Author Archives: bentleyjw

Nutrition labels are very different in the EU than in the US. Some things are better, some are worse. I’ll start with the worse. First, serving sizes are always listed as 100 grams, (sometimes there is an additional serving size as well, usually listed in grams). On the one hand, that standard size makes thingsContinue reading “Nutri-Score”

Ice skating is a Dutch tradition. In the winter, they anxiously await a cold spell when they can break out the skates and take advantage of the frozen-over canals. With global warming, those sorts of deep freezes have become pretty rare over the last decade. However, we were lucky enough to have one last week.Continue reading “Ice Skating!”

We were so excited when we learned about Sinterklaas. He comes in November and leaves on Dec 6, so then we could focus on Christ for Christmas! Unfortunately, after Sinterklaas left, we learned that in the last decade or so, the Dutch have started celebrating Santa as well. It quickly became clear that kids expectContinue reading “Santa and Sinterklaas (Part 2)”

In the US, most people have a pretty similar yard. The majority is grass, plus maybe a flower bed somewhere and a few shrubs, bushes, or trees. But, the majority of the yard is grass. Here, grass is for parks. Yards are for decoration, and every yard is different. They often combine fish ponds, fountains,Continue reading “Yards”

Our car insurance company in the US doesn’t offer insurance in the Netherlands. So, we were forced to take out some insurance here. We went with ABN AMRO because they said they would give us a discount for our claim-free years in the US, something they said other insurers wouldn’t do. After we got theContinue reading “Changing Terms and Conditions”

I’ve been cold plenty of times in the US. In Massachusetts it often gets to single digits (Fahrenheit) or even below zero. The big difference here is that I’m not driving to work or bundled up for skiing. Rather, I’m trying to bike to the office. Yesterday it was -6C (about 21F) when I bikedContinue reading “Cold”

I had a great, whirlwind visit to Bern, Switzerland this week. Tuesday morning Linda drove me to the Gilze-Rijen train station at 5:40am. I took a train to the Schipol airport in Amsterdam and then a direct flight to Zurich. From there, a train to Bern and then a 30 minute walk to my hotelContinue reading “Switzerland”

Sinterklaas stopped by our house yesterday! He brought two sacks full of presents and his Pieten brought lots of papernoten (traditional treat, sort of like small gingerbread cookies) to eat! Interesting fact, since Sinterklaas and his Pieten live in Spain for 11 months of the year, they speak Spanish! We had a fun conversation withContinue reading “Sinterklaas”

When in Rome, do as the Romans. I’m not actually sure what the Romans do. Luckily, I’m not in Rome. However, I am in Belgium (workshop at Ghent University), and I know that the Belgians do food really well! Belgian chocolate cake to bring home as a surprise for my wife’s birthday. I also boughtContinue reading “When in Belgium”

Happy Thanksgiving! They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the Netherlands, but I made sure to have a turkey sandwich for lunch to celebrate. And we got pie for dessert tonight!