Food With Alessia: Dutch Breakfast (with video) Posted by Sten on Apr 21, 2014
The purpose of these “Food with Alessia” posts is to demonstrate and try some Dutch foods! Together with my Italian friend Alessia, who does not know so much about Dutch food yet, I will post a video every two weeks with an accompanying post. So get ready to enjoy some very delicious minutes of Dutch…
Easter Revolution – The Passion Posted by Sten on Apr 17, 2014
Tonight, April 17, 2014 is, or here in the Netherlands was, a huge event. It tries to bring the people back to what currently already half of the Dutch population has forgotten or has never known. Something that had always been part of Dutch culture, no matter how divided it was. I am talking about…
Game of Thrones and Language Development Posted by Sten on Apr 14, 2014
I bet you have heard of Game of Thrones – the HBO Series that became so popular. I am again and again stunned by the great performance of the actors in it. And their accents. It is interesting that in certain American series all actors speak another accent, mostly the English one. That is also…
It Doesn’t Get More Dutch Than… New York? Posted by tiffany on Apr 13, 2014
New York. So many songs have been sung about you, so many things have been written about you, so many people have traveled lengths great and small to see you. NY is so ubiquitous that it often feels like the Bible should read: “And on the eighth day, the Lord created New York.” (You need…
April Fools!!! – But why? Posted by Sten on Apr 1, 2014
Op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril – with this phrase, the watergeuzen made fun of general Alva of Spain when they took his city Den Briel (therefore zijn bril) on April 1, 1572. Watergeuzen are what you could call “Water Beggars”. “Water”, because they came by their ships in the North Sea. They basically were Dutch civilians fighting…
Grondwet Festival – 200 years Posted by Sten on Mar 30, 2014
Yesterday, it was the Grondwet Festival (The (Dutch) Constitution Festival), because on March 29, it existed exactly 200 years. In 1814, 474 vooraanstaande Nederlanders (prominent Dutch citizens) were invited for the Vergadering der Notabelen (Congress of Notables) where they were to accept the draft for the Grondwet. After singing the Wilhelmus, the Dutch National Anthem, they voted in favor with an overwhelming majority of…
Indispensible – treinen! Posted by Sten on Mar 23, 2014
I think it is time for me to clear some things up about traveling in Dutch treinen (trains, singular trein). In everyday speech, the Dutch also introduced the verb treinen (literally ‘training’) to describe traveling by train. So just the word treinen can mean trains or ‘training’/traveling by train. To describe how treinen usually…