Goodbye to WKZ

Preparing good-bye cake on Monday night
It was Alfonso's birthday on Monday, and offered me to join them on a boat in Amsterdam canals. One of his friend had a boat..

It would be really nice to take this opportunity in my last weekend in Amsterdam; however I was somewhat late from Utrecht; and I wanted to make a good-bye cake for Utrecht colleagues since yesterday was my last day there. Therefore, I could not join Alfonso..

I took the following photos of Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis during a short stroll at the woods across the hospital:

Then, on the way back to my place from Amstel station by cycling, I finally managed to take the photos of those two little lovely houses located at Ringdijk street, close to the end meeting Linnaeusstraat.
Vahid and Sara joined me in my place on Monday evening since Sara also wanted to see how to make this easy cake. The recipe, I had taken from Duygu years ago when I wanted to make a good-bye cake in 2004 before leaving Denmark. Duygu calls this "mosaic cake", but my portuguese colleagues in Denmark had told me that they had something very similar, which they call "chocolate salami."

First we had a simple lunch with my şehriye (semolina) soup, and their iranian rice, and later the turkish dessert: Noah's pudding (aşure). Then, Vahid took biscuits into pieces, Sara chopped walnuts and dried apricots; and we mixed everything and rolled with an aluminum folio to put into fridge.

Deregistration at Amstel 1, at Stadsdeel Centrum
Normally, you go to Stadhoudskade 85 to register city hall. I was there monday morning, and they told me that they only register; for de-registration you have to go to your stadsdeel hall.

So, I was at Amstel 1, just behind Waterlooplein to deregister myself yesterday morning. Then, I cycled to Amstel station for the last time to catch Utrecht train. I managed to get on the one at 9:15.

Good-bye sushi
When I entered into my office at WKZ, I told Margriet that I had brought good-bye cakes. "But they ended up having in small amount although I tried to double the recipe" I said. She said that I should not be worried since she also brought sushis for my farewell. It is so kind of her! Well, on one hand, I found it weird to eat sushis to say goodbye; but I did not think about it that much.

Then she sent an e-mail to the whole department using Monique's computer.

Then, at 11; we went to the coffe room with Tjeerd, Hannelie, Peter and Lieke. I started to slice my cake; and put onto the tables. Then I saw the thing Margriet brought. They did not look like the japanese sushi at all; but were like sweet things. I asked the name again, and realized that they were 'soesje's. I liked the beginning of the wikipedia definition very much: "Een soesje is een klein gebakje .."

I found the following photo on the internet, and actually, wikipedia refers to them as profiterols in the english website. So, they were not that familiar at all..

We chatted about military service with people in the coffee room, with Tjeerd, Margriet, Johan, Arno, Ans and later Inge, and the girls. I learned that Arno had the military service!! The first dutch I met having this service done!!!. Johan referred to my cake saying that they had similar thing in their family, called something like aartje. But it turned out that no other dutch people in the room heard this.

Last moments at WKZ

At around 5 P.M, people started to leave; and Tjeerd and Ans said good-bye to me. After a while, Inge left saying good-bye and referring to the nice moments/chat we had shared, mostly full of laughter. She said "maybe we won't see each other again". Then, she was back after 15-20 mins. "Look, we saw each other again" I said, we laughed. She had forgotten her key and her coat.

I took photos of my desk in the office before leaving;
and a photo of the coffee room,

and also the monster located in the middle of the building:

Rookvrij Hoog Catharijne
When I left bus 11, and took stairs to Hoog Catharijne (i guess this is the name of that station complex) to go to train tracks for Amsterdam, I saw the following notice on one window:
It is about the latest smoking ban introduced in the country in 1st of July. "As of 1 July, smoking is not permitted in Hoog Catharijne" it says. I am glad I can fully understand it :)

Hare Krishna event at Amsterdam

On last Sunday, we went to the Hare Krishna "temple" at Amsterdam ...

The idea was to go there together with Bea and Maikel; but because of my earlier-than-expected leave situation and of their holidays, we went there as the muslim group: Vahid, Sara and I.

How to get there
We met in front of SeleXYZ at Sarphatistraat. We then cycled through Sarphatistraat straight ahead; and made a turn to Ferdinand Bald straat from the corner Heineken Brewery factory is located. The "temple" is located in one of the side streets: Van Hilligaertstraat. This is the same street where Vredekerk is located.

Ceremony
The ceremony starts at 16:00. After parking our bikes, we were hesitant to enter inside the "temple". I guess this was basically because of unusual clothings of the people we saw inside. "Maybe we should go to the church, Vredekerk; It will also be an interfaith activity" one of us said. Finally, we had the courage to enter inside and ask about the ceremony.

One of the orange-cloth people told us to enter inside after taking off the shoes and sit. We set on the ground on cushions. The hairstyle of those orange-clot people (should I say monks? ) was very interesting: almost no hairs, but a small bunch of them somewhere at the back in long format. I searched on the internet, but could only find this photo: and this monk does not have that long hair bunch at back:

Then the ceremony started: after repeating a four-line prayer few times, it was all repeating the same thing for about one hour:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare

All of us liked the melody they sang this. It was relaxing to hear it. I later checked from wikipedia: the explanation I liked most says that "hare" means "eneryg of God", and "Krishna" and "Rama" are different names of God. Actually, this was very similar to what-we-call "zikr" in Islamic tradition in a sense, where the names of God are recited in a musical way. I found an example at youtube.

One interesting thing was the way they made "secde" (I guess the english word is prostrating). The "devotees" (this is how they refer to themselves; followers) made this prostration when they entered the temple room; but in random directions. Some of them even completely laid down.

After singing period, a preacher came and talked about what kind of activities are made within organization in terms of helping people. It was in dutch, but a devotee made english translation for those who do not understand dutch. Even the very tall lady there, who looked very devoted, was with us to hear english translation to our surprise (we all thought she was dutch considering her height).

prayer beads
This During the preach (or was it towards the end of singing session?) a devotee came in, with a cloth wrapped on his right hand in a strange way. "What kind of hand injury is it" I thought.

Then, the drummer during the singing left and came in after a while with a similar cloth wrapping around his right hand. "This must be part of the rituel" I thought.

Then, Sara managed to ask them about that while we were leaving. They told us that they actually recite the 16 words in Hare Krishna song (i am not sure of this part) using prayer beads; and since the prayer beads are too big, they wrap it around and tie to the hand. That is, that cloth has the prayer beads inside. And they do this recitation 108 times (does this mean that it is made up of exactly 108 beads? probably)

Linner at Leidsestraat
Then we cycled to leidsestraat to eat something as lunch-dinner. We went to Maoz; the popular vegetarian shop. We ate falafel with unlimited salad; and I guess it was 4 euros.

Library excursion

Yesterday at around 8 PM, the rain has stopped at last; and I left UvA to join Alfonso at the city library.

I am glad I did.

The entrance is free, and it is open seven days a week between 10:00-22:00. I regretted I did not discover it before. In fact, I remember Filipe telling me in his last week here that he had just been in the library the day before and it was unbelievably nice. I guess it was also the day he gave me the nice cute present.

Anyway, coming back to the library; I guess it is worth to go there just to see interior, the very interesting sitting places. There are beds with integrated computer screens; and you can lie and watch /listen music there, or read books.

There were so many different seat types! Each very interesting. I managed to take photos of a couple of them.





The whole building is 7 floors! And there is a restaurant at the top floor with a nice view. It was interesting that you did not feel any food smell till you arrive at the stairs to the top floor; and the smell exactly starts when you start climbing stairs.

And this bird was in the basement floor dedicated to education (onderweijs).


I guess, as Alfonso pointed out, this is also an ideal place to go to relax, read something. or even for free internet surfing since they have lots of computers with internet access.

If I knew the place before, I would go to there once e while to read books in the comfortoble seats they provide.

Summary

• The library is very close to center, on the opposite side of NEMO; and it is nice to have an excursion there! to see its design etc!
• It is also very close to the building where Stadelijk Museum is temporarily located (two buildings away I guess); and after the library excursion it can be very nice to go to 12th floor of this building to have a free and very nice view of all Amsterdam. We were once there with Maikel after having mint tea in the 11th floor at Club Eleven. We even managed to see towers from Schiphol airport!
  

I am stuck at UvA at Nieuwe Achtergracht 166

It was unbearably hot last night.

And this morning too; it went up to 32 degrees in my place (which always is few degrees warmer than outside because of glass covering outside and no real aeration/ window opening etc).

I was sweating a lot; and for the first time I decided to leave home without any coat, with a t-shirt.

Swan Family
I first went to Oosterpark as I usually do in weekends before coming to the university to work. It is nice and relaxing to see ducks, moorhens, coots, geese and swans there. And I am glad I did it today since the swan couple finally had their babies! They were feeding the babies with weeds, and they did not mind when I got close and took the family photo.

Thunderrss!
I was working at the office,
and I have started to hear strange sounds from outside after a while I arrived. It is thunders and lightnings and rainings! Unbelievable! The exact opposite of the weather few hours ago! Alfonso is in the library now, and asked me to join. But how can I without any coats, any umbrellas, any raincoats?? Sara is also stuck in the university, this I learned via gtalk.

A Guide for Buying Eggs in Netherlands

I went to Maikel's place for dinner last evening. I first called him from the office, and he told me all the details on how to get to his place by bike so that I would not get lost on the way. Thanks a lot Google Maps! Amsterdam map was open in both of our browsers; and it was very convenient then to follow his directions on phone.

How to get there
I rode through Oosterstraat, going straight ahead; passed through Nobelweg till I hit Kruislaan. Then, I took a fietspad (cycle path) by keeping the highway always on my right. After a while, I saw Diemen Zuid station and passed under the rail tracks. I had already taken notes of all details; so It was not that difficult to get to Clara Zetkinstraat and finally to Kruitberg through Kraaiennestpad. Kraaiennest means crow nest by the way, and the metro station nearby is also called so.

Dinner
He is really a good cook! He cooked a very delicious vegetarian pizza,and a dessert whose recipe I will ask (mix of yoghurt, lime, milk ).

Chickens without beaks !!
He had a box of eggs on his kitchen bench. He gave me the details of the lables on the inner side of the box cover:


Here, there are a group of numbers on the eggs we buy. Each number starts with either of 0, 1, 2, 3. The first column of the explanations in the picture points to the meaning of these numbers; and this column is the most important part to pay attention when buying eggs.

Maikel said that he always buys the ones labeled with zero (organic/ biologisch) or 1 (chicken freely allowed to eat outside in grasses/ vrije uitleop). I asked if 3-kooi meant cow. "No" he said, "it is cage. The eggs labeled with 3 are from chicken always kept in cages."

"I never buy eggs with labels of 2 or 3 since the beaks of those chickens are cut off" he said. I was in a big surprise! "Since they are kept together, otherwise they make harms to each other with their beaks when they have fights" he explained.

How awful! Never heard this before. Now I regret that I did not pay attention to those labels before. My campaign is: never 2- or 3- labels to discourage harms to chicken beaks!