Settling Down

Day 6 - Dinsdag

It was the day when the washing machine and dryer to be delivered to our place. His dad came around 1pm and we moved the furniture to clear some space for the new machines. After 2 hours of waiting, no one knocked on our door yet. We called the driver and he was lost. "LOST!", surprise!

Fifteen minutes later, they were here. I heard the sound of the machine kicking the stairs and a guy "roaring" while pushing it up to our floor ;) Here they are, one sweating guy and one smiling lady holding an electronic device (no idea what it is). The EXPERT team in their orange T-shirt gave us a friendly greeting and I offered them orange juice before the installation started (do it in the Dutch friendly way). :)

The guy gave very clear instruction on how to use the machines in Dutch (of course). While his dad was trying to learn from the guy, I tried to search for English user manuals. Sorry, here's the EU continent. They have every European languages (e.g. French, German....) except English (Engel)! This's when you will find Google Translate very helpful ;)

After installation, we took first a tram, then a train to Haarlem for dinner. It's less than 30-min ride in total. When I stepped out from the Haarlem's train station, I was impressed! "Wow! That's a huge parking area for the bikes???!!!" So, everyone heads to take their bikes and starts the last part of journey getting home.

Day 7 - Woensdag

The weather was getting warmer and warmer to around 25 degrees. It's about the same in HK. Sun was up to get away my Winter jackets and change back to my short sleeves.

I spent most of the time searching online for good cooking websites and simple recipes are necessary for survival! Yes, for SURVIVAL~~~~ ;) Thereafter, I had my shopping list for my grocery orientation in the supermarket by myself! The goals were to:
1) try to recognize the food and its name in Dutch (認識各式各樣的食物 & 荷蘭名稱)
2) get to know how they price each product and compare prices in different supermarkets (格價 & 做個精明的消費者!)

At the end of the day, we had chicken mushroom spaghetti in cream sauce with parsley & sage sprinkles which surprised our tongues :):) Here's the recipe to share:
http://simplyrecipes.ziplist.com/recipes/588410-Chicken_Breasts_with_Mushroom_Sage_Sauce?return_to=%2Frecipes%2Fbox

The first week of settling is gone. I'm getting more accustomed to the lifestyle here:
- search for new recipes
- create shopping list
- shop in the supermarket
- prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner
- do laundries, dry the clothes
- study for exams
- walk around to get familiar with the neighborhood (sometimes in the rain without an umbrella as no one was having their umbrella neither even it rained so hard)
- seeing family & friends on Friday night & weekend