Koninginnenach 2008

After my last post, I thought it was time for a more positive one so here's the photo tour of the Vaughn celebration of Koninginnenach (the night before Queen's Day).

The night before Queen's Day, The Hague offers lots of free concerts and other activities in the city. We had a couple of friends over beforehand for drinks and appetizers (Charles made guacamole!) and then we hit the town. Here are some highlights.

Before having friends over, we visited the Kermis or Carnival in the city center...



Charles won me some stuffed puppies so hopefully Remus and Berlin won't be jealous...



We also encountered a giant order of fries...



After some homemade guac and wine, we hit the streets which were crowded and full of drunk people wearing orange (the national Dutch color)...



But we were in good company so it was a fine evening...



You can see the rest here.

For the actual Queen's Day, we avoided the crowds in Amsterdam, stayed home and played Grand Theft Auto 4.

Our worst customer service experience to date

Since moving here we've had to put up with non-attentive wait staff and often had to be a bit obnoxious to flag someone down to get a refill on a drink that's been empty for over an hour or a check that's already been requested twice.

Yesterday was a new low for Dutch customer service. Charles and I decided to take the poodles to Scheveningen which is a small beach town near Den Haag. After letting the little guys run around in the sand (dogs aren't allowed on the beach after May 15) we decided to have dinner at Strandrestaurant Blue Lagoon.

We sat down and ordered drinks and bread right away which came out quickly. After a few attempts to flag the waiter down we made out dinner order: kip (chicken) sate for Charles and sashimi with a side order of french fries for me.

Over an hour later: I had my sashimi but nothing else. We flagged down our waiter to get refills on our wine, but didn't want to be rude an ask about our meal. We waited about another thirty minutes and then asked our waiter when he thought the fries and kip sate would be coming. He said did not hear us order these so he didn't hear us order two out of the three items! This was crap because I ordered my meal and Charles ordered his. So he just didn't hear Charles at all? And he heard half of my meal? Be real and admit your mistake.

So about fifteen or twenty minutes later we had out food (how long does it take to make fries and chicken on a skewer?), but were tired and wanted to leave so we asked for the bill. The bill, of course, charged us for every single item (even the mayonnaise with the fries which proves he heard the fry order!). No discount.

So we're in a country that doesn't tip as much as the US does and we feel like we had a terrible dinner experience. We decide not to tip at all. The waiter also left his little card reader machine on our table so Charles hand it to him on the way out.

He gets all moody and says something to the effect of "No tip? Were you not pleased with your service here?"

Us: "No, we weren't."

Him: "Well then, I'll never serve you again."

We walk away because we don't plan on coming back and don't want to start a scene. It ruined our evening and I am now a bit weary of going to beach restaurants.

Southern Biscuits, dutch style

Coming over to the Netherlands was tough on my recipes. It seems like the things I enjoy cooking always require an ingredient that's damn hard to find here. Perhaps most difficult is my family's biscuit recipe. Similar to an unsweetened scone, this marvels of soft and flaky deliciousness, requiring both baking powder and vegetable shortening.

A few months ago the super market we lived above had Crisco in the American section. I bought 2 of the tubs. Then, this last Friday a friend of ours let me know she had spotted baking powder at a high end grocer Gransjean.

This morning, 10 of these bad boys popped out of my oven:

Het Strijkijzer

A quick follow up on the last post

Rachael did have an adverse reaction shortly after writing her previous blog post. After the sugar effect wore off, she slipped into a coma, that was quickly upgraded to "light nap". TeamVaughnBlog (a subsidiary of Peauxdellco) does not endorse the recreational use of Tressor. If you or someone you know has a cereal addiction, please seek professional help.


So after 8 months of Rotterdam, we're packing up and moving out to Den Haag. Het Strijkijzer is the largest residential tower in Den Haag (the tallest in the netherlands is Montevideo, which is in our current neighborhood). Construction just completed. It's so new Google Earth doesn't even show a building there.

Here is what the tower looks like now:

The bad news is it'll be smaller than our current place, so no separate guest room. We actually lucked out, most of the floor plans are 1160 sq ft, but they had a handful of odd ones that are 1,270, which we managed to get. We're on the 35th floor, so I'm also concerned about the elevator situation. It's a new building so the elevator capacity could have been overlooked. There is student housing in the bottom of the building, but there should be enough distance floor wise so that won't be a problem.

Good news is Rachael will be a few tram stops from her work. My commute will change by at most 10 minutes a day, but I won't have to rely on a metro. My rail ticket also will be the same, as I've got a network pass anyways. There's a pretty big gym in the building under construction. The Hague is also an easier city to live in if you are an expat. There are more bars there that cater to a mostly foreign clientel. In Rotterdam, we haven't really found a place we can just go for a drink with friends.

We'll be moving in either around the 1st of April or the 15th. Pictures of our new digs will follow shortly.

Knoflook and Tresor

I think it's about time for a food post.

Last night Charles and I went to Knoflook which means garlic in Dutch. As you can see from the web site, the items on the menu which do NOT contain garlic are specially marked. For dinner we had...

Creamy garlic soup to start
Bread with garlic spreads
Charles had lamb cooked in garlic
I had salmon with garlic pasta
For dessert we split chocolate cake with garlic ice cream which was fantastic

Needless to say we both had to brush our teeth twice this morning.

Another interesting culinary discovery we have made is this fabulously delicious cereal called Tresor. It is made by Kellogg's and as this blogger states, it "can't possibly be legal anywhere esle but Holland." However I do think they also have it in France and Germany. It's basically crispy yummy caramel flaky things with chocolate and caramel pudding in the middle. This cereal actually gets more tasty as it absorbs the milk. I am putting a limit on the number of times we're allowed to indulge in this treat.

Perfect example of bad Dutch customer service

I hate to complain, but here is a good example of how customer service can sometimes be difficult in this country.

In early January, I brought my racing bike to MegaBike to have it repaired and to purchase a more city friendly bike. I had the hardest time dropping the racing bike off because all three repair shops claimed they would be closed for varying periods of time ranging from 2 weeks to permanently. Charles was with me so he remembers the craziness of running between the different shops and hearing this weird story about them closing.

Finally the guy in the Shimano shop says he will take my bike, but because of the closing it will take about a month to repair. I say I am fine with that because at the time I had my broken elbow and wouldn't be riding my racing bike anyway. So I leave the bike and get a receipt.

In mid February I call the bike shop and they tell me they can't find my bike! No apologies or suggested solutions. It is just gone. The guy working that day took down my number and told me he would call me back. I never received a follow-up call.

So this weekend Charles and I go down to the shop and hand the ticket to the guy working there who happens to be the same guy who was there when we dropped the bike off in January. He immediately knows where the bike is and makes a comment about how it has been there for a long time. I say something about having to wait because the shop was closed in January. He laughs and tells me that the shops never closes!

Hmmm, then I guess I just imagined being told that by multiple employees who almost refused to take my bike because of this mysterious closing.

I can go on and on with similar examples, but I have realized that living in America has spoiled me. I am used to the customer always being right and getting some kind of freebie when the vendor doesn't realize that quickly enough. You just don't get that here.

Except at this bagel place. I was pretty impressed with them after a visit this weekend. Good bagels too.

Obama-rama in the Netherlands

It's fascinating to watch how another country views our elections. In particular most dutch people like Obama, and it's bizarre to see the front page of the news papers here, about once a week covering the primaries.

"What will Obama really change?"


















"Hillary wins, Barack loses: Why smear tactics work"


















I've learned more about how we elect people this election from simply explaining to colleagues how the system works. Texas is a perfect example, and I've had to explain to people how Obama probably actually won the state as a whole, even though he lost the primary.

The biggest confusion, when it comes to a dutch person, is the federalist system, and how America uses some very weird ways to insure proportional representation.

I will leave with these, and the comment that as far as I can tell, these aren't meant to be racist.















Graffiti seen on my train to work at Rotterdam Centraal station.

Weekend Trip to Ghent

For Valentine's Day weekend Charles and I took a trip to Ghent which is supposed to be just slightly more hip than Brugge. It was really an awesome way to spend a day or two. First off, there is a castle in the middle of the city...



A ticket lets you explore the inside which includes a mini museum featuring weapons and various torture devices....



From the top you can see the whole city...



We also took a boat tour through the canals...



The streets were interesting and it was quite entertaining to just stroll around. Here is a shot of a genuine Belgian waffle place...



The food was incredible. We had some delicious French food at this place and tasted the Delirium beer whose logo is a pink elephant. Supposedly if you have too many this is what you see.



The poodles came along and enjoyed the hotel room while we explored the city. They did get the occasional walk, hence the doggie coats...



And I think the cutest picture of Remus and Charles is a good way to close out this post...



If you would like to see the rest of the pics they are up at our Flickr gallery.

Democratic Primaries

We voted yesterday for the Democratic candidate. Democrats Abroad represents US citizens overseas, and sends 23 delegates to the convention.

It's weird being over here, because you don't get the constant news paper and TV barrages. I voted for Obama, but to be perfectly honest I think whoever wins out of Obama, Clinton, McCain I think I would be happy.

Requim for 60/120

So I thought I'd make a quick post of advice for soon to be expats.

Before we moved, we found a couple good deals at electronics stores and picked up within 5 months of moving:

• A new flat screen TV
• A PS3
• A new computer for my wife
• A new computer for my self
• Assorted monitors for said computers
• An ice cream machine

The problem that you may already know, especially if you've traveled before, international power is wonky. To be specific in the US, the mains power is 120V at 60hz. When you go over to Europe it changes to 240 at 50hz.

There are a few options available for making the switch:

1. Your electronics use a switch mode power supply - This is the reason your laptop works in a foreign hotel room with minimal difficulty. You'll need an adapter for the plug shape however. Things like your hair dryer, or cell phone charger usually don't have this. Plugging them into a plug converter will end up blowing a fuse/ruining whatever was plugged into it. Most of our big items had this. The PS3, TV, and computers all took a plug that looked like this:
   All I had to do was find a local computer store and ask for a replacement power cable. Our laptops used a slightly different plug shape, but I found replacements for those as well.
   
2. You use a transformer - These are huge humming things that can convert from 120->240 or 240->120. They are good for high power devices, such as hair dryers, toasters, big TV's, waffle makers. Transformers don't do anything about the frequency. Old TV's and cheap clocks will be most effected. In our guest room we left a travel transformer plugged in for guest use, along with one of our US alarm clocks. What happened, and drove a few guests insane was that it would lose 10 minutes each hour. It was used to running on 60 cycles per second, that was now 50. You may also notice a slightly different sound coming from anything with a motor, like hair dryers.
   
   I recommend picking one up, though. I bought a 2500 watt one for around $100, and leave a power strip plugged into it. Any of our old electronics can be plugged into it, and guests appreciate being able to charge phones/cameras/etc...
3. You use an inverter - These produce the exact same power you would get from the US. To be honest, there's no reason to have one of these if you have a transformer. Inverters handle much smaller loads and are more expensive.
4. Your device takes DC through a wall-wart - The wall warts are the little black boxes that plug in. Most of these can be replaced. Take your current one into an electronics shop and they can match it up for you. Phone, portable devices, and handheld gaming devices are extremely easy to replace. I think we paid about 5e each for a replacement cell charger and DS lite charger.

My Mistakes

1. The printer. Bought this right before we left. It would not be happy here except for the transformer.
2. My computer. It has a switched power supply. Manually switched. Look for a little red thing on the back where the plug goes in to see if yours has one as well. I forgot to switch it from 120 to 240 before plugging that in. Blew the fuse.

Look for my second part of this series, where I discuss the excitment that is European vs. American television scan rates!