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Who's a Dutchie Now?

On the 19th of June I became a Dutch citizen. I was required to go to the official ceremony at the Stadsdeel Amsterdam, in the Stopera building. I have an official certificate that I am supposed to guard with my life as it will remain my final proof of citizenship.

Thus endeth that quest. Somehow it feels anti-climactic, probably since nothing in my day to day life has changed as a result. Maybe it will be real when voting time comes around.

My colleagues bought me orange daisies for the occasion.

New Zealand - first impressions

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday morning, dead tired from the flights. The only place further away from home we could possibly travel to would be Fiji. This is far enough!

We are staying at a hostel just outside the city center and instead of taking a bus from the airport we splurged on a taxi. My first impression of Christchurch and New Zealand - this is what California SHOULD be like. Lovely weather, clean streets, beautiful gardens everywhere, broad streets without a hole in the pavement anywhere. People are friendly. Prices are reasonable. California has the climate and natural resources to rival any in the world, but it's all gone to hell with people only planning and living for the short term. Don't get me started!

Anyway, our first story to tell from this trip:
We were walking back to the hostel from the city after having some dinner. The sun was just starting to go down. The streets were quiet in this residential area. Then on the right side of the road we walked up to an elderly man who had just pulled up on his motorcycle and still had his helmet on. He was trying to swing his right leg over the bike to dismount the thing. But he couldn't quite make it. His shakey old leg just wouldn't lift high enough to clear the seat. DB said "Do you need some help?" The old guy answered "I just had 3 strokes and just got my bike license back!" Dol took hold of his right foot and gently eased it over the seat behind and helped him steady himself on the ground. He was shaking like a leaf. I don't know what he would have done if we hadn't walked up! He asked where we were from and thanked us for our help. We walked away shaking out heads and laughing with black humor at the situation. That man is surely going to kill himself with that machine!

Top 10 - Flickr isn't gay

Not too long ago DB and I told members of his family that we used Flickr. We know full well that "flikker" in Dutch means a flaming homo, which made for pretty funny looks on their faces. We then explained that Flickr is photo sharing and storage online and is really very cool indeed.

Flickr isn't perfect however. The bulk upload is painful to use. Browsing photos is slow and not customizable. But the faithful followers of Flickr have created many plug-ins and tools that makes it even cooler.

Here's a link to Thomas Hawk's top 10 Flickr hacks. Check it out. Really.

What happened to winter?

Some people think that global warming is just a fantasy of tree hugging lefties or mad scientists. Every year that I spend in Europe global warming becomes more obviously a fact of life. We don't need scientists to tell us that ice-skating on Dutch canals is a thing of the past, relegated to those lovely old Christmas card images. We don't need the government to tell us that you can no longer count on any snow skiing season before January or that you can count on finding any snow below 2,000 meters (6,500 ft) in the Alps or any mountains in central Europe. Go ski on a glacier, while they last.

This year, for example, has been the warmest winter so far in centuries. It's now mid-January and I think we've had only 1 night below freezing here in Amsterdam. My camelia bush is in full bloom. I pruned back my roses even though they were still putting out leaf buds. Tulips are for sale everywhere. It's just not normal.

Also not normal is the storm we had last Thursday. Five people in the Netherlands are dead because of the storm. There is millions of euros of damage to buildings. I don't know if anyone has counted the number of cars smashed by falling trees. We had force 9 (out of 10) winds and walls of rain coming down. Flights were cancelled, schools were closed and employees were told to go home early Thursday afternoon. Trains were stopped so lots of people just couldn't get home at all. I left work at 4:30 Thursday afternoon not realizing what chaos there was in the city. Luckily I phoned DB on my way out, who was himself trying to get home from Haarlem. He told me to take a taxi home because the trams were not running, or were running strange routes due to down trees or power lines. On the ride home I saw just that - police everywhere in the city directing traffic or cordoning off dangerous areas, people struggling against the wind, bikes fallen over littering the streets and sidewalks, dead trams, fallen trees. What a mess!

There is an article and some good photos on the Radio Netherlands website.

And just when I thought that would be it for a while, last night we were woke up by hail hitting the windows, thunder and hard rain and high winds. And its warm. Too warm.

It's times like this that I'm thankful the Dutch are better prepared for too much water than the people of New Orleans were. I'm thankful they've had centuries of experience holding back the sea and rivers. I'm trusting those mad scientists know what they're doing.

Top Ten - New Year's Resolutions

It's well past Jan 1, but my Official New Year's Resolutions have not yet been published. This does not mean that, on 14 Jan I have only figured out what they should be. It only means that I have not yet been living up to all of them, namely

#10 - Post on the blog at least once per week. The poor blog has been sorely neglected lately with holidays things to do, starting a new job, and basically not much leisure time. No excuses. Just get on with it, or delete it altogether.

Of course #10 would be helped greatly by

#9 - Get organized. We live in a small apartment. OK, small by any other than Dutch standards. By Amsterdam standards it's damn near spacious. No matter how big you think it is, there is absolutely no space whatsoever to accumulate stuff. And I get grumpy when I feel surrounded by clutter and am unorganized. Already I've got 3 bags of old clothes to go out, have shipped unused xbox stuff to my nephew, and we're nearly finished setting up new IKEA closets. Ah... I feel better already.

To keep down the clutter you just have to stop bringing stuff into the house. Don't buy stuff. In my case

#8 - It's OK to get rid of books before you buy more books. We don't own a library. We don't have space to build one. Not every book I've ever bought and read is a lifelong friend that I will miss if it leaves my home. I've regretted getting rid of some books, like my university books from 25 years ago. But I won't regret getting rid of the paperback version of .... of.... of....

I've just returned to the couch after having a look through the bookshelves to find the books I CAN get rid of without looking back. I know they are there. I'm sure of it. Just can't find them at the moment. I'll get back to you on this one.

#7 - Know where your money goes. Do you start to see a theme here? Getting organized goes farther than stuff and books and time. It also involves money. If I want to save money I need to know where it's going and make decisions about where it should be going. I have a copy of Quicken. I just have to use it. What better time to set it up and start tracking the ins and outs than January of a new year? I plan to start this very afternoon. Promise.

#6 - No more toys. I don't need any more toys. I am rich with toys. A MacBook and an iMac. A drawer full of iPods. A new mobile phone (ok, that was free so it doesn't really count). A TomTom ONE. A nice camera. It's enough already. I have more toys than I have time to play with. I am going on a toys moratorium.
Having said that, last week I bought a 60eur electric milk frothing machine. It makes perfect milk for coffee. It's small and cute and matches my espresso machine perfectly. Do kitchen toys count in this resolution? I guess so. First failure of the year.

#5 - Run the Dam to Dam. Last August I was about to sign up for this race when I found out that I was too late. It was full. 30,000 people had already signed up. 30,000! Now I have 9 months to get ready for this year. I've never run in a race before. I'm not even much of a runner. But I want to be and I'm pysched to do this. Now, if I can just stop getting injured (shin splints, sprained ankle) I'll be ok.

Closely related to #5, and what would make running 16 miles easier is

#4 - Lose 6 kilos and keep it off. This is the one resolution that I started right away in January and have pretty much kept at it. I'm doing the South Beach diet - sort of. I've lost 1.5 kilos in 2 weeks which I think is ok. What will be interesting is going on vacation to New Zealand in February for 3.5 weeks. Will we be active enough to make up for eating more? If I go somewhere on vacation I really enjoy eating local food as much as possible. I want to taste everything. I like food. I like to eat. It likes me too and hangs around too easily. In the last 3 years I've gained those 6 kilos. My niece calls this "happy fat". If you find yourself in a happy relationship, you cook together, you eat together, you share food as a social and intimate ritual of meals. And you put on weight. That's what has happened to me. I'm still happy, but I just need to get my body back to healthy.

#3 - Stay healthy. Go to the gym regularly. Yoga at least once a week. Don't stress at work. Learn to relax and do nothing.

#2 - Read a novel in Dutch. For Christmas this year I received a paperback novel in Dutch. Hint. Hint. I started a Dutch class last Fall but ended up dropping it because I had to travel for work more often than I thought I would have to. I missed half the classes in the end. But what I realized is that I know the language pretty well. I understand nearly everything. But I struggle to find the words when I want to carry on a conversation myself. I need to improve my vocabulary. I need to practice speaking. Teachers say that the best way to do both, without attending a class, is to read and also read out loud. OK. I'll give it a try. I'm determined.

#1 - This isn't really a resolution because you can't really resolve this kind of thing. But anyway, its on the list - Celebrate becoming a Dutch citizen with a big party. I don't have the approval yet. I haven't been through the ceremony or have the piece of paper. But I know that it will come through some time in the next six months and deserves to be celebrated. I'm happy to be here. I feel at home here. Me and my Dutchie are a great team. Let's celebrate!

Becoming Dutch - Part III - the application is IN!

It’s been a long time since I posted anything here. I have no excuse besides the usual things bloggers come up against – time constraints, other priorities, lack of anything interesting to say. The last time I posted was around Thanksgiving, while I was in the US. I survived the trip back and immediately got sucked into changes at work, holiday planning and DIY projects at home. But there IS NEWS regarding one big project….. becoming Dutch!

On 7 December we went to the Stadsdeelkantoor and officially became a Partnership. I’m still not sure what the difference is between getting married and having a registered partnership. I first thought that the registered partnership was a way for gays to become “legal”, but since gay marriage is legal here this explanation makes no sense. In any case, we chose for the registered partnership, and on December 7 we signed on the dotted line. We had 4 witnesses and to be honest we both wanted to make this as informal as possible, but some people just don’t listen! The abtenaar who was presiding over things tried her best to make it “special”, bless her, but it only became comical. For us this was a formality on the way to Dutch citizenship, and doesn’t change our relationship one bit. But yeah, it’s done and now we are even more official! We never would have done this except that it’s a requirement if I want to have both a Dutch and passport. And, by the way, in de Baarsjes its free on Thursdays!

This morning we went to the IND (yet again) so that I could apply for Dutch citizenship. At this point we’ve jumped all the difficult bureaucratic hurdles, so this final step was quick and easy. The only hard part was handing over 362 euros. And if they turn down your application you don’t get your money back. I had to show them my inburgeringscertificaat but everything else was already in the computer. The woman who helped us confirmed that I would be able to keep my US passport - no problem.

Now we wait! She said that it might take 6 months before I get a reply, but I expect it will be less. Once it is approved I will have to attend the official ceremony. And then we will throw a party!

One more step on the way to becoming an official Dutchie!

Beating Jetlag the Easy Way

Here I am in (not so sunny) California for the annual feast of Thanksgiving. It's 5:40 in the morning and I've been up for 2 hours. Ahhhh jet lag.

But I've found the remedy! It's simple.

Just don't fight it. If you wake up at 3am, just wake up, get up, make some coffee and read your email, or read a book or anything quiet so as not to wake the rest of the family. Then when Dad turns on something really horrible on the TV at 8:00 in the evening you can yawn and say you're jet lagged and simply head off to bed. This method is great for getting some quiet personal time and also not getting used to a different time zone completely which makes re-entry into CET much easier.

That's my plan anyway. We'll see how it works once the rest of the family descends on us this afternoon.

'Tis the Season

The U.S. is like a strange new country to me sometimes. I haven't lived here for 14 years and visiting California these days is more and more a curious event.

I notice now all the things Europeans say about Americans: they're all fat, everyone eats fast food all the time, shops are open all hours so no one gets much time off, they all complain about the cost of everything but compared to the rest of the world the U.S. is a bargain bazaar.

I come here to see my family and to shop. I have to admit that with such a short visit (10 days) I spend an equal time with both (and feel guilty all the while). The pre-Thanksgiving sales have started and I'm IN THERE. For someone living in Europe, you really can't comprehend the sales and the cost of things and it's just impossible not to buy buy buy just because it's so much cheaper than at home. I only came with one suitcase. Silly me, I should know better.

I've bought: an orange hoodie for 10 euros (great for Queen's Day), Levi's 501's for 25 euros, a 4-in-1 fleece lined ski jacket for 40 euros, and t-shirts and pants and that's only the start. I haven't yet bought the iPod or the running shoes. And I promised myself I wouldn't buy much this trip. I always promise myself this. And I always fail. And this time it's worse because it's Thanksgiving and prices are SLASHED and the newspaper arrives in the morning with 100 pages of advertisements calling on you to BUY and the TV ads are louder than the TV programs and nag you to BUY and I love Target and Penney's and Circuit City and everyone takes credit cards and really I'm shopping for the year and for DB also and I'm saving so much money!!!

Sigh. Today I promise I won't shop. Really. Unless suitcases are on sale.....

NIN at Paradiso

Yesterday DB battled the wind and rain and Saturday shoppers, biking to Get Records on the Utrechtsestraat by 10:00 in the morning, to buy tickets for Nine Inch Nails who will be playing at Paradiso in March. They are playing only 2 shows in NL, both in Paradiso, which is small. Really small. Cozy. Gezellig. Both shows sold out in 20 minutes. We have tickets for both shows. And we arrive home from 3 weeks in New Zealand the morning of the first show. I know. We are mad.

Dutch Cabaret, not just for the Dutch anymore

Tuesday night we went to see Sara Kroos at De Kleine Komedie. This was my second attempt at Dutch Cabaret this year and was much more enjoyable than the first (Jeroen van Merwijk). We know and love Sara as a Lama, and also saw her at the last Boom Chicago Late Nite but I had no idea she could sing! I'm still getting used to the fact that a one person comedy show in NL also includes singing. Cabaret is everything and if you can't do Cabaret you are not going to do a one-man show. And Cabaret in NL means singing, telling funny stories, telling serious stories, talking to the audience and generally maintaining everyone's interest for at least an hour at a time. No small thing!

I really enjoyed Sara because her jokes and stories revolved around people instead of around language. So much of Dutch humor involves plays on words and playing with the language, which for a foreigner who knows only a minimum of slang and expressions, it's almost impossible to follow. Sara's show was about our human-ness and our deep dark secrets. She was not falling the aisles funny, but entertaining and thoughtful and put a smile on your face kind of funny. And man she can sing! She belts it out and isn't the least bit shy about throwing her body around at the same time. Respect.

And speaking of Cabaret, it's not just for the Dutch anymore. Greg Shapiro is about to open yet another show - this time a one-man at the Sugar Factory entitled Greg Shapiro's Going Dutch. It runs from 15-17 November. Unfortunately I'll be travelling and won't be able to make it, but all you expats out there should definitely go and find out "How to ‘Doe Normaal’ in a country with an identity crisis".

Becoming Dutch - Phase II, Part 1, section iii

Yesterday we went down to the Stadsdeelkantoor to apply to become a registered partnership. This after the other paperwork necessary was done and about 4 months had passed. Four months! since we first went to the IND to apply for Dutch citizenship. Sheesh.

Anyway, it was a pretty quick operation yesterday. Review of existing paperwork. Pick a date to come back and sign the final paperwork. Sign here. We choose to come back on 7 December since it's a Thursday and on Thursdays marriages and partnerships are FREE! Otherwise we would have had to pay 200something euros. Are we Dutch or what.

Our next step is to find 4 witnesses to come with us to this official event. If it wasn't for the fact that we need to do this in order for me to be able to apply for Dutch citizenship we never would have thought about registering. A livingtogethercontract was enough for us. Now we have to drag 4 other people to the city office on a cold December morning in order to help me get to the end goal. Or just grab a few people off the street with promises of hot coffee inside....

Becoming Dutch - Phase II, Part 1, section ii

Back on September 28 I said to mark this date. The IND had one month to reply to our request to become a Registered Partnership. What the IND has to do with it I still don't understand. But nevermind, whoever does understand bureaucracy must be crazy. Well, surprise, surprise, the IND actually replied early. We received today our letter from the Stadsdeel De Baarsjes saying that we are approved and to make an appointment to come down and get hitched (sort of).

They were at least a week early with their reply, so maybe the IND is getting better.

DB will call tomorrow to make the appointment.

Once we're officially registered as a partnership (not sure how long that takes, surely not just a day!) we can go down to the IND (again) and fill in the paperwork for my Dutch passport. I'm seriously trying to hurry before they change the law about letting me keep my US passport. I expect it will take 6 months from the time the forms are handed in until I receive a (positive) reply. We'll be sure to take photos at the ceremony.

I will keep you posted loyal readers......

Bobo's at Boom

Friday night in Amsterdam 20 October at Boom Chicago was a special Late Nite show to celebrate Horace Cohen and Ruben van der Meer's 35 years of friendship. Tickets were only available to us no-bodies via the Boom mailing list email, and only if you reacted quickly enough. Most of the seats Friday night were occupied by friends and family of Horace and Ruben's and it felt like we had crashed a private party.

Before leaving home for Boom that night we watched Het Gouden Televizierring Gala which is the Dutch equivalent to the People's Choice Awards in the US. The final award was for best TV show. The 3 nominees were "Dancing with the Stars", "Gooische Vrouwen" (Rich Women), and "De Lama's". At the beginning of the awards show "Dancing with the Stars" was winning the votes. We couldn't have that! So we got out our mobile phones and sms'd our votes for "De Lama's". We love them. We watch them every week. Granted, they HAVE stolen some of their routines from Boom Chicago, as any Boom fan can attest to, but that's ok, there's plenty of laughs to go around.

In the end, "De Lama's" won the vote! Since one of the Lamas happened to be Ruben van der Meer, I expected him to show up late and possibly drunk, to his Boom event. After all, there was another celebration going on at a theater just a mile away from Boom now in progress.....

We arrived at the Boom theater about an hour before the show was to begin. As I said earlier, it felt like we were crashing a private party. And not just ANY private party. This party was full of bekende Nederlanders. DB spent the night telling me who was who and what they are famous for. This one a singer. This one a writer, etc. We were standing at the bar when Ruben showed up, right on time, smiling from ear to ear. As he walked past I said "Gefeliciteerd!" and he said "danke je wel". He was beaming.

The show started slightly late since Ruben was walking through the audience being congratulated by everyone he knew, which was most of the people there. Greg Shapiro tried in vain to tap his watch and point to the stage. Eventually "3 minutes to places" was called and the show began.

I have seen Boom Chicago at least 10 times in the last 4 years. I've lost count really. This is the 4th Late Nite show I've been to and it was by far the best ever. Ruben and Horace took the stage and were funnier than the first time I saw them together at Boom. They were more relaxed and were obviously having a good time. Horace won the "Da Do Run Run" game, but only because the Nazi General spared his life. During the Idols sketch Horace and Ruben dressed up as each other and Ruben's English has improved enough that he could do a reasonable immitation of Horace. Michael Diederich impersonated Horace's mom (was it really accidental that he picked her out of the audience?) and won the Idols contest. The players were really on that night.

There were moments of seriousness. Horace read a speech to Ruben that nearly had the audience in tears and I could swear I saw tears in his eyes as well, as he told about their 35 years being best friends. Ruben came out later, not having prepared any such speech, but not wanting to not say anything, improvised his own words to Horace. But just then the stage was taken over by Treintje Oosterhuis and Edsilia Rombley who sang toghether "That's What Friends Are For". The whole audience joined in. I thought the place would errupt into one giant group hug. And then the rest of De Lama's burst in and jumped on the stage. Ruben Nicolai jumped onto our table and walked the length of it to the stage, the table wobbling and shaking and spilling drinks. The show was over and the party began! Boom's fearless leader, Andrew Moskos, took the mic to direct everyone how to move about while tables were cleared to make way for dancing. De Lama's jumped up and down and sang "Kampionen" showing off the prize they had won that night.

I really hope that Boom was filming all of this as it was something special.

London in a weekend

This photo was taken from inside the Tate Modern museum, up against a window. People are streaming over the Millenium Bridge. St. Paul's cathedral is in the background. The photo was taken on 15 October at about 3 in the afternoon. The sun had just started to come out through the clouds turning the grey day a little bit brighter. You can see my other London photos here.

We spent the weekend in London, sightseeing and walking walking walking. Tate Modern was the highlight of the weekend. There is currently a special show by Swiss artists Fischli and Weiss. This show is worth the entire trip to the Tate. I tried to find a good link to give a feeling of their body of work, but couldn't find anything useful. They have done everything from photography, to sculpture, to video art. They have a wonderful sense of humor that made us laugh out loud, and a view of the world that is interesting and accessable at the same time. If you live anywhere near London, even if you have to fly, head to the Tate Modern. There is also currently an installation exhibit of tube slides of various lengths that kids and adults stood in long lines to have the chance to slide down. As it was Sunday, the place was packed with kids, so we were very happy they had these slides to keep them occupied!

I have two other impressions of London besides the wonderful Tate - the crowds and the cost of eating. London is so very crowded and busy it can make your head ache. Amsterdam seems like a provincial village in comparison. Only on Sunday afternoon walking in the backstreets of The City did we feel a little bit of breathing space from the crowds.

The cost of eating in London is truly amazing. In Amsterdam you can find cheap places to eat and still have reasonable food. Just head to any "Eet cafe" and you'll be fed well for 10 euros. Try to do this in London and you'll be set back double that. Sunday evening we had a pub dinner, dessert and 2 pints of beer each and the total bill came to about 50 POUNDS! Eating out 3 times a day, even at cheap-ish restaurants was quite a shock to the travel budget. Luckily DB's work paid for our hotel as he was at a conference Monday and Tuesday.

Another surprise was Saturday evening when we tried to get into a movie. We took the tube to Notting Hill Gate since there are a lot of movie theaters in that area. Every one we went to was sold out, some for days in advance. It seems that spontaneous movie going is just not done. Never mind trying to get into a West End show at short notice. A colleague of mine was trying to get tickets to a show and found out they were sold out til MARCH!

Lasting impression of London - a great place to visit, but bring lots of money and be prepared for the crowds, and plan ahead. Start early in the day if you want to try to beat the tourist crowds. In other words, the same advice as visiting any major city!

Google my life

Google is taking over the world, slowly but surely, and they are also taking over my tech life. It happens sweetly and gently, like falling in love. First it's the excitement of discovering a great new internet email service like GMail and falling so hard for it that you sign yourself up for 5 new email accounts in one week. Then comes Blogger, which you Dear Reader are currently enjoying vicariously through reading this blog. That's when the hook catches in your mouth and you start being reeled in, albeit smiling all the way.

I didn't even know I was being Google-ized when I posted short films on YouTube, but we all know what happened there.

Then it was Blogger Beta, and Google Analytics so I can see how many bored interesting and intelligent people are reading my blog.

And now today I've succumbed to Google News Reader.

I blame most of this Google-izing on TUAW who routinely post positive reviews about Google services and new things Google is up to. Such posts always make me curious, so I search around for more info, find even more positive input, et voila, I'm subscribed/signed up/Google-ized. It seems to me that Google has almost (almost) as much cool factor as Apple. If Apple had put half as much cool into .Mac from the beginning, they would not be struggling so hard to retain subscribers (like me, an ex-.Mac PAYING subscriber). Apple dropped the ball, and Google picked it up. Ah well, it's a big playing field.

So what's the next really cool thing Google will offer that would suck you in?
Integrate GoogleEarth with TomTom route planning?
Post your YouTube video on your Blogger blog just like you can post photos from Flickr today?
OS G?
Or, ten years from now people will wonder how Microsoft could have become such a big company. After all, if everything is free from Google now, why did we ever pay so much for so little before?

Grey skies above

It's been a while since I posted anything here and I'm starting to feel a: guilty (which is pretty stupid) and b: like I'd better continue this or I can just chalk it up to another thing started and not continued! Blogging is a committment!

It's been a very busy time at work (excuse #1) and I've had no energy at the end of the day to be creative or interesting. There have been family issues that needed attending to (a pretty damn good excuse) which took time on the weekends. And the last few days a migraine has attacked me (final excuse #3) which made me incapable of doing anything other than sit and wait it out.

Finally when I do start feeling better, and feel like looking at the computer screen for more than a few minutes, I get addicted to playing Sudoku Slam. I was pretty much over my sudoku addiction and the 5 various sudoko books sitting on the coffee table have been untouched for a while. But them TUAW posted a link to this sudoko website and I'm sucked in all over again. This site is great because it takes all the tedium out of the game. So far my best time at solving their hardest puzzles is 3:33. Not bad I'd say. But then I'm an addict and this only feeds me.

Also, since I'm feeling better and have a little time this weekend, I'm looking again into hobby type projects. One of those is ripping vinyl records into mp3's. Another one is making a cool ringtone for my Treo 650. Having looked around a bit it looks like Rogue Amoeba has the answers for both. And their company has a cool name.

When I was in California last (August) my mom had me help her set up some software and hardware to rip her records. We managed to make it work, but man what horrible software it was! This was the worst UI I've seen in years. Imagine Windows 95 type stuff. It works, but it ain't pretty. Thank goodness I work on Macs and can use software as cool as the hardware. Sorry Mom!

So, dear reader, now that I've given you some links to keep you busy, I'm off to do my Dutch homework and take home test, then to try my hand at Rogue Amoeba's toys.......

Becoming Dutch - Mandatory Ceremony

I just noticed on the IND website that after 1 October 2006 that the Naturalisation Ceremony is now mandatory in order to become a Dutch citizen. I think this is a good idea. After all, you should want to celebrate the event and make it an official kind of feeling. Otherwise maybe you shouldn't be doing it. Here's the official text:

The naturalisation ceremony on or after 1 October 2006

As of a fixed date in 2006, most probably 1 October 2006, it will be compulsory for you to attend the ceremony. Minors who were aged sixteen or seventeen at the time of the naturalisation request or option statement will also be required to attend. If you are invited for a ceremony taking place on or after this date, you will only become a Dutch national if you attend the ceremony. If you do not attend the ceremony, you will receive a new invitation for a future ceremony. You must attend a ceremony within one year of the decision being made; if you do not, you will not receive the Dutch nationality. Once the deadline has expired, you will need to begin a new naturalisation or option procedure if you still wish to become a Dutch national.

Becoming Dutch - mark this date

Yesterday DB took the filled in M46 form to the stadsdeel. He asked them several times to confirm that it was filled in correctly. You just never know with these abtenaars if they are paying attention. Anyway, the form was accepted and now all our paperwork is off to the IND for THEIR approval of our intention to become a registered partnership. Really I don't know what the IND has to do with it since I have a valid residence permit in my hands. But this is the process that has to be followed.

Now the clock is ticking. How long will the IND hold onto our paperwork? How long will it take them to look in their computer, see my name there, and put a rubber stamp on the M46? Normally this should take no more than a month. Mark this date and let's see!

Back to School in Dutch - night 2

Last night was the second Dutch language class with the Volksuniversiteit. The first one was all about politics. This class was all about having an opinion and the different verbal methods used to express it. Obviously, given these two topics, it's an inburgerings cursus as well. What Dutch person doesn't like to have a strong opinion about politics?

We also learned something that I doubt they teach in the official inburgerings cursus over at the ROC. We learned that when a person turns 50 they are said to have "seen Abraham" or in the case of a woman "seen Sarah". This means that you are older and wiser and should be listened to by those who have not reached such an age. Therefore your neighbors should then take notice when you tell them to pick their dog's shit off the sidewalk from in front of your house. Good luck.

You can buy or rent Abraham or Sarah dolls or wooden cutouts to put in front of your house to advertise the event to the whole neighborhood, the same as with storks at a baby's birth. You can also buy cakes decorated with Abraham or Sarah for your birthday party. And since this is the Netherlands we're talking about, you KNOW there will be a birthday party. Gezellig.

Best expression learned last night: Over smaak valt niet te twisten.