Kyan at the Stampede!

Spain post one: Madrid in passing.

Well here comes the Spain post and I better do this before my trip to Italy this week though I highly doubt it as I have to sort through about 600 pics. But at least I can post the Madrid portion! God damn I take too many pictures.. I have to be more conscious of that this coming trip cause taking 2GB of pics every time I come back from somewhere is RIDONCULOUS (as how Sandy would say it).

So my Spain trip consisted of flying out Amsterdam Wednesday night, arrive in Madrid for about 4 hours and then bus out early EARLY Thursday morning and arrive in Pamplona at 6am to meet my amiga Maria who lived on the boat!

Madrid was a very nice city but very modern and with an INSANE metro system. Taken from Wiki's site: Serving the city's population of some six million, the Madrid Metro is one of the most extensive and fastest-growing metro networks in the world.^[20] With the addition of a loop serving suburbs to Madrid's south-west "Metrosur", it is now the second largest metro system in Western Europe, second only to London's Underground. In May 2007, Madrid's metro system will be expanded and it will have more than 280 kilometres (175 mi). Craazy...

anyways when I got it the temperature was bearable as it was only mid twenties which was perfect. And being only four hours in Spain only got a taste of what the city would be like. Although already coming into a city where hardly anyone speaks English, I had to keep reading guides on "how to speak Spanish" and simple phrases - thank God for Jeannie's phrase book!

GPM Team

Finally had an opportunity to take a pic of my co-workers of the Global Product Management Team. from left to right: Alexander von Muhlen, Jan Jaap Hazenberg (big dude of the team), John Vartjes, Natalie van Tulcu and Koos Meier (missing: Saskia Rademaker (my supervisor), Robin Verduin, Elizabeth Bragonier (the Big cheese of GPM).

It was Alexander's last weekend in Amsterdam as he got a transfer to London (good move I think with the takeover stuff and all) - he was also the one that phone interviewed me while I was in Whistler. It would have been cool to have him as my manager as he was the one for the last two trainees as he's constantly sarcastic (sometimes hard for me to figure out) and sort of has a witty american/british/dutch sense of humor. But Jan Jaap thought Saskia should have a turn since she's like the senior vice president of GPM (also very nice too). All in all a group of very supportive people and I always feel bad when I'm the only non-dutch speaker in a meeting and they do it in English just so I would understand what they are talking about.

LSJB's last day

God that's a long name.. but it was lou lou's last day last thursday .. and I think it's thanks to him that we had our little family on the boat! it's been a while since the keukenhoff and Lisa/Holly days. I'm gonna miss this scruffy gong show of a Frenchie. Here's his itin from facebook:

"I leave from Brussels by bike, to Burgundy (Beaune) [700km] , staying two three days there, then by train to avignon, and leaving again from avignon on the 13th to Warsaw, and going across Belarus from the 15th of August to the 6th September, and going back to avignon.
What do you think ?

....

yes, I considered at first coming back, but it's not really on the way, and ma foi, I guess it's gonna be both hard and expensive.
I am looking at Warsaw : I will be there the 13 and 14 of august, and probably stay three days around the 6th of september then. yes I'll be in Avignon then (if not anywhere else you never know), looking for work. Hope to see you again, half Canadian half Chinese dude."

Yeay - MAIL! (that's not a bank statement or a notice you're getting kicked out of the country)

YEAY!!! about two weeks ago my most favouritest cousins sent me a care package from canada and what better way to send anti-stink lulu stuff... perfect for a stinky sweaty guy like me... shirt, underwear, socks and allergy medication! I have the BEST cousins in the world!!!

On top of that, last week, my mom sent me a brochure regarding Alberta Health care insurance...
not as exciting, but she did get me an ipod and maple syrup and gave me their camera... but despite that I luv my parents nevertheless.

My new Diesel buddy

Although I don't think I would be able to find my old watch... a new one was calling to me. and here he is... wasn't sure about the gold at first but Anne approved.

ps this thing puts rust stains on clothes.

Konichiwa Bitches party!

on 7-7-07 was my roomies party and she's all about the themes! Konichiwa bitches!

After lots of alcohol and going dry, Sandy kicked everyone out of our place to head to the club just down the street.

Keane - Live at Westerpark

"A Bad Dream (Live)" - Fav Keane song.

Despite the rain, the concert was amazing! the guys are really good live... too bad for Anne she was standing in an outdoor concert amongs a crowd rated the tallest people on the planet - that and being 45 minutes late didn't help either.

The old commute to work, from boat to central

Back at the boat I loved the commute to central station on bike everyday as it was a good way to wake up. from the quiet suburbs to the business of Harlemmerstraat there's already lots that I miss. Now the streets I bike on in the morning are much busier with many more cars, but it still is all good cause I can cut through the big streets taking the smaller canal ones. These video's are for my sake as you probably won't find them very interesting.. but watch away if you have nothing else to do!

Anne's Visit

My excellent friend from HS came to visit and it was about a year since we last physically saw each other (skype not included). Anne was stopping by the A'dam for about five days before she heads off to vienna for her music festival for about a month, comes back for a day and then fires back to canada and then fires back out to spain for about eight months for more lessons with a world renowned cellist.

Anne conveniently arrives when I had lived in the new digs for 2 days... I think the boat would have been just as good for her ;P

anne makes out the trip to biljmer (work) to join us for drinks... too bad I couldn't really join them cause the guy that interviewed me over the phone (not my manager) invited our department for drinks as he was transferring to london.Anne borrowed my bike during the day and at first she was scared to use it cause she was afraid that she forgot how to ride it but she got on and successful navigated the city! and then I come home and she tells me she slowly fell off the bike and had a little scrape... haha.. SUCH A TOURIST. After the drinks we headed to the KEANE concert which was outdoors and it was raining hardcore that day! woohoo (pics to come)


Headed to the RLD after dinner and I think we walked for about 30 mins before Anne wanted to get out... she was all quiet and awkward ha ha... by teh time we got back we were beat and headed off to bed.
Saturday we have a first breakfast together and we spend the day to navigate the noordmarkt and hang around the jordaan area.





Cheap ass flowers from holland. She said her mom would be there everyday.. I said my parents would overload on the 5 euro orchids. the noordmarkt has an organic section with over priced fruits and vegetables.




Market also sells everyday things and antiques as well.. definitely my favourite in the city in such a chilled out neighbourhood.
after the market we head to Singel 404 for some sweet open-faced sandwiches and lounge out side along a canal. The lady we were sitting with kept talking dutch to me cause I was using simple dutch words to converse with her - I guess I could take it as a compliment for her to think I was a native speaker.
After lunch we head to the Jordaan area to walk around, look for a gift for my room and possibly find something to wear to the konichiwa bitches birthday party that night.


found some free ads at the episode store so we went with the Yakuza gang - 80,000 members and growing!
Konichiwa bitches party happens here (pics next post) - we party till 3am.minutes after this photo was taken she realized she left her cell phone at my place. so then I had to mail it to her... aiya so MA FAN.

Anne gets up at 9am to go pack and catch her 12pm flight to austria. When we get to Schipol and she takes Luthansa to Austria, the women asks if she's checking in her suitcase AND her cello and Anne says of course. We then place both luggage things on the weight thing and then the woman says "you know you're over 20 kgs", and I say "well that's because you still have the suitcase on there" and the woman says "that's because it's 2o kg max each person." and that's when it hits me... european to european flights you get MUCH less luggage.. I thought maybe with the bigger airline is better but nope. so anne had to pay 10 euros each kg she was over. so Anne was freaking out but there wasn't anything she could do. So the woman writes up a slip to pay at another counter and notices she only write 15kgs over... and when we get to the counter, the woman has a double take and goes "15 kgs?!!" and Anne confirms... I think the attendant felt bad and noticed only charge Anne 110euros at the with the 10 euro processing fee so all in all still paid a lot but only half of what she was suppose to.

After that she's was on her way!! Oh my little Anne.. all grown up!