Canadutch » Dutch

Oranje Fever

Breigh — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:56:53 +0000

I have it, and I’m pretty sure it’s contagious because my husband appears to have caught it too.

Don’t worry, we’re not sick. Well, not really…

Do you remember four years ago when I watched my first World Cup match? True to my word I made a point of following the the World Cup from the beginning this year. Rather than being irritated by the orange everywhere, the noise, yelling and cheering, I decided to join in!

Xander isn’t really the sporty type. He’d usually rather watch paint dry than watch a sporting event of any kind. Except perhaps Robot Wars or something… Getting him to join me in my World Cup adventure this year took a bit of work.

Basically, I told him he was going to watch the games with me.

Then I bought him some orange stuff and told him to wear it.

Then I hoped for the best.

It worked!!

I know that makes me sound like a total control freak, but it’s not like that really. I just know what he’s like and sometimes I have to almost tie him down and force him to watch / do / see / hear / eat something as he’ll just refuse and make up his mind without even trying. Funny, seeing as that’s something he tried to get me to get over for years! Just like me, more often than he ends up liking something he thought he’d hate.

A few weeks ago my friend Paule invited us to her new house to watch the Netherlands vs Japan game. She and her partner just bought a house that has a cafe attached, how convenient when you want to throw a party! I was eager to see her again and see her new place. I also couldn’t wait to see her amazingly cute daughter Faela. You may remember Faela from this photo of her back when I made my very first ever crocheted blanket…

Omg, look at her now!

Cute or what? Not only is she gorgeous but she is as smart as a whip! I think her parents have to be very careful what they say in front of her because she is all ears and wastes no time repeating you. Nothing gets past this little chickadee!

Having a cafe of your very own is so handy! I think Paule and Warnoud looked great behind the bar, although it’s possible I’m just saying that because I know they are reading this and I want them to throw more parties and invite me. I know, subtle right?

Paule had pie. I was weak.

She also had some strange, Dutch, chocolate tasting, alcoholic drink which we kept drinking until we got a clear photo of each other. As you can see, I did a great job of focusing on her elbow… so there were a few more after this one. Pretty sure there are no clear photos.

We got to watch the game on a projector. SWEET! A cafe to ourselves and a big screen… I could get used to this!

The party was fun, but the game was a total snore. I was in a room with some very enthusiastic Dutch football fans and the team let them down, and therefore let me down. I was robbed of the chance to take photos of them being all crazy and waving their arms and shit. ROBBED I TELL YOU!!

I think everyone who watched the game that day found it to be pretty boring. It made me question my decision to take this step to further my ~~assimilation~~ integration. Thankfully the following games have been much more exciting.

As I looked at the plate of snacks they put out for us I wondered why it’s ok to say HUP HOLLAND HUP!!, wave flags with HOLLAND on them and eat weird little mini onions with HOLLAND sticks in them… but when you say “I live in Holland” in front of a Dutchie they kick you in the shin, spit on your shoe and then proceed to firmly scold you on how you do NOT live in HOLLAND, you live in THE NETHERLANDS.

Make up yer damn minds and quit confusing me!

After the game, the real fun began!

Face painting!

As well as being a pie pimp and peer pressing alcohol pusher, Paule is also very artistic! I had a lot of fun practicing my photography while she painted the kids’ faces. Although, it was hard to keep my camera still due to my giggling as Faela looked on and told us how adorable, beautiful and sweet the other children looked in their face paint. She also demanded that more pink was used and reminding us that she most definitely wanted pink on hers.

The boys weren’t too keen on the pink. They were all about the vampires…

The girls seemed to dig it though! No surprise there, I mean they are little girls afterall.

I realized that I really love photographing children that day.

Especially this one.

I’m really going to miss Paule when I have to stop talking to her after kidnapping her child, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get over it.

You can see more photos from the WK Party here on my Flickr set.

Jumpy Much?

Breigh — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:54:37 +0000

The above video was taken this evening just after 8pm. It’s our Remembrance Day (Dodenherdenking) in the Netherlands today and during a 2 minute silence at Dam Square in Amsterdam panic broke out. There are a number of stories in regards to what started it all, someone screaming, becoming unwell and knocking a barrier over, knocking over some baggage, talking on their mobile, or arguing. Who knows, but regardless…whatever it was it scared the bejesus out of a lot of people.

All I know is, I wouldn’t want to be the person who started it. Especially if it was someone on their mobile or just acting out. Way to show your respect jackass.

Who can blame them really, being so close to the royal family after what happened last year.

On Queen’s Day (Koninginnedag, a Dutch holiday celebrating the Queen’s Birthday) 2009 celebrations ended badly when a disturbed man drove through a barricade and the crowd in an attempt to attack the royal family. In the end he died and took a number of others with him. It was a very sad and tragic day in the Netherlands.

So who wouldn’t be jumpy this year, even just a little.

Here is the video from the Queen’s Day Parade last year.

Hopefully nobody was too badly hurt in the panic this year, and more than anything, lets hope that maybe next year the spring celebrations will go by with a little less drama.

Hello Oprah? Have I Got A Show For You!

The Full Monty Musical

Breigh — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:18:58 +0000

A few weeks ago my friend Penny and I went to see The Full Monty Musical in Roosendaal. I had bought her a ticket as a Christmas present and we’d both really been looking forward to it. A girl’s night out, naked men, honestly… what more could we ask for?

Ok, maybe some homemade hot fudge… which she made for us as a surprise for desert. So freaking delicious! I threw Weight Watchers right out the window and had two hot fudge sundaes. So worth it.

The show was so much fun! I’d first heard about it on Facebook when a friend had just gotten back from seeing it with her friends. She described it as loud, rowdy and a really good time. I was so in!

It was all in Dutch, which I was pretty sure I was finally ready for. In the past I’ve wanted to see different musicals at the theater but thought it would be pointless because I wouldn’t understand everything. It was time to put my Dutch to the test.

I’d say I scored an 90%… not bad, could be worse.

I understood most of what they said and only came across trouble when they spoke really fast, with slang or during some of the songs. It wasn’t enough to make me not know what was going on though and I still enjoyed it just as much as I would have if it had been in English.

If you are into going to the theater, have some grasp on the Dutch language and have at least one good girlfriend who will go with you, I highly recommend checking out this show. We laughed our heads off, hopped up and down in our seats and screamed ourselves hoarse. It really was that much fun. Even if you don’t understand it all, I’m pretty sure you’ll still sit there eagerly awaiting the hot blond guy (Charly Luske) getting naked! I know Penny and I were! Shame I didn’t manage to catch him in the photo. I wanted to take more but I was scared I’d get in trouble and get kicked out or something.

I truly could not have chosen a better show to break me in to the Dutch theater. I just wonder how any I see in the future will live up to this one!

It’s not too late to see them! CLICK HERE to see when they’ll be playing in your city! For those of you in Rotterdam, here’s the info:

Oude Luxor Theater

wo 17 februari 2010 – 20:00 uur
do 18 februari 2010 – 20:00 uur
vr 19 februari 2010 – 20:00 uur
za 20 februari 2010 – 20:00 uur

If you do go, be sure to let me know how you like it!

Only in the Netherlands!

Breigh — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:38:07 +0000

A while back I blogged about some funny Dutch TV ads, and every time I’ve seen the above ad I’ve meant to put it on here as well but kept forgetting.

I just saw this at 7pm on a Sunday evening while sitting and watching some TV after dinner. Even after living here almost 10 years I still can’t help but laugh at how different TV is here when it comes to censorship. Canada and the US are censored to hell and back, and here in NL there seems to be none at all.

I like it better here.

25 Things About Me – With a Twist

Breigh — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:05:01 +0000

OK, about 42,000 people have tagged me on Facebook to do this ‘25 things’ meme, so I’m gonna do it here and not tag anyone. If you read this and want to do it yourself, by all means – meme your little heart out.

Since I’ve been in winter hibernation and feeling a little Fuck You about all things Netherlands, as I usually do at this time of year… I’m going to do a bit of a twist on the usual meme and list 25 things that have changed for the better since I moved here. Basically, 25 things that don’t piss me off that used to after I first got here.

*Cracks Knuckles*

OK …

I can finally find NORMAL mustard here. Not French Mustard, not Dijon or BBQ or English mustard. Just plain ol’ yellow American mustard. This probably makes all you North Americans who are still IN North America raise an eyebrow but this actually was an issue for a lot of us expats for many years.
(If you are an expat and haven’t found it yet, it can be found at both Albert Heijn and JUMBO supermarkets). I need my mustard.
I love my house. Ok, so we plan to move soon because we have outgrown it and need a bigger place, with a garden and all that other grown up stuff… but looking at our flat now compared to what it was when we moved in 8 years ago. It’s a world of difference.
I can finally speak enough Dutch to be able to say “I speak Dutch” without feeling like I am lying, and I understand enough to really know what is going on around me.
After some rocky periods where I’m sure we both wondered if I was going to make it here, my marriage is rock solid and getting better and better every day. Even on days when I am sure it can’t even GET any better.
I have good friends, a best friend even! I may not be a social butterfly out mixing it up every weekend but I feel like I have some good friends that I really care about, and that feels great.
I have learned to quilt. I probably should do more of it, and plan to in the future… but it is something I didn’t know before I came here and probably never would have taken the time for if I was still living in Canada.
I now know that keukenstroop is the same as molasses. After about 5 years of thinking the Netherlands didn’t have molasses at all.
Public transit is no longer the bane of my existence. If it’s raining I am not forced to stand outside in the rain or carry groceries home on my back. We have a car now and I love it so much I could hump it.
With the exception of the usual Jan / Feb blues I am no longer plagued with depression and uncertainty and I’ve figured out that Anti-Depressants (for me) are the devil and will avoid them forever.
I have someone who I can talk to now that I can rant to, complain to and pour my heart out who is completely uninvolved with my life and my family and can give me objective and unbiased opinions, which helps a LOT.
Having someone I can talk to like that has helped me see some people in my life for who they really are and that I shouldn’t place so much value on their opinions.
I feel more ‘worldly’ than I did when I was in Canada. I have been to England, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, France and have seen places I never thought I ever would. Some that I never even knew existed! I’ve stood in the Dom in Cologne, Germany and explored the Gorges du Tarn in France. I’ve ridden a double decker bus in Dublin, I’ve had dinner in the Eiffel Tower and walked along the canals of Amsterdam. I’ve been on the Tube in London and spent three days in Oslo, Norway without seeing the sun even once!
Having been all these places makes me excited for all the places I will see in the future. We talk all the time about where we want to go next and our next plans are to visit Switzerland, Iceland and for me to finally see Auschwitz in Poland.
After years of doing without my ‘Newfie Steak’ I finally figured out that Boterhamworst and Konflookworst are pretty much the same as baloney! … or close enough for me to think I’m eating baloney anyway.
I’ve become a lot more adventurous with food. Before I came to the Netherlands there were so many things I wouldn’t eat. Even though I had never tried them I was convinced I wouldn’t like them just from the sight or smell of them. Living in a country that was completely lacking in regards to my back home comfort foods I was forced to try new things or live on ham and cheese sandwiches for the rest of my life.
I’ve become a much more curious person. Before moving here I wasn’t at all interested in world news or history. I’m far from a historian now, but having seen more places in the world does make me more curious about their past.
I’ve learned that fighting for something isn’t always the best way to get it. Growing up in North America we learn that the ‘squeeky wheel gets the grease’ but in most cases that won’t work for you here. Learning to choose your battles is a lesson most of us learn the hard way here. Living in the Netherlands has taught me how to ‘kill ‘em with kindness’.
I’ve become MUCH less materialistic. Ok yeah I still love my geeky gadgets and I like to make my house nice but I don’t have this feeling of having to keep up like back in Canada. I like that here, nobody cares what you have or how much of it.
I’ve become a better housekeeper. I’m still far from perfect but it is a work in progress. I have never been one for housework and always sort of imagined I’d be working and someone else could do it all, but that’s not the direction life took me in. I’m adapting, slowly but surely.
I’m completely computer literate. Having so much time to myself has given me the chance to learn about things I’d not have the time or patience for otherwise. I know more about computers than most of my girlfriends and am perfectly comfortable downloading my own torrents, editing my own photos, configuring my own programs and arsing around with the CSS code on my blog. If something needs to be installed, I can do it myself. I know nothing compared to my husband, mind you… and I am by no means an expert in any of these things… but I know enough and that’s more than I would have if I didn’t have this much time behind my computer.
I have a thicker skin than when I moved here. I don’t think it could be called THICK, just thicker than it used to be (which was pretty much non-existent). When I first moved here and went to a doctor and they told me ‘It’s because you are fat!”, I almost had a cardiac right there on the spot. Between the Dutch bluntness and the language barrier causing them to use limited English, I’ve had to learn to let some things roll off and learn the difference between when people actually MEAN to be insulting and when it just seems that way to me.
I have found a hidden appreciation for a lot of the traditional Dutch food. Stamppot Boerenkool, mmm heerlijk!! Draadjesvlees met rode kool en witlof met ham en kaas – LEKKER!! I’ve even started cooking some of it myself!
Living away from home has made me realize, more than ever, how important my family is to me. Living away from them is hard but distance really does make the heart grow fonder.
I have almost mastered the art of Dutch customer service, or rather… how to get some. Need info on something? Call three times, if two of the people agree, go with what they say. If you have three differing opinions call back a fourth time and see if they agree with any of the previous people. Keep calling until you have at least two people who agree, then do what they say. Need something replaced? returned? fixed? Call and BE NICE and sound pitiful until someone agrees to help you. Getting angry will only make them think “FUCK YOU” and you’ll never get any help – EVER –. If the first guy won’t help, try the second / third / forth day until you find the sexually satisfied, pot smoking, easy going, don’t give a shit about his job dude who says screw it and gives you what you want. OH, and always … ALWAYS get names.
The 25th thing that has changed for the better since I’ve moved here? The fact that I can actually list 24 other things that have changed for the better since I’ve been here!

Whew, that took a while. I shit you not, I’ve been writing this for almost a week. So it took a while, at least I got there in the end and in the process of writing it I’ve reminded myself that things really are getting better here. It may be a long hard road but I know deep down the destination is worth it.

Dude, You Ain’t SEEN Busy!

Breigh — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 09:02:28 +0000

shoppers and crystal tree by wvs

Every day I visit the website daily dose of imagery because I have serious photo envy, and because I like to torture myself by looking at photos of Toronto and getting homesick.

Yesterday he posted this photo of one of the big shopping centers in downtown Toronto at x-mas. When I first saw it wondered why it wasn’t busier with Christmas and all…. then it dawned on me – holy crap that IS busy by Canadian standards!

My concept of ‘busy’ has changed completely since moving over here to the Netherlands. Smaller country, more people, less malls – it all makes for crazy shopping conditions at pretty much any time of day / year.

Seriously, if you went to one of the malls here in Rotterdam on a Tuesday afternoon in March, this is what you would find. It’s not considered busy here, it’s just the way it is. Busy is when you are taking that photo and can’t see the floor anymore.

This reminds me of how much I miss space sometimes. It was such a huge adjustment to get used to everything on such a smaller and more crowded scale. Now when I go back to Canada it feels weird when everything is so big and far apart.

I am – so – assimilating.

… and I am SO avoiding the malls here until January!

p.s. If you have a minute visit his site, I guarantee you’ll be still clicking through his pics an hour later!

Least Favorite Places – Huisartsenpost

Breigh — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:29:33 +0000

If I were to make a list of my least favorite places to be here in the Netherlands, it would be here. The waiting room at our local huisartsenpost (kind of like outpatients, where you go outside of office hours, only … different). I took this photo with my mobile while sitting there being miserable this afternoon.

We’ve been here a few times before like The Night From Hell, when I thought I was dying but turned out to just have heartburn and other times but I forget why. Every time we are there I am made more miserable by being there than I was with whatever made me go there in the first place. ugh.

Today my husband came to me and said he had something to tell me. The look on his face put me into one of those inside panics where it feels like all my organs are trembling – hate that! I was thinking ok this is it, he’s going to tell me he cheated on me / lost a bunch of money / is gay / wants a divorce / . I tried to remain calm and listened.

He said he needed me to make an appointment for him at my dentist because he has a tooth that has gone bad and broken, and he can’t take the pain anymore. Uhh, wha?! That’s it???

After the panic and relief subsided I listened to him tell me about how this has been going on for about the last two months but he didn’t tell me about it because he knew I’d make him go to the dentist (he was so right). Apparently, the pain has gotten so bad over the past two days that he had no choice but to fess up, even though he is panic attack type of afraid of the dentist. Which I can totally understand after my complete meltdown when I had that tooth removed last year.

A little background on his fear… years ago, like 9 years ago when I was first living here with him, he had to have a root canal. He was TERRIFIED because of generally bad experiences with dentists here in Holland (this is not a rare occurrence here it seems), so I went with him and oh god it was gross. He survived it though and life went on.

A few years ago he started having pain in that area again and he went to visit the dentist I went to for my first visit years ago, that I hated passionately. I can’t remember how it all went but there between this dude and the root canal there was two teeth removed. Then, whatever this dentist did wrong, Xander had to have oral surgery to fix it.

So a lot of pain and a lot of procedures later, he’s not just afraid of the dentist, he’s terrified. Hence, not telling me about this bad tooth until his head was exploding with pain.

That brings us to today. Since it’s Sunday I had to call our local huisartsenpost and ask if there was anything they could give him to take the edge off until tomorrow. Their reply was very helpful.

“We don’t deal with teeth.”

“I KNOW you are not a dentist but you ARE a doctor and you deal with pain, no?”

“No, we don’t deal with anything to do with teeth.”

“ARGH!!!!!”

I got a number from them for the emergency dentist, which I knew I had no hope in hell of getting Xander to go to but I thought maybe I’d get lucky. Yeah, didn’t get lucky. The lady who answered the phone was a total bitch and was about as useless as tits on a bull. When I called and explained the problem she said he could get an appointment at 8:30pm (it was probably around 2pm at this point). I asked if the dentist who we’d have the appointment with has experience with nervous patients and does he use anything against pain.

Her answer?

“I don’t know anything about that, do you want the appointment or not?”

At that point my choices were to rip her a new one or give the phone to Xander and let him try, so I handed over the phone. He had no more luck than I did and decided he’d rather wait till tomorrow than risk going to another hack job like he got stuck with a few years ago. Who can blame him?

So we went off to the mall to see if they might have something a little stronger at one of the drug stores (the drug stores here are different, mind you, they don’t have a pharmacy in them, so you just get the basics). When we spoke to the lady there she couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t help us at the huisartsenpost and gave us the strongest stuff they had, which she didn’t have a lot of faith in with regard to it helping his problem.

That got our back up a bit after talking to her. Why the doctors at the huisartsenpost refused to do anything at all. Hell, we pay insurance, and we pay DEARLY for it. If we can’t go and get something to make my husband able to sleep for one night (which he didn’t last night apparently), then wtf, I say – WTF?!

We ended up going back and the receptionist tried to blow us off with the ‘we don’t do teeth’ routine again… and after explaining we don’t want anything done with the TOOTH he just wants a bit of pain relief, she grudgingly made the appointment. Not before telling us that she didn’t think the doctor would do anything to help us though.

We saw one doctor first who sat and gave Xander a bit of a ‘your own fault’ speech because he left it go so long. Yeah, very helpful indeed. I think the pain he’s feeling is reminder enough of what a dumbass move that was, he didn’t need her telling him. Finally, I ended up just cutting them off and telling her that he WAS going to go to the dentist tomorrow whether I have to drag him kicking and screaming and would they PLEASE just give him something until then.

I believe I also mentioned something about if they can’t, can they please give ME something to numb the pain of dealing with him if he doesn’t get something….

She left and made us go back to the waiting room again where another doctor would come for us. Then we went in and he looked in Xander’s mouth and gave him antibiotics and pain killers, and advice to get to the dentist right away tomorrow.

THANK YOU JESUS!! It only took us the ENTIRE afternoon. Never, in my entire LIFE have I ever seen or heard of anyone having to go through so much bullshit just to get a bit of pain relief. In North America you wouldn’t even NEED to see a doctor, you could buy stuff that would be good enough for that just over the counter… and if you DID contact your doctor, they’d have the prescription written before you even finished explaining the problem.

Now, don’t get me wrong… in a lot of cases I think it’s good that the Dutch aren’t so quick to medicate, but good grief! I came very close to having one of my famous ‘This FUCKING COUNTRY’ tantrums today, but I didn’t. Talk about progress!

The Corpus Experience

Breigh — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:38:40 +0000

In an earlier post I mentioned that while my parents were here we were going to Corpus, which I was pretty excited about. I’d first seen info on this place months ago and was keen to take my parents there because I thought it’d be really cool.

When you look at their website it gives you the impression that you are going to something truly magnificent! That you are going on a ride through the human body, that you and your family and friends can take goofy photos inside the mouth and other parts of the body and you’d see some really cool visuals of what goes on inside our bodies.

Sooooo not the case!!

I guess I got this impression from their photos that it really is a ride, I mean you see people sitting in the seats moving up and around and all that, and people talking and taking photos in different places. I also that that for €16,50 per person, and the fact that you had to book it well in advance because it was so busy, that there was something fantastic going on here.

I was so disappointed. The whole thing is split into two parts. The first part is the trip through the human body. I started getting worried when I saw the headsets, but was relieved when I found out they had the commentary in English. Just the though of trying to translate everything for my parents made me squirm because I don’t know the Dutch names for most of the body parts.

The way the first part works is that you are put in a group of 16 people. You get your headset and go up this big escalator where you begin your journey. The headsets are set by language and all work automatically by sensors in doorways between each section of the body. Problem is, if you walk through with more than one person at a time the sensor may not catch yours and the sound won’t be triggered… and we were in a group with a bunch of people with kids.

Ever try to keep kids from running excitedly through something like this? Well, you may have but some of the parents we were with didn’t.

Each section was like a hall with different parts of the body on the wall and a TV screen with a video. The video was this sort of excited sounding guy explaining what happens in each part of the body while that part would light up and flash so you’d know to look at it. I couldn’t help but thinking that the guy sounded a lot like the dude who was in those ‘What’s Happening To Me’ videos we saw in health class as kids. The videos were also quite similar, more cartoony than even remotely realistic.

There were a few parts where you got to sit on a bench and watch a 3D movie, and those cushy black chairs were in one of them. They don’t move up and around anything like in the video, that’s a load of bunk. They just tip and shake while you watch some movie about how the blood goes through the heart. YOU aren’t actually going through anything…

Plus, every time I got those glasses they were loaded up with fingerprints from the bored employee who handed them out.

I got really irritated when mine and my mother’s headsets didn’t even work in the sections for the nose and eyes. Which was basically just standing in this room with an eyeball on the wall and a platform in the middle in complete silence while everyone around us heard whatever they were hearing. Boooorrrinnng.

During this hour, or however long it is, you can’t talk to each other because everyone has their headphones on and is trying to listen to that, there are no toilets and you are NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PHOTOS (that’s what ticked me off most).

I didn’t get a feel at all like we were moving through a body. There were body part things around us but it just didn’t turn out like I expected at all. I certainly didn’t feel like we got €66 worth of fun out of it.

The second part is just about 5-6 floors of rooms with pictures on the wall with info about stuff in the body and games for the kids. Nothing that interested me at all.

I guess I went there expecting some kind of wow factor and came out completely underwhelmed. I think it’d be a great place to go for a school trip, or for parents to take their children for an educational and fun outing… but for 4 adults who have a general idea of how the body works. What a total bore.

I could have saved our 66 bucks and found more interesting and realistic videos on the internet.

Happy Birthday Grietje!

Breigh — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:11:41 +0000

Today the oldest inhabitant of the Netherlands is celebrating her 111th birthday.

Grietje Jansen-Anken lived alone until she was 92 years of age, and has been living in a care home in Middleburg since. Reports say that she is still in perfect mental health.

She apparently shuns the media at every turn, not wanting to take part in any of the publicity that follows each of her birthdays. Who can blame her though, at a ripe ol’ age of 111 it’s no wonder she just wants a quiet birthday with family.

Grietje became the oldest inhabitant of the Netherlands on May 19, 2006 after the death of 111 year old Alexandrina van Donkelaar-Vink.

An Expat Meme

Breigh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:05:10 +0000

1. HDR Kinderdijk, 2. Winterdish-Boerenkoolstampot, 3. Heláás, 4. Famke Janssen, 5. Stroopwafel innards, 6. Marco Borsato Nachtmis, 7. Oliebollen in Rotterdam continued, 8. "I, Piórko, like Cheese!", 9. hard rain, 10. i can make stroopwafels, 11. St. Nicolas has arrived…, 12. Autumn Colors

Ok I’ve seen these mosiac meme’s around but the gal over at A Touch of Dutch turned it into an expat in NL type meme, so I figure I’ll give it a go too.

Here’s what you do:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

12 Dutch things:

A favorite Dutch landmark: Kinderdijk. Check out my pics from Kinderdijk here and here.
A favorite Dutch food: Stampot Boerenkool!
A favorite Dutch phrase: "Helaas pindakaas!" [Translation: "Too Bad!" or “Unfortunately!”]
A favorite Dutch celebrity: Famke Janssen
A favorite Dutch candy or cookie: Stroopwafel
A favorite Dutch musician: Marco Borsato.
One favorite thing seen on the Dutch roadside: Hollandse Gebakkraam.
When you think of all things Dutch, this is one thought which first comes to mind: KAAS! [Cheese]
One least favorite thing about the Netherlands: REGEN!! [rain].
Something Dutch you send home to family & friends: Stroopwafel (again! haha).
Favorite Dutch holiday [whether you celebrate it or not]: Sinterklaas! (We don’t celebrate it but it’s Christmasy so I love it)
Favorite season of the year in the Netherlands: Herfst [Autumn/Fall]

I just realized a lot of my favorites have to do with food. It may have something to do with the fact that I’ve been up for hours and haven’t had breakfast yet. Maybe I should do it again when I am less hungry and see if any of my answers change!