Krees goes Dutch Kiwi!

Right of way

You won't see stop signs in the Netherlands. When approaching an intersection without a traffic light or roundabout, where the other road has equal priority, the car or bike on the right has right-of-way. If you have the right-of-way or there are no other cars at the intersection, there's no need to stop, and cars behind you won't be expecting you to either.

Maui goes Dutch, too

Just in case you had any doubts as to whether or not Maui made it here safely or is having problems adjusting to life in the Netherlands, I think this new photo should calm your fears. (Thanks for the photo, Erik!)

Your anise is in my sprinkles! Your sprinkles are in my anise!

Every morning at 10:00, most of the employees here at ASTRON and JIVE leave their offices to go to the canteen for coffee. (And yes, we actually have real offices! Not cubicles. Not faux-cubicles with useless half-walls, thank you very much major non-profit health insurance provider in my former home state, you know who you are. Real honest-to-goodness offices with walls and doors.)

But I digress. Coffee is at 10am. And if it's your birthday or some other special occasion, you provide cookies for everyone.

Today's snack was in honor of someone's new baby boy. So instead of regular cookies, we had toast rounds with butter and sprinkles. But not just regular chocolate hagelslag sprinkle-shaped sprinkles. These were ROUND. And they were blue and white. And each one had an anise seed in it. (The Dutch really love their anise and licorice.) Apparently there's a red version for girls.

Every day we learn something new. And every day, it seems, there's something new to learn about sprinkles. For people who don't seem to delight much in the art of cooking, they sure have a lot of fun with their bread.

Terug in zwarte

Charles and I went to the market in Diever last night. Next Monday is the last market night for the year, so we figured we'd better take advantage of it. After that we won't have the opportunity to buy such tacky shirts, cheap sunglasses or bras and underwear from folding tables in the middle of the village until next summer. Durn.

There are more people around here than I expected who wear wooden shoes. I read that some of the local farmers still wear klompen to work in the fields but didn't expect people to wear them anywhere else. And yet I've seen a few kids at the markets wearing them, a guy on a bike yesterday in a pair. (No, I have NO IDEA how someone rides a bicycle in gigantic wooden shoes, but he seemed to manage just fine.)

And last night I saw the wooden shoes to end all wooden shoes. They were worn by a guy in his mid- to late-30s with several piercings in his ears and lower lip. His klompen were white and black. With AC/DC logos on top.

Where can I get me some of those?

Who's Al Fresco and why would I want coffee with him?

The Dutch know how to design their outdoor cafes. With umbrellas. Very large umbrellas that cover many tables at once and are well-weighted so as not to tip over in the wind. So if you're ever caught in a good old Dutch downpour, relax. Have yourself a coffee or beer at an outdoor cafe with no worries of getting wet.

Fun with Erik & Julie

Had a good week with Erik & Julie visiting and our first week with Maui!

On Friday we went to Kamp Westerbork to see the museum, transit camp site and telescope array. We did a lot more walking than expected and went into the village of Westerbork afterward to introduce them to pickled herring and kibbeling (fried cod) from the market.

There was a decent breeze Saturday morning and the Diever molen (windmill) was open, so we got a tour! It was surprisingly impressive how quickly those sails can whip by. I was tempted to by some pannekoeken mix milled there; maybe another time.

After the windmill tour we went down to Hoogeveen just to see the market and shops and ... yes ... more pickled herring, kibbeling and freshly-made stroopwaffle. Even Maui got a taste of the herring. Mmmmm lekker!

regen

rain

ethnic foods

It sounds weird, but the Schiphol Airport grocery store is a great place to pick up some of the staple food items from your home country. And the store there is open on Sundays. Bonus!

Chicken terror alert level: red

It's been a rainy week in Diever. I hope Erik & Julie have managed to avoid the rain while in Amsterdam and Utrecht the past few days. While they've been gone, Charles and I have been busy back at work.

Mom just sent an email about having to clean all the windows at their house. Maui managed to get nose prints on 29 out of 31 of them during his three-week stay there.

It took him less than a half hour at our new place to mistake a large window for an open one, and he dove headfirst into it in an attempt to reach the chickens in the backyard. (No broken glass or bumps on the head; just a bruised ego.) We haven't let him close to them yet, but he still shakes when near them in the backyard and whines at the door when we go feed them without him.

The chickens? They haven't laid an egg since he arrived.

boer

farm

Bag it yourself

If you have lots of grocery shopping to do, you'd better be prepared! Not only will the person at the cash register not bag your groceries for you, she won't even have bags for you. You'll have to either bring your own or buy them from a machine that's inconveniently located about 30 feet away from the registers.

"And you're always busy, really busy, busy busy..."

Sorry for the short post, but I've got a ton of work to catch up on! I know you all want to know about Erik, Julie & Maui's arrival. ALL IS WELL! We picked all three up at Schiphol Airport Sunday morning. No problems, calamities, major or even minor catastrophies involved.

Erik and Julie survived the heightened security and lack of toiletries as carry-on. And Maui survived the flight and his completely non-existent entry via customs. (Erik & Julie took him to the door for travelers with items to declare, but the door didn't open. So they just pushed him right on through the "Nothing to Declare" door. Does that mean our dog is now an illegal alien?)

Maui has slept, started eating like a champ, and his tummy is no longer making strange gurgly noises. More later.

afrit

exit

The butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker are never open

Most stores in the Netherlands, including grocery stores, seem to keep banker's hours. Not only are they closed on Sundays, but they also close by 6:00 on most weekdays. Fortunately, each village has at least one shopping night, usually Thursday or Friday, when shops and banks stay open until 8pm.

"you guys couldn't have gotten maui all tested and stuff one week earlier, huh?"

Erik and Julie are coming to visit ! They arrive Sunday. This is great because, 1) it'll be nice to have visitors, 2) they've never been to the Netherlands before, and 3) they're bringing our dog with them! (Yes, these are REALLY good friends.)

This is a huge favor to ask of them, and I think they were nervous enough already about bringing him over. And then airline security hell broke loose. So yeah...they're looking forward to having to take the dog to the airport four hours early to check him in and wait in security lines.

We're anxious about the other end of the flight and what kind of state he'll be in when he arrives. He's never flown before  and he's never had to hold his bladder or bowels for this long before. I've got my fingers crossed.