Smoking ban in Amsterdam

As of July 1, 2008, there is a smoking ban in place for places of business in the Netherlands. This means we can go out to a restaurant or bar and come home without smelling like an ashtray. The year or so leading up to this rule, we couldn't believe that this would ever happen. Smoking is so ingrained in Dutch culture, no less than in the "bruin cafés" here that are so called because decades of cigarette smoke have stained the walls brown. Every night that we would go out, we would stink. Some places were worse than others, but they all stunk. A few times I went out with some Dutch girls on a Sunday afternoon for coffee or a wine, and they would smoke me out. Chain smoke 5 cigarettes in my face in the space of two hours. I would come home at 4pm and have to take a second shower. People are not supposed to smell like that on Sundays. It was so horrific that I avoided Sundays in bars/restaurants from that point on. Until now.

We had actually just gotten back from picking up our friends Halsey and Natalie from the airport on the night the ban went into effect. The airline had lost their luggage, so we went to our corner bar for them to decompress. We managed some seats on the side terrace, and it was a beautiful night. At midnight, our party was crashed when two guys left the bar to smoke outside. They explained that as of that point on, there was no more smoking allowed in bars, and though the bartender hadn't asked them to leave, they were being corteous by stepping outside. We asked if they could be courteous elsewhere, and they could.

There was some debating from the Dutch smokers. Many claimed that the bars wouldn't enforce it, and some even said they would get around it by making all of their employees part owners. This is because the smoking ban is not made to protect patrons from harmful and disgusting second-hand smoke, but employees, and if all employess were owners and all owners agreed to smoking in the establishment, then it would be allowed. But so far that hasn't been the case. Even Paradiso and Melkweg, the small concert halls in Amsterdam that are on a membership-basis, have disallowed smoking inside. Finally we can come home and not have to wash our pillowcases the very next day.

Matt in particular has decided to use this power shift even more to the nonsmoker's advantage. We won't sit quietly anymore. It's 2008, and it's been over 50 years since the link between smoking and lung cancer was first discussed. Since then, it's been linked to even more health problems. Smokers are no less knowledgeable about these than non-smokers - they just choose to ignore it. It's the equivalent of injecting people with viruses, and it shouldn't be tolerated.

Sleep when you're dead

The weekend of July 18 Matt's cousin Lisa came to visit Amsterdam. Since she had been to Amsterdam before, we decided to show her Belgium. She's always wanted to visit Bruges, which just so happens to be mine and Matt's favorite Belgian town. Since Nicole has only been here for a few months, she was also down for some Bruges action. Also along for the ride was Matt's new American colleague, John. We planned everything on Friday night over drinks with Nicole and Lisa at our place and the next morning we picked up the car from Avis, got our crew and hit the road for what would be mine and Matt's third trip to the Venice of the north.

Though we tried to beat Tom-Tom's estimated travel time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, he won, as always. When we got to our hotel in Bruges at 1 o'clock, we were dismayed to discover that even though we had booked 3 rooms, they had no parking space for us. After a huge ordeal which ended with Matt parking illegally, yelling at the receptionist and then having to move the car again, we finally got parking at the massive underground garage under the main square. The town was packed for some sort of craft fair and then an open-air concert, so there was a line to get into the garage - you could only get in when another car left. Once parked, we were all sufficiently starved. We found the perfect place just in time - as soon as we grabbed a seat on the covered terrace, it started pouring rain and people started dispersing into the cafes. The weather was unpredictable - we kept putting on and taking off sweaters and sunglasses, and the restaurant kept turning on and off the outside heating lamps. We enjoyed our first Belgian beers of the day and some delicious in-season mussels with frites. Heaven.

The rain had died down by the time we finished eating, so we perused the town a bit until we decided we needed more beers. We went to a small little cafe to sample another brew, and Lisa wrote her postcards. After one beer, we decided we needed to be outside to enjoy the minimal sunshine - this is what happens when you live in northern Europe. You feel compelled to run outside if the sun is out, even for just the 5 minutes before it starts raining again. It's bad enough that it was mid July and I was wearing boots and a hoodie and still cold. We found a terrace with some sunshine, and drank very strong beers while playing a dumb version of the alphabet game that Matt and I made up (say the first word that comes to your head) and listening to the outdoor concert (a lady singing ABBA and Dolly Parton - this is Belgium, what do you expect?). After getting sufficiently inebriated, we went back to the hotel to relax for a few minutes before dinner.

Dinner was at the same place that Matt and I ate in Bruges with his parents and with Todd. Matt asked the waiter if he remembered us and he said, "Yes, I always remember annoying people." But he didn't remember us, or the beer he had recommended last time. We spent a few hours there, drinking and eating and talking, before heading to an Irish bar (I know, but they did have Belgian beers). Here we drank and danced and laughed until 2am.

We knew our hotel had a pool, so we all brought our swimsuits. Unfortunately, when the hotel clerk let us in at 2am and we were drunk and merry and asked if we could go in the pool, he said no. He probably saved our lives. Instead we got a bag of chips and sat in Lisa's and Nicole's balcony. We couldn't believe how long we made that Saturday last, and as Nicole philosophized, you can sleep when you're dead.

The next morning was rough. At first we were all doing pretty well, but then gradually as the day wore on we realized that was because we were still drunk. The worst was yet to come. I decided to have a beer at brunch, a "hair of the dog" thing, but it didn't do me any good. The ride home was much quieter than the ride in.

We arrived back in Amsterdam at around 2:30. Lisa was flying to Germany that evening and was in need of some relaxing time, as we all were. I parked myself on the couch, and my wonderful husband-to-be brought me a quarter-pounder w/ cheese to cure my hangover. He was so embarrassed biking back from McDonald''s with the bag that he brought a backpack to stuff our fatty wares in. We weren't dead yet, but it sure felt like it...

Wedding update

Our wedding website tells me that today we are 81 days away from the big day. Everyone says it will be here before we know it, but given my excitement level I'm not so sure. Luckily we have a few trips planned in between to make the time go a bit faster.

I wish I could give myself a bit more credit by saying how exhausting the wedding planning has been, but it's untrue. In fact, it has been (mostly) a pleasure. Strangely enough, I think that planning from afar made things go smoother. Mainly because I did not get bogged down with all the options. I found my vendors mostly through word of mouth. Plus the wedding business is big business and thus rather efficiently priced, so I knew that meeting several vendors and trying to bargain hunt in the end wouldn't save us much money at all and would just cause more stress and waste time. And though if I were in the US I may have done more DIY things, it was just more convenient to work with professionals. Ultimately I'm very happy with all the vendors I've chosen to work with, and I must say that my vision is really coming to life.

Probably the hardest thing for Matt and I to decide on were our wedding colors. I personally went back and forth on this many times. We decided on green and ivory after I had a dream about using those colors. I woke up all excited and told Matt and he was in total agreement. Those colors just seemed very much like "us", as you can probably see by the design of this blog! We decided to throw in some purple to make it a bit more elegant, and I haven't looked back from that since.

Now is around the time where I should be second-guessing all of my decisions. The one thing I keep going back to is the dress. I fell in love with my dress on my first visit to a bridal salon. It just suited me and the location perfectly - comfortable, soft, bohemian, beachy. Probably the reason I'm stressing over it now is because it's been months since I've seen it in person. I'm still waiting for the dress to be made so I can have my first fitting. I'm sure when I see it again there will be no more doubts. For someone as obsessed with fashion as I am, it's of course difficult to make a decision on your wedding dress, the dress you'll remember for the rest of your life. It's a funny idea - I've been to several weddings now, and I must say I don't remember any of the brides' dresses - not to say they were not stunning, I'm sure they were, but isn't that the whole deal with weddings? You pretty much want people not to remember your wedding, because if it's nice and everyone is pleased, they won't remember those details, just that they had a great time. The only time people really recall the details of a wedding they've been to is when something was tacky or if something goes blatantly wrong. So, plan a wedding they'll forget!

Another difficult decision was the invitations. I definetely had a vision, after bouncing back and worth on it for a bit. When I first met with my invitationalist, she didn't have the right paper I wanted, in terms of the color and texture. I spent a few hours with her, just going through samples and trying to compromise on what I initially wanted. This was especially difficult because Matt wasn't with me. I kept choosing very romantic things, but I knew that it wouldn't be fair to choose something very girly without discussing it with the other party to this wedding first. Fortunately, as I was perusing a sample, I found the perfect paper. We had to do some finagling with the manufacturer, but in the end we got what we wanted. My mom just picked the invitations up last night and said they look beautiful - I can't wait to see them!

Other than those things, everything else just fell into place - we have a wonderful florist with a great creative eye, a highly recommended DJ, a very talented Brazilian bossa nova band that I found online, a friendly reverend that wrote us a beautiful ceremony (also found him online), a photographer that takes the most stunning pictures in the photojournalism style, a Zagat-rated chef and a beautiful location on the beach. But most important of all, we have the best guests, which is the key to any great wedding. We can't wait for this day to finally get here, so we can celebrate with all of our friends and family!

So my wedding tip for any brides to be: Expect to second-guess everything, but in the end stick to your instinct. Don't sacrifice yours and your grooms' personality by just going with the latest trends (can anyone say chocolate brown?).

Bike woes

Yesterday evening was the second time in less than four months that I have had to walk my crappy bike home from work because of a flat tire.

The first time was especially infuriating because it was literally the day after I had just gotten a new tire, the same one that popped a day later. I walked it the mile or so to Central Station in my heels, then locked it up and took the tram home. I picked it up later that night so that I could bring it to the guy by our apartment that had "fixed" it. The next morning I brought it in and held my composure. I had paid this guy €25 to fix my tire, and what's my thanks? When I picked my bike up later that day, he says "you're not going to believe this". Turns out, the guy that was putting in my new tire dropped his pen in there without realizing. How does this country go on?

So yesterday afternoon, relieved that another incredibly boring work day was over so I could hurry home and address more envelopes for our wedding invitations, I go to my bike and find the front tire completely flat. This time I walked it to a bike repair shop by Central Station, again in my heels. And today it's pouring down rain so that should be a fun walk going to pick it up.

Finding a good bike here is tough. Keeping it is also not easy. A few weeks ago Matt's bike was stolen from right outside our place. It was an "oma fiets", or grandmother bike, which he had bought from our friend Jane. The difference between an oma fiets and a regular bike is the kick stand. It was a good, solid bike, old as hell of course, and the tires were nice and thick. It was a shame to lose it. My tires are so flimsy and frail that everytime I go over bits of broken Heineken bottles (quite frequently in the touristy region of Centraal Station) I worry about getting flats. It's so funny that before I came to Amsterdam I dropped serious cash on an exquisite, brand-new Volkswagen GTI (love of my life) and now I can't justify spending a couple hundred euros for another bike. I guess I'm really becoming Dutch after all...

Smell the dairy air

Back from yet another whirlwind trip home to the US! This time for Susie and Chima's wedding, which we combined with an opportunity to visit my family in Wisconsin, take an exam and plan our own wedding!

We flew to Madison on a Saturday, with a layover in Detroit, and rented a car at Madison to drive to my family's farm in Coon Valley, Wisconsin. I drove this leg b/c I was too wired to study, and I knew that Matt would be the driver for the rest of the trip. The drive wasn't too long - just under 2.5 hours - but we were really impressed with ourselves for lasting the massive journey. We had left our apartment in Amsterdam at 6:30 am local Amsterdam time, and arrived at the farm at 3:30pm Wisconsin time, which is 10:30pm Amsterdam time.

One thing I realized in Detroit is how incredibly rude the Dutch really are when you compare them to Midwesterners. One lady stepped on my foot and shoved me while on the security line, and I was confused - Midwestern people don't act that way. Turns out, she was Dutch. Of course - I should have known!

My mom had flown out the week before to meet us in Wisconsin, so it was great to be able to spend some more time with her. On Sunday, a bunch of my family came for a picnic. The night before, my aunt said she was making a carrot cake, and I hooted "carrot cake is my favorite!". And she says, "really? Ok, I'll make two" :-)One thing about Wisconsin people - they love their sweets. After you're finished with lunch or dinner, you're just getting started - often there will be more dessert than actual food. On Sunday we also had our first taste of the Norwegian dinner-slash-dessert rommegrot. It's like pudding that you put melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar on. We had it for dessert, but apparently Norwegians will also eat this stuff for dinner.

On Monday we went to the Amish auction. I'm really confused by the Amish. I know that there are different kinds of Amish, and you can tell this by the color clothes they wear. Some can use electricity, some can't, things like that. But I had always thought they couldn't deal in money. But they certainly do - they were selling flowers, quilts, food and furniture, and these things weren't cheap. And they also had a cage with some sad looking puppies with a sign on it that said "Free Puppies". We got my mom's cousin on the case - she rescues cocker spaniels. Unfortunately these weren't cockers so she couldn't really bring them home, but it's so messed up that these puppy mills are still allowed to go on. Apparently the Amish are very big into these puppy mills too.

My family sold all their cows a few years ago and decided to lease the farm land. Since there was no farming action for Matt to see, my uncle took him to a friend's farm nearby. Matt had a good time there, and learned that the organic business is good business for the small farmer - they can charge higher prices and yet have lower costs, since they don't spend money on the chemicals to clean the wheat. He also confirmed what we had heard about free-range chicken - it only means that chickens have ACCESS to an outside field for 30 minutes a day, and most of the time, the chickens prefer to just stay in the cage. What a rip! Matt then earned his farmer badge by driving a tractor, and then speeding down the road on the 4-wheeler with me hanging on for dear life in the back.

On Wednesday, we left to make the trip to Milwaukee. Since Chima and Susie's wedding was going to be on Friday, May 30 and my Law exam was scheduled for the day before, I arranged it so that I could take it at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. I studied the entire drive, and by that point I was confident with the material. We arrived in the afternoon at our Ramada hotel. American hotels are all the same! It's so funny to notice things like that when you've been gone for a while. They all have 2 big beds, a big TV, a desk and internet connection - things you'd be pressed to find in Europe unless you're willing to drop some coin. And they also have these shiny vomit-colored comforters. We asked the concierge what there was to do in Milwaukee, and he said the Brewers were in town. Well, why not! We had some time before the game so we went to the Fridays in the stadium - we had a pretty legit meal of wings, meats and Miller High Lifes. And very American - especially since as we sat down the waitress told us we had the table for exactly one hour! You'd NEVER hear that in Amsterdam. The game itself was pretty boring until the 7th inning, but then the Brewers got some runs to win the game.

Thursday was exam day! Matt dropped me off around 9:45. Unfortunately there were freshman placement exams also going on - not in my testing room but I could still hear the announcements through the door. I also had a moment of panic when I saw that 2 of the topics I studied heavily didn't appear in the questions at all! But I recovered and think I definetely passed, so no worries. After 3 hours of some cramping essay-writing, I was done. The drive to Madison was short - especially since I napped for most of it. That evening Matt had to go to the rehearsal, and I stayed in the hotel watching Oprah and doing my nails before the rehearsal dinner.

The dinner was at an Italian restaurant in a converted church. It was a really beautiful place, and we were able to put some tables together so all of us friends could sit together. It was really great seeing everyone. After the dinner, we kept the party going out on the town in Madison. There was a jukebox at one bar - I miss those! The next day while Matt went for a run with Ryan and Kootman, I celebrated my new freedom from studying by watching a marathon of MTV's The Ex-Factor. Later that morning a bunch of us met up for brunch at a Greek diner. We had what I thought were delicious omelettes, except everyone but me thought they were nasty! Guess I really miss diner omelettes. Afterwards, Matt had to go try on his tux - turns out that when the Chima gave the tailor the measurements that Matt's tailor had provided, converted from cm to inches, the guy laughed and said there is no way a person could have these measurements. While he went to do some damage control with the tux, I dragged Kootman and Ryan with me to Urban Outfitters, where I had what could only be called a shopping spree.

From what I thought I knew about weddings, guests are told to come at a certain time for an "invite" which usually is 30 minutes before the ceremony. So I guess not in Wisconsin, b/c when we walked in, half the wedding party was preparing to walk down the aisle and no one was returning our smiles and cheery "hellos". So we rushed to our seats while the whole church looked on. The wedding was very nice, except I had a "I wore the wrong shoes" moment. It felt like my feet were in a vice! Luckily I had time to change out of these evil things before the reception.

The reception was great - we all danced up a storm! Chima and Susie looked fabulous as always and it was so nice to be able to come and celebrate with them. Since Agata's wedding in Poland, Matt and I have made vodka our drink of choice for wedddings. It's so clean that it goes down easy and you don't get sleepy like with beer and wine or mixed drinks with sugary sodas. Problem was that we were not allowed to have shots, according to the bar staff. To get around this, they gave us vodka neats in what were supposed to be smaller portions, but these were huge shots. Luckily everyone was fine and no one made a spectacle of themselves.

Saturday we spent the morning walking around the capitol for the weekly farmer's market. We sampled lots of delicious treats - cheese curds, cheese bread, cream cheese pockets, pepper jack cheese scones, carrot cake, and ostrich slim jims. If you ever find yourself in Madison on a Saturday, this farmer's market is not to be missed. In the afternoon Susie's parents had a BBQ at their beautiful home on the lake. More brats and cheese products and beer. Later that night we went out to a bar and I tried to wingman Ryan, but I didn't let him talk to any of the girls b/c they were either too young or too cheesy or both. Wingman-ing is when you try to start converstations with girls to hook up your friends, or when you stick around and talk to the ugly friend. I guess I'm too picky to be a proper wingman.

On Sunday we had to say goodbye. Matt and I flew together to Detroit and our connections boarded at the same time, so we had a few minutes to sit together - Matt was going back to Amsterdam and I to Laguardia to spend some days at home to plan the wedding. I arrived without event in NY, curled up on the couch to watch bridal shows on A&E and eat lasagna. This is the life. The next day was sunny and gorgeous and so I headed right to the beach, with a pit stop to get sunscreen and Us Weekly. The beach was completely empty - the beaches in the Hamptons are absolutely stunning, I can never get over it. It was windy, and after a few hours I headed back home to lay by the pool and eat a turkey on rye sandwich. At 4 I went with my parents to meet Matt's mom, aunt and grandma at Atlantica, our wedding venue, for a tasting. Let me tell you, the food here is phenomenal. No detail is spared. We got to try one full plate of everything on their menu. We really couldn't go wrong with our choices. And they threw in some wine, coffee and desserts. The day was still beautiful and we sat in the tent where the ceremony and cocktail hour will be. I really hope it's not too windy on our wedding day and we can keep the end flap of the tent up - the views to the beach are so stunning. Either way it'll be beautiful.

The next day was full-on. I went back to Atlantica in the morning to meet our officiant, Reverend Don. He has a great personality and his New York accent is killer. I'm sure our international guests will get a kick out of it. Then I met up with Matt's mom and grandma to go meet with our invitations lady and florist. After a busy afternoon of making decisions, we ended it on a high note with a slice of yummy NY pizza. The fun continued the next day - my mom and aunt joined me for another trip to the invitation lady to finalize a few things, then for my hair and makeup trial. This I was nervous about - one, I had no idea what I was going to do with my hair, and two, makeup people always pile on too much and I really want to look like myself on my wedding day. Luckily, these girls were great - I'm confident that they'll be able to do what I'd like on the day. Then we headed to some home stores to find frames for our table names and a few other things. Everything is coming together so smoothly! By this point though, I was exhausted. I had planned to go into the city and see some friends, but the thought of that just made me want to go to sleep. And the next day was busy too - my mom and I drove to Huntington Station about an hour away to meet my photographer. I'm really excited about him - his pictures are amazing and he is so easygoing and friendly. He does a lot of the photojournalistic style that looks really cool. The weather turned sunny and warm at around noon so I got to spend some time in the sun before my flight back to Amsterdam that night.

Overall, a fantastic trip - though my time at home was a bit short. This was my longest trip to the US since I moved to Amsterdam, so the jet lag was at its worst. But it's nice that I can now relax - no more tests and the wedding is nearly all planned.

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:-)