4/365: Deflt details

Today was yet another day in my endless May holiday; the second to last. My feat for the day was that I played tennis with my housemates, Tim and Illhame. The weather was brisk but sunny, and we ended up at the Locus Publicus with Sierd and Inga after we finished a series of mini-tournaments. While sitting on the terrace, a for rent sign caught my eye, and eventually my gaze wandered onto a window detail (left).

When you live in a city for a long time, you become blissfully ensconed in everyday life while becoming more and more unaware of the details around the city. I was surprised to see so many stony faces around me where I had never looked before.

Tonight, Gas, Bart and I will practice for the first time in awhile. There is a band contest on Wednesday, and we have to fill 20 minutes...I'm going to try out my new pedals.

Rotterdam Market and Mussels

Naomi visited me last week marking the, ashamedly, first time I have gone to the Rotterdam market since moving to the Netherlands. On market days (Tues, Thurs, Sat), the giant square at Rotterdam Blaak is filled with hundreds of stands. There we acquired fish and several second hand granny sweaters each.

Today, I went to the Rotterdam market again together with Inga, and some others. We bought some mussels for dinner.

A Mussel Recipe (from Inga's mom)
mussels for 3-4 persons (~2kg)
4-6 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 shallots finely chopped
2 sliced tomatoes

1 bunch chopped coriander
2 cups creme fraiche
1 chopped leek

1. Sautee shallots in olive oil with garlic
2. Add the mussels with ~1/2 liter of water (?)
3. Steam the mussels
4. Remove the mussels onto a serving plate
5. From the left over water, add the creme fraiche, leek and tomatoes
6. Heat and reduce
7. Add coriander and serve on top of mussels

haring eating sequence

Mooi Weer

It is such a pretty day outside! I woke up to a perfect blue sky peeking out of my curtains and the sound of children screaming on the playground.

Branding yourself

This morning was bright and sunny, leaving no evidence of the tremendous amount of snow that had fallen the previous night. After Michiel and I had both awoken, we made our way slowly to the market. We ate a haring a piece, the taste would continually haunt the corners of our mouths the duration of a Saturday, and drank coffee on the Beestenmarkt in the sun. Michiel later shopped for some tobacco for the pipe he had gotten from Alexander for his birthday and we trolled around in the used bookstore for some cheap books. I ended up buying two more books than I will probably read (The Debt to Pleasure and The Vesuvius Club).

I noticed that the common thread that punctuated our walk through this morning was how we often end up consciously and subconsciously branding ourselves to the outside world by gravitating towards the things we like or think we'll like. Michiel told me that he hoped that he would enjoy smoking his pipe because it would fit his image.

When I first met Michiel, he told me that he had branded himself one day a couple years ago as a mousquetaire moderne. Not being one myself, I can only say that in all appearances, being a mousquetaire moderne means living an understated, quiet, yet extravagant lifestyle of enjoying fine wines, literature, and having a greater than basic understanding of antiquated crafts, planting techniques, and history. Today, he reflected that the image of the mousquetaire moderne had fallen away slowly to reveal something new, and now he found himself needing a new name to call himself by (while I am writing this at my breakfast table, staring down at the canal a pigeon just rammed itself into my window. BOOM).

This topic of self branding has been on my mind these past weeks (although not those catch-phrase words until now). Now that I am done with all of my prerequisite classes and looking for the perfect graduation project, I have been busy thinking about how to present myself via resume/portfolio/website/blog to the outside world. How do you create a coherent image out of a mess of interests and past projects? How to display your strengths to an uncaring, bored world? How do you express to others who you are, when you don't know yourself?

Regardless of these questions, the importance of self branding cannot be denied and I will spend many more days thinking about this topic.

p00p

Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. These past few days, I have finally discovered what the downside to living in the city of Delft next to the most picturesque of canals is...p00p.

Dutch people love dogs. Dogs must be walked. Because Dutch people love and therefore own dogs, they must be walked. But where? In the most picturesque of streets of course! The little tree boxes next to the canals in between the car parking spaces is coincidentally where I park my bike and the ideal place for these little doggies to do some biznass. Unfortunately, p00p is brown like the ground around the trees especially at night, and there seems to be a disproportionate amount of dogs pooping in these spaces. I've ruined two of my shoes in the past days and they are still sitting in the hallway waiting to be cleaned. Good thing I still have a couple of shoes left...

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.

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