Here is finally a summary of Naomi's awesome visit to see me (now with pictures). Quickly, before I forget the details! I will definitely not forget biking Naomi around or our awesome power naps. YEAH winterbreak 2008!!!!
FridayI pick Naomi up from the station. It has been snowing and raining intermittently all morning. I drop her at my house and situate her in Sierd's room. We then bike to Jvb 15 and proceed to fall asleep to the
Balls of Fury (really bad movie). By the time the movie is done, the weather has improved. We wander around Delft in the rare sunny moment. We spy Meike and Pieter drinking white beers on some scaffolding outside Pieter's room on the
Brabantseturfmarkt and joined them. They are wearing summer clothes to encourage the weather.
We then walk to Marieke's house. She is hosting a sexy tupperware party. Naomi does not need much help with translation. A lot of words are decipherable even in their Dutch form, i.e.
penis, erectie. Also the ladies are pretty good at demonstrating. Afterwards we go to Tessa's apartment and soon after call it a night.
SaturdayWe go to the market in Delft. I keep skirting the
haring stand because I am not ready to eat raw fish yet, so we go to the
Vlaanderen at the
Beestenmarkt to eat mustard soup and a sandwich first. We are the only idiots sitting outside, but we are well equipped with a blanket spread between the two of us and a heating lamp.
Naomi experiences the power of haring.
We go home and curl up on my couch to watch
Becket. This time I fall asleep. You can guess what happens next. Nap. We nap until nearly 7pm. We get up, stumble into our dresses and catch a ride from Jorn who is actually here to pick up a crippled Vaniek.
Christmas dinner at Jvb15. Yummy appetizers, cucumber and dill soup, roast beef entree, whisky, cigars, etc. We eat so much we can't get drunk and pass out totally stuffed.
SundayIs Easter morning/Christmas morning. We wake up to snow. We run outside with winter wear on, but the snow stops. Everyone eventually wakes up and we have an egg hunt outside. We then make an effort to clean the kitchen a bit. Michiel sets out the butter lambs and we have breakfast. Kakee joins us, and shortly we leave to go make custard and meringues at Kakee's house. We stay for dinner and then return to 15 to watch
Black Cat, White Cat.
MondaySecond easter in Dutchland, everything is still closed except grocery stores. Hoi-Kee takes us to a nomadic architectures exhibit in Den Haag. We ride around in old people carts, eat
tostis out of trucks, color blocks, and wander around the parking garage turned exhibition space. As we get progressively colder, we decide to leave. We wander around Den Haag, drink tea in a tea-room and then wander some more. We walk by the palace and we buy groceries from the Albert Heijn in the Hague. We eat fish, bok-choi, and beet salad for dinner.
TuesdayWe wait for the weather to get better and head to the market at Rotterdam Blaak. There, we find the second hand market and we browse for granny sweaters and boots. We both get awesome sweaters. Before that we buy some fish and one of numerous stands. Naomi gets yelled at for touching tomatoes, and we stock on for provisions for dinner. It is Inga's birthday so we invite her to dinner with Pieter from the scaffold. We bake the fish with paprika, garlic, and herbs stuffed in the stomach. It's delicious to eat fresh fish from the market. Inga goes home to conduct and interview and get ready for her birthday, pre-birthday celebration. We go to Inga's house to celebrate. I fall asleep on the couch.
Wednesday
Naomi and I decide to make a cake for Inga who we will see later in the day. After browsing for 2 seconds on Epicurious, we decide on carrot cake. We then spend 30 min looking for a recipe that only involves baking powder and no baking soda. On the way to buying supplies we climb the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. We hastily make the carrot cake and head to poker and guitar hero at Vishalls. Naomi makes funny faces while playing.
ThursdayJorn and I have an AirGuitar and AirDrums presentation at school. It totally fails. I won't go into details. I am sick and in a bad mood, so we watch an afternoon of Beverly Hill's Cop I and II. Because Thursday is
Meisjesavond, we make boullion and onion flavored rice for the burritos theme. We eat huge burritos at Ambika's house with Katrin, Kakee, and then drink beers in the Locus Publicus. Naomi packs, and we watch a movie before sleeping.
FridayWe ride the train together to Schiphol. I have a meeting in Amsterdam and she has to catch her flight. Goodbye Naomi.
Naomi really made me miss America. Compared to the others in our now fragmented group, she has really found a place that she likes and hangs out with Tom and Matt often. I was inspired by her visit to finally go see how she, Tom, Matt, Mike are living on the Westside. Coincidentally, Lanna will be graduating and I will have to go there anyway.
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).
