Haggis for breakfast

I bet you guys forgot about me, didn't you?  Well, fear not, I'm still around!

I've been a bit busy in the last couple weeks, especially the last weekend for I went to Scotland to visit Mark in Edinburgh!  

Some random things I learned about the city:

- the population is only 500 000 people (that's about half of Edmonton to put things into proportion for you), which I found to be very surprising, it feels much larger

- the city is split into Old Town and New Town.  The old part is well, really really old.  It stems from the Castle, which is perched atop an extinct volcano.  New Town was designed by a young architect in 18th century.  It was created in order to decrease the volume of people living in Old Town.   However, it's modern design was a bit offsetting for some, and it took almost 20 years to fully populate the area.

- J.K. Rowling wrote most of the Harry Potter series while living in Scotland.  There are a few cafe's that she frequented and there are now plaques on the outside...just for tourists like me.  =)

- Rosslyn Chapel is one of the coolest, and probably the oldest church I've ever visited (I urge you to check out the link for more pictures and stories).  It was completed in the 14th century, and in it lies so many different theories, conspiracies, and just plain old stories.  One of my favorites is about the creation of the pillars.  The story says that the master mason took a trip abroad to get some inspiration for the carvings and while he was gone the apprentice carved a magnificent pillar.  The master got so angry he hit the apprentice on the head with his mallet, killing him.  As part of his punishment, his face was carved into the opposite pillar so that he must always look at the apprentices work. The chapel is also featured in the famous book and movie The DaVinci Code.  

-  The town of Roslin (where Rosslyn chapel is) is also the home of The Roslin Institute, which happens to be where Dolly the Sheep was created via cloning techniques.  

Edinburgh Castle in the background.  In front lies a row of pubs.  One of them, Maggie Dicksons, is where I had Haggis for breakfast.  The pub itself has quite the story.  All the pubs face a central square and that is where the hangings used to occur.  Maggie Dickson served her sentence of hanging, but she didn't actually die, so this pub was created in her name.

There was a winter carnival and German Christmas market going on.  I found the contrast between the Gothic architecture and the roll-in ferris wheel was quite hilarious.

We had an amazing view of the sunset on the hill where Edinburgh Castle is.  

A picture of a picture of Rosslyn Chapel minus all the scaffolding that was present when I visited.  

Another picture of a picture to give you an idea of how intricately carved the chapel is.  It's quite amazing considering it was competed in 1440.  It truly is mindblowing and was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. 

So there you go, my trip in a nutshell.  A lot of the weekend was spent hanging out with Mark and meeting all of his friends.  It was his last weekend in Edinburgh, so we had many goodbye festivities and last things to do.  All in all, it was a fabulous weekend and I am so happy I was able to get there in time to have my own personal tour guide.  

Sinterklaas

I've been informed that I've been slacking on the blog lately. Truth is, life here in Holland is like life in Canada, just with warmer weather and older buildings.  The last few weeks haven't really been full of blog-worthy excitement.  I was incapacitated with illness one weekend, and drinking beer the other.  There's your update.

This weekend definitely deserves its own blog post though, for this was the weekend of Sinterklaas.  Sinterklaas is a national holiday in The Netherlands and resembles Christmas in many ways.  I'll give you the stripped down version based on what I've experienced, but if you want more, you can educate yourself here.  Sinterklaas originated as the feast day of Saint Nicolas-- the patron saint of children.  However, as times change, so does the story.  Around the third week of November, Sinterklaas and his helpers Swarte Piet, arrive in The Netherlands in a big boat from Spain. There is usually a parade through the city to welcome them, and the children get to enjoy some festive treats, usually handed out by Swarte Piet. 

Side note, Swarte Piet directly translates to Black Pete, and not so surprisingly, he's black. And also not so surprisingly, this has been turned into a rather controversial issue. Historically Swarte Piet is black because they were the servants of Sinterklaas and come from a geographical location that generally has darker skinned people.  However, to skirt the issue of racism, many children are told that he's black because he goes down the chimney to deliver presents and incidentally is covered in soot.  Embarrassingly though, this wasn't a good enough cover story, and Swarte Piet was banned from Canadian Sinterklaas celebrations this year.  

After Sinterklaas arrives in Holland, children line their shoes up in front of the fire place (or the back door if your house doesn't have a fireplace), and they sing songs and draw pictures for him, and every once and a while they get a small gift in their shoe.  

The main celebration though, occurs on December 5 (or December 4 if the 5th is a Monday and just isn't convenient).  On this evening, Sinterklaas delivers a big sack of presents for the children (or the neighbor is given the presents earlier in the day and he puts the sack by the door, knocks and runs away).   The presents are accompanied with nice poems about the person receiving the gift.  

Here's the poem that came attached to my gift:

Dear Kaylee, 

Every year around the beginning of September,
the Baas family gets a new family member.
They never really know what to expect.
Will she be tall, sweet, dumb, or fat,
will she know how to act?
This year Sint has been very glad to hear,
that it's never been this good of a year!

The new Canadian pedigree,
has filled the Bass' home with glee.
Not only is she sweet as hell,
but she can play the piano as well.
Sint has looked on with admiration,
and admittedly, with some frustration...
How you ran, and ran, and ran,
and only finished after twenty one. 

Your calm and loving personality
must have something to do with your nationality.
That's why Sint has given the Baas family this advice
the next au pair has to be from Canada, then she'll surely be as nice!

Love and hugs from Sint and Piet.

My family celebrated this evening with some amazing food (I could probably write a whole blog post about Sinterklaas food), great songs (lead by Kristel's dad on his guitar), and lot's of presents!  The kids finally got the hamster they've been begging for, along with a whole sack of other toys.  I got some really nice winter running gear, an iTunes giftcard, and some amazing chocolates to feed my addiction.  I also got a beautiful chocolate letter K, which is another tradition of Sinterklaas.  

So there you go, a crash course in the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas.  It was a fantastic experience, and I'll definitely be incorporating some of their traditions into our holiday celebrations at home.  

Those are for deaf people

Random things I learned on the weekend Mark visited:

- The man that lives in the narrowest house in Amsterdam is taller than his house is wide.  Thus, he cannot lie down across his room. 

- The Red Light District has blue lights too.  They are not men....but they may or may not have been at some point in time. 

- Anne Frank actually started writing a book about her life in hiding before she died.  Her father then published her journals because he read that she wanted to be a famous writer when she got older. 

- The Jewish District of Holland, which at one point had some of the most amazing houses in Amsterdam, is now the most hideous street in the city after its reconstruction by acid tripping hippies in the 60s.
- there are speculaas latte's at Starbucks.
- Despite what people think, the use of marijuana in The Netherlands isn't technically legal.  It is simply tolerated and is not considered a criminal offence.  Instead, the police focus more on hard drugs and since then the use of drugs such as heroin (which used to be a major problem) has dramatically decreased.

Those are just some of the important things we learned as we toured Amsterdam.  After our Amsterdam adventure, we spent the rest of the weekend at Sander's place, partying with his housemates.  I'll leave the story at that to preserve the memories and dignity of all of us that were deathly hungover the next day.  The take home message of the story: epic weekend. 

Standing on the widest bridge in Amsterdam.

My friend, Flores

I have a new friend here in Holland!  He's a bit younger than me, but so much fun to be around.  He has really blond hair and knows English quite well.  We haven't planned it yet, but I think he's gonna be my Dutch running buddy.  He already knows the kids quite well, and lives just down the street, so it's really easy for him to pop by for visits once and a while.  =)

Oops, I forgot to mention that my new friend was of the canine variety, didn't I?

He came over to play the other day.  As you can see, he was more interested in the stick, but nonetheless it was wonderful to have his company.  Oh and that's Cleo's best friend Okki in the pink.

Pilou is a little scared of him (probably because he's twice her size), but Cleo and Pippa love him to pieces!

Catch up!

Life across the pond has been busy, but really, I know that's no excuse for my lack of updates.  So here, chew on this for the next week.

My Trip to Madrid
Yeah, I know, it was a while ago, but I swear, I did actually go.

Meet Mia: 

She was my awesome travel partner who is a camera nerd, just like me.  We had a fantastic time wasting our days away snapping pictures in the park (in between a lot of Sangria).

We saw a ton of cool stuff.  Including...

National Monuments

Random book sales

Famous squares (this one is Peurta del Mayor).  We also spent a lot of time around Peurta del Sol, but were unsure why it was so famous.  Click here to find out.  =)  

And the Royal Palace with its beautiful gardens!

We also drank a lot of Sangria and ate a ridiculous amount of Tapas:

 Oh, and we had churos dipped in melted chocolate. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

And to top off the whole trip, we had a night out at the theater.  We saw Donka.  It was by the same producers that make the Cirque du Solieil shows, thus is was kinda strange but keeps you interested with its insane acrobatics and freak-of-nature tricks.  

And that was my holiday to Spain in a nutshell.  

Since then, the speed of life has picked up quite a bit.  Kristel has been insanely busy with work lately, so I've been spending loads of time with the kids.  I've also been investing a lot of time into my Dutch class.  Slowly, but surely I'm gonna learn the language that is so strangely complicated.  

Last weekend Sander and I went to visit his parents in Eindhoven.  It was a nice, relaxing weekend with a good bike ride, a few rounds of rumikub and some good visiting.  This past weekend, was pretty low-key since Sander has finals this week.  Mia cooked us some traditional Indian food on Friday night.  It was absolutely amazing.  She's gonna make me some Tandori chicken sometime *drool*. Sunday was full of studying (well, Sander studied, I played Scrabble) and then we went to a bbq.  

So that's all for now.  Life is great, and I'm loving every moment of it.  Mark is coming to visit this weekend (excitement!!).  We're making a trip into Amsterdam to see all the touristy things and then we're gonna spend some time in Utrecht, enjoying the non-touristy Dutchness.  =)

Autumn's Here

I was running this morning when this song by Hawksley Workman came on.

And then there was a blog post about autumn.

I love, love, love the vivid colours around here.  

This river was so calm this morning.  It's not normally this glassy.  It made for a perfect morning of picture adventuring!

(click on the photos to enlarge them.  they look so much nicer that way)

<3 reflections!

For those of you not on facebook, I'm sorry for the lack of Madrid photos.  I'll get around sooner or later.  I'll sum the trip up for you though: it was freakin' awesome.  

The End.

Run Forrest, Run!

Last weekend, I willingly subjected myself to physical torture-- running for two hours non-stop, as I participated in the 36th Annual Amsterdam Marathon.

Okay fine, I trained for almost two months, so it wasn't that bad (in fact, I was actually under my goal time) until the next day when I couldn't sit down without bracing myself because my quads decided they didn't want to function anymore.  It was only around kilometer 14-17 that I truly wanted to fall over and die.  The only thing that got me through was knowing that I had a team of people spread throughout the route cheering me on....and singing "O Canada". 

Attaching The Official time tracking chip to my shoe.  Telltale sign that this race is for realsies.

Finally found my starting chute and am ready to run!

I believe this was around the 5km mark, still feeling great at this point. Seeing Sander's parents gave my energy levels a good boost too.

Finish line! I'm somewhere in that crowd...

The amazing banner that Sander made.  Funny story though, I was so focused on spotting familiar faces that I missed the banner, not once, but twice as they cheered me on throughout the race.

My support team cheering me on.  At this point, I was so happy to be going downhill...that is until I realized that I had to run up the hill I just went down. 



When I arrived in Holland, I said "by the end of the year I want to be able to run half a marathon".  Little did I know I'd reach this goal just two months after arriving.  I am so proud to have reached my goal, and so thankful that I had a wonderful group of people there to support me.  I couldn't have done it without them!

You're the one that I want

I went on a date with John Travolta this weekend.  My attire was suspiciously similar to Olivia Newton John in the movie Grease.  It may or may not have been planned that way.

A pre-party shot of most of the house gang.  The short one on the left (sorry Mia! That's the best way to describe you, you're teeny) is Mia.  We're going to Spain together next week.  

Side note: I have a funny story about Mia being short.  I rode her bike to the pool over the weekend.  I felt something along the lines of this, minus all the American attire obviously

It was hilarious.  I wish someone was around to snap a pic for me.

We are sitting on 25 crates of beer.  That's 600 beers for those of you whose math sucks as much as mine.  

Pre-party dinner (thanks Nicole!).  These are all Sander's housemates (minus Mia who is taking the picture).

It was a fabulous party.   The next day was a little rough for some, but rocking out to Disney tunes while cleaning helped a lot (Jamie you would have loved it!  We started off with Bear Necessities).  Sunday evening, the whole house got together and we watched Lion King as we nursed ourselves back to health. 

Releasing my inner child

Apparently I've gotten lazy with the blogging.  I'm sorry!

Over the weekend, I went to Efteling which is a Dutch theme park.  There were so many wicked rollercoasters! My favorite was this one: Joris en de Draak.  It was a very magical and truly Dutch experience complete with a fairly tale forest and nice long lines.  Oh, and the garbage bins look like giant faces and when you put garbage in, they say thank you!  

That's all I have for now.  I haven't been up to much these days, so I think it's safe to say I've settled into my Dutch life.  My weeks have been much busier now that I have started my Dutch class.  I've also been running more (1/2 marathon is in 9 days!!) and spending more time with the kids.  

I have a few things to look forward to in the next couple weeks (ie: costume party, marathon, trip to Spain) so stay tuned for some exciting updates!

Love to you all! 

Tour part 3: the kids

It's about time I got around to telling you about the kids!

I'll start with the oldest, Cleo.  She's seven going on 15.  Seriously, she's the most mature seven year-old I've ever met in my life.  She absolutely loves reading and music.  She's also the cuddle bug.  I'm quite frequently attacked by the "Cleo Monster", being smothered in hugs and kisses.  

Above is Pippa.  She's the older of the twins.  She's probably the feistiest of the three, and also the first to cry when she doesn't get what she wants.  But she truly is a sweetheart.  She loves holding my hand and coming with me to the grocery store.  She also loves showing off her skills.  I'm often being called to watch her do flips on the monkey bars (seriously, she might be Holland's next Olympic gymnast) or listen to her practice piano (the only one of the three that actually enjoys playing).  

And last, but not least, Pilou (aka: Pookie).  As you can tell, she's a bit of a goof.  She's by far the most dramatic of the three whether it be acting while they're playing dress up, or making a stink about dinner.  She loves painting/drawing.  She tends to put on this "tough girl" attitude, but she's such a softie.  Everyday, Pippa asks for a goodbye hug/kiss and Pilou always smirks like she's too old for that.  But if you're alone with her, she's begging for hugs, kisses and cuddles.

I love all three girls so much already!  They are the most beautiful, sweet children I've ever met.  They aren't devious or obnoxious, they're just really great kids.  I've had a lot of fun with them so far, and am so grateful that I was able to find such an amazing family to spend my year abroad with.

A little taste of home

Mom and Dad were in Amsterdam this past weekend, so obviously I spent it with them!  It was an amazing weekend full of food, visiting, more food, shopping, and quality time with the 'rents.

The adventure started on Friday afternoon when I attempted to find a parking spot for my bike at Utrecht Central Station.  Here's a snapshot from google to emphasize how truly chaotic it was.

That times 20 was what I had to search through.  After using what little Dutch I know, and my super awesome problem solving skills, I found a spot-- on the top rack of course.  After figuring out how those things work, getting grease from my chain all over my hands and having to repeat the process because I forgot my purse in the pouch on my bike, I was ready to tackle the next task: trains. 

I've taken the train a lot so far, but never on my own.  I always have Sander (aka: my translator, tour guide, Dutch speaking hero), but this weekend, I was flying solo.  Step one: find machine that takes coins to pay for ticket.  Step two: go buy mints to break bill because do not have enough change to purchase ticket and do not have debit card yet because Dutch banks are dumb and slow, oh and because stupid ticket machines don't take bills.  Step 3: miss train.  Step 4: go to platform 5a to catch next train.  Step 5: panic because sign does not say right destination.  Step 6: panic some more because I might have to ask someone for help.  Step 7: watch sign switch and sigh of relief when realize that the train was indeed leaving from that platform.  Step 8: Arrive in Amsterdam, and find parents.  =)

Friday night, I spent the night on the boat with Mom and Dad.  The staff were so kind to me and organized for me to have my own stateroom!  They also stuffed me with amazing food and to-die-for desserts.  Saturday, Sander met up with us and we had dinner with his parents at this awesome Indonesian restaurant.  Then the train adventure began again as we headed back to Utrecht.  Due to aforementioned lack of debit card, I had to purchase my ticket with coins.  But, as per usual, I was lacking coinage...so off to the store I went to buy more mints.  Once again, with that process, we missed the train, but it was okay because there was another train leaving soon, but had one transfer.  Transfers aren't usually a big inconvenience unless you get caught up playing Sudoku and miss the stop.  Oops.  

Sunday was the day I discovered that you can get stroopwafel McFlurry's.  Hello amazingness?  I'm definitely going to have to try that one day.  Sunday was also the day my parents came to Maarssen and got to see where I live and meet my family.  It was also the day I had to say goodbye to them.  =(  

All in all, it was an amazing weekend full of family time.  I'm so thankful that I got to see them, though I'll admit, it really made me miss home.  I love and miss you all!  

P.S. Dad, if you're reading this, you should email me the pictures from the weekend.  The ones on your handy dandy iPad, not the camera.

A good tune

Turns out yesterday was a very exciting day across the pond.  Last night, I went to see my music god, Martin Sexton, along with Schradinova and Donavon Frankenreiter (who looked a lot like a homeless person, but defininely has the best mustache I've seen since my father shaved his off).  The concert venue, Paradiso, was made of awesome.  Before the hippies took it over and converted it into a concert hall in the 60s, it used to be a church, leaving us with the perfect (and rather intimate) place to listen to some awesome live music.  And to top it off, they had a ginormous disco ball which was so much fun to take pictures of if you're a shutterbug like me.

Doesn't he look homeless?  His hair decreased in volume considerably throughout the concert, but that doesn't really dampen the hideousness of his attire.  His faux snakeskin boots were the cherry on top.  It's a shame you can't seem them in this picture.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Okay, fine, just trains.


Sander and I went South(ish) to a placed called Vlissingen this weekend.  It was a long train ride, but was well worth it! We did some exploring, ate some awesome food, climbed a bell tower, and were stalked by creepy people with a music cart.  We also ate at this really neat restaurant in Utrecht that used to be an old church.  Not only is the atmosphere super cool, the food was to die for and the beer was ridiculously cheap.

Our journey up to the bell tower.  It was a rather slow process for me in my flip flops.  I managed not to lose one until the very very very top.  Luckily someone was below and they threw it to me. 

The view from the top of the tower.  Notice the little windmill?  

This was the super cool restaurant.  Pictures really don't do it justice at all.  You have to go there to experience the awesomeness.  It doesn't look nearly as wicked as it is. 

In other random news, there was an earthquake last week.  It mostly went unnoticed, but surprisingly, I felt it!  I was reading on the couch when I felt something weird.  I thought I was going crazy, until I noticed my lamp shaking a bit.  I didn't even give it second thought until Sander mentioned it the next day.  Super cool.

Running and Rooftops

Random story:  I ran my first race this past week!  It was an entirely random decision to participate, and so satisfying.  I did no training, so obviously I did not make good time, but I completed my first 10km run, and I was not last!  A great success in my eyes!  With so much free time, I've been able to do a lot of running.  I'm lovin' every moment of it, and hope to do some other official runs while in Holland.  There's another 10km one in a few weeks.  I just might give it a go.  

Kristel and I doing some pre-race stretches.  The route went right in front of the house so Jerry and the kids were at the gate cheering us on as we ran by.  

Along with my super random run, I had a super random Saturday night.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend, so Sander's roommates Lucas and Jorien, and Sander and I decided to enjoy the beautiful summer eve...on the roof.  Our spidey skills kicked in and we maneuvered our way to the roof like pros.   We enjoyed a couple drinks, the clear summer sky (which doesn't happen often in Holland), and some good live music courtesy of Sander and Lucas.  

 What a charmer. 

Oh, I also found this tea cup made of awesome in Sander's house.  I just had to make a special coffee in it, though tea would probably have been more appropriate being that that's how it happens in Alice in Wonderland.  Nonetheless the coffee was amazing, and I'm certain it was because of the cup.  Or perhaps it was the chocolate sprinkles on top?