Posted by: patriciamar | January 19, 2010

Something about Britain’s Talent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

There is something about Britain’s talent that makes me tear up.  Susan Boyle and the little girl who sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow… Sometimes one person can revive so many things.

When I first ran into the YouTube video of Susan Boyle singing I Dreamed a Dream, I was just so happy for her.  This is the woman that brought the word frumpy back from the dead, and here she is- singing a song from Les Miserable, a show that only the most devout have actually seen; wearing a frumpy dress and doing an almost obscene hip shake- yet this is exactly the type of person that they- we- have all been looking for.  Rather than some young kid who (although, I am sure they really do have talent) is going to be a millionaire by 25, this is a lady who has been singing in the church choir and on family holidays.  AND – when they asked her who she wanted to be as famous as… she didn’t say some world famous star, she gave the name of some British broadway star.  Now that I look at her wikipedia page, I can see that Elaine Paige is quite well-known- but still, that is not the point.  The point is that Susan Boyle did not respond with Barbara Streisand or Celine Dion.  If you asked a teenager on American Idol the same question, a young country singer, maybe, they would most certainly say, Faith Hill or Reba McEntire, and never- let’s say- Suzy Bogguss.

It kind of makes you think about the underlying dreams in your own life.  If you had your chance… would you go as far as Paris Hilton? or even just Kate Hudson? or would you be happy as Leelee Sobieski?  or maybe Rita Wilson, she’s always nice…

If I want to be a writer, what kind of writer would I want to be?  Definitely not Candace Bushnell.  I’m sure she is black-listed by a large part of the world, whether she has sex in the city or not.  Nor would I want to be someone like Nicholas Sparks.  Too many people make fun of him.   Although I don’t  do much screenwriting, maybe Nora Ephron.  If you watch a certain genre of movies, she is always there, the writer behind the big names.  I can only dream of a like like Nick Hornby’s… Getting paid to write a column about the books he buys, the ones he reads, and the ones he never gets around to… what a life!

Whatever your area- Who would you be?

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Posted by: patriciamar | December 11, 2009

Strange things that remind me I am in the Netherlands

Christmas is coming, and now that all the Sinterklaas events are over, it is time for Christmas in the Netherlands. Although they really do love to celebrate their traditional Sinterklaas (on St. Nicholas Day), they still manage to go all out for Christmas as well. In the past few days, I have seen the trees and lights go up, a wildly decorated boat house (with reindeer and all!), and several people using their bicycles to haul Christmas trees. My favorite of these was a mother who had propped a rather large Christmas tree (at least 5 feet tall, probably 6) on her bicycle, branches flinging everywhere, and was walking her bike down the side of the bike path. About fifty meters ahead, her daughter, who was probably about ten years old, was looking back at her, quite annoyed that she had to wait for her mother.

Hmm… What Christmas spirit. Just kidding.

There are giant sparkling Christmas bulbs on the front of the Leiden station, and the big tree is now up in our student center. I am still waiting for the giant Coca-Cola tree to go up in front of the train station, but I have high hopes that it will be there before we leave tomorrow.

Well, I hope everyone is getting their Christmas decorations up as well. See you all soon!

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Posted by: patriciamar | December 4, 2009

A Wortel at Star Coffee

I just ordered a banana, sinaasappel (orange) and wortel juice.  Fresh-squeezed.

Presently, I am looking at my glass, and wondering what a wortel is.  So far, nothing strange; at least nothing strange about the color.  After a taste, I still can’t be exactly sure, but it might be carrot.  I don’t really taste carrot, but the texture is a bit carrot- I would actually guess zucchini, but it’s not green.  Either way, it seems very healthy, and pretty tasty as well.

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 27, 2009

Kaleidescope

Yesterday, on Thanksgiving Day, I had the strangest feeling of deja vu.  Matt was at class all day, and I was by myself, playing classical music and sweeping and vacuuming my apartment.   It was not a sad feeling, but just strange.  Last Christmas, when I had just started this blog, I spent Christmas day by myself in my apartment, doing the laundry.  Matt’s mom and brother had stayed the night in Amsterdam, and Matt and Elijah had gone out for a long Christmas day bike ride to the beach that hadn’t sounded too Christmas-y to me.

I had a huge Christmas last year, something like a dozen visitors for a span of almost a month.  I have a big Thanksgiving planned this year as well; ham, potatoes, corn, gravy and cinnamon rolls with Matt last night, and a big intercultural Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday in The Hague.  It is still quite funny that on the day.  I am just here on my own, at home & listening to Christmas music.  Makes me wonder what next year will be like.

Eventually, Matt returned home for our Thanksgiving meal, and we cooked and ate together while watching the football game online somehow broadcast through a station in Austin, Texas.  I am not sure if you have ever visited Austin, but I can tell you that they sure have a lot of law agencies that would love to help you if you have had a motor vehicle accident or have been injured on the job.  And they like to wear cowboy hats.  But you probably already knew that.

After the second game, (I think we missed most of the first, though), my holiday-at-home dreams came true, and there was a figure skating special on.  Matt took care of all the cleaning up while I got to watch Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Dorothy Hamill, Viktor Petrenko, Ashley Wagner, Rachael Flatt, and many others.  It turned out to be a very nice Thanksgiving Day after all.

I have high hopes for Christmas as well.

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 22, 2009

Verse Munt Thee

After a whole lot of hard work, eventually you discover that you are sitting in your apartment (or in a café, or in your parents’ house) with your degree in your hand and nothing on your schedule except to find something to do with the rest of your life.  Many people get to skip this step, and either turn a previous internship into a job, or turn a part-time job into a full-time job, etc., etc.  They get to skip this step: the free schedule, the time to think about what you just did and what you are going to do, the time of peace…

So peaceful, in fact, that you realize you are finished, and you still feel like you do not know what’s going on [in your field] and you definitely have no idea what you are supposed to do with the next forty years of your life.  They always say- the more you know the more you realize you have to learn.

Meanwhile, I am in a café, and there is a rooster sitting just outside the window.

Really, there is.

I am in a café that is located in a park, and not just any park- a park plus zoo.  Anytime I want, I can look away from my laptop and tall glass of verse munt thee (fresh mint tea) and look at a pasture filled with chickens, roosters, and white-tailed deer.  The deer do seem a bit fat, locked up in this pen.  But this one lone rooster- What is it doing?  As far I have seen, poultry on the whole, fly very poorly… But this one somehow escaped. 

Now that it has left everything it has ever known behind, and it is hopping from table to table, I wonder whether it has found all that it hoped to find.  Is this what we’re supposed to do?   Keep moving? Trying out new lives until we find one that fits?  Or are we reading far too much into it after all?  Should we just sit and wait? And it will eventually come.  Will we eventually fit in?  I have heard that Not all those who wander are lost.  But, I hope that at least some are.  Makes me feel a bit more optimistic.

Out in the pasture, I can now see two peacocks.  They certainly seem out-of-place, and they seem quite cold, come to think of it.  I wonder why they are there… for animal diversity?  Or because everything is so jumbled that there really isn’t a natural habitat for anything anymore?

& do I want to be more like the rooster or the peacock?  Keep truckin’ and keep looking?  Or just settle in where I’m at? 

The herd of deer is returning to the center of the pasture again.  I suppose I had better get back to my search as well.  One thing is for sure, I will definitely order this verse munt thee again.

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 17, 2009

A wish for a winter wonderland

The Dutch winter just makes me tired.  It is, overall, quite different from the Minnesota winter.  It is not as cold, and there really isn’t any snow, but there is something secret about it.  I think you might have to grow up here in order to really understand it.   Chilly evenings of candles, sweatshirts, & slippers; drinking warme chocolade and eating appel gebak; and the sound of rain, constant rain. 

Maybe some hail as well.

None of this is all bad, I usually just picture black ice, unreal windchill, and snow coming in the top of my boots and I don’t feel too bad about the Dutch winter…

But then there is the sun.

I understand that I am not from the equator or anything, so I shouldn’t really be complaining, but here! Here, the sun seems to retire to the southern hemisphere by Halloween and we’re in for gray skies and darkness for the next four months.  Maybe five.  Last year, I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to adjust and handle the dark and rainy winter.  This year may be a bit different.  It is only November 17th and I am longing for the sun.  Even if it is being reflected off of the snow.

I have a feeling the difference might have something to do with the huge windows in our last apartment that looked out from the eighth floor.  Our new apartment does have two huge windows, but I think that the sun is only able to sneak past the opposite row of houses for about two hours per day.  Consider the fact that in January we average something like eight hours of sunlight for the entire month, and it’s not looking good. 

I have decided to combat the darkness by permanently keeping a pot of soup boiling on the stove, baking cranberry bread for breakfast, and pretending that Christmas encompasses winter, rather than winter including Christmas.

Matt is actually quite supportive of my actions.  Something about not minding fresh bread everyday and chili on Sundays for football. 

Whatever keeps the sun metaphorically shining.

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 17, 2009

New York

I cannot help myself.  I just love the new Alicia Keys song.  Well, it might actually be a Jay-Z song, but I can hardly admit that I listen to Jay-Z on a regular basis, so I will just call it the Alicia Keys song. 

I love the serenade to New York.  There really is so much there.  Makes me want to move to Tribeca and live in an undersized studio above a bagel shop.  What a life.

Empire State of Mind – Alicia Keys… and also Jay-Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqz47TtMTyk

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 6, 2009

A Cat Street

We are now living on a cat street.  This is quite new for me, but while the cat is not my favorite animal, these particular cats seem to be quite pleasant.  Wolfie is the cat that we see most often.  Wolfie, short for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (obviously), is the cat of our landlord, who lives above us.  Wolfie is one of the most pleasant cats I have ever known.  He is very quiet, takes care of himself without being too needy, and on moving day, when we were busy hauling things in and out and our doors were wide open, he sat politely at the side of the door, leaning to glance in every once in a while, but for heaven’s sake, never entering.  How polite.

There is also another orange cat which we call the Fattail cat.  This cat lives across the street in a big house where there is another fat-tailed cat that we call the Brown Fattail Cat.  The Fattail cat is normally found sitting on the top of the car that is parked in front of our apartment.  Actually, it is many times staring into our apartment, but we do eat a lot of fish, so perhaps this is why.  The Faittail cat also frequently attempts to climb the small gangly tree that grows in front of our apartment.  Overall, it does not usually have much success.  The tree is not all that sturdy, and the cat’s tail isn’t the only thing that’s fat.

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 5, 2009

Becherovka

There is a Czech liquor called Becherovka, that tastes like cinnamon, spice, and pure liquid Christmas.  I am on a constant hunt for places that sell this particular Christmas spirit, which is, thus far, quite difficult to find.  Since it is now November, my dreams of Christmas are in full swing.  This may have been triggered by the shocking change of weather from Indonesia to the Netherlands, or perhaps, it was caused by a glimpse of my mini Christmas tree currently stowed away in my storage compartment in Wassenaar back in October…

Either way, we have almost reached the time of year when I can play Christmas music all day and watch White Christmas at night without Matt losing his mind.  In February he is less lenient…

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Posted by: patriciamar | November 3, 2009

How Garrison Keillor Saved My Minnesotahood

You know, I never really liked Garrison Keillor. Overall, he looked pretty weird, wore red socks, and always told stories about some midwestern town called Lake Wobegon- and to tell you the truth, I wasn’t even sure where that was located.

Then, a few years ago, Matt’s aunt had tickets to see Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, and Matt and I were kindly invited along. Within a few moments, I had undergone a transformation. Not only was I laughing more than I had in a long time (in my office based life…), but I realized that after all this time, I was really Minnesotan.

And I mean really Minnesotan.

I got all the jokes (which not everyone does, by the way), I could insert a family member, relative, or friend into any skit and expect the same result, and I started to think it was kind of funny that Garrison Keillor always wears red socks for a radio program.

So here I am. Living in the Netherlands, and writing about Minnesota. The merry midwest. And wondering how I ever thought I could identify better with any other place.

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