NT2 II

In the middle of September I took a Dutch exam, known as the NT2 II in this neck of the woods. I had spent nicer days in Utrecht than the two days it took to get through the test, but at least I got to drink some good coffee at the Coffee Company.

A few days ago, the results came in the mail, and I passed! Not with flying colours, but Ps mean degrees and all that. My worst score was in listening which I literally scraped through. Nico thought that was hilarious and appropriate all at the same time because apparently, I don't really listen sometimes! Can you believe it?!

Proof!

So now with the Dutch that some examiners think I know, I might just go upstairs and tell our noisy neighbour exactly what I think of him!

Football fanatics fantastic

Way back on the first day of the Olympics, the Dutch team had bagged a gold medal in swimming and the Australian team just one bronze. A certain Dutch friend, let's just call him JURGEN, thought this was fabulous enough to send a nanananana text to me. By the end of the games, it was blindingly obvious that I had to send one of those very texts back to him.

So in an attempt to get even in the sporting arena, Jurgen decided to join Patrick, Sam, Nico and I at the Netherlands v Australia football match in Eindhoven. Now this football match took place quite a few weeks ago, but, being the football fanatics fantastic that the above mentioned Dutchies and honorary Dutchy are, I thought I would be kind enough to postpone this little post to a time when the salt wasn't so raw in the wounds. That time is now.

According to FIFA, the Dutch team is currently ranked number 5 in the world - just one place behind the brilliant Brazilian team. Australia is sandwiched between Colombia and Northern Ireland down at number 34 (http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html).

Football fanatics fantastic thought this would be a walk in the park for their beloved Oranje efltal, and it certainly appeared that way after they scored the first goal within only a few minutes of play. But helaas, sometimes it rains when you take a walk in the proverbial park. When the final whistle blew it was still just ONE for Oranje and a massive TWO for the Green and Gold.

Thanks to the football fanatics fantastic for arranging this fun night out!

Our front row seats ensured we got all the close up action

Jurgen and Nico (and his divided loyalties)

Patrick (in a state of shock at the final score), Sam and I

Run, run as fast as you can!

Sunday 5th October was not only Nico's birthday, but also the day we had been training for: the run in Breda, or as the locals call it, de Bredase Singelloop. There was a choice between a 5k, 10k, 15k or half marathon. We went for the 10k.

We woke up to lots of wind and light but cold rain and after a quick cycle to the station and an hour train ride later, it was still cold and rainy. Our good friends Jessica and Geert gave us a safety pin and 2 earrings to attach our numbers (we're not that organised, you know) and we were off to run on the mostly cobblestone, puddle-filled streets of Breda.





After 57.24 minutes Nico crossed the finish line and I came in at 67.50. We were both happy with the times but the next day our legs felt as if they hadn't really spent the last few months training 2-3 times a week!

Although no one carried me back to Jessica and Geert's place, I somehow made it there and up their stairs of death in one piece. After a hot, hot shower we filled up on food and liquid and I think I may have snoozed on the couch as the Wii monsters started eating people. When I woke up it was just in time for more food and drinks - how convenient!

So now it's Tuesday and my legs are just a little bit sore, but that may also be thanks to running into the corner of the bed yesterday which has left me with a bruise and long, thin graze from my knee to my shin. Nice.

Come fly with me

Nico and I have lived in the Netherlands for a little over 2 years now and during this time we have spent many weekends visiting cities, towns and villages by car, train, bus, bike and on foot.

But time is running out on this adventure and, although we'll be back here, we still want to see places that we haven't managed to fit in so far.

Enter Nico's dad, Bart, and his Cessna!

We were lucky enough to have clear skies for our 4 seater light aircraft trip which started at the little airport in Budel. We flew over Weert, Roermond, Kessel, Panningen (over Nico's parents' house), Venlo and Nijmegen (over our flat). We then followed the rivers Waal and Maas to the Biesbosch area where the rivers meet and the Netherlands comes to an end. We continued over Zeeland province, taking in the oosterschelde kering (part of the famous Delta Works), the Zeeland Bridge (all 5022 metres of it) and Bergen op Zoom. We followed the Dutch-Belgian border and then landed back in Budel 2,5 hours after setting off.

What a great way to see a country. Thanks Bart!

Berlin

A few weeks ago, we took a four day road trip to Berlin. Nico and I had both been to Berlin once before, but not together. He went there on a school trip when he was about 16, and I went there in 2002.

I had such a good time back then, largely because I was in the midst of a nine month holiday. Ah, the days of the strong yen and the not so strong euro made my life oh so easy - travelling, meeting interesting people, eating, drinking, paying a euro to get an old DDR visa stamp in my passport...

One of the things I loved about Berlin that first time was that it was still in a stage of rebuilding and restoration, and it had a really vibrant energy that seemed to flow everywhere, endlessly. I was excited to get back to this city that had always made its way into my top five.

So we hopped in the car on a European-balmy Saturday morning in July and arrived in Berlin about 6 hours later. We checked into our hotel, which was cool, but a bit too warm all at the same time. We stretched our legs around the streets near Ku'damm and we sampled some of that famous German beer. We did some touristy things. The Gate was high on my list as it was being restored that first time I was there so I hadn't seen it in all its glory. Apparently, the thousands of other visitors to Berlin hadn't either; we had to constantly dodge posers and photographers and street performers and all that hooha that goes along with summertime in Europe. There was light on the other side of the gate though - we stumbled across an Australia shop where I bagged two jars of vegemite. Unfortunately, Nico didn't manage to find the inflatable kangaroo that he's wanted for so long!

What I noticed about Berlin this time was that it still looked like a construction site but it lacked that energy of six years ago. I don't know, maybe it was the nature of the trip that made it appear that way - the fact that our road trip was for only four days, the slightly stressful morning at the Australian embassy and no inflatable kangaroos at the Australia shop ;)

We still had a good time in this famous capitol, but I think the Berlin of 2002 will be the city that I remember with a much bigger smile.

A 10km birthday party!

Nico, Jurgen and I are signed up for a 10km run in Breda and it just happens to fall on Nico's birthday. What a great way to celebrate!

You can find the route here: http://www.bredasesingelloop.nl/media/2008_10km.pdf

Want to join in the fun? Then sign up here: http://www.bredasesingelloop.nl/content/view/70/96/

An easy way to give

Quite a while ago, I heard about this site through other English language teachers: http://www.freerice.com/. It's a vocabulary game you can play and for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Programme.

Just recently, I heard about this one: http://www.freepoverty.com/. This is a geography game that I love! For every location that you answer correctly, ten cups of clean drinking water are donated through the Water Aid Organisation.

And this one is especially for dog lovers: http://freekibble.com/. It's a daily trivia game about dogs and when you answer, right or wrong, 20 pieces of kibble are donated to different animal shelters. http://www.freekibblekat.com/ is the same, but donations go to, you guessed it - hungry cats (Thanks to cat loving Sam who pointed this one out).

These games are fun (and slightly addictive, depending on your personality type ;)) and easy to play on any old computer. And here's a time when advertisers, sponsors, whatever you want to call them, appear on websites for something good.

So go play!

I'm back!

So it's been over four months since my last entry and I'm going to get my excuses out of the way right now: I was working two jobs, going to Dutch classes twice a week (with 10+ hours of homework per week) and doing my MA. Then I was having a life, and during that time, I couldn't be bothered to sit in front of a computer and write my tales. Now I have one job, my new Dutch teacher is on holiday until mid-August and I'm taking a semester break from my MA. I still have a life but now I have a bit of extra time to pen those famed tales. But instead of boring you to death with four months worth of drivel, I will do the highlights (in no particular order) instead.

Highlight 1: Today it was hot - around 30 degrees - and that's hot for this part of the world. Lots of people go to the beach (or have been relaxing on the beach for weeks already as most of the population heads south to Greece or Italy or Spain or insert other hot country here), or they go to a nice park and sit in the shade of a tree and have a picnic, or they sip rosé at a riverside bar. What do Nico and I do? We have lunch at our favourite socialist bar - Nijmegen is known as Havana aan de Waal (Havana on the Waal river) after all - and decide that we would cycle to Kleve in Germany. It's only about 25kms away so a 50km round trip is a good cycle. We also decided to take the "high road". Yes, the road that has many hills. This area where we live is the hilliest in the land, so as we were on our way, we saw many serious riders in all their kit speeding up and down the hills and dinging their bells whenever they were approaching so we could get out of their way. Eventually we got to Kleve and stopped at a city park, complete with ponds and fountains and cool trees. Instead of cycling back along the same route we had come from, we decided to do a loop (up more hills) to get back to Nijmegen. As we were doing this, we ran into a fair. Rather than going through it, we thought we'd take the next road. But it didn't quite turn out like that. Instead we ended up in mountain bike / dirt road territory. BIG hills, mud, dirt, rocks. Whatever suspension I may have had on my bike is now gone. Completely. After Nico's sense of direction got us out of there, we had added QUITE A FEW extra KMs to our journey. And then we faced another hill. At the end of this one we grabbed an ice cream and another LARGE bottle of water from a service station and headed towards Nijmegen. It was a few minutes later that we were on exactly the same route as we had come in on! Typical :) But we found a nice detour and MORE HILLS and after a while (I lost track) we ended up at home - sweaty, thirsty but well exercised.

Highlight 2: The vierdaagse. This is the famous four day march of Nijmegen. Those with slight bouts of insanity think it's acceptable to walk 40 or 50kms a day (you choose!) for four days in a row. Luckily, it coincides with Nijmegen festival so for seven days there's live music, good food, rides and general fun to be had in Nijmegen - most things for free (except the toilets, of course)! Nico and I enjoyed four of those days / nights - a couple with friends. On the very first day, Jessica and Geert came over for a day / night of fun, though I will never forgive them for introducing Nico to the Nintendo DS the following morning!! But here are some happy snaps of the evening:

Highlight 3: The EK - the European Cup football championships. Almost the whole country was washed in Orange in support of the Dutch team, who made it through to the quarter finals and unceremoniously crashed out to Russia. Spain won the whole thing...they've been winning a lot lately...the football, the tennis, the Tour de France. Anyway, for one of the matches we caught up with friends in Eindhoven and went to the old stomping ground 't Pandje. Patrick and Sam must again be thanked for their patience during the kaassouffle incident. Here are some pics, courtesy of Patrick and Sam:

Highlight 4: Eurovision Song Contest. Come on, who doesn't love this. We watched it on a wall (I kid you not) at Jessica and Geert's place in Breda, along with Sam and Just Jurgy. Good company, good food, good drinks, not so good music, but funny dancing (Sam just loved doing the Robo so much) and hats:

Highlight 5: Last, but definitely not least, Nico and I celebrated one year of marital bliss on May 18th. To celebrate, we went to Gent in Belgium for that weekend. Stayed in a lovely hotel and were upgraded to a €300/night room. Seriously. Who pays that for a hotel room. We might tell every hotel we stay at in the future that it's our anniversary, just for the upgrade!! It was a great weekend and if you're ever in Gent, go to the soup kitchen - the BEST place for lunch. You can choose from four soups of the day and you get a bowl of it, delicious fresh bread and an apple for next to no euros. We don't have photos of the soup kitchen but here are some others:



And with those five highlights, I'm ending this post. Fingers crossed (or uncrossed, depending on how bored you are after reading this post) that I'll be updating more regularly in the future. But for now, I'm off to bed.

Easter Images

A little French getaway

What's the point of living in Europe if you don't have weekend escapes? So we made another one to France with lunch in Luxembourg.

We arrived in Nancy on Thursday night so we didn't get out and about until Friday. Nancy isn't a huge city but it has so many restaurants we were spoiled for choice. We even got some delicious futomaki which was possibly the best maki I have eaten since leaving Japan!

Nancy, however, is not known for its Japanese cuisine, but it is known for its main square, palace and art nouveau.

After a lot of strolling and sipping cafe au lait in the sun, we headed for Colmar on Saturday afternoon. Being in the Alsace region and nearing the German speaking world, it is easy to see where the inspiration for some of its architecture came from.

I loved Colmar and if you ever find yourself in this region of France, I highly recommend you pop into this town. Here are some reasons why.

If that doesn't grab you, maybe knowing that you can stop at this town along the way will convince you.

While we were there we stumbled upon an Easter market.

And while Nico was hanging out with the bunnies, I went and sampled some (not so local) brew.

On Sunday we stopped into Metz for a coffee break, an easter egg purchase and a peak at the cathedral.

Our last stop was a windy, rainy and chilly Luxembourg for lunch and the surprise Irish dancing which was enough to get us out of there. But not before a few happy snaps, of course.