(b)logophile

Happy New Year everyone! I spent mine in Naarden, with a bunch of crazy Dutch folks, dancing to 80′s pop, eating extravagently, and playing games requiring uniformly high levels of Dutch ability. Needless to say, I sucked, but it was great fun. Kudos to Marieke and Niels for the idea, the venue, and the cooking [...]

I’m having some delays in the process of becoming a PhD student. It’s almost a catch 22 situation, but not quite. The original catch 22 was “You can only have this if you ask for it … but if you ask for it, you can’t have it any more.” (Know the phrase but don’t know [...]

Wheeoo, I thought I was past being surprised at Dutch bicycles, but I’ve had to think again! Walking through Amsterdam is sort of technology fair for things bike-related, and you get used to seeing a family of four all hanging off the same two or three wheels, or somebody moving house with all his worldly [...]

We were enjoying a beer and the sunshine yesterday afternoon on the Nieuwmarkt (a prominent tourist landmark) when I discovered just how seriously the Dutch take their pub regulations. It seems that space is at such a premium in this country that a pub with outside seating (terraces) has a strictly demarcated area it is [...]