a year with friends from the boat.

Travel Entry 30... the last is first.

A posting from my travel journal I made a month ago...

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Waking to the wind and rain tapping against the window pane behind me, I open my eyes and just lie there staring at the white ceiling above me. Staring blankly, and thinking… today, is my LAST day of four weeks (six including Spain, Portugal and Scotland) of my European adventures. The feelings are very surreal right now as the last few weeks blew by like a whirlwind - however at the same time, I was also looking forward heading to my “home” in Amsterdam and no longer have to worry about where I will be sleeping, what to eat, or what sites to see next. Nevertheless, I will miss the visits, travels and meeting with some of my oldest and newest friends in Europe.

It seems like it was just yesterday I was with Erica browsin’ the latest street fashion at Pull and Bear and basking in two hours of fado over dinner in Lisbon;
sunbathing at the beach in Barcelona with Anne listening to the monotonous drink and massage vendors blend into the spanish seaside or mingling with locals and tourists at Taller de Tapas;
trotting down Mary King’s Close and throwing back Scottish malt with my honeys Ching-Yin, Maria, Hetal and Depal;
trashin it out at a trailor park in Pisa with two Taiwanese backpackers;
cutting through Florentine beefsteak with some old Italian friends Domenico and Valentina;
Chillin’ at Clara’s hostel with Derrick, Shiu, Shawnee, Derek, Bryan and Phyllis;
practicing my Italian with Marcena and Lucia in Poppi while learning Tuscan kitchen secrets with Grazia and Mario;
havin a pint while watchin an English/South African football match in an Irish pub full of Australians in Italy and lounging at the much famed Monte Carla with Grant, Drew, Trent, Adam and Haley;
overnighting it on a train from Firenze to Nice with Ruth, Stephanie (2 Newfies),Dan and Braden (2 fellow Calgarians);
biking through the vineyards of Provence tasting some of the world’s finest wines with my bud Lou and his girl France,
immersed in conversations with the Jacquel-Blancs and climbing the rocks at Rochefort with him and his bro Antoine;
running around Genova and trekking through the seaside hills of Cinque Terre with Jennifer;
helping my best German-Italian friend Markus with his never-ending quest for girls in Rome;
chillin’ it holy stylz with Mase and Yung in Vatican city
or taking a trip to heaven at Gioliti with Adriana and
having a beer or a glass of wine with Canio, Caroline and Beppe;
winding through old city streets during nippy Prague evenings for some Thai food with Alex and Blanka and
finally, bummin’ it out with Nicky during frosty mornings over Austrian soft-boiled eggs and standing at the Viennese opera house to take in the sweet symphony of Beethoven’s Fidelio - this is so until the curtain closes on a drawn out round of applause; an applause to a life changing experience…
thank you friends.

First week back.

So coming back has been interesting. Many mixed feelings. I love being around the family, especially mom, dad, caren, steve, cuzs and aunts and uncles and it was nice to see my buddies this week, over sushi, beer and a disappointing hockey game. And what's best.. yup you probably guessed - Kyan - my now 15 and a half month old nephew - I swear he is one of the smartest babies out there - yes I might be biased but that is beside the point.

But at the same time - not sure if it's culture shock or my refusal to re-integrate but it feels like I don't belong here.. or at least in my current situtation as it is. Then again it is only the first week and with no car, no cell phone, and living under the parents roof (I love them to death, don't get me wrong) but it feels like I have changed in so many ways and Sandy had it right with what she said on facebook:

"Oh yeah - the reverse culture shock definitely packs a punch, more than people can understand. Actually, that's one of the worst parts - when it seems like no body really understands how it was like to live abroad, and that they don't really care. "

But then there's hope as she follows:

"...but you know, after awhile when you get used to things, then it feels really good to have your family nearby and you start appreciating how comfortable it is, more than you did before. "

But it's just so hard - I forgot how helpless you can feel without a car in this city which is making it hard for me to even go to yoga or commit to teach. Even going to the grocery store has been a daunting task with the -15 degree weather making it almost impossible to bike there (oh I miss biking in Ams!). and the gym... god my old one is so hard to get to without a car... by public transport you would require to go from the northwest to downtown and then take another bus back to the northwest (15 minute by car, but [probably a good hour by public transport). Shit I need a gym.

On monday, when I showed up to work my first shift I lulu, once I entered the mall the oddest but overwhelming feelings overcame me. I think it was the fact of being back into a mall, a mall that basically encompasses everything that is North American: big, sterile and everything indoors. So when my dad dropped me off for work an hour early - I just sat at one of the benches for 45 minutes, staring at people come and go and basically thinking about how much I missed the European lifestyle, the uniqueness of each country. And it's odd to walk around and suddenly know what complete strangers are talking about, no more dutch, french, italian, spanish conversations going on around me.

But now that it's Friday, i did my first shift back at lulu south, my old store I used to work with and saw many old faces - it's like nothings changed.. but I forgot how much fun work was, and how much fun luluSC was.

... it's an odd time based on my odd feelings - as it still feels like everything is still up in the air, but then again it is only my first week back - so we'll see.

Back to the great North! Thanks Europe!

God damn... tonight I had my drinks at Werck, a trendy little club and saw many faces I met and the friends I have made in the past year... all from different aspects of my life. Friends from the boat, friends from work, friends from aiesec, friends from travelling and just friends met through other friends.



I've been telling people I'm going back to a place where the high is - 9 degrees celcius. I lied... it's -19 for saturday morning. It's interesting.. this screen shot has been what I have been using the past year to keep me updated on the places I was going... oh Europe... I'm really going to miss you...

No more Evil Tower!

Yesterday was my last day of work at ABN AMRO and I couldn't stop smiling, yet I was sorta sad to leave at the same time. After writing a 40 page turnover document, I think the new intern is adequately prepared. Here was some of an email that highlights my experience at the Oval tower to the family of interns that thankfully kept it real for me:

Here are ten personal tips about miscellaneous things while working at OT:

1) if you're bored, you can go to the spot on the 5th floor between GPM and
Legal (where I sat with three empty computers) and you can do great people
watching from there - sometimes you can see AJAX practising from afar.

2) if you're grossed out by the post afternoon toilets, I recommend the
handicap toilet or the toilets by the exit B stairs on the 12TH floor for
untouched ones - they are great and are still cleaned everyday! If the
cleaning lady gives you the evil eye or is cleaning the washrooms, then the
13th or 24th floors are excellent alternatives.

3) the toilets are a great place to sleep if you're hungover or too tired -
just be sure to turn on your computer, throw some printed emails and
project reports on your desk and pull out your chair and turn it 30 degrees
clockwise to make it look like you're at a meeting.

4) water on the 5th floor is terrible to drink, it always made my throat
scratchy.

5) if you want to save money on lunch like me and don't want to risk your
health on the Friday afternoon "fish and chips" - i do highly recommend the
bread,egg,salad combination to get all your essential vitamins (i
personally liked to remove the yolk of eggs).

6) If you want a snack and have no money on your chip and you have an
overdraft on your bankaccount because the bank forgot to pay you again -
the cookies/bread sticks in the cookie jar or the bowl beside the soup at
the place on ground floor is a nice alternative (but make it look like you
were interested in buying something ...and then last minute take a HANDFUL
and muffle a "dankye well" or "bedankt" while your at it - works like a
charm!). That or just get Dennis to "spot" you ... he has lots of money
hee hee.

7) If you're a non-dutch speaker in a department full of dutch speakers -
be sure to give a boastful laugh when everyone else is laughing and then
avoid the immediate eye contact with colleagues that imply "does he/she
even know what we are laughing about?" of course I do... maybe.

8) Albert Heijn To Go has great cheap breakfast - half a litre of yogurt
for 1 EUR. vs. 300 mls downstairs for 2.75 EUR

9) If you have surfed the internet too long, or INSITE is not returning
that query when you pull costs and aum at the same time and it's causing
blurry vision when you look 2 metres in front of you, refer to point number
1.

10) this one's for sustainability - if you tend to take waters from the
machine, save the plastic cups and bring them home for drink ragers! or
make castles out of them and pretend you're the big man.

there you go!

oh one more:

11) If you fall asleep at a meeting with four other people, don't fight it,
just give in until one of your colleagues gives you a swift kick under the
table... that should get the adrenaline rushin!!

I will still be here in the Netherlands until next Friday and in the
meantime I will do a bit of.... well tbd.

...

So this morning as I got ready for work, I inadvertently slipped my camera into the pocket of my trousers. It's sad really...

Yes almost one month since I last posted...

So instead of blogging every chance that I get - I have been keeping a journal of my daily adventures on the Mac and will post very soon!

Now headin out to do more site seein in Prague!

Ciao!

The next three weeks I'll be in Italia: Pisa, Firenze, Poppi and Roma.
Then off to Prague and Austria then back home! I'll keep you posted.
Ciao!

A canal tour on Ronald's private boat.

One of Ching-Yin's former roommates friends recently moved to Amsterdam for work and was able to privately book his company's boat. What was very nice was that Ronald invited us all out to the boat having only met us once at a Chinese dinner the week before! (mmm... taste of culture)... what is sort of odd but true is that you usually don't see the many visible minorities driving these boats as I guess the majority of the boats are owned by companies or wealthy locals... so at certain times I felt like a tourist attraction myself.. well especially the part where Ronal pulled an Austin Powers and blocked the whole canal while making a turn and having everyone on Harlemmerstraat see and with two canal boats waiting for us.... but that was all good as well! pics from that day follow...

Ronald picks me and CY up at Waterlooplein.
Meeting up with EC and C at Spui or Single more by Spui/Singel.
We found them!






just like driving a car.

Officially 3 months behind... shit!

yup that's right... man at least my facebooking is up-to-date.. well sort of.

Tokidoki

My new favourite brand is this Tokidoki! But apparently people back home already know about this Japanese-influenced italian designer. Saw some of their stuff in Barcelona and it's really neat! (and expensive).