When R and I were discussing when I should come for my extended stay, he suggested I should come for Kermis, literally translated as Carnival, the yearly festival that I heard so much about the past two years. He had trouble describing it to me, and after having attended, I now understand why. It's kind of like the Queen's homecoming, in that there are a lot of parties and a lot of people come back here for it, but it also includes a carnival like the CNE on one of the football clubs' fields. And, like most things here, there's a very different vibe to it, which I find very difficult to describe.

The first event was the Lange Galg Oost en Ryck marathon on Saturday.

On Sunday, there was a Rollerblade pub crawl, which we did not participate in. The event struck me as so funny, and it was fun to watch. I figure if I'd participated I would have ended up with no teeth! We went to one of his friends' houses instead, and further onto Cafe Hogenboom, where they had a stage set up outside, and a dj booth inside.

At one point, one of the owners (and R's friend) came around and gave us little white paper hats, and a guy dressed up as a butcher started singing outside. One of R's friends tried to explain the back-story to me, but I've since forgotten the details, which is typical. The hats were fun though...

Sorry about the poor quality

There were events going on all week, but we didn't attend another until Thursday. We went to what was supposed to be a 90's party. I was disappointed that R hadn't told me and I didn't have time to find a costume, but it turned out no-one was in costume and the music was more 70's than 90's, so it was probably a good thing!

On Friday we went first to Cafe Restaurant Heemskerk Jan Punt where we met up with all of R's friends. Apparently this is the place where R often plays Billiards, as there are two tables at this bar. Then we walked over to 't Veen Eten & Drinken, where there was a giant party going on outside, but we went inside where, thankfully, it was much quieter. Later in the evening, a live band (De Tranentrekkers) came on who sang a bunch of Dutch songs, that people loved to sing along to. I, of course, didn't know any of the words, but enjoyed it just the same!



Saturday was the Jeugdbloemencorso, which I will post about later this week blogged about here.

After the Parade, we stayed at R's friend's parents' house for a while drinking, eating and talking. Afterwards, we walked down the main street, and ran into a whole bunch of his family. It was at this point that I decided there was no way I was going to make it through the day without a nap, so R's dad and I walked to their house so he could look after his pigeons and I could have a nap. It was a glorious hour and I felt so energized afterwards.

I met up with R and his friends at a friend's house, where we had a little bite to eat, then walked over to Hoek (the Slush Puppy Edition), a street party run by a number of young people from the town. The decorations were super fun, and the dj's that they brought in were pretty incredible. No surprise I liked the guy who spun the 90's tunes for a large portion of his set!

Giant pineapples at the entrance!

I also had some french fries, dutch style, with peanut sauce and mayonnaise. I hate to admit it, but the mayonnaise on french fries is growing on me...

Yes, that's mayonnaise...

While we were there we ran into R's family. He and his brothers are a little bit crazy, and love watching them interact!

the brothers

After spending some time at Hoek, we walked back along the main street to Cafe de Haven where this amazing cover band, Komen Lopen, were in the middle of their set. I seriously can't even describe how amazing they were - when we walked in they were playing Daft Punk's Get Lucky, and I thought it was an awesome slightly acoustic version that a DJ was playing! Seriously, they're incredible!! De Haven had a floating stage and dance floor set up, since it's a gezellig (i.e. small) bar and the band needed way more room for everyone to enjoy.

Thankfully R got a photo showing just how excited I was!

In packing for my 10 week trip, I got inspiration from the one suitcase series on Outfit Posts and used the theories outlined in Chic Minimalism for your Wardrobe from Minimalist Beauty. There is also a story in my family that after a dance trip to Scotland, all of the mothers told their daughters that they needed to pack like my aunt - her bag was light and easy to carry, and yet she looked put-together for the whole trip!

I'm still working on getting my at-home wardrobe minimized, and this trip has been a great experiment in how to be comfortable and put-together with the minimum number of clothes.

The theory is to bring basic pieces to lay the foundation, such as neutral tops and jeans, then to add some interesting pieces to complement these basics. I kept these interesting pieces in general colour palette that suits me, including bright teals, blues and pinks. Finally, I added some accessories to go with all of the outfit. As noted in the one suitcase series, " Jewelry, belts and scarves take up very little room and can dramatically alter how an outfit looks." Plus, given the weather variation I was expecting, scarves can really warm up and outfit, hence the excessive number of scarves!

So, without further ado, I packed and brought the following 20 items of clothing (and one forgotten jacket), plus accessories, shoes and workout wear with me, in my Heys 26" spinner without needing to use the expandable portion. The suitcase, which included 4 bottles of beer (a gift) and my toiletries, weighed 22 kg (48 lbs), 1 kg below the allowance. I wore my maxi dress, wrap, teal sarong/scarf and ballet flats on the plane, and brought a pair of socks with me for warmth.


The biggest struggle I had was with shoes. I wish I had brought my black ankle boots, which were on my original packing list but were eliminated. I was having trouble justifying bringing 7 pairs of shoes! Of course this includes my slippers and running shoes, which I don't think should be included in the count, as neither is appropriate to wear out here.

I will try to do some outfit posts showing all the ways the above can be put together, just don't hold your breath. I never realized how time consuming that kind of post could be! This one has taken at least a week to finish!

Also stay tuned to what I wish I had packed - an edit of the above photo showing those items which I have purchased while here, as well as a few edits to things that I think would have fit better, now that I've been living with these items for a month.

My mom has worked from home for the past 8 or 9 years, and I don't know how she does it. I've been finding it challenging getting into a work routine when I don't have my daily bike commute and a desk that's surrounded by other people who are also working. Thankfully R has an extra room, and he was able to clear some space for me on the desk, so I have something like an office that's in a slightly different space than our living quarters.

Yesterday I started what I hope will become my new routine. Most days I have a large number of files to upload and/or download from my work server. This morning I had a submission to upload to an FTP site, so I set the upload going, then put on my shoes and went for a walk. I was only gone for about 30 minutes, but it was so nice to be outside, and made getting to work a little easier.

At lunch, rather than making myself a quick sandwich and heading back to my desk, I ate at the kitchen table. I also did the dishes from last night and did some laundry. Again, following a little break, it was easier to get back to work after lunch.

Yesterday marked the kick-off of the local yearly festival, Kermis. Part of the reason I chose to travel when I did was so that I could partake in the festivities, seeing as R could not accurately describe them to me.

My original plan was to watch (and support R and his team) in the marathon, however one of his friends' aunt's team lost their team member and back-up, so they called R and asked if I was interested. I had done a bit of running earlier in the month, so I figured it would be much nicer to participate than to just watch, and boy was I right!

The weather was terrible - windy, raining and 16 degrees C. I seriously debated what to wear, and ended up bringing a few options with me.

We arrived at the designated meeting point, where I met my team, Lady Powe(b)rrr. The theme for this year's race was Après Ski, which to the Dutch means dressing up like Germans or the Swiss. Thankfully my team just had tank tops made. Other teams had whole outfits, including wigs!

After we all got registered, they took each group's picture next to the 'chalet.' They also took pictures of the individuals who ran the marathon as individuals.

Lady Powe(b)rrrr

R's Team, Er lauft ein loel in my way!

I was runner #1 for my team, so I went to the 'start' line, where the proceed to escort us through a crazy narrow set of laneways, and over a bridge (the portion of the race in the water in the below image) to a bigger starting area.

The relay route

At the start, two people spoke for at least 10 minutes. I tuned them out because it was all in Dutch (naturally) but everyone else seemed quite put-off by their lengthy speeches. We were all so cold given the weather conditions and our attire.

The Racers, looking enthralled

The speakers

I know the speakers talked for at least 10 minutes, because I thought the race was supposed to start at noon, and we didn't get going until at least 12:10. That was the last time I looked at my phone before moving to the stopwatch app.

Finally, we were off

I noticed a bunch of cameras and go pros, but only found these two photos below of R and I. As more shop up, I will post them.

R is so fast he's blurry!

Me, realizing I should have started closer to the back

My first round was awful, thank goodness it was shorter than the rest! My official time was 12:17 for about 2.5 km. I had a stitch like nobody's business!  The 2nd round was much better, I ran the full 2.66km in 18:46 and felt good the whole way. In the 3rd round my IT band started acting up, and I knew I was going to have to pull out. It took me 20:37 to get through the route, and I could barely walk afterwards. Thankfully one of my teammates' daughters was on-call, and she was able to run the last 2 rounds for me. My team finished with a total time of 4:19:48.

I think this would have been a super fun race to participate in if the weather hadn't been so bad (rainy and windy). Everyone was so happy to be there, and had so much enthusiasm about the theme. Seriously, you need to check out the event photos! If I'm here at this time of the year again, I will definitely be looking for a team who can handle my slow pace as well as Lady Powe(b)rrrr did!!

Today is R's dad's birthday party, though it was his actual birthday earlier this week. So I would first like to wish him a heartfelt congratulations on his birthday!


This leads me to a story about his actual birthday,  where I committed a faux pas for his dad's birthday. R sent me a wonderful link which includes lists upon lists about Dutch culture, including Dutch Birthdays, however he sent it to me the next day... I have found these to be hilarious and relevant in my two first weeks here, and will endeavour to talk about them, as well as Stuff Dutch People Like in the next little while. They're both hilarious and also quite topical.

When we arrived at his parents house, I greeted everyone and specifically went to say hello and congratulations to R's dad. I knew that rather than wishing someone a 'happy birthday,' you're supposed to congratulate them on their birthday. Which seems strange to me. Really, if you're going to congratulation someone about a birthday, it should be a person's mother! She did all the work!

However, what I failed to do was to also congratulate R's mom on his dad's birthday. I will draw your attention to #3 on the Five rules for dealing with Dutch birthdays.

3. If it is your partner or child’s birthday, you must congratulate everyone else in the family. This might sound odd. It goes like this. It is your husband’s birthday. You invite his mother for coffee and cake. She says to you “Congratulations on Fred’s birthday”, you say to her: “Congratulations on your son’s birthday”. You congratulate Fred’s sister on her brother’s birthday and so on. Seriously. You do.

 This seems to me as though it could be a very long winded "conversation"of only congratulations!

Update 9/9/2013 - I congratulated at least 50 people on R's dad's birthday. Most of the conversations went like this (but in Dutch). "Hi, I'm Lyndsey, R's girlfriend. Congratulations on his dad's birthday. Nice to meet you." 

Thursday afternoon had a weather rating of 10, so R, his friend and I went for a lovely boat ride.


Apparently there was some construction going on on the normal route to the Braassemermeer, so we took a long circuitous route through Roelofarendsveen.

Captain T and First Mate R

 There were a few times that I wasn't sure where we were going to go next. It was not unlike driving on some roads here, where you have to pull off to the side to let another boat go by!


The weather was indeed lovely, and we saw lots of windmills. And cows. So I took lots of pictures of both!

Those who follow me on instagram will have seen this gem already!

The thing that struck me as funniest was that there were often stairs leading UP to the water, rather than down to the water, as I've always experienced it. I tried to capture a good picture showing this, but the perspective really is lost here.  This is the best one I could find - it's hard to see but there's another boat just above the fence, which I think is clearly above the field by the windmill.


In order to access the slightly higher water in the Braassemermeer, we needed to use the lock by the Café de Haven. R almost got it right on our way out, he just forgot to close the lock to the lower water! Thankfully he realized his mistake early enough, and the whole town didn't flood!

R got it right on the way back home!

 It also struck me as funny that the locks are there for everyone to use. All the locks I've ever used up to this point were operated by the province, and we had to pay to use them.


R made fun of me for taking so many pictures, and insisted on taking a few of me too. This is the best one!