A New Discovery

There are a lot of things that I love in life.

Books.

Food.

A well spun ball of yarn.

And also, Starbucks. Back in America, my mom went there on occasion. We loved Starbucks.  But then we moved to Europe and although there are Starbucks in major cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, we don't get to Starbucks very often.

For our summer vacation, we went to Austria. We lived on bread, fruit, and other fresh food. We adored it and almost started crying when we had to leave. But we stopped in Munich, Germany on the way home and there was was a Starbucks!  And it was at this particular Starbucks, that I fell in love.  Never in my life had I conceived of such a delicious and comforting beverage . . .a steamed milk with almond flavoring.

Wow! I spent the next week, while my dearly beloved grandparents were here, dreaming of that wonderful drink.  Eventually the gears clicked in my head and I realized that we already had in our possession an espresso machine capable of steaming milk and therefore all I needed was almond flavoring.

I was, meanwhile, coming to appreciate tea as well.  While out birthday shopping with Grandma, we stumbled into a lovely tea shop and there on the shelf I saw it: almond flavoring.  I nearly cried with joy. and we studied our options.

For 20 Euros, there was a large bottle which probably would be unable to fit in any of our cupboards. For 6 Euros I found a delightful little bottle which we ended up buying.  I went home with my treasure, delighted, and willingly shared it with my family and friends.  However, I had forgotten that sharing one's syrup freely also causes the bottle to drain quickly, and I found myself with enough for one more cup, which I have been saving for my birthday.

However, I found an amazing recipe for the syrup, and I can say with certainty that it works. I love it.

The End

A Post That is NOT an Excuse for Not Posting!

I am officially the most lazy person in the world when it comes to blogging. I am so utterly lazy that I haven't even posted!

I just said this to myself and slapped myself in the process. I do feel sorry but I've been busy.

Very busy.

Very busy indeed.

(And No!This isn't an excuse for not posting!)

Well, let's just say that our imaginary world has had the action continually picking up for it. My siblings and I have been writing about it on a separate blog, but that blog is not open for public viewing yet. It will be in three years, though, and we intend to keep it open as a memoir of our three years here.

I will indeed post more, and I intend to do so.

-Mia

(P.S There are absolutely no exceptions, and I'm afraid that we can't let ANYONE read the other blog yet)

Abe's Autobiography: Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The issues basically started as soon we got to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye. With our dear friends surrounding us, including our Grandpa and Grandma, we set off to security and to our gate. But there was a problem: our flight got delayed for a long time, and I needed to save all the interesting stuff to do for the flight. What was a guy to do? We waited in the waiting room until we couldn’t wait any longer.

Finally, my mom took us to get a snack and by the time we returned we were beckoned into yet another waiting room and from there we landed onto a depressingly large plane. I ate candy that my faithful grandma had packed me and was (so my sisters tell me) more involved with it than the dramatic exit a chapter of my life was taking. It was fun at the beginning (by that I mean the first ten minutes), and the candy helped but after that, we were all so tired that we fell asleep.

As soon as I woke up, I got my first view of the Netherlands, and I thought it looked wonderful. An hour later we landed at Schipol, the main airport in Noord-Holland, and we were greeted by not much security, Daddy (who had left three weeks ago), and a Real American Starbucks. We picked up our luggage and went outside to wait for a cab. Due to circumstances beyond our control we had to wait a little bit for the cab and finally we reached Melkpad: the home of our dreams.

I thought it was perfect for us. All the doors were shut, and it was very dark inside, but Daddy explained that he wanted all the rooms to be a surprise. As we walked in through the door, Daddy showed us the small room on the left: a tiny toilet room with a minute sink. Ahead of us were two doors, and the right was the kitchen. We went into the kitchen and they were dazzled, I was anxious to see my bedroom.

Finally, after we toured the main floor, we got up to the second floor and we explored the toilet room, the bathroom, Ella’s room, and FINALLY mine. My first thoughts were “It’s so small!” and “Why do I have girl bedding?” and I had good reason to think these! My bed-adorned with a flower printed duvet- was rented but still, I wanted my masculine essence at least acknowledged! And as for my bedroom size, if I tidied it everyday it would suit my purposes, but it was small!

The exploration of all the trivial or “other” parts of the house was rather dull and so was the unpacking of all of our baggage, the air shipment arriving not ten minutes after our arrival. The really interesting part was when we went into town, which was a three minute walk. We snacked on “gevulde koeken” (round cakes with almond paste in the middle) and admired everything. The first thing that we admired was ABN Amro (the bank) which we found out to be pronounced as Ah-Bee-En Ahm-roe. In one word? BORING. And it took FOREVER. 


By the time we had walked around the whole of the town central, we were all exhausted (from the plane and from the walk,) and we were thoroughly tired of discovering new things. Every inch of the country seemed to scream at us "Welcome to the Netherlands!"

My All-Time Favorite Soup Recipe

Hello! This soup brought us through some very tough times- sickness, health, depression- but even now, a night where we are all perfectly fine, we are still eating it. If I had any skill in lying or indecency   as to do it, I certainly would and say that this recipe was my own, or at least a family recipe, but now, you can find this delicious soup recipe here.

Enjoy!