Have a nice trip, see you next fall!

This week Keith has been busy conducting a workshop at Philips with several colleagues in town for it. He even brought some traditional Dutch stroopwafels to the workshop, which he said were devoured by the end of the day. I have no idea why these haven't been introduced in the states, but I promise to bring some back when we come home for Christmas! So last night we went out to dinner at Usine with four of them. Usine is a restaurant located in the bottom floor of the old Philips Lighting Factory and it has that sort of eclectic-yet simple-warehouse-feel . . . huge exposed ceilings, bare bulbs, old wooden tables with contemporary plastic chairs, you get the picture (which is a good thing, because I didn't). So at dinner everyone ordered steak frites (which was just a small piece of not-great steak served with fries) except for Reid and I. Can you guess which one of us had which meal?

steak tar tar

vegetarian quiche

I guess it's probably a no-brainer -- the steak tar tar was surprisingly delicious!


I kid, I kid . . . Reid had the tar tar and it was not delicious (his words, not mine), but my quiche was delightful, despite the confusion in ingredients. Before ordering I asked the waiter what kind of veggies were in the quiche, so he checked with the kitchen and told me: eggs (really? eggs? okayyy), carrots, onions, and broccoli. Now I don't know how well you can see in the picture, but the veggies were a little different. Yes, there were eggs (duh), and there were also onions, but other than that, not so much. There were mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, and black olives instead. But it was still so tasty (minus mushrooms for me), so I was happy. I think all the men at the table were a little envious because they kept eyeing my quiche while thoughtfully eating their not-great steak (cooked and uncooked).

After dinner we headed to the Centrum in search of some ice cream, which was a semi-difficult task considering it was a Wednesday evening and of course most shops were closed. After going to three places looking for some kind of ice cream, we finally lucked out on our fourth and had our pick of a dozen different ice creams and desserts in a little Italian restaurant inside the mall. For some reason, you can walk through the mall at any time of day or night, even though all the stores are closed (and even when the couple restaurants also close). It's kind of bizarre. So we all sat down and ordered our ice cream, which was a nice treat to end the evening with. Most of the guys got Dame Blanche, which is a fancy way to say vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream -- but to the Dutch it's a traditional dessert that most restaurants serve. I "ruined" my Dame Blanche by asking for Snickers ice cream instead of vanilla. Whatever.

We got home at a decent hour and I changed into pjs and slippers, which . . . dum, dum, dum . . . caused me to slip and fall down the steps. Before you gasp, I am perfectly fine, not hurt at all, but poor Keith had a heart attack as he watched me fall (probably in slow motion) from 20 feet away. He ran to me, and would not let me up until he had taken my slippers off my feet and literally threw them to the bottom floor of the house (which sounds a little overdramatic had I not almost slipped down the steps once before while wearing them, so he had had enough). Luckily I just landed on my butt and slid down a couple stairs, which hurt at the time (wooden steps), but today I feel totally fine and not at all sore like I thought I would be.

I ended the night with a long Skype session with Jennifer -- miss her so much :( -- and then headed to bed. Unfortunately I got a terrible nights sleep, which has been unusual for me lately. Normally I will wake up once or twice, but last night I was waking about every hour, I think just worrying about friends and family back home. So if you have a minute, say a prayer, not for me, but for the people I can't be with right now.

~ Jessi