The public library of Amsterdam is useful for more than just library related activities (or for borrowing a computer to let someone know your phone is currently dead). It also provides a great view of the city from the 6th floor.
Construction around Amsterdam public library
Well, I am not sure how lazy a Friday can be after working an 11 hour shift… but now that that is behind me, the night does seem lazy.
Madurodam figure, relaxing in the sun
The picture above is from Madurodam, a miniature city of typical Dutch places in a 1:25 scale. I have many, many pictures of it from the trip I took two summers ago… but I will save those for another blog post. But I did like the picture above, and it seems apt for a Friday. Even if it’s not summer currently.
In the Netherlands, land is at a premium. It’s a small country that still boasts about 17 million people, so you need to find a place for everyone and everything.
Including playgrounds for the little ones.
First, I want to mention how amusing it is to be subscribed to a dozen or so Dutch blogs and see how most of them talk about the weather. Snow, cold, and the prospect of elfstedentocht (elf-steden-tocht, 11 city tour). It’s a rare event where the canal ice freezes up enough for ice skating through 11 cities to take place. It hasn’t happened since 1997.
Over here, I am just glad we’ve only had two snowstorms: the Halloween one which knocked out my power for 5 days — just a few inches of snow — and one a few weeks ago, about 5 inches.
Today’s topic is de bogaard in Rijswijk, a shopping area near the Hague which you can get to by bus. I visited it twice. The first time I had someone with me, the second time I traveled there alone.
It’s been a crazy day, but it’s nearing the end. I will say the most random thing of the day was learning to use the JAWS screen reader to help a student find scholarly articles. The craziest was confronting another bus passenger (from a nearby psychiatric hospital, no less) about the laws of momentum and perhaps he would like to hold on to his cup of coffee, rather than letting it spill all over the floor?
Perhaps I’ll make a cup of koffie (coffee) later. But it’ll be straight – the only time I add anything is when Marco is around and we make french vanilla coffee. Yum, vanille suiker (vanilla sugar).
Marco was kind enough to take some pictures of some places in the Hague that hold special or fun memories for me.
De passage (lit: the passage. Sounds like French; pa-sage, two short a’s) is one of my favorite places to visit in the Hague. It’s a small shopping area famed for its covered shopping streets and glass ceiling. Although the architecture is befitting of its 1882/1928 dates, the stores inside are definitely modern.
Near the area which houses Buitenhof and Binnenhof is the Grondwetbank (lit: Constitution bench). Upon it is inscribed the first article of the Dutch constitution:
Allen die zich in Nederland bevinden, worden in gelijke gevallen gelijk behandeld.
Discriminatie wegens godsdienst, levensovertuiging, politieke gezindheid, ras, geslacht of op welke grond dan ook, is niet toegestaan.
Het is vrijdag! (It’s Friday!)
Go on, click the link. You know you want to.
Possible weekend Dutch plans:
1) dutchgrammar.com -> Prefixes and suffixes
2) Rosetta Stone. That thing is so finicky with pronunciation I had to set it to the easiest level and tell it I was male! Of course, my pronunciation needs work, too.
3) Watch some more Dip en Dap videos from Uitzending Gemist (lit: missed broadcasts, I think), a television programming website. This children’s show would be a lot less annoying to watch if they wouldn’t laugh/snicker so much.
Non-Dutch weekend plans:
Prepare chili in a slow cooker – about 10 hours, hopefully – for Sunday’s dinner, and enjoy it in front of the Superbowl. The start time seems later and later each year. 6:29PM EST.
For fun, let’s take a look at Raamstraat (lit: window street) in the Hague. It’ll be a graffiti post similar to this one.
Still doing the “back to the basics” route for learning Dutch. At least it is a lot more fun than learning cursive back in elementary school! Yes, I will write within the lines, stop badgering me . . .
The grocery store of choice near where I will be living is Albert Heijn. Although it’s nowhere near the typical size of an American grocery store (maybe 12 or so aisles) it works for most things. The store itself is on the lower level, with escalators allowing access from street level. When the escalators are functioning of course; one time they were broken for about 5 weeks straight. I considered taking a picture of the negative comments a customer left on the official “We’re sorry” note but didn’t…
Entrance to Albert Heijn via escalators
Life in the Hague 