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?

Amsterdam two weekends in a row. . .

. . . you'd think we were Dutch or something. This past weekend, we had our first visitors, the well-traveled and always enjoyable Kyla & Mike. After stops in London & Paris, they arrived in Den Haag; it was so great to see familiar faces. Kyla described her first glimpse of me as "bouncy". Although I have no direct recollection of this, it seems vaguely familiar.

We all stayed in our apartment the first night, and then spent the next two in Amsterdam. The past three days were filled with plenty of beer, conversation and laughs. Unfortunately, the only photo I have of the four of us together is the one above.

We toured former brewery of the ubiquitous Heineken; it was somewhere between one big beer advertisement, and a frat-boy's dream come true.


Included in the admission price was tokens for beer along the way. If only all museums took this into consideration . . .


Have you heard Amsterdam has a red-light district? It's true. But seeing as how this is mostly a PG-rated blog, I'll skip the details.

One of the biggest highlights was the Indonesian restaurant we ate at last night. We were the only tourists in the place, and it took us ages to order. Once we surrendered our desire to pick items off the menu, and allowed the man in charge decide what we were going to eat, we had one of the best meals to date.

It was raining almost the entire time, but that didn't subtract from our experience. Most patios were equipped with big umbrellas and heaters, which enabled us to pretend it was still summer.

Amsterdam is beautiful with wide kanaals, brick straats, and tall buildings that seem to be leaning at different angles. It is full of beautiful details and interesting things to look at, such as this gigantic games of chess.


One thing that amazes me the most is how Dutch people hold umbrellas while riding bikes. I can't help but think how dangerous this is, and how I would surely topple if I suddenly needed to brake. Sometimes two people riding side-by-side would even share an umbrella. It's hard enough to keep in step when you're walking next to someone! My bike-riding skills have been seriously humbled since arriving. Honestly, if the only think you're doing is riding the bike, you're wasting valuable time.

We saw more of Amsterdam than the first visit, but we still don't feel as though we know her yet. Luckily she is only 39 mins away, and I'm positive hasn't seen the last of us yet.

werk

I should have mentioned this a few days ago, but I got the job at that design studio. It's just one lady that owns and operates it, and it seems like such a great opportunity for me. It's only part-time and I'll have to find something else eventually. But in the meantime, it's great.

I had another interview yesterday with a publisher for a freelance job. They specialize in publications for Expats, so I figured I was a pretty good candidate to design for them. One of the biggest benefits is that everything they publish is in English. I've already been given an assignment. The publisher is proposing to create a handbook about Dutch life for kids who move to Holland, and has asked me to create the presentation for him to give to investors. Because this project is so young, I have a lot of freedom which is great. Basically I have to research what kids aged 7-14 are into, and come up with a visual language for the book. If the project is given the green light, I'll be the designer for it. I hope this happens, not just because I want the work but because I'm already thinking about all the fun stuff I'm going to learn about this country, like about candy, theme parks, swimming pools and all that great kid stuff.

For the record, the reason why he considered me for this project was because I sent him a portfolio. He saw my Big Things in Small Towns project, and thought this project could be in a similar vein. (I've shown that project to three Dutch people, and they are amazed that "Big Things" exist in North America. One of my favourite comments was "You would never have these in Holland. There are too many committees that would not approve of this.")

I also was supposed to have another interview today at a different studio, but it was canceled and will be rescheduled on Monday. Supposedly the studio director was "stuck in Amsterdam". Like, is he immersed in glue? I was bummed when it was canceled, but understand that these things happen. This studio is really awesome, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

There's still one other studio that said they want to set up an interview, as well. So hopefully one of these leads will amount to full-time work.

Het Voedsel (Food)

Grocery shopping is sometimes a surprise adventure. For the most part, even if we can't read the labels, we can tell what the product is by looking at it. But sometimes, finding what you're looking for is unexpectedly tricky. Usually when this happens it can be categorized as one of the following scenarios:

1. Things are packaged differently than we expect ie: condiments in tubes.
2. We are looking for a very specific thing, and we don't know the Dutch word for it.
3. We're in the meat section.

The dried herb & spice section is definitely one of the hardest to navigate. Ross takes his herbs & spices very seriously, and the first time we went to the store we easily spent over half an hour picking up the little jars, and trying to figure out what was inside. Now when we go to the store, I try to divert him from the spices by seeing if the deli has any samples of kaas (cheese).

Some of the spices were easy to figure out like basilicum, rozemarijn, tijm. Some we weren't sure of, but were willing to trust our instincts, like komijn (cumin), and zout (salt). But some are so different that we needed translated. What is knoflook poeder, knolselderij, & peterselie? Garlic powder, celery root, and parsley, obviously. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't disappointed when I found out the jar with the exciting and curious label dragon--which spurred ideas of a magical and powerful meal--was just plain-old tarragon.

Reading a menu is pretty much a stab in the dark, but the little French I learned in school has found a use. Sometimes we can figure out a meaning by recognizing the French root. For example framboos is raspberry, a pompelmoes is a grapefruit, and champignons are what both the Dutch and the French call mushrooms.

I've learned to look out for anything with paard (horse) in it. We've also learned that if a broodje (sandwich) is €2 or less, it's probably not lekker (delicious). We've eaten bitterballen, which was lekker. Ross tried haring, which he thought was lekker, but had to stop because he was allergic to it. I haven't tried it yet.

For the most part, the brood is not-so lekker. We are fortunate enough to have a great bakery on our street, which also makes very lekker-looking candies and chocolates. For a treat, Ross likes to head down for some appleflappen. This happens almost every day.

Cooking without an oven has been interesting, and we've accommodated by making pasta sauce, stew, chili, and of course kerrie. No, not cherry – curry. The stores here are filled with so many different kerrie pastes, and hopefully we'll get a chance to try many of them before our time here is over.