About Curious Orange

WELCOME TO CURIOUS ORANGE!

You’re probably curious (haha) about who we are and what we’re doing here.

So we’ll tell ya.

Curious Orange started out as a radio show produced and hosted by Michel Walraven and Ashleigh Elson at Radio Netherlands. It’s basically a show about Dutch stuff - as we say, “an insider’s and outsiders look at Dutch quirks and curiosities”.

And now… we have a blog too! And we have two additional regular bloggers, John Tyler and Robert Chesal.

Maybe we should introduce ourselves:

Hi. I’m Michel Walraven - The “insider” half of Curious Orange, the radio show. That means I’m the only born and bred Dutch guy on the show.

And I’m Ashleigh Elson - The “outsider” half of Curious Orange, the radio show (I’m Canadian, but loving the Dutch chocolate and flowers!). I also do occasional videos around the site.

Hi. I’m John Tyler - Radio Netherlands’ political editor and Man-in-The-Hague.

And I’m Robert Chesal - Radio Netherlands’ Dutch affairs specialist and Video Man (we’re working on a costume that’s as snazzy as the title).

And we are the Curious Oranges.

We’ll probably rope in the occasional outsider to blog with us, but don’t worry, we’ll introduce them as we go.

Speaking of outsiders, as we said above, we’ve got a pretty special mix going on here on the CO blog.
Michel is Dutch born and bred, John and Robert have lived here for, well, let’s call it “over a decade”, and Ashleigh is still a relative newbie. We’re hoping this’ll make for a good mix of “insider and outsider” viewpoints on Dutch life and culture.

Because that’s what this blog is about. Dutch life and culture.

Don’t worry, we realize that’s pretty broad. We did it that way on purpose.
That way we can talk about everything from how strange it is that the Dutch re-use their graves, to right-wing politician Geert Wilders’ latest escapades, to how the Dutch decide to put mayo on fries.

We’ll also have audio from the radio show, links to our guests, a weekly Dutch music video, and lots more.

So. That’s who we are and what we’ll be talking about. We’d always love to hear a quick hello from you… and maybe even a suggestion or two about what you’d like to learn about the Netherlands.