advantages of my job #7 : Albert Heijn

If you've ever been to the Netherlands, you've probably been to Albert Heijn, the big dutch supermarket chain. Walking into Albert Heijn is always a familiar experience where I can find lots of things like ground cloves, smoothies and dark bread like I'd find in the US and Old leiden cheese, smoked Dutch sausage for my pea soup recipe, hagelslag (chocolate or rainbow sprinkles the Dutch use on their toast) and spices for rijstafel (Dutch-Indonesian food which is possibly the best meal ever!) which are all typically Dutch. Add to that, the great packaging and Dutch customer service (none of that in your face business you get in France) and the funny Dutch language and you have the perfect supermarket experience.

Come on, you didn't think I was excited about going to the Netherlands to learn about European policy blah blah and rub elbows with experts in European legal stuff I couldn't care less about, did you?!