Expat's World Blog Surf Day entry: Holidays and celebrations.

Before I start, I must share some links with you. The next blogger taking part is Mub.
 
Also, Karen at Empty Nest Expat is Twitter-ing about this event today.

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I thought that I would probably talk about Sinterklaas for my World Blog Surf Day entry as it is a holiday I really do enjoy. It's definitely a favourite. The more I thought about it, I realised that what I like most is seeing how the Dutch celebrate birthdays and the birth of a baby. I guess it's one of the few times I get to be around Dutch people and learn more about their culture. Most of the things I learn about the Dutch, I glean from books or other blogs.

There were so many things I could talk about in relation to this topic but wanted to keep this post as succinct as possible.


C = Circle


When you go to a birthday gathering, you'll most likely be asked to take a seat in the birthday circle. The birthday boy or gal will have arranged the exact number of chairs in a circle around the coffee table. The birthday circle is not limited to birthdays. If a few people are invited to someone's house for a celebration, you'll probably always sit in a circle. When you sit down, you are not expected to move from your seat until its time to leave (or visit the bathroom.)

E = Eating

As soon as you sit down in the birthday circle, the first thing you'll be offered is a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of birthday cake. Usually there are two types of cake on offer. After the cake has been scoffed and you've finished your drink, more food appears. Cubes of cheese, slices of sausage and crackers with various toppings are popular. You don't leave the circle to get food. The birthday person will walk around the circle and you grab a piece of food from the plate. A short while later the same thing happens. A short while after that, the plate is passed around again. Once the mini pieces of food have been devoured, crisps and nuts usually appear.

L = Liedje

Liedje is a song. Here is a clip of Nick and Simon singing "Happy birthday" in Dutch.



E = E-mail

A birthday person invites people to their home for their birthday and they'll usually send out an invitation by e-mail. The birthday person will give a start - and sometimes end - time for the party. You are expected to arrive on time for the start of the party. Usually the invitation is limited to family but sometimes a few friends or neighbours may be invited. Most invites requesting that you reply by a certain date. We got an invitation this week that asked us to reply by 8:50am on Sunday morning. This was a serious request. Very precise!

B = Banners

It is easy to tell when a new baby has arrived because people decorate their houses to announce the occasion. You may only see a blue or pink flag hanging infront of the house but a simple, understated display like that is pretty rare. Some popular decorations are storks, a large wooden baby or animal (usually with the baby's name printed on it) or even a giant inflatable baby. Banners and/or balloons hanging in the front windows and in the garden saying "Hoera, it's a boy/girl!" are popular. These can stay up for quite some time. Our next door neighbours erected a washing line in their front garden and hung blue baby clothes from it. Above it they had perched a large banner with the name of their son. It stayed there for months.

R = Rusks
 
A beschuit is usually translated into English as rusk. In the UK they are called something else as I always associate a rusk with the baby biscuits. I've looked online but can't find a definite answer. When you go to visit new parents, you will be offered a beschuit met muisjes. Muisjes [little mice!] are small, hard aniseed-flavoured balls. They are sprinkled on a beschuit with butter. Most people say that they are heel erg lekker which means that they think they are very tasty indeed.
 
A = Announcement

New parents post a birth announcement card [Geboortekaartje] to friends and family pretty quickly after the birth of their child. This is such a normal thing to do that the postal folk also sell stamps [Geboortezegels] with storks on them. We get these cards a lot, even from my partner's work colleagues who he says he doesn't even know. He jokes that this is because people do this because they're trying to get you to fork out money. Usually the cards have information about the new baby, godparents, what times you can visit at or asking that you call the parents to arrange a visit beforehand. I've noticed that some of the cards also include the parents' bank account details so you know where you can deposit loot if you feel like it.
 
T = Table

When you visit new parents, it is common for them to use the coffee table to display all the gifts people have bought. Cards that people have sent are usually on display around the living room too.

E = Etiquette

When you greet the birthday person you congratulate them with a Gefeliciteerd and a handshake or three kisses. When you enter the living room, some people may already be perched on their seats in the birthday circle. If these people are in your family, or the family or your partner, you will say hello and take your seat. Sometimes the birthday person has invited their in-laws or a neighbours. It is very normal for these people to  walk around and shake everyone's hand and congratulate them on the birthday of your sibling or sibling-in-law! I find this the most boggling, and amusing, thing about Dutch birthdays and never know how to react in this situation.
 

New books

Sometimes we see some book stalls at the market in town and I always head straight for the children's books. I sometimes purchase something and now have a small collection of Dutch children's books. I try to make an effort to read even a little bit of one of the books each night. Most of them are picture books or short stories but I'm pretty sure that this little bit of reading has really helped my vocabulary.

Last week Daan came home with two new books for me because I've nearly finished all the books I have. He was away for work and found them during his lunch break in a second-hand bookstore.

They are a lot more advanced than the books I've been reading so far. I really love how old school the books look. Swoon.

Ik wil graag Nederlands leren

The Dutch lessons have started but I'll probably not say too much about about them for a few weeks. I'd like to see how things progress and I'm interested to see what the difference between the immersion course and the next level will be like. So far things are going well and I'm really pleased that I signed up for this course.

There are 18 people in the class and most of them are living here because, like me, they have a Dutch partner. Most of them also plan on settling here for good or, at least, for quite some time. On the first day our teacher asked us why we were learning Dutch and to tell her one or two of the main reasons why we were following the course. Almost every person said they wanted to learn Dutch because they wanted to find a job or follow a course. Finding a job is important to me but I feel that if I learn Dutch I am confident I will find a job. I've also had a job here before so know it's possible and another English speaking job could pop up again in the future. I'd like to have as many options as possible. Some people have already said that if they find a job they'll quit the course or they only intend to do this immersion course. I was expecting to hear at least one of the main reasons I had said but nobody else said the same thing. I found this really surprising.

1. To understand and be understood.

This is what motivates me to learn Dutch. I want to be able to speak for myself in any situation and know what is happening around me. I want to be able to speak to people, especially Daan's parents. I just can't imagine living here and never being able to speak with people in the language of the country we're living in. I can go shopping here or travel and understand what's being said and most of the time people understand me but when the Dutch gets more complicated or there are a lot of people speaking Dutch, I am completely cut off from what is happening. I don't speak because I can't add to the conversation and rely on someone to translate. For me, this is one of the hardest things about being an expat.

2. I live here ergo I should.

The Dutch speak good English. I heard this so much before I lived here. Yes, most of them do but not all of them. Daan's parents and aunts and uncles speak no English whatsoever. His siblings speak English but don't like speaking it. When I was living here about eight months, more people started to comment that I should learn Dutch. The Dutch are tolerant but I have found that many people expect that you should make efforts to integrate. I am not disagreeing with this but I have heard comments so many times about this. Just last weekend Daan met one of his aunts and he was telling them that I was doing the immersion course. She told him about a relative who is married to a foreigner and that, despite having lived here for over five years, they rather disapprovingly said that they still don't speak very good Dutch. I think it shows that many Dutch people do expect you to get to grips with the language at some point. I also find that even if you're Dutch is very basic, people's attitudes completely change. Whenever I go out, people are always very polite in shops and are always asking me lots of questions when they realise I'm not a native Dutch speaker. It's funny how a shop assistant can go from looking very surly to being really cheery and wanting to talk to you when they realise you're a foreigner. That always amuses me.

The Sunday cycle

Today is World Animal Day. While I was out cycling today, I tried to take a picture of any animals we passed.

World Animal Day is celebrated on 4th October because this is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals (and plants.)

World Animal Day in Dutch is Werelddierendag. From what I have heard and read, most people seem to call it Dierendag. 

According to Dutch websites, the first World Animal Day was celebrated on 4th October 1930. British websites say it was first celebrated in 1931.

In 2006, Kindereboekenweek (Children's book week) started on 4th October. The book theme that year was animals.

Some Dutch schools allow children to bring a pet or cuddly toy to school with them. I wonder if this is popular in other countries? This doesn't happen, as far as I'm aware, in the UK but Daan remembers his classmates bringing their pets to school.

If you look on the NUfoto website, you'll see plenty of other pictures that have been uploaded today. This is my favourite.

Cooking Dutch style: Hutspot

Hutspot (also known as wortelstamp) is probably one of my favourite Dutch meals. It's so simple but I love it. It's also super easy to prepare. I guess I could have bought potatoes and carrots and peeled and sliced them but I'm very slow at that.

Our local supermarket sells potatoes and carrots and onions especially for hutspot. Already washed and sliced. I love making things easier and I'm lazy so of course I bought those. Actually, I always buy these huge bag of potatos and carrots and onions for making cottage pie. This way I can make enough for two days. I've never actually made hutspot with them but I've really wanted to try it for a while.

I got the recipe here. I didn't want to use the amount of butter they suggested in the recipe so put the onions in a little bit of oil. I managed to burn some of them slightly because I went to answer the phone mid-cooking. Oops. Lesson learnt. I should have gone with my instinct and cooked the carrot and onions with the potatoes. Other recipes I've looked at since have all said to do that.

Mashed the carrots, onions and potatoes together. Added a little bit of milk and butter. Also added a dash of pepper, salt and nutmeg (nootmuskaat).

Although it was my first attempt, and I thought it was going all wrong at one point, it did look like hutspot in the end. It tasted quite nice, too. We had ours with vegetarian sausages and (Bisto) gravy.