Koken, Joden, Pesach, Fietscafe...

Sorry I've been writing so infrequently of late. Classes have been more stressful, so I haven't been enjoying as many exciting adventures. I've been running at the gym a lot though, so that's been fun.

Yesterday I went to DeKey and extended my lease till July 15th. Then in the evening a bunch of my friends and I met up at Brouwerij 't IJ. After drinks, we went shopping for curry ingredients, and then made yummy, yummy foods. It was a feast! We had olives and turkish bread and yummy veggie curry with basmati rice and wine and yummmmm.

Today I went to the Joods Historisch Museum with Amanda. It was really interesting. We started in the old Great Synagogue. The gallery upstairs is full of artifacts and portraits of old Jewish families of Amsterdam. There was a huge Portuguese Jewish population in Amsterdam at one time. Very interesting stuff. Then we went into the hall on 20th-21st century Jews in Amsterdam. There were some really, really interesting video interviews. We didn't actually see everything. I definitely plan to go back (it costs me €1.50, and it's like 2 blocks from where I live).

I succeeded in my main goal of the museum trip, which was to find out where I can purchase kosher wine and matzo meal in this city. I can't believe I thought growing up in Ipswich made Jewish grocery shopping difficult! I'm going to have to take the metro pretty far south, but I'm really, really excited to go to this shop! THEY HAVE GEFILTE FISH! AND PICKLES! Look at this list: PDF File

So excited! Ahhh!

Oh yeah! And I got a sweet little family haggadah to use for Monday AND "Mijn Eigen Haggada," a Dutch children's haggadah. It's in really easy Dutch, and it's a coloring book too! Pesach duurt een hele week. Wij beginnen het feest met de sederavond. Een seder is niet zomaar een etentje. Voordat we gaan eten, lezen we eerst uit een speciaal boek dat haggada heet. Haggada betekent 'vertellen.' In de haggada staan verhalen, liedjes en berachot, die vertellen hoe ons volk werd bevrijd uit de slavernij van Egypte.

After the museum, I went shopping at Waterlooplein (the flea market right across the street) and Albert Heijn, and I saw this pub on wheels. All the patrons were pedaling down the street: