Shanghai Nights

This is what is on my mind right now:

For the first time since 1978, Calvin College has a snow day tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That felt good. And now to our regular programming...

Welcome back to the tales of Interim 2011: Chinese Medicine Edition. Last I checked, you had all booked tickets to Milan for Expo 2015. Good for you!

Now here's the deal with our time in Shanghai. We were there for two weekends, with an entire week stuck there in the middle. The weekends were used for fun excursion-type shenanigans, but that Monday through Friday in the middle there (Jan. 10 to 14) -- that was used for our Traditional Chinese Medicine class (hereafter referred to as TCM). All of our learning about yin and yang, all that acupuncture, and all of that exposure to the smelly practice of moxibustion -- it all deserves its very own special post, which will be written soon. But tonight I wanted to write about this first -- a few of the ways I found to pass the time for dinner and beyond. I think a numbered list is in order!

Top Three Things To Do in Shanghai When You Are Not In TCM Class

1) Hot Pot

Hot Pot is awesome.

Since that explains how I feel, but it really tells you nothing about hot pot, I will turn to my dear friend Wikipedia, which can explain it better than I ever could.

"Hot pot (Chinese: 火鍋; pinyin: huǒ guō), less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. In many areas, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter."

That pretty much sums it up. I went to a hot pot restaurant once in Shanghai (pictured above) and -- break in the chronology! break in the chronology! -- once in Beijing. Like fondue, hot pot is a wonderfully interactive experience that involves a pot sitting on your table. Unlike fondue, hot pot does not use strange little forks, nor does it have anything to do with cheese. Mostly there are a lot of meats and vegetables.

An action shot of hot pot:

The thing to watch out for with hot pot -- the food is, what a surprise, VERY HOT when you pull it out of the boiling broth to eat it. Also, you can order it to be pretty spicy. So I guess it can be hot in that way as well. Hmm.
When we went to this hot pot restaurant in Shanghai, Prof. Shen came with us and ordered our food before leaving (She said she didn't like hot pot -- how not??). This was probably a great thing, because a few other people in our group later went to a hot pot restaurant on their own and ordered randomly...and then were brought chicken feet. But we did have our share of language barriers during our time at the restaurant. Dan tried to use his trusty phrasebook to order something to drink after Shen left, and the waitstaff did not understand or chose to ignore him. The teenagers (or older? I am bad at judging ages) sitting across from us found the exchange (or us) quite hilarious. They kept talking about us, and Robbie (who knows a decent amount of Chinese) said "They are making fun of our big noses."

So, yeah. There's that.

I still heartily recommend hot pot with all my heart.

2) Nanjing Road

Let's take a moment to admire some pictures of Nanjing Road, shall we?

By night, Nanjing Road has it all: bright lights, great shopping, and delicious restaurants and food stands. Plus the road is a pedestrian road only, which means the dangers usually associated with walking across the street in Shanghai traffic are greatly reduced. Nanjing Road is where it's at, guys. I went there at night three times. I could have gone there even more.

What, you are still not convinced that Nanjing Road is the coolest of cool, the greatest of great, even more amazing than a Calvin College snow day? Well, consider this -- Nanjing Road has groups spontaneously ballroom dancing on the street, and members of these groups have been known to spontaneously pull unsuspecting Americans into their circle to dance.

Did this happen? Yes, of course. It happened to Julie:

After she danced with the cute old man, she was asked to dance by ANOTHER member of the dancing gang. And after that when we went into a store, the store clerks recognized her and one made dancing motions with his arms. Fame.

3) The Bund

What can be more amazing than Nanjing Road by night?

You know, I am surprised that you ask so many questions. Luckily, I always have an answer.

Answer: The Bund!

But although The Bund is pretty, historic, and European-looking, we don't go to The Bund to look at The Bund, do we? No, we don't.

We go there for this:

The Pudong District, the Place-across-the-river, the Shanghai Skyline, the Wow-that-was-all-built-in-the-past-twenty-years? area, the Land of Lights and Wonder. And those are just my names for it.

Side note: would you like to see some crazy skyline pictures? It will make the picture above even more extreme.

The top picture is Shanghai in 1990; the bottom, Shanghai in 2010.

Oh, and a new building called the Shanghai Tower is going to be built next. It will dwarf the World Financial Center, which I can say from experience is pretty stinkin' tall on its own.

What I am trying to say with all of this:

The Shanghai skyline doesn't mess around. Especially not at night.

Are you convinced yet that you need to go to Shanghai and never sleep, just enjoy the city all night long?

Good.

Final Dutch Adventures

This post should also be called Life After Exams: Doing Everything you Haven't Done Yet.

The past few days (well, since Friday) have been filled with me trying to fit in all the things around the Netherlands that I still wanted to do. Has it been fun? Oh, yes! Extremely fun. Have I done everything I wanted to do? Not a chance, but I have hit all items at the Very Top of the List. And if I did everything now, I wouldn't have a reason to come back, would I?

Right, so what have I done? Most Calvin people began scattering all over Europe last Saturday as soon as exams were finished, but I have been in Amsterdam and the surrounding area. (My international adventures begin tomorrow). On Saturday, with an iced mocha in hand:

























I wandered around central Amsterdam, going absolutely anywhere I wanted to go. I found a market I didn't know existed, watched a man balance on a pole in Leidseplein, and did my final souvenir/gift shopping.

Souvenirs -- check.

Sunday was mostly cleaning my room and packing. I will spare you the details.

On Monday I made it back to Den Haag. I wanted to finally make it to the Mauritshuis:




















If anyone is looking for touring tips, I would strongly recommend this museum. Like the Rijksmuseum, it has top-notch art (Girl with a Pearl Earring, for example) but all contained within only 12 rooms. The small size lessens the chances of catching Museum Fatigue, an all-too-common ailment in Europe. Plus I got to listen to a free audio guide and, thanks to the uncrowded nature of the place, I could stand 6 inches away from paintings (including GwaPE!) for as long as I liked. This was no Louvre where you and five hundred closest friends look at the Mona Lisa together. If you're in Den Haag, go to the Mauritshuis!

After the museum I came across a cafe I had heard about from Deborah and Bonnie. I knew it was the right place because it had the stroopwafel Frappuccinos they told me about!

























Keep in mind that an iced coffee in the Netherlands usually means the ice is blended, so it really tastes more like a Frappuccino. And, yes, I can call it a Frappuccino even if it isn't from Starbucks! You still call that Puffs tissue a Kleenex, right?

Gotcha.

The stroopwafel frappuccino was a dream come true.

Final item on the Den Haag agenda was...Madurodam!

Madurodam, Madurodam, how I love you so,
Of all the places in the world, you're where I want to go,
A tiny Holland, built with care, for me to wander through,
Madurodam, Madurodam, oh how I do love you!

That spontaneous poetry stemmed from how amazing this place was. The best way to describe it is as a tiny Netherlands.



















You can feel like a giant for the day and wander through the buildings replicated at a 1:25 scale.



















I was smiling the entire time I was there. First, I kept finding buildings I knew (The Dom in Utrecht! Kuypersport in Middelburg!), and it was like reliving my entire semester. Second, I had a good time placing my miniature friend amongst the miniature buildings.

























Obama now has a test for you: How many of these Dutch landmarks can you name based on their miniature alone?

A)


















B)


















C)


















If you said A) Maeslantkering, Nieuwe Waterweg; B) Dam Square, Amsterdam; and C) Binnenhof, Den Haag, YOU WIN!

But really, I got a huge kick out of Madurodam and have over 100 pictures to prove it. Miniature Holland was a blast!

























Another thing on the Very Top of My List was the flower auction in Aalsmeer. I had only heard wonderful things about it, and let me tell you...


...it lived up to the hype. Maybe I was still on a Madurodam-high Tuesday morning, or maybe I was just pleased not to be visiting another museum/church/city hall (no offense to the thousands out there to be seen), but I thought the flower auction was one of the coolest sights I've seen in Amsterdam.

The gist of it: Every weekday morning millions of flowers are auctioned off in the auction halls located throughout this giant warehouse. Meanwhile, outside the auction halls, life in the warehouse is organized chaos. Flower carts are pulled around in trains, or pushed around individually, with beeping and honking and clanging and craziness.

To top it all off, the entire warehouse looks like a patchwork quilt of flowers.

AND the place smells amazing.

I took about 100 pictures here too. These will hopefully give you an idea of the colors:












































































This video might give you some idea of the noise and ordered chaos going on down on the warehouse floor. So many workers driving like crazy! Yet they don't run into each other!



I'm very sorry, but I can't think of any way to get the beautiful smell in the warehouse to you. You will just have to visit the flower auction yourself! Go now. Bus #172.

I'm serious.

...


Although I am not leaving until Sunday, yesterday (Tuesday) was my last chance to go into central Amsterdam. Continuing with my theme, I took about 100 photos of my favorite places:




















I also enjoyed delicious ice cream from a street vendor (something else I've heard wonderful things about, just now tried, and now agree that is wonderful), poffertjes from a street vendor, and a croquette from the vending machines of a FEBO.



















Try the ice cream:
Enjoy poffertjes one last time:
Finally visit a FEBO:

Check, check, check.

Checking things off mental lists feels great!

I also tried to achieve some personal poetic justice. This was the first picture of Amsterdam I took this semester (Jan. 30):




















And this is the last (June 1):



















How nice.

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I realized on the tram ride back that they are of different canals (Prinsengracht vs. Keizersgracht). It's the thought that counts, right?

On to the final Dutch adventure: the Efteling!

Efteling is the coolest of all Dutch theme parks. Well, there is not that much competition, but it is still very cool! I have heard (and heard and heard) about this place from some certain Dutch people I know :) Eva and I went down for the day, and now I can say I've had the true Efteling experience!



















There we are with our little elf friend. Highlights of the day include getting "cursed" on the Flying Dutchman (a ride that goes from boat to roller coaster to boat!), eating fries in a grassy field with sad, sparse grass, getting wet on the river rafting ride, wandering through the fairy tale forest, seeing an unsupervised child fall 10 feet down a ledge (he was fine, but learned his lesson about sitting on railings!), getting "stuck" in the Python roller coaster seats (worker-boy brought out his special hydraulic pump to release us), eating ice cream by a garbage can that wouldn't shut up, getting the theme music for every ride stuck in my head...

You get the point -- Efteling was great! The weather was also perfect, and I did not at all mind spending a lovely day outside.

And my list is complete :( The only adventures I will have in Holland now will be had at the airport, and I hope to not have any adventures there since "adventures" in the world of flights are never fun. The three days I have left will be filled with beer, fries, waffles, chocolate, and other Belgian delicacies. Close to the Netherlands, but not quite! It should be great fun, and you might hear about some of it Saturday night.

But I feel like I still have pages to write about this semester. I don't want it to be over! So this blog might continue for a little while after I get back to the States, just so I can get caught up on everything worth saying ;)

Words of advice: keep checking back in! And as always, thanks for reading!

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.

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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!