Topics

Oude Kerk (Or: Walking amongst the dead)

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Niki

Before I get into the subject of Oude Kerk in Delft, I would just like to take a moment to say that I hate colds. I am in day 7 of mine. I don’t get sick very often (last memorable time was October 2009), but I knew something was up when a student overheard me talking to someone else; he joined the conversation and was able to describe my symptoms down to a T. Ugh. Lots of hot tea for me. Why did I agree to an 11 hour shift tomorrow again?

As you might have realized from my previous posts about Delft, I like Vermeer. I didn’t really know anything about him until I met Marco of course. When I started to fall in love with the Netherlands, I visited my public library and tried to find all the material I could about the country. Even though this is New York, there is not a lot. There is some material I could get from other libraries in the system, I just prefer to have it right at my fingertips without sending for it and waiting a week.

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

Airplanes (Or: Flying British Airways & KLM/Delta)

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Niki

The first time I flew to the Netherlands was also the first time that I flew out of the country. I remember how cool it was go to the post office and get my picture taken for my passport, and waiting for it to arrive in the mail. (And nervously waiting for them to return my birth certificate, which they did.)

The first time I had a very short stop in London to visit another friend, so each way I flew British Airways. On the flight to London I secured an exit row seat, which was nice for the sleeping aspect. On the way there, flights generally take 6 1/2 or 7 hours from NY. On the way back to the States, it takes a bit longer due to head wind. I like to take a red eye flight (6:10PM or 9:30PM are the choices) when heading to the Netherlands and on the way back I take a late morning flight.

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Categories: Transportation | Tags: | 3 Comments

Ancient maps (Or: Inside the Royal Palace of Amsterdam)

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Niki

Marco and I visited the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. It is sometimes used by Queen Beatrix during state affairs.

Prior to my visit, they had been renovating the interior of the palace, from 2005 to 2009.  When I visited, they were working on the outside of the palace. They have since finished (last month).

Royal palace of Amsterdam, the facade hidden from view during renovations

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

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

Memories (Or: It’s been a quick 5 years)

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Niki

In October of last year I received an unexpected card from Marco. It was a card in honor of our 5 year “anniversary” since meeting each other the night of October 19, 2006. It’s pretty easy for Marco to remember the date since he went out with a group to the Predators vs Devils hockey game. My flight arrived that night so I didn’t meet him until after the group returned.

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Categories: Marco&Niki | 2 Comments

Rijswijk (Or: Where I act like a confused American)

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Niki

First, I want to mention how amusing it is to be subscribed to a dozen or so Dutch blogs and see how most of them talk about the weather. Snow, cold, and the prospect of elfstedentocht (elf-steden-tocht, 11 city tour). It’s a rare event where the canal ice freezes up enough for ice skating through 11 cities to take place. It hasn’t happened since 1997.

Over here, I am just glad we’ve only had two snowstorms: the Halloween one which knocked out my power for 5 days — just a few inches of snow — and one a few weeks ago, about 5 inches.

Today’s topic is de bogaard in Rijswijk, a shopping area near the Hague which you can get to by bus. I visited it twice. The first time I had someone with me, the second time I traveled there alone.

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Categories: Rijswijk, Transportation | Tags: | 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

Super Bowl (Or: It’s all over the television)

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Niki

So, tonight is the Super Bowl. Start time 6:29PM EST. Since the New York Giants are in this one, there is a definite buzz in the air. The grocery store has the usual display right by the front entrance, including chips, dips, and similar snacking items.

But further in, I found something even more amusing…

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Categories: Sports | 3 Comments

A chance meeting (Or: American present, Dutch future)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Niki

I met my fiancé Marco in October 2006. We first knew of each other for some years before that through an online game called Avatar MUD, a text-based medieval fantasy game similar to Zork.

But the first time we met in real life was at a gaming convention in New Jersey, USA. I was working the help desk at the time. To be honest, to me he seemed a bit unapproachable online, playing a character that tended more towards evil than good.. yet I had no idea that that night would change everything.

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Categories: Marco&Niki | 5 Comments

Albert Heijn (Or: Glad I don’t need to ship yellow mustard in)

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Niki

The grocery store of choice near where I will be living is Albert Heijn. Although it’s nowhere near the typical size of an American grocery store (maybe 12 or so aisles) it works for most things. The store itself is on the lower level, with escalators allowing access from street level. When the escalators are functioning of course; one time they were broken for about 5 weeks straight. I considered taking a picture of the negative comments a customer left on the official “We’re sorry” note but didn’t…

Entrance to Albert Heijn via escalators

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Categories: Shopping, The Hague | Tags: | 5 Comments

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