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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Commercials, Cheese and Costco

So, today marks the first two weeks with the Kantors! I'm happy to say I still like them. For now.

This last week has been great! (again! Sorry I don't have something terrible to tell you, it would be much more exciting to read)
We went to the beach, which was great! It was a two hour drive, which is far more than I'm used to. I'm used to cycling to the beach in 10 minutes! This was an entire operation, involving a cabana, a cart, two beach chairs and, oh, four people. Luckily everything fit, and we had a great day at the beach!



Ah, Americans in their cabanas.


Poor Sam.

Oh, I haven't told you about Costco yet!! We went to Costco about a week ago, and it was great. Costco is a store that sells a lot of different things. But, instead of selling the cheapest, they sell really good brands. Most products have a little discount because Costco only sells one or two brands of that particular product, so the brands let them buy it for less. Anyways, they also sell BIG quantities of things. I'm talking like, 20 pounds (around 10 kilos) of flour. The store is so big that sometimes you'll encounter a taste station, where you can taste a particular product they sell. Karen told me that on some days there'll be so many stations you can practically have lunch there. They also have clothes, couches, vegetables, meat, snacks, bedsheets, chocolate chips, and giant huggable bears.


If only it would fit in my suitcase...Oh, and that's the shot of the backback for you!

On Monday, school started again back in Holland! My school doesn't start until the 8th of september, so I can spend these days quietly laughing at my friends. They've been very nice to let me stay in the groupchats, because basically all I do is read about their misery and make sarcastic remarks from time to time. It's great.

Now, I thought this was a good time to make a little list of things that I've noticed so far.
(these are not marked in order of how different or important they are, but this is just how my brain works. On that note, my brain tends to exaggerate things)

1. Commercials. American commercials are both more funny, and more annoying. The annoying part is mostly because you see the same commercial about 20 times a day. I am not kidding. Although the commercial blocks are a lot shorter than what I'm used to, there are a lot more of them. Result: loud sighs whenever the car insurance woman pops up for the 100th time that day. There are also a lot of food related commercials. Especially during sports games. And, there is an alarming amount of celebrities in commercials! Kinda makes you wonder what connection Mila Kunis has to Jim Beam whiskey.

2. Cheese. Now, as a Dutch person (land of water, tall people, stroopwafels, and cheese) I feel quite personally insulted whenever I walk into the 'cheese' section of an American supermarket. First of all, there are several stages of 'processed-ness': cheese, cheese food, and cheese product. See?! They admit most of their cheese isn't even real cheese! So, the 'cheese' you get when you buy this is pre-sliced into these perfectly square pieces of cheese, with the totally wrong texture, color, and taste. Ielgh. Luckily, you can also get Gouda cheese, so I'll survive.

3. The oreo section. There is an unofficial oreo section in every supermarket, and there are about a million different kinds of oreos. Andrew actually tried making a rainbow with the different colours of oreo, but we didn't get  blue and purple. We need blueberry and grape oreos! Other flavors are; mint, peanut butter and birthday cake. Also, Americans like stacking different oreos on eachother, so you get names like: double triple chocolate mint oreo. (google it, it's a real thing)

4. Americans are chatty! They will just start a conversation with you, and they're mostly super friendly and nice. I'm not used to that at all, but I think it's amazing!

So, that would be all! Next week, I'll start school. I don't think I've ever been this excited to go back to school! But first, I have one week left before I have to start learning again!

Greetings from my hammock!

-Marga

Oh, and: thanks to Andrew for answering my ridiculous questions while blog-writing, like: "do you know a purple food?" and "what came before 'cheese-product'?" and "what commercial was Mila Kunis in again?" Also, he makes me laugh ("it's a touchscreen! I can use my toes!")

8 comments:

  1. Don't get me started on cheese... Yesterday we went to Walmart after the meeting at Marisha's and I was shocked when I saw that cheese spraying thing... The first ingredient on the list is not even cheese... And also americans have a cheddar cheese obsession nobody had warned me about apparently??

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    1. Aw poor Emma! Luckily you can make your own pasta so you'll be fine :)

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  2. Wauw, klinkt leuk allemaal!! Btw Ik heb DEZELFDE hangmat in huisje Frankrijk highfive!!!!! , geweldiggg ding haha

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  3. (1) It's Triple Double Chocolate Mint, not the other way around. If you're going to air out our dirty laundry, at least let's be accurate. -_-

    (2) Personally, they still don't hold a candle to Mint Oreo Fudge Creams.

    (3) Blue comes out in the spring. It's not an actual flavor, just a color they make in spring.

    (4) Don't remember seeing purple though.

    (5) Once you've tasted all the different flavors of Oreos, you can get started on M&Ms.

    (6) Yes Emma, Americans can actually make cheese. It's cheddar. Everything else should be viewed as a cultural experience, something like bitterballen. We all (Americans) know that "American Cheese slices" are not actual cheese. What's more, it's not an actual food created by God. But that doesn't keep up from loving it, eating it, and refusing to replace it with something nature may actually have intended.

    (6) Costco And Target! Have you hit Walmart yet? Then you'll be utterly and truly initiated.

    So glad you're having so much fun!

    --LaDonna

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  4. She will never go to WalMart with us.

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  5. Whoa! I was able to comment! Cool these beans are!

    We still like Marga, although we're not quite sure how to pronounce her name. We started with "MAR-ha" because that's (sort of) what she told us it sounded like. But then she introduced herself as "mar-GA" in school, which confused me.
    Her excuse: She didn't want to confuse people at school, who would see her name spelled with a "G" and jump to conclusions.

    Of course, this from a girl who will spend a considerable amount of time explaining the difference between Holland and the Netherlands.

    And the bit about WalMart: We don't shop there. Never will. Social reasons (the company treats the workers like garbage and doesn't deserve our money) and sanity reasons (http://www.peopleofwalmart.com).

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  6. Relevant: http://assets.amuniversal.com/f1bdfc508053012f2fe000163e41dd5b

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  7. Marga

    Your host-family-dad just scored MAJOR bonus points sharing his opinion of WalMart.
    Having witnessed their "opening ceremony" once, where the manager (bully) talks to (intimidates) the personell (vermin) to get as much money as possible from their customer (cattle), was enough for me never to return there.
    so, HEAR HEAR!

    Andrew, you STILL like her? WOW!
    about the pronounciation of Mar-g-a: The with the "g" just immagine Darth vader having something stuck at the back of his throat,.... that usually does the trick.

    and thanks again for looking after Holland's largest excepion of TALL PEOPLE!

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