The Netherlands - Chocomel

I was told by a friend of mine that Chocomel is actually the best chocolate milk brand in the Netherlands. It's so famous that if you order a hot chocolate at restaurants you might actually be drinking a warmed up Chocomel.

And actually, they like to put a large serving of whipped cream on top. Yes, chocolate, milk, sugar, more sugar, and whip cream. Highly not recommended for the diabetics.

It is very creamy and smooth, and it actually reminds me of canned Milo. I can't say there is anything really special about Chocomel, although I have to admit that it is delicious (and sweet).

They recently came up with Dark Chocolate Chocomel, and I thought it was the most awesome idea ever. A person who doesn't really like things that are too sweet like me would probably enjoy it more, right?

Nope. It's really thick and it's really hard to swallow. Not to mention it is also very sweet as well. I had to dilute it with water or with half-fat milk. If I add water, I feel like drinking diluted dark chocolate. If I add milk, the balance in taste is somehow improved, but it doesn't help with the consistency.

I still love Chocomel, though :)

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The Netherlands - Den Haag

Also known as The Hague, Den Haag is the center of governance in the Netherlands. To be honest, I had not heard of this place before I met a new friend of mine who spent 3 years completing her bachelor's in Den Haag. 

It was a 2-day 1-night trip (thankfully it wasn't extended to 3-day 2-night one). Don't get me wrong: Den Haag is a beautiful place, but it's not a very big city where you have to spend three full days to explore.

Train station.

The Gemeentemuseum Den Haag was pretty interesting. It's such a shame that the exhibition on The Girl with the Pearl Earring was no longer there, but there are a lot of collections worth noting. I don't have any artistic backgrounds and I probably am not the best critique when it comes to fine arts and painting, but I enjoyed looking at some of the works there.

There is a cafe inside the museum. The ambience was great and everything smelled really good but they are (obviously) a little overpriced.

This was one of the you-can-take-a-photo-of-it painting that I really like. It was a really good play on colors and textures, and it looks really lively to me.

Another section that roused my interest is De Draad van Alexander or Alexander's Wire exhibition.

It was done based on a storybook where a man creates things with wires. In this exhibition, we can form our own wire art and put it on display. For free, of course.

Most of the "artists" were very young, about 9-12 years old. Even then, some of the works were simply brilliant, like this one:

I decided to try it out and make a dog out of a wire. Well, it's a peeing dog if you see how one of its hind leg was raised. You can put your name on your artwork, and so I did. My friends did not want to put their names and ages because they thought it was embarrassing to have people in their twenties do this kind of thing. As for me, I don't see why I shouldn't put my real info on the card.

Other exhibitions include some architectural designs and contemporary works of fine art. I found some of them pleasing, and some of them mind-disturbing.

Looking at contemporary arts displayed at that museum made me feel a little depressed after a while.

Well, what else? Oh yes, the raw herring. It's one of the famous Dutch foods!

When you order one, they will ask if you want raw onions or pickled dill toppings on it. They actually taste great: kind of like a mix between salmon and tuna sashimi. A little fishy, but I could bear with it. And it's not slimy.

There's this man-made beach as well. The beach was pretty clean, and there were lots of seagulls. It was pretty windy and cold but I still saw some people in the water LOL.

What else? Classic-looking buildings (and I don't know their names).

Oh and I can't miss this: public transport. It seems to me that trams are the most commonly used means of public transportation. You see them everywhere.

But the most surprising element is the taxis.

It's an Audi, yes. And it's a taxi. I've seen Mercedes Benz used as a taxi as well. It's interesting. I kind of wanted to try riding them, but I didn't have any particular destination to go and I guess my friends didn't really want to ride them :/

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The Netherlands - Riding a Bike

I am 23 years old, and I never used a bike. Well, I think I did, when I was really little (~2 years old). I gracefully fell from the second floor of my house (where we normally hand our clothes to dry them) while riding a bike. I can't be positively sure that this incident had caused me some kind of trauma with a bike, but I seem to be avoiding bikes at all costs.

Before I came to the Netherlands, I was told that I will not survive without a bike. Considering how I always depend on my feet to walk long distances when I was in the States and when I was in Japan, I wasn't scared of having to walk a long distance around my campus in the Netherlands.

I survived my first week of school without a bike, and riding a bus didn't take that long. The bus comes every 15 minutes (30 minutes at most) and that is perfectly fine. The bus ride from my housing to campus is only about 20 minutes - relatively much shorter than the daily 45-minute trip from my dorm to school when I was in Japan.

Everything was fine, until I had to hang out with my friends. Most of them have bikes, and while some people are nice enough to walk their bikes to accompany you walking, at some point you will be an extra luggage they have to carry around with. Or at least, I felt that way.

So, with all my might, I tried to conquer my fear of riding bikes.

I was quite fortunate to have found a bike on sale by my dorm mate. It's a little high and a little expensive, but I had to buy it because I needed to learn how to bike ASAP.

My learning process was quite painful. One day I woke up at 7 in the morning, dragged my first bike I've ever bought into a grassy slope close to our building, and started to slide from the top of the slope downwards. I can't recall how many times I fell down the slope. I stepped on dog poo, fell on my bike, had my left leg crushed by my bike... I could say it wasn't one of the most pleasant learning ever. A number of people passed by - and actually encouraged me, giving me tips on how to balance myself better. 

It was frustrating because when I thought I had gotten the feel of it, I failed and lost my balance again, as if my earlier success was merely a fluke. I was covered in sweat and dirt, and I'm sure I emitted disgusting smell. There were nasty insects biting my arms, but I kept on.

Luckily, I began my day with a good attitude. There is this wonderful theory I learned in basic psychology class I took in my first year of university: if you think of something when you're smiling, you tend to see things more beautifully; if you think of something when you're pouting, you tend to see things worse. The theory was proven by the class, and it actually worked.

After 2 hours of struggle, I finally made it. As to today, two weeks have passed since my first success in biking. I still wobble a little bit, and I'm still awkward with stopping and kicking off, but I made it :)

Lesson of the day? Success comes with good attitude.

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The Netherlands - Indonesian Food

There are countless Indonesians in the Netherlands - why of course, we had a long lasting relationship with the Dutch! I'm too lazy to write the history of Dutch occupation because I'm not very good at memorizing historical facts and you can actually Google it.

This time I want to talk about food. As I said in the previous post, I found many different varieties of Indonesian food at the supermarket in the Netherlands, and I actually love the fact that I can find them easily at almost every groceries.

On my second last day of orientation we were served nasi goreng (Indonesian word for fried rice). They don't even call it "fried rice" here. It's actually pretty cool to have a term in your language not translated into English or Dutch.

What I find weird about this nasi goreng is the way they serve it. Aside from the shrimp crackers, everything else on the plate was not what you commonly see in Indonesia. They serve the fried rice with peanut sauce! Throughout my entire 23 years of living as an Indonesian who is still culturally strong, I've never seen anything like this. Yes, we do use peanut sauce in a lot of dishes, but they are mainly salads or grilled skewers (sate). Never on fried rice.

I was in doubt about the peanut sauce and fried rice combination, so I asked the waitress what the sauce is for, and she said "for the fried rice."

Well, I tried eating the rice with the peanut sauce. Not the best combination ever, but it didn't taste bad. I just found it weird. It's like you grew up knowing eating bread with peanut butter and then suddenly you're told to mix peanut butter with grape jam and spread the mix on your toast. A lot of Americans find peanut butter and jelly delicious, but I find it a little weird with the mix of salty, savory, and tanginess.

They also have sambal (chili sauce), which actually tastes pretty good compared to the chili sauce in Singapore (it's like eating sugar syrup with a hint of capsaicin). I feel that a lot of sambal here is mixed with trassi (fermented shrimp paste). And I don't mind it because I love trassi. It's very savory.

I'm really glad I could easily find rice at the supermarket. Nasi goreng is so easy to make, it's yummy, and it fills your tummy.

I'm looking forward to trying Indonesian food in the Netherlands, but at the same time, I want to make use of my time in Europe to try more European food. I'll try the famous Dutch tomato soup next time!

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The Netherlands - Exploration Days

It's been more than a week! And yes I have tons of reasons and excuses for not posting anything to this blog. The Annual Introduction Day (AID) took so much of my time, and I actually fell sick on my 3rd day in the Netherlands.

The weather had been pretty bizzarre here: it was sunny, hot (37C) and humid. It wasn't the usual Netherlands weather, so people said. And since it's normally windy and chilly here, there was no fan or AC installed in the dorm room so those days were friggin' hot. I couldn't sleep for 3 days. Back in Indonesia I deal with hot and humid weather, around 32C in average, and I could survive because almost every house is installed with at least a fan. Luckily, the temperature was back to 'normal' after 5 days.

The orientation was fun, although I wish more of my group members would turn up. We only had about 5-6 members per day. It's a little sad, but I got to know a little more about the campus.

Travelling by bus is a little expensive, but if I save up on other expenses I'm sure I'll be able to reach the school just fine.

As I heard from  many people, almost everyone in the Netherlands uses a bike to travel around. I'm quite used to walking a long distance walk, so I was actually fine not knowing how to bike. But the problem comes when your friends ask you to hang out with them and you're the only one who don't have a bike. It's hard to tell them "please go on ahead I'll be walking" and if you keep making them wait for you I'm sure they'll get fed up.

So I bought a bike. Yup. I fell down so many times as I tried to learn how to bike for the first time in 20 years and the bruises on my left leg actually look pretty scary. They're huge and black (not blue). I showed them to my mum and she was actually freaking out. Well, I hope they heal soon.

Anyways, I explored a little bit about the town I'm currently staying at: Ede.

Being an Indonesian, I saw a lot of familiar words from Indonesian language, such as the picture at the bottom:

I knew that a lot of vocabularies in Indonesian language is actually derived from Dutch, yet I still find a lot of things awkward. Especially when you see Indonesian terms written in Dutch, as follows:

Sajoer Lodeh is actually an Indonesian dish, kind of like vegetables in coconut milk-based soup. I find it funny because that was how Indonesians used to write before 1972. We learned how to write roman letters thanks to the Dutch, and we learned how to read those letters according to the way the Dutch read them. The correct way of writing it in current Indonesian language is Sayur Lodeh. So it felt like I was brought to the past.

Tons of "misspelled" Indonesian products in the Netherlands. Those products may have been adjusted to the local taste but it's better than nothing :)

Another exciting thing about my first week in the Netherlands was the celebration of my country's independence day from the Dutch. I didn't feel anything awkward about it, but when I thought about it, it was ironically funny.

The red and white flag is actually Indonesian, by the way. We share the same flag as Monaco, and if you invert our flag up side down, you'll see a Polish flag.

The food provided by during the orientation was so-so. Well, I didn't expect anything grand since the university must have been affected by the Euro crisis as well. One day we had a BBQ outside. It was really hot and humid. We had chicken sate (skewer), beef patties, chicken sausages, bread and some salads.

The last day of the orientation was fun: graffiti workshop.

We went to the museum in Wageningen as well. There's no entrance fee. A lot of things have English translations, but you'll see some stuffs that are only available in Dutch.

When Germany surrendered at the end of World War II, the agreement to have the Germans disarmed was actually signed in Wageningen. 5 May, 1945.

And then we walked a little bit towards the meadow at the back of the school. Well, in general, this is how things look like in Wageningen. It's a very small town with lots of greens (which I heard will turn yellow and brown once autumn has started). Very peaceful, and you could see lots of beautiful stars when it's not cloudy at night.

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The Netherlands - Hello Amsterdam!

I've been on hiatus for quite some time, and yes I'm no longer in Japan. I headed back to Indonesia after I was done with my language school in Tokyo, and now I'm in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands. There is free wi-fi all around the airport but it's not very fast. I attempted to use FaceTime and Viber, and either I couldn't get connected, or the other party doesn't hear me.

The airport is pretty lovely, but I wish they have more seats that are located next to a power plug. I spent the first half hour trying to find seats with power plugs next to it. Well, I found one near the train station. Still part of the airport but it's at the center where it's connected to the train station. Pretty convenient, huh?

I have to wait for another hour to meet the person who would pick me up and show me the way to my university (and I suppose another hour and a half after that for the next new student to arrive, go through the immigration and pick up her baggages).

Can't be helped but I think it's better for me to wait instead of heading there alone and not knowing where to go :')

Tons of cafetaria and restaurants around, but most of them sell sandwiches and all sorts of bread. It's gonna be a little tough for me because I don't really like bread. It's not the taste or the texture, but bread gives me a different kind of satiety. A weird kind, I would say. Probably because I'm so used to digesting rice and noodles, but not bread.

Alright, time to rest up a little bit. I'm still a little sleepy; 12 hour flight isn't very pleasant. I'll probably gonna watch a couple episodes of Shirokuma Cafe for now.

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In Japan - Blood Donation (Final Episode)

I'm technically not in Japan anymore; the last few days in Japan had been pretty busy with finals and my parents coming over for a short trip. I had to pay 500 yen for internet access per night so I didn't really want to waste my money on that.

Well, remember the last time I shared my story on blood donation? Two months finally passed, and I finally was able to donate my blood!

... not. I failed again haha. And the reason was that my haemoglobin concentration was not enough *cries*

And I waited for 1 hour to go through the whole process of registering and waiting. 1 hour. Only to be told to rest and come back some time.. later. Yeah. Later.

Anyways, while I was waiting in line, the staff kindly asked everyone if they had had food or enough drink before the blood donation (even though they will still test your haemoglobin level and determine if you can donate blood or not).

I told the staff I had lunch recently but he still gave me a donut. 

I received lots of pamphlets and stuffs as well. Well, this paper is basically a checklist. The first bullet point was the reason I couldn't donate my blood last time: I haven't been in Japan for 4 weeks.

They will also ask if this was your first time donating blood. If it was, they will give you a card that you can hang on your neck. That basically tells the nurse to be gentler and to explain things in greater detail to you.

After I was told that I couldn't donate, the staffs were really kind. They kept apologizing to me (for making me wait and in the end I still couldn't donate, and one staff actually remembered that I came last time and couldn't donate as well). They said it's the heart that counts, and they kept asking me to grab some drinks and donuts on the way home as a form of thanks. 

You know what? I was a little disappointed because I had to wait for so long and go through a lot of process of registering and stuff, but it didn't feel that bad because everyone was so polite and thoughtful. This is one of the reason why I love Japan :)

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