What Age Do You Act?

You Are 27 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Just Another Day...

Just as a follow up to my previous post, I actually had a last minute change of plans that day. I ended up spending the evening with someone more dear to me so it turned out to be pretty nice. We ended up in a Japanese restaurant for sushi and I think two 'appetizer' platters and 2 deserts cost us... I mean, him... like 60 something Euros. And it was the cheaper of the two Japanese restaurants in Scheveningen. The quality of the food was really good, but I'm not sure that it would have filled me up if I hadn't snacked right before hand. There's no way a grown man could be satisfied with that portion. I miss the sushi places back home. Not that they are all that great, but it is good enough, and you get so much more for you money. Plus, we have those special rolls, like the Boston roll, Philadelphia roll, etc. My all time favorite place to eat Sushi back home is Nagoya, and I love their New York roll. It's like a deep fried shrimp/tuna roll with more tuna, plus eel on top. Mmmmmm....

Well, today is Saturday and I feel like this is the first chance I am getting to kind of relax in a while. It has been a busy couple of weeks. Whether it's bowling, gym, cooking, dinner out, movie, or whatever, there's always something going on. Also, once a week, we usually end up in a club all night and that means the following day is kind of shot for the most part. My friend's favorite place to go is the Paap. It's a small club in the center with cheap drinks and Eurobeat type music. Last night though, we went to a 'Disco Party' hosted by the International Agency Events. I think I only saw one person decked out in the afro, sunglasses, and bell bottoms though. The party was held in Asta, another club in the center. It has like 3 levels and several rooms. I think 2 of the rooms had dancing, couple had standing areas, and another a lounge. It was a pretty big club... former movie theatre I was told. I'm not sure that it was all that Discoish, but nonetheless, the music was not bad and the crowd was good. Tons of people from work showed up, and one guy who was in town just for the Exercise commented that there are much more prettier girls here than in clubs back in U.S. I can't comment on the validity of his comment, but it's just a fyi for all you men out there who might care.

Last weekend I also went to Mauritshuis. It's THE museum of the Hague, and it houses several Vermeers and the Rembrandts. I haven't actually seen the movie, but Vermeer's Girl with a pearl earring is also here. This weekend, I plan to do NOTHING! Well, actually, I borrowed CSI DVDs from someone so it will be a CSI marathon most of the weekend I think. Oh, I did go to the gym today. It's usually hard to go on weekends tho because they are only open 9-2. By the time you get up after being out the night before and awake enough to remember you have to go to the gym, you may or may not make it there in time for an hour's work out. Plus, on a rare nice day out, you really want to enjoy a few hours of sunshine before the sun begins to set at 4....

Well, let the marathon begin....

Sex and the City

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day!! Or, see left - whichever you prefer. In light of this upcoming holiday, I thought I would dish a little about men in the Hague without going into too much office gossip (which there's plenty of) and revealing my deepest, darkest secret. Okay, this is not exactly New York City, and I am no Carrie Bradshaw, but here's a little girl talk.

The Hague is oozing with its fair share of expatriate men between all the international organizations in the area (e.g. International Court of Justice, NATO) and the embassies here. I am also surrounded by them at work. It reminds me of my Academy days except that the guys here are much older... like over 40 mostly. There are few guys around my age, but not many. I need to start attending thoses after-work parties hosted by the international organizations in the area to check out the goods there. One of the girls at work told me the other day though that there is a really cute 'Special Agent' in our building somewhere, who is an American, and about my age... but I have yet to see him. Surely, I would have noticed if there was someone that cute walking around the office. But who wants to talk about men at work?? Let's talk about Dutch guys. To sum it all up, Dutch men are tall and cheap. Ever wondered why they call it 'going Dutch'? I hadn't been able to get a single Dutch guy to buy me lunch or dinner until I met my roommate... but he lived in the U.S. for 5 years. Okay, to be fair, none of these guys ever had a reason to buy me anything, and there was one Dutch guy who paid for a night at the movies. The tall thing is no problem for most girls I think, except that when I go shopping, I have a bit of a hard time 'cuz girls here are tall too.

Oh, I met a Dutch guy that I thought was cute. I didn't think it was possible (I was told there was no such thing) but my theory was proved wrong. However, perhaps the overall quality of this guy is slightly not up to par. He is a construction worker so his English is not impeccable and he is not filthy rich. Okay, no one I know is really filthy rich but let's just say he does not appear to be financially stable. And who needs to talk when you're having sex?? Wait... did I just say that? No, no, no.... I'm not that kind of a girl. Or am I? Anyways, I met him in a club... what did I expect? Most people have theories about people you meet in the pubs and such... well, this theory is yet to be disproved.

Without going into too much details, I thought perhaps spending Valentine's Day with this guy is not such a bad idea. At least there weren't any red flags. The problem was, he has not asked me out. He sent me an SMS earlier today though asking if I was going to be online (when I first met him, I thought he was too cheap to call, but he has called me a few times since.) I didn' t exactly have the time to chat at the moment so I busted out with a "No, but do you have plans for tomorrow?" I am breaking all the 'Rules' here by initiating this, but I've never really had much of a problem making the moves in the past, and usually, it's worked out for the better. So this ding bat (yeah, you X) replies - "Depends. A friend and I may go see a bunker. Why? What do you want to do?" Er... hello??? So you might wonder, do they not celebrate Valentine's Day here? Well, there are enough shops marketing shit for Valentine's Day that unless you were a recluse you'd know what day tomorrow was. My polite reply to his ignorance was "It's Valentine's Day. I thought perhaps it would be nice to have a date." So I got "Ok. How about a movie?" Good boy. Now how about a dinner to go with that movie?

The Joy of Cooking

My roommate left yesterday for a week long snowboarding trip so I have the place all to myself - woo hoo!! So what's the first thing I do? Throw a party!!!! Well, I'd planned on inviting people over anyways and my roommate being away just happenned to be a convenient coincident. And it's not really a party.... It was just going to be a small get together to have a few drinks, but then I decided it'd be a good idea to also cook since I am trying to learn. Yes, I had enough of Dutch food after the first week and figured it's about time I got off my lazy bum and started learning. You see, I didn't really need to cook when I was in Tokyo and NYC. Take outs in those cities are good and cheap. Not to mention I was usually too busy to cook anyways. In college, I was prisoner to campus (military school) and was catered to 3 meals a day. So for 10+ years after leaving home, I hardly touched a frying pan. Well, that's my excuse for not being able to cook anyways.

Okay, so I offer to make some food for these people I was inviting for drinks and everyone who planned to show up accepts to come earlier for food. I thought perhaps there'd be like 3 or 4. The count's up to 7 (8 including myself) and I figured there's no way I'm experienced enough to handle any more. Besides, I barely have enough seating for everyone. So the invites stop.

So how hard can it be to throw a dinner party? Well, the parties I've thrown in the past involved mostly finger food or oven dishes with coolers full of beer and such. The guests this time are accustomed to champagne, wine, hard liquor, and probably 3 course meals. My only concern for the night though was to make sure my guests didn't starve. I chose a simple main dish - spaghetti carbonera, and sadly that was it. A salad could have been simple enough to add until I saw the selection of unappealing dressings in the Dutch supermarket. I spent 5 minutes too long staring at them hoping one would jump out. None did. So I figured spaghetti, snacks, and alcohol was enough for today.

Alcohol... that was another problem. I don't drink... much. I don't have a bar and my roommate doesn't have a bar. I was assured though that it would be no problem. All of my guests are proud owners of more alcohol (available to them tax-free) than they know what to do with, and 3 of them live in the same building (in case we needed to replenish). There were few minor issues still tho that didn't occur to me ahead of time: I didn't have a wine opener, vodkas weren't chillled enough for shots, I didn't have champagne glasses, & I didn't have shot glasses. (Thank goodness for neighbors.) I also had to take lessons in Champagne opening/serving 101....

Okay, back to the cooking story. So, I'm trying to make carbonera for dinner, hoping I can time things just right so I give people enough time to show up but is fed reasonably early enough. The start time is 1900. Shortly after, people start trickling in and I have a panic situation in the kitchen. The pasta pans are bubbling over, I'm flicking carbonera sauce everywhere (thanks to the flimsy dollar store utensils), I forget to serve drinks, and I can't take people's coats at the door. I had to run out to tell my guests to help themselves to the drinks. My boss's boss is now in the kitchen guiding me for which I was absolutely grateful. Fortunately he seemed more entertained than dismayed at my incompetence in the kitchen.

In the end, the dinner was edible and everyone seemed to enjoy the rest of the evening. A few of us were actually out drinking and dancing until 0430 the night before so we were fading by 1 or 2. I was in bed by 0230 and up today at 1130. The mess doesn't look too bad. No spills, no broken glasses. I start throwing the dishes in the dishwasher when one of my neighbor/coworker/friend taps on the kitchen window, which are like the display windows in the Red Light District of Amsterdam - you can see everything inside. He's just walking by so he stops to say hi. He laughs at my bed head. After he leaves I look in the mirror and am mortified that my hair is pointing in every which direction. I curse the proximity to which I live by these people. Reminds me of the show Desparate Housewives, although everyone else here are men. I must say tho, it's weekends like these that are why I love it here.

ps. Few pix here.

Prins Willem

Prins Willem
Originally uploaded by dancingnomad3.

I'm just testing this feature on flickr which allows you to post pix from it on blogs.