Bloemencorso Bollenstreek

Bloemencorso Bollenstreek....a rather popular flower bulb parade. It starts in Noordwijk and ends in Haarlem. The theme for this years parade was "Communication".

Multiple co-workers had mentioned the parade to me so I figured I would check it out, especially since it was going to be going through Hillegom which meant I didn't actually have to go anywhere for it. It was actually going to be passing a block or two away from where my apartment/work is, but I decided to actually head into town though to do a little bit of exploring and to see what kind of shops were all there. At the beginning of the day I was worried it was going to be cloudy windy, and rainy for the parade since i was getting rained on while I made my way to the city center by the long route (I don't know how I keep taking the wrong turns when I start heading into the city center, it's really not that difficult). Once in the city center, I discovered that there was actually a little bit of a festival going on. Several booths were set up with various arts and crafts. A couple of which included the making of the wooden clogs and no i didn't buy a pair of them....at least not yet. Another booth was selling cheese, so I bought a small wheel of their chili cheese (see below), I haven't tried it yet, but I might later this evening.

(thinking i need to go claim my free souvenir)

During the festival, I also tried some fried fish. I believe they called it "kibbeling". I'm not really sure what kind of fish it is though. Whatever it was, it was quite tasty especially with the sauce they had with it. I wasn't brave enough yet to eat the fresh/uncooked herring. I will try it at some point while I'm here though. Oh and I also had some fried bread/dough that had raisins in it with powdered sugar on top that was also quite tasty. Just an FYI, it's not a good thing to be wearing a black jacket while eating something that has powdered sugar :-P

 Can't really think of anything else to say about the parade and the festival. You can see photos of the parade here.  It's the same album that's on FB, so if you've already looked there, then you've already seen them.

 *side notes*
1. I'm feeling slightly blogosphere advanced right now since I included a picture and a link in this post.....well assuming they both work, otherwise i'll feel rather stupid, haha
2. I need to buy an umbrella
3. Wonder if I am annoying anybody with my lack of being consistent with capitalizing "i" while i type, or capitalizing the first word of a new sentence :-P

Made it

So, I made it to the Netherlands. The flight we (co-worker and I) were suppose to be on was overbooked, so we got changed to a different flight that arrived in Amsterdam about 25 minutes after the original flight and we got a $300 voucher. Sadly our luggage didn't make it onto the flight we got changed to. The luggage has arrived in the Netherlands though, so now we're just waiting for it to be delivered.

We've also been shown where to nearby grocery stores are and various other parts of Hillegom. I think I will have to go out exploring tomorrow or so as right now I could probably only point out the general direction of where things are, but only with about a 60% certainty.

The apartment is rather large and spacious. It has a patio as well so that will be nice as supposedly every now and then in the summer there's bbq where people just head up from the office. Living in the same building as where i will be working will definitely take some getting used. Not to mention I'm curious about how many times i will be setting the alarm off (i'll be keeping a tally i'm sure, haha).

Not sure what I will be doing the next couple days. I don't go to the Immigration and Tax Offices until Tuesday, so I'm not technically suppose to be working until I have been to them and gotten the equivalent of a social security number. More than likely I will just wander around Hillegom and get myself lost as that's a good way to learn directions and where things are at.

**4/15 edit/update
The luggage was delivered last night so i have all my clothes. hope the weather warms up a bit more tho as i mainly packed warmer weather clothes. although i guess this means i can go shopping :-P I'll survive though, haha

The Netherlands

Well, it looks like it's time to resurrect this blog again as I will be living/working abroad in the Netherlands for at least one year and quite possibly two. Probably could have written this post a while ago since right now I am in Washington DC on my way to the Netherlands.

I was selected back in December to work abroad so I was anticipating being gone several months ago, especially since in the original email about the opportunity to work abroad, it stated that they wanted people in the Netherlands early January. Things were a little slow moving until the last couple weeks. Last Monday when I got to work I had an email stating that the visa had been granted. By 3pm that same day I had flights booked to the Netherlands with a 2 day layover in DC so the visa could be put in my passport.

So needless to say, the last couple weeks have been pretty hectic with packing and trying to see people one last time. Definitely made the time go by pretty quickly though.

I've kinda surprised myself (and a lot of other people) that for the time abroad I have only packed two bags to check (which are borderline overweight), my carry-on bag, a personal item (laptop bag), and a Stitch :-P I am hoping that I haven't forgotten anything important.....guess I'll find out in a week or so.

Can't think of much else to type. My flight leaves DC on Friday evening, so I'll have some spare time to be a tourist after meeting the Dutch Consulate in the morning. I'm glad I'm not superstitious with flying on Friday the 13th, although I do wonder if the flight was a little cheaper.