The kids had the week off of school, so we had a staycation!

On Monday we went to an old Dutch village. We got to learn about the Dutch cocoa industry, windmills, manufacturing, and all sorts of fun Dutch stuff!

On Tuesday we went to the coolest zoo ever! It had a drive-through option where the animals came near your car. We had a giraffe lick our car for a good 10 minutes!

The zoo also had fun climbing/obstacle courses by a lot of the walking paths. It was a great idea! Every time we had a long walk from one area to another, the kids would have some log or rope bridge or something to walk across (there was also normal sidewalk for adults). That helped entertain a lot!

On Wednesday we went to an indoor swimming pool/water park.

We took it easy on Thursday (in part because I was super tired from an online board meeting that went until 2am).

On Friday we went to the Ridderzaal in The Hague (it was closed for renovation), an art museum (spoiler alert, my kids get very grumpy when forced to look at art), and then the temple.

On Saturday (today) I left for Washington D.C. for a board of directors thing. My flight landed about an hour ago. It’s my first time back in the states in 6.5 months.

I would say it’s a nice experience, but so far it’s been 40 minutes of standing in line for passport control (and I’m only half way through). Maybe I should apply for Global Entry …

Carnaval is a big deal here. Friday through Tuesday (or even Wednesday), and a whole week off of school for the kids and the university. Evening activities generally consist of drinking, so we made a point to be home by late afternoon (we don’t drink and weren’t excited for that aspect). But, morning stuff was fun!

Our town (Molenschot) takes Carnaval very seriously, starting with changing the name of the town!

Our neighbor gave us a flag to fly. The name of the town for those 5 days: Papslokkersgat.

Friday morning the kids had a parade. The schools had been preparing for this parade for weeks.

On Saturday, the adults had their turn for a parade. I should point out that we live in a town with a population of about 1000 people. I wouldn’t have thought they could muster a parade of this size, but they did! People came with floats from neighboring towns as well.

There were around 25 floats or other groups. Some were huge: dozens of people or 20 foot high floats pushed by tractors. Others were more modest, but still an impressive amount of work!

Overall, it was a fun weekend!

Last week was Carnaval in the Netherlands (and lots of the world). I had never experienced Carnaval before, so I did a little research on it.

Originally, Carnaval was a prelude to Lent. Lent is a Christian celebration before Easter. Many Christians (especially Catholics) give up meat, dairy, and/or alcohol during Lent (or certain days of Lent).

Well, back before fridges and freezers, people couldn’t easily save meat and dairy they already had. So, they would eat it up in the days before Lent. Not really a celebration, just not letting the food go to waste.

Gradually, it turned into a bit of a celebration, then a big celebration, then indulgence before Lent, sort of a splurge before the fast.

However, over time the fasting for Lent has diminished, and few people in the Netherlands celebrate Lent at all anymore. So, in the end we’re left with the splurge, indulgence, and gluttony of Carnaval without the religious aspects of Lent afterwards.

That being said, Carnaval was still pretty cool to experience. More in my next post.

The last 7 days have been a whirlwind.

It actually started last Wednesday. Something happened to our car, and the alignment was off really bad. So bad that we had to have it towed.

Unfortunately, mechanics here are pretty slow. So, they told us it wouldn’t be ready until Tuesday.

Now, we only have one car. That means we had to survive on bikes for 6 days. So, the boys had to bike to and from school (8 miles each way) every day. They did that with great attitudes Thursday and Friday. On Monday, their legs were dead. On Tuesday, they only made it a quarter mile before they turned around and said they weren’t going to school.

Meanwhile, we stayed home from church on Sunday, since we couldn’t all bike the 7 miles to church (most especially Henry, who is still just learning to ride a bike). Instead we watched the Zoom broadcast and had our own primary and Sunday school.

On Monday I presented a paper at VU in Amsterdam. I left around 7:30, rode my bike to the train station, took 2 hours of trains, had a full day including dinner, 2 hours of trains home, then another bike ride in the dark, to be home around 10.

Tuesday I had to go to our mechanic to pick up the car. Did I mention that because our car is a van (which is incredibly rare here), our mechanic is a long ways away? So, 2 hours of trains plus 20 minutes of walking to get the car. Then 2.5 hours of driving home. It should have been a faster drive home, but there was a bus strike, so the roads were packed.

Wednesday I once again left at 7:30am to bike to the train station. I took the train to Tilburg, taught a class, and then immediately hopped on a train to Frankfurt, Germany. 5ish hours later I arrived. I checked into the hotel, had dinner with a colleague, and then went back to the hotel to go to bed.

Thursday was office visits and presenting a paper (different paper than the one I presented at VU), plus a couple of nice meals.

Friday morning I got up at 5:30, checked out of the hotel, and am now on the train back to the Netherlands. One of the trains was delayed, so I missed a connection. I should arrive home around 1pm.

I think this weekend my focus is going to be chores around the house, and spending some family time (plus catching up on some sleep).

Next week is pretty relaxed, but then I start another couple of whirlwind trips the week after that.

Linda planned a great date night for us. Dinner for two at De Drive Linden. Unfortunately, Henry had other plans.

First, I should point out that date night has been pretty rare in the Netherlands. We’ve had a lot of stay-home dates, but only one go-out date so far. We just don’t have a babysitter we can call upon. So, this dinner was something we had been looking forward to for a while.

We left home at 5:45, walking to a restaurant just down the street, leaving JJ (age 13) and Timmy (age 11) in charge. We felt like the kids had been getting along pretty well over the last few weeks, so this should work out, and we were literally only a 3 minute walk away.

25 minutes later, during our appetizer, Timmy called to say that Henry had disappeared. He took his coat and shoes, and the front door was left open.

Henry and Adelaide proceeded to search for him, unsuccessfully. Linda left to search too, while I sat awkwardly by myself, waiting to pay the bill and resolve the meal.

Eventually they found Henry. He had gone to the neighbors’ house to play. At that point, though, things were a bit out of control. Linda stayed at home to deal with Henry. I got our meal to go.

Date night at the kitchen table!

In case you are wondering about the food, it was great. I had a wonderful tomato soup for my appetizer, followed by a black Angus steak for the main course and ice cream with hot fudge and Oreo pieces. Linda had some sort of mushroom appetizer, salmon for the main course, and something similar to apple pie for dessert. She loved it.

And of course, since we’re in the Netherlands, the main courses came with a side of fries. Everything comes with a side of fries here, even at fancy restaurants (and they are really good fries).

I often tell people that I’m not learning Dutch very well because no one lets me practice. They all speak English and immediately switch to English when they hear my miserable attempts at Dutch.

Well, Henry (my son) has a friend named Sid. I talk with Sid’s dad a lot when dropping Henry off at school. I made this “I never get to practice Dutch” comment to him yesterday. So, today he insisted on speaking Dutch with me.

It didn’t go so well. I understood like 20% of the words. At one point he was asking if I was biking to work today. I got that and replied in half-Dutch, half-English that my wife was driving me so I could bring in a guitar to work, but normally I bike.

He then asked me if it was electric. I said it was. Then he asked about the fender. I have no idea about my bike’s fender. Maybe he was asking if we had an electric car? But why would he want to know about our car’s fender?

After a few more misunderstood sentences I realized we weren’t talking about the bike or the car. He was asking about my guitar.

At this point I gave up on Dutch and explained my confusion in English.

Like a good friend, he let me speak in English but he continues speaking to me in Dutch to force me to learn.

My brain is tired already. Oh, and it was a lie when I said that I don’t speak Dutch because no one lets me practice. Really I don’t speak Dutch because I’m lazy and haven’t put in the effort to learn it. It’s just more fun to say that people don’t let me practice because their English is so good.

People often ask what I will miss about the Netherlands when I go back to the US.

First, the culture. There are a lot of things about the culture here that I am a huge fan of. For one thing, people are straightforward. If you’re busy when someone stops by, you just tell them. No hard feelings. If you don’t like someone’s paper or hairstyle or whatever, you tell them. It’s not a cruel thing, it’s just honest. It’s also very refreshing. I know that if I have something stuck in my teeth, someone will tell me. I know that if I’m not wanted somewhere or I’m interrupting, they’ll tell me. No more second guessing or self-doubt.

Another aspect of the culture that I like is the friendship. I’m friends with a lot of people in the US, but it’s usually a sort of distant friendship. Sort of like we’re first and foremost colleagues, and only secondarily are we friends. Out-of-office activities are pretty rare. That’s not true here. In the short time we’ve been here, I’ve played volleyball with several of them, video games with two of them, gone horseback riding with some of them, etc.

Relatedly, we all go out to lunch every single day at 12:00 on the dot. Some people bring lunch from home, some people buy lunch, and we all sit together: faculty, PhD students, research masters students, and the department secretary and office manager. There’s no hierarchy, and it’s not a working lunch. We may talk shop a little bit, but that’s not the normal focus. It’s just a relaxed time all together. 30ish minutes later we’re all back at our desks. In contrast, in the US I think I eat my lunch alone probably 4/5 days of the week.

I also like that people at work celebrate things together. People bring in a cake or some other dessert on their birthday.

Outside of work, people are also quite willing to make friends. Several people have invited us over for meals, and kids play dates (especially at people’s homes) are much more common here than in Massachusetts.

I’ll also miss the public transportation system here. I’ve done a lot of work trips already, and I have a lot more planned. It’s usually quite convenient to travel by train, and it’s often faster to go by train than by car. For example, I’ve been to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht, and Nijmegen, all by train quite easily. I can work on the train and there’s no need for a second car or to have my wife drive me.

Food-wise, I’ll miss the bread here (bread from the store tastes like fancy bakery bread in the US), as well as the jong cheese.

At work, I’ll miss having all my colleagues on the same hall as me. At UMass, there are only a few accounting faculty on my corridor. The others are in other parts of the building. Here, we have the entire floor to ourselves, so we are a lot more likely to run into each other just walking around. At UMass, I often go an entire day without seeing another accounting professor.

I think we’ll miss the feeling of safety we have here. My older kids can bike home from school (7ish miles) by themselves and my younger kids can walk home by themselves (200 meters), although we usually pick them up. Our kids can also just go play at the park without us needing to supervise them as closely as we would in the US. Criminals here steal bikes, not children.

Another thing I like here is their approach to work/life balance. People go on holiday (vacation) and don’t feel guilty about it. They don’t try to hide it, it’s just part of life. In the US, it’s sort of the culture that you have to appear “on” all the time: no holidays, no breaks, no admitting that you like movies or video games or sports. Just head down and work like it was your entire life.

Don’t get me wrong, people work hard here, they just have a better off switch, which seems to make their “on” time more effective.

People often ask what I miss most about the US. So, I thought I’d make a list:

First, long, hot showers. I guess more broadly I miss the US energy prices. Gas prices here are so expensive that we take short, infrequent, lukewarm showers.

Every time we stay in a hotel, either because ik on a work trip or because we’re on a family adventure, I take full advantage of a long, hot shower. I probably shouldn’t given the energy crisis, but I just can’t resist indulging on those rare occasions. (I wonder if hotels here have seen systematic higher gas usage compared to before the crisis)

Other things I miss:

• Ranch dressing
• Cream of chicken soup
• An oven that works well (we have a “combi” oven which is a microwave, grill, and oven all rolled into one; it doesn’t do great at any of those functions)
• Bisquick
• Betty Crocker brownies
• Brown sugar
• My car (just on rainy or very cold days. On nice days I really enjoy biking to work)
• A second monitor at the office
• An external monitor at home
• 2.5 bathrooms (we only have 1.5 here)

Some friends invited us over for Sunday lunch last week so we could try some authentic Dutch food.

It turns out, French Fries are originally Dutch!

These friends have this Dutch “snack” food for lunch every Sunday. They have their own electric oil fryer for fries and such. They say a lot of Dutch families have them.

They also make their own fries. They get the potatoes from their mom/grandma’s garden. Then they cut and bake them on Saturday (you have to pre-bake the potatoes to get moisture out or they won’t fry). Then they fry them on Sunday.

The Dutch like their fries with mayo, but this family brought out some ketchup for us Americans.

They also had something called “American Sauce” that I had never heard of before. It wasn’t fry sauce. It was more like mayo with some mustard and maybe pickle juice or something like that. This American was not a fan.

But I loved the fries and the frikandel (sort of like a fancy hot dog, not in a bun).

The first temple my church built in Europe was in Bern, Switzerland back in the 1950s.

Lucky for me, I happen to be in Switzerland this week, and the temple was right on the train route from the airport to the conference I will be attending. So, I took a brief detour.

Now for some rambling thoughts.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were at the temple. My session was about half full (25ish people), despite it being at 1pm on a Tuesday (not a very convenient time for most people).

I was the youngest person in the session by at least 20 years. Most people looked to be over 65. Hopefully that’s just due to the middle-of-the-day visit and not a broader reflection on church demographics.

This was the first time where I felt “dirty” at the temple. I had got up at 5:20 this morning to catch my flight out of Amsterdam, so I hadn’t showered. Furthermore, I wasn’t in a suit but rather than pants, a white shirt and tie, a fleece sweater, a coat, and sneakers. I was trying to pull off a mix between “able to do 8 hours of traveling including a lot of walking in the cold” and “dress nice for the temple.” I don’t think I really succeeded at either.

I also had a suitcase and a backpack with me. First time I’ve taken luggage into the temple, but no one seemed to mind.

In the celestial room I noticed they had scriptures in at least 4 languages! There were at least 3 different languages being translated to in my session (French, German, and English). As a side note, a large portion of Switzerland speaks French. I didn’t know that.

Now on to Grindelwald for a conference and skiing in the Alps!