Things I Miss From Holland

I was getting ready to make the dressing for our turkey and since it was just Jon and I for Thanksgiving I got a small turkey and only needed about a half a loaf of bread. We dont eat very much bread and I was thinking how nice it would be to buy one of those half loaves of bread we used to find in the Albert Hijn store. I think there would be a market here for them. Lots of singles and elderly folks who might like just a little bit of bread. It got me thinking about other things I miss from the Netherlands.

The taste of dark chocolate, called puur (pure - roll the "R") in Dutch. The Dutch process their chocolate in a unique way which removes the bitterness. It so improves the flavor and less sugar is needed. I dont eat a lot of chocolate, but I love a nibble now and then. This was so satisfying and delicious to melt and dip things in.

I would love to be able to walk or bike to stores. Loved having things close and the built-in exercise of this kind of lifestyle. Having observed the European diet, which is heavy on bread, cheese, ham and more bread, I am convinced that the integrated exercise is the reason why Europeans are generally less overweight than Americans. This theory formed in my mind, in part, because of the changes in the European waistline from the 1980's to the present time. When visiting there in 1983 I don't think I saw a single person who was overweight at all. Now more people commute and live farther from school and work. More kids have motorized scooters to get around on. It is easier to drive. So, though most folks I saw were still generally fit, I did see lots of middle-aged spread and even occasionally truly obese people. My theory has been reinforced by my own natural creeping numbers on the scale, which I am now having to actively fight.

I miss the little tea shop in Barneveld (Barn-a-felt) that was so charming. Someone had converted a farmhouse and barn into a tea shop which also sold soaps and some pretty household things and the house held a garden shop. They were both so quaint, beautiful, and uniquely Dutch.

I miss pepernoten ( pepper-note-n) and schuim (shkowm) candies at Christmas or more accurately at Sinterklaas time, December 5th. Pepernoten are tiny spice cookies and schuim which means foam is a tasty soft, sweet candy with a texture somewhat like the orange circus peanuts in the States. These two treats are put into the children's shoes by Sinter (rhymes with winter) Klaas (klaws), the Dutch version of Santa Claus. Actually Santa Claus is the Americanized version of this character. The pilgrims picked up this bit of cross-cultural Yuletide celebration during the time they were living in Holland before making their pilgrimage to the New World. The local grocery store would allow the children to leave a shoe and they would fill them with the cookies and candies for Sinter Klaas Day, which is when the Dutch exchange gifts. Christmas Day is strictly a religious celebration, for the small percentage who are Christian and a day to spend with family for all of them. Fortunately for me, my Dutch friend has sent me some chocolate and pepernoten for this year's Sinter Klaas Day. She is a really good friend and I miss her :-)

I miss having an on-demand hot water heater. In Holland, we had almost immediate hot water and could run it all day and always have piping hot water. Our hot water here must be pumped up from the center of the earth judging by the time it takes to arrive at the spigot.

I will miss Candlelight in Barneveld with the music, free horse-drawn sleigh rides (on wheels), hot cocoa and poffertjes (poffer-a-juz) ( tiny little puffy pancakes slathered with butter and heavily dusted with powdered sugar - so good and so glad I have a poffertjes pan and had the foresight to bring a couple of mixes with me.) I loved the smell of the smoke from the fires along the street held in metal baskets, places to stop and warm your hands, giving off their warmth and glow. And the singing and music along the street. Carolers, a South American musical group playing their pipes and drums (in North American Indian garb all mix and match), quartets, choirs, and instrumental musicians.

I miss the ducks on the canals and the flowers everywhere. I miss walking and biking paths. In our neighborhood the sidewalks start and stop without rhyme or reason. We are having to explore back ways to get to things when we want to leave the car at home because most roads in this area seem to have the same inconsistencies as our neighborhood. America is definitely automobile centric. We have to be. Things are just too spread out to do much practical biking or walking.No more going to a crosswalk and just walking across. The car is king and even when pedestrians have the right of way, they never take it, because they don't even know they have it. We all just assume we yield to the cars.


         In spite of all these wonderful things I miss, I do not pine for Holland. It is more wistful remembering with fondness. We are in the "bridge" stage of repatriating. It is the transition stage where w have left friends and what we know, but haven't yet fully integrated into our home. That integration will come and one look out the window at the intensely blue and often completely cloudless sky and I am so happy to be here. Being able to talk to and understand almost everybody I see makes the move back home worthwhile. Walking into a church service in English and feeling my heart soar in worship - that is priceless!

        After taking a detour on Route 66 for a couple of posts, I am back on track with the promised blog on our settling in process. I must say first of all that this transition back to the States has gone more easily, more smoothly and with a lot less trauma than the first one when we returned from our first missions tour on St. Croix. We have experienced no culture shock on our return. (Yes, ex-pats often experience more culture shock on their return to their home country than they did when they traveled overseas.) There are a number of reasons for this.

 

       The first reason is that it is our second time around. We learned a lot about transitioning home again from our first experience. I even used those hard lessons learned to make a  radio program for Memcare to help other ex-pats as they make the same journey. We aren't returning with the emotional trauma that occurred when we left St. Croix. Jon continues in his same job, just from a different location. The finishing and closure of the mission work on St. Croix had left him feeling rudderless and the loss of the socially and spiritually rich environment there also made that change a painful one. In our present move back to the States, the dearth of those qualities is what led to our change of locale. So, though we haven't found a church home yet, there is the hope and expectation of finding one soon. ( We are presently attending a very likely candidate.) We have left the land of cloudy skies to one of endless sunny days. That has helped me particularly since three days of cloudy grayness in a row makes me gloomy. You can imagine what months and months of it did to my spirit. Until recently I have been happily nesting, and patiently dealing with domestic difficulties, roadblocks and detours.

       There are process people who just enjoy the process of doing things. They don't necessarily need to complete a project to enjoy it. These folks can often be happy just planning  something. Then there are product people. They work for the finished product. I am strongly the latter and I am finding my "product" coming painfully slowly.

      One thing that has become difficult in the move is that even after six months we are still not settled. I am used to being unpacked within a week and pretty much settled in by the end of a month - the curtains are up, pictures are hung, and the move is complete. This time has been another story. I am ready to be done now and go on to doing other things.

      The house has turned out to be a bit of a fixer-upper, so there has been some semi-major projects. Or at least that is what they have turned out to be. Not enough storage in the bathroom, so the huge plain mirror went out and medicine cabinets went in. We decided to do it the right way and cut holes in the wall and insert them. Except there were now holes in the walls and pipes going up behind them. So that got a bit complicated. 

       We decided to paint right away. I do not like the boring beige that everyone is told to put on their walls to sell a home. Used to be the wall of choice was white, so I could easily live with that and take our time to paint. Jon has worked like a Trojan warrior and painted and painted. We now have a sunny yellow in the finished attic where my craft room is, blue in our bedroom, a deep bluey-purple in the dining room and a fresh green in the foyer. There is still some beige, but I can live with what is left. 

       The open concept floor plan (which we did not prefer, but which was pandemic in the housing market) meant we needed to make some decorative changes. Our living room decor with its jewel tones of cranberry, blue and purple somehow didn't jive very well with the earth tone greens of the kitchen countertop and floor. Fortunately we had some things in storage with various family members and I had inherited some interesting objects from my parent's home, so we pulled out of this mixed bag, things which would work in our new room. And hopefully one day before too long, we can replace the twenty-two year old floral loveseats in there. Somehow they just dont seem to go anymore.

       Our bedroom furniture which was made of plastic and pressed wood products has been across the sea four times now and after thirty years it was looking pretty beaten and worn. A new bedroom set would be expensive, and I still liked the lines of it, so I decided to paint it. My plan was to paint it a light color, hence the deep blue of the bedroom walls, so it would really pop and then decided it was time to retire our bedroom comforter and curtains that had served us faithfully for thirty years. (Can't believe it has been thirty years! Okay when I find something I like I stick with it.) I found some lighter blue fabric at a discount fabric outlet and my plan was to make the bedspread and new curtains from this. 

      This is all the happily nesting part. I like to be busy. I need to be creative in some way every so often, so I have enjoyed this. Unfortunately many times I was taking two steps forward and one step back, except for the days when it was one step forward and two steps back. The rest of the time I seem to just tread water.

      I thought there was sufficient blue fabric for the bedroom. Turned out there was not enough for bedspread and drapes. I had purchased all they had and a phone call let me know that it is discontinued and no more can be found. So a fruitless hunt for some fabric to coordinate with what I had ensued. I finally had to buy ready-made drapes, disassemble them, cut and paste parts together to make the size I needed. Lots of extra time with that.

      I had to hang the curtain rods in our bedroom three times including twelve molly bolts and the corresponding holes, four which needed to be patched up and repainted.

      Our bedroom furniture, carefully painted (and I even did some decorative painting on them) began chipping before I was quite finished. This in spite of careful sanding and the use of a good primer. the paint expert at the home improvement store was stumped by this. Now I will need to strip off the paint and start all over again. (Maybe that counts as three steps back.)

      I ordered some posters to fill frames we had with something to go with the new color scheme and theme. Some didn't work. I returned them, but three phone calls later we still haven't gotten a full refund because they can't seem to do the math. A fourth will be necessary because they forgot to refund the taxes.

      We got a highly recommended phone system that works over the internet ( it is super cheap), but ours doesn't want to work right. So time spent with emails and making adjustments to no avail and just as we found out that it wasn't going to work, the time to return it had expired. So we will need to purchase new phones and a probable replacement of our router to try to get what we have to work.

     A new soap dispenser, dispenses not.

 

      Though I carefully measured, I somehow made the bedspread a little too short, so we removed the wheels underneath the bed to compensate. Now the leaves to the table wont fit underneath which is where we were storing them. Gotta find a new, but less desirable place for them. Later we need to remove the little foam mattress we had added off the top of the mattress, but that makes the spread is too long. Back go the wheels and the table leaves. I had sewn a tassel trim around the edge of the bedspread which I really liked, but when the fabric from the curtains doesn't look good with the bedspread fabric leftovers that I used for a valance, I need that trim on the valance to make a visual barrier between the two colors and need to remove it from the bed. Now the bedspread is too short again. I wonder how much a hydraulic lift would cost?

      Stuff breaks, it doesn't work, it doesn't work out. I feel like I spend half my time trying to get what we need and the other half in line or on the phone or in someway trying to return them.

      I could go on and on., but you are glad I don't.

      Then there are the things which aren't house related.

       Jon lost his keys along the way. This included his office keys, his house key and the keys for the car. Since the car has a remote, it isn't a simple or inexpensive thing to replace it. And it forces a decision - get one from the dealer, or try to save money by getting one from a less expensive source and hope it actually works. It's been over a month and we still haven't decided what to do. Meanwhile we only have one key to get into the house and the car and with the way things are going, this is frankly a bit unnerving.

      We buy light bulbs and they don't work and have to be replaced. 

      The new weedwacker wont feed out string and has to be returned.

     We buy a throwaway cell phone and cant find the cord for months. Finally find it and it wont charge the phone.

      I bought a smoothie maker  to make my breakfast drink and in four months it was broken.

      Our GPS had only European maps, so we had to buy American maps for it. I think this is a simple thing. Buy the maps, download them to the unit and we are set. Instead we get the maps and they wont upload to our GPS, so there are emails back and forth only to find that the maps cant be replaced. I now need to go find an SD card to load the maps on and run them from that. I take the GPS with me because it has an unusual size and I want to make sure it fits because I am tired of having to return things. I then proceed to leave it in my cart at Walmart and drive off without it. Though I realized it was missing within 15 minutes and returned to look for it. It was gone. How do I know we left it in the cart? Because we made three trips and several phone calls to the management of the Walmart and they finally checked their security cameras and they could see me rolling out of the store with the GPS sitting happily in the cart. I would have sworn I had put it back in my purse. 

      Yada yada yada. On it goes. It didn't bother me for the first five or so months, but I am getting tired and would really like to finish up. I've made a commitment to start making programs again in January and know myself well enough to know that I need the things which are in limbo to be completed so my mind and focus can be clear for writing and making the programs.

     This sounds whinier than I feel. As I said, I was happily dealing with these things for the first five months. Now I am just tired of doing and redoing and would like to get to done. We are finding that we like the changes in the house and the fresh colors, updated decor and even the open-concept floor plan has grown on us. Though we haven't finished a single room and they all have things half-done, in process, or torn apart. It has gotten far enough along that it is beginning to feel like home and one in which we will be very comfortable and enjoy.

     So this is how we are doing, aren't you glad you asked :-)

Insider's Travel Tips to Europe

There are lots of travel books out there with all sorts of information which will give basic help and travel hints. This isnt to replace that, it is just a few personal things in no particular order which we have found of tremendous benefit.

Jet lag - I always plan to sleep on the plane. I skip the movies, tempting though they may be. When traveling to Europe I know I need to set my internal clock forward and I can do this by forcing sleep as much as I am able. So I:

1. Use a sleeping mask

2. Wear earplugs or some folks use noise canceling headphones.

3. I eat before I get on the plane or bring something to eat in my carry-on so I can skip the dinner. This gives me an extra hour or two to sleep

4. If you dont want to be disturbed its a good idea to pin a note on your shirt or let the service crew know your wishes.

I never sleep the whole way, but I will sleep most of the flight and it really helps.

Dont overplan your trip. It is tempting to try to cram as much as possible since it may be a once in a lifetime trip, but fatigue spoils everything. If you aren't sure how much time to plan for things, plan more time than you think you will need for your main sightseeing goals and then add in some smaller options. Things that would be nice to do, but which wont spoil your trip if time does not allow.

Dont forget to allow for traveling time within cities. Some, like London, have sites spread all over and it can take quite some time to get from one place to another. Others, like Vienna have everything within a few minutes walking distance from each other all centered around the former Imperial Palace.

Save money on lodging - We most often stayed in the least expensive accommodations we could find. In Europe these are Etaps or Ibises. They are like hotels in America, only smaller and in the case of the Etaps, the barest minimum accommodations. But we always found them clean, comfortable and each room has its own bathroom.. Etaps are usually outside the major metropolitan areas, so be prepared to take the subway or bus into town. Ibises are more, but are usually more centrally located.

We were usually driving to our destination and we quickly discovered that hotels charge for parking and often quite a lot. Parking at Etaps is usually, if not always, free.

We generally avoided driving into metropolitan areas. We lodged outside the city, then took subways into town. We avoided all kinds of headaches from trying to navigate through the cities and didn't have to pay exorbitantly for parking. It more than made up for the price of the subway and reduced stress considerably.

To share or not to share
Sometimes it was better or more economical to stay closer into town if there wasn't a subway system or to be close to a major bus route circuit. Many small Mom and Pop places will offer a room with or without a bathroom. We take the "no bathroom" and pocket the discount. It has always worked out fine. There is usually a sink in the room, so most of your toilette can be done there. Usually only two rooms share the same facilities. We have never had to wait  more than just a few minutes. So if you need to save money, try this option.

Getting around - Whenever possible I take the subway or train and spend a bit more and even walk a bit further rather than take the buses. Generally they are harder to use and take much more time.

We did find a bus route in the middle of Rome and also Edinburgh that did a big circuit and stopped at each of the major sites along the way and it was very handy to use, so we always checked our guide books to see if this was applicable.

Cities with these major bus route circuits are also great ways to just see the city and they cost considerably less than the tourist buses or are free with bundled tickets.

Also keep in mind that Europe is moving to a cashless society, so in many cases you cannot just hop onto a bus or tram. You will need to buy a ticket or card with money loaded onto it to ride public transportation. These can often be bought in the airports or train stations, but not always, so check ahead.




Bundling tickets - Look into transportation day passes or tickets that bundle museums and sights together. This can save a lot of money. These travel passes allow you to travel all day, usually on all public transportation for one fee. Some have multiple day passes and these can save more.

Restrooms - Be aware that in northern Europe a fee is usually charged to use public restrooms. In southern Europe it is hit or miss. We have even been charged in a McDonald's, although that was the exception to the norm. So it is a good idea to keep change to pay the fees. Usually it was 50 Euro cents for entry. Our usual strategy was to use the facilities in museums both coming and going. Eateries are also places where one could usually have a free "comfort break". 





Water with meals - Also not usually free in northern European countries, so inquire. You can ask for tap water or for a carafe of water and, if available, may be free or cost considerably less. If you want water with a meal you will usually be sold bottled water and it is often more expensive than beer or soda. Beverages are not served with ice usually and if ice is asked for and provided, many times there is an extra fee for it. You can save a lot of money by foregoing beverages of any sort with a meal. In one restaurant each beverage cost one-third the price of the meals - five Euros. That is roughly $7.50 for a small soda. I also found by not ordering any drink, sometimes water would be provided gratis, again in a southern European country.

Packing - With less and less luggage allowed for air travel and with European hotel rooms generally being quite small what we pack is more and more important. We check the weather. Both what is normal for the time of year we are going and we checked the weather forecasts right before we travel. In spring and fall, I usually bring short sleeved shirts and a light jacket. I can layer as needed. It is usually much cooler in the mornings and the days can warm up considerably. So I can remove the jacket or use it as needed. This also saves on weight in the luggage.

Luggage does get lost and delayed. We had one visitor whose luggage never did catch up with him until he had been back home for a while. We often had our luggage miss our Transatlantic flight which meant we did not get it for a day or two. For this reason we always include some essentials in our carry-on. Medications, glasses, contact solutions and case, a change of socks and undies, deodorant, a clean shirt, some basic make-up. Remember to pack small amounts of any liquids. This way we can manage without too much difficulty for a day or two if our luggage decides to take the scenic route to our destination.

Febreze clothes freshener can be a lifesaver when you are traveling for many days without access to washing facilities.

There is also a spray-on wrinkle smoother by Faultless. It works very well. Spray on your clothes, smooth with your hands and the wrinkles are gone. I love this stuff.

Courtesy - We always takes a few minutes to learn the polite words of a foreign language - Good morning, good afternoon, good evening (you will need all three of these), please, thank you, you're welcome. It makes our trips more enjoyable to both be able to say and understand these simple words and they can make a huge difference in how we are perceived and treated by local people.

 Lots of folks speak at least some English, but we don't presume that they do. Even at world renown sites we have found that the ticket sellers don't speak English. In this case, the simple use of your fingers to indicate the number of tickets needed suffices.

 These small efforts help us to be good ambassadors for our country, but also bring us favor when dealing with local people. Often we are asking for help or are looking for a favor from them and having them kindly disposed to do so is always preferable. (For example if you ask in Italy "Por Favor" which means "please" or more literally "as a favor" your host will do all they can to comply. Just don't abuse this superpower when you are there.

 Miss Manner says,"Manners are the lubricant of society, they reduce friction," and no one has stated it better.

Acculturate a little. It is helpful to read a book on the culture of the country you are visiting. What is polite varies a lot and we have also learned many useful things such as in Austria, there is bread on the table at restaurants, but it isn't free. You will be charged for each roll you eat.

Enjoying the journey not just the sites. If possible, take time for some things that are perhaps the road less traveled. Almost all of the most meaningful things I experienced while traveling involved sitting and thinking and enjoying the spot. So dont pay to tour the cathedral, go to Evensong or mass. See and hear how these buildings were meant to be experienced. Go to a park in the city. Go to a historic high spot and look over the vista. Imagine someone standing there and looking out as an army marched on the city or as celebratory parades marched through the main thoroughfare. Take some time to think about what you have seen and the history that has taken place there. Let yourself be stopped in your tracks to think and feel and experience. It can be anything that moves you or gets your attention, from the soaring beauty of a cathedral or palace, to something as humble and sobering as the remains of a dog I saw in Pompeii, writhing at the end of his tether as the ash fell and he was finally buried even as he struggled to get free. That told me more about the human loss and suffering than all the broken or rebuilt buildings that surrounded me.

Pack your sense of humor. When traveling, stuff is going to happen. If you have been following my blog you have read of some of the very serious things that have happened to us as well as the usual traveling mishaps. Learn to laugh and enjoy the delays, wrong turns, and mix-ups that are likely to happen. If you want to read an example of this, click on this link to my blog titled Fun in Italy. You can see it doesn't take much to turn your trip troubles into fun memories.

Food - You can spend a lot of money on food, or you can save money and still enjoy the part of the local culture that is cuisine. Many places we stayed served breakfast. If so, we would stoke up on breakfast, eat our snacks during the day that we brought with us and then sometimes eat out and sometimes visit McDonalds or some other fast food place. In this way we could get by with minimal expense for our food, but still afford a good meal or two in a nice restaurant.

Be prepared and flexible about what there is to eat. If your lodging offers breakfast, it will often have bread of various kinds, cold cuts and cheeses, yogurt (real, plain yogurt. Sweeten with the honey provided), granola-type cereal and fruit. In Britain a good English breakfast also includes pork and beans. (By the way, Scottish haggis tastes like liverwurst.) If eggs are available they are most often soft-boiled. The polite way to eat these is to put your egg in the eggcup, break off the top and eat the egg out of the shell with the small spoons that are provided. It is best not to try to peel the egg and attempt to eat it like a hard-boiled one. I learned this the hard way at a training meeting at a table full of Europeans. We were served hotdogs for breakfast in Slovakia, so be prepared for the unusual and go with the flow.

Helpful things to bring on your trip:

 1. Make-up wipes or the equivalent. European hotels do not provide washcloths.

2. Basic cold meds, a few cough drops, decongestant in case you catch a bug.

3. Travel can interfere with the digestive tract so if you sometimes need antacids or laxatives, pack those as well. Sugarless hard candies that are sweetened with sorbital have a natural laxative effect which can be helpful with sluggish systems and they are quite tasty too. Baskin Robbins and Creamsavers are two brands that make these.

4. Even if you don't plan to sleep on the plane, bring good earplugs and a comfortable eye mask. Try it at home to make sure they work well and comfortably for you. Some accommodations can be noisy and very few have adequate ways to block the morning light. There may also be streetlights outside your window and most smaller places in Europe do not have air conditioning requiring you to have your window open with the resulting street noise. (I think the Ibises usually did have AC, called Airco in Europe, but you can always call or email your particular hotel to find out.)

5. Window screening is rare as hen's teeth in Europe, so if insects are a particular problem for you, then also bring bug spray. Otherwise the choice can be to be hot or be someone's dinner.

6. We found it helpful to bring some snacks and carry a bottle of water with us. We'd refill the bottle in the hotel in the morning. Often it is hard to find something to eat or the vendors are very expensive. Also some countries don't serve dinner until very late, at least late for us. Italian restaurants don't open until 7 pm for dinner and if you come then you will have the place to yourselves. Some snacks along the way can keep the blood sugar up and reduce fatigue as well.

So these are some things we've learned along the way during six years of travel.

How America Kept Going Without Us

Some things which have changed in the six years we were away.





1. Cupcakes have become chic. They are everywhere with adorable designs and there are many options for the papers too. One thing I don't understand is why sometimes the frostings don't go to the edges of the cake. May look cute, but the frosting seals in the cake to keep it moist. Don't think dry rings around the cupcake would taste very good.

2. PG-13 has become what an R rating used to be. I am afraid to find out what R rating means now. 3. Language on television has loosened considerably. This is not a step forward. One of the things I was always amazed by was the bad language I heard all over Europe. Even in other languages, English curse words were common. In America it is extremely rare to hear curse words in public and when I do it is always startling. In Europe it was very common place.











4. Manicure styles are short and square and now they are sporting all sorts of elaborate designs on them.








5. I see more people walking for exercise.











6. Artificial trees now come upside down. I wonder who thought of this idea and what possible advantage this has.










  7. There are pop culture references that I don't get.  I have no idea who the Kardashians are or Lady Gaga, but apparently everyone else does. And from what little I understand about them. I don't think I want to know.





8. Purple went from color non-grata being limited to little girls room to being embraced by the wider world. I am personally glad for this because certain shades of purple are my favorite color. We are taking advantage of this time of proper recognition for this fantastic color and painted our dining room a deep tanzanite purple. The photo doesn't show the rich bluey-purpleness of this color. Just love it!





9. Apparently the raccon eye look is "in" accompanied by eyelashes artificially long. Looks like the models should just tilt over and say, "Ma-ma." and lips have almost completely disappeared. Apparently as far as make-up is concerned. The "eyes" have it.


10. Refrigerators now come in a new style with two doors on top and a big drawer for the freezer on the bottom. I love this idea. Never particularly liked side by sides - the freezers were always too small and this double door idea keeps the doors from being too wide in the kitchen. Good design. 

11. Stainless steel appliances took over and I dont get their appeal. They show fingerprints and they have a coldness and modernity I do not prefer. However, if anyone ever comes up with a bronze finish. I would love that.


12. Since I am writing this at the beginning of the Christmas season, I also notice with sadness that there aren't any nativity outdoor sets in the stores. We used to have one of those plastic sets, which I repainted, out in our yard. Our house was on a corner and we always set it up out there to silently remind folks what Christmas was all about. We sold it with regret when we were preparing to move overseas. We'd like to do another one, but can't find anything at all related to the nativity to put in our yard.

There is one part of American culture that should have died long ago and yet hangs on lingering long past its natural lifespan. The over-sized, baggy pants that boys (and they are boys who wear them, irregardless of their age) wear. Strapped around their buttocks and dragging about their feet. They make walking difficult, show off the underwear and look like they have a loaded diaper in their britches. When, oh when, will this 'fashion' bite the dust? I keep hoping. It was one of the things I enjoyed about Europe. Everywhere you looked, males wearing pants that fit. One time in the airport I saw a youngish boy wearing those baggy pants and I thought to myself,"Well, I guess they do have that style here too, maybe just in this most cosmopolitan of cities, Amsterdam." Then the boy spoke. He was American. That 'splained it, Lucy.

The Ugly American Englishman Revisited

We finished watching the documentary series about the Englishman who rode Route 66, suffered culture shock, was stressed out and generally seemed to have a miserable time. We found that series followed up with a new one, where the same chap revisits this famous road six years later and with (by his reckoning) 30 to 40,000 American miles under his belt. What a different tale it is.

It is interesting to watch this after writing my last blog about this fellow because on this recent trip, he is generally more relaxed. He finds more interesting places to stay and to eat. He has a guidebook which has helped him plan and as he puts it (paraphrased) last time he was rushing to get through and this time he is allowing himself time to stop and see the sites if something interests him.

When he completed his first trip, he finished the show by saying he was glad he had done the trip, just because he had always wanted to, but he wouldn't do it again. After this second trip he answered the same question with an emphatic "yes!"

He must have read my blog. :-)