Life in the Hague

Dutch apps (Or: Word Tap, a word finding game)

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Niki

This app has been added to the Dutch Apps page.

Word Tap is a word finding game available in multiple languages, including Dutch, English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese. The default is English so you will have to switch the language in the settings if desired.

The game has a two minute timer in classic mode. Level mode has you progress through 10 levels. Your goal is to find as many words as possible before the time runs out. Longer words with rarely used letters give you a higher score. Words can be formed in pretty much any direction – left to right, right to left, up to down, down to up, and diagonally. (So you can click a letter, click the letter to the right of it, and then go diagonal for the next letter).

In addition, you can hold a letter and drag to move it in a new direction. You can also shake the iPhone to give yourself new letters.

Categories: Apps | Tags: Apps | Leave a comment

A2 books (Or: Learning Dutch)

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Niki

Here is the latest book that I read at The Hague Public Library:

This book is from Leespunt.nl and has two stories in it: Vader en zoon / Dik (Father and son / Thick). The book is listed at A2 level. I read the first story (15pg) using a Dutch-English dictionary app but I did not use a dictionary app at all for the second story (17pg). If took about an hour in total.

The library has one more A2 book. After that I have a few choices at B1, the next step up in difficulty. Next week!

Categories: Reading | Tags: Dutch language | Leave a comment

IND (Or: Approval for the VVR)

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Niki

Three business days.

Maybe three and a half… That’s how long it took to get approval for my VVR (residency permit). Marco and I had our appointment with the IND and The Hague’s GBA this past Friday on the 11th, and when we came home yesterday the approval letter was already in the mailbox.

Of course, there are a few factors which help:

1. I am American (not a country they typically scrutinize).

2. I already had my MVV (not required for Americans) so I had already received permission to move here.

Happily, the letter also says De arbeidsmarktaantekening luidt ‘arbeid vrij toegestaan. TWV niet vereist.’, which translates to “The labor endorsement reads ‘work freely permitted. TWV is not required.’ ” Though the economy is not the best so I don’t expect to be able to get a job tomorrow. ;p

This is just the approval letter though. Since we live in The Hague, the visit to the GBA and the IND are combined into one. IND had a quick turnaround, but the GBA might take 2-3 weeks more. So the letter I received said that I can’t come pick up the document yet – probably because the GBA has not assigned me a BSN yet. I will receive another letter when everything is truly ready to go.

Categories: Forms, etc. | Tags: Expat, Moving | 1 Comment

Dutch Courses (Or: Finding the right one in The Hague)

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Niki

So Marco and I have sat down and started looking more seriously at Dutch courses. In The Hague it seems the choice (for us) is between two: Direct Dutch and Volksuniversiteit (aka something like “People’s University”).

Both organizations have a range of courses at the beginning – for example Voltsuniversiteit has an absolute beginners course (A1) and a half beginners course (A2), whereas Direct Dutch has a beginners basic course (A1) and a beginners elementary course (A2 I assume). Both require taking a short oral test if you are not starting at the very beginning, but that is to be expected (and makes sense).

One of the reasons we are thinking about choosing Volksuniversiteit is because of when the class starts. For Direct Dutch, the intermediate class would start February 6th, but the beginning elementary course (which they might put me in as my verbal skills leave much to be desired) starts March 19. I don’t really want to wait that long. On the other hand, at Volksuniversiteit, the two A2 sessions start February 6 or 12th.

The other consideration is where in The Hague the courses would be offered. The university has various locations depending on the class you are looking for, while Direct Dutch just has one location at Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië 275, so I do not have to switch buildings every three or four months.

On the other hand, if I look at the university course, I have a choice of Tuesday mornings (9;15 – 12:30PM) at Sweelinckplein 42 or Tuesday evenings (7:00 – 10:15PM) at Oostduinlaan 50. And then at each you have the choice between a bus or a tram, and one or the other is closer but might require a transfer. It’s all about choices.

So sometime soon, I wil have to go get more information and I have to take the oral test to double check what level I am. 😉 I expect A2 but we will see how it goes…

Categories: Courses, Learning Dutch | Tags: Dutch language | 7 Comments

Boeken (Or: Selexyz bookstore moving into De Slegte)

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Niki

For some months now it has been known that a new Apple store would be moving into The Hague – the largest Apple store in the Netherlands, in fact, even larger than Amsterdam. They would be taking over space from another well-known bookstore that goes by the name of Selexyz (pronounced something like sa-leks-yas). They would be moving into the De Passage, a shopping area I have blogged about occasionally.

That store, in turn, would be moving in with another bookstore, De Slegte. I don’t visit that bookstore that much, partially because they have a lot of books but nothing that seems to interest me particularly.

When I visited De Slegte, most of the stock was already gone – it was probably only about 20% full:

Of course, there were still some books available, but it was definitely a very small amount:

Of course, the most interesting thing is this:

As part of the terms of its lease with ASR Vastgoed, Apple will prohibit the decade-long tradition of displaying a large Christmas tree in the rotunda of the shopping arcade because it will block the company’s retail storefront.

Boo! No more Christmas tree in De Passage?!

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Books | 2 Comments

Mondays (Or: Surrounded by snow and DVDs)

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Niki

So, it started snowing today. Not a lot of course, but something:

Today was definitely a slower day. I went to Albert Heijn to pick up some grocery items. I did pretty good in terms of figuring out the language, even correctly figured out that the cashier was asking if I had an extra 20c piece (truthfully all I heard was ‘twintig’ and I guessed). I was thrown off a bit when she asked for my bonus card, as I did not think I picked up any bonus items or anything on discount. But when I looked over the receipt later I did see some savings, so it is probably best to just present it each time.

I wandered over to the library again but was thrown off by later opening hours on Mondays – the library does not open until 12PM. Marco explained that some stores or other establishments still have later opening hours on Mondays, but that practice goes back to when not many stores were even open on Sundays at all.

A few hours before Marco returned home from work I decided to take a crack at organizing his DVDs again. As he had moved around a lot of stuff in his apartment to make room for me and my items, his DVDs ended up being put back in rather jumbled order. Today I just worked on sorting his blue rays and his wrestling DVDs. I still have TV shows and DVD movies to go (whenever). Those tend to be the two largest sections.

Lastly Marco and I watched the 2009 Star Trek movie, the reboot of the original series. I never watched that TV show, although I understand most of the Kirk/Spock/etc jokes that have entered the culture. Growing up I generally watched Next Generation, Voyager, and DS9. But I never got into the last version, Star Trek Enterprise. Even if it did have Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap…

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Bikes, Weather, Winter | 4 Comments

Apps (Or: Dutch Words – Nederlandse Woorden)

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Niki

This app has been added to the Dutch Apps page.

Dutch Words – Nederlandse Woorden (by Tung Vu) (Apple)

This is a pretty interesting game which requires you to move around letters to find and make a Dutch word. It’s a newer app (Nov. 2012) and is consequently still a bit rough around the edges as it crashes occasionally. It is highly recommended that you read the instructions on the official Apple app website, because they are not repeated in the game itself.

You start with a mostly empty board, with six letters in random places.

Step 1: Tap a letter to select it (image 2).

Step 2: Tap a square to indicate where you want it to move to (image 2). Note: You can only move a letter to that square if there is a clear path for it to get there.

Step 3: Swipe a word to get it to disappear and gain points (image 1). The words can be left to right, right to left, up to down, or down to up.

Note also the magnifying glass – that is a Dutch-English dictionary that shows you the definition for the last legal Dutch word you played.

Also note the three letters at the top left (ATT, AXT). These are the three letters that will appear at the next turn in a random place. You can also press the reset button to reset the board.

As mentioned above, the game crashes occasionally, but not too often. You can leave the game and return to it by pressing the home button with no consequences (for example if you wanted to open a dictionary program which might give you some ideas of what words to look for).

Categories: Apps | Tags: Apps, Dutch language | Leave a comment

Saturdays (Or: Megastores and Warung Mini)

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Niki

Today was a pretty fun-filled Saturday, although I definitely started to drag by the end of it. At 1PM, Marco’s mother dropped by. All three of us went to Megastores in the Hague, which is a larger sized mall. As the temperature has been dropping a bit, it was nice to find that it was an indoor mall. Most of the stores in the mall are furniture stores, although you can also find Dutch staples like Hema, Kruidvat, and Xenos (a thrift store of sorts).

Kind of interesting – this mall uses flat escalators rather than step escalators. It’s a bit of a steeper incline, but otherwise it works.

The first store that we went to was Woon XL, which was an Ikea-like store. Complete with routes to follow (arrows on the floor), various room design displays, pencils to fill out your order card with, a back area to pick up larger items, and a cafeteria at the end. We picked up a nightstand and a medicine cabinet, although we have to figure out how to get the latter up on the bathroom wall.

A crazy looking, huge rug with stuffed animal-like objects stitched onto the top. Good luck finding anything if you drop it in this rug. Seriously… what were they thinking?

Afterwards, the three of us went to a few other stores to look at perspective washing machines and also to McDonald’s to split an order of chicken nuggets.

Just for mom – an from-afar look at an Aldi store (since my parents also have Aldi stores near Chicago where they live). You can even see the carts in the front, presumably also requiring a coin to release them. But I am not sure.

By then it was time to go home. As we walked up to the front entrance of our apartment, we spied Roger who had arrived just before us and was waiting in the foyer by the mailboxes. So the four of us went upstairs together.

Dinner was from Warung Mini, a Surinamese/Indonesian restaurant. I had Rijst kerrie lams groenten – which was a large container of lamb in curry sauce, with vegetables, and a large container of white rice. The lamb in curry sauce was so good – perfectly spiced (but not spicy). Dessert was a baked banana (bakabana).

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

Afspraken (Or: A visit to the IND)

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Niki

Today Marco and I went to our scheduled appointment (afspraak) with the IND to set up my VVR (permanent residency). This also included a meeting with the GBA (…Gemeentelijke Basisadministratie persoonsgegevens!), otherwise known as the department who keeps tabs on every single citizen of the Hague. You are required to register.

The appointment was at 9AM, so we left the apartment around 8AM and took tram 17 to the Statenplein tram stop. (The street we wanted was Stadhoudersplantsoen, 24. Yeah. Who needs to use the space bar.)

gemeente museum in the Hague, near our appointment building. (gemeente = municipality)

The appointment went rather smoothly – as mentioned, we first met with an official from the GBA and I turned over one of the official copies of my birth certificate (don’t worry mom – a long version, not the fragile original version!). Then we waited a few minutes for the IND appointment and got that sorted. I had my fingerprint taken digitally, which was interesting because the machine was rather finicky. Eventually they ended up just trying the index finger on my left hand instead of my right, and it worked a bit quicker.

Then my fingerprint was taken again at a different window, and then it was done. The VVR should arrive in 6 to 7 weeks. I hope!

Continue reading →

Categories: Forms, etc., The Hague | Tags: Expat, Graffiti, HEMA | 5 Comments

Welkom (Or: A visit to the Hague’s International Centre)

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Niki

Today I visited the International Centre in the Hague’s City Hall. It’s on the first floor, but if you use the main entrance (near the library entrance) it is clear on the other side of the building. Their main website is thehague.com.

Here are some images of the space:

I received an information booklet on the city hall and it stated that the city hall had been used in the film Ocean’s Twelve (in the movie it was the Europol headquarters).

I feel a bit far from “home” now (New York). Just kidding.

Here was the welcome package I received:

And the items inside:

Here is a list:

– flyer on what to do with household waste (garbage and recycling)

– information on the next upcoming information session and tour for new residents, February 18

– information on an organization called “The Hague Midtown”

– copy of a newspaper called The Local Expat

– thehagueonline.com winter 2012-2013 magazine (lists events)

– The International Correspondent magazine

– “Freebee Map” to Den Haag and Scheveningen

– promotion for “The Guest Card” with a free 1 year membership (discount, events type card)

– Expactia Expat Survival Guide, 2013

– healthcare brochure

– ‘The Hague thinks ahead’ disaster planning flyer

– Expat Events Calendar flyer (www.expatevents.com)

– Access brochure

– “City in One: The Expat Guide of the Hague”, 2013

– brochure on the city hall, with historical information

– bike path map

– guide to Scheveningen

– HTM bus, tram, and train map

– HTM guide on what to take to go shopping, to the beach, to the region, etc

– and an actual hardcover book, just under 200 pages. ‘Manners in the Netherlands’

Categories: Daily Dutch living, The Hague | Tags: Expat | Leave a comment