Top Ten Reasons I Like the Netherlands

1)    Birthdays- I think birthdays are magical and special. They are the celebration of your existence on this earth. It is a time for you to feel special, adored, and loved. My personal experiences never quite end up like this but I wish the best for everyone. The Dutch seem to revel in birthdays. Instead of Happy Birthday, you’re told Gefelicieteerd- or congratulations. They not only congratulate you but also your family and friends. Gearoid heard more happy well wishes on my birthday than I did.  Recently, the university Gearoid works with celebrated it’s 86^th birthday and threw a party for students and staff to celebrate. I love a place that loves birthdays.

Getting drinks at Radboud's Birthday Celebration

2)    Stroopwafels- While living in DC in 2006, I experienced my first stroopwafel from a hippy who had just returned from Amsterdam. I was delighted when I experienced them again in Sierra Leone when some Dutch people we knew shared them with us after a dinner at our place. Then I moved to the Netherlands and the love affair continues. They are delicious and are only allowed in the house when Gearoid can supervise my interactions with them. Ok, I’m being dramatic.  However, they are so good that they’re not safe in the house. They only last one afternoon. Stroopwafels are like a cookie. It is a thin wafer that is sliced in two and filled with a sweet caramel like syrup. You can get them big, small, covered in chocolate, made with honey, and the best way- warm off the griddle at the market.  Family and Friends- expect them as Christmas gifts.

3)     Flowers- I love tulips and they’re here in big colorful fields. But even more than tulips are all of the other types of flowers I’ve experienced here.  I never knew such types of flowers and plants existed. Just walking home from the gym or cycling past a field I get to experience flowers that I’ve only experienced from watching the animated Alice in Wonderland.  They grow everywhere. Behind our house is a pile of rubble and there are random poppies growing out of it. In a strip of grass next to the sidewalk children play with each other while one single red tulip tries to survive. Bushes and trees blossom even when you least expect it. People ride home on their bikes with bouquets in hand or strapped on the back. The world smelled like honeysuckle today.  Not everyone has a green thumb but you’re more likely to see manicured gardens than overgrown yards. 

Lily on our terrace

Tulips at Keukenhof

Flower blooming at a construction site

4)Beer- I ‘m not a beer drinker. Friends will tell you that I’m more likely to drink a margarita than a beer any day of the week- ok mostly on a random Friday with Rock Band playing in the background.  However, I have discovered two beers that I really enjoy here. A pink beer and a banana beer. They are refreshing, sweet, and lack the disgusting aftertaste of other beers. Also, Gearoid gets to enjoy nice Belgium beer for cheap. 

Getting a banana beer at a World Music Meeting in Nijmegen.

5) Borrel Nuts- Seasoned cracker over a peanut. Salty and Crunchy- enough said.

6)The Pharmacy- I had the most wonderful experience at the pharmacy here. It’s a block from my house and a bike ride from my doctor’s office. I dropped off my prescription thinking I wouldn’t see it until the next day. I was surprised when 15 minutes later I had more than my prescription. My doctor wrote a script for 2 months but the pharmacist asked if I wouldn’t mind taking 3 months because that’s how they’re packaged. She even told me that if I run out of one medicine I didn’t need a prescription I could just come in and buy it. I didn’t have to show ID or sign my life away. Without insurance, I got 3 months worth of two types of medicine for less than dinner and drinks and dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. This might be a once in a lifetime experience but it totally overshadows all of the experiences I had back at home at my local Target pharmacy.

7)The Market- We don’t go every week because it can be a hassle but I love the Saturday markets. I can get lots of fresh veggies, fruit, bread, cheese, and more for reasonable prices. Plus, many of the stalls are local farmers so it’s better for the environment. Oh, and they sell warm stroopwafels there;)

8)History- There is so much history here! I love the States but compared to Europe, America is a baby. WWII definitely still has some influence on the way things are here and even on how the country looks. We’ve visited and seen building and remains that are hundreds if not thousands of years old. The house we live in is actually 100 years old. It’s mind boggling how much life has been lived here. Living in DC, I was exposed to more history than other parts of the States, but I am currently living in a city that is celebrating it’s 2000^th birthday!

9)Cafes- This is totally European and what everyone imagined we would be doing all of the time, but I love sitting at a café with a book or to people watch.  I honestly am too cheap to do it every day- drinks aren’t too expensive but they add up, even coffee and tea. However, on the weekend or a random weekday when we’re in the center of town, it’s nice to have a coffee or a beer and enjoy the surroundings.

Gearoid enjoying a beer at the oldest cafe in Nijmegen

10) Experiences- Of course living in a foreign country Gearoid and I want to experience as much as possible. While living here, we do more than we did at home. Of course we miss our friends and families and the milestones and moments we can’t share with them, but at the same time Gearoid and I are going out and living more life. For example, when we lived in DC there were always exhibitions, events, concerts, etc. going on. However, we were comfortable with our Netflix and catching up on sleep from a busy work week. Although we do hunker down with streamed television shows or a good book more days than not we attempt to make more of an effort to see and experience what’s happening around us. Since being here we have cycled to Germany, watched a Carnival parade, attended a world music festival, saw an American comedian, joined clubs, attempted other languages, and more. We still behave in a manner that suggests we’re middle aged instead of our early 30s but we are making active attempts to live a fuller life.

Gearoid with Lego Man at Carnival in Nijmegen

Pancake float at Carnival

Car Cafe at Music Meeting

Music Meeting

Enjoying Banana and Mango Beer at Music Meeting

Adventures in Baking Part II

I don’t know if I’m determined or stubborn or just dumb. As stated before, we don’t have an oven. We have a tiny contraption that “grills”, “bakes”, and microwaves (it actually does microwave ok).  However, when bummed, inspired, or hungry I get ambitious and want to try and bake. I completely forget my disappointment from the last adventure and eagerly start an inevitably disheartening experience.

You think I would have learned after making crumbly peanut butter cookies, half raw/half burned apple crisp, and a “friendship” cake that I ended up microwaving so that it would finally be cooked in the middle. But then one day I sort of succeeded. The summer heat and the gorgeous lemons at the market inspired me to make a lemon pound cake. Yes, instead of one hour it had to bake for three and half of it was not quite as moist as the other half but the slightly overdone top gave it a cookie-like crunch that was overall appealing. I was inspired.

1)      Bagels- why not? I found a basic recipe that only required me to pick up some yeast and I was intrigued by the boiling before baking.  The dough was perfect- light and elastic. The boiling was easy enough. The baking screwed me over. The first batch took double the time to bake and then were raw on the underside. The second batch I tried the combination dial of baking and microwaving at the same time. They came out rock hard. The third batch was the best but took 90 minutes to cook. Gearoid came home that day and asked what I did. I showed him my efforts- 8 misshapen raw or rock hard bagels. It wasn’t good.

Before Bagels

Boiling Bagels

After Bagels

2)      Cupcakes- Two days later after the bagel debacle I tried cupcakes. I considered it a dry run for Gearoid’s birthday. I had to send in something and cupcakes are traditional birthday fare in the States. Because I already had most of the ingredients I decided on simple vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting. I was a little more hopeful because recently I had found individual silicone cupcake pans that I could use in my tiny “oven.”  I still had to do two batches but was more optimistic about the outcome. I don’t know where this optimism comes from. When I tested the cupcakes after the additional baking time they were completely done in the middle. When I peeled off the silicone liners, they were raw around the outside. How does something bake and end up done in the middle but raw on the outside? I swallowed my disappointment, baked them longer, covered them with frosting, and then tried to cover up their not quite cupcakeness with some hagelslag (the chocolate sprinkles people eat on bread here).

Undesirable Cupcakes- didn't stop us from eating them though

3)      Birthday Cake- I bake for people. On their birthdays, when they have a baby, when they move into a house, because I like them. I bake and it was absurd to me that my failures with this “oven” would prevent me from baking a cake for Gearoid’s birthday. I knew it had to be simple so I wouldn’t waste too much time, ingredients, effort, and heartache. I found a chocolate bundt cake recipe and planned to bake it in my loaf pan because it fit in my “oven” and because all of my other pans are missing in one of the many places I have lived.  The loaf pan fits but it is too big to rotate so I had to rotate every 30 minutes. I did this for 2 hours but it was still raw in the middle. However, the top was browning past chocolate color to something darker. I covered it was foil and baked for another hour. After cooling the cake, I flipped it over, hoping the bottom wouldn’t have the same darker tint as on top and only 2/3 of the cake came out of the pan. There was no salvaging it in a way to share with others so it sits in our freezer as frozen crumbles.

Failed Birthday Cake

I leave each experience feeling defeated and at the same time considering alternatives. We plan to eventually invest in a proper oven but now doesn’t seem the time for a big purchase. Gearoid has lost sympathy for my failed attempts and instead of consoling me just makes sure that I clean up my mess and eats the failures hoping he doesn’t acquire salmonella from something that might not be baked completely.

Gearoid's Birthday

On Thursday June 9^th we celebrated Gearoid’s 31^st birthday. Unfortunately we missed having our friends and family around but we made due with just the two of us.

My preparations began Wednesday when I wrestled with cake ideas. We have a problem with a tiny oven that doesn’t really function the way I want it to. The way birthdays work in the Netherlands is that you supply the cake for your coworkers or you take them out for a drink. Not on their birthdays but on your birthday. You treat people on the day celebrating your existence. So, being a proud baker I wanted to make something impressive. However, culinary disasters here in the Netherlands have affected my confidence. I decided on a simple chocolate cake cooked in my loaf pan. Three hours later I had a cake that was overcooked on the top and collapsed when I cut it. 

Thursday morning, Gearoid stopped at the grocery store and picked up a couple of cakes to share with his co-workers. They rewarded the cake with a book by a Dutch author, a children’s book with your first 1000 Dutch words, a Josh Ritter CD, a gift certificate, and a bottle of the University’s beer. Yes, the university has its own beer.

Gearoid came home with a birthday boy bubbliness and I made him a special dinner of blue cheese mashed potato pizza (sounds weird but it was delicious). He opened his Martens-style (i.e. newspaper) wrapped video game and movies from me and enjoyed his birthday beer. We finished the evening with the edible parts of my failed cake topped with some Ben and Jerry’s. Small, intimate, and cozy- I do believe he had a nice birthday. 

4 Day Weekend

First of all, an apology for all of those few who actually read my blog. I strive for one a week but sometimes I’m late due to distractions such as Dutch homework or more recently my burning desire to re-read all of my Twilight books. The lack of vampires in my real life experiences has prevented me from sharing more of our Dutch adventures. Working through my addiction, here is an account of a long weekend we had a couple of weeks ago.

 I spoke to my Dad on Memorial Day weekend and he boasted to me about how they had Monday off. “Do you have Monday off? “he slyly asked. My response was something like, “Well actually, I have the entire week off and Gearoid has a four day weekend because apparently Jesus ascended to heaven this week.” And it was true. Gearoid had a long weekend to celebrate the ascension of Jesus.  For a non-denominational country, there are a lot of holidays that are because of something Jesus did. I think mostly, the Dutch like to have days off when the weather is warm so they cluster the federal/bank holidays during one time of the year and give Jesus the credit.

To enjoy the ascension of Jesus we did the following:

Thursday- We each “enjoyed” a run and then relaxed in our landlords’ pool. They were at their campsite for the weekend and asked us to water their plants. In exchange we got to use their pool. Private pools are not too common in Netherlands but it turns out that our neighbors on both sides of us have pools. When it’s actually hot outside, I usually sneak envious glares at the people enjoying the pools and wonder how I can befriend them. Turns out I just have to water the plants when they’re away.

Friday- We were invited out into the country to visit our landlords’ campsite. They have expressed that we need to spend more time outside and invited us out. It was a nice 13 kilometer bike ride and we only got lost twice. The sun was out and everything was bright and summerlike. Their campsite is actually on a farmer’s field who rents out plots to people who want to park their caravans. They are right on a man-made lake and it’s pretty peaceful. After a couple of hours we headed home only to realize our easy ride out to the country was made easier by the wind blowing with us. We rode home against the wind the entire way. The arduous journey was made more enjoyable by the views of the river and a field of Shetland ponies.

Right behind this beautiful view was a crazy busy and loud highway.

 After the bike ride to the country, we met some colleagues of Gearoid’s for ice cream and bowling. After a normal serving of ice cream (at that moment I missed the outlandish American portion sizes) we visited the nicest bowling alley ever. We didn’t just show up either. A few days earlier we had to make reservations to go bowling! Gearoid and I joked that in the States you only make reservations for fancy places- restaurants, golf, etc. Bowling alleys are supposed to be smoke filled, grungy, and greasy. So when we saw the bowling alley, we realized that it made sense to make reservations because this place was fancy! It was clean and smoke free, there was an outdoor terrace, a waitress came to our lane and took our drink orders. No pitchers of beer or fries here. Gearoid had a cappuccino before he had a Belgium beer and the menu boasted of having steak, paninis, and other non-traditional bowling alley food. The game was pretty much the same and I can say that my Wii professional bowling status has helped my real life game. Also, instead of playing by the game you play by the hour. So we were unexpectedly cut off during the middle of our third game. Overall, it was a pleasant experience.

Saturday- We started the day early again and took a trip to Rotterdam where we met up with some friends we knew from Africa.  The morning was cool and it was exciting to be standing on a train platform about the visit a new city. The trip was about 2 hours and with some promotional tickets we were able to enjoy the ride in first class which basically meant more leg room. We met our friend Ellenoor who gave us a tour around the city. Rotterdam is the most modern looking city in the Netherlands. It’s not bad but it lacks the charm you find almost everywhere else in the country. During WWII bombs practically destroyed the city and everything had to be rebuilt. We walked through retail lined streets, visited the harbor, ate lunch at the market, and enjoyed almost too much sunshine. Gearoid and I also took a tour of one of the cube houses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_house).  They are quite interesting to look at but I found them small and the illusion of having to watch out for sharp corners distracted me. Gearoid thinks we could lively happily in one but I think it’s better as a one person house. After our Rotterdam tour, we spent the rest of the day visiting with friends and took a late train back to Nijmegen.  We got home even later after we had to get off the train, take a 30 minute bus ride to another station, and then hop on the train again. Of course, we then had to ride our bikes home.

 Along the harbor there was a small "walk of fame" that was created mainly in the 90s. Gearoid is putting his hands in Meatloaf's hand-prints.

People actually live in these cubes. It was like a little city in itself with cafes, shops, and museums among the apartments.

Sunday- After 3 days of nonstop sun exposure and a lot of walking and bike riding we were exhausted. I slept in and Gearoid got some work done/watched Human Target. After “enjoying” a long run, I finished a book and enjoyed my latest addiction- episodes of Castle. For an unemployed person, I really enjoy my weekends. 

I'm Not In Africa!

We’ve been in the Netherlands for almost 5 months now and I am now fully realizing a mistake I’ve been making almost the entire time. I am not in Africa! I am in a fully developed country/society. Just because I don’t speak the native language and things can be different from the States, doesn’t mean this is anything like Africa. My mistake is that I keep comparing the Netherlands to Sierra Leone (Salone). I’ve done a lot of travelling and spent brief periods of time studying/working/volunteering in other countries. However, Sierra Leone and the Netherlands are the only two foreign countries that I have lived for extended periods of time. It’s only natural that I compare them. Although, I’m finding that my survival mechanisms from Sierra Leone are not necessary here.

I think part of the problem is that I’m finding experiences that I had in Sierra Leone here in the Netherlands. Less than a block from my house is an African shop where I can buy all of the cassava leaf, okra, hot peppers, potato leaves and other food found at the marketplace in Makeni that I want.  I make almost as many African dishes for dinner here as I did there. Also, the Dutch people that I knew at the hospital I worked at in sweet Salone, live in the Netherlands! Surprise, surprise- Dutch people in the Netherlands. I guess the surprise is not that they live here but that I live here now and have an opportunity to see them again.

At the same time, it’s almost absurd that I compare the two places. I always have running water, electricity, internet, entertainment, comforts, luxuries, and the modern world at my fingertips. However, my brain always skips to Africa when something different from home comes up.

Examples

1)      Heat- The heat in the Netherlands is nothing like the oppressive oven that is Sierra Leone. Only in December and January are you likely to feel a refreshing breeze in Salone. The weather here is pretty mild. There are four beautiful seasons without going to the extreme. In the winter, it will be cold and you may get some snow but not so much that schools and businesses are closed for weeks at a time due to lack of resources. Summer is warm but comfortably so. Of course, this is all based on what people have told me as I haven’t been here a full year. However, global warming is affecting the Netherlands as well and a month ago in spring we had extreme summer weather. The flowers that were slowly waking up all popped open and sagged in the heat. For two weeks there was no respite from the heat-no rain and no air conditioning.  I had flashbacks of Salone, the worst time being at night. Gearoid and I would lie on the bed stripped to our underwear (sorry family for the visual imagine) without any blankets or top sheets. We lay just so we wouldn’t risk touching each other or ourselves with our sticky humid skin. It was just like Salone but not. It took two days before it even crossed our minds to set up a fan facing the bed because there is ELECTRICITY in the Netherlands!

2)      Rain- The weather and the seasons are mild but there is a lot of rain. When I first moved here, I wasn’t able to email any pictures because there was so much rain. Even today as I write this, there are gray skies and rain is drizzling down. In Salone, when it rains people stay inside and wait for it to pass. People are late to work and school- if they even attempt to go out- because of the rain. I kind of miss that mentality and when I see the downpours outside of my giant windows I have to push Salone aside and accept the fact that I’m going to get wet and cold as I cycle to class and arrive on time. The rain doesn’t stop people here. Another American in town I know was enjoying a rainy day inside and happened to look out her window when another downpour began to see a Dutch girl hop off her bike, pull her rain gear out of her saddlebags, slip the pants and jacket over her clothes, and ride off into the rain in a span of 30 seconds. One day I hope to be as functional in the rain on my bike rather than resort to my learned Salonean instinct of staying in when it’s raining.

3)      Cheese- Gearoid and I are lovers of cheese. As our relationship has gone on this shared passion has grown. Although he prefers the super stinky moldy kind and I prefer the soft goat kind, we both agree that we enjoy all the kinds of cheese in between.  When in Salone, we were limited to Laughing Cow original that doesn’t need to be refrigerated.  Occasionally, when we visited Freetown, a place with refrigeration, we would splurge and pick up some cheese before going home to Makeni. Once home, we would have a feast. Because of our lack of fridge we would have to consume all of the cheese in one go. We would make multiple cheese sandwiches- cold and hot- or just eat it straight from its cellophane wrapper. Only once did we invite friends over to share in this feast and it was when we knew we only had a month left in the country and would soon have all the cheese we wanted in appropriate quantities. We would go to bed beyond satisfied feeling bloated and salty and sleep off our cheese hangovers. It was disgusting but desperate times call for desperate measures. Being in the Netherlands, we’ve had to fight the urge to consume terrific amounts of cheese in one go. At first we were satiated with the ever-present Gouda. We received as a welcome gift a kilo of cheese and it only lasted a week. The next kilo was luckier and lasted 2 weeks. However, the presence of Gouda everywhere has made us miss cheddar, mozzarella, and feta- cheeses that are more present in the States. We “treat” ourselves to a block of feta for Greek inspired salads and act as if it is a precious fossil fuel that will run out eventually. We’re ridiculous. The grocery store is two blocks away and has feta, mozzarella, cheddar, gouda, and more. There is a cheese store 12 minutes away by bike that has the stinky moldy kind and the soft goat kind. We’re not in Africa! Cheese is everywhere here!

4)      Food Homesickness- Often a Friday night would find us at Ibrahim’s in Makeni sitting at plastic lawn furniture, risking ours elves to malarial mosquitoes, and discussing food we missed from home over hummus, soggy fries, and Star beers.  In the moment it wasn’t the best of times but looking back I miss our group of expats and the fun we found together. We would discuss broccoli and cauliflower, tortillas, ice cream, cakes, grapes, berries, and more. Occasionally apples would make it to town and we would pay an exorbitant price for one apple and receive with it an onslaught of other memories of food from home. To battle the food homesickness we would come up with inventive ways to treat ourselves and each other occasionally. Our house managed to make versions of pasta with blush sauce, French toast, and garlic bread. Our friends managed pancakes, pizza, pasta salad, pumpkin pie, and on someone’s birthday fondue was made from a crazy amount of Laughing Cow.  A couple of months ago, I found myself trying to recreate these reminiscent conversations. Gearoid and I met an American couple who live in Nijmegen at a café in town. Eventually the conversation came around to things we miss from home and a little bit into the conversation I started to describe this dark moist bread that Gearoid and I had discovered at the grocery store. I even nicknamed it “brownie” bread because it looks and feels like a brownie but tastes like bread. I described as if we were living in a place with limited food options and we had found this rare deliciousness. Gearoid gave me a look and reminder that WE’RE NOT IN AFRICA! There are all kinds of food here and many of them are similar to home. I looked around the café with its candles lit for atmosphere rather than to prevent malarial mosquito bites and reminded myself again that I’m not in Africa and I am capable of talking about other things than bread I found at the grocery store. 

So now that I’ve realized this mistake I have been guilty of, hopefully I will stop starting sentences with “when I was Africa” as a comparison to something in the Netherlands. I also hope to eat cheese in healthy quantities again.

Making Laughing Cow Fondue In Salone

Cheese Shop in Nijmegen

 Market in Nijmegen

Market in Sierra Leone

Bike Ride to Germany

The weather was beautiful on Saturday and instead of wasting it inside catching up on American TV shows that we miss or reading our books, we decided to go on a bike ride to Germany. We literally live minutes from the border but is still weird for me to say “bike ride to Germany.”  The closest I’ve lived to another country’s border was when we lived in Syracuse, NY and were a few hours away from the Canadian border. When wanting to visit another country, I’m used to double checking on my passport’s presence and then boarding some sort of train/plane/boat/or automobile. So the fact that we rode our bikes over a border without a passport is still a little mindboggling.

It was so anti-climatic. We literally rode on a little path with overgrown bushes on both side and saw the Duitsland sign. Once we left the “secret” (using the adjective “secret” makes it seem a little more adventurous) path the only thing that made us realize we were no longer in the Netherlands was that the road signs were now in German. My Dutch is still pretty basic but now I recognize more road signs. While in Germany, I had to use Gearoid to translate.

I’m jumping the gun though. We left the house with me nervous about how long Gearoid was going to have me ride a bike and him nervous that I would become a shrieking shrew if it became too difficult. I don’t mind riding bikes but Gearoid is like the Energizer Bunny. He can ride and ride and ride whereas I need limits. How long or what’s our destination? Also, if I am in some combination of hungry, tired, overexerted, thirsty, hot, cold, or have to use the bathroom he’s in the danger zone.  So of course to go to Germany, we had to go up. The Netherlands is pretty much flat with a few random hills to mess with me. There is a place referred to as the 7 Hills which of course is the way we went to get to Germany. Gearoid and I both got off lucky though. He was only called “annoying” once in English and Dutch (vervelend!) by the shrieking shrew (i.e. me) and the hills although challenging were actually enjoyable- especially the extremely fast down hills.  It helped that the weather was just right- not too hot or too chilly- and the landscape was beautiful. The 7 hills gave the landscape a “rolling” effect and everything was in Technicolor. The fields were so green and if they weren’t filled with onions or chard there were usually several horses enjoying the greenery. Right before we entered the secret path to Germany, we happened upon a historical landmark that indicated that the fields we were passing were used as a runway for planes during WWII. I know the States has history but it is quite fascinating to me to just happen upon a field that was used during a significant period of history.

We then crossed over to Germany and enjoyed the now German scenery to a little town called Kranenburg. The town was honestly a little creepy. For a Saturday, it was very quiet with no open shops and few people walking about. We did manage to find some open cafes near a fountain artistically depicting a couple of bulls and decided to stop for a drink and lunch before heading back to the Netherlands.

The total round trip distance was 17 miles. It was enough for me but has Gearoid dreaming of a bicycle trip to the Black Sea this summer.

Marikenloop

I originally joined my running club here to begin running again and to meet people. I also picked up some Dutch words. I joined the beginners group and our ultimate goal was to be able to finish a 5K by the end of the 6 weeks in a reasonable amount of time. The Marikenloop happened to fall at the end of the 6 weeks. It is a really unique 5K in which only women (and about 10,000 of them) are allowed to participate. Donations raised are sent to programs that empower and educate girls in Africa.

I have run many 5Ks before, admittedly some slower than others, but I’ve always finished. The women in my running club are pretty fit looking women and for many of them the idea of running the 5K was scary. There also seemed to be some kind of idea that you would fail if you walked at all. In fact, last year a woman died participating and this year a woman was rushed to the hospital where she ended up receiving angioplasty.  I know more competitive people (i.e. Gearoid) who believe the time is what matters. I firmly believe that finishing alive and breathing is the most important thing. I did have to stop myself for a 30 second break because the feeling of needing to throw up was interfering with my need to breathe. In the end though, I ran 99.9% of the race and finished at a personal best at 33 minutes and 26 seconds. It was a proud moment and I was happy to meet with my running group buddies and Gearoid at the finish line.

The Marikenloop was very similar to many of the 5Ks I’ve run at home with a few differences:

1)      Warm ups- Warm ups were pretty intensive.  In the States, it’s everyone for themselves. I often saw people running as a warm up before the race and had the attitude that I wasn’t going to run anymore than necessary. However, my running group warmed up with stretches and a brief run around the park and the Marikenloop had a professional on stage leading us through stretches and Zumba-like moves. It contributed to the festive atmosphere though and it eradicated my usual feeling of “Why the hell am I doing this” when I first start with stiff legs and cold lungs.

2)      Cattle herding- So there were no cows present but we were herded like them. When you register for the race you have to estimate how long it may take you. The day of the race you receive a personalized bib with your name and a color dot that determines what fenced in area you will wait in before the race. When I signed up, it must have been at the beginning of my training because I marked 45 minutes and ended up the green group. Green didn’t mean “go” though and I was in the last pen with the rest of the slower runners.  Luckily, a couple of girls from my running club also made this mistake and joined me in the green pen. I thought maybe I would sneak up to the orange group which estimated a 35 minute finish time but people were actually at the opening of the pens checking your dots. You could be slower but you couldn’t be faster. It makes sense. I’ve been in races in which posters bob around uselessly in the places where you should be (6 minute mile runners, 12 minute mile runners, walkers, etc) but inevitably some walkers want a closer view of the “action” at the beginning and clog up the runners or a person overestimates his/her ability and suddenly bends over panting a quarter of a mile in making a runner behind him/her nearly trip and fall. So overall, cattle herding although a little demeaning was useful.

3)      Metric System- Even races in the states call themselves 5Ks or 10Ks, but the markers along the way are in miles. A 5K is 3.1 miles, and although there are more kilometers they go by quicker. Ok, I know distance is distance but it was nice to see the 1K marker much sooner than I would the 1 mile marker. When I was struggling to the 3K marker I reminded myself that it was pretty close and wouldn’t you know it but it was! In fact, it was much closer than the 3 mile marker which was like 2K away. I haven’t fully embraced the metric system since being here but I do find kilometers a lot more motivating than miles.

4)      Flowers- The Dutch love their flowers and bouquets. At the finish line around the starting area there were free yogurt samples, lockers, porta-potties, smoothie stands, beer gardens, an ice cream truck, a bounce house for kids and the most amusing area- a flower stand. An informational email sent before the race even bragged about the flower stand. What’s even more amusing is how many people who finished the race were carrying around bouquets of flowers. Viewers at the finish line held bouquets to bequeath on to their loved ones after they crossed the finish line and received their free bottle of water and medal commemorating their success. Although it is a very sweet and sentimental gesture, if you ever come to watch me finish a race please bequeath on me a giant bag of peanut M&Ms instead of flowers. M&Ms would be much more appreciated by me.

5)      Late starting time- The race didn’t begin until 1PM. Most of the races I’ve done in the States begin early in the morning so that normal traffic patterns can resume as soon as possible. Also, as a runner you have the rest of your day to enjoy/recover/whatever. My morning was spent trying to eat the right amount for energy but not too much so I wouldn’t feel it bouncing in my stomach, trying to drink the right quantity of water so I was hydrated but didn’t have to use the bathroom too much, trying to warm up but not too much so I didn’t use all of the energy from the limited food and hydration from the right quantity of water- you know the usual stuff but for an extended period of time.  By the time I got home, I felt like the day was practically over. However, there is a reason for this madness. People from all over the Netherlands participate in the Marikenloop. The race is at 1PM so people can be greener (referring to the environment and not the level of slowness you may run) and take the train to the race instead of driving. The country is small enough that everyone can participate.  Coming from such a giant country, I never even considered this.

Differences aside it was great race for an even greater cause. It was also nice to see an audience of mostly men at the finish line.