Dutch Lessons....So Much Homework!!

It's Sunday night and Paul and I have spent most of the weekend doing homework!! Yes, we're back to school....language school. Whilst the idea of moving overseas to a foreign land with a different culture and language, sounds all very excting and slightly romantic, the romanticism of living in Europe was certainly killed now that we have to spend hours every week completing our homework from our dutch language class.

In reading my Concise Dutch Grammar book, I was amused by some of the grammar exercises. For example, Exercise 1...Split up the sentence into different parts and underline the subject and the main verb. Here was the sentence we were given for the exercise.
Ik vind jou niet aardig.
I find you not nice (english translation).

Hmmm.....Well, I'm not sure when and to whom I will ever need to say that. Is this a grammar exercise or an exercise in cultural differences? The funny thing is I don't think the straight talking dutch would understand the humour in this....we just don't say stuff like that. It all rests in the word DIPLOMACY....seen as a desirable skill to have back home in Australia. I think it's fair to say there is less emphasis over here in the Netherlands on diplomacy and being politically correct. As commented in one of my previous blog posts, over here it's about the 'importance of being earnest'.

London Calling

It's been 6 years since Paul was last in London and 5 years for myself. Now that we live nearby, we hope to make frequent trips over to London. We were a bit slack taking photos of our London trip last weekend, however here are two shots with Brad and Carey, and Claire, Hak, Dylan and Olivia. Sorry to those who we missed catching up with last weekend, we hope to see you on our next visit.

Our first visitors in 's-Hertogenbosch

First prize goes to Ben and Anniker!! Our first visitors in Den Bosch.

A close second goes to Lisa....flying all the way from Vietnam.

It's was a real treat for us to have had Ben, Anniker and Lisa come and visit us in the Netherlands. Here are some pics.

Romantic Road Trip

Our last two stops on the Romantic Road in Germany were Dinkelsbuhl and Augsburg. Dinkelsbuhl is another beautiful city (surrounded by lakes) and we didn't really do much there apart from having a delicious lunch at a local restaurant followed by an afternoon snooze in the park. In Augsburg, we visited the Fuggerei. "the oldest social settlement in the world". There are rows of ivy-covered terraced homes built along cobbled streets in the 16th century and rebuilt after the Second World War. Mozart's grandfather once lived there. Today, residents pay only 88 eurocents annually in rent for their four-roomed homes. It was a fascinating place to visit.

Schneeballen at Rothenburg

The schneeball (snowball) is a ball of dry dough that is fried, then dipped in either icing powder or chocolate. There are dozens of different flavours and all over Rothenburg (our favourite city on the Romantic Road) there are shop windows displaying the colourful snowballs. Cessy and I walked around the wall fortifications of the old city which was a great way of escaping the hordes of tourists and getting a bird's eye view of the city.

Don't Mess With My Bratwurst

Our internet problems are finally sorted and we can finally access our blog again!!! Going back a few weeks, we went away to the Romantic Road in Germany for a long weekend. It's a route of about 300km route and there are many charming old cities along the way. Our first stop was Wurzburg, where there was a wine festival in the Markt and Cessy had one goal in mind....the search for the perfect bratwurst.