Dutch New Year Tradition

I learned a new Dutch tradition today - upon seeing someone for the first time in the new year, it is traditional to shake their hand and say, "Best wishes in the new year" or something similar. (Everyone returned to work today from the holidays, so there was a lot of hand shaking going on.) At first I stuck with the more familiar (to me, anyway) "Happy New Year!" but by the end of the day, I was giving people "best wishes" as well.

More on Sinterklaas

Thanks to the anonymous poster for pointing out "Six to Eight Black Men" by David Sedaris and for my mom for finding the relevant links. The story is a funny recap of the Dutch legend of Sinterklaas from an American point of view. You can also listen to David Sedaris himself read the story (Part 2, Part 3).

Now just wait until you hear the Czech version when we return from Prague...

Happy Sinterklaas!

In recent weeks, Albert Heijn (our grocery store) began decorating their cash registers with cardboard cut-outs that a reasonable but uniformed foreigner might easily mistake for Somali pirates. But they weren't Somali pirates - though that would be exciting - they were Zwarte Pieten ("Black Petes").

A pirate, a Somali pirate, and Black Pete

Black Pete(s) is(are) the sidekick(s) of Sinterklaas, which as a reasonable but uniformed American I might declare the Dutch version of Santa Claus. In reality the opposite is true. Since Sinterklaas is dropping off presents this evening, now is as good a time as any to compare the legends of Santa Claus and Sinterklaas.

Santa Claus	Sinterklaas
Brings children presents on the eve of December 25th	Brings children presents on the eve of December 5th
Leaves the presents in children's stockings	Leaves the presents in children's [wooden] shoes
Has a white beard and dresses in a red suit	Has a white beard and dresses in a red bishop's dress
Has a belly that shakes like a bowl fully of jelly	Not so much
Arrives in America via a flying sled from the North Pole	Arrives in The Netherlands/Belgium via a boat from Spain
Is assisted by an army of elves	Is assisted by an army of Zwarte Pieten
Gives naughty children a lump of coal	Takes naughty children back with him to Spain
Who wins the Google Fight?

You might think that it sounds silly for a jolly old man bearing presents to come from Spain, but does it really make more sense for him to come from the North Pole?

Watch Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Pieten arrive and stock the local Albert Heijn with delicious pepernoten.

(And finally, because I know you're wondering: Yes, the roles of the Zwarte Pieten are always played by white people in black face. If this bothers you, then you are probably not Dutch.)

You say tomato, I say tomahto...

Tomorrow we are taking a train to spend the weekend in Cologne, Germany. At first when I went to go look for train tickets I could not find the destination. I know the trains go there; it's the fourth largest city in Germany. And then I realized the Dutch name for the city was Keulen. Problem solved; train tickets booked.

But wait, there's no Cologne or Keulen in my trusty Rick Steves' guidebook! Maybe this wasn't a city we wanted to visit after all; I mean if it's not the guidebooks it must be a whole in the wall or a dump or just plain uninteresting.

But a quick Google search told me the real name of the city, as far as Germany or should I say Deutschland is concerned, is Koln. And don't worry Koln is in the guidebook!

Now, why do we rename cities and countries? As Matt pointed out we should either: A) spell them the same and pronounce them differently or B) pronounce them the same and spell them appropriately.

I find it highly embarrassing when filling out electronic forms that have drop-down menus that I have to go ask someone where I am from according the country we are currently in. I got Estados Unidos in Spanish. While I might have gotten Les États-Unis in French without help, I never would have gotten Verenigde Staten in Dutch. I can only guess what my nationality will be next month in The Czech Republic.

Well, off we go to Cologne...I mean Koln for the weekend!

"Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
Fred Astaire

you say neither and i say neither
either, either, neither, neither
let's call the whole thing off

you say tomato, i say tomato
you eat potato and i eat potato
tomato, tomato, potato, potato
let's call the whole thing off

but oh, if we call the whole thing off then we must part
and oh, if we ever part then that might break my heart

so, if you wear pajamas and i wear pajamas
i'll wear pajamas and give up pajamas
for we know we need eachother so we
better call the calling off, off
oh, let's call the whole thing off

you say after and i say after
you say laughter and i say laughter
after, after, laughter, laughter
let's call the whole thing off

you say havana and i say havana
you eat banana and i eat banana
havana, havana, banana, banana
let's call the whole thing off

but oh, if we call the whole thing off then we must part
and oh, if we ever part then that might break my heart

so, if you say oysters and i say oysters
i'll eat oysters and give up oysters
for we know we need each other so we
better call the calling off, off
oh, let's call the whole thing off

Goedemorgan!

Goedemorgan!

Mijn naam is Laura. Ik kom uit Florida, USA; Ik woon tidelijk in Nederland. Ik studeer bij de UF; mijn echtgenote studeer bij de TUDelft.

I had my first Dutch language class this morning. While I have been using Rosetta Stone (not nearly as much as I should), it was nice to take a face to face class and meet some other people. It is a small class sponsored by the International Neighbors Group at TU Delft. It mostly concentrates on conversational Dutch and not much grammar; so maybe, I will be able to order in Dutch at a restaurant in a few months :)

Tot Ziens!

Life in the Netherlands

There are a number of features of life in the Netherlands that are wildly different from the US - the widespread use of bicycles, annual vacation time, canals everywhere, and the fact that unlike Americans, the Dutch are not morbidly obese. But it is not difficult to adjust to the large differences ... it's the little things - both good ☑, bad ☒, and indifferent ☐ - that sometimes seem so foreign. For instance:

• Food, cars, appliances, stores, etc. - almost everything - are 1.5 times smaller here. (I say "almost everything" because although they're thin, the Dutch are also very tall. The average height is 6'1" for men and 5'8" for women.) ☐ We bought a large pizza from the nearby Domino's a few weeks ago and it was so small I could have eaten the whole thing myself - for lunch. ☒
  


• The advertisements, menus, official documents, etc. here are [of course] written in Dutch. The weirdest things are the bathroom stalls, which are still the universal palette for dirty words, but now require a Dutch-English dictionary for translation. ☒
  


• Speaking of bathroom stalls: In the Netherlands they are almost always divided with solid walls and real doors. No more wondering whose shoes those are in the stall next door! ☑
  


• Stores sometimes take a traditional debit card, but oftentimes payment is required using a Chipknip, which is part traditional debit card, part smart card that can electronically store money on the chip. To buy things using the Chipknip (called "Chipping") we first go to a Chipknip charging station (it looks like a mini ATM), load a certain amount of money (restricted to small amounts) on the chip, and then pay using the chip at a store. The benefit of this form of payment, I have gathered, is that no network connection is needed at the point of purchase and thus Chipknips are used in vending machines, parking garages, on public transit, etc. and they are fast because you don't have to bother with entering a PIN. ☐
  



• Europeans have basically eliminated the € 0.01 coin and thus any change received is usually rounded. I have seen a world without pennies and it is good. ☑ Meanwhile, as you may know, the smallest bill here is € 5 and € 1 and € 2 coins are widely used for smaller transactions, which makes paying at vending machines and other automated transactions much, much easier. ☑


• Unlike in the US, alcohol is not treated like forbidden fruit. The purchase age is 16, so Laura and I are never carded (which at 21 I did not mind, but as I get older becomes increasingly irritating). Better yet, when we buy a six pack with our groceries, we don't have to fear that the cashier is going to treat us like criminals if one of us happens to be missing identification. (I'm talking to you, Albertsons.) ☑
  


• There are little differences at the grocery store, especially when it comes to guilty pleasures like desert. Where I expect to see Hershey's there is only Mars ☒; Reese's is nowhere to be found ☒; Fanta is known for silly commercials and little else in the US but the drink is widely available here ☐; and chocolate covered waffels and stroopwafels are popular deserts. ☑
  


• No need to wait at the movie theater to get good seats for a new release - seats at the movie theater here are assigned. ☑
  


• There are no water fountains anywhere and it is rare for tap water to be available at restaurants ☒; beer is cheaper than bottled water, which is OK with me. ☑


• You still leave your waiter or bartender a tip in the Netherlands, but it's usually more like 5% instead of 15-20%! ☑ But the downside of this is that service is slooooowwww and you must always explicitly summon a waiter for everything. ☒
  

With the plethora of little differences, it's occasionally nice to cling to something familiar. It's like longing for a familiar old friend, except when so far from home, "familiar" is more important than "friend." Laura and I rarely step foot in McDonald's in the US, but in a weak moment one afternoon a few Sundays ago, Big Macs washed down with Coca-Cola were beyond delicious... even though the Coca-Cola was served in a cup the size of a shot glass.

Laura with Ronald van McDonald