Nothing in particular

Yesterday I went out to dinner with some of my friends here in the Shelter, Magda, Samira and Cecilia. We went to a pizzeria. It was a lot of fun and we had such a funny waiter.
He talked to us about car racing and Cecilia said:
"We don't know anything about that stuff because we are females"
Then the waiter said: "you have e-mail?"
"No, we are females"
"I used to like females!"
"Oh, then what do you like now?"
I don't think we got an answer to that, but is was really funny.


And now for something completely different:
Did you know that when you spread your arms to your side, like the Vitruvian man, and measure the distance between the fingertips of your right and your left hand that it will be the same as your height? I heard this once before and yesterday evening Samira and I did some scientific research to see if it was true. And it was! We came to the conclusion that God must be pretty cool to create us like that!

The Swedish Chef

I just love the Swedish Chef, he's so funny! Bork, bork, bork!
This is his recipe for chocolate mooose. Very lekker. We always use this recipe in our hostel!

Noo, toodie wee well meg dee chocolate mooose.

Step oone, geet a five-pound block oof chocolate.

(5 lb. chocolate hefted onto table. THUNK!)

Step twoo, get dee mooose. Heer, mooosee mooosee mooosee mooosee!

(Moose walks into kitchen.)

Step three, put dee mooose een dee bleender.

(Moose looks quizically as chef puts moose in blender, head first. Vreee! Vreee! Vruuunk!)

Nuutice: dee bleender cun't hundel dee entlers. Put dee entlers een last.

(Chef reverses moose, puts back in blender. Moose raises front legs in "why me?" gesture. Vreee! Vreee! Vruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunknknknknk.)

Chef pulls antlers out of blender.

Seeve dee entlers, yoo cun use dem fur furks.

Steep three: cuut chocolate eentoo leetle bite-size peeces. Heer, we uuse a cleever.

(Attempts to chop chocolate block with meat cleaver, but only succeeds in breaking the cleaver.)

Dees is guud chocolate. Weell, eef at furst yuu dun't succeed, pass dee buck. Get dee asseesteent. Aseesteent!

(Miss Piggy, in chef's hat and apron, enters kitchen.)

Asseesteent, pulees cuut dee chocolate eentoo leedle bite-size peeces.

(Miss Piggy karate-chops chocolate block into little pieces, leaving chocolate all over counter.)

Theenk yooo, asseestent.

(Miss Piggy leaves. Chef uses dustpan and broom to collect chocolate pieces.)

Steep fuur, put chocolate een weeth mooose, und bleend egen.

(Dumps chocolate into blender, and turns it on. He has forgotten to place the lid on the blender, however, and chocolate moose begins to cover the chef and his kitchen.)

Allweeys remembur oone uf twoo theengs. Eether puut dee leed on dee bleender, ur meg shuur det yuur diiners ur een dee keetchen.

(Collects chocolate moose from his apron using his finger, then tastes it.)

Uum! Dees ees guud mooosee!!!

Sounds good, right?

My bike!

Oh my everything! My bike got stolen today!!!
Or so I thought...
My second lock hasn't been working well so I locked my bike just once tonight, thinking it would be okay. But this afternoon I discovered it was gone.
I could get in trouble for this because we always have to double-lock our bikes!
So I felt really bad.
Later this evening Rosemary (one of the managers) told me that a manager from the Shelter City "stole" my bike and put it in our garden at the Willemsstraat.
Apparently he has done that several times before to show us that it's not safe to leave our bikes outside without locking them well.
Feel stupid right now. And I don't like it when people make me feel stupid!
So, I don't really feel a lot of love for that manager right now (even though he's right about the bike locking thing...).

The Bread Code

Today we had kitchen training and once again we were talking about our bread rules. There's a list in the kitchen called 'The Bread Code" and it's supposed to explain to us how we should deal with the bread in the kitchen. This is what happens:
We receive fresh bread from the bakery. We use that bread for lunch. The bread we don't use goes into the freezer. The bread that's left over from lunch goes into the "old bread box". Except the bread that wasn't set out on the table, because that goes into the "new bread box". The old bread from the "old bread box" is used in the morning to make french toast, but we also use bread from the freezer for french toast. So, is frozen bread considered fresh or old? Then there's the story of the bread rolls. We serve rolls for cold breakfast and when we have some rolls left we freeze some of them to use for hamburger meals in the evening, but we also keep some out of the freezer to use for hamburger meals in the evening. Makes sense, right?
It's all about figuring out what bread goes where and who is supposed to eat it!
So, I wonder how long it will take before the bread confusion starts again.
Then we can discuss it again in our next staff meeting...

Being Sporty

This evening we had an outreach night in our hostel. And we decided to play kickball in the park with some of the guests. Kickball is a bit like baseball (or "slagbal" in dutch), except that you kick the ball instead of hitting it with a bat.
Some of the people from our smallgroup made some cool posters for this night. One of them said:

"What do you think of when you hear the words 'kick' and 'ball'?
-Self defense
-A bad first date
-Caveman soccer
-An opportunity to meat hot chicks and dudes"

Or:
"Are you:
-Smart
-Goodlooking
-Funny
-Athletic
-None of the above?
Then you might enjoy a game of kickball"

So, we went to the park to play kickball. And I actually liked it, even though I suck at ballgames. I was in a sporty mood today and even started to think about leading a more active lifestyle. Hmm, I wonder how long this feeling will last. I will probably be back into lazy mode by tomorrow.
It was great fun, but the field we played in was full of doggy do and Aaron (playing barefoot) got some between his toes!!! Good thing I kept my (high-heeled) shoes on!

Looking for a hostel?

Such a funny thing happened yesterday.
I came home from work and when I arrived at the Willemsstraat (where I live) I saw a guy and a girl sitting in a car that was parked in front of our door. When I walked to the door the guy came out of the car and asked me in German if I knew where they could find a youth hostel to stay? I thought this was so funny! How big is the chance that you get lost in Amsterdam and end up in front of a building where 30 people live who work in youth hostels?!
So, trying to speak German, I told them I work at the Shelter Jordan and that they could stay there. This morning, when I work at reception, they came to check out, because they didn't like the fact that they couldn't sleep in the same dorm.
Oh, well....

Queen's Day!!!

Yesterday it was Queens Day in Amsterdam! And it was lots of fun!
The night before Queens Day it was Queens Night and Chrissy, Magda and me went to Leidseplein to dance. There was some kind of platform on which we were dancing and there were some professional dancers teaching us a routine. It was so much fun! It didn't bother me at all that people were looking at us, no one knows me here!
The next day I was planning to stay inside, because I really don't like big crowds of people. Especially when it's so busy that you can't even walk normally. I just get agressive and wanna hit people that are in my way!
But, I went out anyway, with Laurissa, Eva and Richie. It was really cool. There were a lot of people but I really liked seeing everyone wearing orange (except me, the one orange t-shirt I own isn't here) and there were tons of people with their boats on the canals.
We walked to Vondelpark where a lot of kids were performing and doing tricks and stuff like that. It's funny to see how people do things they're actually not good at (like singing), and try to make money out of it. Or the whole "sell your old stuff" thing. Sometimes it wasn't clear if stuff was for sale, or if someone just threw their garbage on the street!
But, on the whole, it was really nice!
So, how was Queens Day in other parts of the country?