Election day (Or: Strategic voting at its finest)

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Niki

From Marco…

Wednesday we got to go vote for a new parliament/house of representatives and cabinet. A few months ago the coalition that formed our cabinet fell apart, forcing new elections.

First of all, let me explain how it works here. There are 150 spots in the parliament (or as we call it “tweede kamer” – second chamber) We go vote for one of the many parties that are vying for these seats or chairs as we often refer to them. There were 21 parties this time around iirc, but only 10 of them got a seat.

Translation: Polling place entrance. (Lit: Entrance Polling Place)

To be able to form the cabinet (the group of ministers/secretaries and prime-minister) you usually need to have at least 75 of the seats. It’s nearly impossible for one party to get this.
So they form coalitions. Which is not always easy, several parties have to try and come together, try to form a coherent plan etcetera. Last time around that took ’em six months or something. And well.. yeah the coalition fell apart after two years.

So we voted again yesterday. Interesting to me was that one party, the SP (socialist party) was doing great in the polls up until about three weeks ago. Since then they’ve gone from the predicted 30+ seats to 15, which is the same they had in 2010. It seemed that while their plans were alright, the party leader just wasn’t able to bring it across.

Compare that to the PvdA (partij van de arbeid, labor party) who did the complete opposite. They were around 15-20 seats a few weeks ago and soared to 38 in the end. Though I do think that they ended up with a lot of ‘strategic votes’.. Just like the SP they are (slightly) left wing.

From the get go it was obvious that the VVD (liberal party so slightly to the right) was going to be one of the two largest parties this time. So in the end, when the SP was in the ropes and the PvdA was a few seats behind the VVD..it makes sense to vote for the PvdA to make sure at least one of the left parties is close to them in size.

Anyways, they’ll start with the talks to form a coalition now.
We’ll see how that goes. It’s not always a foregone conclusion that the biggest parties end up working together.

Anyways II, yes when I went to vote I did think “Last time I vote without Niki here. I wonder if she’s allowed to vote here at some point”
I’m not 100% sure actually. I sort of assume that you’re allowed to vote here after spending X number of years in the country. But again, I’m not sure. I guess we’ll have to look it up at some point. 😉

Categories: Culture | 4 Comments

In a dash (Or: Crossing New York City)

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Niki

Recently I found myself in the city in the morning, though I had to go to work afterwards. I never knew I could power walk from 3rd Avenue to 8th Avenue so quickly to get to the Port Authority bus terminal, but I did. Somehow.

Along the way, I snapped this picture. Very quickly.

I just thought the design of the front of the building was interesting. And every New York City picture needs an image of a cab. Even if their design is changing yet again.

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London (Or: Camden Lock Market)

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Niki

Continuing the London theme, another place I visited in my short 36 hours was the Camden Lock. It is an open air market that was first started in 1975.

It is only closed one day a year – Christmas Day.

Seeing the open air market just makes me want another hot, freshly baked stroopwafel. Yum.

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London (Or: On the hillside)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Niki

When I open the folder of images I have from the trip I took to the Netherlands in summer 2010, I am always reminded (as the pictures come first) that before I visited NL, I first went to London. A quick 36 hour trip.

One of the places my friend and I visited was Primrose Hill, which overlooks the city.

With breathtaking views, it is surprisingly steep and sprawling.

Unfortunately I have one memory of this place that comes back to me when I look at these photos. As I mentioned previously, the hill is sprawling. There is a path down, but it is very long, though not steep at that section. Well, as kids are inclined to do… a young kid (maybe 6-8 years) raced past us on his bike, letting gravity pull him down. I was watching him idly while chatting, and a long way down and off in the distance, his bike hit an obstacle of some sort and he was thrown violently to the side into the grass. Though after the shock wore off you could hear him crying, and see him moving.

What made it painful was a roughly 10 seconds of wait as everyone wondered what to do, as people made their way to him. But suddenly, a woman raced past us, screaming, and we realized it was his mother. But he was so far ahead – so very far ahead – that it took a good minute for her to even reach him. But by the time we got close, the drama was subsiding, and we ended up taking a different path that led us away before we passed him.

Some time later, we ended up passing the little boy and his mother again elsewhere on the grounds. He was protecting a very obviously bloodied nose, but seemed otherwise okay. I am sure it was one of those “kids are tough and surprisingly durable” moments, but it was agonizing to watch in real time.

But! It is but a memory now.

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Kruidnootjes (or: OMG! How dare you sell these already?!)

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Niki

From Marco…

At work we have a large candy jar that we fill occassionally.
The past week I noticed at the supermarket near work that they had ‘kruidnootjes’ already.
So I bought them to put them in the jar. Several coworkers raised an eyebrow. “kruidnootjes in september?”


That’s exactly the reason I bought them to be honest. It makes for fun conversation material, and a good blog post. 🙂 Sinterklaas snacks and candy showing up in stores earlier and earlier. September 1st is the earliest I’ve seen them.

There’s people who claim they cannot do sell them at this point, have to wait until November or something like that. Because these things aren’t summer-food but are tied in to the Sinterklaas thing. It’s not like they’re flooding the stores already (which they do in late November) but there’s a small section already. And they put it in a noticable spot so a lot of people see it (and despite all the complaints pick up some stuff)

Yet the funny thing is, I don’t really understand why they don’t sell things like kruidnootjes all year around. They’re pretty delicious and there’s still plenty of other Sinterklaas candy that can be seasonal. Like chocolate letters (haven’t seen those yet) and ‘gevulde speculaas’ which is a soft type of speculaas filled with almond paste. Very sweet but very good.

Funny thing, I like ‘pepernoten’ better. Haven’t seen them yet. Once I do I’ll get some of those for sure. To erhm write about it in a blog post of course. Yup, that’s the only reason..I swear 🙂

(Note by Niki: yes, Mom & Dad. This is the addictive snack that Marco brought over last Christmas for you guys, which disappeared in about 24 hours.)

Categories: Culture, Holidays | Tags: | 1 Comment

Delft (Or: Dutch fridge trinkets)

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Niki

My fridge is full of lots of little trinkets, including but not limited to Dutch things.

Above you can see a Delft postcard and magnet (the latter having a 3D element in the upper right that comes out a bit, using a spring). This was from the Summer 2011 trip. You also see my parents’ dog, Oreo. She is a papillon (see below). Kind of big boned for a breed that is supposed to be dainty, but we love her…

There’s a Holland magnet above that which Marco gave me a long time ago. Due to its age, it’s starting to bend a little bit.

In the upper right you can see part of a magnet for the New York Rangers goalie, Henrik Lundqvist (Let’s go Rangers!). It’s actually holding up a business card with information regarding my next dental appointment in late November.

And this is only one corner of the fridge! I plan on taking most of these with (if we find a not-so-garish way to display them) – and if they survive being peeled off. Some don’t respond well to being moved anymore.

Speaking of papillons…

Above is a picture of the Westminster dog show banner in the Madison Square Garden.  It features the papillon “Kirby” which won in 1999. During the dog show (which happens during the hockey season), the ice rink must be melted down. Otherwise the dogs can sense the ice and spend most of their time trying to dig down to get at it!

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In motion (Or: Spinning art in Rijswijk)

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Niki

Marco was able to get some good pictures of a curious looking art installation which was placed in Rijswijk near the Hoogvliet supermarket. I have included both pictures so you can see the motion of both the skaters and of the small ledges they stand on.

I really have no idea what the art is supposed to symbolize. Maybe it hypnotizes the viewers so that when they enter Hoogvliet they buy more…

Happy Friday, everyone!

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Picture books (Or: Tien kleine heksjes)

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Niki

Before there were chapter books like Het geheim van de verliefde hulpkok, there were picture books like Tien kleine heksjes (10 little witches). Marco and I had gone to Amsterdam Public Library, and we stopped at the children’s section for this photo.

You can see more pictures of the children’s section of the library by looking at one of the first posts I wrote for this blog.

Categories: Amsterdam | Tags: | 4 Comments

Football (Or: The squashed ball kind)

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Niki

Ah! It’s the opening night of the NFL season again. Cowboys vs. Giants at the MetLife stadium. I have never been there – only the old stadium that the Giants and Jets used to share. That was an awesome night – Roger, Marco and I went to a Jets game vs the Cincinnati Bengals (the animal, not a bread product).

It was the last game of the regular season. It was the only game left on the schedule that had playoff implications. So NFL decided to use their flex scheduling option to move the 4:15PM game to 8:15PM. Did I mention the last regular season game for NFL occurs in early January?

So freaking COLD.

When a coworker tells you to bring cardboard so you can step on it and insulate your feet, listen! It was 15-17F (-8C) most of the time, with a bit of wind. Yet, it was an unbelievable experience, too, as it was my first NFL game ever. For all of us. Since it was “win and get in” type implications for the playoffs, each fan received a rally towel to whip around their head like a maniac. I also remember Roger cheering like crazy. One of my stronger memories. That and the hot chocolate was only hot for about 1.5 seconds. And the few Bengals fans who came got a bit of ribbing and booing, but not that bad (thankfully).

But it was a shutout for the Jets. They won 37-0. The other team never even scored! The only problem was the high score meant that people started leaving early in the 3rd quarter (with one quarter to go), so the stadium emptied and the body heat dispersed. Yikes.

I will definitely miss the NFL games when I move. Marco does have ESPN America, but there is also the time difference to consider. But I will still be able to see a game on Sunday nights at least.

* * * * * *

Awesome street band sign, by ithinkthereforiamsterdam. I highly recommend a quick click.

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Traffic jam (Or: Amsterdam’s in-water boat show 2012)

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Niki

Roger was gracious enough to send me some pictures of Amsterdam’s in-water boat show which starts today, September 4, and runs through Sunday, September 9. He has been watching the construction of the marina over the past few months, which will house all of the boats this week. Apparently most of the marina will stay after the boat show wraps up, which is nice.

Location: Amsterdam Marina, NDSM Shipyard; Werfstraat 4, 1033 SN Amsterdam

Of course, it does mean there will be more traffic in the area, which hopefully won’t put a damper on Roger’s commute to and from work each day. It’s only four days, at least! Here’s a floor plan of the boat show so you can see the amount of boats that will be docked there. As Roger noted, it is kind of weird to see “Manoeuvreren voor vrouwen” in the lower left of the floor plan (maneuvering for women)… as if men don’t need any help, or all women need help. (I would!)

You can also see a list of activities broken down by day — though it seems like a lot of activities happen on all of the days.

There will be 200 exhibitors and 300 boats. You can read more about the facts & figures of this event by going to the press section of their website.

Categories: Amsterdam, Culture, Transportation | 3 Comments

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