Cycle Dining Sweeps the Nation.doc

I'm a bit disturbed by how my blog page looks on the Dell I'm currently working from at the university. On my wonderful Mac (we'll be celebrating our two-year anniversary in May), the background page is a muted cream coffee colour which I find soothing. On this flimsy PC, the background is a jarring pale yellow that I would never want to inflict upon my readers. I hope you are seeing the same aesthetic I usually do, instead of this terrible yellow. Further investigation on the way...

On Sunday night, the residents of Sarphatistraat student housing had a Cycling Dinner! You may ask, like I did, what the hell is a cycling dinner? Well, the premise is quite cool. The idea is that you have a three course meal (starter, main, and dessert) and instead of it all being prepared by one host, you cycle through different flats to piece together your meal. Everyone chooses one of the three elements of the meal and that’s the course they prepare for the group. There were 21 different flats cooking so there were seven different sets of dinners going on.

I choose the easiest of the three courses: the starter. They asked us to make something related to our home culture if possible (since it's an international residence) but I, understandably, had some difficultly coming up with something Canadian - I didn't want to make anything with maple syrup and I only had one packet of Swiss Chalet sauce. The starter I made was something that Emily and I had on Christmas Eve in Paris. It's a pretty simple appetizer: a slice of tomato, chopped Basil, and a generous block of soft mozzarella on top of a piece of baguette. The two-bite French treats are drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and a host of spices. I thought the combination of red and white, and the French influence made it as close to a "Canadian appetizer" as possible. They were a big hit.

The main course I cycled to was hosted by two girls downstairs - one hails from South Africa and the other from Turkey. We had a delicious meal with Turkish rice and a yogurt drink, and a South African take on Sheppard’s Pie. The main dinner party featured students from every continent but Antarctica (yet another International evening). The final portion of the meal was a Brazilian dessert that was heavy on the chocolate and supplemented with ice cream. How could you go wrong? The RAs made sangria for the after-dinner drinks in our yellow lobby downstairs. I had no idea that that many people lived in the building. The only time I see fellow "housemates" is in the laundry room or in the elevators so it provided a valuable opportunity to meet some of my neighbours. There are people from everywhere around the globe.

Monday night I had a meeting for the conference I'm helping with in July. It looks like one of my tasks will be developing an archive for the exhibition attached to the international part of the conference. The exhibition may be touring Europe if the organizers get the grant money they are requesting from the EU so it looks to be a great project in which to be involved. Last night, I had a few drinks with Stuart, my friend studying Law at UVA from the UK - he gave all kinds of advice about what exactly should be seen in Berlin and Prague.

This morning, Courtney and I were successful in obtaining seats at the weekly lunchtime series at the Concert Gebouw. I'm amazed at the number of people who show up for this free concert and are turned away when the hall fills up. Today we listened to three incredibly beautiful pieces between a pianist and a cellist - brilliant, gorgeous, and haunting. If I could pick any instrument to master it would have to be the cello; it just commands respect. The sun was out ALL day in Amsterdam and I walked past purple and yellow flowers making their way out of the soil - wearing sunglasses never felt so good.

Doc's Prescription of the Day: I think a cycle dinner must be organized by our friends in the future. We could even call it a "subway" dinner and just hop between each other's places. Is this only a European invention? Why do potlucks get all the attention?!