Holland-days: not just a delicious sauce

May 18

How to get a free bicycle in Holland

1. Approach group of cyclists.
2. Shout out “hey that’s my bike!”
3. Collect bike(s) left behind.

Apr 26

Excessive: extreme to the point of being unnecessary

Example: when you connect a North American device to a European power adapter in order to make it compatible to a second, UK power adapter.

Apr 09

Word (r)evolution

Me: is there a Dutch equivalent of the word "queer?"
My Dutch Teacher: Yes, "flicker," but it's a VERY negative word. Just like queer, it's a very insulting term for homosexuals.
Me: ...uh, queer isn't really an insult anymore.
My Dutch Teacher: Oh?
Me: No. It's a word for anyone. Queer is for gays, bisexuals, pansexuals, transexuals, asexuals, transvestites, two-spirited people, even people who are straight but don't feel right about the ideas of what is "normal." Being queer is being what you want, while also saying that what you should be is actually, kinda oppressive.
My Dutch Teacher: Is that really what the word means now?
Me: ...to more and more people every day...yeah.
My Dutch Teacher: That...is AWESOME.
Moral: when a middle-aged, European woman congratulates North-Americans on gender-bending, take it as a compliment. I do.

Mar 27

Ik ben jarig

Not much else to say there. Just happy I can say it in Dutch.

Have a good day for me everyone :)

(Image from Kevin&Amanda)

Mar 15

quite possibly my favourite thing in Albert Heijn grocery stores are these veggie triangle things. Dip em’ in mulligatawny and colour me joyous.

Mulliga…wha?! Mulliga…recipe!

Mar 12

So, Christmas was a long time ago…

Question: what happens when you go on vacation for a month?

Answer: unicorns and rainbows and euphoria abound?

Question: wait, I didn’t word that properly. What happens when you return to work after going on vacation for a month?

Answer: …you get sucked into a dizzying black hole of despair and don’t come out for several months?

Bingo.

Truth be told kids, I had a lot of blog plans for the past few months. I took my partner snowmobiling in Canada and got some beautiful, snowy photos, we went to the carnival parade and saw a lot of weird, we’ve done some nifty things to our place, and I had a lot of Dutch-isms to comment on.

But work happened. And then some.

While In Canada, I was notified of a mandatory Dutch course I would need to start as soon as I returned. This course is 8 some odd hours per week, and will haunt my path for a year. At the end of it I will take a “stats” exam (whatever that is), and I think bad things happen if I fail. I haven’t had time to think about that yet because of the whole “black hole” thing, but I will say one thing…

Hard class is hard. Like, uber hard. But let’s not talk about that…

…when we could be eating cake.

(posts will be more frequent I promise.)

Jan 01

[video]

Dec 28

We got a wee bit of snow yesterday. Ah, Ottawa!

Dec 26

Ikea Hax: jewelry armoire

Here’s a secret about me. I collect jewelry. Vintage, quirky, handmade, costume: I love them all. Because of this love, I have accumulated a lot of jewelry, and the process of moving has forced them to live in odd places with no order.

like so.

It’s very tragic you see, all these lovely things strewn about without homes occasionally tumbling onto the floor and putting themselves in harms way for me to step on them. At 6am. When I am in a sleep coma.

It was in those painful moments that I realized: I needed a jewelry storage solution.

Ah the jewelry armoire! So precious and practical. Also, so EXPENSIVE. G’damn it all if I can justify spending $300+ shiney coins for an oversized gem box. I searched Google to no avail for DIY jewelry storage solutions I liked, but I was not thwarted because I had closet space, ikea and industrial strength glue.

With such provisions, how could I fail?

Dec 18

You never know how many friends you have…until you start making Christmas cards. Happy Holidays everyone!