Mar's Great Adventure

My dad seems to think I bring good weather wherever I go and keeps stating, “If you want to have good weather, follow Mar.” Now that I said anything, the weather is going to change for the remainder of my stay. :) The past weekend was one of the warmest weekends in Netherlands ever during the month of October and the Dutch were outdoors enjoying it. I was outdoors with them. On Sunday Caroline, Nick, Rose, my parents, and I went to ride the witte fiesten (white bikes) at De Hoge Veluwe, the biggest National Park in the Netherlands.

When we arrived, we all picked which witte fiets we wanted to ride and adjusted the seats accordingly. We decided upon the path we were going to take and off we went. We biked around the opposite side of the park and stopped to use the restroom and had a broodje. At this time, my parents and I encountered the first people on a search and steal bike mission. Because there were so many people at the park, there weren’t enough bikes to go around. One of our bikes almost got out of our grasp and after an exchange of words between my mom and the group trying to take our bike, we held onto it. This “stealer” said he could technically take the bike. Needless to say, he wasn’t very polite.

We hopped back upon our bikes and planned to stop for coffee at the Kroller-Muller Museum. My dad and I were ahead of the pack and approached the museum via bike first. We were immediately asked by about three people if we were getting off our bikes. We kindly said no and thought it best to venture onward for a cup of coffee. We waited for Caroline, Rose, and my mom and informed them of the situation. After many more scavengers looking at us and a couple of rude comments, we moved on to the restaurant.

Here, we found a bench and sat with our bikes in a square. We were approached a couple of more times and forced to argue to keep our bikes. While throwing some trash away, I noticed more people eyeing our bikes so stood in front of them to block off any stealing of the bikes. Many, many more looks in our direction later, we departed for our car. Despite the lurkers in the corner of my eyes trying to grasp our white bikes, it was a very nice ride around the park.

I arrived home to Rotterdam to discover I had left my key upstairs and my phone at Caroline’s house. I rang Marijke via the keypad at the door and she came to my rescue. (I did wake her up, but it turned out to be a nice wake-up because we visited for a couple of hours.) She watched her first pumpkin carving as I carved a pumpkin last night. Tonight, I will place it in my window. On my way home, I am going to see if any more pumpkins are in the store because Marijke would like to carve her first pumpkin this evening.

Happy Halloween!

I have failed to post anything about the Efteling yet but it was a lot of fun. The last couple of minutes in the Eftleing included my search for Langneck. I found him; I was afraid he was going to be shut off before I found him but I was in luck. Speaking of luck....lucky for the amusement of others and my childish nature, I took some very bizarre photos throughout the entire park. (My dad aided in egging me on and even suggested some pictures I scoffed at. Had I entertained the goofy ideas, my mom would have had a fit.) Numerous other ridiculous pictures were taken.

This evening my mom said to me, "Sometimes I wonder...you're a little crazy."

Apparently, she isn't amused with my rendition of:

Blah
Blah Blah
Blah Blah
Bladie Bladie Blah
Ik ben Chatman, supersnel met MSN (I think that's how it goes...)
*any Dutch readers out there will know exactly what I am referring to.

I'm supposed to be asleep right now so Welterusten.

Tot ziens.

Today, I received an amusing message from my parents, Richard, and Sjoujke. They spent the morning taking the Heineken tour as part of the Heineken Experience. They sent me a video from the tour. It was splendid. Picture an 80's music video with weird characters moving around and looking at the camera. (Yes, I said weird characters.) :) I put on my headphones and listened and watched while trying not to laugh too loudly at work.

Tomorrow I go to the Efteling. I will take the train to Tilburg and transfer to the Efteling buses where I will meet Caroline, Nick, Rose, and my parents. I’m quite excited to finally see what it is all about. I saw the mini-Efteling display at Madurodam which included a character popping his neck up into the air. His neck grew to about a foot. My dad and I proceeded to sink our necks in and pop them up for my mom who was videoing. (She has a habit of taking very boring video so I have made it my mission to liven it up a bit. I began this mission years ago when the first family camcorder was purchased.) While my dad and I continued to pop our necks up and down, we attracted the attention of other tourists and walked away. (I have an unfortunate habit for those around me of attracting unwanted attention for ridiculous antics. For example, I posed for a picture with the Dutch statue of a girl in wooden shoes at Madurodam…with my umbrella despite the nonexistent rain. Next, I had the girls join me in the ridiculous picture while a crowd formed and gazed on. I have also danced in the metro to Marijke’s embarrassment during the weekend midday rush.)

What will I do tomorrow? How can I embarrass my family further? Off to the Efteling...

And now, for the rest of the story:

I went to my parent’s hotel again Saturday morning to be picked up by Rink to bring us to see the Deltaworks. It was really, really cool. First, we drove to Spijkenisse to caravan with Hans and the kids. From Spijkenisse, we ventured off to Zeeland by car passing Port Zeelande along the way. I recognized the area and pointed out where I stayed for the weekend I visited Caroline and the kids during their holiday.

The Deltaworks is incredibly interesting and pretty amazing. Here is a very quick and brief history lesson…very minimal: as most of you know, the Nederlands is below sea level. Flooding is catastrophic and has occurred many times throughout the history of the Netherlands. The last huge flooding incident occurred in 1953, the Water Wolf. To combat the sea and protec the Netherlands, the Deltaworks was constructed. It was constructed to protect the land, people, water, while taking into account the ecology of the region. If you really want to learn what it is all about because I haven’t even scratched the surface, check out the Deltaworks .

We went to Waterland Neeltje Jans. The Dutch really do know how to do public attractions because there is a bit of something for everyone. (This was apparent on my Sunday at Madurodam as well.) During the summer, there is a water part at Neeltje Jans. Additionally, there is a video about the construction of the Deltaworks, a ride on a boat, fish and other sea creatures to learn about, sand sculptures, and other numerous attractions. We were able to go inside the storm surge barrier and saw where the water flows in from the sea and meets the river when the tide was coming in. So, the water was flowing against the river. It was really neat and a lot of fun. So…thank you Hans and Rink! I really, really enjoyed myself!

Sunday was a day planned to visit Madurodam. We planned to meet Sjoujke, Richard, and the girls at Den Haag Centraal at 10 am. I awoke early, showered, and went to my parent’s hotel again. I ate breakfast with them and we departed for Rotterdam Centraal after eating. We planned to take the 9:20 Innercity train. Wrong. The trains weren’t running from Rotterdam until 10 and then weren’t running until 10:30. We were told we could get on a bus to Delft and catch a train from there. There was no way we were going to make it onto one of the buses with all the other people vying for a spot. We also had three suitcases to take up space. Communication in the train stations here is terrible! TERRIBLE! We wandered back and forth through the stalls of the train station deciding to take the metro to Schiedam Centrum. We planned to take a train from Schiedam because according to the announcements, this would be viable.

We departed from Rotterdam Centraal at about 10:20. When we arrived to Schiedam via the metro, we looked up what platform we needed to leave from via the yellow train times signs, platform 5. We lugged our suitcases up the stairs and nothing was shown on the sign. I feared we would not be able to catch a train from here either. A couple of minutes later and some discussion further, an announcement went on overhead; the trains were not running from Schiedam either. Everyone was supposed to catch a bus to Delft. Lovely. We went back down the stairs and outside to where the buses are located. No signs. No information. We waited. We did discover only five buses were being used.

Another announcement was projected from the loudspeaker. (All the announcements are naturally in Dutch, so I didn’t really know exactly what was being said. I had to depend on my mom for this.) People began walking away. My mom couldn’t decipher the announcement either so we went back inside and asked some of the RET employees along the way if they knew anything. They didn’t and directed us to go talk to the train booth guy around the corner. Meanwhile, we heard a horn honk and some kind of vehicle depart. I was hoping this wasn’t for us.

My mom spoke to the train guy and he told us to go to platform five again. We started to sort of run off and he said we didn’t need to hurry. My mom didn’t exactly relay this information to my dad and me. The RET employees were no help and I was still hoping they didn’t aid in helping us miss the one transport that we could have caught. We lugged the suitcases up the steps and my mom started a run to platform five. My dad and I followed. There was no need; we climbed the remaining steps and waited.

Eventually, the board showed a train was going to arrive soon. An announcement said the tracks were slowly beginning to be opened again. A couple of trains passed us but were going in the opposite direction. The sign showed a sneltrein arriving at 11:19, the train we were waiting for. A couple of minutes later, platform one showed a stoptrein to Amsterdam arriving shortly thereafter. Then, the train was delayed five minutes. And then it was delayed ten. And the stoptrein came and went. I began to think; maybe we should have gotten on the stoptrein. Five minutes after the ten minute delay, the train still hadn’t had come. Finally, it arrived.

We entered the train at the first class car entrance…just our luck. With three suitcases to maneuver, we stayed put at the entrance with two strollers and two sets of parents. We arrived at Den Haag HS; the next stop was supposed to be Den Haag Centraal. Right before the train doors closed, my mom discovered this train was not going to Centraal and she briskly jumped out of the train with the doors closing on her. My dad and I were still inside. My dad managed to drop his suitcase and stuck his hands between the doors right before they shut. He pried them open and we both jumped out much to the gasping amazement of those inside the train. With a very flustered mom, we found out which platform to depart from to get to Den Haag Centraal. We could have taken a tram from Den Haag HS but would first need to find it. Instead, we waited for the 12:00 +/- 5 minute train to arrive. Yes, the sign said +/- five minutes. My dad said it should be the whenever it gets here train. The train did arrive at 12:00 but stayed in Den Haag HS until 12:05. We finally made it to Den Haag Centraal where we were greeted by everyone.

Around 12:20, we left the station and headed to Madurodam by car. Richard and Sjoujke took two cars since there was so much luggage and so many people. (Thanks!) My dad and I went with Richard and my mom went with Soujke. On the way to Madurodam, Richard pointed out several things to us including the spectacular looking jail of Scheveningen.

We spent a long time at Madurodam due to my dad and me. We followed the very confusing route and read each description of each place along the route or Madurodam. Now, I have many more things I want to visit before going back to Arizona and know I will not be able to see everything. After going through the route, we had some coffee with a fantastic roomboter stroopwafel. I played with the girls on the playground. I had a splendid time!

After Madurodam, we drove to the Peace Palace where we took several pictures and horsed around some more. I love looking at the old buildings and this one did not disappoint. Afterwards, we went to dinner. I had a mushroom soup, chicken, potatoes, leeks, and an apple tart. It was again delicious…much much better than the Greek restaurant! While waiting, we played with the napkins creating a bra, two pointed hat, lotus flower, crab, and tried to remember how to make a sailor hat. So…thank you Soujke and Richard for the fantatastic day and great meal!

I was dropped off at Den Haag Centraal and I took the Innercity train home with no difficulties or delays. My parents departed back to Heemskerk with Richard and Sjoujke. I will see them again on Thursday when we go to the Efteling.

Having Friday’s off is really quite nice. I get to enjoy that long weekend every weekend. Naturally, Thursday is still the new Friday and particularly in my situation. On Mar’s Friday, I took the metro to Spijkenisse after work. Hans lives in Spijkenisse; here I had a delectable Chinese meal with 11 family members. With coffee, we had a speculaas marzipan filled snoopje. It was made with roomboter, hence the deliciousness. Rink and Lettie brought Wesley and I met Hans’ kids for the first time. Oma and Opa were present as well. It was nice to see them again; the last time I saw them was when they visited the states and I rode around on Geert’s back. I was a bit younger and a brownie or junior in Girl Scouts if I remember correctly. The kids in my family are pretty cute if I do say so myself. Rink and Lettie drove my parents and I back to Rotterdam after the visit.

Friday morning, I awoke and went to my parent’s hotel to begin a day of shopping with my mom. After waiting for my dad to download pictures from his camera, all three of us left the hotel. The first stop was a shoe store with larger shoe sizes. We spent a good deal of time here, but no shoes were found. Apparently, the Dutch think people with larger feet don’t like fashionable shoes either. Some things are the same across all cultures. Next, we went on a search to find some wireless Internet for my dad. I think he finally came to the realization it is a bit more difficult to come by here or at least to find places to connect. After wandering with him for at least an hour, my mom and I departed and left him to do his work. Later, we found out he discovered a place to connect to the Internet but he had to pay a lot for it.

My mom and I finally ventured off to begin a bit of shopping so we wandered through the massive amount of stores Rotterdam Centrum has to offer. We spent a great deal of time in H&M where my mom bought me some warmer clothes for the changing temperature. Last week was a much colder week and my collection of warmer clothing was very minimal. After H&M, my warmer clothing collection drastically increased.

From here, my mom wanted to show me HEMA, a Dutch store. I will describe it as the equivalent of a Target. But, the food section of HEMA is far superior to any Target or any American super-store. We looked at the tart section; it looked lekker. We went up and down all the escalators to all the floors; the top floor is reminiscent of an IKEA with a place to sit and eat your lunch. (This is located in many major stores.) After walking around some more and showing my mom different places on the street, we met up with my dad again to see the cube houses.

My mom kept commenting on how she would not like to live in them. My dad tried to take some pictures and said they weren’t very photographic. (There wasn’t good lighting either; this didn’t aid in capturing a good shot of the cube house but man, do I know my dad tried. Let’s just say, he takes picture-taking seriously and is not afraid to shoot twenty pictures or more of the same object due to the technological advancements of the digital camera and the ability to delete poor pictures later.) From here, we walked across the street where I pointed out Plan C to my parents, a former blog topic. I decided to walk them by the Nieuwe Mass to show my parents a couple more places and things before going to the Euromast. We started at the Wilemsbrug and walked towards the Erasmusbrug.

Lucky for us, the rain started to pour. I stupidly left my good umbrella at home this day and was forced to endure the windy rain with a flimsy non-wind resistant tiny umbrella. We walked between the bridges, decided against going to the Euromast due to the weather and our water-soaked clothes and went on a search for a place to eat. The first place I intended to go to was closed. The second place I intended to go to wasn’t in the location I thought it was in. We ended up finding a Greek restaurant.

This was a bit difficult for my dad and me, although more difficult for my dad. We attempted to scour the menu in Dutch and order Greek. Service in the Nederlands is much much slower than dining at a restaurant in the states. So, if not ready to order when a waiter or waitress does come by without being waived over, you probably have a lot longer to wait until you are able to order until they come around again. A half hour later, I think we were ready to order.

My dad ended up getting the special, a mixed grill. My mom and I ordered something that entailed beef stukjes and another with a mix of things. I couldn’t decipher everything on the menu, so was a bit daring and ordered something that looked to be the reminiscent of good. My dad and I split a flesje rode wijn. When dinner was brought to the table, my mom and I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t really remember exactly what we had ordered. So, the plates were placed in front of us and we debated whose was whose. I ended up with the plate of beef stukjes and my mom had the other plate. My mom’s plate was by far the tastiest of all three of us. My plate was simply loads of meat; I can describe the taste no better than tasting like a serving of hamburger helper. The whole meal, my mom and I were trying to determine if we were eating what we had ordered.

After dinner, my dad and I decided to try dessert as they had a Dutch dessert dish my mom told us about and my dad and I wanted to try it. The waiter brought my dad a menu in English this time as it was pretty apparent that he could not speak Dutch. I had them fooled with my uttering of common words in Dutch.  I received a menu in Dutch alongside my mom. With dessert, I ordered a cup of coffee in true Dutch fashion, my dad order white coffee off of the English menu which was koffie met slagroom (coffee with whipped cream) on the Dutch menu, and my mom decided to try Greek coffee. Two cups of coffee arrived. One was a simple cup of coffee, mine. The other was some kind of coffee, and so my mom took it. We thought they may have mixed up my dad’s order, so he did not get anything at this point. A little while later after the dessert had arrived, another small cup of coffee arrived as well. This was the Greek coffee. My mom gave back the other coffee to my dad after drinking a quarter of it and took her Greek coffee. She wasn’t a fan. She took a sip and a not very pleasant look came across her face. My dad laughed as he knew what Greek coffee was like and refused a sip. I tried it; it wasn’t that good at all. She forced it down over the next minutes leaving the thick grounds in the bottom. Three hours later, dinner was complete.

My mom and I discovered when the menus arrived to order dessert that we had in fact eaten each others orders. The hamburger helper was my mom’s order and the tastier meal was mine although I had eaten the hamburger helper and my mom and eaten the tastier of the two. Oh, well.

The next morning we met Rink to go to the Delta Works with Hans and the kids. I will write about the remaining part of the weekend shortly as the true foreign experience continued. And now, for a short break...

I went bowling again yesterday with some colleagues from work. The place we went bowling at was nicer than the last place; the pins weren’t attached to strings and there was animation on the screens displaying the scores. The bowling alley had a bit of a western-type theme. It wasn’t walking distance from work so we took the tram, tram four to be exact to Rotterdam-Noord and got off at Lemmerrijk. The alley was right next to this stop.

Nine people bowled this time, down from fourteen which was the original number of people. I was worried as I had a reputation to up hold from the last bowling experience. Everyone was out to get me but my performance in the second round was stellar. I will consider the first round as a warm-up round, but I didn’t do too badly. My worst round was actually the third; I lost my mental focus. :) Curious as to my scores?

Round One: 116
Round Two: 176
Round Three: 91

Needless to say, round two was officially the best round I have ever bowled. After hitting a couple of strikes in a row, I rolled a terrible set and then picked it back up again. Maybe that Shrek bowling league paid off. Yes, I bowled in a Shrek bowling league and I bowled quite poorly might I add.

After bowling, four of us grabbed a bite to eat on the Witte de Withstraat. We went to Bizar Bizar. I had a chicken kebab with saffron and yogurt sauce, and fries with garlic mayonnaise…the Dutch kind. It was good but I didn’t see any yogurt sauce. :) After dinner and a discussion about Halloween and Sinterklaas, I decided to walk home instead of taking the tram.

Tonight, I will meet up with my parents and have a visit in Spijkenisse with some family. Tomorrow is winkel dag met mijn mom; I'm in desperate need of some warmer clothes. The weather has changed.

The Bathroom
Originally uploaded by marfish8.

Ever want to sit on a public toilet seat but were too afraid? Ever cover a seat with toilet paper before sitting on it? Do you hate those paper shields that always rip? Are you sick of hovering and would really like to just plot down on that seat? Now you can! All you need to do is find a restroom with toilet seat cleaner! Available for your use...courtesy of Schiphol airport.

New Pictures are posted. If you wanna see more and are part of flickr, add me and you can have more access.

Boerenkool, suikerbrood, gout groenten, fondue, kaas, hagelslas, and a dinner at the Wok restaurant. I ate well this weekend…very, very well. Technically, my weekend began Thursday evening. I had a meeting for work in Almere Thursday morning so went to Caroline’s house after the meeting. My parent’s came to visit as well so Caroline and I picked them up at the train station. A lately usual but unusual for the Netherlands weekend of weather ensued…fantastic! The sun was still shining brightly. Actually, today is the first day with a real chill in the air but I am still enjoying the sun.

Thursday included a nice walk with Caroline, my mom, dad, and Pebbles. The family, including Rose and Nick, sat down for a nice dinner together. Dinner began with my favorite Dutch soup, Ertwensoep. Mmm, mmm, mmmmmmmm. Caroline prepared a dish that included nasi goreing spices. (Forgive my spelling in this blog fore I am going to describe numerous things I do not know how to spell.) It was very tasty unlike my mom’s nasi yasi…well, we say yasi. She used to overuse the spice when I was younger.

We had a pleasant evening. My dad spent some of it upstairs doing work since he still has work to do for two weeks. We finished off the evening with some delectable cappuccino and caught a train back to Rotterdam. My parents departed for their hotel and I departed home where I quickly fell asleep.

The following day, Friday, I met my parents at their hotel to help lug some suitcases to my apartment where they were stored for the weekend. We prepared some broodjes for the road and gobbled up the remainder of the orange juice before taking the metro to Rotterdam Centraal. Using my very precious korting card, we purchased a return ticket to Heemskerk. Geert greeted us at the train station in Heemskerk and we walked to Klaske and Geert’s home.

After a nice visit over coffee and some Verkade chocolate, we had a wonderful dinner. Boerenkool stamppot. This is another one of my favorite Dutch dishes and Klaske prepares it really, really well. Lekker. This includes boerenkool, potatoes, and sausage. Yummy, yummy, yummy. We visited with Jacob Egberts, Sandra, and their very nice girls.

Saturday included a morning visit with Tante Roompje, a friend of my beppe’s. We went to the Zaanse Scans…spelled something like that. It is a place where several windmills are located and we were able to go inside one. We visited an oliemollen. This is an oil mill. We saw how everything worked inside and how peanut oil was made using a windmill. It was very interesting. We also visited the first Albert Heijn. For dinner, we were surprised with a dinner with the whole family at a Wok restaurant, thirteen people. It was very, very good! They had a fantastic tomato soup, various dishes as an appetizer, and the food made on the wok was great as well. I had my food made in a Szechwan sauce. The whole family had a good time.

Sunday included my first Dutch soccer game and yes, the fans are much better here! It was fun to watch and our team won. We had another great dinner. Sjoujke, Richard, and their girls came over for dinner as well. Klaske made a very good dish called gout groten. (golden vegetables…asparagus with ham, sauce, and cheese.) We went to Soujke and Richard’s after dinner where we were presented with some more fantastic food made by Richard. This included fondue and what I can describe as similar to wontons…I don’t know the correct name. I know I’m bad. :( The girls entertained us with a dance and we had the pleasure of seeing Richard and Soujke perform with others from camping dressed as the Village People singing the YMCA as well as another performance dressed as Meatloaf. It was very entertaining. They were all dressed up in costume as they were participating in a contest. The Dutch really know how to throw big events; this event included a professional stage and lighting!

Needless to say, I wasn’t hungry once all weekend because I was constantly presented with amazing food. I learned a bit more Dutch. Geert separated my dad from me by sitting between us so he couldn’t pester me; thanks to Geert I was able to spare a few pokes and prods from my dad and he was spared a couple of punches. :) The Fletcher family departed by train from Heemskerk this morning and I arrived to work a bit late as was expected in Rotterdam. Apparently, my mom and dad had some hotel trouble and are now staying in a different hotel than expected. I will meet up with them after work…after throwing a load of laundry in.

As soon as I find out how to spell everything correctly, I will make corrections.

Tot ziens!

It's a family weekend! We are heading off to Heemskerk shortly...we being my mom, dad, his blackberry :), and me. Here I sit dilly dallying and writing a short blog entry. I must hop in the shower so I can get my parents in 45 minutes and escort them to my place of residence, since they haven't seen it yet. The weather is foggy this morning but I think it should burn away by late afternoon or we will get some showers, but we won't be in Rotterdam all day.

You will all be happy to hear I combat that drainage/sore throat problem. I am still a bit stuffy but no more soreness. Woohoo!

The parents arrived safe and sound last night. After a nice visit at Schiphol met koffie and familie, we took the train to Rotterdam. Lugging the suitcases, we passed by my office on the trek to their hotel. After arriving to the hotel, my mom unpacked a couple of things while my dad sent off a couple of emails. (He’s just oh, so important…sarcasm.) J My dad also gave me a really cool watch from Stockholm. Not accustomed to wearing a watch anymore, I forgot to put it on this morning! Errrr. We went for a walk to grab some food because I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. We walked to the Witte de Withe Straat and ate at Spooky’s. I had a broodje met kip kerrie, sort of, and my dad got some chicken thing. They were both good but I made the tastier choice. Go figure.

Today, all three of us are going to venture off to Delft. My dad will be doing some work at the office since his company has an office located in Delft. My mom and I will explore until he is ready to join us. This evening the Nederlands takes on Macedonia so we will all have to watch the game. By beating the Czech Republic on Saturday, we already qualified for the World Cup. Notice how I state we….hup Holland!

I am starting to feel the beginning of a cold coming on with drainage in the back of my throat. I’m sure you are all excited to hear about that. So, I will just have to find some fresh squeezed sinasappelsap…orange juice. Mmm, how I do love fresh squeezed orange juice.

I had another eventful weekend. It began Friday afternoon after meeting up with Rink. We ate lunch at the beach. (This is what the area is called by water by the Erasmusburg.) It was a gorgeous day so we sat outside. I had a broodje with sun dried tomatoes and meat on rosemary bread. Het was heel goed. After we ate we walked around the city center, nieuwebinneweg, and the museumplein. He showed me this neat area behind one of the museums with some sculptures, green grass, and a water feature. It would be a fantastic place to read a book…something I contemplated on Saturday but I didn’t make it there.

After walking around for awhile, we visited Rotown and stayed outside to enjoy the weather until it got too chilly. I listened to Weezer’s blue album followed by the Postal Service upon the speakers. We watched as Rotown got a lot busier. I spoke with my roommates on the phone and Eline came to visit later in the evening for about an hour. It was nice.

After Rotown, we met up with some colleagues at work who were around the corner at Vibes. I spent the remainder of the evening here until I departed home around 4:30 in the morning. I didn’t stay until closing time this time. :)

Naturally, I slept in a little bit on Saturday but awoke around 11:30. I spent the afternoon in the city center with Marijke. I ate lunch before going out and about but Marijke hadn’t yet so we visited a place she used to work. I enjoyed some coffee. It’s refreshing to have real coffee every one and awhile. It was very, very good! I bought a stockpile of groceries in order to prepare some requested burritos Sunday evening. The weather was fantastic again on Saturday and I enjoyed walking around.

We watched the Dutch take on the Czech Republic during the evening. I became a bit nostalgic and spent halftime doing skills with my ball in the hallway. As I wrote on Saturday, we won. There were some scary moments but the game was entertaining. I want to be one of those crazy Dutch fans dressed in wacky orange clothing and bizarre hats. I lovingly say this about the Dutch. Marijke has learned I have a bit of bizarreness in me and would be one of the fans dressed like an oranje fool hooting and hollering. After the game, I was starting to feel a bit sleepy and was prepared to head to bed soon.

Incorrect. I was coaxed into going out with Marijke after she received a call from her friend who was going to Now and Wow, a super-cool disco in an old warehouse. It includes three rooms with two rooms playing different music. The room in the back played techno and the other room played hip hop. The room in the middle was a place to talk, relax, and take a break. I will re-visit this place at least once before heading back to the states. We stayed until about 5:15/5:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I slept in a bit again on Sunday.

I hit the shower around 11:30 am Sunday and knocked on Marijke’s door around 12:30 to wake her up. We had plans to head to the city center again. I had forgotten to purchase some necessary ingredients for the burritos: tomatoes and onions. I drank a cappuccino while perched upon the roof to watch the gathering crowd and the world championship snowboarding thingy-me-bobber.

We went to the center. The weather was again nice. It was a bit cloudier during the morning but the sun broke through in the afternoon. When we got back, we sat on the roof for a good two hours or more watching the snowboarding finals and the motorcycle ramp thingy-me-bobber. I can’t think of the correct name for it at the moment. A DJ was spinning music the entire time which was nice as well.

After the snowboarding extravaganza, I prepared burritos. Marijke liked them. I watched a Perfect Storm on TV and planned to go to sleep but a more intriguing film came on next, Class of 1999. So, I watched Class of 1999 and then went to sleep.

...and so begins another qualifying game for the Nederlands versus the Czech Republic. Nederlands elftal! I am wearing my oranje shorts to cheer on the team and Marijke says hello to all you faithful readers! Back to the televisie...doei.

We won! 2-0; it was a fun game to watch. (Cars are on the street again and no longer does the intersection outside the window look desolate. The Dutch have resumed living.)

Strange sightings in the in the past week include:

An albino rat with two kids in the street...on a leash.

A woman at the metro stop swinging from side to side with her hands upon her hips looking like she was trying to workout; the key word is trying. She was properly exhaling and inhaling but her swinging could do nothing more than stretch her and perhaps crack her back.

A man playing a flute that sounded much like a recorder outside of the Albert Heijn in the city centre. I recall thinking he didn’t sound like he was playing any tune on my way into the store. He sounded like he was just blowing hot air. On my way out, I noticed he was listening to music with small buds in his ears while “playing” his flute; I concluded he was just blowing hot air. (There is usually a man playing his guitar here but every so often, the musician outside of the store changes but the “regular” man usually comes back in a couple of days.)

Pier
Originally uploaded by marfish8.

I spent another weekend in Almere and it was splendid as usual. I arrived Friday evening. Saturday, we spent at the beach. I can’t remember the name of the beach but it was outside of Amsterdam and Caroline said it is where Geert and Klaske live, so maybe I will visit this beach again. The weather was fantastic and included much sun and a brisk breeze. Nick, the little trader that he is, purchased a new kite and had to come to this beach to pick it up.

Nick spent the day on the beach with his kite and his board. Caroline, Rose, and I spent our time watching him a bit, having some cappuccino at the restaurant on the beach, and going for a long walk up the pier. Pebbles accompanied us all day…Pebbles is a great dog. We left the beach around 3:30/4:00 in the afternoon and called my mom when we got home to wish her a happy birthday. After having a nice chat, we hit up Albert Heijn to purchase ingredients for burritos.

I bet you can guess what I am going to say next; I made burritos for dinner. We were starved by the time we got home for dinner so I began by making cheese crisps and quesadillas, a first for Nick and Rose. The cheese crisps were a bigger hit than the quesadilla. Actually, it was a huge hit and Nick wanted me to make more. They were fantastic due to the wonderful Dutch cheese as well. (We used oude Mass Lander.)

After making a couple, I ceased to make anymore and put my concentration upon crafting some burritos. Apparently, I made them a bit spicier than the last time I made them. (I couldn’t tell.) All in all, we had an American Mexican food dinner. We finished the evening by watching the film, Be Cool.

The following day, I awoke and came downstairs for a traditional Dutch breakfast of bread, cheese, hagel slaas, nutella, etc. Caroline and I went for a bike ride as we usually do when I visit. Later in the day, Nick flew his kite while Rose, Caroline, and I watched Before Sunset. I cooked dinner again. :)

For dinner on Sunday, I prepared a garlic infested dish…the usual. I fear I may be smelling up my small corner of the office today each time I exhale. Next time I visit, I have a couple of different things to choose from to cook including American pancakes, nachos, balsamic chicken, and the preparation of a bit of bread with balsamic vinegar and oil.

I posted pics from the weekend so enjoy...

Happy Birthday to my mom who is still young; although, I aged her an extra year on the phone this morning...oops. :)