About the Author

Name: Amanda Potter
Date of Birth: August 12, 1981
Hometown: Barnet, VT/ Boston, MA, USA
Current Hometown: Maastricht, Limburg, the Netherlands
Profession: Blogger, Copyright Researcher, Webmaster, Archivist, Trailing Spouse (When you do all the housework, it’s a job)
Education: Masters of Library Science, Simmons GSLIS. BA, Anthropology, Franklin & Marshall College
Favorite Dutch Food: Bitterballen

About Maastricht Minutiae

Maastricht Minutiae was born from my desire to share our experience with friends and family and my perceived lack of support in the Maastricht region for expats. Many Americans have the perception that the Netherland is just Amsterdam. Maastricht Minutiae is here to dispel that myth and contribute to English language resources for expats in my chosen city.

Being from America, I write primarily from a Non-EU and English-language perspective. I experience everything I write about, so I will probably never seriously discuss local drag-racing (do they have that here?) or coffeehouses. Still, there should be a little something here for everyone whether you live in the Netherlands or are considering alternatives to Amsterdam for your next expat destination.

Listen to the Maastricht Minutiae Podcast for casual 30-50 minutes ramblings between my husband, Dan, and I. We discuss everything from doing laundry to raving about waffles. Updated whenever we can’t keep our traps shut (approximately twice a month).

Fortunately, around the time we moved to Maastricht, there was a revival of attention paid towards local expats and foreigners and Several Other Resources have since cropped up.

My Background

I was born in Alaska and raised primarily in Vermont by my teacher parents with itchy feet. I met my husband in undergraduate in Lancaster, PA and then lived in Boston for five years where he obtained his PhD in Biology and I completed my Masters of Library Science. While there I developed a varied interest in digital archives/records management, copyright law, web design, and webcomics. Near graduation, Dan was offered a position at Maastricht University. Six months later we whisked ourselves and our cats over the ocean to begin settling in as expats in our new country.

I’ve frequently described my personal philosophy as “organizing stuff and helping people” which I think covers my interests quite well. I like writing to teach and I enjoy creating containers, be they websites, archives, or books, to showcase the creative endeavors of others and myself. I’m also interested in cooking, comics, web design, and book-binding.

Other Projects

In addition to blogging at Maastricht Minutiae, I blog for Maastricht Region, assist with events at my.Mtricht.com, webmaster for Walking the Lethe (webcomic), and write occasionally for other publications.

I shamelessly ripped off this format from Jonathan Bailey at PlagiarismToday.com whose great About page inspired me to write a better one for myself. Sorry Mr. Bailey.