Thanksgiving

Hi All! Because I am missing out on Thanksgiving in the U.S., my husband and I decided to invite some friends over the Saturday after Thanksgiving (since we don't get that Thursday and Friday off...oh and the pains I get every year on those days knowing that my U.S. friends and family are having time off and getting the shopping bargains of the year. My best attempts at keeping up via internet shopping just don't have the same satisfaction....I digress).

So, this weekend is the ingredients shopping and cleaning weekend. I thought it might interest people to know what we are planning to make, how it turns out, and how our Dutch and Canadian friends react. Did you know they celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada? Yes, it's celebrated in October to mark the fall harvest, but was originally celebrated as a homecoming feast for an explorer named Martin Frobisher after he returned from an exploration to try and find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean (thanks, wikipedia!). Oh, those Canadians...if America could have half the peaceful history of it's northern neighbors...we probably wouldn't have given birth to such greats as Rambo, The Sopranos, and Grand Theft Auto. Just kidding.

Yes, so onto the projected menu which is skipping food for appetizers because, honestly, I've never heard of that phase for Thanksgiving and why is it needed when the main course is traditionally SO huge? Instead, we are focusing on drinks - mulled wine cider from a mix we picked up in Margaret River, Australia that includes instructions to buy the biggest box of wine you can find (this could be interesting) and eggnog (a Dutch friend is curious about it and since we won't see them for Christmas when this is the more appropriate time for it, we are giving it a try).

The meal will include turkey breasts with herb gravy prepared from a Rachel Ray recipe. A whole turkey just doesn't fit into our timetable or our European combo microwave/oven. The side dishes include sourdough stuffing with pears and sausage, Camembert mashed potatoes, cinnamon sweet potatoes with vanilla (this is a 'maybe' at this phase because, as you will notice, we have a lot of root vegetables on the list), fast and fancy green beans (Yes, that is the actual name of the recipe. We'll see if it delivers.), cranberry sauce (that promises to only take five minutes to make), and Art Smith's recipe (and Oprah's favorite) for root vegetable gratin. Rolls will be thrown in there, but probably not the King's Hawaiian bread or Pillsbury crescent rolls I grew up with especially since I have been assured that, outside of the U.S., croissants are only served for breakfast.

For dessert, we are having a cheese tray, an assortment of chocolates from a local chocolatier, and my husband is making two types of ice cream - mint chocolate chip and cinnamon. I know, you are thinking, "Where are the pumpkin and pecan pies and cinnamon apples?" Well, they are in the U.S. I just can't be bothered to make a dessert or three. The liquid appetizers and main course are already a giant step forward from my first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner a few years back that included a turkey breast, stuffing, and steamed green beans followed by store bought sorbet for dessert. I really don't know how my mom has done it all of these years...and totally sober throughout the entire day. I would have cried (and probably will have to fight back tears) if anyone did anything less than lick their plates clean after such preparation.

So, I am headed out to do the shopping before my second go at Bikram yoga.

My New Grandma Bike

Against popular Dutch wisdom, I bought a new bike today. No, it's not just new to me. It's new. Whereas my previous Dutch bikes had been on the road longer than I had, I will be the first owner this time around. Instead of paying someone to fix my current bike's flat tire and probably bent rim, I decided I want to buy an omafiets. The name literally translates to "Grandma bike". I have only seen this bike in The Netherlands and I won't speculate as to why the bike has this name, but I will say that this type of bike is characterised by a lack of gears, a brake triggered by moving the pedals backwards, a diagonal piece of plastic that covers the top part of the back wheel to keep skirts catching in the spokes and a wide, high-set horseshoe curved handle bar that allows the rider to sit upright while cycling. I won't pretend to think that this will make me look as graceful on a bike as the tall, thin Dutch women with high heels, a skirt, and long blonde hair streaming in the wind balancing a child on the back in a car seat type chair, but at least I can sit upright like them as sweat runs down my forehead and my face turns red.

My husband and I decided to go against conventional wisdom mainly because the second hand stores are few and far between these days and their prices are ridiculously high for what you get compared to what you can pay for a cheap low-end bike (probably made in China instead of The Netherlands). Two years ago, I bought a three speed bike that turned out to only have one and a half speeds with handle bar brakes and a rusted kick stand that promptly broke off a few weeks later for about 80 euros and it wasn't the upright sitting omafiets I wanted. Today I got the exact bike in the picture above for 140 euros, a year warranty, and a free six month tune up. It also has working front and rear lights (that will be stolen shortly), a comfy seat (that will also probably be stolen shortly despite by efforts to tie it on with two zip ties) and a nice old fashioned wheel stand that folds down from the back wheel.

I switched out the rear wheel lock from my old bike and fastened it to the bike rack at the end of our street with my old chain lock and an additional new one. Hopefully, it will all be there in one piece tomorrow.

Sweating Bikram

Saturday...

My doctor advised me to try meditation or yoga and a work colleague has been raving about Bikram yoga. I saw a Bikram yoga center close to our house years ago and first heard about the 'sweaty yoga' while living in Chicago, but I have always chickened out from trying it....until today.

Bikram yoga is a 90 minute yoga class that takes place in a room heated to 105 F degrees with 30% humidity and always consists of 27 postures and two breathing exercises. Beginners and advanced students are purposely not separated to discourage any semblance of a caste system. It was also appealing because it is the only exercise class that I can find entirely in English. The yoga studio is a white room bare except for carpet lined with three duct tape marks demarcating where students should lay yoga mats, fluorescent lights, floor-to-ceiling mirrors on three two walls and a ballet bar on a third wall. There are three windows set high along the back wall that look out onto trees, but they are tightly closed. It's your basic exercise room except it feels immediately like someone has forgotten they've left the thermostat cranked up and the instructor, a tiny twenty-something woman welcomes us, identifies the first timers (me and what looks like a twenty year old Dutch woman) and then takes her position standing at the back of the room where she begins to call out poses. Instead of doing the poses with us, she continually talks us through what we should be doing, adjusting and how it should feel. In an authoritarian yet soothing and positive voice, she comes around occasionally to correct or praise students by name.

The front desk attendant told me, twice actually, to take a place at the back of the class so I could watch other students. Happy to follow those directions, I took a place in the back in the farthest corner from the door. When the other students, probably 30 in all, started silently filling in (silence is required in the studio) and I saw there trim bodies and muscular bodies complete with six pack abs (women too!) I thought, "Well, I've come to the right place. This yoga works!" Then they started 'stretching'. Have you ever seen a gymnast, ballerina, or contortionist warm-up? I mean, have you seen them in-person? Well, I saw all three today. It was beautiful and excruciating to watch. For my first class, I was only expected to stay in the room for the full 90 minutes. Perpetually cold, I wasn't worried about the heat and I have read about this kind of yoga, but when the instructor calmly explains the expectation and that, should I feel nauseous or dizzy, I should just take a position sitting on my knees and watch, I can't help, but wander to myself that, if I should get sick, sitting silently on my knees will be the farthest thing from my mind.

Very few of the students bring water with them so I am slightly embarrassed by my nearly liter sized water bottle, but, a few minutes into the stretches, I was so grateful for it. I was also the only person wearing a shirt and one of few wearing capri style yoga pants. Most women are in a sports bra and spandex hot pants like the ones I used to dread I'd have to wear in high school volleyball. It would look sexy or trashy except that most have so little body fat (and no cellulite visible from 10 feet away) that they lost any signs of cleavage or muffin tops long ago. I can dream! The men, thankfully, wear knee length swim trunks or mesh shorts. I have seen more than my share of gay men in spandex shorts and old men in threadbare, short tennis shorts at gyms.

The stretching ends after what could have been 5 or 20 minutes and sweat is streaming down my forehead and shins. I am discouraged, but not dizzy, nauseous or in pain so I hang in there. Somewhere in the middle, we take a break to watch a sub-section of the class that will be participating in a country-wide yoga competition (Who would have thought?). The six of them simultaneously showed us their three minute demonstrations. I was gob smacked. As we were all clapping, a few of the yogis' smiles broadened as our eyes met and I realised I need to pick my chin up off the floor. One women had just managed to, with her fleet flat on the floor, bend in half frontwards and put not only her head through her legs, but also her arms enough so that she could wrap her elbows around the back of her knees to grab her ankles. Another woman did some sort of similar combination, but managed to be perched on her arms with her legs extending out parallel to the floor. It made me think of David Lettermen's segment "Stupid Human Tricks" and Cirque du Soleil.

I thought these six might be the exceptions, the superstars until we went to the mat portion of class. I was doing okay, not going nearly as deep into poses as others, but also not falling over or passing out. That was until we were instructed to sit on our knees with them spread so that our bottoms touched the floor. I couldn't quite do that. Then it started to get complicated. We were instructed to put our hands up on our lower back and begin to lean backwards until our heads and backs touched the ground. I started to get dizzy when I bent back just far enough to look at the ceiling so I went happily to the bent knee sit. To my surprise, 90% of the class folded themselves backwards! I stifled a "Wow!".

Before I knew it, the lights were turned off and we were told we could stay as long as we wanted, but that the class portion was over. Happy to continue laying down with my eyes closed making myself one with the floor, I decided I would follow class etiquette and left when the person closest to me left a few minutes later.

I've read on-line that the 90 minutes of yoga burns anywhere from 550-1,000 calories. Let me tell you, whatever I did burn went in the form of sweat to my clothing. It was as if I had jumped into a pool with my clothes on. And, before you dismiss me as nuts or just following the latest trend, know that it is a very low impact form of exercise and is the first exercise I've experienced where I felt so in-tune with my own body. There weren't any machines or equipment or even shoes helping me exercise. It was all me. I left feeling tired, but really good. The best way to describe it is purified. I felt nimbler and walked a little bit taller from improved posture.

Sunday...

I slept a solid ten hours last night and woke to a body retracting in on itself. The muscles in my lower back, hips, and hamstrings have snapped back to attention and I am left feeling like a hunched back old woman trying to straighten myself upright to walk. And my abs, my neck, and my shoulders are not to be ignored either. All of this from some stretching and heat. I think I might be hooked!

Bugs & Blahs

From Saturday....

My apologies that it has been so long since my last post and my continued apologies that this will be a short post. I have had the strangest stomach bug this past week or so. I was sure it was the flu and that I had finally kicked it today, but it reared it's ugly head at me today when I tried to get out for a walk. I know, I know. You are all thinking, "Oh my god, you've got the Mexican flu (or whatever it's called these days)!" I don't have the most worrying symptoms and, even so, they advise here in The Netherlands to just stay home and wait for it to pass (unless you are a baby or elderly).

On top of it, the rain and clouds have settled in here for the past several days giving the feeling that it is eternally 5.00 pm except for when is actually 5.00 pm and the dark suddenly envelops everything.

Today...

So I went back to work yesterday and was overcome and more than a bit scared by a stabbing pain in my rib cage. I decided it was time to go make what would probably be a futal attempt at a doctor's appointment. Thankfully, the pain reduced on my train ride from work to the office. Unfortunately, this convinced the doctor I was seeing that I wasn't really that sick. If I'd passed out on the train or was no longer able to walk, he assured me, he would have checked me into the hospital. He diagnosed me with intestinal inflammation (Well, duh!) and told me that if the pain got really bad to call him immediately. I told him that I had been in a lot of pain so that is why I called. He paused and said, "Trust me. You'll know." I asked him what I should eat to avoid the pain and he told me to avoid fatty foods. "I was eating broccoli and brown rice." He smiles and says, "To tell you the truth, there is no way to tell what will cause you pain. All food will probably cause you pain in the next few days. You just have to wait for the bacteria to leave your system."

I felt lucky to get anything. I think I got something to help stop stomach spasms and something else to help with the acid that I do not have, but have been guaranteed that I will get. All for less than two euros. The prescription information and warnings are in Dutch, but my husband assures me I'll feel better.