Topics

Happenings (Or: On other dutch blog posts)

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Niki

I am tempted to put a “counter” on the top of each blog post, similar to the ones you see at the “Looking Overseas for the American Dream” blog.

Number of days I have studied Dutch: 3

(See? If it’s anything like this blog, that means I will never go a day without studying Dutch. When I first started this blog, I never thought I would go post every single day. But then it gets into my routine, and good luck getting it out again.)

Speaking of blogs, here are some blog posts that I have found interesting lately (note: just a sampling).

1. Six Degrees of Separation, by Journalist on the Run

Guy loses camera while vacationing in Europe. Another person finds camera. Posts pictures to Facebook. Lots and lots of people share said pictures in hopes that the original guy sees it. Guy is found. – That post inspired my blog post.

2. Dutch for Dummies: Or how I am going to bump up my Dutch a level or two this summer, by a Georgia Peach Abroad

Ah, the joy of inburgering. And getting screwed out of getting a good class so you have to work three times as hard to keep up. If you are an expat (or a native Dutchie) with advice feel free to stop by her blog.

Continue reading →

Categories: Daily Dutch living | Tags: | 2 Comments

Cotton (Or: A boyfriend’s good intentions)

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Niki

Before one of my trips to the Netherlands, Marco was trying to be a good boyfriend (note: he passed with flying colors and double rainbows). He knew that I use cotton balls to wash my face each morning. So he had the bright idea of getting me some cotton from Albert Heijn:

Yes… he got me a bag of watten (cotton) … but it was not in ball form at all. Nope.

As it turned out, I also brought some cotton balls on the trip, as I didn’t know that he had gotten anything for me. But, as unluckiness would have it… I had packed my cotton balls and my face cleanser in a sandwich bag. But I didn’t realize that the cleanser wasn’t fully closed, so all of the cotton balls were wet and ruined when I opened the luggage. So Marco’s odd zigzag cotton saved the day!

But let me tell you, it was a bit weird to pull apart bits of cotton to use. Usually I got a piece that was three times larger than I needed! I think that stuff was better intended for arts and crafts projects.

But thank you, Marco, for saving the day yet again!

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: | 1 Comment

Heat (Or: Would you jump in this fountain?)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Niki

Heat: Two days of soaring high temperatures where frying eggs on the sidewalk is not completely out of the question. Both were 36C+ with temperatures feeling like 40C+ (105F) today.

But only two days’ worth. It breaks tonight, and then the thunderstorm rolls in.   Of course today the bus was a bit late due to an accident around the Lincoln Tunnel, so standing at the bus stop in that kind of heat for 40 minutes was… not fun. (Of course, this is where I have to admit the driver of my bus occasionally reads this blog, so if you stumble across this post Mr. bus driver, I know that you are not to blame! :))

Heat: Here’s hoping the Miami Heat don’t win the NBA championship tonight. I would at least like it to be a series.

Not Heat: Continuing the fountain theme of the last few days, here’s another picture of the fountain at Rijkswijk. Marco took it for me last month.

Would you jump into this fountain on a 36C+ day?

The amusing thing about this fountain is they do clean it about a few times a year… and it goes back to green within 2 days of the cleaning. It’s near the Bogaardplein.

Categories: Rijswijk, Sports | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Reflections (Or: 6 months to go)

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Niki

Yesterday I was idly looking through my WordPress widgets – the things on the right like the categories, search box, signup, etc. I came across the Milestone one and decided to open it. This is the widget that says how many months/days are left until the big day. Currently it counts down to Christmas day, but I will change that once we officially book the plane tickets.

When I opened up the Milestone widget, I found myself chuckling a bit at the message that will be displayed on the day the countdown expires… but I will leave that big reveal until the big day. I am trying to imagine December 18, but it’s sort of hard even though it is so close.

Continue reading →

Categories: Moving, Sports | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Birthdays (Or: Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!)

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Niki

Tomorrow is the birthday of Marco’s mother, so today Marco and her went out to eat at Sumo, a Japanese restaurant.

But Marco devised a scheme – before she arrived, he and I would start up a videochat, and then surprise her. I will say that when she arrived, it was nice to hear her voice again (off screen), with its Dutch accent and happy nature showing through. He asked her to open up my card. After she read it to herself, he took the card back and repeated what I had said in English, line by line. She translated it into Dutch to show that she understood what I was saying.

Afterwards, at an opportune moment he had me say “Happy birthday, Henny!” as he turned around the laptop to show her my grinning face. Her reaction was predictable – instantly flustered, for whatever reason! 🙂 Probably suddenly having to speak English! It was nice to speak with her again, since it has been almost a year since I seen her (last August). Marco and her stayed at my place last year for her birthday, so it was hard to be an ocean apart this year.

Here was the wrapped gift:

Continue reading →

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: | 7 Comments

Holland edition (Or: Euro 2012 m&ms)

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Niki

If you like m&ms (milk chocolate or peanut) you will like this post! During one of Marco’s shopping trips he came across Holland edition m&ms, for the Euro 2012 tournament.

Holland edition peanut m&ms for Euro 2012… the orange m&m always looks so scared that you are about to eat him.

So much chocolate in one place. I approve.

Red, white and blue for the Dutch flag. Orange because that’s their national sports color.

The set also comes with a brullie, which is head gear sort of like a lion’s mane (since the Dutch “mascot” is a lion). You can see a quick example at this 11 second M&M brullie video.

Categories: Sports | Tags: | 2 Comments

Strange places (Or: Volunteering and summer camps)

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Niki

My friend Roger had an interesting work assignment today …outside. Of course, this meant that Amsterdam was experiencing horrible downpours at times today!

Once a year his company volunteers somewhere. This year, he and his coworkers were asked to spend a day with kids. Most of his morning was spent preparing for their arrival, as the organization decided to host a barbecue dinner outside (but still underneath a party tent). This entailed cleaning out a barn, setting up tables and chairs, and hanging balloons.

Continue reading →

Categories: Friends&Family | 1 Comment

Don’t trip (Or: Larger than life Euro 2012 decoration)

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Niki

Here is another Euro 2012 decoration, straight from Marco’s camera. It’s rather unfortunate that the Google Street view car wasn’t passing by this week, otherwise this larger than life decoration would have been immortalized for all time… or at least 3-4 years.

I am not surprised to see that this is nailed down, less someone try to steal it by pushing it down the street. How fast do you think it would take before they get caught? “No, officer. This is my exercise ball, I swear!”

Go ahead. Kick it. I dare you.

Categories: Rijswijk, Sports | Tags: | 4 Comments

Zondag (Or: Not enough sports)

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Niki

Eek. It’s Sunday, and there’s a Monday staring right at us! But it’s still miles above winter and darkness falling at 5pm.

I added two more apps to the Dutch apps page based on some suggestions that I received. Feel free to keep them coming! It’s always a bit interesting to search for apps, since the Dutch iTunes page doesn’t filter out English results. And since English is spoken by a lot of people in the Netherlands, most of the results on the page seem to be apps written for English speaking persons. (Which is why any suggestions you have are definitely helpful.)

Yesterday was definitely a sports filled day — but for some reason, all of the teams I hoped would win did not. (The Netherlands, and then hoping for a tie in Germany-Portugal and not getting one, and then the Miami Heat won in basketball, and the New Jersey Devils won in hockey… you get the idea!)

On the other side, there wasn’t that much sports on tv today, although I did find the Italy-Croatia game Euro 2012 game interesting. I wasn’t rooting for any particular team, so that probably helped! Usually it’s dead in the summer after the basketball and hockey seasons end. But at least we have Euro 2012 and the Olympics. Of course, I can’t really mention Tour de France since they never show it live on on American tv anymore, since Lance Armstrong retired.

But tomorrow it is back to work… My alarm will be going off very early in the morning, I fear.

Categories: Apps, Sports | Tags: | 2 Comments

Vrijdagen (Or: Chili, voetbal and videochats)

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Niki

It’s been a rather relaxing Friday. I went to Shoprite to get some ingredients for chili. It’s been a while since I have fired up the crock pot. The only thing better is pasta at Marco’s. Good times. But there’s nothing like letting chili slow cook for hours. When you come home and open the door, the entire apartment smells like chili…

I made it a point to watch the opening of the Euro 2012, so I saw the game between Poland and Greece, including both red cards. Crazy ref! It was a good game – and ending in a tie seemed so apt somehow. I watched about half of the 2nd game, though at some point I went into my bedroom to have a videochat with Marco (to celebrate the joys of Fridays!).

There’s still some stuff I need to do tonight – cut up the peppers and onion for the chili, perhaps heat up the ground beef and onions in advance. But hopefully everything gets done at a sane hour so I can relax for the rest of the night with a good drink – probably a caipirinha since I did pick up some limes and lime juice at the store. You can never have too many limes.

Of course, I could just stop and stare at the latest Simpsons episode instead, which happens to be a Treehouse of Horror episode…

Categories: Food, Sports | Tags: | 4 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.