And So It Ends...

Well folks, my semester in Amsterdam has drawn to a close. I am now back in the US, having flown home on the 5th of June. I'm not completely done, as I still have some work to turn in via email, but I am back home in NJ. (Besides, I'm sure those of you reading are really not all that interested in my ramblings on immigration and homonationalism). As such, this is going to be my last real post on this blog - hope you all enjoyed reading it! (I will post once more with pictures from my last trip to the pancake bakery once I find my camera cable).

I feel like I should be writing something incredibly witty and insightful here about my experiences, but for that I am drawing a bit of a blank. While I did enjoy living in a foreign country for a semester, I believe that any revelations that I had were more to do with my personal development and independence than with any expanding of my view of the world. I suppose that makes sense - I lived in England as a kid, and my dad is currently living in London again, so living in Europe was not something entirely new to me.

Still, I have already noticed some things that I will miss/am missing about the Netherlands. First and formost? Strong coffee. Before I went over in January I used to enjoy the Dunkin Donuts beans my mom used to use at home. Now that just tastes watery and weak to me. This is going to be a problem, as I tend to drink a good deal of coffee.

Another thing I'll miss is the variety of sweet dairy products. I have already posted about my love of vla and kwark so I will not repeat myself, but I will be seriously trying to find a recipe for vla at the very least...one can hope, right?

I have definitely appreciated the Dutch's tendency to be very blunt, especially after living in Los Angeles for the last few years. I always talk about missing the NYC attitude...but the Dutch are even more direct. It is usually awesome, though I will admit I was less than pleased with how some topics in my classes were handled without any sensitivity. (Showing Geert Wilders' political film "FITNA" which includes slow motion footage of 9/11 requires at least a warning before showing it to a bunch of American students, especially when the group contains students from the area, who knew people who didn't survive. No, I am not referring to only me). The flip side of this experience is that I have become more blunt myself, and less tolerant of evasive answers. It should be interesting to see how that works out for me back in Los Angeles.

Other things I will miss
Stroopwafles

Pancake Bakery/Dutch Pancakes
Kilimanjaro (Ethiopian restaurant that was AWESOME)
Good public transit
Smog-free air
Green space that is readily accessible
Hoegaarden Rose (The first beer I have ever liked)
Real whipped cream being served everywhere with hot chocolate
Being able to walk pretty much everywhere easily

Being able to walk home at night and feel safe

Hearing at least 2-3 languages spoken everyday, and not finding it unusual

Fries served with mayo, usually in a paper cone (especially from Burger Bar)

Going to artsy movies with Jantien

Gay bars that make killer cocktails

The feeling of superiority of being able to laugh at the tourists who don't know to not walk in the bike path

The concept of gezellig

So long Amsterdam, and thanks for the fish.

(Actually, not really. I never did try the herring, nor did I have any desire to do so. Maybe someday when I visit again).

Because I Haven't Talked About Food in a While..

...I found a new flavor of vla I am in love with! It must have been brought out as a summer sweet - apple and pear. It seems to be blanke vla with apple and pear pieces in it...which suits me just fine, because I'm not a huge fan of the artificial taste of some of the flavored vla.

I seriously am going to have to figure out how to make vla when I go home...which is in six days. Ah! More on that to come at a later time, right now I need to go back to writing papers :(

(I will include a picture of said vla later when I need a study break)

Dutch Desserts

Alright, so by now you must have realized that my life revolves around food. This should probably be attributed to my Italian heritage, and going to my Grandmother's house for giant Italian buffets. (Interestingly, she wasn't actually Italian - that was my grandfather, who passed a decade before I was born. Still, she knew how to cook all the Italian staples...her sauce recipe is famous in our family). Since the Dutch eat to live, not live to eat, this becomes a bit of a problem - hutspot (mashed carrot and potato) just is not that exciting to me.

While their standard diet might be a bit bland compared to what I'm used to, the Dutch have some AWESOME sweet food, which almost makes up for all the mashed potatoes. I have already talked plenty about Dutch pancakes, but here are some other awesome examples.

1. StroopWafels

These are the quintessential dutch cookie/candy/snack. Consisting of two thin waffle/crackerlike discs with caramel syrup pressed in between, these were basically the first "Dutch" food I had. Rachel, the other girl here from Oxy, always has a bag of them with her - wonderful since I steal them all the time. (To be fair, its an even trade - she makes sure I eat during the day, I make sure she doesn't walk into traffic and get run over by a bike).

2. Kwark

The best way to describe Kwark is a cross between yogurt, and cheesecake. It is basically a thick, sweet, creamy yogurt. You can get it in many flavors - so far I've tried apple/cinnamon, lemon, and vanilla bean. (Vanilla bean was by far my favorite, it tasted rather decadent). The picture below is my favorite brand so far, but my albert hijn doesn't carry it - I have to walk down the street to the Spar to get it. Not a huge deal, but I just have to remember to do so, since I can't be bothered usually to go to two grocery stores in one trip.

3. Vla

My favorite of all the Dutch sweet food I've tried. A light custard, its comes in a juice/milk carton, and you have to pour/shake it out (a lot of yogurt products come this way here). Again, it comes in many flavors, but I vastly just prefer plain (blanke) vla. A dutch friend first introduced me to vla by giving me blanke vla, and handing me a shaker of cinnamon to mix in with it. Yum! I am definitely addicted to it, to the point of me wanting to figure out how to make it so I can still have it when I go back to the States - it can't be that hard, right? Right!!?!

Jacquie vs. Dutch Pancakes Part II

So, you know since there was a part one that a part two had to follow.

On the advice of a dutch friend, I decided to be ambitious one morning and attempt to make Dutch pancakes - after all, I had the mix, how hard could it be?

I should stop a moment and remind all of my readers that this semester is the first time I have ever really cooked without a microwave. I regularly have to look up how to do basic things, including but not limited to cooking broccoli, making grilled cheese, and all ways to prepare an egg (I'm still trying to get the burnt-on egg white out of my pan after trying to poach eggs this morning, cause I'm tired of cooking with oil all the time).

Still, I was feeling confident, and figured it couldn't be -all- that hard....

Pancake 1: Far too thick. As I've mentioned in my previous post, Dutch pancakes are supposed to be pretty thin. My first attempt was honestly closer to an American pancake...which was odd considering the mix is pretty different. This one also got a bit broken up from when I flipped it over (using a plate, not actually flipping), and I accidentally let an edge get folded under

Pancake 2: Too oily. I got it to be thinner, but somehow ended up with FAR too much butter, which made me want to pat the pancake down like I would pizza...if only I actually had paper towels.

Pancake 3: I thought this one would be the winner...but nope. It was thin to be sure, and not oily...but I didn't compensate by reducing the time, so it ended up becoming a bit crunch-cracker-like in parts.

Pancake 4: Never happened...I gave up that day, then forgot I had a little mix left until it went rancid. Fail.

Throughout my attempt to make pancakes, I also managed to:

• Drop a pancake on the floor (not telling which one!)
• Burn my hand on the pan
• Get butter in my hair
• Fling a knife with butter on it against my chest because I burned my hand (second time)

All in all...the pancakes won. Again. (If you remember, I could not conquer the pancakes at the pancake bakery, finding myself bursting before finishing their sugary goodness).

Current Score: Jacquie: 0, Dutch Pancakes: 2

Jacquie vs. Dutch Pancakes Part I

For those of you who don't know what dutch pancakes are, you are really missing out. They are actually a lot closer to crepe than what Americans view as pancakes, and in my opinion, are much yummier.

When Andrea was visiting me last week from England (aka, going to watch tennis in Rotterdam), she and I went to the Pancake Bakery. Needless to say, Andrea had picked well. The place was quite small, so when we got there we had to wait outside a few minutes before we could even get a table. (There wasn't really room to wait insides even, just a little foyer where we could pretend not to be cold). Luckily we were seated pretty quickly, but being right next to the door we could see that there were people waiting throughout our entire meal. We didn't even go at a prime food time - maybe 1pm on a Friday? We sat at the table in the bottom right corner.

There were WAY too many pancakes to choose from, both savory and sweet. Andrea and I both ended up getting one with banana, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup, though I do definitetly want to go back and try the savory ones some time. The pancakes were HUGE! I wish I had had my camera with me (sorry Dayna!), because they were definitely picture worthy. (You'll have to settle for the one I stole off the pancake bakery website). Neither of us were even able to finish our pancakes, though I'll brag a little and say that I finished more...though I was in sugar overload the rest of the day...always a good thing for me, but maybe not so much for everyone around me!

How I Fail at Really Simple Tasks: The Dutch Edition

For those of you who know me pretty well, I imagine you have figured out by now that sometimes, really simple tasks completely confound me, strange when I have little problems with complicated tasks. Here in Amsterdam this has largely involved me getting lost, or at least, ending up weird places on public transport. I'll update this list as I come up with more amusing tales.

1) Failing to Open the Laundry Room Door: Yep...its pretty much what it sounds like. We have some sort of weird keypad on the door you have to punch a code into. I have the code, and can turn the knob...but for some reason the lock still doesn't open. Yes this means I have been doing a lot of handwash.

UPDATE: Apparently I had to turn the lock the other direction. Thanks Andrea...

2) Completely Missing my Bus Stop and Riding to the Very End of the Line: Try to go over to Jantien's for dinner on Monday (one of my ISN orientation leaders), I got a little turned around. Which wouldn't really be that sad...except as I was sitting on the bus, I saw another group member walk by and thought "oh look, there's Bence." You would think I would work out that I should have gotten off when the bus went straight, and he walked right. Not entirely sure where I ended up, but I had to get off the bus, wait for the driver to get coffee, and then get back on again. Everyone at dinner got a kick out of this.

3) Washing Dishes in Sinks Meant for Tall People: At the same dinner, I was trying to wash the dishes to help out. I ended up needing to use the little step stool just to stand at the sink, because it was awkwardly too tall.

4) Not Realizing I Have a Breaker Box in My Room: My bathroom light is burned out, it's completely dark... (one week passes)...wait, what is this box on the wall? Hey look, one switch is flipped down...let there be light!

5) Not Knowing How to Cook: This is again, exactly what it sounds like. I managed to make a somewhat real dinner last night though...only 2 weeks since I moved in to my room.

6) Waiting at the Wrong Night Bus Stop for An Hour: Since the night bus comes every half hour,you'd think I would have realized sooner...but no. I ended up waiting for that bus for total of an hour and half in the cold.

7) Walking in A Giant Loop Looking for Ikea: Andrea and I went to Ikea Tuesday night, and when we got off the metro we should have turned right and not left...so we walked a huge loop through a financial district, that didn't have real sidewalks on all the roads. Again, not fun when cold. Probably took us about an hour to find Ikea...sad since if we had turned the right direction, we would have seen it immediately.

8) Grocery Shopping: Since I don't know how to cook, I don't know what to buy when buying food. This is stressful enough when in English. Try doing it when everything is in Dutch.

9) Not Knowing How to Wash/Cut a Head of Lettuce: Again, from helping at Jantien's. We buy all our lettuce at home pre-washed, and in bags. Denice handed me a head of lettuce and said "cut this"....and I had to just give her a blank stare. But I know now! On a similar note, I had to google how to make grilled cheese. Doesn't help when you apparently bought diet cheese (again, grocery shopping is stressful).

To be continued...

10) Getting Lost..Again: Yep, I already have more to add. I got hopelessly lost today, trying to walk from the university doctor to my class. What should have been only a 15min walk ended up being almost an hour. It was cold. It was not fun.

The First Excursion

After finally getting a few hours of sleep last night, my parents and I set off to find a place to eat lunch, and walk around for a while, doing a little bit of shopping.

As such, here are really my first impressions of Amsterdam. We walked from our hotel to Dam Square, which among other things, felt like a macabre version of Covent Garden. The square was much more open than Covent Garden, but there were a bunch of creepy mimes...creepier than usual, because they were all scary looking, holding scythes or wearing scary masks. (Though there was one that looked like a blue Incan warrior). I wish I had gotten better pictures of them, but I am sort of scared of mimes, after one tried to hit my friends and I when I was 10 with one of his props. (Long story). There is clearly some cultural thing I'm missing here.

We spent some time wandering in the de Biienkorf department store, which was rather similar in layout and architecture to John Lewis in London, so that was a little unnerving. I did have my first experience with Dutch coffee, in that it is not as watered down as American coffee. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. Adding to my list of things to do: drink lots more coffee (knowing me, this really shouldn't be a problem).

I am also quite amazed by the variety of food that I've come across already. Just in our travels today, we walked by Thai, Chinese, Argentinean, American (New York pizza!), Mexican, Italian, Spanish, and of course, Dutch. Since we didn't walk all that far, I was impressed.

My parents and I ended up getting dinner with a friend of mine from high school, who happens to be in Amsterdam for a few days for her study abroad program, along with her roommate. We ate at a dutch restaurant that was very good, but I suspect a tourist trap, as the menus were written in five different languages. Still, trying to eat somewhere where the menus were all in dutch would just stress my mother out, so I suppose it all worked out in the end.

This will most likely be my last post for a few days - orientation starts tomorrow, and I'll be in a hostel for 2 nights until I am allowed in to my dorm. Wish me luck!