Snowy day

Yesterday I wrapped things up at school (minus one big thing: graduation project) and started moving into my new room. Also went to a Christmas dinner in Alphen aan de Rijn with Jorn's family.

It finally feels like winter. I might even start believing that once you could ice skate all the way to school on the canals. I was looking outside towards my new view yesterday and observed a picnic set out on the ice.

Photo: Delft, one day before I left for the States.

Heroes Dream

This dream will only make more sense if you have watched the series Heroes. Otherwise, it's just gory and weird. Basically the whole plot of the show was altered and none of the original characters were in my dream:

In my dream I had powers like Peter Petrelli from Heroes. That meant I could collect all sorts of powers by being exposed to other people's abilities. In this dreamworld, there were two main factions factions. The first was the "company," that was represented only in my dream through an eevil guy who was once a normal person. This once normal guy had gone through a lot of painful surgery and treatment to become this deformed, partly robotized, Sylar-like, power stealing machine*. He once had been part of this evil conglomeration, but had gone renegade by the time my dream started. This guy had a powerful injection and pill form drugs (to slip into people's drinks) that could disable one's powers just long enough for him to slice off your brain. The second faction was a fanatic and crazy group of powerful people who wanted to purge the earth/use their powers for genocide/conquer the world. Between these two groups there was me, other people with powers, and other people with various agendas.

I pretty much spent my whole dream running from the scary dude who wanted to slice my brain and staying away from the crazy people who wanted to recruit me. Since I was very powerful, this should have been an easy task... however, everywhere I turned, people's brains were getting sliced off right in front of me. Every time I tried to help someone else with abilities, they ended up dying. I spent half of my dream invisible, but this guy was somehow could track my movements (even through a surreal Chinese grocery store).

At some point, I went to a lecture by some researchers of the mutant phenomenon. It was a lecture given by a fringe group that was highly secret and mobile. In the seminar, we learned about a hidden lake where people with abilities could adapt to live underwater. I was very inspired by the whole talk and made it my mission to set off towards said lake. With my flying friend we set off towards our new destination. After narrowly escaping once more from the grasp of bionic dude, we flew off hand and hand against the backdrop of a city nightscape.

Soo, I really just wanted to remember this dream for that last part when I flew off. It's weird but sometimes in dreams I have stronger feelings for people and things than I would in real life. At that moment there was nothing better than being in love with faceless flying dude, the cold night air, and the city spiraling smaller and smaller as we flew away. Then I really had to wake up and pee.

*he cuts off people's skull caps to steal their powers.

tiramisu

I was sitting in the kitchen yesterday when I saw the words "3D tiramisu" scribbled on the Volkskrant. I asked Boris what that cryptic message meant. He explained that there was an article in the food section on how to make tiramisu that involved less work and less waiting. I commented that tiramisu doesn't involve THAT much waiting, which in turn made me reflect on how far I have progressed in life.

I realized that when I was younger I never had any patience at all (and I still don't, really). In real life that translated into others perceiving me as a blunt, impatient, and often rude person. I am still seen this way today, but to a much lesser degree. I still remember an incident when I stormed out of the dentist's office vowing never to go back after an hour of waiting, even though the dentist was our neighbor and a good friend.

In terms of cooking and hobbies, that meant that I hated making or doing anything that involved waiting for an extended amount of time (15min+). This hatred extended to making jello, my favorite Chinese almond jelly, baked goods of all kinds, and resulted in a lot of failed experiments in growing plants.

Nowadays, I have a live avocado plant, even after 6 months, and though I still don't l-o-v-e oven dishes, I don't really mind them. I think it's a positive reflection on course through life. Every day small steps in good directions. Maybe one day soon I will even enjoy waiting, but I won't hold my breath.

--
3D(ip) Tiramisu for 2:

-30g dark chocolate (at least 70%)
-125g marscapone
-2 tablespoons marsala wine
-1 tablespoon powdered sugar
-6 savoiardi (or lady fingers)
-2 glasses of hot espresso
-2 tablespoons cognac

Chop the chocolate so that you still have some to chew on (???). Add the mascarpone, marsala, and powdered sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add the chocolate through the mix. Deal the savoiardi over three dessert plates and set a bit of marscapone nearby. Divide the cognac over two glasses and pour the espresso in. Set the glasses on the plates and begin to dip (?)

*okay, I will get this checked by a Dutch person. I'm not sure about the translation. does 1eetlapel=1tablespoon?

waiting..

sitting in studio.
waiting till it's 2:30 for this group discussion to start and more importantly, to end.
waiting for the day to be over, that means after orchestra practice.
waiting for all my gifts to buy themselves.
waiting for Friday, then Saturday to go to the US
waiting for Christmas then New Year.
then waiting until I have to go back.
then more waiting...

things i want to see while i'm the US:
1. New Museum of Contemporary Art - New York, New York
2. IAC HQ - New York, New York

pheasant + dimsum

A few nights ago I prepared pheasant for the first time in my life. Michiel was on his way to Rijswijk to buy one and I came with him for a mini adventure, deciding at the last moment to also buy two for experimentation (on Meike, Katrin, Dries, and Jorn). The way was 45 min each way and we even took a little ferry for one leg of the journey for 2 eurocent each. It was a good thing we decided to bike!

To prepare the pheasant, I wrapped it in bacon and stuffed a lot of garlic and bay leaves up its butt before I realized there was an opening near the neck. We also made some mashed potatoes (aardappel puree) and stir fried veggies on the side. hmmm...though I had high hopes, it didn't turn out as deliciously as I had wished. However, the gravy we produced was pretty awesome. The meat was very gamey, which I don't mind, but the meat was dry and kinda tasteless. I think next time the bird should only be put in the oven for 30-45min.

The next day I made soup with Jorn from the leftovers and it turned out really well. We dumped in "asian spices" from the C1000, some chinese kool?, onions, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. The whole thing was totally consumed by nightfall.

Additionally, because Lanna and Erika were in town this weekend, I took them to dim sum in Rotterdam Saturday morning. We went to Dong Hai, a place recommended by Yu Fang. It took us awhile to find the place, though it was only across the street from Tai Wu, another joint I'd been to previously. I just asked random Asian people on the street, and eventually found it. It was slightly embarrassing when I found myself asking a Chinese man where Dong Hai was, to have him point to a sign right in front of us with the name written in Chinese (then you know it's really authentic?).

A good sign walking in was there were no white people to be seen in the whole place and that the menu wasn't in picture format. The downside was I didn't know what/how to order. We tried to explain what we wanted in a mixture of broken Chinese and generalisms. Anyways, the food was pretty good; much better than Tai Wu. I miss having dim sum carted out on trolleys where I can point to what I want. The benefit of Tai Wu was the color plate images for each dish.

I have to say I am still looking for that perfect place for dim sum for brak Saturday and Sundays.

dim sum reviews (so far)
1. Dong Hai, Rotterdam - 7.0
2. Tai Wu, Rotterdam - 5.0

to try
1. Qi(2) Ling(2) Ge(2), Den Haag
2. Huang(2) Shang(4) Huang(2), Rotterdam
Growing list of some more dim sum/Chinese food recommendations from Yu Fang and other Chinese people.


Note: Have to remind Lanna to buy me dim sum flashcards. Next time I will know how to read everything on the menu.

Questions

This morning, the five of us were gathered at Sander's apartment, stuffing ourselves with brunch and reflecting on our process this last phase (2 out of 3) before receiving feedback from our mentors in the afternoon*. Several questions occurred to me during all this reflection and evaluation:

1. Why is it so freaking hard to externalize the design process?
2. How is it possible that the actual design happens in less than 2 days (which maybe only happens at TU Delft?)?? Everything else falls into conceptualizing or research or problem orientation.
3. What the hell have I been learning?

*I have been working on my IDP (integral design project) project for more than 3 months now, working for a mediocre company, on a mediocre topic, but on a positive note, with a nice team. The topic is roof safety. The company will remain nameless.

Lichtjes Avond

Yesterday Delft celebrated Lichtjes Avond, or Evening of the Lights, a kind of pre Christmas celebration. The canals and buildings on the Oude Delft were lit with colored lights and smoke (with the help of Frank?). There were street performances, food stalls, merchandise stalls, and small exhibitions everywhere. We* forewent a real dinner and opted to eat broodje rookworsts and rijst kip kerrie in disposable containers simultaneously chugging gluhwine from stall to stall pushing slowly through the crush. Anna, Lieke, and Heleen performed a belly dance in front of the Tango, shaking the little gazebo with their rhythms. It was a great success, but I hope they don't get a cold. We saw Vaniek (my new housemate!) pass by on a dinghy turned party boat, and the sfeer was generally gezellig. After watching a second showing of the belly dancing chicas, I drank a couple of beers in the Tango before going home to sleep early full of gluhwine and happy memories.

In other news, I have a new house right in the center of the city. Jeej. At the Tango I bumped into some people whose house I had been to for an instemming previously. It was probably pretty awkward for them to have to say hello to a rejected roommate. But it made me really happy I didn't get the room. Now I have prime location, awesome roommates, beautiful neighbors, and I can get used to living right next to the supermarket again! When 5:50pm Sunday rolls around I just have to roll out of my room and saunter down the street.

Totally unrelated: it's funny to watch Dutch people cycling and smoking at the same time. Reminds me of watching Senior Haus football games where the Romanians would look so badass smoking while running after the ball (or was it only Virgil??).

Photo: Duko and Inga outside of the Tango
*Michiel, Duko, Inga, Daniel, Michel and later Katrin, Meike + boyfriends

Chinese hot pot

Jorn asked me Sunday morning while we were eating left over Thai food whether or not we would be eating exclusively with chopsticks at my house in less than two weeks. His comment made me realize how close I am to being home, and how much I have missed Chinese food this year. Nothing I can make personally compares to the diversity of my mom and grandma's home cooking. Speaking of food...

Sunday night after a whole afternoon of practicing for the St. Bavo Christmas concert, I finally got to sit down and start stuffing myself full of hotpot. Maybe one of the only good things to come out of the boatweek was that I got to know this girl Yu Fang, and two other Chinese guys Xiao Ye and Zhi Fang. We went over to Yu Fang and Ambeika's (sp?) nice apt, and Xiao Ye who is an expert cook set us to work preparing the hotpot. It was Jorn and Daniel's first experience with hotpot, so it was fun to see their reaction. We ended up eating 1kg of pork, a lot of beef, white asparagus, nian gao (new year's cake), tofu, cabbagey stuff, little sausages, sliced potatoes, and white fish. It was so delicious I thought I was going to explode. I kept rationing water for myself (to fight off the spiciness) so I would have more room in my stomach. Afterwards we ate ice cream and dispersed into the night..Ambieka promises to make Saag Paneer or some Indian dish from the south next time. HOORAY.

I realized that not only do I miss Chinese food, but I also miss sitting around the dinner table for hours taking small breaks in between gorging and talking. There is a social aspect that is too short to be satisfying in my normal eating habits.

Next time it's gonna look like this:


Also, my new resolution is to learn how to play badminton.
Note to self: ask Xiao Ye where to get hotpot stock.

long weekend

Every day this weekend has been excruciatingly long, though fun. I wonder if I will feel rested enough to be alive next week.

Daniel: the idea of a whole week of work and study is so depressing after drinking/playing away your whole weekend

Friday, directly after an afternoon of boatweek presentations, I hopped on the train to Amsterdam. The event was the opening of Anouk van Dijk's new studio, Tokoyo Studio's or something. I was there because Jorn was helping one of the dancers compose a live piece for the event. They had ordered green curry for us, which was nice because I went into a feeding frenzy before eating lots of hors d'oeuvres. The whole audience was mostly well dressed old people, dancers, and one or two random sound and lights guys. I felt pretty out of place, but I continued eating and looking like I understood Dutch. I watched a couple of dance performances, but the highlight of the evening was definitely the piece that Jorn had worked on with the one dancer.

To tell the truth, I didn't really understand the whole dance but I liked it. The piece started with the girl huddled in a corner wearing nothing but her underwear. The music was kind of ambient electronic sounds fitting in with the warehouse setting. Eventually she got up and started dancing/thrashing around. The nudity was surprisingly not that distracting and actually added to the dance somehow. The word "nu" (now) was interwoven into the music here and there reaching a climax, while the girl progressively fell on the ground and got dustier and dustier. At the very end she moved to a corner of the room, prompting the audience to also move from their original space. Taking off her underwear, she moved to stand in front of a projecter with an image of her nude self on her belly. On the belly of the projected self, there was also a smaller version of herself, dancing the previous dance. I don't know what it all meant.. maybe I'll try to decipher it later.

After the dance, we drove to Rotterdam picking up Kakee on the way to Ivo's house warming in a record time of 35 min. I was only there shortly because I was so tired, but his house is awesome. It's right in the middle of Schouwburgplein.

Saturday noonish, I started on my way back to Amsterdam to see Jorn play in the Melkweg as part of the band outfit for singer/songwriter (hahahha.. hate that term) Emil. On the way there, I managed to miss both the people I was trying to meet at two separate train stations, but we met up at central station so it didn't matter. Fuck the Writer won second prize in the Grote Prijs van Nederland. Everyone was boohoo sad. It was also conveniently raining to complete the depressing scene.

Having lost the others Pieter, Gaspard, Jorn, and I tramped around in the rain looking for the Koe. When we got there, there was a lot more waiting involved, but my rack of lamb was delicious. Afterwards, we drank some beer so we wouldn't feel like total losers going home so early. We even managed to just catch the 20:10 train back to Delft. Getting home from Amsterdam was, as always, an ordeal, but my spirits were high after watching Breakfast Club again.

On an up side, Lanna and her friend Erika are visiting me next weekend.

portfolio stuff

So, since I am lazy and procrastinating work.. I started this blog and also a web page on google pages after I found Janet's website the other day. The layout is frustratingly inflexible, but it is easy to upload content.

Anyways, to make a boring story short, I started making my own website for semi-professional purposes. Today I updated the graphic design section in it. I also lured poor Ellen into starting a website too to house her dramas. I'm going to help with photoshop! Muahahhahaha.

encounters of the dutch kind: hutspot

I had my first experience with hutspot recently. According to J.C. Diehl, hutspot is the most Dutch thing you can eat. Serendipitously, just as I had learned of this mashed potato-carrot concoction, we happened to make it for dinner, and it all happened because of Daniel's refusal to eat the bratwurst I brought back from Germany with just normal mashed potatoes (even though it was Sunday and the last supermarket had been closed for 5 minutes already at 6:05).

Our salvation came when we called Inga to eat with. She had carrots! As it turns out, a lot of onions, butter, and creme fraiche can make boiled potatoes and carrots go a long way. Jorn found this great recipe online, and the result was delicious even though everyone kept warning me hutspot was gross. The bratwurst was also soooo smaaaaaklijk, much better than the kind you can get here.

I put the candles I got from Pielter's wedding to good use, and we ate by candlelight. When we fed some to Bas, he told us that this was easily in the top five hutspot experiences of his life (out of 50+ times).

Recipe (source) boil carrots, potatoes in the meat stock. Add fried onions and everything else except the meat, mash mash. Ready the wurst and serve on the side.



Ingredients
1 kg kruimige (??) potatoes
750 gram carrots
500 gram onions
1 meat bullion tablet
20 gram butter
125 ml creme fraiche
thin sausages or spicy wurst
20 gram butter - fresh ground pepper

note: before I arrived in the Netherlands, I never liked potatoes much except in the fried variety...but now i know better (potatoes?)

need for documentation

MERRY SINTERKLAAS IEDEREEN!

starting a blog again. here we go...maybe more elaboration and less shopping lists later

films i watched recently, and my ratings:
- the marriage of tuya 8.0
- das leben der anderen 9.0
- rescue dawn 7.5
- crash 8.0
- ichi the killer 7.0



other recent activities:
- STRP festival, Eindhoven
- search for graduation project
- addiction to Heroes (oh no!)
- visiting Lanna in Goettingen
- search for new years plans

upcoming activities:
- grote pris Nederland, Melkweg Amsterdam
- opening from Anouk van Dijk's new studio
- Ivo's house warming
- playing in christmas concert in the St. Bavo Kerk, Haarlem