Circle Around like the Moth

Reflecting on my first impression of Den Haag, Holland, my first thought is what we must have looked like! We arrived in Den Haag by train. The town is about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam

Arriving into the city with our luggage in tow, me in a pair of rhinestone black sandal birks, blue soccer sweats, a tank top and my favorite black American Eagle hoodie. My curly hair is disheveled from the attempt to sleep on the plane. Jason looks good if not sexily scruffy from not shaving in his usual weekend standoff with the razor.

The train went through mostly cows and canal systems, some housing communities that looked distinctly impoverished. Some brought forth a memory of the small gardening towns outside of Frankfurt, Germany others looked like Hobo villages with plastic covering onings surrounded by gardens. I reminded myself that just because we are in Europe, doesn't mean that there isn't poverty here. We see poverty every day in some way, but my (obviously naive) impression, is that Europe has this more figured out than we do.

The graffiti along the walls that line the train tracks remind me of home. Most of it is really well done. There is a common symbol of a cat that reminds me of Hello Kitty that is everywhere in the city. I have no idea what it is, but it shows up on electrical transformers if you look for it.

The city at first glance reminds me of a smaller less busy version of Frankfurt. Hundreds and hundreds of bicycles line the streets, people are riding side saddle on their load llamas looking cute in their dresses while their beaus pedal. This makes Portland looks downright industrial. I realize that if they started putting in smaller mom and pop grocery stores instead of supermarkets that this would make that type of green transportation more feasible. As it stands now, then nearest grocery store is a mile from our house, which is not too bad. How many others have to go farther? Perhaps, if they had small neighborhood ones instead of the mega stores, this would make this more accessible. I have thought about asking our local Mexican grocer to start carrying a few things that we normally buy and see if it would make it more feasible to shop there. I would need to start taking theoden with me as he is half Mexican and speaks and reads Spanish! I think that I am going to start taking Spanish to help out with that as Oregon really does have a second language. (Whether that is Chinese / or Spanish depends on where in the city you live!)

People are beautiful here. Even the blue hairs are classily dressed with their scarves and modern clothing. At home, once you hit about 60 you graduate to frumpy with white permed hair. Hell no I won't go!! These women are in heels, hot, red haired and look like they are in charge!

There is a large Muslim community. The most easily identifiable (for me at least) are the women. I noticed that there was an article in the local paper about it, but it was in Dutch. While I do read and speak German, Dutch is enough different that I couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
These women, like other places, wear the same thing in various combos. Long sleeves, a long skirt with pants, a head covering, and dress shoes. Some have a long overcoat style covering as well. What I noticed about a lot of them here however, is that many were wearing a modern style of the traditional garb with plaid dresses, old fashioned lace, funky shoes and so forth. They could have been just a hippie (including the head dress) or part of the alternative crowd (not including the head dress) from Oregon. It was the older women, or perhaps immigrants in who were wearing the traditional black that you see most often.

What I have always appreciated about much Europe in general are the large outdoor seating areas, the lights strewn everywhere across the streets, the large squares and the cobble stone streets and sidewalks. I also appreciate the communal aspects that seem to come with it. People do things together! It is just assumed and I rarely see someone put out because they "have to do something" with other people. This is a fundamental difference that continually stands out for me.

So, I'm awake at 5 AM. Better now than 1AM which was my initial wake up time!! I'm off to see the wizard and theoden is off to work here in a few hours!

I am so glad I am here.