Afscheid

Wanting to learn Dutch quickly, sometimes I forget to slow down and enjoy the beauty and intricacy of the language. Here is a powerful poem by Adriaan Morriën, which reminded me of my initial motivation and main reason of learning the language – to be able to read in Dutch.

I will not dare to translate the poem, but I recommend that you read it out loud at least two times. It is so powerful and multilayered.

Afscheid

Zul je voorzichtig zijn?

Ik weet wel dat je maar een
boodschap doet
hier om de hoek
en dat je niet gekleed bent voor
een lange reis.

Je kus is licht,
je blik gerust
en vredig zijn je hand en voet.

Maar achter deze hoek
een werelddeel,
achter dit ogenblik
een zee van tijd.

Zul je voorzichtig zijn?

Adriaan Morriën (1912-2002)

Vocabulary

het afscheid – a farewell
voorzichtig – careful, cautious
om de hoek – around the corner
het blik – look, glance
gerust – at ease
vredig – peaceful
het werelddeel – continent

A real character in fiction or a fictional character in a real story

It is a sunny, warm morning in Amsterdam. I took my dog out and we are heading to the Sarphatipark.

It is very calm here. Almost no people around. I sit on a bench in my favorite part of this beautiful park. I admire the view. The impatient person I am, it truly calms me down. I am alone with my thoughts.  I turn around and see a sign on the bench. I remember that I have seen this plaque before, but I could not translate it. This time I can. I smile to myself. The small victories in life, when efforts pay off. The quote touches my heart in a strange way. I wonder where it is from.

I think I must go, I do not know where to, but I have to go away,” says Claire. Have you ever had that? That you knew you had to go, but did not know where.”

When I came back home, I found out on the internet that this quote is part of a book called “Het Wonderbaarlijke leven van Claire C” (The miraculous life of Claire C) by Sarah Vanhee.

And here is the story as described in the book  reviews:
‘I lost it, I’m lost, I lost it, I’m lost, I lost it, I’m lost’. Some years ago, Sarah Vanhee found an unfinished manuscript by Guillaume Maguire in which the main character is the insecure, unheroic, somewhat lost Claire C. Fascinated by this character, she decided that her story should not be lost. In The C-Project, Sarah Vanhee finished Maguire’s novel by becoming Claire and going in search of the other characters from the book in Amsterdam. This enabled her to find the missing part of Claire’s identity, along with the rest of the story.

Through various channels, she came into contact with people who considered themselves potential characters in a novel. The book was then written on the basis of their meetings with Claire. 

 Where fiction and reality meet is where the imagination is unlocked. Are the people Claire meets ‘real’ or ‘fictional’? Do they belong to the real world, or to the world of stories? And what about the accidental passers-by? Are they the unnoticed audience for a minimal performance, or do they belong to a greater fiction: have they been written themselves?

As the author herself writes, the different benches where the real meetings took place, now all have a plaque with a quote from a chapter that got created there. Via a Q&R code, you can read the whole chapter- so while travelling from bench to bench, one can follow the same road of Claire C in her miraculous life in Amsterdam- turning urban life into a ready-made fiction. By turns both hilarious and harrowing, Claire’s identity unfolds in multiple layers within a dynamic network of voices. The city plan becomes a web of stories; public spaces set the scene for a novel that writes itself.”

Just by sitting on this bench you start to feel yourself as a real character in a fictional story, a silent witness of an intimate conversation of the past.

 “Je wist dat je weg moest, maar niet waarheen”

 

A guest post by the little dutch mouse called Anouk:)

Life in the Netherlands is quite great by itself (canals, thousands of cafes, museums,bicycles and what not), but what makes it better is cheese (kaas).  What makes it even better is that cheese goes incredibly well with a bottle of white wine. But about this in some other post…

Let’s start with the cheesy  facts first:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just these few facts prove that Netherlands is the cheese heaven. If you still don’t believe me, check out the video

Living here it is a must to know the dutch vocabulary to be able to order the right cheese according to your own taste preferences.

Cheese variety

The most famous dutch cheese is Gouda (Goudse kaas) and Edam(Edammer kaas). However, there are  many more you could try:   Leidse kaas, Hollandse gatenkaas, Friese nagelkaas, Kruidenkaas, Geiten- en schapenkaas, Rookkaas, Smeerkaas. I am not a kaasverkoper (cheese specialist – yes, there are such people here), but I heard that the local cheese lovers choose Boerenkaas – a fresh local farmer’s type of cheese, made of raw, unpasteurized milk. Another interesting type you could taste is  unique grass cheese – Graskaas – don’t worry it is not made of grass. It is prepared with the the milk of the cows, which are fed  only with  young, fresh spring grass.  Oh, if you like strange things, try the green cheese made with pesto, it is delicious!

Hoe langer een kaas rijpt, hoe harder hij wordt – The longer a cheese matures,  the harder it becomes.

 

I think now you are absolutely prepared to go and choose the best dutch cheese out there. If you did not have enough of cheese, let me leave you with a great dutch saying:

 Ieder kaasje heeft zijn gaatje 

Literally it means ‘Every cheese has its hole’, used to express that we all have our flaws, meaning “nobody’s perfect’.

The smell of freshly baked bread

Bread is a significant part of the Dutch way of life. At least two of the daily meals consist of bread. The Dutch are among the biggest bread consumers in the world, so don’t be surprised if they regularly eat a sandwich for lunch.  I think that we Bulgarians  eat quite a lot of bread as well, so I will not complain about the great variety of fresh, crunchy bread.

Here are some useful words to help you order the bread you like.

There are, of course, many more types of bread, but the ones above are quite common. My favorite bread is “volkoren brood“.  On Wednesday mornings  I buy fresh bread  from Le Perron, at the Albert Cuyp markt – delicious, fresh bread.

Le Perron brood

Dutch Vocabulary:

• het brood (pl.broden) – bread
• de bakkerij – the bakery
• een sneetje brood – a slice of bread
• een boterham – a sandwich (one sliceo only)
• een gesneden brood – ‘a sliced loaf of bread
• de broodkruimels = het pannermeel – bread crumbs

Practice some listening to the history of Le Perron:

 

Bread is no longer boring

There are two things I waited for too long to do in the Netherlands – ride a bike and eat “hagelslag”. From what I understood, not doing any of those two could easily be considered a dutch cultural crime:). If you are wondering what the hagelslag is imagine chocolate sprinkles all over your buttered bread. Yep, for breakfast.

So yesterday I went to the supermarket and finally bought several different types: chocoladevlokken, vruchtenhagelslag and chocoladehagelslag. In the supermarket you can find many brands of hagelslag, but one of the best known is De Ruijter. I even bought 4 different type of spreads: hazelnut spread, chocolate, peanut butter. In the afternoon, I decided it is time to try them.

At first, I cheated a little bit in the afternoon – I did not sprinkle the hagelslag on buttered bread – I added them to my yoghurt to be more dietary. It was delicious, but I still could not understand what is all this hagelslag craziness about. That was until the evening when I tried them on bread. Believe it or not I had boterham met hagelslag for dinner with een glas witte wijn. I did not expect that it will be that delicious – heel heerlijk! My evening experience taught me that the worst with hagelslag is that you keep pouring more and more on your bread until you empty the box.

If you think I am exaggerating, read this: Dutch consume each year 14 million kilos of hagelslag on 850 million slices of bread. It seems I will be contributing to these figures during my three year stay in the Netherlands.

 

 

There is another type which I still need to try: the muisjes.
The muisjes are anise seeds covered in candy coating in two colour variations: pink with white and blue with white. The tradition goes that when a child is born, visitors are treated with a beschuit sprinkled with round muisjes: blue if the baby is a boy and pink in the case of a girl.

If you want to try the dutch breakfast at home- toast the bread, put butter and sprinkle with hagelslag, as simple as that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your dutch breakfast or dinner:)

Vocabulary:
chocoladevlokken – chocolate flakes
vruchtenhagel – fruit flavored sprinkles
de hagelslag – chocolate sprinkles
de boterham – slices of bread
een glas witte wijn – a glas of white wine
heel heerlijk – very delicious
beschuit – a round toast

 

 

 

Poffertjes met boter en suiker – smakelijk

I admit I did not want to take a photo of the poffertjes ( a small baby pancakes), because I knew I would not be able to resist the temptation of tasting them. But here I am, standing in front of the market stand buying a portion of this delicious treat – ten mini pancakes served with powdered sugar and a chunk of melting butter.

 

If you want to prepare them at home, you would need a poffertjespan and this recipe (thanks to Mylearningdutch blog

VOCABULARY

• poffertjes met boter en suiker – small pancakes with butter and sugar
• de poedersuiker – powdered sugar
• de boter – butter
• smakelijk – delicious

 

 

Playing chess on the street

Schaken op Max Euweplein in Amsterdam. Playing chess at the Max Euweplein square.

schaken – to play chess

Schaakbord op het Max Euweplein

If you are into playing chess, go to Max Euwe square and try your luck with the oversized chess pieces against the locals. The Max Euwe square is situated between Vondelpark and Leidseplein and is named after the chess grandmaster Max Euwe. The large chessboard is in his honor and there is a chess museum nearby.

Stroopwafels volgens traditioneel recept

Stroopwaffels at the Albert Cuypmarkt

Stroopwafel zijn echt Nedelands. – Stroopwafels are truly dutch. Their origin is from the town of Gouda (yes, also world famous for its Gouda cheese) in late 18th century.

The traditional, right way to eat a stroopwafel is to place it on top of your hot mug of coffee or tea for a minute to melt the syrup filling thus increasing the scent of cinnamon.

Here is the recipe if you decide to make them at home:

Vocabulary

• de stroop – syrop
• de wafel (pl.waffels/ waffelen) – waffel
• volgens – according to
• traditioneel – traditional
• het recept (pl.~en) – recipes
• echt – real, authentic, genuine