Family!
Disclaimer: statement made to protect one's ass*
In this case: I've had quite a few strange shots, so take everything I say here with a grain of salt.
Alright, Friday: rain, as you probably suspected from my previous post. It did give me a good excuse to spend almost 2 hours reading in Kerckhoff coffee house with a giant coffee and a just as giant coffee. I was tired though, and decided to forego the clubbing. I apparently missed something: Sylvia, Maria &co. ended up at a rockabilly club inventing their origin: we are not Dutch or Danish but from Zealand (capital: Stoffel; famous country mates: Abel Tasman (who didn't just discover Tasmania, but also New Zealand, obviously) and the guy who sings the awful song about how he's too sexy for his car; King: Ludwig, who by the way will be shot and left in critical condition next wednesday). I actually wouldn't be surprised if we can convince some Americans othat Zealand actually exists.
Anyhow, back to friday: Koen attempted to cook. With the emphasis on attempted. Apparently, mixing sour cream (main ingredient: non fat milk powder) with wine is not such a good idea. The sauce was truly inedible, and the obvious solution was In-N-Out (with, naturally, the wine we'd already poured). Unfortunately, my intestines didn't much appreciate the combo, and spent the rest of the night reminding me of my stupidity. I did watch "Miller's Crossing", one of the few Coen Borthers' movies I had not seen already. I loved it, the look, the atmosphere, the double-crossings... I think the only ones I still have to see now are "Barton Fink " (about writer's block, apparently), and "The Ladykillers".
Saturday, then, day of the Chinese New Year's parade, but only, of course, after a french breakfast of kind of self-made croissants and chocolate milk that my intestines punished me for. Going to Chinatown turned out to take a bus (I've stopped being surprised about how you can easily spend 45 minutes on 1 street) and two metros. Union Station is really adorable, a beautiful building, but standing on the platform you'd think you're in some third tier Dutch station, cute, but small. Actuslly, not Dutch, Spanish, it looked like a Spanish station. I don't think the concept of trains has really penetrated this country.
On an aside, the group I was with illustrated the kind of people I hang out with here: there were four Dutch people, one German studying in Maastricht, two Danish Physics people (well, officially one geophysics and one astronomy person), an Indonesian usually studying in New Zealand (yep, Benson), one American (but one who studied in N-Zealand as well, a Bulgarian girl (I think), and some others, few of them American. I feel so foreign, such a citizen of the world. We are citizens of the world, those interesting multi-cultural people who will rule the world in the near future, we are those people untied to any conviction or nationalistic feeling, we are those always at home yet never settled...Ok, so that's the booze talking (damn you Nico, why did you have to pass me that glass of whisky every two seconds), but still, I like the idea that one day, every one will be free from allegiances to any one area of soil.
The parade was alright, but lacked enthusiasm. I'd expected more of an excited atmoshpere, but everyone was kind of dull, dreading the rain that never came but loomed ominously from behind dark clouds (note to self: alcohol does not improve your style). The lions/dragons (I never know) were nice though, and we saw the one place in LA (according to my guide) that sells live poultry (making me long for Morrocco). I want to go back there for a longer time when it's less crowded.
I left rather early to go find the Best Western Hollywood Hills. Now, I knew it was on Franklin Ave., but as I've learned, knowing which street something's on is not very useful. The intersection, now that's useful, but the street? Well, luckily I landed within 1000 numbers of the hotel, and I only had to walk for half an hour.
Seeing my family again... Well, the strange thing was actually that it felt as if I'd seen them only yesterday. We went out to " The old Spaghetti Factory", and then I took a taxi home. We'll probably go see Venice and Santa Monica tomorrow, so goodbye, midterms...
Well, hopefully my hangover won't be too bad.
Cheers,
H.
* Kevin Smith
In this case: I've had quite a few strange shots, so take everything I say here with a grain of salt.
Alright, Friday: rain, as you probably suspected from my previous post. It did give me a good excuse to spend almost 2 hours reading in Kerckhoff coffee house with a giant coffee and a just as giant coffee. I was tired though, and decided to forego the clubbing. I apparently missed something: Sylvia, Maria &co. ended up at a rockabilly club inventing their origin: we are not Dutch or Danish but from Zealand (capital: Stoffel; famous country mates: Abel Tasman (who didn't just discover Tasmania, but also New Zealand, obviously) and the guy who sings the awful song about how he's too sexy for his car; King: Ludwig, who by the way will be shot and left in critical condition next wednesday). I actually wouldn't be surprised if we can convince some Americans othat Zealand actually exists.
Anyhow, back to friday: Koen attempted to cook. With the emphasis on attempted. Apparently, mixing sour cream (main ingredient: non fat milk powder) with wine is not such a good idea. The sauce was truly inedible, and the obvious solution was In-N-Out (with, naturally, the wine we'd already poured). Unfortunately, my intestines didn't much appreciate the combo, and spent the rest of the night reminding me of my stupidity. I did watch "Miller's Crossing", one of the few Coen Borthers' movies I had not seen already. I loved it, the look, the atmosphere, the double-crossings... I think the only ones I still have to see now are "Barton Fink " (about writer's block, apparently), and "The Ladykillers".
Saturday, then, day of the Chinese New Year's parade, but only, of course, after a french breakfast of kind of self-made croissants and chocolate milk that my intestines punished me for. Going to Chinatown turned out to take a bus (I've stopped being surprised about how you can easily spend 45 minutes on 1 street) and two metros. Union Station is really adorable, a beautiful building, but standing on the platform you'd think you're in some third tier Dutch station, cute, but small. Actuslly, not Dutch, Spanish, it looked like a Spanish station. I don't think the concept of trains has really penetrated this country.
On an aside, the group I was with illustrated the kind of people I hang out with here: there were four Dutch people, one German studying in Maastricht, two Danish Physics people (well, officially one geophysics and one astronomy person), an Indonesian usually studying in New Zealand (yep, Benson), one American (but one who studied in N-Zealand as well, a Bulgarian girl (I think), and some others, few of them American. I feel so foreign, such a citizen of the world. We are citizens of the world, those interesting multi-cultural people who will rule the world in the near future, we are those people untied to any conviction or nationalistic feeling, we are those always at home yet never settled...Ok, so that's the booze talking (damn you Nico, why did you have to pass me that glass of whisky every two seconds), but still, I like the idea that one day, every one will be free from allegiances to any one area of soil.
The parade was alright, but lacked enthusiasm. I'd expected more of an excited atmoshpere, but everyone was kind of dull, dreading the rain that never came but loomed ominously from behind dark clouds (note to self: alcohol does not improve your style). The lions/dragons (I never know) were nice though, and we saw the one place in LA (according to my guide) that sells live poultry (making me long for Morrocco). I want to go back there for a longer time when it's less crowded.
I left rather early to go find the Best Western Hollywood Hills. Now, I knew it was on Franklin Ave., but as I've learned, knowing which street something's on is not very useful. The intersection, now that's useful, but the street? Well, luckily I landed within 1000 numbers of the hotel, and I only had to walk for half an hour.
Seeing my family again... Well, the strange thing was actually that it felt as if I'd seen them only yesterday. We went out to " The old Spaghetti Factory", and then I took a taxi home. We'll probably go see Venice and Santa Monica tomorrow, so goodbye, midterms...
Well, hopefully my hangover won't be too bad.
Cheers,
H.
* Kevin Smith
posted by Hedwig @ 12:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home