Days 83 & 84 - Lovin' the Dutch Oven

Day 83- (Sat) Pizza oven
After another scintilating saturday studying(!) it was time to revive an old tradition from home - pizza night! Armed with 1.50 euo pizzas from Jumbo('elke dag beter'- 'everyday better' proclaims the bright yellow sign of our favourite Dutch supermarket chain) we cruised round to fire up the oven. And now my favourite part of living in this guesthouse - the dinner company. As we waited for our mix of margherita, pepperoni, chicken and corn (on pizza, not a soup!) etc to crispify we sat around effectively a card table that passes for a dining table in or excuses for kitchens (have I mentioned all the units are the same, right down to the crappy furniture - in each kitchen there even seems to be the same combination of one good and one dodgy broken IKEA chair - it ends up being a game to see if you can take your chair to someone elses place for dinner and come home with a better one!) ... anywho, where was I, oh yes ...cramped kitchen conversation .... so sitting around this tiny table (or perched on the kitchen bench if ur unlucky enough to come last and no more chairs will fit in the room!) were 2 aussies, a scot and two canadians (and that's positively bland as far as multiculturalism goes here) but the conversation ranged from a crazy Dutch politician having a crack at Muslims, to the Canadian Mayoral race to the benefits of Milo versus European drinking chocolate. No matter what meal of the day, or in what language (when my Dutch girls pop round for dinner or Tess tries in vain to teach me some Korean) ... its never just "pass the salt pls" around here :)

Day 84 - (Sun) Muffin better to do than bake
In need of yet another study break I busted out the fall-back muffin recipe from home and filled our tiny unit with a smell yummy enough to entice Tess out of her room! Apparently the sight of fresh baked goods was enough to send her back in there to retrieve her camera! (For anyone who's interested, the muffins are now doing the rounds on FB, tagged as me!) Who knew two red-hot elements with a tray between them, housed in something suspiciously resembling a microwave could bring so much joy :P

Observations: Although I've just spent this blog talking mainly about food I'm now about to complain about the side effects - I calculated the other day that I ride at least 8km each day, to and from uni, sometimes more if I make multiple trips, yet my pins are no closer to being "insurably toned" nor has my waistline all but disappeared ... Belgian chocolate, you gotta lotta 'splaining to do! In fact, instead of resembling a two-wheeled goddess, most mornings (now that its getting foggy) I end up hurtling into the uni bike-park sweating like a pig and desperately searching for a tissue to wipe my running nose/dribbling eyes/damp forehead, before peeling off the layers to see steam floating into the air! Its been single-digit temperatures here (yes, already! grrr) but I still manage to work up a sweat, and going downhill too! Hrm....

Mistakes: And while I'm on the subject of bikes ... I have come to th realisation that mine is in fact a piece of crap! As much as I love the Moo Mobile (and beieve it was worth buying purely for the novelty factor!) I must admit it is rusty, with bald tyres, terrible sqeaky breaks, with portable cheap lights and a creaking seat! I'm sure its only a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart from underneath me one day! So I've resolved I must begin the search or a new bike, in earnest, after exams. But for now, let's not tell Daisy... she's still got to carry my at least 8km each day and I don't want my only mode of transport to feel unloved and take it out on me over a speed hump!

Dutch I've learned: "Ik hep geen broers of zussen maar Ik hep twee honds" = (oooh a whole fancy sentence!) means "I don't have any brothers or sisters but I have two doggies! (who I keep seeing on skype every time I talk to Mum and Dad :P)
For now though, "Doei ..." ("Byyyyyyyyyyeee")

Days 78 to 82 - O, Beste...

Day 78 - (Mon) Happy Anniversary
Brett and my one-year anniversary today! So of course I was homesick :( But we had "brinner" together which was nice (for the uninitiated, thats BReakfast and dINNER, because of the time difference).
Also joined the Yearbook committee today, mainlu because I want to make sure I have one to take home at the end of my year here!
Finished the day attending a free lecture on Democracy in the Arab World. Was so nice to have the time to just sit and listen to an expert explain these issues that I've always wanted to know more about (in fact, feel I should know more about) and just absorb ... not have to take notes, not be tested later, just listen and learn. Only time I ever attended something like that at home was to pick out the "headline" and bolt back to the office to file!

Day 79 - (Tues) Awkward much?
So my theory that everyone here is so keen to study and enthusiastic in class suffered a blow today. Poetry class was painful. It was like being back in Oz - no one offering up anything, everyone looking at the floor, awkward silence UGH. So of course this has to be the week I get picked to be discussion leader! And on a topic I know sweet FA about. Murphy's hey!?

Day 80 - (Wed) Zuuuuummmmbaaaaaa
After a day of sleeping and studying it was time to get active. I've always seen the ads at home for this Zumba (the apparently cool-as-a-cucumber way to lose weight while becoming a salsa queen in your own living room) and discovered they offer classes at the uni gym. Arrived at the gym (already sweaty from the 25 minute cycle there! intense warm up!) to discover my Zumba-buddy Celine has done hip-hop dancing for years. I begin preparing myself to play the part of "white girl can't dance" but find after a few minutes that it really doesn't matter. Our Zumba instructor is the epitome of a Beyonce back-up dancer, complete with afro and bootay, but the rest of us are like flailing fish on a boat bottom! What's worse, our plan to stand at the back so no one could see us backfired when we realised the windows behind us were lined with macho mean headint upstairs to the weights who stop to peer in at us sticking out our butts and pumping our elbows like chickens a discotheque! But its a hoot ... half the exercise is in the abs from laughing at yourself so much. And who knew, its actually a tough work out. After one successful session Celine and I have decided to keep going, pick up some moves, and bust them out on a Maastricht D-floor sometime soon :P
After working up an appetite I cycled (no, struggled uphill) home for tasty korean beef and rice, cooked by my roomie Tess as a cheer up for my bout of homesickness and to belatedly celebrate the one-year milestone. What a sweetie :)

Day 81 - (Thurs) First (almost) all nighter
Fifth (I think) Dutch class tonight. We're starting to actually use a few words to each other in class now. Was lots of listening and practicing pronunciation this time - its what we all need most help with. And again, for some reason, the Dutch Royal Family came up in conversation (they're a favourite topic of our teacher!). Home by 9pm for an unpleasant stretch of study after letting a poetry assignment crep up on me ... took even longer because I ended up getting distracted by the cool poems in the back of my textbook!

Day 82 - (Fri) Controversy and cabbage
Somehow managed to have a debate about abortion in poetry class today... which is bad enough among native speakers but can get dangerously lost in translation among English-as-a-second-language participants! Then, in a complete change of topic, we were assigned readings on "Why Britney Spears Matters" for the next tutorial ... stay tuned for the answer to that life-altering question!
Highlight of the day: Dutch dinner at night - 3.50 euro (bout $5 AU) for three-courses of hearty Dutch cuisine. Pea soup, cheese chunks straight out of the 70s and THE DENSEST Rye bread Ive ever seen for entree, mashed potato (of course), surprisingly tasty red stewed/pcikled cabbage, meatballs, sausage (which tasted like a giant hot dog weiner) and gravy for main, and bowlfuls of pofferjes (those tiny Dutch pancakes) and licorice ('Drop' to the locals) for dessert. Bargain ... we'll be back. Capped the night off wit  beer and some soccer at the international student pub ... Germany v Turkey, commentators speaking German, everyone in the bar (except for maybe two people) German .... lots of "Oh ja, Oh ja" going on in the background ... thankfully Germany won. Arrived back at the guesthouse to find half naked blokes in the room down the hall playing some sort of card/drinking game in their front kitchen ...!

Observations: Traditional Dutch food is not all that different from traditional German food ... or Belgian food for that matter.

Dutch I've learnt: "hoeveel?" = "how many?" as in "hoeveel biers?"!
"De Slegte" = "the Bad Guy" (not really sure why this came up but I thought it was funny, or as the Dutch say "grappig")
"O, Beste" = "So, so..."

Days 75 to 77 - Food, glorious fooooood!

Day 75 - (Fri) A (verbal) taste of home
Crunch time -today's the day to perform a poem in poetry class. I've chosen Mulga Bill's Bicycle by Banjo Paterson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulga_Bill's_Bicycle), about a bloke's awkward (to say the least) first bike ride, in a bid to give an Australian perspective on this country's most-loved pastime. Went down well. I'd forgotten in fact how infectious that kind of Bush poetry can be and was reminded of primary school poetry recitals :P Although, my classmates were grateful for the "actions" that came along with my performance which helped with interpreting my "thick Australian accent"!
That night, a celebration, at Nakita's "new" unit (she moved upstairs, most likely to get away from the mouse taunting her in the unit downstairs!) Twas also the debut of the mini oven - a kitchen appliance we've all been missing badly. Kita spotted one at the store up the road and now its the latest fad in the guesthouse - we've all got one of the microwave sized wonders. Yo don't realise how much you miss grilled-cheese-topped pasta bakes and fresh baked muffins until you're deprived of them for months...

Day 76 - (Sat) My very own hot-box
So of course this morning I went to the shop first thing and bought my own oven!

Day 77 - (Sun) Brunch communist-style
Was a regular Sunday morning spread. All the girls gathered at Andra's for the mst extravigant student brekkie - each bringing a few things to contribute and sharing in cooking duties. Unsurprisingly, I was in charge of pancakes. Katie brought a whole boody tropical harvest (fresh from the market - pineapple, melon, even mango mmm) and of course we had waffles with chocolate spread (for about an 18th of the price we paid in Bruges). Also, the Dutch are fond of what we Aussie's would call fair bread, for breakfast. Except their chocolate sprinkles actually taste like chocolate, bigger than ours, and more velvety mmmm
Stuffed full, I had planned to take part in a uni excursion to a professional Sand Castle competition being held about an hour away by train - but the trip was cancelled last minute :( So instead, I took myself off to the movies, solo .... bad idea ... the only flick showing was "going the distance", a movie about a couple dating long distance ... hrm. Only thing that ameliorated my depression afterwards was chuckling at the thought of the bloke sittng about 4 seats away from me, about my age, also watching this chick flick by himself!

Observations: There is too much poetry out there to ever read ... and only half of it makes any sense to me!
Mistakes: Watching a long-distance rom-com by myself while in a long-distance relationship, half way around the world!
Mini victories: Manging not to cry in said movie!
Dutch I've learnt: "Ik weet 't niet" = "I don't know" (new favourite phrase in class!)
"Kunt u mij zeggen waar de WC is?" = "Can you tell me where the toilet is?" (I should learn this one in all languages!)

My first poem....

Had to write a poem for my Pop Songs & Poetry class and wasn't quite ready to write a deep and meaningful love sonnet so... Behold, my "Ode to Vegemite" (written around the time I may have received a replenishing jar from Mum!):

"Black tar housed in yellow and red,
Salty wonder we spread on bread,
A zing on the tongue,
Ejoyed by old and young,
Oh Vegemite, you're so right!

Now rare as gold,
Nowhere is it sold,
As addictive as 'coke',
Or the need for a smoke,
Oh Vegemite, you're so right.

A certain craving it sates,
Should be called 'vege-mate',
Can't live without the stuff,
But convincing others is tough,
Oh Vegemite, you're so right.

Mine shipped from abroad,
Stockpiles I horde,
No substitute I've found,
Searched the world round,
Oh Vegemite, you're so right."

Pause for reflection...

This one doesn't really fit in chronologically but after about 7 weeks here now (as of writing on October 8) I wanted to take time to reflect on a few things...

When I first arrived, the days were long and generally warmish (although it still rained occassionally). These days (apart from the positively lovely bout of sunshine we've had the past few days) it rains regularly and darkness falls at least an hour earlier - so around 7.30pm/now. Aparently we turn our clocks back one hour at the end of August. The nights are also colder now, you can really feel the chill in the air when you step outside. It's not cold inside yet but I am confident the heating will work beautifully when that becomes the case.

One positive is all the leaves are changing. All along the roadsides there are these carpets of golden maple-shaped leaves and the climbers which cling to the outside of so many of the buildings have turned from green to a striking, deep red. It's almost as if its snowing leaves as you cycle down the street - one drifted down from a branch and right into my face the other day!

On the down side - I must get a wriggle on and buy a rain coat before I get caught out again. I've found these black, thick poncho looking things, very Darth Vader-esque, with a hood and which come down to cover your legs and handle bars when you're on a bike. Although I'm afraid I'll scare little children if I ride around under something like that, so best keep looking.

I also need to get a proper warm winter coat, but that involes what I term reconaissance shopping (lots of looking around for quality and price) and I don't have the bloody time! I also consider myself a bit of a recovering shopaholic over here (after abstaining for at least 6 months before leaving home) and am loathe to go back into the shops for fear I'll relapse! So far anything I've bought here has been on sale and has replaced something that broke! But I can't avoid it forever ... apparetly last winter was an average of minus 10C or something equally ridiculous and my brought-from-home target hoodie ain't gonna cut it in that.

I suppose I feel at home here by now. I'm starting to know the shortcuts to uni and town, where I can and can't ride my bike and remembering to turn my lights on at night to avoid the 35 euro fine. I know which shops to go for which essentials (even found a place the other day that sells Milo!), when they're open (NOT Sunday, hardly any of Monday - and Business SA thinks Adelaide has it bad!) and which are the best Dutch snacks to buy at the supermarket (although I haven't quite figured out the best cheese, or found somewhere that sells houmus!!! withdrawals much?)

I've accumulated enough bits and pieces to make my room colourful but, contrary to my existence at home, I don't actually have enough possessions to create much of a mess! (I swear Mum and Dad!) It's quite the little community at our guesthouse. There's a sport park up the road, a playground out the back, you always bump into someone at the supermarket not five minutes away and you never have to eat alone - there's always group cooking going on in someone's kitchen. We even have our own facebook page dedicated to the "Countryside Guesthouse" cause we're practically out in the sticks compared to the more central guesthouse. The upside for us tho is we each get our own room and only have to share our bathroom/kitchen/laundry with one other person (except for the odd occassion when ur place gets invaded by bored and hungry exchange students bearing beer!) as opposed to up to 30 in the main guesthouse. And you can actually get some peace and quiet here - instead of trying to drown out the noise of a Germany vs Sweden beer chugging competition in the communal kitchen outside your door at the main guesthouse.

So all in all, I've settled in ok, I guess. It's about now that it starts to sink in that this is it for the next 10 months. Of course, there'll be plenty of side trips to far flung places, but for the majority of those days this is home sweet home. As long as I don't run out of Vegemite I think it just might work...!