Estree-les-Crecy

Over the long Pentecost weekend, Matt and I and six of our friends decided to head to France for a much needed chill-out. The plan initially was to stay in the Champagne region and visit a vineyard or two, but we were late in looking for hotels and by the Wednesday before, every room in Champagne was booked. How crazy is that? By Thursday evening, we were all getting pretty down and thinking that our weekend was shot, but lo and behold, I managed to find a farmhouse that slept 8 adults in the Picardie region of France. No vineyards, but the beach was nearby, and it was still France and we could all be together.

We headed down on Friday night with Jane and Jason, and Jen and Joep arrived a few hours later. We spent the first night drinking wine, eating chips and playing Jenga - which would become a theme for the weekend. It ended up with me revealing my fear of midgets, and Matt impersonating ones for our friends' eager cameras.

The next day we explored our yard a bit, and found that the creature squawking all morning was the neighbor's peacock! What a strange pet. He also had a donkey and a sheep, both really cute. We made a heap of pancakes and anxiously awaited the bread truck, which never came. The owner of the house had told me that a bread truck came around each morning around 11 with fresh croissants and baguettes. Around noon we got ourselves ready to go to the beach. The beach was a real disappointment - it was very similar to the Dutch beaches. Grey sand that doesn't feel very nice between your toes, cold and uninviting water and ugly people. It was a lot cooler at the beach than at our house. We passed the time by digging a hole for Matt to get in and be thrown from (a game Matt and his friends discovered during Skeet Fest '05 on LBI). We then go a call from Ross and Sascha - they were on the prominade eating lunch b/c they hadn't been able to find the house. With all of our TomTom's it was still a pretty difficult place to find, not to mention the owner's directions were distinctly terrible. We met them at a cafe and had steaks and mussels with fries on the terrace - so delicious! On the way back, Jane, Jason, Matt and I stopped by the supermarket to pick up food and supplies for our BBQ, and left with no less than 12 bottles of wine in addition to vodka and beer.

That afternoon we hung around our yard - with the boys playing a strange bowling-type of game that involved the winners creating rules for the losers - things like having to leapfrog across the yard and not being able to drink with your hands. The girls sat around with wine watching the spectacle. We soon realized there were no restaurants within walking distance of our house and no one felt like staying sober to drive. So we decided to pick up some pizzas for dinner. One thing I learned during this trip - the girls always fall into the role of homemaker. Why is it that the girls are always the ones getting up to collect the dishes and wash up? We would get fed up with that pretty soon...We ended the night with Jenga - again.

The next morning we held off our massive breakfast of eggs and bacon to await the bread truck yet again. We asked the little boy across the street if the truck was coming and he said he'd call it for us. We were all cheerily discussing what we thought the bread man would look like - we settled on a Santa Claus-type guy with a potbelly and a happy red face. How wrong we were! When the bread LADY came Sascha asked her in French if we could please buy some baguettes. She looked blankly at us and said "no, there is no more bread. sorry" then drove off to sell the stack of baguettes she had in her trunk to the neighbors. We were devastated! And quite angry - in the quote that would help define the weekend, Sascha said, "I can't believe that b*tch! I'm wearing Chanel's for f**ck's sake!" And she was.

We made do without her baguettes and had our first feast of the day. We lounged around in the afternoon - playing games outside and laying around talking and reading. When the beer ran out, there was a moment of silence while we tried to figure out what to do. It was too warm to drink all the red wine we bought, so I immediately thought - Tinto de Verano! If you remember from our Andalucia blog, this is the Spanish drink of choice in summer - red wine, ice, lemon/lime soda and pieces of fruit. The boys scurried to the kitchen and emerged 20 minutes later, proud as peacocks, with a bowl of the delicious drink which we all enjoined.

In the evening we commenced our massive BBQ, with the 4 boys all firing up the charcoal and standing around the BBQ while the girls slaved away in the kitched chopping and boiling and preparing the pasta and green salads - oh, and drinking lots of champagne.
The girls were annoyed - why do they need 4 people to BBQ? We decided they would have to clean up afterwards. After a delicious meat festival, we told the boys our plan. And they then had the audacity to all get up and leave! They walked out the gate and were gone for the whole time it took us girls to clean up. So we locked the gate on them. We were sitting around drinking champagne and chatting when they arrived at the game holding flowers they had picked. We were such softhearts, that Jane went inside to get the key. That's when Joep says, "so are the dishes done?" The other boys were angry with him b/c they had run out of drinks and needed refills. So they had to wait another 20 minutes before we let them in, but not before they managed to wrestle a bottle of red wine from my hands from in between the gate posts and run away with it.

Later that night, we played the card game Kings. It's such a fun game, and definetely leads to drunken shenanigans. My all-time favorite rule is Rhyme Time, and I let everybody know this. Too bad the first time someone picked up that card and my turn came, I had nothing to give.

The next morning, Ross and Sascha went into town and brought back baguettes (take that, bread lady!) and pastries. The 8 of us sat around the table for the last time. In the late morning we took our posts on towells outside, this time drinking just water and eating pastries. At around 2:30 we all started mobilizing to leave. We alll vowed to return next year. We all had such a great time - the weather was amazing, the house was great, the group was laid-back and it was not a very difficult place to get to. We were back in Amsterdam by 8pm on Monday.

Spring has sprung!

Amsterdam is so awesome when the weather is nice…

We lucked out again with Queen’s Day this year – no rain! The night before – Queen’s Night – Matt and I met some friends at the Homo Monument outside of the Westerkerk (yes, the homo monument is at a church) – for the Drag Queen Olympics. Aside from the few games of stiletto sprints and purse throwing, it was mostly just drag queens strutting their stuff on stage. Fun, but I couldn’t help feeling like the queens weren’t giving it their all. Sigh…

After that we all headed to watch the soccer match at a nearby bar. The girls soon got bored of that and went next door to eat pizza and drink wine and celebrity dish. We did send over a Meaty Madness pizza to the boys at the bar – such good girlfriends we are.

On Queen’s Day, Matt got home from work at 11am and we had ourselves a champagne breakfast and watched the freaks from our balcony. Queen’s Day is pretty much a city-wide yard sale, and people sell their oldest, most ridiculous and useless junk, and drunk people buy it. Lucky for us, our friends bought some of that useless junk to give to us – these include a bowling pin, a 100-year old golf bag, a leaning CD tower, a moth-bitten orange herringbone blazer and various stuffed Winnie the Pooh characters. Our idea is to keep the bowling pin, and have it passed around amongst our friends every time someone else has a party. The rest of the stuff was left out for the garbage man.

At around 2pm our friends started arriving, and by 3 we had about 25 people at our place, swinging beers and wolfing down my homemade dip. Matt and I taught our friends Jen and Joep how to “jump dance” and the 4 of us put on quite the show for everyone, which led to one of my favorite moments of the day – when our friend Will shouted “It’s a walk-off!” (Zoolander reference). The second favorite was when Joep tried to leave the stuffed Tigger he had just bought perched on the balcony, and the poor thing plunged to the ground. Seeing this poor stuffed animal laying face down on the concrete was such an anomaly with all the drunken merriment going on around it.

Eventually we headed out of our apartment into the madness in the streets. Eight of us returned to our place a few hours later for an epic barbecue. The next day was also a holiday, and we spent it cleaning the place and recovering.


On Friday, Matt had to work. I studied a bit in the morning, then around 11:30 my friend Sascha and I met up for some lunch and shopping. We had a very successful day, and the weather was just perfect. At 5:30 we grabbed a terrace and Sascha’s boyfriend Ross and Matt joined for drinks and dinner.

Saturday and Sunday were again beautiful days. Saturday we went out with Ross and Sascha and some other friends on Sascha’s parents’ boat. We toured the canals all day, even went out into the red light district which is always a fun place to see from the boat. We ate cheese and crackers and drank rosé while watching the tourists spill from the coffeeshops. Around 5:30 we got dropped off by another friend’s place for his barbecue. He has a fantastic roof terrace in a great little neighborhood in the Jordaan. Sunday we packed some OJ and snacks and headed to the vondel park as soon as we got up – us and the rest of the city. By 3pm our little spot looked like the beaches in Rio in Feburary – so crowded! We decided to try out one of the famous Chinese food places in the red light district for dinner. Though the décor left much to be desired (think roasted chickens hanging in the window) the food did not disappoint.

Amsterdam is really a different place when the weather is like this – everyone is out enjoying the sunshine and the city is just electric. The only problem is that, because these moments are so rare, you feel the uncontrollable need to just enjoy every bit of it by being outside and with friends. So by the time Sunday night comes around, and the sun goes down at 10pm, you realize you still have to clean, do laundry, clear the dishwasher, put away your winter clothes and prepare for work on Monday. Whatever though, I would take that any day over the miserable winter!

This weekend is another long weekend - Monday is Pinksterdag (or as I call it, Pinkerton). The plan for this weekend is for 8 of us to take a road trip down to the Champagne region in France. We're going to drink champagne, play crocquet (we're bringing a set down), suntan and eat lots of French cheese.

Some thoughts on the Dutch...

Things I love about the Dutch:

1. If you ever don't know what to wear, just put on everything you own and off you go. You'll fit right in in Amsterdam. Matt likes to call this the "barbarian" look. It's a subtle variation on the "derelicte" look.

2. On a bike, you rule the city. You can go anywhere, cut through any intersection, not follow road signs, ride on the sidewalk and terrorize pedestrians. As long as you ding your bell, they have to obey you.

3. No one messes with your "holidays". As an American, you may get flack from other American expats that are not under the Dutch employment system, so still get their standard American vacation days, instead of the typical Dutch 6 weeks. When you're "on holiday" no one will call or bug you or make you feel guilty about it.

4. It's perfectly fine to go to a small restaurant that only has 5 tables and can't possibly make ends meet by just seating you at that table all night, and stay there until the place closes. No one will kick you out or even care.

5. If you bump into someone or accidentally step on their shoe or something, no one will try to fight you. This certainly is not Hoboken. Consequently, you should be prepared to accept it if someone bumps you or steps on your shoe too.

Things I hate about the Dutch:

1. They have the most ridiculous idea of what is healthy and what is not. One lady had the gumption to say to me that tomatoes are "very bad for you" while eating a bagel with egg and bacon AND a cheeseburger. Another "healthy" Dutch favorite is a slab of white bread layered with butter and chocolate sprinkles. Adults will happily eat this for lunch.

2. Just try to get them to work. I dare you.

3. They'll debate with you on just about anything, even things they have no clue about.

4. They will blow their cigarette smoke right in your face.

5. Chivalry is dead here. Guys don't hold doors for you, they don't give up their seats for women (even pregnant ones!) on the tram, and they will never allow you to get in and out of an elevator before them.

Copenhagen

Since our Easter trip to Paris last year was so successful, and to take advantage of the 2 days that Matt gets off for the holiday, we decided to try out a new city again this Easter. Given how terrible the weather has been in northern Europe, and how unpredictable March weather is in general, we opted for a place where we knew the weather would be crap and thus, we would not be disappointed. Enter Copenhagen.

We flew out on Thursday night, and got a bit delayed b/c of the bad weather. When we landed at Copenhagen, for the first time in both of our lives our bags were one of the first ones out. After some high-fives, we ran out of that stinky baggage carousel where there was actually a hotdog stand, and a shocking number of people were eating slimy gray hotdogs. When we arrived at the hotel at around 11pm, the guy behind the counter told us in perfect California English the sites to see, and where we could grab a drink that night. We dropped our bags, and headed out into the freezing rain to explore.

The bar that the hotel guy recommended was definetely not our style. It was actually pretty terrible and college-y. At one point, these two Danish guys were trying to pick up the 3 highly made-up, tube-topped girls (in zero degree weather! i was still wearing my scarf and fingerless gloves!) sitting next to me at the bar, and were practically shoving me off my stool to get at them. So when a booth opened up we scooted right over to it. About 20 minutes later, Matt realized he didn't have his knit cap. He was scrambling all around looking for it, and when he couldn't find it he concluded that he must have dropped it en route from the bar to the booth and that someone must have taken it. I responded with, "Why would someone take your...is that it?" I'm looking at this cracked-out bum tripping about the place, and sure enough, he's wearing Matt's hat. Matt goes, "That's my hat!" and walks over to the guy and takes the hat right off his head. The guy looks at Matt very drunk and confused and Matt shakes his hat in the guy's face and tells him, "This is my hat". The guy then pulls out a handful of worthless kroners and asks Matt if he can buy his hat off of him. Matt says, "No. It's cold. I need it." It was all surprisingly civilized. Meanwhile, I'm practically on the floor laughing my face off. Who else in the world would that happen to, if not Matt? And for the rest of the trip, despite it being below freezing, Matt was hesitant about wearing the hat that was on that bum's head.

So for some reason, Matt and I became total party animals whilst in Copenhagen. It's really a city focused on its nightlife, since the weather is so terrible for all but a few weeks during the year, and so there is not much to do. We got home that first night at nearly 3am.

The next day, we woke to find the same freezing rain as the night before. We went down for the organic hotel breakfast. Since it was Good Friday, all the shops were closed. We decided to take one of those guided boat tours around the city, which was really nice, and heated. You can see so much of the city that way. We passed by all sorts of cool old and new buildings, and went all the way up to the Little Mermaid sculpture, which, true to what everyone else says, was a bit of a disappointment. It's very small. But since that is pretty much Copenhagen's most famous site, we had to take a look. While on the boat, we passed through the Nygavn canal, which had a ton of little restaurants off the water, Honfleur-style. We also passed through the canals of Christiana, the famous hippie commune of Copenhagen. It looked very similar to the Amsterdam neighborhoods, though not as "gezellig" (cozy). On the boat there was a large Spanish family sitting in front of us that were disturbingly affectionate. The older brother who must have been around 30 and with a probable case of ADD sat behind us calling out to his "mama" the whole time and trying to snap pictures of her through our heads. The little 10-year old girl looked like she kept trying to make out with her other older brother. Just like the famous English saying goes - Spain. It's just different there.

After the boat ride, we walked back to the Nygavn canal for lunch. We found a warm little cafe where we had sandwiches and yummy beers. After we ate we went to a very small art museum nearby that had some interesting exhibits, with one showing works by students of Matisse. We walked around the empty, cold city a bit more before retiring to our hotel to warm up with some tea and the Nat-Geo channel. After a nap (for me) and some various monkey and shark shows (for Matt) and showers, we headed down to the hotel bar for some organic whiskeys, then hoofed it up to the Copenhagen Jazz Club, where we saw a 4-piece Danish band perform Brazilian jazz songs. The lady singing actually had a very good Brazilian accent, and they performed some classic bossa nova songs. It was a really good time, and we even left with a copy of their CD. After the show ended at around 11:30, we stuck around for some drinks at the club. We again found ourselves hungry and wandering the streets at 2am, just like the night before, since we were too full from lunch to have dinner before the show. We satiated ourselves with some greasy falafels.

The next day we woke up to snow. Since it didn't look like it would let up, we decided to take the train up to Humlebaek and see the famous Louisiana museum. The 35-minute train ride was really nice. It rode up the coast, but we only caught a few glimpses of the water. When we arrived at our station, we had to walk about 15 minutes up this little town to where the museum was, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The building was very sweet though, right on the water with beautiful green gardens around it. I would say that if you ever find yourself in Copenhagen, this museum is a real gem. Matt and I have declared it one of our favorites. They were having a special Cezanne and Giacometti exhibit with some quite famous pieces. They also had some cool po-mo exhibits by Candice Breitz. Forunately the afternoon turned out to be bright and sunny, so we could walk around the gardens outside. We had some enormous salads at the museum cafe and headed back to Copenhagen at around 5.

That night we had some more organic drinks at the hotel, then forced ourselves to go out to dinner, though we were not very hungry at all. But we had to have a decent dinner in Copenhagen. A friend had recommended a place to us, and before we left the hotel I looked up the location online, but we couldn't find the street on the map. When we asked the lady at the concierge where the place was, she pointed a complete different way. Turned out, she was wrong. We meandered the streets looking for this place for a little bit, but it was frigid, so we ducked into a bistro on the corner of the high street. The food here was not very good, but the wine was delicious. After eating, we stuck around to drink and people-watch.

I'm going to say something that may offend people, but it needs to be said. People have this misconception that northern Europeans are beautiful people. They are not. True, they are blond. But so are Americans, b/c everybody has access to hair dye these days. Picture a Viking. Do you think he/she is attractive? Well, these are northern Europeans. For the most part. Any urban setting is going to have more attractive, thinner people - that's the case everywhere you go. But don't fool yourselves and come to Copenhagen thinking you'll be walking around in an episode of Laguna Beach. It just isn't so.

At some point we left the bistro and wandered into a bar. Here we met a group of Vikings that befriended us. They bought us drinks, one weirdo twirled me around to Nordic music and another one engaged in feats of strength with Matt. Things quickly got weird and we ditched them. We got to our hotel at 4am. I told you we were party animals! Who knew?

Needless to say, the next morning was rough. We staggered down to breakfast at 11:30, completely missed the check-out time and had to pay for a late checkout. We walked around a bit and meandered around a city park. Being Sunday and Easter, all the shops were closed again. It was a bit surreal, since there were quite a few people walking around, with their baby strollers, and they didn't look like tourists, but nothing was open! So what were they doing? There were quite a bit of people loitering around the Irish pubs, so there must have been a match on. Other than that, the only things open were coffee-to-go shops. Again, it was below zero and just not very nice to be outside for very long. We headed back to the hotel at around 3 to collect our bags and call a taxi.

Unfortunately, this taxi was one of the more memorable parts of Copenhagen. It was the most horrendous taxi we've even been in. The guy was strange, there was a weird thick, green slime on the back of the driver's seat, and it smelled like Satan's den in there. Being hungover as we were, we pretty much held our breaths for the 20 minute ride so that we wouldn't vomit. After that, we were quite disheartened, and it left a damper on our opinion of the city.

We got back home at around 8:30 on Sunday night, happy to be back in Amsterdam. We got cozy on the couch and watched a movie and ate some soup. The next day it snowed off and on all day, so we made a yummy spicy vegetarian chili to counteract all of our unhealthy Copenhagen habits.

In general, we're glad we went. Checked off another city. Did as the locals do and drank. But I don't think we'll be visiting Copenhagen anytime soon...

The Wedding Planner

Caution: Self-aggrandizing blog ahead.

Contrary to what the title may convey, this blog is not about that J-Lo movie (which is surprisingly entertaining), but rather about my amazing feats over the past 4 weeks. Many said it could not be done. Many said that perhaps it could be done, but probably not very well. Then again, some said that if anyone could do it, it was me (thanks mom!). But here it is folks - I have planned this wedding from Amsterdam.

I never credited myself with that amazing drive some folks have to achieve, or even survive, under the most harrowing circumstances. It is actually quite the opposite for me. Everytime I see a show about someone that had their face burned off with acid, or had to chew off their own arm to survive on Mt. Everest, I am really fascinated, albeit a bit confused. I think I would rather just give up. Or those people that lose both legs then go on to finish the Iron Man. Why not just lay in bed and eat pudding? They can do that now and nobody would fault them for it.

And not that I am comparing planning a wedding in a short time frame to any of those things, but there were many times where I wanted to just give up, forget the idea of having it this year. But luckily, I have extraordinary organization skills, and I kept on it. And by kept on it, I mean I sat at the computer for 12-hour stretches, drove up my cell phone bill with calls to the US, spent a ridiculous 17 euros on an American bridal magazine, nagged Matt into helping me make decisions and assigned a multitude of tasks to my mom. But I was still the general here, leading my troops into battle. And our successes are many - we have a date, a venue with an annually Zagat-rated chef, a DJ, a florist, a website, a photographer, and an environmentally-friendly invitation designer. I found a bridal shop in Holland that sells decent looking dresses, quite a feat in and of itself, and have high hopes to find a dress on my first appointment this Saturday. I've even found the perfect flower girl dress. Our biggest issues now are finding a Brazilian band to play during the cocktail hour and an officiant that will marry us. I'd say that is pretty good considering I've only been wearing this ring for a month.

In other news, I also managed to find time to find a job! I'm starting as Internal Control Manager at Ahold next week, working part time so I can still have time to focus on my classes.

Engaged in Phuket

I really have fallen behind on blogging. I meant to write about the huge Giants Superbowl, my trip home to New York in February and the whole LSAT experience. But alas, now that all seems to be old and boring news in the face of our recent few weeks.

Despite our constant complaining about the need to escape the horrid Amsterdam weather for some sun and fun in February, by mid January we still had not planned anything. At this point, we realized that there were no sure places to beach in Europe at this time of year, Africa was too unstable to go for our intended safari adventure, and St. Martin was retardedly expensive to fly to from here, despite it being a Dutch colony and there being direct flights. This we learned all in one fateful Sunday, where Matt spent no less than 12 hours behind the computer searching for trips. We finally decided to search for destinations in Thailand, and after some long and grueling hours (on Matt's part) we had booked our trip to Phuket on the south coast of Thailand (of tsunami fame), flying Malaysia Airlines via Kuala Lumpur and staying at the Indigo Pearl hotel and resort from 8 Feb until 17 Feb. And what a trip it was.

The flight to Malaysia was just under 12 hours. Thankfully we had little TV's and we spent a good portion of the flight watching synchronized episodes of House. The food was also pretty tasty and different (I had spicy chicken with rice and mango for breakfast). The problem was the screaming child in the seat in front of us, and his aloof parents that when the little portable crib was removed during landing, the mom wanted to put the sleeping baby on the floor like it was a piece of hand luggage. Also it was either the bathrooms up ahead of our seats or this collicky baby, but something stank all flight!

When we landed in Kuala Lumpur we were bombarded with the humidity - ahh, how nice it was. I immediately scanned the airport for a Starbucks, and while I was glancing around I spotted the thing, smiling at me from the floor above. We had some pick-me-ups and my sure-fire disease-preventing and stomach-healing cure for long-haul flights - Alka Seltzer. Works like a charm. After a short layover we boarded for our one hour flight to Phuket.

Our resort was only a five minute cab ride from Phuket airport, which I loved. Nothing is worse than touching down from a long flight and having a long road trip ahead. Going home that way may be even worse. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived (around 11am local time) so we sat in the beautiful open air lobby and drank iced teas and chatted. About an hour later we were escorted to our room, and we quickly packed away our things and threw on our swimsuits and went to the pool. The resort had 3 pools (one of which was adults only so no more screaming kids), 3 restaurants and 3 bars. You could also order drinks and food at any one of the pools. We took it easy our first day, relaxed and ordered drinks and salads by the pool. We have a standard beach vacation mode - wake up early, sometimes exercise, eat, go to the beach, come back to the room around 4 or 5, shower and nap and then go out for dinner. And that was pretty much the standard for this trip too, though we did change it up and do different things some days.

On our second day in Phuket, we took the tuk tuk to the beach and spent the entire day there, leaving at 4:30 to go back to shower and nap. Our plan was to go back to catch the sunset, which is famous in these parts. Unfortunately, we slept through it. We had made dinner reservations at the Thai restaurant in the hotel for 8 and before eating we headed to one of the bars in the hotel that overlooks the grounds, the Rebar. It's a very beautifully designed open space and they had a really good band playing. We climbed the steps and sat at the top before going in, and this is where Matt proposed - overlooking palm trees, in the moonlight, with good music playing in the background. Of course I cried, and said yes before he had even formally asked. I had no idea what he had been planning all along, and it was very sweet and romantic. We celebrated our engagement with Kir Royales.

The next day we took a speedboat tour around the Phi Phi islands. The water here was beautiful and clear, and the islands were surrounded by huge bat caves. We stopped at three islands and one larger boat for lunch. The highlight of this boat trip had to be the Russian couple on board. The guy was hideous and a definite mafia type - he took his $2,000 camera in the water without a care. His girlfriend was very beautiful, and very dumb, and the two kept fighting in Russian the whole type and he was constantly posing her for pictures. The other funny couple was an old hippie couple that we think were Greek - they were just annoying and always in the way. The other American on board was acting typically American by chatting everybody up in a very loud and friendly voice. That night we ventured out to the beach for dinner. After eating, we stopped by a little bar on the beach that had a pool table. After a beer each and one rather sorry game of pool, and noticing some shady business going down with the male English patrons and the Thai ladies behind the bar, we got the heck out of there.

On Wednesday we spent the day at one of the pools. The pools were so well serviced, the workers would come by with cold wet towelletes and fruit every so often, exactly when you were wishing you had one of those things. We saw a couple there that had been on the Phi Phi trip - the guy was Canadian/American and the girl was French. Matt and he planned a tennis match in the evening, and while he was out I went out to the beach to get a manicure. I had this new beautiful thing on my finger and chipped nail polish - that just couldn't be! That night we met up with the couple again for drinks at the Rebar then dinner on the beach.

The next day was my 28th birthday, and Matt surprised me with a day at the spa. While I was getting scrubbed and wrapped and massaged with various coconut-inspired products, Matt took the opportunity to get a cheap massage on the beach. That night we did up with a steak dinner at the hotel, and they gave me a cake for my birthday :-)

On Friday we planned to take the morning cooking classes. First order of business was going to the outdoor market that was a 10 minute drive from the hotel. The smell of this place really hit you hard - lots of fish in the hot and humid weather! We picked up the things we needed to make our menu - fried shrimp cakes, thai noodles with prawn, papaya salad, green curry chicken, and fried bananas. Unfortunately our kitchen was not air conditioned so it was very hot, but still a lot of fun. Our teacher, Peak, was really nice and a great cook and we ended up with some amazing food which we polished off for lunch. After eating, we went back to the room to cool off and nap and start our wedding planning.

On Saturday night we attended a thai kickboxing (muay thai) match. We had ringside seats, which made us quite obvious - the only others in ringside were clearly tourists. There were 10 fights in total, 5 rounds each. We were very surprised by how young the fighters were - some could have been as young as 8. It was kind of disturbing to see a young kid get punched in the head so many times as to knock him out. But the fights were intense and lively, and the crowd was getting more and more into it the more they started betting on the fights. We opted against that, but there were even some tourists getting on the gambling action. The coolest part of the fights was the fight music they played during it. It made it seem almost like a ritual dance and was pretty hypnotizing.

To enjoy our last day in Phuket, we took advantage of the beach and then headed back to have lunch at the pool. Since the airport was only a 10 minute drive away and we already had our tickets, we got a 5pm checkout and got to spend all day in the sun before having to return to the Amsterdam rain. A 13 hour flight later, and we were back. What a great trip!

Australia Day

January 26 is Australia Day, the country's biggest celebration. This day, the country gets together to celebrate "everything great about being an Australian". So it's not actually a memorial day in that nothing ever happenend on January 26, except other Australia Days.

Being that we have several Australian friends, this was a celebration that we would join in ths year. We ordered ten meat pies from the New Zealand shop nearby, and brought a case of Brand beer. The festivities were held at Jason and Jane's house, the same who hosted Christmas. This time there were a lot more people, and a bathtub filled with booze.

We arrived around 3pm and were promptly handed cans of Fosters. A few hours later, we warmed up some meat pies (Ross had also brought 20 of them) and started up the barbie for a meat eating bonanza. After we ate, the boys headed out to the park next door to play footie, or Australian rules football. I give them all a lot of credit since it was freezing out. That really quieted down the place, and left the girls to manage the barbecueing. I think we did an ok job, but definetely made way too much meat.

As the night progressed, it was decided we would go out to Cocos, the Aussie bar in town where Matt and I caught the fabulous Cowboys defeat to big blue. When we arrived, the bouncer wasn't letting anyone in. He let 3 girls go inside, myself included since all the boys in our group pushed us all in. Once inside, we learned that they weren't letting anyone else in because the place was absolutely packed and someone had just thrown a beer bottle and just missed a bartender. So I decided to ditch, since I didn't know when Matt would be let in and he wasn't feeling well. So we made the wise decision of walking home. Wise because we'd find out later that it turned out to be an all-nighter. At Cocos?? No thanks. All in all, some good Aussie fun though, and those meat pies - mmm....

A Giant win

Last night Matt and I went to an Aussie bar on Rembrandtplein to watch the NFC playoff games. We caught the last half of the Colts-Chargers, ate cheeseburgers that tasted like greasy cardboard and then watched the Giants take the win against the Cowboys. The bar closed at 1am but they let the few of us remain until 1:30 to watch the end of the game. There were about 5 other scragglers there aside from me and matt, all rooting for the Giants. When McQuarters stepped up to intercept that final pass, we all hooted and hollered and cheered with relief and disbelief. Tom Coughlin should send Jessica Simpson a fruit basket. The Cowboys may be one of the more irritating NFL teams, and they clearly did not deserve to win last night. And why is that one can't get a decent burger in Holland?

An anomalous January...

I just wanted to take the time to note to all that this is my fist January in five years that has not been marked by the long, boring, stressful hours of an EY busy season, replete with fatty fast food dinners, little sleep, and foul smells of dirty bodies sitting and sweating in a tiny supply closet for 18 hours. I surely do not miss the promise of an entire month with little chance of seeing the sun - b/c often you'd get in before light and always leave after dark, and b/c even companies with the coolest offices in a highrise in downtown DC stick the auditors in a small, windowless room, and b/c the notion of actually dropping your work for 30 minutes to get lunch is unheard of so we always sent the intern out. How unfair is that? I wish I could have been the one to escape the stinky audit room for 20 minutes to get some fresh air, while all the other suckers worked. Alas, I was always one of those suckers.

I have found that b/c of this new freedom, I have been sleeping more than usual, and I have a bit of a misgiving about actually leaving the house. I think that psychologically, given the time of year, I fear that it means not returning until 20 hours later. And having to audit in between.

Bombs over Amsterdam

For what may be the last year that civilian fireworks are legal, Amsterdam sure went out with a bang. And a boom and a crack and a ka-blauw. As a result, what we imagined would be a laid-back New Years turned out to be one of the most incredible ones ever.

We went over to our friends Ross and Sascha's place to ring in the new years with a pseudo-barbecue and oliebolen and lots of champagne. We made the precarious decision of riding our bikes over, and through the Vondelpark at that. I must note that the fireworks had been exploding all week. That day, the 31st, I can safely say that one went off loud and clear about once every ten minutes. They sounded so close that I constantly looked out over our back balcony thinking that they were being set off in the playground of the school behind our apartment. But they weren't; they were just THAT loud. So you can understand the sensitive situation we put ourselves in by riding through an empty park at 9pm, where large clusters of young men gather to blow things up. The sky was an eerie smoky greenish color, and as we rode through we rode as if we were trying to dodge machine gun fire. I now think I know what it feels like to be at war. But we arrived safely to our destination after all.

Throughout the evening of the 31st, we were constantly interrupted from our lively conversation to view the spectacle out the window. But none of that compared to the insanity that ensued post-midnight. After the countdown, we took our champagne bottle and flutes outside to witness the fireworks first-hand. The sky was completely lit up. For all of the activity in the sky, the irony is that the city of Amsterdam does not official host or sponsor any such festivities. It's just regular people that buy these fireworks, at very high prices, and set them off for fun. Some of these shows were incredible. We meandered around the streets to follow the best ones. At one point, we came upon a group of guys that were setting off a ton of fireworks. The blasts were no more than 15 feet away. After a great mini-show, the guys haul out another box of fireworks, and this time it takes two of them to carry it. This went on for about two more rounds, until the last box came out, which was huge and took four of them carry. I've never seen fireworks like that in my life, and probably never will again. After we got our fill about 45 min later, we went back to Ross and Sascha's to laugh at the paldry fireworks going off in London, mocking them with our best, but still quite poor, English accents. Oh balderdash!

We hopped on our bikes just after 3am for the ride home. There were still some pops and bangs going off, but much more mellow than it was hours before. As we rode through the spot that just hours before we were marveling at fireworks, we see the remnants of the cardboard box that held the fireworks. Someone had thrown a few bikes on top of it and they were still smoldering, absolutely burnt to a crisp. Ah, life in Amsterdam - your bike is NEVER safe. The sky reeked of fireworks, and when we got home, so did we. I never realized they had a smell - now I know.

I woke up around 8am the next morning to get a drink of water, and the city was so quiet that it was positively spooky. Living across the street from a busy supermarket and with a school playground behind us, there is always some noise. Often, a whole lot of noise. But that morning it was dead quiet. And it stayed that way until about noon, when a few people starting peeking out, trepidatiously, like baby polar bears coming out of hibernation.

I think Holland will have a hard time enforcing a law that would make the purchase of fireworks illegal. Setting off fireworks on New Year's is so embedded in the Dutch culture, or at least it is in Amsterdam, and people love it so much. But it is very scary that there are so many that buy these things and set them off, and have no business doing so. Fortunately, we survived this new year's celebration, alive and kicking and maniacally laughing.

Christmas in Amsterdam

This year we opted out of a Christmas trip and spent the holiday in good ol' Amsterdam. Though last year the group we traveled to St. Anton with all vowed to do it again in 2007, it turns out that we all had different things going and couldn't do it again. Also, Matt thought he had to work on Christmas Eve, up until the week before, so we didn't plan anything, and by the time we knew we could actually go somewhere, we had gotten quite comfortable with the idea of not having to travel this year. And it was the first year in our adult lives that neither of us had to do any traveling during this crazy time of year. The week leading up to Christmas was actually quite cold around these parts. We even woke up a few mornings to a fresh coat of snow outside. Though a few nights we meant to go out in the evening, to do some window-shopping and check out the light decorations all over town, it was simply too cold and instead we sought refuge at home making warm dinners and playing cards. On the Friday night before Christmas, we did do a bit of walking around and stopped at our favorite cafe to drink some strong beers and be thankful that sometime in 2008, smoking will be banned in the cafes - we cannot wait! The next day, Saturday, we helped some friends move house, and it actually turned out to be a fresh and crisp day with some sun to ward off the extreme cold. We biked through the Vondel Park to get to their new place, and the place looked absolutely majestic. The ponds in the park had frozen over and there were several adults and children ice skating. The whole park was shrouded in a cold mist and the lights on the trees were beautiful. After some hours of heavy lifting, then some hours of recovering with tea and kerstbrood (christmas cake, kind of like fruit cake, but with a delish almond mush in the middle), we biked back home. Later that night we met up with them again for their first dinner in their new neighborhood. We ended up ordering a big salad that the four of us shared that had some suspicious meats in it...turns out, those suspicious meat were even scarier than we had anticipated - chicken livers and lamb thyroid glands. Very chewy. After dinner Matt and I biked back home, through the Vondel park again, talking about how we had never imagined that we would be riding our bikes in the middle of winter in -5 degree Celsius weather.

On Christmas Eve, I decided I would prepare a wondrous Brazilian feast. After excursions to the Noordermarkt for vegetables (and finding out the Monday market is only for clothes), 2 different Albert Heins (local supermarket), the butcher, the Brazilian grocery and the bakery to pick up the pies we ordered for christmas, I set to work on an epic meal. Starting out with toasts of champagne, we feasted on farofa, molho de campanha, rice and black beans, and bife acebolado. We finished with spoonfuls of homemade doce de leite (aka dulce de leche). It was the perfect storm of food. Matt wondered why I've been holding out on him all these years, and I could only respond by wondering the same.

The next day - Christmas day - Matt repaid the favor by taking care of the sausage stuffing and salad that we were assigned to bring to the potluck dinner we were having with a group of friends. The dinner, dubbed the Orphans Christmas, consisted of 10 poor souls spending Christmas in Amsterdam without their families. We had 2 Aussies and their respective Dutch partners, Matt and I, two other single Americans and the Aussie couple that hosted us. We each were assigned dishes to bring, and we each prepared our dishes for 10 people. Which meant that we had enough food for 100 people. We barely made a dent in it. But in the end, it was a great thing that we had so much food, b/c we all consumed an even heavier amount of alcohol. After 12 hours at these poor people's apartment, from 3pm to 3am, Matt and I were only the second couple to leave. And it was a good thing we left when we did, because it was around the time my eyes starting rolling back in my head (not literally, but you get the picture). We had champagne, wine, beer, eggnog and whiskey, and I had 4 of the 5 during the night. I'd post pictures but we inadvertently left our camera at their place. And we probably all look terrible. Needless to say, the next day, Boxing Day, was very quiet and lazy. We parked ourselves on the couch, ate a frozen pizza (offensively titled Big American) and watched the Discovery Channel and episodes of Flight of the Conchords and Planet Earth. Unfortunately my hangover lasted until the next morning and I had to skip my 10:30am Pilates class :-/

Now the buzz is all over town for New Years. We're probably going to take it easy, go over to some friends' place so Matt can light some fireworks (which are legal here). The TV commercials have already started showing what can go wrong when you play with fireworks, and I hear they'll be getting more gory as New Years approaches. There are bangs and booms going off all day, starting in the early morning, some seem like they were even set off in our living room. The city is already filling up with tourists, too. Matt and I were discussing the probable appeal of having New Years in Amsterdam is you are "party people". And they really are flocking in from all over. Sirens are also becoming more frequent, but that's the price of living downtown in one of the coolest cities in the world! Merry Christmas to you all and a very happy and healthy new year! I've posted a video of last year's New Years fireworks that we took from our balcony for your enjoyment - mind you, most are amateur fireworks:-)

Giving thanks

Though this year has shaped up to be quite full of misses with few hits for me, in the spirit of the holiday season I have come to realize that it's years like these that define you. It's easy to remember the events that hurt you - a place, a smell, a feeling. And why is it that the best moments seem to pass by without you noticing? Maybe it's our endless search for self-improvement, or our need to have everything always work out. But it never does, and if it did, would it be as sweet if we had never known hardship? It really is true that life is what happens when you're busy making plans for it.

So for my own cartharsis, and to stick it to a world that tries to break us, I've laid out a few of my favorite moments and accomplishments of this year that I will carry forward. The bad moments can stay where they are - in the past. These are by no means in chronological order.

1 - My mom turned 60 this year, and my dad, sister and brother all came together to get her her first trip to Europe. I think the fact that it was from all of us made it so much more special for her, and she had such a great time. We saw so much and walked everywhere, and I always got tired before she did. I'm the luckiest because I got to share that with her.

2 - Matt hiked a horrible 42 miles over the treacherous and rather depressing landscape of Scotland. I was so proud of him for that.

3 - I surprised Matt with a birthday trip to Spain. He didn't know where we were going until we got past security. I never would have been able to do that from the US!

4 - I started my Sociology with Law B.S. program through the University of London, purely for intellectual reasons, but now hope it will help me get into Columbia Law. I love that I'm learning again.

5 - Matt and I got to go to a Polish wedding and see two of the nicest people we know tie the knot.

6 - I spent 3 amazing weeks in Italy, drinking more wine and eating more pasta than should be allowed. And I learned how to make gnocchi.

7 - I turned down two good job offers because they just didn't feel right. It feels great to be in a position like that.

8 - I finally got into Pilates, going twice a week now, and I've actually gotten quite good at it :-)

9 - I made a huge life decision to finally to try my hand at law.

10 - I survived another year in Amsterdam! And thanks to trips home and visits from friends, we haven't felt isolated from family and old friends.

Our Bed & Breakfast

The flow of visitors has come to an end for now. Over the past 2 months, we have enjoyed visits from our friends Emily and Bryan from Baltimore, Stacy from New York, and Ryan from Baltimore who joined Kristen, who now lives in Stuttgard, and Brian, who now lives in Vienna. Herewith I will share with you the highlights of these visits: Emily and Bryan - September While Emily and Bryan were here, all of our electronic equipment stopped working and I got fired from my job. It was their first trip to Europe, and we all joked that they'd get divorced before returning home. Of course they didn't, and we are all glad for that. They were really two of our most easy going guests, and having them was an absolute pleasure. The Saturday of their arrival was spent walking around the Jordaan, and in the evening dinner then the red light district. These two people were probably the most relaxed and least fazed by the sights at the red light district. Their calm was really quite fascinating. We headed to a bruin cafe for a chat afterwards. We spent about 20 minutes in the wee hours of Sunday morning staring in the window of an orthopedic, geriatric, incontinence supply store a few doors down from our apartment. Here we discussed the crutches, catheters, pantyhose, thick grip utensils and sippy cups displayed and marveled at how getting old must really suck. The weather was spectacular for them. On Sunday we got pancakes, took a canal cruise, ate vlaamse frites and drank small beers. We walked around a lot - I think they really got to see most of the city on foot. We also spent a lot of time on our balcony since the weather was so good, just people watching and snapping pictures of people doing weird things on their bikes. On Monday they headed to Belgium to continue their Euro-trip. Stacy - September/October This was Stacy's third visit since we've been in Amsterdam, and if you count the two weekends she was here as separate visits(she went to visit another friend in Brussels in between),then you could say third and fourth. It's always great to see her smiling face brighten Amsterdam's dismal weather. Since Stacy had already seen a lot of the tourist things, it was just max and relax time. The Saturday that she arrived, we took her to a houseboat bar then took a canal cruise. Stacy is a fellow foodie, so we took her to all the great restaurants, including Indian, Spanish tapas and Thai (which the Dutch call Thais - which is funny). On Sunday while walking around and enjoying the weather, Matt and I saw the perfect bookcase. It came in separate pieces. We've been looking for one that would work in our apartment and that didn't cost 800 euros, which has been difficult. So we got 4 pieces and made Stacy carry one back to our apartment. You have to work if you come visit! We went to a cafe in our neighborhood on Sunday night for a drink before dinner, and while we were hanging out on the couches, a photographer came up to us and asked if he could snap photos of us. He was shooting pictures for an article in a local mag about playing games in the Amsterdam cafes. A lot of the cafes in Amsterdam have little games that you can play, like chess, checkers and monopoly. We picked Kolonisten, a game that we learned from some friends, set it up and let the guy take pictures of us pretending to play. Beers had to be involved in the photos, and Matt helped the guy with suggestions for interesting pictures and was a hand model for several of the shots. So now we're kind of celebrities. Ryan, Kristen and Brian - October This was Ryan's second visit to Amsterdam. His friend from college, Kristen, recently moved to Stuttgard because her husband is an officer in the army and got stationed there. Our friend Brian from Baltimore also recently moved to Europe and now lives in Vienna. So they were all invited to join Ryan during his weekend here. Ryan arrived on a Thursday. I picked him up from the airport and then we went to a nearby cafe for lunch. After he finished telling me a story about how after his running club practiced one night, they went to a bar to get food and an hour later the waitress came by to tell them she had lost their ticket and they had to order again, I realized the same thing may have just happened to us. An hour after we arrived, we noticed people that came after us get their food. By this time, we were too hungry to speak to each other anymore. I asked the waitress about our order, which was taken by another waitress who had just left, and she knew nothing about it. Irony is great, isn't it? After eating, we walked around a bit and found a game store that had a Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game in the window. 30 euros and a short dispute with the store owner about who the biggest Buffy fan was (him or me) later, we walked back to the apartment to set up my new game. It was very complicated, and at first, not very fun. But we gradually learned, and when Matt came home we made him play too. And then when Brian and Kristen arrived the next day, them too. We played about 9 times that weekend. On Friday before Brian arrived, the three of us (Matt, Ryan and me) walked around and decided to stop in the Sex Museum, which was recommended highly by our friend Rowena in Baltimore. It was a very disturbing experience and I will now put it out of my mind. We walked over to Dam Square and found a little carnival going on. They had one of those swing rides that circle around and go real high. Ryan and I decided to go. What we failed to calculate was how cold it would be up there, and how fast the ride was going. We were scared, cold and dizzy. So in other words, we had fun. Later on Friday, Brian arrived around 4 and Kristen around 8. Once our party was complete we took them to the red light district for dinner at a great little Thai restaurant. Then we walked over to the windows. On Saturday we got pancakes, then they did the tourist thing while Matt and I just chilled and made a 5-person dinner. After dinner, we went to a bar to watch the rugby finals, then over to a bar where a friend was having her birthday party. We then stopped over at the Dam Square carnival one more time for Ryan to ride a crazy baton ride. On Sunday it was the Amsterdam marathon, and after Ryan missed his chance to run the half, we all headed over to the Vondelpark to watch the runners go by. Then we laid down some towells and Matt found a huge stick. Since Ryan randomly had a baseball with him, we decided to play. The stick got smaller and smaller with every hit. Ryan came close to getting beheaded with it one time when Matt hit the ball and the stick cracked in half. The half of the stick that broke off went as far as the ball. AFter the stick was no longer useful as a bat, we improvised and played long-distance throwing competitions and a weird golf game that we made up. Then some vicious dogs came over, barking and chasing and humping each other, and we decided to play a game of Uno then leave. It was a full day of playing, it was like we were 8 years old again. Then fun didn't end when we got home, though, b/c we then played another game of Buffy.