Grand finale European Championship soccer

I am supporting Spain, because their team is more sympathetic than the Germans (and my mum went to Spain when she was pregnant of me)…

Spains has always been the happy go lucky vacation country for me…so …go Espana

 

Queensday 2008

Probably the most popular party day of the year, where Dutch people go out in their orange outfit, and celebrate, originally, the birthday of the Queen’s mother….

I love the outfit of Princess Laurentien, the fuschia dress with short sleeves and A-line skirt, with her matching shoes!!! (third picture, feeding animals)

Also Princess Mabel, the one in black and white with her high heels (fourth picture)

Missing little ol’ Britain

Today I heared some Brits asking the way in our little village. It was really lovely to hear some genuine English again.

Moreover, I learned more from the Liverpool Hope University as I first thought. In the lecture ‘Gender and Ethnicity in Europe’ I was quite aware about the Scottish situation to the English mindset, something I learned in Zoë Kinsley lovely course “Travel and Adventure in English Literatue”.

Plus, having to meet such a wonderful variety of Europeans during my Aigburth time gave me lots of information about various countries: for example, Bulgaria, the lovely Kathia told me about Bulgaria being enslaved by the Turkish for 500 years!!! That was something I hadn’t learned in history class in primary and secondary school.

Or, how the Catalans (Joan and Laila) live in a Castalian society, which gave funny (but serious underneath) conversations of what is Spanish or not with the Castilians (Jose and Fran).

From Philip I heard something about the Sovjet experience of the Tjech Republic (he lived under Sovjet rule for the first 10 years of his life), and how he could be somewhat nostalgic for the peaceful period without much capitalism that was prevalent during that time.

Yeh, I am really thankful for this experience and stories, which I could not have learned in such a way when reading a history book. Thank you for giving the history such a wonderful face…

CSI Holland, or Sherlock de Vries

One of the hottest topics this week, are the ‘discoveries’ that the private ‘Sherlock Holmes’ of the Netherlands has found on the murder case of Natalee Holloway.



 

Next sunday he will disclose some important information on the Natalee Holloway dissapearance, if you are not aware of the story, you can find some info over here (it is Wiki, but you can google on)My vision is somewhat more biased.

As I mentioned two posts ago, I lived in the Antilles for a while. I discovered that there was a certain group of boys, that ’specialised’ in picking up tourist girls.  

Actually, it was not that hard to pick up these girls, because they were in the ultimate holiday spirit, and probably quite ‘approachable’.

Natalee was probably charmed by the main suspect, Joran, who was a white boy from European descendance, and looked quite reliable (not to be discriminating, but he looked like a sheep in wolfs-clothing).

Research showed that he was quite the player I mentioned and observed before…Natalee was with a couple of girls on a girly holiday, without the parents…she probably drank alcohol, and she might have taken some drugs. From this point…

I have no idea what happened, but I am quite sure that the main suspect Joran lacked the respect to care for her..so,

1. he might have left her on the beach as he claimed, and she died from other causes, combined with her intake on alcohol (drugs, or combination),

or, 2. he might have harmed her. Maybe she did not want to have full ’sexual relations’ (to mention a Clintonian remark) and he might have become angry.

I probably watched too much CSI Miami and CSI las Vegas, not to mention Bones, Cold Case and NCSI







However, I will probably watch the show sunday, and see how the national Sherlock thinks what has happened, and how the case is supposed to be solved.   

How to…be as cheap as the Dutch

Finally, I have the inspiration to write down something about one of the strange Dutch stereotypes that we are the Cheapskates of Europe. We are not the only to share this ‘wonderful’ title: in Spain, the Catalan are supposed to be cheap, and in Great Britain, it is the Scottish who hold their title. However, we are a full nation (and not a part of a nation) that is known for this habit…

First I want to accentuate that the next points will be stereotypes, which may be partly true and sometimes still applicable in some parts of the country, however, the city districts are becoming less cheap and adopting a more generous lifestyle. Nevertheless, it is still fun to read some of our ‘tips’ of being cheap.

1. Stamps are not only for postcards:

actually, we sample “zegeltjes” on any occasion to save money or to save for goods, such as coffeecups (Douwe Egberts coffee), discounts, and other products. Some saving methods are so intricate that you have to keep a whole accounting department in order to make sense of all the saving you have to do and calculate all the stamps you need for a coffeemug that would have cost you 2 euro in the store. It will bind the client to a certain shop, in order to get the stamps the consumer wants. I am not sure if it is really a money saving tool, but it sure makes the Dutch look cheap, LOL. More information on http://www.scholieren.com/werkstukken/6811 and here and translation on http://www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html

2. Scrape everything together:

This fantastic tool is typically Dutch: “de flessenlikker” or a “jar licker”, which is used to help you get every last scrap from the bottle of a long jar or a pack of yogurt or “vla”. More cute info over here

3. Compare, compare, compare…

I does not matter if you are doing groceries or shopping for a car…the Dutch compare different prices, turn to consumer’s test magazines, and browse through tons of flyers in order to find the best deal…It makes a great conversation item to say that you saved a lot on your apple Ipod, when you bought it on X instead of Y. It is also a side of competition…if you could find a cheaper deal than your friend, you are the man (or the woman).

4a. Staying in, instead of eating and going out…

Unlike our mediterranean friends, and the rest of the world, we still save on food…we do not go to restaurants a lot, we still cook a lot at home, and…shock, some even bring their own sandwiches to school or work.

 What we save on food and staying in a lot, we splurge on making our home as “gezellig” as possible (which means displaying a lot of stuff).

4b. If eating out…

(Sorry for the cursing man for the people who can understand Dutch, not my video)

Yup, you can take some cheap fried food out of the wall…Other options are eating more fried food in the snackbar, or taking out chinese food (about 10 euro for a big meal)

5. Cycling again, and other forms of transport. We even have bikes to carry all your children, groceries and so on:

and the double decker bike:

6. Markets!!! They are not typically Dutch, but they still matter on saving money. Even the smallest town have a weekly market…

Personally, I am not sure if it is really cheaper, but their slogan used to be “op de markt is uw gulden een daalder waard”, which means “at the market your 1 euro coin is worth 2 euros” or “you get more value for your money at the market”

So, that was my impression of how to save money-or be as cheap- as the Dutch. You can find some more information about our strange habits from an ‘outsider’s’ view in the wonderful book The Undutchables

Scarves and glasses

In Holland we have an expression which sounds like “Clothes make the man” (actually, this is a literal translation).

 

(disclaimer: not my kitty and I would never dress up animals like humans)

Looking around, it seems that the Dutch dress up to be very tedious (boring), because there is a lack of expression and colours on our streets comparing to countries like Italy, Spain, the UK, Morocco, Russia, etc.

So, here is the dose of quirky, expressive assessories I found on the net, and would love to have:

space glasses in gold:

Dare to be square-glasses:

These would look cool on my boyfriend: white space glasses

Not many people in Holland would dare to walk around with these glasses (except in a gaybar):

Ohh, I love fashion like this:

Also scarves:

and more scarves:

+

Colour, that is what we need!!!

Check for yourself if the Dutch designers are going in the right direction: Amsterdam fashion Week is up this week:

Andy Warhol party (very gaybar dragqueen-esque):

(from: http://360fashion.typepad.com/aifw/)

And, to keep in touch with our National Identity: some designers will exhibit their fashion in the Red Light District (seriously). Designers like Bas Kosters, Jan Taminiau, Daryl van Wouw, Edwin Oudshoorn, Roswitha van Rijn and Mada  Gaans will exhibit something the regular visitor of the red light district shun away from: CLOTHES.

More info on : http://www.redlightfashionamsterdam.com/

I want to ride my bicycle

I cannot believe that there is something more Dutch than people riding their bicycle.

 

In Liverpool, I was an active biker as well…Most people feared the English traffic and the lack of proper bicycle paths (there are some, which is really positive). Anyway, I loved climbing the slopes and managing myself on the roads. Moreover, the reaction of some English blokes were lovely (swoon).

 

This bicycle is something that reflects the zeitgeist of our environmentally concious, body consious era. But, it is still Chanel and it will set you back about $9000… 

 

Lovely, and typically NOT Dutch (because who would park this bike in the busy city of Amsterdam, where they would steal a 5 euro bike if they can, let alone a Chanel bike).

 

 

Dutch National identity according the ‘world’

During my stay in the UK, I found lots of stereotype images about the Dutch national identity. Shortly, it looks a bit like the picture below:

I have to say that the image of the ‘everything is possible’ idea of the Netherlands is not correct, unfortunately.

However, this week I will post something about this topic. I will look at our ‘cheap’ (miser) image and look at the positive aspects of this (dissapearing) Dutch habits in the “how to…” category. It might be handy to save some money after the expensive December month, and which nation (except for the Scottish, kidding) are known to be the ultimate cheapskates: the Dutch…

Think of the saying in English: going Dutch (being too much of a magpie to pay for your girl’s drinks or meal) or Dutch treat.

So lovely to be Dutch…