i must be dreaming!!

Barcelona in a blurb

hey hey! we're back!!! Sally came on time on Weds, with a suitcase full of Reese Puffs, Presidents Choice decadent chocolate chip cookies, real fruit gummies, twizzlers, pop tarts and a very highly craved CINNZEO bun!! (all the things I requested from good ol' Canada) MMMMMMMMMMMMMM... It was SOOOOOO good!!! So yea, we flew to Barcelona shortly after, and spent 3 full days exploring the fairly dangerous ghettos of the 'most beautiful city in Europe'. We saw most of the sights, including La Sagrada Familia (the still unfinished temple), the outsides of Casa Battlo, La Pedrera, several crowded MANGO stores, even more extra crowded ZARA stores, a handful of cathedrals, the Good Friday procession, Parc Guell, and more... Our overall impression of Barcelona in a quick bite is: too many tourists, a bit scary and sketchy w/ seemingly high crime rate, very nice beaches and good food, and perhaps just a tad overrated for us non-architecture appreciating types. :P but overall it was fun! we both bought a pair of new shoes (mocassins! mine were lime hehe, and hers were blue), and I also got MNG jeans woohoo! things were much cheaper than here but it was a ridiculous 15 mins to get to the changing rooms and another 15 mins to pay for the items >:P so ya it was kinda dumb.

Pics to come soon...

Freedom!! Sally and me awaiting our flight to Barcelona...

Food pictures

Chocolate chip scones I made on Zondag

Is it weird that I post pictures of food? Hehe, for some reason it gives me so much pleasure. :D If you don't like it you know what to do ^_-

Dutchies

[music in my head - i got 5 on it]

sitting near the coffee machine is great for people watching at work. you get to see who's drinking loads of coffee, perhaps more than they really should be, who's fixing themselves in the reflection of the machine, as well as listen in on all kinds of coffee machine talk. it's similar to the water cooler conversations, but since we're in the NL, there are no water coolers as they all drink tap water. I miss having my giant Nalgene bottle to gulp fresh BC water down. Right now I'm using a lil 33cl (that's 330ml for those who don't get centilitres) Spa bottle that makes me have to a) get up every 20 mins for more water and b) get up every 30 mins to take a piss. Hehe well it may not be that often but it's a close guess.

so i realised i might have missed out on mentioning some Dutch things, cuz since my blog's being shamelessly promoted among @sfu members, i thought i might write about something interesting for once (as opposed to what I buy in the grocery store, for example). here are some things Dutch-related:

• If you like the taste of something, you're supposed to wave your hand across your ear like youre waving hi/bye and simultaneously say "Lekker lekker!!" You can also do this if you're thinking, seeing or smelling something good to eat.
• The Dutch can cycle with no hands perfectly, while holding an umbrella, a mobile phone, 6 shopping bags full of groceries and maybe even more.
• Dutch men are on average the tallest in Europe (avg 6.0 ft)
• If you want to hang out with a Dutch person, you have to tell them at least 2 weeks in advance, so they can pencil you into their dayplanner.
• Dutch old ladies look very pasty, bulbous and wrinkly. (okay, so maybe that was just my Landlord.)
• If you're biking and there is a pedestrian in your way, and you are without a bike bell, it works much better to say "bbbrrring brrrring!" rather than "BOOT BOOT (like a car horn)" <--I know this from experience.
• Dutch locals dont actually smoke pot. Really. (Only tourists and foreigners do it).
  

So anyway, if I notice more things I'll let you guys know. Btw, last night I picked up my "new" bike for 20 euros, and besides having an extremely low seat/saddle and a hard skinny one at that, it rides quite smooth!

I like mini-horses!

Yayyyy!! Less than two days til me and Sally are in sunny Barcelona :D I can't wait!! Sofie, my roomie who has lived there before, created a large sized map for me by printing off many little squares of zoomed in maps and taping them altogether, and she's circled all the places that only locals would know to go for us. She's so nice!

Everyone's told me that I'm going to be blown away by the beauty of Barcelona and I'm totally expecting it to happen. So far, nothing has really taken my breath away cept for the Grand Place in Brussels during Christmas, and maybe that was just a piece of sweet waffle lodged in my throat. In fact, Brussels has kinda lost its 'wow-factor' for me since the second time I went there. It was the same buildings, but it just felt empty and old, and I mean, you can only have so many waffles before you feel like puking (or running 200 laps!). Nevertheless, we'll also be visiting good ol Brussels, Brugge and Antwerp once again when Sally is here. We're also planning to go to the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens, Zaanse Schans windmill and clog town and maybe Six Flags Holland :)

Update on the bike
I got rid of my half bike! Erik (from Sweden) turned out to be looking to replace his back wheel, so he thought he might just transplant his handlebars and seat onto the remains of my bike. He has also been a victim of vandalism when his bike bell lid was ripped off, so we struck a deal where I would give him a brand new bell and the remains of my bike for 15 euros. :D

After that, i started to look for a 'new' bike online, and sms'ed a few people in amsterdam who had them for under 40 euros. Today, a guy called me saying he had a bike for 20 euros, and that he's a bike repair man and that I can meet him tonight for the bike, so I might just do that. Everyone's telling me that bikes that are under say...50euros are stolen, but hey this guy's a repairman! I dont think junkies have advanced to selling their stolen bikes online, but supposedly, they're all saying that I'm fueling the stolen bike industry... Hehe. but really, i dont think i am...

St. Patty's Day
After having been in Dublin and loving the Irish people and culture, it was great to again be in the presence of those friendly Irish especially Michaela who is from Northern Ireland. We went out on the actual St. Patrick's Day to an Irish pub in the middle of Leidseplein, and there was live music being played and lotsa giveaways! We got free green leprechaun t-shirts, GUINNESS hats, and button pins that had quirky lines on them (like "kiss me i'm irish"). Then on Saturday, Michaela had a house warming/St. Patrick's Day party which was loads of fun as well. I went early to help make carrot cake, brownies and nachos and everything turned out even without any measuring cups! Woohoo!

Random thought of today: If a miniature horse galloped across your foot, would it hurt?

<---AWWWWWW!!!!!!!! soooo cute

Jaap Edenhal - Outdoor Skating Rink

Jaap Edenhal is a 400m outdoor skating rink that I tried to go to on Sunday! It was beautiful out, sunny and not too cold...

Table Set-up

Terra Cotta Warriors standing by...

Chinese Dinner

I invited Tom over for some Chinese cooking on Saturday so in the daytime, we met to go grocery shopping at Zeedijk, the main Chinese street in Amsterdam. There you can find all sorts of Chinese stores, including bakeries, eateries, dimsum places, and even places to get Chinese cutlery and dishes and even rice cookers of all different sizes! Going there always makes me feel a bit more like home :)

Anyway, that night we made noodles w/ shoarma (how's that for fusion!?), hot n sour soup, and black bean garlic chicken w/ bell peppers. As usual I made too much (must be from my G-ma's influence) and had lotsa stuff leftover. But it was yummy!!! :D



Our Hot and Sour soup

Keep it in the BOX!

Culture Clash #119

I finally went shopping at Dirk last night and got my filling of Fruit n' Fibre cereal (mmm), kiwis, chicken breast, magere milk and really cheap giant apples! Dirk is great cuz there are always "sales" (Sofie is going to kill me for always saying food is 'on sale' cuz somehow thats a term that shouldnt' be applied to edibles, hehe). Anyway, I love browsing through what's on sale, usually there is some sort of apparel in the front, ranging from fleece shirts to puffy vests, and some shamees for cleaning things, etc. Last night, there were paint rollers and white paint, and even tho I have absolutely no need for that, it was so cheap I almost considered buying it. Hehe.

Anyway, I got to the produce section and normally I pick up a bag of Royal Gala apples (a whopping 2,49 euros per bag) but this week, they were selling giant red apples in 3 KG boxes for only 1,79 euros!! I was ecstatic so I grabbed a box with me. It turned out to be really awkward to carry, cuz I already had a red basket and a purse and a backpack, so I took all the 12 apples out of the box and put them into two plastic bags, thinking it really didn't matter cuz the cashier could recognize the different kinds of apples, esp while knowing that they were on sale this week.

I get into the checkout line, and soon it's my turn. The Turkish/Moroccan (I still can't tell the difference) girl sweetly says "Goede avond," with a smile, and proceeds to DOOT my items one by one. She finally gets to my bags of apples, and the look of confusion appears on her face. She glares at me and says "blahblahblah?? (something in Dutch)" and I go, "huh?". Turns out, she needed the box that carried the apples in order to scan the code through, and without it, she didn't know what kind of apples they were, let alone their price.

To me, my first reaction was, "What the hell, memorize your codes, woman. Look how disabled you've become when you dont' have one measly sticker for the apples! It's reduced you to merely a scanner of stickers!" but my anger actually turned out to be a cover for my shame and embarrassment for taking the apples out of their box (How could I have known!?!!?!). Everyone behind me was of course pissed off at me for doing that, since there were at least 5 others in line behind me. It took at least 3-4 minutes before the cashier's colleague got the code for her, and then, finally I got to pay and leave.

So ya.. from now on, no more removing things from their boxes, and if I did it the next time I'd make sure to take the sticker w/ me. You see, in Canada, produce people know their produce codes! It's quite difficult cuz there are so many kinds of apples, vegetables, etc and you definitely need to know how to recognise them without the help of stickers, usually! So I wont be expecting that level of skill from any Dutch cashier from now on... Nice to know, nice to know...

It was bound to happen...

Something's up with blogger in that I cannot write next to my pics w/o deleting them :P

Anyway, the below snow pics are from last week! On Weds we had a big snowstorm that lasted a whole day or two, so we ended up with about a foot of soft powdery snow (perfect for snowmen making)! So on Saturday, I finally got into our backyard and made a snowman, with the help of Mat, Sofie, Nico, and Olowine. Somehow, in the process of being built, it turned into a transvestite. :D

As for the bicycle pic, that is what I found tonight upon returning to the metro station after work. I was so ready to go to Dirk, the grocery store to pick up some fresh apples, kiwi, chicken breast and cereal but COULDN'T go, because someone had the nerve to take my bike seat AND my handlebars!! I mean, WTF!?! I had heard of people getting their front wheels stolen, but c'mon, my seat and handlebars!? Argh.

Anyway, I started walking home without my bike, seeing as it was useless now anyway, but after 2 mins of walking, I remembered that my bike lock had cost 15 Euros, and I should at least get that back. I walked back and removed the bike lock, and then I thought, "those bastards are probably going to come back to get the rest of my bike!! and I aint gonna let that happen!!! arghh!" So, I grabbed the rest of my bike and rolled it home. It wasn't easy, but we made it! But really...this was bound to happen. Bikes get stolen everyday in Amsterdam and it was only a matter of time before it happened to me. Now it's time to shop for a new one...

Isn't this great. Half my bike is GONE!

Our "snow-tran", hehe. Hey what did you expect, we're in Amsterdam ;)

Wee! I'm building a snow(o)man!

About Dublin

So I did end up going to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend of Feb 25-28, and it was so much fun!!! In contrast w/ the rather distant ways of the Dutch, the Irish were friendly, fun and spontaneous! They were also young, playful and full of culture and patriotism. It's too bad we didn't get to go during the St. Patrick's Day celebrations, but we were still lucky in that on Feb 27 (Sunday) there was a Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and England.

Now if you don't already know, Ireland and England have beef with each other (read up on history if you're not aware of this) and so it was quite hyped. We didn't end up watching the game tho cuz we were running around town doing the Medieval museum (Dublinia), Guinness Storehouse (disappointment) and Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced J-A-I-L) among other touristy sites. I felt we had a really well-rounded trip, seeing both the glamourous side of old Dublin in the Castle apartments, as well as the dark side in the museum and jail.

On top of that, we also met a few Irishmen, one at Pravda, a Russian-themed bar and 2-3 at Charlie's, a surprisingly good chinese fast-food place in Temple Bar. All of the men were really friendly and seemed to just want to chat... well, sorta. Actually, we did meet one rather interesting boy on the main street (O'Connell St.) Ching-Yin was taking a picture of the General Post Office from the sidewalk of O'Connell when a freckly 20-something chubby Irish boy walks up to us and says,

Boy: Here, I'll take a picture for ya both,
Us: Um, no thanks...
Boy: Aw cmon, I'll help ya!
Us: Yaa... no thanks...we got it..
Boy: Yea? Well how about coming home to my place then? It's just over there... [slurring]
Us: Err.. riiiiiite. I don't think so.
Boy: Aw cmon, it's just over there!
Us: No.
Boy: What you don't like it up the ass or something?!? [more incoherent slurring]
Us: [RUNNING AWAY]

Hehe, those Irish! Anyway, the city was great with awesome shopping (read: Oasis!!!), great food, beautiful cheap clubs/pubs and rich in culture. Highly recommended!!

Aalsmeer - Dealing Room

This is the dealing room where the buyers bid for flowers! The screen shows a picture of the flower, while underneath, the trolleys run along a track with the real flower inside. The person standing under the screen is responsible for pulling out one bucket and tilting it so that the buyers can see the quality of the flowers. Everyone is attentive and most have a laptop in front of them to record what they have bought!

Buckets of flowers.. mm!

Here you can see buckets and buckets of flowers! It smelled absolutely amazing inside the warehouse...

Ready, set, PUSH that lil button!

Here is the button system that buyers use to bid on batches of flowers. Quite simplistic! :)

Aalsmeer Flower Auction

This morning, Sofie and I woke up especially early (6AM!!) to go to Aalsmeer for the world's largest flower auction. It was freezing cold, and we rode our bikes to Lelylaan to meet Lennart, a guy from work who was giving us a ride there. The event was organized by the Young Banker's Association of ABN AMRO (also the ones who hosted the volleyball tournament from last October). By the time we reached Lelylaan, my fingers felt like there were thin icicles piercing thru them and I could barely feel my hands!! It was SOO cold!!!

Anyway, we arrived in Aalsmeer at 730am and went on a tour of the place (which was the size of Monaco, according to our guide)! It was really cool, cuz there were trolleys and trolleys of flowers, and the whole place was like a Costco warehouse with nothing but flowers! Not just tulips, but all kinds of flowers. The way it worked was, growers would bring their flowers to the auction, and they would be sold there to bidders in the 'dealing rooms'. It was really quite interesting, because I always thought that the wholesalers would just put in an order for, say, 1000 red tulips or whatever. Instead, in the room full of bidders, trolleys of flowers would pass through the room on tracks, and bidders would fight to buy the flowers, by pushing on a lil button in front of them. If they pushed too quickly, they risked paying too high a price, and if they pushed too late, they wouldnt be able to buy the flowers.

And so, each morning from 630am-930am, the flower auctions happens from Monday to Friday. It's mind boggling to think where all those flowers are coming from. The flower auction had an annual turnover of over 1 billion euros, and something like 6 million flowers get sold each day and are exported all over the world!! Can you believe that?? SO amazing... Anyway, it was a great time and at the end of the tour, we were fed fresh squeezed OJ, tea, coffee, buns, toast, cheese and sandwich meat! Yum yum!