Amsterdam second time round

Artika: Amsterdam's Collete/Via Alley
Crooked canal homes: my next drawing?
A soon-to-be married stag.

Dulac: the best things are simply found.

Party with Ezra Pound

Meeting a mate in Utrecht.

Thursday

I first crossed paths with Steve (a British surfer) in a backpacker joint in Thailand 3 years ago. Since then he has come to visit me in Sydney twice and we have gone on a surfing trip to Byron together. Now that he is living in the Netherlands, and recently returned from an around-the-world trip, I repayed him a visit, meeting him in Utrecht before his job interview at Undutchables, an expat recruiting agency.
Steve is the type of guy to wear thongs, boardies and a t-shirt so it was strange to see him dressed up for a job interview, clean-shaven and with a careful combover. Haha.

Utrecht was just good vibes. Cool shops, old buildings and streets, an awesome sunken canal that is at a lower level than the city itself and which winds its way under and through the streets, always pervasive and adding a fluidity and sense of movement and energy to the town. Added to this was the third layer of the town's Dom, a large tall spire that is rare in a country with such modest architecture. The young student population added a freshness and lively atmosphere that I dare say was more exciting than Leiden.

It was one of the cities that I really felt. Just like when I rolled into Tucson, Arizona; but that's another story.

As it was one of Steve's local towns before he packed it all in and left on his global wandering trip, I was shown around some really cool, local places around town; including the Tivoli music hall, the Springhaver indie cinema, the Plato record shop, the numerous plazas just waiting for summer when it will be filled with sun, flowing with beer and awash with even more awesome vibes.

We had fries and a coffee before, and a few Dommelsch's after, the interview. Between then, I found a nice plaza to catch up on some reading, while a concertina player, blisfully entranced and in the throes of performance, continued to play.

As we agreed, it made you feel so at home in the world to go somewhere and have such a good mate with which to spend a day like this. It was truly 'gezellig'.

Peace dudes.

International Students Introduction Weekend

Last weekend, took the busride down to Helvoirt for a weekend of 'introduction' with the new international students 'cohort'. It was a weekend of broken kneecaps from racing on all fours, American party games involving plastic cups and ping pong balls, 80s gym class fluoro, pyjamas, cows and freshly farmed milk, watching the Winter Olympics games, looking for the famed sand dunes - the existence of which is questionable, and canned soup.

The herd.

By the dim light of the kitchen table.

Korfball

Today I rode down to the gym to play the idiosyncratic sport known as Korfball. Played in a perfectly rational selection of countries: Netherlands, Belgium and Taiwan. It is just like mixed netball without zones.

It was the biggest sweatout workout I have had since I arrived in Europe, but afterwards, riding back in the cold, I felt more resilient against the cold weather and much lighter.

Back to Leiden.

With a weekend-full of memories, a lot of good ol' family love, a belly-full of homemade cooking and half a duck in my bag (thanks to Chi My), I was again picked up by Eileen to drive back to Leiden, of course with an obligatory McDo stop for a Stroopwafel McFlurry.

Carnival in Dusseldorf

My new favourite song, the Dusseldorf anthem played and sung at Karneval: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYqplgKukVI

The BIGGEST street party I have ever seen.

I was quite taken aback by the racially-themes costumes; for example, there were a lot of people dressed up as Blacks, Asians and Mexicans.

Other popular choices were cavemen, medical scrubs and Pippi Longstocking.

Karnewal in St Tönis near Krefeld

Ellen working hard to earn a living.Big tractor wheels + little kids scrambling on the ground for lollies thrown from said tractor: not a good mix.

Kevin's "prize".

Tet in Jülich

Viet showed me around the whole small town of Jülich in 2 hours. Had the best icecream in the Jülich area, and saw a Wizard tower, a Citadel and part of the Berlin wall.
The afternoon, had a big family feast. Winter - time to eat and sleep all day.

Road to Germany

Picked up in front of Digros supermarket at 16.45, it felt good to get back on the road again and get away for the weekend and see the family in Germany.

The roads were slippery and icy but Eileen, my German masters student carpool, drove slowly.
Winter was decidedly more prominent in Germany, with more snow and its brilliant whiteness.

After only 2 weeks of cooking for myself, I really relished Co Chau's homecooked meal.

Then Anh Thien and Viet came to take us to their home in Jülich. It turns out that Viet is quite talented, including his Rubrik cube skills - watch out Lawrence Leung!

Frozen swimming

[12:35:58] do1836: i swim on wednesdays
[12:36:07] do1836: for past 2 weeks
[12:36:10] do1836: no ..its ice water
[12:36:17] do1836: frozen on top
[12:36:22] do1836: i need to break with hammer first
[12:36:46] do1836: then i need to break ice to bring head above water
[12:37:03] do1836: no seriusly
[12:37:08] do1836: there are also penguins
[12:37:19] do1836: yes.. outdoors
[12:37:30] do1836: yes
[12:37:32] do1836: eskimos

...the black spots on the water are where people have just resurfaced.

Giant pancakes on Delft plates

Oudt Leyden. The Dalai Lama and Sir Winston Churchill ate at this famous pancake restaurant.

Vitello tonato: slices sirloin of veal, tuna mayonnaise & capers.

The pancakes each come with a souvenir mini Delft blue and white tile.

Dinner at a Dutch family home.

With a gaping bleeding hole in my mouth, but not too far away in Merenwijk, a suburb just outside of Leiden, Franz, Maria and their young daughter Julia warmly invited me into their home for dinner.

Boerenkool met rookworst, cabbage and mashed potatoes with oak-smoked sausage + the oranje flag. The English condescendingly call boerenkool 'pig food', to which Julia was quite indignant.

The bright Julia.

Extractions from the canal

Using intimidating-looking intrusive steel implements to forcefully remove unwanted objects from the depths.

Today I finally managed to see a tandarts (dentist) after being referred from tandarts to tandarts, riding back and forth across town and making countless calls. So frustrated I was that I deliberately chose an emergency dentist that would definitely and punctually attend to my wisdom teeth. Little did I know that this dentist wanted to pull my tooth out. On the spot. Under local. In a 10 minute job! (Whereas back home I had to make a 6 month reservation, take several xrays and make it a big day out).

Bloody-mouthed, I asked to keep the tooth. The dentist said 'Yes. As a souvenir!' When I later asked for the tooth, the assistant had thrown it together in a murky yellowy solution with a quarter-jar full of other teeth for the benefit of dental students. Moreover, the patient immediately before me had the exact same problem, on the exact same tooth and who was of same race and gender, making my tooth unidentifiable as far as I was concerned.

Work in progress