The Hague

Dutch theaters (Or: Staring at the ondertitels)

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Niki

In a previous post, there was some talk about Dutch movie theaters. Here is what I have learned about them:

1. Most importantly, the major English movies are still in spoken English. Generally a movie is shown in its original language.

2. Most (or all?) of the movies I saw had Dutch subtitles (ondertitels) at the bottom of the screen. For me, this was distracting – in a good way. At times I found it more fun to stare at those then to actually look at the movie itself.

3. There is assigned seating. When you purchase your ticket at the ticket machine, you pick the exact seats you want. This is nice since it lets you see what seats have already been taken. Of course with movies which have been out for a while this isn’t as big a deal, but it’s good to stake a claim.

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Night lights (Or: In front of the filmhuis)

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Niki

Take a walk around Den Haag and you will find yourself in front of the filmhuis (film house). They show a lot of foreign movies from around the world in the film’s native language, though I personally have not viewed one there yet. Maybe if the film was Spanish and had subtitles…

Filmhuis in the Hague

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Categories: Culture, The Hague | 3 Comments

Pasta (Or: Pasta pasta pasta)

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Niki

I’ve never been a good cook. Heck, I’ve never been a cook. I have been known to believe the microwave was about to blow up, or the oven, or… So when I moved to the East coast to get my Masters at Rutgers University, I wasn’t too worried about not having anything but a fridge, freezer, and microwave.

I’ll admit it was an interesting arrangement, but the apartment was cheap enough. I lived off sandwiches most of my time there, generally PB&J or turkey with…LOTS of mustard. Most of my food and groceries came from the deli up the street. There really wasn’t a proper grocery store in New Brunswick. I could either walk a mile to K-Mart (a department store with some food) or Rite Aid in a completely different direction. Still far away.

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Categories: Food, Marco&Niki, The Hague | 6 Comments

Lazy Fridays (Or: Should I go get a tan?)

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Niki

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.

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Categories: The Hague | 3 Comments

Playgrounds (Or: Playtime in the middle of a Dutch city)

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Niki

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.

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Categories: The Hague | 3 Comments

Streets (Or: Wandering through the Hague)

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Niki

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.

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Categories: Food, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: , | 2 Comments

De Passage (Or: Adding on to a piece of history)

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Niki

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.

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Governmental history (Or: You’re sitting on it)

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Niki

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.

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Categories: The Hague | Tags: | 3 Comments

Raamstraat (Or: A more urban type of art)

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Niki

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.

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Dissection (Or: Breaking apart Dutch words)

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Niki

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 . . .

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Categories: Learning Dutch, The Hague | Tags: | 1 Comment

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