The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: Dutch

  • The Weird News That We’ve yet to Hear

    Every once in awhile we’ll hear a story about someone, or some group, that has been locked away for years. The latest is a group of six adult children, ages 18-25, who have been locked away in a farmhouse in Ruinerwold, Netherlands for 9 years. Some of the children have been so isolated that they…

  • “De kleine tafel!”

    I was living in Holland one glorious summer (I call it my summer of love), and one day I was helping a friend move from one apartment to another. The car was nearly packed and I was standing beside it while my friend was inside looking for anything that may have been left behind. Suddenly,…

  • The Betrayer of Anne Frank

    I “discovered” Anne Frank and her famous diary at the age of 12, so for me she felt like a contemporary. It seemed as if we went through puberty together. We discovered boys together. We were age-appropriately bratty and self-absorbed together. We had issues with our mothers together. (The fact that she was actually born…

  • I Just Love a Good Glottal Stop

    I was just listening to a friend who hails from Essex, England. What was he talking about? I have no idea. Oh, I could understand him. It’s just that I was so mesmerized by the sound of his voice that I really wasn’t focusing on the content of his commentary. He could read the phone…

  • Language Barriers

    When I was around 14 I rode the bus to school every day with a bunch of kids from migrant worker families. I was the only one on the bus who didn’t speak Spanish. It drove me crazy and they knew it. They’d say something, look over at me, and laugh. I hated being left…