A Girl's Got to Eat

My exams are finished! Now I have eight days to do -- ??? Whatever I want? Really? Write on my blog? Go to Belgium? Meet the Dutch Royal Family?

Yes to everything but the last one. I only have eight days left before this blog becomes officially out of date and I am no longer in Amsterdam, so one of my goals is to now make the most of it. Post, post, post. Write about all the things I have been meaning to write about this semester but haven't gotten around to yet. Starting with:

Grocery Stores!

Let me tell you a secret: I love grocery stores. I love how you can know exactly where you are based on what grocery stores you see around you. Seattle is all about Safeway, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, and QFC. I know I am in Iowa when I see HyVee. And nothing screams Michigan like a mega (mega, mega) Meijer monopoly. So to me, some of the most important parts of my "Amsterdam identity" are what grocery stores I shops at. They are:

Aldi
Albert Heijn
Super de Boer

I know this is not a complete list of Dutch grocery stores, but I've never made it to a Dirk van den Broek or C1000 or others, so I won't write about them. Instead I am going to write a little bit about the pros and cons of each store that I have been to over the last (yikes!) four months. Starting with:

ALDI

Some of you are saying, "Hey, we have Aldi in the U.S.!" You are correct in noticing that the same chain found near Buffalo Wild Wings in Grand Rapids is also found several places in the Netherlands. Such as the Aldi found near Uilenstede:



















Pros:
Aldi is by far the overall cheapest option for food that we've got. You can generally buy more food there (larger boxes of cereal, larger packages of vegetables) than at the other stores, and yet the price is still lower. I have also deemed the stroopwafels found at Aldi to be the best packaged stroopwafels available.

Cons:
At a 15-20 minute walk away, Aldi is further than most stores I go to. The walk is not so bad since spring has arrived, but earlier in the semester it could be brutal (Hint: my first walk back from Aldi convinced me to buy boots). Also, Aldi is a bit like Costco in that things are not always there when you look for them. It depends on when the shipments come in, I guess. But for giant boxes of pannekoeken mix and cheap deals in the bargin bins, Aldi can't be beat.

**Side note**

My walk to Aldi takes me along this canal:



















Who doesn't want to see that when they walk to a grocery store? Last week I saw a heron! A heron!




















My point is that I love being able to walk to the store. Sad as it may sound, I've never lived anywhere where that was possible. I love my house in Seattle, but the fact that it is at least 1 mile from anything non-residential and on top of a giant hill make walking TO anything a rare event (as in, only when we are snowed in). In Grand Rapids my house is walking distance from Calvin, which helps satisfy my desire to be able to walk places from my house, but getting groceries is still a load-up-the-car-and-go-to-Meijer event.
But in Amsterdam I can walk to the store! Sure I have to make many weekly trips since I can only buy what I can carry, but that is part of the Dutch lifestyle. I can honestly say (now that I have entered the end of the semester where it is appropriate to be retrospective) that walking to the grocery store is one of the things I will miss most.

Back to business!

ALBERT HEIJN



















That cryptic little symbol on the blue sign there is the A and H of Albert Heijn, a pillar in Dutch culture. I would go there more if it weren't so out of the way.

Pros:
AH is one of the *bigger* grocery stores out here, although by American standards it is still very small. Its vegetable mixes for soup, stir fry, etc., are some of the freshest and best. The bread from their bakery is delicious. Oh, and did I mention the FREE COFFEE?




















I didn't get any the day I took this picture because it was 70+ degrees out and coffee did not sound good. I did, however, snap some other sneaky photos to give you an idea of what AH looks like. Here is an action shot of my basket:



















Note the Albert Heijn brand vegetable mix and Albert Heijn brand cola. Also note that everything is BLUE. These grocery stores are big on their color schemes.

And here's the chip aisle. Impressive:



















Cons:
Far away. Albert Heijn is also a 15 minute walk away, but it is in a completely different direction than Aldi and Super de Boer, as in away from the VU, the direction I hardly every go. But this can turn into a

Pro:
I walk far away to a hidden little neighborhood store and no one knows that I am not Dutch. More on that later.

**Side note**

There is also a small store on Uilenstede's campus that I will describe briefly here. It has no name (that I'm aware of) which is why I didn't mention it earlier.

Pros:
Extreme convenience. For example, I went there once this past week because I needed a break from studying but I couldn't be gone long.

Cons:
EXTREME overpricing. To the extreme. Which is why I try to go there only in emergencies.

But last week constituted a blogging emergency, because I realized there were two brands I needed to share with y'all. Ready?

First, this pizza that always makes me feel self-conscious:



















This pizza is saying, you are going to become a Big American because you bought this frozen pizza to eat! And to that I say, no, pizza! It is exam week, give me a break! Plus it is all for my blog readers!

Then, to boost my self confidence, I turn to these Doritos:
























Thank you, Doritos. I know I am a Cool American. Confidence restored.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Last but not least,

SUPER DE BOER



















Pros:
This store is by far the store I frequent the most simply because it is close to Uilenstede (5 minutes) AND located directly on the travel path between Uilenstede and the VU, a path that I travel quite often. Super de Boer is slightly less cool than Albert Heijn, but in general it is a solid place. Good variety, good food.

Cons:
Not the overall cheapest (Aldi) or best quality (Albert Heijn). But over the course of this semester, convenience has trumped price and quality nine times out of ten. Besides, if you know what brand to look for (cough, Eurocent brand, cough) there are great deals to be had (six mini-loaves of bread for 13 cents!).

And now a look into the teal-and-lime store. I told you these stores loved their color schemes!



















On the right there is the rack where I have picked up Dutch recipes several times. What am I going to do with recipes in Dutch? Who knows.

Here is a look at the vegetable section. Notice the diligent worker clad in a teal and lime green jacket:



















One of the strangest things about stores here that we had to get used to is the fact that eggs are not refrigerated. It freaked me out at first, but now I hardly notice:
























There you have it, grocery stores that I have grown to love! Time to let you in on another secret: in Berlin we "practiced" coming up with answers to the questions that we will inevitably be asked when we return home, questions like "What was your favorite part?"

Although I have many favorites about this semester, I decided that one of them is going to the grocery store and blending in. I don't see a-n-y tourists at a neighborhood Albert Heijn or a hidden Aldi. I can see what normal people are buying and what foods are unique to the area. And, with the rudimentary Dutch skills I have acquired, I can make it through the "Hello...here you are...thank you, goodbye" exchange at the checkout relatively unnoticed. That's right, I can pretend to be Dutch! Or rather, no one knows that I'm not NOT Dutch, if that makes sense.

After four months of saying "English, please?" and always being blatantly aware of the fact that I am so American, I love the feeling of going to the grocery store and getting away with not explaining myself. It's when I feel the most like I live here.

So I will keep going to the store for eight more days, since I at least have those left...

A Diversion

Well, my friends, the time has come since I last wrote to you that my classes have ended and I am now in the long stretch of No-Man's-Land time between the last class and the exam.

My last "class" (actually part I of an exam) was last week Thursday.

My exams are on Wednesday night and Friday afternoon.

It is Monday.

***

sigh.

See, every moment between last week Thursday and this week Wed./Fri. has now become a "should" moment. Either I am studying, or I think "I *should* be studying." Truthfully, most moments have been the latter. But before you get all worried, don't be. I haven't been letting the guilt get to me too much.

Which is what brings me to the topic of this blog post: diversions. I believe I wrote about much the same topic in March when I had a similar situation while studying for my History final/STNL midterm. Enter the story-time about diversions from studying I have created for myself, contained in a blog post that is itself a diversion from studying as I write it (there's a circular argument in there somewhere). Although this is not a comprehensive list, it will cover some of the more exciting points. Here we go:

1) Picnic

Today the Berlin group (aka: girls) had a picnic outside. The weather has been gorgeous, finally, and the grassy green meadow behind Anna's building called for us to come sit for awhile. Picnics are delightful. This picnic was delightful. Altogether a --yep-- delightful experience.

2) Eel

Another experience came at the Aay's apartment last night, and like the picnic it also involves food. We finally had the traditional and "required" Dutch meal of herring and eel on white bread/rolls. I had the eel. It was served cold, tasted salty, and looked somewhat snake-shaped. The verdict?

...

Not bad! Also not something I would choose to have again (I put other seafood waaaaaay above it!), but not horrible all the same. Honestly, not horrible.

I didn't try the herring, though. Is that something I still have to do in the next two weeks, or does the eel give me a pass? :)

For the record, I think all twelve people at dinner tried either herring or eel. The NL2010 group is an adventuresome bunch!

3) Rotterdam

Three cheers for Rotterdam!

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray!


I have no idea why I just wrote all that. My mind must be going, I'm telling you.
No, mind, not yet! I still need to use you to take two exams!!!!!!!

See?

A-N-Y-W-A-Y, on Saturday morning Anna and I made the trip down to Rotterdam to see the lovely sights. We have both wanted to go to Rotterdam the entire semester, and we realized that Saturday was probably our last chance. Plus, Saturday was a day much like the past few days here have been: sunny, clear skies, upper 60's...in other words, perfect.

And what were the highlights of Rotterdam, you may ask? Well, would you like them in photographic form?

-the Erasmus Bridge




















-Taking a cheesy picture in front of the Erasmus bridge with a photo of Mink Faber, my great-grandfather who sailed from Rotterdam to Ellis Island when he was three. I brought him back!




















-Those crazy cube apartments








































-Drinking refreshing beverages at a restaurant that overlooked the crazy cube apartments







































-A miles-long market filled with hundreds of people. It really was miles long, I promise you.



















-The Maritime Museum




















Now, although this museum ranks only slightly above the Bijbels Museum and is in the "only go there if you can get in free with a museum card" category, it had one exhibit that redeemed the museum for me: the "Animals on Board" exhibit. It taught us about shipping camels to Australia, had different stations where we could collect stamps of cartoon rats, let us match an animal to its...excrement, and, best of all, had a room of giant stuffed animals to play with at the end!























































The seal was my favorite. How often do you come across a stuffed animal with no limbs? I felt sorry for it.

But the animals, and Rotterdam in general, were all a big hit.

...

That's all for now as far as diversions go. I will probably update soon, as soon as the urge to take a break from studying hits again. And who knows what I will find to write about next time?! Until then, stay classy!

BERLIN

Dear blog readers,

I am dreadfully sorry for the blog hiatus. Some of it is for a good reason that you will read about shortly. Some if it is for bad reasons, like a presentation, an exam, and other such scholarly un-pleasantries. Either way, I have decided to make up for it by putting the ENTIRE Berlin weekend in ONE POST. Hey, I'm only here for 2.5 more weeks and don't have that many posts left! So hunker down, this might be long. But I hope it will be enjoyable.

**Side note: I have Wikipedia open as I write this. Keep in mind that it informs my writing. I will not pretend to know this all by heart.**

BERLIN

Our story starts at 11:15pm on Thursday night. That is the time that Bonnie, Sarah, Anna, Deborah, and I boarded the Eurolines bus that would take us to Berlin. We chose to take the bus in the first place because it was by far the cheapest option of getting to Berlin, and we figured that the 8 hour ride would seem shorter since it was overnight and we would be "sleeping."

A few days earlier when we printed off our tickets, we realized the ride was 10 hours. Hmm. We can still do it!

So there we are on Thursday night, getting on to our bus with a variety of other characters. The ride began extremely well -- the lights were turned off, the canned music on the overhead soon silenced, and the movement of the bus strangely soothing. I had just found the most comfortable position yet when...

The lights come fully on at 2:00am. We have pulled over, and the German police are coming aboard. Passport check!

Now, I know what you are thinking, and I would like to say I behaved myself this time. I handed over my passport like a good, compliant citizen should. Thankfully for me, they handed it right back. See, no big deal! I have learned so much.

After the passport check we were on our way again, although I sadly never found quite as nice a sleeping position as before. But before I had time to think about it, we were pulling into the ZOB (Central Bus Station) in Berlin at 8:15am.

WHAT?!?!

We had expected to get there after 9 o'clock. What were we going to do with the extra hour of our time? Turns out we needed it, since our tired little brains took a while to direct our feet to a U-Bahn stop, and we wandered around for quite some time. We made it, though, and soon the U-Bahn had whisked us away to the center of Berlin!

Right out of the metro station, we found sections of the wall:



















And right after that, the first of many Starbucks. Woohoo!


























Our first real stop was at the Holocaust Memorial. It looks like the blocks are all around the same height...



















...but once you go inside, you realize that the center of the memorial is deep into the ground and also becomes something of a maze.



















This is supposedly one of the few memorials to use no intentional symbolism, so the blocks can mean whatever you want them to mean.

We were too early to go the the museum below the memorial (for a later day, then), so our next stop was at the Brandenburg gate!



















Yes, Napoleon marched through that gate, and now also have Bonnie and Sarah.

I realize that wasn't a very complete picture of the gate. Here we go:



















After that we went to the Reichstag, the German Parliament building.




















(It took many tries before I got a picture where the flag was displayed that well! Thank you, German wind.)

The great news is, you can enter the Reichstag for free and go up to the dome at the top. The not-great news, you have to stand in line first. We got in line at 10:00. It was cold, it was windy, but we were doing it. Plus, there were plenty of ways to amuse ourselves. Sarah translated a Spanish brochure for us because the English brochures were all out:



















We watched these street performers do tricks with a giant puppet:




















And sometimes we just huddled together for warmth. It was coooooooold! In the middle of May, no less! Why didn't we go to the south of France for the weekend?!

But eventually we were before the automatic doors, waiting in hopeful anticipation for them to open and allow us inside to the warmth.




















And by now it was 1:00. Yes. Three hours in line. But we did it! I think we all deserve buttons or something that say "I survived the line at the Reichstag." If they sold them, I would buy them. Here's what the faces of Calvin students looks like after three hours in line, right before the doors open:



















Note the man behind Bonnie who is also waiting in hopeful anticipation for the doors to open. He is staring those doors down!

Finally the doors opened for us, a cheer went up, and we were inside. Sure, the line inside lasted for another good twenty minutes, but it was warm! Then we rode an elevator to the top and explored the dome:



















Crazy, right? The mirrors in the middle reflect sunlight into the parliamentary chamber, and the glass dome has two ramps winding around the entire thing, one for going up and one for going down. Our lovely free audioguides told us interesting information about the sights we were seeing, and we had fun playing with the mirrors too!








































After that, time for FOOD! Intro to first German food of the trip: flammkuchen!
























Not sure if this is originally German, but it's the only time I've ever seen it. Translation: pizza-type dish that is not quite pizza but instead a giant, thin crust with various toppings, in my case chicken curry. YUM.

At this point in time, it was late enough in the day that we could check into our hostel. At this point in time, we also realized it would be important to look up where our hostel was. Enter internet station in the train station, Google Maps, and problem solved. In no time we had found our way to the Heart of Gold Hostel!




















The most exciting part of our 14 bed mega-dorm was the wall art-piece...thing.



















Haha :)

Shortly thereafter we found ourselves in front of the Berliner Dom. Mooching off of a tour group, we learned that this cathedral is only about 100 years old (so young!).




















We also ran into the Ampelman. He is pretty awesome.



















Before darkness fell, we also walked along the East Side Gallery. The gallery is a long stretch of remaining Wall that international artists painted in 1990.



























































Last thing of the night -- first German beer! (Weird lighting, blame the restaurant.)




















And that was Friday.

Keep going, there's more!

Saturday dawned gray and raining (arg!!) as we traveled by S-Bahn to the nearby city of Potsdam. Why? We were going to see some palaces! Also, the Potsdam Conference happened there, but we didn't really see that. We were 65 years late.

Plus, fun fact from Wikipedia! A sister-city of Potsdam is Sioux Falls, SD! Go Sioux Falls!

I will admit, the rain put a bit of a damper on our spirits at first. The German wind, which the day before had been so helpful at unfurling the flag for me, was now rather a nuisance. And it was MAY, for crying out loud.



















But you know what? Sometimes miracles happen. No, not the miracle you expect. It didn't stop raining. But along the rainy streets of Potsdam...




















We found this shoe store!



















Four out of the five of us got a new pair of shoes. And although I won't say that money buys happiness, I will say that fifteen minutes in a warm, dry store and a pair of 10 euro flats will do wonders to perk up the day. Look at those happy faces!



















With renewed energy, we made our way to the palaces. And I mean renewed energy. We sang rain songs, stepped in puddles, and laughed at the poor (dry) people stuck in the boring tour buses. They weren't seeing the city like we were! They were probably asleep. We were having more fun.

Before we knew it, we had found the park filled with palaces of the Prussian royalty. According to Deborah, the rain makes the colors in pictures more saturated. See, we knew what we were doing going to a park in the rain.



















Palaces are a good excuse for fun pictures with people:




















Or without. I like both:














































































It was a grand time looking at palaces. We only got almost-lost once, in the botanical gardens of some university (what were they doing there?), but we saved the situation. After a few hours of palace-gazing, we went back to the center of the city to look for a cafe to warm up. For some reason the return trip took much longer than before, mostly because we weren't running across any cafes that interested us. But suddenly, tada! An entire street full of them!




















I must say we chose the best of them all to eat at. Cute chandeliers, a pink ceiling and green walls, an ice cream parlor-like feel...it warms the soul just thinking about it.

Oh, and COFFEE and CAKE of course!



















Running around outside on a rainy day is fun, but eating cake and drinking coffee inside on a rainy is almost better. Does anyone else agree?

I could bore you now with mundane details of our train ride back to Berlin, our process of cleaning up at the hostel, looking for a restaurant that may have closed ten years ago, blah blah blah. I will just skip ahead to dinner. Meet the stank.
























Please note that when I typed "stank" into Wikipedia, it redirected me to the page titled "Odor." No, no, no. Our menus informed us that this glass, called a stank, is the only glass that Kolsch (the beer) should be served in.

We enjoyed drinking Kolsch from a stank!



















I also enjoyed at dinner the Berlin specialty of currywurst. I would described it as a better-than-average hot dog covered in better-than-average ketchup. Now that is not a judgement on all currywurst in Berlin, just a judgement on this particular restaurant. And I did enjoy it! I said better-than-average, right? Besides, the fried potatoes that came with the currywurst were OUT OF THIS WORLD delicious.




















Do I talk about food too much on this blog? Sorry. I just love it so.

Anyway, back on track. I can do this! The activity planned for after dinner was to ascend the TV tower, which I like to describe as the Space Needle of Berlin. (Which works, because the Space Needle is three years older. Ha!)
























I feel like I am breaking some great rule of chronology, since I took that last picture on Friday night and we went up the tower on Saturday night. But it is the best picture I have!

Anyway, we rode the elevator, our ears all popped, and then we spent some time gazing out at the city at night.



















After spending time at the TV tower, we spent quite a lot of time looking for the illusive area of Friedrichshain. The only real details there are, it sounds like a cool neighborhood, we never found it. We DID find a cool neighborhood near our hostel, however, and enjoyed happy hour there to round out our last night in Berlin.

That was Saturday.

Hang in, you can make it! Only one more day to get through!
(That was partly to you, partly to myself.)

Sunday was our day to finish up everything we still wanted to do. This included, of course, Checkpoint Charlie.




















And then the Holocaust Museum that we didn't get to on Friday:




















Both the displays at Checkpoint Charlie (crossing point into East Berlin) and the displays at the Holocaust Museum were well-done and thought-provoking. But so sad! Most history is, at some point, sad, but for Berlin that history was not all that long ago. It doesn't help that reminders are still everywhere, like the fact that many parts of the east side look like this:



















while a lot of the west side looks more like this:




















And there's a brick line running through the entire city over the path where the Berlin Wall once was:
























Berlin's had a lot to get through. I think it's still kind of getting through it.

Hmm.

Anyway, after the museum we went to Tiergarten park to see the Victory Column, which I wanted to see because of a certain speech given there a few years back:























I know, I'm a lost cause. And then when we got to the column, surprise! Completely covered in scaffolding. Not even the horrible looks-like-the-monument scaffolding, but, even worse, looks-like-the-monument-bedecked-in-giant-construction-workers scaffolding.



















But Obama-figurine was there, and that's all that matters.



















Following the park it was time for one last real meal at a German restaurant:
























When we emerged from the restaurant, a miracle had happened: the sun was out!!!!



















The blue skies made for excellent viewing of our last sight, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was damaged in the bombings of WWII, which you can still see since the original tower hasn't been rebuilt.
























The inside of the tower is still beautiful but also cracked:



















At this point, we had finished seeing everything we set out to see. But it was only 3:00 in the afternoon, and our bus didn't leave until 7:30. What to do? Well, Anna read on a display in the church that Kaiser Wilhelm was buried at Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

Is that on our map? Yes.

Should we go to another palace? Yes!

We had a plan. Plus, it was now sunny and a beautiful day for walking.

Aaaaaaand we also came across a pretzel stand and fulfilled one of our goals to eat pretzels in Germany!



















Munching on pretzels helped make the trip to the palace seem shorter. Charlottenburg Palace was lovely. The blue skies didn't hurt either.





































A lovely time was had by all on the grounds of Charlottenburg. We began to make our way to the bus station, but we still had one small goal to fulfill...German chocolate. Now, it was Sunday, so all the grocery stores we walked by were closed. We regretted not going to a store earlier in the weekend and worried that our German chocolate dreams would never be fulfilled...

...then we found a convenience store with a rainbow of chocolate variety. Miracles do happen! Look at all this chocolate goodness!





















































Best of all, I was reunited with my favorite chocolate of all time: Milka Kuhflecken (cow spots). Milk chocolate with white chocolate spots. The ultimate candy. The treat of all treats.



















I bought four bars. Probably not enough, since last January I came back with about ten. But it will do, because it is that delicious. I am eating some right now as I write this...

ENOUGH ABOUT FOOD!!!!!! you say. Sorry, my bad.

We spent the last of our Berlin time in a park near the convenience store/bus station, eating chocolate and taking pictures. Excellent, excellent way to round out the trip.

Then it was back on the bus!



















And time for another nine hours on the road. Some of the time was spent looking at/taking pictures, some writing a crazy story that we started on our excursion to Zeeland, and most sleeping or trying to sleep (but no passport check this time!). Before we knew it, we were back at Amstel Station in Amsterdam...

...at 4:45am. Note that the metro doesn't start running until 6:35.

Hmm. The situation wasn't as bad as you think. Thanks to Anna and Sarah's thinking skills (which are amazing -- my brain wasn't even functioning at that point), we figured out how to take a bus at 5:55 and then take the tram, arriving back at Uilenstede around 6:15. Just enough time for a quick nap before 9:00 class!!!!

Yes, sadly we fell back into the routine of classes immediately upon returning. That is why I haven't written a thing about our wonderful experiences up until this point. But thankfully
A) that horrid week is over, along with classes, and
B) I can write about it now and relive it all. Despite the bad weather, somewhat depressing history of the city, and serious sleep deprivation, the weekend was still splendid. I blame that on the fantastic company: Sarah, Bonnie, Anna, and Deborah. Together we are the five girls of the Netherlands Semester 2010, and we rocked our weekend in Berlin!

I should end this tome of a blog post with a picture I took from the bus ride back. Sure, it's no Colosseum at sunrise, but it's something, right? Thanks for reading :)