Kinderdijk

This was our boat, docked at Kinderdijk.  They had announcements in English, German, and Dutch about historical and cultural items of interest as we sailed up the Maas.  It was about an hour each way, with an hour at Kinderdijk.

After Jael had arrived, I got a Groupon offer to go to Kinderdijk (where I had gone previously) and we decided to do that.  This wasn't a Pancake Boat trip (that would have been way more expensive) but we did get a free coffee or tea with our ticket and one of the best things about Dutch coffee is that you always, always get a little cookie with your coffee.  Even if you order a piece of apple cake with your coffee (which Jael and I did on our way back, to get a "true" Dutch experience) you still get a little cookie.

This cookie with coffee or tea tradition is actually a really integral part of Dutch culture.  One of my colleagues at school said that she had taken a practice Dutch nationalization quiz (the kind of test you take if you want to become a Dutch citizen; she is Dutch but she just wanted to see what the tests were like) and one of the questions was about how many cookies you should serve with tea.  (The answer was two cookies.  I have always only gotten one cookie but maybe it is different with coffee.)

There's just something about windmills . . .

We had a pleasant day, walking around and chatting.  We didn't go in the working windmill because it was kind of expensive and it seemed like more fun just to stroll.



There were birds and ducks and things all over the place.  On the right is the ubiquitous coot.  On the left is some weird bird with a red head and pointy horns.  I don't know what it is but recently I saw one with babies and one of the babies was riding on its parent's back, like a loon.

Kinderdijk had a really good gift shop, plus a couple of others.  I think that we for sure decided to try the apple cake on the boat when we were in the shop because they had apple cake slices on display and they looked delicious.

Jael was so much fun to have along.
I did all of the touristy, fun things vicariously through her, got funny pictures, and didn't have to do anything but hold a camera.
Win-Win-Win.  (The other win is for you guys, since you get to see the pictures as well. 

Hup Holland Hup

This Wednesday, I get to go see a the Oranjes, the Dutch National Soccer team, play the Slovakian national team at the soccer stadium that is right next to my house.  It should be fun.  This game is part of the Euro-something Cup, a pan-European Championship.  (I keep wanting to call it the Eurovision Cup but that is a pan-European singing competition instead.)

I am going with a bunch of international students from the University which will be nice.  That way, if I can't find my seat or something, at least I will be amongst others similarly situated.  Also, apparently, the Oranje team is less likely to provoke riots than, say, Feyenoord (the Rotterdam team), so things should be less wild.  I don't think there is a big rivalry with the Slovaks so it should be relatively peaceful.  (The Dutch are all riled  up about Eastern Europeans coming in and taking all of their jobs but I think they are mostly concerned about the Poles and the Romanians as I don't think there are a significant number of Slovakian immigrants in the area.)

Hup Holland Hup is the Oranje fight song so I need to learn the words before I go, or at least write them down somewhere convenient.  If you go here, you can see a video bunch of picture of happy Dutch soccer fans, their fancy decorations, and can hear the Dutch football song.  It is kind of a nonsense song, I think, but part of the refrain (which is written below the video) is "Go Holland Go, don't let the lion stand in the bench . . . put on your football shoes . . . and take the whole world on."  I wrote a little bit about this last year, as well.

Now the only thing left to do is to decide if my hat clashes with my new hairdo.

Typische Nederland

Last week I had to prepare for a group project.  Now, generally, I am absolutely opposed to group projects.  I do not like them.  They are not fun.  I question their pedagogical value.  However, this time I a was okay with it.  One of my classmates suggested that we meet at her house where we could have a traditional Dutch (typische Nederland) dinner.  She would cook, we could bring ideas.  I thought that this was an excellent plan.

Remelie (pronounced, I really, really hope, liked "Emily" with an "R" at the beginning) said that she had trouble deciding what to make, since modern Dutch folks generally eat very international food.  She said that she decided to make the kind of food that people used to make for Sunday dinner--the kind of really traditional food that people don't usually bother to make properly anymore.  It was pretty excellent.  And it really, really does make a difference if you make a meal right instead of using the short-cut, store bought versions.

For supper, we had a typische oud Hollandse rundvleesstoofpot (a traditional old Dutch beef stew).  It is kind of similar to that beef stew that Mom makes from time to time, that has cinnamon in it and that is served over noodles (I forget the name of it).

I didn't get the exact recipe that Remelie used and there were loads of different variations of the recipe on the internet.  I think that finding a recipe for this is like finding a recipe for "pot roast" or "stew"--everybody does it similarly but not quite the same.

For desert, we had hangop with stewed currants.  Hangop is kind of yogurt-like but it is made at home very simply.  You can serve it with any kind of berries or fruit (I bet a rhubarb sauce would be excellent) but currants are really popular in the Netherlands.

I have translated/compiled the recipes so that you can make your own typische Nederland dinner.

Rundvleesstoofpot
2 lbs beef (different recipes called for stew meat/steaks/roasts)
1 beef bullion cube
2 large onions, sliced
2 large carrots, sliced
1 large apple, in small slices (some recipes called for this, others did not--ours didn't)
4 oz. of bacon
4 oz. of pitted prunes diced (or you can substitute raisins)
2 slices of gingerbread
(1 bottle of dark beer--some recipes called for this, others did not--I don't think ours did )
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
bouquet garni for beef (you can probably just throw in some spices that sound good, if you want)
oil
butter
mustard
paprika
Provencal herbs
salt
pepper
bay leaf

(Some recipes call for the beef to be cut into small pieces. They have a cooking time of 2.5/3 hours. Remilie made it with the roast sliced into slices about 1"x2"x3" and she cooked it for 5 hours in the oven.  Other recipes called for cooking on the stove top, partially or entirely but it would probably work great in the crock-pot).
(The gingerbread that they use, ontbijtkoek, is flavored like gingerbread but the texture is more like a spice cake or quick bread.)
(Dutch bullion cubes are larger than American cubes, I think. They are supposed to be mixed with half a liter of water, so you probably need two bullion cubes.)

Fry beef pieces/slices in oil and butter until brown. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika. Add bacon and onion. Fry on medium heat until bacon is crisp and the onions are translucent (5-7 minutes). Turn to low heat and add the bullion cube, Provencal herbs, bay leaf, bouquet garni, and water until the meat is just covered. Bring to boil and turn down again. Heavily spread mustard on gingerbread and lay bread on meat, mustard-side down. With lid tilted, simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pan. Add plums (or raisins) and apple. Cook in the oven, covered, for another 20 or 30 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes.  A lot of recipes suggested serving brussel sprouts as well.  We had fresh green beans.  You can serve whatever vegetables you want but the green looks pretty.



Hangop
Place a damp and wrung-out tea towel in a bowl or colander.  Pour buttermilk into tea towel.  Twist close and hang over bowl to drain or, if using a colander, cover and let drain.  Let drain a long time, stirring occasionally.  (Let drain at room temperature for 5 to 8 hours--the longer it drains, the more whey that drains off and the less sour it will be.)
When it is finished draining, scoop curds out of tea towel into a bowl.  Whisk well, with some powdered sugar to cut the sourness.  (Most of the recipes said to whisk it with brown sugar and cinnamon, to taste, but we had it just with powdered sugar.)  Serve with more powdered sugar, if needed.  You can serve plain or with a fruit compote of some kind.
(A couple of the recipes say that a liter of buttermilk makes desert for four people.)

Klompen!

I thought that I would interrupt the Denmark series with a quick side note on klompen--aka wooden clogs!

I was talking to one my Dutch colleagues and she said that that particular stereotype is based on reality.  She said that until 15 years ago or so, city workers putting in streets still wore wooden clogs because they were so much better at protecting toes from shovels and things than boots available at the time.  People only stopped wearing them because they were forbidden from wearing them by statute when the state determined that boots had become safer.

(I didn't take this picture but it was specifically allowed to be used on the internet.)

If you go to the market and to tourist places, you can get fancy, brightly painted clogs.  I had assumed that these were solely for tourists.  Apparently, however, real Dutch people did wear fancy painted clogs, it was just that they were for Sunday wear.  They wore plain, unpainted clogs for everyday.

I was looking up more information about clogs--I figured that if farmers and other folks still wore clogs, they probably did not buy them from tourist shops so I wanted to see what "real" Dutch klompen were like.  I found a website that sells them.  The Klompenmakerij Traas (the Traas Clog Manufacturers) have been around for over a hundred years.  If you click here, you can go to their English language website where you can find a little information about their history and about how they make clogs.  You can also buy clogs from them, if you want.  The traditional clogs that they sell cost less than half of what the touristy ones cost in the store.

As an interesting side note, when you go to the website, you can choose to view it in English, Dutch, or Zeeuws.  Zeeuws is the traditional dialect of the Zeeland region of the Netherlands.

Since my only potential genealogical connection to the Netherlands is through a immigration officer's misspelling of Zeelander to Selander, this means that I feel an especial connection to that clog company and to that language.  So I tried to read it in Zeeuws.  I could not, which was sad.

On the map on the right, the blue bit of the map is the area where Zeeuws is spoken.


One thing which has diminished my own personal interest in trying Dutch clogs is that the Dutch have a specific word for the top of the foot.  My Dutch colleague and I were talking about whether clogs were comfortable or not.  She said that they really weren't at first--they caused a lot of pain on the . . .  And then she stopped and said she didn't know what the English word was which meant the top of the foot.  Clogs really rub on the bovenkant and are painful until a callus forms.  I am not entirely certain I really want to go through the pain of forming a giant callus along the top of my foot.  I am also concerned that the pain would be significant enough to encourage a whole nation to make up a whole, special word for what is being hurt.  It seems suspect.

"Blijf ik nog jouw zanger"

"Blijf ik nog jouw zanger" is a line from one of the songs that I heard at the concert last week.  It means "I am still your singer."  Herman van Veen has been singing for a really long time.  Folks like him; they like his music; they've been listening to him for 40 years.  It makes an interesting dynamic.  There were a few songs during the concert where the whole crowd sang along on the chorus.  Unfortunately, the lead up to this song was different at the show I was at and he didn't do the dance at the beginning.  In fact, the whole show was sadly short on dancing.  (This recording is fairly old--several of the people with him this time are different.)  This video does give you an idea of the number of different instruments that they use in the show, some of them kind of unusual.



The title of the post comes from this song "Laat me" which is about a singer.  The chorus, which get repeated several times and which you hear people sing along with goes as follows:

Laat me, laat me, laat me m'n eigengang maar gaan

Laat me, laat me, ik hem het altijd zo gedaan

Which translates as:

Let me, let me, let me go my own way

let me, let me, I've always done it that way

"Opzij, opzij, opzij" (roughly, "move, move, move" or "to the side, to the side, to the side") is an old favorite.  People stood up during this song and stamped and clapped in time, besides singing along.  It was a lot of fun.  This is an actual music video.  It reminds me of the Monkees music videos.

Opzij, opzij, opzij, maak plaats, maak plaats, maak plaats, Ik heb ongelofelijke haast. Opzij, opzij, opzij, want ik ben haast te laat, Ik heb maar een paar minuten tijd. Ik moet rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan. Ik kan nu niet blijven, ik kan nu niet langer blijven staan. Een andere keer misschien dan blijf ik wel staan en kan dan misschien als het echt moet, wat over koetjes, kindren en de mannen praten, nou dag tot ziens, adieu het gaat je goed. Ik moet rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan. Ik kan nu niet blijven, ik kan nu niet langer blijven staan. Opzij, opzij, opzij, maak plaats, maak plaats, maak plaats, Ik heb ongelofelijke haast. Opzij, opzij, opzij, want ik ben haast te laat, Ik heb maar een paar minuten tijd. Ik moet rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan. Ik kan nu niet blijven, ik kan nu niet langer blijven staan. Een andere keer misschien dan blijf ik wel staan en kunnen dan misschien als het echt moet, wat over koetjes, kindren en de mannen praten, nou dag tot ziens, adieu het gaat je goed. Ik moet rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan. Ik kan nu niet blijven, ik kan nu niet langer blijven staan. Opzij, opzij, opzij, maak plaats, maak plaats, maak plaats, Ik heb ongelofelijke haast. Opzij, opzij, opzij, want ik ben haast te laat, Ik heb maar een paar minuten tijd. Ik moet rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan. Ik kan nu niet blijven, ik kan nu niet langer blijven staan. Een andere keer misschien dan blijf ik wel even staan en kunnen dan misschien als het echt moet, wat over koetjes, kindren en de mannen praten, nou dag tot ziens, adieu het gaat je goed.

To the side, to the side, to the side, make room, make room, make room, I’m in an awful rush. To the side, to the side, to the side, I'm rushing because I’m late, I only have a couple of minutes left. I must run, jump, fly, dive, fall, get up and move again. I cannot stay, I cannot stay standing still. Another time, perhaps then I can stand around and maybe we can have a chat about cows, kindren and guy talk, But for now, dag, tot ziens, adieu  will have to do (a bunch of different ways to say goodby) I must run, jump, fly, dive, fall, get up and move again. I cannot stay, I cannot stay standing still To the side, to the side, to the side, make room, make room, make room, I’m in an awful rush. To the side, to the side, to the side, I'm rushing because I’m late, I only have a couple of minutes left. I must run, jump, fly, dive, fall, get up and move again. I can not stay, I can not stay standing still. Another time, perhaps then I can stand around and maybe we can have a chat about cows, kindren and guy talk, But for now, dag, tot ziens, adieu will have to do I must run, jump, fly, dive, fall, get up and move again. I can not stay, I can not stay standing still. To the side, to the side, to the side, make room, make room, make room, I’m in an awful rush. To the side, to the side, to the side, I'm rushing because I’m late, I only have a couple of minutes left. I must run, jump, fly, dive, fall, get up and move again. I can not stay, I can not stay standing still.  Another time, perhaps then I can stand around and maybe we can have a chat about cows, kindren and guy talk, But for now, dag, tot ziens, adieu will have to do

This song was so popular (and so old) that it was featured on a kids talent show, kind of like a Dutch version of Star Search.  In a 1991 version of Ministars, a little girl parodied the song in "o nee, o nee, o nee" in which she laments that her bike has been stolen, about the problems of public transport, that she is stuck walking places, and that everyone is too busy to help her get her bike back.  She ends the song by saying "I want my bike back!"
Classic.

Mijn eerste concert

Last week I went to my very first concert, ever.

I was thinking about it and I am pretty sure that this is true.  I've been to the opera a couple of times; I've been to the Carter Family Fold a couple of times; I've been to a Symphony Orchestra performance a couple of times; I've sung in a few choir performances .  But I don't think that any of those really count.

So, my first real, honest-to-goodness concert that I've ever been to in my entire life is for a 60-ish, bald, knighted, Dutch grandpa.

I am totally living a wild and woolly life here in the Netherlands.

Lente!

It is Spring!  There is so much Spring out there it's hard to believe.  ("Lente" is Dutch for Spring.)

For the last week or so, highs have been 60, or almost there.  Lows have been around 45.  And it's been sunny.  So, so sunny.

In the Netherlands, in the winter, there isn't a lot of sun.  It is kind of dreary and cloudy.  But, after a bit, you don't really notice the absence of Vitamin D and light and sunshine.  You kind of get used to it and you don't really think about it.  (Although, every now and then, you notice that your skin has gotten so pale white you are pretty nearly glow-in-the-dark.)  And then the sun comes back.

And then it's all you can think about.
How lovely and sunny the sun is.  How pretty and sunny the sun is.  How warm and sunny the sun is.
Everything seems prettier and cheerfuller and nicer.

The Erasmus campus has completely changed--since the sun came out, you can barely walk through the quad--it is completely packed with students and faculty, sitting on every horizontal surface and leaning against every vertical one.  Everyone is soaking up as much sunshine as they can get, while it lasts.

As you walk through the city, people are sitting on doorsteps and benches and in their big open windows.  And they are all so cheerful and uncharacteristically smiley.  Everyone is loving this weather.

And it is so sunny for so long, too!  The sun comes in through my window and wakes me up so early--it woke me up at a quarter to seven this morning (stupid sunshine).  And right now it is six o'clock in the evening and the sun still hasn't set yet.  That is, as near as I can figure, nearly 4 extra hours of sunshine per day since the end of December.  (And, if this chart is to be believed, I can expect another 5 hours of sunshine per day by the summer solstice!)

Sunshine is just fun.  Fun, and nice, and sunshiny.  It is wonderful.  I am a fan.

I did laundry today, just so that I could have an excuse to stand around on the little rooftop patio that is outside the laundry room.  (Well, also because I was out of clean socks but mostly because of the sunny patio.)

Even the Market is getting Springy again.  The market beside my apartment is busy and full again, after the winter doldrums.  There's loads of fresh fruit again (presumably from down south somewhere) and the fruit and vegetable stands are taking back over from the fabric stalls and flea market stalls that had all the best spots over the winter, when there wasn't any competition.

I think I could get used to this.

A couple of days ago, an expatriate Dutch friend of mine posted this old song on Facebook and it seems so à propos.


I looked really hard to find the lyrics but couldn't find them.  Also, this is a fairly old song (around 50 years old) and I think there are some differences in pronunciation which make it difficult for me to translate very quickly (for instance, around :45, he starts counting his eggs and says the numbers differently than normal).  The jist of the song, though, is Springtime.  He sings about chickens ("kip"--Dutch chickens say "tock-tock-tock") and their eggs ("eieren"--it is pronounced "ay-er-en") and about chocolate eggs ("chocolade-eieren").  I think  that he also sings about sweets and cakes and gardens "because it's spring" ("omdat het lente is").  It is a very cheerful, springy kind of song.

Snert

Snert is split-pea soup.  (And, as far as I am concerned, is the far superior name.)  It is a traditional Dutch food that is very popular, in the winter especially.  When the Erasmus Student Network had their International Student party and had a buffet of traditional Dutch food, snert was one of the six dishes served.  You can buy canned snert in the grocery store.

In Rotterdam, there is a tourist tram, called the "Snerttram" on which, for around $20, you can ride around the city for an hour and a half, listening to a guide, and eating a tasty-warm bowl of snert.  This is one of things I wanted to do but I never got around to it and, now that it is getting up to 60 degrees during the day, it just doesn't seem as special anymore.  In the summer, they have an Ijsjestram instead (where you eat ice cream as you go around the city) but somehow that just doesn't seem as special, either.  For one thing, the graphics just cannot be as good:

(This picture comes from a Rotterdam tourism website.)

Dutch folks love their snert.  And, apparently, so do Dutch babies.  I was about to watch a video on You Tube and a commercial came up. It is the most adorable commercial ever.  I will say, however, that while they captured my interest they failed in the primary aim of commercial: that is to say, in product identification.  The commercial didn't really put the name of the product in until a few second before the end and, as a not very slim Dutch speaker, it wasn't enough time for me to figure out the name of the company or of the product.

(Are you chuckling to yourself over my little misstep, there?  

"Slim", in Dutch, means clever, or smart.  If you make a silly mistake, you can 

say "Niet zo slim, mij, eh?"  So that is a reference to the state of my Dutch 

understanding, not to anything else.)

Well, after quite a few minutes of looking up "Dutch snert baby food commercials" on Google and of starting up various You Tube videos hoping to find the same commercial, I finally found it.  And here it is:


It is so very, very Dutch.  When the mother is coming with the soup, she says "Special soup for my little Superman!" (playing off of the super/souper homophone pun)  and then the tag line is "The first soup for your Superhero."

Olvarit seems to be the Dutch equivalent of Gerber.  One of their tag lines is "better than homemade."  Apparently they do a lot of cute baby commercials.  When I was searching for this commercial, I ran across this collection of "a day in the life of Jip en Job" commercials.  Jip en Job is the Dutch equivalent of Sven and Ollie.



You don't really have to know what they are saying to get the jist of the commercials.  Poor little Jip (the blond one) is getting "Brand X" baby food, instead of the Olvarit that Job gets, and suffers the unfortunate consequences of his mother's bad choices.  (In Dutch, by the way, Js are pronounced like Ys, so when the "babies" talk, you can hear them saying "Yip" and "Yope".)

Comazuipers and Compulsory Insurance

The Netherlands is one of those places that has compulsory insurance laws.  (Like the US is about to have.)  Everyone is required to pay for health insurance and that insurance has to meet state mandated requirements for coverage.  Anyone staying in the Netherlands for more than 3 months (the length of a tourist visa) is required to purchase health insurance and register their compliance with the state (including me).  The problem with this, of course, is that there is no encouragement to behave in a way which limits one's liability.  And, given the stereotype of Dutch culture, perhaps there is no surprise in the fact that the Dutch Ministry of Health is trying to figure a way around these artificial constraints on the market.

Earlier this week, one of the Ministers said that anyone picked up drunk, and taken to the hospital because of the advanced state of their inebriation, should be charged for their care.  (The Dutch word is "comazuipers".  Coma is obvious and "zuipers" apparently means "one given to habitual drunkeness".)  Others in the Ministry argue that this isn't fair--that this is a slippery slope and that it will lead to habitual smokers having to pay if they come down with a lung disease and other people being forced to pay if they come down with diseases or ailments as a result of their voluntary behaviors.  They found that quite offensive.  I don't really have a problem with that myself.  It does seem awfully hard on those poor folks, though, that they are forced to pay a rather steep governmental health insurance premium and then are forced to pay for their hospitalization as well.

In any case, it seems like an interesting exercise in the effect of the market and in the reliance placed on it even by officials who have deemed it ineffective.

The nu.nl website had this cartoon about the issue which seems to reflect a Dutch appreciation for policies which make perpetrators bear the cost of their own actions and choices.  The caption says "Health Minister doesn't want drunks in comas to pay for themselves."  The doctor says "Leeching off our tax dollars again, hey moron?!"  (Except he uses an entirely inappropriate word.  I had never seen it before and Google Translate wouldn't translate it.  Then, when I typed it into Google, it didn't automatically look for it--it made me click to search.  Apparently, when you look up vulgar things they make you do it very intentionally.  Even if you do it by accident.  My Google search history is starting to look really, really weird, right about now, after this and the lucifer thing)  and then the other guy says "You have to keep talking to the coma patients.  There's always a chance they'll hear you."

Koek & Zopie

I lied before--I still have one last Elfstedentocht post.  There was one other "De Jager" comic related to the Elfstedentocht which was particularly interesting because it relates to general Dutch regional differences and general Dutch winter activities.

This comic says:

"Everyone in the country is out on the ice."

The flags are the regional flags (the one for Friesland and the other for Amsterdam).  

The signs say two things which sound almost exactly the same but which mean different things.

Koek & Zopie is a traditional Dutch winter skating snack.  I mentioned the "koek" previously.  

Zopie is a hot, spiced, alcoholic drink--kind of like wassail, I think.   

Coke & Zuipie, I believe, means "rum and coke".

I think that the point of this cartoon is that everyone is doing the same thing, almost.

Everyone wants to be involved in the ice skating fun.  

Amsterdam almost has it right but not quite because they are just a little too urban, 

a little too south, a little too "party" to really understand real Dutch ice culture.

Koek & zopie have apparently been a pretty traditional part of Dutch ice skating for a couple of centuries at least.  Dutch Wikipedia has an article on this combination which includes two 19th century landscapes which feature koek & zopie stands.  They are slightly more sophisticated than the picture in the above cartoon but you can see the resemblance.

A painting by Andreas Schelfhout, a Dutch painter.  You can see other pictures painted by him here.

A painting by Charles Leickert, a Belgian painter.  You can see other pictures painted by him here.

If you want to recreate this Dutch treat, you need an apple tart (those individual apple pies that you can buy in wax paper wrappers in gas stations are just the ticket) and some zopie.  Luckily for all of you, Dutch Wikipedia also includes an authentic recipe for this drink:

Bring 1 liter of beer, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, and 2 slices of lemon to a boil.  Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.  Stir in 2/3 cup brown sugar and 2 eggs, mixing well.  Add 1/2 cup of rum.  Drink smaakelijk!

De-lish, eh?  

Elfstedentocht redux.

Just as a final note on the Elfstedentocht before we're done.  (Unless, of course, we get some cold again.)  As I was looking through the Dutch news site nu.nl, I found some funny cartoons from a strip called "De Jager", many of the recent examples of which refer to the Elfstedentocht.  Because that is all anyone was thinking about for a month or so.  If you want to see other, non-Elfstedentocht related cartoons, the archive is located here.

This cartoon says: 

"Concern that business are getting too strong a grip on the Elfstedentocht."  

Unox is a food company that produces, among other things, wursts which are processed meat logs which look a lot like Polish sausages, hence the finish line which looks like a Polish sausage.  They don't taste like that though.  They taste kind of like weirdly flavored spam.  It is a very distinctive and unusual taste.

This one says

"In places, the ice is too thin for the Elfstedentocht to be run."

Kwik, Kwek, & Kwak are the Dutch version of Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Donald Duck's nephews).  I assume that this version is to avoid copyright issues.  I have no idea why they are relevant to this cartoon.

This one is labeled "Thaw."

And the one guy says to the other: 

"An Elfstedentocht swim . . . have they thought about doing that?"

This is not an edifying post

When I opened up my email this morning, there was a new post from the "Stuff Dutch People Like" blog.  I thought you  guys might appreciate it.  It is not edifying.  It is weird.  It is terrible.  As much as I try to remember, I don't know that I can prove the story's premise from first-hand experience although I may just be repressing it.

To see the story, click here: Stuff Dutch People Like--

(Keep in mind that while not edifying this post is quite clean.  However, I can't promise the same for other posts on the blog or for the comments.)

(By the way, the study that the story cites says that the result of this is that 10% of Dutch ATMs are infected with the staphylococcal bacteria which causes the flesh-eating MERSA infection.  I do not know if this is different from the ATMs of other countries or not but I am now all paranoid about ATM machines.)

Elfstedenkoorts.

Elfstedenkoorts means "11 City Fever" as in "still really, really, really hoping that the Elfstedentocht will go after all".  Despite the fact that it got up to about 48 degrees today (and has been above freezing for the better part of the week) Twitter is still full of people with "Elfstedenkoorts".

Some people have developed a nasty sense of humor.  For the last little bit, people have been posting things like this:

"BREKEND: It giet oan!  Hee, het ijs is 15 centimeter!"

BREAKING NEWS: It's on!  The ice is 15 centimeters!"

(15 centimeters is the minimum ice depth required for the race to run.)

And then they had pictures of this.

As far as advertising campaigns go, this seems crueler than most, considering how close we got this year.  

("IJs" is used both for ice and for ice cream.  This is 15 centimeters (about 6") of ice cream for about 75 cents, which actually isn't that bad--it's cheaper than McDonalds, I think.)

Some people decided to use their disappointment for more productive ends.  

Check out this video of four folks doing the Elfstedentocht route (or at least part of it).  It is about six and a half minutes long, but I think it is worth watching.  For one thing, it is tiring to see them skate for just those six and a half minutes--just imagine what it would be like to skate like that for six and a half hours!  These four folks (a Friesian couple, a fellow from the Northern corner of Belgium, and one other fellow) took the trip on February 11th.  

They were undeterred by the bright sunshine, the fact that the snow had melted off the banks of the canals, the fact that there was standing water on the edges of the canals in several places, or the fact that, at one point, they were skating through standing water.  They had to duck to skate under low bridges, get down on their hands and knees to crawl under really low bridges, and run around other bridges, in their skates.  There were a lot of folks out on the ice at the same time.  

At one point, they stopped for a snack of koek and chocolademelk--which is the traditional snack of the Elfstedentocht.  The koek is kind of like a little apple tart and chocolademelk is a very sweet version of chocolate milk.  The one fellow is very enthusiastic about his chocolademelk.  

Maybe I haven't posted enough things with Dutch folk talking for you to be able to notice, but all of these folks talk weirdly--they have very distinct, and fairly unintelligible, accents, which is funny to hear.  They also spell things differently, as I noted before.  For instance, at one point, there is a label which says 

"Dene Belg op zyn'e knibbels!"

These are not Dutch words, or at least not the way I learned them.  (On a side note, there is no "y" in Dutch.  That "y" is really the "ij" diphthong.)

I think  that what they were saying is "The Belgian on his knees!" which fits the context and the Nationalist discourse between the two nations.  (People still remember that the Belgians thought they were too good to hang around with the Dutch.)  But in Dutch this would it would say this instead:

"De Belgische op zijn knieën!"

At one point, they got lost (the label says "in Arum de verkeerde afslag genomen") and they had to get directions.  The Friesians were the ones that asked the locals and they speak Fries (I know this because the label says so) and it is entirely not understandable, at least for me.

These Dutch folk take their ice skating seriously.

Herman van Veen

I was recently reminded of my earlier post on Herman van Veen, the super-famous Dutch singer.  Then, when I was looking up a video on fancy dog tricks to send to Huldah, a Herman van Veen video popped up as "something I might like to watch".  So, I looked him up again and found out that he is still famous enough to be touring.  In fact, this April I could go see him, live, in Germany, just north of Düsseldorf.  For only around $60, you can see van Veen in concert with a super-famous Dutch guitarist.  (You can see the information here, in case you wanted to come out to see it with me.)  Edith Leerkes is world famous--she used to play with Herman's Hermits, among others.

Below is a YouTube video of Edith Leerkes and Herman van Veen performing together last year.  You'll notice that he can't help dancing just a little bit.  From what I can tell, the song is a Herman van Veen original song and is kind of a folksier, Dutch version of "Under the Boardwalk."  I thought it was really pretty.  I have supplied a modified Google Translator version of the lyrics because it seemed like an awful lot of work to translate them all myself. =-)

Dutch Lyrics Voor de zon die op het water speelt voor het water dat de zon bespeelt we leunen bij het grijze water dat nooit teleurstelt of nooit verveelt En ik voel de warmte van je hand in ons kleine koninkrijk Onder aan de dijk Was mijn vader hier nu bij hij keek steevast heen en weer van het water naar het polderland naar de vissers op het meer En ik voel de warmte van je blik in ons kleine koninkrijk Onder aan de dijk Zou hij ons zijn zegen geven hij zou ons zijn zegen geven Ik weet het lief, ik weet het zeker hij zou ons zijn zegen geven En ik voel de warmte van je blik in ons kleine koninkrijk Onder aan de dijk Voor ons is het lichte water achter ons de zware dijk denk aan nu en niet aan later onder aan de dijk

Translated Lyrics The sun plays on the water The water is played on by the sun We sit by the irrigation canal that never disappoints and never fails And I feel the warmth of your hand in our little realm Below the dike My father used to stand there Always going to and fro to see the water draining off the polders (fields) out to the fishermen on the lake And I feel the warmth of your gaze in our little realm Below the dike Will he give us his blessing he will give us his blessing I know this truely, I know this surely he will give us his blessing And I feel the warmth of your gaze in our little realm Below the dike The sweet water is behind the heavy dike think of now and not tomorrow below the dike

Zwarte Pieten, Black Face, and America

In December, for my last class before the holidays, we had a guest speaker.  He's a Ph.D. student here at Erasmus but he did exchange studies for his Master's degree at Central Michigan University--it's a small world.

Anyways, we were chatting before class started and he said that he really liked his time in America and, having traveled all around, thought that he wanted to get a job and live there once he graduated.  I realized, though, when he said that, that I think that is the first time someone has said something nice about America since I got here.  Granted, most of the discussions I have heard have been as part of overall discussions of empire, which generally gets people started on an unhappy note, but, in general, most folks seem to consider America to be bossy and unnecessarily inquisitive and her people to be loud, obnoxious, racist, and provincial.  This fellow said that while he had gone to America with similar preconceptions, he had been converted by meeting people and talking to them (it probably didn't hurt that he spent a lot of his time hanging out in Michigan where people are nice--not quite "Minnesota Nice", but pretty close).

Since we were talking about race relations, the Zwarte Piet tradition came up and he said that colored people in the Netherlands find the tradition very offensive.  I mentioned that I was surprised because in discussions I had seen, negative reactions were credited to American over-sensitivity and discounted.  He said that there is a large divide between the white Dutch and the colored Dutch (who, by the way are collectively called "blauwen" (blue) instead of "black" as they are in the States.  "Zwart" (black) is used sometimes but apparently has fairly negative connotations.)  He said that this year several colored students wore t-shirts that said "Black Pete is Racist" (or the equivalent in Dutch) to the official landing of Sinterklaas at Dordrecht and they got put in jail (I don't know if they were causing trouble or not but it sounded like he thought it was just because of their shirts).  So, while it couldn't have translated to America in any case, it sounds like this holiday tradition might have a limited life expectancy in the Netherlands as well.

ICE!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dutch people like skating, especially like skating really long ways in the cold, and especially, especially like the Elfstedentocht.  Well, things are getting pretty exciting around here.  It has been really cold.  Really, really cold for the Netherlands.  Which has been freezing stuff.  A lot.  And people are getting hopeful.

On Sunday, the Elfstedentocht committee had a special meeting.
This is the first special meeting that they have had in 15 years.
Normally they meet in the summer to have discussions, approve members, make rules, etc.  (You are only eligible to skate in the race after your second year of membership--which is a really great way to keep memberships up after years of no race.  Apparently loads of membership applications have been flooding in this week but none of those folks will get to participate.)  They only have special meetings in the winter when they are planning to measure the ice to make sure that they don't accidentally drown all of the racers.  So the fact that they are having a meeting at all is pretty, pretty exciting.

Then on Monday, they had a press conference.  They didn't know what would happen, they said.  They would have another press conference on Wednesday.  If the race happened, it would probably happen over the weekend but they didn't know.  Everybody has been going hysterical ever since.

On Monday, the Elfstedentocht committee also set up a Twitter account.  (They never had one before.  Nothing to announce)  If you want to follow them, their account is @11stvereniging.  They have been up for three days and have 13,402 followers (including me) .  Pretty quick work, if you ask me.
Updated to add:  In the last 10 minutes, they are up to 13,689 followers.

On Monday, there was also a Facebook post by Sabaï Doodkorte.  Sabaï  is in charge of international students at EUR and is the one who organized the Pannenkoekenboot trip last year, among other things.  It sounds like, if they have the race, they might try to get some kind of group from the University together to go see the race.  That could be pretty fun.

I asked a colleague about the race but he said that he did not think that it would occur.  I hope that he is wrong.  This is the weather forecast for Leeuwarden, the start and finish point for the race.  It seems hopeful, doesn't it?

I looked it up and the train tickets to go to Leeuwarden would be about $40.  The train trip itself is around 3 hours long, one way, and includes between 2 and 4 transfers, depending on which route you take.  That however, is based on the normal train schedule.  I don't know how the transport system troubles will affect this.  (Whatdoyaknow, I am talking myself out of this trip as I type.)  Also, presumably, the trains will be absolutely jam packed with people going up to see the race.  So, maybe I will go.  It could be fun.  It could be an absolute disaster.  If I can figure out where the race ends (I have no plans on being at the start of the race, which I believe is at 5am) or where it passes by, so that I don't end up just aimlessly wandering around the Friesian countryside, it might be worth it.

The Dutch are so excited about the ice and the race that they can barely stand it.  There are forged (?) letters from the Elfstadentocht committee going around saying that the race will be run on Monday.  And everyone is trying to buy skates.  Skate manufacturers and shops are getting pretty excited and apparently with reason.  Marktplaats.nl is kind of the Dutch equivalent of Craig's List, where people sell mostly second-hand stuff.  According to nu.nl, in the first three weeks of January of this year, there were 16,277 searches for skates on the marktplaats.nl website.  In the fourth week, it shot up to 174,450.  These Dutchies take their ice skating seriously.

I will keep you updated on the Elfstedentocht progress.  In the mean time, here are some pictures of Dutch people skating on canals from a Dutch news service nu.nl.  Click here if you want to see some utterly adorable children being Dutch.

Winter weather (and politics)

For all that I like to scoff at wint'rs that know no frosts (to paraphrase the Immortal Bard), this has been a rough winter for a lot of folks in the rest of Europe.  So far, more than 250 people have died in Europe this winter and 122 people have died in the Ukraine in the last week.1   Also, while it sure took its time getting here, winter has come with enthusiasm.  There have been record setting low temperatures--the coldest in 27 years--at -10 (-23 Celsius).2   The cold weather has been having an extremely deleterious effect on public transport.  So far it still hasn't gotten back in order--there are fewer metros, they are driving more slowly, and there are way more people trying to cram onto them.  Even the hearty Dutch are unhappy riding bikes when the actual temperature is around 7 and the windchill is about -10.  I opened up a Dutch news website on Monday and saw this headline:

"PvdA: 'Schultz heeft gefaald'"

("Labor Party: 'Schultz has Failed'")3

It seemed unneccesarily harsh and totally unprovoked. It turned out that the Labor Party (the Partij van de Arbeid--which is a "progrssive social democrat party"4) was talking about Melanie Schultz who is the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and who is in charge of making sure that all trains run (sort of) on time.  Because of the snow and the cold, trains haven't been running right for almost a week and there were thousands of people stranded at train stations all over.  Apparently Schultz is getting blamed for everything, though to be fair, she is facing the worst weather in a quarter century.  It probably doesn't help that the Public Transport system keeps posting messages like this on Twitter:

"We don't believe we have anything to apologize for.  

In fact, we figure that you really ought to apologize to us, for all of your complaining."

(I am going on the assumption that its a joke, though.)

If you want to see some pictures of what the Dutch infrastructure looks like in the middle of a giant snow storm, you can click here.  Apparently they don't expect regular train service to resume until sometime next week when the weather is supposed to warm up a little.

On a marginally related note, I looked up the PvdA to see why they didn't go with the more obvious (and shorter) "Arbeiderspartij" name.  I thought perhaps there were multiple Worker's Parties (there aren't, at least not now).  Perhaps they are attempting to create distance from old German political parties.  What was very interesting though, when I looked up Dutch political parties (you can see the Wikipedia page here) was the diversity of the parties.  "Democrat" and "Republican" seems so boring now.  My favorites are the Partij voor de Dieren ("Animal's Party"--they say they are not a one issue party, though) and the Piratenpartij Nederland ("Pirate Party"!). The Pirate Party's goal is to legalize digital piracy. I guess they want to be the privateers of the 21st century. I was expecting good things from the Partij voor Naastenliefde, Vrijheid, en Diversiteit (the Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom, and Diversity) but I was sorely dissappointed. Let's just say that their LEAST offensive platform plank was universal public nudity.

On another marginally related side note, the Dutch do not pronounce "Schultz" like the Germans do. I have been answering to "Skgholts" all year.

Elfstedentocht!

Just a little interruption in the (almost concluded) saga of my Christmas trip to Prague.  In January or February, there is a wonderful event which sometimes happens in the Netherlands.  The Elfstedentocht--or the "Eleven City Tour"--is a great Dutch tradition which is over a hundred years old, although the race itself has only been run 15 times.  The race is a speed skating race around 11 major cities of Friesland--the northernmost region of the Netherlands.  If you go to this link here you can see a map of the whole race course.  This happens to be the official website of the Elfstedentocht where you can sign up to take part in the race yourself.  (It is only in Dutch or French, though.)

The race is run so rarely (and at different times of the year) because it depends entirely on the weather being cold enough to freeze all the canals and lakes over which the race is run.  This happens fairly rarely but every year the Dutch get super excited about it.  There are, even now, websites and news stories asking "Will the Elfstedentocht be on this year?"  It has been years (15!) since the last race and everybody keeps saying "Global warming means we will never have another race again!"  And then everybody is sad.  The Dutch take their speed skating seriously (in the 2010 winter Olympics the Dutch got more medals than any other nation in speed skating events).  When it gets cold enough, not even world war and occupation by hostile forces will keep the Dutch from doing the Elfstedentocht.  When the race is on, it is announced in the Friesian dialect which is quite different than standard Dutch.  It doesn't matter, though.  Everybody knows what it means.  "It giet oan!" means "It's on!" (the most accurate translation is "it continues" or literally "It goes on" but I think that "It's on" captures the mood of it better).  The Dutch version of this is "het gaat door" but it's tradition to use the Friesian instead.

The Wikipedia article on the Elfstedentocht, which you can find here, is really interesting and definitely worth reading.  It has information about the race, its history, interesting tidbits, and the record of winners.  One interesting thing is that there is a really noticeable increase in average speed and a really noticeable decrease in the average finishing time over the history of the race, presumably as a result of changes in technology.

There are videos of the sports-casts available as well that are pretty worth checking out.  I have attached links to the 1941 race, the 1947 race, the 1954 race, and the 1963 race.  (You can probably find videos of all of the race, actually, if you look "Elfstedentocht" up on YouTube.)
Most of them aren't too long (about 5 minutes).  Of course, all of the commentary is in Dutch but it isn't really necessary to understand Dutch to appreciate people tripping over their skates and tumbling across the ice.  It is interesting to see the changes of film-making technology, crowd size, and race procedures.  In all of them, you can hear the commentators talking about the racers getting their tickets stamped to prove they stayed on the course ("afstempelen") and getting drinks of hot chocolate ("chocolade") from helpful bystanders.

Wikipedia includes the 1933 race on a little 2 minute video as well.  I think that this may have been mislabled, though, as this video has sound, the quality seemed better than would be expected, and the interviewer at the end looked like he was wearing an outfit from the late '40s or '50s.  I could be wrong but you can take a look at it, if you want, and see for yourself.

In the 1941 race, it is especially interesting because it occurred during the German Occupation.  Throughout the the film you can see German soldiers walking around as well as what appear to be plain-clothes German officers.  Periodically you will see men, usually two together, wearing clothes that are a little bit nicer, and a little bit differently styled, and with facial structures that are a little bit different than everyone else around them.  I couldn't prove that they are Germans (although there were people in German uniforms around) but if I were going to make a film about evil Nazi SS men, those are the guys that I would cast.  This film is the longest (it is 11 minutes long) and it also doesn't have sound, so it is probably the least interesting of all of them but, if you're interested it is fun.  The film includes those silent-movie info screens with things like who is in the lead and weather reports.

The 1963 video is of the super cold race.  The Wikipedia article says that it was -18 (Celsius which means about 0 Fahrenheit) but at the beginning of the video the announcer says that it was -15.  In this video, they made the racers run up and down stairs to get over dikes and around open water (in previous years they had carried the racers piggy back or in a chair-hold) and running up and down tippy stairs in speed skates is always good for a laugh.  Toward the end of the video, a helicopter comes in and the announcer says that it is Princess Beatrix (now Queen of the Netherlands) coming to watch the finish of the race.

Even if they do have the race, I won't get to go see it live (apparently hotel rooms become impossible to find and local home-owners rent out rooms for people coming from all over the Netherlands) but, apparently, if there is ever another race it will be broadcast live on TV and the internet for everybody in the Netherlands (the last time the race was run there was barely an internet at all).

The Elfstedentocht has a huge place in the Dutch psyche.  If you go to this link you can see a little comedy sketch and song about the race.  Herman Finkers does a little five minute sketch about how hard it is to come up with a good song about the Elfstedentocht because if you make the story too miserable, nobody will want to listen to it but if you don't make it miserable enough, it lacks luster and the old timers get resentful.  It is all in Dutch and it takes a while, but it is kind of funny (he starts off with a story: when you go skating in a rink, you always skate on the left--he doesn't know why, you just do--everybody skates on the left, except for this one rink in this one little village where they skate on the right.  And that's how he ran into his wife).  The first verse of the song says that his grandpa did the race wearing only his underpants and barely even shivered.  He did the race wearing a whole outfit and he's still cold.  The second verse says that folks who joke about a thaw with the Frieseians, are likely to be found dead in a hole in the ice.  And in the third verse he says that they had lots of races during World War II, even though the weather was awfully terrible and when they ran the race during the Cold War, three skaters froze to death but that didn't bother them.  They keep on hoping for another race.

And, finally, the 1963 race, which is referred to as "the Hell of 1963" because of the cold (only 1% of the skaters finished the race and, as the song noted, three skaters froze to death), is the subject of a recent movie called "De Hel van '63".  You can see a preview of the film (which was released in 2009) here.  The preview is in Dutch, of course, but you don't really need to understand what they're saying to figure out the jist of the story.  I have, however, translated the tag lines that they pop up on the screen periodically, which will give you an idea what is going on:

the longest skating marathon in the world 

love and friendship 

will-power

hardship 

one winner 

thousands of quitters 

in the most terrible race in history
The race to end all races begins December 2009

I've got my fingers crossed that I'll get to hear "It giet oan!" sometime this winter.

New Year's Resolution

New Year's Resolution: Next year, I plan to live in a paternalistic society which prohibits the use of firecrackers in residential areas (or at least in places near me) or in a place so boring they don't do anything bigger than a sparkler.

This is what Rotterdam looked like most of the evening.  This is around midnight and it kept up, about like this, until around 3 am.  These are not the official city fireworks (those were out over the Erasmusbrug which is on the other side of my building).  These are all personal fireworks which, apparently, every Rotterdammer and his brother had bought by the truck load.

Happy People--Alternate Title: "I Hate Celebrations"--Alternate Alternate Title: "I Wish I Could be the Grinch of New Years and Steal All Their Stupid Firecrackers."

The Dutch are very into celebrating and they are especially into celebrating with firecrackers.  Football victories, football defeats, a concert, the weekend, a boring evening, all seem to be celebrated with firecrackers.  This week between Christmas and New Years has been especially packed with firecrackers---little, poppy ones, whistling screamers, and super loud ones that sound like World War III is just beginning.  Daylight and late nights seem equally unable to quell this enthusiasm.  As I write this, it is about 9pm and there have been firecrackers going off for at least the last 36 hours without pauses longer than 5 or 6 minutes at any point (and usually much less).  Occasionally, you can hear the glass in the windows shake.  Since the firecrackers are being set off in the middle of streets or in the small squares between apartment buildings, there is pretty significant echo amplification.  Periodically, large firecrackers will set off all of the nearby car alarms, although, the car alarms on my street have only been set off once so far.  Its hard to sleep well in what has to be a pretty near approximation of a war zone.  I am not amused and I do not feel celebratory.

This video fails to capture the loudness and loudness of whole thing--my ears are ringing.  Also, the video goes on a long time (about a minute)--if you watch the first 20 seconds (and then image that, way louder and lasting, I can only imagine, for three or four days) you will get the idea.