I came to Belgium and ended up helping out with the casting for a coca-cola light commercial…very strange, long story details to come later. I have to go to Paris now but will write about the little coke thing later. pretty amusing.

Chocolate, Lambic, Beer, Lace. The Chocolate; one was Rhum-raisin and one was avocado creme; the Lambic was passion fruit; the beer and lace were not consumed today and it’s none of your business anyway (especially Taylor, mom, and the boys…layne, robin, dad, michael, sam etc.) I went to Brugges today which was the scene of my voracious spending-spree.
I am having a wonderful time with Rachael. it’s been almost 3 years since i saw her last and we stayed up late talking and then I slept in. She had an early Pilates client and when she got back she took me to a place for coffee. As we walked up to the place, I did a mental double take. The name of the cafe was “Le Pain Quotudien” which seemed familiar by the name and the logo as well as general look of the place. In the space of a couple seconds I thought, “okay, I must have been at a place like this in france somewhere, or wait, no I was in this same cafe in New York. what the hell, how can this restaurant be in new York and Brussels at the same time? Oh…it must be a chain.” rachael noticed the startled look on my face and I informed her that this particular caafe happened to be my favorite in New York City. I discovered it last summer with Michael and some of my friend’s from the dance workshop at Purchase. they have these magical little snadwiches of thinly sliced peasant bread, ricotta, fresh black-mission figs, honey, black pepper and cucumber. Right up my alley. Rachael informed me that the restaurant is, in fact, a Belgian chain. Wonders never cease. I will go back there every day that I am here and then seek out the one that allegedly exists in paris.
All in all a great day. Much chocolate was eaten, lots of lambic consumed, favorite magically-apearing cafe’s were sat in, many presents were acquired and it was georgeous weather in Brugges to top it all off!

Well, I haven’t written nearly as much as I thought I would here with my unlimited internet but I have been busy. It has been very nice weather here the past few days, warm enough that it was too warm to wear more than a shirt! This has been very confusing after spending the past omnth and a half bundled up and always ready with gloves, hat, scarf and vest. But that made it parfect weather to bike around, walk around, see museums and just hang out next to canals. I have continued with the soup-making and at smoe point will post some more recipies. I also started making curries. Right now i am eating a curry that has chicken, zucchini, carrot, celery, broccoli, tomato cucumber, pineapple, raisins a ton og garlic, ginger and red chili. There’s some coconut and yogurt in the sauce too. very tasty!
The Van Gogh museum was my favorite and I will try to make one last stop at a museum near the train station right before my train tonight to brussels.
In Brussels I am going to stay with my friend Rachael who I know from mills. I am really excited to see her, it’s been years.
I have also been dancing a ton and really enjoying the variety of classes I have taken.
Well, not too much else to report except I’m going to some amazing chocolate shop now and then packing up to leave.
I hope that you are all still out there reading even though it’s been eons since the last post!
Much love.

Ingridients:
1 Tbsp oil (I think I used olive oil)
6-8 cloves minced garlic (adjust this if you’re not as big a fan of garlic as I am)
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
5 cups chicken broth
8-10 sliced fresh mushrooms (I used brown mushrooms, but imagine shiitakes would be lovely)
1 chicken breast, cubed (you could use pork too)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/4 soy sauce (or to taste)
1/2 minced fresh red chili (or any fabulously hot pepper)
1 egg white lightly beaten
1/2 cup snow peas
1/4 cup sliced scallions
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water

To make:
Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the ginger and garlic. Sautee for a couple minutes. Add the chicken broth, mushrooms, chicken breast, vinegar, soy sauce and chili and bring to a boil. Turn down heat just after it boils and slowly drizzle the egg white into the soup while stirring constantly. Add the snow peas and scallions. Mix the cornstarch into the water and then add to the soup, stirring gnetly. Simmer 1 minute more and then serve.

Well, I’m a little behind on posting my soup recipes and photos, but only because I have been out more the past couple of days. I spent the final week of winter in the apartment here, writing, cooking, napping, reading and stretching. I went to dance class and tried to walk around a bit but was mostly content with a brief period of hibernation. With the coming of spring, the sun came out and it is now a bit warmer. Today I walked around and mapped out the places I will go tomorrow. Tomorrow I will go to the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum and possibly to the Van Gogh museum if I have time.
As I was walking today, on my way to get the ingridents to make tonight’s soup (Chilled cucumber-honeydew-mint-yogurt soup) I ran into a street that was blocked off with a helicopter flying overhead, a plethora of police wagons and cops blocking the way in full riot gear. My palms immiediately got sweaty and I wondered what I had stumbled upon. I could see that the police were playing with a crane, a large metal box, and a hook that they were attaching to said metal box. I asked someone what was going on and he told me that they were evicting a crack-house. “Sort of a spring-time cleaning they like to call it.” He told me. I guess they couldn’t enter the house via the front door or something because the once they attached the hook to the metal box, they loaded a handful of cops into the box, closed it and lifted it up carefully placing it in front of one of the windows. It was very interesting looking and sadly I had forgotten to bring my camera with me today. I don’t know exactly what came of it. I got bored standing around watching and left.

It is cold in Amsterdam. I haven’t posted any news because there hasn’t been any. Apparently the past few days have been some of the coldest so far this winter. It would be tolerable if it was just cold, but there is also this bitter, nasty wind that makes going out hideously unattractive. So I have been staying inside reading and writing.
Today was a little less cold and I rode my bike to a yoga class that my friend, Hillary, taught. It was a good class and very fun just to bike around in this city. I had a great time biking around in a city which seems to belong to bicycles over cars, and most the time it seems, also over pedestrians. It gives the city a relaxed pace that seems much more suited to humans than the pace set by automobiles.
So, I finished the Margaret Atwood and am most of the way through “Junky: by William Burroughs. Not the most uplifting book to read, but I’ve never read it and it matches the grey bitterness. So here’s some stuff I found a)funny, b) amusingly stupid or c)an excellent turn of phrase.

“He looked like one of those terra-cotta heads that you plant grass in.”

“But a complex pattern of tensions, like the electrical mazes designed by psychologists to unhinge the nervous systems of white rats and guinea pigs, keeps the unhappy pleasure-seekers in a condition of unconsummated alertness.”

“The drivers orient themselves largely by the use of their horns, like bats.”

“He was simply the focal point for a hostile intrusive force. You could feel him walk right into your psyche and look around to see if anything was there he could make use of.”

I finally found out the phone number for my apartment, so those of you with international calling capabilities should give me a ring! I would appreciate it, I am getting a bit lonely…
The number to dial is:
011+31+20 468 3004
31 is of course, the country code, 20 is the city code and then 468 3004 is the number!
Is is 9 hours ahead of Pacific time and 6 hours ahead of the East coast.
Hope to hear from some of you…….

Such a lovely rainey day.

The Palace is that building in the background of the statue. Another one with Taylor in mind.

Sintra is just outside of Lisbon and this is the beautiful palace. Those two giant chimneys are coming from the kitchen. it was AMAZING. Old stone cuppboards, too many stoves to count, ovens, and then chinmenys towering above you.


In the park I ate lunch with some peacocks that I had to keep shooing away from my sandwich.

I liked this statue and thought Taylor would especially like it.

I liked this sculpture. Raather reminds me of my tattoo.

These are pictures taken by Tom Clemen when we went for a walk in the snow.