Does anyone else find this news article hilarious?
And here’s the forecast.
It’s definitely interesting living in a country where on a week that the temperature gets in the mid 70’s they feel they need to issue a warning about sunscreen 
Guess we should find some!
Had my first session of Dutch surfing on Sunday. It was great to be able to check the surf cam, then hop on my bike and be at the beach 15 minutes later. The surf forecast was pretty good and the camera was reporting similar conditions - they were both pretty spot on. Ended up getting stomach high waves, with the occasional chest high set. The waves lacked the typical power you’d see on the East Coast, as many of them petered out after the initial drop in. However, a few waves held throughout and provided some long rides.
I had similar conditions: crumbly waves, and probably a bit smaller
Since I don’t have a surfboard over here (yet), I ended up renting a 9′6″ NSP from the beachside surf shop. I put on my 5/4 wetsuit, 5mm gloves, and 5mm boots, decided to hold off on the hood, then headed out. I actually wasn’t too cold in the 48 degree water - probably because I had all that rubber on. I ended up dropping in on another surfer because a really good wave came through. I apologized to him afterwards, to which he remarked: “No problem, the waves are here for all of us to enjoy”. All in all, good first Dutch session - hope there are many more to come!
The crocuses have started to bloom, so I went to Lange Voorhout to grab some pictures. I’ve been falling behind on my blogging, but I’m planning on catching up this week. Check back for an article on Paris and a few about Ireland. Enjoy the pictures!
This is my version of an artistic shot.
Here’s a statue in front of the Swiss Embassy.
I rented a car the other weekend to finish up some shopping for my move here. Driving was difficult. Lines separating lanes are the same color as other lines on the road (versus in the USA we have yellow to separate lanes and white to mark other lines). They have traffic cameras placed frequently around town and on Interstates that are set up to automatically send a parking ticket to your house if you’re caught. I’ve heard that you can get a ticket for only going a couple kilometers/hour over the speed limit.
While I managed to understand most traffic signs despite my non-existant knowledge of the language, parking garages were a different story. As I went to leave the parking garage, I placed the parking ticket in the machine, then put my credit card in the slot marked “Creditcard/Chip Knit” (I’ll explain Chip Knit in another post). Of course the credit card didn’t work and the machine started beeping at me and displaying messages on the computer machine display, none of which I could read. After about 8 cars were backed up behind me, I decided to press the help button and finally was rescued by a garage employee who took my cash and let me get out. While that part was no fun, the worst part about the experience was probably driving the French Renault SUV.
Many people in The Hague (and around The Netherlands) use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. For Lindsey and I, bikes will be our only mode of transportation. Our bikes are simple, Dutch built bikes. They have pedal brakes, kickstands, and no gear shifting - you don’t need it because it’s so flat! They came with built in conveniences like wheel covers and chain guards to keep your pants safe from the chain and clean while biking.
The bikes come with a simple lock built in to the frame that prevents the back wheel from moving. For added security, we’ve purchased another lock to secure the bike to fixed signposts or parts of buildings. The black bags at the rear of the bike are called saddlebags and are used for transporting anything from grocery bags to gym clothes while biking. Buying anything large and trying to transport on a bike might become a problem, but I plan on mastering this technique.
Some of you find setting up a home network challenging, others may find it relatively easy. Regardless, the task becomes much more challenging when all of the instructions are in Dutch! Fortunately, I had downloaded a Dutch/English translator program for my iPhone, which I’ve found out doesn’t have nearly enough translated words to depend on. Regardless, I’ll now never forget the Dutch word for wireless: Draadloos!
After almost 5 days of struggling to get my Internet setup, I’ve finally gotten the problem resolved and found out it wasn’t my mistake in the first place. As it turns out, the cable line at the street level wasn’t fastened tightly enough to the apartment line…
So made a pretty poor choice & ate raw oysters at this restaurant on Friday. Other than the oysters, the meal was pretty fantastic. In fact, the oysters themselves were also really tasty, but I think that’s what got me sick. At first I had no problems on Saturday night, but that all changed around 4AM when I began throwing up, etc which lasted for about 8 hours. I continued to feel horrible all day on Sunday while the room spun, had a headache all day Monday, and experienced mostly residual effects on Tuesday.
Someone at work made the comment that all the Americans seem to get food poisoning because their bodies aren’t used to the germs over here. I can’t help but to agree with them. Many American colleagues have mentioned that they get food poisoning about 1-2 times per year. Maybe I’m not so much looking forward to dining out over here…
The past few weeks have been very cold for Dutch standards: in the upper 20s. As such, many of their numerous canals and lakes have frozen over. A few Dutch have told me this has been their coldest winter in 13 years. Many are excited about the prospect of the ice speedskating race to be held in the northern part of the country, called Elfstedentocht. This race involves competitors from around Europe (maybe the world?) and is a combination of speed ice skating and running to get between lakes. The competitors are on standby now, as they’re waiting for more cold weather to make the ice safe for skating. The picture below is of Dutch kids skating on the ice in front of the Binnenhof (Dutch parliament building) which is a few blocks from my apartment.
Believe me, although the Dutch are very excited about this cold weather I am not. Biking around in the freezing cold is no fun. I’ve resorted to wearing scarfs…
I arrived safely to my apartment on Denneweg in The Hague on Thursday, January 8th, 2009. It’s cold outside, but really not much worse than when I left Arlington. At least it wasn’t raining when I got here like it was in Virginia…
My apartment in Denneweg - on the third and fourth floors above Dekxel’s restaurant.
