Our house is too small to leave things in baskets and such. It's already so cluttered...we really just don't have enough space. This was never meant for a family of 4 adults....it's considered a "starter house" where you live for a few years until the kids get older and need a bit of space. But it's a lower cost neighborhood, so most families living here stay here a long time just because they can't afford anything more. I don't iron unless one of us needs something fancy. If my husband has a meeting with clients, he'll ask me to iron a shirt....same for a wedding or funeral. Otherwise, people are pretty casual here. DH wears jeans to work, much to my MIL's chagrin. When we were first married and we moved over here, we were living with them, and she told me once "Let's go shopping and I'll pick out some work clothes for him, and YOU make him wear them!" I refused. She wanted him to wear button down shirts and slacks every day...professional looking. But everyone at his office just wears jeans and polo shirts or sweaters. And all those things, I hang over the banister, so they don't wrinkle as much....well, jeans go in the dryer, but the shirts hang dry. And I totally agree with you that downtime is more valuable than a mopped floor. That's why my house hadn't been properly cleaned in YEARS. I did what HAD to be done and that's it. I mopped the floors, but not as often as they probably should be. I just don't have time and energy to do that regularly.
My husband definitely has specialties with cooking. Tonight, he's going to try Orange Chicken. He's really good at Chicken Katsu Curry. We ate at this Asian/Indian fusion restuarant, and this is our favorite thing there. They put out a cookbook, so I bought it, and it has the recipe for it, and it's so good. I know they have the restaurant in the UK, too, but I don't know about the US. Wagamama. Anyway, that's one that he's really gotten good at making. E is really good in the kitchen....she does a lot of experimenting with recipes, too. She's developed her own Steak Teriyaki Udon recipe that we love, and is really simple and fast to make. But now we are teaching A to make his favorites so that if we're not home to make his food, he won't just starve. He also can ride his bike to any number of restaurants, and can order food in on his phone, so he's becoming more independent. He's not completely confident in his cooking yet, but he's getting there.
Oh, partying seems to be universal among high school and college students. And over here, the drinking age is 18, and in Germany you can drink beer and wine already at 16. We are 15 minutes from the German border. One of E's friends....or well, he used to date one of her best friends, lived in a town that was right next to the German border. I worked there for a couple of years and could practically spit into Germany from my workplace. I used to go fill up the car after work because gas was SOOOO much cheaper in Germany, and it was like 2 minutes from my work. So a lot of kids just go into Germany to party. There are actually a couple of towns that are half in the Netherlands and half in Germany, and there is a bar somewhere that is literally ON the border, so kids can walk in on the Netherlands side and go drink on the German side. E's not a partier or a drinker, but her friends all like to drink now that they are 18. Partying and hooking up is a big thing, but actual relationships don't seem to be. The one guy broke up with E's friend after high school because he never intended the relationship to go past that...he just wanted to have someone to be with in high school and then when he went to college, he wanted to party and sleep around. Of course he didn't tell HER that he wasn't intending for the relationship to be serious, so she was blindsided when he broke it off. They dated for 3 years in high school and she figured she'd probably marry him...her parents were high school sweethearts and are still happy together, so she just thought it was going to be the same for them. But then one of the other guys in their friend group swooped in and snatched her up, and when the first guy realized college wasn't like he thought it would be, he wanted her back and was ticked that someone else had already asked her out, and if you ask me, she's much better off with this 2nd boyfriend. He's much more her type. She's studying Biology and had thought first she was going to work in the forest service. He's very outdoorsy, has done some survival courses where they had to smear themselves with mud and sleep in a hole they dug, and catch their own food, etc. And he's an international level Karate or Judo athlete....he was nominated for some young athlete of the year in the Netherlands thing. The best friend's birthday is today, and they live one street over from us and it was her party last night, and the boyfriend insisted they walk E home together to make sure she got here safely, and that's not the first time. The first guy was always too drunk to really care. He was a heavy partier and not as...responsible as this new boyfriend. Everything happens for a reason, and I think she's better off now. But it's definitely not common for kids their age to be in such serious relationships. I think there IS a cultural element to THAT....not so much the partying, because most of the kids DO go to parties and clubs and such. But over here, we don't have very high teen pregnancy rates and such....it's much more relaxed over here and kids have more access to information, protection, etc. There's not as much of a taboo as there is in the US. So they aren't getting into relationships at such young ages. They party, but they aren't looking for relationships, if that makes sense.
But E is very much a minority. She likes to SMELL drinks, but she has this thing where she really doesn't like bitter tastes...she's very sensitive to bitter. She doesn't even like most carbonated drinks. She likes Rootbeer and cream soda, but will only drink Pepsi or coke if she REALLY needs a drink, and then it's just a swallow. So she doesn't drink because everything is too bitter. Even my Baileys or Amaretto are no-goes for her, and I don't think those are too bad. I don't like beer or wine, and I don't like really strong stuff like rum. I only like the sweet stuff, and if I have 5 drinks in a year, that's a lot. So she kind of takes after me. I never partied either, though a lot of it for me was not wanting to get in trouble. It wasn't worth it to me. But she says she's a grandma....she would rather spend her time crocheting, reading, sewing, and going to bed early. She's a very boring kind of college student, which is also kind of why she chose her University. Her university is known for being the NERD university. It's in a small town and there's really not much of a night life. So most students choose the bigger cities so they can party....they go to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft....only the people who are really serious about studying go to Wageningen. And she doesn't mind living at home, because even if there WAS a night life, she wouldn't be participating in it. She belongs to an organization for her major that occassionaly sets up party weekends...she's never gone to one. She's on the baking committee, so she has to bake every month for a cake lunch, and that's the extent of her social activity with the organization. She says she knows she's boring, but she's content being a grandma.
