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| Translation service |
| 12.30.03 (11:42 am) |
I occasionally need to translate some Dutch things into English. Sometimes I find an interesting newspaper article that I’d like to share with our friends here and usually I just quickly translate it myself. Just out of sheer interest, and because I had heard how bad they are, I wanted to try one of those online translation services. Unfortunately Google doesn’t do Dutch (yet), but Dictionary.com advertises with a translator that "translates text instantly and now features Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, Korean and Russian".
I figure that this is exactly what I need, and I copy and paste the text of my Dutch newspaper article in the box…
[b]Dutch version:[/b]
[I]WIJNFLES UIT 1690 SPOELT AAN OP STRAND
WEST-TERSCHELLING - De zee heeft een kostbare, eeuwenoude wijnfles achtergelaten op het strand van Terschelling. Gerard Klaasse van West-Terschelling vond de kogelronde wijnfles aan een duin. De vondst moet vorige week in de noordwester storm zijn aangespoeld. Flessenverzamelaar Oep de Breed sloeg er enkele naslagwerken op na en schat de ouderdom op 1690. De fles heeft een bolle onderkant en een lange hals. ,,Hoe dikker de buik, hoe ouder de fles'', weet Klaasse inmiddels. De fles is nog voor driekwart gevuld met rode wijn. De jutter waagt zijn smaakpapillen niet aan het antieke rode vocht. ,,Tien jaar geleden vond ik ook een oude fles. Dat stonk toen zo gemeen, het was verschrikkelijk.''[/I]
[b]English translation:[/b]
[i]WINE BOTTLE FROM 1690 WASHES ASHORE ON RANGE
WEST-TERSCHELLING - the sea has precious, secular wine bottle left behind on the range of terschelling. Gerard Klaasse van West-Terschelling found the kogelronde wine bottle to a dune. The find must last week in the noordwester storm have washed ashore. bottle forager Oep widely beat some books of references and values old age on 1690. the bottle has a convex lower part and a long neck. , how thicker the abdomen, how parent the bottle '', weet Klaasse meanwhile. The bottle has been still filled for the quarter with red wine. The jutter do not venture its taste papillae to the ancient red vocht. , ten years suffered I found also an old bottle. That stinked then this way malicious, was terrible.”[/i]
So I think, okay, it just takes whatever word it comes across literally, it’s just a machine, it can’t help itself… But then when I translate the English translation back into Dutch, it messes it up completely…
[i]WIJNFLES VAN 1690 AAN WAL OP WAAIER
westen-TERSCHELLING - het overzees heeft kostbare, seculaire wijnfles erachter verlaten op de waaier van het terschelling. Gerard Klaasse van West-Terschelling vond de fles van de kogelrondewijn aan een duin. De vondst moet week in het noordwesteronweer duren heeft gewassen aan wal fles forager Oep sloeg wijd sommige boeken van verwijzingen en ondertussen heeft de waarden oude dag op 1690, de fles een convex lager deel en een lange hals, hoe dikker de buik, hoe ouder de fles '', weet Klaasse. De fles is nog gevuld voor het kwart met rode wijn. Jutter waagt zijn smaakpapillae niet aan oude rode vocht., tien opgelopen jaar vond ik ook een oude fles. Dat stinked toen deze kwaadwillige manier, was vreselijk.”[/i]
I mean, even if you don’t speak a word of Dutch you can tell that the two versions are not quite the same. I would at least have expected it to change it back exactly the way it was.
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| What sex is your brain? |
| 12.30.03 (9:15 am) |
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Click here to find out what sex your brain is...
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2 Comments
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| Race for a domain (name) |
| 12.29.03 (5:26 am) |
It’s hard… getting a decent domain name at this point. All the good stuff has already been taken :(. I don’t like sharing my name with the pop star Anouk, so that anything Anouk, .com, .org, .net, you name it, is already taken. Thank god I have a not so common last name so that I could at least buy vanaanholt.net and vanaanholt.org (my cousin was one step ahead of me and got his hands on vanaanholt.com and vanaanholt.nl).
Jacco, on the other hand, had more luck with his first name. Jacco.us is his. As far as his last name goes… He had the option between dezwart.ws and dezwart.us, which he ended up getting both. Hence our families can now be emailed at theirfirstname@vanaanholt .net and theirfirstname@dezwart.ws.
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| I want fireworks! |
| 12.28.03 (9:03 am) |
For me, a New Year’s Eve without fireworks is an incomplete one. I know that most Americans save them for 4th of July and think that any outdoor holiday in the midst of winter is a stupid invention, but I happen to like it. I like going outside at midnight to say Happy New Year to the neighbors while fireworks are blasting away in the background instead of paying $100 to do essentially the same thing in some fancy club or restaurant, but then with only so much as a firecracker.
The city of Washington doesn’t do anything for New Year’s Eve. Jacco and I once, about 8 years ago when he did an internship here, watched the New York's Times Square festivities on television and then decided to go see what was going on at the Mall. Nothing. I’ve never seen so little people at the monuments… Another year we went to Baltimore, which does have fireworks in the inner harbor, but other than a lonely Starbucks nothing is open to the public really so you’re walking around in the cold all night. Then there is Alexandria that seems to have a lot of festivities. I am just not sure yet what I want… Fireworks and cold feet or firecrackers and champagne?
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2 Comments
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| Tree topper |
| 12.26.03 (1:11 pm) |
Although in the US there is no such thing as a second Christmas day, it does exist in Holland and therefore I allow myself to talk a little more about the holidays today…
Ever since we moved here I looked for a decent tree topper. Not an angel, a star, and not a baby Jesus. I wanted what we call a ‘piek’ in Dutch (this essentially translates to ‘peak’, like the peak of a mountain), a glass ornament that consists of two or three balls and then a cone on top of each other.
In Holland you can buy such an ornament everywhere, even in stores equivalent to CVS or Target. Well, it’s in that last store that I happened to stumble across a real ‘piek’ this year. It’s kind of big for our tree, and red with glittery thingies on it, but hey, I couldn’t resist. And voila… here it is:
[image]anouk_883502686.jpg[/image]
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| Lunch |
| 12.24.03 (3:18 pm) |
Let's have lunch sometime this week... Wanna grab some lunch together today? Sorry, I already have a lunch appointment...
Having lunch to me always meant, eating something around noon, one of the three meals a person supposedly has during the day. Lunch in DC however, and probably also in other parts of the States, is a culture of its own. People go out for lunch or at least 'grab' some food at a nearby diner or sandwich bar.
The very idea of bringing your own lunch seems preposterous. Well, actually… people do sometimes bring their own lunch, but then it’s usually something bought in the supermarket, a microwave meal for example.
What happened to just making sandwiches in the morning and then bringing them to work? Jacco used to get laughed at when he brought his, but he stayed put and still does so every day. He’s lucky though that there are other Dutch people in his lab who are used to it.
Me, I always say that I take the best of both worlds, and since I am a pretty lazy person, I do tend to follow Americans and their lunch habits…
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| Sinterklaas - part 3 |
| 12.21.03 (9:39 pm) |
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I've just put some of the Sinterklaas party pictures online. Click here to see them!
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2 Comments
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| Sinterklaas - part 2 |
| 12.20.03 (1:04 pm) |
It’s over; we have to wait another full year until we can celebrate again. Sinterklaas, after dropping off all the presents in the Netherlands, came to the US and is now finally on his way back home to Spain… The party was great. Our friends did an excellent job interpreting our explanation of the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition and the way we give presents to each other.
One of our friends gave us a David Sedaris CD, a comedian who has his own view on St. Nicolas. With a slightly sarcastic tone and some true American disbelief about St. Nicolas’ helpers, he gives a pretty accurate account of what keeps Dutch people busy during the first days of December every year… Just listen to it!
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2 Comments
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| Secret Santa |
| 12.17.03 (7:15 am) |
Not long ago I found that there is indeed an American equivalent to the Dutch 'lootjes trekken'. They call it Secret Santa. And while we are still in the process of organizing our Sinterklaas party that will take place this Friday (building 'surprises' etc.), today we are doing Secret Santa with Jacco's collegues.
I've had many comments about Sinterklaas being late this year, but I must say that the 17th is quite early for our man from the North Pole...
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3 Comments
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| Tupperware parties are in! |
| 12.13.03 (9:48 am) |
Although it wasn’t the Tupper Company that first introduced the idea of the hostess party to sell their goods, when they appointed Brownie Wise sometime during the 1950s, the whole concept got revolutionized. Alison J Clarke even wrote a book about it.
Still today, hostess parties are in, especially those for make-up and other beauty products. For the second time this year, I find myself going to a friend’s house listening to beauty talk and trying all kinds of weird looking and smelling stuff.
Although I personally don’t think it’s the quality of the products that persuades you to buy something, but rather peer pressure or at least the feeling of obligation towards your friend, hostess parties are fun and they are certainly far from being out of fashion…
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2 Comments
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| My top 21 get into the X-mas mood songs |
| 12.12.03 (12:43 pm) |
1. NSync - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
2. Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
3. Wham - Last Christmas
4. Jon Bon Jovi - I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas
5. Cindy Lauper - Santa Baby
6. Jane Krakowski - Run, Rudolph Run
7. Maria Carey - All I Want for Christmas is You
8. Band Aid - Do They Know it's Christmas Time?
9. Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
10. John Cougar Mellencamp - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
11. John Lennon - Happy Christmas, War is Over
12. The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
13. Burl Ives - Jingle Bell Rock
14. Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmas Time
15. Steps - Merry Christmas Everybody
16. Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis
17. Boys 2 Men - Let it Snow
18. Britney Spears - My Only Wish (This Year)
19. John Denver & The Muppets - The Twelve Days of Christmas
20. Christina Aguilera - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
21. A-Teens - Happy New Year
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4 Comments
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| Royal petty crime in the Netherlands... |
| 12.10.03 (3:34 pm) |
For those of you who are not Dutch and reading this... In the Netherlands we have a royal family (since we are a kingdom, duh) and the latest addition to that family, the second in line to inherit the throne, was born last Sunday. As soon as the little princess' names were announced, people started naming streets, parks and tourist boats after her.
[image]anouk_880951061.jpg[/image]
The village of Velp (which is where I went to high school) decided to name a park the 'Prinses Catharina-Amalia Plantsoen'. This in itself is not so noteworthy, had it not been for the fact that the sign was stolen within 24 hours of its placement... This is what you call royal petty crime...
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3 Comments
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| Similarities between a teacher and Santa Claus |
| 12.09.03 (6:28 am) |
It sounds almost like a joke, but it’s not. There are definitely similarities between Santa and a teacher. The major one being that they both have to decide whether a child has been ‘naughty or nice’.
It’s time to write report cards and it’s one of the things that I most dislike about being a teacher. Ideally, every kid has made progress as expected and I can just report that everything is splendid. In the real world however, most kids are better in some things than in others, which automatically implies that not everything is splendid.
Kids usually know, and when I ask them what they expect to see in their report cards, they have a pretty good understanding of what they do well and what not. It’s the parents that I am most worried about. Nobody wants to hear that their kid is imperfect but you want to be honest at the same time. And thus, you include a little note saying that if they have any questions about the results on the report card that you are more than willing to make an appointment to discuss them. Then you secretly hope that they won’t…
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2 Comments
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| No more Disney classics for sale... |
| 12.07.03 (6:56 am) |
What kind of present do you buy for a two-year old? Her parents advised me that she would really appreciate a copy of the Disney movie Cinderella, the cartoon that is. I was all happy, thinking that this was probably the easiest present I had to go shop for in a long time. Don’t you just love people who actually know what they want?
Well, I was in for an unpleasant surprise. The huge Toys-Are-Us store along Old Georgetown Road did not sell any copies of the desired cartoon. Of course I went there last minute because I thought the task on hand was an easy and most of all short one, and I did not expect the lack of such a classic in a store that screams that ‘there’s never a better time to be a Toys-R-Us kid’. So I ended up buying another movie and she did like the bunch of animated bugs in that one… pfew!
Then this morning, just out of sheer interest, I checked a few websites so see if I could have ordered Cinderella on-line. No luck at Borders, Barnes and Noble and to my utter amazement not at the Disney store… A search for Cinderella on disney.store.go.com gave me about fifteen pages worth of Cinderella lunchboxes, stickers, puzzles etc., but not a simple video or DVD… The choices in the ‘Movies, Games & More’ category were the following:
[image]anouk_1315984985.jpg[/image] [image]anouk_876455255.jpg[/image] [image]anouk_834614073.jpg[/image]
I am asking you, what happened to the days that Disney stuck its classics down your throat whether you wanted it or not? (Or did those days just exist in the Netherlands…?)
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| Snow in DC |
| 12.05.03 (10:59 am) |
[image]anouk_1401826888.jpg[/image]
Not slowly wrought, nor treasured for their form
In heaven, but by the blind self of the storm
Spun off, each driven individual
Perfected in the moment of his fall
HOWARD NEMEROV, “SNOWFLAKES”
The first snow has fallen this year. Quite late actually, I think it was much earlier last year. Snow in DC is an interesting experience. It snows quite a bit, especially if you compare it to Holland, and yet people here become paralyzed at the first sight of the flakes falling from the air. Schools close, people are afraid to go out on the roads (and it indeed takes a while before they are cleared, even though a storm is always predicted a few days ahead) and the whole city comes to a grinding halt. One of my American Studies professors, Barney Mergen, even wrote a book about the phenomenon: Snow in America, which is where I found the poem. Although everybody complains about the white, cold and wet stuff, I can’t help but smile at the sight of this wintry scene outside my window.
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3 Comments
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| The Germans and the apparently not so famous Bush |
| 12.04.03 (6:43 am) |
One of my friends sent me these screenshots this morning. They are from the German version of [i]Who wants to be a millionaire[/i]. Apparently some people are oblivious to what, and especially who, is going round in the world today...
[image]anouk_729686162.jpg[/image]
[image]anouk_156465932.jpg[/image]
[image]anouk_218048726.jpg[/image]
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| Sinterklaas |
| 12.02.03 (4:24 pm) |
[image]anouk_1269039436.jpg[/image] One of the things that the Dutch brought to the US is the Santa Claus phenomenon. Although we call him Sinterklaas (St. Nicolas), the idea stayed pretty much the same. Kids get tricked into believing that an old man comes from far away (the North Pole, or in our case, Spain) and brings loads of presents towards the end of each year. Everyone remembers the moment when he or she found out that it was just another fairytale, but then you became part of the secret pact and could trick your younger siblings and friends into believing the Sinterklaas myth.
One of the fun things of being a teacher is that you can keep on reliving that fairytale and be part of the whole Sinterklaas rage every year again. Today I celebrated his birthday with the Dutch kids I am teaching at the International School and it was great. We watched the ‘Sinterklaas comes to town’ video, which was taped in Zwolle this year. Sinterklaas also found out that I had been in the hospital and made a big basket with all kinds of Dutch Sinterklaas goodies we could eat and drink, so that I didn’t have to get it all together. He left it at my front door this morning with a little note for me and the kids… :wink:
They all agreed that it was a really nice gesture so now we need to write the old man a thank you letter. My mom still has all the ones I wrote as a little kid…
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| What now? |
| 12.01.03 (7:46 am) |
I am home again. Weird. I drove Jacco to work today, just because I wanted to have someone sitting next to me when I first got into the car again. I slept pretty well and did not take any pain medication until now. I called the cardiologist to make an appointment for next week, which will be the first check-up in a long line of doctors' visits. Oh well. I can work, drive and be independent (not counting my newly acquired pill box that I am dragging with me everywhere I go...) so I am a lucky girl after all. I am getting a lot of attention too, and isn't that what we all dream of...?
By the way, I called the radiology department to get a copy of all the images they made last Wednesday, perhaps I can scan them and show you when I get them.
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