12.13 (85) - 12.12 (84)

If you're an AFL fan, you'll know exactly what that means.

If not, I won't enforce the rules of AFL on you, I will just let you know that the team I support, the Sydney Swans, were not on the winning side in this year's AFL Grand Final. It would have been excellent to have won two in a row, but the West Coast Eagles were too good this year.

Nico and I went to Amsterdam last night so we could be at "Coco's Outback" pub by 6.30am, yes, you read correctly, to watch the game. It was THE place to be to watch the live telecast of the Grand Final in the Netherlands. As we were walking there in the wee hours of the morning, we wondered if anybody would actually be there!

When we arrived, we realised that there are a fair chunk of Aussies living in or visiting the Netherlands and most of them were West Coast supporters and all of them had turned up at Coco's. It was like being back in a packed and rowdy Perth pub! In true Aussie fashion, most people were drinking Crownies and Hahns. After all, it was 2.30pm at the MCG in Australia!

It was a good game, despite the loss, and a true blue atmosphere at Coco's mate!!

Cheer, cheer the red and the white!! Looking pretty good for 6am!

Scary Eagles' supporter!! Note the tense Swans' fan in the middle.

Some of the Eagles' fans post-match.

Is it possible...

That the tax office in Eindhoven employs competent people?

I tried to call them so they could call me back (see previous post), but my Dutch wasn't quite good enough to understand the endless recorded message so I had no idea which number to press. So Nico called them...oh dependency...when he was on his lunch break at about 1pm and they called me at 3.10pm! Yes, the same day!

Although the lady was a bit thrown when I answered the phone with a hello (not done here) she was very friendly and helpful and made an appointment for me to get my So-Fi number on the 5th October.

And I thought the tax office was only competent when you owed them money.

And a friend of mine thought I was becoming cynical in my old age.

Red Tape Part 2

Well, I had my appointment at the 'stadskantoor' today. At least it was on time. I didn't have to wait around at all. The man was at desk 11, ready and waiting, with lots of papers.

I gave him my small mountain of papers which he photocopied one at a time. He actually took one document, went and photocopied it, came back, asked me for the next one, went and photocopied it, came back, asked me for the next one...you get the picture.

I now know why they allow 45 minutes for this appointment!

I think they have 4 copies of my passport now.

But it was all relatively painless and he put another sticker in my passport that said I have applied for a residence permit. All the photocopies will be sent to the IND who will take 3 to 4 months to process the actual residence permit. But in 10 days I should get a paper saying that I have applied for it?! I thought that's what the sticker was for?

He seemed to be on the ball so I asked him if I could apply for a So-Fi (tax) number which I need to be able to work.

Oops. This was not his area of expertise (reminiscent of "computer says no" for all you Little Britain fans).

At least he admitted he didn't know and told me to call the tax office.

Now the tax office is a whole other ball game. You have to call a number and give them your details and they call you back in 2 days to arrange, yes, you guessed it, an appointment!

At least I'm learning the art of sitting-around-because-I-can't-work-but-I-can't-do-too-much-because-I-don't-know-when-I-will-be-able-to-work-and-have-to-keep-an-eye-on-my-ever-decreasing-savings, I mean, patience.

When the weather is good...

Why not make Sundays the cycling day?

This time we went through a very posh town and ate a very not-posh 'uitsmijter'...kind of the Dutch version of an English breakfast made up of 2 slices of bread with cheese, ham and fried eggs piled on top and some salad on the side. It's huge and quite disgusting in that good kind of way.

We also rode through a lot of country-side and passed by a lot of farms...

...and my city-girl thoughts were: "Whoever coined the phrase 'fresh country air' has obviously never been to the country and breathed in that fresh, sweet smell of cow and horse manure".

After a long-ish ride (my gel saddle is still not attached to my bike) we stopped at a 'fiets cafe' for a drink. These are cafes for 'fietsers' = cyclists, though every man and his dog on bikes, in cars or on foot were there. And I do mean every man and his dog. Dogs were the second largest group there after adults while children came in third.

We rode back into Eindhoven where 'The Gypsy Road Show' was on at one of the many squares in town. The performances were staged in one of the pubs and in a tent which was set up for the event. The performances were all...wait for it...gypsy! Great music and dancing. A lively Sunday session!

Dutch 'circle' party

"Circle parties are a uniquely Dutch version of hell – which level, I’m not sure, but on the enjoyment scale they fit somewhere between doing your taxes and going to the dentist."
Kevin Lowe, http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=6&story_id=158

Not my words, as you can see!

But the Dutch circle party is a much talked about topic on any expat-in-the Netherlands website. Fabled though I thought they were, I actually attended one on Saturday night. And although I didn't find it like doing my taxes or going to the dentist, I did find it quite odd!

A 30th birthday party. Low key. Fine. But that everyone sits in a circle, starts off with a coffee or two and doesn't really move from their seats all night astounded me!

Maybe it was because during the two years I spent in London before coming to the Netherlands, the majority of parties I went to were held by mad Brazilians and sitting down for more than a few minutes was absolutely out of the question. Maybe I just got used to pints of caipirinhas and all night dancing and thought that all parties were really like that?

Although I enjoyed my initiation into this unique Dutch phenomenon, I think I might seek out some Brazilians while I'm here...

Succes!!

No, I haven't forgotten the last 's'...it's the Dutch spelling and it means 'good luck'. And that's what I'm wishing myself as I embark on another Dutch course!

For about 3 weeks in August I did an 'Intensieve zomercursus' in Amsterdam. It was a small class with all really good people from Afghanistan, the UK, Brazil, Russia, Nigeria, Egypt, Finland...and me. We studied about 4 hours a day that extended into five thanks to all the coffee breaks we took. I got to know the city with some of my classmates but did I get to know a lot of the Dutch language?

Well, yes and no.

There was a huge concentration on grammar and anyone who knew me throughout my DELTA course will know that I am a fan of Michael Lewis and anyone who knows of Michael Lewis will know that being pounded with grammar is not the way to learn a foreign language! And it was good to know that my belief in the 'chunks' and the 'lexicalised grammar' of language is the right one!! But enough...that will only be of remote interest to very few (if any) people.

What was my point?

Did I learn much Dutch? Well...I learnt what felt like a lot of grammar rules but didn't have enough practise with the language. So by the end of the course I had lots of pieces of paper but I still couldn't really say much to anyone!

So I found a Dutch course here in Eindhoven at the university. My class consists of PhD students...and me. I've only been to one class and although this class is bigger I had more chances to use the little Dutch I know in those 2 hours than I did in 2 days of classes in Amsterdam.

It got off to a great start!

I also found a group of foreigners...now, I don't usually seek out organised groups, but desperate times...

If you've read my first post you know that I can't work yet...and although I thought I'd enjoy being a lady of leisure, I don't really like that it's an enforced lady of leisure that I am being. Kind of like an enforced exile...it's not as fun as an exile by choice.

Anyway, this group organises, among other things, a Dutch practice group at a local cafe/bar. I went along on Tuesday to check it out. There were 8 people there...American, Portuguese, British...and me. There was also the Dutch husband of the organiser who acts as a dictionary, lucky fella. The theme of the week was 'games' and to be honest, I'm not much of a board games kind of girl so I had my doubts...but, it was really good! We spoke a lot of Dutch and it was really refreshing to go out with a bunch of new people.

Count me in for the next one!

So before you know it, I'll be speaking like a Dutchie.

Ha!

Succes!!

A Sunday cycle

Why I think the Dutch love to cycle:

1. It's flat.
2. There are cycle ways everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE...
3. There is a cycle network across the entire country - all routes are numbered and maps are displayed throughout the network.
4. Cyclists have priority everywhere!! And when they don't, it's acceptable to take it!
5. It's flat.

So off we went for a Sunday cycle. Because the weather has been so good there were a lot of people out cycling. Young, old, families and their pets. People often cycle while they 'walk' their dogs, but the more spoilt / lazy puppies get their own little basket attached to their owner's bike. This also applies to kids who are too young to cycle on their own...you see them in seats at the front or the back, or even a kind of cart attached to the front or back of the mum or dad's bike. The Dutch do love to cycle.

The first place we headed to was a village called Nuenen to see a water mill made famous by a van Gogh painting. In 1884 he painted a series of watermills around Nuenen. He lived in this village from 1883 - 1885 so a chunk of his work is based around the area. We couldn't get right into the grounds of the mill because it is actually on someone's private property but there is a plaque with information at the front and an uninterrupted view of it.

Of course the Netherlands is more famous for its windmills and when you're out cycling in the countryside you come across quite a few...

As I mentioned before, there are cycle ways all over the country. You can find them at the sides of busy roads, small roads, canals, rivers, lanes...everywhere. Here are a couple of the ones I like...

We stopped at a couple of small, local cafes for some drinks on the way. I must admit...it was good to get off the bike for a while...my bum was so sore!! When we got home in the afternoon I could hardly sit down!! I just lay down on a matress and drank cordial for a while! I think I'll have to invest in a gel seat for my bike as I think I'll be cycling quite a bit here.

Swedish wedding

Last weekend (2nd Sept) we went to Tomas and Jessica's wedding in Uppsala, Sweden. Tomas worked with Nico in London for a while and then the four of us became friends. Like Nico and I, they lived in London for two years, from about mid 2004 to mid 2006. They now live back in their flat in Uppsala with their 2 very fluffy (and 'chubby') cats. To the right is a picture of them just after the ceremony, while the guests were still throwing 'rice' at them!

Some traditions are the same as what I have seen in other weddings, such as throwing the bouquet to all the unmarried women (guess whose hands that landed in!) and throwing the garter to all the unmarried men.

Other things were quite unique...but I don't know if this was all very 'Swedish' or all very 'Jessica and Tomas' or a combination of both.

• The bride and groom walk up the aisle together...no giving away of the bride. Thank you oh forward thinking Swedes!!
• At everyone's place at the table there was a kind of booklet. In the booklet it had songs to be sung at the reception as well as a brief description of everyone at the wedding. Thank you Jessica for translating everything into English in all the non-Swedish speakers' booklets!
• They played a game where Tomas and Jessica sat with their backs to each other. They both had a shoe of his and a shoe of hers. The MC's asked a bunch of questions which they had to answer by raising either the shoe of Tomas or of Jessica. An example was 'Who would get up if they had a baby and it was crying at 3 in the morning?' The aim was of course to see how many they answered the same. They got 14 out of 23! Thank you very much to their 2 friends at our table who interpreted every question for the 7 non-Swedish guests!
• Every time Jessica went to the toilet all the girls had to go and kiss Tomas, and when Tomas went, all the guys had to kiss Jessica. I remember Tomas commenting that this was his favourite tradition...
• The next day we went back to where they had the reception and they opened all the presents and read all the cards! Like the day before, there was so much good food and, this time, lots of strong coffee!! Thank you to Tomas and Jessica's family who prepared all of this for all the guests!

One more thing that I have to mention about this day was the fantastic job the MC's did. They were two friends of Tomas and Jessica; one guy, one girl. They were really entertaining and informative. And of course they went out of their way to translate everything for us.

While we were waiting for the bridal party after the ceremony we had some champagne and they then did something in English which was mainly for our benefit. They told us about different Swedish wedding tradtions from different parts of the country. A few I remember were:

• The bride couldn't sew her own dress because the number of stitches would represent the number of tears she would cry during her married life.
• The father of the bride used to have the power to marry a couple.
• The wedding party used to follow the bride and groom into the bedroom to check that they slept together!
• A man could pay for his wife to prevent her from being stolen by another man, but that would happen anyway, so the original guy had to pay another sum to get her back.
• In the part of Sweden we were in, a few drops of rain on the bride's veil was good luck.
• The person who says 'I do' the loudest is the one that will call the shots in the future...I only heard Jessica's 'ja' in the church???

It was a really great weekend and the ceremony and reception were really beautiful.

The bridal party

Bride, Groom and Brothers

Rafael, Tomas and Nico

Nico and I

And again

R is for Red Tape

"Report to the foreign police within 2 days of arriving in the Netherlands."

Not too difficult. I thought I'd go there, they'd put a nice little sticker in my passport and then I'd be off to register at the city hall and get a So-Fi (Tax) number.

"We don't deal with your kind of visa anymore", said the Barbie in a police uniform at the front desk. "Call the IND. Here's the number."

OK. There's always been red tape in the other countries I've lived in so this was no different.

I went home and called the IND...the Immigration and Naturalisation Dept...though on a Working Holiday visa I want to be neither 'immigrated' nor 'naturalised'.

"Go to the foreign police in the place you're staying," said the voice at the other end of the line. That was after spending a few minutes explaining my situation.

"No, they told me to call you, as I just explained."

"Oh, wait a minute."

The line beeped at me for about 2 minutes (BTW, what is it with Govt. Depts, premium rate numbers and putting you on hold???). A lady answered and of course I had to re-tell my tale all over again.

"Go to the city hall."

"OK."

Today I went to the city hall. No problem. They know about Working Holiday visas and what we all have to do. Their part involves taking a copy of my passport and giving me an appointment...on the 25th September!! My part involves filling in a a bigger than your average Dutch sized mountain of paperwork. And wait. I can't get a So-Fi number (which equals being able to work) until after that appointment.

On a brighter note...I was offered a teaching job today. Now I just have to let them know that it will be a little while before I can actually work!

I guess I'll get cracking with some self study Dutch!

Tot ziens!