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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:

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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.

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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

Crazy Dutchies (Or: More Euro 2012 decorations)

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Niki

I think I’ve made it obvious with this blog that I like sports! I am very willing to start following voetbal if it means I get to keep watching live sports without worrying about the time zone difference.

Here’s a recent picture that Marco took of some local decorations.

The sign says “C’mon you Dutch lions”. Sounds sort of negative in English, like you expect that they will not win, but it might just be worded oddly…

Here’s a picture that nu.nl used to show the insane passion that some Dutch have for their voetbal team:

So insane, but awesome at the same time. Note: this is a picture taken off the Internet. Click the image itself to get a larger version.

It’s so… oranje! If that isn’t prepared for the Euro 2012 Championship, I don’t know what is. Even the worker is wearing orange.

Categories: Sports | Tags: | 3 Comments

Cuteness factor (Or: Duck nests and goslings)

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Niki

A few weeks ago my parents noticed that there was a duck hanging around the house. Sensing what was about to happen, Mom tried to shoo it away. But it was to no avail – the duck made her choice and the nest was made.

Here is her nest. I am surprised so many eggs could fit in one duck… The nest is right up against the house, underneath a bench (which is the wood piece you see here).

Last I heard a few days ago, the eggs have not hatched yet. Of course it’s not so much that my parents are against the idea of little ducklings in the yard. Our dog is older, slow, and probably a bit blind. So she pretty much ignores the mother. (And hopefully the duck keeps ignoring the dog, or I will fly home and make sure it wishes it had! I have a soft spot for Oreo, our dog.)

It’s more the factor of what other wildlife gets into our fenced in yard. Every week or two, a cat is spied lounging on the deck. So it’ll be a miracle if all of them survive – but that’s why the duck lays so many!

Not to be out done, Marco’s aunt and uncle also have their own newly hatched birds…

Cute little goslings in the Netherlands

Here are two little goslings who are exploring their yard. His aunt and uncle spent a lot of time and effort fixing up their home and surrounding land, which is in the country. Having spent the rest of my time in the Netherlands staying in cities, it was a bit of a shock to see what the Dutch countryside looked like.

But it was very peaceful and relaxing. And amusing when a chicken waddled past hoping that none of us would notice that it was about to get into the home through the open back door… but we noticed. Poor chicken didn’t get to explore the inside!

Categories: Daily Dutch living | 6 Comments

Hup Holland (Or: Let’s get this party started)

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Niki

As I mentioned in a previous post, Euro 2012, the European soccer championship, is coming. “Hup Holland” is a sports cheer. Marco got me a picture of the festivities:

Decorations for Euro 2012 in the Hague this coming Friday (June 8) The lower banner has been edited slightly to remove the street name (just in case).

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Categories: Sports, The Hague | Tags: | 2 Comments

Unexpected packages (Or: Tea and chocolate refills!)

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Niki

Remember when I mentioned that I was sending Marco and Roger a package (t-shirts and food, mainly)? Well, I had no idea that Marco was secretly getting a package together for me at the same time…

I love unexpected packages!

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

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