So far this winter I've been sick about 520 times. I've even managed to get a stomach flu on top of the sinus infection and strep throat that I already had. My doctor says I need to sleep more. She's wrong. She doesn't realize that viruses in the Netherlands have an immigrant integration test of... Continue Reading →
I'm getting old. It's been a long time since I could nimbly pluck the right answers to life's most mind-numbing questions from thin air. Questions about jobs, primary schools, interior decor and what's for dinner draw a blank stare from me. I've spent the last few months pretending I didn't hear the question, taking the... Continue Reading →
Before you go Clockwork Orange on me, answer this, do you have an urban/rural balance? I grew up in a town of 2329 people. In my town, the cheerleader, jock, stoner, overachiever, redneck clichés were the extent of local color. It really wasn't for me. I became a perfectly happy urbanite at 18. But, I've... Continue Reading →
Roughly 58 years have passed since the Netherlands experienced anything resembling a hurricane. In 1953, the North Sea Flood devastated the country's southern provinces and caused 1,836 deaths. (For anyone interested in Dutch literature, Margriet de Moor delivers a touching fictional account of the natural disaster in her novel, The Storm). All seriousness aside, I... Continue Reading →
I've been slow to process all the information in my new home city--Amsterdam. Sure there are tons of things to write about, but I've had trouble getting my thoughts organized into a coherent two-minute blog post. I decided it was time to get over my general laziness and take a vacation in the south of... Continue Reading →
We're home. Typing away in our new Amsterdam apartment, the phrase sounds foreign. After three weeks of unpacking, and despite a series of home improvement setbacks (concrete walls-4, drill-0), it starts to feel pretty cozy around here. With limited time, and a pressing need to find SOMEWHERE to live, we chose the best option for... Continue Reading →
Almost a month has passed since our arrival in the Netherlands--a 30 day blur of family, friends, exploration, rediscovery--and an intense amount of apartment hunting. We hunt and hunt. And I am like those drunken, orange-clad forms prowling the fields of Wisconsin at Thanksgiving. I'm shooting at anything that moves, hoping to down a terrace... Continue Reading →
Ciao Miami from Kate Moeller on Vimeo.
There is nothing new or off the beaten track about Monty's. It is a quintessential Miami Beach landmark. And that's the beauty of it. It was here 15 years ago, when I moved to Miami, and it'll surely be here in 15 years, when I come to visit. A Caribbean chap with a synthesizer cranks... Continue Reading →
Pooblee. Shul. Sowescera. If you know what all three of these words refer to, chances are, you've spent some time in Miami. Like many foreigners, I had a hard time understanding the language when I first moved to Miami. While the untrained ear could be fooled into thinking the Miami populace speaks Spanglish, this is... Continue Reading →
Prose & Co 