Dutch + English = Denglish???

Now that Frans and Rose have spent several months in Dutch schools, their Dutch is better than ever.  One of the great things about learning another language, though, is learning and using words and expressions that have no exact English translation.  The kids have started to incorporate these words into daily use (sometimes without even knowing it!)

The Dutch word, gezellig, is one such word.  Its closest translation is “cozy,” but somehow it captures togetherness, feeling welcome, and much more. When we are together as a family, in a warm dry house, on a cold wet evening, enjoying good company and good food, the kids will describe such an evening saying, That was “gezellig”!

Rose with Bauke, Han's newest grandchild, during a gezellig evening with Han's kids and their families.

There is something to learn about a language in which there seems to be only one way to describe something as beautiful, pretty, elegant etc., mooi, but many ways to describe something as ridiculous!  With the guttural g’s and the Dutch intonation, the onomatopeia of the many Dutch words used to express when something is outrageously unacceptable is perfect in Dutch.  I find myself, in a moment of frustration with a ridiculous situation or an exasperating rule I cannot change, wanting to say Dat is belachelijk! Or Dat is flauwekul!  There are others, of course, but not all are fit to print…

Belachelijk! - Ellen holding a bag of lint, taped to an angry unsigned note from a neighbor in Oom Kees' apartment building in Switzerland. Why? Ellen ran out of the shared laundry room (to throw up) before cleaning the lint from the dryer during a bout of altitude sickness.  Poor Oom Kees had to hear about this from the neighbor in person - I'm happy I got the unsigned note with lint attached!

The other uniquely Dutch linguistic twist is the ubiquitous use of lekker, literally tasty.  You can of course, describe a cake as lekker, but you also hear parents describe kids playing wildly in the park, the school, or the living room as “lekker spelen” for having fun.  

Frans, lekker trommelen...

 ….  Or sometimes when an elderly person enters the train and someone offers his/her seat, the typically hearty Dutch reply with “Blijf lekker zitten” or literally, “Stay tasty sitting”… for “ No, don’t get up.”  

How could anyone keep from smiling when someone tells you to “stay tasty sitting”?

Loving London

This weekend was all about London - perhaps the most popular destination yet during our time in Europe in terms of crowd appeal.  We also lucked out with some mild fall weather, a bonus since the daily Dutch rainy mornings continue.  We wandered through popular sites like the British Museum and the Tower Bridge, took in a performance of Scrooge at the Palladium Theater, feasted on everything from spicy Indian food to wonderfully cozy afternoon tea, and just enjoyed the amazing diversity of sights, sounds, and the juxtaposition of new and old in this amazingly diverse city.  Here are a few postcards below...

Big Ben & Houses of Parliament across the Thames River

Skating next to the Tower of London - it rained just before we skated, so if you look closely, you'll see the wake Frans' skates left.  Falling was a very wet proposition, but our winter loving kids enjoyed the first skate of the season.

One of the many spectacular views from the giant ferris wheel, the London Eye.

Rose stands at the foot of the London Eye.

Ellen & Erzo with the Tower Bridge in the background.  Before it was built in the late 1800s, London bridge was the ONLY way to cross the Thames in London.  And of course, it kept falling down...

Standing on Regents Street with the ubiquitous double decker bus in the background.

Holiday lights were up around town.  This display on Oxford Street was one of the oddest Christmas displays we've ever seen.  The lights are sponsored by Marmite Gold (maker of the yeasty smelling, strong flavored Marmite).  Thus, the displays featured pictures of Santa and Elves either "loving" marmite and eating it up or "hating" it and spitting it out.  Vomiting elves & green Santa?  Hmmmmm...

Rose & Frans in front of an impressive 60 foot tall totem pole from British Columbia, now standing in the British Museum.. In the section on ancient civilizations, we saw a beautiful marble statue of Venus that once stood in Ostia Antica where we visited just a few weeks ago when in Rome.  So that's where all those missing statues ended up....  The sculptures and displays from ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt are as stunning as they are controversial.