a m e l i a   f a i s   h a r n a s

Today, my wine stains were featured in a major art & design blog, This Is Colossal. It all happened via Facebook, in a 24-hour link recommendation blowout. You see, I met this ridiculously wonderful young woman, who goes by Zum Zum, and her boyfriend, when they hosted me, via Couchsurfing, in The Hague, The Netherlands, last winter. We got along well and stayed in touch. Usually, that's about where the couchsurfing story ends.

However, about a week ago, after posting some new embroideries, she wrote me a message saying that she wanted the whole world to know just how cool the wine stains are. Another week passes and BOOM, I'm on the blog.

My heart did cartwheels. I whooped and hollered. If I had a gun at that moment, I probably would have fired it at the heavens. I'll probably have to make do with a bottle of champagne this evening.

Yes, my dearies, this is colossal.

About two months ago, after negotiating four trains' worth of less than 6-minute connections and 20-minute delays, I navigated my way to the corner apartment of my good friend from middle school who is living in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. This was my first time in the country, and I effortlessly marveled at:

1. the honestly ridiculous number of bicycles, multilayered bike racks, bike lanes, bike storage units, people on bikes, bikes on trains, bikes on bikes (ok, maybe not that far....) etc.,
   
2. the public composting bin as well as the super compact quiet-as-a-vehicle-sized-mouse street sweepers,
3. the chocolate jimmies or "hagelslag," (if there were a food name contest, I'd be at a loss to choose the winner between those two) that a breakfaster sprinkles on buttered toast for breakfast, and the fact that these jimmies are not just brown-colored wax but are made with real chocolate,
4. the surprisingly terrible bread (perhaps the worst bread I have ever eaten... no hard feelings The Netherlands) and
5. just how much I enjoy place names that include 'The,' like The Dalles, OR and especially The Hague, The Netherlands.

Since The Netherlands is a pretty small country in Europe, it seems only appropriate that much of the sketchbooking I did in Holland fits onto one page and specifically the page seen below.

In honor of the late Thomas S. Buechner, I sat in front of Girl with a Pearl Earring for a good hour and sketched my own tiny version. It caused this sensation of being in one of those movies where a person stands still while activity swirls around them in time sped up. In this small room, sitting on a circular sea-foam couch, I watched her watching me watching the steady stream of tourists, and I wondered if perhaps Tom was watching, too, from someplace I am not supposed to comprehend.

On my last morning in Den Haag, I decided that I must absolutely visit the North Sea. It was a nice brisk (and by brisk I mean teeth-chattering cold) walk from the lovely apartment where I was couchsurfing, and I climbed up and walked along a great big dune in the horizontal slanting sunlight of the morning. Later that afternoon, I visited the Panorama Mesdag and, to my delight, discovered that it was based on the very spot where I stood earlier that day. O! Synchronicity!

Last and not least, there was Amsterdam. I was lucky to have found a place to couchsurf (apparently Amsterdam is one of the hardest and most desirable places to couchsurf), that my host was not only a ridiculously good cook (persian comfort food?! yes!!) but also ridiculously awesome and that I was there on a weekend so that the two of us could walk around the city together conquering museum after museum. I finally saw The Night Watch. Enough said.