I can say that I get more and more shocked and a bit annoyed whenever I visit the USA. It is like reverse culture shock. I have been living in the Netherlands for two years now. Before the pandemic, I visited the USA several times. There are some things that I just cannot get over once I became accustomed to the Dutch way of living. Don’t get me wrong, I…
Did you know that there are several Dutch islands very close to mainland Netherlands? I finally got to visit one of them this weekend with my boyfriend. I had a pretty hard few days, so we decided to visit Texel for the weekend. We took a short ferry ride of only about 20 minutes from the mainland city of Den Helder to Texel. The trip in total took a bit…
I have lived in the Netherlands for a little over two years now. The reason I am here is that my boyfriend is Dutch. Over my two years here, I have learned a lot about Dutch culture and have changed my lifestyle completely. I get a lot of questions about living in the Netherlands, so I decided to make this blog post answering the most commonly asked questions I get.…
I grew up in an ultra-orthodox Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. My father was born in Moscow, Russia, and my mother was born in Babruysk, Belarus. Both of my parents grew up not religious and became religious later in life. For most of my life, I lived in a big Russian speaking Jewish community. When I move to New York City years later, I lived a few streets away…
If we are thinking of all the years in the last few decades, 2020 was probably the hardest, at least it was for me. So many things didn’t go as planned. It was like living in a never-ending limbo. 2021 has started, and I am still living in limbo, but I have things to look forward to. I think a lot of us feel the same way about this year.…
Biking in the cold is no easy feat, especially if you have no other choice. You may freeze your patootie off, but if you’re a Dutchie or a transplant to the Netherlands, you’re still going to bike to wherever you need to go like work. I cycle everywhere. I don’t have a Dutch driver’s license yet, so my bike takes me everywhere. The Netherlands doesn’t accept my American driver’s license…
Sometimes we just need some quick salad to put on a sandwich when we don’t feel like cooking. Canned salmon was something I grew up eating. It was always quick and easy to make. It’s great for making a sandwich with, putting on crackers, and mixing with anything like spaghetti or even rice. I usually have a can of it lying around somewhere to mix with veggies when I need…
If you are a book lover like I am, you understand that there’s not much that’s better than sitting down to a brand new physical book. I know a lot of people like to read books on their phone or kindle, but that just isn’t me. The only time I really read on my phone was when I was sitting on the train to work in NYC. I didn’t want…
As far as I can remember, I’ve struggled with acne on my face. It was never super bad, but it was always there. I tried so many different creams and face washes to get rid of it. I tried to remove things from my diet, like sugar and dairy. I’m from Wisconsin, so cutting out dairy is really hard. Wisconsin is known as America’s dairyland. That never really worked. I…
I love fresh spring rolls. There are so many different kinds of spring rolls out there. Some are made with fish, others from meat, or even noodles. So I decided to try to make some with shrimp and fresh veggies. I have been wanting to make them for months. I finally got motivated because my sister kept telling me to try to make new things. Usually, I cook what I…
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