Well the first week back in school since missing week 4 due to the England trip was pretty normal. Nothing much except one more lesson, though it also means exams are nearer! Okay I promise I will really study this week! hahahaha
Tuesday night was spent with my orientation group at this really nice restaurant in Spui. It was good to see everyone after 2 weeks, since most of them went for canivals or short weekend trips as well! The borrel wasn't that fun for me, since we left before the crowd started coming in and we went back after 2 drinks.
Wednesday night was another drinking session, at a new place called the containers. Its another part of Amsterdam which is actually out of the map (maps in Amsterdam generally just show places in Central Amsterdam), which lies to the south.
Stavangerweg and Gevleweg are housing places in the area, and due to the fact that they are actually houses made of containers, thus the nickname. Situated by the sea, it offers a great view of the sea, but at the expense of having to travel a pretty long distance by bicycle, or by the not-so-affordable tram/metro. There is also this big ship anchored by the shore, and its actually another housing option for Dutch students!
The pub at this containers serves cheap 1 Euro beers every wednesday, and my group hangs out here every week. The crowd and the music was pretty good, and I'm quite sure I will visit it again soon!
Day 38
Thursday, no lesson! Hurraf! Went to dapenmarket with Seb again to shop for some of the ingredients for his group's potluck dinner that night. We decided upon soya sauce chicken, since curry chicken would have had too much sauce it would be difficult to carry.
The dinner was pretty fun, and the hosts are living in similar containers like the one I had described earlier, but this time round its somewhere to the north-west of Amsterdam. Container housing looks like an easy and cool innovation for exchange students!
The hosts for this party were really cool! There were 2 of them, one is a China-born Canadian, she speaks very (and I really mean very very very) fluent american-accented english, as well as the very standard Bejing mandarin (since her parents are from there). Not only that, since her bf's german, she speaks german too! That's not forgetting that she spoke french before she stopped using it and switch to german. And here we are so proud about our bilingual mandarin and english (which is more like half-baked bilingual skills) when there are so many other people who are so much better! We need to do some work! The other host was also another lady who comes from France. I thought she wasn't that keen in mingling at first since there was really nothing much on top of the usual topics like 'which school you go to', 'where you're from', 'how has Amsterdam been so far' and it was pretty much just short answers from both of us. However, we started talking about soccer when I found out she was from Lyon, which is also where the sole French team remaining in the last 16 of the Champions League (and yes they are the super underdogs going up against Barca) hails from. Suddenly the convo got a lot more interesting and she was telling me there was this pub in the town area which would show the 4 champions league matches simultaneously on the same time at the same place! How cool would that be! It also struck me how being a soccer fan could get you engaged into longer conversations, and to understand better where people actually come from! Hahaha
Back to the potluck dinner, it was the first time I got to taste a native dutch's cooking. Boerenkool met rookworst, which translates to farmers cabbage with smoked sausage is this dish of mashed potatoes with cabbage or spinach, served with a smoked beef sausage and some gravy. It was really quite a refreshing dish of nice fragrant sausage and some really filling mashed potatoes! Its known to be very good food for consuming in winter, since its really carbo loaded!
Below is a picture of what it looks like, yes visually not very appealing, but looks are usually deceiving.
In comparsion, I felt that cooking the soya sauce chicken was quite a bad choice, given the fact that its appearance was very horribly black, and the starch I used to give that thick texture only made the dish look worse when it turned cold. Thankfully everyone was still game enough to try, and felt it was not bad. Well at least that was what they told me! The dutch who cooked the Boerenkool met rookworst also exchanged numbers with me, commenting that he would like to keep in touch and perhaps eat out again! I did hope that it meant my cooking ain't half bad!
There were other fabulous dishes including a very nice pie with bacon and cheese and mushrooms, the best I had eaten thus far, but we didn't find out who made it! Also worthy of a mention was this bread with a tar-tar sauce-like dip which the Europeans enjoyed much! International potluck dinners rock my socks!
Apart from the wonderful food, there's also a fantastic crowd, got to know more people including 2 dutch and a lady from Argentina, on top of many others whom we met before or already knew. It would have been nice to stay longer, but since the place was quite far away we had to leave earlier to catch the last metro.
Day 39
Yet another potluck, this time hosted by Thais, for asians. We had previously met a bunch of really friendly Thai people at the orientation in late Jan/early Feb, and while they study in another uni in Amsterdam, we still kept in touch given that everyone goes to the same party place on tuesday. The people at the party were either Singaporeans, Thais, Chinese, Koreans or Indonesians. Needless to say, the food was pretty much reminiscent of what we have at home, with dishes like sweet & sour pork, braised meat, sushi, some sweet deserts similar to borborchacha. 5 of us made fried chicken wings since it was easy and would be universally welcomed.
The apartment which the Thais rented was just like a posh condo in Singapore, but in Amsterdam right smack in the town area. While rental is more expensive, its certainly very comfortable to live in there. I reckon I'll probably slack my days away in the house and not go out if I stay there! The new friends we made, like those from Korea and China were very friendly, and it was just great sitting down on the floor chatting about our experiences in Amsterdam thus far.
The good thing about potluck dinners here includes eating things you probably have never eaten, don't dare to try or simply haven't heard about. I love to hear much about what they put into their food, how they prepare it and how it should be eaten. Everyone is so friendly that it wouldn't be too hard to actually learn how to cook it! Muahaha I strive to learn more dishes from all over the whole at the end of this exchange! Also, the dinners end quite early since some of them probably have to catch the last train, which also means we get to sleep earlier! Hahaha. Yes potluck dinners really rock my socks! (didn't I just say this?)
We went back and stayed over at Seb's place where we continued to chill, snack, drink, play cards and just small talk till 5am! Yes we are unhealthy people.
Day 40
Everyone of us woke up at half past one, and we remembered that we actually had to meet the other peeps from NTU studying in HvA at dappermarket! Apparently they had been there since 11 and we actually were already 2 hours late! Still, they haven't got their fill of the cheap things there, and we joined them shortly. Of course, we were also there to shop for ingredients for yet another dinner at Seb's place which will see everyone in Seb's block drop by his room to try Singapore curry (yes yet again!) We had wanted to invite the girls from NTU to eat at Seb's place tomorrow, but since it was going to be slightly awkard trying to host them as well as people living in Seb's block, and the very big fact that I HAD NOT HAD CURRY IN ONE WEEK, made me want to cook curry again right away for dinner. So yes we decided to cook curry both for the girls, as well as for the running dinner tomorrow!
Dinner was curry chicken and spinach. Not too bad, though once again, my curry chicken suffered from the 'coconut milk-deficient' syndrome. I will need to remember not to be greedy and add too much water, as I always do, just because I want the gravy to go with my bread! I also got my fix of french loaf with curry chicken! It was HEAVENLY. The bread was good, though slightly wheat-y, but it could really sponge up the gravy which was not too thick yet not too watery. Yum.
Afterwards, Seb's neighbours, a Polish and an American dropped by. Seb had mistakenly assumed the running dinner was on and had invited the 2 of them over. Well, they just got themselves a sneak preview of what they will be eating tomorrow, and judging from the fact that they finished my curry, it looks like Europeans and Americans are cool with curry! That has also given me an indication of how I should probably fine tune the dish for tomorrow!
Well yes that's an update for what's happening in the past week. Its day 41 now already and I am once again back on track to report more adventures from Amsterdam. I apologise for the lack of pictures as I am starting to feel that life is as normal as what a dutch will feel in Amsterdam, or what life will feel like as a Singaporean in Singapore. You guys back home don't bring your camera out everyday do you!? Hahah okay off to bed now. Will update again soon!
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