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!