Don Juan DeMarco

"There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio: What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? and What is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same: only love."

"And as for you Don Octavio DeFlores, you are a great lover like myself though you have lost your way and your accent."

6 Months! Wow.

Well, havn't been able to update because my comptuer's power cord decided to just stop working. Awesome.

On Monday, Koos and I had been together for 6 months, so we celebrated by playing cricket together. :-) I went to the girls' practice and got to play cricket for the first time! Fielding is like baseball: catch a ball, throw a ball, boring. And bowling (pitching) is really hard because you don't actually throw the ball. You bowl it, but not like you do in... well... bowling (like, lanes, pins, etc.) Which doesn't make sense to me quite. But batting is fun. Not quite like baseball, but definitely, you see a ball coming, you hit it. Fun. :-) Koos said I did pretty well too!

Tuesday was a shopping for important items (like forks) day. I went to Xenos to get a really nice wicker bench that I had seen, but it was gone. I'd had such nice plans for it too. So we went to this great, jumbled antique store and I found a desk chair, a book shelf and a cabinet all for 30 Euro! Yahoo! Also got the all important forks, spoons, wine glasses, etc. :-)

Arrived home and met my first house mate. I don't know how to spell his name, or really, even how to say it, so I'll go with Yasser. He's from the south (Limburg) and I can barely understand him. :-P But he seems to be a really cool guy, and I think he and I will get along famously. He came in from holiday in Hungary, a cool wicker hat on, and a guitar in hand. He reads fantasy novels, and sings along enthusiastically to his music, which varies from Jack Johnson to wild metal growlings. :-)

Made dinner for Koos to actually celebrate our 6 month-a-versary. Roti with strawberry-raspberry shortcake and ice cream for dessert. Ate on my balcony upstairs by candle light. Really, really nice. Then we came downstairs so Koos could help me rearrange the furniture, and he broke everything. It quickly became one of those nights where the curtains just won't stay in the window. It all worked out in the end, and nothing was beyond repair. We watched Don Juan de Marco, a relatively unknown film in which Johnny Depp plays the greatest lover the world has ever known. (I know, right? You'd think EVERYONE would know it by heart!)

This morning the furniture people arrived with the rest of my furniture, and fortunately brought it up the stairs this time. Then I spent the rest of the morning organizing my junk. And I am happy to announce that I have one pretty well organized room. And fully furnished for less than 150 Euro!! Woot! My next mission is to turn my tiny storage room into a meditation room. :-)

Life is good at the Kamer Sumatra (Kamer is the Dutch word for room, and I live in Sumatra street.)

More cricket tonight. Though I'm just watching the boys play tonight. My practice is tomorrow! :-P

Around the World in 40 Overs

I have officially moved!  Koos and I spent Friday and Saturday moving everything I own across town.  We had no car or anything, so we had to take the bus.  Which took forever.  But it got the job done, and now I have a bright shiny completely chaotic new apartment!  It's only chaotic because Koos and I only had two suitcases for moving, and only about 10 min to empty them before the next bus left.  I've since made piles of organized chaos, but I still have a long way to go.

I'd like to thank Koos a million times for being an amazing human being.  He not only helped me move, helped me move furniture up Dutch staircases, and helped me organize my room, he also completely organized my new kitchen, helped me clean my old room (took out the trash AND vacuumed!!), and made my coffee.  :-P

Last night we went to dinner at Koos' friend Cornelius' house.  Cornelius plays cricket with Koos, and lives just around the corner.  Cornelius and his girlfriend/wife/or something, Inge, grilled for us, and we sat outside by candle light and ate fresh fruit and drank South African wines and talked.  Mostly about Africa (Inge studied African languages!, and Cornelius grew up in South Africa) and American politics.  

Today Koos had a cricket match, so I accompanied him to Haarlem.  He was playing a 40 over match instead of his usual 20.  This means nothing to most of you, I know, but let's just say, the 20 over matches tend to last 3 hours, and the 40 over matches are, of course, twice as long.  So, the entire day was dedicated to cricket.  Koos' team (Ajax) batted first, so I sat with Koos in the sun and watched.  Then lunch break (Koos' plastic cup melted when he poured tea into it.  No one else's did!) Then, while Ajax fielded, I sat in the club house and did a little Egyptian work.  (I watched Koos bowl, and was very impressed.  More statistics you don't understand: he bowled 20 runs for 10 overs (sorry, Koos, if my description of cricket statistics is all awkward and obviously done by some weird newbie woman!))  At the end of the day, the girl's cricket team asked me to come play for them on Saturday.  They have a game and not enough players, and they knew I was a girl.  :-P  They don't care that I'd never touched a cricket bat. 

Strangeness of the Day:  I glanced out the window tonight and saw what I thought was an airplane.  But the lights looked flame colored, not the normal white.  Then I realized it wasn't a plane, and it was flame.  Fire shooting through the sky, and then suddenly there were more.  I think it was probably a series of balloons with little lanterns attached.  Maybe some sort of hot air balloon, but certainly not for passengers.  Still not sure why, or exactly what.  There were 10-15 of them, and it was breathtakingly beautiful and strange and a little scary.  

Room organizing and cricket training for me tomorrow!

Mini-Rant and An Awesome Day

Before I go off into the awesomeness of my day, I'd like to put in my opinion on some recent news.  The photo you see is of 15-year old Cennet Dogonay (thanks BBC for the photo!) She's a French Muslim who decided to shave her head to protest a ban on headscarves and other "religious symbols" in French schools.  She is quoted as saying: "I will respect both French law and Muslim law by taking off what I have on my head and not showing my hair."  Also in recent BBC news is a story about another French woman banned from a swimming pool because of her burkini.

I find this to be the height of insulting. I understand that the intention behind this ban is to minimize the tension between various religious and ethnic groups.  I think that's quite a noble goal, but I'm dismayed by the way it's being carried out!  To foster understanding and respect across religions, you must SHARE, and EDUCATE, not hide.  Pretending that everyone is all the same, or that no one has religion is, in my opinion, the exact OPPOSITE of helpful!  

I'm also deeply disappointed in the state of women's rights in Europe.  The West gets quite high and mighty when it comes to women's rights, but, frankly, it seems they have a LONG way to go.  I agree completely that a woman shouldn't be forced into a burka, shouldn't be forced to cover herself by a government or society of men.  But, why, please someone tell me why is it OK for her to be FORCED to uncover a part of herself she sees as private?!  If a woman considers her hair to be unsuitable to be seen in public it is her RIGHT as a woman to cover it!  Anything else is criminal!  If she considers her left ear to be private, let her cover it!  It's simply distressing to me that forcing a woman to cover herself is considered oppressive, but forcing her to uncover herself is seen as freedom.  Ack!  When will we WOMEN be the ones who are TRULY in control of our bodies?!!?!

Ok, rant over.  :-)  

Today was a very productive and wonderful day.  I woke up pretty early and moved some more things to my new apartment.  Discovered that while the streets around my apartment are named after Indonesian islands, the streets near the mosque (there's a mosque in my neighborhood, by the way, with a very nice minaret with beautiful blue and white tile) are named after Caribbean islands!!  I knew I'd live in the islands someday, but I wasn't expecting to be so close so soon!  Hee hee hee.

I went shopping too.  Got one or two things for Egypt since I gotta get some weather and culture appropriate things.  I have Dutch-weather appropriate modest clothing, but nothing long and modest and cool.  :-)  Mostly, though, I was looking for furniture and such.  Finally found a desk set, a bedside table, and a bed (complete with matress!) all for just over €100!  I go tomorrow to pick them up.  Still not real sure how I'm going to do that since I have no car and it's just Koos and me....  Ah well, Inshallah, we'll get by.

In the afternoon I met up with Koos in Wassenaar, and did some amazing caching in the dunes.  We only managed to find two (Koos found 8 in all today) but we had a great time.  Perfect weather, GORGEOUS forests, perfect.  Dutch forests are some of the most amazingly beautiful in the world.  Especially the ones on the dunes.  Man, nature is one of my most favorite things about this country.

On the way back we stopped at a pizza place to grab some food.  Ran into an American there from South Carolina.  He's getting a PhD in Ancient Hebraic theology.  So yeah, we could chat!  :-)  I'll probably see him in the NINO too!  Love this world.

Kamer Sumatra

I have a new apartment!  It's rather awesome, and I can keep it for at least a year, alhamdulillah!  It's unfurnished, which is a bummer, and slightly far out, but otherwise, it's amazing.  

It's actually two rooms, one tiny tiny one, and one nice big one.  The tiny one will soon become my meditation/ chill out room!  I'm planning on filling it with cushions for relaxing, and setting up my mediation corner there.  Nothing but scarves, incense, yoga mats and Buddha statues. Sigh.  :-)

The big room is also pretty great.  One wall is this nice burnt orange.  There's a bay window with a thick sill.  So maybe not exactly a window seat, but I can totally sit on it!  

Still haven't met my housemates, but there are 5 cats that live in the courtyard behind the house, and a few ducks in a nearby canal.  So, yeah, happy me!

In other news: been  watching a rather entertaining show called True Blood.  Vampires, but mostly not lame, and actually pretty gross.  I was always slightly annoyed by how sexy it seemed to have your neck nibbled on by vampires, but True Blood makes it rather clear that, yes, being literally eaten by someone can be messy.  Koos and I have also started watching the Sopranos.  True Blood is set in Louisiana, and Sopranos in Jersey somewhere.  And I've really been hit by the HUGE differences in dialect and culture!  Man, stuff I knew, but never really considered!

Anyway, I hope to update more often in the future, but, meh, no promises.  :-)