Valuable Lessons Learned - Part 3

* Don't let your landlord pick out your washer & dryer unless you want your neighbors to see your unmentionables. While we were happy when we found out he was going to buy us a brand new appliance, the reality of having an all-in-one washer/dryer sucks (whoever invented a dryer without a lint filter was a complete idiot). The power supply for the dryer fried after just 6 months, but luckily it's been a sunny summer.

* When taking a visitor to the airport, don't tell them to meet you on the train platform while you buy the tickets without telling them which platform. Our friend Tony said it was like a scene out of a movie as he stood on the wrong platform watching Jimmy jump onto the train to the airport without him. Luckily Tony didn't miss his flight.

Orange Fever...

The Dutch really love their football. While the Dutch team was still alive in the World Cup, there was a very festive atmosphere all over town with flags and orange banners galore. The stores were filled with orange gadgets. Some items were actually banned from football stadiums because they violated the official sponsors' rights. Here are John and Sally modelling Heineken's "secret weapon"; a plain green hunters cap that could easily make it past stadium security that transforms into a megaphone with the Heineken logo. Apparently Budweiser, an official World Cup sponsor despite being bad American beer, wasn't amused and the hats were eventually banned. The funniest ban was the Bavaria lederhosen (orange shorts with suspenders and a fuzzy orange lion's tail). Stadium security actually made fans take them off which resulted in 100's of hatless people entering the stadium in their underwear. Maybe if some of those corporate sponsors were made to attend a game in their underwear, they'd lighten up and realize that Orange Fever is a good thing.

Special for Your What?

I must admit, every time I see this one particular TV ad I still crack up (of course, while I could be considered worldly for living in Europe, I'll never be considered mature). As you can tell from this screen grab, this isn't an ad you'd see in the US. I finally decided to track it down so that I could share it with you and laughed even more when I discovered that it was from the Triangle's own Glaxo. And all this time we thought our friends who work there were discovering lifesaving drugs. Wonder if they get free samples of this revolutionary product with their paychecks? Here's a basic translation of the product information:

For your hair use you shampoo, your body use you douchegel - i.e. showergel, but with which looks after you in fact your vagina?

Although you've already seen the funniest part, if you'd like to watch the ad, click here: Special Ad then scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on: Bekijk hier de nieuwe commercial

Enjoy!

Love Those International Signs...

On the Atkins' final day, we toured Den Haag's city center and found this colorful sign. I'll attempt to interpret:

* Pickpockets welcome here
* No peeing on signs that say "No Drugs & Alcohol" if there's a camera
* Throw away trash if you can find a trashbin
* Don't poop on the sidewalk
* Don't park your bike on signs with cameras

Never Know What You'll Find in the Newspaper...

While we can't actually read the newspapers here, we often flip through them just for the photos. Today's paper featured a similar photo of two of these unusual urinals in a small town in southern Holland with the headline: McDonalds Takes Away Urinals After Complaint. From what I can tell, a shocked American saw them and reported it to the corporate office. Turns out that Virgin American had considered installing them in their VIP bathroom at JFK Airport and when they scrapped the order it actually helped the local company here in Utrecht. Apparently the designer didn't realize that it could be demeaning to women; she meant it as a sexy cartoon mouth. To read more, click here: Kiss Urinal

Paybacks are Hell!

After almost 10 years of borrowing snow shovels, wheelbarrows, eggs, you name it, you'd think our Cary neighbors would have been thrilled to get rid of us. Instead they decided to get even with us by invading our home. It took almost 8 months, but we're excited to finally have our first visitors. The Atkins family is staying with us for 5 nights before heading to Spain. The girls are still in school, so my tour guide services have limited hours. I did manage to take them to Rotterdam where we took a harbor cruise and toured one of these unusal 1980's cube houses. Otherwise, they've enjoyed exploring on their own, except when Elise got lost in the Amsterdam train station (at least it gave her kids a laugh.)

What Wacky Boats!

We're so glad that our neighbor told us about the boat parade through the canals of Leiden on a gorgeous night this week. We canoed into the centrum to find thousands of people partying along the canals to watch this wacky event. Two of our favorite boats had Rembrandt themes. The one shown on the right here was "The Bird Watch" in honor of "The Night Watch"; the other featured 5 guys dressed as the famous painter and 15 folks dressed as his paintbrushes. There was also Elvis, Cleopatra, Van Gogh, the Ghostbusters, belly dancers and a lot of bands. It was definitely worth keeping the kids up late on a schoolnight.

Soaring Like an Eagle...

...or maybe more like a baby bird first dropping out of the nest. Jimmy and buddy Jim Busch (who's fault it is we live in Holland) went to England for a boy's weekend to learn how to paraglide by day and to survive life in a British pub during World Cup at night. Unfortunately, Jimmy didn't get any action shots, but here he is getting ready to hike up the hill for his first flight over the rolling hills. The flights only lasted about 30 seconds, but they both loved it.

Raising Adventure Girls...

So glad that the girls are taking after their daddy when it comes to athletics--not necessarily the best at any one sport, but not afraid to try. Here's Veronica at buddy David's 10th birthday party at an outdoor survival course. She may have been the youngest there, but she had fantastic balance and wasn't afraid at all as she scrambled across rope bridges, under simulated barbed wire and up & over a variety of obstacles. She's looking forward to Ashlynn being tall enough to take her along sometime.

Love those Traditional Costumes...

One of the highly anticipated events at school is International Day. We didn't think to bring Pilgrim, Native American or Southern Belle outfits with us and didn't want to just use the traditional dress of the average American kid of jeans and a Disney shirt, so Ashlynn was a cowgirl and Veronica was a hula dancer. Their school is truly international and their were a lot of great costumes. Ashlynn's the only American in her class and Veronica has just 2 others, 1 of which was born in Holland. Many of the children are true expats moving from country to country every few years. Shown here is Iyala who was born in London, but only knows her parents' native Kenya as a place to vacation. Ashlynn had to give her first speech, a culture talk to explain where she's from. We just love that the girls are being exposed to so many different cultures.