Kyan at almost 9 months!

chatted with my pops today on skype (haven't done that in a while) and what I learned today - they are selling the integra finally after so many problems with it after I left. And look at bee bee Kyan... growin up fast!

Liberation Day

May 5 was liberation day in the Netherlands which is the day the country was officially set free from the germans (with help from the Canadian's of course! :P ) and the night before there is a huge rememberance gathering in time square and at 8pm, silence is held for two minutes... where was i at 8pm... at the gym on the treadmill watching the TVs when all of a sudden they changed it to the channel where you watch the proceedings and silence... and I stopped running as with everyone in the room and just held the silence for those two minutes... then after that everyone was huffing a puffing again.

On May 5, just did errands during the day, then met up with CY, Maria and Diego and decided to cook them some dinner! Did a Thai chicken curry thing and it turned out not bad... so yeah proud of myself there.


By 9pm, we planned to go see the open air orchestra by Theatre Carre.



When we arrived there were TONS of people and was hard to get a spot... but eventually, with some quick feet and quick thinking by a Korean tourist we were able to sneak ourselves onto a partition thing, where we were able to enjoy the night practically in the middle of the Amstel! Highlight was when the queen came by (I hope it was the queen) and did a circle of the area in her boat to greet the people.





Then after the festivities, went to Utrechtstraat had drinks with Steve and Maria's US friend that was visiting...


then headed to De Kroon where Itsvan and gang were and then when that closed danced till the sun rose at 5am at some club in Rembrandthplein. All in all it was a very good Liberation day!

it's bit very often you see the touristy places free of tourists... I guess 6am would do it.

Good sounds so far... a little bit of a retro-ness to it.

Off to Sweden this "long weekend"! Another four hours until my flight and I have done nothing today but look up travel guides etc. Hey I offered to help my colleagues here with anything, but with the holiday looming around the corner and more than half of my department is not physically here, looks like many have already checked out... oh there goes another one.
Be back in a few days and Happy early Birthday to my buddy "Ohio Bunnz" that turns a ghastly 25 in two days.

Mom this one's for you!! Turn up you your computer speakers at work haha! (still the best 'mom' song out there)

Camilo's Last Day

Man, time flies but Camilo's last day in Amsterdam was about two Thursday's ago. This was the first trainee I met in Amsterdam after landing and he's been very cool ever since. If you want or would like advice you should go to this guy cause his is very good at doing his research. He's especially great with the preparation work when going on trips and loooooves his souvenirs.. I just can't believe he had enough room to pack all that stuff he got! Even though it always seemed like he was tired, for some reason he would be able to go on and on and on... must be something in the colombian waters that he drank.

Jose organized a get together at a local restaurant and had some great food, nice drinks and nice talks with people I haven't seen in awhile.



Gonna miss you buddy! Hope you're having a great time in India!

A Day in Rotterdam: dim sum and to the lake

So the Sunday before Queens Day (or Queens night), decided to head to Rotterdam for some dim sum claimed to be the best in Netherlands... according to Hui-Jing.

From Wiki: Rotterdam is, in terms of population, the second largest municipality in the Netherlands after the capital, Amsterdam, and the largest city in the province of Zuid-Holland (South Holland). The city has the largest port of Europe. It became the world's busiest port in 1962, but lost this status to Shanghai in 2004. It is situated on the banks of the river Nieuwe Maas ("New Meuse"), one of the streams in the delta formed by the Rhine and Meuse rivers. The name "Rotterdam" derives from the city's origin at a dam in a small tributary river, the Rotte.

I took 12pm train outta there and then was at Rotterdam Central Station in exactly one hour. with minimal organization, when I first got there I was with no one... and Erica didn't have her phone but luckily we ran into each other at the station. And then we were suppose to meet Hui-Jing, Clyde, Dian and Ingmar there too but they didn't show - so luckily Erica knew where the restaurant was so we walked to it (which was only a five minute walk away).

Luckily Clyde reserved a table under their name and after about 10 mins of sitting down the rest of the gang shows up! no one had their phone and I didn't have Hui-jing's number.. so we did pretty well considering there was hardly any communication done about it.


We ate TONS of food - reminded me of when dad orders but the quality was there but I thought Oriental City does come pretty close... just not as mush selection.. then again when you go to dim sum you end up ordering the same things anyway.








Afterwards, we had drinks on the patio at a local lounge on the main shopping street.
Then by 3pm Erica took Christian's friends back to A'dam as they haven't seen enough of it and I stayed with the rest of the gang as we headed to the lake that was about a 15-20 min drive away. During the drive, I noticed the city was very different from the rest of Netherlands... and since it was bombed quite badly in WWII, the city was completely rebuilt and thus has a more of a modern facade. It actually reminded me of Vancouver or something with the bigger roads, but the greeness and the water everywhere...

The lake was pretty sweet and great for a hottish day.



Then ended it off with more drinks at a cafe on the lake and as the sun began to set took the train back to A'dam and got to Central Station by 930 pm - right in time for Queens Night!

Pre-Queens Day weekend party with the Spanish kids...

On the Saturday of the queens day long weekend, met lots of the spanish people on the boat as they were holidng a barbeque. I happened to pass by when they were making sangria and it was history from there hee hee. I always see them making dinner at like 11pm but now I know why as they usually eat dinner right before bed (what a great way to pass out!)