Hagelslag and a Snow Day in Amsterdam

I had the best intentions of documenting my expat experience here in Amsterdam and what it was like to get a teaching job overseas. But the reality is that life is crazy. It is a roller coaster ride, one of the loopy, make you want to throw up ones. It's not an easy thing to completely uproot your life no matter how much you may want it. And I wanted it. I still want it, but it is different than what my expectations were. The blog is going to take a different direction. Yes, I will still give some tips about getting a job abroad (it is recruiting season again after all).  Yes, I will tell some good stories and post great photos, but I will also be honest.


That said, the reason I am able to sit an write this post is because I am sitting in the comfort of my apartment overlooking the brown waters of a canal enjoying a snow day. This is one of the benefits of working at a school. Since safety is the number 1 priority, school gets cancelled for things like snow, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Today was predicted to be a gnarly storm of a day, but as it turned out, it wasn't bad at all. I spent the morning experimenting with hagelslag which is part of a Dutch balanced breakfast. Hagelslag is basically sprinkles, yes like the kind you would put on a cupcake. The Dutch do it for breakfast on top of buttered bread. This was an amazing thought to me, so I decided to try it out. You can't really go wrong with chocolate, butter, or bread, so my hopes were high. It didn't disappoint. While I couldn't see eating this for breakfast everyday, it was a nice chocolaty treat that sort of tasted like eating a piece of cake.

Breakfast was a success, so I moved on to mailing a package to send to my family for Christmas. I had been scouting out how to do this for quite some time, so I felt confident in following this through. I went to my local Albert Hein grocery store where they proudly displayed the PostNL sign. From what I understand, any shop that has this orange and white sign will be able to act like a post office. It was a success, and my package is on its way to New Jersey (I hope). I went around and did a couple other things while I was out and sort of enjoyed the chilly air and the crunching snow under my boots. The bikes were all covered in snow, but that doesn't stop people from hopping on and moving on with their day. Getting on with my day involved some Kraft Mac and Cheese that I got from the expat grocery store, Kings Almarkt. I never thought I would miss something like mac and cheese, but I had a nostalgic moment at the store and had to pay the price. The merchandise is expensive, but when you are feeling in need of a piece of home, it is well worth the extra euros.

After several hectic months, this snow day was a bright point in my roller coaster expat life.