Queen's Day

I'm a couple of weeks late, but I wanted to save Queen's Day for my AlphabeThursday Q post!

Queen's Day is the celebration of the queen's birthday in The Netherlands. It's also the day when everybody goes completely mad for orange (oranjegekte) and the entire country turns into a giant rummage sale. The weather this year was a little subpar, but that doesn't mean we didn't go out and have a good time scouring the markets for goodies!

This guy found a nice carpet and as any proper Dutchie would do, took it home by bike!

The next few shots are in the streets of Weert, a city about 25 minutes to the south-east. Since the weather wasn't that great, it wasn't quite as busy as usual. And it's NOTHING like the massive crowds in Amsterdam!

The next few are in Eindhoven when the weather started perking up a little!

I can't think of anything in the US that would be considered equivalent to the Queen's Day celebrations here. It's a little like the Fourth of July in that everyone has a good time and is more patriotic, but that's not even a good comparison. You just must experience it for yourself!

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I'm participating in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday! Click the link below to see what sort of quaint things people have posted about.

Keukenhof

If you ever have the opportunity to come visit me The Netherlands in the spring, I highly suggest you do so! Why spring, you ask? One word:

KEUKENHOF!

The Keukenhof is the world's largest bulb flower garden consisting of more than 7 million bulb flowers. More than half of those, 4.5 million, are tulips in over 100 different varieties.

These photos are from my visit a couple of years ago. I've never seen so many tulips in my life. I highly suggest stopping by. The park is open until May 18 this year.

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I'm participating in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday! Click the link below to see what other keen things people have posted about.

Inburgering

Inburgering translates to integration in English.

When you move to The Netherlands (unless you are EU) you are required to integrate yourself into the country by learning the language and how things work. I don't think it is an entirely unreasonable requirement, but it has it's own set of problems (which I won't go into here).

When you move to The Netherlands, you are required to go through some sort of inburgering. Some municipalities will pay for it and help you arrange your courses, while others will just pat you on the head and say "good luck." Unfortunately I fell into the second group of lucky immigrants. If we'd had a little more guidance I probably would've chosen to do things a little bit differently, but as the Dutch say- helaas (alas in English). You can also opt to self study, but I'm not convinced learning a language via self study is always productive.

Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it), you can apply for a student loan to help with the costs. If you are self paying (or using the loan) then you are entitled to a 70% reimbursment of your course fees (up to a certain amount) as long as you go to an "approved" school. I had the choice of two different language schools to choose from. We ended up going with the more expensive one because they actually returned our phonecalls and requests for information. The only information we could pull out of the other school was the fact that I would "need to have some classes and need to do some tests." Well, okay... WHAT classes? WHAT tests? You would've thought we were asking them for state secrets or the location of buried treasure the way they held onto information!

Anyhow...

The school I went to split things into two. First you would do an intensive Dutch course two times a week for about 16 weeks. After that you would be thrown into the pits of hell start the actual "Knowledge of Dutch Society" part. The language course was absolutely wonderful and I actually feel like I learned a lot. The second part I still see as seven months of my life that I will never get back. My tormentor instructor had a grating personality that I (and apparently everyone else in my class) didn't get along with. That paired with a textbook that I thought came across as somewhat condescending in places made it really difficult for me to get through. I'll admit that part of it was attitude, but I did go into it kindof excited. As the weeks wore on my attitude got worse, but I did make an effort to begin with! If I'd known how awful it was going to be I would've opted to a different route. But again, helaas!

The "do some tests" part of the inburgering is pretty straight forward. There are four different tests you need to do. A test you do over the telephone so they can hear you speak, two tests on the computer, and a real life practical exam.

The practical exam (which I feel like I have been working on for the last 90 years) has you out and about in the world doing "Dutch" things and living to tell the tale. You must put together a portfolio of your bewijzen (proofs). I'm actually doing my volunteer work for my portfolio, though I think it's a nice thing to do anyways. Some other things include knowing how to read your electric meter, paying a bill (banking system here is totally different, but AWESOME), going to the city and registering yourself as a resident and so on and so forth. A MIRACLE fell into my lap a few weeks ago because they changed it from needing 30 proofs to just 20.

It is with great delight and joy that I announce that I'm 97%* DONE with my Inburgering! I've passed the telephone test and the two computer tests and I will be submitting my portfolio for the practical exam this weekend. Once it's accepted as being good and complete, they call me in for a test where I talk to them about some of the things I did and what I felt about doing it. I have a few interesting things to say about that, but right now I'm just going to bask in the happiness that I'm so so so close to being done!

Next step- citizenship!

*Approximately... I don't actually have an exact percentage, but I thought 97% sounds pretty close to done. I feel pretty close to done, thus the 97%. I know, I'm weird.

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I'm participating in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday! Click the link below to see what other iteresting things people have posted about.

Het Loo

I have to admit that I'm really stretching the limitations on my "H" for this week since technically het is the Dutch equivalent of "the", but I hope that Mrs. Matlock will see that my heart is in the right place and not think of me as a rule bending heathen.

Het Loo Palace (Paleis Het Loo) was the residence of the royal family for nearly 300 years, and has now been restored into a museum and gardens for the public. You can't take pictures inside the palace itself, but check out this link to take a peek into one of the bedrooms.

The gardens of Het Loo are absolutely lovely though and you CAN take pictures out there!

This type of garden is called parterre, which is "an ornamental garden where beds and paths are arranged to form a pattern."
Immaculately trimmed scrolly hedges are surrounded by topiaries and different types of annuals and perennials which are also framed with hedges.

There are many statues and fountains throughout the gardens.

If you turn around and look back at the palace, you will see these lovely golden doors. How'd you like your back doors to look like that?!

Surrounding the garden is a massive moat of epic proportions. Okay, massive moat of epic proportions might be a bit of a hyperbole, but it sounds more impressive than "little wimpy ditch around the outer edges."

A wide variety of plants go into the gardens so that they can be enjoyed year round.

I'd really like to know where I can find seeds for an orange tree like this though!

I should mention that Loo is pronounced more like "lo" (rhymes with "though") and not "loo" (rhymes with zoo). I know better, but I say it like "loo" and giggle because I'm immature and it sounds like what Brits call the toilet. *ahem*

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I'm participating in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday! Click the link below to see what other hopefully happy things people have posted about.

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P.S. If you missed my new blog design reveal post, go back and check it out! I'm giving away a customized sock monkey to one lucky person.

Green Gorgeous Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a village in the province of Overijssel. It literally means "goat horn," and was named that way because the first settlers found masses of goat horns everywhere in the area. It's referred to as the "Venice of the North" because there are no roads in the center of the village.

People park their cars and hop into a boat to make their way into the center of the village.

All of the homes have thatched roofs which kindof makes it a fairytale-like village to wander through.

The homes are pretty much right on the waters edge. I'd always be worried I was going to drop the lawnmower in the canal if I lived here.

Here you can see one of the canal "streets."

Boats galore!

You CAN get around via the footpaths and footbridges in the village if you don't have a boat and don't feel like going for a swim (you can't really swim, the canals are only about 1 meter deep).

I think that it's quite a picturesque place to visit, though there really isn't a whole lot to do other than ride the canal boat and take some nice pictures. I don't know that I would make a trip JUST to go there, but if you're nearby I'd say it's worth a peek!

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I'm participating in Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday! Click the link below to see what other great goodly things people have posted about.

World Blog Surf Day: Dutch New Years

Today is World Blog Surf Day! This is a day where expat bloggers come together on the same day and write about a specific theme. We then link our blogs to end up with a lovely chain to travel the world via blogs. The theme this time is "Holidays and Celebrations." This is a pretty broad category so I had several ideas. I settled on New Years!

The Dutch celebrate their Oudejaarsavond (New Years Eve) in a pretty similar manner to the US with one explosive exception. People get together with family and friends to spend time together. Then, when the clock strikes twelve everyone goes completely bonkers and runs outside to set off fireworks! We have a pretty good view from our balcony so we usually stay home (so as not to get blown up) and watch from there. From midnight on there's a pretty good solid hour of explosions and bangs that shake the windows and probably terrify small children and animals. It starts to taper off a little around 2:30 or so, but you'll still hear a straggler every now and then through the rest of the night.

Before the booms and bangs though, you need to eat your oliebollen!

Oliebollen are a traditional treat and one of the only times during the year we actually use our deep fryer.

Our oliebollen usually look like olierandomshapes, but they taste good! You can buy a box mix from the supermarket or get really crazy and make it from scratch.

4 c. (500 grams) white all purpose flour
2 tbsp (30 grams) yeast
1 tsp (5 grams) salt
2 cups (1/2 liter) lukewarm milk
1 cup (250 grams) raisins
powdered sugar for sprinkling
oil for deep frying

In a large bowl make a dough from the first four ingredients. Let rise in warm place for approximately 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Mix raisins in with the dough. Let rise again. In the mean time, heat the oil to 350 F (180 C). With two spoons, make small balls and drop into the oil. Turn if needed. When the balls are light brown use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil and drain on paper towels. Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

It's a good thing we only have these once a year!

Please visit the next blog on the list Just a Plane Ride Away by JaPra and continue on the journey!

World Blog Surf Day

Detours Galore!

The entire roadworks system in the city of Eindhoven seems to be under construction right now, so we're seeing a lot of these signs around.

Making sure you know how to get to the football (soccer for USians) is of the utmost importance!

Of course, it's not just the car roads that are being rerouted.

Those are the signs I look out for!

Sundays in My City: A Ride Through Veldhoven

The ever mysterious Unknown Mami has started hosting a Sundays In My City feature on her blog and I'm planning on trying to participate at least semi-regularly. It's a fun feature and you can explore little corners of the world you might not see otherwise!

This Sunday in My City is actually "Sunday in my neighboring city that's really closer than some parts of the actual city I'm living in." Whew, say that three times fast!!

Here are some shots I took on a bike ride with Martijn through a section of the city of Veldhoven, in The Netherlands.

I liked the little balcony on this house. I think I'd sit out there and read a book if I lived there. I'd probably have to rig up some sort of chair umbrella though.

This is a sign from a furniture store. I thought it was neat looking.

I liked the sewing machine shop sign! The machine shop is next to an Asian restaurant and has what I assume to be apartments above the stores.

Unfortunately, this picture turned out a bit blurry, but I liked the colors so I'm posting it anyways! It's a garden center. During the holiday season they sell lots of cool Christmas stuff, so we like to go there and check it out. It's where I bought the pine branches for my Christmas centerpiece last year.

I'm really mostly posting this picture because I took it while in motion and was rather impressed that I managed to not maim myself or others in the process. The "action" setting on my camera seems to do an alright job of things!

I find it really interesting that Eindhoven and Veldhoven are within spitting distance of each other, yet the architecture of the houses has very distictive differences.

That's it for this week's installment of Sundays In My City! Join in by clicking the button below.