Courgette soup

Maikel was talking about this soup occassionally, and stating how tasty it was. I guess he knew this soup from his mum, albeit a different version.

Then he cooked it for us when we visited him with Alfonso in June.

It was at least as tasty as he described it. I got the recipe from him.

And I had the chance to try it yesterday.

This recipe is for 2-3 people. I used a little bit more water than stated (0.7 liter rather than 0.5). I boiled a tablet of boullion in water. Then, I added two medium-size courgettes in chopped form (or zucchinis; the name in american english) and 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic. I let them boil for 15-20 mins till the courgette pieces get very soft.

Then I have blended the mix using our blender, leading to a very homogenous mixture. Then I added 75 g. plain cream cheese. Normally, Maikel had used a cream cheese with herbs and garlic (Boursin is the brand I guess). But I could not find this type here in Istanbul in the supermarket nearby; and I added garlics externally therefore in the first phase.

After mixing the whole thing and letting them boil for a short while, I added two teaspoons of curry powder (Maikel's recipe was for 1 teaspooon, and I later thought 1 would be more than enough).

Then, I ended up with the following soup.
My mum really liked it.

Only a physical farewell...

Everything has an end.. And my stage in Netherlands had an end too.. And that end was on last Saturday..

I had some other things on my mind:

• We had already started our inter-faith activities; and I would very much wanted to go on with it..
• I like inviting people over dinner or lunch . I was going to invite Andreas Karoly Gombert from Delft with his family for a dinner (or BBQ at our roof); and Yvonne and Eric from Eindhoven, Saadet and Daniel, Tjeerd and his girlfriend, Isabella and her husband, Kelly and S, Johan from WKZ ... I was going to have Olja and Hans meet Defne and Hans, and talk about raising kids with parents from different lands... We were going to have another BBQ at Funenpark roof with all my Amsterdam research group.
• I really wanted to go to some museums, to Artis zoo .... We were going to have a bike tour with Maikel, have a stroll in Pijp area of Amsterdam.. this and that..

I had started my dutchistan dairies not because of the urge to be read by others, but solely for myself. I did not want my good memories in Netherlands to fade away over years. I preferred to write them online and in english, however, so that other people may learn from my experiences; I would be helpful to them somehow; and also to force my english writing skills. And also, I thought it would also be a nice site for people I have spent times together to remember our nicely spent moments together..

And leaving the country does not mean that I won't write anymore. it is only a physical end I would say. Thanks to internet, i will stay in touch with those nice people I had the chance to meet in Amsterdam. I will still read Isabella's, Kelly's and Tjeerd's blogs, which will help me to keep up with the dutch life there. And I still receive DutchNews newsletters, this will make me updated with dutch daily agenda.. And, there are many moments here that make me remember my dutch life. There are recipes I want to get from dutch friends and try.. So, all such things will certainly help me go on writing my dairies here: the ones related to my dutch experiences, my dutch life.....

Thanks God; I had this chance to meet such wonderful people, to experience such wonderful moments in this country.

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!