On Friday, the crew from Van Luyken was invited to the house of Frits Huges, a freelance videographer who often helps with Van Luyken projects like media training. It was a very special occasion, as Frits was treating his Van Luyken friends to a thank you canal cruise with a naturalist from the Lancschap Noord Holland Company.
Once again, I “fell with my nose in the butter,” as Hollanders would say, because I was very lucky to be included in this outing. I was even included in the Van Luyken girls’ run for new boots so we wouldn’t sink in the marshy mud (FYI South Carolinians – just like plough mud).
Frits’s home is in Ilpendam, a village in North Holland (slightly north of Amsterdam). The terrain is amazing! His house is located right on the water, and everything is so flat that it appears you could walk on water if you were so inclined. The naturalist toured us around the canals and the natural beauty around us was breathtaking.
Afterwards, dinner at Frits’s helped give me an opportunity to get to know the Van Luyken crew better. Thankfully, they didn’t throw me out, even after a series of really dumb questions:
1) To Frank: “What is this?”
His reply…. in a very kind, yet amazed tone: “Ummm…. bread?”
2) Then to To Erik, as he was explaining the different sauces for what appeared to be airy-light chips of some sort: “What’s that?”
His also kind, yet amazed reply…”Ummm , butter?”
Seriously – neither food item looked recognizable outside of its normal place on the table! But while not recognizable, they were excellent (and worked quite well together, dank je!).
Despite these dumb questions, I was still made welcome - I was even introduced to the musical nostalgia of some of my co-workers. Apparently, Arne Jansen, a beloved Dutch singer (1951-2007) performed a very famous song about redheads: “Meisjies me rooie haren” – which supposedly translates into something like "red heads are good kissers” and "they will show you the meaning of life." Interestingly enough, the translation I found online says:
"Girls with hair grubbing,
that can cushion, which is not wrong,
girls with hair grubbing,
can you say, what love is, yes yes yes
girls with hair grubbing, can you say, if you know them,
or you, the great love, the great love are forever."
Still, from the looks of the smiling redheads in this video my co-workers showed me (prior to serenading me with the song), it looks like these grubbing redheads are pretty happy about all the nice things he's saying!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW2xmf1wXuY
Here are three of Van Luyken's partners: Erik Visser, Raoul Hoyng and Hans Weijel (who is hosting me for the week of June 8-13). Like my American bosses, they are all very nice and fun to work for.
2 comments:
The three guys at the end of your post look absolutely fantastic. They're exactly what I imagine Dutchmen to look like! Love the bread and butter phenomenon, too. HILARIOUS.
I wouldn't have known that was bread either, Carrie. Looks more like a brain.
Great reading your blog - next best thing to being there with you.
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