I tend to lose things more often than I like to admit. And when you have this tendency, you can either let yourself go into a full-blown panic or, as I have learned to do, retreat into an almost eerie calm. It’s happened enough times that I’ve learned to whip through a hyper-accelerated version of …
If, like me, you are living in Europe for the first time in your life, you have certain daydream images of how you will spend your afternoons. This was particularly true when I first arrived in the dead of winter with no schedule to adhere to but Albert Heijn’s. I had generous stretches of time …
Something happened. In a cartwheel-inducing turn of events, Den Blah has radically transformed itself into Den Hoorah. The sun is no longer a mirage, and the temperature doesn’t radically change just because you’re on the shady side of the street. Spring hasn’t just sprung, it’s crash landed its glorious self all over the city. It’s …
I confess: it’s my second spring here, and I’ve still never done an official tulip outing. The closest I’ve come to celebrating the annual Dutch ritual is seeing fleeting snapshots of tulip farms I pass while I’m on the train. I catch them in a blurry whiz of vibrant colors, but seeing them this way, …
I’ve had a lot of conversations recently about the Kony 2012 video that went viral last month. In an email I received imploring me to watch it, I was told that doing so would be an act of humanity. A heavy-handed request, but I obliged. I watched the film one over-caffeinated morning and can summarize …
I woke up on April Fool’s Day to the sound of geese gliding along the canal outside my window. It was my first morning in a new home, and a sun-soaked welcome. Sunny days in The Hague are rare enough, but sunny weeks like we’ve been having lately is approaching a small miracle. Weather in …
Desculpe, Lisboa. I owe you an apology. I got so lost in your custard pastries and your cobblestones, your mosaic tiles and rows of pastel buildings, your pop-up graffiti art and your sepia-toned nights, that I left my camera in the car of an ornery taxi driver. So I have little proof of your charms …
When I first announced to friends in New York that I would be moving to The Hague, some reactions included: wild-eyed envy that I would be living anywhere in Europe; excitement over the fact that I would basically be living in Amsterdam; dismay over the fact that I would not in fact be living in …
Until recently, it seemed we were in an endless spell of grey days with only a few, brief appearances of sunlight. These are the days when I search for ways to shake off a serious case of the Den Blahs before they turn into the Den Blues. Luckily, I stumbled on a colorful cure in …
I can count on one hand the number of friends I have who belong to their public library. I need even less than a hand for the friends who actually use one. Libraries used to seem such a big part of my life, so when exactly did this happen? When I was little, my sister …