Goed (pronounced like hoot, but with a very hard H) means good

Saturday morning and there’s not a minute to waste. The stores are open on Saturday, but not on Sunday. During the week, they close at 5:00, except for one evening a week when they stay open until 8:00. This may turn out to be the biggest cultural difference between the Netherlands and the US.

Knowing that my air shipment will be delivered early Monday morning, I want to get the house ready to live in. That means my shopping list is long and I only have one day to complete it.

First stop, Ikea! For this I have to get the address so I can enter it into the Neverlost. I’m still nervous to drive here, so this is a big adventure. With the Neverlost navigator I only took a couple of wrong turns. It turns out this Ikea is so new the address doesn’t register in the Neverlost system. I park in the huge, free parking ramp. A luxury around here for sure!

Inside, I do really well at finding an ironing board, two floor lamps, a small cabinet with drawers for the bathroom, a rolling clothing rack, and several large plastic recycling bins. I struggled at checkout, though. I pulled out my MasterCard and she said they don’t take MasterCard. She kept saying I should use my PIN card – which I don’t have. I was starting to panic a bit, and then I pulled out a rarely used Visa card. Bingo! They take Visa, just not MasterCard. Odd, but OK. Overall the prices at Ikea were quite a bit lower than the little stores in Bussum, which was nice. And with so much bulky stuff, I was glad to be able to take it to my car in the cart. In the US we don’t think twice about this, but things are different here.

After dropping off the Ikea items at the house, I walked into Bussum to order the washer and dryer. The real estate agent had recommended a store and also told me to ask for a discount for buying both items together. I did as told and was surprised by how much discount he gave me. They also deliver and install which is good because they have to go on the third floor and I can’t read the directions in Dutch! By Friday, I should be able to do laundry properly! I also picked up an iron and a clock radio.

I hauled the iron and the radio back to the house and went out again to buy some groceries. I headed to the discount grocery store back in town. As I entered, I saw the lady in front of me put 50 cents into the lock to release the cart. I saw another person return a card and get her 50 cents back. Interesting. I didn’t have the right coin, so I was limited to what I could hold in my hands. I picked up a few basics and went to check out. I was watching the other people loading their stuff into cloth bags – I didn’t see any plastic grocery bags. I asked the checkout lady and she said, yes they have bags. So after I paid for my stuff, she pulls out a bag and says it will be 10 cents. WTF? I don’t necessarily mind paying for the shopping bag, but she could have charged me for it with my groceries, don’t you think? Oh well, she seemed kind of mean.

I dropped off the groceries at the house, and went out again to buy some cleaning supplies (dish soap, floor cleaner, laundry detergent, shampoo, shower soap, etc). I went to another store for this. They were nicer and even had regular shopping bags.
Back at the hotel, I decided to walk up the street to explore a few stores on that side of town. I found a more up-scale grocery store which was much nicer to shop in. They had nicer food and the checkout lady was pleasant. That’s a relief after my previous experience.

Finally, I was able to relax knowing that I had gotten so much accomplished. I sat down for dinner in the hotel restaurant. The food is good, but the service is abysmal. I was quietly eating (I’m pretty sure they brought me the wrong meal) and reading my Kindle, when I heard the hostess telling someone that all of their tables were booked. I looked up and recognized one of the guys from the Cincinnati office. I waved him over to join me at my table. He’s not from my group, but sometimes joined us for lunch in the Cinci cafeteria. It was nice to have someone to eat with, even if we had trouble getting the wait staff to serve him.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. I did some cleaning at the house and hand-washed some clothes to tide me over until the washer is delivered on Friday. I picked up the yard a little and met the next door neighbor. There are lots of kids in the neighborhood and everyone seems friendly enough. After a nice relaxing Sunday, I’m ready for the rat race to start again!