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30 Days of Truth: Day 20

Breigh — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:27:38 +0000

This one is pretty simple, I think both are fine if used responsibly. By drugs I mean weed, not heroin or cocaine or any of the stronger drugs. If I had to choose the lesser of the two evils it would definitely be weed.

I think the marijuana issue is blown way out of proportion and that the leaders in North America could learn something from how the Netherlands deals with it. The fact that there are people all over North America and other countries around the world in prison for using weed, well, it’s preposterous! The ‘gateway drug’ thing is bullshit and people need to chill the hell out. That’s my opinion.

There are a lot more deaths, accidents and abuses that take place when people misuse alcohol than when people smoke weed. Your health suffers a lot more with alcohol and I don’t recall ever hearing of someone being poisoned by smoking weed or having to have their stomach pumped.

A lot may think that I’ve just been brainwashed from living here, but I prefer to think of it as being enlightened.

I’ll never forget the first time I went to France with my husband and his brother to visit the family. We were all sitting in the living room watching a movie when my brother in law pulled out a joint and lit up. I sat with a shocked look on my face looking from one family member to the next, waiting for someone react. All I got was a shrug and a smile from my husband… that’s when I realized how little people care about it here. He smoked his joint, relaxed and we all had a good evening. No biggie. No blowouts… no over reactions.

As for alcohol, it’s tricky because I think it’s more difficult for people to moderate themselves in a lot of situations. It’s also extremely dangerous for the younger people in countries like Canada and the US where it’s been made a forbidden fruit for teenagers.

I have seen teenagers here in the Netherlands at 16 and 17 years old, sitting in a pub having a beer and chatting. I’ve seen teenagers having a drink of wine with their families and I’ve seen them buying beer at the movie theaters and supermarkets. It’s not forbidden to them, there is no reason for them to sneak around and they learn to be responsible about it at a younger age.

Now, one might think that our streets are full of drunken teenagers but that’s not the case at all.

I DID however, see many drunken teenagers in the streets in Canada. Why? Because they had nowhere else to go!

I WAS a drunken teenager roaming the streets in Canada, so I should know.

You know were I drank with my friends as a teenager? Behind the mall, in clearings in the woods, in parks or in friend’s houses when their parents were out for the evening. All of these scenarios lead to us just roaming the streets trying to have a good time. We weren’t allowed into bars, our parents wouldn’t dream of letting us drink under their noses and that made it forbidden, and we were allll over it. We were kids and when you are a kid and are told you aren’t allowed to have something people older than you are having, you’ll find a way.

I’m sure some of the parents of friends from high school are reading this and thinking they were right about me, that I really was a wild teenager who was a bad influence on their kid. I think the time has come for you all to know the truth…

Your kid was doing the SAME damn thing… we ALL were.

When I think of some of the dangerous situations we could have gotten ourselves into, and at sometimes DID get ourselves into, it’s a wonder I made it to see my 20’s. Seriously…

It’s time for people to take a long hard look at the world and what they are sending their children out into. If I am ever lucky enough to have children, I will be making sure that the topics of drugs and alcohol are addressed in an open and realistic manner. I don’t ever want to be the parent that leaves my child in a dangerous situation because they are too afraid to call me.

I think the only thing that saved me was my parents. They weren’t stupid and while they didn’t know exactly what was going on, and certainly never made out like it was OK for me to drink before I was legally allowed, they were aware of the world they were living in. They made sure that I knew that they were aware that teenagers are drinking, that I’d be going to parties and that I could ALWAYS call them if I found myself in a difficult situation. If someone was in trouble, if someone was drinking and driving, no matter what, I could trust them and call them if I needed them… and I did. I called them to pick me up when a friend stubbornly refused to hand over their keys and wanted to drive me home, I called them to pick us up when my friend had far far too much to drink and was scary sick, and I called them plenty of other times when I needed them. They were always there, without fail. Sure, I got a lecture or two and maybe even shouted at a few times, but they were THERE.

So, I guess to sum it up, I think that drugs and alcohol can be scary if misused and that it’s the responsibility of our society and the parents to be realistic and open with their teenagers about it, rather than burying their heads in the sand and send their children out into the world uninformed.

The Corpus Experience

Breigh — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:38:40 +0000

In an earlier post I mentioned that while my parents were here we were going to Corpus, which I was pretty excited about. I’d first seen info on this place months ago and was keen to take my parents there because I thought it’d be really cool.

When you look at their website it gives you the impression that you are going to something truly magnificent! That you are going on a ride through the human body, that you and your family and friends can take goofy photos inside the mouth and other parts of the body and you’d see some really cool visuals of what goes on inside our bodies.

Sooooo not the case!!

I guess I got this impression from their photos that it really is a ride, I mean you see people sitting in the seats moving up and around and all that, and people talking and taking photos in different places. I also that that for €16,50 per person, and the fact that you had to book it well in advance because it was so busy, that there was something fantastic going on here.

I was so disappointed. The whole thing is split into two parts. The first part is the trip through the human body. I started getting worried when I saw the headsets, but was relieved when I found out they had the commentary in English. Just the though of trying to translate everything for my parents made me squirm because I don’t know the Dutch names for most of the body parts.

The way the first part works is that you are put in a group of 16 people. You get your headset and go up this big escalator where you begin your journey. The headsets are set by language and all work automatically by sensors in doorways between each section of the body. Problem is, if you walk through with more than one person at a time the sensor may not catch yours and the sound won’t be triggered… and we were in a group with a bunch of people with kids.

Ever try to keep kids from running excitedly through something like this? Well, you may have but some of the parents we were with didn’t.

Each section was like a hall with different parts of the body on the wall and a TV screen with a video. The video was this sort of excited sounding guy explaining what happens in each part of the body while that part would light up and flash so you’d know to look at it. I couldn’t help but thinking that the guy sounded a lot like the dude who was in those ‘What’s Happening To Me’ videos we saw in health class as kids. The videos were also quite similar, more cartoony than even remotely realistic.

There were a few parts where you got to sit on a bench and watch a 3D movie, and those cushy black chairs were in one of them. They don’t move up and around anything like in the video, that’s a load of bunk. They just tip and shake while you watch some movie about how the blood goes through the heart. YOU aren’t actually going through anything…

Plus, every time I got those glasses they were loaded up with fingerprints from the bored employee who handed them out.

I got really irritated when mine and my mother’s headsets didn’t even work in the sections for the nose and eyes. Which was basically just standing in this room with an eyeball on the wall and a platform in the middle in complete silence while everyone around us heard whatever they were hearing. Boooorrrinnng.

During this hour, or however long it is, you can’t talk to each other because everyone has their headphones on and is trying to listen to that, there are no toilets and you are NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PHOTOS (that’s what ticked me off most).

I didn’t get a feel at all like we were moving through a body. There were body part things around us but it just didn’t turn out like I expected at all. I certainly didn’t feel like we got €66 worth of fun out of it.

The second part is just about 5-6 floors of rooms with pictures on the wall with info about stuff in the body and games for the kids. Nothing that interested me at all.

I guess I went there expecting some kind of wow factor and came out completely underwhelmed. I think it’d be a great place to go for a school trip, or for parents to take their children for an educational and fun outing… but for 4 adults who have a general idea of how the body works. What a total bore.

I could have saved our 66 bucks and found more interesting and realistic videos on the internet.

Rockanje

Breigh — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:19:35 +0000

The day before mom and dad left we took a drive a bit south to show them some more of the countryside and the beaches near Rockanje. We had initially planned on spending the day at home chilling out before they left but I think we were all feeling a bit weird so we decided to go out and about.

While we were at Rockanje some dude was going some kind of gliding. Not sure what this is called when they are in the little seat going from land rather than a cliff. This is my favorite photo from the day, it’s better viewed large.

It was a beautifully sunny day so it was a good time to check out the beach. I mostly just stood around and took photos. It was awesome there that day.

Hubby did his usual look in the sand for interesting stuff thing.

I did get him to take a minute to pose with me though. Oh lord how I hate photos of myself. Like, want to claw my own eyeballs out type of hate… but I do love hugging my hubby! The slope of the beach actually makes me look tall-ish too, don’t you think?!

I bet a lot of people would never guess that we have beaches that stretch for miles in Holland. If they are like me all they imagine are tiny little houses squished together next to windmills. It’s actually quite surprising how much space there is when you get outside of the city.

We really have to get out of the city more often, seriously.

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Diergaarde Blijdorp v2

Breigh — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:22:33 +0000

While my parents were here we took them to the Rotterdam Zoo. I really love that place. I went there one other time with some girlfriends but even in the 1.5 years since I’ve been there, so much has changed.

My (sort of) favorite change is that they have POLAR BEARS. I was so excited I took about 100 photos of them.

Unfortunately, once I finished taking the photos and really stopped to look at them, I felt really sorry for them. Their enclosure wasn’t that big and other than this one eating the ice, they looked agitated and bored. One was pacing and shaking his head and looked so completely unhappy. It made me feel bad for taking part in the whole thing somehow.

He just stood there on top of the hill, pacing back and forth. When I looked from this angle I realized just how wrong it was somehow. Seeing this beautiful huge creature with the city just behind him, he seemed so out of place.

I usually love going to the zoo but I really had mixed emotions this time, mostly with the larger animals like the elephants, polar bears, etc.

Here are a few more of my favorite photos from the day.

Getting good photos of those damn jellyfish is hard, for me at least.

Nemo fish! I’d so totally love to have a few of these but I highly doubt they’d even survive a day in any of my tanks. They’d be turtle food!

I think we came around to the penguin enclosure around feeding time. Normally you can see them zooming around in the water but this time they were all up top and looking at the door. One of the zoo employees was in there and they were all totally hoping for some food.

No idea what this thing is, but it really looked cool.

The Prairie Dogs, oh my goodness they were so cute. Another area where I took a ton of photos.

This little guy was another favorite of mine. We got lucky and caught him at a playful time. He was running all over the place, climbing all over his mother (if you can believe it) and being a total ham. Who knew a baby rhino could be so adorable?

Seahorses, yet another thing I’d love to own. Xander disagrees and made a crack about how exciting they are, which they aren’t really, they just kind of sit there… but I think they are great.

A shark egg! If you look closely you can see the shark just above the yolk thing. His tail is just to the left of it and his body curves over the top.

I have loads more photos from both of my trips to the zoo… Have a look here!

So what is your opinion on places like this? Do you ever feel those same guilty feelings when seeing these big animals being kept in captivity? I generally don’t feel so bad for the smaller ones as I figure they have lots of space and probably get better care than in the wild, but the bigger ones just seem so dreadfully unhappy.

My Secret Project

Breigh — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:10:31 +0000

A few months ago I started working on a secret project. My parents were coming over and I knew my mother would be celebrating her birthday while they were here. I wanted to make something special for her. So I got to work on a quilt I had been wanting to make that I thought she would like.

It has taken me a while as I do everything by hand… and between the bedroom renovations and lack of immune system I ended up getting behind. It wasn’t finished when she arrived so I had to show it to her before her birthday so that I could finish it up while she was here.

It was a hit! She loved it! Sometimes it’s hard to tell with moms, because they’d say they loved a lump of your poo if you handed it to them proudly… but I’m pretty sure she really did like it.

I took a load of pics the day before she left so that I could FINALLY write about it and be able to still look at it and show it off when I feel like it.

It’s been hard keeping this from her. Usually I tell her all about things I am making and show her photos along the way. Not this time though. I had to keep it totally secret which meant no photos on Flickr or Facebook, no talking about it on my blog… Ugh! It was torture! So many times she’d message me on MSN during the day asking what I was up to and I had to make something up because I was sitting there sewing away.

Anyhow, it’s all done and I’m really proud of it!

If you are into quilting and would like to make it you can find the pattern here.

FOAD Thursday – My Empty House

Breigh — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:13:59 +0000

If you had asked me a month ago if I had any space in my house I would have laughed. Between me, the pets, my husband and all our furniture I felt like we were completely crowded.

I SO wish I felt that way again right now.

My parents left this morning and if I’m honest, I thought I’d be ok when they left. There were points during their visit where I felt like I was going to go off my rocker if I didn’t get a minute alone to breathe. After all the hustle and bustle with the renovations and Xander working from home so much over the last few months, having two extra people here who were ‘all up in my business’ was stressful at times. I’d give anything to have them here again though.

We got up at 4:15am this morning to drive them to the airport and within a few short hours, they were gone. Our goodbye at the airport seemed rushed and a part of me wanted to go back and hug and kiss them both a few more times and tell them how much I love them, but I didn’t because I’m almost 34 years old dammit! I should be able to have these comings and goings without turning into a total baby.

I cried through the airport and most of the way home, and that wasn’t the worst bit. When I got home I felt lost. My house feels so empty. I’m tired, I’m emotional and I hate that they are gone. My new bedroom doesn’t feel like our bedroom. We renovated it, slept in it for 2-3 nights and since then it’s been my parents’ room. I’ve gone in there a few times but I felt sort of like when I was 13 and would go into my parents bedroom, it doesn’t have that MINE feel. Now my bedroom still feels like the blow up bed in the spare room.

I know this is normal and that I even said myself a few weeks ago that it’s one of the stages expats go through when family visit and then leave again, but goddamn it… it really sucks. My husband is being a total sweetheart, but there’s nothing even he can do to change this loneliness I feel right now.

Nobody other than another expat can understand the feelings and thoughts that we have when our loved ones go away again. Wondering when we’ll meet up again and hoping they stay safe and healthy until then. Not to mention the feeling that comes with getting a small reminder of what COULD be if you lived closer to your family. It was so nice to have my mother here where I could show her things, get her opinion on thoughts I had for the house and all the things other women take for granted and get to do on a daily basis with their mothers.

I’ll be fine tomorrow, or maybe the next day. Things will get back to normal in the house, the dogs will stop looking for them, and I’ll stop looking over at my empty sofa and wishing they were there… I know this.

I just wish that knowledge would make TODAY a little easier.

Canadian Invasion

Breigh — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:28:01 +0000

My parents have been here now for a week and a half. I have three days left with them before we get up and put them on a plane… not something I am looking forward to. I am looking forward to getting back to our old routine, as I’m sure my parents are… but the airport scene always sucks. I always want to get it overwith really quickly, which is weird because I should want every last minute I can with them, but those last few minutes can get really tense with the trying not to cry and all that.

We’ve been having a great time. We’ve done some sightseeing type stuff and a fair bit of shopping but for the most part we’ve mostly just been spending time together, which is nice. They’ve been here a number of times so they’ve done the whole touristy thing.

As you can see above, one thing they have done before but were keen to repeat was the Saturday market here in Rotterdam. Spot the Canadian! Mom may have managed to blend in but no way in hell dad was. With all the Dutchies walking around in their winter coats these days, dad got a few weird looks going around in shorts. In his defense though, it was 20 degrees… so I’m not sure why they still wore their winter coats anyway. It’s like once October hits it’s winter and that’s just that.

We also visited Kinderdijk again which I’ve been to a number of times but still couldn’t stop myself from snapping photos of. I figured it’d give mom and dad that real feeling of where they are. What says Holland more than windmills?

Last Sunday they got to meet some of my friends, which was great. I’m always talking to my friends about my parents, and to my parents about them… so I thought it’d be nice to get everyone together, and what better excuse than Canadian Thanksgiving!

It was my first time cooking for so many people, but thankfully I had my mom there to help and Penny took care of all of the baking (omg, best cake ever). I got a huge turkey which was almost 17 lbs and had a ham as well. Unlike Ramona, this turkey wasn’t as keen to spread her legs for me to stuff her. So, we named her Prudence. Not sure why we always name our turkeys, I’m sure Peta would be disgusted that we give names to animals just before we put them in the oven.

Sunday we went to Diergaarde Blijdorp, but I haven’t gotten those pics off my camera yet. It was a beautiful day for the zoo though and we all really enjoyed it. I always forget how huge it is until I get there again. I was bummed to see that the gorillas were inside, because it’s quite dim in there and they have this shadowed glass between the crowd and the gorillas and a gate that keeps you away from the windows, so you can’t see them that well. I guess we can thank this lady.

Today we are off to Corpus, which I’ve been really keen to see but saved until my parents were here because I thought they’d find it really cool as well. I’ll be posting pics of that later as well.

Ok, that’s all for now! Hope everyone is enjoying the nice fall weather we’ve been having here, we certainly are! Even though it’s made my parents completely disbelieve every word I’ve ever said about the horrible winter weather over here!

Christmas in the Netherlands

Breigh — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:15:04 +0000

It’s now only 29 (oops – Typo!) 69 days until Christmas and as my latest shopping excursions have shown, the Dutchies have their Christmas items out on the shelves already!

So far we’ve found Christmas items for sale at Blokker and Xenos, and our local Intratuin is currently about 50% through setting up their winter wonderland! I know this would annoy the crap out of some people, but for Christmas freaks like myself, it just makes me squeal with glee!

My mother is also loving it, she thought she was going back with one empty suitcase after lugging over all my requested back home items, but it looks like it will be going home full of snowmen.

So if you are living in NL and got the itch to do a little shopping for Christmas items, check out Blokker and Xenos. They have some great sales going on trying to sell off last year’s Christmas items before getting the new stuff out!

My parents also bought us a new x-mas tree!! Our old one is a fake one but it was cheap and had big gaps and looked really cheesy. Our new one is BEAUTIFUL! It looks so much more real and is really full, so I don’t have to buy the pine boughs anymore to fill in all the holes. Awesome!! I’m so excited.

DECEMBER 1st that sucker is going up!!!

THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!!

Breigh — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:14:59 +0000

Kill me now. I mean it… just take me out back like a lame horse and put me down. I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!!

My parents will be here in four days. FOUR DAYS. Tomorrow it will only be THREE DAYS… and I have a cold! It started out as loads of sneezing, but I told myself it was just from the dust we were kicking up while clearing out the spare room.

I feel it though, that familiar feeling in my nose and throat. I’m stuffy, I slept for three hours this afternoon when I should have been getting stuff done around the house. I’m tired.

This is almost exactly 1 year from our trip to Canada last year when I got sick 2 days after I arrived. I think we need to stop getting together during cold and flu seasons because obviously I’m not having much luck here.

Come on, I know some of you know where I live. Warnoud? Paule? Penny? You’ve been here, you know the way. I’ll leave a key under the mat, please just come in and smother me in my sleep.

I promise I’ll make sure Xander and mom know to still make sure you get your turkey!

Oh yeah, and just to add insult to injury… check out that big fat grey hair in the front of my head. Not only am I sick, I’M OLD! AAUURRRGGHHH!

Parents Incoming!!

Breigh — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:31:16 +0000

Oh my god I can’t believe I’m finally saying this, but my parents will be here NEXT WEEK!! We’ve been counting this down for months and it’s almost here. Mom and Dad hugs, Canadian goodies, all my favorite people together again in one room!!

I’m excited! I’m freaking out!

I know most other expat women I know go through odd stages when family are visiting from home. For months leading up to it, it’s just massive excitement. For the last few weeks before they arrive it’s a madhouse getting everything prepared. The last few days before they get there is spent in a complete hissy fit due to nerves, excitement and stress.

Having them here is wonderful, and then before you know it they are gone.

Then… two weeks of the blues.

I’m pretty sure this is stock standard for us expat gals, at least that’s what I gather from conversations with them. Either that or you all are just amusing me so I don’t feel like a total nutcase. I’m ok with being lied to in cases like these.

I love it when they are here, which is odd because I generally don’t like company that sleeps over. I tend to get sick of people easily. Not them though, I’m pretty sure they could stay for months and I’d never get tired of having them around.

Thankfully, they love Xander to pieces and always look forward to spending time with him too. He has a great relationship with them, which makes me very happy because their opinion means a lot to me. I honestly can’t imagine how I would cope if my family couldn’t see all the things I love about him too.

Now that it’s in the ‘next week’ phase, I’m fully aware that I am going to be a total spaz. Xander is aware of this too, as well as the fact that it’s also going to be ‘PMS phase’. Double whammy!

Oh don’t you wish you were him right now? A PMS-ing wife and the in-laws on the way! HA!

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