Fully random and uncategorized!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Live blogging fail
Tried to blog from the airport in Hanoi, but failed. Here it is anyhow.
We are now at home already, getting ready to go eat duck.
We are now at home already, getting ready to go eat duck.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Anke is tiny
We spent the last couple of days in Cat Tien, where there was no wireless internet, probably due to the fact that this is a national park. We saw squirrels, monkeys, jungle fowl, crocodiles and so on. Also we saw large trees of which the park's brochure said that we would be tiny when we saw them.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Almost live blogged from a Vietnam bicycle
If it weren't for the fact that our arses hurt like hell and we don't drink and drive, we would be sending this from a bicycle instead of a riverside restaurant.
Today we explored the tiny streets that we saw from the boat yesterday.
We had a lot of fun, and apparently, so did the people in the little cafe/home at which we stopped for a beer. Yes, yes, our noses ARE humonguous. And, yes, our eyes are a totally unnatural colour. And indeed, F has very funny dimples when he smiles.
We are happy to bring so much joy.
For lunch, we convinced a nice couple with a squeeky clean cafe to make us this bowl of noodles. F swears it was the best broth evah. He would like to encourage Ellen to squeeze a kumquat over her homemade stocks.
As said above, we are currently resting our sore butts and having a beer. Right behind us, covering our backs, is this dude.
We are sad to say we are not doing our tourist duties very well and have no clue about Vietnam's recent history. Was this HCM a good guy? And who ended up "winning" the war? Our guess is HCM, since his face is everywhere. Was he north or south?...We are embarassingly ignorant, but increasingly well rested.
Today we explored the tiny streets that we saw from the boat yesterday.
We had a lot of fun, and apparently, so did the people in the little cafe/home at which we stopped for a beer. Yes, yes, our noses ARE humonguous. And, yes, our eyes are a totally unnatural colour. And indeed, F has very funny dimples when he smiles.
We are happy to bring so much joy.
For lunch, we convinced a nice couple with a squeeky clean cafe to make us this bowl of noodles. F swears it was the best broth evah. He would like to encourage Ellen to squeeze a kumquat over her homemade stocks.
As said above, we are currently resting our sore butts and having a beer. Right behind us, covering our backs, is this dude.
We are sad to say we are not doing our tourist duties very well and have no clue about Vietnam's recent history. Was this HCM a good guy? And who ended up "winning" the war? Our guess is HCM, since his face is everywhere. Was he north or south?...We are embarassingly ignorant, but increasingly well rested.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Semi live boat blogging
This morning we got up at 4.45 am to go to the floating markets of Can tho. Here are some phone pictures, stay tuned for the real deal in about 2 weeks.
And just now we had the best food we have had in Nam so far.
With a nice view to boot.
And just now we had the best food we have had in Nam so far.
With a nice view to boot.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Holiday!
We are about to go off on a holiday to Vietnam. But before we go, it was time to see Amanda again.
We had a really interesting potato dish which tastes exactly like cookies.
We ordered many more dishes (way too many in fact, we were scolded for not eating enough of them when the waitress cleared our table) but we were too busy enjoying the food to take photos.
After dinner, we played games with Amanda and the restaurant owner, a girl about Amanda's age.
We had a really interesting potato dish which tastes exactly like cookies.
We ordered many more dishes (way too many in fact, we were scolded for not eating enough of them when the waitress cleared our table) but we were too busy enjoying the food to take photos.
After dinner, we played games with Amanda and the restaurant owner, a girl about Amanda's age.
Hotpot lunch with the department
We took the students to lunch today. This is how much fun we have together if we don't know that someone is taking our picture.
And this is how much fun we pretend to have when we do.
And this is how much fun we pretend to have when we do.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival
Here they finally are: our pictures from the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival! We apologize for the picture quality -- the battery of our camera* died on Friday (due to the cold) and we had to make do with our cell phone cameras.
The thermometer at the entrance was tweaked a bit to make the tourists feel warm. It was probably about -20 centigrade.
This is what A looks like when seen through an ice block.
And this is what she looks like when making fun of Chinese girls posing for pictures.
And this is why we put up with the cold and slipperiness and bad traffic behavior (we saw > 6 accidents in 3.5 days) and dishonest taxi drivers that Harbin also has to offer.
* It is ironic that the camera died on Friday, the day before our 7th anniversary. Apparently the people who gave this as a wedding present (ok, we bought it ourselves from the money they gave us) did not think our marriage would last 7 years.
The thermometer at the entrance was tweaked a bit to make the tourists feel warm. It was probably about -20 centigrade.
This is what A looks like when seen through an ice block.
And this is what she looks like when making fun of Chinese girls posing for pictures.
And this is why we put up with the cold and slipperiness and bad traffic behavior (we saw > 6 accidents in 3.5 days) and dishonest taxi drivers that Harbin also has to offer.
* It is ironic that the camera died on Friday, the day before our 7th anniversary. Apparently the people who gave this as a wedding present (ok, we bought it ourselves from the money they gave us) did not think our marriage would last 7 years.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
We finally found it!
But today, we are successful. And cold. And soon we'll be drunk. Which is good, because A's father told her way back when that you don't realize you are freezing to death when drunk.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Hello From Harbin
It turns out that we were scared shitless for all the wrong reasons. It is not unbearably cold so far -- just -18 centigrade now at 10:30pm. We have also found that wearing more clothes really works to keep you warm. So tonight we went ice sculpture viewing wearing three pants and four sweaters plus coat each.
However, there are still plenty of reasons to be scared shitless. Harbin is one huge skating rink, covered with a thin layer of snow. Walking on the snow is doable, but sometimes the snow is worn away (or, in fact, they have many people working to remove the snow) and it is extremely slippery underneath. The cross walks are especially slippery, which is great fun because the cars don't take any notice of pedestrians, nor do they seem at all concerned about their ability to brake suddenly on these icy roads.
But the scariest thing about Harbin is going to have to be this:
Offering condoms and related paraphernalia is common in any hotel that we have seen in China. But the fact that here, men don't even have to bring their own sperm is completely new!
Scared shitless
Will the long underpants with corduroy trousers be sufficient to keep our butts from freezing off? Will we be able to find a hotel, or will we have to sleep on the street in temperatures of -30 degrees centigrade? Will the cold that we have been struggling with for three weeks turn into a life threatening disease?
Stay tuned to find out.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Apologies in advance for lightposting
This week our institute is hosting an important new international conference. It is so important, that this morning the participants were even warmwelcomed by the president of Tsinghua!
In short, we apologize in advance for lightposting this week.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Dutch food that should be going places
This is part of F's proposal for developing some Dutch cuisine that people from other countries may not mind eating: Huitspot (name courtesy of HTLGZ)
Traditionally, Dutch food is rather on the parsimonious side. For example, we have the expression "dairy on top of dairy is work of the devil", warning us against putting both butter and cheese on one sandwich. There is no expression about meatz upon meatz because having more than one kind of meat is just unfathomable to the frugal Dutchman. This recipe aims to change that.
Recipe:
- peel 10 kilos each of potatoes, carrots and onions, and cut into roughly equal sized chunks.
- put in humongous pot, add salt and just enough water to cover and boil for approximately 20 minutes.
- drain off the liquid - preserve some of the liquid in case the mash becomes to dry (although if you live in a place where the supermarket stocks cream (lucky bastard), then we recommend adding cream instead)
- mash everything together, taking care not to overmash - you are making huitspot, not baby food!
- add butter, salt and pepper to taste (i.e. definitely a lot of butter)
- cut some slices of bacon into small pieces and fry till they are crisp
- fry four pork belly slices (approximately 1 cm thick) until they are crisp
- boil a nice part of a cow (god knows which part, just a nice part) in a vegetable broth with a bouquet garni on low heat for approximately one hour
- if you have the fortune of living in a place where they sell good smoked sausages, then by all means buy some and boil them for however long your butcher tells you.
Do this all in such a way that everything is ready at the same time (I am not a cook book writer, you figure this out for yourself).
When serving the mash, make sure it makes a disgusting splash sound when landing on the plate. Sprinkle the bacon bits on top. Then pile all the other meats on top in a pleasing pattern.
Voila, food fit for a tiny nation of 16 million people!
Traditionally, Dutch food is rather on the parsimonious side. For example, we have the expression "dairy on top of dairy is work of the devil", warning us against putting both butter and cheese on one sandwich. There is no expression about meatz upon meatz because having more than one kind of meat is just unfathomable to the frugal Dutchman. This recipe aims to change that.
Recipe:
- peel 10 kilos each of potatoes, carrots and onions, and cut into roughly equal sized chunks.
- put in humongous pot, add salt and just enough water to cover and boil for approximately 20 minutes.
- drain off the liquid - preserve some of the liquid in case the mash becomes to dry (although if you live in a place where the supermarket stocks cream (lucky bastard), then we recommend adding cream instead)
- mash everything together, taking care not to overmash - you are making huitspot, not baby food!
- add butter, salt and pepper to taste (i.e. definitely a lot of butter)
- cut some slices of bacon into small pieces and fry till they are crisp
- fry four pork belly slices (approximately 1 cm thick) until they are crisp
- boil a nice part of a cow (god knows which part, just a nice part) in a vegetable broth with a bouquet garni on low heat for approximately one hour
- if you have the fortune of living in a place where they sell good smoked sausages, then by all means buy some and boil them for however long your butcher tells you.
Do this all in such a way that everything is ready at the same time (I am not a cook book writer, you figure this out for yourself).
When serving the mash, make sure it makes a disgusting splash sound when landing on the plate. Sprinkle the bacon bits on top. Then pile all the other meats on top in a pleasing pattern.
Voila, food fit for a tiny nation of 16 million people!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Hakka again
After being fish food, we turned the tables. Even though doctor fish had wonderful sucking qualities, its cousin, did not suck, when being served en papillote (okay, in foil).
These shrimp were not half bad either.
In short, them Hakka people know their foodz.
These shrimp were not half bad either.
In short, them Hakka people know their foodz.
What a way to start the new year...
We went to Shunjing, the largest indoor spa resort yesterday. Or, at least, that is what they claim to be. But then again, the bath products they had in the showers also claimed to be by Calvin Klein, and I am pretty sure Calvin's English is not quite that bad.
Either way, the resort was very beautiful and big. It still managed to get swamped by visitors, who were all smoking and hoarding all the free fruits. Some parts of the resort were not yet open to the public, and this turned out to be a good thing, as - being white and all - we just barged in there anyway and found lots of unoccupied lounge chairs. So, all in all, we spent a wonderful couple of hours with hot baths, saunas, reading and relaxing.
On our way out, we stumbled on the doctor fish pool! We could not resist being eaten by fish (rather than the other way around) for a change.
Still Very Excited...
... about possibly going to Germany. Here is us preparing ourselves:
I guess we are not fully German yet, as we only ordered 1 main course and 1 dessert. But we still have time!
I guess we are not fully German yet, as we only ordered 1 main course and 1 dessert. But we still have time!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Faculty, Postdocs and Students Celebrate the New Year
--- may 2010 bring great academic success and happiness!
A New Year's party was held at the Banquet Hall of the L V Hotel to celebrate 2010 in the evening of Jan. 31st.
It was a great gathering at No.6 Banquet Hall. More than 40 people were present, including the faculty, postdocs, general office staffs, and graduate students.
Accompanying with music, the hosts, J and C, went on the stage to announce the opening of the party. They first invited Prof. W, Associate Director, to make opening remarks and toast. Prof. W said with a deep affection, “This has been a very important year for us. We have held many important meetings and welcomed many distinguished guests to our outstanding institute. For 2010 I wish from the bottom of my heart you will all work hard and have great academic success!” Prof. S took his turn. He recalled the great accomplishments in theoretical computer science made by members of our institute in the past decade. “How time flies!” Prof. S said, “I wish our institute a bright future and hope you will all bring a exciting and fruitful research to our institute!”
The attendants played many happy games such as the dominoes game and the photo guessing game. A and F sang along to Chinese songs they listened to on a iPot and the students and staff successfully guessed the name of the songs they sang. A and F prepared a surprise for us, and asked S to sing along to a song from Dutch. All won huge applause.
During the party, J and C also announced that Prof. W was promoted to full professor. All the institute members were much heartened by the good news and applause broke out and lasted for a long time. Prof. W expressed a heartfelt speech to show her sincere gratitude as well as great expectations in future.
The party ended in an inspiring atmosphere. With the new year, come new opportunities. All members will make more efforts to promote further development for our great institute.
A New Year's party was held at the Banquet Hall of the L V Hotel to celebrate 2010 in the evening of Jan. 31st.
It was a great gathering at No.6 Banquet Hall. More than 40 people were present, including the faculty, postdocs, general office staffs, and graduate students.
Accompanying with music, the hosts, J and C, went on the stage to announce the opening of the party. They first invited Prof. W, Associate Director, to make opening remarks and toast. Prof. W said with a deep affection, “This has been a very important year for us. We have held many important meetings and welcomed many distinguished guests to our outstanding institute. For 2010 I wish from the bottom of my heart you will all work hard and have great academic success!” Prof. S took his turn. He recalled the great accomplishments in theoretical computer science made by members of our institute in the past decade. “How time flies!” Prof. S said, “I wish our institute a bright future and hope you will all bring a exciting and fruitful research to our institute!”
The attendants played many happy games such as the dominoes game and the photo guessing game. A and F sang along to Chinese songs they listened to on a iPot and the students and staff successfully guessed the name of the songs they sang. A and F prepared a surprise for us, and asked S to sing along to a song from Dutch. All won huge applause.
During the party, J and C also announced that Prof. W was promoted to full professor. All the institute members were much heartened by the good news and applause broke out and lasted for a long time. Prof. W expressed a heartfelt speech to show her sincere gratitude as well as great expectations in future.
The party ended in an inspiring atmosphere. With the new year, come new opportunities. All members will make more efforts to promote further development for our great institute.
Friday, January 1, 2010
So Last Year!
Here are some more pictures from yesterday. We started the day off with our usual hot water troubles, and while waiting for the repair guy, F made some oliebollen.
We then went to work. We got on email from our landlady that she called the management of our building again, and was yelled at. She was told that this is not a hotel. It is hard to argue against well established facts. Our landlady is really everything anyone could ever wish for and then some: she happily keeps helping us complain, does not mind being yelled at, and now even offered to install water heating equipment in the apartment! We love her.
Next up was the New Year's party of our great and beloved institute. It was actually not even bad, so I'm afraid that fans of A's chronicles of toe curling events will be disappointed to hear that I do not expect that she will even post about this. Not even about the fact that we got headphones on our heads, and had to sing along with the Chinese song that we were hearing. Or the game of relay charades...
We decided we would end the year with some good wine, so we went to Enoteca at The Place. It turned out that this was a particularly good choice, as all of Beijing seemed to be congregating right there.
Also, there were many cameras, police men, and these mysterious looking things with "Eternal Starworld" printed on them:
We had great expectations of the spectacle that would be unleashed before our eyes when the clock would strike midnight. We had visions of artificial snow and fireworks...
... but the machines just turned out to be confetti canons.
Anyhow, we finished our Champagne (ok, actually Prosecco) and headed home. I think this picture gives a good summary of the whole of 2009:
Happy New Year!
We then went to work. We got on email from our landlady that she called the management of our building again, and was yelled at. She was told that this is not a hotel. It is hard to argue against well established facts. Our landlady is really everything anyone could ever wish for and then some: she happily keeps helping us complain, does not mind being yelled at, and now even offered to install water heating equipment in the apartment! We love her.
Next up was the New Year's party of our great and beloved institute. It was actually not even bad, so I'm afraid that fans of A's chronicles of toe curling events will be disappointed to hear that I do not expect that she will even post about this. Not even about the fact that we got headphones on our heads, and had to sing along with the Chinese song that we were hearing. Or the game of relay charades...
We decided we would end the year with some good wine, so we went to Enoteca at The Place. It turned out that this was a particularly good choice, as all of Beijing seemed to be congregating right there.
Also, there were many cameras, police men, and these mysterious looking things with "Eternal Starworld" printed on them:
We had great expectations of the spectacle that would be unleashed before our eyes when the clock would strike midnight. We had visions of artificial snow and fireworks...
... but the machines just turned out to be confetti canons.
Anyhow, we finished our Champagne (ok, actually Prosecco) and headed home. I think this picture gives a good summary of the whole of 2009:
Happy New Year!
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