Last month we visited Bronx Zoo. Here are two of the cuter pictures that I managed to snap.
He looks like he just did something naughty and knows it. All together now: “Awwwww”.
Bronx Zoo tiger stretching — took the picture about a half second too late, unfortunately.
It’s back to the grind of work again. We’re smack in the middle of extended hours, which started last week. Staying open later means the students have more time to study for their finals, which started today. Most nights the library stays open until 2AM.
Street sign near the New York Public Library
This only affects my schedule slightly– but it’s enough where I don’t see Marco online as often as I would like thanks to my staying late and the time zone difference. Part of me is very surprised Marco isn’t more put off by my working late… considering I haven’t seen him much in the last week. But we just need to make it until Friday and then it’s back to some sort of normalcy.
Thanks, Marco. I’ll make it up to you somehow.
I had a weird experience today. I had to go to the mall (3rd time in 3 weeks, but thankfully for the last time) to pick up my annual supply of contact lens. On the way home, I decided to take a different type of bus since a bus driver had given me a free ticket for it. It’s a longer ride but it came earlier. And it was free, of course.
Inside the bus, like most things, all of the information was both in English and Spanish. There was an advertisement for Rockland county’s public library system. The Spanish read something like descubrir todo en la biblioteca en Rockland. I was very confused. “Discover everything and the library and Rockland?” I kept reading it over and over again, feeling lost.
And then I glanced at the English version, which was a bit further away. My mistake quickly became apparent.
I was reading “en” as and — which is the Dutch translation.
However, in Spanish, “en” means in. Discover everything in the library in Rockland.
Mind you, my Spanish was never that good considering how long I studied it in school, but I could read it fairly decently. But this was the first time that the Dutch has taken precedence over Spanish in my mind. And it was a great feeling!
When I tell people I am a librarian, I always hear: “Oh that sounds great! You must get so much reading done!”
… I wish. I probably have not picked up a book since October of last year. I am not really quite sure where the time goes. I suppose I should be glad I work at a college, where you aren’t as pressured to keep up with the latest and greatest fiction, but more pressured to stay late and teach classes — boo to having to stay 3 hours late again next Friday.
The thing is, there are several priorities I have going right now: this blog, creating new content for Avatar MUD, and learning to speak Dutch. Sadly it seems to be in that exact order as well, because I always manage to write a blog post, I usually get some work done for the game, but I never have time to learn Dutch.
My newest tactic for this weekend was to go to the library and check out a book. Maybe by doing something relaxing with no pressure behind it, I would actually feel refreshed enough to work on the other stuff I had been putting off, rather than just feeling tired after getting home from work every night.
I succeeded. In the checking out a book part, at least. The book I ended up getting was Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. I was surprised to see it was on the shelf — the English version came out in November but I deliberately waited for it to be available and not on hold for someone else.
And then I went to the library to get it…
925 pages. Yikes! Apparently it is a 3 volume set, but I checked out a copy with the entire 3 volumes in one book. The most amusing thing is it was found in the “Fast Fiction” section, which means I only have two weeks to read it. That might be pushing it a bit, but we’ll see.
Which books are you looking forward to reading?
One snack I really like from the Netherlands is speculaas. I took home a box that said “Dutch spiced cookies”. They were traditionally sold around Sinterklaas (December 5) but thankfully they are now sold year round. I bought my supply from Albert Heijn. The wikipedia link mentions how they have images stamped on the front (as you can mostly see below), while the backs are flat.
Dutch speculaas cookies
The cookies above are sadly the last bits of cookie I have left from the rather large box I bought. However, in my opinion the trick to making this snack taste extra good is allowing them to get a bit old. Open up the plastic, and close the box again. Let them get a bit softer with age. It’s also very good with the Dutch pickwick tea!
Over here in the New York area, we are finally going to get a bit of a warm spell. The last few days have been rain-filled and dreary. Unfortunately, it will probably be a bit cooler tomorrow and Saturday than it appeared earlier this week (we were originally promised 80 degree/27c temperatures!).
But I was reminded of the beach at Scheveningen. Here is another photo – this time of a few of the seashells we collected.
Scheveningen seashells
I kept a few of the seashells on the shelf by the TV. Ah, memories.
I sort of hinted at this story in one of the comments I left earlier this week. During the early part of 2009 (while I was still studying at Rutgers in New Brunswick), Marco and Roger took their annual trip to New York City. Of course these days, they get to NYC a bit more often since they can crash at my place and not pay hotel prices.
This would also be the Spring of 2009 where they visited in February and April AND Marco came back in late June (June 25, the day Michael Jackson died). If you’re counting, that’s three trips to the States in 4 and a half months! It was a great Spring 2009, let me tell you.
The first trip, Marco was there during Valentine’s Day. It was the first time we were together for that holiday. As they arrived in the city before I came up to spend time with them, he took the occasion to visit M&M’s World in Times Square. He knew that my favorite color was blue (peanut M&M’s – yum!), so he decided to get me a light blue color and a dark blue color.
A HUGE wall of M&Ms (regular and peanut) for you to choose from. Oddly the smell of chocolate was way more overpowering in the Hershey store than it was here, but that was a much smaller store. — June 2011
The only problem was, when he went to hit the button to release some of the M&M’s, he wasn’t expecting the amount that rushed out. So the first bag was about a pound – yet he still wanted to get me some of the other color. So like any good boyfriend would do, he decided that I must get a pound in the other color as well! (And the prices in that store aren’t that forgiving, either.)
Welcome to the M&M store. It’s not Times Square without huge flashy signs! Even the police station (not pictured) has a neon sign… – June 2011
It was definitely an M&M filled Valentine’s Day…
As I noted in previous posts, during my first trip to the Netherlands in the summer of 2010 I first had a quick stop in London to visit another friend. I didn’t take too many pictures during that 36 hours (probably too nervous for the next leg of my journey!) but here is one of them that I have always liked:
hortensia flowers outside a London flat
It’s just a little bit of color for a day like today – it started out with pouring rain (and, thankfully, an unexpected ride from the bus stop to work from a coworker!).
Obviously I am on the wrong side of the ocean to be showing you pictures of Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day), but Marco took some pictures to show me what it is like. I won’t go into detail, except to say that it is the celebration of Queen Beatrix. And it’s a day where everyone loves to wear orange (well, moreso the tourists). You can read an offiical publication for the Hague’s celebrations at the website, haagsekoninginnedag.nl. When Marco sent me that link, he spent a bit of time muttering about why they were mentioning Chinatown, since it is only a street and a half, of which only half of the shops are actually Chinese!
One of the more interesting things for me is the vrijmarkt, or free market, where anyone can sell their wares. Here are some of the pictures Marco took:
Oranje! Go books! (ik wil het oranje boek)
Marco was also kind enough to give a short description of his thoughts about the holiday:
Kroepoek is one of the random snacks that I had while I was over in the Netherlands. I even brought a bag back on the last trip. Like most snacks, it boasts that it is made with zonnebloemolie (sunflower oil).
But its main ingredients are tapioca flour and… ground shrimp. But it is delicious (especially in the various flavors… this one being a more spicy flavor.)
Kroepoek, originally an Asian snack
It’s traditionally an Asian snack from Indonesia and other countries. Since the Netherlands had a foothold in this country for a long time, they took some of the Indonesian culture back to their home country.
I first had kroepoek at Marco’s mother’s house. I then asked Marco what the heck it was, and he graciously got me more at Albert Heijn. It’s definitely one of the snacks I look forward to having again.
Life in the Hague 