Spy Pinay

The truth about driving in the Netherlands

admin — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:09:19 +0000

I would like to make a confession related to my previous post Driving in the Netherlands: the photo I used was not taken here but in the US. I’m sorry but at that time I wanted to show something nice about driving like sunny skies and wide roads and I couldn’t find one good photo easily or maybe I was just too lazy. But ok, I admit my guilt and this is the true picture of driving here on most days:

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Another confession I want to make is that I quit my driving lessons! I realized I am just throwing too much money (my instructor charges me 67 Euros for 1.5 hours of lessons). In my previous driving lessons I found out also that the new tests involve me having to navigate my way from point A to point B and they expect me to know or memorize the directions beforehand. The instructor may or may not allow me to use a GPS navigator!

MrC and I had planned on leaving the country within a few months so there you go I just announced it now. This is still dependent on our forthcoming visit to the Philippines which will happen in August. As of now there is a 50-50 chance (maybe higher) that this would push through if we both have a good feeling about it. The whole story behind it is in my other blog I’d like to leave it to you to figure out which blog it is. So anyways, I found it pretty pointless to spend time, effort and money on something which I will not really need in the long run. I guess it’s all just about my priorities for now.

However, the past few weeks there have been bus strikes that in order to get to work and back I would need to have MrC bring me by car or me having to share a ride with my colleague or depend on the scheduled transportation provided by the company. It just frustrates me that I have to actually depend on others to get to work. Driving and having your own car to me is not really some kind of status symbol or some form of materialism but to me it is FREEDOM in its basic sense. No need for explanation I think especially for American readers but this is just how I feel.

Football madness in the Netherlands

mixxy — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:13:03 +0000

I am the person you would least expect to talk about sports. I don’t follow any sport at all not even when I was in the U.S. In the US, they have the Superbowl every January but this is nothing compared to here where emotion run high because it is not just states competing here but countries so there is national pride mixed with testosterone which is a great recipe for madness. But then it’s not really just men who are in this, during lunch I ate alongside visiting lady German colleagues and they were saying that it was a pity that they were using the train going home so they would miss watching the football game that night. These ladies were working in the IT department.

So anyways, last time I even had the slightest interest of watching sports on TV was back in the Philippines watching Purefoods vs. San Miguel championships and that was about it. Both me and my husband are total geeks who are only into computers and we don’t have any ounce of sportiness in us. Just a second ago our topic of conversation runs like this:

“we should not use Team Foundation Server so that we don’t get locked in Microsoft” .. or… ” oh maybe we should get some training in SCRUM”

However, we realize our health deserves some attention too so we find ourselves talking about doing something physically active at least during the weekends. But this does not mean sports like tennis or cycling, so possibly we’ll just do some nature or city walks. Ok, I admit today is a Sunday and the sun seems to be up and we are both in front of the computers. No city or nature walks seem to be happening in the near horizon.

But anyways, a few years ago I was approached by my colleague at work and he talked about the “Poule” and that I should participate on it because it is “fun”. He tried to explain it briefly that it is something about football and such and you are predicting scores and winners and such but it was just too much for me to absorb so I just said sorry but I will pass because I have no idea. He said I can just join for fun and not put in any money bets. I still declined without batting an eyelash. Two years later, I was asked again by the same colleague. He made a small computer program where you can put in your guesses of who the top players are, the main winners and the scores of all the matches. Again, you don’t have to put in any money or place a bet. You could just play for fun but he warned that last time, the top winner was supposed to win but he did not place a bet — so too bad for him. So, ok, this year is for the Euro 2008.

I agreed to try it. I tried to research a bit and enter a few scores and uneducated guesses but that was it. I got busy with work and eventually wasn’t able to finish entering my bets. People at work talked about how much they are winning during lunch. You could see the ranks of “earnings” of all the people who participated in the Poule.

Meanwhile at home, it was the night where Netherlands played with Italy. My husband was working from home and I was watching GI Jane from the movie channel but it was easy for us to know who was winning judging from the loud noises and cheers from our downstairs neighbors. It was indeed impressive for the Dutch team since Italy was the former champion so to speak. Our team played excellently so far the next game which was with France, the runner up last time. My husband even told me that his friends were telling him that they were actually “nervous” about that game. I think the correct translation would have been “excited” rather than nervous but then maybe they were actually nervous. But hey, what is there to be nervous about a football game?! In the supermarkets they give away this little orange lion thingies called Welpies. Whoah! talk about football madness indeed. To be honest, to me they are an eyesore but maybe it will grow on me. That night I actually tried watching it. I saw their first score where one guy scored using his head (not figuratively but literally). I fell asleep a few minutes after. MrC told me that when Netherlands won our neighbors were banging all the walls and floors but luckily I was deep into sleep and it never woke me up. Anyways, it was a 4-1 win!

Everyone is jubilant these days and as expected I saw a lot of orange things while walking at the Centrum yesterday. The following photo was taken in Rembrandtplein yesterday.

Driving in the Netherlands

mixxy — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:03:58 +0000

Yesterday was the first day of my driving lessons in the Netherlands. However, this has been my 3rd teacher since I first tried it in 2005. Driving as a topic evokes strong emotions on my part because I must admit that I do love driving. I have been driving for 9 years in the U.S. and prior to that in the Philippines for a couple of years. I enjoy driving immensely and not being able to do it is one of the major source of frustrations for me in this country. As you see, I cannot just exchange my American driving license here. Unlike lucky citizens of for instance Singapore and Japan, I could not exchange it!

So anyways, while taking lessons using a manual (called stick shift in the US) transmission equipped auto it all brought back memories of me and my Dad waking up at 6am on a weekend to take driving lessons. And boy I thank my Dad for taking it seriously and teaching me thoroughly that now when I tried driving a manual it all came back naturally for me and it felt really good knowing I could pick up a car and just drive. However, the roads in Amsterdam and most of the Netherlands are way too busy and rules are quite complicated so that is why I totally need to practice with a teacher first before taking the test. And besides, there is no other way to go through it but with a certified instructor unlike in the states where all you need is a learners permit and a license holder to accompany you. My theory exam expires in October so we have planned to take the test before then. That theory exam in itself was also a pain since English tests come only once or twice a month plus it was so confusing I ended up passing on my third try.. Embarrassing indeed but that’s life here, it’s not all that easy compared to my former country which I dearly miss by the way.

And what about my instructor? At first impression, I feel more comfortable with my new teacher, who is I think Moroccan compared to the last 2 Dutch guys. Maybe it was his age (younger) and temperament but we’ll see how it goes the next few days. But so far I had fun driving with this teacher. He picked me up from work at 5pm and we drove all the way to our place in Amsterdam. Convenient indeed! I am looking forward to my next lesson next week!

Holland II: Flowerbeds, Cows and Boats

mixxy — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:50:39 +0000

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We spent an afternoon driving around the countryside during a beautiful and sunny Pinksterdag. These photos will give you an idea of what the Dutch do on a typical long weekend. We avoided the beach totally as we are not so fond of heavy traffic jams and crowds so these photos show kind of “everything” except the beaches.

Biking is one of the most common weekend leisure activity aside from taking long walks in the countryside. People also bask in the sun next to or in the water. Since most of the Netherlands is next to water the activities center around canoeing, fishing, boating, swimming and all sorts of water sports. They are quite blessed to have water all around indeed and they obviously appreciate and are proud of this fact.

The next thing I love about springtime are the flowerbeds. It’s too bad that we did this too late as the flowers have either dried up or have been harvested. Well, at least I am glad I was able to take a few shots of the red and white flowers.

P.S. As promised, the cow photos are now included here

My gift to mom on Mother’s Day

mixxy — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:04:51 +0000

Just wanted to share my labor of love for my mom on Mother’s Day:

Her bibletreasures.net website is now hosted on our server and now it is a Wordpress blog

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

Brugge, Belgium

mixxy — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:03:58 +0000

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I am very thrilled to share the photos I took from my leisurely trip yesterday to Brugge, Belgium. The photos are not technically perfect due to the fact that I was too lazy to bring my DSLR and just used my point and shoot/digicam Sanyo X-Acti. I feel that I did not do justice to my subject by making less than perfect images. Oh well, there will be other chances again I hope and next opportunity to see a city with rave reviews I should bring the DSLR.

I planned this day trip more than a week ago after finding out that my husband will have his boys night out. I grabbed the chance immediately to fulfill my now deprived wanderlust. (more…)

Native American events right in your own neighborhood

mixxy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:17:57 +0000

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When I was living in South Jersey, it was a pleasant surprise for me to find out that I don’t have to go to the Midwest to see and learn about Native American culture. Within 20 minutes drive of where I live, there were several powwow events that happen regularly each year. Powwow’s as I observed, are regular social and culture events for the Native American community. The formal ceremony starts with a parade of participant tribes. It would be then followed by speakers, dance performances and musical performances. It was the first time I’ve ever seen such a cultural event and indeed attending it was all worth it. I was fortunate to be able to attend two of these events during my stay in the U.S.
To find the next Native American cultural event in your neighborhood just visit Powwows.com.

Yummiest Snack Award in the Netherlands goes to Filipino Chicken recipe

mixxy — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:30:22 +0000

Recently, MrC (the husband) found this news article from the Misset Horeca website, a food and dining online newspaper. It mentions that a recipe for a chicken snack was won by a guy named Michael Pors and they claimed it was a Filipino recipe. Michael Pors acknowledges that the winning “Filippijnse kippenlollies” recipe is influenced by his grandmother’s recipe. His name doesn’t sound Filipino but when I looked at his photo he does seem to look Filipino. I looked at the photo of the chicken dish and it doesn’t seem to look Filipino to me. I wonder what makes it Filipino. Maybe it tastes like Jollibee chickenjoy?

Read about it here.

Amsterdam World Fashion Center Bomb Threat

mixxy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:39:10 +0000

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Just this afternoon, I got this report from someone I know that the Amsterdam World Fashion Center has told everyone to go out of the building because of a reported bomb threat.

The video shown above was submitted by my friendly local reporter (a.k.a. husband).

Holland: Windmills, Cheese and Farmland

mixxy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:54:18 +0000

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Holland is the more popular name that refers to The Netherlands but actually it is only one of its provinces. I chose these photos as an introduction because this is what the world sees as typical Holland — and that is so true. Once you are outside of the major cities, this is what you would see everyday — hectares and hectares of flat lands with cows and sheep grazing. Oh yes, maybe I have missed the cows but in the future I will include a photo with cows in the background.

The windmills have also been here for maybe hundreds of years as they provide an economical means of power and help control the flow of water in the fields.

Cheese and milk. This is what Dutch people can’t live without. Their typical lunch (and sometimes breakfast) will always include a cheese (kaas) sandwich with sometimes ham (boterham) and on the side they will have milk or even sometimes buttermilk (karnemilk) which is the sour kind. I don’t know why but they just love it. They also like to put cheese toppings on almost every meal.

Spy Pinay

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