Antwerp

Birthday Pictures

Homeward bound, Antwerp and birthdays . . .

Well it has been a while, but our European adventure continues. The blog was on break while Scott and I headed back to the states for the Jewish holidays. So let’s head back a few weeks to keep you up to date what we have been up to. First off we spent Rosh Hashana in The Hague. Was my first time not in Oceanside with my parents for the holiday. When packing to move here it never occurred to me to pack my Machzors (Jewish book special for holiday) as they are kept in Oceanside. Right before the holiday we realized this fact and thankfully the rabbi had one English/Hebrew machzor I could use, which made life much easier. All Machzors are in Dutch, so would have been hard to follow along. Thankfully Scott had a set here, so he was able to follow. The first night we had dinner at the Rabbi’s house, which was a great way to start of the holiday. Then I hosted a meal the first day and we went to friends the second day. Was a nice holiday even though we missed our loved ones at home. We thought we would see many more faces in shul over the holiday, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. We were told more people would appear during Yom Kippur because of Yizkor. As Rosh Hashana was during the week and these holidays are not as commonly known as in the US, maybe many people could just not take off during the week. Services were basically the same, but one big difference being there wasn’t much congregation repetition as I am used to. The Chazzan basically does the whole service himself. Scott had an interesting holiday as he is one of the only Kohan’s here, (In Judaism, there are three classes people find themselves in) he had learn how a new melody for the Kohan’s prayer and say it all by himself. In the states we are used to saying it only in an afternoon service, but here they say it is the morning as well. The Rabbi is a kohan, but on the second day he went to the other shul, so Scott was on his own. People were so impressed that he learned the local Dutch tune and did it all alone. He thought he was golden as he now knew the tune, but unfortunately every holiday has a different tune, so the study continues. Then early Sunday after Rosh Hashana ended I headed home (now I know this is home now, but the states will always be home to me.) I was sad to leave Scott for the week, but so excited to get my US fix of family, friends and food. Soon after I arrived we headed for good ole NJ pizza. Was very good and brought a huge smile to my face. Then headed back to my parents for a few days until the end of the week. I spent Mon-Wed in NYC seeing friends and meeting babies born to friends while I was away. Shout out to Ethan and Neta, very cute babies. Then Thursday Scott arrived and we stayed in NJ to spend time with his family. Yom Kippur was in Paramus and we were lucky that we were able to spend time with Scott’s mom, brother and his family, and Scott’s best friend who happened to be in town. Then Scott being a wonderful brother as he is flew to Michigan for two days to spent time with his sister and her family and meet his new niece. He had such a nice time there and in the meantime I stayed in NJ and saw more friends and hung out with more of my family. Then Scott came home and we were off to Oceanside for Sukkot. It was really great that all my siblings were home and we were able to spend a great deal of quality time together. Then the holiday ended and Sunday we saw some friends in NYC and Scott went back. I stayed an extra week and saw some more friends and then spent Simchat Torah with my sister in Teaneck. Was a great three weeks in NY eating some incredible kosher food, and seeing all my wonderful friends and family. I realize I am a lucky girl to have such great people in my life. I look forward to the next trip home hopefully within 6 months to see everyone again in person and see the people who I missed on this trip.

I arrived back to Holland on October 4th, just in time for a big event, my 30th birthday on October 6th. My wonderful husband knowing that it would be hard to be away from everyone on my birthday decorated our whole living room with birthday decorations and treated me to a night at the beach, where we got to watch a lovely sunset. Also was great that my parents called on Skype soon after 12 our time and Scott took a picture of me with them. My favorite little man Noah sang me happy birthday and I got nice cards. Shout out to Pam who made Scott and me an incredible collage card with Dutch phrases. Since my birthday and Scott’s are 1 week apart, we decided we wanted to go away the weekend in between to celebrate. Our friends in The Hague set us up with a lovely family in Antwerp and we decided to go. It was an incredible experience to be there for shabbos. Here in The Hague when you walk to shul, you can sometimes forget it is shabbos, since you usually don’t see anyone else who looks outwardly Jewish. In Antwerp it is just the opposite; everywhere you turn there are Jews. Our female host was from NY, so it was great to be able to relate to someone my experience and ask questions. She was able to fill me in on some pressing food questions, such as yes Salsa can be found. It was such a nice shabbos at their house. They had tons of people for dinner Friday night and since they knew it was our birthdays had a cake for us and wished us a happy birthday. They were so nice and we can’t wait to go again. Saturday night in honor of our birthdays, we went out for dinner to a kosher dairy restaurant called Mama Mia. The food was amazing. Huge portions and it was like being in a restaurant in NY. Now I know where we will be eating next time we are in Antwerp. On Sunday we started our day with fresh pastries from the local bakery called Heimishe bakery, got some Starbucks in the train station and then walked around Antwerp by the water. Was a great day. We finished up the day by having a late lunch at the famous Hoffy’s and then did some food shopping in the local grocery store. Sadly they had no American cheese, but wasn’t a problem because carried back some when I came back from the states. Yet I bought Salsa, enough pasta to last for months, and tons of other products so we are now stocked up.

Next big thing we have going on is Scott’s birthday tomorrow. Not sure I can top what he did for me, but he is going to have his favorite food, tacos for dinner. Carried back me with about 12 packages of taco mix. Woohoo . . .



Pictures of all mentioned above will be in next post