dutchusa

A wonderful movie on Youtube.com: Give us back New York.

I like the quote in the beginning of the movie:

"What is your biggest fear? What are we be becoming?

My biggest fear is that we become Holland, all right, that we are the Netherlands."

There's a website for this movie: giveusbacknewyork.com which seems to be associated with an (online) advertising agency.

(through AllesAmerika.com).

A friend sent me this interesting article: Dutch are the world's tallest people.

From the article:

"With their protein-rich diet and a national health service that pampers infants, the Dutch are standing taller than ever. The average Dutchman stands just over six feet, while women average nearly 5-foot-7."

"The Dutch were not noted for their height until recently. It was only in the 1950s that they passed the Americans, who stood tallest for most of the last 200 years, said John Komlos, a leading expert on the subject who is professor of economic history at the University of Munich in Germany. He said the United States has now fallen behind Denmark."

For the record -- I am 6"2 or 6"3.

The supermarket here sells a Droste, a Dutch cocoa brand.

Until 2004 the original Droste factory, in Haarlem, was still in use. Interestingly, the American packaging doesn't have the typical "mirror" effect that gives the name to the "Droste effect" in Dutch.

When we were in the World Bank a while back we saw a painting by Piet Mondrian in a hallway.

The World Bank has a large collection of art in its building from both new, unknown artists and some well-known names.

If you look closely you can see me taking a picture.

A nice sight -- Grolsch is on sale in Wholefoods.

I know I've posted quite some pictures of this beer before, but it's just nice to see it.

When we went out with Bella and Ramiro last Saturday we saw a familiar sign in an unexpected place.

In Adam's Morgan we saw a falafel place called "Falafel Amsterdam". A sign on the door indicates that this was indeed an establishment with Dutch owners.

Yesterday we went with out with Ramiro and Bella. We met in the early evening at the Cleveland Park metro station to go to the Dutch embassy. It was nice to see each other again, it had been a while.

We went to the embassy for the haring en paling evening: eel and herring were brought over from Holland for a get-together of the DC Dutch society.

It's was a busy evening, it's quite a popular event, of people of all ages. There were a lot of Dutch things to eat and drink. Of course herring and eel, but also Dutch wafers, gevulde koeken and there was Dutch music playing. I bought two packages of Dutch chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag).
At the party I met Petra in real life. She lives in Vienna and I visit her website regularly and we've been in contact for about a year. It was very nice to meet her in person.

We left the party around 20:30 o'clock and we drove to Adams Morgan, where we visited a small exhibition by three painters. We looked at the paitings for a while. The place was very crowded, it was a party and exhibition at the same time. We didn't stay very long but went to nearby Cuban bar, where we stayed long and had margarita's and mojito's. We danced on Latin music and had a good time. It was a very pleasant evening.

Herring and eel, being sold by a lady in a traditional Dutch costume.

A herring on a sandwich with onions, and Grolsch beer.

There were a number of items for sale, such Dutch wafers and chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag) and gevulde koeken .

Today I brought some drop to my work.

"Drop" is Dutch for liquorice, and it's quite popular in the Netherlands, with many different flavors.

The reaction of my colleagues was mixed. Most of them were very polite, and there were three people who actually enjoyed it (I was one of them).

A couple of weeks ago I found Grolsch in Wholefoods, a supermarket nearby. I bought a six-pack but a week later they didn't have it in stock anymore.

So, when I saw last week that Safeway had a stack of Grolsch beer I bought a supply that will last for longer.

Safeway is half-way on my way home from work and it was very warm the day that I found it, so it was quite a sacrifice.

But now I'm happy with my "own" beer in the fridge. Many people say that there is a difference in taste between Dutch beer in Holland and their export-variants but I must say I have not noticed such a difference, if there is one.

The United States has a large amount of beers to offer, by the way. The Ommegang brewery that I mentioned before is very promising, but there are also many small, local breweries that are called micro-breweries. A beer that I particularly like is Sam Adams, a large beer brand from Boston, as well as Sierra Nevada from California.

This picture is the first one on the website that's been taken with our new camera.

What's the difference between a canoe and a Dutchman?

A canoe tips sometimes.