Updates Galore

Here are a few updates on my new life in the Netherlands:

1. On Mondays and Wednesdays I have been going to Ultimate Frisbee practice with some friends I was lucky enough to meet through my girlfriend’s work. My prior experience with the game was purely recreational and much less organized than this game. For Pete’s sake, there are warm-ups and drills!

The formalized game play was a little overwhelming at first, but I’ve been getting the hang of it. It’s been great to play a team sport again and the whole practice is a great workout. Since most of the other players are native Dutch the practices are also a good opportunity to try out my Rosetta Stone language skillz.

2. I found a sports complex with a pool where I can swim fairly cheaply. Unfortunately the open hours are 7-9am and 12-1pm. Fortunately my current state of unemployment makes it pretty easy to fit these times into my schedule. But anyway, the pool is great. It’s not terribly crowded, which is great because they don’t put in lane lines during the open swim.

Going at the 12-1 window has been cool because it’s kind of like a group practice. I’ve seen a lot of the same people there regularly – we all go for the whole hour – and we all are showering and changing at the same time. This has given me the opportunity to meet some more Dutch people, make friends and practice the language. I even got a haircut location recommendation from my latest friend.

While learning something new is always exciting, it can also be humbling and frustrating. As much as I like playing Ultimate and learning new words for things, having a lot of new come at you at once can be altogether draining. Going to the pool has helped in that respect because swimming is something I already know how to do well (I’m no Olympian but years of training and coaching weren't in vain). Being able to go to the pool and be one of the more experienced and fast swimmers feels good. It’s OK to enjoy an ego boost to balance all the inexperienced newness. At least I think so.

3. At the beginning of the month I started an unpaid internship with an excellent arts and culture magazine in Amsterdam, written IN ENGLISH! Amsterdam, you say? Isn’t that on the other side of the country from Den Bosch? Yes, but it’s like traversing Maryland.

Most Dutch people, especially A’dam’ers, are used to a cross-town bike commute so the hour-long train ride it takes me to get there from Den Bosch earned me a couple of quizzical looks along the way. I don’t mind. It’s a far cry from the two trains + bus I had to take from Chicago to Skokie when I first worked at the Nordstrom’s there. This is a piece of cake. I got myself a discount train card (pays for itself after just a couple of uses) and the smooth ride is great for reading, writing and the occasional crossword puzzle.

I’ve really enjoyed the internship thus far. Initially I was asked to come in once a week. Now they want to see me thrice. Progress! I’ve had the opportunity to do some nuts and bolts work for them but some bigger writing opportunities are looming on the horizon. In addition, I might get the chance to do a little photography! Though it isn’t exactly gainful employment, I really like the magazine and the service it provides to Amsterdam residents and tourists. I was told that in some instances interns get the opportunity for a paid position of sorts. That’s my goal.

4. Since I am still waiting to hear back from some part-time Den Bosch jobs I decided to use my recent birthday as an excuse to realize goal of learning to play guitar and become the third member of the Black Keys. Having no experience whatsoever I decided to start from the very beginning.

Fortunately there is a small sales/repair shop at the end of our street and I found its sole proprietor to be helpful, friendly, and altogether cool. Having been a salesperson for a number of years I have a sense about selling personalities. This man is a musician and instrument repairman, not a seller. I figured I could trust him.

After making an initial visit to see options and prices I could compare against the online community, I decided to go back and pull the trigger on a folk/acoustic: Greg Bennett Design Samich D-5 with beautiful cherry-stained neck and sides. Of the guitars I tried it also made the biggest sound without sacrificing tone. If I’m going to play acoustic blues-rock some day that quality will come in handy.

In just a week and a half of lessons with various YouTube instructors I’ve learned about 9 major and minor chords, the pentatonic scale, and how to pick out Ode to Joy and Let It Be. Slllloooooowwwllllyyy.

Learning an instrument is no foreign concept to me, but it’s definitely a different beast from piano, French horn and mellophone. I’ve noticed my fingers and hand get tired quicker than my lips, though it was many years ago that I first buzzed on a mouthpiece. Endurance should come with time and practice.

I’m definitely enjoying the process, and I need to because I’m not to the point yet where I can enjoy the sounds that are coming from the guitar. But I do like practicing, which is a sensation I don’t remember having earlier on in my musical career. Maybe that’s also just maturity talking.

If you've made it this far, I appreciate your time and patience. I promise to write in smaller doses and more often to prevent the need for long comprehensive updates like this one.

I've added some more pictures to my Facebook album that you can also check out here. For pictures of my visit to the Keukenhof, famous Dutch tulip garden, here is the album.

Snap Snap Snap

Camera phone! A couple of beautiful days in Den Bosch and Amsterdam yielded a number of pretty pictures. You can check them out in my Facebook album with this public link

Here is a little taste:

The Oude Kerk (Old Church) is smack-dab in the middle of Amsterdam's Red Light District.


This canal canal separates the Oude Kerk from the more, shall we say, action packed area of the RLD.

Then Out Came the Sun

Sort of. It was patchy. At least it wasn't raining.

We pass this big Japanese Cherry several times a week while running, but yesterday Katie and I walked the outer wall of Den Bosch for a change. We soaked up Sunday's last bit of sunlight to cap off a pleasantly quiet weekend. More pictures from this walk, as well as other pictures I've taken in the NL can be found in my Facebook album here. Apparently it adds the latest photos to the end of the album.

Another weekend highlight was our Saturday night dinner with some friends at De Pino, an Italian restaurant just around the corner from our apartment. This charming little establishment is quite cozy - a kitchen plus a kitchen-sized dining room separated by narrow register/bar - as there seemed to be room for only 20-30 people. Upon walking in the front door you are practically in the kitchen, so we were immediately greeted by richly seasoned aromas of tomatoes, garlic, onions...I could go on but it's difficult to type on drool-covered keys.

For appetizer we had a dish highly recommended by friends, present company included, that can really only be described as "goat cheese heaven." I could have gone home and died a happy man just after finishing this divine dish of fresh French bread bathing in baked and shredded geitenkaas. As delicious as it was simple, the crisp yet fluffy bread made a perfect carbo-complement to the subtle sour creaminess of its goat cheese bath. Oh, to be that bread...

For an entree I tried the meat lasagna. This dish can be dangerous: I've seen blocks of cheese the size of your head, slabs of pasta overflowing the plate, etc. But this portion was well-controlled and creatively served in a short, walled dish, similar to the appetizer. This meant the lasagna itself could actually sit in ADDITIONAL tomato-cream sauce. Brilliant! Once the straight-from-the-oven heat dissipated I made quick work of this more modest-a pasta. Heavy on the tomatoes and herbs and more controlled with the cheese and meat, it was a well-balanced harmony of ingredients.

No sooner had my friend across the table (who had had the cannelloni) and I found ourselves in the similar predicament of having excess sauce then our waitress appeared bearing more French bread with garlic butter so mouthwateringly fresh, it was practically sprouting roots.

De Pino, your close proximity will doubtless become a blessing and a curse.

Back in the Saddle

A friend recently asked me if I “found it quite different living abroad.” I’m guessing he meant to imply ‘different living abroad from living in the U.S.’ It is a pretty straight-forward question and I think ultimately the one I am often thinking about for writing in this space.

With the hectic excitement of moving to the Netherlands from America I did a poor job of taking any time to reflect about my initial impressions of Dutch people and their country. Now that I’ve spent good couple weeks here and the raw, tumultuous part of the transition is past, I’m starting settle in with the surroundings. And have a few simple thoughts about life being different.

My initial response to my friend’s question was, “no, not particularly.” Maybe that’s a pretty subjective assessment. But other than the absence of a day-to-day job, my way of life is not fundamentally different. I check email, read blogs and online articles, buy groceries at a large chain store, go out to bars and restaurants with friends, etc. None of those feel very different. And, arguably, they are not. We’re not living in a small, remote Dutch village –‘s-Hertogenbosch is a comfortably modern and globalized city that just doesn’t happen to have good BBQ, stuffed pizza, or Seven for All Mankind jeans.

Most of the activities I listed don’t require much face-to-face social interaction, and there is a reason for that. Even with the help of Rosetta Stone, I still find people speaking native Dutch at me to be very intimidating. My vocabulary, pronunciation and confidence are all improving, but the amount I am able to apply them outside the house and my circle of friends is only slowly growing.

Interestingly, the Dutch are not particularly intimidating people. In the past weeks we have visited IKEA, car rental stations, restaurants, bars, and stores and we quickly run out of Dutch things to say, reverting to “Ik spreek kleine Nederlands,” or “In Engels, alstublieft?” Most of the time person we’re speaking with is able to pick right up with pretty decent English. And most of the time they appear happy to do so. It’s a very warm and welcoming experience, though at the same time a little embarrassing.

I think it would be one thing if we were simply tourists, just trying to get around for a few days or weeks on our way to the next country. But in taking residence here I want to feel like I belong, fit in, am not a major imposition on these people. I want to feel like I at least come close to meeting the club membership requirements.

I do feel like less of a tourist with the small (but expanding!) amount of Dutch I can speak with local Den Bosch’ers. For short and or routine exchanges – such as the grocery store checkout line – I know most of the appropriate questions and answers. Even in a longer conversation when the other person realizes I am “amerikanse” and speaks to me in English, I still try to use as much Dutch as I know, even if it’s just nummers or kleuren. So far, people respond to this practice positively: more open body language, approving facial expressions, smiles, laughs, words of encouragement. I can tell they appreciate the effort, just like I appreciate theirs. Awwwwww.

No Shortage of Cloudy Skies

After visiting a few job agencies yesterday I took a long and winding route home through the city. Overcast skies make it fun for shooting texture so I snapped a couple of the local cathedral in passing.

The scaffolding you see is just part of a much larger scaffolding monster helping restorers to revitalize the cathedral's exterior after years of acid rain. Eww.

Looking from the cathedral toward its courtyard (just beyond the trees) and the Parade (several restaurants, pubs and businesses lining the square).

And, just for fun, here is what I initially mistook for Marty McFly's DeLorean:

It wasn't. Ford Capri, probably early 80s. If I'm Dutch, I'm not really inspired to go out an buy American. In my head is the advertisement, "The New Ford Capri: The Ford that wants to be a Saab."

De Smaak Van Het Bier

"The taste of the beer."

Leffe "Brune-Dubbel." Brown Abbey Ale, Alc. 6.5%, kost. 1.01€

A wise man once told me, "a man will drink a finite, predetermined number of beers during his life. Every bad beer you drink will decrease the number of good beers you will drink by one."

Following this advice and motivated by this story a friend sent me yesterday I picked up a few "good" bieren to go with dinner last night. Above I posted a picture of one of them. Immediate lesson: camera phone inside at night does not a great picture take.

Fortunately, and as expected, the beer looked, smelled and tasted much better than the photo.

This a brown ale, called "double," some descriptions say, because if you found this beer in a pub between its siblings of varying strengths its medium alcohol strength would be notated by some distinction of "2" on the barrel (vs. 1, 3, or sometimes 4).

The Dubbel is dark, frothy and sweet in appearance, smell and taste. Its slight carbonation imparts a tingly mouth sensation that builds and lasts over the course of the drink. The taste and "finish" are rich and light, making me think simply of herbs and caramel at once, as opposed to a "blond" or "tripel" that have different yeasts and often more complex citrus-y flavors.

According to my friend, Mr. Jackson, this beer is named for Notre-Dame de Leffe abbey in Dinant, Belgium. Similar to other actual abbey brews, the Leffe crew hasn't actually produced its own beer since the first Bastille Day. They resumed production strictly in order to raise maintenance funds for the abbey itself. Not because the beer tastes great and everyone wants to buy it or anything.

Pictures on the Facebook!

As seen in previous posts I haven't yet found a way to post pictures any larger than a few inches square. The Facebook is a little more friendly with space so I'm going to continue loading images there and publish the public link here. That said, I'll make sure to keep including appropriate and necessary visual aids actually on this page.


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