Monday, December 05, 2005
Sinterklaas is Jarig
Friday after work, I hung out with some colleagues hitting up the Consul and then Rotown before coming home. I really do like that place it seems. Saturday morning, I awoke after trying to sleep in but finding that my body wouldn’t let me sleep in, I hopped in the shower, (no, I didn’t slip), and ventured off to explore the Rotterdam Markt.
It was quite large and it included stalls of fruit and vegetables, clothing, bike stuff, and a flea mart. Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet were wandering through the markt as well as all through all of the stores in the Centrum. It was quite fun. I made a stop at Albert Heijn to purchase the ingredients I needed to make a cheesecake. (I had promised to bake a cheesecake for Geert and Klaske.)
After trying to correctly convert everything from cups to grams etc, I purchased tons of cream cheese and sour cream. (I have to make another cheesecake tonight for Caroline because I promised her during my first weeks in the Netherlands; I will see her Tuesday and Wednesday as I will be in Almere for work both days. It will be a surprise if she does not read this online. Otherwise, surprise Caroline! I am also making a third cheesecake for my roommates because it isn’t fair that they don’t get one!) My cheesecake seemed to come out okay. I converted the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius and everything. But, when I arrived in Heemskerk and we cut the cake up, it was more like a cheesecake pudding. I don’t think it was quite cold enough but it did taste okay. We ate the cheesecake over a cup of coffee and tea with Richard, Sjoujke, Charella, and Jalana.
When dinnertime approached, Klaske made one of my favorites again. Boerenkool Stamppot. It was soooooo good. Mmmmmm. I watched and she told me a couple of things so I should be able to attempt to make it at home. (Instead of a Fletcher burger night, perhaps a Dutch dinner and dessert could be in order...) Of course, it won’t be as good as Klaske’s boerenkool stamppot because the ingredients just taste better in the Netherlands and she is a fantastic cook! :)
After dinner, we had a webcam/msn/skype appointment with my parents so went upstairs to the computer. We logged on and quickly started a conversation with my parents. (They were in the middle of putting up Christmas lights on the house, the earliest I can ever remember them doing it! Things just work better when I’m out of the house. :)) My dad sat in the background and made faces at the camera the entire time while my mom tried to keep concentrated on the conversation. Then, my dad decided he should go back and forth to the kitchen showing us different objects including grapenuts, Heineken, Amstel, Diet Coke with Splenda, and what he referred to as pisamelk. Geert asked if they were having a borrel. It was quite amusing.
The conversation was no less than entertaining and it included a usual mom question, “was my hair in a ponytail?” (She hates my hair in a ponytail as does my dad and it has been nicknamed a lot of things including my paintbrush.) I moved my hair around to prove it was down. Of course I wasn’t innocent in being ridiculous in front of the camera and made a couple of faces back at my dad.
All and all, it was a very nice day and I even got to practice my Dutch while piecing together enough to hold conversations with Geert and Klaske. I’m sure my grammar was terrible and some of it didn’t make sense, but I would say it is quite and improvement.
Eek! I only have 20 days left! Oh, and Sinterklaas comes today. (I placed a small gift at the doors of my roommates before I left for work this morning. Both of them will receive a small English written poem, I’m not excelled enough in Dutch to write in Dutch rhyme yet. Eline received some Cerreta’s chocolate; I know it isn’t as good as Dutch chocolate. Marijke will receive some Skintimate Pear smelling shaving gel she so much adores but cannot purchase here. (She fell in love with the bottle I brought over.)
I have Sinterklaas liedjes on my computer and I will be a nerd and listen to them shortly. :)
Dag!
It was quite large and it included stalls of fruit and vegetables, clothing, bike stuff, and a flea mart. Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet were wandering through the markt as well as all through all of the stores in the Centrum. It was quite fun. I made a stop at Albert Heijn to purchase the ingredients I needed to make a cheesecake. (I had promised to bake a cheesecake for Geert and Klaske.)
After trying to correctly convert everything from cups to grams etc, I purchased tons of cream cheese and sour cream. (I have to make another cheesecake tonight for Caroline because I promised her during my first weeks in the Netherlands; I will see her Tuesday and Wednesday as I will be in Almere for work both days. It will be a surprise if she does not read this online. Otherwise, surprise Caroline! I am also making a third cheesecake for my roommates because it isn’t fair that they don’t get one!) My cheesecake seemed to come out okay. I converted the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius and everything. But, when I arrived in Heemskerk and we cut the cake up, it was more like a cheesecake pudding. I don’t think it was quite cold enough but it did taste okay. We ate the cheesecake over a cup of coffee and tea with Richard, Sjoujke, Charella, and Jalana.
When dinnertime approached, Klaske made one of my favorites again. Boerenkool Stamppot. It was soooooo good. Mmmmmm. I watched and she told me a couple of things so I should be able to attempt to make it at home. (Instead of a Fletcher burger night, perhaps a Dutch dinner and dessert could be in order...) Of course, it won’t be as good as Klaske’s boerenkool stamppot because the ingredients just taste better in the Netherlands and she is a fantastic cook! :)
After dinner, we had a webcam/msn/skype appointment with my parents so went upstairs to the computer. We logged on and quickly started a conversation with my parents. (They were in the middle of putting up Christmas lights on the house, the earliest I can ever remember them doing it! Things just work better when I’m out of the house. :)) My dad sat in the background and made faces at the camera the entire time while my mom tried to keep concentrated on the conversation. Then, my dad decided he should go back and forth to the kitchen showing us different objects including grapenuts, Heineken, Amstel, Diet Coke with Splenda, and what he referred to as pisamelk. Geert asked if they were having a borrel. It was quite amusing.
The conversation was no less than entertaining and it included a usual mom question, “was my hair in a ponytail?” (She hates my hair in a ponytail as does my dad and it has been nicknamed a lot of things including my paintbrush.) I moved my hair around to prove it was down. Of course I wasn’t innocent in being ridiculous in front of the camera and made a couple of faces back at my dad.
All and all, it was a very nice day and I even got to practice my Dutch while piecing together enough to hold conversations with Geert and Klaske. I’m sure my grammar was terrible and some of it didn’t make sense, but I would say it is quite and improvement.
Eek! I only have 20 days left! Oh, and Sinterklaas comes today. (I placed a small gift at the doors of my roommates before I left for work this morning. Both of them will receive a small English written poem, I’m not excelled enough in Dutch to write in Dutch rhyme yet. Eline received some Cerreta’s chocolate; I know it isn’t as good as Dutch chocolate. Marijke will receive some Skintimate Pear smelling shaving gel she so much adores but cannot purchase here. (She fell in love with the bottle I brought over.)
I have Sinterklaas liedjes on my computer and I will be a nerd and listen to them shortly. :)
Dag!
