Monday, October 17, 2005
I may have gained twenty pounds this weekend but it was a tasty twenty
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!
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!
