Our group left Grand Rapids on January 28, and arrived in Amsterdam on January 29. Since today is the 28th of February, and we have no 29th this year, I consider today to be our one-month anniversary in Amsterdam! Woohoo!
How does it feel to have been here for one month? Exciting. Sad. Weird. A lot of things. In some ways it feels like I have been here forever, and in some ways it feels like it's been a week. Maybe the weirdest thing is that I know I have four months here, and now...well, now I have three months left. The semester is going by VERY fast.
But it is not horrible to have been here a month either, because I can think about how far I've come since that rainy day when we stepped off the plane. I've pretty much mastered the basic things like getting to class, buying groceries, and using the transit system. I've met people, gone places, done exciting things. As far as months go, February has been a great one.
Thinking about my "routine" now has reminded me that it has become far too much of a routine for me. At the beginning of the semester, I had grand plans to blog about the VU's campus, grocery shopping, all sorts of other aspects of daily life, but then I started doing them too much and forgot that they could be exciting. Now I realize that I have yet to blog about them! So the blogging theme for this week is going to be what I do on the days that I'm not going to museums, restaurants, or other cities. Which is really 90% of my time.
Anyway, happy 28th of February to everyone, and here's to a great month of March! I'm hoping for warmer weather in March and some visible signs of spring. I have my last four weeks of a cushy class schedule in March and then my history exam. Then comes a short but sa-WEET Spring Break. Then my first Biology class! I know many of you readers have excellent plans for March as well, for winter break at SCS, spring break at Calvin, or anywhere else. ENJOY YOURSELVES! And I'll talk to you soon!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Engravings, McFlurries, and a free sponge!
How do all of the events in the title relate to each other? Read on, and you shall find out!
This afternoon some of us went into Amsterdam to go to the Rembrandthuis Museum, which is --you guessed it!-- the house Rembrandt lived in and also a museum. We walked through Waterlooplein on the way there, a giant outdoor market that deserves going back to when the weather's warmer. But, anyway, back to the main event.
I think Rembrandt would fit in well in the U.S. today. He bought this house at the most successful point in his career, couldn't afford the mortgage, and had to move out a few years later. But *thankfully* the repo men wrote down everything Rembrandt owned when they took it away from him, and THE INVENTORY was used to refurnish the house when it became a museum. I only mention this because our audioguide had quite the reverence for THE INVENTORY and mentioned it A LOT.
Here's the group in front of the house. It's hard to get a shot of the entire thing! Can you see them?
Oh, and I went too:
Some of the rooms were more house-like than museum-like, as in they were decorated like Rembrandt had them when he lived there. Here's the few random pics I managed to snap in there, first of the press in the engraving room:
And some paints in Rembrandt's studio. I like how Deborah brings the composition of this photo to a second level :)
The view of the street from inside the house:
The museum part of the house was dedicated to Rembrandt's engravings. WARNING: I'm about to get artsy, to try show that I learned a little of something. They had each of the engraving prints shown twice, first the way it printed and then the reverse image, which was the way Rembrandt engraved it. Looking at the image the way Rembrandt created it is supposed to make more sense, since, like books, we "read" art left to right. On the original engraving plates, things tend to be emphasized from left to right, but on the prints everything is flipped and can look a little backwards sometimes.
This isn't making any sense, is it? Ok, here's a picture of two to show you what I mean:
The one on the right is what Rembrandt saw when he made it, and everything in the picture sort of travels from left to right, doesn't it? You look at the window first, then follow the light with your eyes...right. Now, the picture on the left is the reverse print you get when you do the engraving. And doesn't everything seem kind of...backwards? I don't know, it looks weirder to me, but I can't explain exactly why. Maybe, like gezellig, it's more something you feel!
Consider that your art lesson for the day. On to the fun stuff! Right across from the museum-house we found this awesome monument with a turtle on it:
We were not sure what it is a monument for. 100 points to whoever can tell me what this means!
Then we began what I've decided is one of my favorite things to do in Amsterdam, or anywhere: walk in a random direction, just to see where we end up. We found a delicious food market at one point, and also this creepy mannequin outside a thrift store:
We went down this street, and Peter shared some knowledge with us that a tour guide told him. I will share it with you! The street was one of the few in Amsterdam to get heavily bombed in WWII, so after the war they rebuilt it in a *modern* style, which is why it looks so different from all other Amsterdam streets.
Oh, and we also happened to find ourselves in Chinatown:
Seriously, can I spend my entire life walking down random streets and discovering awesome things?
Ok, but back to goal #2 of this trip: find the stroopwafel McFlurries. As you may remember, I had some trouble finding one on my birthday since all the McD's were out of ice cream. I also knew that the stroopwafel McFlurry was part of a special winter promotion, and would be gone at the end of February! As the Les Mis cast says, "The time is now, the day is here"! We ended up by Centraal Station, found a McDonald's, and...
tada!
Stroopwafel McFlurries all around!
I don't think I will ever eat a McFlurry again, it just wouldn't compare.
Time to work off some of that stroop. We walked to the library:
As any of you who have been to the Seattle Public Library would know, libraries are pretty sweet places to spend some time. This library didn't have anything over the awesomeness of Seattle's, but I will admit that it was very excellent in its own right. Here's a look from the main level at the children's level below. Note that the thing in the center is a tower for kids to climb up and read books in!
There were also foam chairs that rolled around like eggs:
Here, Ed demonstrates how you can surf the web while sitting on a relaxing bench, while Peter shows that you can simply relax there as well.
We made it up to the cafe on the top floor. Not a bad view!
I had a delicious cappuccino:
Oh, and I almost forgot. The lobby of the library had some kind of political party fair going on, with people giving away free things. A socialist (communist?) party gave me this free sponge:
Hey, I'll use it to do my dishes! It was free! Deborah and Peter translated the tag on the sponge to mean something like "clean up the government." Ha. Ha ha. Get it? Yeah, ok.
On the way back, we sat in such a school bus-like arrangement on the tram that I couldn't resist taking this picture:
That's all, folks! If you stuck it out this far, I'm proud of you. This post was way longer than I intended. But I had to include everything from what I consider a successful Saturday afternoon. As always, thanks for reading!
This afternoon some of us went into Amsterdam to go to the Rembrandthuis Museum, which is --you guessed it!-- the house Rembrandt lived in and also a museum. We walked through Waterlooplein on the way there, a giant outdoor market that deserves going back to when the weather's warmer. But, anyway, back to the main event.
I think Rembrandt would fit in well in the U.S. today. He bought this house at the most successful point in his career, couldn't afford the mortgage, and had to move out a few years later. But *thankfully* the repo men wrote down everything Rembrandt owned when they took it away from him, and THE INVENTORY was used to refurnish the house when it became a museum. I only mention this because our audioguide had quite the reverence for THE INVENTORY and mentioned it A LOT.
Here's the group in front of the house. It's hard to get a shot of the entire thing! Can you see them?
Oh, and I went too:
Some of the rooms were more house-like than museum-like, as in they were decorated like Rembrandt had them when he lived there. Here's the few random pics I managed to snap in there, first of the press in the engraving room:
And some paints in Rembrandt's studio. I like how Deborah brings the composition of this photo to a second level :)
The view of the street from inside the house:
The museum part of the house was dedicated to Rembrandt's engravings. WARNING: I'm about to get artsy, to try show that I learned a little of something. They had each of the engraving prints shown twice, first the way it printed and then the reverse image, which was the way Rembrandt engraved it. Looking at the image the way Rembrandt created it is supposed to make more sense, since, like books, we "read" art left to right. On the original engraving plates, things tend to be emphasized from left to right, but on the prints everything is flipped and can look a little backwards sometimes.
This isn't making any sense, is it? Ok, here's a picture of two to show you what I mean:
The one on the right is what Rembrandt saw when he made it, and everything in the picture sort of travels from left to right, doesn't it? You look at the window first, then follow the light with your eyes...right. Now, the picture on the left is the reverse print you get when you do the engraving. And doesn't everything seem kind of...backwards? I don't know, it looks weirder to me, but I can't explain exactly why. Maybe, like gezellig, it's more something you feel!
Consider that your art lesson for the day. On to the fun stuff! Right across from the museum-house we found this awesome monument with a turtle on it:
We were not sure what it is a monument for. 100 points to whoever can tell me what this means!
Then we began what I've decided is one of my favorite things to do in Amsterdam, or anywhere: walk in a random direction, just to see where we end up. We found a delicious food market at one point, and also this creepy mannequin outside a thrift store:
We went down this street, and Peter shared some knowledge with us that a tour guide told him. I will share it with you! The street was one of the few in Amsterdam to get heavily bombed in WWII, so after the war they rebuilt it in a *modern* style, which is why it looks so different from all other Amsterdam streets.
Oh, and we also happened to find ourselves in Chinatown:
Seriously, can I spend my entire life walking down random streets and discovering awesome things?
Ok, but back to goal #2 of this trip: find the stroopwafel McFlurries. As you may remember, I had some trouble finding one on my birthday since all the McD's were out of ice cream. I also knew that the stroopwafel McFlurry was part of a special winter promotion, and would be gone at the end of February! As the Les Mis cast says, "The time is now, the day is here"! We ended up by Centraal Station, found a McDonald's, and...
tada!
Stroopwafel McFlurries all around!
I don't think I will ever eat a McFlurry again, it just wouldn't compare.
Time to work off some of that stroop. We walked to the library:
As any of you who have been to the Seattle Public Library would know, libraries are pretty sweet places to spend some time. This library didn't have anything over the awesomeness of Seattle's, but I will admit that it was very excellent in its own right. Here's a look from the main level at the children's level below. Note that the thing in the center is a tower for kids to climb up and read books in!
There were also foam chairs that rolled around like eggs:
Here, Ed demonstrates how you can surf the web while sitting on a relaxing bench, while Peter shows that you can simply relax there as well.
We made it up to the cafe on the top floor. Not a bad view!
I had a delicious cappuccino:
Oh, and I almost forgot. The lobby of the library had some kind of political party fair going on, with people giving away free things. A socialist (communist?) party gave me this free sponge:
Hey, I'll use it to do my dishes! It was free! Deborah and Peter translated the tag on the sponge to mean something like "clean up the government." Ha. Ha ha. Get it? Yeah, ok.
On the way back, we sat in such a school bus-like arrangement on the tram that I couldn't resist taking this picture:
That's all, folks! If you stuck it out this far, I'm proud of you. This post was way longer than I intended. But I had to include everything from what I consider a successful Saturday afternoon. As always, thanks for reading!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Gezellig
You've probably heard this word before. Maybe? Maybe not. I heard it MANY TIMES in my intro to Dutch course in January. It is both the classic example of an untranslatable word and the classic word used to "encompass Dutch culture." The Wikipedia article "Words hardest to translate" says "literally, it means cozy, quaint, or nice, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness.” It's also supposedly one of those you-know-it-when-you-see-it things.
So I guess I'll try to tell you What Gezellig Means to Me, or at least some of what it means. I'm no expert yet, but I'll give it a shot.
A few girls from my History class invited me to come over for "dinner" on Monday after class. I say "dinner" because saying I was there for a meal hardly tells the whole story.
Class got out mid-afternoon, and we made it to their house by maybe 4:00 (actually, 16:00. I'm still getting used to that way of telling time). We spent the first hour hour or so drinking tea, eating cookies, and talking about Dutch & American holidays. No TV on, no background noise, and the hottest cup of cinnamon tea in my hand that I've ever held. Mmmm.
At maybe 5:30, someone said, "What do you want for dinner?" We still had to go to the store to get what we wanted to eat. We walked to Albert Heijn (sadly it was raining) and spent time in the store with everyone else on the west side of Amsterdam. If I haven't already said it, the Dutch go to the grocery store more often than we do. In fact, just about every day. But they don't have the (convenient? monstrously huge?) Costcos and Meijers that the U.S. does.
We decided on tacos for dinner! My Dutch History friends were surprised to hear that in America, we eat tacos, pasta, potatoes and chicken...basically a mix of foods from everywhere, just like they do!
(I still haven't gotten over the fact that I'M the exchange student here. For all the moments that I ask about Dutch life, they ask me questions about mine.)
Before making the tacos when we got back, we made dessert. It was supposed to be a tart/pie/thing that would chill in the fridge for a few hours, but a few packages got mixed up and the instant mix didn't turn out too well. Powdered tart mix + melted butter for the crust = the weirdest smell I have ever smelled. Some sort of strange chemical reaction going on there. We tried.
Forgetting dessert, we made the tacos. Then, the four of us went and SAT AT THE TABLE to eat dinner (sadly, something we hardly ever do at my house in GR. We always sit on the couch). There were some atmospheric yet slightly hazardous candles decorating the table. After dinner was over, we drank --you guessed it-- more tea.
Then finally we watched a Dutch movie, Alles is Liefde (while drinking tea. Seriously, I thought Dutch people liked coffee???). Alles is Liefe = Everything is love, all is love, love is all, something close to that. Think Dutch romantic comedy. It was really cute! I'm currently on a quest to find it in a North American DVD format. No luck yet, so if any of you see it, let me know!
So, seven hours later, "dinner" was over. And I can say that the evening felt gezellig to me. It was cozy and nice, but more than that it was...slower. More relaxed. Somewhat simpler than the fast-paced American life I'm used to. I like the gezellig feeling. I think I (you, we, non-Dutch, whoever) have something to learn from the gezellig attitude towards life.
And yet...I don't think you have to go all the way across the Atlantic to find people who enjoy life, either. I think of gezellig and I think of two nights ago, yes, but I also think of drinking coffee at Starbucks after church on Sundays. I think of eating at a Thai restaurant with a friend I haven't seen since summer. It's not that Americans don't know how to have a cozy, relaxing, nice time. Maybe we just don't know what to call it, or don't do it often enough.
Sorry that you had to read through all that philosophical-ness! The stoopwafels are getting to my head. Either that or I've watched too much "bobsleighing" on EuroSport. Side note on the Olympics: I have not heard a word about Sven after his latest mishap. Maybe everyone is too embarrassed to talk about it? Or they are all thinking about their collapsed government? I will try to find out.
So I guess I'll try to tell you What Gezellig Means to Me, or at least some of what it means. I'm no expert yet, but I'll give it a shot.
A few girls from my History class invited me to come over for "dinner" on Monday after class. I say "dinner" because saying I was there for a meal hardly tells the whole story.
Class got out mid-afternoon, and we made it to their house by maybe 4:00 (actually, 16:00. I'm still getting used to that way of telling time). We spent the first hour hour or so drinking tea, eating cookies, and talking about Dutch & American holidays. No TV on, no background noise, and the hottest cup of cinnamon tea in my hand that I've ever held. Mmmm.
At maybe 5:30, someone said, "What do you want for dinner?" We still had to go to the store to get what we wanted to eat. We walked to Albert Heijn (sadly it was raining) and spent time in the store with everyone else on the west side of Amsterdam. If I haven't already said it, the Dutch go to the grocery store more often than we do. In fact, just about every day. But they don't have the (convenient? monstrously huge?) Costcos and Meijers that the U.S. does.
We decided on tacos for dinner! My Dutch History friends were surprised to hear that in America, we eat tacos, pasta, potatoes and chicken...basically a mix of foods from everywhere, just like they do!
(I still haven't gotten over the fact that I'M the exchange student here. For all the moments that I ask about Dutch life, they ask me questions about mine.)
Before making the tacos when we got back, we made dessert. It was supposed to be a tart/pie/thing that would chill in the fridge for a few hours, but a few packages got mixed up and the instant mix didn't turn out too well. Powdered tart mix + melted butter for the crust = the weirdest smell I have ever smelled. Some sort of strange chemical reaction going on there. We tried.
Forgetting dessert, we made the tacos. Then, the four of us went and SAT AT THE TABLE to eat dinner (sadly, something we hardly ever do at my house in GR. We always sit on the couch). There were some atmospheric yet slightly hazardous candles decorating the table. After dinner was over, we drank --you guessed it-- more tea.
Then finally we watched a Dutch movie, Alles is Liefde (while drinking tea. Seriously, I thought Dutch people liked coffee???). Alles is Liefe = Everything is love, all is love, love is all, something close to that. Think Dutch romantic comedy. It was really cute! I'm currently on a quest to find it in a North American DVD format. No luck yet, so if any of you see it, let me know!
So, seven hours later, "dinner" was over. And I can say that the evening felt gezellig to me. It was cozy and nice, but more than that it was...slower. More relaxed. Somewhat simpler than the fast-paced American life I'm used to. I like the gezellig feeling. I think I (you, we, non-Dutch, whoever) have something to learn from the gezellig attitude towards life.
And yet...I don't think you have to go all the way across the Atlantic to find people who enjoy life, either. I think of gezellig and I think of two nights ago, yes, but I also think of drinking coffee at Starbucks after church on Sundays. I think of eating at a Thai restaurant with a friend I haven't seen since summer. It's not that Americans don't know how to have a cozy, relaxing, nice time. Maybe we just don't know what to call it, or don't do it often enough.
Sorry that you had to read through all that philosophical-ness! The stoopwafels are getting to my head. Either that or I've watched too much "bobsleighing" on EuroSport. Side note on the Olympics: I have not heard a word about Sven after his latest mishap. Maybe everyone is too embarrassed to talk about it? Or they are all thinking about their collapsed government? I will try to find out.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Oliebollen!
I don't know about you, but before coming to Amsterdam, I had only ever heard of oliebollen and never eaten them. I knew that their name means oil or fat balls (what a name!), and that they were supposedly delicious.
I can now say from experience that, yes, delicious they are.
Last Saturday Eric, Anna, and I decided to make oliebollen. Anna's kitchen conveniently has a deep fryer, and Super deBoer conveniently has a just-add-water oliebollen mix. Actually, most of their mixes are just-add-water, which is great for poor exchange students who don't have many kitchen supplies. Anyway, here is a tale through pictures of how our oliebollen-making adventures took the better part of two-and-a-half hours.
Step One:
Make the oliebollen mix, and allow to rise for 45 minutes. Done.
Step Two:
Realize that the fryer in the kitchen is filled with disgusting oil from who-knows-when. Spend 45 minutes or so cleaning it out and figuring out how to dispose of the oil.
Step Three:
Realize that the liter of oil you bought is woefully inadequate at filling the fryer. Send Anna on a return trip to Super deBoer.
Step Four:
The fryer is now filled and heated, and the oliebollen dough has now expanded incredibly after being given so much extra time to rise. Realize that this will make especially fluffy oliebollen, and that this is a good thing. Begin the frying process.
Step Five:
When the oliebollen look like this
remove them from the fryer and dust with powdered sugar.
Step Six:
Enjoy this:
Look at that fluffy texture!
Step Seven:
Open a few windows, because you just realized that you made the entire kitchen smell like a McDonald's. Also, learn from the Dutch students sharing the kitchen that oliebollen are traditionally made only for New Year's Eve. Oops. That doesn't make them any less tasty, though.
Stoopwafels, pannekoeken, oliebollen...I'm beginning to think the Dutch got at least one thing right!
I can now say from experience that, yes, delicious they are.
Last Saturday Eric, Anna, and I decided to make oliebollen. Anna's kitchen conveniently has a deep fryer, and Super deBoer conveniently has a just-add-water oliebollen mix. Actually, most of their mixes are just-add-water, which is great for poor exchange students who don't have many kitchen supplies. Anyway, here is a tale through pictures of how our oliebollen-making adventures took the better part of two-and-a-half hours.
Step One:
Make the oliebollen mix, and allow to rise for 45 minutes. Done.
Step Two:
Realize that the fryer in the kitchen is filled with disgusting oil from who-knows-when. Spend 45 minutes or so cleaning it out and figuring out how to dispose of the oil.
Step Three:
Realize that the liter of oil you bought is woefully inadequate at filling the fryer. Send Anna on a return trip to Super deBoer.
Step Four:
The fryer is now filled and heated, and the oliebollen dough has now expanded incredibly after being given so much extra time to rise. Realize that this will make especially fluffy oliebollen, and that this is a good thing. Begin the frying process.
Step Five:
When the oliebollen look like this
remove them from the fryer and dust with powdered sugar.
Step Six:
Enjoy this:
Look at that fluffy texture!
Step Seven:
Open a few windows, because you just realized that you made the entire kitchen smell like a McDonald's. Also, learn from the Dutch students sharing the kitchen that oliebollen are traditionally made only for New Year's Eve. Oops. That doesn't make them any less tasty, though.
Stoopwafels, pannekoeken, oliebollen...I'm beginning to think the Dutch got at least one thing right!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Eenentwintig jaar
I am 21! Actually, now I am 21-and-one-day, but yesterday I was just 21, and we did some pretty sweet things to celebrate.
To start, I have heard that the Indonesian food in Amsterdam is amazing, mostly due to the large number of Indonesian immigrants. We decided to go out for lunch at an Indonesian restaurant near Leidseplein, and the restaurant turned out to be not too busy, not too expensive, and very, very tasty!
Here we are:
Since we (actually, just Anna) are smart people who come prepared, we used two coupons to get free appetizers! Here my traveling friend shows you one of the plates:
For lunch, Deborah and I split a mini-rijsttafel, or rice-table, which Wikipedia tells me is the Dutch-ified version of a traditional Indonesian feast. LOTS of delicious food!
It was truly one of those I-don't-know-what-this-is-but-it's-delicious types of experiences, which is what I love about trying ethnic foods. Me, the kid who thought salad was scary until 5th grade. Go figure.
The street that the restaurant was one is one I'd like to go back to again -- and again -- and again. Just look at all of these restaurants! Can you spot the Thai...and Italian...and Greek...and Indonesian...and...
After that, we spent some glorious time walking the canals of Amsterdam. We managed to find our way to -- wait for it -- the Bible Museum. We got in for free with our museum cards, so we figured, why not?
Now, if you are only going to be in Amsterdam for a few days, I would recommend NOT going to the Bible Museum. There are other more valuable uses of your time. But for some college students who have four months to use up, it was worth a try.
Let me try describe for you the randomness that was this museum. In the top floor, we saw a scale model of the Tabernacle that a minister spent his entire life constructing. We also saw his collection of Egyptian artifacts, like a mummy. We saw souvenirs from the Holy Land, and spent quite a bit of time in the kids' area, coloring and writing our names in Hebrew. Oh, and we saw some Bibles, too.
At the end of the museum, I was in need of some sugar. We saw earlier that McDonald's is currently selling nothing less than a STROOPWAFEL MCFLURRY. Yes. Since this is not something you can get at home, we felt it justified our shameful going to a McDonald's. Sadly, the first Golden Starches we went to was out of ice cream, so no McFlurries. We went to the next closest McDonald's, thinking they would have ice cream, but same deal. Amsterdam McD's must be having a serious ice cream shortage right now. Our quest for the stroopwafel McFlurry has been postponed to another day.
Funny story: on the way from the second McD's to the tram stop, we walked through the floating flower market. Sarah wondered outloud to herself, when do you plant tulip bulbs? And a man selling bulbs in a stall said "Right now!" Ok, end of story.
Fast forward to later in the day, when I was planning on heading down to the Cafe Uilenstede to buy a drink and pretend that being 21 affected that process at all. For some reason, the girls convinced me that "going to the cafe" involved swinging by Anna's room first. Surprise! She made me a cake! Which takes some skill when you have limited materials and a toaster oven to work with. The cake was delicious, so delicious in fact that we forgot to take any pictures of it before we ate it all. You will just have to imagine a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, in the shape of a fish, with candy decorations. Mmmm! Helpful tip: melted chocolate bars make very good frosting.
We watched some Olympic coverage, ate up some cake, and then went down to Cafe Uilenstede so I could pretend to get carded and all that.
It was a fun, fabulous day, thanks in part to some pretty cool people:
And, of course, thanks to YOU! It was weird being away from so many people that I love on my birthday, but tools like Facebook and Skype made the world feel a lot smaller. And, if you are reading this blog right now, know that I am always grateful that you are keeping up with me and thankful that you care! Your love and support is what keeps me going through the week. I look forward to "talking" with you all soon!
To start, I have heard that the Indonesian food in Amsterdam is amazing, mostly due to the large number of Indonesian immigrants. We decided to go out for lunch at an Indonesian restaurant near Leidseplein, and the restaurant turned out to be not too busy, not too expensive, and very, very tasty!
Here we are:
Since we (actually, just Anna) are smart people who come prepared, we used two coupons to get free appetizers! Here my traveling friend shows you one of the plates:
For lunch, Deborah and I split a mini-rijsttafel, or rice-table, which Wikipedia tells me is the Dutch-ified version of a traditional Indonesian feast. LOTS of delicious food!
It was truly one of those I-don't-know-what-this-is-but-it's-delicious types of experiences, which is what I love about trying ethnic foods. Me, the kid who thought salad was scary until 5th grade. Go figure.
The street that the restaurant was one is one I'd like to go back to again -- and again -- and again. Just look at all of these restaurants! Can you spot the Thai...and Italian...and Greek...and Indonesian...and...
After that, we spent some glorious time walking the canals of Amsterdam. We managed to find our way to -- wait for it -- the Bible Museum. We got in for free with our museum cards, so we figured, why not?
Now, if you are only going to be in Amsterdam for a few days, I would recommend NOT going to the Bible Museum. There are other more valuable uses of your time. But for some college students who have four months to use up, it was worth a try.
Let me try describe for you the randomness that was this museum. In the top floor, we saw a scale model of the Tabernacle that a minister spent his entire life constructing. We also saw his collection of Egyptian artifacts, like a mummy. We saw souvenirs from the Holy Land, and spent quite a bit of time in the kids' area, coloring and writing our names in Hebrew. Oh, and we saw some Bibles, too.
At the end of the museum, I was in need of some sugar. We saw earlier that McDonald's is currently selling nothing less than a STROOPWAFEL MCFLURRY. Yes. Since this is not something you can get at home, we felt it justified our shameful going to a McDonald's. Sadly, the first Golden Starches we went to was out of ice cream, so no McFlurries. We went to the next closest McDonald's, thinking they would have ice cream, but same deal. Amsterdam McD's must be having a serious ice cream shortage right now. Our quest for the stroopwafel McFlurry has been postponed to another day.
Funny story: on the way from the second McD's to the tram stop, we walked through the floating flower market. Sarah wondered outloud to herself, when do you plant tulip bulbs? And a man selling bulbs in a stall said "Right now!" Ok, end of story.
Fast forward to later in the day, when I was planning on heading down to the Cafe Uilenstede to buy a drink and pretend that being 21 affected that process at all. For some reason, the girls convinced me that "going to the cafe" involved swinging by Anna's room first. Surprise! She made me a cake! Which takes some skill when you have limited materials and a toaster oven to work with. The cake was delicious, so delicious in fact that we forgot to take any pictures of it before we ate it all. You will just have to imagine a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, in the shape of a fish, with candy decorations. Mmmm! Helpful tip: melted chocolate bars make very good frosting.
We watched some Olympic coverage, ate up some cake, and then went down to Cafe Uilenstede so I could pretend to get carded and all that.
It was a fun, fabulous day, thanks in part to some pretty cool people:
And, of course, thanks to YOU! It was weird being away from so many people that I love on my birthday, but tools like Facebook and Skype made the world feel a lot smaller. And, if you are reading this blog right now, know that I am always grateful that you are keeping up with me and thankful that you care! Your love and support is what keeps me going through the week. I look forward to "talking" with you all soon!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Olympische Spelen
Today's blog post is brought to you by the Olympic Games. Not just Sven Kramer this time because, believe it or not, Netherlands, there is more to the Olympics that just Sven. I thought I'd share a few things with you that I am learning:
1) Not knowing the language of the announcers is not that much of an impediment to understanding what's going on. You can look at the flags and rankings and get pretty much the whole story. The announcers never have much to say anyway.
2) No NBC here. The Olympics are shown on at least three channels, sometimes more. The two that I like most are both in Dutch (some others are French, Spanish, or German), and they are NOS and EuroSport.
3) I'm actually watching quite a few things live! Things that happen in Vancouver in the morning/afternoon are on in the evening/early morning hours here, which is great for me since I am a night owl who currently doesn't have any early classes to wake up for.
4) Before you all get jealous that I've escaped tape delay, remember that live means REAL TIME. Last night there was an hour delay between speed skating rounds so they could Zamboni the ice. I guess we all have it rough :)
5) And finally, my new favorite part of the Olympics is, kind of sadly, watching the bloopers montage on EuroSport. Everyday they come up with new clips of people falling/weird fans that they put to music. And there's a new one EVERY DAY! To give you an example, yesterday they showed skiers falling to the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack. Hehe.
Ok, maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's funny. Here, to give you a better idea of what the clips are like, here's a link to a video they did for the 2006 Olympics.
Happy Wednesday, everyone!
1) Not knowing the language of the announcers is not that much of an impediment to understanding what's going on. You can look at the flags and rankings and get pretty much the whole story. The announcers never have much to say anyway.
2) No NBC here. The Olympics are shown on at least three channels, sometimes more. The two that I like most are both in Dutch (some others are French, Spanish, or German), and they are NOS and EuroSport.
3) I'm actually watching quite a few things live! Things that happen in Vancouver in the morning/afternoon are on in the evening/early morning hours here, which is great for me since I am a night owl who currently doesn't have any early classes to wake up for.
4) Before you all get jealous that I've escaped tape delay, remember that live means REAL TIME. Last night there was an hour delay between speed skating rounds so they could Zamboni the ice. I guess we all have it rough :)
5) And finally, my new favorite part of the Olympics is, kind of sadly, watching the bloopers montage on EuroSport. Everyday they come up with new clips of people falling/weird fans that they put to music. And there's a new one EVERY DAY! To give you an example, yesterday they showed skiers falling to the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack. Hehe.
Ok, maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's funny. Here, to give you a better idea of what the clips are like, here's a link to a video they did for the 2006 Olympics.
Happy Wednesday, everyone!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Svenergy
There is a movement sweeping across this nation, and its name is Sven Kramer.
Have you heard of him?
That's more than one NBC reporter can say, who, right after he'd won the gold, asked Sven in an interview to state his name, nationality, and place he finished.
To which Sven adroitly responded "Are you stupid?"
Right, so Sven is not the best role model for tact, but a few of my history classmates got quite the kick out of telling me that story. "It's like if a reporter from the Netherlands would not know Apolo Ohno, or the star player from the Super Bowl!" Right, right, so NBC has...issues. It doesn't mean that anyone over here is any less Sven-crazed.
For example, Eva told me that 5 million people watched Sven race live. In a country with a population of 16 million.
Also, some have taken to calling the Olympic Games "Sven-couver."
And are you wondering what the bread in that earlier picture has to do with anything? Watch this commercial for "Svenergy." No, please, really do watch it, it's hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPXnoNJqoI
If that's not bad enough, svenergy.nl is his fan-page, complete with a cheering soundtrack and a Svenfan-counter keeping track of his Svenfans.
Maybe I should get a Sven poster for my room?
Have you heard of him?
That's more than one NBC reporter can say, who, right after he'd won the gold, asked Sven in an interview to state his name, nationality, and place he finished.
To which Sven adroitly responded "Are you stupid?"
Right, so Sven is not the best role model for tact, but a few of my history classmates got quite the kick out of telling me that story. "It's like if a reporter from the Netherlands would not know Apolo Ohno, or the star player from the Super Bowl!" Right, right, so NBC has...issues. It doesn't mean that anyone over here is any less Sven-crazed.
For example, Eva told me that 5 million people watched Sven race live. In a country with a population of 16 million.
Also, some have taken to calling the Olympic Games "Sven-couver."
And are you wondering what the bread in that earlier picture has to do with anything? Watch this commercial for "Svenergy." No, please, really do watch it, it's hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPXnoNJqoI
If that's not bad enough, svenergy.nl is his fan-page, complete with a cheering soundtrack and a Svenfan-counter keeping track of his Svenfans.
Maybe I should get a Sven poster for my room?
Ah, the wierden
Saturday was our first group excursion for our "Toward Environmental Sustainability..." class, hereafter referred to as STNL, which is what we all call it. I think that actually refers to STudy in the NetherLands, but, hey, S-T-N-L is a lot shorter than...whatever. Anyway, back to the topic.
I was fairly excited to travel across the Afsluitdijk, the long bridge-on-a-dike conglomeration that connects Noord-Holland to Friesland and turned the Zuiderzee (South Sea) into a lake called the IJsselmeer that is now fresh-water and separate from the North Sea. Look how geographical I just got there! I guess I am learning something after all!
Also, the Amazing Race teams stopped on the Afsluitdijk last season. My real reason for wanting to go there is revealed.
We stopped there for about 15 minutes on our way to Groningen. Here are some pictures. Obama also made his first ventures out into the Netherlandic world!
Notice the water on both sides.
And that's where the pictures stop. Sorry, people, but like time and tide, getting sick waits for no man. I thought the timing of the whole thing was pretty bad --seriously, I haven't been sick like that since FOURTH GRADE-- but, thankfully, coming back to your room and getting 20 hours of sleep does a world of good. This is also the reason why I have no pictures of Sunday's excursion. Which was, in part, looking at the inner workings of a windmill, too. Sigh. Oh well, it's over, it's done, I'm better, moving on.
For those of you who care to know, I will explain the meaning of the word "wierden" in the title. This is what Saturday's excursion centered on, and what we traveled 2.5 hours to Groningen to see. Imagine yourself as a Dutch person living in 600 BC or so. What would you do to save yourself from flooding? No, building dikes hasn't been invented yet. Think about it...
If you said build mounds out of dirt and dung to elevate yourself slightly above the floodwaters, you've won! And that's what wierden, a.k.a. terpen, are -- dwelling mounds. We went to a museum about them, the rest of the group walked around outside to see some of them, and we traveled to 20 or so more by van.
I was sharing all this information with people in History today, and one guy (from Amsterdam) offered this statement: "Wierden! I know what those are! I've never seen one."
I don't know if that makes me happy or sad.
I was fairly excited to travel across the Afsluitdijk, the long bridge-on-a-dike conglomeration that connects Noord-Holland to Friesland and turned the Zuiderzee (South Sea) into a lake called the IJsselmeer that is now fresh-water and separate from the North Sea. Look how geographical I just got there! I guess I am learning something after all!
Also, the Amazing Race teams stopped on the Afsluitdijk last season. My real reason for wanting to go there is revealed.
We stopped there for about 15 minutes on our way to Groningen. Here are some pictures. Obama also made his first ventures out into the Netherlandic world!
Notice the water on both sides.
And that's where the pictures stop. Sorry, people, but like time and tide, getting sick waits for no man. I thought the timing of the whole thing was pretty bad --seriously, I haven't been sick like that since FOURTH GRADE-- but, thankfully, coming back to your room and getting 20 hours of sleep does a world of good. This is also the reason why I have no pictures of Sunday's excursion. Which was, in part, looking at the inner workings of a windmill, too. Sigh. Oh well, it's over, it's done, I'm better, moving on.
For those of you who care to know, I will explain the meaning of the word "wierden" in the title. This is what Saturday's excursion centered on, and what we traveled 2.5 hours to Groningen to see. Imagine yourself as a Dutch person living in 600 BC or so. What would you do to save yourself from flooding? No, building dikes hasn't been invented yet. Think about it...
If you said build mounds out of dirt and dung to elevate yourself slightly above the floodwaters, you've won! And that's what wierden, a.k.a. terpen, are -- dwelling mounds. We went to a museum about them, the rest of the group walked around outside to see some of them, and we traveled to 20 or so more by van.
I was sharing all this information with people in History today, and one guy (from Amsterdam) offered this statement: "Wierden! I know what those are! I've never seen one."
I don't know if that makes me happy or sad.
Faber Finds
On Friday, I found this:
Not exactly sure what else I'm supposed to be finding, but a good lifetime-rule-of-thumb is that when you see something with your last name in it, you take a picture of it. So I did.
What else did I find on Friday? Well, the five Calvin girls all had no class on Friday, so we decided to take a trip downtown to the Anne Frank House. It was a beautifully clear day
but still very, very cold. We thought by leaving Michigan we'd escape these temperatures, but apparently not. Fortunately we didn't have to wait in line all that long:
And who can complain when the line has views like this?
After about 15 minutes, we made it to the front:
No pictures inside.
The exhibit itself was very well put together, with a great mix of old and new elements. The rooms of the "hidden annex" itself have been left just as they were, but with no furniture (there are even still pencil marks on the wall where Anne's parents marked her and her sister's heights). Other sections of the house have videos, display cases, quotations on the wall, etc. It was all very well put together, and I thought it struck a good balance between the seriousness of the story (which could have been the story of thousands--millions of people, really) and the hope for resilience and survival (one quotation on the wall was from Nelson Mandela saying how they read the diary on Robben Island).
Anyway, it's one of those things you must do when in Amsterdam, and I'm glad I did. Afterwards, we decided to try another Amsterdam tradition, Vlaamse frites. In other words/languages, French fries. In hindsight, we may not have picked the best place to try them, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter.
Not exactly sure what else I'm supposed to be finding, but a good lifetime-rule-of-thumb is that when you see something with your last name in it, you take a picture of it. So I did.
What else did I find on Friday? Well, the five Calvin girls all had no class on Friday, so we decided to take a trip downtown to the Anne Frank House. It was a beautifully clear day
but still very, very cold. We thought by leaving Michigan we'd escape these temperatures, but apparently not. Fortunately we didn't have to wait in line all that long:
And who can complain when the line has views like this?
After about 15 minutes, we made it to the front:
No pictures inside.
The exhibit itself was very well put together, with a great mix of old and new elements. The rooms of the "hidden annex" itself have been left just as they were, but with no furniture (there are even still pencil marks on the wall where Anne's parents marked her and her sister's heights). Other sections of the house have videos, display cases, quotations on the wall, etc. It was all very well put together, and I thought it struck a good balance between the seriousness of the story (which could have been the story of thousands--millions of people, really) and the hope for resilience and survival (one quotation on the wall was from Nelson Mandela saying how they read the diary on Robben Island).
Anyway, it's one of those things you must do when in Amsterdam, and I'm glad I did. Afterwards, we decided to try another Amsterdam tradition, Vlaamse frites. In other words/languages, French fries. In hindsight, we may not have picked the best place to try them, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter.
Welcome to week #3
I'm back, I'm back, I'm really back!
Sorry for the long delay in posting. I have an excuse to cover a couple days, but not an entire week. Forget excuses, though, I just have a great deal of catching up to do on this blogging thing! I'm going to split things up into a couple different posts to try avoid anything of an overwhelming length. Sound good? Great.
So traveling back in time now to...Thursday. Sometimes in the course of human events, one finds it necessary to 1) eat something hearty and somewhat American, and 2) not worry about making a dinner in a portion small enough for only yourself. A few of us Calvinites decided it would be fun to have a group dinner. Everyone pitches in a few euros to cover costs, a few of us cook, we all get to enjoy a delicious meal and each other's company. It's what Michael Scott would call a win-win-win situation.
Deborah, Anna, and I decided to make that crowd-favorite, chili. The best part about chili is that you can throw almost anything in (such as Heineken) and it will always taste delicious. Here you can see a little of our party in my kitchen:
The guys DID show up, just after I stopped taking pictures (coincidence?). And sorry once again to Peter and Ed, since we ate almost all of the bread before they came!
In case I haven't explained it before: We all have our own rooms/bathrooms, and our own fridges, but on each floor everyone shares a common kitchen, which is where this chili-fest went down. Downsides of the kitchen include no ovens (goodbye, baking), and a general sense of messiness a lot of the time. Upsides include meeting and talking to people on my floor, actually having a working kitchen (which was not true in Calvin's dorms!), and the fact that, from what I've heard, my kitchen is one of the nicer ones out there. That is, it doesn't have any...X-rated posters, like some other kitchens may or may not have.
On that light note, you've reached the end of this post!
Sorry for the long delay in posting. I have an excuse to cover a couple days, but not an entire week. Forget excuses, though, I just have a great deal of catching up to do on this blogging thing! I'm going to split things up into a couple different posts to try avoid anything of an overwhelming length. Sound good? Great.
So traveling back in time now to...Thursday. Sometimes in the course of human events, one finds it necessary to 1) eat something hearty and somewhat American, and 2) not worry about making a dinner in a portion small enough for only yourself. A few of us Calvinites decided it would be fun to have a group dinner. Everyone pitches in a few euros to cover costs, a few of us cook, we all get to enjoy a delicious meal and each other's company. It's what Michael Scott would call a win-win-win situation.
Deborah, Anna, and I decided to make that crowd-favorite, chili. The best part about chili is that you can throw almost anything in (such as Heineken) and it will always taste delicious. Here you can see a little of our party in my kitchen:
The guys DID show up, just after I stopped taking pictures (coincidence?). And sorry once again to Peter and Ed, since we ate almost all of the bread before they came!
In case I haven't explained it before: We all have our own rooms/bathrooms, and our own fridges, but on each floor everyone shares a common kitchen, which is where this chili-fest went down. Downsides of the kitchen include no ovens (goodbye, baking), and a general sense of messiness a lot of the time. Upsides include meeting and talking to people on my floor, actually having a working kitchen (which was not true in Calvin's dorms!), and the fact that, from what I've heard, my kitchen is one of the nicer ones out there. That is, it doesn't have any...X-rated posters, like some other kitchens may or may not have.
On that light note, you've reached the end of this post!
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