oliebollen and stroopwafels...lekker!

crying...

2009-08-20T00:16:00.000-07:00

I took this picture in Christiania a couple months ago and for some reason didn't ever post it. My dad really likes it (it was his idea to get a picture of it) and he's been asking me to post it. So, here it is...

On to other news- it's 9:20 in the morning. I got up about an hour ago to say goodbye to Ineke for the last time. She's going to work and by the time she gets back I'll have already left for the airport because if you hadn't heard already I'M COMING HOME!!! :)

Headed for the Arctic!

2009-07-28T03:50:00.000-07:00

First of all, my flight home was purchased (thanks to Ineke!) last night. On August 21, after a 13 hour flight and a 12 hour layover in Dublin, I will return to beautiful and hopefully sunny California. I could tell you right here all the things that I am excited to get back to in Cali but it would make this post soooo much longer than it already will be. Just know, I am excited!

Second, my dad's trip...When my dad and I started discussing his trip to visit me in Europe his first idea was to come in June to be up above the arctic circle on the longest day of the year (around June 20th). Well for a few different reasons that didn't work out so he decided to come a month later. Not the longest day of the year but pretty darn close to it! We did a LOT. Here's just part of it...we explored Rotterdam, I fell in love with Hamburg (really, might even be my favorite OVER Berlin), visited hippies in Christiania (Copenhagen), crossed the arctic circle by night train, arrived in rando town northern Sweden, drove a few hours to the Norwegian border in the middle of the night while the sun was shining, did not succeed in finding an all night diner in nowheresville Sweden, picked up an 18 year old hitchhiker, hunted for reindeer at 2am, night trained it back to Stockholm, flew a not-so-bad-at-all Ryanair flight back to Holland, hung out with the kids for a week, and lastly, spent a nice weekend in Haarlem.

And for the pictures, I'll start with my night skies collection.

R'dam at it's finest...
Old City Stockholm-

Kiruna 12am...
Kiruna 1am...
On our way to Norway. I like to pretend this is a real Sami family but then I remember that they probably live in real/modern houses now...
Middle of the night, Kiruna...

Dad and I in Zandfoort (coastal town North Holland) minutes before I found my first Euro frozen yogurt...

Me trying to be artsy in Den Haag...

Veggie garlic pate, Polorbrod, and salsa mexicana make GREAT train food in Sweden...

The swedes like their crackers LARGE!..

Our arctic hotel did not discriminate in their providing of parking space. Cars, bikes AND sleds were welcome...

Rainbow from the train window on the way to Kiruna...
Copenhagen weirdos, lol...
HUGE stroller for a lil baby...
My Danish danish and my new favorite addiction, chocolate "wafes" found in only ONE Copenhagen 7 11...
Copenhagen peeps thinking they're in New Orleans or somethin'...
Christiania (photos were not welcomed)...

More cute babies, on our way to Hamburg...

And lastly, my dad at my favorite Rotterdam restaurant, Bazaar...

So much happened and I wish I would have kept a more detailed journal of everything so that I could remember it all for ever. I HAVE to start doing that SOON!!!

It's so HOT here!

2009-06-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

All the people that told me it wouldn't get hot in Holland were WRONG. It's hot!!

Just in case you were wondering who I live with...

Check out that nice pink bike!

These huge wooden apples down the street from our house...

Delft shopping. Later that day I called a merchant an asshole. He really was being quite rude to us...

Ikea's had this awesome deal going on. The amount you spend in the restaurant is later taken off your bill when you check out with your merchandise. So we've been going there for lunch (my average is about 5 euro) and then we just pick out 5 euro (or however much we spent on food) worth of crap and it's FREE. Here's Audrey's great idea. Just spend as much as you can in the restaurant on stuff you would buy anyway (oj, chocolate, little packets of cheese...lol) and then you can get LOTS of free stuff.

I wouldn't say I'm the luckiest person in the world (this week alone I have fallen off my bike, been ran into by 2 drunk dudes on one bike, got pooped on by a bird and fallen down the stairs) but I HAVE been lucky enough to see quite a few friends from home since I've been here. Thanks to their lovely bands touring schedules. Anyway, a couple weekends ago I took the train up to Steenweijk to see friends from Cali (and one from Germany too) at Trashfest. It was just awesome to see familiar faces. I have a funny video of Marc singing but I'm still trying to figure out how to upload it.

This is just some random guy peeing at Trashfest...

Clara, me, Katrina and Bea out on the town...

I'm getting really excited about my trip to Sweden with my dad. He'll be here on July 9th...I think, and we're supposed to leave for our trip that Saturday but we don't have anything planned!! All we know is that we want to head up north (maybe Kiruna?) as soon as possible to experience the mid-night sun. I should probably go plan it RIGHT NOW but it's SOOOO HOT (it must be getting to about 80°F these days...probably like 90° in my room!) and the heat some how drains all of the motivation out of me.

Lauren, Kate and I went to Groningen...

2009-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

...FREE. Hitchhiking with the help of this guy and sleeping with the help of this thing.

Lauren making our beautiful signs...

These are for some Animal Rights campaign, I think...

Kate standing in the best (or so we thought) spot for hitchhiking...

This is one of Albert's boats. The other one is a house boat that we slept on :)...

Trying to get home. 30 seconds after this was taken we got picked up by a women who told us about how she toured the US with her band...

It's always after a trip that I realize I definitely didn't take enough pictures.

2009-05-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

My mom was only here for 12 days but it feels like we did a LOT! Through the week I had to work my regular schedule which meant my mom and I stayed around Rotterdam but on the weekends we did some awesome exploring. The first weekend we drove our cute little Fiat Panda into Belgium with the only requirement (by me) being that we stayed in the French part. I chose Saint Hubert which we later learned is the hunting capital of Europe. It was a super tiny town but really beautiful and had a cute burger place (with great veggie burgers) called Ketch-up. The next morning, right after I practiced driving our cute little Panda (stick shift) we drove into Luxembourg with the intentions of stopping to sightsee but ended up just driving through to get to our destination, the Tera Ventura Resort and Spa (pool with water slide, disco, bowling alley) in lovely Gondorf Germany. Gondorf is a little TINY town close to the even tinier town of Spangdalem where my mom lived once upon a time. Spangdalem is actually pretty rad, it felt like a little American colony randomly placed in Germany. It was really nice to be able to see where my mom used to live and the places she used to hang out...we didn't ever actually make it on the military base though.

Some crazy Lourdes shrine in Poix Saint Hubert...

The next Saturday we left early for Groningen. Nice city with a nice "feel" but what I liked even more were the small towns we drove through on Sunday during my quest for Pannenkoeken. Lovely Pieterburen stole my little heart! :) How could it not, I mean with a "biological pannenkoeken resaurantschip"...restaurant housed in a boat that severs awesome organic pancakes! Leeeeekkkkkkkkkkeeeerrr!!!

This is one of our stops on our quest for pannenkoeken. Pretty museum...

And back in Rotterdam on the harbor for "drinks"...

My new favorite restaurant in Rotterdam, Bazar!

I love Germany! ok bye :)

I've been in love for a while...

2009-05-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

While riding my bike down the beautiful streets of Den Haag about a week ago I saw this...

I saw the movie the next night. Unless imdb is wrong, it's not being released in the states. So yeah, all you Americans are totally missing out on Mr. Bernal's (hottie/my future husband) new movie. Bummer for you.

Destination Gouda

2009-04-24T04:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday's are my day off and now that the weather has been nice I've been going on little bike adventures. Anyone that is actually reading this probably knows that I live in a big (well, big as in just about 600,000 people) modern city, which I love! But by the time Wednesday rolls around I've usually had enough of the city and really feel like seeing some country and all those stereotypical Dutch things one hears about. So, with this feeling I planned a trip to Gouda (yes, like the cheese). Google maps told me that it would be about 25 kilometers (16 miles or so) but it felt like waaaay more. Maybe because I took this really roundabout way and there was lots of wind. But I did finally make it, after stopping to take lots of pictures, read my book (White Oleander), and talk to my new friend, Bart! I finally got there around 4, looked around the center, got a tiny scoop of ice cream, shopped around De NatuurWinkel where I got a sample of cheese (good thing seeing that I was in Gouda!) and then made my way to the train station. I was way to tired and lazy to ride home. Here are some pictures to show off my adventure...

I tried to explain these little garden houses to my mom. I think a picture might help.

More on the way pictures...

No need to stop to throw your trash away, just toss it in. Why don't we have these in the states?

Famous for it's cheese, Gouda!

So this should have been up with the "on the way" pictures but this one has a story so it gets a special spot down here...So while I was still in Rotterdam, winding along a big lake I passed by this boat that looked like a great (and cute!) photo opportunity. I stopped and asked "Do you mind if I take a picture" I got to talking with the dog's owner, Bart. Bart owns a restaurant in the center, Branco, and thinks I should work there! Apparently it has a FABULOUS terrace that is PERFECT in the summer. He offered me a job within about 2 minutes of meeting me and reminded me a few times to "just come on down whenever you like, you got a job"...

Pasen

2009-04-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

School holidays mean LOTS of eating! hahaha. :) :)

EGGS!
PANCAKES!
BISCUIT BUNNIES!

Caroline setting up our supplies-

Painting-

I really love Albert Heijn's baking kits. Just add water! It came with everything, even the cookie cutter!

I haven't really mastered the whole pannekoeken thing yet. Timo politely told me that they were to thick (yes, I am American)-

The Dutch word for Easter is Pasen. Every time I think or say it I just automatically think of Passover but I really don't know (because I don't know enough about christianity or Juidaism...I'm sure my dad will have something to say about this!) if the word "Pasen" has anything to do with Passover what so ever. But anyway, from what I saw, Easter here isn't all that different from in the states. They do have this yummy bread here called Paasbrood. It's hard to explain but it's sweet with raisins and this really good sugary almond paste stuff in the middle. Just really good stuff! I'm adding this to the growing list (hagelslag, speculoos, stroopwafles) of foods I'll be bringing back with me.

Friday night I took the train to Utrecht (about 40 minutes by train) to see friends from San Francisco, Drowning With Our Anchors. So nice to see familiar faces. Plus, Utrecht is nice! Gotta go back there soon.

Dutch News in English :)

2009-04-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

My favorite headlines from the past few weeks-

Scared prisoner sent home...
A 20-year-old man who was remanded in custody on suspicion of manslaughter has been sent home from jail because he is 'shaking with stress', the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday....more

So, next time you find yourself in jail for murder, just tell them you're scared and you want to go home. hahaha.

Midwives should report circumcision...
Initial research indicates three in 1,000 women giving birth in the Netherlands have had their genitals mutilated...more

This figure seems high...does anyone know how this compares to the US? Apparently (I talked to Ineke about it a while back), male circumcision is very uncommon here. I'm waiting for the US to follow Europe's lead here.

Terrorist attack threat remains 'real'...
The Netherlands' presence in Afghanistan and the perceived attacks on Islam in Holland mean that the country is considered a legitimate target by radical Muslim groups, the ministers said in their assessment of the current terror threat...more

Scary!

Five in one

2009-04-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Museum Park...

Yes, that is a statue of legs(no torso) in the middle of the park...

Five museums in one day...all free! Thank you Museum Weekend.

1. The Netherlands Architecture Institute
2. The Sonneveld House
3. The Chabot Museum
4. The Natural History Museum
5. The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Notes...

The NAI had a pretty awesome program going on called "Building for Bouwkunde". Here's the story, last year one of the architecture buildings over at the Technological University of Delft burned down. So apparently, a contest was created to find the best new ideas for the new building. There were more than 400 entries from 50 different countries submitted. Probably about 50 are on display at the NAI right now. My favorite was from a group from Australia. Their whole idea centered around the university being housed in trains! I doubt it would ever get chosen or ever actually work well but DUDE! that's an awesome idea. You can see the winners here...

The Sonneveld house was the home of Mr. and Miss. Sonneveld and their 2 daughters back in the 30's. The pamphlet says "Visitors can experience what modern living was like in the year 1933" It goes on to explain how this house in one of the best surviving examples of the "Nieuwe Bouwen" style of architecture. It was pretty cool. I mean, it was nice to see how wealthy, modern people lived here in Rotterdam back that long ago.

The Chabot Museum was boring. I was in and out of that place within 5 minutes. What a waste of a nice house (I feel bad for saying this...maybe I was just too tired and hungry to appreciate the art)

As far as the Natural History Museum goes...it was ok. I was surprised at how small it was. All descriptions and such were in Dutch. Poor me.

The Boijmans Van Beuningen was the coolest! The exhibit titled "Elixir: the video organism of Pipilotti Rist" was awesome. If I could guess how an acid trip would feel while running through a meadow and playing with finger pants, this would be my guess. The different "stations" were all different places you could lay down (on the floor, beds, cushions) and look up at the ceiling where there were weirdo psychedelic videos being projected. CRAZY FUN.

Did you know that this is legal here?

Apparently WE are cuter than Berlin....

2009-03-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

I must have taken a thousand pictures of US and some how forgot about the beautiful cities we were in. Sorry.

Poffertjes at the Albert Cuyp Market -

Jess' new Dutch friend-

Grandpa's sleeping-

Bringing the Fest to Amsterdam-

Jess came back to Rotterdam to see my new home and fall in love with Sam-

Last time Jess and I were in Europe (in '07) our train rides were filled with listening to The Frey. This time around our thing was Twilight :)-

Street art in Berlin-

We failed at sneaking into this abandoned amusement park-

Checkpoint Charlie-

Berlin in cooler than San Francisco. It's cooler than Barcelona too. It's the coolest thing I've ever experienced in my life...EVER.

Still living...(longest post ever!)

2009-03-12T04:07:00.000-07:00

First of all, I can't believe more people don't hitch hike! Like, what are people thinking?? PAYING to travel to a location just a couple hours away...NEVER AGAIN (unless I'm with my mom, I wouldn't expect her to hitchhike hahaha). So, needless to say, last weekend went very well.

Lukusz and I started out in Rotterdam...on the on ramp leading to the highway. Our first sign said "Antwerpen" but after realizing people might be a bit "slow" in these parts (kidding, no offense to the locals) we decided to re-right it to say "Breda/Antwerpen". We got many smiles and nods/hand gesture telling us "shucks, I would but I'm not headed there" but within about 15 minutes of standing there someone stopped. We'll call him STIJN, because I really don't know if I ever knew his name. Anyway, Stijn was a pretty nice looking, late 20's Belgian dude, driving a relatively new Mercedes towards Antwerpen but ended up letting us out right before the city at a Shell station that Lukusz had sat at a while back for TWO hours waiting for a ride...I was hoping for better luck!

Luck DID come. Our next driver, who was maybe the 5th car that past us, stopped within 5 minutes. We'll call him Zaher (I just looked up "Moroccan name" in google). Zaher was an older Moroccan man, living 6 months in Holland/6 months in Morocco, on his way to his brother's (I think) in Brussels. Zaher was clearly a fan of clean cars and LOUD weird Indian sounding club music. Anyway, although our sign said "Gent", since Zaher was willing to take us to Brussels and because our destination, Aalst, was between Brussels and Gent, we thought... hey why not spend a couple hours exploring the capital? And that's what we did! We walked around the city, ate BELGIAN chocolate, and got a little lost. Finding a good place to wait for a ride was a little funny! Yes, we were in the center of the city but when I asked people "excuse me, which direction is Gent" all they could do was look at me like I was crazy and say "GENT?? Gent is faaaar" Ok, I knew Gent was far but that really didn't answer my question. I then started lying to people "Hello, I have a car, right over there, I want to DRIVE to Gent, can you tell me which direction the highway to Gent is"...maybe it's because they're French (j/k) in Brussels but they were totally NOT helpful.

Our next driver, "Pieter", drove a new yellow beetle, possibly gay, very nice guy. He couldn't understand why we could ever want to go to Aalst though. By this time I had started up another lie (small, white lies)..."yeah, we're visiting old friends" just to keep it simple. After getting dropped off in Aalst and realizing that we were at least 4 hours early for the show, we decided to explore the town. Aalst must be the shoe shopping capital of the country, SO many shoe stores. I found a book store and decided to buy Twilight, even though I feel really weird reading a teen vampire book. We then spent our extra time at 3 different cafe/bars until it was time to head over to the club.

The show- pretty good. Small bar, but fun. 5 bands which for me = getting tired. But the band we went to see, Vogue, played last and definitely made the wait worth it. We stayed with a guy named Jonas (his name I actually know!) in Gent. Which was really nice because we were able to just get up in the morning and start exploring the city. We didn't do much...I took a few pictures, we walked around and then found a nice little vegan cafe for lunch.

I had to take a picture of this guy (with the beanie) because he reminded Lukusz and I of someone else.

"Blind" guys making a movie.

Maybe it was because it was Sunday or maybe because the weather wasn't quite as nice but today we weren't as lucky when it came to rides. "Christof" picked us up next. He drove a cute little mini cooper (gay again?). He dropped us off at a gas station between Gent and Antweren but not before stopping at a different gas station and offering to buy us a drink, which I was happy to accept (I'm too cheap to buy OJ for myself). Our next stop worried me. Christof let us off at a random ass gas station with very little traffic. We sat (well, I sat, Lukusz stood with the sign) feeling discouraged for about 15 minutes. But then! a car stopped...I was so excited, I jumped up, got my bag and then looked in the window to see 2 people I knew!! It was the singer of Vogue with his girlfriend, on their way to his parents house for his birthday, which was NOT on our way but seeing that anywhere HAD to be better than here, we got in. Weeeell, I was wrong! Where they let us off was probably the worst place 2 people could EVER wait for a ride to Rotterdam!! I joked that maybe I should make a sign saying "anywhere but here!" We ended up getting a ride with old "Benard" and his dog "Pookie". It was the ride with Benard that I really got my little speech perfected "Well, he's Polish, I'm American, we're both living in Holland right now...just visiting old friends in Gent...and no, we are not students". He drove us about 10 minutes, right to the north side of Antwerpen and dropped us off literally on the side of the highway. We walked to the exit, crossed to the other side, and stood on the on ramp, right by the McDonalds. This is where "Anke" and "Augustijn" found us. They drove us all the way from there to Rotterdam and even shared their fries :) how nice! Home by 8pm!

Yeah so, that's about it I guess.

The coming week is going to be amazing. I'm meeting Jess at the airport in Amsterdam. We're staying in Amsterdam 3 nights and then training to Berlin where we will stay about 4 nights. Jess is bringing me the next two Twilight books (thanks dad!) and SOURDOUGH BREAD. YAY!!! Loads of pictures to come.

*All names, except Lukusz, Vogue, Jess, and Jonas are made up. Just to let you know.

Super Nanny

2009-03-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

Monday and Tuesday the cousins were over...5 kids!! It was fun.

Allthough I thought it was going to be crazy, having the kids home from school meant we got to do lots of fun stuff...
Monday- miniature rail museum and the park
Tuesday- Ballorig (huge indoor playground)
Wednesday- my day off = slept a lot and found a "toasti" restaurant + my class was canceled because of the holiday...yay.
Thursday- Despereaux in Dutch
Friday- Bolt in Dutch + American pancakes :)

Oh no, I just remembered that I bought a brownie mix and totally forgot to make them with the kids...bummer.

You're what the French call les incompetent...

2009-02-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

Note to self: NEVER I repeat NEVER take another Eurolines overnight bus!!

The bus left Rotterdam at around midnight and arrived in Paris around 7am. WORST bus ride EVER! The seats were literally like half the size of train seats and the bus driver was a huge jerk! No bathroom, no way to sleep, no lights, no english speaking driver, oh yeah and don't even think of trying to bring a cake on board!...

This man had to flag down a guy riding a bike to take his cake because the a'hole driver wouldn't let him bring it on (it was packaged neatly in a box)

The Eiffel Tower was a bit of a let down but this definitely wasn't

I think I had 4 crepes (in 2 and a half days)

And met Spaniards while waiting

The girls we stayed with said that people throw parties down here!!

My dad was right. Montmartre was definitely worth a visit.

French things...

Lauren and Analore

They had two dogs and were living on the median.

Trying to be artsy in a church...

And this is to show Jess that I definitely didn't forget about my favorite part of France!! :)

Dead cities, lots of pictures and random updates.

2009-02-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

I think it's the second scene in 28 Days Later where the dude wakes up in the hospital and walks outside to find London completely deserted. Well, that's what Middleburg is like on a Sunday afternoon.

Middleburg is the capital of Zeeland which is a little less than 2 hours south of Rotterdam on the border of Belgium. It's another "cute" dutch town.

This little boy was just walking his little pup all around the church all alone...

Then we met this little guy. I can't remember his name but it was definitly something "latin" sounding, like Paco or something hahaha...

Oh yeah and horseback riding is cool too...

The other day I had to get up earlier than usual to go a few doors down to the bakery for bread. This is what I saw when I went outside...

They were asking 5cents for their crafts. I made their day (or year) by giving them each 20 cent coins :)...

For Kristen's birthday we went to this fun Italian restaurant. This cute jar is now hanging out in my bedroom...

This is what my 8euro lunch looks like from Spirit. It's buffet style (like Whole Foods) and pretty yummy...

Random things,

My new favorite Dutch word is "badonkt". It means "thanks". It just sounds really funny and I can't bring myself to actually use it.

I tried to make hummus but failed pretty bad. I've done it a bunch of times at home with canned beans but I really wanted to try it with raw beans. But yeah, definitely didn't cook the beans enough. Definitely came out with yucky rawish hummus stuff. Definitely threw it away.

Things I want to start next next week-

1. I want to go to the market and buy random fabrics to make a quilt.
2. Start cooking more yummy things that remind me of home. Like tacos and tofu scramble. yuuum!
3. Figure out how to sneak into the movies. (Lukusz and I tried twice and failed big time) I don't have that confident flare that I used to. Though the dumb/american/blond thing works nicely here! hahaha.
4. Continue to plan my big 2010 USA roadtrip. Route 66 here I come!!

:( I miss sourdough bread and tacos late at night. oh and frozen yogurt. (I must be getting hungry)

damn fuckin' tasty!

2009-02-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing this commercial a lot lately...

There's one not far from my house...maybe I should check it out?

So I went to Delft twice this weekend. Once at night and once during the day, two totally different scenes but both pretty siq (siq = sick = cool). It's a "cute" town and definitely one of the many places I would like to take my mom when she comes. Delft is home to the original Delft blue pottery (Delftware) as well as the birth place of Johannes Vermeer who painted the Girl With the Pearl Earring (currently at the Mauritshuis in Den Haag)...just a little history lesson for ya!

I stayed in Den Haag Friday night at Lauren's NICE house (!!) so that we could get an early start on the MC Escher museum as well as lots of shopping...I bought a dress :) The museum was amazing. It's not normal for me to really enjoy a museum. I mean, I like going, looking at everything and then leaving. But this time was different. His art is soooo interesting, I just wanted to stand there and inspect (I can't think of a better word) each piece.

H&M's going crazy I tell you, CRAZY!

That last picture leads me to the topic of shopping. Last week I set out on a small quest for a few items I needed. Let's see...nutritional yeast, vital wheat gluten, garbanzo beans, pure vanilla extract, baking soda, sour dough starter. Well, it didn't go too well. I went down to my favorite store, Gimsel (closest thing to Whole Foods I'm gonna get). The dude tried to help me find the wheat gluten and then just told me I should use wheat flower...not gonna work for seitan buddy. I couldn't even bring myself to ask him about nutritional yeast, I'm sure he would have thought I was a lunatic. The only thing I ended up finding were the garbanzo beans :(

On a more positive and hopefully more interesting note, I went to see Tower of Power with Ineke on Thursday. She had warned me that it was gonna be a mostly older crowed but I actually really enjoyed myself. These guys know how to keep you interested (like Escher) instead of totally bored.

And then there's this...

Sign Language...

2009-02-01T15:29:00.000-08:00

So Friday evening, while I was around the corner at one of the many Turkish markets in our neighborhood trying to find a cucumber (which apparently they don't have) Robbert called and told Caroline *something*. "But what did he say, which restaurant are we going to, when?" Caroline LOVES going out for drinks or dinner or anything really so she was REALLY excited telling me "tonight tonight we dinner out at restaurant tonight now" Keep in mind, she knows SOME English words but uses sign language too...

What kind of restaurant??

...we ended up going to some fancy French/Italian place.

Tonight Ineke and I saw two films at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The first was a French film called Maman est chez le Coiffeur. If you know me, you know that I don't do well with movies. I usually either fall asleep or get up 2 or 3 times to go to the bathroom and fidget the whole time, but this movie kept me pretty interested with no need for sleep or anything else. It was a pretty slow story about a French Canadian family in the 60's going through some tough family crap. The second film was Slumdog Millionaire. I LOVED it...not only was the story good but it showed some really awesome (but at times sad) scenes of India. I want to read the book now. hmmm I wonder if Selexyz Donner (6 floor huge bookstore) has it in English...I'll check tomorrow. Everyone should go see it...now! Two more things- we got Surinamese (my first time) food between the movies...yummy! and Ineke bought me an official festival dress...I'll try to take picture of it tomorrow.

Friday night I went to Den Haag again with Lauren and all her cool super nice friends.

Looks like someone stole my camera...

Today I stared my "diet". With the only rule being, don't eat a whole bunch of crap. I was eating nutella with bread for breakfast, nutella through out the day, and then usually again on some kind of fruit at night. I CAN'T DO THAT ANYMORE. I was good most of today, healthy cereal and yogurt for breakfast, sorta healthy sandwich for lunch, banana, and then dinner, oh yeah...and then an ice cream and like 40 m&ms!! Tomorrow will be better!

Happy Birthday Juan!

This just keeps getting better!

2009-01-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

The fun started on Friday so that's where I'll start...

Lukusz and I had made plans to meet at the Den Haag central station. I thought it would be good to meet there so that I wouldn't get lost trying to find the show. Wellll, we met as planned but that doesn't mean WE didn't get lost! We must have gotten on and off 4 different trams and I swear we walked past the same gas station 3 times! hahaha. Next time I'll be the navigator ;)
The band we were going to see wasn't scheduled to play till late but I thought for sure by the time we got there we would have missed the first band...WRONG. (mental note: everything starts late here!!) My first European squat experience was quite nice! The place had a big room where the bands played, with a drink bar and a snack bar, couches and cute dogs running around. It also had a vegan cafe with a bunch of literature, fliers, boardgames, plenty of people smoking various things and more cute dogs. We got warm beverages and yummy marzipan and hung out there most of the night. All in all my birthday-eve was awesome!! Except that I forgot my camera! :(

Now for Saturday...

I woke up to an awesome birthday breakfast (I've actually decided that I'm gonna try to keep this tradition going). Robbert, Ineke, Morten, Timo, and Caroline presented me with a 40% off train discount card, a bag of dutch licorice, The Book of Peoples of the World (I had mentioned that I had seen it and liked it at the book store, Ineke remembered), and an awesome apple pie home made by Ineke and Timo! Oh! and I can't forget the card that Caroline made for me and the streamers :) Thanks guys!

My plan for Amsterdam- I was going to get there early, sight see and wait for Ty to call me when they got to the venue. Well, after I found an english People Weekly :) he called me but our connection was horrible so I hung up, figuring I would just meet up with him later at the show. Jump to 3 minutes later, I'm walking down a random street and who do I see?...Ty, Josh, and Matt x2! So we walked and walked and walked for a couple hours. Crossed over dozens of canals, almost got hit by trams, cars and bikes, walked past the Ann Frank house, and browsed Albert Heijn.

We had to be back at the show by 6:30 for dinner at "Jo's", the restaurant in the venue. We stole Alkaline Trio's table :), ate a shit load of food and drank juice.

Stampot...Josh is so Dutch!!

We hung out in the Bway Calls backstage room thing through most of the show. The room was shared with the guys from The Tenement Kids from Utrecht. At first they were super quiet and I thought for sure they just hated Americans but by later in the night they totally opened up and we were all talking about everything from The Fest!! (we're great recruiters), Dutch love and weed! After the show we; hung out in Alkaline Trio's SUPER AMAZING tour bus complete with Gray Goose on TAP hahaha (wish I could have gotten a pic for Kenny but that would have been way too super-fanish) and THREE lounges, visited the Red Light district x3 while listening to Matt Skiba's personal stories on that topic. lol.

We ate Oliebollen, Poffertjes, pizza and fallafel :)...and a few of the boys ate some "muffins"...

Happy boys getting ready to be even happier!

And lastly, made "agreements" with Tomas about "forcing" a certain band to play his AMAZING definitely-worth-it festival!! So this is my promised effort...come on boys!!

Anyway, after saying goodbye to the boys and then figuring out that Amsterdam Centraal was randomly closed, taking a bus to the AIRPORT, waiting and waiting, training to Rotterdam, biking home, I finally got to sleep at 7am to wake up at 4, take a shower and get ready for my birthday dinner!!

Sunday...

Sometime last week Robbert and Ineke had told me they wanted to take me out for my birthday. :) They asked me where I would want to go but seeing that everything here is new to me and that I would love to experience any new place, I told them I really didn't have any ideas and that they should choose.
They could have chosen some crazy seafood restaurant or fake mexican food but instead they chose Olivia's, and I couldn't have been more happy...sooo good! I got the yummy veggie lasagna, REALLY good! But it gets better! For desert I had an Orange Chocolate, Cinnamon nut, and Figg cream homemade ice cream trio :) I'm pretty sure there couldn't have been a better birthday dessert!!

And then to make things even better...on Monday these came...

Thanks mom!! :)

So, I'm across an ocean from all of my friends, family and anyone and everyone I've known longer than a month but by some crazy miracle I had an AMAZING birthday weekend, I still can't even believe it.

Sick days...

2009-01-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is what we do on sick days...

plus video chat with "yes-ee-ca" and watching lots of dubbed cartoons :)

I'm currently excited about...

Broadway Calls on my birthday (Jan 24th)
Possible local show (finally...local music)
Going out for bday dinner
PARIS with Lauren!!
Springy time with Jessie poo!!

AND

The International Film Festival Rotterdam- They finally completed the English part of their website so I've been going through the a-z listings of ALL of the films and putting the ones I like in my handy "my favorites" folder! I'm going with Ineke to a few randomly picked shows (we don't know what they are yet) but I might go see a few of "my favorites" as well. There's like a million films and I've gone through and read the summaries for about 100 :0

Feeling Royal...

2009-01-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

Updates...

Last night I was watching CNN (yeah I do that now...a lot) and saw this... www.greenschool.org. I'm thinking this is the next place I want to go...after Holland. They have both a volunteer program as well as an internship program. They provide room and board and a small stipend. I'm sure there's lots of people applying, especially because of CNN but I emailed them to see what's up. We'll see. Bali??...anyone down for a visit? Oh and, I'm not kidding.

So today I went to Den Haag for the first time! I also rode the Netherland's trains on my own for the first time as well. I'm happy to announce that Den Haag is awesomely beautiful. I really wish I could have met the Queen but I guess there's always next time ;)

Lauren (same Lauren from Germany...see below) met me at the train station, good thing or I would have gotten totally lost. She lives in Den Haag with her "family" and knows the city quite well...great tour guide! :) We decided to go to Scheveningen first, because it was still pretty nice out and well, the beach is nicer on nice days!

Scheveningen actually feels like Coney Island minus the rides and the trash and plus some really big palace looking thing...

Then, after we realized we were not going to find the perfect veggie burger in Scheveningen, we decided to go back to Den Haag where we found almost the perfect veggie burger which I forgot to take a pic of. That was followed by lots of sight seeing...

Jess, this felt like London.

And this guy's into peace, see that?

See the fourth flag? It looks like it has hearts all over it, super cute, but I think they're actually tulips.

The Binnenhof and Hofvijver, more prettyness.

Notice the colors of the Dutch flag...

Pretty gold thing...

So, after looking at all of the Queen's old beautiful palaces and stuff...

Too bad some dude wasn't using it!

Upon getting home I was greeted at the door by Caroline who was extremely excited about something. And don't think she didn't tell me alllll about it...in dutch :) After walking in I quickly figured out what I had JUST missed (I stole this from Ineke's blog)...

Robbert made this for dinner tonight, it's called "rice and beans". But, that name doesn't do it it's deserved justice. It's SUPER good. Might have been the best thing I've eaten since I've been here...or maybe just the closest to my kind of "home cookin'"
(too my crew at home, this would definitely qualify as a really good "Gabe surprise" minus the tofu and mustard)

Shell (like the gas) headquarters are in Den Haag and Shell's real name is Royal Dutch Shell....just in case you were wondering. (my dad, as well as wikipedia taught me these things)

Dutchness...

2009-01-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

Do this! Right now, pretend there is a plate in front of you with a nice big juicy steak on it or for you veggies out there maybe a little gardenburger riblet. Anyway, now how do you eat it? Like pretend to pick up your fork and knife, cut it and then take a bite. Please pay attention to which hand you are holding your fork with and if it stays in that hand throughout the cutting and eating process or moves to the other hand.

So, on my second day here in Rotterdam I was taught the proper way to eat. You see, Dutch people eat like this...

The fork is always kept in your left hand, even while bringing the food up and into your mouth. This makes me feel like I'm forcing myself to be left handed. But, now that I'm Dutch (lol)...I eat like this too :)

Tonight I was talking to another American girl about all the "weird" or different things we noticed about the Dutch (or maybe European) culture. It was really cool to be able to talk to someone that understood how these little things could be so weird. Paying to use the toilet, paying for a cup of water, left handed eating, no ice, warmish beverages, lots of sweets :) and cheese, and way more that just aren't coming to me right now. Keep in mind, I still totally love it here, even with all these new weirdo things I'm having to get used to :)

Anyway, on to other things...

My lovely, big, bright room :)....

And my lovely, BIG, comfy deck...

And this is what you see when you turn around...

look down and see our backyard...

This little one looked soooo cold!!...

I'm not so sure Morten was all that happy with me taking pictures of him...

This wasn't no canal or little stream...this was a FROZEN LAKE!!...

Now MAYBE it's worth 800 dollars if you can do this with it...

My first Dutch windmill...

Timo and his fancy etiquette...

And finally, Rotterdam...

And now for your Dutch lesson (on the left is how it sounds in Dutch, right is English)...
Lekker = many different forms of "good" and "yummy"
Donkuvel = thank you
Pindakaas = peanut butter
Chocolate pasta = Chocolate spread (Nutella)
Kip = Chicken
Hack = ground, as in ground beef
Mondag = Monday (not sure why I remember that one)
Ik = I
Pusay = Kitty
I start my dutch class tomorrow (Wednesday) night. Hopefully it goes better than Spanish...probably wont though.

Note: I should probably add "and Kinder Chocolate" to the title, after "Nutella".

Finally! soooo many pictures.

2009-01-10T01:43:00.000-08:00

I've been in Europe more than a week and this is my first blog post...that's not good :/

Anyway, everything is great over here, I'm figuring Rotterdam out pretty well. I live very close to downtown and my comfy old dutch bike gets me around pretty well.

I'll let pictures do most of the talking...

We had to change trains in Utrecht on our way to Koln so we walked around a bit. After I took this I went to my first Dutch "coffee shop". (note to my parents: I didn't smoke anything!:)

My first meal in Germany. mmmm fries with mayo, one of the many things I love about German and Dutch culture!!

Jetlag maybe...or just me being myself, the party pooper!

This isn't a great picture but I like it because you can see the cathedral in the background.

My new camera has a fireworks setting...this is what it looks like.

Right after midnight (Me, Jessica, Melissa, Lauren)

Hohenzollern Bridge's lock fence.

Fuzzy and foggy Koln.

German bar scene.

This is what you get to look out and see after walking up 500+ of the smallest coldest steps in the whole world.

It took me a few seconds to figure out what they were and then another few seconds to talk myself out of buying 3 of them to send home.

Here's Jess trying to get our lock to lock on the fence.

And here's our lock, unlocked, with all of our names on it (I made a wish and threw my key into the river).

And now for Rotterdam...

On the walk back from the train station we saw this. What a cute gift!

I took a walk around the neighborhood and found this. Apparently this is the first time in years that it's been cold enough to skate on the canals...lucky me!

This is my house (the one with the motorcycle). See the Heineken sign, I can get a beer two doors down!

And just in case I want to go to mass, a Polish church across the street.

My first bitterballen...yummy, Lekker!! :) (I wish I had a picture of my first Oliebollen!)

And last but not least, my new Dutch teacher. Her name is Caroline and she's very patient with my pronunciation :)

I'm going to try to start updating this more often with news, new words I've learned (I start dutch class this Wednesday), and pictures of everything.

New Years eve in Koln!!!

2008-11-19T00:46:00.000-08:00

So, Ineke's current au-pair, Melissa, and her girlfriend are going to Koln (or Cologne?) Germany for New Years and they INVITED ME!! So...I'm gonna be in Germany (for the first time!!) for New Years! yes yes yes!

I don't know much about the trip besides that we're leaving on the train from Rotterdam (I think) on the 31st and coming back on the 2nd. They told me to budget 200 euro for the trip. OUCH! But...it's sooo worth it! :)

There's nothing else new to post about except that I'm getting really nervous. I don't know what to pack, if I'm bringing to much or not enough stuff, should I bring my sleeping bag? How many hoodies do I really need? So many questions...

bought the ticket!!...

2008-09-22T17:52:00.001-07:00

I bought my ticket to Amsterdam last night. I'm leaving Monday December 29th! And yes...that means I will not be home for New Years Eve funness. But! It does mean I'll be in Europe for New Years eve and who knows...that could be fun. Right? :) :)

I bought my ticket through lessno.com. I had never used it before and it doesn't tell you which airline you'll be on until after you buy it. So I was a little scared. All I knew was that it was a direct flight from SFO to Amsterdam on the 29th for (only!!) 430 dollars...but it turned out just fine. It's on KLM which for some reason stands for Royal Dutch Airlines. Apparently they have all these different kinds of "special meals"....Asian veg, Hindu veg, fruit/nut, vegan, gluten free, Muslim, kosher. And you know...I love my airplane food :)

Anyway, I'm still excited but kinda nervous about leaving everything.

Got the offer!!

2008-08-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that I found out...I AM MOVING TO ROTTERDAM!!!

I have been talking to a woman named Ineke for a few weeks now about potentially coming to Rotterdam to live with her and her family as their au-pair. We had scheduled for her to call today to talk to me and my mom. After talking to my mom, Ineke got on the phone with me and that is when it happened...she told she likes me and that she thinks I would be a great match for her family!! :)

My mom, dad, and I went out for a little celebration (we we're planning on going out anyway hehe) lunch here in Half Moon Bay. Then we went to "Moon News" to look for books on Rotterdam, which they don't have :( At least I have Kenny to "barrow" books from the library for me. :)

I'm really excited about all of this but also really really nervous. I can't believe I'm going to leave all my friends and family for 9 months!! CRAZY!

Hm...what should I pack??