Konichiwa, Bitches!

Be there or else have Chuck Norris throw ninja stars at you. You will be dishonoured.

Midsommar festival

With the summer soltice, many countries celebrate the midsummer with a variety of traditions and festivities. This year was my first, and to kick it off it was Swedish style in the A'dam with some of my best Swedes Sofie and Hermine complete with handcrafted greeny wreaths, songs and snaps (schnapps), pickeled herring, strawberries, caviar and eggs, and lots and lots of homemade swedish cake that was oh so so soo good.



Wiki: Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day (Midsommarafton and Midsommardagen) are celebrated from the eve of the Friday between June 19 - 25. It is arguably the most important holiday of the year, and one of the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated, even if it has been influenced by other countries long ago. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, and the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole. One typical dance is the frog dance. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole.

on the camera...

misc pics on my mum's camera... looks like pics with grandma, majority from her shanghai trip and randoms from home - those kyan pics are new....

Sammo!

My first non-work (non-lulu) related visitors have arrived after almost an exact 6 months since I have arrived in A'dam!! My bud Sam from back home and his bro Andy are doing their three week European excursion and they are getting their first taste of Europe's major cities. And what better way to start than Amsterdam as their first/second stop on their trip. Was a little worried cause didn't hear from him on Saturday and nothing during the day today but finally saw his message on facebook and we were able to meet late Sunday evening. Found out it was because the phone number on facebook was one digit off so he'and others have been phoning some other dude.

Thanks to him and his bro I now have a camera, my sandals and a reload of good ol' Canadian maple syrup.

After having some drinks and catch up at De Jaren, was able to give them a small tour of the stuff they didn't see until it started to pour like typical Amsterdam.

But there is a chance I will meet up with them in Munich next weekend as their stop there corresponds with my trip with Olinda to meet up with my old friend Markus.

I have been camera-less the past week.... Sam's comin' with another one!!

This weekend there is an overlap of parties and events as people are leaving the boat, amsterdam's beach vball tourney with things after, swedish mid sommar event and Sam coming in from canada (yes my FIRST non-work related friend visiting)!

so many choices! what to do what to do...

Ky at 9 months.

Update from my sis:

"Oh my god... man are you an overseas shopaholic? I will probably go Monday or tuesday I guess...

here are some pictures of beebee who is nine months... everyone thinks he's a girl so we had to buy him this shirt that says " I'm not a girl"

he wore it to the mall and some lady came up and said, "what a beautifulgirl...!"Steve then said "thank you... why don't you read his shirt?" She feltbad after that...

I guess we just can't win!

Caren

ps... yes he still has the rolls but he is only 18 pounds! he just loves his shades... he thinks he's the SHIT when he wears them

[carlson(me): what is he wearing in his hair?!?!?!]


doesn't he have the coolest flip flops? Mom bought them for himand she almost had a heart attack when she realized they were 20$.

We had to squeeze his fat feet into them!"

I know.... it's true!!

"PS you might want to brush up on your english...no offense, just saying"

- Nicole, F-Bomb, Madden / my former receiving partner/lover...

E's 25th!

Well it's the turn of us 82ers/year of the Dog'ers to turn a quarter of a century and my buddy E celebrated her's at Stacey Pennywell's at Utrechtsstraat and then later to Sinners for a retro party. Here are pics from the night:E and her various birthday aliases

It wasn't on purpose, however the seating arrangements semi-awkwardly became the Asian and "Swedish" tables . Although we did have one Swede and Portuguese and they had Mischa and a Scots/Brit and E. Just funny how it worked out that way...

the happy couple!

I was in on a gift with Hui-Jing, Candy and Dian and we got Erica an apple tree that belongs to here where she can pick a number of apples (i think 5kg or something) from that tree each year for five years. Great idea ladies!

Headed to Sinners for their retro party and E and C were hands down the most stylin-est there! it's sad when we get really excited by 90s music now... damn were old.

Sandy Woo and Misch

Hetal is in town for the weekend!! and is obviously sayin somethin important to Frederica

Hetal, Misch and CY looking like they could cause some trouble!

Mischa came back not too long ago from a US/7 weeks-in-Asia travel bonanza - jealous am I? of course! And the guy's two years younger than me! lucky bum.

Colin's visit

Today after coming back from the first trainee reception weekend in Den Haag (post that later), one of the AIESEC Canada's BOAs, Colin Baril, contacted us Netherlands trainees and asked to meet up to give him a low down on our experience as trainees / SNs / the new term "EP" or exchange participants. We had a good gathering that consisted of Patty ongpin, Jenn L'hereux, Elena, myself and my future roomie Sandy Woo.

It was nice to have that personal contact form home and check in on us and to take input on how the Canadian MC can improve tings in terms of the trainee's point of view. Over beer and dinner, had some great discussions ranging from people development at home compared to here, to structure of learning, to local integration and interaction, to communication with the home LC and MC.
i
The experience with Colin was pretty sweet and I found was an opportunity to re-ground myself with someone back home and that the life of AIESEC can continue even after the traineeship is done. I always knew you could continue on supporting local activities as an alum, but having his perspectives and hearing his experiences as an alum has shaped that prospect a little more.

Maybe Canada should implement a similar program where anytime an alum travels to take a few hours out of their travel itinerary to meet with some of the local trainees to check in on them and ask them some challenging questions. I find not only will there be great reception from the trainees that someone in addition to their current support group from home shows interest in their lives out here, but hopefully the alum will find value in bringing key learnings back to the MC and LC portfolios; this would be a pretty sweet little project to roll out.

I am pleasantly surprised that I am not as bad as I thought I am with this cooking thing. I seem to like to mix the Italian and Asian flavours together. actually this looked good but the noodles were quite flavourless... I am also finding by cooking is quite bland and I'm starting to cook with more and more salt... it's what happens when you cook for french and Italians and they grab for the salt the first few meals you prepare for them hee hee.. but still trying to limit my sodium intake as I was never a fan of the stuff....

Southern Italy booked! Waaaahooooooo!

Hey if Domenico sends an invitation to his home in Southern Italy -I am all for it!!!.
Man, it seems quite expensive to get down there as even flights to Napoli (not as south and more touristic) are about 250EUR, but after booking with FOUR different discount airline companies... yes four; I was able to book for about 300 EUR, which is NOT very cheap, but happens to allow me two weekends, and considers convenient times to arrive and leave calabria. I took 8 out of 12 days off for this trip as I planned on expensing my vac on italy south anyways....
good lord check out the promo vid that D sent me... really he didn't need to convince me.

omg it feels hotter than 29 degrees right now.

The Hype is back again

well saw the apple commercials a few days ago and now people seem to be getting excited about the iphone again. Man... in January I was considering stock at 90USD, but I was like that is some high stock, and who could fathom paying that much for one unit? now five month's later, it's over 120 USD... daaaaang. if you haven't seen the commercials yet to make you wanna buy, clijk here

Plump and Pump it in Pamplona

With much recommendation from my friends on the boat I have finally taken the step to go to Spain. I was planning onto eventually with Anne heading there and all but I guess I shouldn't miss the opportunity of what makes Pamplona (Maria's hometown) so famous! Just have to wory about how the hell am I suppose to stay up all night...

only took exactly 6 months...

but I am now OFFICIALLY caught up on my blogging... no more remaining pics on folders in my hard drive... it's a milestone people!

Emma from lulu MM visits!

Last Friday, Emma who I worked about two shifts with at MM is in town for a conference and decided to meet up with her! I love to see familiar faces when I'm here! She and her friend Carly decided to break away from teh pact and meet up with me for drinks at Gustav and then had some dinner with them afterwards at an Indian restaurant on Harlemmerstraat.

Juan and Oskan's birthday

Davide's and Amaya's good bye

Amaya (left) & Olinda (right)

Davide

Lots of people have been leaving the boat lately. Had a hippie themed party for these two crazy cats. I first met Davide back when Lis and Holly came and visit and Amaya's near on Queens day long weekend for the bbq. Fondest memories of these two: Amaya randomly throwing alcohol in the sangria and Davide insanely biking through the streets of Amsterdam with Lisa on the back of his bike.

another spanish honey - maria







A great clip of Juan-Louise singin up some spanish tunes at the wee hours in the morning.