ESPN (Or: I got my baby back)

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Niki

The post title is a play on the old Chili’s commercial… I want my babyback, babyback, babyback ribs. Chillll-i’s babyback ribs…

(If you are not American, you can see it in an action here, where Michael Scott from The Office sings it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07kgCNSB8AI. :P)

As you can see from the above photo, there was a knock on the door yesterday. I opened it and saw my landlord on the other side holding an Optimum/Cablevision plastic bag. Inside was a cable box and even a new remote! He said they were giving them away for one year free (after that I believe the monthly charge applies).

The crazy thing is now I have at least 10 times as many channels as I did before I lost cable in the first place… Good times.

Categories: Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Forgotten (Or: Bike wheel in the fall)

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Niki

As you know, the Netherlands is notorious for having a lot of bikes in its country. Unfortunately, this one has since been cannibalized – it is (was) a bike right outside where Marco works.

The wheel has been outside for at least three or four months. Apparently the owner didn’t even care about taking his lock when he realized his bike was stolen. So the leaves just keep building up underneath…

Categories: Culture, Transportation | Tags: , | 4 Comments

Autumn (Or: View from my door)

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Niki

It is that short time of the year where the color bursts forth from the trees. I opened my front door this morning to go to the deli and was greeted with this sight (without even needing to step outside!):

For this particular tree, it seems to be about a 3 or 4 day window between full color and when the leaves start falling – a short window of opportunity to take a picture. But I am glad I did!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Birthdays (Or: Black markers and vanilla cakes)

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Niki

Fun fact: 6 years ago yesterday Marco and I met in person for the first time. Oct 19, 2006. We met at UberCon, a gaming convention in the northeast.

In Spring 2007, I went to my third ever UberCon. It was run by the owner of Avatar MUD, the game I have played since I was 14 (yeesh! more than half my life).

At this convention Marco gave me a tattoo, in permanent black marker:

Of course the “tattoo” washed out in about 4-5 days. Thankfully I had shirt sleeves that were long enough to cover it, as back then I worked in the children’s department of a library.

A discerning eye might realize that I was wearing a Colts football jersey at the time. That was because I lost a bet with a friend — I think the Bears lost to the Colts. So yeah, I had to wear the jersey the whole day!

The convention was held the same weekend as my birthday, so I also had a surprise birthday party with a vanilla cake:

 

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: | 1 Comment

Fridays (Or: Two months to Penn Station)

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Niki

Fridays are a glorious thing. I might even sleep in until 7AM tomorrow! (shocked look). I also have exactly 8 weeks of work left. Odd to realize.

The search committee has been set for my position. The library director, the vice president of the college, two professors, and me. The two professors were handpicked as persons who are both involved with the library and active (so they won’t sit back and not ask any questions). Three of the five interviews we want to conduct have been scheduled, out of 32 received resumes. So far there are interviews on Nov 8 and 9 in the late afternoon.

Early next week I will start brainstorming some questions, based on the quirks I have found for this job… should be interesting.

But did you know what else this means?

It’s only (roughly) two months to Penn Station. Back to New York City once more, with the awesome duo. Time to plan all our events …

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Food mashing! (Or: It must be getting colder outside)

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Niki

From Marco…

When Niki was in the Netherlands in summer 2010, she asked if we’d have traditional Dutch food. I kind of told her no, since a lot of Dutch food is winter food.
So when she was was here in December of that year, she asked again.
And again I told her we probably shouldn’t. Though of course we did introduce her to ‘oliebollen’.

The reason of course is that one of the most typical types of Dutch food are ‘stamppot’ (mash pot) which is usually potatoes mashed with some sort of vegetable. Personally I’m not a big fan of them, and I sort of doubt if Niki is. But who knows? (Note from Niki: yeah… he knows I don’t like mixing different foods together…)

The one type of stamppot that I do like is with sauerkraut.


My mom made some this week (because it’s getting colder, so it’s time for winter food!) and brought it over yesterday. Good times!
Now, probably each family has their own little customs when it comes to these dishes. But one of the most common traditions is to put it on your plate, make a large indent in the middle, and then pour gravy in there. Also, there has to be ‘rookworst’ (smoked sausage).
Definitely got to have smoked sausage.

I’m sure at some point Niki will be introduced to these kind of Dutchie foods.
I wonder if she’s going to enjoy it….

Categories: Culture, Food | 2 Comments

Wrapping up (Or: The end of these classes)

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Niki

Today I had two classes for EN112 – College Writing and Research. Last summer, it was decided that rather than trying to introduce the students to the library during their freshman seminar, it might instead be better to introduce the them to the library during their research class. The only issue with that is some students test out of it completely, but those students also tested out for a reason.

I had two EN112s this morning – 8:15 and 9:45. My general outline for these types of classes is to go over how to search the book catalog and how to search the databases for journal articles. The basics – but at this point I’ve been searching the databases for three years, so I am able to add in some of the tricks I myself have learned along the way.

But, like all things, work seems to be a countdown these days. This many days left, this many classes left… etc. I only have 4 more classes to go (2 next Monday, 1 next Tuesday, and 1 the last Monday of October). There’s also workshops (which last until the end of November), but classes by and large are how I see most of the students.

Over the months I have expanded on some of the details I tell the students:

1. “I work Monday through Friday, 8AM to 4PM.” So don’t expect an answer Saturday night…

2. “I am a weird person who doesn’t drive, so I need to leave at 4PM sharp to catch the bus.” So don’t come in at 3:58PM (this hasn’t really happened lately).

3. And sometimes, depending on the class… “I am moving to the Netherlands at the end of the semester, so feel free to ask me any questions before that. My last day is the last day of finals.” (Usually at least a few students say “Awesome!” or similar at that.)

…Today I mentioned point #3 at the end of the class after the professor brought it up. As today’s research topic example was the therapeutic uses of marijuana (with a potential look at legalizing medical marijuana in New York), I did slip in a joke that I was not moving to the Netherlands for better access to drugs. (That got some laughs.)

It hasn’t really hit yet. Today someone from my bank called, and I realized for the 53rd time that I really need to figure out how to close my account from overseas, as I will still have direct deposit checks arriving for another month or so. Little things that I must remember… or more accurately, throw into Outlook as a reminder.

To do at some point down the line.

Categories: Moving | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

Oh no (Or: Where’s my ESPN?)

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Niki

Today I woke up as normal. Got ready, made breakfast, sat down in front of the television and loaded up Google Chrome to send Marco the much anticipated morning email. But when I turned on the TV…

I was greeted with the (light) blue screen of death.

Important Information about Your Service

A digital cable box (or CableCARD) is needed to receive this channel. Please contact us at (866) 580-0535 to have a digital cable box shipped to your home FREE of charge OR visit one of our Optimum Stores.

Here is some more info: news article from NPR

I have managed to make it almost 5 years without needing a cable box, and I consider that a very good run. (For the record, in both places my landlord paid for cable as part of the rent agreement and I used their cable hookup.) Each cable box is $7.60 per month. You see above where they say it’s free? Read it closely – it really means the shipping of the box is free. They know how to get you.

I just have about 5 channels now: CBS, NBC, FOX, 9, and 11 (and 11 is some weird channel I have never heard of before). There’s another 4-5 channels that I have never watched before available as well.

I think now the plan is that I will just end up watching more TV shows on the internet, rather than trying to find a cable box for the last two months that I am here.  It did give my heart some pain to realize that meant Roger wouldn’t be able to watch Rangers games live while he is here in December… But otherwise, I am just missing out on ESPN and a few other things. Usually the TV is on mostly for the background noise.

Still – hmph.

Categories: Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Hmmm (Or: Dutch health insurance)

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Niki

Next thing to work on: figuring out Dutch health insurance. Actually, I don’t have as much to figure out as I thought. I had mentioned the predicament to Marco and this morning I woke up to a PDF from Oom Verzekeringen (Oom insurance) that Marco had thoughtfully sent to me.

According to their page it seems that the best fit would be Global Visitor Insurance, since in the end this is really just short term insurance until I can secure a residence permit and find a more permanent solution. The page specifically mentions it works until you can get a residence permit, so yay. If anyone over in America is wondering, it’s illegal to not have health insurance in the Netherlands if you live there. I like not getting fined. I am not completely clear if you need it as soon as you set foot in the country, but you definitely do on the day you get your residence permit.

I still remember Marco explaining Dutch health insurance — it’s not tied to your job at all. Which is in some ways nice, since right now my work decides which health insurance is best for the college, and you only have a few tiers of coverage to choose from. There’s usually a lot of grumblings from my coworkers, but I have been lucky enough to not have been turned upside down and shaken so all my money falls out… yet… (some of the stories my coworkers tell me sound like downright highway robbery).

Mind you, I am not a user of health insurance in general. So far under this job I have not used anything from my health insurance, though I have faithfully visited the dentist every 6 months for a routine checkup (dental coverage is separate from health insurance for me).

But I am glad to see it doesn’t seem to be that difficult. Though if you’re an expat with a Dutch health insurance horror story, feel free to share!

Categories: Forms, etc. | Tags: | 7 Comments

Squares (Or: A Chicago pizza pie)

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Niki

This past Christmas, Marco and Roger came with me to meet my parents in Chicago for the first time. The very first night we were there, we ordered pizza.

It’s a family sized pizza, since we wanted leftovers the next day (of which there were plenty!). And the pizza made Marco drool. He was reminiscing about it a week or two ago, specifically that the pizza was cut into squares not slices.. If you look closely, you can see the square cuts.

Of course, I had no idea that about 36 hours later (give or take a few) I would be engaged. The proposal happened while unwrapping gifts Christmas morning. I really had no idea. Even when someone at church accidentally almost gave it away at the Christmas Eve service… I was totally clueless and said “No…? We’re not getting engaged until later in 2012.” Oh how little I knew.

As Marco mentioned, there was a lot of scheming going on. He actually called my parents a month or so prior about the upcoming engagement, and my parents actually wrapped up the ring box in a stocking for the dog. They knew I’d help unwrap the dogs present. And then of course there was also the scheming being done for my mom’s Christmas gift – a new netbook. It was very hard to concentrate on her unwrapping her gift, since I was spending too much time staring at my new ring!

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: , | 3 Comments

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