Saturday, October 19, 2002

 
Gak. Stupid Dutch weather. Yesterday, in an effort to meet someone for a trip to Amsterdam, I became the most water-logged person on the face of the earth. I can't believe I haven't learned yet. I go out, I look at the sky, say to myself "it's drippy, but not really raining, I'll be okay." Four minutes later, it's pouring, I'm completely drenched, and I've discovered that riding a bike while holding up an umbrella is pretty well impossible if you're not Dutch or at least not someone who's spent a considerable amount of time on a bike. And really what does it matter? The rain is practically horizontal anyway.

I had to go back home, change, buy a strippenkaart, and take the bus like a normal person. By the end of yesterday, there were four umbrellas between the two of us. Lesson learned, hopefully.

Still, I got to go to Amsterdam, which is always a treat and found two new bookstores I like, one of which is called Hieronymus Bosch, and the other of which is called Boekie Woekie (pronounced Bookie Wookie). Hieronymus Bosch sels exclusively books on medieval and renaissance topics, while Boekie Woekie sells only books made by artists. Fun fun. You've got to love the European propensity for specialisation. You'd never see something like this is Toronto. On the other hand, these are not the ideal stores to be exploring while carrying four umbrellas, three of which are wet, but hey, what are you gonna do? I also went to an art gallery called Mendo and greatly enjoyed the exhibition. You can greatly enjoy it with me here. Coolio. I also went to see The Bourne Identity, which was pure candy, though I'm not a big Matt Damon fan. But Clive Owen is in it and he's delicious. Yum. There was one scene where Matt Damon gives Franka Potente a haircut, which for me was the most cringe-worthy scene of the movie. Sure, sure, I can handle the blood and guts, but show me a bad haircut done with blunt scissors and I'm completely horrified.

In other news, something very bizarre has happened. My hotmail account is no longer being inundated with spam. I'm not sure what happened, because I haven't changed any settings, but thank you, e-mail gods, thank you.


posted by Alleen at 9:37:59 AM

Tuesday, October 15, 2002

 
Wow... I'm not really prepared... This is so unexpected... I hardly know what to say... I'd like to thank the little people... And my momma, for being my number one fan...

There's pictures! Look at them! So pretty.

Um... I sent these pictures to Aleta because... I don't know, probably some sort of wierd bid to cheer her up. But anyway. The top one is in one of the smaller chapels radiating out from the nave in the Antwerp Cathedral... Crazy tour guide lady says: "The cathedral was built in the shape of the cross, with the nave at the point where Jesus' head would have been. The chapels "radiating" out from the nave represent our lord's halo [scary beatific smile]. Let's go see the Rubens." Anyway. I think it's meant to be Mary, but it could just as easily have been a saint. Note plastic light mounted on painted crumbling stone wall to the left. I don't know... I just thought it looked nice... and glowy.

The second one was taken in the other church I went to in Antwerp, whose name I still haven't remembered (maybe because I never knew). It's a bunch of people trapped in a box with my hair. No, I'm kidding. It's hell, silly! On top of this box of fun is an angel looking sort of distantly ahead, very pretty, very androgynous, very blond. I didn't take a picture of the angel because this sort of portable hell in a box thing was kind of fun, whereas the angel just looked... well, you know, angelic. I mean, look at these guys. Whatever you can say about Catholics, you can't say they didn't have a sense of the dramatic.

Oh, and one thing I didn't mention before. One of the funnest things about Rubens' painting the Elevation of the Cross, which you can see here, is that the bottom part of the panel on the left depicts a crying woman feeding a baby. What you can't see in the sucky reproduction of the painting on that website is that despite the fact that the baby is too distraught to eat (and probably too old to be breastfeeding--he's wicked huge), she's got her boob out and Rubens has obviously spent some time rendering it in loving detail, milky white skin, blue veins, Rubenesque proportions and all. The thing is that, being at the bottom of the painting, she's right at eye level. And yet, surprisingly, crazy tour guide lady didn't mention her.
posted by Alleen at 7:08:44 PM

Monday, October 14, 2002

 

Some pictures...

I'll let Alleen add commentary later.
posted by Rocketbride at 7:50:19 PM

Sunday, October 13, 2002

 
I just downloaded dope wars into my computer again, something I promised that I wouldn't do. The problem with this turned out to be that I got the highest score I've ever gotten the first time that I played and now I don't want to play anymore. I practically have to force myself to be interested in what is essentially a time-wasting activity, simply to justify the fact that I gave in to temptation and broke a promise to myself. Argh.

Well, in other news, my brother is going to be visiting me in November and we're probably going to go to London together... which should be cool because neither of us has ever been and it's always fun to play stupid tourist with someone who is equally a stupid tourist. Also, I bought my ticket to Toronto for Christmas. Also, I bought the new Supergrass album and before this prompts any comments of "Oh, are those guys still around?", it's actually really good, so you should go listen to it. I went on a little spending spree after my dad left and bought myself Queens of the Stone Age, the soundtrack to Ocean's Eleven and the aforementioned Supergrass CD. Which is kind of funny considering I was only looking for the new Primal Scream album. Anyway, they were sickeningly expensive, but I'm pleased all around.

Last night, a group of expats had a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner here, prompted by the fact that one of my co-worker's parents are visiting. This worked out really well as co-worker's mom made the turkey and gravy and stuffing and all I can say is she's a goddess and I love her. Props to Ethel, everyone. Props to Ethel.

I learned many things about people yesterday, some of which I will share with you.

1) Sometimes, someone who you think is cool can turn into a complete asshole for no apparent reason.

2) Randomly wearing a dress when you normally work in trousers will give everyone cause to make stupid comments like "Oh! I didn't know you owned a dress!" or "Wow, that's really wierd!" or "I don't mean to be rude, but before I saw you tonight I don't think I could have pictured you in a dress." Inevitably, most of these comments will come from people you hardly know. Don't let this deter you. They are only saying these things to cover up the fact that they're checking out your legs and discovering that they do indeed exist and they're pretty nice at that. So there, bitches.

3) A grip is the person who sets up and holds the lights in a movie.

4) Ethel makes a damn fine turkey.

5) When you're not sure of where you're going, bring a map and don't trust to your unerring sense of direction, which frankly you don't have.

6) Healthy recipes for potato salad are inevitably no good.

7) When you hang out with a bunch of people who are 10-15 years older than you, expect to hear a lot of 70s and 80s music along with a lot of misty reminiscences about being a teenager in small town Alberta/Australia/British Columbia/Russia/Netherlands. Don't feel stupid if you can't identify the songs. Much of this music is older than you.

8) Dutch people speak English very well. Yesterday I tried out my rudimentary Dutch when asking for directions and most people inevitably got a pained look on their face and switched to English. One couple outright laughed at me. "Weet je waar is Haringstraat?" may not be proper sentence construction but I thought I got the point across. On the other hand, had they answered in Dutch I doubt I would have understood the answer, so we're probably better off all around.

9) No wait. That's it.

I have a long weekend coming up due to a UN holiday. Any thoughts on where I should go? I'm thinking either Stockholm or Lisbon.
posted by Alleen at 11:12:09 AM

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