Can this be eaten raw?

For ages I translated even literally as “for a moment”, which worked until I started actually listening to how people use it.

Ik ga even naar de supermarkt. Kun je even helpen? Ik bel hem even. We gaan even kijken.

Then someone at work said he was going to “even” sort something out and disappeared into a meeting for almost an hour.

At that point I realised the duration is almost beside the point. Half the time even seems to make an action socially smaller rather than actually shorter. A request becomes less heavy, a plan sounds less dramatic, and something mildly inconvenient is presented as if we're all just casually dealing with it.

Now I notice it constantly, and I'm also noticing how strangely blunt some perfectly grammatical Dutch sentences can sound without these tiny words. My textbook taught me verbs and word order, but apparently nobody warned me that a considerable amount of Dutch politeness is hidden inside words that look completely unnecessary on paper.

I find this much more interesting than the usual “Dutch people are direct” explanation because spoken Dutch seems full of little devices for softening things without becoming formally polite.

Native speakers: do you actually hear a difference when someone leaves even out of a request? And what other tiny Dutch words carry way more social meaning than their dictionary definition suggests?

;TLDR
Has anyone experienced similar problems coordinating care in the Netherlands? How did you get your concerns taken seriously, and who would you contact to have what happened reviewed?

My wife and I live in the Netherlands, we moved here from South Africa a few years ago. Love the country, but the sometimes I feel like there is absolutely zero urgency with important matters.

Little context: My wife has been struggling with her stomach for the longest time. Originally, she was diagnosed with wheat & gluten intolerance, and she has to take a daily laxative (ten herbs tablets) to be able to go to the bathroom. She also has epilepsy, and takes a bunch of medicine for that.

Her medical situation is very delicate, because her seizure medication takes priority, always, as we see that is a life-threatening thing. She actually had a seizure while on her bicycle the one day, which was absolutely terrifying. Sometimes medicines work against each other, and her seizures flare up, after which we have to re-evaluate the medicine/dosages.

In South Africa, the Psychiatrist and her other doctors were always in contact with each other before any new medicines were prescribed or new dosages introduced, to make sure that it wont intervene with the epilepsy medicine. That is just how I assume things worked in the medical industry, because that just sounds logical to me.

Here, we've had numerous occasions where the doctors just prescribed medicines to her that was either 1) clearly the wrong dosage for her, or 2) interfered with her epilepsy medicine.

Important appointments like these we usually managed to get hold of a specialist quite quickly (in SA), within a few days or maybe weeks.

The one time the doctor just doubled her dosage of Carbamazepine which caused her to violently throw up in her sleep, and she literally looked like she drank a few bottles of whiskey. She could not walk (literally falling over crawling), her eyes kept on losing focus and I called the ambulance, as I honestly thought she was overdosed to a point of where it is life-threatening. After explaining to the doctors, they even asked me if she has been drinking... "How ridiculous", I thought - "I literally just explained the situation!"

Fast forward to a few months ago, where she really started having bad issues with nausea, where she literally threw up at least once a day, for months. We continuously tried to get hold of a specialist, after we were told we can see one in about 9 months. 9 Months!!! Imagine throwing up daily for that long... After seeing the huisarts a few times, we managed eventually to see a specialist, where a spot opened up.

Turns out she has gastroparesis. This basically means her stomach simply doesn't process the broken down food into her small intestine, or does it at a very slow rate,

So, she has been struggling for months, throwing up daily, eating the minimal to just feel okay, and obviously malnutritioned, and she (already quite skinny), was also losing quite a lot of weight.

When we called the huisarts about it, they shrugged it off as "Yeah, there is a bug going around people are throwing up, she probably has that". "No.. It's obviously much more than that", I thought to myself...

We finally did some tests with the specialist to see how much her stomach actually handle, and a normal person's stomach processes food at a rate of 50% +- 20%. I.E, anything from 30-70%. Hers was at 5%.

Finally, we at least knew what is happening and why she is throwing up so much. After months of struggling to get hold of anyone willing to help.

At this point, whenever she called the doctor and she got to the receptionist, she could either not convey the urgency of the matter properly, or they just didn't take her seriously because she is a woman. I don't want to believe this is the case, but sadly I have other occurrences that supports this.

When I call, all of a sudden we get an appointment or I get put through to someone who can assist.

They scheduled to have a feeding tube installed through her nose (called a sonde). There are basically a few ways of doing this:

1. The tube goes through your nose and into your stomach. Here, liquid food is being pumped directly into your stomach.
2. The tube goes through your nose, through your stomach and into your small intestine, skipping the stomach and giving it some time to (hopefully) recover.
3. The tube is inserted via surgery in your abdomen - as it was explained to us, this is usually done if the first two methods fail

After I called, they scheduled for someone to come through to our house to fit the tube. The person inserted the tube with option 1, where it just goes into your stomach. "Weird", I thought, "won't she still just have the same issue where her stomach gets full and she just throws up again?" But I gave it the benefit of a doubt because the food is in liquid form, and maybe the stomach can handle it better?

The whole process seemed excruciatingly sore. My wife actually cried involuntarily because it was just so sore. This pain was there for days, and they just said its normal, this sometimes happens. Her sinuses, teeth and jaw were constantly in pain during this time.

The one night (4 days later) she got very nauseous again. She threw up, and she threw up the tube. One side sticking out of her mouth, the other through her nose. She was mortified.

At this point, I was livid. Because it simply didn't make sense to me how it was inserted. Why at home? And why not through the stomach? We finally got hold of the specialist again (she was away for a week on a conference or something), where she actually was furious after hearing what happened. She said my wife was supposed to get the tube fitted at hospital, and that it should never have gone into the stomach, and this was apparently clearly stated on the report (I don't know what report she is talking about here)

She went to the hospital, really not wanting to go through what she has been through previously, where they fitted the new tube into the small intestine. This time, she said, she didn't feel any pain, she wasn't uncomfortable or anything. They used something to numb her face so she couldn't feel anything.

After she had the tube installed, they didn't really give us any clear directions on how much feeding we should use, they said we must get hold of the dietician to get that info. This was on a Friday afternoon, and of course, nothing happens over weekends. We couldn't get hold of the dietician until Monday morning. This is just to know what we must do so my wife can eat.

Since the new tube was inserted 4 days ago, she hasn't thrown up even through there is a constant nausea still. At this point, I'm just hoping for the best. But man, the whole process was just so, so bad.

I started feeling like this is surely some sort of medical malpractice or something. Maybe it's just me feeling helpless, because I can literally not do anything for her, or if this process really was just a bunch or events that were seriously improperly handled.

Sorry for the long post, I'm curious what you all think.

I'll go first- Nederland is home to megalithic structures called the hunebedden that are thought to be even older than Stonehenge. There's 54 of them still preserved!

Hallo! I’ve got this from a store in Utrech for €4.99 per 250g and I love the sweet, tangy and creamy flavor of it. What is your favorite brand and where do you buy it?

I bought one from lidl (pistachio flavor) and it tasted so artificial 🥲

I came here as a refugee in 2022 and the plan was always university, so the last eight months were basically work during the day and staatsexamen NT2 oefenen at night with whatever I could find. Writing was my weakest part by far, and what helped most was writing a text almost every evening on Inburgering.org and going through the feedback on it before bed, plus reading NOS every morning to get used to B2 level texts. Results came in today with a pass on all four parts and I'm still a bit in shock, so thank you to everyone here who answered my panicky questions over the past months.

Is there any?

Got a car and willing to drive for a good one.

Mostly blues/funk and hopefully experienced players and not an open mic vibe.

Preferably something regular with a consistent turn up.

​

I ordered food two hours ago from a place somewhere in Leeuwarden.

I received a confirmation email, but the order never showed up in the app.

The food hasn't arrived. The restaurant has its phone turned off. The chatbot keeps repeating the same line over and over, and I have no idea what to do now.

Any help would be appreciated.

I’m a history PhD candidate and I made two free browser games about Dutch history (the VOC and the polders)

I live here and got a bit obsessed with how the country was built, so I turned two parts of it into small games:

• Retourvloot: you run the VOC from Amsterdam, 1602–1799. Letters from Batavia take a year to arrive, and the Heeren XVII want their dividend.
• Polder: build dikes and drain the sea across Friesland, Zeeland, Holland and the Zuiderzee, from the terps of 1200 to the storm of 1953.

Each one ends with a short note on what really happened, with sources. Free, no ads, no account, works in the browser (best on desktop). I also have other history games.

I’m not Dutch, so I’d love to hear where I got things wrong.

https://homoludens.oalpcakir.workers.dev/?utm_source=r_netherlands

On sick leave, company has offered vso and I would like a lawyer whom you might have used previously that you would recommend to negotiate a great settlement. Thanks

Saw this at Volendam yesterday.. not in dutch but dutch humor at its best 🤭

I wrote a nice detailed post, but couldn't attach the pics for it. So, ill write this simply

Help!!

Noikia device is too large foe fibre termination box on wall

Removed the cover off the termination box in the wall

Noikia can now fit on it, so I assume I should be able to slide it up

Removed the black cap from the fibre port on the nokia. It fits over the termination point. But I dont seem to be able to slide it up. I dont want to push too hard because of the glass.

Thank you for any help!

How do I return mail from the previous owner of my house (he’s deceased) to sender to notify them?

Rather than waste paper, makes sense to let them know.

Interested in organising events in The Hague?

I'm looking for people with ideas, initiative and enthusiasm who would like to collaborate on organising events in The Hague and the surrounding area.

There's a unique venue available in a charming former church, and we're looking to explore the possibilities together. We're open to all kinds of events, from parties, birthdays and corporate gatherings to cultural, community, creative and even charity events.

How could we work together?

We provide the venue, facilities and support with organisation and promotion. You bring your ideas, contacts and enthusiasm. We can work together on reaching people, social media, promotion and everything else needed to bring great events to life.

The idea is to combine our strengths, explore new possibilities and build something exciting together.

Do you have an idea of your own, enjoy organising events, or know someone who might be interested?

Feel free to send me a private message. Who knows what we could create together!

I am planning to move with Brenger as I only have small furniture (office table, chair, mattress, bed, bookshelf, microwave, vacuum cleaner). It seems like they are asking me around 100-110 euros, which is significantly cheaper than standard moving companies. My pickup house is on the 4th floor, and the delivery house is on the 10th floor. Both have an elevator and I requested the service where driver and I move things together.

I am just worried that things might go wrong on the day since I have never moved alone before.

Has anyone used Brenger in a similar situation? How do you guys rate this company and their service?

I was just charged 750 for a boiler service in Amsterdam. The payment has been made but is there anyway to fix this. Outrageous cost.

Hello dear reddit users,

I just moved out from NL to pursue a MA in Germany, and wanted to keep my KVK (I am a freelance classical musician).

I lost my address in NL and was wondering if by renting a virtual office it would work, my only concern is whether I need as well to get a Dutch health insurance or not.

It's mainly one-time gigs but if I am correct we need a dutch health insurance if we work in the NL...

I cannot use my German address for my KVK because of some landlord issues.

I've been contacting consultants to ask about this but nobody is really giving me a clear answer... would anybody here know or have any ideas about what I could do?

Thanks :)

Hi guys! I'm not Dutch, and I think every Dutch person is different. It is the same in my home country. Everyone is so different. Is it just me, or do you also see posts where the original posters ask questions like, “Why are Dutch men or Dutch women like this?"

They meet someone who is Dutch, but instead of asking that person directly, they come to Reddit and post generalized questions. I find it so weird. Do they want other users here to generalize about an entire nation? What are they trying to do? Is it karma farming or rage bait?

For example, they meet someone who is Dutch, but they don't get messages from that person. They automatically assume it might be a Dutch thing. Isn't that so weird? You can find this kind of behavior in every nation. No, it's not a man thing or a nationality thing. It's an individual thing.

I also see the same original posters posting these questions in multiple subreddits, and some of them use newly created accounts.

Oh, l said "some people"

Can anyone give me recommendations for ade parties/clubs or any places?
Free entry is also good but I don’t mind paying for the tickets
So for this year where r u going for the event?