You Look Like Someone I Know

Somewhere I've been keeping track of all the people I see here that look like people I know/have known in the US. It still amazes me that this country is as much of a melting pot as the US, though the melting part doesn't quite happen in the same way here. Nothing exhibits this more than when I see someone here that looks like someone I know in the US...which I'll get to in a little bit after I tell you about the funniest thing that happened to me today.

I had gone on a walk to, first, ask at the belastingdenist, tax office set up till tomorrow near us if what Arjan got back included our medical costs, 200 just for my glasses, only to be told yes, meaning Arjan would have received a whooping 2 Euros back if it wasn't for our medical costs, which are not returnable as of next year; second, pick up the free papers; and, third, go to the other German store Aldi to get the 2.39 California wine Arjan likes. A couple checked out before me and were packing their things into their bakfiets, a bicycle with a box on wheels in front of it for carrying children or goods, when I popped into the store next door to look at a sale but the two lines in the store were way too long, they were having a buy 2, get 1 free sale and they are a discount/cheap store where you can find things you can't anywhere else--Wibra, think they have a German background as well.

So I just walked out of that store, it was much too hot in there anyways, and as I was walking the man with his bakfiets was going past, stopped, turned and said, "Komt u uit Amerika?" That's, "Do you come from America?" I was shocked...how could he know that, I sure didn't know him or his vrouw and I sure wasn't wearing or doing anything that would indicate I'm American. I asked how he knew that and he said because I look like someone he knows. He then asked me if I was the vrouw van Jim. I told him, "Nee, ik ben de vrouw van Arjan." Then he asked me if my name was Ann. How funny further as I told him what my name is. Then I asked him if I looked like her and he said yes. The entire time his vrouw was on her bike just smiling...which I imagine she does quite often because he told me he always has things happen like this where he sees someone who looks just like someone else he knows. I told him how that happens here for me.

The only person that I know of that I see here that is actually a 2nd generation 100% American Netherlander is Tom DeVries. He goes to Levend Woord church where I attended. Everyone else I see is not Dutch...there are three people I see quite often.

Thelma Layog, my former office manager at Subase Child Development Center. Someday I'm afraid I'm going to see her on the street and say, "Hi Thelma."

The one I see almost daily because she lives in the next block is Carol Maloney. Oh, Arjan loves Carol and he thinks this women looks like her as well...glasses, long blond hair in a ponytail that appears to be of the same texture and such, about the same size, the same age, and even the same walk. Now, of course, we don't know this women's name, though Zwemveld is the last name on their door. This woman is the perfect Nederlander not looking at you when you pass her by. I'm still trying to get a good pic of her, without her knowing, but it hasn't worked yet.

Then there's Carol's oldest son Jerry...a young Jerry is a Rotterdam police officer who used to walk in our neighborhood. One day I had a nice chat with him and his colleague, especially when they found out I was from the US, they wanted to know how I considered the safety here and what some differences were. (Unlike the Netherlanders that live here...including Arjan...who think it is unsafe but can't really pinpoint why--just because from other cultures live around them, I think it's very safe here.) The police get moved around so they experience the different neighborhoods in Rotterdam, which doesn't always make sense to me but it's their way of doing things, so I haven't seen him in a while.

Yep, I never know who I'm going to run into here that will trigger the memory of someone but this is only the second time in my life when someone has thought I looked like someone they know.

The Neighbors

The Winnie the Pooh wall paper is off the bedroom wall that has a door to the balconey, the one we can really see, and was strewn in the hall all down the stairs and on the balconey. That room is now purple with pink butterflies, guess that means it's the girl's room, and white trim. From what we can tell they painted everything else white. You can see wallpaper on one wall of the living room from beneath. It was most of the first week that men were here taking off the old and this week was putting on the new. Flooring was brought on Friday and on Saturday big items started to be moved in. There are still no window coverings so I'm sure they won't be living there till they're in, or, as some people do when they first move in, they will just cover the windows with sheets or newspaper, let's hope not.

Right there you have learned what is entailed when you rent a place. When moving out your walls have to be left in paintable or wallpaperable condition and your flooring and window covering are supposed to be removed. As a new renter, you are responsible for putting in flooring, putting up window covering, and doing whatever you want to the walls, except taking them down or damaging them. As Arjan said, that may be why it took so long to get renters in there because there's a lot to do in that place and that costs money.

We believe the family who will live next door consist of a mother, father, a son of 11ish and daughter of 8-9ish. How they have typically come is up to five Turks Muslim women with up to 8 children. Then numerous men coming but often when the women are gone. Arjan has watched the women struggle getting up the stairs, stopping at every landing to get their breathe, which they appear to be too young to be doing but probably aren't used to stairs. They typically don't show up till late in the afternoon and have stayed till after 10 p.m. Oh, we have to get used to the noise.

They enjoy ringing the doorbell, which drives me crazy. The kids will just ring the bell, guess they may not be used to it. When the bell from outside rings for them, the kids have run out and yelled down the stairwell, "Wie is het?" (Who is it?) Still trying to figure that one out as there's a phone you pick up and can talk to the people outside and ask who it is. It is unnecessary and if it continues after they move in I'll be going over to talk to them.

Besides the wallpaper on the balconey there is a wide putty knife that was dripping white water and has rusted, an empty spray bottle that has the nozzle screwed off, and molding was out there for days, with unused scraps that got left out there. So Friday afternoon two boys, one being from the family, were hitting a scrap on the ledge of the balconey to break it into smaller pieces. They then found great fun in throwing them over the balconey edge. One of the women found out what they were doing and came out yelling at them in Turks with a lot of Dutch, "Mag niet." That translates to "May not" and what is used to guide children...I learned that one and used it a lot when doing my language internship with the children's activities. When Arjan came home later that afternoon, I asked if he saw the wood on the sidewalk. No, but he did see two Turks women picking somethings off the sidewalk and take them to the trash. Good for them!

There was one piece left on the balconey and last night when so many children were here, that piece ended up in front of our front door. Obviously, the mothers didn't know it or see it, which I can't believe, when they left last night.

Arjan is a baffled because they have not done what good neighbors are supposed to do here. He said here the way it works is...when you rent a place, the first time you go to begin working you are supposed to introduce yourself to your neighbors. It isn't till you actually move in and are living there that the neighbors are supposed to come with a bouquet of flowers to welcome you to the neighborhood. Of course, being Turks, they probably don't do it the way the Netherlanders do.

Now we're just hoping they put up a barrier on their side of the balconey as the last Turks family did that lived there so the little girl could play outside in her bathing suit and the woman could be out without her head covering and Arjan wouldn't see them. Otherwise, we're going to have to do something so the cats can go out on our balconey and not get into their's.

Out With Old, In With the New

The old sofa was in pretty bad shape. It was only 6 years old but not well made and of fake leather. Arjan helped it along once it started ripping. After six months of looking for a new one, we decided on one. It successfully arrived the morning of the 19th.

Arjan saved a parking place for the lift for over a week. When they finally came there six spaces in a row free in front of our place so Arjan just had to move his auto down.

The lift was put into place while the delivery men from the store had a smoke before beginning the job.

The new sofa (3 zitsbankstel) comes up. Then the old one was taken out followed by the love seats (2 zitsbankstellen).

With the result looking like this:

We like the Dark Chocolate and leather, it's not sticking to us in the heat like the other did. It's higher than the last and the arm rests are lower and this week we should be looking for the some decent pillows for the arms, or just go with the extra American sleeping pillows. Arjan is also working on raising the coffee table, which was his Oma's, because it is now too low or he has said we'll look for something new at Ikea, which really surprised me.

I can't believe I forgot to snap a picture of the old stuff out for pick up before I left that day, especially to see what others had added to it and by time I arrived home they were just arriving in the next block from picking up ours, more than 3 hours earlier than the week before's pick up, which didn't happen till 6 p.m. (Think that's why I didn't take one before I left, I figured it would still be there with more things added by time I came home.)

As you can see, the sofa is a hit.

Verhuurd

Rented...finally the house next to us. The party is over for the cats and the quiet we've been able to experience up here. The good news is the renters are Turkish. Two Turks women entered the apartment this afternoon and opened up all the windows. It sounds as if they are friends with our neighbors below us, which they probably are from the moskee (mosque). With all to be done in the house to make it ready to live in it may be another 2 weeks or so before they move in. That should give us plenty of time to make the barrier so the cats can't get over there.

Rain and Rainbows

I think there's plenty of sun here and like to portray it as very sunny here, which it can be. Part of that is to dispel all those American Netherlander naysayers who "warned" me about how terrible the weather is here, they obviously never lived in Syracuse or Buffalo, NY--then we can talk "terrible" weather.

But, unlike in San Diego, the meteorologists/weather forecasters actually have work to do here because there is rain and Tuesday night we had two good rounds of thunder storms just as I was going to bed. Sunday was a hoot though because in the evening there was pouring rain.

But, the sun was brightly shining.

Producing a vivid, large rainbow that became a double.

A Typical Sunny Morning for the Boys

The morning sun shines in our back windows and as soon as he hears me get up, Columbo comes and waits for me to pull the blinds so he can lay, sit, or, as he did today, stretch out in the sun. Occasionally all the cats sit or lay in a line in the sun but most mornings are more like today.

Columbo in the sun in all his glory.

Oscar, who we call the Southern California cat because he prefers going outside only when it's warm, though he also prefers the dark. It must have been too warm for him this morning because he was laying on the floor in the shady hall which he does when it's too warm.

And Pim

my shadow, following me around.

Lidl goes USA!

That is the headline on this week's advertisement booklet from the supermarket Lidl. Lidl is one of the two German discount grocery stores with locations in the Netherlands, Aldi is the other. At Lidl you find brands you can't find at other stores, most I'm not familiar with. There is also a good aisle or two of non-food featured items. Every week has "highlight"s around a theme or two or more. This week you can find various cleaning supplies--up to a steam cleaner; hardware supplies including work clothing--a super mini Home Depot with marks including Stanley and Black & Decker; and women's clothing including under garments and shoes. To look at this and watch the store's weekly ad, you could plan it so you only had to shop at Lidl for most all your needs.

Then there's the food. There's a good fruit and vegetable section, with sale prices on a couple items, changing the items every Monday and Thursday, so you can often find cheaper fruits and vegetables there. In addition there's a frozen food section, a meat section--and they were rated as having the best and leanest ground meat/hamburg in the Netherlands but it's usually more expensive, cleaning products, dairy and cold cuts, wine, drinks, pet food, spices, and canned goods. Those items are always available. Then they focus on someplace or thing special and bring in products specifically to sell that week and they cycle through them about once a year. There has been China week, Greek week, Italian week and a British week--sure enjoyed some of those products as well.

But now, with summer and the 4th of July coming, this week's focus is on the USA. It is even being celebrated by saving stamps, or some such thing, to get a Grill Meister BBQ apron. There's even a cowboy on a horse with a lasso in that ad. You can also win a trip to Texas. Their USA mark is McEnnedy. I'm sure you noticed how close to Kennedy that is. There are other marks with "American" food but none I've ever seen in the US.

Here's the available items in their USA week:

BBQ marinades-classic, honey, garlic

Hamburger Saus--that "gives hamburgers a typical American taste", looks like ketchup and mayo to me which I certainly didn't grow up having on my hamburgers and you don't find on a McDonald's or Burger King hamburger.

Cheese-Onion Baguettes--isn't that a French word?

T-Bone Steak for 1.99/100 grams, making it 10 Euros/pound--and I'm so tempted to buy one because you just can't get good steak here.

Chicken nuggets with saus

Onion Rings

Chicken Dippers with saus--chicken pieces rolled in corn flakes

Snackbox--??? where'd that come from? Packaged, complete in buns, mini hotdogs, mini hamburgers, American Rib burger, and I think it's like BBQed beef sandwich, shredded rib meat in saus on a bun. They go for 1.79 a piece. (I'll make my own, thank you, and wait for a trip to the US for a hot dog.)

Hot dogs in a jar--sounds so unappetizing to me.

Frozen rib burger that's "only" 1.69

American sauces--ketchup BBQ, ketchup hot dog--never heard of that in the US, and Sandwich sauce

Salad dressing--Ranch, Blue Cheese, Honey Mustard, American Caeser, and Thousand Island

American style mustard--I have come to prefer the French style popular here.

Ketchup flavored potato twists that appear to be curly potato sticks with a flavor added.

Easy cake mix for cranberry cake--that looks more like bread that you just add water to and bake in the pan, reminds me of Snack 'n Cake only a bread. (I'll wait for the fresh cranberries to appear in the regular grocery stores in the fall.)

Dried cranberries--which you can find here.

Cranberry Drink--The Aldi often has Trader's Joes cranberry drink, the only Trader Joe's product I've seen here.

American cookies--apple cookies with raisins or brownie cookies with chocolate--both the crispy/hard type. Where's the chocolate chip??????

Muffin mix--with chocolate pieces, chocolate with a chocolate glaze, or with a bluberry filling

Honey roasted almonds

Cashews and pecans

Microwave popcorn

BBQ marshmallows--Marshmallows have become more common to see in stores here but these are all white and only 1 Euro.

Ice cream sundaes--cups of soft ice cream with carmel, strawberry or chocolate sauce through it--I'll pay a little more for a McDonald's sundae when I want something like that, and better yet, wait till it's on McDonalds 1 Euro sale, think it's regularly 1.25. (Every few months McDonald's puts 6 products on sale for 1 or 2 Euros...from this time what I remember seeing advertised for 1 Euro was yogurt & fruit and 4 bitterballen--a Dutch food--I should pop in and get them to take a picture and tell you about them and a fish sandwich for 2 Euro.)

American peanut butter, crunchy or smooth--I'll keep buying the Skippy at Jumbo when I want American PB.

And these:



They're really Jelly Belly jelly beans. Ok, they don't say Jelly Belly so they must be a kick off, but they sure taste and look like Jelly Belly beans. What a treat and only one flavor I don't like--peach.

Update on The House Next Door

It has been a while...over 3 months to be exact since I wrote about the place next door, which remains vacant. I figured I better write before I have to write about the new neighbors.

Here is what transpired since the huis uitzetten on Feb 27th:

The following week two containers appeared on the sidewalk in front of our house. Workers followed who cleaned the place and their storage out. Everything was put into the containers... a broken chair, papers, used cans of paint...everything present in the house and storage. Arjan said it will be taken someplace where the owner can pay to get it back. If not, it will be gone through to see if there is anything worth selling and sorted to go to in the right refuse.

Next a man who inspects places after people move out came to see what repairs were needed in the house and removed the toilet and water fixtures. Within a few days a carpenter showed up and used our electricity to do something over there. Then the tile/bath/kitchen guys came, who also used our electricity and paid Arjan 10 Euros. They worked for a good week removing the tile from the kitchen wall and toilet and shower/laundry room walls and floor. (This is the exact tile we have which when were told we could pick new cabinets and a counter a few years ago, we were told our tile was still good so couldn't be changed--URGH!) Then they put the new in and it looks so much better. They used a natural, cream/white colored bigger tile on the walls and a light gray bigger tile on the floor--our floor is brick red. It lightened the toilet and shower room and kitchen up and looks so much better. Then with a new white toilet and new piping and fixtures, it really looks good. The house is at least double the size of ours with a nice living room that goes all the way through to the kitchen and there are 3 bedrooms, 2 small ones that are bigger than this little room--consider a 3/4 room, and one as big as our biggest.

Arjan and I dreamed of just being able to move over there. The one small room still has Winnie the Pooh paper on it from when the people before lived there who moved 5 years ago and opens to the balcony. That would be my computer room, and I think I could actually set up my card table in there as well to scrapbook. Then the other room would be for guests so they wouldn't have to sleep in the living room. We dreamed.

The what's for rent this 2 weeks paper/online came out, which I'll write about in another post, and the house appeared in it. That was the 3rd-4th week of March. The problem with what was advertised for the place showed a picture that was not it...from a much nicer neighborhood and a town house, Arjan says there is a street with this name in one of the neighboring suburbs advertising in this area and they picked the wrong picture. It also said that this place is from 1990. No way...these were built around 1911 and the last renovation was in 1986. I responded, which is the way it works here, and by the end of the two week period we were down to #123. The top 5, which they show, were all Urgent, which goes above everything else. We figure the false advertising led to so many responses. Around 400 for something like was presented is a steal in the Rotterdam area.

Plenty of people have come to see it, two just last week, but so far no takers. I think they see it and know they can find something a bit nicer without climbing so many stairs for around the same price or a bit more. We'll see if they make it to our number or readvertise it, not sure what happens after a certain amount of time. We do know that some places are quickly rented...just happened with a place across the street but they're newer, bigger, and this one is on the ground and has a back yard.

Of course, one look out on the balcony and people may decide this isn't for them when this is what they see:



That is a bucket left by the tile workers, who were very friendly young men. It is unbelievable to me that with all the people there after the work was done, including the man that comes to let the people in to see the place, that no one has picked this bucket up and taken out to the trash. Who knows, maybe they haven't even looked out onto the balcony, let alone stepped out there.

I'll tell you...the cats are sure enjoying having so much space and we're enjoying not having to worry if they're wandering into that house and it is just overall nice not to have someone next door, much quieter.

The Bridge to Dublin

Back the first Sunday of May a bridge built in a Rotterdam suburb made it's way to it's home in Dublin where my understanding is it's a foot/bike bridge connecting two places. Many people came out to see this spectacular event.

The Koninginnebrug opens to let it through:




Then it stopped for a long time right in front of where I was standing. They had to bring another barge to help it move forward. And you guessed right, it's called the Harp Bridge and supposed to look like a harp, Ireland's "symbol" according to the news.



The barge has been attached on the side and it began it's move to the Erasmusburg.


The bridge approaches the open Erasmusburg:


And at this point my camera batteries ran out and I forgot to bring extras, something I usually always have with me. Oh well, I saw it and got both bridges together with the open bridge. I do hope to see it in place in Dublin one of these days.

P.S. For any of you computer challenged, such as myself, you can click on pictures and they'll fill your screen so you can see them up close and personal.

Cats

Some of you have known me since way back when I didn't like cats, except the kitten that my roommate snuck in our sophomore year and we hid in the sink room till she found a home for him, used to joke that they should be run over, and then in my early 30's developed such an allergy to them I would be forced to leave the homes of people with cats. That all changed in 2002, and now I feel like the cat woman. On my walk home a couple weeks ago I ran into this cuddly looking black kitty living under a mostly torn down building, that's been that way for three years now.

It's the first seeming unclaimed cat I've seen here, the few others I've run into outside have a collar with a tag. As people would approach and walk by he'd run back in his "house" then come and look out like this:

After the people had walked by, he'd come out and sit on the sidewalk again. I was NOT so tempted to get a bowl of cat food and return to try to get him to come out so I could pick him up and bring him home to join the three here. No, I wouldn't do a thing like that...but I sure thought about it. Good thing I haven't seen him since. I'm hoping someone else is giving him a good home.

Why would I need another cat when I've got these three beauties:

But wouldn't a black cat go well with the color mix?