hup holland hup

amsterdam house gets decked out for WC06

was all scheduled to have a 4pm office meeting. instead by 3, i was on a taxi heading down to the lower east side, off to a bar to meet with some dutchies and watch the NL-argentina match. oh the joys of having a south korean creative director who understands the value of the world cup (well, he had a doctor's appointment as well the morning korea beat togo so i guess it's perfectly fine me pulling a disappearing act).

got to the bar. there saw the match with elvira, chris (her twin bro visiting and who was here just back in march), and anna his friend. the match ended up in a goalless draw. it being a non-bearing match since both are already advanced to round 2, the teams played tactically—sitting out starters at risk of getting 2nd yellow cards. kinda boring game coz there wasn't a lot of push on both sides. very technical play. bit disappointing obviously save for the argentinian messi, aka the young maradona, who was a joy to watch (ie almost gave me a heart attack with his skillful play). was great nevertheless, a good enough result for holland to get a draw with who's likely to be this cup's champion (unless the homecourt krauts have something to say about it in the quarters).

to very much make up for an uneventful match, spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening with the dutchies. which is always a pleasure because of the energy and sense of ease they bring. we were able to walk around east village and the lower east side. make occasional stops at interesting shops. take a breather in tompkins park, and a drink at a bar just north of it. pitsop at el's apartment and a thai dinner in the area.

as usual, the conversations were very lively—complete with a lot of quick witted remarks and sound-effect laden stories. til now, im amazed at the general level of global awareness the dutchies have—anna's living in cambodia in august for 6 months as part of a UN program on sustainable energy, elvira who's already lived in spain is spending her last week of her 6 month exchange program here and will be heading back to the lowlands and chris finishing his studies on global warming. amazing as well is how easily it is the lowlanders are to get along with. who wouldve thunk a manila kid like me will be spending some chill bill time with a bunch of maastricht kids (that's in the southern part of NL, close to belgium). of course it helps i guess that ive been to that village and do know a few dutch idioms like op de kast and eet smakelijk. but there's just a certain level of connectedness, aliveness and dynamism i feel when im with the dutchies. where anything and everything goes. few drinks here and there optional.

hmmm, maybe i visit that side of the atlantic again next year. should be good to visit the great il cone and familie beusmans, and el4ra and the thissen siblings (too bad barbara's prolly going to be in bologna then but...). sounds like a plan. but first things first. hopefully clockwork orange finally shows up this weekend in their game against portugal (to possibly setup an exciting yet dangerous quarters match with england). coz if they dont. ill be walking like a loser headless chicken in my netherlands jacket. not that i dont look like a headless chicken without it anyway.

for now, enjoy some funny kick@ss nederlandse voetbal anthem. hup holland hup!