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Archive for the ‘Dutch Life’ Category

Politics, Near and Far

Posted in Blogging, Change, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Global Issues, Netherlands, United States, Writing, tagged austerity measures, blogging, cultural issues, differences, Dutch politics, economic issues, elections, Euro, gay marriage, global issues, global recession, governments, human trafficking, international affairs, local politics, Netherlands, policy wonk, political issues, refugees, similarities, United States, writing on May 10, 2012 | 22 Comments »

Two confessions up front. First, credit where credit is due. A comment about my post on Bridge-Building in the city of Peace and Justice, left by fellow expat and talented writer/blogger Russell VJ Ward*, served as the impetus for this plea post. Second, I am a self-confessed policy wonk and international affairs junkie. I’ve studied it, worked [...]

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That Second Minute

Posted in Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Holidays, Netherlands, United States, tagged Americans, Arlington Cemetery, civilians, Dodenherdenking, Dutch, honor, Memorial Day, military, Netherlands, remembrance, Second World War, service members, service to their country, silence, soldiers, Tomb of the Unkown Soldier, tribute, Trilogy to the Dutch, two minutes of silence, ultimate sacrifice, United States, World War II, writing on May 6, 2012 | 10 Comments »

When this week began, little did I know that by the end I would be writing what has essentially become my own personal Trilogy to the Dutch. I’d enjoyed all the excitement and revelry of my third Queen’s Day, stuck again by how virtually everyone gets involved in what is essentially one big party. There’s something about an entire [...]

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Happy Queen’s Day

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Holidays, Netherlands, tagged bands, carnival, celebration, drink, Dutch, Dutch national holiday, food, music festival, Netherlands, orange, picnics, Queen's Day, Queen's Night, street parties, The Hague, yard sales on May 3, 2012 | 10 Comments »

Never let it be said that Dutchies don’t know how to party. Seriously. Never say it. I’ve written about Queen’s Day before, and having celebrated the Dutch national holiday for the third year running, I can only say that it continues to amaze me. There’s something about it that makes me happy, and I’m not even [...]

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Welcoming Party

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Family & Friends, Netherlands, Travel, tagged airport, arrival lounge, arrivals, balloons, clown nose, departures, flags, flowers, helium balloon, kazoos, music festival, noisemakers, parking lots, passengers, Schiphol, travelers, welcome home, welcome signs on May 1, 2012 | 24 Comments »

Every now and then I’m reminded of a cultural aspect of the Netherlands that is so very different from the US that it practically screams ‘this is SO different!’ This morning it was my journey to Schiphol airport to pick up Husband from his latest trip. Now first let me say that I love Schiphol [...]

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Windmills of Kinderdijk

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Netherlands, Travel, tagged cafe culture, Kinderdijk, Netherlands, outdoor culture, spring, windmills on March 25, 2012 | 12 Comments »

This weekend has been absolutely phenomenal. You know, the kind of first weekend that truly announces ‘Spring has arrived’. The sun has been shining brilliantly for three days, a gorgeous blue sky with just a few pale wisps of white cloud here and there. The weather has been in the mid 60s to low 70s (Fahrenheit) here in [...]

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Food Lines We Won’t Cross

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Blogging, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged carnivores, cultural mores, horse meat, meat eaters, personal beliefs, squeamish, unusual foods, vegans, vegetarians on March 22, 2012 | 14 Comments »

It’s been at least a few weeks since I’ve written a post that even mentions the phrase Albert Heijn (my favorite local Dutch grocery store to the uninitiated), so I should have known. Something was sure to materialize that I’d end up sharing with you here. Little did I realize exactly how special that something would be… [...]

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Head of Delegation Written All Over Her

Posted in Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged Albert Heijn, earning stickers, grocery store giveaways, head of delegation, international trade, Muppet puppets, negotiations on February 2, 2012 | 10 Comments »

I must confess, I’m exhausted. I’ve just closed the front door after another visit from my delightful eight year old Dutch neighbor, Catarina. She stopped by to discuss Muppetpunten (Muppet points), as covered in my previous post An International Trade Representative’s Got Nothing On Her. That makes two visits in eight days, which constitutes a new record. It [...]

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An International Trade Representative’s Got Nothing on Her

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged Albert Heijn, grocery store giveaways, international trading, negotiations, speaking Dutch, trading cards on January 25, 2012 | 10 Comments »

Late yesterday afternoon, the doorbell rang. As I opened the heavy oak front door, I found myself face-to-face with Catarina, my adorable eight-year-old Dutch neighbor, she of Learning a Language? Child’s Play fame. She was standing there with a tennis racket slung over her shoulder and an air of urgency about her. ‘Hallo Catarina, hoe gaat [...]

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Behold, Albert Heijn is Nigh

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged aisle, Albert Heijn, autodidactic, clerk, food shopping, grocery store, hand-held scanner, major renovations, wine on December 10, 2011 | 12 Comments »

  If you’ve noticed a distinct decrease in the stress waves emanating from The Hague, you’ve Albert Heijn to thank. It’s true. My beloved neighborhood AH store has reopened after fourteen days undergoing major renovations. Fourteen long, arduous days. Despite Daughter’s original plaintive question (‘will we starve to death?’), we have survived just fine. I sucked [...]

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Suffer the Little Shoppers Unto Albert Heijn

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged Albert Heijn, daily shopping, food shopping, grocery store, major renovations on December 4, 2011 | 20 Comments »

    I apologize upfront if my paraphrasing of a biblical quotation brought you here under false pretenses, but I’m in a bit of a quank. Quank. You know, a cross between a funk and a quandary. What difficult situation has me in these depths of despair? My beloved neighborhood Albert Heijn grocery store is closed for renovations. Not [...]

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Halloween Holland Style

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Netherlands, tagged candy, Gry Tina Tinde, Halloween, jack-o-lantern, The Netherlands, trick-or-treating on October 31, 2011 | 6 Comments »

Have I ever mentioned that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year? Outrageous costumes, pumpkins, witches, trick-or-treating, chocolate, candy corn, ringing doorbells, accumulating a candy haul of momentous proportions, little boys and girls proudly displaying their costumes, bobbing for apples, dried cornstalks, dressing up, jack-o-lanterns, deciding who you want to ‘be’, parties, [...]

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THIS is Learning a Language

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged benefits of bilingualism, best age to learn a language, bilingual, brain boost, foreign language, learning Dutch, Netherlands, writing on October 28, 2011 | 11 Comments »

[This post is for Patti in Leiden, and all the other nice folks I met last weekend at the I Am Not A Tourist International Fair in Amsterdam. She and her husband are new to The Netherlands. Welkom!] Lord knows my fellow Adventurers know that I’ve been trying to learn Dutch. I certainly have been harping [...]

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Cultural Lessons Gleaned In a Grocery Store

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, tagged Albert Heijn, ATM card, checkbook, cultural differences, expat, grocery store, pin card, The Netherlands, writing on October 22, 2011 | 16 Comments »

This morning Husband and I decided to take advantage of the glorious autumn weather by taking Oli on a long walk through nearby woods. The sun is out, the air is crisp, people are out walking, jogging and cycling; it’s an all-around gorgeous October day.   After an hour of hiking through the wooded parkland, meandering [...]

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Seeing Ourselves in the Cultural Differences

Posted in Dutch Life, Expat Life, Netherlands, tagged Australia, expat, Gidday from the UK, Netherlands, physical cultural differences on August 23, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Last week we had the August installment of our monthly four-way virtual blog NorthSouthEastWest: Expat Dispatches. Once again, I was thrilled with the resulting posts. [For newbies, I join Erica (Expatria Baby, Japan), Maria (I Was an Expat Wife, Canada) and Russell (In Search of a Life Less Ordinary, Australia) to write on a joint [...]

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Storing Up the Sunlight

Posted in Dutch Life, Netherlands, tagged darkness, daylight, latitude, Netherlands, Scandinavia, summer, sunshine, winter on July 16, 2011 | 10 Comments »

  High on my priority list these days is getting outside and enjoying the fresh air and warm weather.   And of course, the sunshine.    I realize that statement isn’t particularly earth-shattering.   It is summertime, after all. Why wouldn’t I?   For those of us raised in the northern hemisphere, we’re accustomed to [...]

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A New Point of View

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, First Year Blur, New to Nederland, Writing, tagged discipline, distractions, expat life, manuscript, perspective, point of view, settling in, writing on July 14, 2011 | 8 Comments »

  I changed my point of view recently, and it’s changed my perspective.   Literally.   You see, I’ve finally moved back to my desk in our guest room. I’d set up my desk and writing area when we moved into this house two years ago (two years!), but didn’t make good use of it. At first it [...]

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Spreek je engels? Ja, natuurlijk

Posted in Change, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, Netherlands, tagged English, English proficiency, languages, monolinguist, polylinguist, Scandinavia on July 9, 2011 | 8 Comments »

As reported recently in I Am Expat, The Netherlands ranks second IN THE WORLD for English speakers in non-English speaking countries.  How cool is that?! The longer I live abroad, the more I travel, the greater effort I put into trying to learn foreign languages, I have to tell you: this is seriously wonderful recognition. It [...]

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When Worlds Collide (Cultural Reflections)

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Netherlands, tagged cafe culture, cultural differences, European waiters, in a hurry, relaxation on July 3, 2011 | 10 Comments »

  Recently I wrote about visiting the bustling, exciting city of Amsterdam; I also wrote about enjoying the cafe culture throughout The Netherlands (and much of Europe) when the weather gets nice. Today I’m going to share another reflection from that trip that references both of these posts. This isn’t about right or wrong; this [...]

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What I Love/Miss (IV)

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Netherlands, tagged charity, donations, giving, shoes on July 2, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Here’s something I love about The Netherlands: the Dutch are very generous when it comes to helping others in need. [Now before anyone thinks that I am implying that other nationalities aren't generous, that's not the case. What I'm talking about here is how they go about raising money for various causes.] As with many [...]

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Statenkwartier Kunst Route

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, tagged Art Walk, Kunst Route, kunstenaars, Statenkwartier on June 23, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Earlier this spring Husband and I did something really fun. Okay, I’m not talking about that. We live in the Statenkwartier neighborhood (States Quarter, with streets named after famous statesmen throughout Dutch history) of Den Haag. It seems that the Statenkwartier is home to a large population of artists (kunstenaars). Well lo and behold, one day a [...]

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