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April 30 was Koniginne Dagen (Queen's Day), which is normally the queen's birthday but is currently actually the Queen's (late) mother's birthday; I guess Queen Juliana was very well liked, and when she abdicated, Queen Beatrix decided not to change the day of Queen's Day. Because it fell on a Sunday this year, the Dutch PM (who I gather is fairly religious) decided that all the traditional Queen's Day activities would happen on Saturday instead. I'd gotten various impressions about what the day would be like - I had an idea it would be sort of like Halloween in Madison, but with everyone wearing orange instead of being dressed in costumes. Well, that may have been the case, but we didn't see much evidence of that over where we live. There were quite a few people wearing orange, but what the main focus of the day appeared to be was a city-wide garage sale. Along the sidewalks of one of the more major streets near our house people were lined up with piles of stuff in front of them. It was a rather overwhelming experience, actually. If you went looking for something in particular, you probably wouldn't have found it, but if you weren't looking for anything specific, you probably would find it. Joel was extremely tempted by a hideous green cactus lamp, which he thought would be a perfect wedding gift for a friend of his. (At only €.50, I told him we could afford to get it and an adapter so it could be used in the States, but he ended up declining). Perhaps my favorite of the things we saw was one of those old-fashioned metal mailboxes stamped "US mail" on the front! How on earth did that end up in the Netherlands? :)
Yesterday was Labor Day, so classes were cancelled and the university was closed. It ended up being the perfect day to spend at home, since it started raining in the morning and rained fairly heavily without stop for the rest of the day (this might not seem unusual, given that Amsterdam is a coastal city, but in fact, it is - often when it rains, it rains either lightly or in spurts, so solid steady rain for a couple hours on end is unusual). I made a batch of dahl, and some focaccia (half wheat flour, half white, add a dash of olive oil to the dough, and sprinkle poppy seeds or sesame seeds), perfect food for a rainy day.
And since Monday was a free day, I was able to stay up without too much guilt far past my bedtime on Sunday (and last night too, which is why I'm so tired...). It's not without some great deal of embarrasment that I admit that for the last two and a half weeks I'd been following the World Snooker Championship. 17 days ago, I'd never even heard of snooker before. Now, I stayed up till almost 2am last night to watch the guy I was rooting for win the championship (he's been a professional for 12 years and this is the first tournament he's won, what a one to win!) and I'm actually eagerly looking forward to next year's championship. I'll try to cover up my embarrasment at being so drawn in to something so uncharacteristic for me by pointing out just how interesting the physics involved in good pool playing is, and that that was a large part of why I found it so interesting. The precision of the players not only in potting the balls but in also getting the cue to where it needs to be to make the next shot with ease is really quite amazing, and so I can also say that part of the draw in watching snooker is the same that I find in watching track & field, or the Olympics, or swimming or gymnastics, or even pro golf - I thoroughly enjoy watching skillful people do something well, especially when it's something I know I can't do, and my knowledge of my lack of ability contributes to my respect for theirs.
Yesterday was Labor Day, so classes were cancelled and the university was closed. It ended up being the perfect day to spend at home, since it started raining in the morning and rained fairly heavily without stop for the rest of the day (this might not seem unusual, given that Amsterdam is a coastal city, but in fact, it is - often when it rains, it rains either lightly or in spurts, so solid steady rain for a couple hours on end is unusual). I made a batch of dahl, and some focaccia (half wheat flour, half white, add a dash of olive oil to the dough, and sprinkle poppy seeds or sesame seeds), perfect food for a rainy day.
And since Monday was a free day, I was able to stay up without too much guilt far past my bedtime on Sunday (and last night too, which is why I'm so tired...). It's not without some great deal of embarrasment that I admit that for the last two and a half weeks I'd been following the World Snooker Championship. 17 days ago, I'd never even heard of snooker before. Now, I stayed up till almost 2am last night to watch the guy I was rooting for win the championship (he's been a professional for 12 years and this is the first tournament he's won, what a one to win!) and I'm actually eagerly looking forward to next year's championship. I'll try to cover up my embarrasment at being so drawn in to something so uncharacteristic for me by pointing out just how interesting the physics involved in good pool playing is, and that that was a large part of why I found it so interesting. The precision of the players not only in potting the balls but in also getting the cue to where it needs to be to make the next shot with ease is really quite amazing, and so I can also say that part of the draw in watching snooker is the same that I find in watching track & field, or the Olympics, or swimming or gymnastics, or even pro golf - I thoroughly enjoy watching skillful people do something well, especially when it's something I know I can't do, and my knowledge of my lack of ability contributes to my respect for theirs.
