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Blood donation (Or: Fillin’ up some vials)

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Niki

Today’s random activity was donating blood at the local public library after work. And dragging a coworker along for good measure. This way she could also donate blood, see the public library for the first time, and get NY Blood Center to stop calling her for at least, oh… 56 days until we’re both eligible again.

NY blood donation button and sticker

The best thing about donating blood is getting to eat guilt-free cookies afterwards. Home baked this time!

I did some searching on Google about the differences between donating blood in the United States and donating blood in the Netherlands. I found this thread which does seem to suggest that donating blood in the Netherlands is a bit more annoying for the individual – though it seems to get better once you are a regular donor.

It seems like you need to register first. Once you are registered, they contact you, and then you come in for an eligibility test. After that, they look at the results and then contact you to come back again to actually donate (I think). On top of that, it doesn’t seem like you can donate as often – in the United States it is every 56 days.

However I tend to only go when places of opportunity crop up, like holding a blood drive at the college I work at or the public library, as in this case. I get the impression that most Dutch blood donation happens with the individual going to to donation center, rather than the donation center workers coming to a place that is more convenient to you.

I also heard that women and men are tested differently. They mentioned that women get tested for their iron levels, but that is the same thing that they do here with a finger prick to draw blood. But women in the Netherlands can’t donate as often as men — at least according to one link that I read.

Anyone else here have experience with donating in the Netherlands?

Categories: Daily Dutch living | Tags: | 2 Comments

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

Stolen bicycle seats (Or: That’s a new one)

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Niki

When Roger came back from Amsterdam yesterday, he found something missing.

His bicycle seat.

One bicycle, no seat

Apparently they really do take whatever isn’t nailed down. The bike was nailed down, but the seat wasn’t. I am happy to report, however, that the problem has already been fixed (at cost to him of course :/) ! And this time with a seat that isn’t quite as easily removable…

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Friends&Family, Transportation | Tags: | 3 Comments

Pretzels and cheese (Or: Let’s go Rangers

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Niki

The NHL Rangers are currently tied in the Eastern Conference finals 2-2. They need to win 2 more games this series, and 4 more in the finals. Of course, both the first and second playoff rounds went to 7 games. Nailbiters.

Final game of the regular season, Rangers vs. Capitals, April 2012

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Categories: News, Sports | 1 Comment

Paraplu (Or: Caught in a downpour)

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Niki

Today was a day where I was glad I brought an umbrella (paraplu). While the morning bus ride to work wasn’t too bad, the rain started around 9:30AM and then rained/poured on and off all day.

As I was waiting at the bus stop to go home, the skies opened up and the rain started coming down. It was pouring by the time I got off the bus. I stopped at the deli to pick up some milk, and then steeled myself for the 10 minute walk home. It was a good 30 seconds before I told myself Okay – you have to go outside again. It’s not going to stop any time soon. About halfway home, the rain came down even worse. Just for a minute.

That reminded me of last June, when Marco brought his mother over to see the NY sights again (she first visited in the ’70s). One day we wanted to go to the mall, but it was raining pretty hard. We took a chance but got soaked in the process. I had an extra (old) umbrella so we each had one, but it was barely enough.

It was like being in a monsoon without the accompanying wind to back it up, and then of course the wait for the bus was about 40 minutes (thankfully under an overhang) because it was late.

One very swollen creek

Here’s a picture that Marco took of the local creek. Let’s just put the insanity this way: that’s about 3 1/2 feet (107cm) of extra water raging past. Normally the creek is about 2-3 inches (7cm) deep.

On the way to the mall, we witnessed one car that was literally half submerged in the water — only the back end was visible. The driver had tried to take the exit ramp off the highway but misjudged and went into a dip in the grass. Byebye car!

By the time we got to the mall, we had to run into the bathroom and crouch in front of the hand dryers to try and get some of the water out of our t-shirts. It was only partially successful…

Ah, memories.

Categories: Marco&Niki | 5 Comments

Dutch letters (Or: Holding the paper at an angle)

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Niki

First off: exactly 7 months until the (predicted) move. We tentatively set a date of December 18 for the flight to the Netherlands.

* * *

As a thank you for Marco’s dad and his wife sending me an Easter card (Paaskaart) and a birthday card (verjaardagkaart), I wrote them a letter earlier this week.

In Dutch.

The letter I mailed to Marco’s dad and wife 🙂

(Yes, Marco helped.) First I wrote out what I wanted to say in English, and then wrote out what I thought it was in Dutch, and then later when I saw Marco online he helped me fix things. As expected, some sentences were pretty decent – and some were pretty screwed up!

It was a fun exercise. I need to do more of that. Underneath the letter, you can see my notebook with Dutch notes.

Oh, and you can also see that I accidentally held the letter at a bit of an angle when I wrote!

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: | 1 Comment

Random finds (Or: A quarter to call you)

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Niki

Well, it’s not quite a quarter to call, but you get the idea. I found this in my closest last week:

4 quarters from Marco, taped together

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… I was but a poor Masters student with not much money to my name. While I had had a part time job after college to save up some money, 90% of it went towards rent during my one and a half years at Rutgers.

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Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: | 2 Comments

Work gatherings (Or: Life in a new direction)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Niki

First off, congratulations to Roger, who will be getting a promotion at work very soon. 🙂 (You rule!) Here’s hoping you’re don’t blush too much to have a mention in my blog!

***

Today at work we had another all-college meeting, where faculty, administrators (me) and staff have a luncheon. We have one in mid August before the Fall semester, one in mid January before the Spring semester, and one in May for “service recognition”. This is where they honor people who have been there for 5, 10, 15, etc years, plus anyone who gets tenure, retires, or receives the coveted grant money for their projects.

When I started this job in August 2009, I had been on the job for about a week when the August meeting was held. The academic dean introduced me to the college, making the joke that since my predecessor had my job for 30 years, there was a little known stipulation in the contract that said I must hold it for 30 years as well.

Everyone including me laughed at that joke. While at the time I did not think that I would actually spend 30 years there (the likelihood of being in one place for that long wasn’t high nor is there any room for real promotion) I did expect to see myself there for around 10 years.

Well, when I leave in December it will have been 3 years and 4 months. So I wasn’t even there for 5 years (no gift for me!). Although someone else who is widely known and respected in the college was retiring after only 6 years on the job. So perhaps it is possible to make my mark in only 3 or so years.

Another thing that I was thinking about way too much during today’s luncheon was the possibility of a going-away party for me. Personally, I don’t really think I want or need one, but Marco has expressed a genuine interest in going back to campus and attending that. He will be coming to the country in December to come pick me up (and be a luggage mule!). It sounds like he wants one, so I will have to ask around to make sure one takes place (they usually do, on some scale). Maybe I can have him bring some speculaas and stroopwafels in his luggage so everyone can have a Dutch dessert…

So much to ponder. Things I never thought of 3 years ago.

Categories: Friends&Family | 1 Comment

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

Care packages (Or: That’s a LOT of tape

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Niki

While Marco and Roger were visiting last month, they ordered some t-shirts to be delivered to my place. Unfortunately, those t-shirts went on back order and didn’t arrive until last week. So it became my job to get them from New York to the Netherlands. I became intimately familiar with the Post Office’s USPS.com and international rates – it’s a bit expensive.

It was not, actually, my first time mailing something internationally. The first time was in June 2007 when the Anaheim Ducks took hockey’s Stanley Cup, and Marco sweetly begged me to let him mail stuff to my parent’s house in Chicago so it could be sent onwards (by us) to the Netherlands. At that point we’d only been hanging out as friends for about 8 months, but it was still fun.

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Categories: Marco&Niki | 2 Comments

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