{"id":99,"date":"2010-11-27T06:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T06:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/27\/the-things-to-love\/"},"modified":"2017-03-16T09:11:59","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T09:11:59","slug":"the-things-to-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/27\/the-things-to-love\/","title":{"rendered":"The things to love"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Amsterdam. Scott made some deee-licious food. One of our American friends came over with her family and brought pecan pie and mashed potatoes. It was in fact a proper American Thanksgiving, right in the middle of Holland. <\/p>\n

While we were eating, the question was posed, “What do you like about living here?” I have been giving it thought over the last several days. Because the real answer is EVERYTHING, I had to narrow it down to a few favorites. Here’s a short list.<\/p>\n

1. The food. Without doubt. The food is fantastic here! Everything is fresh and mostly small farm grown. No corporate farming over here and Sysco does not take all the food to all the restaurants. The results in food tasting different everywhere you go. Yummy. Of course the down side is that not too many items have preservatives in them, so it requires frequent trips to the grocery store. I’ll take that deal every time.
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. The weather. It is really great weather. It is colder than Houston, but Houston is too hot. Since I had become acclimated to the weather in Houston, I had no idea how bad our weather was. Having been here, I appreciate how awfully hot it was in Houston. I may be fussing about the weather on month 6 of winter in the near future, but for now I am LOVING it!<\/p>\n

3. The travel. Almost everything is within a 2 hour plane ride or a 3 hour high speed train ride. In a short three months, I have already been to Spain, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, etc… What a great experience! KLM is my new found friend…
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. My job. What a cool job I have! Some travel is certainly required, but it has been a good trade for the experience for our entire family.<\/p>\n

5. Let’s not forget about the vino! \"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544121448583835970\"<\/a> We are slowly learning our European wines and branching away from the Californian wines. Delicious!<\/p>\n

6. The pedestrian lifestyle. We walk or bike or take the tram (which is great and cheap!) almost everywhere. I think there are more bikes here than people. It’s healthier and there seems to be much less pollution. That’s pretty surprising since this is one of the most populated areas of Europe. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7. My fantastic fam! Scott is finally home from the extensive travels back and forth to the US. The kids are loving it here. They tell us all the time that they never want to go back to Houston (mostly because they say it is too hot). This has already been a wonderful experience and we still have 75% more to go! (This pic is one of them sitting by the river running through Paris by the Louvre.) \"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544122968216076626\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We are so lucky to have this opportunity. We appreciate it every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Amsterdam. Scott made some deee-licious food. One of our American friends came over with her family and brought pecan pie and mashed potatoes. It was in fact a proper American Thanksgiving, right in the middle of Holland. While we were eating, the question was posed, “What do you…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-99","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-micha","7":"category-netherlands","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8k10v-1B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":76,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/25\/turkey-day-2011-in-london\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":0},"title":"Turkey day 2011 in London","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"November 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanksgiving in England worked out quite nicely. Scott of course made a giant Thanksgiving feast and we all ate too much. Our gathering was atypical in the normal American-kind-of-Thanksgiving way. It was only our family and Marisa, and then we had our two Italian friends who own the restaurant next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "London"","block_context":{"text":"London","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/europe\/united-kingdom\/london\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":330,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/13\/ho-chi-minh-city-not-for-the-faint-of-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":1},"title":"Ho Chi Minh City: Not for the faint of heart","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"February 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We made it to HCMC after an uneventful three hour flight from Taiwan. \u00a0A little goof at the visa office delayed us slightly but we managed to get into the country with a one year visa. \u00a0Because our phones (T-mobile) don't have a contract with Vietnam, we bought some SIM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Micha's Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Micha's Blog","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/blogs\/micha\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5648.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5648.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5648.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5648.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5648.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5648.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/11\/cant-miss-the-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":2},"title":"Can’t miss the deadline…","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"April 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I just remembered (yes, I had forgotten) that I had this blog. \u00a0What was almost a habit to constantly update the blog in Europe has become a lost thing. \u00a0Forgotten. \u00a0Unloved. \u00a0Unnecessary. \u00a0Whatever is the right word. When I remembered I had this blog, it was because I am cleaning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/23\/thai-food-everywhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":3},"title":"Thai food everywhere!","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"November 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott and I decided to take advantage of being \"close\" to the Far East and visit Thailand. \u00a0Michelle has been phenomenal with the kids, so it was nice to be able to comfortably leave them with someone other than my mom for an extended period of time to go somewhere\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Micha's Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Micha's Blog","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/blogs\/micha\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-nFYlOv9-Z0g\/UK9Gm7v0R7I\/AAAAAAAAAyU\/RL13rhZ7xls\/s320\/IMG_0263.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/12\/nearing-an-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":4},"title":"Nearing an end…","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"October 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster these last few weeks.\u00a0 This week, I informed my team at work that I would be returning to the USA at the end of the year.\u00a0 Of course I cried (as I hoped, and was even sure, I wouldn't do!).\u00a0 A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":350,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/18\/ho-chi-minh-markets-and-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":5},"title":"Ho Chi Minh – markets and war","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"February 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Ho Chi Minh is a very busy city. \u00a0It's estimated to have about 8 million people with \u00a0around 6.5 million scooters. \u00a0It is wild. \u00a0 I mentioned in another post how crazy it is to cross the street. I tried to video crossing one here: \u200b\u200bBecause the city is so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Micha's Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Micha's Blog","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/blogs\/micha\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5696.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5696.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5696.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5696.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5696.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_5696.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}