Empress Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, once said, “I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster.” This is what Kristina did after moving to the Netherlands: take courage, find her lost self, and begin again. From Saint Petersburg, a city in Russia of more than five million people, our young expat fell in love, packed her bags, moved from Russia to the Netherlands, and began an unexpected journey with a heartening ending. Here’s her story. If we’d like to comprehend what’s behind Kristina’s radical career change, from graduating as a medical engineer and c ..read more

  If you've tasted, or at least seen a one thousand leaves cake, then you can get a picture of what The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle book is like, with only one difference. To start with, both have a thousand layers, one on top of the other and endlessly going on. The difference is that when tasting the cake, you take a bite and savor its layers; whereas, in the book, you might read it one time and get a sense of the layers of stories created by the writer, but once you go for it a second time, you realize how little you really understood on that first round! That's why I not only read this ..read more

Having never left the place she was born and her only known home, one day Merve packed everything and said goodbye to Turkey. She'd lived in Ankara her whole life, but just as a river's flow takes new bends and bifurcates into streams, so did the life of Merve and her husband. A shared project, they took the leap by moving to the Netherlands in 2017. A year later, our Turkish expat found complete bliss by changing careers: from business administration to horeca medewerker. And you know what? She couldn't be happier! What's her view on life? How did she manage to take the jump and re ..read more

Did you know that Puccini has influenced all film music, like Star Wars and Jaws? Today you'll learn about the motifs in the music of these movies and the opera Tosca by Puccini, a political thriller that involves crime and frightening emotions. A lethal story. Keep reading to learn more! You know how when you read a book, characters are given names, right? Then as you read, you identify the character by it. Well, Puccini gave each character and situation a musical theme, a motif. This means that when a certain character is coming or a particular situation is about to develop, you'll hear "li ..read more

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one. Martin Luther King, Jr. Everything comes with a price. I went to bed with this thought in my head. I woke up with the same thought. I asked myself, So you think everything comes with a price, right? Like what? Well, I came up with a few examples, like: Honesty. People might not like what you have to say, and could walk away or distance themselves. Justice. Not everyone can afford it, and I'm not necessarily talking about money. Success. Sorting your prioriti ..read more

I'm not a big tv series fan for reasons I won't go into because I could most probably be misunderstood. Even so, sometimes there is this one show or episode that touches me in unexpected ways. Modern Love has just done that and I'll tell you why I recommend you watch it. First, I'd like to start by telling you a little more about where the TV series comes from. It's based on a weekly column of personal essays published in the New York Times. There is also a podcast, of which I've been a fan for some years now. In it, you can listen to renowned actors reading the essays, followed by ..read more

Congrats! In our previous post about the Marriage of Figaro you learned:  1. What the Heck Is Going On? 2. Before the Curtain Is Up        Now we'll explore: 3. The Coolest Rap About Revenge              4. Infidelity? Rosina Wants Her Hubby Back!  5. Madness! Six Singing Simultaneously For this second and last part of our blog post about The Marriage of Figaro, we'll explore Don Bartolo's aria about revenge where he raps; Rosina with a recitative and aria telling about her plan, pain, love, and hope; and we'll close with a piece for 6 voices singing simultaneously! Before going further ..read more

If you don't get opera, this is for you!     What if we told you that opera is a super entertaining and addictive soap opera?! We know two things: opera is a dark territory for you and first times are always unforgettable, for better or worse. Therefore we thought, We need an opera both hilarious and fantastic! Unique and extraordinary! An unbeatable first!  Guess what? We found it for you! The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart.       Top 5 things you'll learn: 1. What the Heck Is Going On?                       (Part 1) 2. Before the Curtain Is Up                             (Part 1) 3 ..read more

Amsterdam      There were a couple of things we didn't want to miss before Karen's plane to tel Aviv. She asked to see Spinoza. I, Operation Night Watch. The logistics on how to accomplish this on the same day of her departure were somehow tricky, to me. Good news is we pulled it together. We decided to take the train to Schipol, leave her luggage in lockers, and then go to Amsterdam for the day since her plane was late at night. My sweetheart had said, because he is a big catastrophe foreseer, that leaving the luggage at the airport was better than at Amsterdam Central. His predicti ..read more

Eindhoven & Den Haag Fietsenstalling, Piazza, Eindhoven      I wish I'd had more time to show Karen Eindhoven's city center, but unexpected things happened and we ended up hurrying to catch a train to Den Haag. How come? First of all, and as you well know, it wasn't raining so the possibilities were endless! Anyway, after having visited La Piazza's underground bike parking lot, seen Sissy Boy's organic architecture from the inside with its original jungle-style restaurant, eaten a yummy toasted sandwich at Krok Madam and while hanging out at Van Pierre, she saw a book on Escher and ..read more