May 6th – Of Beer and Wine

Friday was my last day in Enschede before I my hockey trip. Because Thursday was already a holiday, we got Friday off as well (unfortunately only Shing and I got the day off). AIESEC had planned a tour for us at the local Grolsch brewery. For those in Canada, Heineken is probably the only (if any) brand of Dutch beer that people know about. However in Enschede, Grolsch is the brand of choice, especially since the brewery is just outside the city. The Brewery is also the most modern and newest of all breweries in the Netherlands and is less then 3 years old when we went for a tour of the place.

Somehow we all got confused about what time we were to meet the AIESEC and I thought we had to be at the station by 09:00 or 09:30. Shangxia was the only person in the house that knew it was at 08:30. However, after she got ready, she waited patiently for all of us to come down. The first indication then that I (and apparently everyone in the house except for Shangxia ) was wrong was when Frédérique rang our doorbell at 0830. After getting ready in 2min (a new record!), we proceeded to the station to meet the rest of the AIESEC group that was going. Mizu and Shangxia both got the morning off so they can go on the tour leaving Ana as the only trainee that couldn’t make it.

It took 30min biking trip to reach the brewery. After being served coffee (I needing 2 cups), we were shown a short film about the building of the brewery. After that, we were led by an English speaking guide and taught the process of how water, Barley, and Hops are converted to that sweet frothy golden beverage that we all enjoy. The neatest part of the tour when we past by the microbiology lab where the techs grow the yeast for the brewing process. I asked the guy for a job since I was uniquely qualified, however, they wanted someone who could speak Dutch (Phooey). Also, as a sign that I have gone too long without any serious science talk, when the guide was explaining the process of starch degradation, I memories of BCEM (Biochemistry) 393 were coming back to me. I saw visions of little starch polymers (drawn in Haworth projection format) breaking down into representative glucose molecules at the α1-4 glycosidic bond. =p

After the tour, we were treated to a complimentary beverage (water, juice, BEER, pop…etc). I bought a mug and a t-shirt for a souvenir. Also, every person got a free 2 bottle set of Beer from the brewery. I hope to keep that intacted and save it as another souvenir.

The rest of the day was spent at home (and playing Evil Genius, Bawahaha…) until dinner time when we (the trainees and I) were to head to Peter’s house for dinner. Since I was having a too good of a day, it was inevitable that my arch nemesis Murphy (of Murphy’s Law) was going to screw over my evening. First, Ana calls and I told her about dinner at Peter’s. Somehow (I blame bad reception) I failed to communicate to Ana that it was going to be at Peter’s house, so she arrived at home pretty late and we were running behind to go for dinner. Ana called because she wanted to confirm if there were still any of us going to Amsterdam tomorrow. The next day, I was to go to Munich, but AIESEC has organised a special museum tour and dinner in Amsterdam for us the trainees. I was sure that the girls were at least going and Shing had said from the beginning that he wasn’t. So, I told Ana that I’m pretty sure the girls were going to go too (I couldn’t ask them since they both went back to work) tomorrow so she won’t be the only one. For Ana, if no one was going, she would have gone to her sisters again that evening. When Ana came home though, she asked them about tomorrow and to my shock, both Miz and Shangxia said no. That made Ana angry at me for telling her that they were and that she could have gone to Amsterdam that evening. Now, I was in a bad mood for being wrong and letting Ana down.

Next, for those who knew, I gave a lecture to a class way back at the beginning of March. The student group that invited me had a small gift for me as a token for their appreciation. Unfortunately, they forgot to bring it with them that day. Fast forward 2 months later (and after a curious e-mail I sent them wondering whatever happened to it), I finally got a beautiful wrapped bottle of wine that Hinke passed on to me. Since it was all nicely wrapped up, I wanted to save it for a special occasion. Because the day before, when we went over to Peter’s parents for dinner, we didn’t have time to bring anything for them, I wanted to bring that bottle and share with everyone at dinner that night. We were about to leave and I went to retrieve the bottle, only to discover that it wasn’t in the wine cabinet. After 2 months of waiting, it turned out that the bottle had been drunk =(

After suppressing the homicidal visions I had in my head, we all left and made a detour to buy a new bottle. 15min later, we were on track to Peter’s house. Then, the new bottle of wine broke on transit!

I was tired, cranky, running late to Peter’s, and worse of all, hungry! We proceeded to meet a friend halfway and he would take us the rest of the way since none of us knew where Peter lived. We were almost there, when Shangxia almost got hit by a car crossing the street. Shangxia has problems braking her bike and just went for it (thinking cars on a busy freeway would stop when cyclist were crossing at non-pedestrian crossing). I hit my breaking point right there, and a white blinding flash of pure fury pasted across my eyes. If one more thing went wrong, I might have done something I would have regretted. Fortunately, no one was hurt by me as we finally arrived. After a delicious dinner (Thank you Peter and Marcel), I was much more calmed down.

The rest of the evening was spent watching “The Interpreter” (My Dutch Friends have web connections that I don’t have).

I got home to pack and got ready to for my trip the next day. I ended up staying up to the wee hours of the night (well morning) spending quality time with Connie via MSN and audio webcam.