{"id":167,"date":"2009-10-30T13:56:25","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T10:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabrounstein.com\/blog\/?p=167"},"modified":"2009-10-30T13:56:25","modified_gmt":"2009-10-30T10:26:25","slug":"the-largest-woman-in-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"The Largest Woman in Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before I came here to Amsterdam I did a lot of research on the city. \u00a0 I spoke to people who had been. \u00a0 I spoke to my sister who has lived here for 2 years. \u00a0 I read about the city on line. \u00a0 I did my homework. \u00a0 In the United States, I am often surprised \u00a0 many places don’t accommodate people of size. \u00a0 I am always surprised at my doctor’s office that all the chairs in the waiting room have arms. \u00a0 I was surprised at jury duty that all the chairs had arms. \u00a0 Certainly, I am not the largest person to serve on jury duty. \u00a0 I know I am not my doctor’s largest patient. \u00a0 Yet, those places are uncomfortable for me so, they must be uncomfortable for other people. \u00a0 Am I the only one who complains or thinks about this? \u00a0 I can’t imagine I am.<\/p>\n

\"meI was informed that, undoubtedly, I would be the largest person I would see here in Holland. \u00a0 So, far that has been the case. \u00a0 I have seen some plump women but no one close to my size. \u00a0 I was warned that people would stare as well. \u00a0 In the US, I experience that a lot. \u00a0 I shop at a Trader Joe’s near my apartment that is in a predominantly Russian neighborhood. \u00a0 I have found that many of the older Russian women are fascinated by me. \u00a0 They will stare and nudge whoever they are with to have them stare as well. \u00a0 I had a very funny experience at Canter’s Deli a while back. \u00a0 There were three older women sitting in a booth. \u00a0 They couldn’t stop talking about me. \u00a0 The part that was funny was I think they thought they were whispering. \u00a0 They were not. \u00a0 They were very loud and couldn’t stop talking about me. \u00a0 When we got up to leave I stood in front of their table and said, “I could hear you and that was not very nice.” \u00a0 They were definitely shocked. \u00a0 Maybe I should have left it alone. \u00a0 I don’t know that at their age they were going to learn some great life lesson from me. \u00a0 At first, I felt good about speaking up. \u00a0 Then later I felt bad about it. \u00a0 Not about what they were saying, that was their problem. \u00a0 But that the last thing I wanted to do was hurt their feelings.<\/p>\n

I had another experience many years ago in a shoe store. \u00a0 It was one of those self-serve shoe stores with many aisles of shoes and shoe boxes. \u00a0 I came around a corner and standing before was a young boy around 6 years old. \u00a0 He stood and looked up at me with his mouth agape. \u00a0 He smiled and looked up at me and said, “Wow. \u00a0 You are SOO big!” \u00a0 I said, “Yes, I am.” Then he said, “My grandpa is big too…why are you so big?!” \u00a0 So, I told him, “You know how some people are big and some people are small and some people are different colors? \u00a0 Well, I am big.” \u00a0 He giggled. \u00a0 Not in a judgmental way but like he had learned something wonderful…like about dinosaurs or the universe. \u00a0 Then he started to walk towards me. \u00a0 I think he wanted to touch me. \u00a0 Just then his mother came around the corner and found him. \u00a0 It was a really beautiful moment.<\/p>\n

In the US, my size is definitely a consideration. \u00a0 I have found here it is a much bigger consideration in that everything is so small. \u00a0 I know my photos aren’t doing the severity of how small everything is justice. \u00a0 There is no scale comparison. At the party the other night I had to use the restroom. \u00a0 I asked where it was and literally burst out laughing when I opened the door. \u00a0 It was smaller than most peoples hall closets. \u00a0 I opened the door and was greeted by a small toilet attached to the wall with a tiny sink hanging over the lip of the toilet. \u00a0 How in the world could a man stand at the toilet? \u00a0 Maybe if he stood in the hallway… I straddled the pocket sized toilet with both of my hips touching each side of the bathroom. \u00a0 My belly was just shy of touching the sink. \u00a0 I closed the door and stood there chuckling. \u00a0 I pulled my pants down and sat. \u00a0 Luckily, I realized I was sitting on my pants. \u00a0 Had I not noticed it could have been one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I walked over to the little bread shop and then to the Albert Heijn (the grocery store) and picked up some things. \u00a0 We had a \"thelovely lunch of fresh bread and cheese and gorgeous tomatoes and cucumbers. \u00a0 Then Sima and I set out to find items for their Halloween costumes. \u00a0 Then Ben met us in the Dam. \u00a0 It was interesting being in the square in front of the Queen’s palace without the carnival. \u00a0 It was nice to see the difference but I was sad the poffergie guy wasn’t there. \u00a0 I still think about them.<\/p>\n

When Sima and Ben were talking about us going to dinner last night, to either the Thai place they like or the Italian restaurant they like, they considered that both places were very small and tight. \u00a0 We opted for the Italian restaurant. \u00a0 It was ridiculously small by US standards. \u00a0 In fact, there is no way a US Fire Marshall would have allowed those tables and that many people to be inside. \u00a0 In the US, maybe 10 people would have been “allowed” to be in the space and there were at least 25 people packed in there. \u00a0 You sit shoulder to shoulder with people. \u00a0 The food was unbelievable. \u00a0 They put down some hot, crusty bread with little pots of garlic butter, a sun dried tomato and pesto tapenade and some of the most amazing green olives I have ever tasted in my life. \u00a0 I asked the waiter what they were and he said, “Olives.” \u00a0 Then I asked, “What kind?” To which he responded, “Green.” \u00a0 Yeah, that wasn’t what I wanted to know. \u00a0 I wanted to know what kind. \u00a0 I could see they were green but they were also buttery and tart without too much vinegar flavor. \u00a0 I ordered penne with pesto and smoked chicken. \u00a0 Sima ordered truffle ravioli that were insanely rich and delicious. \u00a0 Ben ordered lamb that came with salad and oven roasted potatoes. \u00a0 I am sorry I didn’t take pictures of the food as it was visually stunning.<\/p>\n

\"pointeAnother thing I have noticed here is the food is served so hot. \u00a0 Ben says it isn’t always this way. \u00a0 My experience so far has been that not only does my food come molten but it stays that way. \u00a0 The roof of my mouth has been burned beyond recognition by the lava filled bitterballen. \u00a0 Even Ben’s potatoes last night were ridiculously hot and retained their heat for most of the meal. \u00a0 At one point, I felt like a little kid. \u00a0 I popped a piece of potato into my mouth and quickly spit it into my hands. \u00a0 Of course, at that moment Sima looked up at me. \u00a0 I apologized. \u00a0 It was either that or burn a hole in the roof of my mouth. \u00a0 Interestingly enough, I find my coffee gets cold very quickly. \u00a0 More interesting than that is the crazy amount of coffee I have been drinking.<\/p>\n

Now it is Friday around 1p. \u00a0 The sun is peaking out through the cold cloudy sky. Sima is at her salon for the day. \u00a0 Ben is at work. \u00a0 I am going to walk around today. \u00a0 I found a yarn shop on line that should be an interesting walk. \u00a0 There is so much I want to see and do and I have made my peace that I won’t be able to get to everything. \u00a0 It will just be a good excuse to come back another time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before I came here to Amsterdam I did a lot of research on the city. \u00a0 I spoke to people who had been. \u00a0 I spoke to my sister who has lived here for 2 years. \u00a0 I read about the city on line. \u00a0 I did my homework. \u00a0 In the United States, I… Continue reading The Largest Woman in Amsterdam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip-to-amsterdam","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}