Last Sunday was R's family's annual get together. This year it was organized by three of his cousins, who arranged for us to go bowling at De Oude Tol in Sassenheim.

We arrived to find a slew of people on the patio, since it was a gorgeous day. R's mom's family is pretty big, so we took up pretty much the whole patio.

Once the organizers announced that we were bowling (it was supposed to be a surprise) we were told our lanes and sent into the shoe storage room to grab a pair of shoes. Not surprisingly, they're pretty much the same everywhere, though these ones had velcro rather than laces.

Bowling Shoes are the same everywhere!

R and I were in a lane with his sister in law, nice, and his cousin, her husband and their two daughters. The kids seemed to have a wonderful time, and so did I.

I am still trying to track down some of the photos from the weekend, and will update with what I find.

After the bowling was done we waited for our tables to be ready. Once they were, we sat down to some amazing looking meat and a hot stone stove where we could cook it.

Dutch BBQ!

One of R's cousins successfully executed the 'loosen the salt shaker lid' prank. One of R's sisters-in-law was the unfortunate soul who tried to put a dash of salt on the stone only to have the whole contents spilled out instead. It was pretty funny, and she was a pretty good sport about the whole thing - probably better than I would have done.

Raclette

During dinner they announced the winners of the bowling for highest girl, boy, woman and man. Can you believe that I had the highest woman's score? Me neither - technically I wasn't the highest, since two of the organizers had higher scores than I did. But since they decided it would look bad to give themselves the prize, I got it instead!

Winner!

Better still was that I beat R in our sole bowling match-up. He has decided we need a re-match. He has also said we need to go go-karting, because he thinks he can beat me. Silly R...

Last Friday night, R and I went to some of his friends' house's. It was a get together with some of his old friends, and they all had a great time reminiscing about some of the fun they got up to as kids. I was happy because I could follow most of the conversations! I had a bit of trouble after the music got turned up, but I was too busy enjoying myself to worry about it too much.

It turned into one of those evenings where anything goes! At one point, two of us were teaching the group to dance to 'Boot Scootin' Boogie'. Who'd have thought there'd be country music anywhere here!

Line Dancing

There was also plenty of Karaoke! In keeping with the country theme, I sang 'Friends in Low Places.'

"I toasted you, said honey we may be through..."

R and one of his friends sang 'Islands in the Stream', while another played along on the recorder... It was one of those kinds of nights.

Karaoke!

I didn't realize how late it was until I looked at the clock and it was after 4am! Seriously! I don't think I've stayed out that late ever, not even in school!

Friends!

Last weekend R and I went to The Hague. I realized that I was going to need another Lush Jungle solid conditioner before I left and I wanted to try their dry shampoo, No Drought, since I left my home-made one at home and read some good reviews about it. I also was looking for some aloe vera for my hair - I put some of the after sun fluorescent green stuff in my hair with pretty decent success, so I was looking to find something a bit more natural to try!

When I first decided to start reducing my waste in 2011, I did a whole bunch of reading about zero waste options for hair care. At the time I opted for the Soap Work's Shampoo & Conditioner bar followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse, and was generally pretty happy with it - it was cheap and worked well for me. The shampoo bar contains palm oil, unfortunately, and I the more reading I did about it, the less I wanted to use anything that used it as an ingredient.

I decided to start using the Jungle conditioner and the Karma Komba solid shampoo bar that R bought me for my birthday full time, rather than just while I was travelling. The thing I like about Lush is that even though some of the ingredients are listed as moderate hazards on EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and they put a bit too much fragrance into their products for my taste, they're completely open about what ingredients they use. Plus, the staff don't look at me like I'm crazy for bringing in my own containers - often they're quite excited about it!

I also stopped using soap on my face. I use water and a washcloth now, and my face looks and feels better than before. Full disclosure - I've always had pretty good skin, but I find I break out even less now. I use jojoba oil and my homemade microfibre make-up pads to remove any make-up, and a moisturizer from Dr. Hauschka.

The jojoba oil comes in a glass bottle, and when it's done I will see if I can have it refilled rather than buying a new one. I bought it at Selsi at the St. Lawrence Market and they seem pretty cool, so I am hopeful they'll be on board. The moisturizer comes in a glass bottle with a plastic pump. I bought the larger bottle so I'm producing a little less waste, but I need to look into another, lower waste, option. When I first bought the moisturizer they sent me a sample of oil for my face from Suki which I really liked.  After making my own hand and body moisturizer was a success, I may try to make something like it on my own!

I will apologize upfront for not having photos in this post, but I decided it was more important to be involved in the conversation than contemplating when would be a fun/interesting/appropriate time to take pictures...

Last Saturday R and I went to visit his friends and their brand new baby girl. She is a total sweetheart, but it sounds like she doesn't sleep very much. While we were there she was laying in her pram wide awake and flailing her arms and having an all around wonderful time. Unfortunately her mom just wanted her to sleep, which I totally get! She was born just two days before I arrived.

While we were there a show called "Ik hou van Holland" (I love Holland) came on the television. It struck me as a lot like Cranium for TV! But Dutch, of course. R said he doesn't like it very much, but I think it looked like lots of fun!

We also had some other friends over for dinner on Sunday. I made my very favourite Moroccan quinoa salad and some Greek burgers that I made the previous week and R really liked. I'm always a little nervous about having guests over (at my own place, and here too) but it went really well, and was lots of fun! I might even see if R wants to do it again!

Now that I've been here a month, there are a few changes I would make to my wardrobe.

Some items I have already purchased, like the boots, jacket. I bought a new purple sweater to replace the one that I brought, as it developed a hole about a week into the trip. It was at least 5 years old (and not of superior quality) and was bound to need to be replaced. I also bought a polka dot blouse to replace the white one I brought, for similar reasons as the purple sweater. New items I already have are noted with a green border. Items that I would like but have not purchased and will likely not purchase, are noted with a pink border.

The list now includes 21 items of clothing, plus accessories, shoes and workout wear. The additional item is the jacket, which I planned to bring but forgot.


In this list I have replaced my boot cut jeans with some black skinny jeans. I have my eye on some Second Clothing Yoga Jeans which feel like wearing leggings rather than denim. I tried them on when I replaced my ripped slim blue jeans and cropped blue jeans, but just couldn't justify buying three pairs of jeans in one shopping trip.

I have also replaced some of the shirts with more classic tee shirts. While the shirts I brought are fine, I have found I just want to wear my simple tee shirt - I only have one!

Finally I should have brought my black tights. Given the weather they would extend my ability to wear my dresses and skirt further into the fall. I may break down and buy some here - they're not exactly bank breakers!

Wednesday night R and I went for dinner with two of his friends to an awesome Teppanyaki Restaurant in Hoofddorp called Senbazuru. Our chef was hilarious and helpful, telling us which sauces we were supposed to use with each dish (if any). I would definitely recommend going, just know that it wasn't cheap like most restaurants here.

During the noodle course, the chef rolled up the fried egg and started shooting it in my direction. He then told me I was going to help him by catching one of the pieces in my mouth! R's friend knew this was coming and was kind enough to film it for me. It took me 3 tries, and unfortunately the successful attempt was not captured on film.

The funny thing about the location of this restaurant is its proximity to the ski hill. Yes, I said ski hill! R was highly embarrased that I wanted to take photos, but I did! It's an artificial surface with a T-bar lift. And the craziest part - it was busy on a Wednesday evening in September! I guess it's all the people getting ready for the ski season.

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Throughout the week of Kermis, a number of people told me that I couldn't miss the parade on Saturday. One of R's friends even went so far as to make sure I had the time and location that I needed to show up, since R had stayed in bed for 4 of the past 5 years.

And it was not disappointing - I love a good parade. The flowers on the floats were incredible, and it was set up so that individual kids could decorate their bikes or small vehicles as well!

Liefde voor Harmonie, the local marching band, celebrated its 125th year this year. It is apparently custom for all existing members to join the parade every year, so there were 5 conductors! It also made it very difficult to keep time between the front and the back... This was only noticible when they had to stop and we were right in the middle!

The start of the town marching band

After the band came their float. I should have taken a video, since parts of it rotated!

The super cool float

There were plenty of themed floats, including this one from the roaring 20's.

A friend of R is dancing on the left

Roaring Twenties

And this love float. Notice the guy in the crazy heart suit - this is an OppoSuit, a local dutch company that makes amazingly crazy suits!

The love float

I was also amazed to see some spinners on floats. But it let me know that I could find spinning somewhere in town!