Month: December 2016

Skipping the shortest day of the year

~ eisenorem ~ Leave a comment

7 hours, 41 minutes. That’s all the daylight there is, but this year we’ll just miss it! We’re flying South to the sunny mountain town of Salt Lake City. But in all seriousness, these long dark northern European winters are brutally unkind to my mood and well being. Good thing Henrik had started feeding me vitamin D supplements like candy and the days will start to get longer.

Going Dutch: Two Years

~ eisenorem ~ 2 Comments

It has now been two years since we moved to the Netherlands. We are more settled in and everything in Maastricht feels familiar and home-like but we certainly still feel foreign. We more or less know how to function in day-to-day Dutch life and how basic bills, insurance, and taxes work. I’m still not a fan of the rainy weather or lack of mountains, but there are perks like amazing bike lanes everywhere and good public transportation.

Here is a quick summary of what we have been up to:

We traveled to 11 European countries this year.

Four new ones for me and four new ones for Hendrik (but not the same four). Here’s our map of countries at least one of us has visited (not counting airport transfers). We are really trying to make the most of our proximity to new places and European budget flights.

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Hendrik started a new job.

As a risk model validator at Rabobank, a Dutch bank that specializes in agricultural loans. I think the position suits his risk-averse personality quite well. He now enjoys wearing suits to work every day and looking down on the Dutch peasants from the 24th floor of a bank tower. He has a long train commute each day, but he has been doing it since April with no complaints.

We are still learning Dutch.

We have lessons every week. My progress is slow, probably because I am demotivated to study whenever a Dutch person is mean to me, which happens a lot. Hendrik’s progress is fast. I blame him for being bilingual in the two languages most closely related to Dutch and for having a more resilient personality.

We can eat burritos now.

No seriously, this is noteworthy enough for our annual summary because it has improved our quality of life significantly. It was the one last big thing we missed about life in the US (aside from friendly people and good customer service). Granted, they are Canadian burritos (I’ll let you imagine what that means), but they will suffice.

Are we becoming Dutch?

Definitely not. I am learning to understand them and interact with them, but I will never, ever be one of them.

We are looking forward to being home visiting our families in the US in less than a week!

 

Dental Deeds in Dutch

~ eisenorem ~ Leave a comment

I managed to survive an entire dentist appointment entirely in Dutch. Fortunately nothing was wrong with my teeth so everything was relatively simple. The worst that happened was that I lightly bit the dentist when he was setting up for x-rays, which they call controlefotos (translation: checkup photos, a much less intimidating term). It took me longer than average to respond when he said “openen,” which while a cognate, does sound a bit different with a Dutch accent, in my defense. I think the dentist made a full recovery before Hendrik was “aan de beurt.”

A Christmas market in every city and a bratwurst in every belly

~ eisenorem ~ Leave a comment

This year we are going all out on Christmas market visits in every country. We have been to one in Paris, France, Aachen, Germany, and of course Maastricht, The Netherlands. I’m not even sure which one was coolest: the one in Paris was on the Champs Elysees and the one in Aachen was in the square around Charlemagne’s cathedral. Certainly the one in Aachen has the most affordable bratwurst.


Also this seems like an apt time to offer a comparison of Dutch names for foreign cities. They call Paris Parijs (pronounced “Pair-ice”) while they call Aachen Aken, which is at least less confusing than the French term for Aachen, which is Aix-la-Chapelle.