Koninginnedag

On the 30th of April Holland turns orange. Our national colours and those of our royal family are everywhere and we celebrate our country, our royal family and our Queen mum's birthday. (Since our current Queen's birthday is in winter, they figured it would be best to keep the date where it was)

Queensday, as it is called, is actually a very interesting national holiday. One that, by the way, provides excellent subject-matter for discussing the phenomenon of civil religion. All over the country there are fairs, fleamarkets and outdoor concerts, everyone is supposed to be happy, Dutch and outdoors.
The Queen and her family visit a different city every year, this city is then completely transformed into the centre of our monarchy for the day. The royal family looks at local clubs doing their tricks on the streets, local trades are shown, the princes always participate in some stupid oldfashioned game and they all shake 3000 hands along the way. The Queen gets flowers, kisses and children's drawings for her 'birthday' and the whole shindig is broadcasted nationwide.

Sadly this year, the general talk about what the princesses were wearing, which prince made an idiot of himself during the games, and what kind of a hat the Queen was sporting this year was interrupted by the horrible, broadcasted live on tv, view of a black automobile ploughing its way through the crowds in Apeldoorn, monarchy capitol for the day. This attack on our royal family has left 8 dead so far, including the man who deliberately drove his car through a crowd of orange coloured men, women, and children.


So back in Glasgow our day started happily, by planning a small Queensday party (or Dutch Day, as Steph calls it) at my flat, until my mother calls me and says she just saw a car drive through the crowd and hit a war monument, live on tv.


Our little Queensday celebration went along as planned (unlike most of the bigger celebrations in Holland, which were cancelled) by making dutch pancakes and playing silly games in my kitchen. (Since the Scottish weather and landscape does not encourage running with eggs outside) My laptop was there too though, constantly following the news and hearing about one, then two, then five deaths. It was a strange day.

Ice skating

Last week the teperatures in Holland dropped to about -20 degrees celsius at night, which hadn't happened in twelve years!

Temperatures of this kind have a strange effect on the Dutch. All of a sudden all other news dissappears and ONE topic is of paramount importance. Will it happen....will we see the day again....could it be true?

Slowly little ponds, canals, streams and eventually lakes start freezing over. And then out of the blue it seems that every single Dutch person owns a pair of skates ánd knows how to skate ánd is prepared to face the cold and the possibility of disappearing under thin ice to do it.

'Ice Masters' start crawling out of their twelve-year hibernation and all eyes are on them. When can we go? Is it safe yet? Can we, can we pleeeaaase?

The Ice Masters appear on tv saying that we shouldn't all freak out because the "Journey of all Journeys" will have to wait until we have had at least ten straight days of -10 degrees. So we wait.

Ice skating is a skill that is supposed to be present in everyone that has Dutch blood running through their veins. You are supposed to be born with it. So I felt kind of awkward that I hadn't been on skates in twelve years and hadn't been any good then either...(I used to be on ice hockey skates to boot. "Which is more like walking on ice than actually skating" as I was told.)

Real Dutch skate on 'Noren', Vikings, Real Skates, leather shoes with huge butcher knives attached to them. Lethal when accidently falling over and having you hand skated over. Also lethal to those who don't know how to ride them. Like me.

Wilbert and his family on the other hand are proper Dutch. With proper skates. And a proper natural ice rink next to their house. So Wilbert was properly raised as a Dutch boy, standing on water as soon as it froze over and carrying on today on covered ice rinks where he skates once a week in winter. (Read: He is good and I suck)

So we went to Giethoorn (the Dutch Venice) to skate with Wilbert's family and to let me have my very first proper Viking experience. (On skates borrowed from Wilberts family)

We took the two hour drive to Giethoorn. Unfortunately it was definitely thawing. Now the normal human reaction would be to be scared to fall through the ice and die or at the least be very cold (as I was). But no! Not the Dutch! They stay on the ice until they can prove not to be Jesus.

I was aching everywhere after ten minutes. To make a long and embarrasing story short(ish): Wilbert pushed me back to our starting point and I enjoyed my hot chocolate and view of proper Dutch people for the rest of the day.

The day befoe I left, so last Thursday we went out again to skate near my moms house. This time I actually enjoyed the proper skating and the beautiful surroundings (I taped my ankles to keep them from spraining 300 times a minute) so YAY! Proper skating can now be ticked off my 'To do once in your life' list.

Now to get back to the Journey of all Journeys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht

The last time this Journey of eleven Dutch cities, a skating marathon of 200 kilometers, was ridden was twelve years ago. The name of the winner of this race is remembered by all Dutchman. It is such a rare occurance that everyone looks forward to it with wild anticipation as soon as the thermometer hits -1.

Last week the Dutch championships have already been ridden. One hundred kilometers on natural ice. Men with frozen eyebrows drudge through dense mist to claim a title that might land them another twelve years of fame. The whole country goes insane. Maybe soon they will experience the Journey of all Journeys again.... Even my proper Dutch heart skips a beat.

For more wintery pictures see:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57860&l=5536e&id=565292619

Birthday Weekend

And then, all of a sudden, I turned 22.

Als je nog niet zo lang in verweggistan bent geweest en je bent weer even terug, thuis, dan ga je je op een gegeven moment afvragen of alles wel echt is geweest. Of je wel daadwerkelijk al een maand ergens anders heb gewoond. Of er echt aan de andere kant van de zee een plek is waar jouw spulen staan, waar je mensen kent, waar je verplichtingen hebt, een studie volgt. Echt een vreemde gedachte. Het leek wel alsof ik een weekje op vakantie was geweest.
En toen ging ik weer terug naar 'huis', in Glasgow.



My birthday, on the 3rd of October, started at three in the morning. A taxi picked me up at four and, after being waved off by Jenny (who had just come home from a party :)), took me to the airport. At 8:45, Dutch time, I was at Schiphol airport...weird.


I had planned to do a couple of things that weekend, like eat a broodje kroket, hug my boyfriend until he turned purple, buy dropjes,visit my dad in his new house, eat 1000 kruidnootjes, spend time with my best friend and go out for dinner with my mom. I did all of these, yay! Not neccesarily in that order though...

And then I went back 'home', which felt weird but good but weird but good.
Strange...

Last Tuesday was my birthdayparty here in Glasgow. It turned out to be a great evening. We had a traditional dutch dinner (I made Hutspot and Boerenkool) with a typical german salad (:P) and belgian icecream and english cake for dessert. After dinner more people started coming in and we had a fun evening in our kitchen.
Pictures of the fun can be found on my facebook.

My Chinese flatmate had her first potato-mashing experience that day :D Look how happy she looks!


This week is going back to 'normal'-week.

Class, Choir, Tibetan Society. I'll tell you all about it later.

Love

Kennen we deze nog?

Kennen we deze nog?









Ja? Herinneren we ons de boosaardige huisbaas die vertikte ons honderden jaren oude dak te vernieuwen, waardoor wij met lekken, duiven, maden, afbrokkelende muren en advocaten te maken kregen?
(wees gerust, de dode duiven en maden foto's zal ik niet plaatsen...)


Mag ik u dan nu voorstellen aan.......*tromgeroffel*

De Schotse Versie:

Knap, vindt u niet? Een stuk creatiever dan die in Leiden, gezien dit gebouw uit 2002 dateert en wij op de begane grond wonen, met 3 verdiepingen boven ons.



Kudo's voor het water, dat trouwens ook in de afgelopen twee weken al acht verschillende dagen niet warm wilde worden.
De vriendelijke heren van E-on, die wij afgelopen week al drie dagen over de vloer hebben gehad, hebben morgen weer iets nieuws om naar te kijken.



Minder kudo's voor de Senior Resident die boven ons geen overstromend bad aantrof en ons dus adviseerde de lampen in de gang zolang maar uit te laten. Want water en electriciteit is vaak geen gezellige combo.



Wanneer denkt u dat het gemaakt kan worden? We'll call someone, but it's Sunday.
En daar gingen ze weer.
Daaaag, tot morgen.