kimbies_doodles's Xanga

Friday, April 27, 2007

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:38:47 GMT

Tax Grad Nite 2007

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 11:53:38 GMT

So there was this one time, at Tax Camp (plus a couple days at NGI in Melbourne)...

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:59:18 GMT

Hey you! Cheers for visiting my website! I've done a MASSIVE update and not all my new blogs are on this page. So if you scroll all the way down and click on "next 5" you can get to the earlier entries.

Hope you feel very cultured after the viewing!

Doei doei for now! (Doie= bye)

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:34:22 GMT

Sinterklaas!

Very interestingly, the Dutch celebrate X'mas in quite a different way to us. On the 5th December, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas (which is apparently the origins of the Santa Claus we know). Sinterklaas comes from Turkey, and his name is actually Saint Nicholas (i've always wondered where Saint Nick came from). According to the Dutch, Sinterklaas now lives in Spain, and at the end of every November, he comes to the Netherlands in his boat and this is broadcasted live on TV.

Presents are also very interesting! They do the whole secret Santa thing, and they have to actually make the presents and wrap/present them in a creative way. PLUS, if that doesn't require enough creativity, they have to make a poem as well!!

They still celebrate on the 25th but not as much.

Above: Marcela with Sinterklaas! He pretty much looks like our traditional Santa, but he's taller and skinnier, and he dresses in a bishop's outfit.

Oh, another really interesting (and quite bizzare) thing about Sinterklaas is that his helpers ain't elves. They're "Black Piets" instead, and they're his naughty servants from Africa apparently. Sounds just a bit politically incorrect, huh? You can see one in the background of the pic.

But what's really amusing (and it freaked me out a bit actually) is that you'd find only white people playing the roles of the Black Piets on the streets by painting their faces completely black. Not sure whether if it would be any better if a black person dressed up as a Black Piet... Anyway, the tradition has been accused of being racist, but the Dutch have somehow found ways to look pass this, such as that they are chimney sweeps, and therefore black from the soot. You gotta lurv the Dutch culture.

Found a pic of Black Piet from the televised arrival of Sinterklaas:

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:22:57 GMT

Dutch pancakes & Movie nite at Rene's

You gotta love the Dutch for their pancakes! Traditional Dutch pancakes are a cross between American pancakes and French crepes. I discovered the best way to eat them is with bacon and syrup. YUUUUUUMMMM (in Luna stylie).

Thanks Rene for putting up with our mess in your kitchen and for Donnie Brasco and Band of Brothers!

Jenny shakin it like a polaroid picture!

My name written in syrup! Waaaahh (in Chinese accent) Rene so skilled, lah!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:28:02 GMT

Flo in Holland

Flo came from Berlin to visit for the weekend. Took him on a great tour of Holland, kicking off at our favourite local hangout- The irish pub! A very Dutch experience indeed.

Saying NO to child labour!

Flo having his first true Dutch experience in Rotterdam (aside from the crappy weather)- croquettes from the wall (a deep-fried snack, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside normally filled with beef). It's basically like a vending machine for hot food, which is constantly replaced by people working on the other side of the wall.

We then took him to see the whole of the Netherlands! Literally! Well a miniture version of the Netherlands anyway. So we took the train to Den Haag (or The Hague) for the miniture city of Madurodam, which holds a large collection of objects made on a scale of 1:25.

Such a long way from home. *sniff*

Here we are at the miniture version of Rotterdam's own Erasmus Bridge.

Not sure where in the Netherlands this is, but Jen, Trish & Jeremy, this is for you guys!! "I need 6 eggs, thats too expensiveee"!

An Irish pub! Loving them so much at the mo.

Andrea- you're so Schipol!

So Dutch!

Loonie tune's obsession with cows. She's riding a cow-design rubbish bin which actually moos.

Night out in Rotterdam:

Luna, Andrea, Marcela, Flo, Jen

We ended up at the Irish pub for a change (we really spend waay too much time there)!

The roles have been swapped! Now you know what its like being an arm-rest, Rene, you giant!

Already at home in Holland: Flo makes like a junkie.

"It's up to you, New York, New Yorkkkkk". Is there really a better way to end the night than to end it with Frank??! I love it!

Flo- Glad you had a great time! Us girls agree that you're so Schipol!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:13:58 GMT

Barcode

One of the better organised exchange student parties was held at Barcode, where a bell would ring ever so often, which signals that it was time for FREE BEERS!!!! Can anyone else think of anything better than that?

Borat!!!

Daan the maan- my favourite IBP group member!

Rene the Giant (2 metres tall, in case you were wondering)!!

Sexy ladies pole dancing (and yes, that includes you Daan).

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:56:55 GMT

France Road Trip!!!!

This is so one of the highlights of my exchange so far! With Marcela's and Andrea's fantastic driving skills (well done Andrea for learning how to drive on the WRONG side of the road and on the WRONG side of the car) and Luna's fantastic map reading skills, and Jen for just being her lovely sweet self, we hired a mini van and headed to the North of France for an awesome 4-day road trip.

Day 1: Headed to Dieppe in Normandy via Antwerp and Gent (Belgium), Arras (which we aptly re-named Arse coz got lost in for an hour which was a total pain in the ...), and a bunch of small but very cute French towns.

Leaving home.

Gent:

Me with Team Red.

Belgian waffles!!

Dieppe:

Day 2: Caen, Normandy (further west of Dieppe)

Driver of the day: Marcela.

Coke sniffing: Has anyone ever noticed that cola bottle sweets stink? but still tastes good?! Bizarre!! Needless to say we were addicted by the end of the trip. We just couldn't help sniffing them before we ate them!! haha.

How wicked is the Normandy bridge over the Seine River?! It's is one of the longest cable-stayed suspension bridges in the world.

Caen:

That night we had a HUGE cheese fest and ate raclette and fondue! YUUUMMMM (in Luna stylie). Can you get drunk on cheese? coz everything was just so funny that night! Unfortunately, our waiter was wearing thin of our "do you have cheesecake for dessert" jokes. haha. I swear i'm still sweating cheese.

Day three: This day was my sole purpose of the trip. To visit the D-day landing beaches where codename Operation Overlord took place on 6 June 1944. The purpose of the invasion was to liberate NorthWest Europe.

On our way to the beaches we found a Yellow Submarine pub! Of course, a pic needed to be taken.

The first beach we visted with Juno Beach. This was where Canadian troops fought.

If anyone has seen "Band of Brothers" the best war film ever, here's an etched map of where the parachutists of 101st Airbourne Division were supposed to be dropped (but ended up scattered all over the place). Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to go to Saint Marie du Mont.

Omaha Beach: This is one of the 2 beaches where the Americans fought, and the site where the bloodiest and most horrific assaults took place (think of that Saving Private Ryan scene where one of the soldier's arms got blown off and he was in some kinda daze looking for it in a sea of red).

We also went to the massive American Cemetary which holds the graves of 9,387 men that fought during WWII. It was so peaceful and so beautiful. The star-shaped graves (as you can see in the pic) is the Star of David for those of Jewish belief.

After visiting the beaches we headed back North East of France to Lille, a little French city. We stayed at a pretty dodgy and skanky youth hostel. BLEAH.

Day 4: Last day. Headed back home via Bruge (Belgium). Such a charming lovely town where we enjoyed a yummy hot chocolate and where Luna ate her first ever frog's legs (i tried a tiny bit too!!)! Didn't realise how many bones there are! Bruge is definitely one of my fave places in Europe now.

Source of amusement of the day: a random Indian tourist wanting to take a photo with us!? Guess cos we're just too beautiful. LOL

After Bruge, we headed back to Rotterdam.

And with that, our trip was over. BOO. I still miss the van.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:29:38 GMT

Maastricht

Went down very south of The Netherlands between Belgium and Germany to Maastricht for the "Carnaval". The carnival is typically a 3-day Catholic festival consisting of parades, concerts, drinking, raw herring, fancy dress and dancing in the streets to dutch music (think cheesy square-dancing music)! Our night in Maastricht pretty much turned into one big pub crawl. We even requested our favourite Dutch song at a pub and amused everyone by singing it aloud with dance moves and all! So proud. Kedeng kedeng!

A little game we played at a club. It was so blatently obvious what we were doing, due to the number of guys who came up to us and asked how we would rank them! haha. As you can see we were very disappointed...

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:04:53 GMT

Rotterdam Tour Day

I live in Rotterdam and yet i've seen more of other cities than i have of Rotterdam! So we decided to pose as tourists and explore the city. A bit of history for you: Rotterdam was pretty much completely destroyed during WWII. So the city was rebuilt and now looks very modern unlike the rest of Holland. It used to have the world's largest port, but now ranks second after Shanghai after 2004.

At Blaak Station. Behind me, some interesting architecture- The Cubist houses, which looks, err, like cubes. Duh.

Blaak market. A typical Dutch delicacy is raw haring (or herring in English) with raw onions. The Dutch way of eating this is to tilt your head back and pick the fish up by the tail and into your mouth. Doesn't sound too appetising, but I am on a mission to try it before I leave!!

Bike perched on a lamp post. One of the main modes of transport is biking as Holland is completely flat. The Dutch can do ANYTHING whilst riding their bike. Talk AND text on the phone, hold an umbrella in the rain, carry their shopping, ride with no hands, and even hold hands with another biker! Waaaahhh (in Chinese accent), so skill-ful!

Me and Marcela then played the game of who can best imitate the statues. Totally unfair, cos mine were so hard!

Oude Haven:

The famous Erasmus bridge named after the Dutch philosopher, theoligian and humanist, Desiderius Erasmus.