PSAT Info for Expats and What I ate in Leiden

Being an expat isn't easy all the time, not only are you consumed by your everyday living in a foreign country, but you know this is not your final landing spot so you also have to remember to keep up on what is happening in your home country. One of these things we have to keep up with since we have an almost 16 year old is college prep.

It gets a bit difficult here because her school, even though it is an international school, is really more of a Dutch school and they have no idea why I am concerned about getting my kid ready to go to college. In fact, I recall during one conference last year when she was a freshman I made mention of college and they acted like I was a complete dolt because well, everyone goes to college. I quickly remembered I needed to switch things to University and they became a little more understanding, but you could tell they still thought I was a bit of a crackpot. But, luckily it has just been 10 years since I graduated uni myself so I sort of remember the process. I know next year she needs to get in for the SAT or ACT, so I wanted her to sit in on the PSAT this year; lucky for us, there is an American school nearby. 

Somewhere between Leiden and The Hague there is a little town called Wassenaar and it hosts the American School of The Hague. Let me tell you, my daughter was in love. This place was very American and all the people in it were just about all Americans. Too bad it costs an arm and a leg and possibly your first grandchild to have your kid attend-otherwise I'd have my kid there in a heartbeat. Anyway, they give all the testing you'd normally find in the U.S. at the same time as you'd find it in the U.S. The woman who handles it all was a dream-she even suggested hotels we could stay at (it is about an hour to get from Amsterdam to the School and in the early morning, as you had to arrive at 8am it would take nearly 2 hours so that means we would have had to leave our house ready to go by 5:45 am...that wasn't happening). So, we stayed at a hotel nearby in Leiden called Hotel Van der Valk. I have only felt stranded with out a car two times in my life and this was one of the two times. There was nothing nearby, as we got the feel it was mostly for business use. Luckily the hotel had a restaurant that wasn't horribly over priced. 

So, after a nice relaxing evening checked into our hotel with the worlds best bathtub and a good nights sleep I took her to the school and she completed the PSAT. I have no idea how she did nor do we really care, this was just a chance for her to see what the who testing experience was like and get a feel for it. Now the real prep begins.

So, since we weren't in Amsterdam of course I took the opportunity to take lots of photos of everything I ate...so without further ado, I present...

What I Ate Wednesday

Linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons, come join the rest of the par-tay!

We left Amsterdam later than I wanted to, but the kiddo had had a long day and we just could not get moving, so when we sat down at the restaurant in the hotel we just wanted something light and easy because we knew we'd be going to bed soon, so we settled on french onion soup and bread.

'Twas delicious!

For dessert I had an Irish Coffee, the brought the cutest little tray of cookies with it (one of the reasons I freaking love Europe) and I had a tasty Speculaas cookie-I think that is what it was, it is kind of like a gingerbread cookie, it is nice and spicy.

The next morning we got up for breakfast, they had a very nice buffet set out and everything was nice and warm.

I had a waffle, my only complaint is the syrup. It reminds me more of molasses than syrup. But, it is still pretty good. I had that along with some eggs and a little bacon and some obviously canned peaches, but that is okay, I love canned peaches. Remind me of childhood and my favorite song by Presidents of the United State of America.

...and incase you've never heard the song, it is awesome so here it is...

After a long walk, nearly an hour, in the cold trying to find anything to do around our hotel I was too cold and gave up so I went back and had a coffee with more speculaas.

Then, it was finally time for me to pick the kiddo up from her test, we rode the bus to The Hauge Central Station instead of Leiden so we could see somewhere new...we got Julia's pasta to go on the train. I love that you can get pasta to go, it is simply amazing.

So, that sums up our trip to Leiden. It was fun and we have a much more confident teenager about studying for and taking the SAT next school year. Anyone have any tips for studying? If so, drop 'em in the comments, we'd love to hear 'em!

A Perfect Day, filled with Perfect Eats

Last Friday we had a very busy day, well, I did at the very least. It was probably the only summer day we are going to have this year in Amsterdam so I made sure to enjoy it, too bad the kids had to be in school!

I somewhat kid...it was 33C out, now we are back in the 50s and climbing into the 60s..we are supposed to have one more day this week where it reaches the 30s but it is supposed to thunderstorm all day. I love living here but the weather is really hard to deal with, but everywhere has a down side, right?! So, I will just go on and tell y'all about the most awesomest summer day ever!

Today I'm linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday.

Our day started with a lovely sunrise bike ride and picnic...

If you are curious, in the Netherlands to achieve this perfect sunrise...you must be awake at 4:45 to pack your picnic and be out the door by 5:05 to cycle to where you want to watch the sunrise at 5:20..on this day, now it is almost rising at 5:15.

Was so worth the early wake up to have some early morning eats with this girl in the calm morning light.

Our spread...Pofferjtes (I warmed them and put them in foil to keep them warm), banana, peanut butter, whipped cream, nutella, and strawberries.

It was delicious and such a tasty treat!

A view from behind the dune area.

After getting everyone off to work and school I said screw the nap and decided it was a great idea to bike 16km one way with my good friend and her 2 year old to a medieval castle that was built in the 1200's...Muiderslot. 

You can tell I am tired.

Along this route there were free roaming sheep! They belonged to farm as they were tagged, but they just grazed along the bike path and down near the water. It was so amazing. The path is only open from March to October.

We arrived at the castle and it was a gorgeous day to let my friends son run around.

I drank this awesome Lemonade from there tavern...

With the lemonade in the pink cup I also had a bottle of water and a boterham sandwich...which you would think has ham...no matter how many times I see this here I don't think it will ever sink in that "boterham" is just the tradition Dutch sandwich: butter (yes, like real butter), cheese, and this one also had lettuce and honey mustard. They are very good, don't knock 'em 'til ya try 'em!

This is a shot I think of the Ijslameer on our ride home, we rode over a giant huge bridge. Was so fun!

After that I raced home to pack our beach bag and meet the teenager. On my bike ride to her school I snacked on a nectarine. It was so delicious!

We were trying to smile through the heafty clouds we saw rolling in when we pulled in to the Haarlem train station which is two stops from the beach. The doors opened and it was very chilly.

...because it had started raining when we stepped off the train it wasn't easy to find a place that had seating...but we found a quiet place with a nice menu about a half mile from the train station, thank goodness it was only drizzling.

After this photo it started pouring and was lightening! ha!

This was after the heavens opened and the storm started to move away. The chairs are facing away from the water as they were trying to clean up and bring everything in. Here you can rent beach chairs by the hour or day.

The kiddo and I both decided on fish and chips because of the cooler, rainy weather. It was amazing.

This was our excited, yup we deserve some appletaart!

Mmmm...appeltaart and slagroom!

After dinner we went for a walk on the beach. We were doing our best to not be incredibly sad we didn't get to surf.

The sunset made it worth going out there even though we didn't get to play in the water...

...but we did...we weren't leaving without putting our feet in the North Sea. It was chilly, but actually warmer than the air outside! ha!

By the time all was said and done I'd drank a total of 5 of these bottles and could have gone for more! This bottle is one of my top travel essentials and I never go anywhere without it since it is self filtering.

I hope you enjoyed my eats with a little recap of our one summer day. To learn more about going to the beach in the Netherlands check out these posts: A day at the beach part 1, part 2, part 3.

Has summer arrived where you live? How do you remember to stay hydrated?

Keukenhof Tulip Gardens

Last Saturday the family and I finally make it to the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens! I discovered this place about two weeks too late last year after we moved here....you see This place is only open about eight weeks out of the year. Timing is everything if you go too early you may not see much blooming, but if you go too late then many things will have already bloomed and be cleaned up.

We went April 25th, this last week of April/first week of May seems to be a good time to go as every single type of flower on display was blooming. From talking to other people, this last week of April/first week of May time frame seems to be fairly consistent from year to year.

Each year the garden coordinators usually focus on a country to feature, but this year they chose Vincent Van Gogh as their feature display. This is the 125th anniversary of his death so they decided to pay tribute to him.

The Keukenhof was one of those things where I was afraid to actually go. I had heard so many wonderful things and saw so many wonderful photos that I wholeheartedly expected to be let down. But, you know what? The gardens certainly delivered. We all left feeling more enriched and happy we went. The greenhouses were full of amazing diplays from Van Gogh's art works brought to life to beautiful wedding displays. Despite the number of people at the park for the Corso (a yearly parade) it was still a wonderful time.

A bit about our trip...

We went after breakfast. We did get stuck in 90 minutes worth of traffic as we left the house about 10:30, arrived at the airport where we picked up the shuttle around 11. We wound up arriving at the Keukenhof at a little after 1pm. If I were to do this again I would leave the house by 8am. Once we were off the shuttle we found a side entrance where we walked right in...make sure you find the alternative entrance, the main entrance is a madhouse. We knew we wanted to make the most of our time there but wanted to leave no later than 3:30 as there was a sign that had tour busses scheduled to leave at 5pm, since we were in traffic on the way there we knew we did not want to hit traffic on the way back. So, we began our stroll conscious of the time...it really was plenty of time.

So...here is what we saw...

These were probably my favorite flower/display: Synaeda King and Giuseppe Verdi

I loved these hot pink ones!

The first green house we entered was the Oranje Nassau it was a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh. There were several reprints of his artwork displayed along with flowers that were similar in fashion to ones he painted. 

There were even a few exhibits that were sort of interactive but they were so busy I didn't bother with them, nor did I need to...admiring his artwork in this capacity was enough for me.

The big display was one of his famous self-portraits redone in tulips. I feel as though we were so lucky to see this. The entire thing was blooming and even as early as the week before we went there were some that were still just green. I love everything to do with Vincent Van Gogh, so to see this in full bloom was a real treat for me. Hubby even stood in the long line to get on the grand stand and see it with me even though I told him he didn't have to...that is love folks. 

Some of the flower fields. A sea of red.

Loving the XXX in flowers.

I love how they recycled some of these cribs into a piece of artwork. Also, see where all those people are, that is near the windmill where you can climb up and an area where you can book a cruise through some of the flower fields..we didn't do that...nothing was worth fighting those lines.

This was a really fun bridge to play on. 

Colour!

 This was the only other green house we fought to get into...the weeding displays! They were really pretty. But it was super packed, we did a quick tour around then had to get out.

We loved the displays with these little pineapple looking flowers, they just looked so happy and almost tropical.

Hyacinth...this smelled amazing. Just wow.

This was a magical experience and I would highly recommend actually planning a trip around this even to visit The Netherlands. 

It is a spectacular experience. Here are my tips for making the most of your experience:

• Purchase your tickets in advance
• Leave early to get there when the Gardens open
• Enter through one of the alternative entrances, just ask anyone in a yellow vest
• Eat before you go, restaurants get really packed and seemed over priced in my opinion
• Bring a water bottle...lines for drinks and food were extremely long
• Don't forget your camera
• Expect to deal with large amounts of crowds, so be patient

This is something that is fun for the whole family since everything is paved so you can bring a pram/stroller, there is playground equipment for the littles, and the teeanger thanked us several times for giving her the opportunity to go. Not once did she complain and she was very in to seeing the displays and all the flowers in bloom. 

As a final note, if you are a fearer of bees because you swell horribly (almost to allergic reaction proportions like me) or are allergic I am happy to report we didn't see a single bee. I am not sure how that was possible and worries me slightly, but I really was glad because it meant I didn't need to worry.

So, I highly recommend you plan a trip to see this at some point, well worth it!

P.S. Make sure you check out the Reasons to Travel link up over at Reasons to Dress!