The big melt

Today is November 30th, and we've yet to have a freeze or even a frost. I read in the paper this week that Alpine skiing is already losing money, since not only is there little snow, but that the snow-making machines can't even operate, since they require a certain chilly temperature that hasn't been reached. Maybe Al Gore should run again and jump-start global warming reform. We certainly could do worse (and have!). Somebody's got to lead the way and get the world off of oil, immediately. Not news, but it's now dangerous and stupid not to do this. And since a lot of Holland already lies below sea level . . . it would be such a shame to lose an entire country. This all might not help the Mid-East, but it's worth a try.

My "Speaking & Listening" class's assignment this week, the video clip with questions about the content, focused on energy. I had thought that Holland would have gone over to wind energy and by now, would be well on the way to reducing its energy costs. It does have large areas that have the enormous white metal "trees" that generate wind energy, but it's not nearly enough. According to the clip, Sweden is in the forefront of alternative energy use in Europe, with a Saab that runs on something other than oil products. Holland uses several different methods, such as cow manure into gas, old mine water to heat and cool houses, some nuclear, solar, some cars running on alcohol, and "biomass". The clip laid blame on the lack of government will and also that some forms didn't return enough on the investment to warrant bigger development. For domestic use, most countries have no excuse, since solar has been around quite a while. I think of southern Europe and the Mid-East! All that sun. As an extra, several of the alternatives also seem much less people-intensive. No more oil trucks on emergency runs in snowy weather, for example. No more smelly, filthy furnaces. No more terrifying gas leaks/explosions. No more dead canaries, not to mention miners. I wonder when this will all happen, globally.

Off to write a reaction to a newspaper article, for an assignment. Exams start on December 15th -- two weeks. My life will not be my own until mid-January.

Tolerance vs. ambition?

And how to state this, too . . . ?

I think I may have come to grips with why laziness, mediocrity and lack of ambition by some generally are tolerated here . . . even respected. I think it's to do with the ingrained and sometimes fierce national tolerance (going back centuries) for difference of opinion, style and individual right to be and do as one pleases, as long as it doesn't harm. The tsunami of immigration here since the 1970s has put a lot of stress on this national attribute. The 2002 murder of Pim Fortuyn, the politician who publicly complained about the problems being inflicted in Holland by immigrants, and particularly by Moslims, was by a Dutchman, not a foreigner. On the ride home from a concert last night, a Dutch friend was discussing it, and said that Fortuyn spoke publicly about things that seethed through the whole country, but no one else had the nerve to make it public.

These thoughts were also stirred up by my observance of students in my classes (no Dutch ones) and also students in the ancient language (the ones which exist only now on tablets)classes of my talented young Russian friend, "Jenia". Over lunch on Friday, she recounted numerous incidents of her fellow students (Dutch ones) complaining to professors about quantity of homework and assignment due dates. Jenia just did the work. Her classmates not only didn't do the assignments, but complained about it. It was the reaction of the professors that amazed me: they all backed off! Jenia and I both thought, "Why are the students here?" While I realize that college students globally can be lazy, immature and irresponsible, being accepted to university here is an achievement academically. I expected to see a more serious attitude, and just don't. Doubtless, there are many exceptions. However, when these kids leave school and mature, what will they contribute, I wonder?

Is Holland like England, as a very successful British friend once described to me, that the British consider it bad form to succeed dramatically, whether financially or professionally? That this just wasn't done? He has gone from strength to strength over 25 years, working terribly hard. I respect and applaud him and his quest for excellence.

While Holland is commendable in many, many regards, this other side is an area that will continue to puzzle me. I wondered if it were a generational issue, but then remembered my former Dutch boyfriend telling me, in the mid-1970s, that his students at Nijmegen University (political philosophy and science) were lazy and stupid. Maybe the material comfort, ease and stability are deterrants to ambition, but I don't think so. It's a topic that fascinates me, so you'll hear about it again.

Off to try to achieve some more vocabulary, this week about "Working" and "Art and Culture". The sky is blue, so it's very tempting to take a walk, instead. To the books!

Market size? Tariffs? Filet!

How to state this . . .

I've wondered why some small appliances are much cheaper than the U.S. equivalent (boom boxes, hair dryers, coffee makers and vacuum cleaners, for example), and some are much pricier (food blenders, electric tooth brushes). I've given up wondering, but it would be interesting to know why. I have to say that the quality of these small devices is very high. My Braun coffee maker here is turbo-charged, compared to the *very* same machine that I had in the U.S. Maybe freedom from the U.S. tariffs enables it to surge here. With the exception of the Braun coffee maker, I've bought Philips things, and they're excellent.

Today is election day in Holland. I confess that I know nothing about it, other than that there are 20 political parties. When I lived here before, there were 23! People debate the issues endlessly. Debate and discussion are key aspects of life here. What I do find odd is that many of the parties are specifically linked to religious elements. In such a secular country(under 30% have any religious belief; even fewer attend any service), this seems odd, but I'm told that the religious orientation is gradually disappearing.

I've just received my first newspaper of a new subscription to one of the main dailies, in an effort to improve my reading comprehension and overall awareness of what's going on here. As well as the political parties and some of the t.v. channels, the newspapers also have religious orientations. I opted for "De Volkskrant", or "The People's Paper". This is not what it may seem. The paper is mainstream, well written and well regarded. In addition, my former landlady's son-in-law writes a food column for it on Saturdays, which I wanted to follow (he's a fine cook and introduced me last April to the previously noted, superb "Tasty Toms" tomatoes). Other choices are the "The Word" (Catholic, I think), "Faith" (I heard this called "a good Christian paper" and ran the other way, but it is nicely written), the "Telegraph", which isn't bad but is more tabloidal than it was when I lived here in the 70s and the NRC Handelsblad, which is most like the Wall Street Journal, but I find it a bit too dense for me at this point.

Thinking of good food (rarely far from my thoughts), my wonderful neighbor, Dona, who flies for KLM, just got back from Sao Paolo, Brazil, with 15 kilos of filet mignon! "And Customs?", I asked her. "Well, as crew, we have our own, but when we went through, they weren't there", she said. I was invited last night to enjoy some of it, and what a taste! Unlike American filet, which has been tasteless the last few times I've had it, it was superb. She just sauted it in butter, with pepper, as the French do. As I discovered about ten years ago while on a road trip in France, one *does* think better when one is extremely well fed.

So, off to make a late lunch and then back to the books.

Sometime, I'll write about my little street and the grand houses that back onto it. The house on the end has what looks like a trampoline suspended from the ceiling of one bedroom. I've been tempted to ring the bell and inquire, but don't have the nerve. All that I really know about my street is that my house (and the others, as far as I can tell) was built in 1620 as housing for the needy of Leiden. In addition to having the first major university of the country, Leiden was a textile center, and my street's houses were lived in by weavers in the 19th century, so not a fashionable area, but it is now. Digging up history here can be quite a treasure hunt. I want to learn more of Leiden.

Right: lunch!

The great grey curtain

Oh, well, it had to happen. The lint-grey sky has arrived and won't leave until April or May. This is the low, northern European sky. With it comes unusual weather, like hale and big winds. It inhibits alarm clocks. It's the reason that lots of Dutch interiors are painted yellow or orange. In my view, it's the reason for the existence of the most important word in Dutch, namely "gezellig", which usually translates to "cosy", but in Dutch incorporates everything imaginable that contributes to comfort, warmth, security and what one wants at home in the winter. Furniture, clothes, drinks, curtains, music, open hearth and pillows can all be "gezellig". It's now just a quarter past four in the afternoon, but getting darker by the moment. All my house's first floor lights are turned on. Yesterday afternoon, I took a walk through the Leiden woods with a friend, and we had a late lunch at an old-fashioned sort of tea house in the woods. It was the essence of gezellig.

I quit the Amsterdam choir that I recently joined, partly because a late Thursday night return on the train, in winter, around 10:30pm, likely in bad weather, was far too far from anything "gezellig" that I could imagine. The main reason was too much time for too much frustration (not to mention, no pay). Unlike their trains, the Dutch members of the choir always arrived quite late (not knowing their notes), and I didn't want to spend my time being annoyed.

Like the dark, blustering weather, "gezellig" permeates one's body and soul here. It's a good constrast to the low, lint-like sky.

Off to try to absorb another 99 words of vocabulary by 11am tomorrow. This week, it's "business" and "around the farm", all useful words. I'm still trying to understand (but will give this up) why some words are common (formerly, masculine and feminine) and some neuter. While rat and mouse are "common", rabbit is "neuter". Cow and pig are neuter, but goat and bean are common. It's hard to remember which are which, beyond general rules. Hay is neuter, but manure is common (indeed). Right! 'bye for now.

Established (nearly)

Hello, everybody,

It's been ages. September 26th was a very long time ago. Since then, I've . . .

- Received my residence permit (from the Ministry of Justice), in record time -- less than 30 days. I was warned that it could take six months. Even my advisor at the International Office was astonished. The permit is valid for a year, and cost about 500 Euros, for the processing and legal costs (a major scam, I think).

- Received my university student ID. This took the longest time.

- Received health insurance, which costs only 26 Euros a MONTH, for the duration that I'm here. It remains to be seen how well the insurance will cover my needs. This price reflects my being a full-time student, regardless of my age.

- Received wireless Internet, at home, TODAY.

- Auditioned and got into a good choir, in the St. Nicholas Church (a Roman Catholic church) in Amsterdam, which is a stone's throw (thrown by a giant, across the Metro construction's gaping pits) from the Central Station, so very convenient. This group sings Anglican (Church of England)Evensong on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, at 5pm. The service is a proper British Evensong, but with no clergy (this is a good thing!). The church is a neo-Baroque enormous pile, built in the late 19th century. It's the size of a small cathedral, with two very high domes. It's dark inside and has a lovely acoustic. While the choir is called "professional", no one is paid! I'm going for quality here, since I have no time for quantity. There's a weekly rehearsal, which I'm not used to, but oh, well. I need to keep my singing voice going, so this should work out well.

- Planted 344 flower bulbs in the front tiny plot (about 2 feet x 10 feet), which for years has served as the WC for the street's cats, but NO MORE! Like beer, flowers, cheese, veggies and some other things, flower bulbs here are so cheap (yes, Holland is the world center of flower bulbs, but I was still amazed at the low prices, bought at the local "Hema", a very useful, colorful department store). I paid about 20 Euros for all of these bulbs. It was impossible to resist, even though I'm renting. While I was adding soil to the ground and designing the planting, I had a lot of approval from neighbors and people strolling, who promised to check back in the spring! One foil to the cats came from a lady passing by, who suggested sprinking used coffee grounds onto the soil, which I'm doing.

- Kept my head above water academically. The only grades we've had so far come from the weekly vocabulary quizzes (about 175 words to learn, each week!), and I'm maintaining an average of about 8.6 (of 10), so that's a comfort. I'm figuring out clues to remembering new words, using "sounds like", and using the prefixes and prepositions which are often attached to verbs, to learn them and guess them, in context. Guessing definitely is a factor of taking the quizzes. Each chapter has a theme, such as "money", "education", so are practical and helpful in daily life. Progress comes in clumps and irregularly, as knowledge seems to do. We all feel as if the words stick for the time of the quiz each Tuesday morning, and then evaporate into the mist. With such a massive infusion each week, I really wonder how many will be with me as time goes on. If nothing else, this weekly discipline helps us in the immersion process. We're just beginning the second phase, which will be lots of reading and comprehension work. Next semester, we'll start reading actual literature. One thing that I always enjoy is the weekly transcription of a popular song using headsets, always about some aspect of life here. It always takes me at least an hour, but once immersed in it, I really enjoy the process.

- Missed getting a 10 last week by one stupid mistake. After 11 years of work in maritime law, I managed to define a canal as a sluice, or LOCK. It was a multiple-choice thing. I forgot that "canal" was on the list of options. My long-time, esteemed boss will be very amused to read this.

- Unpacked all of the CDs and LPs, still wondering what in the world to do with all of the LPs, some of which I doubt ever went into CD. I can't bear to get rid of the LPs and probably will buy a record player.

- Been amazed at my cats' progress with Dutch. They appear to be completely fluent! They also have progressed with their foot races upstairs, the length of the house. They guard the front of the house vigilantly, sitting for hours on the window sills, fending off criminal attack.

- Accepted that the price for the beautiful, green that surrounds me is very wet weather. Last week, it hailed (yes, little ice pellets, that bounce), not once, but three times, before lunch, on the same day. The long, pale grey sky has arrived and won't leave completely until next summer. With some exceptions, the sky is the color of laundry lint and feels very low. Other than making it hard to get up in the morning, I don't mind it. The amazing thing is that it can be very grey here for days, but not rain! It looks and fees like rain, but may not rain.

- Been thrilled by my art history course. We finally got to Rembrandt yesterday, and it was fascinating to hear discussed the technical aspects of why his work enthralls me every time I see it. There are quite a few much earlier painters that I'm now eager to see more of, such as Rogier van der Weide and Lucas van Leyden. These two are known as "Flemish Primitives", but their work is anything but primitive. There's a new exhibit at the Mauritshuis, in The Hague, that's Rubens and Pieter Brueghel, that's top of my list. It would be great to take a long holiday and just go and see my favorite pictures, in museums around the world. In the meantime, Delft, Den Bosch, Ghent and Bruges have lots to offer.

- Bought what's called the Museum Card. For 25 Euros, it gives the bearer free admission to all Dutch museums, for a year! Since the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum alone charges about 10 Euros, this card is a steal.

- Bought the train discount card. For all rides begun after 9am, one saves 40%! The discount card for Holland costs 55 Euros, but for 15 more, one adds a 25% discount for train rides in France, Belgium and Germany. Quite a deal.

- Not figured out the snails. They're still plentiful in the rear garden and don't seem to be harming anything.

- Lost a few pounds. No snacking, more exercise and better food have all helped. Also, I'm eating at home nearly all of the time, and that makes a big difference.

- Resolved to figure out how to load photos onto this blog, but don't have them now. Soon, soon!

'bye for now,
Pamela