1.) Riding my bike - in the city I live in, everything I need is within a 10 minute bike ride. I can ride my bike to the lake to sit around and read and watch the dogs play in the water. I can ride my bike to the grocery store to get whatever I want to make for dinner that night. I can ride my bike to Ici Paris to buy makeup, or H & M to buy clothes...are any number of department stores in downtown Delft. I can ride my bike to have lunch in the city at any number of sweet little restaurants with little outdoor patios. I can ride my bike just to ride my bike. I have an adorable white omafiets bicycle with a sweet little wicker basket in the front that Michel's wonderful parents bought me.
2.) Koffie - Coffee, coffee all the time. I love coffee. And dutchies really love their coffee. And it is almost always very very good coffee too. It's also much much cheaper here to buy coffee, in its ground form at least. I can get a bag of coffee that will last (sadly, with the way Michel and I drink Coffee) about a week and a half for 3 euros. This same amount of coffee with a similar quality, will cost you at least double in the states. The best part? They always have special teeny tiny spoons just for stirring your coffee. It's silly, but I really really love those little spoons for some reason.
3.) The Grocery Store - I know this sounds silly, but I love the grocery store. I've always loved the grocery store for some reason, and now I have a reason to go often. Typically, a dutch household will do their groceries at least twice a week. Since dutch households are typically smaller, the refrigerators and pantries are typically much smaller too. This means that you can't store 2 weeks worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners in your kitchen. I'm also having a fun time learning about everything. With the exception of the produce, nothing is the same. Obviously, most of the meat products are the same but they're all written in dutch, so figuring out what is what has to be done. The food is less expensive here (even when you allow for the conversion of dollars to euros) and it also tastes better, in my opinion. They don't put nearly the amount of preservatives and junk in their food...in America...almost every ingredients label will contain the words "high frustose corn syrup." Here, when something needs to be sweetened...it is done so with sugar. At least, to the best of my knowledge that is. I've only been here two weeks...so I could be wrong :-). All I really know is that I can go to grocery store, buy healthy (mostly) food that tastes good and only spend 9 euros for two nights dinner and some extras.
4.) Sunny Days - Yes, sunny days are far less frequent here than in Southern California, but so far, we've had at least 3 sunny blue days each week since I've been here. It doesnt sound like much, but you get to appreciate them so much more. When you go outside, and the sky is blue and the clouds are fluffy and white, something inside you just sparks. I'm instantly in a happy smiling mood.
Seeing as I started this blog about a month ago, I've decided to go ahead and post what I've got so far and then continue onto to another installation later. It's getting a bit too long anyway :-)
Kusjes!
-Karen
Gorgeous photo!
ReplyDeleteI really love those spoons too :-) And the foods, you seem to notice this earlier than I did! And the sunny days... Not only more appreciated, but also indeed adds a big happy boost! I just got home from riding my bike to Intratuin garden center. I didn't buy anything. Since it's sunny outside this morning, I just wanted an excuse for somewhere to go on my bike ;-)
Have a lovely week!