Sacred Enchantments – An American living in The Netherlands

 

Many people have asked me what it is like for an American to live in Holland so I decided to write about it.  It is different but not so different.  People are people after all and no matter where you go, there are good people and there are bad people.  So far, things have gone well but there are some adjustments for me.  First everything is much smaller here.  I am used to American, supersized everything.  Here the homes are smaller and you have to get used to making good use to every inch of space.  The bedrooms do not have closets which is really strange for me.  If you need a closet, you buy one like a stand alone wardrobe.  We have two bathrooms, a powder room downstairs and a regular bathroom with just a shower upstairs.  I do miss my bathtub!  Now the powder room downstairs is so small, it is similar to the bathroom on an airplane but it has the essentials, a toilet and a sink.  One nice thing is there is a lot less to clean! 

Another difference is how close everything is and how many people ride scooters or bicycles to work.  Americans tend to only ride bikes as recreation not as transportation.  I have a bike and it gets me everywhere I need to be.  Everything is so close, I could walk everywhere and often do.  Most cars are much smaller as well though I do see the occassional SUV!

Now the best part of living in Europe is the food.  Americans don’t know what they are missing.  The food is so much better here!  The whole grain breads and cereal, the pastries, the sate and the garlic sauce.  Oh my!  It is funny there are American companies selling food here that they don’t even sell in America and it is 100% better.  I am not sure what that is all about.  Americans do know pizza and hamburgers better though.  The strangest thing that I have eaten here is horse steak.  It is eaten all the time here but I don’t know anyone in America that eats horse meat.  I cannot say I like it to much but it’s not terrible. 

The landscape here is absolutely beautiful, the gardens and the architecture is amazing.  To imagine they have homes here that are 100′s of years older then any in America.  To see brick and cobblestone roads is really cool, riding on them isn’t though. 

TV is different too.  Yes they have American shows but many are years old.  They don’t seem to have as much as we do in America but what they have is okay.  I am not much of a TV watcher so it doesn’t really bother me. 

As far as the language, most people here speak pretty good english so in that regards they are ahead of Americans who usually only speak one language.  Children here are taught english at a young age as well as dutch and many learn french, german and spanish.  I am trying to learn dutch but the pronunciation of words is difficult for me.  I am not doing bad though. 

All in all I really enjoy it here and have made several new friends.  I have also started my own online web store, Sacred Enhcantments (http://www.sacredenchantments.co.uk) which is a spiritual store dedicated to many spiritual paths such as buddhism, hindu, wiccan, pagan, occultic, celtic, gothic and new age.  We have items such as charms, meditation kits, reiki, chakras, jewelry, candles, books, cd’s, dvd’s, crystals, gemstones, altar supplies, angels, ouija boards, herbs, and much more.  I hope you get a chance to check it out.  thanks for reading and take care

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~ by sacredenchantments on July 16, 2009.