Miserable day

Last week was a beautiful week. It was sunny for most days and temperature went up to around 11 degrees celsius.

I had dinner on Thursday at Aneta's house to celebrate her birthday. She made Czech dishes which were delicious! She made goulash soup, rosti looking pan potatoes, chicken meat in tomato based sauce and Noemi brought a huge layered chocolate cake with oranges stuffed in between. So we chatted and ate and had quite a good time.

That huge brown thing is the chocolate cake. Overflowing chocolate covering the layered (pan)cake


Goulash soup

The rosti looking pan fried potatoes

And that's Aneta.


But on Friday, I suffered a flat tire after I left school. So I had to push my bike all the way to the bike shop around 20mins away. I had two options, the bike shop near city or the bike shop near home. Considering it was 5pm, I didn't want to risk reaching a closed bike shop near home so I went to the bike shop closer to the city. The thing is, I subconciously know that the owner doesn't speak much English, but I still went anyway! So I told him to replace my inner tube and the tire. I think the tire is so worn out it has torn already so I had to replace that. Then I told him to fix up my brakes since the rear brake doesn't work very well. He said I had to replace the brake cable, in total it costs 30 euros. So fine, I said okay and I went to collect the bike on Saturday.

Meanwhile, 7 Spanish were staying in my place because they were visiting Jorge. So the house is in a mess and it's like a hurricane went through the house, so I decided to have breakfast in city on Saturday morning. I went to the city centre alone, and sat at a bakkery enjoying my Panini and Cappucino. Then I went to H&M to do some window shopping. Well, one thing led to another, I was trying on pieces after pieces and I ended up buying these...
Collared polo tee... 5 euros

Decorative pins.. 1euro



Tank top.. 2euros..

Yah.. then I had lunch at Carousel because the sun is so good and the bells of the church was chiming as though it was calling out to me telling me to sit down and have lunch. So I did...
I had an uitsmijter and a latte macciato. Then I had an apple tart for dessert. Tilburg can be nice too. Haha..






After lunch, I went to the saturday market to walk around and mingle with people because it was such a sunny and crowded day. I saw really fat rabbits for sale!

I went to the bike shop to collect my bike, then the guy told me that my derailer is spoilt! I was very upset about it and asked how much it costs to repair it. He told me it'll be 30 euros and told me to get a new bike instead, it is 100 euros for the new bike. I really didn't like the idea of getting a new bike, and contemplated for a really long time. He kept speaking in Dutch and I don't know what he is saying. I could understand only about 30% of what he is saying, and I'm just guessing the rest of it. So he basically made a decision for me. He said he'll fix it for me, and in the end he charged me 50 euros including the new derailer, new brakes, new inner tube,new tire and helping me replace the front tire (cause I already have a new tire) in total, I've already spent about 115 euros on my bike. I have no idea who I can sell my bike to when I leave. Hopefully I can get something out of it. Geez..

That afternoon, I went for a jog around the neighborhood. I saw a familiar restaurant, and got very excited. It says “大家乐” in traditional chinese. And it says de coral too! Like the one in Hong Kong! For a second I thought I can have roast meat in Tilburg! Then I went to take a look again on Sunday, but it turned out to be a fake!! It's some random chinese restaurant but they copied the name of the HK chain! They even used the same corporate colours! I was so disappointed. It made me happy for nothing.

Then on Monday Dennis visited me. He came with another guy from NUS who is now in Bristol. Dennis came up from Antwerp and stopped by Tilburg. So we hung out in the afternoon and we made dinner that night. Clarisse (from NUS) made japanese curry while I made some Dutch food; stamppot and ertwensoep. But the Dutch food turned out quite terrible. Ertwensoep (pea soup) was from the can so I couldn't help how it tasted. Blah... That night the weather turned horrible. I saw a flash of lightning, followed by rolling thunders. Suddenly it was hailing, small rocks of ice fell from the sky.

On tuesday Dennis and Ben went to Amsterdam while I stayed to finish my assignment. Then at night we went to mentor dinner and LG (clubbing). I drank a bit, but still very much in control.
The theme was sex change party but I didn't dress up. There are so many ugly drags.. haha

Then when Dennis left on Wednesday, I sent him to the central station. Along the way, it started raining/hailing. He caught a bus to the station while I cycled in the rain! I got all drenched and was feeling super low. We had lunch at Breekx which was excellent. Cheap and good.

My pita bread with chicken and mushroom costs 4.75 euros. Very filling! After lunch I cycled to school for class and reached school all wet and cold. I sat through 2 lectures feeling sleepy and wet and uncomfortable. I felt so miserable I went home straight after school and didn't even want to gym. After I got home, I helped Jorge to cook Spanish dinner. He cooked for Clarisse because it was her birthday and I offered to help. I washed, cut and helped to cook for 3hours... what an arduous process. I was drained by the time dinner started. The food turned out great though.Tonight there's dinner at Selbi's place. Turkmenistan food.. hmm.. hope it's good! I better be studying in the afternoon.. or I won't be able to finish my assignment. >_<

Dated post! Rotterdam/The Hague

A week flew by since I last posted. I'm in the Netherlands for 2 months already! It feels longer than that though. So since I got back from Prague/Budapest, Dong Joo has been studying so hard everyday! He goes to the library at 8am, leaves school at 11pm!! It's quite disturbing. I asked if he wanted to go to Rotterdam last week, but he said no. Even though he was initially keen on experiencing how the Dutch lives. So I went to Rotterdam alone to meet oom(uncle) Frank. Oom Frank picked me up from Rhoon Metro station around 9.30 or 10 am and drove me back to his house which was about 5-10 mins away. It's close to the main part of Rotterdam city but it was not buried in hustle and bustle like most homes close to cities.

I met tante (auntie) Jos that morning, she was very welcoming and showed tremendous hospitality. She even planned out where to bring me for the two days! After serving me coffee and some Dutch snacks (a platter of stroopwafels, kretenbroodje, holland windmill cookies, some unidentified cake), she told me some things about Den Haag (The Hague) before we set off for the day. It turns out that Jos' grandfather was an architect and many of the buildings in The Hague still retained the designs which her grandfather has come up with. In one of the walking tour guide book for The Hague, her grandfather's name was mentioned and she took much pride in it.

We got to The Hague and it coincided with a half marathon in the city. It was nice and motivating to see people running a race. It motivated me to run more in Tilburg. So anyway, we went to Mauritshuis museum. It's a really small (3 storey) museum which has an interior that looked like a palace. There were huge stairways and beautiful intricate details on the hand railings. The ceiling was covered in a colourful fresco and all the rooms were filled with art pieces of famous Dutch artists such as Jan Steen, Rembrandt and Bosch. There was one particularly interesting art piece which depicted gods having sex. Venus was having sex with Mars while Jupiter wanted to be next in line so he recruited the help from Cupid while Zeus watches in one corner. Something like that. The painting, though small, is full of details, vivid colours and deemed too erotic for public display until the 20th century.

Mauritshuis museum
The erotic painting
Three of us next to the museum!


After the museum, they took me on a walking tour around The Hague and she explained to me what ceremonies took place, where the queen stood when she makes announcements, how the horses would trot into position and how the guards would march in front of the parliament place. She also showed me the buildings, explained how the older buildings had round glass corners while the newer ones simply had squarish corners.

Then we had lunch at this shopping centre which is quite "atas". It carried luxurious brands and used to be so expensive, people didn't dare to step in and the shopping centre had to carry less intimidating brands to attract patrons. I ordered an uitsmijster. It's fried eggs with roast beef on bread. It was quite yummy.

We went to this museum called Panorama Mesdag. It's famous for a panorama view of Scheveningen (the beach area) and the painting stretches 120metres and forms a circle! It's 14m wide, and when you stand in the middle, they block the view of the top and bottom of the canvas, so you can only see the painting and it looks as though you're looking at a real view of the beach. In between the viewing centre platform and the painting, there was a pile of sand which feels like the sand on the beach so it blends in with the painting making it even more realistic.

After The Hague, we went to Scheveningen to see the beach. We went to this super luxurious beach hotel called Steigenberger Kurhaus. (http://www.kurhaus.nl/homeenglish.html)
It's like 400-500 euros a night. Wanted to have coffee but the cafe closes at 5pm and we were 5 mins late. So we took a walk along the beach and ended up at a men's only social club. It's a really old building that has stood there since more than 100 years ago. And we saw a choir group of old ladies dressed in traditional Dutch wear! They look so cute together I had to take a photo with them.
The kurhaus



Dutch ladies!


We went for dinner at a seafood restaurant but the dinner was only average. Maybe because I didn't really order the right dishes. And we ended the night after having some tea in the living room back at their house.

The next morning, we had breakfast at 9am. I helped to set the table, bring out the food and it was a sumptous spread! There were 3-4 types of cheese, 3 different hams, coffee, tea and juice, soft-boiled eggs, toasts, kretenbroodje met maseipen (raisin bread with marzipan), hagelslag (traditional rice chocolate added to bread), it was great! After breakfast, I showed oom Frank how to use windows movie maker to do basic editing for videos. He was so glad I showed him that software and I'm glad I could contribute too.

Soon after, we went to Rotterdam city. It was a beautiful bright sunny day and I was glad because we went up the Euromast and got a clear view of the city. It was windy but the view was worth it because it really showed me how big their port is! Jos told me which buildings are for what and I was trying to remember at least some buildings. We then went to Boijmans museum. It's a rather big museum with classical and modern art work. There were international classics like Joan Miro, Jan Steen, Rembrandt, Cezanne and a few more, and there were modern art which we didn't explore because we got tired after an hour. I like Joan Miro. Very strange but interesting. Then oom Frank drove past the houses like looked like cubes tilted at an angle and it was very interesting! Jos and I walked past the Erasmus bridge (also known as the swan bridge) and explored the American-Rotterdam Lijn building (now it's New York Hotel). It used to be a building where ships left Rotterdam for America. After that we went to the city centre and they showed me the main shopping street. There wasn't much to see in the city so we ended up in the mall, having coffee and pastries before they sent me to the central station to catch a train back to Tilburg.



From the Euromast.

In a cafe in Euromast. They even have hotel rooms called Heaven, moon and stars.

The cube houses
Outside National ArchitectuuralInstitutie

Kudos to my parents + Prague Trip (Budapest on the way)

After I came back from my trip to Prague/Budapest, I sent an email to my dad. I felt bad for not calling home but that's because I didn't have my computer with me in Prague and I couldn't use Skype to call home. So anyway, right after I sent the email, I called home but it was engaged. Which only means...... the phone at home is still spoilt. It's been almost 2 weeks and it's not fixed!! So anyway, my dad promptly replied my mail (super high efficiency dad) and he told me that my mum showed him my blog! Yay!! I'm so happy mum is reading this blog. I made a shortcut on her browser so when she clicks on it, she can read updates about my life.

Ma, if you are reading this, I want to tell you I'm so proud of you! You are now internet savvy! =D
By the way, you can leave me messages on the right side in the small box. Just type "mum" in the box with the word "name" and type in the message you want to leave in the box that says "message" then click "go"!

So about my trip... Dong Joo and I had a dinner with Petra (Czech), Aneta (Czech), Kyle (Taiwanese), Sandra (Austrian) just the night before we left for Prague. I cooked 鸡饭，蚝油香菇芥兰，苞菜排骨汤 and we had some other instant dishes like swedish meatballs and frikandel (Dutch hotdog). They liked most of the food, but the girls didn't seem to like the soup. I loved the soup, it reminds me of my childhood days when mum would cook 苞菜汤。 So yummy. Kyle thinks it's not salty enough. Anyway, we slept at 2am, but we had to catch the earliest train to Amsterdam to check-in at Schiphol airport. So I took Dongjoo's keys and he took mine so that when one of us wakes up, we can check on the other and make sure we don't oversleep. We cycled to the train station at 5.15am!!


We reached Prague by noon time and we went to the hostel. Our hostel looks like a castle!! Only 7-8 euros!


In front of the National Museum.
That's the Tyn Church in the old town square. It's one of the more beautiful structures there.

This is the astronomical clock of Prague. It's very interesting. When the clock chimes, there is a skeleton figure will start pulling the bell. And two windows will open and the apostles will start moving across the windows. So every hour there are many many people gathered to watch. But my friend also warned me that's the most dangerous time. Very easy to get picked-pocket. So I was very wary while taking photos. =P


This statue is outside Rudolfinum which is like a concert hall. That evening we went to watch a concert in Rudolfinum. It was not very expensive, around 15 euros for very very good seats. They played classical music, and many tunes which I've heard before when I was very young. Tunes by Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi and some others.

This is the church in the Castle. It's a very important church because there's a lot of history in it. Buried in this gothic church are 5 Czech kings. It has many treasures and precious relics too.
This is the golden lane in the castle. There are many small houses lined next to each other. One of the house was the residence of Kafka, the famous Czech artist.
We climbed up Petrin Tower to see the city view. I was panting but I can't tell whether it's because the view is breathtaking or simply because we ran up the tower. =)

The panorama view. I'm not very good at taking this kind of photos. Haha.

The old town square. It's filled with hawkers selling food. But I'm sure they are overpriced. Like Lau Pat Sat!


We went up the clock tower to see the square from the top.

This is the "dancing house" designed by American architect - Frank Gehry. It's really strange but unique la.
I was very lucky, the last day in Prague, the weather was beautiful.

Here are some photos of the food I ate in Prague....



Fried potatoes wrapped around leg of pork.

Poppy seed pastry.



Some fried potatoes
Dumplings!

Omelette
Pancakes!
I don't know what's the english name. It's probably called delicious.
Yummy cinnamon /sugar bread
Fried cheese sandwich
Kebab and big sausages.


And the night view...