The Day Before an American Holiday

Well it’s the day before Thanksgiving. Of course Thanksgiving is the celebration by Americans for things they are thankful for – family...friends...and the ability to trick Native Americans into feeding them before taking their land and going to war against them...Well as far as I know, there was no ocean to cross to arrive here and therefore no cold hard winter to get through without helpful indigenous people. So by that logic, family and friends are not enough of a reason to have a holiday.
Ok ok all kidding and political reprimand aside, it is still Wednesday – the most traveled day of the year in America, as well as the biggest (grocery) shopping day. So I decided to take part. Since I will actually be going to a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, I needed to get ingredients to make Paula Dean’s Pumpkin Pie. In order to do this, I had to go to the big supermarket since the one by my house does not have many of the ingredients I need. So after about an hour of attempting to find the right keys to my bike, figuring out how to unlock it, finding a wrench to lower the seat, and scraping the rust off of the seat bar so that it could be lowered, I was on my way. Of course the bike was still a little too big, and the gears don’t connect right away so I kind of ran into things when I was first starting up, but I think I’m getting the hang of it now. I was all set in my directions as it was pretty straight forward…until I came to a detour in the road and I got pretty severely lost. After being yelled at in Dutch by another woman, and making several U-turns, I found my way back to the street I was supposed to be on. Only one U-turn later (when I veered into a no-bike housing complex instead of the bike path across the street,) I found the Albert Heijn supermarket!
Once inside I set upon finding the ingredients I needed while cursing myself for not translating them from English before I came. Unfortunately I also didn’t even think about the fact that I wouldn’t be able to find canned (or fresh) pumpkin anywhere. So I called Lily who was able to send me the ingredients to make Peach Cobbler instead, which is not as traditional, but just as delicious. It ended up being better anyway because here, cream cheese and graham crackers are both imported and therefore, cost way more than they should, whereas canned peaches are still cheap and easy.
So I got home making a mental note to figure out how the basket goes onto the bike, unloaded my groceries and had a bowl of delicious homemade soup. I don’t need to make the cobbler until tomorrow so I’ve decided to spend the rest of the day straightening up the two houses, and reorganizing mine. I’ve also made the discovery that youtube has ALL the episodes of Cheers and since I recently fell in love with Frasier, which is it’s spin off, I figured I’d try watching that first. Plus it’s an American TV Institution. Plus sometimes you wanna go where every body knows your name.
So for all you surviving the grapevine, standing in line at Safeway, or elbow deep in a hollow turkey, Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving…I miss it all.

Word of the Day: pompoentaart - pumpkin pie

Another List of Things I did today

List of things I did that were equally if not more productive than yesterday:
-Get out of bed ten minutes after waking up
-Sort laundry-
-Do four loads of laundry
-Fold laundry
-Hang up/put away clothes
-Finally put away suitcases
-Change out of my pajamas into real clothes
-Go grocery shopping
-Go clothes shopping but frugally don’t buy anything
-Go to T-Mobile store and get minutes added onto phone
-Take a shower
-Defrost the freezer
-Fix freezer door
-Make sandwich for lunch
-Make pesto pasta with chicken for dinner
-Clean out fridge in my house
-Clean out fridge in main house
-Do dishes in my house
-Do dishes in main house
-Put up towel hooks

List of things I did that were not more productive than yesterday:
-Wake up late
-Catch up on “Community”
-Catch up on “Modern Family” - be amazed at the three different references to the Netherlands in one episode as well as the guest appearance by Edward Norton
-Finish “Arrested Development”, plan to watch again and get excited for the movie
-Make plans to watch the full series of “Frasier”
-Write a list blog instead of actually writing anything

Word of the day: brood met kaas – cheese sandwich (literally bread with cheese)

I apologize for the blog...I promise tomorrow there will be a better one

Also on a different and self mourning note...A year ago today I had to put down my cat Bif. I had him for a little over a year and I loved him so incredibly much. He was quite the character...here's one of my favorite pictures of him. RIP

List of Things I did today

Today’s List of Things I Did:
-Wake up late
-Get out of Bed thirty minutes later
-Drink two cups of coffee
-Catch up on "How I Met Your Mother"
-Catch up on "Accidentally on Purpose"
-Catch up on "The Office"
-Curse TV Shack for not allowing me to catch up on "30 Rock"
-Make delicious and healthy Chicken Soup
-Eat soup for lunch
-Eat soup for snack
-Reheat soup and eat for dinner
-Do some Kakuro puzzles
-Eat some pepernoten with Nutella
-Clean kitchen
-Change out of my pajamas into pajamas
-Talk to Lily to attempt to figure out how to add money on my dutch-speaking prepaid phone - fail
-Listen to the wind and rain outside my window
-Obsessively check my email
-Upload pictures from my camera
-Get some Christmas shopping done on the UK Amazon
-Watch and increase my new found love for "Frasier"
-Make plans to be more productive tomorrow

Word of the day: televisiekijken - watch television

A Weekend in Amsterdam

Well my family left for an exciting week in Spain leaving me alone in the house to wander around Holland to my hearts desire. I kicked off my week off with a fabulous weekend trip to Amsterdam. I stayed with Lily, my fellow aupair, in her East of the Amstel house. Similar to houses in San Francisco, these houses were build up, not out leaving no room for windows on the side, just the front…So I arrived at Amsterdam Centraal (after completely making an idiot of myself by suddenly thinking I was not at the right station) and met up with Lily. We stopped by the IDFA box office to buy tickets for the documentary “Tightrope” and then wandered back to her house and up three flights of stairs to her top level room. After dropping off my bag, we went back to our movie…

Unfortunately though I only give it a 2 out of 5 star rating. There was no point, and to be honest it was rather depressing. On our way back home it began pouring and we got SOAKED! We decided all we wanted to do was get some junk food and sit on the couch and watch Arrested Development, but first we had to stop at the store and get supplies…brie, melba toasts (which Lily made fun of me for), stroopwaflen (cookies with caramel), imitation Nutella (unfortunately not as good either), chocolate, paprika chips, and of course…It was a great night.
The next day we decided to play tourist and go to a museum. On our way, we ran into the epitome of tourism – giant “Amsterdam” letters, complete with children crawling all over them. Because it was so crowded, we could only get part of the sign…The sign was right next to the Van Gogh Museum so we took some time to admire the outside of the building…I then bought my Netherlands Museumkaart, which entitles me to entrance at all public museums in Amsterdam, which is quite a few (25 in Amsterdam alone). However once inside, we didn’t take into consideration that it was a Saturday and the VanGogh was a popular tourist attraction. It was almost overwhelming the amount of people trying to look at all these fabulous works of art, so armed with our Museumkaarts, we took time to appreciate the temporary exhibit, an amazing collection by the artist Alfred Stevens, and vowed to come back and enjoy Van Gogh himself on a less crowded weekday.
Then it was time for some quick nourishment so we grabbed some bagels and coffee in an adorable chain café called Bagels and Beans…By that time, Lily had to be back home to babysit for the night, but I decided to go join my fellow couchsurfers at the weekly Saturday Meet-Up at the Café d’Oude. Lily told me I could borrow her bike, which meant attempting to ride a mountain bike made for someone at least eight inches taller than me, figuring out where I was going, and not getting run over by cars, trams, people, or other bikes. It was definitely an adventure.
Once I got to the bar, I wandered for a couple minutes unsure of what to do. But then I heard English! So I zoomed over and introduced myself and met a girl and guy from Canada. After that it was easy to make friends. We all talked about our travels and plans for the upcoming year, enjoyed some bitterballen, drank some Heineken, and even saw a couple (failed) attempts at magic tricks. I kid you not…they were bad. I went home happy with my new friends, and eager to meet more people in the months to come.
The next day when we finally decided to get up, we popped in another episode of Arrested Development while enjoying some tea and leftover stroopwaflen. Then we headed out the front door intent on wandering around the city, and eventually finding our way back to the house. On our journeys we passed some cute canals…Cute boats…And cute stoops...We also found some rather fun window displays…And some candy that made me think of Pat…We eventually found ourselves in the Center of Amsterdam and finally knowing where we were, took the time to enjoy some ice cream even though it was freezing…We sat in a cute square enjoying our ice cream, and watching the sun beginning to set at 3:00 in the afternoon…But all that sitting and staring, made me feel like the square in front of us was missing a statue so I graciously stepped in…Well, by that time it was time to head home. Back at the house I collected my backpack, bid Lily farewell, and headed off to find my way back to a cold and empty house where macaroni and cheese leftovers and a skype call home awaited me.

Word of the day: Paprika – Pepper
Note of the day: All photos from the last three blogs have been graciously donated by Lily!

Cuban Night (unfortunately does not equal Cuban boys)

Last Saturday, a couple girls from couch surfing got together in Leiden and went to Cuban Night at the Anthropology Museum. I was super excited. I arrived in Leiden at 5:00…or 17.00 military time which is what I remembered. Of course the time I was actually supposed to be there was 7:00…whoops!
Fortunately, Lily was there early anyway visiting a friend. We found some great stir-fry place where I got my first spicy meal in the last three weeks and then took some time to walk around and get ourselves a little home town lovin’…Pat and Kate...You know you jealous!
Then it was time to meet at the Anthropology museum. We met Giulia who we knew from Amsterdam Museum N8, along with Nicole from Germany, as well as some girls who split off once we got there from Poland, Argentina, and Italy. The best part was that seven of us were my height…not something that happens often (and also a surprise in the country with the tallest people by average.) Of course Lily was a giant among us so it was a lot like Snow White…At the Anthropology Museum we were able to see some great exhibits from all over the world. My favorite was the Turquoise skull from South America…We also had fun dancing…And listening to some Cuban music…Of course me, being the adventurous one, wandered off while no one was watching and found the kiddy section. After dragging the girls over and knew they’d enjoy it, we acted as if we didn’t speak Dutch (and by Dutch we mean pictures) and went, over six years old and with our shoes still on, into the Explorer Bus…After a great photo shoot, we also made the amazing discovery of…A SLIDE! As well as a Polar Bear…Then we went to a lovely restaurant where the 12 ounce bottle of soda I ordered was only one euro less than an alcoholic drink. Of course no one else ordered anything alcoholic, so I stuck with my coke. It’s crazy because I ordered it thinking I’d be able to quench my thirst, BUT they do not offer free tap water as well as refills. So I finished my drink pretty early and then sat there dying of thirst. However there was DELICIOUS olive tapenade! But now I know. It was still a lot of fun...It was a great night. It also ended the way a night at an Anthropology Museum should - an exploration of other people’s cultures involving the practice of greetings. You see, in the Netherlands you greet people by three kisses starting with the right cheek. In Italy, you do two kisses starting with the left. In Argentina, you do one kiss on first meeting (a little too personal for my taste.) In America you handshake, or sometime hug, depending on your pre-correspondence. In Germany you just handshake. So before each of our good byes we had to agree on what greeting we were doing. Pretty funny, but also awesome!
Anyway, the night was great, and I made even more friends. Can’t wait to join these ladies again!!!

Amsterdam Museum N8

This was the possible the greatest night to happen to Amsterdam. Two Saturdays ago, starting at 6:00 PM, 42 museums are open until 2:00 in the morning followed by numerous after parties. I met up with some girls from couchsurfing and immediately made friends. I even met another aupair from Florida. We split up from our very large group and took off on our rented bikes. Although I had been the one to rent it, I opted to sit on the back while someone who was used to riding in and out among traffic steered the bike.
Anyway, we went to the Film museum and saw an exhibition of distorted nudes in the dark while wearing head lamps. It was weird because you had to wear an mp3 player and share with someone you didn’t know and then you’re standing next to this total stranger while staring at double exposures of boobs.
Then we went on to the Museum Willet Holthuysen where we bought a glass with a diamond in the bottom of some shampanya (not the Dutch translation, just the Christopher Walken one)…The point was to turn in your fake diamond after finishing your champagne and enter for a chance to win a real one, but we totally just kept our diamond and now we be blingin’ and you know y’all jealous. There was a tour going on but we didn’t join because 1. It was in Dutch and only one of us spoke enough to understand and 2. The people giving it were dressed like a Real Housewives of Orange County dinner party...The museum itself was a restored 17th century house of the rich and wonderful. There was a gold plated canopy bed, tall doorways (a symbol of wealth), a beautiful garden that was being set up for a wedding, and some really nice chairs that I don’t think you were supposed to sit in…
By this time, two people with bikes had left our group to visit other museums and we were stuck with too many people and not enough seats. It didn’t help that Lily had a one-seater mountain bike, which is completely ridiculous in a country so flat the highest mountain is 28,000 feet lower than Mt. Everest. So as a group we walked our bikes to the Jewish Historical Museum. This was my first choice because in the children’s section was a free craft – make your own tutu!! So while I stitched and sewed tulle, the others checked out the swing party and enjoyed the only completely kosher café in Amsterdam…Our next stop was the Hermitage Museum – a gigantic building that used to be a nursing home and orphanage but was then turned into a multi-winged museum…We saw rooms and rooms filled with the current exhibit – Russian royalty. We all picked out which dress we would wear and then shared our knowledge on the Anastasia story based on our culture. Surprisingly, none of them knew about Bartok…We were getting a little tired so we decided to rest on our way to our last stop. So we popped into a museum on our way, which happened to be a church. There was some weird experimental music thing going on, but we did get to see one of the most gorgeous organs ever…And we also took part in the sacrament…On our way to our last museum of the night we went through the red light district. Allow me to explain why it’s called this…because there are red lights in windows. Amazing right? Also in the windows are girls in underwear, but I wasn’t really paying attention to that. We got to the last stop, which was W139, a modern museum with a hole in wall (literally) for an entrance and a DJ spinning a huge variety (Brick House and Lady Marmalade were both in his repertoire). There we met up with other couch surfers and danced the night away. I also discovered my dancing face apparently. I think it came along when I cut my hair but I can’t be sure…Well 2:00 came and we thought we were done so we traveled back through the red light district. We stopped for fries which was when I discovered the amazingness that is curry ketchup. You do not know the wonder until you tried it! Pat…you especially. So we met up at a bar and decided to hit one of the after parties. It was in this great club called Odeon. It’s a restored old building with Grecian architecture. And in the alcoves of Greek columns, were DISCO BALLS! The one thing though is that European music is all the same thing and it’s impossible to dance too. And after some hard core dancing at W139, trying to step in time to a song with no obvious rhythm while watching a bunch of people flailing around was a little overwhelming.
But the night was finally over. Carly, one of the girls, had agreed to host me that night so we biked through Amsterdam at 6:00 in the morning where I fell asleep for four hours. I then woke up, met Lily for falafels and ended my first trip to Amsterdam in the best way possible – fresh hot chocolate.

Word of the day: fiets - bike

MY COMPUTER IS FIXED!

So as you may or may not know, my computer’s been broken for the last two weeks leaving me to wallow in boredom listlessly flipping through the TV channels attempting to find English programming till it’s time for bed. I know it’s been a while so over the next couple days I’ll fill you all in on all the exciting things I’ve been doing (since I know you’re dying to know.) But first allow me to tell you what I had to go through to get this stupid thing fixed…
Before I even came to the Netherlands, my top case was cracked, because of the way the computer closes. Then the speakers started not registering when headphones weren’t in so the speakers didn’t work on their own – only with something in the headphone jack. The disk drive was starting to not register DVD’s, but I just figured that meant they were dirty. Well then one day while writing an email, the computer went “please turn off computer” and lines appeared and then it shut off.
So I got on a bus for an hour and went over to Den Haag. There I found the Mac store, as well as someone who spoke English. Then I explained what happened. The problem was, they couldn’t diagnose the problem without me paying an inspection fee because there was no warranty registered with my computer. This I knew was wrong because when I bought this thing, I (and by that I of course mean my parents) spent way too much money on all the things the salesman convinced me I needed. So the guy gave me the number(s) to call and I was sent on my way. But of course before I left I said “While you’re at it…” and proceeded to list all the other above-mentioned broken items.
Saddened by being cut off from the rest of the world and the possibility of having to pay the equivalent of $1300 for a new one in the case of my current one being beyond repair, I wandered around Den Haag (in the rain I might add) and eventually stopped to buy a pair of extremely European shoes not made of cloth and therefore not likely to get my feet soaking wet like the converse I was currently wearing. Bad Mood: Helped.
Once home and over the next week, I set out on my to do list. I first had to get my sister at home to find the receipt, scan it, and email it to me. Then I had to wait until Pacific Standard Time hours (nine hours behind me,) to call and explain my situation and read off receipt numbers. Then I had to call the Mac store in Holland again telling them they had the go ahead and start fixing that baby.
And today…the big day finally came. One more hour long bus ride and a twenty minute walk, and I was presented with my computer, in prefect condition. I was so happy, the guy was laughing at me.
So now that the whole debacle is over, I am going to post this entry, put on the second season of Arrested Development, make some dinner, and listlessly surf the web till it’s time for bed. Till next time, Tots Ziens!

Word of the Day: schoenen - shoes

P.S. Happy Birthday Grammy!!!!