Santa Claus Meets Sinterklaas

Helloooooooooo there!  I realize it's been awhile since posting - but rest assured, I'm alive and well.  :)  Survived the holidays in the US, New Year's, a hectic couple of weeks at work (I went to Madrid!), and now back to normal.  

So I'll start this post with Museum Night - a night in Amsterdam in which some 40+ museums are open till the wee hours of the morning.  Here's a pic of me trying to plot out which museums to hit up, while Romeo conveniently decides to take a nap on my map...

First museum we went to had a [not good] band.

Some interesting artwork.

Of course we had to stop for the seasonal "oliebollen" donut-type treats.  The literal translation is "oil balls" so not exactly heart-healthy...but oh so delicious!

The Rijkmuseum had these really cool beanbags to hang out on.

And in place of tickets and information, a dj jammin' out.

The last museum of the night we went to was Van Gogh.  It was definitely the busiest, and my personal favorite.  I particularly liked the contrast of the Bar sign above the Audio tour information area.

Every 20 minutes the dj changed the music to a different era, based on a voting system of all the people there.  It was pretty cool to stroll through the gallery of all these paintings with house music pulsing in the background.  Definitely going to do this again. :)

Afterwards, we went to the local sports bar to watch some US games, since they were actually playing at that hour.   The popular special of the night was 10 shots of jaeger for only 10 euros.

Our feet were weary by the end of the night from all the walking, and luckily there was a bicycle taxi right around the corner.  What a lovely view we had all the way to the train station!

And finally back home...

My post wouldn't be complete without more pics of my favorite farm animals.  Here you go!

Nom nom nom nom nom...

Oooh - me too!

December 5th is Sinterklaas day.  This is the main day of Christmas gifts for all the dutch children.  Basically, Sinterklaas is a guy who looks like Santa but dressed like a priest, who's originally from Turkey, but lives in Spain, and takes a boat to Holland from Spain each year to bring gifts to all the good boys and girls.  He is surrounded by a posse of "zwarte-piet" - or "black pete's", who are his helpers with their faces painted black.  Not exactly politically correct, but an interesting tradition nonetheless...

In the winter ice-skating rinks pop up all over the place.  This year it wasn't cold enough for the canals to freeze, but people still suited up for the rinks.  This one's at the beach.

Another of my favorite dutch treats:  poffertjes - mini pancakes coated in butter and powdered sugar.  mmmmmm...

Ryan thought it would be clever to take a picture of me in my rain cape / parka / blanket / batman-costume that i need to wear when i bike in the rain.  You probably notice I look really thrilled with this fashion statement.

And here's the happy Ryan... Savoring the rarest beer in the whole world - Westvleteren 12.  This beer is so special in fact, that it can only be brewed by trappist monks at their monastery.  You must schedule an appointment to drive to the brewery in the middle of nowhere outside of Bruges (Belgium) to taste it.  It is not sold for profit, and the monks keep the quantity brewed each year to a minimum.  Ryan scored one of these and as you can see, is quite happy to enjoy it. :)

Some brass-playing Santa Clauses (not to be confused with Sinterklaas of course!).

And our neighborhood American/Irish/British foods store where I can get my secret chocolate chip cookie mix. :)

Here's a couple of my favorite Christmas pics I took while back home in the states:

I think our favorite nephew liked the cheesehead. :)

 and our favorite niece too!

 i think everyone liked the cheesehead!

After a whirlwind week in the states (4 days in each of Milwaukee and CT to visit both families), we were back just in time to celebrate New Year's Eve in the Hague.  And I must say, I'm happy to still have all my fingers, limbs, and eyes after that night because it is every bit as crazy as I'd been warned!  Fireworks are illegal in the Netherlands, except for NYE.  On this day, anyone can buy any type of fireworks they desire, and small convenience stores all of a sudden become warehouses for these mini-bombs, and pyro-maniac kids are lined up left and right to get their hands on them.  Rather than professionals setting them off, anyone is free to light off whatever they chose, wherever they want!  This means that you can hear explosions coming from every direction all day long, only getting stronger and more frequent as midnight approaches.  It seriously feels like a war zone, and the smell of gunpowder dominates the air.

We were at the beach for the midnight fireworks...(not the best visually, but the sound is deafening from fireworks being set off left and right all over the beach!)

The special attraction at the beach is the annual bonfire rivalry between Scheveningen and Kijkduin.  Each year beginning in early December, men from both towns construct these massive towers of wooden pallets (often stolen from construction sites), to try to outdo each other.  People take turns sleeping on the beach "guarding" their pallets from the other town, and mothers bring sandwiches and blankets to keep their "soldiers" fed and warm.  It's no exaggeration that the towers can be taller than a 3-story building!

This YouTube video captures the construction perfectly. Remember - these are not professionals - just crazy men trying to build the biggest fire they can!!

Click Here:
Bonfire!

And some pictures of course...

midnight smooch!

Besides all the excitement of the holidays and New Year's, I've been busy playing soccer with a dutch women's team in Scheveningen.  We train 2 days a week, and have games on Saturdays, and I couldn't be more happy with the girls on the team - they are such a fun group, and I think this will really help me to learn dutch (since everything is in dutch!!).   Here's a couple pics from our game against Delft:

Us

Them

Messi's female equivalent...

 And...not so much.  Hope this evidence doesn't get used against me!

 That's it for the catch-up.  This week Ryan and I finally start our Dutch language lessons, so hopefully I will be able to start understanding my soccer coaches...and menus...and signs on the street...and items in the grocery store...and pretty much all those basic things I took for granted.  :)  Now that I've gone through the frustration of not understanding things, I'm even more motivated to learn the language, and I've got the best partner to practice with.  :)  Tot siens! (goodbye!)

Occupy Zombie-Land

Hello again!  First month down - success!  Everything so far has been going great and I'm feeling more and more Dutch every day as I cycle to work keeping pace with the morning rush.  Romeo the cat has squeezed his way back into our home again (ground floor only) and become more and more a member of the family.  I'm pretty sure he'll be getting a kitty-bed for Christmas this year.  As long as he behaves himself. 

nap time

wakey time

The other night we got take-away from one of the many indonesian restaurants nearby.  That's the specialty here, the competition is high, so you really have to be good to survive in the business. 

Here's an eggplant parm I made in my efforts to spice up life as a veggie - yummy!  

The Netherlands is a really good place to be if you want to go veggie - in fact, there's even a vegetarian butcher in town.  Yes, a vegetarian BUTCHER.  They really have the texture down perfect, so you can't really tell the difference.  Check out their website (sorry it's in dutch - but i think the pictures are worth looking at):

http://www.devegetarischeslager.nl/shop/vegetarische-slager-lijn/vegetarische-slager-kipstukjes


Last weekend Ryan and I went to Amsterdam to enjoy Halloween and check out one of our favorite comedy acts - Boom Chicago.  They're an extension of Second City, but permanently in Amsterdam.  While I did some shopping Ryan took a stroll down memory lane past his old house / office where he lived and worked with 5 or so colleagues a few years back.  As he puts it,  it was like an episode of the Real World with coworkers.

Ry's old street

Old church with ringing bells.  These are the same churchbells that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary - her house is just a block away.

Later that night we ventured over to the Occupy Amsterdam site.  It was really cool to see how huge this movement has gotten.  It was really well organized, with lots of flyers, people discussing ideas, boards where people could post things they needed / things they could offer (like hugs), signs available to specify what language you needed things to be translated into, couches, tents, a tented kitchen area for large meals, and more.  There was even a band playing later in the night!  Almost felt like a festival - lots of energy, open minds, and courage.

stack of books = public library  :)

pretty sweet teepee

general assembly meeting - in dutch of course

and then just another local s&m shop around the corner  :)

After walking through the Occupy site, we hopped on a tram to make sure we would get to our show on time.  After sitting on the tram for a few minutes we got a little impatient, as it wasn't moving at all.  We could see flares and hear drums, so we decided to get off the tram to check out what all the commotion was about.  Turns out there was a random parade of 1000+ zombies marching through the city. All transportation was brought to a halt, and time pretty much stood still as the zombies crawled along...

where the heck does one get a tractor from in the middle of amsterdam??

these are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood,..

excuse me - i think you spilled a little something on your shirt.

And what better way to debrief from a zombie parade than to eat french fries with chopsticks while plotting out the plan for the night on the city gay-map?

It was a great night (besides the comedy show which could have been better), but you really can't go wrong in amsterdam. we caught a late night train home to the hague (they run 24-7), and biked home exhausted, and laughing at the few costumed stragglers who were still wandering around the city in outrageous attire.

This week I attempted to make a dutch staple dish - the stamppot.  It's supposed to be basically mashed potatoes with veggies mixed in (like kale, sourkraut, carrots, ).  But I was a bit careless with the measurements and just put all my bags of ingredients together, and ended up with a giant bowl of kale and sourkraut with a dash of potato.  whoops!

looks more like zombie brains.

That's all for now folks.  This weekend we're planning to head into amsterdam for the annual museum night - something like 45 museums are open till 2-3am, with dj's and what looks to be a really cool atmosphere.  Should be an experience!