My spoken Dutch is improving. The last couple of days the question has been, ‘Am I German?’ This is when you know you’ve graduated from the American accent which results in a few words of English. A step forward. My goal is to once again try to mimic the accent of long-time-friend-E who speaks perfect …
Author Archives: The Chronicler
Hannah
A name. Last week, an unknown-to-me-man said ‘Hoi’ and waved to me as I bicycled past him. I have had more experiences of people appearing to know me. Today, entering a small shop, the shopkeeper said, ‘Hoi Hannah”! All was fine until I spoke and then she said, ‘Oh, sorry, I thought you were Hannah’. …
It Took 6 Months
To figure out what curtain to hang in the front downstairs window and find the bread-taste I remember.When I moved in, the house owner, on the fly, asked if I wanted the ‘sheers’ which were in her hand, hung at the front window. She had not used them, I was reeling from all the information …
Dutch Stairs
They could be worse. They could those metal ones. These are wood. Dark of night is a challenge if you check out the bottom two – same darkness. Never will be my favorite.
Trite but True
It all just tastes better. Don’t know why, do believe it is better prepared and there are more restraints in place to keep the harmful additives out. But the tomatoes taste like garden fresh, and the food spoils more quickly. All the foods.
Fresh Haring
In all senses of the word: there is nothing like it. First it is wrapped up like a gift by the fish monger. Then at home, you lay it out, cover it in finely chopped onions. which are inside the gift wrap. Then you eat it. Right up there with raw oysters.
Takes the Breath Away
What a Difference an “A” makes…
My new-found friend, SMS’d -texted- to say her daughter was running a fever and we would have to reschedule our coffee date. The polite reply is to ‘say’ is ‘beterschap’ which means ‘get well’. But I wrote beterschaap which means ‘better sheep’. She thought it was funny. I knew I should have taken that extra …
The Old Adage ‘ If you don’t like the weather…
…just wait and it will change’. And true it is. The morning can be begin with the sun-up and 10 am the sky is filled with dark clouds and it is raining. The pattern I can not figure out is when the sun is shinning brightly and it is raining. Being on the water, I …
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Fatsoenlijk
There is a graciousness to this word. It broadly means ‘well mannered’. I used it in such a seldom-occurring -righteous-moment. It’s Sunday morning, the sun is shinning, I hear a dog barking, yowling, whining, carrying on in a way that is not usual for an early-morning-walked-pet. Looking out of my upstairs window I see for …