Belgium, Cooking, Oudekerk, and more photos I found.

Going through the pictures on my camera, I realized I had totally forgotten I had taken a (very few) pictures during the bike tour and ensuing whiskey-tasting. They can be seen here. One of those is a historical drawbridge, and another a dome of some historical import that escapes me.

Also, I put up some pictures of my attempts at cooking stir fry. The first time, I could only find pre-cooked rice. It was yellow and flavorful enough, but lacked real... rice-ness. The second time, I started the chicken, added veggies, stirred in a coconut curry sauce, added some water, and let some of it simmer off for awhile. Meanwhile, I made jasmine rice, which turned out decently, if a tad smushy. For most of the simmer time I was afraid I had burnt the sauce, as the concoction started smelling slightly acrid. I would've taken it off, but I had added too much water initially and needed it to simmer off. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, and the meal turned out deliciously. Now, here's to hoping coconut curry sauces are widely available in the US...

Also, out of pure laziness, I posted the entirety of my pictures from Belgium, as well as pictures I took at the Oudekerk this past weekend. My roommate and I visited the Oudekerk and took a tower tour as well. The church is one of the oldest in Amsterdam, very bare inside, and the floor is composed entirely of tombstones, some of which featured large seals in bas-relief. Not exactly the most accessibility-minded flooring choice :)

Disclaimer: I'm guessing most of these pictures are largely boring, since they have few people and mostly just things and places.

Pictures of Belgium

Pictures of the Oudekerk

Pictures from the bike tour

Pictures of cooking attempts

Company outings

So, since I've been so lazy about posting to this blog, I'm about two weeks behind on noteworthy events to share. So, I'll start with somewhere around two weeks ago.

In order to blend in seamlessly with the local Amsterdam-ians, my company issued all trainees bicycles, a standard mode of transportation here for all demographics. We're working at the World Trade Center in Amsterdam, and every day we see countless businesspeople cycling to work in corporatewear. Incidentally, bikes tend to be somewhat expensive, and therefore have a tendency to be stolen by junkies to be resold. And that is what happened to my bike two days after I was issued it.

On our first Saturday here, our company arranged a social event which involved a bike tour of Amsterdam, followed by a whiskey-tasting session at a small local whiskey bar.

It is clear from observing traffic patterns in Amsterdam that the Dutch expect you to know what you're doing. Between the commonplace sidewalk and road, there is almost always a bicycle lane. In addition, many roads also have tram tracks in the middle. In addition, Vespas and other scooter-like devices can travel either on bicycle lanes or the road, and cars can travel on the tram tracks when the trams aren't. Overall, it is much more complex than most American roads I've encountered, and cycling along is fun, although it can be unclear when you should cross the road.

We saw some interesting sights along the bike tour, including the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, and the red light district, among other things.

After the bike tour we went to the whiskey bar, which serves more than 1300 different whiskies. We tried six different whiskies, among them Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Isla, and ending with a LaPhroaig 40% and a LaPhroaig 58%. Along the way, the proprietor and owner explained the history of whiskey, how it was made, and what determined the flavor. He burnt a piece of peat for us and told us stories of him explaining to Scottish customs officials that the 13 bottles of whiskey he was carrying back with him were for personal use only. He passed around a sample of 77% newspirit, which is the whiskey straight after the distillation process and before it ages in the casks--awful stuff. Overall, it was great to learn more about whiskey and get a lesson in the variations that exist between the different brands.

After the bike tour and whiskey-tasting, we went to a nearby sports-cafe and, this being July 4, ordered American-inspired food. Burger for me, ribs for the guy next to me, and Buds for some. After that was a pub, after which was a club, and in between biking between those places, I locked it up in Rembrandtplein, from whence it was stolen and very decidely not-where-I-left-it when I got back. This resulted in me running quite a bit the next week, sometimes to keep up with guys on bikes, other times to compensate for waking up a little too late.

Fast-forward two weeks to last saturday: we had another company-sponsored social event: bicycle boats on the canals of Amsterdam. We piled into eight four-person boats and proceeded to clumsily avoid speeding tourist boats by paddling furiously and bouncing off the canal walls. Mix in some blind canal intersections, lousy steering capabilities, anemic acceleration, and a light rain, and you've got a fun time :).

We all made it out alive, although one boat took a wrong turn and took quite a bit longer than the rest. We stopped for a bite to eat at a local place famous for its croquets, off of Rembrandtplein. It was called something like... Van Dobbels. Good food.

After the boat-biking, we went 'lazergamen' or something like that, which translated into laser-tag in the murky basement of a Brazilian bar. Fun stuff, and I got first place.

After lazergamen, some of us went with one of the Amsterdam traders to a place which served traditional Dutch liqeurs and brandy wines. I tried a blackberry brandy wine, which was very very, VERY sweet. I liked the whiskey better.

This morning around noon, my roommate and I hosted a pancake and breakfast sandwich brunch for anyone in the flats who wanted to stop by. We had a turnout of maybe 10-12 people. I manned the pancakes, which mostly turned out like pancakes, although a few ended up more suspiciously tortilla- or crepe-like. Very enjoyable, the food was great, and we now have a good supply of eggs leftoever for breakfast next week.

In the weekend intervening, I went to Belgium, but this post is too long already.

Amsterdam

My last post was right after I returned from my semester abroad in London in Fall 2007. Since I last wrote, I completed the last three semesters of college, found a job, and moved to Chicago. Last Monday I started work as a software developer for the trading firm IMC-Chicago and the first thing they did was send me to Amsterdam for five weeks of training! Rough life, I know :)

The direct Chicago-Schipol flight was uneventful, and I think it is the first time I've actually been in a 747. Amsterdam is 7 hours ahead of US Central Time and we got out of the airport around 7am. We were met at the airport and taken to our executive apartments, which are very European, very accommodating, and huge. The shower here is about as large as my entire bathroom in Chicago, and the kitchen here is about the size of my living room. It's almost a pain walking around the place because everything is so spread out.

See pictures of the apartment here

Some of our first tasks were getting Dutch pre-pay phones and groceries. Despite the odd layout of the store, the latter was not very difficult as most Dutch nouns seem to consist of a common root as their English counterparts and a liberal sprinkling of -ij, -met, -uik, etc. The frozen pizza was cheap at ~1.5 Euros, but not bad nonetheless. We noticed that almost all the food in the store was prepackaged; there were fewer bulk options for vegetables and the like. I picked up some spinach, field greens mix, potato salad-ish stuff, some Heineken, sliced pineapple, and frozen pizzas.

I'm here with two other new hire recent college graduates and a couple other new hires not straight out of college. The former group and I were trying to stay awake through the whole day and get onto Amsterdam time, but then I dozed off on the couch and when I woke up they were gone. Although they were all sleeping, I had no idea where they went, and the paranoid part of my brain was telling me they were already partying at some bar.

The days are very long here; when I woke up after dozing on the couch I estimated it to be about six or seven, but it was actually nine-thirty. Similarly, the sun rose at about 4, and my roommate and I were both awake. Suffice to say, we aren't on Amsterdam time yet.

Anyway, I plan to post about some of the sights and events I encounter in my five weeks here, so we'll see how well that goes.

Later!

St. Peter's Basilica and Square

I loved St. Peter's Basilica.  But pictures are worth 1000 words, so here's the best of my pics from St. Peter's.

And here's a video I recorded while standing on one of the foci of the ellipse of St. Peter's Square.  All the chairs were set up for the Wednesday audience (we were there on Tuesday), and John and I had to hop the fence to get to the focus, at which point all the columns on one side of the square line up.

Home! In South Dakota!

After traversing Europe, I am back in the wide open spaces of South Dakota!  After a hectic finals week combined with moving out of our flats in London, the trip across the Atlantic was long. 

Many of us did not sleep the night before we left, having to finish packing, clean our flats, eat leftover food, and be ready to leave by 5:45am.  After spending about 5 hours in Heathrow, our flight left at noon-ish and followed the sun on a 9-hour flight, thus arriving in Chicago at 3pm local time, exhausted.

I picked up a connection to Sioux Falls without much hassle.  My baggage, however, decided to hook up with a hot pink tote from Atlanta and spent the night in O'Hare, only to stumble through the door this morning, shamefacedly averting my gaze.  I am happy to report, however, that after a preliminary physical, it didn't appear to have contracted any diseases or suffered any physical damage from its wild night away from home.

All is well in South Dakota and I'm having a good time relaxing and spending time with the siblings.  I will be catching up on posting pictures and blogging about some of my trips during the second half of the semester.  Here's hoping a happy holidays to all!

The Isle of Wight smells like Brazil

I attended a retreat this weekend on the Isle of Wight, which is a 4-hour bus + ferry ride from central London.  We stayed at a retreat house in the middle of the island, situated in 'Paradise Valley.'  The place was quaint, and the bathrooms, kitchen, and scenery reminded me of Brazil.  Gently rolling peaceful green hills were a welcome respite from London's regular rectangular tyranny.  Although it rained quite a bit, we were still able to explore the nearby areas during the brief spells of sunlight.  We walked to a nearby castle and took a trip to 'The Needles,' a geological formation off the tip of the western end of the island.  It was incredibly windy at the outcropping, and we all got soaked on the walk back to the bus, but we also saw a glassblower at work making vases and basked in the warmth of the hot glass, which ameliorated the situation somewhat.

Anyway, this next coming week entails lots of work for me as classes are wrapping up before finals.  Pretty soon I'll be home in South Dakota, and we're all feeling the pressure to see more of London as our days here draw to an end.

Update: Here's a rough map showing the locations of different places we visited on the Isle.


View Larger Map

Dublin today

I'm heading to Dublin for the weekend right after class today. Going to go see the sights and some good friends who are studying abroad in Notre Dame's Dublin program. Should be wonderful.

Incidentally, since Fall Break I rotated into a new and different Arts class. 'Intro to London Theatre' was replaced by 'English Composers'. The first class last week was wonderful; we listened to some Gregorian Chant/Jazz by Jan Garbarek, 'Spem in Alium' by Thomas Tallis, and the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. My favorite piece was 'Spem In Alium', but I enjoyed all the pieces enough to borrow the CDs from the professors and put them all on my iPod.

Tallis' 'Spem in Alium' is a 40-voice polyphonic piece from the 1500s, and it is haunting and amazing. After this weekend I'll find a clip to post and share.

Rome Pictures

I've posted pictures from most of Rome, including the Vatican museum but not including St. Peter's Basilica or the Square.

Pictures from Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia

UPDATE: Sagrada Familia is a cathedral in progress, also by Gaudi. My pictures are here, and embedded.




Parc Guell is an interesting park-on-a-hill in Barcelona by Gaudi. It has lots of organic-looking columns and structures.

Anyway, the album is here, and also embedded below.

Back Home in London

After travelling Southern Europe for nine days, I arrived in London from Athens on Sunday night after 10 hours and 3 connections on Alitalia. We visited Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Athens. s I'll soon be posting pictures from and accounts of the different cities we visited. I took more than 800 pictures on the trip, so I'll be spending sometime cutting that down to a more manageable size and posting the good ones.