The Dutch Experience

The second weekend was the reception WE in Amsterdam which was quite nice. The guys of Amsterdam really did it well. We’ve been to the Historical museum of Amsterdam which shows the historical development of the city. This really reflected part of the Dutch culture. We’ve been also to the Drugs museum and Erotic museum. Every time I’ve been to Amsterdam, I’ve never been thinking of going to those places, as I’m not interested to know about the drugs or sex culture, but actually, it was quite helpful in contemplating about the Dutch culture. Knowing some facts like Drugs has less harmful effect than alcohol, or the reasons behind the Dutch legalized Drugs was quite interesting.

The first WE of April, we had Tillburg’s reception WE. The main event was going to Efteling which was quite disappointing as all my Dutch friends have been telling me, WOW, the Efteling is the Dutch “Disney” which made me have very high expectations, when it turned out to be more of a thematic part about fairy tales, like the dwarfs, snow-white and that stuff. The interesting thing was a part called Fata Magana which we’ve been going through the whole park and through different attractions, and whenever we meet any @er, they ask us have you been there, and telling us the directions wasn’t that helpful, till before it was time to leave by an hour or so, some of them joined us to go there. Fata Magana is supposed to be a demonstration of life in the middle-east which was quite interesting and given a clear explanation of the stereotype that westerners have about us. The place consists of this cave that you go through riding a boat, and you go through “Souk” and places which have Arabic writings of places and cities in Morocco, and it was showing how people get tortured in prisons and Sultans are having a lot of nude belly dancers around them!!

Last WE, I’ve organized Egyptian night for some friends; Verena, Juana, Isabel, Aarti, Laura, Eimar, Hadia, Carol and my flatmates with some neighbors. Guess what?! I’ve “cooked” Egyptian food from foul & falafel, Koufta, tehina, meshmeshya and the most important thing was having what Tom used to call “Heaven’s juice” (Egyptian Mango juice) :). The whole WE was a kick ass!!

This WE was so special when me and Verena decided to go for the “Hoge Veluwe” biking tour. It’s this part of the Netherlands that is quite middleish of the country and has the most beautiful views from Forests, Sand dunes, and natural life. The tour was 117 kms, but we did it, and it was quite interesting to know how the Dutch are promoting for such tours as through the whole tour you can find signs and signals for bikers to show them the route through the forest and the interesting places. Through the whole route we’ve discovered that a lot of people are doing the same route specially the weather was perfect (according to Dutch standards) less wind, no rain, semi-sunny and no random changes. Anyway, after this WE, I’ve discovered that biking tours in the nature can be added to my interests list and I think “and hope” to do it more often.

Oh boy...that was a hell of a long day, Yep, I still haven't slept from yesterday, which I slept for 3 hours or less, which technically means that I've not slept for 2 days now!! Well, the day started that I didn't want to sleep in the morning because I had an important e-mail that I need to reply to, and then I had to go to school at mid-day. After school and meetings, it was already after noon when I started chating to some friends, but again didn't want to take a nap because I still need to reply for that e-mail. Anyway, after having dinner, I've found my friends starting the farewell party quite early, as loads of them are going to leave this weekend :(

Guess what?! after BarBQ and drinking for at least 5 hours, we decided to go to some party in downtown which ended 5!! when we're riding our bikes back home, I felt like my mind is in a combination of "low memory", "low resolution", and "low cache memory" status. But again, we can't give up the night that easy, so decided to go for after party which just finished now, but again guess what?! I've not replied the god damn e-mail yet.....I hope I'll have time this year to reply it.

The only reason that made me wake up very early today was discovering that all my SINS, turned back to me in the form of that tiny world changing object named MOSQUITO!! They're really annoying specially that the Dutch version of mosquitos aren't educated to fly away when they hear my vibrating mosquito repeller device.

When I waked up, I discovered that one of my flat mates is already up when I heard that the girl friend of my other flat mate is getting ready to go to work. I was surprised when he insisted on walking her to the train station at such early time, but it reminded me by "gad3anet" the Egyptians. (sorry there's no English translation of this word)

I miss gad3anet el masreyeen :-)

There is a good old barber.

One day a florist goes to him for a haircut.
After the cut, he goes to pay the barber and the barber replies:
I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you.
I am doing community service."
The Florist is happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop,
there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting at his door.
A policeman goes for a haircut and he goes to pay the barber after the cut.
But the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you.
I am doing community service."
The cop is happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting at his door.
An Egyptian goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut.
But the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you.
I am doing community service."
The Egyptian is happy and leaves.
The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, A dozen Egyptians waiting for a haircut!

"And they say: 'Glory to our Lord! Truly has the promise of our Lord
been fulfilled!'"

After spending at least 3 or 4 months living on my great cooking skills of frying burgers, hotdogs, or even putting a ready made pizza in the microwave, and don’t make fun of that, it really needs a lot of skills to adjust the timer and the heat to get a good pizza :)
Now, after spending a month and a half in my new house with my new flat mates, Chris the Indonesian guy and Long the Vietnamese, and seeing them cooking proper food, and even learning from them, or from our neighbours who are living in the “GIRLS” apartment, who are spending more time in our apartment than theirs. I can’t complain as they sometimes cook for us or share our dinners together. But all that made me working on developing my cooking skills, which driven me to go for shopping with the guys to the Chinese store near our house, but when I went there I felt like “BIG IN JAPAN”!! more than half of the writings were in Chinese, all the products are imported from Asian countries, different food, even all the people at the store were Asian looking, which made me like a giant walking among them. But anyway, it was a funny experience as I couldn’t find my way in there, and seek help from my tour guides (my flatmates).

         I LOVE CHINESE FOOD

only Egyptians are allowed to see that ;)

who did that to the Saudis? please help them to catch the responsible

From my first time to come to Netherlands 6years ago till soon, I was wondering a lot about why “Mollen” or windmills are considered as a symbol for the country while it’s not that windy there, but GOD didn’t want me to die wondering of it, so the respond was quite harsh, as 2 weeks ago, wind storms started and it really SUCKS!! Well, you won’t imagine how bad is it till you experience it yourself. The wind is strong that sometimes while riding my bike, I feel that I’m paddling but staying at the same point, or moving diagonally. Although I hate hot weather, but I prefer cold, snow, rain, humid, even hot weather……anything except that stinky wind.