Last night, I went ten-pin bowling with Gorken and some of the AIESECers. I found it difficult to believe how bad I was. I must have scored a full 60 points less than last time. Gorken was playing well, though. At one stage, he got three strikes in a row. The computer screen above the lane flashed "Turkey" which we all thought was very apt for Gorken. Perhaps a "turkey" is a special term for getting three strikes in a row?
posted by James 8:03 am
I had my worst luck so far, with the trains, this morning. The 7:09am train didn't turn up at all. Then, there were so many people waiting for the 7:39am train, that there wasn't enough room for all of us. I was at the back of the "queue" and by the time when I reached the doors of the train, I decided not to get on - it didn't look very safe. People were literally packed in, pressed against the windows. I caught the next train (about 15 minutes later) and luckily got a seat.
Winter has arrived early. People have to scrape ice off their car's windscreen, in the morning. My feet feel so cold. From the window of the train, everything outside looked to be tinted white with a thin veil of frost.
The Dutch have many traditional foods associated with Christmas. One of these is chocolate letters! Last night, I noticed that half of an aisle at the supermarket was taken up with this chocolate alphabet. They come in about five different flavours, but, so far, I have only purchased a milk chocolate "J".
posted by James 8:43 am
For the rest of Friday morning, I was fascinated by the snow. It got heavier during the morning, but stopped at around 12pm. Snow collected on the tree-tops and formed white fluffy "cushions" on the wicker chairs. There was a blanket of snow, approximately 2cm thick, on top of each of the cars parked outside the office.
Halfway through the morning, I had a meeting with Paul in his office. He could tell that I was excited by the snow. He opened the door from his office leading outside, grabbed some snow with both hands, and crafted a snowball. He gave it to me. It felt lighter than I was expecting. I gave it back to Paul, and he biffed it over the back wall.
Luca, Rik and I went out for lunch just after 12:30pm. A parked car’s roof is an excellent source of snow for creating snowballs. I hurried to the nearest car and swept my open palm across its roof, accumulating a nice mountain of snow. I used some of it to form my own snowball and playfully tossed it from hand to hand, wondering whom to target. I aimed for Luca, throwing with a side-arm style. The ball collided with Luca’s side, and exploded on impact.
The footpath was very slippery due to a layer of grey slush – snow going through the thawing process.
I tried bowling an off-break, with another snowball, in the shopping street. There was no turn, though. Rather, the ball broke in half, when it hit the ground, and skidded forward for a few metres.
In the evening, Moise, Maja, Gorken and I had dinner together at Maja’s place. It was easy for me to get there from work. I just stayed on the train for an extra stop (alighting at Tilburg West) and walked another ten minutes.
We ate enchilladas for dinner, and chatted about funny experiences from our traineeships. Gorken gave us each a gift – a small blue medallion which has an image of an eye in the centre. You hang it in your room, and it wards away bad luck and evil spirits. I was touched by this gesture.
On Saturday, Martin and I decided to defrost the fridge. Our theory is that there is too much ice in the freezer, and this is causing the fridge to continuously leak water. Our method was simple. We turned off the fridge, removed the stock and placed it on Martin’s balcony (where it is quite cold these days). We boiled a couple of saucepans of water, and placed them in the freezer compartment – to speed up the process. Then we played the waiting game.
We soon became bored of playing the waiting game. We selected some sturdy-looking knives from the cutlery drawer and began working away at the ice. I discovered that the best method is to wedge the knife edge into the place where the ice meets the fridge panelling, and twist. This dislodges huge blocks of ice in one go. Martin would pick up the ice from where it landed, and lob it into the sink. We were constantly mopping up puddles of water from residual freezer ice melting.
When the fridge was completely free of ice, we plugged it back in and replaced the food.
In the evening, Martin and I met Moise and Gorken in town to go clubbing. We sampled a selection of three bars and decided to go home just before 3am.
Gorken is enthusiastic to answer our questions about Turkey. He was pleased when I asked him a question about Ramadan (it starts today) and actively encouraged me to ask him any other questions that I had. This attitude has made me keen to look up information about Turkey, at work.
My Sunday was fairly quiet. I went for a short run after breakfast (my first run since the marathon) and I felt fine. I did some translation practice and some planning for my New Zealand presentation. Later on, Martin and I met Maja and some of her friends (university students) at Kadinsky for a beer tasting. For EUR 6, we could sample five beers. There was a selection of Dutch and Belgian brands.
Much of the conversation was recounting the history involving Serbia, Hungary and Turkey. (Maja often reminds us that Turkey ruled her country for 500 years). Compared with New Zealand, the history of these countries is long and rich with detail. I would like to learn more about it.
Back at home, I drank tea and ate speculaas (a spiced biscuit which tastes like pepernoten). Martin and I noticed a puddle of water coming from the fridge. So, we cursed our fortunes and resolved to call the caretaker for the house, sometime this week.
posted by James 9:00 am