Find a band, find a food, find a culture…the secrets to living abroad

After traveling my entire life, it struck me while attending a concert that I was finally truly happy. I had my husband by my side and a drink in my hand while swaying to the music of my favorite Dutch Band- Room Eleven.

I realized that the secret to living abroad was not as simple as people believed or perhaps not as hard as people believed but that for me, it consisted of obtaining and integrating three things into my life. Find yourself a band you love, a food you love and a cultural aspect that you love…and whoa la…you’ve got yourself – my secret to happiness living abroad.

A band- finding yourself a band is not as easy but if you able to find a band that takes a little of you and integrates it with a little of them (i.e. the culture you are living in) then you have yourself the band you were seeking. Room Eleven was it for me. I heard their songs on a WE Clothing commercial and feel in love with the voice. She spoke to me. After that I started listening to the rest of her music and got so excited I got tickets to an intimate concert in Deventer this weekend. Andreas, my husband, while not a true fan initially, found it to be a great concert and loved every moment of it as much as I did. We left there so content and fulfilled. We had stood a foot from the front of the concert with beers and a smile plastered on our faces while moving to the music. A mix of Bossa nova, jazz and little bit of Latin beat and there you have it.

A food- finding a food is harder than you think because when you move to new country you don’t know what to expect half the time. Needless to say, it will inevitably be something completely different from what you love but you will find something regardless that you’ll come to love…For me…Uitsmijter. I love the Uitsmijter, a tasty egg, ham and cheese combo on bread with some tomatoes and mushrooms and whoa la…you have it.

I was introduced to it- a basic version of it at the work cafeteria. It was basically the only made to order warm dish available besides the standard fired goods and do-it-yourself sandwich bars. I took my husband to one of my favorite little restaurants in Hengelo about a month ago to introduce him to it. We went to the Twee Wenzen- (Two Orphans) restaurant for a mid-day snack and ordered the Uitsmijter Catarina. It starts was your standard bread with a fried egg, slice of real ham and slice of gouda cheese but on top of it they add sautéed mushrooms and tomatoes…to create a delectable and tasty Uitsmijter you’ll adore. Sounds simple but like I mentioned earlier, a little bit of home mixed with a little of them…and you have something you are bound to love.

A culture- or in correct English, a cultural aspect. The Dutch are infamous for their flat land and love of bikes…they adore their bikes and to prove it- they ride them in the rain, sleet or snow…no matter what! I love it, I really do, it’s great to see the young and the old riding their bikes around town to get their groceries or just for a “stroll” around town. Bikes are so prevalent here that there are barely any sidewalks…why walk when you can ride? There are bike garages where there are hundreds upon thousands of bikes all locked up at stations, at supermarkets, at stores etc. You name it, you can’t find a single place in the Netherlands without a bike either resting on the side of it or in front of it. The Dutch love their bikes and at first, I wasn’t so sure why they would want to ride their bikes here all the time, given the terrible weather they experience all the time here. Ok- summers can be better but it rains all the time and not “mainly in the plains,” like it does in Spain. I, however, now have a bike and a spare for any visitors that happen to pop on by. I even brought over my cycling bike to perhaps ride in the summer as the weather gets better. You will see parents riding with their children on their bikes, similar to what you would expect to see in India on a Moped- you would see here on a regular bike. One kid in the front, the parent and one kid on the back and not to mention, all while doing this…the parent has the leash or their dog with a dog attached on the right side of the bike. WOW! Talk about talent! I love it! Or you will occasionally see the traditional type of bike with the huge bucket like contraption made to carry anything and everything from your groceries to your three children to your child and your dog in the front. Some even come with a canopy over the top to keep the children or if it’s fruit and flowers you are carrying—dry. I have come to love and admire the Dutch for their immense bike riding skills in any weather. They start when they are children running on a piece of wood located between their legs with two wheels and a handle bar but no pedals. Then they gradually work up to a regular bike which they will ride until they can no longer walk. And they encourage their friends to ride on the back too- as you can see of my pic with Marjolein in Utrecht! We were on our way to the supermarket!

They all know how to ride their bikes with no hands, can maneuver between crowds, throngs of people at farmers markets and all while a child in the front, a child in the back and a dog in one hand…oh and flowers in the other! Ok a little extreme but I bet it’s been done! And this is why I love this cultural aspect of the Netherlands.

While in Rome or the Netherlands…do as the Romans do…or Dutch!

Ta-ta until later!

April