yes, i really am going to dedicate an entry to this. it's necessary.

dear blog,

i am sorry i neglect you. i know you get lonely and want to know about my life. as an appology offering, have this 100 page blog post about the last two weeks of my life. 

sidenote: i skipped over blogging about the holiday season, and you might just get a healthy helping of christmas in july if you're lucky. someday i'll share the oh-so-delicious details of my winter vacation with you. someday.

ANYWAY. just gonna uh, jump back into things. chronological order is for suckers.

first, i would like to croon to you my hardship. this is going to be a long rant. about something near to my heart, and vital to my well being. 

living in nederland is difficult. not because of the language, or adjusting to the system, oh no. no, i've discovered a serious flaw in the system.

THEY HAVE SHITTY COOKIES. at first i didn't realize it. but it's pretty much impossible to escape.

and you say "oh but angela, they have those little koffiekoekjes, those are cookies! you are just being ridiculous."

to which i reply,

i'm sorry, i meant like an actual cookie. 

not to be confused with 

i'm sorry zandkoekjes and shortbread, but you aren't actually worth eating.

but then they say "but albert heijn has chocolate chip cookies in a box, and those are good."

to which i say: 

.

okay, maybe i am picky about cookies. but if its not gonna be good, it isn't even worth it. 

cos like, in america, if you want a home-made cookie, *shhh secret* you don't actually have to make it. you can go to a cafe or a bakery or stop n shop and pick up one that they have baked. and then you have your cookie. or, OR, you can even pick up one of these babies

A BAG OF REAL COOKIES.

but here, they don't bake cookies for you. 

BUT. i have come across two ways to overcome this problem. first way! to actually bake my own cookies.

whiiiiich, after scouring every supermarket in borne on one particular day because i HAD TO HAVE A COOKIE, i finally did.

here is the recipe i used.

http://alpineberry.blogspot.com/2006/08/nutella-cookies.html

i used granulated salt instead of table salt on purpose [not just because i'm dumb] which actually was AMAZING, because then you get little bursts of saltiness sometimes to balance out the criminal amount of chocolate/nutella. 

and uh, to reflect upon the amount of patience i have in the kitchen, the recipe is supposed to make like 30 cookies. i carefully dolloped out 15 human sized cookies, and then, deciding i was fed up with rules and that the common sense could suck it, used the other half of the batter to just make 2 giant cookies on the other baking pan. this was *maybe* the best idea i've ever had.

anyway, so then i had my cookies. i would like to inform you that while they still existed, i started eating them for breakfast on occasion. exhibit A: last week i made myself a nutella cookie and stroopwafelijs [remember stroopwafelijs?] ice cream sandwhich at 6:30 in the morning. WANNA KNOW WHY BECAUSE I DON'T GIVE A SINGLE FUCK THAT IS WHY.

i don't need your rules, society.

anyway.  so that was solution number 1.

solution number two isn't really a solution, but still counts. i have found that there is one store that sells bakery cookies. that store is the albert heijn to go. not to be confused with the normal albert heijn, they don't do that kind of thing. actually, this solution sort of caused the problem. see, i didn't even know i WANTED a cookie before this cookie. i was contented with my cereal and apples and i guess the desire for a cookie was lying dormant in the back of my mind. but, when jelle and i were in amsterdam [i'll get there, this is about cookies right now. remember i said chronological order is for suckers?] i bought a "big american triple chocolate cookie" on the way back. 

worth 1000 words.

and it was so, so good. it ignited a fire within me, that burned and burned with the neverending desire to eat cookies for every meal. i kind of hate myself for having that cookie, because if i hadn't i wouldn't be having this issue right now, and i would be happy with the limited and unfulfilling selection of koekjes offered by the supermarket.
anyway. luckily, i thought, this cookie exists and i can purchase and subsequently eat it!

BUT LIFE IS NEVER SO SIMPLE. because the closest albert heijn to go is in enschede, which is a twenty minute train ride away. and i am not going to enschede for the sole purpose of acquiring a cookie. that is not a thing people do. BUT, this is a solution in that it proves that nederland does have good cookies, they are just exceedingly well hidden.

thank you all for listening to my story about cookies, i appreciate it. really. now onto real life*

*please see next entry for stories about actual life and not just my undying love for sugary baked goods.