We go see van Gogh!

Hello friends and family!  Last week, Clara promised a blog post about children's literature, so while she is researching next to me, I (Owen) will tell you about our first foray out of Leiden and into the wider world.  Namely, Amsterdam.

I think every knitter secretly wants a wall like this.

For my birthday, we had decided to take a trip into Amsterdam to visit the van Gogh museum, but regular life being filled with enough exhausting adventures of its own, we needed to postpone the visit until yesterday.  Leaving home at around 10 a.m., we were able to stop by Ribbels (our local yarn shop) first, so I could pick up some needles to finish Clara's new hat (expect pictures soon).  Small success: I completed the whole transaction in Dutch! People seem to be pretty cooperative if you look like you're having a good time trying.

This picture is actually from my visit to Leiden in March.

We made it to the train station and stored our bikes in one of the many double-decker bike racks at the station.  Another example of brilliant Dutch engineering, it's easy to turn one of the upper slots into a ramp that clamps your bike in place when you wheel it on.  Then you lift the ramp back up and slide it back in place. The number of bikes, though, is just mind-boggling.  The rack shown is just one of several in the basement of the station—we parked at one of many others like it located in a covered area outside the station.

I am testing the camera's new batteries.

We had checked out the train, bus, and tram schedules before we left, so we had a pretty good idea of how long it would take to get to and around Amsterdam.  Apparently, the privately-run Dutch train system is held accountable for any unexpected delays, so the trains are extremely punctual and any delays that do occur are announced both in the station and in the online trip planner.  ("Warning! This route is experiencing delays of up to 1 minute.")  Once we get our bank accounts set up, we plan to each get an OV-chipkaart: it works on trains, busses, and other public transportation nationwide, and it offers a discount for not using paper tickets!  This will be very helpful when I start teaching in the Hague at the end of next month.    While I stood in line, Clara hunted for more replacement batteries for the camera.  And soon, we were off!

Dutch landscape: very flat and very wet.

While we're on the train, whizzing by the Dutch landscape, let me tell you a little about its history. Originally, much of the area comprising the Netherlands was swampy but fertile marshes and river deltas.  The Dutch installed dikes along the seaside to keep floods at bay, and gradually the country has been hydrologically engineered to put the water just where it is wanted.  For example, we live near the path of the Rhine (Rijn) as it was in Roman times, though the famous river has been redirected to farther to the south.  Now, the branches of the "Old and New Rhine" that meet in Leiden are used for draining the surrounding area.

You can tell they know how to sell stuff.

Finally, we made it to Amsterdam!  Exiting the train station (which had an even mind-bogglingly greater number of bikes parked outside), our first stop was the Apple store, the only one in the Netherlands and the biggest I've ever seen. Clara's computer battery had been giving her trouble for a while, so we made an appointment, dropped the computer off after burgers at Burgermeester, and picked it up on our way home.  They did the labor for free, and even replaced a cracked part of the case without charging us.  Good job, Apple!


Now on to the main event: the Van Gogh museum!  If you're wondering why this is only coming after so many other things, well, so were we.  Next time, we'll go to the museum as early in the day as we can, and save our tired feet for the trip home.  The museum was amazing.  Four floors of beautifully curated artwork - it was hard work to visit everything in one day.  We saw self-portraits (often painted on the backs of canvases he'd already used):

 And studies of peasant life:

He even had a Japanese period I didn't know about!  I like both of these a lot: the one on the left reminds me of Starry River of the Sky, and the one on the right is my current Van Gogh favorite.

And on the top floor, we saw some of the amazing landscapes he produced in his last months:

Click on any of these pictures to visit the museum's website, where you can enlarge the image and zoom in all the way to the brushstrokes.  It was so wonderful to be there and see these paintings in person, and thanks to our Museumkaarten I'm sure we'll be back!

Van Gogh makes us happy.

Questions and Answers?

Many thanks to everyone for the kind words of concern and encouragement since the last post, and I am writing to reply to many questions that we've been getting or things you may be wondering about. Never fear, you will get more exciting stories in the future, I promise!

How was Owen's birthday?

Owen's birthday was great. We baked cakes (both gluten-free and regular) to take to the department, and had an exciting time making my mom's chocolate cake—recipe here—without any measuring cups. Apparently cooking and baking is not as much of a cultural thing here than it is many other places, and when they do bake they measure with a scale. As a result, we made the cake recipe using a tablespoon as our only unit of measure. That's right. 2 cups of sugar is 32 tablespoons. Counted every one. For every ingredient. And it turned out pretty well! The baking soda was a little unusual, and a different texture than in the states, and the cakes sank after baking, but they were delicious, and Owen's colleagues were pleased. Celebrations also included a card which arrived on the day itself (including pictures drawn by my small relatives), a video message from dear friends singing to us (one of the friends is two years old), and a bike ride back from the department in the pouring freezing cold rain. We got home and got warm and dry and had a cozy evening as a colossal thunderstorm battered outside. It was a good day.

How is biking going?
Biking is going beautifully. I'm holding my own, have not crashed even once, and it has really felt good to be able to zip around town. Biking in the storm (and biking with stuff strapped to the bike) was a real confidence-boost, and I'm liking the experience more and more.

How is work going for Owen?
Work is good! It's pretty different for him from grad school in a bunch of ways. At Princeton, he mostly did his research alone, at home, but here, he's at the department from 9-5 everyday which leaves him tired, but excited by the work he's doing, and the people he's doing it with. He and a colleague are hoping to get a joint paper ready for publication quite soon, and it's been really nice for him to have peers asking questions he wants to puzzle over, and gets to answer in company.

Will you EVER post pictures?
YES. I will post pictures, I promise. We finally put up some of our own pictures and stuff in our apartment so it's feeling a lot more like our home now. You will get pictures as soon as:

1. We finish the decoration/organization projects
2. I tidy up the untidiness associated with decorating/organizing projects
3. We have some nice weather for outdoor pictures AND
4. I have errands to run which don't include biking or carrying heavy things. 

So not too long, I hope.

You're in Europe! Don't you ever do anything cool?
Well, we did MOVE to Europe, we're not just on a giant holiday, so we are kind of busy with and exhausted from moving-things, but yes. We do do some cool things. A week ago yesterday we bought ourselves each a "MuseumKaart" which is basically a super reasonably priced membership to all the museums in the country. So we went to the museum of Leiden's arts and crafts together, and I stopped by the Antiquities Museum on my way to a giant thrift store. They were both pretty excellent, and we're really stoked about being able to pop in at the museums any time we want, without having to "make it worth it" because we've already paid for the whole year. It also means that when we go to Amsterdam on Saturday we can go to the Van Gogh museum, and basically anywhere else we like without paying there either.

Still liking the church?
Yes. Church is super-excellent. Today the pastor pointed out that because this is one of the only churches in Leiden which speaks English, a lot of people worship together here than would worship together if we were back in the states. "Get used to it," he said with a smile. "Little taste of heaven. No separate denominations there." Which was nice to hear, nice to be reminded of, nice to think of a time and a place without separations over languages or backgrounds, or countries of birth.

Wait, Owen has like a million allergies! Have you guys been able to eat?
Yep. I have become an expert Dutch grocery-shopper, and we've found a fair amount of specialty health food stores to buy organic and gluten free things. Also, I make a mean shepherd's pie.

Bank account figured out?
We hope? On Friday, after many attempts and many emails, we finally got an appointment at the next town over to set up our account.

Did the Bank have cool decor? 
Okay, no one asked that question, but the bank's decor was amazing. It looked like something from Alice in Wonderland. Or Dr. Seuss. Or Roald Dahl. Or all of them mixed together. There were these enormous stylized lamps towering over the sleek narrow reception desk.  They reached pretty much to the ceiling, with crazy-wide lampshades, and when we waited we sat on this bright orange high wing-backed velour loveseat with matching cushions. The art on the walls was a pair of drawings with watercolor washes (very Quentin Blake-esque) one was of a shady-looking man wearing a trenchcoat smoking a cigarette under a lamp attracting flies. The other was of an elephant, but from the back, so all you could see was the elephant's rear end, with his tail squishing, and the ears poking out on either side. When we went into the conference room, two of the walls were glass, the table was modern and minimalist, but the instead of having an office filing cabinet there was an orange chest with curvy sides set off by the single wall of aqua-colored victorian patterned wallpaper. There was also a huge lamp in the room, on a giant tripod with a narrow pointy lampshade. None of this is a joke. Owen and I were unsure if we should be weirded out or delighted.

Are you going to like, post about other things sometime? Not that descriptions of Dutch Bank decor aren't fascinating....
Fair question, and yes. While we will keep you up to date with the news from Leiden, I may post about other things, following the history of this blog. Next week might be about recommended children's books, given the crazy number of people I know who are pregnant and/or have just given birth.

Mail? Can we mail you stuff? What about those postcards you promised?
We would love to get mail. Comment with a way to get in touch with you and I will send our address. Also we hope to find the post-office and send some long over-due mail this week.

What does the frozen spinach look like?
No one has actually asked this either, but the frozen spinach is actually kind of fantastic so I'll tell you anyways. It comes in a box, but not frozen in one giant mass that you need to smack on the counter to break off a piece of spinach to eat. The chopped spinach is frozen in beautiful little squares of chopped spinach, about the size and shape of dove chocolates. You can shake a few of the pieces into a soup or a sauce (or just one into a cheesy omelet-in-the-making) without any hassle, and no thawing/re-freezing/freezerburned mess. Friends? I give you another small example of Dutch intelligence and ingenuity.

If you have questions I have failed to answer, please post them in the comments, and I will be glad to do what I can to answer them.

Misadventures of the trailing spouse: Bike tales of doom.

In the book, Expert Expat: Your Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad, the authors dedicate a whole chapter to the particular needs and trials of the "trailing spouses": those partners of the internationally employed who get to come along for the ride, but often have a far harder time adjusting. While the working spouse's life may make sense and even be similar to life in the home country, his or her partner might not yet have all of the bases covered to aid in building a home and a life in a new place. Some dear friends of ours gave both of us this book this past spring, but especially pointed out the candor and relevance of the chapter on trailing spouses. I've needed that relevance and candor this week. I am still loving it here, enjoying the new experiences, and could not ask for a better teammate, but rather than sharing all the wonderful things, today I will share highlights of this week's misadventures.

In very brief form this week has been:

• Full of me not being able to talk to anyone (like at all, not even, like, "hello! beautiful morning, isn't it?" or answer the cashier's "would you like a receipt?" ) because I am cripplingly unable to speak Dutch.
• Full of meeting Owen's department which was delightful and a pleasure but also included one member of his faculty asking me, "what will you do to amuse yourself while you're here in Leiden? Cook delicious meals for Owen?"  (I do plan on cooking and eating many delicious meals with Owen, but I would rather it not be thought of as my occupation.)
• Full of people being surprised and delighted when they find out "oh you can work!" only to ask what I plan to do. I have no idea. I just got used to the idea of not "working" for money, so that I could do research, and creative projects. I haven't really had a chance to re-adjust myself and think up an entirely new plan.
• Full of attempting to get a bank account and having difficulty for stupid reasons (1. "You need photocopies of all these documents.  No, you may not use our photocopier over there." 2. Owen made photocopies! Forgot to print scans of our passports. 3. The bank is closed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday?)
• Full of trying to buy regular rolled oats so I can make granola that Owen can eat only to find I've bought rolled four-grain cereal including rolled wheat. 
• Full of getting lost walking in the hot sun, and not knowing how to use the bus system.
• Full of even getting together with a couple of friendly ladies from church only to remember that making friends takes time, and that building friendships—like learning a language, or getting a map of a city inside your head—takes time and effort, and isn't instantaneous. 

This week has also been the week of the bike. THE WEEK OF THE BIKE. In my previous post I mentioned that everyone bikes in Leiden and that it's much safer than pretty much anywhere else in the world, and that the roads even have stoplights for the bikes. I did not mention that I personally have only biked about half a dozen times in my life, and two of those times involved spectacular, bloody crashes—over the handlebars, still bear the scars-style crashes. Other vivid experiences with bikes involved taking a dear friend to the ER after a bike accident, or hearing about NYC biking with car doors opened in loved one's faces. I did not mention that I am terrified of biking. 

So here I am in Leiden, haven't been on a bike in half my life, (the last time I was thirteen or so and fell over an embankment and sliced open my leg on the pedal) in a country where two year olds with training wheels are laughed at, and where no one wears helmets. Owen and I go off to buy a bike, and though I delay all morning long, the afternoon finds us walking just around the corner to Budget Bike to see what we can find. We have an agonizing terrible Dutch/terrible English conversation and figure out what we are looking for. One of the workers suggest a bike which fits our price range, which looks big, but they start at lowering the seat. Once lowered they take it out to the street (yes, street with cars) and I teeter onto it and try to press on the pedals while getting any of my body onto the seat and fail. The worker makes a face, says something like "more small" and goes to lower the seat again. After this attempt it is STILL too tall for my short body, and I am feeling seriously embarrassed. Surely, if I were a better biker I could ride a bike without it needing to be low enough for my toe-tips to touch the ground. The store owner comes out and insists the bike is plenty small and tries to get me going on it. I wobble like crazy in several different attempts to start biking, and he looks very surprised (disgusted?) and says something like "Oh! beginner!" and suggests we go to his other store on the other side of town where there is much more selection.

So on to bike store number two! Owen walks his bike alongside mine, assuming that we will ride back together. At this point, I am so terrified and humiliated that the idea of calmly biking home together seems a wholly unrealistic fantasy, but I go along. I think to myself, "I must get a bike today, if I want to get a bike with Owen along for moral support." I am in grave need of moral support. When we get to the second "Budget Bike" we are disheartened by the bikes boasting "low prices" of three or four times as much as we were hoping to spend. We are not looking for a bike for me to travel across Europe on. When I get to that stage, we can trade in whatever beginner bike we get, and get something cushier, faster, with more gears. I'm just looking for a no frills bike, a bike just for now. The employee at this shop speaks much more English, and shows us the upstairs of the store where all the kids' bikes and discount adult bikes are stored. What joy! What excitement! We look at several bikes, one is purple with a basket, but has Minnie mouse on the decor... One is burgundy, just the color of my old car, but only has front wheel brakes—Owen says those are the ones more likely to flip you over the handlebars. And then we see this one. A blue and yellow bike with tough kid details, a bike clearly designed and marketed for a 10 year old boy, but a bike which fits me beautifully, and on which I feel more safe than I've felt on two wheels. It is exactly the price we had budgeted, and it seems meant for me. 

Out on the street my fears return, so Owen and I walk our bikes to some quiet streets so I can get my bearings. When I anticipated my own biking fears I had told myself. "There are no hills. You don't need to worry about getting out of control. The whole country is at sea level." All true! Except, alas, the city of Leiden is full of canals, and with the canals come sudden and steep little bridges. Over my first bridge as I crested and started the chase down the other side I became very aware of the narrow street, the bumpy brick pavement and the absolute lack of any kind of railing between me and the waters of the canal. I saw my life flash before my eyes, especially the bike-crashing parts of my life, and remembered how very dangerous it is to jump (or fall) into the canals because they are full of bikes. WHY ARE THE CANALS FULL OF BIKES??? Are they the bikes of perished riders? no, no. Bikes with only one bike lock. While everyone has a lock on their bike to prevent a thief from riding (locking up the wheel), not everyone uses a chain to attach the bike to an unmovable object. As a prank, college students like to throw the unchained bikes into the canals late at night. Would my sweet little blue bike become one of the canal bikes? No! I pulled myself together, used my brakes (both front and rear) and slowed it to a comfortable coast—staying well away from the canal—and as I came up to Owen I shouted, "I am still alive!"

That's all for today, friends. Stay tuned next time for tales of birthday celebrations, of museum explorations, and hopefully of us finally getting a Dutch bank account.

Wait, no-- not Neverland, the Netherlands!

Owen and I live in Leiden now! I’m going to share this week’s highlights in words, no pictures of our own yet, but never fear, I plan on buying batteries for the camera tomorrow, so you should all have pictures to your heart’s content. If you feel like skimming, please do, I’ll make big headings in all caps so you can skip to the parts you most want to read.

THE TRAVELING

Despite our burden of four suitcases, a violin and a backpack, we got through Washington DC Dulles airport and its security with great ease, our flights were on time, comfortable and without incident. We flew Iceland Air, and found the assault of advertisements for Iceland and its many tourist attractions pretty charming. Though the promises of beauty and wonder at the Iceland landscape seemed like photoshopped hyperbole, flying over the green-green volcanic landscape as the sun rose (too early!) after our overnight flight took my breath away. Even the grassy area next to the runway seemed otherworldly, all craggy and moorish, not level fields of grass or concrete like I would have expected. Stopping over in Iceland also had the unexpected perk of relieving us of the trial of going through customs. While walking through the airport in Iceland we at one point had to show our passports at a window where we were asked no questions and did not need to wait in line, and once we got to Amsterdam were very surprised to find that that was in fact all that was necessary, since we had nothing to declare. So our passports hold stamps from Iceland, but not Netherlands. At least not yet. Our new bags sturdy and easy to find, and after a quick trainride to Leiden, our landlady kindly picked us up from the trainstation in her car and drove us to our new home.

THE APARTMENT

For those of you who haven’t heard our apartment search saga, I will cut to the happy ending. Two weeks before our flight we still had nowhere to live when involved a department email announcing an apartment for rent (now through December) came to our hungry inboxes. We responded immediately, and have been delighted to find both the woman renting her apartment, and the apartment itself a joy and answer to prayer. We have two floors of a narrow section of a building. Living room, WC and kitchen on the 1st floor (not to be confused the the ground floor), and bedroom, bathroom and guest bedroom (!) with a balcony on the second. The whole apartment is beautiful, full of sunlight, books, nice dishes, beautiful furniture, fresh air, and all and all much nicer than we will likely have come January. You’ll hear snippets about the apartment in the other sections, as much of our activity this week involved unpacking, dealing with jetlag, and stocking our kitchen.

The tiny street we live on is small enough that cars are not allowed, just bikes, and nearly all the walls lining the brick road are brick as well, including our place which completes the picture with a bright green door. Typical residents of the street seem to include a local cat, laughing neighbors, and a great many plants and flower baskets.

GROCERY SHOPPING

We have been grocery shopping every day except Sunday since our arrival, covering 4 grocery stores all on foot, the furthest a mere .75 miles from our apartment. The closest (and the biggest) grocery store is a mere 3 short blocks away, complete Gluten Free section, fantastically delicious dairy products, and an amazing orange juice machine. I noticed it first from the fresh citrus smell wafting its way over to us as we looked at potatoes. The whole machine is clear plastic, with slightly whimsical machinery, and to either side of the machine are various sized empty bottles. When the lever is pressed above the spigot, oranges roll down a shoot, get sliced in half, crushed, squeezed, and the juice flows into your bottle. It’s pretty incredible, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had orange juice that delicious.

RESIDENT PERMITS

We took a trip to Rijswijk (30 minutes by train) to pick up our resident permits. I find out after scanning my card, and both Owen and I searching the internet to translate all the stipulations that I can in fact, work for money! My permit is still contingent on Owen’s, so if something happens to him, I’d need to quit my job and leave the country, but I had assumed from faulty information that I wouldn’t be able to work, and now have new opportunities open to me. As it is I’m pretty excited about my original plan of working on research, writing and sending in abstracts to every conference concerning Shakespeare in Europe, with some chamber music, and YouTube videos of finger puppets on the side. But now that actual employment is a possibility, I’m excited for that as well. Also the resident permit cards are shiny and pastel colored and the most techincally advanced ID cards I’ve seen.

TECHNICALITIES

We had a day of much paperwork--heading to the University to meet the HR representative with whom we’d been corresponding all summer, getting papers from her, and heading to the bank in homes of setting up a Dutch bank account, only to leave with still more paperwork, and we have another meeting at go to at Town Hall on Wednesday to deliver even more paperwork. The government has just changed some of its regulations which is great in many ways, (now I can work!) but it means that the people at the University helping us don’t know the new procedures. So, still paying cash for everything for now, only one bike between us as of yet, and no phones yet either.  

CHURCH

This morning Owen and I walked to an incredibly welcoming and homey international English speaking church. Not only is it full of people who love Jesus and want to serve God in this world, it’s full of people inviting us to join small groups, offering to put us in touch with people for job opportunities, and just happy to answer an email with questions about transitioning to Dutch life. When greeting us, one woman expressed that she hoped we’d “feel right at home here,” and we absolutely did.

IMPRESSIONS

What makes this place Dutch? So far I’ve been very impressed by the elements of design and engeneering even in basic stuff of life. I’ll give you examples from the kitchen and from the layout of the streets. Our kitchen is much smaller than many American kitchens, but the sink has a big heavy cutting board shaped so that it fits snugly right into the space of the sink creating more counter space. Not only that, but the oven has a heavy glass backspash which is not only stylish and conveniently easy to clean, but also folds down over the stove (when not in use) for still more space to work. So the problem of “too little counter space” evaporates with a simple, elegant solution. In the intersections of the streets in Leiden-- which are, of necessity complicated because bikes and cars typically have separate lanes on busy streets and the lanes often have raised medians between them, you end up with a single intersection having twelve traffic lights--cars, bikes and pedestrian crossing lights in each of the four directions. However, the lightposts are set up in such a way in coordination with the stoppinglines that it is very difficult to see any light except the one intended for you. As a result, the intersections are easy to cross safely, quickly and with confidence. These are both simple ideas, but executed with such deft skill, I am wondering why the US hasn’t been copying them more.

PARTING DESCRIPTION

We’ve been walking a lot so I have had a great view of the city, and feel more at home every day. Walking down one street I saw four bookstores, two of them looking to be exclusively children’s bookstores. The streets are lined with their narrow buildings all squished up together, their tops all steep pointed and stairstepped peaks with orange tiled roofs. They’re not just brick houses, but brickwork laid as a thing of beauty, an historic craft, not just walls put up in some sort of hurry. Brick streets (often with a simple contrast-colored brick every four feet to indicate a bike lane), lined with fresh green trees. Canals everywhere full of restaurant boats, pleasure boats, crew boats, kayaks, houseboats, boats of all kinds, and bridges everywhere crossing them. And bikes everywhere. Bikes in staggering numbers parked at the trainstation. Bikes with babyseats attached to the handlebars, a couple riding a bike together, a (I kid you not) Dominos’ pizza bike with a delivery trailer behind it. Bikes painted with tulips. Bikes with baskets full of flowers. A bike with four suitcases strapped onto it. This place is beautiful, and I’m so glad we made it at last.

Pictures of our own coming soon!

Board Games anyone?

On our wedding registry, Owen and I asked for several games, and received even more than we asked for. Since the games are pretty fantastic, and since many people have not heard of a lot of these board games I thought I would review some of our favorite games. Some are strategy games, some are speed games, some are played with tiles or cards or boards or trains or bunnies. Feel free to skip about.

Dixit was a surprise to us for our wedding. We had never heard of it but now that we know it, we love it.  It's fun, not too long and has all that whimsical fairy tale art. The game is sort of similar to Apples to Apples and Balderdash, but I'd say more fun than either (though unlike those games, it's not a game for a large party). The active player chooses a picture card from his hand, and says outloud a clue for the picture which is vague, but not too vague. The other players look in their cards and find a picture from their hands which could also fit with that clue. When all of the players have chosen cards, the chosen cards are shuffled and revealed, and all the players (except the active player) vote. But here's the catch. If the clue is too specific, like "Cello lady" for the first card below, all the players will vote for it and the active player gets no points. If the clue is too unrelated, something like "title" no one will vote for the active players card and the active player will still get no points. But, if the clue is just right, a little-but not too- vague, some but not all players will vote for it, and then the active player will get points. It's really fun and beautiful and it uses a totally different sort of intelligence than other strategy games.

 
Ticket to Ride is also pretty fantastic. I've played the (regular?) America version, but the one we got was the Europe edition. Both are excellent, and the rules are pretty much identical. Few minor changes on the Europe edition (makes it feel like they tried to improve on the earlier version, and it seems like they did a good job.) It's a game you can have real conversations over because everyone's game play is pretty independent, and each turn is very short. My housemates and I played it for the first time a reunion weekend with some friends from undergrad, and over that weekend I think I played the game five times. It was just a great game to play while interacting, while other games are much more attention dominating. DixIt for instance IS your interaction while you are playing it, but Ticket to Ride is just as involved as you want it to be. Stay focused on your train routes and it will be a quicker game, but if you get all into your discussions about educational reform while playing? The game should still only take about an hour.

I think that most people know about Settlers of Catan at this point: a strategy game where you build settlements, barter for resources, hope for the right rolls of the dice so that you can get enough wheat to support your next settlement. It's a really nice blend of skill and luck, and though the turns are not short, everyone can participate in everyone else's turn (in a way that older games like Monopoly totally lacked). It has become a classic, and is played throughout the world. If you don't know it, ask a few friends, someone you know probably has it, and they'd almost certainly be thrilled to play it with you.

For those of you who already know and love Settlers,  7 Wonders is similar to Settlers, but... all boiled down. The rules are simple once you understand all the pieces and symbols, etc, but pretty scary when you first start. However, when everyone knows how to play, it's a quick game- 30 to 45 minutes, typically. There's a "Watch It Played" video on youtube for 7 wonders which is long (about half an hour) but will teach you the rules so well that you will be able to play the game after watching it. And if you still don't feel comfortable, you can watch the subsequent videos of the dad and his kids playing together, stopping to explain along the way. Also it can be played with only two players, a real plus for couples. Also, it is one of the most beautiful board games I've ever played. I really like it, and hope more people find out about it. When you get your hands on a copy you'll be rather impressed by the wallpaper of awards on all sides of the box. It just swept the international board game awards, and with good reason.

Apples to Apples is another one we received, and love. It's especially good for large parties or when people are getting to know one another. This game is an American game, I believe, so I think more people know about it than some of the German ones. I've also seen the cards re-purposed for hilarious photo shoots?

Other games I've played once or twice but really liked are Bang, Metro, Citadels, Caylus, etc. Ones which are smaller (in price, size, time commitment, etc.) which we really like are IZZI (more of a puzzle than a board game), Tantrix, Set, Flux, Quiddler, Timeline-we have the "Diversity" version. I'll tell you a little about a few of them:

Set- It has its own sets of cards with patterns and symbols and it's a game of organization and quick thinking. I love it. Quick, smart, fun. Easy to learn and play without getting repetitive, and good for kids too.

Quiddler - also a game played with cards by the makers of Set, this one feels like the doubly blessed child of scrabble and gin rummy. I like it better than both of its parents, and it's portable, fun, and easy to play.

Flux - this game is a wild little thing. Much like Calvin Ball (from Calvin and Hobbes), this game's rules and goals change constantly with the cards the player choose and lay down. The goals are goofy things like "melted chocolate" -both the "sunshine" and "chocolate" cards need to be in play- and the rules are full of funny details if "it's a holiday or anybody's birthday take an extra card." Again, just played with it's own little deck of cards. If the regular version seems too run-of-the-mill for you, the cards also come in many varieties such as Oz and Pirates.

How about all of you? What games have I missed? What games do you like?

Birthday Cake

When my mom grew up in Nigeria she lived most months at a boarding school. The cooks would make cake (any kind of cake) for the whole school whenever one of the children had a birthday, and since there were about 300 students... that was most days, (sometimes two or three flavors a day), and chocolate cakes were frequent. For decades afterwards my mom had never tasted a chocolate cake that really tasted chocolate-y and good like the chocolate cakes she had in Nigeria, until she happened to try this recipe from the side of a baking chocolate box. It has two eggs, a stick of butter, and sour cream in it, but oh, it is good, and to my mom and to me, it tastes like home.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Cake by Hershey’s

4 bars (4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into pieces) (I substitute 3/4 c. cocoa & 4 Tbsp. additional butter)
1/4 c. butter
1 2/3 c. boiling water
2 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. dairy sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

In large bowl, place chocolate, butter and boiling water, with spoon, stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Add flour, sugar, sour cream, eggs, baking soda, salt and vanilla; beat on low speed of electric mixer until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 35 to 40 min. or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Frost as desired. We always have it just with whipped cream. Maybe strawberries.

Owen and I are moving to the Netherlands soon, where I hear birthdays are extremely important. I hope to have lots of opportunity to make this cake, and see what I can do to gluten and egg replace so that my husband can eat it.

Purple tastes delicious.

So we decided that it would be a great idea to make a dinner of all purple ingredients. Because purple is a fantastic color. Because purple foods are often the cooler versions of normal foods (like cabbage or potatoes, even onions.) And because doing it sounded like a really fun plan. So here is how we did it, so you can make your own purple meal if you like.

We diced up three little purple potatoes and three big beets. Peeled the beets, washed the potatoes, coated them with olive oil and roasted them at 400 degrees, stirring every 10-15 minutes until they were tender.

We browned some ground beef (not purple, we know), drained it, sauteed a purple onion (also diced and then added the beef, some salsa (also not purple, but delicious) and a drained, rinsed can of black beans, (sort of purple) and a can of refried black beans (more purple), with some little shavings of beet, to make everything look more purple. Add cayenne and cumin to taste. We stirred that up til everything was hot and well mixed and vaguely purple.

We cooked half of a purple cabbage just in water in a pan until it was softer, very dark purple, and still a little bit crunchy.

Then we mixed the roasted root vegetables, the taco-y stuff and the cabbage in bowls together and ate it with blue corn chips. And it was beautiful and amazingly delicious. We thought about finishing off with a mixed berry smoothie, but none of us felt like it after all the deliciousness.
 
We're already scheming for our next color meal. Green? Perhaps with a spinach pasta, a salad with avocado, a fruit salad with kiwi fruit, green grapes and granny smith apples? Or orange with butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, oranges, and perhaps a pumpkin pie or something for dessert? Wouldn't this be great to do with kids? I know of a lot of kids who only like white foods. Like Bread. Or Rice. Or mashed potatoes. Wouldn't it be great to start them early and cook lots of colorful foods? Have a week of color meals? Or every once in a while just have a purple meal?

At Labyrinth we sell a lot of beautiful cookbooks, many of which seem to be as much about the photography as they are about the food. One in particular is arranged by color and is called "Ripe" and goes through fruits and vegetables at their peak of ripeness, and gives one recipe for each ingredient. It's sort of a funny book, self-indulgently beautiful, and more expensive than I think is necessary, but it is nice to look at, and makes me want to cook more intensely colorful meals.