Feestdag!

Thanksgiving! I was both delighted and sad to see it come! We had organized a potluck dinner two nights before through e-mail, and everyone signed up for a certain dish. Everyone was so willing! Food options were taken quickly and soon there was nothing left to be taken! I think we were all excited about our holiday away from home. I surly was exciting; I was going to make stuffing! But seeing that it was Thanksgiving meant that it was already November 27th! No! How could that be? I need more time! The semester is coming to a close too quickly! I love it here so much and feel so comfortable here now that coming home seems weird. Why leave this great place for the stressful US? For now I am going to go with Family and Friends as my answer. But back to the big day! My lovely roommate went out early to buy bread for our stuffing before she went to class. At first we were not sure if stuffing was an option. Everyone always makes it in the oven and all we have is a stove; however, I remembered that my mom had sent me several recipes early in the semester one of which was stuffing. I had disregarded most of them because they all seemed to need an oven, but on a second glance I realized that I could make this stuffing on the stove! We were saved...what is thanksgiving without stuffing!? So I awoke that morning to two large loves of fresh bread, onions, celery, and spices! I could smell it already, but it would have to wait until later in the afternoon.

Brittney Getz from Wofford was in town visiting me for the holiday, and we had plans for the morning. We headed out into the city on my bike...yes my bike...two of us on one bike. She sat on my luggage rack, and I got a good leg work-out! Thighs of Steel! It was a little bit of a challenge finding out balance but we did it on our second try! Once we got into the main part of the city we walked so that we could actually take pictures. We walked quite a lot that day: from Nieuw Markt to Dam to Spui to Leidseplein...and back! That’s pretty darn far! We left my bike at Nieuw markt and then walked to Dam square (its a big tourist spot). From there we walked down the big shopping street and checked out a few shops. We turned off the Spui and walked down a street that supposedly had a "US & British Food Store;" we were looking for pumpkin pie puree and egg nog! We walked right past the small shop with a green awning and found ourselves in Leidseplein--we must have missed it, so we turned around and tried again, this time with success! Unfortunately our success stopped there. We were an hour too late for the pumpkin pie filling--supposedly he sold his last one--and the egg nog was 10 euro for a can--little too much for me! We walked out empty handed but it was worth a shot. I have never really thought about what "American foods" I have been "missing." Obviously I wasn't really missing them. It was funny to walk into this small shop and see the shelves stuffed with cheerios and baked beans and other assorted "US foods."  The only thing I missed was egg nog but I had heard about a "replacement" so we would try that later. 

We headed home so that we could make the stuffing. It was pretty easy. While I chopped and cooked, Brittney looked up the Macy's Day parade so that we could have it going in the background...just for fun. We also watched a little Home Alone 2. It was a good day. Our room smelled so wonderful but across the hall our friends were burning up a storm. John said that he was going to make cornbread, but of course we have no oven so he was making stove top in a brownie pan. It cooked really well! All the edges were burnt to a crisp and hard as a rock. The middle was still good so we just cut off half and inch of black crust and it was good to go! He also made green beans in mushroom soup! Yumm! His roommate was making fried chicken and deviled eggs for us! He did a super job! Mandy brought garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and squash. She added beer to the squash for flavor and boy did it add flavor! It was quite beer-y but it was fine and funny! My roommate made us salad and Michael brought bread and dessert. We had so many desserts since more than one person contributed. We had a cherry pie, apple crumble, apple pie, ice cream, truffles, apple sauce, and stroop waffels! It was great! Jason was the "booze-man" and brought wine, champagne, sparkling cider, and seasonal beers for us to try.  We had a delicious meal and a great time. Our dinner lasted from 7:30 until midnight! Gezellig! I had such a great Thanksgiving with these new friends! We laughed at jokes, stories, and the quite moments that Michael offered! We were so inspired by this meal that we are going to have another one similar to it next Tuesday!

The rest of Brittney's visit went well also. I showed her around Amsterdam and the wonderful time that it has provided for me! We went on a canal tour and ate pannekoeken and poffertjes! Zo lekker!!! We also bought some Advocaat which is the stuff that was supposed to be a "replacement" for egg-nog.  It was funny walking into the Liquor store. The man there was so friendly! When we walked in the door he turned and said in dutch, "you guys thirsty?" Haha  I asked him about this Advocaat and he said that it was good on ice cream and we had some left over from Thanksgiving so we thought we would give it a try. It was wel oke but it wasn't quite egg nog. Not as  delicious...sad day...oh well! It was worth the try. Now we just have to figure out what to do with this alcoholic beverage! YAY! What a great time of the year, no?
Annemarieke loves Holland/Amsterdam!