WORLD TRIP TO DO LIST (Final Version!)

(1) Move: √



(2) Make Almelo our home: √



(3) Test tent: √





(4) Attempt to get in Inca Trail shape by hiking through the Dutch countryside (latest update: 14K!): √



(5) Have fabulous Bon Voyage Party: √















(6) Get vaccinated for any and all possible ailments: √



(7) Pack backpacks: √



(8) Get hair chopped off: √



(9) Donate hair: √



(10) Remain calm: √



Our boat leaves on Sunday, September 4 at 10 PM. We will have 1 day in London, including a lunch reservation at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, before taking our first flight on Monday, September 5 to Bangkok. Until June 2012!

Blurry Vision

Lately it has been difficult to see clearly. Everything is a blur of impressions that I find difficult to categorize into a structure suitable for this blog. Jochem and I have been busy. We sleep in. I do yoga. We have eggs for breakfast. We watch The Amazing Race. We plan. We book. We read. We anticipate. Jochem plays video games. I read women's magazines. We cross things off of our to do list. We hike. We pick recipes. We buy groceries. We cook. We eat. We play with the cats. We have tea. We watch The Amazing Race. We sleep. This goes on and on. It has turned into a weird routine - we do the same things every day in a somewhat predictable order, but most things have been taken care of. The to do list only has a few more items on it. The backpacks are packed. The Bon Voyage Party has been given. We are playing a waiting game. Here is an impression of our time spent:

Caponata

Yesterday I prepared caponata - a Sicilian eggplant dish. Jamie Oliver describes it as a stew. My parents LOVE stew + this particular recipe uses eggplant to make the stew as opposed to meat = 2 happy parents and 1 happy vegetarian me. I served it with boiled potatoes, creme fraiche, grated cheese and chives. Sometimes people worry about serving vegetarian main dishes, but I learned from Living Vegetarian for Dummies that serving two side dishes can result in one great main dish. Try for yourself!

Source: Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver

Asparagus Tips

It's been a while since I've been here. I've been busy! Even though I've been unemployed for almost 2 months and have been living in Almelo since August, I've kept myself busy - visiting family and friends, doing yoga and, mostly, taking care of all those last little details before taking off on September 4. I suppose there's not a lot left to be done, but little details can take up a lot of one's time (especially when interrupted by numerous tea breaks). I've also been watching a LOT of TV, which was really getting out of hand when I stayed in Amersfoort for a couple of days and Mag and I were glued to the Investigation Discovery Channel for hours on end, but, overall, there is a lot of good stuff on TV these days! My latest thing is Discovery Channel's Amazing Race, which Jochem and I have been watching together. I suppose that it's kind of a waste of time in the grand scheme of things, but being the kind of person who loves to just be at home, I try to make the most of that right now, since in a little over 2 weeks (!!!) I won't have that for 9 months. In other news, my dad and little brother are thinking about joining us in Peru for our trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - that would be swell. Jochem and I are trying to get some hiking in because the people at Peru Treks suggest trying to hike 15 kilometers in order to determine whether you are capable of hiking for hours on end. Yesterday the sun was out so we put on our hiking boots and walked 11 kilometers through Twente's surprisingly beautiful farmland from our house in the suburbs of Almelo to my dad's store in Rijssen. This included a detour past a petting zoo and a quick trip to the grocery store and I think we did pretty well. We also came across a couple of stands from nearby farmers, where we scored some amazing produce for a few cents.

Another thing that I do every single day but haven't really been talking about at all, is cooking. Ever since I came to Almelo, I've pretty much been cooking every single day. I only cook vegetarian food and so my family has been eating a lot of vegetarian meals. They enjoy their steaks and salmon fillets, so it's been quite a challenge to keep them satisfied. But I quickly came to find that the trick to cooking good vegetarian meals is to use fresh ingredients, but then again, doesn't that count for all foods? I've made some great dishes these past few weeks: lentil salads with lemon and shallot, portobello burgers with caramelized onion and mozzarella, spicy pizza, spaghetti with pesto, string beans and potato, and tempeh Sloppy Joe's. But I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy enjoying the food with my family and friends. But look at these beautiful asparagus tips with olive oil, lemon juice and Parmesan!



Source: Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

Life in Almelo

It's official - our life in Utrecht is over. On Sunday we said goodbye to our apartment on the Good Street in the White Women neighborhood of Utrecht (which sounds weird in English). Jochem was being quite the sentimentalist while Bic was a downright cry baby. I was doing remarkably well, I think. It had not been fun at all to stay in that emtpy apartment, while being forced to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor left my right shoulder with quite an impressive collection of kinks that my favorite Moby look-a-like masseur in Almelo kindly massaged away for me this afternoon. It was time to go.

Although it is kind of weird to be back at my parents' house in Almelo after all these years, I've actually been enjoying the stay very much. I spend some time every day on our world trip preparations, but my main responsibility is to buy groceries and cook dinner. This means that my parents are now also eating vegetarian every day. I am still a vegetarian, but I must admit that I have been thinking about not being so hard on myself anymore. Don't expect me to buy a Bic Mac anytime soon (or ever again, for that matter, as I already imagine Jochem's face in horror because he hates fast food chains with the same passion that I hate dusting the apartment), but I might allow myself a nice steak when in Argentina. But for now, I am still eating the greens without any meat, poultry, fish or sea food whatsoever.

One of the things that I'm enjoying most about life in Almelo is the abandonment of my routines. For example, when it comes to breakfast, instead of having cereal on weekdays and eggs during the weekend, I now wake up and ask myself: what do I feel like eating? This may seem perfectly natural to you, but to me, it's quite the revolutionary change, not to mention liberating. And I'm proud to say that not only did I finally figure out how to get coffee from my parents' insane coffee maker after 5 years, I have also become quite skilled in making scrambled eggs. I've been making scrambled eggs for years, but as anyone who has ever watched Top Chef knows, making eggs is quite hard. Past experience is not a predictor of future success. But I finally figured it out: add one tablespoon of full fat milk to each scrambled egg. This is essential! Other tricks I've learned are: adding butter to the pan before it is hot, but waiting with the scrambled eggs until the pan is searing hot; using a tortilla instead of a bagel or slice of bread because it's much lighter; and warming the tortilla in the microwave and adding cheddar cheese straight after before adding the scrambled eggs so that the cheese melts a little but the tortilla can still be folded easily. I've had this meal for days now. I love it, but I must be careful - the last time that I got so hung up on scrambled eggs and cheddar cheese was at UCLA in 2004 where I added quite a few pounds that are yet to come off.

You Can't Go Home Again

Unless you're about to be homeless due to a much anticipated 9-month world trip and your parents agree to house you, your boyfriend, your fish, your cats and most of your stuff in their home for the next year. So after 9 years of life in Utrecht I am back in Almelo. Living with my parents. In Twente. With my family. Luckily we were able to put our furniture in storage. As far as moving is concerned, the hard part is over. As for the mental implications of what I've just done, we'll have to wait and see. And a humble thank you to Mar - I've never seen a girl carry so much stuff in one go down our steep stairs!

On the Move

On Saturday we executed part I of our grand moving plan. First, we went to Utrecht's so-called recycle street and dumped a bunch of old stuff that we didn't want to keep. Then we packed all of our personal belongings into my dad's van, including our cats and our fish, drove to Almelo, and made my old bedroom and the attic/guest room our new home. This means that the house from which I am writing this blog is now an empty, quiet and depressing place to be. Combined with the fact that it's been raining non-stop all day and that it's very cold here, makes for one stupid day. I wasted it by watching the worst of the worst on TV and eating frozen pizzas. Bikram yoga has lost its charms on me as well. But then I remembered my new dress and the drink I made last week. Just add some Malibu to a tall glass of crushed mint, lime juice, ice and water and you have a quick little something. Back to packing...

The BIG Move (Part I)

I remember an old episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show where the cast of Friends was on and Jennifer Aniston talked about the taping of the final episodes of the final season. She was beyond sentimental while she paid her respects to the last green salad of Tuesdays taping or something like that. I'm exactly the same with everything in my life that ends. I remember obsessively listening to the song Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy right before leaving UCU for UCLA ("I swear that in the days still left / We will walk in fields of gold"). I have a sign on our fridge where I count down the days till the BIG move (we are now at 15). I am very aware of the fact that as of tomorrow, my life will never be the same again.

It hasn't been much fun to be in our apartment ever since we packed everything up and it has been stripped of anything that makes it homey. I feel like a woman who is going through a bad break-up, where first you feel sad about not having that man in your life anymore until one day you find yourself maddened at the though of him. That's where I'm at - I finally hate my apartment. The big deal about tomorrow, however, is that the cats will be moved to Almelo, which means that I will be all alone here for 2 weeks, or at least while Jochem is at work. And it's as if they know.

We have British shorthairs, and this breed is famous for more than their pretty looks: they don't like to be handled. Manchego has always been a freak of nature who actually loves to be handled, but Bicho is another story. He doesn't like to be touched. If we're lucky, he'll come into bed with us in the morning, right before we are supposed to get up. True, when he finally arrives he does sit on you, which makes it hard to breathe, but Manchego usually stays in bed with us all night. But yesterday Bicho came to bed when we went to bed - it was epic. And tonight, while I was watching TV home alone, he scrawled into my sweatshirt (!) and stayed for a while. Eek!

Maybe I am not seeing things straight and need to go to bed. I am awfully tired, quite hungry, and my back hurts. It seemed like something worth writing about when I thought of it... But anyway - time to rest. Big day tomorrow.

To Do: Pack!

Yesterday Jochem and I packed up almost our entire apartment.



The furniture is of course still there. So are the things that we need on a daily basis, like our bed linnen, our toiletries, and all kitchen appliances (I'm waiting to pack those until the very last moment). But all of our other stuff is packed in boxes - books, magazines, clocks, paintings, picture frames, candles, DVDs, CDs, our old Nintendo. It was quite sad, although the cats love their new playground. Granted, it does make for some beautiful pictures.



The absolute worst thing about taking this 9-month trip is leaving our 'boys' behind. It's not just that I'll miss them, the way that I'll surely miss my family, friends, Gouda cheese and sit-down toilets, but what makes it worse is that I feel responsible for them. These are my pets, they are my responsibilty, and I am leaving them behind. Of course I am lucky enough to leave them in the capable hands of my parents, who are great cat lovers, have had cats for years, and who have a beautiful home - a home that used to be Bicho's home and where both he and Manchego have stayed for many a time when we were traveling. But we're still abandoning them and we can't explain to them where we're going or when we'll be back or why we're even leaving in the first place. One day we'll be gone and then 9 months later we'll be back. Perhaps the fact that my all-time favorite cat, Monti, died a couple of weeks before I was due to come back from UCLA, scarred me a little bit in this regard. Overall, it just really sucks.

Luckily I have a great boyfriend who took a day off to spend some time with us at home. We'll be moving our boxes to Almelo on Saturday and we're bringing the cats with us, so we won't have much time left to just be here with the four of us (Pesto usually keeps to his bowl in the study). Some of my favorite memories stem from lazy Sundays spent in our pajamas, watching TV, eating eggs, drinking coffee, with the cats on our lap. You may find me sentimental, but that's just the way that I feel about these things.



One thing that always cheers me up is food. I have so many wonderful cookbooks that I usually try to make something new every single day. The only exceptions to this rule are when I am too lazy to think of a new recipe or when I suddenly have a craving for something that I know will be good, like tofu tandoori, a dish that comes from a package and is not very good at all, but which I still like because of its nostalgia and the abundance of creme fraiche. To cut to the chase: it never happens that I like something so much that I'll end up making it again and again. But behold the two exceptions in the picture below: one is a dish called golden spaghetti (Source: The Silver Spoon: Pasta), a simple pasta with melted butter, cream and saffron, while the other is a dish comprised of oven-roasted tomatoes (Source: The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver) coated with garlic, thyme, basil, dried oregano, dried chili, sea salt, black pepper and olive oil. I have had these two dishes at least a dozen times in the last couple of weeks - they're that good. And look at the picture below - see how our beautiful pasta plate balances on our windowsill overlooking the chaos that is the backyard of our neighborhood - isn't it magical?

And now for some fun!

In a world where innocent animals are shipped in unbearable conditions for weeks on end before being slaughtered in the most horrific way in name of 'religion,' it is nice to find an animal video online that does not end in cruelty. I must be the last person on earth to see this video on YouTube, but a colleague showed it to me a couple of weeks ago and since then I must've seen it again at least a dozen times. Just go to YouTube, type in 'Christian the lion' and choose the Whitney Houston version for added dramatic effect.

On YouTube you can also find a 50-minute documentary on the true story of Christian. Just type in 'A Lion Named Christian.'

In other news I've been pretty busy. I try to do bikram yoga as often as possible but it's been killing me this week so I'm taking some time off today and during the weekend. Other than that it's been nothing but planning our world trip and packing up our apartment. It is now completely devoid of any picture frames or anything else that makes it a real home. In a minute I'm going to get started on packing our books.

And as of next Tuesday I will have been a vegetarian (or lacto ovo vegeterian according to my Living Vegetarian for Dummies book) for 4 weeks. The only glitch thus far is the fact that I am having some trouble adjusting to soy milk. I am determined to become a vegan-esque vegetarian and that means cutting down on cow's milk (which, FIY, is NOT good for you at all). The soy milk I had at Starbucks was nice, and the rice milk I have been using on my cereal is also fine (although it looks like soapy water), but the soy milk definitely takes some getting used to. But my book says that texture and taste differ immensely among different brands, so I plan to keep looking until I find the right one. Any tips on soy milk brands that taste as much as cow's milk as possible are very welcome! I want to like it so much...

And, finally, my parents came to visit us on Sunday and they spent the night for the first time ever. We talked, watched Sex and the City, went shopping downtown and cooked. I cooked many things, but I liked this particular dish especially. It is a roasted broccoli hummus. Check out the recipe here.



Source: Not Without Salt



Happy Weekend!