My new dutch word: Gezellig

So I was feeling a bit homesick,but it was more homesickness about Filipino food...so f who is super nice to me, decided we have to do our own version of lechon macau! So today, off we went to the butcher (who was an organic butcher, by the way--I dont think we have that in Manila), then went to the Asian store to get all kinds of sauces! So we got kikkoman soy sauce, sweet dark soy sauce, peking duck sauce and chili in oil!



Then we proceeded to cook our pork belly in our oven, and see this!



Isn't it perfection?

We cooked rice together with our lechon, with the sauces of course and also baked chocolate brownies! we dont have pictures of the brownies because when it finished baking, we kind of ate it already off the oven and i forgot to take a picture. Sweetness indeed!

It was a very hearty lunch, i felt i was back in Manila, eating home-made food and its a nice evening for a hot bath. Gezellig. :)

Alicante old town door

2nd recipe: pinoy beefsteak!

so for this week, i cooked beefsteak or pinoy bistek as we call it. yumyumyum. next time maybe i'll marinate the beef longer so it becomes more tender. otherwise it was a 2nd success! f loved it! not so bad at all, mommy will be proud!

Castillo Santa Barbara

Here is what the Castillo Santa Barbara looks like, it sits atop of Mount Benacantil in Alicante.



here's me on one of the pathways going up the castle, it took me around 20minutes going up... (and look they got grafitti in Spain..not everything in europe is so clean mom!)



And here is the view of the whole city of Alicante at the top of the castle.

I felt very like Scarlett Johannesson in Lost in Translation. I was touring on my own and went around taking pictures and using the self-timer button on my camera.
Its not so bad, I had a good time. :)

ola!!!

here is the exterior of the Mercado--or wet market in Spain...it doesn't look like a wet market at all from the outside.



Inside, we bought several sausages, chorizo, blood sausages, iberian ham..yumyumyummm



here's f buying me fresh strawberries... more yumyumyum!

spain is both very familiar and different at the same time. it felt very familiar--- chaos, not so clean streets, people making chismis on the street, traffic, all these spanish words which i could understand! But at the same time, I dont understand when they are talking-- I just know the words. And its nice to eat rice again, we ate authentic paella valenciana, which i forgot to take a picture of because i was so hungry. :)

lost in translation

i was touring on my own and became an expert on self-timer cameras.

kohle family reunion in ehningen

I had a lovely day with the kohle family in germany.they live in ehningen, which is a small town near stuttgart.




Then walking around Ehningen, we saw this curious statue of an old man...do you think he's naked underneath all the snow?



f having fun like a kid, going down a snow hill using a small sledge. He cursed going all the way down! haha! but he had fun and did it several times. I was too scared to try it.



Finn is such a cute boy! he kept on taking to me in baby talk german though..and i can only smile and say danke. :)

University

Here is what the front view of the University looks like.
Now we are off to 1week Carnival Break before school starts in 2 weeks. We are taking a vacation!

happy birthday tiosexy

kumusta na kayo?

miss ko na kayo, ang lamig lamig dito at nag-snosnow, namimiss ko na ang aking maninipis na t-shirt habang naglalakad sa labas, ngunit masaya naman akong nagbibisikleta araw araw.

napaginipan ko si alexis at nika nung isang araw-- and the first thing i thought of when i woke up was -- alexis and nika can travel all the way to holland and appear in my dreams? haha! ang labo ko talaga.. naalimpungatan kasi ako.

anyway, i just want to share my dream with you.

i saw alexis and nika walking away and i stopped them. and i stopped alexis, "Alexis! Alexis! How are you? Are you ok? Are you guys ok?""
Alexis turns around (but he seems slimmer than the last time I saw him) and he smiles and says, "Arleen, we are ok. Everything is ok. Everything will turn out alright." Nika doesn't talk and just smiles at me. Afterwards they walk forward and Alexis says "We have to go. We are building a house." And I ask him, " Is there room for us?""
Alexis replies, "Yes of course, there is room for everybody." And then they walk away.

Then I wake up.

Now, I dont know if my subconscious is just overactive and made those images up in my dreams, but it was a nice dream, it was a comforting dream for me. I just wanted to share it with all of you.

Miss ko na kayong lahat. Pakiinom na lang ako ng ice tea para kay Alexis at red wine para kay Nika. Happy birthday Alexis. I miss you.

Kung mapadaan kayo dito sa Holland, o dito sa Breda, magkita tayo. :)

Sa muli,
A.

Snow Love

It's snowing here again! We made this in the snow last night, just outside our flat. Happy Valentines Day everyone! One more day to go and we'll be off on vacation!

Chicken Adobo ala Breda

The adobo was a success! It was my first time to cook something on my own, so please forgive me if i seem very excited on what seems to me be a very very boring thing that you do every day.




f loved it and ate and finished everything! More recipes to come. :)
I am on my way to becoming a domesticated queen...not! But i still love f cooking for me every day. i love men that know how to cook. its also nice that we have a dishwasher, so i dont need to wash any dishes. :)

Here we are having a nice dinner, in our flat. F cooked a really good dinner, consisting of pork cooked in white sauce with mushrooms and garlic and some homemade tzatziki with cucumber, avocado and yoghurt.and we had some german wine plus yoghurt icecream with blueberries for dessert. triple yum! Finally we also had some tulips for me. everything you can see here, we assembled ourselves, including the nice lamp that we have over our heads. :) its a good week so far.



and here is f playing some piano after dinner while i wash the dishes and make some cappucino. :) Our flat looks really nice right now. Life for 2 weeks here is good so far, but i am still trying to get used to the weather, its still very cold although there is no snow anymore. Today is a foggy day. The other day I almost slipped with my bike because of black ice (reallt icy streets during below freezing temperatures and you cant see them).

first week in the university

here's a look at the faculty office. that's my table on the right,with the empty chair, i sit opposite f. see my nifty brown bag hanging from this nifty gadget from tutuban.

I have already started my first week at nhtv, it has been an easy week, as it is exams week now, then next week is re-exam week, then next next week is spring break, then finally i am starting classes. So this time I am just getting oriented with the new environment and my colleagues are nice and helpful...so far.
Although the medium of instruction here is in english, a lot of the texts are written in Dutch, so I think its a good idea to start learning a little bit of the language soon.

PS
And also know if the students start cursing in dutch behind my back. haha!

Rotterdam Film Festival

Its that time of the year again. Rotterdam is my favorite festival and this is my favorite spot at De Doelen, where everyone meets up.



and my favorite filmmakers, adolfo and raya. We are all together again in rotterdam.