s before your bridal reception, but I got the real medieval experience taking pictures on the castle roof. I got to scramble up narrow stairs with a long dress and 3 petticoats…I think I know now why there were so many maidens in the tower, because they could not climb down the tower with the long dresses!

Atop the castle roof

Up, Up she climbed to the castle tower

My parents and Jeremy flew out to join us in the celebration, and of course Rob's immediate family. As well, about 65 of our Dutch friends and family joined us to celebrate the day. We had a wonderful reception with drinks and snacks. We also did quite a few of the wedding tratitions. We had a cake that Femke baked from a traditional Irish recipe. We also did a "first dance" and a boquet toss. Rob's 8-year old cousin caught the boquet, so all those believing in the "next married" tradition" will have to wait a bit for they're wedding.

Cutting Irish Wedding Cake

Boquet Toss

You will all be impressed that I gave a speech competely in dutch, which was actually understood. It ended somewhat like "An now I have found my Knight in shinin armor, and have my castle. Has anyone seen my white horse?"

Flieder Family Toast

Have you seen my white horse?

Family visit to Holland

2006-10-22T08:47:00.000+02:00

Click here to see all the photos if the visit

Last weekend we hosted our wedding party for the Dutch family and friends. It was my parents final week here in Holland, and my brother Jeremy’s first few days here. It was only the second time that both sides of our families have met. The first of course was at our wedding, where the Flieders hosted the Kapteins in LA. Now, Rob’s family returned the favor and showed my parents fine Dutch hospitality. We were hosted by Rob’s parents Jan/Nettie, and his sister Femke, her husband Tomas and their son Quinten

My family slept in one converted castle in Rob’s home town, and we had our wedding in the other. I absolutely promise to put all the wedding pics up with all the stories, but that is an blog or 3 in itself! This blog I’ll just tell a little of my family’s visit.

My family got to see the house that Rob grew up in, and actually so did his mother! Unlike in LA, where a house from 1950 is practically an antique, and very few families stay in the same house they’re entire life…Rob’s mother lives in the same house she grew up in. The house is from the 1930’s, but she moved there as a teen-ager in the 1950’s with her family. They can point out the was the coy pond Nettie’s brother built in the garden, some original woodwork and actual doors from the 1930’s, the garage put in 1960…each corner of the house has a story to tell about the same family living there!

On Saturday, we all went over to Femke & Tomas’s house for coffee. There my parents could see 1 year old Quinten on his home turf, and since he can walk a bit now and has a huge vocabulary of 2 words, he gave us a complete tour of the house with commentary. After coffee, Jan & Nettie showed my parents the local dunes and beach areas.

Meanwhile, Rob and I went into Amsterdam to pick Jeremy up from the airport. We went into the city with Jeremy for a bite to eat, and get a brief glimpse of the town. After words, we all returned to Jan & Nettie house for an authentic Indonesian dinner called Rijsttafel. It literally translates in Dutch to “Rice on the Table”, and consists of rice & meats/veggies cooked in an Indonesian curry sauce.

As said before, I’m already writing a novel here, but done need War & Peace the Blog Version, so Sunday wedding party will go in another blog.

On Monday, Jeremy flew to Spain to join a tour of the area. My parents sight saw in Amsterdam for a few days. On Weds., Rob and I joined them for a fun day seeing art in the famous Rijksmuseum, doing a canal boat tour, and eating Dim Sum. My mother had some fresh pears left over, and could not bear to let them go to waste. She kept saying “Maybe the family on the tour boat would like them, some people at the train station….”, but unfortunately did not find any takers. Well, maybe by anonymous donation someone found them and said “Oh my, how did they know I wanted pears? How lucky!”

Well, Thursday, my parents flew back to LA, where they are now comfortably sitting and reading this blog. It was an incredible visit, and we cant wait to see them again here…and I cant wait to come back in January!

Visit to Leiden with my parents

2006-10-10T18:27:00.000+02:00

My parents are visiting for the next 2 weeks! After 3 months, I get to see them again. We spent their second day here touring the beautiful Dutch city Leiden.

To view the entiere set of Leiden photos,
CLICK HERE

Leiden is a beautiful city full of interesting history. It is birthplace of Rembrandt, who was interestingly the son of a windmill miller. The pilgrims also stayed in Leiden for 12 years before sailing to Plymouth Rock to become “Founding Fathers”. They have a little 2 room museum stuffed full of period memorabilia and very friendly curators who want to tell you everything about them.

Well, I hope you like history, since this there is so much fascinated history of Leiden.
Also of note, my second time driving in Holland, this time on freeways. Dutch have a lot of signs on the freeway!!

The canal tour took us along beautiful canals lined by stately homes. Each home is unique, with its own carvings and color. As well as looking pretty, this had a reason. Until the early 1800s, homes did not have any address numbers. You would say my house is the one with the pink roof and angry looking gargoyles, third down from the second canal to the left of the church. Image putting that on an envelope!

We also visited the obligatory windmill museum. Did you know you are required to visit at least one windmill before you leave Holland? Yeah, it’s law 2.8876 on the books, really!

One very important time in history of the city is in the 1570’s, when the city successfully defended itself against a siege by the Spanish. At the time, Holland was in a war of independence against the former overlords, the Spanish. After the Spanish were defeated, boats of “water pirates” came into the starving city with food. It was a weird combo of food, white bread and herring. I guess if you are starving even salty herring is good. To this day, on October 3, you can celebrate the liberation of the city with free herring and white bread.

Also in appreciation for the defense of the city, the new Dutch King offered Leiden the choice of no taxes or founding of a university. Counter to what anyone would choose today, they choose for the university.

Willemsberg and Yom Kippur

2006-10-04T18:48:00.000+02:00

This weekend, I attended services “Yom Kippur”, the start of the Jewish New year end went sight seeing in a small Dutch town named Willemstad.

On Sunday morning, myself , Rob & his family went to Willemstad. Of important note: yours truly drove the car for the first time in Holland. Not to different on the freeways, but on the narrow roads 2 way traffic and cyclists, it was a challenge! Ok, OK, I did post an earlier blog if driving for cows on a country lane, but that was only about 15 minutes, and the cows were very complimentary.

In 1953 the water flooded up to here In Willemstad:

Rob and his family used to sail to Willemstad about every other year on vacations. It is most famous for its star-shaped walls that surround the city. There are 2 sets of walls and 2 sets of moats to protect against invaders. It worked, the city withstood a seige in 1720 by the French. Good thing, or we'd have to see "Wee Wee", instead of "Ja, Ja"

There are also a whole series of cement bunkers from the 1800’s that Rob used to play in with a flashlight when he was little. I guess one to many kids went missing, because they closed them off.

Quinten playing in Willemstad

It is not exactly a bustling city of trade, as it took us about 20 minutes to walk around the whole town. We did find a very nice play set for my 1 year-old nephew, compete with slide and swings that we went on with him.

Later on Sunday afternoon, we had a nice dinner, using the wedding china for the first time. It is traditional to have a nice dinner on the evening before Yom Kippur. After, you fast for 24 hours. Rob's family joined us, and I explained some of the traditions around the holiday.

After a very enjoyable dinner, Rob came with me to Sunday evening services.
I go to a temple in The Hague that is 280 years old. It is built in the Sephardic Portuguese style, with beautiful candle chandeliers and wood carvings. I’ll write a later blog on the temple history/pictures. I attended services on Monday as well. As well as the traditional services, they had a beautiful memorial service with a singer, and violin/cello music. It was a very moving service, all in all.

Obligatory Windmill Entry

2006-09-24T22:34:00.000+02:00

I just realized, almost 2 ½ months of blog and not a single entry devoted to Windmills? Shame on me, my readers must be thinking I was “hit on the head by a windmill” to quote a famous Dutch saying. Yes, I do shamefully admit my blog on Holland does not contain even a single entry on windmills (or one on clogs, tulips, dikes or cheese even!) Well, now you can all rest easy, finally an entry devoted to windmills.

Today, Rob and I visited one of the famous windmill parks in the area. It is called Kinderdyke (“child dyke”). There are 4 different legends about why it is names such, the most interesting being that during a famous 14 century flood, a baby cradle was floating down the river, Moses-like. A cat was perched on the top of the basket rocking it so the baby would not drown. No, I did not make that one up just because I love cats, really!

Anyways, Holland has so many windmills because they were often used to drain excess water to create more land. Kinderdyke has about 19 windmills. People still live in many of the windmills, so Holland’s love of windmills continues. A lot of live revolves around windmills, and many sayings such as “he is as crazy as if he was hit on the head by a windmill” that I used before.

When a windmill is not being used, the positioning of the 4 still blades can be varied for different messages. Tilted one way means a “blessed event” such as a baby or wedding in the resident family, and in the opposite direction means a funeral. I think there are even more positions to interpret in “windmill-ology”, but these are the 2 I remember. Defiantly a country “gek op” as the Dutch say, or “crazy about” windmills!

A visit to Antwerp

2006-09-19T19:24:00.000+02:00

To see all the pictures from the trip, look here

On Sunday I went to Antwerp, Belgium for the evening with Rob and friends Andre and Astrid. It is still very strange to me to think of going to another country for an evening jaunt. Antwerp, the largest Belgium city near us, is about 1 hour away by car from our house. Sometime, people go to Antwerp just to see a movie as they have the largest movie theater in both Holland and Belgium. Some day soon I will post a blog entry saying “I popped over to Belgium to see the latest movie for a quick afternoon visit”.

In this case, we went as tourists, or tried to. Where the Americans have blond jokes, the Dutch have Belgian jokes. “How many Belgians does it take to…., 3 Belgians walk into a bar…”. In this case, they organized a “car free day” in the city center, blocking all the roads to the center, and also it turned out the 3 largest parking structures. There was no extra parking or shuttles, so we drove in circles for 1.5 hours before we found a parking spot. I think we used more gas to find that spot than if they had left the center open.

We did get a little sight-seeing in before things closed. We visited the oldest castle in Antwerp, built originally in the 11th century and remodeled after. There was a boat exhibition there, so of course we had to visit!

We then walked through the lovely old streets of Antwerp, to the main city square. We saw the largest church, from the 16th century, and the city hall displaying flags from over 100 countries. We also took a horse-buggy tour through old Antwerp. They showed us a synagogue-turned church – turned convent, the oldest restaurant (250 years old), and the high fashion street with Hermes, Cartier, and the top designers. After the tour, we went shopping in all the high fashion houses….OK, window shopping, but a girl can always dream….

We ate a very tasty dinner at an Italian restaurant. Strangely, though only an hour south of us, Belgium has a totally different food culture. The Dutch eat out much less frequently that the Belgians, so there is less variety (and many say quality) than in Belgium. Well, anyways, it was a very fun little “day trip” to a foreign country

My 35th Bday

2006-09-13T22:13:00.000+02:00

This was my first birthday in Holland. I have an blog from about 3 weeks ago with my birthday party, but this last Tuesday was my actual party. It was my first birthday in a long time away from my US family and friends. I received many wonderful cards, email and e-cards, and calls from the US, so I feel distant but not forgotten. I do wish there was a supersonic leer jet to wisk everyone from California over the Holland for an evening in just half an hour. Oh well, maybe Rob will design one for me for my next birthday.

I celebrated with Rob and my new friends I made here in Holland from my language program. Since today was a school day (yeah, still hard to think of my self as a school girl again with backpack and tests to study for)…

After our class ended at 3:30 PM about 8 of us from the course headed over to a local bar in Delft to celebrate the my bday and the last week of the first section of the course. It was one of the most international parties I’ve ever attended. We had (OK the obvious first) one girl from LA a few of you may have heard of, and a charming Dutch man named Rob…. And for the others there is Juliana from Brazil, Jeanette from Germany, Delilah from England, Elena from White Russia, Ladin from Turkey (and her Dutch husband Eric joined later), Hasan from Iraq and Mohammed from Iran. Not able to attend , but also in the course, are Sena from Togo, Bimo from Indonesia and Murgugayan from India.

Well, anyways, we have a regular UN there, with people from almost every continent in the course. We tried to speak some in Dutch, but also a mix of English and French for some of the other students. Elena does not speak English, so all conversation with her

Old MacDonald's Bike Path

2006-09-06T21:56:00.000+02:00

This last August was the wettest August in 300 years of recorded Dutch weather history, so it rained almost every day for the past few weeks. Finally we have a break in the weather, so Rob and I went on an hour-long bike ride this evening.

Biking in Holland is a different experience in Holland than in Santa Monica. In Santa Monica, you bike along a busy street to get to the beach bike path, or even put your bike in the car to take it there. Then you bike along the path with many other cyclists , joggers and bladers to see the pretty ocean on one side and the city scape on the other. You always know you are in a city though.

In Holland, go 15 minutes outside your city and you are in farm land. We biked over small embankments with dykes and farm land on either side. You go right up next to fenced grass enclosures with ponies, horses, cows, sheep, goats. The dikes form little streams, so you also see ducks and geese, and even a swan.

We biked through a suburb of our city that was founded over 600 years ago as its own town. As ours grew, it became part of hours, but it still has old historical parts. We passed a 300 year old gate entry to what used to be a castle. Now it opens onto a little wooded park.

There is water EVERYWHERE in Holland! After biking along the little dykes and streams, we passed a large river ferry station. Our city of Dordrecht is the juxtaposition of 3 major rivers, and was a major shipping port in Medieval Holland. We passed some modern ships still transporting goods up the river.

As it was getting dark just as we got home, we could see the beginning of mist rising from the meadows. I could smell the moist fog and freshly mowed hay (luckily not fresh manure like another bike trip!!). If I was on a horse insead of a bike, I would think I was 100 years back in time.

A bike trip in Holland can be an adventure back in time as well as exercise!

My 35th Bday Party

2006-08-30T20:48:00.000+02:00

OK, apologies to my dedicated (not decimated as the spellcheck put) readers who wait in eager anticipation for my next brilliant story, my next masterpiece…OK, OK, I hear ya, on with the story…

This last weekend, we celebrated my 35th birthday party. Yeah, I know it’s a few weeks early, but on the weekend closest to my birthday Rob will be taking me to Belgium for a romantic weekend. That will be a fun blog to write!!

I am definately getting a lot of experience being a hostess here, and a flash in the future to seeing kids of all ages! We had throughout the day 12 adults and 5 kids ranging from 1-7 years old. It was a wonderful experience having my new Dutch family-in-law over, and the friends I have made through Rob. I had further brilliant conversations with the 3 year old from Quinten’s party, Sven. He now calls me “Mevrouw Laurie” and we have a great time asking what color things are and the names of everyone in the room.

I can actually speak some Dutch now, thanks to my course. I am now having deep philosophical discussions on Plato and Aristotle in Dutch….no, actually, I never had those in English, let alone Dutch, but it did sound impressive. I can say more now than “my name is…I am from…” as long as people speak slowly to me, and I can respond back. I apparently have a very pronounced American accent in Dutch, but then as I am an American not too unexpected. I can compare experiences of life in US/Holland in Dutch, and speak of everyday life things.

Among my friends and family in the US, we usually go out to restaurants for birthday celebrations with a few friends and family. For larger ones like my Mom’s 70th birthday, we took a larger group to a restaurant, or rent banquet room for a party like for my Dad’s surprise 70th.

In Holland, as you read in my blog of Quinten’s bday, birthday parties are held in the house. This is true for adult parties as well as for kids parties. In a way, its kind of an open house for friends and family to drop by and celebrate. Instead of a set call time, people arrive anywhere from 3 PM to 10 PM for my party. You serve the cake as people arrive instead of at the end of the party. We did the happy birthday song at the start (a different one in Holland than in the US, so I have a new song to learn). Also different, as this is not a restaurant, the birthday host/hostess makes sure all the guests are fed and plied with cool beer, that all kids have mini-hotdogs and choco-melk…so I am now an experienced hostess.

Quinten’s First Birthday

2006-08-24T18:10:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday, I went to my nephew Quinten’s first birthday party. The cute baby in the picture is obviously the guest of honor, the son of Rob’s sister Femke and her husband Tomas. It was actually a double birthday, as it was Tomas’s birthday party too. To celebrate, Quinten got a cake all of his own to eat with his hands and get all over everything. He had as much fun with that as with eating the cake!

When we first arrived, I experienced one of the more unusual (for an American at least) traditions at a Dutch birthday party. I am used to congratulating the birthday boy/girl of course. In Holland, you also congratulate the family and friends on the birthday person. You wind up going around the room saying “congrats on your son’s/father’s/mother’s/friend’s/second cousin 3 times removed birthday. While doing this, you give the customary Dutch greeting of 3 kisses on the cheek. I have been told that in France it is 2 kisses, but proper Dutch etiquette says 3 kisses. This is done in place of a hug or handshake American Style….of course there are exceptions to everything. Dutch are manly men, and so a guy gives another guy a manly hand shake.

At home, I only have my immediate family living around me. It is a new experience to have extended family-in-law around me. As well as Rob’s parents, there was also Tomas’s parents, sister and aunt/uncle, and family friends with they’re children. Tomas’s mom told me an interesting story that theirs is a tale of 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters. Tomas’s parents’ younger siblings met through them and also married.

The party went from about 2 PM until about 11 PM. There was lots of good company, sweets and bread/cheese served, as well as soup for a dinner. After 1 ½ weeks in my Dutch course, I could hold some very intricate discussions in Dutch. I can now say “My name is…, I live in …, I come from…..”. The rest of the time, I used a jumble of Dutch and English, but luckily everyone speaks English.

I tried to use some of my fancy new vocab to say “what did they think at the office of your new hair cut”, but I said something like “what think they a lot of on her”. As well as speaking sentences adults can make sense of, I now have marker to see my progress How well can I speak with the 3 year old son of one of the guests. I read him a kids story, and asked what his name was…and he does not mind at all being asked the same question multiple times, so we got along great. He happily told me his and his sister’s age about 10 times during the day.

A Timely Post, Dutch Style

2006-08-22T23:10:00.000+02:00

Telling time in Holland

A short note on time keeping in Holland. I knew I’d have learn to translate words from Dutch, but did not realize I’d have to do that with the time as well. The time here is displayed in “military time”, so 4:30 PM is actually 16:30. It does avoid confusion, but I’m always having to calculate how many hours after noon it is. This is especailly important for Law and Order re-runs, oh and for catching the train too.

I think the Dutch math teachers had a hand in deciding how Dutch tell time…I get a lot of practice with all my numbers. Some of it is pretty straight forward: 5:15 is “quarter over five”, and 5:45 is “quarter before five”….but the math professor influence comes in when you want to say “5:20”…3 guesses how they do it…of course you guessed correctly you would say “Ten Minutes Before Half-Until Six”…yup, that was my first guess to. Practice saying that ten times fast! Maybe I’ll just make a new rule that all things time related are in the first or last 15 minutes of the hour.

Well, I promise, pictures coming soon….of my house and England vacation, and all the others. Please post comments too on how you enjoy my sparkling wit, that “if you think that’s something to write about, have I got one for you”, or just to say Hi.

Shopping In Holland

2006-08-21T19:36:00.000+02:00

Every coin has 2 sides. As an employee, I say “Great, only 40 hour a week and 8 weeks off, with not as much pressure to work overtime”….But as a customer, I am seeing the downside.

First, all shops are closed on Sunday…that means all grocery stores, clothing stores, even the large chains like Ikea. Additionally, they usually close by 5 PM on Saturday. This means if you plan to shop AT ALL on the weekend, you better not have a sleep-in-late day on Saturday. Especially if you work late during the week, this is the only day you have for any store related errand. This includes the services like the copy shop and beauty parlor. I think gas stations and churches are the only places open on Sunday.

During the work week, the stores close on Monday morning to make up for the fact that they had to work on Saturday. During the entire week, then non-grocery stores close at around 6. Luckily the grocery stores stay open until 8 or 9, so you can at least grocery shop. This is imortant, since some refrigerators such as ours are mini-fridges. You need to shop every other day for space reasons. In most of the cities, Thursday is late-night shop night. All the shops stay open until 8-9. So, plan ahead and do your shopping on Thursday night and Saturday day.

For the grocery store, you have to pay about .50 for a plastic bag. Dutch people have large bags they bring into the shop so as not to spend extra on bags. You also have to bag you own food, so remember to put the eggs on top! If you want a shopping cart, you have to put a half-euro coin into a lock to get the cart out. You get it back when you return the cart, so this is a huge incentive not to walk off with the cart.