Krees goes Dutch Kiwi!

My gripe about Dutch grocery stores

I mentioned this in a Tip of the Day a while ago, but it gets my goat every time I go to the grocery store.

You have to bag your own groceries here. I'm actually fine with that. I tended to bag my own in Ann Arbor anyway if there wasn't a bagger already there and the cashier was busy. The problem is that since all the cashier has to do is whiz the items through the scanner, she's done with you faster than you can say "Dank u," and she's ready for the next customer.

In the meantime, you still have a basket-worth or even a cart-worth of groceries to be packed and a line of busy customers waiting for you to get out of the way so that they can be rung up. If you're shopping alone without a buddy to bag, the best you can do is throw everything back into your basket or cart and trundle it to the table at the front of the store to pack into your own bags or boxes.

At least in the States, everyone in line is expecting it to take a little longer and you don't feel so rushed.

Seeing stars

Charles took me up to Groningen for my birthday dinner at an Indian place in Groningen called Ganga. We completely stuffed ourselves, or at least I did, on a couple lamb dishes, samosas and naan.

I noticed on the drive back that the skies, which had been overcast all day, had cleared. And once we got out of the car back home - what a sight! There was no moon, and the stars were unbelievable. You could even see a swatch of the Milky Way overhead.

Judging the crime rate in Diever

Apparently Diever is a safe enough place that you can leave your tractor running while you run into the bank. But if you and a friend ride your horses to the bakery, one of you ought to stand outside with them.

One more reason to love October

It's my birthday! Yay!

I didn't go to work today, but I'll take in some cookies tomorrow for the coffee break. (I'm thinking stroopwaffles and molen speculaas - the windmill cookies you can get in the States.) This morning I slept in, took the dog for a walk, got caught in the rain (Maui hates that) and have been taking care of some travel arrangements and chores around the house. It's a pretty rainy/blah day, so I think this afternoon I'll try to get a bunch of knitting done and maybe watch the Godfather II.

And tonight I think Charles and I are going up to Groningen for dinner. He says he got a recommendation for a good Indian place. Yay!

Los Cucarones

Ha! Lest I lead you to believe there's never anything fun to do around here, I present you with an email from a coworker:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Los Cucarones
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:10:58 +0200
 

Hi everyone,

Sorry if you already received this email, but I don't think it got through to everyone the first time I sent it.

As Jerome has mentioned, our band Los Cucarones will be playing again in Groningen on Saturday Nov. 18 at Pizzeria La Scala.  The address is Stoepemaheerd 42-2 (map attached).  We invite you to come out and see what happens when two Frenchmen, a Columbian, a Dutchman, and a Chinese-Canadian decide to play songs in Spanish.  We will start playing sometime between 21:00 and 22:00 and will play for at least a couple of hours.  The bar at the pizzeria will be open, but I think the kitchen will be closed.   Please feel free to invite anyone you'd like who's not on this list.

See you in Groningen,
Kaston

October

It's my favorite time of year back in Michigan for so many reasons. For starters, cooler weather is the best excuse for pulling sweaters, socks and heavy shoes out of the backs of the closets again.

These last two weeks of October may not always be the peak for watching the color change, but they're the best for walking around and shuffling your feet through the fallen leaves to kick up that great autumn smell. I always remember that my first campus tour at Albion was Halloween Day (wow - 1992?!?) and the leaves outside Fiske were about a foot deep. Even when Charles and I lived in San Francisco, where October weather is outstanding, I was acutely aware of the LACK of trees around us and missed Ann Arbor terribly.

It's also time for our annual pilgrimmage to Sweet Season's orchard in Concord. Each year we make at least one trip out to Ed & Nan Jasinowski's, ideally with a Michigan football game on the radio. We pick up at least a dozen donuts - plain, sour cream, pumpkin, apple and sugar, some still warm from the fryer - plus some cider for ourselves and the neighbors, apples for a pie and for sharing at the office, and pumpkins for the front porch. We eat too many donuts while we take the dog for a walk out in the orchard, and then come awfully close to finishing off the first dozen before we finish the drive back to Albion's campus. We walk the dog around campus, drive by the Coffee House, consider waking up and harassing the new resident-managers, lament how the sign Rob Ventura painted back in 1993 really needs to be fixed up, and head back to Ann Arbor.

I'm glad that the weather here in October seems so similar to Michigan's, but it's unfortunate that most of the trees are oaks. Instead of changing color and dropping leaves, they're just dropping acorns. (Yes, still.) And many of the leaves will remain dead on the trees until they get blown out in spring. I'm trying to find things particular to October in Drenthe to enjoy, but I'm coming up short. Maybe it will suffice that it's not yet winter. I understand there's plenty of rain and cold on the way!

Things to do, places to go, people to see

Yay! Plans are shaping up for a few items that will bring a little bit more fun to our lives here in Dullsville, at least for the next handful of weeks.

1. ASTRON/JIVE Open Day is this Sunday. Okay, so this is actually work-related and may or may not actually be fun. Personally, I'm not even really looking forward to it. (It's the introvert in me. I'm not usually keen on meeting new people and making small talk. Especially not in a foreign language.) But it's something.
2. Then Mark Handel comes to visit for a couple days. Yay!
3. Then Charles and I go to Zaandam for the EXPReS Kickoff and Board meeting. Again, work-related and not really "fun," but something.
4. Then Charles and I go to London for the weekend! Woo hoo!
   • I've got tickets for Spamalot (Tim Curry!).
   • We'll probably go check out the London Eye and the slides at the Tate Modern, even if we don't check out any of the other exhibits.
   • We'll probably go back to the Tate and the British Museum. (Has it really been 10 years?)
   • And I already have plans to go to this fun yarn shop. Koigu Painter's Premium Palette, here I come!
5. Then Charles and I go BACK to London Thanksgiving weekend to visit with Michelle & Ali. Yay!

Day trip to Amsterdam!

Woo hoo! Charles and I took a day trip to Amsterdam today. Actually, it was sort of a last-minute decision a little late in the game and involving the Dutch train system, so it was really more of an afternoon/evening trip to Amsterdam.

But it was good. It involved:

• One trip to Caulils on Harleemerstraat for 3 kilos of the good stuff: Martelli pasta!
• One trip to De Afstap on Oude Leliestraat Centrum for eight skeins of Rowan Felted Tweed. Two beautiful shades of purple! (I'm making progress with Big Bad Baby Blanket #1 and thought I'd stock up for #2. It'll take me a while yet to finish both, and someone's bound to get pregnant in the meantime, right?)
• A cappuccino and a beer at Blond & Blont on Hartenstraat
• Sushi dinner at Kagetsu on Hartenstraat. Mmmm ... unagi roll, California roll, futo maki roll and nabeyaki udon! Nummers!

Wow. Just. Wow.

I may not care for the food over here. But at least it's better than this stuff.

In the meantime, I think I found some tolerable pasta at the Golff store down the street. And I found out that there's a Martelli distributor in the Netherlands. But they tell me the nearest retailer is two hours away.

Last night Charles and I went with coworker George (a.k.a. American George) up to Groningen for dinner and a movie. Well, we didn't make it to the movie because we were late. It was typically slow Dutch restaurant service, but we weren't all that stoked to see The Devil Wears Prada anyway. We ate at a Mexican place called The Four Roses. Not bad. A bit salty. But a heartfelt attempt at authentic Mexican dishes. Just with Dutch ingredients.

But it was nice to reminisce about what might have been the best dish I've ever had: tortilla soup at La Casa Vieja in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Mmmmmmm. If might try to make it myself if I could get some nice chilis here.

Sad

Have you ever seen a sheep having a sneezing fit? It's not quite as sad as a sheep with a sneezing fit that forces it a step backward with every sneeze.

I'M BACK!!!

The past couple weeks I've been in a serious funk. And I hadn't been able to decide if it was delayed culture shock, homesickness, the cough/cold I had, Charles traveling or what.

Part of the funk became this weird fixation on food. Anything I could think of to buy at the grocery store or order in a restaurant (which here in Diever actually means cafe) just seemed so incredibly unappetizing and unappealing that I almost felt ill.

And then I started thinking about how I would get fixated on food back in Ann Arbor. Lunch with a former coworker, a cocktail with Merrill at Eve's Wine Bar, Carrie Bank's chocolate brownies at knitting night, Friday night dinners with "the usual suspects" at Miss Saigon. These were the things, almost as much as the social events coupled with them, that would get me through what would otherwise be a humdrum week. And I don't have them here. Instead I get cheese tostis and crappy pasta.

Until tonight! I had to go to Zaandam for a business trip, and Charles met me in Zwolle on my way home. We ducked into a bar to get out of the rain for a while, and the bartender recommended an Argentinian restaurant down the street. It hit the spot! Meat empanadas and a mixed plate of grilled beef with baked potato and sour cream on the side. It was a lot of beef - probably too much in all honesty - but it was good. And it's put me in such a good mood for the rest of the evening that I'm not even dreading stupid Saturday errands and chores the way I have been lately!

But I think even aside from the food - because honestly only one of the cuts of steak was particularly enjoyable - it really was good just to go OUT for a night just the two of us. Without the dog, so we could eat inside where it was warm and dry. And have a date. I think this is how I will remember our (belated) fourth anniversary.

Retraction

It'll stop feeling like camp when all the spiders and mosquitos are dead.

My Super Ex-Desire to See a Movie

Charles and I sort of felt like seeing a movie this weekend. We weren't totally revved up for it, but figured it would be a good way to get out of the house. And, truth be told, to get our hands on some popcorn.

The list of films showing in nearby Hoogeveen was grim: Snakes on a Plane, World Trade Center, Miami Vice, Lady in the Water, The Ant Bully (in Dutch), Garfield 2 (in Dutch), Cars (in Dutch)... But they were running something called My Super Ex-Girlfriend. The plot sounded stupid, but Eddie Izzard was in it! It was only showing at 8pm on Sunday, so that's the one we went to.

We were prepared for it to be a bad movie. But you would still think that if they could get Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, and Ivan Reitman as director that it would be halfway decent. Eh - not so much. Bad script, bad acting, bad make-up. (They even made Uma Thurman look bad! They should have had Eddie do her make-up!)

But it was fun to see Eddie struggle with an American accent yet again. And it was GOOD to eat popcorn. And it was rather interesting to note that Dutch theaters pause for an intermission - at least in romantic comedies. (Some movies listed on the web site are noted to runwithout a pause.) We think the intermission is so they can sell more M&Ms (big bag sold to you with a paper cup!), beer (Grolsch flip-top!) and soda (your choice of a whopping 8-oz or 12-oz size).

We'll probably go back to the theater, or maybe up to the one in Groningen, but we'll probably wait until they're showing something we actually want to see.