Getting Ready to Rumble

These next few months… and years are about to get intense.

Starting in August, I’m going to be entering back into the world of Student-dom. First, I will be taking a twenty hour/five day intense Dutch course. I’m hoping that it will really help me with my speaking and grammar so that I can consistently and effectively communicate with family, friends and colleagues in Dutch. I’m really looking forward to these courses and can’t wait to see the outcome. I’m really hopeful because I already understand so much. Being able to form sentences and speak and express myself is just the next exciting step of living here… plus it is about time anyways. It’s so frustrating wanting to be able to communicate and not being sure how to put together sentences even though I know the words, or when I go to put sentences together, my mouth forgets what it’s doing and a whole jumble of awkward sounds come out. Super embarrassing.

At the end of August, I will be embarking on my part time education journey with the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA for short) (aka the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) in an International Business and Management course. The program is four years long. I’m really open to the opportunities it will open up for me both in the work I’m doing now and for perspective things in the future. It will also be so so so nice to finally have a degree. Classes for this will be twice a week for 3.25 hours a class.

Job is also embarking on a part time educational journey in the IT field. He is also doing his education with HvA and will have classes two nights a week.

Although we are both very excited, it’s also a bit of a bummer because we don’t have classes on any of the same days, which means we will probably only see each other three times a week. But it’s nothing we can’t adjust to or handle! To say we’re not used to it would be a lie as we spent almost a year and a half living on different continents. It will definitely be a big adjustment though, as now we’ve lived together for over a year and a half.

Needless to say, we are definitely going to be doubling down and prepping for school in the next coming month.

Wish us luck!

Back in NLD

We returned home to Amsterdam about four weeks ago.

We had an okay vacation. From the very start, you could say that things didn’t go exactly as planned. From the start, I mean, from the time we booked the trip.

We booked the trip as a surprise for my parents. We didn’t get to see them at all as they were in Australia.

When we arrived, the weather was worse than it was in the Netherlands. Cold and rainy. We could have stayed in Amsterdam for that.

We didn’t get a chance to swim in the pool that we spent the whole trip setting up and opening.

We didn’t get to go to Vermont due to car troubles.

We had to pay extra because they demanded to weigh our carry – on luggage at the airport… -_-

Just one of those things that when one thing doesn’t go right at the beginning, you know it will be an okay vacation.

But! ON the bright side, we got to see lots of friends and family. We went to Boston, New York City and Providence. There was eventually sun and warm weather. We had a good time for sure!

When we arrived home, I had a letter waiting for me from the IND (immigratie en naturalisatiedienst aka immigration and naturalization agency). Enclosed was a letter along with a long survey of questions asking why I haven’t signed up yet for the inburgering exam (integration exam) along with other questions such as

• “Have you done any Dutch courses?”
• “Where have you learned Dutch?”
• “How many hours a day do you spend learning Dutch?”
• “If you have not enrolled in Dutch courses, how are you learning Dutch?”

There were about twenty questions on this list.

Now if you didn’t already know, I have become a German citizen due to some family ties. This means I no longer need to do Inburgering and am just a European Union member. (Immigrants and Expats who come from outside of the European Union must participate in Inburgering. It is mandatory.) Basically, I can now ignore all of these letters I get from the IND.

After reading through this letter with Job, as a joke, he said he thought it would be really funny if I wrote a letter to the IND explaining how integrated I’ve become. Well I spun off of that with a joke “Dear IND, today I ate herring for the first time… Am I integrated yet?” and that was that.

A side project was born. With Job’s idea, I have brought a new blog to life with typical things you notice, hear about from other expats, or learn yourself, the hard way after moving to the Netherlands.

Check out Dear IND, …

It’s all in good fun and it’s really fun to come up with and write about experiences all expats have had.

From now on there will also be a permanent link to Dear IND from this blog right on the sidebar under “Blogroll” and on our tumblr right in the center under the header.

Enjoy!

And man, is it good to be back in Amsterdam! 🙂

‘Merica Bound

In one week, Job and I will be making our way to America for some East Coast summer fun.

We initially planned this trip as a fun surprise for my parents, however, time was not on our side, and we ended up booking our trip for the same dates that they are traveling to Australia for a wedding.  In my defense, I thought that they would be going to Australia in May (officially they took off for Australia  yesterday so it technically is May that they are traveling there) for the wedding, but alas, they are there from now until June 18th-ish, which is when we fly back to Amsterdam.

Jammer bummer! (this sounds like yummer bummer. Jammer is the dutch word for bummer…)

I honestly haven’t been looking too forward to this trip until about three days ago.  Over the last few weeks I’ve been getting increasingly happier about it (it’s definitely time for a vacation) but we hadn’t planned anything for our time in the states… and we haven’t really been able to figure out exactly what we wanted to do while we were there.

Lucky for us, some plans are finally starting to take shape.

We are getting picked up by our fabulous friends Ayla and Chauncey who are driving all the way to New York City to pick us up.  We’ll spend only one night and a bit of a day there, getting to see my sister (I think?) and my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. We’re going to make the absolutely necessary stop at Dominique Ansel’s bakery for an early morning cronut and from there, maybe spend a little bit of time in the city and then hit the road to Rhode Island.

On the third, I will have the distinct pleasure of accompanying Job and Ayla to their first every Boston Red Sox game. Chauncey is coming too. This will also be Job’s first baseball game. Since the game isn’t until the evening, we’ll have some time to check out some other fun sights in Boston as well!

On the weekend, Talya will be coming to Rhode Island to meet up with some high school friends and go out on a shopping date with me.  The pool guy will come over and show us how to maintain the pool while we’re visiting so we can stay cool in the humid June heat.

And somewhere in the middle, I’ll be visiting Camy and Poppy, my grandparents!

After that point, we really have no plans.  We will be spending most of our time in Rhode Island, and have to plan our return to New York City to catch our plane back to Amsterdam (and hopefully see some beautiful Tri-State friends!!!).

Job has talked a lot about barbecuing which will be super fun if we can get that going, and of course, I want to be able to see as many people as I can.

So! If you’re in the area at any point in time and want to see us, let us know! Come over for a swim, we can go to the beach, grab a meal, plan a day trip!

Let us know!

Can’t wait to see you all!

Eggs in a Nest: A Paleo Adventure

Job and I have been working on eating healthier and adding some more produce to our meals.  We’ve also been trying to make cheap food that is tasty and we can bring for lunch a few times a week/ is super fast to make.

Enter our friends Laurent and Buster who have been sporting a super healthy eating and living style.  One day while I was on lunch break, Laurent happened to have lunch at the same time as me.  He pulled out something that smelled so good! I asked him what he had there, and he proceeded to enlighten me about Eggs in a Nest.

Now if you google search Eggs in a Nest, you get a trillion recipes, but this one is different. Laurent sent me the recipe that he found on this awesome Dutch Paleo blog. (If you can read/speak Dutch, you’ll feel right at home checking out the website. If not, keep reading because I’ll teach you how to do it.)

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil
• 1 Onion (her recipe says in slices.  I prefer to dice mine)
• 200 g (7 oz) of (beef) Sausage in rounds (slices?)
• 300 g (10.5 oz) of Brussel Sprouts quartered (she likes hers sliced in half)
• 100 g (3.5 oz) Kale (cut up) (In the Netherlands, the kale comes pre-cut to the perfect shape/size)
• 4 eggs
• Pepper
• Salt
• Garlic Powder (I use a garlic grinder…)
• Chili flakes if you like a kick
• Large frying pan
• Lid
• 1/2 cup of water

I like to cut up everything first, but if you’re not a prepping kind of person, throw that tablespoon of coconut oil in a hot pan.

Let it liquify and make sure to swirl the oil to coat the bottom/sides of the pan.

Add the chopped onions and let them get a nice color to them.

Once the onions have a little bit of a brown to them, throw in that sausage.Here I like to add my first round of spices. Some salt, pepper, ground garlic and chili flakes.

Stir the sausage and make sure it gets nice and browned on all sides.

Add in the brussel sprouts.

Cooke them until they’re a nice bright green. This takes a few minutes. I usually add a bit more pepper here. (I LOVE PEPPER!!!)

Time for the kale.  Add the kale.

It may feel like your pan is totally overflowing.  That’s okay.  Add in about a half cup of water to create a nice steaming effect and put a lid on your pan. This will help the kale to compress a bit into the pan making it easier to stir in the next step.

Let it sit for maybe a minute until the kale kind of cooks a bit and turns brighter green.

Remove the lid, stir everything again so it’s all mixed, and make it nice and even throughout the pan.

Crack the four eggs (one at a time) over the bed of kale, brussel sprouts and sausage.

Replace the lid again.  Let it sit for 3-5 minutes.

The eggs will cook and turn a creamy white/opaque color.

You can add some more spices on your eggs while they cook if you want to (obviously I did).  If you like runny eggs, cook them closer to three minutes.  If you like more solid eggs, cook them closer to five minutes.

I really enjoy scrambling the eggs through the dish at around the four minute mark and then take the pan off the heat.

Serve yourself a nice bowl full and enjoy a healthy and hearty meal!

(I cooked everything on a high heat… but you can do the last steps on a lower heat)

Traditions: Old and New

Growing up, we are introduced to many traditions that our parents have set forward for us. As I child, for as far back as I can remember, we always celebrated (albeit in our own way…) the main Jewish holidays such as Hanukkah, the festival of lights; Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year; Yom Kippur, the day of atonement; passover or Pesach, our liberation from Egypt; and on occasion, Purim, the celebration of the liberation from the Persian king and Sukkot, the celebration of the harvest. The latter two were mostly celebrated with our hebrew school and once we were no longer in hebrew school, didn’t really continue the tradition…sometimes we still made Hamantaschen for Purim. As we grew older and made friends, we shared our traditions with our friends, and they shared theirs with us. I spent every Christmas and Easter at my friend Ayla’s and she spent every first night of Hanukkah and Passover with us. She learned about my heritage, and I, hers. Her family also had a bunch of other fun traditions, such as solstice parties and Pi Day, and halloween was always a festive delight with them. And for New Years Eve every year, our family traveled to New York City to be with my friend Julia and her family.  We made a tradition of walking to Central Park and sitting on the rocks to watch the fireworks be launched above one of the big lakes. Our moms always got us that year’s super cool sunglasses and we took a picture. Over the years, I’ve invited all of my good friends to come over and experience a “Fischbach Holiday” because they’re always exciting. I’m always excited to introduce my grandmother, Camy, and my grandfather, Poppy, to all of my friends. They are both so full of life and spirit (even if Poppy is sometimes a grump) that they make the meals exciting. They always have interesting stories to tell from when they were younger, or give a bit of perspective on the world we live in now.

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Now I live in a different country.  My old traditions have fallen wayside to the new traditions Job and I are following (and creating each year) with his family. And maybe they’re not new traditions for them, but they’re new for me. The one thing I still want to be able to do is share those traditions with my family and friends State-side, just the way I shared my traditions with them before I moved. This year, Job and I, over Thanksgiving, taught my family and Chauncey, Ayla and her family (and my friend Yas) about Sinterklaas. We brought over from Amsterdam all sorts of treats like Pepernoten and Schuimpjes and Taai Taai. We played the Sinterklaas game. I touched on it a little in this post and this post. It was so fun for me to learn a little about what the Dutch do as well, as I had never experienced Sinterklaas before this either. And of course, Job was (re)introduced to Thanksgiving and Hanukkah (which we celebrated early this year as we were not able to be together. I also got to celebrate Sinterklaas and Christmas here. We wrote silly poems to each other and played a fun trivia game together. We ate yummy food and everything was gezellig (as it usually is when you get to spend time with family for a fun occasion.) Job and I bought a tree together and decorated it. We also made a make-shift menorah as I forgot the three I own in America when we were there for Thanksgiving (along with my ice skates 😦 ) We lit the candles here every night and enjoyed eachother’s company and warmth and thus began for us a new tradition. This Easter was the second Easter for me away from home. Normally, I would go to Ayla’s Auntie Sara’s house. We would guess how many jelly beans were in that year’s “guess how many” jar, eat some yummy food and then have a thrilling competition/Easter egg hunt gathering as many of the eggs strewn about the yard. We would then of course count them up to see who had the most and then would enjoy a dessert and a fun game of giant foam frisbee in the cul-de-sac at the end of Sara’s street. This year, we all got together at our apartment and had some amazing food and celebrated Job’s birthday as it was the most convenient time for everyone to get together. Job’s dad made some traditional Easter bread (as he does every year as part of their tradition, and he makes one for each of his “kids'” families.) You can read more about it here. Ayla sent me the photos from her Easter celebration and reminded me that everyone was sad that I was not able to be in attendance again this year.

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I’m really excited to learn more about Dutch traditions and the traditions Job’s family has, and I’m also really excited to continue sharing my traditions with him and his family, as well as share my new experiences with my family and friends back home. What are your favorite holiday traditions that your family has or that you’ve started? Are there traditions that you used to have that you no longer do? Let us know in the comments or on facebook and twitter! Side Bar: I know we have more pictures out there from all of our various traditions (Mom, Lisa, Julia, Talya, Ayla and Kathy, I’m looking at you guys!) Feel free to send me any pictures you find and I can add them here!

Easter Day (Celebrating Job’s Birthday)

As I sit here this evening, stuffed to the gills with the amazing food I was able to help make, and later consume this evening, I think of how privileged and lucky I am to be part of such an amazing family. A family that welcomed me into their arms, and helped me acclimate to a new country, a new life, and a family who is always there for each other. It’s really special to be a part of this family.

Today, Job and I woke up and started cooking almost right away.

We (and by we I mean Job) decided that we should make a Porchetta. We (Job) found a nice recipe from Jamie Oliver. We decided to make sides of brussel sprouts and some rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes. We also melted some dark, milk, and white chocolate bars into a chocolate bark and added some of the salted caramel we made the other day along with some hazelnuts and some pink himalayan salt. And everything came out spectacularly.

Job also made a bread which we didn’t eat, but I’ll show you a picture 🙂

Some time after four, Job’s parents arrived with the special birthday taartjes that they never forget to supply for any birthday we celebrate with the family. We ate the cakes together, chatted and caught up with them which was really nice.

They had to bring out Tess, the beautiful chocolate lab, and only a few minutes after they left, the doorbell rang (which made us jump with surprise as we were not expecting it) and Liselot, Bram and Moos came upstairs.

Moos was very excited which was really fun to see. He ran around and jumped up and down and was overall very happy. Bram and Liselot are doing well also!

Moos saw the birthday gift for Job sitting on our green chest and of course was very excited to open it. We told him it was for Job, which was okay with him, but he really wanted Job to open it. To take his mind off of it for a few minutes, oma gave Moos some easter gifts. (Moos got a “big fish book” (it was a book with a whale on it) and some yummy bunny chocolates.) Moos played a bit and then he saw Job’s present again and asked if Job was going to open it.  We all obliged and Moos brought the very heavy gift over to Job. We jointly got Job the pasta maker KitchenAid attachment.

We chatted and talked a bit and then it was time to eat. Right as we finished making sure all of the food was ready, Joris arrived. Perfect timing!!!

Dinner was, as the Dutch say, “Echt gezellig!” Really nice, cozy, warm, being around family. There is no real english translation for the word. We chatted, laughed, had some serious conversation, talked about our future plans, and things of the past.  It was nice to be together and spend time with each other. We all lead such busy lives and have such packed schedules that it often takes a month to plan a time when we can all see each other, so I think for all of us, it was nice to have time together.

We finished with a speculaas cake that Joris brought back from his recent trip in Gent, Belgium.

I’m still full… and it’s almost two hours later… what a lovely evening!

How did you celebrate Easter/Passover? Do you guys like it better with the photos scattered throughout the post or in a gallery at the end? Let us know in the comments below or feel free to comment on our facebook or twitter!

Side note: Job’s birthday is on Tuesday.  We just celebrated it today because that’s when the whole family could get together. 

Spring Cleaning and Paasdag

Sorry I haven’t been around for a few months.

Here are some fun and important updates:

• January 14, 2015 marked my first year of living in the Netherlands…and I really love it here.
• I turned 25. I’m a quarter of a century old.
• I will be a German Citizen in a matter of months.

In other news, things are going well. We’re house hunting in Amsterdam which is an interesting game. The way it works is this:

• You find a house on the ever popular website funda.nl
• You message the realtor that you’re very interested in the house and want to see it… you and a million other people.
• The realtor tells you the one date that everyone can come visit the house (which is usually during an inconvenient time and a million other people will be there as well.)
• If you love it, you put in a bid.
• You can only put in one bid.
• If it’s not the best bid, you don’t get the house.
• The process starts over again.

So good luck to us!

Today we spent the day rearranging our furniture, planting our “moestuintjes” into bigger pots, and hanging up our photo clothesline grid.

(This photo was taken before we potted them)

(not perfectly even, but it gives it a nice rustic feel!)

Although I wasn’t 100% looking forward to moving around the majority of our living room furniture, I’m glad we did. Now we have so much more storage room in the kitchen and the living room/dining room looks just a bit spacier… so no complaints there!

And the extra storage in the kitchen was much needed for all of our super fun kitchen toys…

In the winter months (December-February) we expanded kitchen artillery.  We are now proud owners of:

• A KitchenAid Classic (well.. we’ve had that since around May)
• The Anova Precision Cooker (an at home, affordable sous vide machine)
• A Kenwood FP925 Multi Pro food processor/blender combo machine
• A WMF Lineo Hand Blender
• a blow torch
• a large clear container to cook our sous vide food in
• tongs
• jars

Stuff like that… And I’m sorry I haven’t posted the creations here on the blog, but I have been posting a bunch on my Instagram!

Work has been going well and so has my Dutch learning. I’ve been using babbel.com and it has really helped me grasp many grammar rules and learn about Dutch culture and traditions along the way, which I really enjoy!

We met up with Talya and her boyfriend Sam in Spain two weeks ago. We met in Barcelona, enjoyed the slightly warmer and much sunnier weather, walked by the beach, through the old curvy maze of the streets of Barcelona, ate so many tapas, had some delicious coffee and enjoyed the company of each other.

Yesterday, Talya’s boyfriend Sam came with his roommate Addison on their way through Europe. We made them some andijvie stamppot and got some stroopwafels. (Pretty Dutch right?!)

This upcoming week is Job’s birthday.  We will be celebrating with him on Sunday, Easter day with the family.  Today we spent a few hours trying to decide what we wanted to make for dinner. We then went to the butcher, C1000 and Albert Heijn.

We’re also really excited to have a few days off to relax and spend time together, and fingers crossed, the weather will be nice.

This month I have 14 days off, so I’m really excited for a little bit of extra personal time. I’ve been working on my beauty skills and planning my future aspirations (such as going back to school finally!!).

My mind is really scattered at the moment (as you can tell from this post which is all over the place) so I’m going to wrap this up.

I’ll try to write more often!

Talk to you guys soon and let me know if there’s anything you want to know about.. And thank you to all of the people who kept asking me when I was going to update the blog again! 🙂

-Hannah

Hustle and Bustle and Holiday Cheer

We returned from America about two weeks ago.  It was probably the most hectic vacation I’ve ever been on.  It’s so crazy to have to fit in seeing all of your friends and family that you haven’t seen (or only briefly saw) all in the span of two weeks.

I would say we were pretty successful at seeing many people who are important to us. We landed on a Sunday evening around dinner time and my best friend Ayla, along with her boyfriend Chauncey, picked us up at the airport. Job and I were slightly delirious and excited to go home and get some food. Originally we were going to get some Mexican food, but by the time we got through security and I had to forfeit all of my rookworst which I had brought for our special Sinterklaas Dutch night with my family, all I wanted to do was get out of the stinking airport and go home.

We arrived about an hour later in Cranston to home sweet home and were happily greeted by my parents who had dinner waiting for us. We “unpacked” and I use that term loosely here because the majority of the stuff we packed were fun dutch foods like Stroopwafels, Schuimpjes, Pepernoten (well… kruidennoten) taaitaai and stamppot jus… and some liquor. We said our hellos and ate and later on Chauncey and Ayla went home and we (being extremely exhausted) went to sleep…or tried at least

We didn’t sleep much our first night because I think we stayed up a little too late…falling into that 24 hour all nighter phase where your body somehow finds energy and then you just toss and turn. We slept for maybe three hours. Once we gave up with sleeping, we had to figure out a plan to get a car to go and get some coffee. (Job has a coffee addiction, and ever since moving to the Netherlands, I have adopted one as well.) The lucky thing for us is that we were in the United States, where coffee shops open up early… like 6am early.  We decided to go by Seven Stars, a pretty well known bakery in Providence (with multiple locations. We went to the one on the West Side of Providence) to enjoy a cappuccino and an espresso macchiato (the real kind, not the Starbucks kind) as well as some baked goods. We had just enough time to drink our coffees and then go back and meet my dad to return his vehicle.

Later in the day, we were able to stop by and see our good friend Margaret of Follow the Sun Apparel, her four month old and her two year old. It was really nice to get a chance to catch up with her, see how big her son got and how beautiful her new baby girl is.  (I’m sure she enjoyed it too because she didn’t have to entertain them as much and gave her a few minutes to relax.)

The next few days we spent prepping for thanksgiving dinner and kind of trying to relax and adjust to the time change.

On Thursday morning, we were blessed with the presence of yet another friend, Yas.  She flew in all the way from Arizona to make sure she could get some time with us. It was fun to go shopping and joke around and pick up right where we left off. We also watched some thanksgiving day parade and the Purina Dog show to laugh at how ridiculous the whole thing is.

Dinner was amazing. I waited all day to sink my teeth into the turkey, mashed potatoes, kugel and squash that had been prepared, and they did not disappoint. We visited with my grandparents from my mom’s side as well.

On Friday, we obviously went Black Friday shopping, but not like the crazies you see on television. We woke up at maybe 8 and left the house around 10ish to hit the stores. It wasn’t even too crowded. Job scored four pairs of shoes and I didn’t do too bad myself. After all of the shopping, we prepared for our mini dutch night. We played the gift exchange game with dice and made Boerenkool Stamppot (kale) with our make shift Rookworst (smoked sausage) which ended up being kielbasa. We played the game well into the night and snacked on all of our dutch treats.

On Saturday, my mom threw a party for us to try to make it so we were able to see all of the people we really wanted to see in the short time we had. It was full of old friends, good food and fun times, laughing and sharing stories of the past and the past year.

On Sunday, we high-tailed it on up to New York City. I wanted to make sure I got to see my close family and friends there too. Ayla and Chauncey came with us and we were able to go and explore the city together. On Monday morning, we woke up early to get in line (which there amazingly was none) for a cronut at the Dominique Ansel bakery. The were a heavenly mouthful. We quickly made our way to Everyman Coffee (and I might have to say that it was the best coffee we had on our whole trip in America). From there, we headed uptown to a comic book store and then split from Ayla and Chauncey to meet with Edith. We had yet another coffee with her and then headed back to 30 Rock to meet up with Ayla and Chauncey to see Jimmy Fallon. It was a crazy, fun and hysterical afternoon. The taping lasted almost two hours and from there, we had to quickly get uptown for our New York Party at Dallas BBQ (some real american food!). Although it was extremely brief, it was super nice to be able to see some really great family, family friends, and just plain old good friends.

On Tuesday morning, it was time to go back to Rhode Island. We basically spent the rest of our trip running around and picking up some other things we wanted to bring back to the Netherlands and tried to fit in a few more people.

On Thursday, we ran what felt like 10,000 errands and attempted to pack up all of our belongings.  Needless to say, I forgot almost all of the things that I wanted to bring back with me to the Netherlands. (Ice skates, menorah and pickles)

We landed safely on Friday afternoon and made our way back to our apartment to try to adjust to normal life.

On Saturday, I got to experience my first Sinterklaas.  We played a fun trivia game that I tied in last place with Bram. We spent some time with Moos who enjoyed the festive spirit and of course all of the cadeautjes (gifts), and exchanged poems from Sinterklaas.

This week, we will be getting our christmas tree (a first for me, which I’m really excited about because I love Christmas time). Job’s parents lent us some ornaments since we have none, and gave us these cute little ornaments to start our new collection.

It will be a little sad to not be able to be with my side of the family during this time and also a little sad to not be able to participate in my yearly Christmas (which I usually spend at Ayla’s family brunch) and New Years traditions (where we go to New Amsterdam aka New York City) , but this year is the year to start new traditions.

I’m really excited to see what New Years is like in Old Amsterdam and also really excited to go into the city and marvel at all of the beautiful light installations for the Light Festival.

Although the year has definitely not been the best year and had many ups and downs, I’m so happy to have been able to share this experience with all of the amazing people in my life who have been around to support me.

Baby snuggles with Madeline

Thanksgiving Dinner

With mom and Yas

CRONUTS

Everyman Cappuccino

Sinterklaas gifts

Our cute little ornaments!

Lights in the City

And in one month from today, I will have lived in Amsterdam for a year.

I’m Back! (Just in time for our holiday)

So it’s been a bit since I’ve last written… As a matter of fact, a few days after my last post, I decided it was time to enroll in a Dutch Course. Job and I found some a course that looked nice at the Vrije Universiteit. Maybe three days after my last post, Job and I went to the Vrije Universiteit to speak to the organizers of the courses. At the VU, they break it down into six levels. (0-A1, A1-A2, A2-A2+, A2-B1, B1-B2, and B2-B2+) I was not sure which level I should start in, and they told me they had a placement test that I could take.

A week later we went back to the VU and I took the exam. I waited a week for the results. I’ve never had a formal Dutch course before.  What I’ve learned is mainly from what I’ve heard around me and a little bit from the first level of Rosetta Stone (that’s the most formal training I’ve gotten.) I also spent a few days driving to work listening to some pimsleur disks…

Anyways, I waited for my exam results with baited breath.  I didn’t feel too confident (the placement exam was pretty tough) and was really hoping to have just scraped into level 3 (I really thought I wasn’t going to make it out of level 2).  I received my results and miraculously, I made it into level FOUR!!!!

I couldn’t believe it! I started the week after, meeting two times a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday from 6PM until 8:30 PM. The class was full of diversity; people from all across the globe! Our teacher Lijn was also very sweet and really it was a fun class to go to. After my first class, I came home only wanting to speak in Dutch with Job.

The course was eight weeks long. I just finished two weeks ago, taking another difficult test. There were two parts to the test. A reading and writing portion and a listening and vocabulary portion. The reading/writing was pretty easy. (Although my grammar is pretty awful, I’m alright at spelling and at least using the correct words.) The listening and vocabulary was difficult. Most of the vocabulary we either barely used or didn’t even go over. I waited almost a week for the results and finally found out that I had passed. After taking the exam I was really nervous that I wouldn’t pass due to the vocabulary portion.

During the eight weeks that I was in the course, I made some new friends, but I had no time. It was so exhausting working and also going to Dutch class. There was a lot of homework. I know for sure I have learned a lot though. I understand many conversations or can at least follow along. I even understand some jokes now which makes life more fun 🙂

Next Sunday, Job and I are going to America to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and to see my friends that I haven’t seen now for almost a year! I’m so excited for this vacation. It feels very well deserved after these past two months. I’m also really excited to be able to spend some quality time with some good friends and family.

Other things I know we’re both excited for in America include all of the tasty “murican” food we’re going to get to eat, the black friday shopping so that we can stock up on our spring wardrobes, and just having some time off to relax (although our schedule is pretty packed with events ranging from seeing people, going to appointments, dinners, parties and shopping!)

I’m also excited to share some Dutch things with my American family and friends and to bring some of America back with me when we return to Holland.

Hopefully I’ll be back to write soon, and if not, well, just stay tuned! I’ll be back!

10 Things That Change Once You’ve Lived Overseas

This article perfectly articulates the last eight months of my experience living in Amsterdam 🙂