Meanwhile in Germany...

Angie is getting surprise guests in the house!!! AHAHAHA, oh hey! Hey...you there, who let you in?

Seeing Merkel's face also reminded me that a lot of people talk to themselves in Berlin. Especially on trains. This one time I was riding to Charlottenburg or something dumb and this guy was loudly reciting facts to his captive audience. It went something like: "ANNNNNgela MERKEL is our PRESIDENT! SHE issssss a WOman! She is from EASTGERMANY! EAAAAAASSSTTTERNER!" He luckily had his back to me and another dude I happened to be facing. Fortunate. We were truly doing our best to laugh silently and allow him the glory of an uninterrupted monologue.

Expected delivery date: Oct 3-17

Musical Monday #14: Chemical Brothers

Wisely, Rachel and I decided to see Hanna at Cinemagic where the chairs rock. This proved useful for bumping to the Chemical Brothers soundtrack. Enjoy.

Ladies night: Gentlemen prefer blondes

Musical Monday #10: Annie

If you've been cruising with me in the Ranger lately, you've heard this. To those of you who haven't, you're welcome. Having taught child dance for nearly three years, I was constantly on the prowl for good pop and hip hop with a positive message without profanity. Not an easy task when you take into account I also have to kind of like it/not be annoyed by it. In doing so, I found Annie. I never ended up using any of these tunes for choreography, but I was surprised to discover that her most recent album "Don't Stop" is good synthy pop with better than average lyrics all the way through. Plus she lives in Berlin, where all cool Scandinavians end up going at some point or another...

Musical Monday #7: Iggy Pop

Not much to say except hanging out with your bff David Bowie in West Berlin of the late 70's fighting a heroin addiction and recording great albums must have been the real deal. Also purportedly the first artist to "stage dive" (wikipedia), Iggy is classic and so is this record.

My Verhuisdoos FINALLY Arrived!!!

In the interest of not lugging a bunch of bs around during my weird 2-day international journey back to the US and avoiding possibly life threatening luggage fees on one particular short flight, I sent a box of things back to the US from Amsterdam. The Dutch post will deal with up to 20 kilos (44 pounds) of your junk at a fairly reasonable price (half of what said short flight could have potentially charged me) so I bit. I carefully packed in less valuable but still important items into a Verhuisdoos ("Moving box" and for any of you who do Deutsch you can see just how funny Dutch is: "Verhausungsdose" instead of "Umzugskarton" anyone? Hahaha) and taped that biznass up. I even put the Dutch xmas treats I was planning to dole out in there, having great faith in the postal system. Two packages I'd sent previously arrived in 7 business days! Even the guy at the counter I mailed it from assured me it would be 1-1.5 weeks tops. L-I-A-R! It arrived WEDNESDAY JANUARY 12th! One month and one day after sending it. But you know what? It arrived and I am glad to have my vintage dresses, shitty shoes and llama yarn back. You can look forward to Dutch treats for Xmas NEXT YEAR, everyone.

Welcome back to 'Merica.

So, long story short, things in the old world didn't go according to hoped. Which puts me here. Where you have freedom. Although, in order to restrict freedom to sue, I guess we have to make signs like this to make sure people don't stand backwards and topple over on flat moving bands. 'MERICA!

Big opening for a bland offering.

Last Thursday here in Amsterdam, they opened a brand new H&M flagship store. In the spirit of Thanksgiving/Black Friday/curiousity, I got up at 5 am to check this out. Namely because they advertised free gift cards for the first 100 people in line with a surprise amount between 5 euros and 500 euros. I thought I'd go at least for the spectacle. Plus, you never know. I had a good feeling that maybe I'd be that lucky 500 euro cardholder if I did in fact make it within the 100 person limit. Matthias was also intrigued by this early stand up and decided to join me once he saw it was for real and discovered both of his classes were cancelled. His bike had a flat tire, so we had to buddy ride mine and it was freezing cold. I wore my raccoon fur jacket (vintage from mom) and we both had yellow hats in different shapes made from the same sweater. We also had a large army bag because Matthias was to pick up some equipment from school, so we looked like street folk out to collect. It was dark out and very few Dutch people were stirring. We arrived promptly at quarter after 7 (grand opening scheduled for 10) and saw quite a few people standing about. "Do you have cards?" asked a girl as we walked confusedly up to the red carpet being laid for customer entry. She showed us a lanyard with a grey card in plastic around her neck. "No, what for?" I asked, but Matthias had already sprung into action. He was on the red carpet and walking toward him was a well dressed woman holding two such lanyards on either side of her head. "Who are the last two?" She was asking in Dutch, looking at Matthias. "US!" He says, and that was that. Quarter after 7 and we were 99 and 100 in line. Hahahahha. "For this, I love how organized Dutch people are. Now we don't have to stand around wondering!" Matthias exclaimed. We had great hopes that one of our gift cards was the 500 euro winner. After 2.75 hours in the freezing cold drinking free coffee, gawking at tourists gawk at the line, and a loud musical buildup to a confetti burst, we discovered our grand total was 10 euros between us. The selection of accessories and small items turned out to be rather paltry and the clothing selection somewhat boring in my opinion. We couldn't decide if we should each buy socks or the whole amount should go toward a tie for Matthias' new job, so we buddy rode home and took a nap on the couch.

Old man in da house

Matthias turns 25. So Konrad and Max came from Germany, we drank prosecco, Dutch people stayed up past their bedtimes to sing happy birthday at midnight, we sat around a campfire, we got out the tablecloth, a cake was made, and we put balloons on the wall. Because balloons on the wall signify "special day" instead of "regular day." Prost to the quarter century.

Sweets

They might just now be joining the eco-fashion parade, but one thing Dutch people have been doing well for pretty much all of existence is sweets. They have nearly an entire aisle dedicated to cookies, mini cakes, goodies, licorice and pastries in even the smallest supermarkets. One of the more notable, are stroopwaffel (not pictured). They are rather delicious thin waffle cookie sandwiches with caramel cream in the middle. I can't eat them anymore. I had a bad day during my earlier visit in May where I got a bit lost and for some reason only felt confident enough to buy a package of stroopwaffel to quell my hunger and ended up eating the whole thing, nearly barfing in the overheated tram I finally found and boarded home. Thus, I've moved on to other delicacies such as marshmallows (usually strictly forbidden by a health-conscious Matthias, although he brought these home. Possibly he pitied my occasional homesickness by indulging me in something "Amercian") and DONUTS. Yes. Look at these beautiful creations! They are like picture perfect 90's donuts from the Simpsons! How can that even be a thing? I don't know, but can't you see it? PERFECT DONUTS! They are even flavored differently. The yellow one tastes like banana! The pink one tastes like strawberry! Yep. And these are just your standard grocery store donuts. Dutch people, I applaud you here.

Amsterdam gets on the eco-wagon

Strangely enough, Amsterdam's very first major "eco-fashion event" took place last Sunday. Strawberry Earth Wonderland. It was put on by an organizer called Strawberry Earth, which advocates all things earth-friendly and apparently set a pretty tough standard for vendors. I stumbled across an article about it in a magazine haphazardly tossed into my goodie bag at an Expat fair full of booths offering tips, treats and memberships to social clubs. Of course I pulled this magazine out. Of course I flipped right to this page. I mean, coming from Portland it's like "Yeah, eco-fashion. Recycling plastic. What else is new, right?" But for these guys it is a road not yet traveled.

It's kind of funny, because although the Dutch are rather stylish in my opinion, they are also quite homogeneous and tend to favor "expensive" looks in a subtle yachting-on-the-weekends kind of way. There isn't much diversity, and my beloved old-fashioned grunge doll look that would barely raise an eyebrow in Portland gets all kinds of strange (and occasionally somewhat negative) attention here. Which sucks a tad considering I'm still finding my bearings and don't really want to stand out more than necessary when I stumble mounting my bike or roll up to a sales counter with nothing more than a "Goede Dag" to contribute to the Dutch conversation. Therefore wearing familiar things (i.e. cutoff pastel Gunne Sax dress with threads hanging down, messy hair and a shoulder-padded band conductor cum office woman jacket) has to be toned down a bit. Or does it? I still haven't gotten to the bottom of this one. Anyway, I was really excited about this event because I felt like I could not only see what's up in the Dutch eco-fashion scene, but I could also rock all things I love to the max and not be stared at. Which made me realize something.

Dutch people are really just getting started on this eco-bandwagon as far as fashion is concerned. There is hope that they will yet one day find second-hand girl ghost a fashion-forward idea. Even if they would never do it themselves.

The event itself was actually quite fun. It took place in (according to Matthias) the only cool nightclub in Amsterdam, Trouw. I could see how it would be a good place to party, although like all Dutch structures, the stairways were unnaturally steep and would be somewhat dangerous while inebriated. I arrived at the beginning and had the opportunity to talk to several of the designers (more on that later). It was really nice to speak with others who are as genuinely enthusiastic about their crazy recycled work as I am and have also had some success thus far. Etsy also had a presence at the event, teaching people how to make T-shirt yarn and spreading the word to get the Euros excited about the site. Apparently its rather secret here in Europe. Which is cool, it makes me a little more stoked to spread the word.

Alright, Amsterdam. You might be far more square than people imagine and not quite ready for vampire grunge doll in ratty fur coat on a daily basis, but you have accepted recycled, eco, fair trade and conscientious fashion that has legitimate whimsy and doesn't suck. I applaud you there. It's a decent start.

IJburg

Last week Matthias needed to head out for some fresh air between studying for midterms and writing papers, so we rode across the bridge to IJburg. IJburg is a neighborhood of artificial islands in the IJ lake to offer more housing/a new neighborhood so Amsterdam can continue expanding somehow. So why not reclaim some more land from the water! They even have a word for this "Polder" although it's possible that only refers to land reclaimed from the sea...anyway, IJburg is appears to be a bit of an architectural free-for-all. There are all kinds of crazy facades and fun angles and bright colors on the residential buildings. We peeped in on all sorts of different living situations from the street level windows and admired the reckless abandon/meticulous attention to detail with which the buildings were designed. I bet architects everywhere were falling all over themselves to get in on this project.

photos by Matthias

Roti!

Did you guys know about this stuff? I didn't until I arrived in this country! We tried to make it several Fridays ago, but more recently I was treated to the real thing by Matthias one lucky afternoon. It's a Surinamese dish, popular here because Suriname is a former Dutch colony and something silly like 1/3 of their population emigrated to the Netherlands prior to independence in 1975. Anyway, they brought some tricks with them because this stuff is real good. It's a bunch of veggies like green beans, peppers, some seitan or tofu type thing (Matthias is a vegetarian), potatoes and...a deep fried egg. It's kind of spicy and you eat it by scooping up veggies with the soft pancakes on the side. I love it. Matthias had gotten the tip for a really good Roti joint from his psychology prof (who is of partial Surinamese descent) and picked up two full portions on his way home from class. Turns out, one is enough to share and stuff us both! So we had Roti for brunch...and dinner. It's that good.

Last days

Ladies wine tasting, hay!

New hair, thanks Jaimee!

Trying to feed Kristofer enough...Vincent style eggplant puttanesca with veggies from our garden!

Minions busy in the dungeon, Rosebud costumes underway...

Brunch with Josh's buddies who came down from Seattle for the Panda Bear show.

Final moments with my fur covered bff.

Brother with his new Swedish bff. We sent Kristofer out to join the bachelor party and sip from the boot so Shola and I could slave away over more sequined dresses in peace.

photos by brother and Kristofer

Today marks the one month anniversary of arrival in Amsterdam! So here's a little glimpse at the final moments in Portland. Kristofer was visiting during my last week, as his motorcycle tour of the states put him in Portland immediately prior to Eurodeparture. He managed to make himself useful though by slaving in the sewing lab and showing solidarity on late nights. Brother also should be acknowledged for generously chauffeuring our wine tasting adventure. Thanks guys!