Love at first sight

Two weeks ago, I walked into a toy store and I fell in love. Not with a beautiful girl behind the counter, no, I fell in love with one of the stuffed animals that was looking at me, with a look in his eyes that said: "please, Laurens, take me home with you". This weekend, I couldn't resist the temptation any more, so I went back to the toy store, found my friend back (I really believe I saw a smile on his face when he saw me again) and this time I took him home with me. We were both so happy when we got home and played with eachother all afternoon! :)

So now there is only one problem: my little friend doesn't have a name yet. And that's where I need your help. So please get inspired by the following photo and send me your suggestion about how I should name this naughty little creature:




I hear you thinking: what's in it for me? Well, it's mainly about the honour of course, but I discussed it with my new friend and he told me that he will do a chat session of 30 minutes with the winner, like this:




So send your suggestions to me now, and my cute little friend hopes to speak to you soon. :)

International cooking

Ok, so I got another interesting idea this weekend, that I need to share with you.

On Friday night I was without inspiration about what to cook for myself this weekend, so I asked my new Turkish penpal who I was talking to at that moment if she had any suggestions. Straight away she suggested a traditional Turkish dish, called tavuk sote (chicken saute). So I googled a recipe, made my own interpretation of it and went to the supermarket on Saturday afternoon to buy all the ingredients. It took quite some time to prepare it, since I worked with mostly fresh ingredients, but the result looked very good and the food tasted delicious as well!

So my idea is to cook a traditional recipe from a different country that was suggested by one of my penpals every weekend for the coming weeks. It will be just like a culinary travel around the world! Sounds very good, doesn't it? So if you have any suggestions about a traditional dish from your country that I should make, please let me know. I will send you a picture of the result, so you can tell me whether I did everything alright or not.

And if I don't receive any response, like the time when I suggested you all to close your eyes and stare into a bright light to become a happier person (see one of my previous blog posts), I will send you a friendly reminder on msn or through mail in the coming weeks. :)

My first guest in Prague

Hi all!

I am pleased to announce that from Wednesday till Friday last week I hosted my first guest at my new place. My penpal Kate from Ukraine went on a trip to France, and on the way there she decided to make a stop in Prague to meet me. She had already done a city tour with the group she was with, but I still showed her around a bit in my neighborhood and the city center. Although it was hard to communicate at times, as she didn't speak English that well, we managed to set up quite a few nice conversations, thanks to her Russian-English dictionary and Google Translate, and had a very nice time together. :)

So I hope I will be able to welcome more friends to Prague soon, now that the worst part of the winter seems to be over. The city is just amazing, and I live in a great area, so this really is a great opportunity for you. :) And for the friends who are students with a corresponding tight budget: my guest-bed seems to be very comfy, so you don't have to spend a lot of money on a good hotel here; Hotel Laurens will take very good care of you as well. For free. :)

New place, new experiences

So, as I moved into my new room last weekend, I think it's time to give you all an update about it.

At first glance it all looked so perfect. The room is big, looks cosy and is situated in the center of Prague. However, on my first day and night here, I was a bit disappointed. Indeed, the room looks nice, and so does the kitchen. However, what pictures do not mention is the amount of noise you hear. My room looks out over one of the busiest streets in Prague. Even in the middle of the night not a minute goes by without several cars passing. I'm just a small town guy, so the first day and night I really had to get used to it, and I coudln't relax or sleep very well. However, today I already got used to it a bit and don't even hear all the sounds any more. So I'm turning into a big city boy now. :)

Moreover, the appartment is quite cold. In my room it's no problem, because the heating system works very well. In the hall and kitchen however, it can be very cold in my opinion. I say "in my opinion". As I spent a lot of time outside in the first night of this year, I may have a bit of a cold. That could be a reason why I'm so cold here all of the time (even in my heated room), so let's not judge the flat yet about that.

Today I'm starting to feel a bit better again, and I am cautiously optimistic now about my future here. When I'm in Vinohrady, the area that I live in now, I always get lost, so I'm sure that I will soon have some funny stories to tell you guys. :)

Photos of my new place will appear here soon!