Mondays (Or: A break in the routine)

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Niki

As most of my friends know, I do like my routine. But this week, due to various coworkers all deciding to go on vacation during the same two weeks, there is only anti-routine. I have to work nights rather than days. Thankfully the library closes 3 hours earlier in the summer, or this would be even worse.

But it’s so hard to tell my body Sleep in past 6am. Please. You know you (don’t) want to. So I went to bed after midnight, and up by 6. Not cool at all. And if I was at work right now, I’d be enjoying a cup of tea! (We always have a tea break at 9:30 in the morning. No, I don’t live in England.) On the plus side, I answered a lot of emails, took a shower, and am writing this blog post very early in the day. And after this, it is time to study Dutch a bit before my ride comes.

Lately Marco and I have been trying a new tactic – he gives me specific sentences to study (he also found audio files online for these sentences), and then when we meet up on videochat, we go over them. Sometimes the first time he says the sentence, I have no idea what he just said. But then he slows it down a bit and I get it. But of course these sentences are full of tongue twisters and Dutch sayings which don’t translate literally, so even Google translate isn’t always a help to me. But I do feel like my speech is slowly improving, though it is definitely baby steps.

Here are some interesting blog posts that I came across today while trying desperately to catch up:

Molen van Sloten, by Ghoti Industries

Post about the only public windmill in the Netherlands which even lets you go inside. Apparently pretty close to Amsterdam. I put it into my Chrome folder for “places to visit” someday.

Een dagje naar het strand (A day at the beach), by Fronz

Some nice photos, especially the first one. It looked like a very relaxing day.

Categories: Learning Dutch | Tags: | 3 Comments

In style (Or: Motorcycle hearses)

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Niki

On my way home today, I passed the local Catholic church. A group of bushes blocks the driveway – so I tend to peek around the corner cautiously to make sure there aren’t any cars coming.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a funeral hearse parked there. But not just any hearse – a motorcycle hearse.

http://www.riphearse.com (not my image – taken from the website)

They are based out of East Brunswick, NJ.  I have been there a few times, as I did my Masters at nearby New Brunswick (Rutgers University). Surprisingly I did not see a lot of motorcycles lying in wait outside as I walked past today. There were a lot of cars though, double parked and idle while waiting for the funeral procession.

What a way to go – in style all the way.

Categories: Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Cinnamon (Or: Frozen pretzels at Shoprite)

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Niki

One of the random snacks that I enjoyed as a kid was a soft pretzel which you put in the microwave for 30 seconds. They come frozen. You get six in a box, as well as a bag of pretzel salt which is a bit thicker than regular table salt. I think you are supposed to wet the pretzel a bit to help it stick. (The most amusing thing is the warning not to use the entire salt packet for one pretzel, as it’s enough for six.) But I just dump a bit of table salt on a plate and duck a bit of pretzel into it. Sometimes I dunk the pretzel in mustard.

I had mentioned to Marco a few weeks ago that I had found these things again. Recently he mentioned wanting to try them with cinnamon, which I thought was… interesting. I really couldn’t envision it.

Well, I forgot that I live in America. If you want a flavor, they’ve probably already thought of it and manufactured it for you.

During today’s trip to Shoprite I looked at the frozen pretzels and realized that they had a cinnamon flavor. Crazy! I didn’t pick up a box yet, but I will before Marco comes. I’ll report back if it’s decent or not…

Categories: Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Forms (Or: Birth certificates in the Hague)

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Niki

So today Marco went to the city hall in the Hague to get his birth certificate, in preparation for the forms we will have to fill out. He got lucky – he was able to get it printed right then and there, after a bit of waiting.

Here’s an image of the inside of the city hall, taken this morning. The artwork hanging from the ceiling is… interesting. As Marco puts it, they look like used tissues…

On my end of the world, I did receive my single status record from NY. The only annoying thing about that one is they “stapled” the pages together with a very tiny golden ring – so like a hole puncher that lays a ring around it. Not a big deal normally, as it looks pleasing to the eye, but the IND forms specifically state not to paperclip anything together. So we’ll have to figure out how to remove that without damaging the paper, probably…

My birth certificate has been more of a hassle for sure. I originally faxed it 3 weeks ago. I emailed them to confirm it arrived and they got back to me two days later – after I was already home and had vacation the next day. So I had to go back to work just to use their fax machine again, as the public library’s isn’t open to the public.

Two weeks pass, and I hear nothing. As the estimated time was 7 business days, I grew concerned. I called them yesterday and they said my credit card had been declined (not a big deal – it was a ‘new’ card that I had never used, so probably the activation did not take properly). So I had to bring my debit card in to work today and call them to give them that number. Not sure why they didn’t give me a call to let me know (!) but at least both people I spoke with were very nice about it.

So now the birth certificate is back on track, but the quoted turnaround time is still the same as it was before. Argh. But we are slowly getting there. Slowly.

Categories: Forms, etc. | 2 Comments

Tegenstellingen (Or: Heavy and light, wet and…)

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Niki

One of the more random things I have been doing lately is studying tegenstellingen, or opposites in Dutch. It has mostly been helpful.

This was one page of the 6 or so pages of notes. Some of them are easier than others. Like stroef is rough, and glad is smooth. But good luck pronouncing glad if you’re not used to speaking Dutch. It’s not easy!

Categories: Learning Dutch | Tags: | 5 Comments

Signs (Or: Alcohol and minors in the Netherlands)

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Niki

Here is a random sign found at a bar in the Hague.

We sell no alcohol to minors under 16.

We sell no hard liquor (spirits) to minors under 18.

Other fun facts: minors can drink at home, under parental supervision. Minors can only enter a shop if are with someone over the age of 21. Supermarkets don’t sell hard liquor – only beer, wine, and similar with an alcohol content below 14 percent.

And thus ends my random Wednesday blog post. Here’s a post about the day Wednesday from Juno in Holland.

Categories: Culture | Tags: | 4 Comments

From Marco (Or: Christmas countdowns and Zonderland’s gold)

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Niki

Niki mentioned a few times that for our various trips we’ve had countdown clocks to well..count down to the moment we’d be together again.
When she came over in December 2010 (and only Roger and I knew about her arrival) I decided to mix things up, make an advent type of calendar. Every day a new little ‘treat’, another (lower) number.

It started out as a joke, when it snowed on December 1st, and I drew the number 24 in the snow (24 more days until Christmas in NL)
Then it grew from there and I tried to come up with something new and original every day.
Often the number was either some randomly found digit, a few times I made one myself (like a 17 out of ‘hagelslag’ or a 3 out of jalapenos, or a 24 out of chicken fingers) and I even used a flyer for the pizza place across the street because it had a big seven on it.

The final picture of course, December 24 –one day till Christmas– was taken when Niki was already here (she arrived on the 23rd)
We have only two more countdowns ahead of us. Well, not true. I’m sure we’ll do more.
Counting down until the weekend, counting down to vacations, anniversaries, etcetera etcetera.

Soon of course the final countdown will start (cue the cheesy Europe song) Wooohooo.

In other news; During the Olympics we often get to watch sports we usually don’t see on tv.
Gymnastics is one of them. Today a Dutchie wrote history by winning ‘our’ first ever gymnastics medal, and it’s gold.
OMG. I know little about the high bar, but his routine was so much more spectacular than his fellow competitors.
The aerial moves he did have never been done before (in competition) as he combined 3 difficult moved into one crazy flowing display of awesomeness.

Do yourself a favor, look around for a proper video. And IF you can, watch it with the Dutch commentary.
The man goes nuts, and rightfully so. Amazing. It makes the routine even more spectacular.

[Edited to add by Niki: There’ s a proper video at nos.nl but it’s not viewable if you have an American IP address. Try this YouTube video but it might disappear at any moment.]

Categories: Holidays, Marco&Niki, Sports | Tags: | Leave a comment

Countdown (Or: Mars rover Curiosity)

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Niki

As I have been called the countdown queen for my counting down the days until Marco arrives again (45 days!), I decided to post an interesting image that I saw regarding the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity.

Getty images. Image taken during a meeting before the landing. The marbles look like cherries to me.

Of course, I didn’t see the landing since 1:31AM EST seemed a bit too late for me. Though the media definitely sensationalized this with their “7 minutes of terror”.

However, one can easily catch up on all of the details by visiting the official NASA page.

Categories: Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Athene Palace (Or: Greek food in the Hague)

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Niki

As Marco visited Athene Palace in July for his birthday, he was kind of enough to give me a picture of the menu.

And not just any page of the menu… but the page with #95, which reads:  Sirtakischotel: kipfilet, suflaki, sutzuki en giros. Each time I have gone to the restaurant (2 or 3 times?) I have always ordered #95. The gyros are my favorite for sure.

Oh, and if you want to spell 95, it’s vijfennegentig (5-and-90, with the classical Dutch refusal to add spaces).

Marco was also kind enough to get a shot of ouzo in the picture. I like it — it tastes like licorice, though it does burn a bit going down. If you’re with a group of people, you can clink your shotglasses together and say Proost! which is their version of “Cheers!”. (It rhymes with “boast”.)

And for dessert, I like to get the Dame Blanche, which is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce. My ideal method for attacking that dessert is to be stingy with the sauce and add a little bit every few bites, to prolong the chocolate heaven.

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

London (Or: The moon within the Olympic rings)

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Niki

This picture has been making the rounds across the internet… especially Twitter.

Reuters/Luke MacGregor

The NBC coverage has been…alright, I suppose. But one of the three NBC channels I have only shows boxing (MSNBC), and the second doesn’t usually show Olympics events. And then they have the lovely rule that the best stuff only shows up in primetime – though they aired the run of Pistorius (the double amputee) both live and in primetime. So what gives, NBC. 🙂 Air some other things I want to see stuff live!

But all in all, it’s been a lot of fun. Today’s highlight was watching the men’s 10,000 meters and the final result which was pretty much designed to give you warm fuzzies. Right now the Dutch are on TV… but only because it is women’s volleyball and the other team is American.

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