It was a chance encounter yesterday on a crowded street that sent me back in time. As I turned the corner onto our nearby shopping street affectionately known as ‘the Fred,’ I caught a snippet of conversation. The young woman was seated at one of the outside tables of a local restaurant, twirling her forefinger along [...]
Archive for the ‘Albert Heijn’ Category
A Delicate Balancing Act
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, First Year Blur, Light Bulb Moments, New to Nederland, The Animals, tagged Albert Heijn, balancing act, bravery, cat, change, Charley, courage, expat life, expat transition, isolation, limbo, loneliness, Netherlands, new expat, tightrope, walk the ledge on April 28, 2012 | 20 Comments »
Food Lines We Won’t Cross
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Blogging, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged carnivores, cultural mores, horse meat, meat eaters, personal beliefs, squeamish, unusual foods, vegans, vegetarians on March 22, 2012 | 14 Comments »
It’s been at least a few weeks since I’ve written a post that even mentions the phrase Albert Heijn (my favorite local Dutch grocery store to the uninitiated), so I should have known. Something was sure to materialize that I’d end up sharing with you here. Little did I realize exactly how special that something would be… [...]
Head of Delegation Written All Over Her
Posted in Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged Albert Heijn, earning stickers, grocery store giveaways, head of delegation, international trade, Muppet puppets, negotiations on February 2, 2012 | 10 Comments »
I must confess, I’m exhausted. I’ve just closed the front door after another visit from my delightful eight year old Dutch neighbor, Catarina. She stopped by to discuss Muppetpunten (Muppet points), as covered in my previous post An International Trade Representative’s Got Nothing On Her. That makes two visits in eight days, which constitutes a new record. It [...]
An International Trade Representative’s Got Nothing on Her
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged Albert Heijn, grocery store giveaways, international trading, negotiations, speaking Dutch, trading cards on January 25, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Late yesterday afternoon, the doorbell rang. As I opened the heavy oak front door, I found myself face-to-face with Catarina, my adorable eight-year-old Dutch neighbor, she of Learning a Language? Child’s Play fame. She was standing there with a tennis racket slung over her shoulder and an air of urgency about her. ‘Hallo Catarina, hoe gaat [...]
Daylight, a Reindeer and a Pack of Dogs
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, tagged busy, daylight, dogs, health threats, hopeful, laughter, meetings, overwhelmed, pleasure, problems, reindeer, Rudolph, signs, smile on January 14, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Some days you wake up and just ‘know’ that they’re going to be tough. You know the kind I mean. You didn’t sleep well the night before and you’ve got a busy day planned with back-to-back meetings, errands and appointments. You’re worried about a couple friends facing serious health threats and/or dealing with difficult issues. You’re out of milk [...]
Balancing the Holiday Scales
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Culture & Customs, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Netherlands, tagged appreciation, celebration, Christmas, Christmas tree, decorations, family, friends, holidays, New Year's, ornaments, rituals on December 22, 2011 | 6 Comments »
It’s been a fairly typical ten days for Yours Truly’s family here in Nederland in the run-up to Christmas and New Year’s. By that I mean lots going on: some of it getting done, some on its way to completion and woefully behind on a fair bit as well. Given that Christmas comes on the [...]
Behold, Albert Heijn is Nigh
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged aisle, Albert Heijn, autodidactic, clerk, food shopping, grocery store, hand-held scanner, major renovations, wine on December 10, 2011 | 12 Comments »
If you’ve noticed a distinct decrease in the stress waves emanating from The Hague, you’ve Albert Heijn to thank. It’s true. My beloved neighborhood AH store has reopened after fourteen days undergoing major renovations. Fourteen long, arduous days. Despite Daughter’s original plaintive question (‘will we starve to death?’), we have survived just fine. I sucked [...]
Suffer the Little Shoppers Unto Albert Heijn
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged Albert Heijn, daily shopping, food shopping, grocery store, major renovations on December 4, 2011 | 20 Comments »
I apologize upfront if my paraphrasing of a biblical quotation brought you here under false pretenses, but I’m in a bit of a quank. Quank. You know, a cross between a funk and a quandary. What difficult situation has me in these depths of despair? My beloved neighborhood Albert Heijn grocery store is closed for renovations. Not [...]
The Virtual Book Tour Continues
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Turning Points Book, Writing, tagged Turning Points book, virtual book tour, writing on November 8, 2011 | 4 Comments »
The virtual book tour continues, with four more stops at great blogs around the world: Blogging and Beyond Gidday from the UK (England) Twitter Unites Across the Great Divide Faraway Hammer (Korea) All the Different Stories I Was an Expat Wife (Canada) A World of Women, A Wealth of Perspectives Expatcalidocious (Netherlands) There has [...]
THIS is Learning a Language
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged benefits of bilingualism, best age to learn a language, bilingual, brain boost, foreign language, learning Dutch, Netherlands, writing on October 28, 2011 | 11 Comments »
[This post is for Patti in Leiden, and all the other nice folks I met last weekend at the I Am Not A Tourist International Fair in Amsterdam. She and her husband are new to The Netherlands. Welkom!] Lord knows my fellow Adventurers know that I’ve been trying to learn Dutch. I certainly have been harping [...]
Cultural Lessons Gleaned In a Grocery Store
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, tagged Albert Heijn, ATM card, checkbook, cultural differences, expat, grocery store, pin card, The Netherlands, writing on October 22, 2011 | 16 Comments »
This morning Husband and I decided to take advantage of the glorious autumn weather by taking Oli on a long walk through nearby woods. The sun is out, the air is crisp, people are out walking, jogging and cycling; it’s an all-around gorgeous October day. After an hour of hiking through the wooded parkland, meandering [...]
Bearing Witness
Posted in Albert Heijn, Expat Life, Light Bulb Moments, Writing, tagged Balkans conflict, Bosnia, crimes against humanity, Croatia, Doctors Without Borders, ICTY, rape, The Hague, torture, UN, war crimes, writing on September 27, 2011 | 6 Comments »
This past weekend I had the opportunity to meet a fellow American for koffie at a local cafe. We were enjoying a gorgeous Indian summer spell of warm, sunny weather. It seemed as though everyone in The Hague had decided to reorder their day so that they could spend their time outside, soaking up the [...]
People Type the Darndest Things
Posted in Albert Heijn, Expat Life, Writing, tagged blogging, search words, self-indulgent, typing, writers, writing on August 21, 2011 | 20 Comments »
I got to thinking last night about what’s next. What subject I might want to write my next article about, the plot of my next short story, the topic of my next blog post. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’m not just talking here about blogging, but writing in the [...]
Mijn Bediende (My Clerk)
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, tagged Albert Heijn, cashier, clerk, efficient, foreign languages, friendly on May 19, 2011 | 14 Comments »
Yesterday I was in the Albert Heijn picking up a few items for dinner. It was 5:30, so the store was crowded with people stopping in on their way home. The Dutch eat promptly at 6:oo, you’ll recall. It’s almost as if there is a silent whistle that goes off at 6pm each evening, one [...]
The Smallest Detail
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, tagged Netherlands, Pastanini's, restaurants, the Fred on May 17, 2011 | 10 Comments »
Sometimes it all begins with the smallest detail. I wrote a few weeks ago about the recent visit of my brother’s family, and how visiting non-expats help us see our expat life with fresh eyes. Showing them the sights and sharing our daily lives cause us to look anew at the little things that we [...]
Manic May(hem)
Posted in Albert Heijn, Culture & Customs, Expat Life, Family & Friends, tagged end-of-year parties, exams, graduation, May, school activities on May 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Well, it’s Monday and it’s May. Not a good combination, if you ask me. Why? Because I am absolutely, positively swamped. I’m so slammed with tasks and projects that my mind is starting to melt. My ‘to do’ list is long. Ridiculously long. With no end in sight. This isn’t a typical Monday morning whinefest, so please hear [...]
When Non-Expats Visit
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, Travel, United States, tagged expat life, living abroad, Netherlands on May 5, 2011 | 12 Comments »
Two weeks ago, my brother and his family visited from the US. All four are intrepid travelers, including overseas. My brother and sister-in-law have even been to Amsterdam before for a quick visit, as part of a larger trip. But this was the first time they’d come to visit us since we moved to The [...]
The Fred’s Koninginnedag Makeover
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Holidays, Netherlands, tagged Frederik Hendriklaan, Koninginnedag, the Fred, yard sales on May 1, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Today, the day after Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day), I thought it might be fun to do a little ‘before’ and ‘after’. As I’ve mentioned before, I live around the corner from the Frederik Hendriklaan. The ‘Fred’ as it’s lovingly referred to, is a stretch of several blocks of the greatest mix of everyday and unusual stores, [...]
Filet? Perhaps. Americain? Definitely Not.
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Netherlands, United States, tagged filet americain, puree, raw beef on April 23, 2011 | 7 Comments »
I recall the first time I saw it. It was probably two years ago, in the deli counter at my beloved Albert Heijn supermarket. Filet Americain. It sounded so intriguing, so continental, so, well, so non-American. I can say that, in part because I am American. But also because it isn’t American. I remember picking [...]
Caution: Head-Banging Expat Onboard
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Expat Life, Writing, tagged blog, conversation, head-banging, panic, post daily, Ultimate Blog Challenge, write daily on April 6, 2011 | 8 Comments »
I must say that we bloggers are an odd tribe. In a perfect world we would sit down each day in our pristine, calming sanctuary of an office. We would write for 17 minutes, turning out a perfectly polished piece that accurately captures the nuances of some aspect of (at least in my case) expat [...]
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