Mitä aiot tehdä isona?

I was going to write about Muse being awesome last night, but there is bigger and better news: I'm an aunt now!

I just heard from my sister's husband that their daughter was born last night. Both my sister and little Renske are doing fine. I cannot wait to see them!

It's kind of weird being an aunt all of a sudden. :D

( Part I of my holiday in Korea, but now with pictures :D )

( Part II - with pictures )

All pictures can be found on my Flickr photostream, and part III (text & pictures) will follow at some point. :D

Slowly working my way through my holiday pictures and written story....

( Support Act: Istanbul September 2009 )

I am at the airport and the check-in desk is not open yet and there are no self check-in machines. How retro!

So, without further ado:

( South Korea part II )

OK, this is just day one and two of my holiday in Korea... It takes much longer than I thought to be typing it all up and it's getting late here and I'm tired. :D So I will just post these two days now and the rest will follow at some point. :D

Pictures are not included, this is all just text. I have started uploading pictures on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rapturina/tags/korea/, I can't seem to rotate them as my laptop doesn't have Flash installed, but you can always just go old school and turn your head. Or your computer), but again, it's a slow process. When I come back text and pictures will be put together and properly posted, but for those who cannot wait to hear about it all, just a quick preview! :D

( South Korea September/October part I )

Tomorrow around this time I will be walking around Istanbul on my 11 hour layover. And then Sunday around this time, I will be arriving in Seoul. Well, 4 pm Korean time, so I guess that's earlier here. So it wouldn't really be exactly around this time. But you know what I mean. :D

I can't believe I'm finally going! I really need a holiday in a place far, far away. Work has been incredibly stressful lately. Not so much the job itself, but this week it was announced we will be moving to a different department soon (which was really just a matter of time, everyone knew it was going to happen at some point), and that has caused a lot of unrest and drama. I hate drama, I wish everyone would just behave like an adult, but I guess people don't really do that?

Anyway, so I will be on holiday for two weeks and hopefully when I come back to the office the storm will have passed and things will have settled down a bit. And I will have had two weeks in a completely different environment, which will clear my mind and give me lots of new energy, hopefully.

I can't believe I'm really going to South Korea tomorrow! I'm bringing my laptop, so I will try to do a few updates from there, if possible. I've read in several places Korea is wi-fi'd up the wazoo, but it remains to be proven in practice. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. :D

Wrong About Japan", by Peter Carey

I just finished reading this and thought it was enjoyable. I liked how everything Peter Carey assumes about Japanese culture and the meaning of things (such as the robots) turns out to be a matter of misinterpretation. It's an interesting exploration of how different people/cultures look at things in a different way, and in that respect I really liked the ideas of the sword maker they meet, "Be careful, half knowledge is sometimes much worse than complete ignorance."

I also thought it was interesting how the main story seemed to be about understanding Japan from an Australian's point of view, but at the same time the father and son were constantly trying to understand each other. The father always trying to make the cultural trips attractive to his son by comparing them to manga, and the son trying to talk his father into going to Sega World by pointing out it's close to something he had read about in a travel guide. Also the father's amazement at the son's ease in dealing with the ticket machines. I thought it was an interesting parallel story and goes to show that there is no such thing as "Japanese" or "Australian" culture, there's always a lot going on within a particular culture, which also questions everything they learned "about Japan" during their trip. The recurring discussion about the "Real Japan" also alludes to this, with the father interested in the historical sights and museums and the son interested in pop culture and technology.

So all in all, I thought it was a very interesting book, on a cultural-philosophical level. Also a wonderful - and very true - quote about travelling: "[...] this is how it is with travelling - the simplest things take on an air of great inscrutability and so many questions arise, only to be half born and then lost as they are bumped aside by others. The most mundane events take on the character of deep secrets."

I just got Muse's new album and it's just brilliantly dreadful. These guys must have been on crack when recording this album. IT'S FANTASTIC.

I can't wait for November, Muse is playing here in Rotterdam and I got the tickets a few weeks ago. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for me to actually be able to go to the concert, as it's one day after my sister's due date. It would kill me to not be able to go. Obviously I'm very excited about becoming an auntie and it's much more important than me having a crush on Matthew Bellamy, but still. I've asked my sister to keep her legs crossed until after the concert. :D

I woke up this morning with a pretty funky feeling head, but after a hot shower, some leftovers from last night and some peanutbutter cookies I feel so much better. :D

I had my birthday party last night, it was great. I had invited a whole bunch of people; friends, family and colleagues, and I think everyone had a good time. I had decided not to throw the traditional Dutch circle party, in which everyone just sits in a circle (i.e. some people on the couch and others on assorted chairs, making a circle in the living room, not on the floor or anything :D) and has coffee & cake. I hate those parties, they're a bore. So, I threw a buffet style dinner party with Korean food and not enough chairs for everyone to be able to sit down. It was a success, everyone was standing around talking to each other and it was fun. :D I do have a shitload of food left over though and I feel bad about throwing a lot of it away. But there is no way that Selmer and I will be able to eat it all before it goes off, so it's better to throw it away now instead of leaving it in the fridge to go bad, right? Still, I hate throwing away food, feels like such a waste. I guess I have my parents to thank for that. :D

Anyway, so everyone enjoyed the food (or they were too polite to admit they hated it :D), and then at the end of the night Nicky brought out a bottle of absinthe and some tequila shots, which explains the funky head this morning, but seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now I'm just waiting for rakusanka to arrive in Rotterdam, and for my mp3 player to finish transferring music (2 hours and counting!). Selmer gave me an iPod for my birthday! YAY! It's a pain to transfer all the music from my old mp3 player though as I can't do it directly (trust me, I tried). So first I need to wait about 3 hours for all the files to go from my mp3 player to the harddrive, and then I will have to transfer them from the harddrive to the iPod, which will probably take just as long. Ah well, I suppose it's a nice job to do when you have a hangover. :D

Another case of "lets use English to make it sound cool!", but gone horribly wrong this time: this Friday a repair man from the "All White Centre" will come to fix our washing machine.

Interestingly enough, it took me a few hours to register how strange it sounds in English, as white is a colour that is associated with washing machines and the like in this country. There is a general term in Dutch for stuff like washing machines, dryers, refrigarators, etc: witgoed, "white goods". Presumably the term originated from these household appliances generally being white. It's such a common term that I think my mind automatically linked the "All White Centre" to witgoed, as I'm sure is the owner's intention. Though I suppose calling your household appliances store the "All White Centre" in English speaking countries would get you into trouble with the PC police. :D

I was just at Mediamarkt to buy a rice cooker and found they have a "fun cooking" aisle. It's really called that. It made me laugh. What on earth is "fun cooking" supposed to mean? The aisle contained things like grills and ice cream makers, so I suppose it's any cooking that's done outside the daily routine? I suspect it's just Mediamarkt trying to make it sound cool by using English words. :D Even stranger, the rice cooker I was looking for was also in the "fun cooking" aisle, which baffled me. I mean, I understand how a grill can be considered fun cooking, as people don't tend to use it every day in this country, but a rice cooker?!

Anyway. I thought it amusing. Now I'm off to try out my pretty new rice cooker.

I've been following the whole Caster Semenya story in the news lately, as I find the whole discussion fascinating. Why is everyone so upset about the possibility of her having too many male hormones? I understand it would probably make her run faster than the average woman, but isn't high level sports a question of talent anyway? Some people are just faster than others, that's why they win the medals. D'oh.

I'm sure I'm just oversimplifying things, but the whole discussion is rubbing me the wrong way. I find it degrading for the athlete in question that she has to endure all this, having to go through tests to prove that she's a woman. Having to defend herself for looking manly. What, is she only a real woman when she wears dresses and make up and looks pretty and dainty? What claptrap. Then all these interviews with family members come out saying she never wanted to wear dresses and was always playing football instead of shopping and gossiping. What the hell? Is that supposed to prove she's a man? So what she doesn't like romantic films, does that make her less of a woman? That sort of stuff infuriates me to no end. Many articles also describe her as strange or bizarre, which pisses me off even more. Like it's a bad thing that she likes wrestling instead of playing with dolls!

I understand that in sports there is this philosophy of the game having to be fair, with equal opponents, and that in the case of Semenya there is doubt whether she's been taking steroids. I just wish that the discussion would limit itself to the chemical part of it, and would not include all this socio-cultural nonsense about gender and what a man or a woman is supposed to act like.

"She used to say, "The only frontier you have left is the world of intangibles. [...] By intangibles, she meant the Internet, movies, music, stories, art, rumors, computer programs, anything that isn't real. Virtual realities. Make-believe stuff. The culture. The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it's only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think, she said. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. If you do that, you can change the way people live their lives. And that's the only lasting thing you can create." From "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk.

I just finished reading this book and found it strangely inspirational. On the surface it's a rather twisted story that seems to be aimed at shocking people, but under all the sex and deception there a few pearls of wisdom to be found; things to think about. And it's funny. Very, very funny, in a dark and twisted way.

Inspirational isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

All over the internet this morning: Shahrukh Khan detained for two hours at US airport.

What I find most interesting about all this is not the fact that it happened. I'm sure it happens to many muslims entering the US every day, and just because this one happens to be famous (well, to certain people...) it made the news. I'm not going to go into that. No, it's the seemingly inherent logic that, just because he's famous, he's not a terrorist? I find that intriguing. Whereas I have a problem with racial profiling at immigration for numerous reasons, I find it funny that everyone keeps saying it's a disgrace because he's India's biggest moviestar, so he's automatically not a terrorist. What kind of logic is that?! Isn't that the same train of thought that started this whole racial profiling business in the first place?

Last night Selmer, Lidiane, Ralf and I went to the LiteSide Festival in Amsterdam. It was a cool idea, it's a music/art/movie festival with lots of Middle-Eastern* artists, but it was the worst organized festival I've ever seen. The performances were all running an hour late, the food was expensive (and Lidiane found a hair in hers!) and there were hardly any visitors, so it seems they didn't really promote it very well. Which was a shame, 'cause it was really cool. We saw
Ibrahim Maalouf play, which is the reason why we went in the first place. Lidiane & me saw him at the The Hague Jazz Festival a couple of months ago and instantly became fans. He plays the trumpet, but he has a specially made one that allows him to play Arabic music. I don't really understand the technicalities of it as I'm far from a schooled musician (something with quarter-tones), but it is really cool.

This video is a good example of his music (and explains the trumpet a bit more - though in French, can't find it in English):



Anyway, so at the performance last night Ibrahim Maalouf was actually a special guest for another group of musicians, with drums, bass and two electric sitars (electric?! Yes, electric!) and a guy reciting his poetry and playing what I think is called a Tar. It was awesome, they played really loungy music that sometimes turned very rock and roll, and sounded Arabic and Indian at the same time. I can't explain it. :D I've been trying to find more information about the musicians online as I would love to see them again, but it's difficult. They seem to be a Amsterdam local thing. Well, Lidiane talked to one of the musicians afterwards and got his e-mailaddress, so hopefully we can go see them again some time!




* I'm having a hard time coming up with a word that covers it. Artists from Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, etc. But also from the Netherlands and France, but with a Middle-Eastern family background. So "Arabic" doesn't cover it, "oriental" just sounds old-fashioned, "Middle-Eastern" sounds like they come from there while they actually grew up here (or other West-European countries), so what do I call them? The world is such a complicated place these days with all these people moving around.... :D

Selmer announced he wanted to eat something Indian while we were in the supermarket, so we bought a jar of Rogan Josh to have for dinner. I didn't really like it though (and it was from Patak's, which I think is a good brand!), it tasted too bland. I told him next time he wants to eat something Indian he should tell me a few hours in advance so I can make, and I'm quoting literally, "a proper curry". I'm turning into a real food snob these days! :D

I've been doing a lot of Korean cooking these days, mostly using this site: Maangchi.com. It's mainly home videos of a Korean woman cooking Korean dishes, but she's really funny and makes the recipes look really easy. I can't stop watching the videos, and they make me hungry. Tomorrow I'm trying the Kongguksu (cold soybean noodle soup), and I already cannot wait. :D

If you've never tasted Korean food before, I can definitely recommend it. It's a little bit like Japanese food, I guess, but with sesame oil. Pretty much every dish contains sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, garlic and spring onions. It seems very healthy, with lots of vegetables involved.

Random addendum: I'm planning to make Dakkangjung (sweet and crispy chicken) at some point, so I bought a bottle of corn syrup at the Asian supermarket. Interestingly enough, it's the exact same brand that Maangchi uses in her video (in New York!). So some company in Korea is exporting corn syrup to all corners of the world, which I think is kind of a cool notion. :D

About a month and a half ago Selmer went on holiday to Norway with an Australian friend of his. He brought me a present back from Norway, which is definitely one of the best presents he ever gave me. It's fridge poetry - in Norwegian!

( Pictures )

Now why is this cool, you may wonder. Well, first of all I have wanted a set of fridge poetry magnets ever since they first came out, years ago. Second, it's in Norwegian, which both Selmer and I don't actually speak. However, it's close enough to Dutch, English & German for us to be able to make sentences out of it. It won't make any sense if you do speak Norwegian, but it's hilarious if you don't, 'cause it looks like funny Dutch/English/German. It's totally nerdy, but I'm having the best fun ever creating poetry with it. :D

I got up early this morning to go to the gym and it was closed! I hate it when stuff like that happens. There was a note on the door saying they were closed due to "technical problems", but I bet they just couldn't find any people to work on a Sunday morning. Bastards. And I was totally in the mood for some exercise too! Eh.

Anyway. It's been a pretty busy weekend so far. Had a friend's wedding on Friday, then yesterday Selmer and I went all the way to Limburg (two hours by car) to visit his parents, who are on holiday there. Then today we're visiting a friend who has just bought a new house, another friend who had a baby a month ago, and then on to my sister for dinner. I'm so glad I always have Monday off, I usually need an extra day to recover from the weekend. :D