Memorial Day

Well, it’s the last Monday in May. Here in The Netherlands it’s Pinksteren or Pentecost. But for my family and my home country it’s Memorial Day. This is a day when we remember the men and women who died serving in the United States Armed Forces.

As a child growing up this was the true kick off weekend to summer. The day was started by going down town to watch the yearly Memorial Day parade. Bands would play, troops would march, people would wave and children would run up and down screaming with delight the joy of the day. Our family would then go over to our friend’s house. The McClumpha’s would hold their annual Memorial Day party at their farm. We would all show up with our lawn chairs and a dish to pass ready to enjoy the day with many, many friends. The adults would all gather to talk and laugh and we kids would organize various games of baseball, volleyball, red rover and kick ball. That is till the sun went down. That’s when the real fun started~ flashlight tag! So many memories were made growing up with the families that were so close to us for so many years.

But today, I’m across the pond as some friends tell me. I decided I would take a little drive to thank the many people we had been remembering, but I would do it here in The Netherlands. We drove to Margraten to The Netherlands American Cemetery. This is the only American cemetery in Holland. 8,301 American soldiers lay at rest in this beautiful cemetery that is maintained by the United States.

As we strolled through the lovely landscaped place of rest looking at the beauty and thanking the various people, the tall memorial tower in the middle chimed out You’re a Grand Old Flag. Little American and Dutch flags were on every grave and Old Glory in the middle was respectfully at half-mast.

I was sad to hear that we had missed a big celebration that they have on the last Sunday of May. They had over 7,000 people there yesterday to pay their respect to our fallen troops. I’ll be sure to be there on the right day next year. The memorial celebration at this cemetery has been going on every year since 1945.

Memorial Day ~ a day in America for remembering, for parades, picnics and celebrating lives that were given up for our freedom. A kick off to summer…. You Bet!

Well I'll be a Monkey's Uncle!

I have no idea what this means but on my quest to understand the Dutch better and understand cultural differences I ran across this saying. I had heard the term Dutch uncle and wanted to know what it meant. In my search of course my brain merrily went to “Well I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle”, something I’d heard in America over the years. Not knowing they were connected but sounding very similar, I looked up the definition of Monkey’s Uncle. When you are in complete shock or utter disbelief.

Well, that I would say about sums it up! According to Wikipedia Dutch uncle is a term for a person who issues frank, harsh, and severe comments and criticism to educate, encourage, or admonish someone. Thus, a "Dutch uncle" is a person who is rather the reverse of what is normally thought of as avuncular or uncle-like (which would be indulgent and permissive). The phrase Dutch uncle came about during the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17^th century. Obviously some heated discussions came about and what resulted was a phrase that is still around today.

When I first moved to The Netherlands, I was confronted almost immediately by the Dutch and their frankness. Actually, my very first person I met was this way. But being the guard at customs I thought maybe it was just his job to be this way. Yes, he was very intimidating. He looked like Ivan they guy from Rocky 2, the gigantic Russian who tries to beat our beloved Rocky to a pulp. The guard was enormous, intimidating and very frank about why I was coming into his country!

My next encounter with someone behaving like a Dutch uncle was a lady I met on a walk with my beautiful white lab Sugar. I was happily walking her around the lake. Our yellow lab Missy had just passed away the day before and we were both in mourning. A woman came up to me and said “Your dog is way too fat! Why are you not letting her swim in the lake? She should be swimming and running!!!” After I caught my breath, I looked at her in disbelief. Was this stranger standing here calling my beautiful dog fat! My shock turned into laughter because I could not believe the audacity of this person. She became agitated and said “This isn’t funny!” I explained that my dog had hip dysplasia so her climbing the steep walls around the lake was not possible. She does love to swim but she knows her own limits and would never try to climb into something she couldn’t get out of. I also explained her grief of losing her best friend. She kept going on and on and finally, I just smiled and walked away.

I’ve experienced this kind of encounter many times here in The Netherlands. It could be the elderly lady at the market who wants to plow me over with her shopping cart. It could be someone where I’m volunteering to help out at an event. If that person wants something done one way, they are not going to listen to you or try to understand you if you have another idea. They will literally just take something away, show you or tell you the way it’s to be done and that is the end of the discussion. (At least in their mind)

But this American Girl has a different plan. My philosophy is what Thumper’s mommy told Thumper in the Disney classic Bambi. “If you can’t say something nice… don’t say nothing at all.” We’re all here for such a short time. I mean here in life not just here in The Netherlands. I wave to people, I smile, I volunteer to help at events and I do it with a joy. So when confronted with someone behaving like a Dutch uncle it will be my joy to smile, laugh and explain that there are other ideas on how to do things. If they explain to me that that’s just the Dutch way… I’ll refer them to the definition of the Thumperian principle that or possibly introduce them to the term Monkey’s Uncle.

London Baby!

One of the great things about living in Europe is that Europeans truly believe in vacations or holidays. When we first moved to The Netherlands, we did not meet any of our neighbors for about a month because they were all gone on holiday. One neighbor came rushing over after they had returned from a month long holiday to say hello and to say they would be gone for the next two weeks because they were leaving for holiday. That’s when I began to understand that they do truly love their time off.

Not only do they believe in time off they believe in making it as affordable as possible so that people can travel around Europe. People choose from a variety of plane, trains and automobiles to get to their destinations. But as American’s, our pleasure is finding the airline tickets very inexpensive to travel to the many new sites to see. This holiday…. Accession Thursday, a lovely four day weekend that we decided to spend in London, England. Our ticket price… 100E round trip, left right from Eindhoven. After a short 45 min. flight across the English Channel we were in the United Kingdom. Ya got to love Ryan air who announces their arrivals by sounding a horse racing starting gate trumpet if they are on time. They pride themselves with being on time and claim to be the number one on time airline in the world.

As we trained in from the airport to London I couldn’t help singing Chim Chimney, Step in Time and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I swear I would have become a chimney sweep if someone had asked me to right then. I was giddy with delight. Two trains and a short walk from the station, we found our hotel. We gathered our thoughts and made a plan. First stop a little shopping on Oxford Street and then take in a show, Rock of Ages! I should have listened a little better when they said no flash photography or video recording. I did turn off the flash on my camera, but I guess that wasn’t good enough as I got yelled at immediately to shut it down or it was to be taken away. (But not before a few little shots were taken). The show was fantastic!!

After a well-deserved night’s sleep, we headed off to do some major bucket list checking off. After walking along the Thames River we hopped aboard the Big Red double decker hop on, hop off tour bus. I’ve learned that this is a wonderful way to not only see the sights, but to listen to so many details that I didn’t know before about each area. Ok, and yes, the riding around when the feet are too tired to move is a big plus too! Perched above the city, we were able to drive past with ease the places we wanted to see and get off the bus at the places we wanted a closer look at. Past the London Eye (yes, we wanted to go on but somehow ran out of time), and past Big Ben!

First stop… Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards! We had been told to arrive early but our first bus was over crowded pushing us to wait for the second one. Not a problem, we’ll just jaunt over this way (by jaunt I mean what seemed like a 10 mile hike) to catch a different bus. But we arrived in time to get positioning by the gate. After a while of bonding with a few thousand of my closest friends the ceremony began. Just like in Washington DC at Arlington National Cemetery where they do the changing of the guards at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the guards guarding the Queen’s residence are real soldiers. They are not ornamental. It was very cool and I was so happy I was able to see this! At one area there were guards out near the people. I stepped up to the young man and said " I know you're not going to answer me, but I write a little blog called American Girl in Holland and I would like to put a picture of you in it." He smiled slightly, nodded slightly, and I stepped in for the picture!  I love all the pride and pomp of traditional ceremonies.

We next strolled through Green Park, passing along the way the Horse Guards. Then we walked to St. James Park, past the beautiful pelicans, Duck Island and the Duck Island Cottage. This beautiful cottage is home to the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust.

After a lovely lunch in Piccadilly Circus (I just LOVE the names here), we went on a walking Harry Potter Tour. I haven’t read any of the books and the movies were good but my kids are the real fans. Many, many nights were spent waiting in line at midnight for the opening of a new movie or the release of a new book at the local bookstore. The sleepless hours were well worth the excitement on my children’s faces. I love the fact that J.K. Rowling wrote wonderful books that turned the children of the world, and my own children, onto the love of reading. Our guide was wonderful and led us through the streets of London not only pointing out various places where movie sets had taken place but also infamous people or places that had been there before.

For dinner we headed toward the Hard Rock Café, or let me say this… the Original Hard Rock Café. Yes, London is the home to the very first Hard Rock. Me I was in search of a little slice of America. Mission accomplished! The perfect hamburger. And as an added bonus, the girls were able to see Kim Kardashian coming out of her hotel. They had noticed a crowd gathered and asked what was going on. Of course they wanted to wait five minutes to see if they could see her. Two hours later they made it to the Hard Rock victorious and with pictures as well. A hamburger and a Kardashian, sounds pretty All American to me.

On our last day we casually spent time seeing the last few places on our lists. I really wanted to go inside Westminster Abbey, but they were charging 16 pounds a person. So I settled for more time outside and a visit to their store. Every church we have visited has of course been free. You can make donations of course but charging.. hmmmm. Oh well. My oldest daughter has been doing some work on our family tree via ansestory.com. Apparently my family goes back to King John. So, I’m sure the next time there’s a royal wedding I’ll be getting a nice little invite in the mail. J

After a few short days in London, I’ve come to one conclusion; I definitely love this city and will be back. This American Girl says “Jolly good ‘ole chap, well done London!”

My Secret Little Garden

When we moved from the United States to The Netherlands we found a beautiful home. I had a ton of friends and family telling me I should be doing International House Hunters. The move was so emotional for me I knew I would never be able to do that without crying on TV. But I did have fun with my friends by posting pictures on Facebook and finally letting everyone know which house we had picked. Along with our beautiful home came a beautiful garden.

I’m not sure when peak season is in my yard; I can only say that there is always something in bloom or something new to be seen. I found so much beauty in every yard we had looked at.  After a few days of wandering around the yard taking in all of the beauty I panicked. I couldn’t find a sprinkler system. But then standing in the rain, I realized that God had that covered.

We called the local landscaper or gardener as they are called here to come help me identify and understand how to care for the garden. He had grown up right down the street and took care of the yards of many of my neighbors. His comment… “You have a very old garden.” I asked, “Should I do this or that?” “No, you have a very old garden. It will take care of itself.”

With that all settled my job was, to sit back and enjoy. And that I do every day. Today the forecast… Sunny with a slice of Heaven.

The Kroller-Muller

As part of my joy of experiencing Europe, I really love finding places to visit that I normally would not have seen on a trip to Europe. But just a short drive from Eindhoven with friends and we were driving through the entrance and beautiful 62 acre park of De Hoge Veluwe and The Kroller-Muller Museum.

Helene Muller was from Germany but moved to The Netherlands with her family because of her father’s work. She met Anton Kroller when he came to work for her father. They married and Anton eventually became the head of the company where he was very successful. Helene began collecting art and her collection became quite extensive.

My friend Carrie who was an Art History teacher was with us and really made the trip so enjoyable. She was able to tell us the background of the artists and stories behind the work or pictures. Carrie says "Modern art is not about the finished product but the idea behind it." I love that. It really helps to bring modern art to my understanding. There were a few I had to question though. 

Herman de Vries

This

Ad Reinhardt

Ultimate Painting No. 39

(I'm wondering what the other 38 before this looked like. Funny thing was, we were surrounded by van Gogh's and this one had a sign that said stay behind the line. Of course Megan while posing for this picture set off the alarm!)

 There are too many artists for me to mention but there is a large collection of Vincent van Gogh’s. Helene  fell in love with his work and purchased an impressive amount of his impressionistic paintings.

Vincent van Gogh

Country road in Provance by night

Vincent van Gogh

Portret van Joseph Roulin

Vincent van Gogh

Zelfportret

Vincent van Gogh

Landscape with wheat sheaves and rising moon

 Also a few of my other favorites.. George Seurat and Pablo Picasso are there for the viewer’s pleasure.

Pablo Picasso

Violin

Georges Seurat

Le Chahut

The museum is divided into rooms and is not too large. Outside there is a large sculpture garden plus the expanse of a nature park.

 A short drive away but still on the grounds is the St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge. The shape of the lodge if seen from above is in the shape of antlers and a cross. This is showing Anton’s love for hunting and his faith.

With a restaurant on the grounds as well that serves cafeteria style a wonderful day trip is well in reach. Bikes can be borrowed to ride through the park as well making it a fabulous way to spend a day. This American Girl will definitely be back to The Kroller-Muller Museum with friends and visitors. Thanks Helene for having a vision that was a gift to the world.

Claude Monet
The Studio Boat

Miss America

Missing America and thought I would share some of the things I miss plus the replacement if there is any in Holland. Remember I’m a newbie and still searching.

1.    7-11 …Don’t ask me why this is number 1 it’s just on my mind right now. I need a Slurpee! Ok, I’ve only had about 10 Slurpee’s in my life but I would like the choice. And I would like the convenience of being able to go to 7-11 if I run out of milk at 11:00PM at night. Everyone knows that 7-11 is open 24 hours a day in most places. So arriving at 11 is perfectly fine. (Replacement…. Get my act together by 5:00PM or 17:00 before the stores close) *some markets stay open till 7 or 8 giving me a chance to remember.

2.    Starbucks… I miss the convenience of a drive through coffee shop and also the relaxed atmosphere of the couches and everyone gathering to sit and mingle or just relax while browsing the web. (Replacement… No not THOSE Coffee Shops! Douwe Egberts. Love this coffee; love our little coffee shop where we can meet. Maybe a few more couches and I’d be all set. Oh and a drive through would be niceJ)

3.    Nordstrom’s… Not only do I miss the fashion and the beauty of this store. I miss their customer service. I love the fact that you can ask someone in the Men’s department about sunglasses and they will smile and walk you to the correct department. (Replacement… De Bijenkorf.  This store is nice but not Nordstrom’s).

4.    Hamburgers.. JC Burger House or any other normal place that sells hamburgers. (Replacement….None found.. still searching… abort mission… game over! )

5.    Home Depot… where you can buy a 300$ lawn mower. (Replacement… The Planet Store, Praxis, Groenen.. lawn mower 600 Euros  for a gas mower or less if you use the Tonka Truck  looking one with an electrical cord and a 12” deck) *Note: No I don’t cut the grass.

6.    St. Jude. A beautiful community of friends that have gathered together for years worshiping God… (Replacement… Notre Dame… Nuff said!) * The Vatican is on my bucket list.

7.    The sun! …(Replacement… beautiful garden with view of the lake, thanks to the rain.)

8.    Lovejoy Independent School District with its incredible education and community spirit… (Replacement... DP program, field trips to Barcelona, sailing camp and other unique opportunities)

9.    My dryer... I need a dryer that doesn’t take 2 hours to dry a load of clothes or someone who can help me with the settings. .. (Replacement.. one of those handy dandy outdoor drying racks. I’ll buy one if it stops raining long enough to go to the store.)

10. American radio… (Replacement… I Heart Radio! Yes I tune into the Detroit and Dallas stations daily.)

11. American TV. I need a larger variety of English speaking channels. I would like more of a choice than CNN and Law and Order.  (Replacement… Slingbox! I may have to kick someone off of it occasionally but it’s always ready with my shows already taped for meJ)

12. Nail Salons! I miss my nail salon in Allen, Tx where I can get a glass of wine while I get my nails done.  (Replacement… Did I mention the razor technique in Budapest?! Somehow, just not the same effect.)

13. Recycling. I loved the convenience of being able to just throw my recycling stuff into the big bin outside that collected all of it in one bin and came and took it away from my curb. (Replacement… Me going through my trash trying to separate the stuff.. Plastic, paper, glass (white, brown, green) and then practically dumpster diving to get it into the recycling bin at the market. Not sure yet where the metal cans are supposed to go.)

14.BBQ.. Rudy’s, Spring Creek BBQ, Dickies.. the best! (Replacement… friends in the US military that have Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce. Yummy!)

15.My Suburban. I miss the roominess of my gigantic American gas guzzling comfortable car. (Replacement… cute, adorable convertible mini that is fun and very gas friendly.)

Ok, I’m out. I’m sure the list is a lot longer and I will add to this as things come to mind. We all come from amazing countries that are so familiar to us. Life living abroad is wonderful, just some days this American Girl could really use a glass of wine while getting my nails done.

Lucky Strike!

Don’t know the Dutch much? Well, then strike up a conversation.  The Netherlands celebrates the Queen’s birthday on the last day of April. Her birthday is actually earlier but we celebrate this date in honor of her mother. After spending last year in Amsterdam for Queen’s Day, this year we decided to stay in Eindhoven. This was a perfect day to get to know the local Dutch.

 Let me say this… The Dutch know how to party. 99% of the people were dressed in orange, the color of the Royal family. The drinks were flowing and the people were all mosh pitted together all trying to have fun! Concerts can be heard throughout the city or DJ’s jamming out the latest tunes. Bars blare their music beckoning you to come sit at their joint. I had snagged us a tall bar top table outside on Dommelstraat at our favorite local pub, Dommell 18. As we sat there taking in the sights and fun of the party goers drinking our beer and trying to catch up, two young men came by our table smoking cigarettes. Now mind you it’s standing room only in the streets. People are wall to wall walking, talking and having fun!  I saw them smoking so I pushed an ashtray over for them to use. They kindly accepted and started talking to us. Three hours later, I can say that I definitely know more about the Dutch than I did before, at least that through the eyes of two 19 year old young men.

As Ties and Bart puffed on their cigarettes, I remarked that it seemed like a lot of Dutch smoke. They said that yes 60-70% of the Dutch smoke! (stat on the web from Radio Netherlands Worldwide… 25%). They said that at 16, a person can purchase cigarettes. Wow! I said.. that seems very young! They told me that it’s ok for them to smoke but if they had a girl friend or were married they would not want her to smoke, especially if she were pregnant.  

Ok, so let’s open this can of worms…. Pot?! Bart and Ties… “ Ahhh yes we smoke pot. It’s good for you!!  If you smoke pot once a month your blood flows better.” They said.. “ Take a man in a high stressed  position, if he smokes pot once a month he will be more relaxed and not  be inclined to have a heart attack.” Someone at the table says “Who wants another round?” All hands in the air! And Prost!!

“Speaking of pot” says Ties, “We just got our Weed Pass”.  “Oh really? What’s that?” I asked. ‘’Well, starting May 1^st in our area, people can get a Weed Pass. Like members only pass at clubs or coffee shops.”  Apparently people from other countries come here to buy the marijuana and then return to their countries to sell it. Here’s another Bart and Ties stat… 70% of all Dutch smoke pot! (Wiki stats.. 9.5% young adults in the Netherlands).

All in all, a very educational fun day spent with Bart and Ties! A few more things they would like us all to know…. Bitterballan… made from horse meat! And Tom Jones is the bomb! Sex Bomb that is! I love it!! Teens in America would probably ask “Who the Hell is Tom Jones?”  

“The great thing about The Netherlands is the liberty to make your own decisions. You have to be responsible for your own actions” ~Bart.

Thanks Bart and Ties for a wonderful Queen’s Day!