49 connections apr2014

Connect International serves the international community in the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe and Noord Holland.

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Supported by an international staff and Board of Directors, we provide quality relocation services and practical information to help familiarize international residents with all aspects of living, working or studying in the Northern Netherlands, as well as organizing events and activities to make connections.

ConnectingWorlds

Connect International would like to welcome the following new members: Benjamin Müller, Oleg Rusu & Olesea Teaca, Santie de Klerk, Daniele Novarina, Ashraf Dandi & Zeinab Etekbali

Welcome New Members!Serv ices :

Jo in Us !You can register to become a Connect International member via our website. For a small yearly fee, you receive the Connections e-magazine newsletter delivered directly to your email inbox, you have access to the Connect International community through organized events, you can ask us any questions you may have and much more.Visit: www.connect-int.org

● Immigration services● Home search & set-up● Social events, activities & clubs● Career services● Business events● Books & guides● Information sheets● Knowledge database

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Contact : Publ ica t ion Team:Connect Head Office:Herestraat 106, Room 1.06, 9711LM GroningenTelephone: 050 7440087Email: [email protected] [email protected]: www.connect-int.org

Publisher: Stephanie FermorAssistant Editor: Margaret MetsalaContributers to this issue: Stephanie Fermor, Karen Prowse, Margaret Metsala, Traci White Carol Nieuwland-Goss, Milena Stanojevic & Kate McIntyre.

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AprilCalendar

April 2014

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AprilEvents

CONNECT (Groningen, Friesland & Drenthe)

Connect Crafts Club Date: 1 April 2014, 10:30 am

Parents Coffee Time Date: 7 April 2014, 10:30 am

Connect for Coffee Date: 8 April 2014, 10:30 am@ La Place, V&D in Groningen

Spring Wreath Workshop Date: 13 April 2014, 1:30 pm@ Connect International Office



CONNECT Noord Holland(Noord Holland)

CNH Kids & Coffee Date: 4 April 2014, 9:00 am@ the home of Begoña, Heemskerk

CNH Kids & Coffee Date: 9 April 2014, 9:00 am@ the home of Jo, Oudorp

CNH Book Club Film Night (Simon Birch, A Prayer for Owen Meaney)Date: 10 April 2014, 8:00 pm@ At the home of Caroline, Alkmaar

Dutch Customs & Culture Workshop Date: 15 April 2014, 7:30 pm@ Connect International Office

Connect for Coffee Date: 22 April 2014, 10:30 am@ La Place, V&D in Groningen

Book Club Date: 23 April 2014, 8:00 pm@ Rachel's house

Connect Pub EveningDate: 24 April 2014

Beads Weaving - Necklace Date: 27 April 2014, 1:30 pm@ office Connect International



CNH Connect for Coffee Date: 11 April 2014, 8:00 pm@ the home of Bobbi Jo, Uitgeest

CNH Kids & Coffee Date: 16 April 2014, 9:00 am@ the home of Sharon, Alkmaar

CNH Play Afternoon Date: 23 April 2014, 2:00 pm@ the home of Narelle, Noord Scharwoude

CNH Connect for Coffee Date: 25 April 2014, 8:00 pm@ the home of Rachel, Grootschermer

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Places to goThings to see

by Carol Nieuwland-Goss

The arrival of spring in Holland is a special time as we bid adieu to winter, warm coats, hats, gloves & boots that keep us warm while out and about. We shed layers as we welcome the warmer temperatures, longer days that stretch into the evening hours, and happily seek out the outdoor adventures for entertainment. One very special place to visit is ‘de Keukenhof’.

Located in Lisse, this spring park offers visitors a wondrous opportunity to enjoy a true Dutch specialty: the flower bulbs. Holland is internationally known and respected for its flower bulbs and the flowers that make their way around the world, and no place can better show off the best of the best bulbs than de Keukenhof does. Year in and year out, it is quite a process to bring this park to life each spring and the team of

Full Bloom Ahead

growers, designer, and Keukenhof staff who work together manage to do so very well.

Each year a new theme is selected, reflective of the market and what is going on around the world. This year’s theme is Holland = Tulips = Keukenhof. Jasper van de Zon, Keukenhof’s designer, works with the 100 growers to design gardens and

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exhibits that will showcase the bulbs in their best light. For these growers, de Keukenhof is the ultimate opportunity to show off their bulbs, varieties, and expertise to more than 800,000 visitors who will walk through the park. Up to 50% of these visitors are experts in the horticultural industry who are there to be impressed and utilize what inspires them. Once the theme and designs have been established, the growers get to work cultivating their bulbs to be ready for delivery in autumn. Some growers will create their own special bulbs, unique to their own style, seizing this opportunity to launch a new flower and broaden their own businesses.

The 100 growers have a special status known as ‘Preferred Suppliers’, and will have a section of the park where they can show their products. In September/October, these growers will arrive at de Keukenhof bearing a total of 7 million bulbs, donated free, which will then be planted by hand by the 30 gardeners of Keukenhof. Early and late

blooming bulbs are planted to ensure that ‘something’ is blooming throughout the eight weeks the park is open. Growers and their bulbs are identified at respective displays with a plaque.

At the end of the eight week run, all the garden beds are dug up, all the bulbs are thrown away and the process for the next year begins anew. Some growers, if they have created a new unique bulb, will return to get their bulbs. Keukenhof achieves its mission to create locally, display globally, and promotes the magnificence of the Dutch bulb cultivation on an international stage. This is a springtime activity you don’t want to miss out on! Thanks much to Annemarie Gerard for her time and knowledge for this article.

de Keukenhof is open from Friday, 20 March until Sunday, 18 May, 2014. Open daily from 8,00 – 19,30 hrs. For more information: www.keukenhof.nl

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How to write and publish a book in ten stepsStep 1. Give up your career and move very far away from home.I moved to Groningen for one reason: my husband got a job. Not just any job, his dream job. We were ready to settle down, and it felt like a good offer. At the time I was feeling pretty confused about my career path. I didn’t want to be a faculty member. I saw an endless treadmill of proposal writing and people management. I loved research, especially lab and field work, but I knew that wasn’t what you actually do as a professor. So my husband took the job and we moved from Los Angeles to Groningen, and I started dreaming up… I think it was scenes back then, and ideas, a few of which I wrote down.

Step 2. Have a kid.It was hardly an accident; it was a pretty standard move for someone in her early thirties. The kid showed up a few months after we arrived in Groningen and suddenly my life seemed to stop. I was both busy and not busy. I knew I would have another life after she’d grown, but I couldn’t find the time or energy to go after that life or even imagine that life. So I stayed home and watched the kid grow. It was an immensely privileged position to be in. Sometimes, though, I got very, very bored, and my mind would wander. My aunt started running after the birth of her first child as a way of carving out

YourStories

by Kate McIntyre

time for herself. By her fourth child she was running marathons. After my daughter, to carve out some headspace for myself, I started thinking in stories.

Step 3. Run a race.In the summer of 2005, I was back in Los Angeles visiting a friend and she suggested we both do the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge (http://nanowrimo.org). NaNoWriMo is a web-based writing challenge in which you sign up to write a 50,000-word novella during the month of November. You join thousands of other would-be writers as they make time in their lives to just sit and pound out a story. It is like a marathon: making the finish line is your reward. I started my book on

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YourStories

November 1st, 2005 knowing what I wanted to write, yet unsure whether I could create characters and lay out a story. Every time I dropped my daughter off at the peuterspeelzaal, I came home and sat down at the computer and wrote. Every night, I wrote. By the middle of the month I knew I could write 1700 words a day. By the end of the month I knew I could write a story. It was exhilarating and addictive. I didn’t know if it would go anywhere.

Step 4. Refurbish your kitchen.After my first NaNoWriMo, I did it again. And again. In between Novembers, I tried to make something out of those sprint-written novels. My daughter got bigger, but my stories didn’t progress. Then we decided to rip out our shabby, collapsing kitchen and put in a new one. For months I didn’t write anything at all. I hated having people in my house all the time. I hated having the constant sense of needing to answer questions. Our builders were unhappy. I was unhappy.

Step 5. Get depressed.I can’t recommend this one. After the builders left, I had one week when I wrote furiously and joyfully. Then we went on vacation, and the writing dried up again. When we returned home there was a letter informing us that we’d been scooped up in the rush to inburger everyone who might “need” it. We’d been in the Netherlands for more than six years. The tone of the letter and of the subsequent gemeente meeting made us feel that we, despite all our efforts to learn the language and fit in, were not welcome. The same week we had that meeting, I had a mammogram to examine a lump in my breast. I decided beforehand that I’d live with inburgering if the mammogram results came back negative. I was lucky that week, so many women I know haven’t been. Then the stock market crashed. At the back end of that Autumn I got so depressed I sought help. My therapy included a lot of deeply annoying pressure to commit to doing stuff.

Step 6. Take some classes and find a mentor.I love the Groningen public library; they have a surprising number of books in English that I’m grateful for. Next to the entrance is a long, low shelf of booklets and fliers for upcoming events including the catalogue of the Volksuniversiteit Groningen

YourStories

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(www.vugroningen.nl). I’d picked one up and noticed they give writing classes. By the spring of 2010, I’d taken a couple of weekend classes from the Amsterdam Writing Workshop (www.amsterdamwriting.com), which had given me some new confidence and drive. I wanted more than a weekend class though. Among the Volkuniversiteit writing classes was Kinderboeken Schrijven taught by children’s writer Tjibbe Veldkamp (www.tjibbeveldkamp.nl). At that point I’d had an idea for a children’s book and had even written a few pages, so the class looked like something that might help me develop that idea further.

Step 7. Get a little excited, get a little depressed again, listen to your mentor. I took the kinderboeken schrijven class. From the first moment that I explained what I wanted to write everyone seemed interested, critical and thoughtful. Over the four meetings of the class I wrote the plot, and the first three chapters. Then I worked on it slowly, for a year. At the end of the year, Tjibbe got back to me and told me to finish it. So I did. My initial plan had been to look for an American agent for the book, but the truth is that the Dutch publishing industry is still open to new authors. With Tjibbe’s assistance I decided I’d start with Dutch publisher Lemniscaat. I was aiming high.

Step 8. Submit to a publisher. I sent the manuscript in at the beginning on the summer of 2011, then I went to the US. I got back six weeks later and there was still no response. I nervously sent a message asking for some kind of reaction. The response was cautiously positive. I went for a meeting. Changes to the manuscript were suggested. Big changes. I thought about them, and made them, but in my own way.

Step 9. Be patient, keep at it, find community.At this point it may sound like cake, but it wasn’t done. There were more revisions. There was a translation by the thoughtful Lydia Meeder to check and agree on. There was a long search for an illustrator, which luckily ended

YourStories


with the talented Marijke ten Cate. Along the way I began panicking about what to do next. I’d been a Connect member for many years, but I hadn’t been participating in any activities for a long a time. Looking at the list of upcoming activities one day, I saw the Connect Writer’s Circle, which had just formed. I plowed my way in, felt somewhat scoured by the first meeting, but came back again and again. Having a group of people waiting to read something of mine and ready to engage about their own writing was, and is, a lifeline.

Step 10. Get thick skinned and try to do it all again.The book is out! There are copies in bookstores! Oh. The bookstore has closed. Now it’s open again. Now there’s a review, and it’s negative. Now there’s another review and it’s better. I knew this part would be challenging. All I want to do is write books, maybe get paid something. With the support of the writer’s circle I’ve written something else, something different, and I’m almost ready to send it out. The experience has been exciting, and scary, but I’m willing to try again.

The bottom line: If I hadn’t become an expatriate, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity. Moving to the Netherlands gave me the time to write. In place of a more organized program, I had to put

together a patchwork of classes, web programs, and groups to help me progress in my writing. Most importantly I would not have committed to any of them so fully back home. If I were still in the United States, I would have constantly been looking for the better option, and I don’t know if I would have ever begun. Here, when the rare, precious opportunity came up, I had to take it. I usually think that my expatriate life is more complicated than life would be back in the US, but in this case the lack of options made my choices simpler. For that, I am grateful.

Taste ofhome


Milibrot Bread Recipeby Milena Stanojevic

Milibrot is sweet bread prepared for Easter. It is served during the day together with the Easter eggs. The name comes from Milchbrot, German for milk bread. The bread is the most delicious while warm. It can be eaten with a bit of butter, jam or just plain.

Ingredients:• 1 kg flour• 1 cube fresh yeast (to be found in delicatessen stores, usually Italian)• 100 gr sugar + 1 tsp for the yeast mix• 3 whole eggs• 0,5 l warm milk• 100 ml sunflower oil• 1 egg yolk• 1 tbsp salt• grated zest of one lemon

Pile the flour, sugar, zest and salt onto a clean surface and make a well in the center.In a cup, add a few tablespoons of the warm milk, the yeast and the sugar. Mix it with a fork and leave it for a few minutes to work, then pour the mixture into the well.In a seperate bowl, mix 3 whole eggs, the rest of the warm milk and the oil together.Start to work the liquids into the flour mixture, slowly adding your egg mixture into the well as well. Knead the dough until it is smooth and soft; then leave to rise until doubled in size (this should take about 1 hour).

Knock back the dough, and divide it in 9 equally sized balls. Roll each ball into a long sausage/rope and, using 3 ropes, braid them together like you would braid hair. Repeat for the other pieces so you have a total of 3 braids. Place the braids on a greased baking tray and brush them with the egg yolk. Leave them to rest for 30 min.Bake the bread at 180 degrees for 30-40 min, until the crust is golden brown.When done, remove the baked Milibrot from the oven and sprinkle with a little cold water and wrap it in the kitchen towel and leave to cool.

InformationCenter



Photography tips!

UpcomingWorkshop

Light: The best natural light situation is during the time periods of the day referred to as the “magic hours” – roughly an hour after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is closest to the horizon, so it looks golden and doesn’t cause harsh shadows. In your camera, you should learn how to adjust the “exposure” of your image. Exposure is adjusting how long the shutter of your camera is open and how much light the sensor is “exposed” to. This is easier to control with an SLR (single lens reflex) or DSLR (digital single lens reflex), but you can use a point-and-shoot camera in a manual setting or make the images darker or brighter.

By Traci White

Traci White is a professional photographer in Groningen. Next month she will be giving a workshop about taking great photos, but to get you started she is sharing a few of the most important elements to keep in mind if you want to take better documentary-style pictures and enjoy all kinds of photography more:

Composition:It’s all about the rule of thirds! Whether you are taking a vertical or horizontal picture, you should try to line up the most interesting elements of your picture on a “third” – imagine there are two equally-spaced lines running left to right across your picture and then two more running from top to bottom. Mathematically-speaking, using thirds in composition is the most visually interesting and harmonious. You should generally try to put the focal point of your picture on the intersections of these thirds in your pictures.

In this photo, notice that the two boats are touching at one of the thirds in the top left corner. The photo also uses leading lines and vivid colors to get the viewer’s attention.


UpcomingWorkshop

Framing and layers: Look around the edges of the frame of your picture to see that there isn’t anything you don’t want poking into the picture, like another person or a tree branch. On the other hand, getting up close to a tree branch or a bike wheel can make cool divisions in your picture to draw even more attention to your subject – just make sure that you can see your subject’s face in between the lines.

This picture uses framing. I got close to the prayer flags so that they were making a frame around the face on the stupa.

Focus and sharpness: To make sure that your pictures are sharp, you have to focus the lens on the object you want to draw attention to. If you’re photographing a person, make sure that their eyes are in focus. With an SLR, you can do this by turning the focus ring on the lens until the part that you want to photograph is sharp. On any camera, you can move the focus point of the shot – it usually appears as a white, green or red box that you can move around so that it is focusing on the main subject of your shot. With SLR cameras with lenses, you can take photos with a shallow depth-of-field (or a low aperture, which is just like the pupils of your eyes getting larger or smaller to let in different amounts of light) which makes only a small area of your picture in focus, like this flower:

UpcomingWorkshop


or a longer depth-of-field, which makes everything appear sharper, like this picture of the mountains and temples in Kathmandu:

Moment: The most compelling element in any picture is a decisive moment or emotion. In documentary shots, a decisive moment can be someone jumping over a puddle, a bird flying off of a wire, or even something as simple as someone’s foot hovering above the ground before taking a step forward. Always try to have a strong moment or emotion in your pictures!

Wear the camera strap on your shoulder: If you have a long enough neck strap for your camera, consider keeping it on your shoulder like a laptop bag instead of around your neck. Not only is it more comfortable and easier to distribute the weight, but this way you can much more easily hold the camera above your head or briefly set it on the ground to take really low angle pictures.

Do you want to test out these tips? Join me for a photo walk! On Friday, 9 May at 16:00 – weather permitting - a group of up to 10 participants will meet at the Lighthouse building (the rainbow-colored one) on the Cibogaterrein in the Ebbingekwartier to take photos in that area and the surrounding streets for an hour, and then we can review the pictures in a nearby café to talk about your favorite shots from the session.

If the weather is terrible, the walk will be rescheduled to the following Friday, which is 16 May. The workshop is free for Connect International members and 5 euros for non-members. Sign up through the Connect site! www.connect-int.org/agenda.php

You can also see more of Traci’s work on her website: www.traciwhiteweddings.com

InformationCenter

Diezijner! Creative outlet in GroningenBy Stephanie Fermor

On March 4th a new shop opened at Zwanestraat 29 in Groningen. The shop is a project by Nynke Kloosterman in collaboration with other creative designers in the North of the Netherlands.


The shop is called “Diezijner”, and as its name suggests, the shop is full of beautiful designs of women’s and children’s fashion, living and fashion accessories, (retro) toys and quirky bits and pieces.

The shop gives local designers a platform to present their creations to the general public and is not bound by trends, but offers unique, timeless and special creations because of the choice of materials, design, origin and exclusiveness.

They have an ever-changing flow of designers, along with a steady base of unusal brands for every purse and for women and small children with different sizes, tastes and styles.

In addition to the Diezijner store, Nynke also organizes the Diezijn-Leuk markets. The next market is Sunday 6th April, located on the Vismarkt in Groningen city center from 11am until 5pm. With over 100 participants, the market offers a nice mix of small business owners and hobbyists who make and sell products of good quality and something for everyone.

There are also future markets planned for later this year, on Sunday shopping days: July 6th and November 2nd.

For more info visit: www.diezijn-leuk.nl

HammamBy Margaret Metsala

As a Finn, I am accustomed to a sauna with a hissing sound followed by a blast of heat when a toss of cold water hitting fire-heated rocks swiftly evaporates in a billowing wave of near-invisible steam. This intense heat is so good especially in the characteristic fragrant warmth of an old-fashioned wood-fired country sauna.

Since I moved to Groningen, I have discovered a range of steam bathing traditions offered at Dutch saunas. After several turns in the gentle steam in one of their Turkish baths, I decided to seek out the full hammam treatment at a Turkish hammam in The Netherlands.

At the hammam reception area, I was welcomed with a drink of spiced tea. An attendant led me to a changing cubicle with lockers where I donned the bottom half of my bikini, my bathrobe and jelly slippers that they provided. The attendant returned and she brought me to a tiled room where she gave me argan oil to spread over my skin while she spread some on my



back. Once my body was well oiled, I entered a small room so full of steam the bench was nearly invisible. The comforting heat penetrated gently until I was collected for the next stage.

This was the “hard” part. I lay on a tiled surface and was scrubbed top to bottom, back and front, with the roughest fabric mitt ever to touch my skin. I nearly yelped when she reached the back of my knees. Once every bit of dead skin was off, I was ready for pampering: bags of soothing bubbles were spread all over me and the little bubbles slid and popped comfortingly.

The attendant rinsed the bubbles off by pouring bowls of warm water over me.

This felt amazing after the scrubbing and the bubble treatment. The massage was next: I had a choice of back massage or leg massage and I chose the back massage. By the time it was done, I was as relaxed as could be.

I changed into my clothes and returned to reception where a pot of tea and a tasty fresh date awaited me. When I left, the rest of the day passed in a feeling of cleanliness and contentment. My softened skin glowed like it was 10 years younger with memories of bare-legged summers past.

The hammam treatment is an excellent preparation for summer or holidays in the sun as well as for general cleanliness and enjoyment. Prices for hammam treatments will vary according to the services provided.



49 connections apr2014

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