Monisha's Family

We’ve been having a wonderful time here in The Netherlands with Monisha’s family!  On Sunday we got to watch Monisha’s cousin’s David and Thomas win a doubles match in the local tennis tournament.  Afterwards we went over to their house for dinner. Monisha’s uncle Paulo prepared Thai curry, and his wife Agatha made poffertjes for desert. Poffertjes are small sweet Dutch pancakes, often served with butter and powdered sugar. Paulo is the first of Esther’s siblings Nolan met. He lived up to expectations, staying quite true to what Nolan’s been told about him. First, there was never too long of a moment of silence.  Second, after Paulo and Monisha had a 1+ hour long conversation about whether slugs and snails are different animals, Paulo spent the rest of the evening bringing it back up. Paulo continues to insist that the snails in his garden leave their shells to go find new shells, and that’s why you see slugs, or shell-less snails.

Right now we’re staying with Monisha’s aunt, Monisha. The two Monishas get along very well ;). Aunt Monsha says I [little Monisha] remind her a lot of one of her best childhood friends, Shireen. It just hit her the other day, and she said it suddenly made sense while the two of us get along so well. We really do seem to get along particularly well; we both wondered whether it was just that she’s my namesake, or that I’m Esther’s daughter (though she and my mom were never that close as kids), or what. Anyway, it’s a lot of fun spending time with her.

 

We’ve also been enjoying the company of her husband Erik, and her little English cocker spaniel Bibi. Erik is a little quiet at first and it takes some time before getting to know him. But he is really funny! And really enjoyable to spend time with as well. Bibi is the best. She’s spoiled with attention and long walks through the forest every morning and getting sung to, and we completely understand why. Cocker spaniels are usually fine but not our favorite kind of dog; but Bibi is something else! She is just so cute. And really loves attention and sitting on our laps and having her belly rubbed. The first day we spent here we went on a long walk in the forest with Aunt Monisha and Bibi.  On the way home, we met Bibi’s family! The woman across the street is a veterinarian who breeds cocker spaniels and still owns Bibi’s mother and grandmother. She liked the darker brown ones best so almost all of the ones she keeps are that color; we like Bibi’s color best, though :)

  

Monisha and Erik told us about a nice lake 10 km their house that we could borrow their bikes to ride to. It was a lovely bike ride over; through forest / greenery, past a little deer farm, and of course, all flat. Actually, Monisha warned us that there was a hill you have to ride down on the way to the lake and then bike up on the way back. At some point on the way back, Monisha asked, “Wait, was that the hill?” Nolan: “Yep. We’re in Holland, remember?” The ride was so enjoyable that we started talking about maybe buying road bikes and getting into cycling after returning to California. We have to remember that there may not be such lovely bike paths where we live, and we would have to get used to a little more elevation change…but it’s a possibility! The lake was nice for a short swim. It probably took a good 50 meters to get to (Monisha’s) chest height. The temperature was very pleasant.

  

We also spent a day in Amsterdam.  Most of our time in the city was spent just wandering around looking at shops and sights and people.  It was a very hot day (over 30°!) so we felt kinda lazy.  The laziness meant we didn’t take many pictures, but we did have a lovely time.  We took a short, free ferry to the northern side of the city and walked along the edge of the water for a little while.  Then we took the ferry back to the main side, where we faced the crowds and shops and marijuana everywhere.  Monisha started off walking into every cheese shop but soon realized that was unsustainable.  We visited De Wallen (better known as the red light district) and stopped by the Museum of Prostitution. It was cool learning about the life of prostitutes in Amsterdam, and how things used to be.  The museum also gave us a better sense of what happens in De Wallen.  After De Wallen, we stopped by [Aunt] Monisha’s favorite chocolate shop, Puccini. We bought a hazelnut, mint, cranberry, and coffee chocolate, ate the mint chocolate and brought the rest back to share with [Aunt] Monisha and Erik. Quite exhausted, we sat down at a café (not a coffee shop) for an iced coffee. Then we wandered back to the train station, enjoyed one last look over the canals, and headed back to Zeist.

We visited Oma again with Monisha and stopped by a biological (organic) store on the way there. Oma is very into organic everything. I [M] see where my mom gets it. Monisha [aunt] visits Oma 3+ times a week usually and so they see each other all the time. People call and visit Oma quite often and lots of people help her and Tom with bringing / making them food, etc, which is really nice. I’m glad she has support and family so nearby. I [M] found a very appealing looking vegetarian cookbook in Oma’s house. It was in Dutch, but we looked online and found a used copy of the English version for like $5 including shipping! So we’re going to buy it.

Oma wanted the four of us (Monishas, Erik, and Nolan) to enjoy a dinner out, treating us to a delicious meal at [Aunt] Monisha’s favorite Indian place walking distance from her house. [Aunt] Monisha goes to the restaurant a lot so she knows the owner / chef and asked if we could go into the kitchen to see the tandoori oven. Nolan’s never seen one before, so that was neat. After samosas, tandoori chicken, chicken tikka mala, lamb curry, mango lassis, chai tea, and more, we walked back to the house and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

[Aunt] Monisha and Erik had bought some hash for us to experience Holland in true form. Erik rolled a couple of joints for us and we spent the evening getting stoned, talking, and laughing. Erik was initially not going to partake with us, but he ended up joining in, which [Aunt] Monisha said meant he was having a very nice time. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable evening indeed. There’s something quite satisfying in itself about smoking marijuana in Holland with your aunt and uncle :)

Sabine and her three kids, Sam, Daan, and Tara, came over to Monisha and Erik’s for dinner yesterday. The two of us (little Monisha and Nolan) cooked dinner for everyone: shakshuka with feta, roasted tomatoes, cucumber yogurt salad, and Turkish bread. Then ice cream sundaes for dessert…it’s an easy one that the kids loved. Sam asked Nolan to play Minecraft with him for a little, but it turned out to be somewhat difficult with the language barrier. Sam taught us several Dutch words, which was fun. There are actually quite a lot of Dutch words that are similar to their English counterpart. All three kids are extremely 'schattig’ (one of the Dutch words we learned – it means cute). Though when I asked Sam and Daan whether each person in the room what schattig, they of course responded no unless referring to themselves. Daan has one of the biggest, happiest smiles I’ve ever seen. He is delighted by so many things. It was fun making the chocolate sauce for the ice cream with them. That was something easy to do despite the language barrier. We’ll see Sabine again on Saturday when we’re having dinner with her and Sasha and their boyfriends, but I’m [Monisha] glad we got to spend time with her and the kids.

It’s a little tricky writing these blog posts in Holland with the two Monishas. I told Monisha (aunt Monisha) that my dad used to call her Big Monisha (or Big Mooba, since he calls me Mooba). She wasn’t so sure how she felt about being called BIG Monisha. Now she says she’ll have to read our blog so see what all I’ve written about “BIG Monisha.” So Monisha, maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised that I’ve been referring to you as Aunt Monisha instead of Big Monisha in these posts :)