012: Birthday Fun

Hoi lieve allen,

nu als ik jaarig gewwest was en Ma niet heeft geloven kunnen dat ik er nog nooit in het bioscoop geweest was...


And I could go on and on for hours in Dutch. And why is that, I hear you ask?

Because I have the bestest Mom evar and why yes, this is colloquial English (big shout out to the English teachers among you *waves*)and attention kids, you shall not use it in essays or letters or any other document of half official nature.

Now, while reading makes your English speaking good; or so we were told during the seven season run of a very funny and made-of-awesome TV show called Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (wait, yes there is a point to this tangent, just wait and you see), there's just something about the Harry Potter series that leaves you wondering.
Not only because of the differences between British and American English, but also because of the different film versions.
This weekend I decided to treat myself to a trip to the cinema (which translates to bioscoop in Dutch). And of course, with all things French that I refuse to say and hear and read these days, I came to the conclusions that a) when in Rome, do like the Romans and b) walk like an Egyptian (I blame the sugar on that last sentence, never mind).
I wanted to see Harry Potter. Because... well... why not. And since we've seen it in Germany (oh so lousy translations and really; no 16 year old would talk like that) the day it came out, and since that left us pretty disappointed; we decided to see it while we were in Edinburgh (what could be more fitting!). That was only slightly better. So, to form a very well founded, well researched opinion (I am a scientist, after all), I made the one hour trip to the only cinema in Brussels that would show the film in Dutch dub.
Sneaky Brusselers; one would think with... oh, I don't know... the European Parliament and Comission and with all the forms of internationalization that are attached to that, Brussels surely would have to offer more Dutch cinemas like that, right?
Wrong. Oh so utterly and completely wrong. However, I had a mission to accomplish, a post-birthday mission. I was to see that movie in Dutch, come hell or high water.

And I saw it. And it never occured to me before, but Dutch is a very interesting language - sure, there are a lot of choking sounds and if you're not careful you might actually choke on the letters "g" or "ch" or my favourite combination "s-ch". However, Dutch is, in fact, a language that takes wordplay to another level. I laughed so hard during favourite scene. And then... I choked. On the candy and Nachos and Popcorn and Cola I had bought myself for lunch. A girl has to eat to survive a 2 1/2 hour long film. Ridiculously expensive, but soooo much fun. HAPPY TIMES.

Also, the cinema is in the north of Brussels; near the Atomium. For those who didn't study History and those who didn't know, the northern area is called EXPO. That stems from the times after World War I, right before World War II when it was decided that Brussels would be host to the World EXPO in 1935 (which of course didn't happen). I don't have any pictures of the EXPO area per se, but I do have pictures of the Atomuim.

And if you excuse me, I have to be looking for Alaska.