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To love the Maastricht Region

Happiness is...

22-01-2012 om 16:59 by Sueli Brodin

DSC_1897If someone asked you to draw “Happiness”, what would you draw?

All children between the ages of 4 and 18 living in the municipality of Meerssen received two weeks ago an invitation to take part in a drawing/painting competition on the theme of “Happiness”.

They were free to illustrate the theme as they saw fit and to submit their works before Thursday 19 January. A professional jury will draw three prizes for each age category and the winners will be announced on Sunday 29 January. The main prize will be a certificate and five free painting lessons.

At first, my children were a bit hesitant: “But what should we draw? And what are the chances to win anything?”

I read them the few examples that were given in the invitation: “Happiness can be a very big pizza, or a fabulous ice-cream,... read more

Merry Christmas, in English

23-12-2011 om 23:32 by Sueli Brodin

DSC_1379There are times in the Netherlands when I have the impression that it has become an English speaking country. This is definitely the case around Christmas when all the songs we hear in the shops, in the streets, on the airwaves and just about everywhere else, except perhaps in churches, are of British or American origin.

At the gym this morning, the spinning instructor played Wham's Last Christmas twice and continued with Chris Rea's Driving home for Christmas and José Feliciano's I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas.



My youngest daughter Sacha learned to dance on Maria Carey's unavoidable hit All I want for Christmas is you at her Street Dance class and the way she's practising it, I expect her to  be able to sing it any time soon.



There was a big Christmas celebration yesterday... read more

Magic words

27-11-2011 om 22:57 by Sueli Brodin

marente2In my work as an editor for the European Journalism Centre, I am sometimes asked to give writing tips to young interns who are interested in contributing to the EJC’s online magazine.

“Be your own editor,” I tell them, “only send me your article after critically re-reading the entire text and making sure every single word is the most accurate word you could have used and absolutely needs to be there.”


Coaching young journalists at the European Journalism Centre

When I am correcting articles and come across words I am not familiar with or which seem to be used with a new meaning, I systematically look them up in the dictionary and check their pertinence. “Writers have to get used to your editing,” my director once teased me.

Surprisingly perhaps, I am quite different in my private... read more

A visit to Maastricht Aachen Airport

29-10-2011 om 22:06 by Sueli Brodin

3506This is Tim, Sueli's son. I wrote a few months ago about my passion for airplanes and now I would like to write about what happened afterwards.

Soon after the publication of my story, I was very surprised and happy to receive an invitation to visit Maastricht Aachen Airport.



I went  to the airport at the end of the summer holidays with my parents and my best friend Thomas who is also a big fan of airplanes.

The man who had sent us the invitation was called Mark Keulers and he came to greet us in the main hall. He said that he was going to give us a tour of the whole airport.



Mark first took us to the control tower and there we met Finn and Sonny, the two air traffic controllers who were working that day in the tower.



Finn and Sonny were very nice and we asked them... read more

Spelt, the taste of an ancient grain

20-09-2011 om 08:30 by Sueli Brodin

speltI have always liked bread, in all its varieties of tastes and shapes, and find almost impossible to step out of a bakery shop with only one loaf of bread.

Since I came to live in the Netherlands, I have bread and cheese every day for lunch, just like the Dutch. Even in the weekend. When he is home for lunch, my Dutch husband prefers eating leftovers, but I stick to my delicious slices of bread and melted cheese.





A few years ago, during our summer holiday in the French Provence, I discovered a new local bread specialty called "Pain de la Drôme", made out of wheat and rye flour and spelt grains.





I was intrigued by the spelt grains in the bread and was conquered by their rich texture and nutty flavour. I had never seen them before and found out that they were an ancient... read more

 
 
Sueli Brodin has been living in the Maastricht Region since 1994. She is the website editor for the European Journalism Centre (EJC) in Maastricht and produces the EJC's daily Media News digest. She is also a team member of PechaKucha Night Maastricht, an informal English-language initiative where creative people get together and present their ideas in a concise format. 

View Sueli's video portrait on www.zuidlimburg.nl.
     
     

    Hierbij willen wij u uitnodigen deel te nemen aan een onderzoek over de regio Zuid-Limburg en de website van zuidlimburg.nl. Het onderzoek vertelt ons hoe u over Zuid-Limburg denkt en wat u van de site vindt. Het invullen van de vragenlijst duurt circa 5 minuten.

    Het onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd door Flycatcher Internet Research. Uw antwoorden worden anoniem verwerkt, uitsluitend voor onderzoeksdoeleinden gebruikt en niet aan derden ter beschikking gesteld.

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