Netherlands: Heewone Lim (Places: Routine and Favorite)

Places: Routine & Favorite

Almost every Friday evening, I find myself at two places: the BPA for weekly improv sessions with Unwritten & Co and Chris’s, a Dutch-Greek restaurant one block away from UCU campus.

Going out for dinner at Chris’s after improv is a long-standing tradition for the members of Unwritten & Co. Chris is a sponsor of UCU and loves having students around, so he occasionally posts menu deals on our Facebook page. But Fridays are always kapsalon day at Chris’s.

Kapsalon combines Dutch ingredients (fries, Gouda cheese and garlic sauce) with Turkish and Greek elements (doner/gyro meat and a variety of vegetables). Funnily enough, “kapsalon” actually means “hairdresser” in Dutch. The story goes that a hairdresser in Rotterdam would order all of his favorites together at a shawarma store, eventually calling his order “the kapsalon”. The dish caught on, and it’s been a staple of Dutch fast food ever since. In fact, kapsalon came up casually in my Dutch language class when we were in the middle of our food unit.

While I enjoy my weekly indulgent dinner, I really go to Chris’s for quality time with other Unwritten & Co members. One of my favorite parts about improv and comedy-related clubs is that inside jokes are generated pretty quickly. In the three months I’ve been at UCU, we’ve created gems such as: rubber socks, huge Heinz bean, a cowboy romance director and “that’s not my ex-wife, that’s a nuclear missile!” Trying to be funny in front of people, especially new people, can be nerve-wracking but the people I’ve met at Unwritten & Co are incredibly supportive and welcoming.

For the rest of my time in Utrecht, you’ll always be able to find me laughing with Unwritten & Co on Friday evenings.

Doei,
Heewone

Heewone Lim 

Major: Journalism

Hometown: Madison, Wisconsin

Program: University College Utrecht Honors Exchange in the Netherlands