Happy Turkey Day

I know you guys are feeling sorry for us because we don't have an oven, meaning we can't cook a turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all that yummyness, but there's no need for pity: we managed to score an invite to a true-blue Canadian Thanksgiving dinner, hosted by our neighbors downstairs. We said yes faster than you can say tryptophan.

Our neighbor is Canadian (from Montreal), her husband American (Albany, NY), and they have a four year old daughter, and 5 month old twin babies (a boy and a girl). Also invited for dinner was another Canadian friend (from PEI) and her Dutch husband, so it was quite a smattering of people, all brought together by the love of gravy.

Obviously, it was great. As was the apple and pumpkin pie with ice cream. It was such a treat, and for that we are very thankful.

De Haagse Markt

The weather these past few days has been very nice, as the rain has stayed away. Today was probably the sunniest day we've seen in The Hague, and the temperature in the afternoon was nearly 20°.

Seeing as how it was so lovely, Ross & I and everyone else in The Hague decided to check out de Haagse Markt, an open air market held every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The website is here, and I encourage you to all visit it and enjoy it's ambiance. Supposedly every Dutch city has a market, and they're known for their bargains.

The markt covers an area about the size of two city blocks, and it is filled with tents adorned with all kinds of treasure. It was packed! Most of the time, we were standing shoulder to shoulder in a mass of people.

There was much more stuff at de Haagse Markt than either of us expected. You could find nearly everything you can imagine: clothes, shoes, boots, jewelry, meat, electronics, boots, furniture, cheese, health and beauty supplies, boots, bike accessories, fruits and veggies, flowers, bottle openers, bathing suits, boots, cameras, candy, fabric--and above all--more boots. Most of this stuff was very cheap and junky. The stuff that wasn't cheap and junky appeared to be stolen. It was kind of like one gigantic dollar store!

Some booths were set up like stores that you went inside, but most were displayed like carnival games with the seller on one side, and you had to point to what you wanted. I enjoyed watching a woman indicating to a seller what size of underwear she wears.

Some of the tents were like a garage sale, and had people selling their old crap at them. These tents didn't smell so good. I took note of the shortsighted spacial planning of a tent that sold dvds: the "adult" section was directly beside the children's.

The abundance of items for sale was quite astonishing. Here is just one of the multiple fish sellers. I have never seen so much vis (fish) in my life. You can't tell from this photo, but the smell of this section was awful, and there were flies aplenty.


And of course, there wasn't any shortage of greasy food stands. The Dutch do love their patats (French Fries), eaten with your choice of mayo, curry sauce, or peanut sauce. I'd like to shake the hand of the man who thought of eating peanut butter with French Fries.


We bought some kaas, zonnebloemen (sunflowers), some spinach and some soap. Nothing too exciting, but now we have an idea of the available inventory at de Haagse Markt.

Happy International Animal Day!

Swag

We may have packed light to get here, but our apartment is filling up fast. This is because every time we head into a business, they load us up with swag. One stereotype of the Dutch is that they are frugal people. Regardless of whether or not this is accurate, I don't think Dutch companies are. Being a designer, I have a insider's perspective as to what it takes to create these freebies, and I realize that someone is reaching deep into their pockets to give us the goods.

The expat market is huge, and there are many give-away publications about life in Holland. All you have to do is say "Hello" and people will start loading up your arms with info about getting settled in your new surroundings.


People realize that often you're not prepared to carry around the info they give you, so it frequently comes in a tas (bag). We have acquired many tassen since living here, which we use for groceries (everyone brings their own to the store). The first tas we were given came in very handy while we were in Spain, as we used it as a place to store our wet towel. Needless to say, we no longer have that tas.


Even when I went to that interview last week, I left with twee boeken (two books), een tijdschrift (a magazine), and een nieuwe tas (a new bag).


We filled out a form to get a membership card at a store, and two weeks later, this 100-page hardbound guide to the country arrived in the mail.


Even our rental company gave us a bottle of wine for signing the contract. The bottle below is the second bottle they've given us (as mentioned in a previous post). The first bottle we opened on our first night in the apartment, and drank it out of measuring cups because our household items had yet to arrive. I drank 175 mL, and Ross drank 150.


But, it's not all corporate swag. We're slowing building a collection of Dutch designed posters and publications. Today's Art, the two-day art festival (get it?) from a couple weekends ago gave away posters, pamphlets, booklets, and the series of mags below. There were five mags in total, but we only scored 4 of them.


Last but not least, my latest acquisition of swag is the inspiration for this post. I went to the bank and opened an account. Because I'm under 33 and have a Bachelors, I qualified for a "Young Professional Package", which is just a bundle account that encourages you to do as much of your banking online as possible. Professional "what" is still up for debate, but the package came with a bunch of loot, including a binder to sort all my statements, etc. That thing that looks like a calculator is actually a security device for internet banking. As I'm online, I have to stick my bank card in that thing, and it will give me a random pin number that I have to enter on the website. Cool eh? Us Young Professionals, we're so internet savvy. And of course, I was given a rip-off Freitag Bag to store all my loot in. Because us Young Professionals, we don't carry briefcases, we carry fluorescent green messenger bags.


This is just a sampling of the swag that hasn't been recycled. There has been so much more stuff! We've also been given lots of black-licorice candy, but-ahem-we don't have that anymore.

All this swag has got me thinking about why graphic design is such a strong industry here. Not only do companies really believe the quality of the materials that reach their customers is a reflection of their services, Holland is a niche market. Anything that is printed in Dutch is most likely designed in The Netherlands. Whereas in Canada, the printed matter that we encounter on a day-to-day basis (even something as minute as a form you fill out at the bank) can be designed anywhere in North America, or England, or anywhere that speaks English, the Dutch are the only ones who speak Dutch, and therefore, someone local designs it.

Just imagine the fine print.

At 32- and 34-letters, Levensverzekeringsmaatschappijen and Projectontwikkelingsmaatschappijen are officially the two longest works in the Dutch language. They mean "life insurance companies", and "property developing companies," respectively.

Brokers, eh? Tsk. Tsk.

This post is not about his pants

Keeping the sidewalks clean seems to be a large priority in The Hague. These are the brooms the city workers use: bound bundles of twigs. After their work is done, they just hop on and fly away.

Drama-rama

It wouldn't be a new week if there wasn't a fresh issue with the apartment. This morning started like any other day, but moments after I stepped out of the shower, we received the daily buzzing of our door. It was our Canadian neighbour from downstairs. She was calling to let us know that it was "raining" inside of their living room; water was coming through their ceiling.

When we first moved in she told us that they had had problems with water leakage when this apartment was being renovated. So this not a new issue and nothing we've done or could have prevented, but even still . . .

Strangely enough, we were on our way to the rental agency to give them October's rent. It was actually convenient to mention this new issue at that time. When we walked in the door, we introduced ourselves with our address, and the agent said, "Ah, yes, water heater troubles" and handed us a bottle of wine. We then broke the news about the latest water problem.

So, if we don't have hot water for four days, we get a bottle of wine; I wonder what we'll get if our whole bathroom needs replacing? A keg?