Random picture of the day. Here is the replacement bike that Roger bought last month:
Here’s hoping this one doesn’t “wander off” for many, many years!
Culture
Signs (Or: Alcohol and minors in the Netherlands)
Here is a random sign found at a bar in the Hague.
We sell no alcohol to minors under 16.
We sell no hard liquor (spirits) to minors under 18.
Other fun facts: minors can drink at home, under parental supervision. Minors can only enter a shop if are with someone over the age of 21. Supermarkets don’t sell hard liquor – only beer, wine, and similar with an alcohol content below 14 percent.
And thus ends my random Wednesday blog post. Here’s a post about the day Wednesday from Juno in Holland.
Unexpected surprises (Or: Dutch kids’ books)
A few pages into the aforementioned Dutch children’s book, I was reading along and found something slightly unexpected, at least for a kid’s book. Look at the first paragraph. Two bullies (having been thwarted by the victim’s older brother) jump on their bikes and bike away. Once they get a safe distance away, they turn around and give their retort.
Basically their response is Vuile hufter! (dirty bastard!). And then it says terwijl ze hun middelvinger opsteken. … (while they raised their middle fingers.) They then go on to talk about the kid’s dirty filthy clothes.
A bit unexpected for a book written for 10 year olds (or so). Though I realized a while ago that Americans tend to be a bit more… reserved in some instances. It was interesting to work at the public library shortly after And Tango Makes Three was published. This book is about two male penguins who seemed to have a relationship, and exhibited nesting tendencies. Eventually they were given an egg to “mother” and they did a great job of it. (Of course, penguins tend to have different sexual habits, and eventually they “broke up” when one of them doted on a female penguin.)
Someone in town complained about the book being in the picture book section, so all copies were moved to the parenting section. Though I can understand this – parents like to let the children roam and pick out what they want to read. Unknowingly bringing that book home could lead to some awkward discussions before the parent wants to bring them up.
But in the Dutch book – it’s not the only example of “real world” actions of kids that age. On page 1 the older sister was admonishing her brother to keep up when he whined he couldn’t get up the hill*: “niet lullen maar fietsen!’ which is basically “less bs’ing, more biking!”.
* = must have been man-made, since I haven’t seen any hills yet!
But hey, at least it makes the book more interesting to read. I am just used to children’s books being slightly more censored. I was reading a lot of them between 2006-2007 for the library job so I don’t think I am THAT out of touch.
Deciphering money (Or: Euros, quarters, and dimes)
Today’s amusement: More camp counselors got on the bus today to go to the Palisades Center. There were about 7 or 8 of them, and most of them seemed to be from the UK.
After seeing that the price was $2.10, the first girl asked “That’s a dime. Which one is a dime again?” as she quickly scanned the change in her palm. A helpful counselor behind her piped up, “Just look for the smallest one!”
How much can you get for €10, $.25 (quarter), and $.10 (dime)? Not a lot, but it’s a start.
Of course I breathed a sigh of relief, since I at least know the euro coins carry the denomination printed right on them.
While I am talking about money, what’s the point of Dutch ATMs dispensing €50 instead of €20? If you ask for €60, you get €50 and €10. I would hate to be the poor shopkeeper that had to make change for that (but I guess some just refuse).
Number of days (straight) I have studied Dutch: 4.
Yesterday’s lesson: Verbs: future perfect.
Rustle rustle (Or: Stop with plastic book covers!)
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.
Categories: Culture, Daily Dutch living, Transportation
2 Comments
Euro 2012 (Or: Celebrating a goal, Dutch style)
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.
Queen’s Day (Or: The Hague looks… crowded)
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:
Categories: Culture, Holidays, The Hague
6 Comments
Kroepoek (Or: It’s made from what…?!)
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!)
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.
Categories: Culture, News
3 Comments
Dutch tea (Or: A touch of orange)
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…
Life in the Hague 