Culture

Rustle rustle (Or: Stop with plastic book covers!)

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Niki

Okay, I have a dirty little confession to make.

I, a librarian, have not picked up a book in at least 8 months and sat down and read it. Even after my post in early May bemoaning this fact.

Crazy, I know. Life just seems to get in the way sometimes. My favorite is when people hear I am a librarian and the first thing they say is Cool! You must get so much reading done! If you count reading over emails and proofreading notes for the library resources class I am about to teach, then yes I do a lot of reading.

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Categories: Culture, Daily Dutch living, Transportation | 2 Comments

Euro 2012 (Or: Celebrating a goal, Dutch style)

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Niki

The TV commercials have begun for Euro 2012, the European Football Championship held June 8th – July 1st. There are 16 teams this year, including the Netherlands. Although Marco mentioned it last week, I saw the first ESPN commercial for it yesterday. It does have a few Dutch moments in the minute long commercial, including a camera sweeping over rabid Dutch fans during a match. Of course they are all dressed in orange and waving Dutch flags.

Generally there is not much soccer/voetbal shown on TV here, except for Saturday mornings when they show the English premiere league games live. But otherwise, they don’t even really mention the American games that much. But I did enjoy the World Cup two years ago, where NBC promised to show every game live (and did). That’s better than the current NHL playoffs, where I only got to see NY Rangers games in round 1, since I don’t have NBC Sports Network (apparently it’s $21/month more for just that channel. No thanks.)

Here’s the image that Marco sent me last week, showing some toys/figures that were being sold in a Dutch store:

Celebrating a goal

Of course, not being from Europe, I didn’t recognize the classic “slide on your knees after scoring a goal” pose that they were doing until Marco pointed it out.

Categories: Culture, Sports | Tags: | 8 Comments

Queen’s Day (Or: The Hague looks… crowded)

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Niki

Obviously I am on the wrong side of the ocean to be showing you pictures of Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day), but Marco took some pictures to show me what it is like. I won’t go into detail, except to say that it is the celebration of Queen Beatrix. And it’s a day where everyone loves to wear orange (well, moreso the tourists). You can read an offiical publication for the Hague’s celebrations at the website, haagsekoninginnedag.nl. When Marco sent me that link, he spent a bit of time muttering about why they were mentioning Chinatown, since it is only a street and a half, of which only half of the shops are actually Chinese!

One of the more interesting things for me is the vrijmarkt, or free market, where anyone can sell their wares. Here are some of the pictures Marco took:

Oranje! Go books! (ik wil het oranje boek)

Marco was also kind enough to give a short description of his thoughts about the holiday:

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Categories: Culture, Holidays, The Hague | 6 Comments

Kroepoek (Or: It’s made from what…?!)

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Niki

Kroepoek is one of the random snacks that I had while I was over in the Netherlands. I even brought a bag back on the last trip. Like most snacks, it boasts that it is made with zonnebloemolie (sunflower oil).

But its main ingredients are tapioca flour and… ground shrimp. But it is delicious (especially in the various flavors… this one being a more spicy flavor.)

Kroepoek, originally an Asian snack

It’s traditionally an Asian snack from Indonesia and other countries. Since the Netherlands had a foothold in this country for a long time, they took some of the Indonesian culture back to their home country.

I first had kroepoek at Marco’s mother’s house. I then asked Marco what the heck it was, and he graciously got me more at Albert Heijn. It’s definitely one of the snacks I look forward to having again.

Categories: Culture, Food | 8 Comments

Eye exam (Or: I bring you peace!)

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Niki

I was talking to Marco in emails about my eye exam which I finished up today (the majority was last Saturday, but they had to check that my contacts were working correctly). He said that when I was telling him about getting my eyes dilated, he couldn’t help but think of the Simpsons episode where Mr Burns is mistaken for being an alien after he gets a vocal cord scraping, an eye dilation, and turns green due to all of the nuclear waste in Springfield.

(Thanks to various birthday and Christmas gifts over the years, I now have an up-to-date Simpsons collection. Season 1 – 14 and season 20. It’s the only real DVD series I collect. And thanks to Roger for sorting them into proper order a few weeks ago because he couldn’t take it anymore. Ha.)

As mentioned, last Saturday I went to the Palisades mall for an eye exam, new eyeglasses and a new contact lens prescription. Marco mentioned how over in Europe you usually visit an optician (who gives you your eyeglasses or contact lens prescription), but they are not trained like an optometrist (who also diagnoses and treats various eye diseases). Yet over here it is common to see an optometrist who does a pretty thorough check of your eyes every few years while they measure you for your new prescription.

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Categories: Culture, News | 3 Comments

Dutch tea (Or: A touch of orange)

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Niki

When Marco’s mother was planning to visit my place last summer, I quickly found that I needed to buy a coffee maker. I usually only drink coffee about twice a year (at the biannual work conferences in January and August), so I definitely didn’t have a coffee maker on hand. But apparently she is the type that cannot function without it…

So a coffee maker was soon purchased.

For a while after she left, I never used it. And then we had a freak snowstorm around Halloween last year, in which I lost power and heat for four days. It was surprisingly cold for not-quite-November. Even after the power returned, I was chilled for weeks after. I found that I started drinking coffee after that. When I drink coffee it’s always black. (Koffie after dinner seems to be a Dutch tradition. Marco had the task of preparing coffee for everyone who visited his place for his birthday in 2010. I was quite amused.)

Dutch tea from Pickwick

Eventually in January or so I came down with my annual (or biannual) cold — I don’t get sick much. So I switched from coffee to tea and started digging deeper into the tea collection that a friend had sent me from Stash Tea. I quickly found that my favorite hot tea was orange. And then earlier this month when I visited Chinatown in NYC, we stopped at Ten Ren for Chinese tea. I haven’t tried those flavors yet. I just remember ginger tea and oolong tea.

And finally, for my birthday, Roger and Marco got me the Dutch blend shown above from Pickwick tea. I didn’t realize that way back when, the Dutch were the first to bring tea into Europe through the East India Company. The above tea from Pickwick is what that company considers a “good representation of the country” – the orange is a nod to the house of Orange-Nassau. Apparently it was developed partially with opinions of Hyves users (Hyvers being the Dutch equivalent of Facebook).

I think I will make another cup tonight…

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Dutch carousels (Or: Plein Open festival)

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Niki

One of the more random things that we did last summer in the Hague was go check out the Plein Open festival. …For about 20 minutes. There was a lot less people there than it seems to show on the website’s banner, but maybe that is because we went there during the day when they were still setting up (if I remember correctly). Or maybe the banner was from a different year. I was surprised to see the website still hasn’t really been updated since the 2011 concert.

It was just a short stopover on our way to Roger’s place!

tents at the Plein Open

The festival was held at het Spui plein, very close to the city hall…and the library!

Plein Open west stage

People starting to mill about, with their little ones in tow. It also amuses me that the word for “west” in Dutch is west, but the word for “east” is oost. I also have a picture of the oost stage, but it wasn’t as interesting for looking at the crowd.

small carousel at the Plein Open... Disney!

Cute little carousel that was sadly not yet in use when I took the picture. I think I would have loved going on that as a kid, but you never know. Apparently I cried when they put me on the the little “dinosaur” train track at the local carnival when I was growing up. And I remember being a bit too scared of the kiddie sized ferris wheel to go on it… and then I didn’t see it the following year! By the time I saw it again, I was too big to go on it. Boo.

But still, it was a fun little experience even if we didn’t stick around too long.

Categories: Culture, The Hague | 2 Comments

Indecent exposure (Or: Americans are such prudes)

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Niki

(Rejoice! The blog finally switched over to “8 months” from “9 months”. It seems to only update itself on the 1st of each month.)

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I did not have a picture of the fountain that resides in the Binnenhof. I realized today that that was not technically correct, as I do have a picture of it… from Madurodam (the place where Dutch landmarks are done in miniature).

Binnenhof square at Madurodam

At first I thought this represented Koninginnedag, or Queen’s Day, which will happen later this month – since it is now April after all (!). But it seems this represents a day in September (the 3rd Tuesday of the month) when the Queen gives her annual speech within the Binnenhof. You can see her golden carriage near the church.

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Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: | 3 Comments

Zondagen (Or: Spending the day inside a church)

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Niki

Zondagen… Sundays. An apt day to post about churches.

But first, I spent a remarkably short time at the Palisades mall again today — just long enough to pick up my engagement ring, which was successfully resized. I managed to get the same bus both ways, having arrived at 3:45 and getting back outside in time for the 4:10 route back out.

While I was waiting at the bus stop to go back home, I heard a large rapping on the glass divider separating the different benches of the bus shelter. I looked over and it was a young child. He peered at me briefly, grinned, and then hid his face behind the metal framework in the middle. Ah, so it’s peek-a-boo you want. I quickly peered around the left edge. He grinned. I waited a moment and looked around the right edge. He laughed. We continued for a bit longer. Just a quick harmless game that reminds me of my own childhood, way back when.

Back to churches…

Another Delft site that we visited was Nieuwe Kerk, which began construction in 1396. It’s a Protestant church used as a burial site for many of the royal families. There was even a grave site there for a child who was born in May of 1822 and died in October of the same year.

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Categories: Culture, Delft | Tags: | 4 Comments

Chandeliers (Or: It eclipses even the art)

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Niki

I have a weakness for chandeliers. I love how beautiful they look – and how they come in all shapes and sizes. I had mentioned the chandeliers in a previous post about the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The ironic thing is that I recall those chandeliers with more fondness than the actual art itself, though that of course was beautiful too.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the chandeliers…

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Categories: Amsterdam, Culture | Tags: | Leave a comment

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