Girls on the Town

Friday night a group of us from work went out for drinks at the local watering hole. While my Dutch is still not very good, I know to watch for the emails that say “Biertje bij Demmers.” Demmers is the name of the bar and biertje means beer (the “tje” at the end is a diminutive, so it’s literally a small beer). Of course they also serve wine for non-beer drinkers like me.

Demmers is a little pub in Naarden Vesting and it has a nice outdoor seating area. It’s close to work, and also not too far from my house. That makes it very convenient for biking. So, after work we all gathered and began enjoying the start of another weekend. Most of the conversation at these events is in Dutch, and I think I only understand about 10% of it. Some of my coworkers either think I’m more fluent than that or they are trying to help me learn. Here’s what I heard at one point:

“Blah, blah, blah, eat something, blah blah blah…Karen, blah blah, eat something?”

Naturally I answered yes! With Dennis out of town, I have no place I need to go so what the heck! I’ve learned that when you’re with friends the answer to most questions is yes. It’s best to assume the question is whether you want to do something fun, or try something new. When you’re at the store, the correct answer is mostly no. Here you are assuming that they asked if you want help, have a store discount card, or want a bag.

After we paid the bar tab, I hung around to find out what I agreed to and who else was going. It turned out that several of the ladies were going up the street to eat dinner at a restaurant. As we got settled in the restaurant, the girls decided that I needed help translating the menu so they were going to ask the Irish bartender to come over and give us a personal translation. Of course I told them I can read a Dutch menu and don’t need help. But once the (handsome) bartender came over, I understood why they wanted the translation!

This smaller group of people and quieter atmosphere made the conversation a bit easier for me. They mostly spoke English unless they didn’t know how to say it. Then one of the other ladies would help with the translation. Having dinner with these ladies was really fun for me and I’m glad they included me.

Right now I'm in Switzerland for work. My next post will have some good travel stories!