The month of love has begun and I am happy to be able to do all the cheesy romantic things that come together with Valentijn’s Dag. I am a bit sad that I haven’t found too many decorations for the house for such a beautiful month, but I am getting by with pink, red and white candles. A romantic dinner for two has already been planned as well because this is the month of liefde!
The first liefdesverhaal I will write about is of the king and queen. Koning Willem-Alexander and koningin Maxima married on February 2nd, 2002. Today is their thirteenth anniversary as husband and wife, and I am sure they have a lot to celebrate! They have three daughters, Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane, who always seem to be beautifully dressed and are have a resemblance to both their parents. I don’t know how the princesses feel about it, but I absolutely love that their dresses match when they have a formal/official event.
Koning Willem-Alexander and Koningin Maxima meet back in 1999 in Spain. After meeting, they made plans to continue seeing each other (she lived in New York). Their relationship eventually led to something more serious, and, in 2001, the Koning and Koningin announced their engagement. There was some debate about their relationship because of Maxima’s father (he was part of the cabinet during Argentina’s terrible dictatorship). Fortunately love triumphed and their wedding was accepted by the Dutch government. On February 2nd, 2002, they were married first in the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, and after in the Nieuwe Kerk.
Koningin Maxima had a lot to do in order to become the integrated Dutch citizen that she is now. She first had to do what we are all doing: learn Dutch! I have seen videos of her, and I admit that it is refreshing to see someone who has started in the same place as we all have be able to speak it so well. Lucky for us, there is no royal pressure in learning Dutch so we can take our time and be content knowing our blunders at the grocery store will not make it to the evening news.
So van harte gefeliciteerd to the King and Queen on their anniversary! May they continue to love and cherish each other!
Since I was a little girl, I was fascinated with languages and writing. I speak English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and a little bit of French. I am a writer, reader, language teacher, traveler, and a food lover!
I now live in The Netherlands with my husband Riccardo, our cat Mona, and our dog Lisa, and the experience has been phenomenal. The Dutch culture is an exciting sometimes topsy-turvy world that I am happily exploring!
Comments:
Joseph T. Madawela:
beautiful thank you.
Patricia Torngren:
I found this interesting as a South African where Afrikaans (a Dutch dialect) is spoken as a second language. This is how we would use the words.
Liewe Annatjie (Dear Annatjie) would be the way to start a letter.
Ek is lief vir jou (I love you) would be casual usage between lovers.
Sy is verlief op hom (she is in love with him).
My liewe kind (my dear child).
A mother might call a child “liefie” as a term of endearment.
It is easy to see how one could be maybe misunderstood when speaking to a Nederlander.
Comments:
Joseph T. Madawela:
beautiful thank you.
Patricia Torngren:
I found this interesting as a South African where Afrikaans (a Dutch dialect) is spoken as a second language. This is how we would use the words.
Liewe Annatjie (Dear Annatjie) would be the way to start a letter.
Ek is lief vir jou (I love you) would be casual usage between lovers.
Sy is verlief op hom (she is in love with him).
My liewe kind (my dear child).
A mother might call a child “liefie” as a term of endearment.
It is easy to see how one could be maybe misunderstood when speaking to a Nederlander.