La Dolce Vita

London is SMALL

2010-09-14T13:51:00.003+01:00

Sure, there's around 8 MILLION people here, but ya know what, it's a small world after all. Granted it feels a lot smaller since everyone I know is primarily concentrated in one area consisting of the LBS bubble and the Baker Street area, but I am still baffled when I run into people or find out so-and-so knows so-and-so, etc. Case-in-point, I am sitting in my office (and by my office, I mean my favorite Starbucks on Baker Street). It's my fave because it has an underground area lounge, basically a cave with no windows, where you can go once you've got your coffee at street level. It's like a hide out. Anyway back to my story. I am tap tap tapping away on my laptop and I briefly look up and who is sitting at the table directly in front of me, but my professor from my first class at LBS. My only professor I've had so far at LBS actually since I've only had 1 official class so far (I waived stat thank goodness).

In other updates, I had lunch with my study group earlier today. The guy in our group from Tokyo took us to a very authentic Japanese restaurant. Had some good sushi and sashimi.. quite yummy and indeed authentic. Also noteworthy - I have booked my trip to Stockholm and will be traveling there with a ton of other LBSers the first weekend of October. 30 quid for a flight to Sweden? Don't mind if I do! Oh and also - 5 Brunswick Mews will be holding a housewarming party this Saturday night hosted by yours truly. M and I plan to head to the liquor store later this week in search of a case of champagne. yes people, a case. Unfortunately with the student budget, it won't be Veuve Clicquot, but we'll throw a strawberry in there and people won't know the difference, right? Aaaanyway, gotta run to school to print some stuff. Hope all is well with everyone back stateside. xx

Notting Hill Carnival!

2010-09-10T13:59:00.005+01:00

"Held each August Bank Holiday since 1966, the Notting Hill Carnival is the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe. Every year the streets of West London come alive, with the sounds and smells of Europe's biggest street festival. Twenty miles of vibrant colourful costumes surround over 40 static sound systems, hundreds of Caribbean food stalls, over 40,000 volunteers and over 1 million Notting Hill carnival revellers."

Ah the Notting Hill Carnival... one of the highlights in London of the year. Think of it as London's take on the Carnival in Brazil. I viewed it more as a cross between Carnival and a massive State Fair (minus anything and everything on a stick). The parade was quite fantastic, very ornate costumes, and there were local flavors of countries around the world. I got to try authentic South African food, for example. The crowds were horrendous though and Notting Hill Gate tube stop was even closed due to all the people flooding in. Luckily I was close enough at Marble Arch to walk along Hyde Park to the event, but I must say, it was a bit MENTAL! The area was trashed as well - rubbish piled up next to every tree and fence - and lost of drunken people wandering around with open bottles. Note-to-self, need to mentally prepare for this event next time (I had come straight from class and wanted a leisurely stroll through Notting Hill lol). Fun times nonetheless! I've provided a few pictures I snapped (not the best photography skills here, sorry!)

My flat: part dos

2010-09-02T13:10:00.003+01:00

I’m finally settled into my flat at 5 Brunswick Mews. Loving my flat and my new ‘hood. It’s a short walk from all the amenities including TONS of adorable cafes, a street lined with authentic Lebanese cuisine, Marble Arch and Hyde park a couple blocks away, Pret A Manger and Starbucks down the street, Waitrose and Tesco grocery stores… and the list goes on. It really is the lovely charming 4-bedroom flat that I share with 3 other MBA 2012 students: 2 guys and a girl. It’s a Brazilian (from Brazil), an Egyptian (from Egypt), a New Yorker, and me. I feel oh-so-European as a flat-share like this is quite common abroad.

Since the flat came unfurnished, we rented the big items, but one thing was evident: we had to go to IKEA. What better way to bond with the new flatmates than a trip to IKEA? As fun as it is to move in and get situated, I was dreading the trip to IKEA. You always end up spending way more time than allocated, way more money than anticipated, and way more stuff than you really need. But off we went in search of select items that would fit our student budgets…

A successful trip indeed and 700 quid later, they delivered everything to our door step that night. Sa-weeeet.

My hands may still be raw from building Swedish furniture, but the outcome was quite nice…

Plenty of room for visitors indeed! So glad I brought my 1000 thread count sheets, West End duvet, and heavenly pillow with me from the states. What a pain to schlep them over but I am thankful every night I sink into my bed. This city makes me so tired, and I am happy to report that I have been sleeping like a rock every night – no ambien needed – and the lovely mews that we are in protects us from the noise of the thousands of tourists shopping on nearby Oxford Street or the echoes of Hyde Park/Speaker’s Corner.

So the boys. They crack me up. I think the Egyptian had maid service of some type his whole life because he does not know how to use an oven. I looked over at the oven the other night and sitting in there was a dinner plate of food. He had put his dinner on a plate and proceeded to cook it in the oven ON the dinner plate! I laughed for a good 20 minutes. He looked perplexed.

Another thing I find funny. They slip their shoes off immediately at the steps {see photo}. Wouldn’t want to waste any time putting them neatly to the side right? After all, b-school is all about time management!

Embracing my Inner Londoner

2010-08-30T17:58:00.005+01:00

In a matter of weeks, I have become a Londonite.
I shop at Marks & Spencer and occasionally step foot in Primark (if I'm feeling brave)
I run in Hyde Park.
I play football in Regent's Park.
I enjoy my lovely charming flat tucked inside my quiet mews.
I can navigate the bus system and the tube with ease.
I order take-away instead of take-out.
I schedule events in my diary instead of my calendar.
I throw on a jumper when it's chilly out.
I talk in Celsius, kg, cm, and liters.
I carry an umbrella with me on even the sunniest of days.
I actually enjoy talking about the weather -- an exciting and popular topic here in London.
I use a 24-hour clock to tell time.
I use a drying rack; it will always be a mystery why my clothes are in the washer/dryer combo for 2.5 hrs and they come out soaking wet.
I bought a kettle to make coffee and tea -- and I actually use it.
I forgot what air conditioning is... does it exist?
I party in Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and Oxford Circus.
I've got the whole of Europe in my backyard waiting to be explored... and I'm looking forward to it!

So with that said, where should I go on my first side trip?
A. Madrid
B. Florence
C. Budapest
D. Other
Thoughts?

Hot off the Press

2010-08-27T12:55:00.001+01:00

London Business School ranked top b-school outside US

The creator of BusinessWeek’s influential MBA rankings has named London Business School as the best business school in the world outside the US, in his new set of rankings.

John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of business school community website Poets & Quants, cited the “stellar quality” of London Business School’s faculty and students, and how it has “smartly leveraged its location” in the financial centre of Europe.

The rankings were based on dozens of surveys and polls and amalgamate the findings of each of the five major MBA rankings – BusinessWeek, Financial Times, Forbes, The Economist and US News & World Report. This is a further accolade for the School, after it topped the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings earlier in 2010.

Joining London Business School in Poets & Quants’ top five business schools outside the US are Spain’s IESE and IE Business School, IMD (Switzerland) and INSEAD (France).

"In the past few years, London [Business School] has come on very strong, surpassing in prestige what had long been thought of as the best business school in Europe, INSEAD," said Byrne. "Because the student population and faculty ranks reflect an amazing geographic diversity, London offers the quintessential international MBA experience."

In the US MBA rankings, Harvard Business School took the plaudits, closely followed by Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Commenting on London Business School’s achievement, Professor Sir Andrew Likierman, Dean, said: “We are always proud to be rated well by independent commentators but never complacent about being well regarded. We are committed to excellence for our degree students and executive education clients and that means continuing to strive to do things better.

“I’m grateful for John Byrne’s comment about the geographic spread of our student and client bodies and our faculty. The figures show our global spread very clearly, and it’s important to us that this is also the spirit of the place, not just a set of numbers."
Created on 25 Aug 2010

Why London?

2010-08-26T18:10:00.004+01:00

I get this question a LOT. Why uproot myself from the states into a foreign country and embark on an international MBA when there are so many fine institutions offering world renown MBA programs in the states? Why not join the ranks at Kellogg or Wharton or Columbia, etc? Well for one, as I've alluded to in other posts, London was the natural and obvious choice for me given my international work experience and hunger to explore the world. For another thing, when else in my life would I be able to pick up and move to London for 2 years? This was quite the unique opportunity. But beyond that, I wanted to grow and the best way to truly grow is to push myself outside my comfort bubble and expose myself to new cultures, places, and people. What better way to do that than take 2 years off of work and focus solely on my MBA at the top ranked global MBA programme? This type of growth - throwing ourselves into a new world - gives us all depth and will hopefully build my character and transform me into a more interesting and unique individual. There's a misunderstanding that the UK is a lot like the US. After all, we both speak the same language... right? But in fact, we cannot be more different... something I will further discuss in posts to come. So here I am. In London. Sometimes I have to pinch myself.

I have been meeting people like crazy here. Brazilians. Chileans. Egyptians. Canadians. Parisians. Brits. Spaniards. Aussies. Kiwis. Japanese. Chinese. Thai. and on and on. The backgrounds and diversity of the class makes for a great learning environment.

The first indication that we are all so very different was the initial greeting. Upon greeting someone new, I need to quickly decide what action to take: do I shake their hand? Go in for the 1-cheek kiss? Follow the 1-cheek kiss with a 2-cheek kiss? offer a half-hug? give a slight bow? perhaps a high-five? Every culture does it differently. Since it is Europe, I usually assume kissing of each cheek upon meeting someone new, but I often need to quickly assess how the person I am greeting will expect to greet me or it can make for a very awkward encounter... like once I assumed we would kiss cheeks and this was not the case so it ended up having this weird touch of our cheeks and um, well hello, hi, we just met, but err.. this is awkward. Oh Europe...

Onto other items... this week was orientation week... aka the week before classes start and the real learning begins. This week was mainly focused on getting to know each other, lectures from key departments at the school, and meeting our study groups. We have 401 students from 60+ cultures, speaking 45 different native languages, all coming together for a common purpose: to bond together and embark on this exciting 2 year adventure. We're broken up into 5 streams of around 80 people, and from there, into diverse study groups of 6. I'll complete all my core courses during the first year with my stream and all group activities with my study group. In order to get to know each other, we all headed to Reading (about an hour outside London) for a day of "camp" at a high and low ropes course. The challenges we faced were metaphorically connected to the challenges we'll face in our study groups throughout the year... we rocked climbed, pulled each other through a spider web, completed a low ropes course, and even climbed a tall telephone pole where 4 of us clutched onto each other at the top, standing on a small square foot platform. What I thought was impossible, ended up being possible as I had to reach for the hands of my teammates, close my eyes, and trust that they would pull me up! My study group could not be any more diverse. I'm joined by a guy from Russia, a guy from Tokyo, Japan, a guy from France, a guy from London, and a girl from Bangkok, Thailand. It'll be interesting to see how our different work and leadership styles blend together (or contrast). I also look forward to learning how to work with and communicate with these different cultures. We all took a class on harnessing international diversity today which gave me an insight into what I am in for. For example, we talked about what it means to be "on time." If told to be at a meeting at 10am, stereotypically:

The German employee will be "on time" at 9:45am
The American will be "on time" at 10am
The Brit will be "on time" at 10:05am, and
The Latin American will be "on time" at 10:15 or 10:30am

It goes to show how we all interpret something so differently. So much to learn!
I was talking to my French study group member about this today and he said that he always kissed his father upon greeting him. For if he ever shook his father's hand, oh boy... he would get in huge trouble. It's a much more affectionate culture, for sure.

Anyway, sorry for no pictures today... will try to upload some soon. I'm 2+ weeks in, but it seems like I've been gone from the states for much longer considering all the things that I've done since I've arrived. I am not one to get homesick, but sometimes I do deeply miss everyone in the states. Please call! Please email! Am I busy? heck yes. but I still have time to catch up :)

Hi from London!

2010-08-14T21:06:00.000+01:00

Hello to all of you who are stopping by my blog for the first time in awhile (or ever)! I will be using this space to occasionally post funny stories, quick updates, or photos of my adventures over the duration of my time in London. It'll be a great way to keep in touch with all of you! In addition, feel free to use my updated contact info below to get ahold of me:

email: lbailey.mba2012@london.edu or lauraebailey@gmail.com
Skype mobile (this US number rings to my UK phone): 612-235-6622
UK mobile: +44 7766170375

Stay tuned for pictures and updates!! xo Laura

London-izing Myself

2010-08-13T11:41:00.009+01:00

I love this city! Every day is starting to feel more like home. There is an energy about this city unlike any other... the swarms of people from all over the world, every color, every nationality, every language... it's amazing, really. I've been busy getting acclimated... drinking espresso, daily pints at the local pubs, exploring my new 'hood, watching BBC news, looking left instead of right when crossing, trying to navigate the tube, etc. It's a big city, but already beginning to feel small. M and I can literally walk from LBS down Baker Street and see friends we know every time. We've met so many new admits as everyone's trying to get themselves "sorted" as they say here, so chances are good that we'll run into people at the vodafone store, the starbucks on Baker, the Pret, or any of the number of flats in the area. So glad M and I are basically the same person and have been aggressively tackling our to do list. We are on top of it... definitely a plus since there's so much red tape in this city. I mean, getting the new iPhone4 required a personal letter from LBS, a UK address, a credit check, and a UK bank account, not to mention the fact that we had to bride the vodafone staff with starbucks coffee in order to get them to import the only 2 iphone4 phones in the city from another store. but hey, it worked.

Did I mention we found the most amazing flat? So pumped. Here it is below! We LOVE it and got so lucky to find it after seeing so many dodgy places (yes, another Brit term - get used to it). We wired the money yesterday for 6 months rent, paid in full (required since we're students) Brilliant!

In other news, played real football in Regent's Park today with about 40 other LBSers. Only 3 girls showed up, but soccer is so big over here that the guys were pretty intense and fun to scrimmage with. I dusted off my football boots (er.. cleats) from back in the day and was able to show them all a trick or two. haha. no goals though. maybe next time. Then of course everyone went to the pub after for a pint. That's the London way. Everything we do, we head to the pub after, i swear. We've had flat hunters pub crawl every day this week, beginning at 6pm and running well into the night. It's basically like speed-dating for flat hunters, except all LBSers go whether or not you're looking for flatmates. its fantastic. Oh and I went to Whole Foods today. a slice of America is much needed from time to time. Brown rice sushi what what? so good. Oh and found an awesome frozen yogurt pinkberry type place as well. Anyway! Already so many stories.. where to begin. No time for those now, but I'll leave you all with a pic of new friends and I enjoying dinner in Covent Garden earlier in the week.

love from london! Laura

Day 1

2010-08-09T22:29:00.003+01:00

First full day today in London. amazing day. Marilyn and I are on cloud 9. Started out flathunting all day long and were a bit frustrated at the reality that we'd have to live in an old/dodgy place, but low and behold we randomly agreed to view a 4 bedroom out of our price range at 5pm and it was the most amazing place ever! Walked in the door and were like this is it! it's in a mews (quieter off a side street) - a house rather.. kind of like a townhome. kitchen/living area - brand new refurnished is on the bottom floor - 2 BR on the 2nd floor, and 3 BR on the top floor. Marilyn and I will most likely take the top floor and we'll have Ben and unknown boy take the middle floor. 2.5 bath. unreal. had to take it on the spot. landlord accepted our offer and we put money down immediately. after the sh*t boxes we saw earlier in the day for basically the same price, we knew we had found truly a diamond in the rough. cannot wait for visitors! We move in in a week. location is between marble arch and baker street - perfect. 5 minute bus ride to LBS. best day ever and it's only day one!

Also ordered my iPhone4. it will be in stock tomorrow. can't wait. love from london. xx

Dear Travelpro

2010-08-07T16:51:00.004+01:00

Today is the day! I am leaving on a jetplane... don't know when I'll be back again... I've got a one-way ticket to London leaving this evening! I've got my UK visa, I've said my see-you-laters (in the form of around a dozen going away parties/dinners/drinks), my bags our packed, my blog is back in action, I am ready. It only took 12 vacuum packed space bags, 3 suitcases, 2 XXXL duffel bags, 1 backpack, 300 lbs of luggage, and plenty of blood, sweat, and tears to get here, but ya know what, it was worth it.

I am now putting my Travelpro suitcases to the ultimate test... I have stuffed and overstuffed them with everything American I can't live without. Now please please please make it to London fully intact... in need of some fairy dust from the airline gods!

See ya on the other side of the pond :)

deep thoughts

2010-08-02T00:39:00.002+01:00

Where would YOU like to wake up tomorrow?

And. I'm. Back.

2010-05-26T03:47:00.002+01:00

Hello my blogging friends. It has been awhile. A long while. 14 months and counting to be exact. But I am back, and I hope to stay awhile. Much has happened while I was on my blogging hiatus. Namely, I got into business school and will be moving to London in precisely 3 months. You may have remembered a post in January of 2009 when I professed my love for the London Business School. Well I got in, and although Kellogg was a close second, London ultimately prevailed. Sometimes you need to listen to life’s subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints. Like the fact that every time (EVERY TIME!) I tried to visit another school or attend an info session or go to an admit weekend, something would happen that would stall me from attending. Kellogg admits weekend? Blizzard of the century in PA - flight was cancelled. Stern info session? Happened to be the one day a year that it was cancelled. Columbia? Flight cancelled out of Dallas! And on and on.

But although it’s completely obvious that London is where I belong, it’s still met with some degree of hesitation: can I really DO this? Is this the best path for my career? Will this yield the best investment for the long term? Can I really leave everything I’ve built over the last 26 years? I can continue with these questions for days, but what it ultimately comes down to is this: my gut.

So I’m moving over the pond soon. Packing up 26 years of memories, armed with my American clothes, my American roots, my American education, and my American ways, unsure of what exactly to expect apart from a whirlwind of change.

How did I get here? It’s funny how life works sometimes.

According to Elizabeth Gilbert, acclaimed author of Eat Pray Love, the key to a well-lived life is to: “Screw up (often, and boldly), learn from your mistakes, repeat.”

So maybe that’s how I got here. Gilbert goes on to say:

“Let's just anticipate that we (all of us) will disappoint ourselves somehow in the decade to come. Go ahead and let it happen …While you're at it, take the wrong job. Move to the wrong city. Lose your temper in front of the boss, quit training for that marathon, wolf down a truckload of cupcakes the day after you start your diet. Blow it all catastrophically, in fact, and then start over with good cheer. This is what we all must learn to do, for this is how maps get charted-by taking wrong turns that lead to surprising passageways that open into spectacularly unexpected new worlds. So just march on. Future generations will thank you-trust me-for showing the way, for beating brave new footpaths out of wonky old mistakes. Fall flat on your face if you must, but please, for the sake of us all, do not stop.

Map your own life.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Made it to Tokyo

2009-03-20T23:56:00.011Z

Hi All,

This will be my last post! I am writing from the American Airlines Admirals Club during my 5 hour layover at the Narita Airport in Tokyo. The flight from Singapore to Narita wasn't too bad. I had a bit of a sleeping pill hang-over when I landed, but I just had a cappuccino and feel a bit better. oh and good news! I got the Admirals club to look into my upgrade status and they were able to find a seat in b-class and confirm the upgrade. wooooo hooooo. That means I will be able to sleep! And the food is WAY better in b-class. Thanks for all the prayers - it worked!

Ok now to some photos...

This is an awesome German Beer Bar (and restaurant) that we frequented while in Singapore.

They had a big garden salad (I began to crave vegetables while I was in Singa due to the fact that I rarely got them) and they had Jager shots for only $9 Sing$ so it was a natural first stop on the way over to chijmes across the street. It was also cool because it was open-air and right on the corner of a busy intersection. Read: prime people-watching spot. As I may have mentioned earlier (?) there's quite a large prostitution industry in Singapore (though not so many lady boys like thailand - Singapore is more discreet), and on this particular intersection we'd often "see a deal" beginning. ew. It shocks me that you can get hung for having drugs, shot for gun possession, caned for littering, fined for spitting or chewing gum, but hookers on the streets are a-ok. hmm.. Anyway, sorry for the tangent, here's Chijmes, a large area where they have tons of cool bars, restaurants, and live bands playing at all hours of the night:

Holland Village is a neat little area about 15 minutes by cab from the center of Singapore. There are lots of little stalls with jewelry/clothes, in addition to a bunch of cute restaurants and bars. Neat place to go for dinner (and take a date). I was flying solo though. haha.

This is the area we went to on Thursday night for dinner... just so happened that there was also a live band playing near the water. cool cool.

Dinner - group shot.

Last day of work - me w/ some local resources

I hope everyone has enjoyed following my travels. I would definitely recommend Singapore as a great place to visit, especially if you are going to Asia for the first time. I feel like I'm ready now for "real" Asia (i.e. less clean, less safe, less English spoken, poverty... like most of Asia) such as Bombay, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc. I would love to go back to Thailand and spend more time there actually. Anyway, hopefully the blog has kept me from completely falling off the earth although I do feel very behind on everything that is going on in the U.S. I look forward to catching up with you all!

Until next time.........

xo Laura

and I'm spent.

2009-03-20T03:43:00.003Z

Going home tonight.

Singapore has been great!
But I’m ready to come home now.
I’m sick of the clothes I brought.
I beyond need a hair cut.
I am out of orbit gum (and they don’t sell gum here because it’s illegal to chew it in public).
I crave Eatzis.
I am sick of the music on my ipod.
I miss my super comfortable mattress (even the beds at the Ritz are hard).
I miss talking on the phone for under $2/minute.
Miss my frieeeeeends!

Don’t get me wrong.
It has been a great trip.
Wonderful actually.

I completed my Singapore bucket list this week.
I will do a final post either tonight or tomorrow in Tokyo with a few more pictures.
The quick overview is:
1. Celebrated St. Patty's Day at Dirty Nelly's Irish Pub, down the street from the Ritz
2. Checked out Holland Village and enjoyed a mojito at Wala Wala
3. Enjoyed dinner at a German Beer Bar
4. Had the team gala farewell at the Esplanade last night

Checked out of the Ritz this morning and I must say, the service there is impeccable. They practically make you feel like a celebrity. I'm not sure how my client negotiatied the rate that I got, but it was an awesome deal complete with complementary breakfast buffet every day (I will miss my egg-white omlette man).

Dreading the flight tonight.
Still on wait-list for b-class.
hopefully I have enough drugs to get me through.
one of my (new) client friends that flew home last Monday took 6 valium on his fight back. lol.
Here's my itinerary:
leave Singapore at 11:20pm enroute to Narita
Arrive in Tokyo around 7am... layover for 5 hours
Noon Saturday - flight from Tokyo to Dallas
arrive Dallas around 9:30am Saturday (gain 14 hrs)
blah.
blah.
Luckily I just downloaded the whole first season of Lipstick Jungle, the latest GG episode, and 2 episodes from a UK drama series
Need prayers that I get upgraded!

stay tuned for pictures lata!

More Thailand

2009-03-17T01:17:00.010Z

(More) Thailand through pictures.

Beauty.

We saw wild monkeys from the boat.

We love you love time.

Beach bars.

"Broken English Spoken Here Perfect" lol.

Breakfast at the Indigo Pearl. Best. Breakfast. EVER. Bar none. I'm talking lots of homemade jams (have you ever had Banana jam on your toast?), fresh exotic fruits, fresh fruit juice (yeah, they had fresh watermelon juice and carrot juice to name a few). So delish.

Out in Patong... we stopped for a happy meal (and I stopped for a coffee - I was getting tired at this point!). Here's me completely clueless that one of my clients was making funny faces behind me. We're super mature ouside the office.

My $5 Pedi. Why can't it be this cheap in the states?

Mom- found you a necklace!!! 7 little strands of freshwater pearls. There was this little store near the Indigo Pearl hotel that hand-made tons of jewelry and I literally wanted to buy the whole store. I walk in and they are stringing pearls and stones in the back and meticulously hand-making all this jewelry. I bought some things the first day and then I went back the next day and bought more. Anyway, hope you like it :) If it's not what you had in mind, I'm sure I'll be able to find a good home for it :)

In Love

2009-03-16T14:25:00.014Z

... with Thailand! If you don’t have it on your travel list, ADD IT NOW. Such an amazing, beautiful place. Despite the fact that it's half-way across the world from the U.S., it makes for a perfect vacation spot to rest, relax, and recharge the ol' batteries. A weekend was far too short - I think all of us that went would have loved to stay the whole week, at minimum. It didn't help that our hotel was absolutely incredible. I'm talking paradise. The pictures will not do it justice – not even close. I'll post some below though. It's called the Indigo Pearl. You can view the website here. It was a huge resort off Nai Yang beach which is on the North Western side of Phuket, Thailand. Every part of the hotel was pristinely decorated with careful attention to detail. Also - Thailand is super cheap. Hotel was only $150 per night... Did I mention that I had my own VILLA? And where else can you get massages for 300 baht an hour all over the place ($10 USD)? What's more, all the people are sooo nice. They do this bow thing everytime you pay for something or if you leave or even if you're walking by. Anyway, I can't begin to explain it all so here are some pics:
Pool #1:

Pool #2 w/ Swim-up bar:

Pool #3:

Landscaping:

View outside my Villa

Beach:

Brief overview of what we did -
oh so first off, 5 of us ended up going from the project, both client and Deloitte side. We got in on Friday around 8pm Thailand time, checked into the hotel, and grabbed drinks on the beach at one of the cute little huts. Saturday, the 5 of us relaxed by the pool, then got a boat and a guide to take us out on the water and snorkeling on the Adamaran Sea, then got a massage late afternoon, then went to Patong Beach for dinner and an evening out. Sunday, got a pedicure (for $5 USD... yeah.), did some shopping, relaxed at the beach, left the resort at 6pm for flight. We didn't get to the Phi Phi Islands which I would have liked to do, but it required a full day commitment and waking up at 7am, and with only 2 days, it just wasn't feasible.
More pictures...
Strip of shops along the beach:

Boat trip on Saturday - snorkeling on Adamaran Sea:

Patong (Saturday night) - this was an eye opening experience for me. I have NEVER seen anything like it. So wild and crazy; I think I was bug-eyed with my mouth hanging wide open in awe the entire evening. Lady Boys every which way I looked. (Lady Boys = trannys) The 5 of us had so much fun, but it was a dirty dirty town (read: morally shocking). I'm so glad we decided to stay up the island (45 min away) where the beaches and town are nicer/cleaner. The food in Thailand - amazing. We ate authentic Thai - so delish. I could eat chicken satay for every meal. Group pic of dinner in Patong:

Patong...

Need to go to bed now - will post more pictures/details/stories tomorrow! xoxo

Rockin - Part 2

2009-03-13T02:13:00.007Z

Thursday.

Started off the evening with a huge group dinner since some people are heading back to the states today. It was a huge (really nice) buffet which is fun because it gives me an opportunity to try things I would never normally try. Case-in-point: The black-peppered crab. As the Singapore Sling is Singapore's singnature drink, the black-peppered crab is (one of) Singapore's signature dishes. The other signature dish here is the Fish Head Curry, which I haven't quite psyched myself up enough yet to try it. So one side note, I really hate high-maintenance food - I don't like fish with bones (or heads), I don't like meat with bones (even if it's chicken), and I'm not a fan of shell-fish. Too messy and too much work. But carpe diem right? So I got my hands messy and went at it: ...and it was actually quite good!

Group photo:
After dinner, some of us went home, and some of us went out. The going-out crew ended up at Le Baroque again for live music - Shaggy was playing again. gosh they are so good. I had to take another video.
Shout out to Jonathan - you would really enjoy this band (and all the live music everywhere in Singapore). Ok I can't get the video to upload... stay tuned.

So we were drinking away listening to the music and all of a sudden they call up my colleague from the other night to come on stage and join them as bass guitarist. He was like "uhhh.. (kind of intoxicated, but don't want to turn down the opportunity) SURE!" haha

Checked out of my hotel this morning. I leave for Phuket tonight and when I get back, I'll be at the Ritz Carlton Millenia for the remainder of my stay. A few of us decided we needed a change from the Swissotel so we're moving down the street. I'm hoping the beds are a little softer, the elevators a little faster, the shower doesn't drip, and the sink doesn't clog. The Swissotel was REALLY nice, but when you stay for a long period of time, you start getting picky and noticing little annoyances. With that said though, I would highly recommend the Swissotel Stamford :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

xoLaura

Rockin

2009-03-12T03:32:00.007Z

There’s a band called Shaggy that plays at a bar near the hotel. They. Are. Awesome. They can play a huge genre of songs... top 40 to 80’s & 90’s, even an incredible rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. It was my first time going to watch them play on Tuesday night and it just so happened that one of our very own from the client side was doing a guest performance on stage with them too (he’s in a band back in San Francisco)! As background, this has been a really really really long project. I was in Amsterdam for 2 of the cycles and now I’m in Singapore for the last cycle, but some people have been in Singapore for all 3 cycles, so I guess the guy from my project and the band got to talking at some point over the past 6 months and they invited him to join them for a few songs. I took a video of the band (a pretty terrible video, but good sound quality nonetheless - before the guest performance)
I’m also posting a few pictures showing my colleague on stage – he’s the base guitarist on the far right.

In other news….. I finally got status and made it into the Club Swiss Gold Rewards club at the Swissotel. Woohoo. I think that entitles me to free upgrades and the executive lounge, but it doesn’t really matter because I’m checking out tomorrow. No I’m not flying back to the states... per my previous update, I won’t be flying back for another week (landing in Dallas the morning of March 21st). We don’t have a work this weekend though so some of us have decided to go to (drum roll)

THAILAND!

I booked my flight yesterday and reserved my hotel room today – how’s that for spontaneity??? We fly out Friday around 6:30 (a little under a 2 hour flight), and then fly back to Singapore Sunday night. We’re going to Phuket rather than Bangkok because Phuket has nicer beaches and according to some of the people at the office, Bangkok is "just a bunch of hookers." lovely. lol. Here's a map of where Phuket is located in proximity to Bangkok and Singapore...

I haven't thought too much about an agenda for the weekend besides maybe a massage, snorkeling, riding an elephant, and enjoying the serenity :) I think we might take an excursion over to the Phi Phi Islands (also known as James Bond Island). My research says that "Phi Phi is Thailand's island-superstar. It's been in the movies, and it's the topic of conversation for travelers all over Thailand. Phi Phi's beauty is a large chunk of the allure. The islands, when approached by boat, rise from the sea like a fortress. Sheer cliffs tower overhead, then give way to beach-fronted jungle. Secondly, it's the attitude: few places on the planet are this laid-back. Of the two islands, one is completely free of human inhabitants (Phi Phi Lei), and the other is without roads (Phi Phi Don). There's no schedule, no hustle-and-bustle, no reason to be in a hurry."

Yes, I will make sure to wear lots of sunscreen :)

as promised

2009-03-10T12:30:00.014Z

the FULL weekend update...

It was another fun (yet exhausting) weekend.

Friday Night.

Pretty much the whole team went out including local resources from the client side. I skipped the group dinner since I wanted to get a workout in and instead ended up going to a Japanese Hibachi place called Gyu-Kaku with a colleague, located down the road from our hotel in the Chijmes complex. It’s one of those restaurants where you grill your own food right at your table. You pick your meat, veggies, and whatever else you want to grill and set it on the hot coals. Very cool restaurant; unfortunatly, I didn't get any pictures of the neat decorations, but I did get one of the food:

Post-dinner plans –
Met up with everyone else for drinks in Boat Quay at a Bollywood bar. This was a really cool experience because I got to see all the Indian guys and girls on the team in their element, per se. For those that don’t know, Bollywood refers to the Indian film industry (or a part of it), and I believe the name stems from Bombay + Hollywood and there's usually this type of dancing in the films... so you know how at the end of Slumdog Millionaire, everyone breaks out in dance? That’s quite common for Bollywood films and is a very popular form of dance that most all Indian people are accustomed to. Don't quote me on the exact details of the above and the origin, but it's a little background. The people on the team from India were loving it... their music, their dance moves, their culture... and I must say, it was quite entertaining to watch. Here's a group pic:

We stayed for awhile and then a few of us left the big group for a different scene. Next stop was Zouk, a large multi-level club, and after that, Loof for one of their delicious Pear martinis, and finally, we went to Chijmes for some late-night live music. Since I do want my blog to be an honest depiction of my travels, I'll include one picture displaying the level of fun we were having by the end of the night - yeah, probably an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10:

What can I say... we work hard. we play hard.

Saturday.

Work day – 10ish to 4ish. I know I haven't talked a lot about the actual work part, but for the record, we are working. We are having trouble meeting our very aggressive targets, hence the working on Saturdays and the extension of the cycle by another week. None of us were too thrilled about working, but we made it through the day... with the help of a Venti Cappuccino from Starbucks :)

Saturday evening -
I headed to the Singapore Zoo with a colleague for the Night Safari! The Safari takes you on a tour through eight geographical zones including Southeast Asian rainforests, African savanna, Nepalese river valley, South America, etc., and allows you to see tons of nocturnal animals (this is why it's only offered at night). The zoo uses special lights that simulate moon-light which allows everyone to see the animals, but you still need to look closely and carefully for moving objects in the distance. Many of the zones have walking tracks, but we decided to stay on the tram – didn’t want to get eaten by the striped hyenas! We saw elephants, giraffes, tigers, lions, rhinos, buffalo, and many animals I had never heard of. We couldn’t take pictures on tour tram since the flash would frighten the animals, but I got a few pics outside of the safari, including some at the pre-safari show:

Also at the zoo - fish reflexology. Remember how I experienced foot reflexology in Chinatown two weeks back? Well there’s another (common) type of reflexology where you stick your feet in water with a bunch of little fish who suck on your toes and apparently suck away your dead skin. It sounds rather gross, but someone on the team did it and said it was cool. I took a pic of this in action for all to see (no I did not partake in this):

After the Safari, we headed over to an area called Dempsey Hill which is a little square that reminds me a lot of something you'd see in the U.S. We were craving some non-asian food and there's a good Italian spot there. Yes, we actually went out for Italian food in Asia. Haha. The bruschetta was delish! My Salmon was just Ok; it had bones in it which makes it harder to eat. We went for mojitos after dinner and then called it a night since I was a bit tired.

Sunday.

Phone date w/ the P's in the morning. Got all caught up w/ Mom and Dad, and then headed to Chinatown. As stated in the previous post, it was so hot! I tried to shop around for some good finds, but ended up just buying a slice of watermelon from a street vendor and that was it. I decided that the shopping at Raffles is more my style - its kind of a mix of the shopping in London (and some in America)... Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Coach, Guess, etc.

Sunday late afternoon I finally got to Sentosa!! Here's what the website has to say about Sentosa Island:

The 500-hectare Sentosa Island is a unique blend of leisure and recreational experiences including family attractions, sandy beaches, water sports, golf courses and hotel resorts. By 2010, the Sentosa-HarbourFront masterplan will house a 10,000 strong residential community, along with the much talked-about integrated family resort. Coupled with the multi-concept entertainment hub of St James Power Station and Singapore's largest retail and lifestyle mall in VivoCity, Sentosa-HarbourFront is poised to become Asia's premier leisure and entertainment destination.

It's basically a very touristy area full of fun for all ages... several bars and restaurants, beaches, a butterfly park, dolphin lagoon, laser shows at night, flying trapeze, underwater world... (also fish reflexology). Anyway, we took the cable car from Mount Faber. It was a 1.6 km very beautiful scenic ride over. We didn't have a ton of time on the island, but I was able to get some good pics of the massive Merlion as well as drink several mojitos at the Cafe Del Mar pool party. We forgot to wear our swimsuits, but the people watching was fun in of itself. Pics below!

case of the mondays

2009-03-09T13:38:00.006Z

Hi Everyone!

So tired today... I'm going to save the bulk of the update for tomorrow, but let me give you a quick high-level summary of the highlights and a few photos:

Saturday we had to work. booo. Got in around 10-ish, worked until 4-ish. Lots of rain mid-afternoon, but it cleared up with plenty of time for me and a colleague to head to the Singapore Zoo for the Night Safari! Luckily, I did not get eaten by any hyenas.

Sunday I went to Chinatown in the early afternoon. Took the MRT (subway) which is really easy to do. Got to Chinatown, but it was a bit too hot, the crowds were thick, and all the commotion was making me tired so I ended up heading back and getting a venti iced latte at Starbucks to cool down. I did however happen to get a pic of the chickens on display for all to see...

Sunday evening, I headed to Sentosa. We took the cable car from Mount Faber across the water and to the island. Very touristy, but lots of fun. I wish we had had more time, but we stayed into the evening and enjoyed the pool/beach/Cafe Del Mar.

More tomorrow!

xoxo Laura

Change of Plans

2009-03-05T08:31:00.005Z

Yes, this happens every trip so am I fazed? Nope not at all. The cycle has been extended by 1 week so we were all asked to change our flights accordingly. I have moved my flight so that I now fly out Friday night, March 20th and land in Dallas Saturday morning, March 21st (I gain 14 hours on the way back... yay). Say a prayer that I will be upgraded... right now I am just on the wait-list.

Tuesday Night.

Went to a cool roof top bar called Loof! I finally got to try a Singapore Sling:

The Singapore Sling is a famous cocktail that Singapore’s well-known for. It was originally invented for the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, but you can get them all over the island now. The Singapore Sling is even available on all Singapore Airlines flights, and the drink is free on all classes of travel. Although the recipe has changed a bit over the years, it’s still basically a combination of gin, cherry brandy, and Benedictine (most often in equal parts), shaken and strained into a glass, and then filled to individual taste with club soda or other juices. It was delish. Loof was an awesome lounge/bar too!!

Wednesday Happenings.

After lunch, a bunch of us decided to walk down the street to get coconuts. Fresh coconuts. To drink! I have never had a fresh coconut before. The lady cracked it open, stuck a straw in, and bam, you have yourself a refreshing afternoon beverage. Here are some pictures:

Wednesday Night. Ladies Night.
Wednesday night in Singapore is ladies night and is a HUGE going out night. It was tempting to stay in and catch up on sleep, but that plan got nixed pretty quickly. A few of us grabbed dinner at a Cuban restaurant in Clark Quay with a live Cuban Band and half-price martinis & mojitos for the ladies. I actually had some REAL food – salmon, followed by 3 martinis – then went bar hopping throughout the area – there were live bands everywhere – awesome music – did my fair share of breaking it down on the dance floor – good times. Here was one of the bands - I think this was during their rendition of Pour some sugar on me Yeah, they rocked it.

It really feels like I’m on one big Spring Break trip or something... probably because of the heat, the tropical surroundings, and probably because Singapore’s a tourist destination so a lot of the people we meet here are on holiday. Including this guy:

Yeah, he was passed out on the pavement. Hilarious! At least he still smiled for the picture. LOL

Weekend Update

2009-03-03T10:45:00.008Z

Hello friends and family... greetings from Singapore! I hope that everyone had a great weekend. Sorry this post is a bit delayed – work has really been picking up this week. I’m not sure who all is reading my blog and keeping up with my adventures (besides M&D) so if you feel so inclined, leave a comment at the end of any post – I would love to hear from you, even if it’s just to pop in and say hello! Or if you prefer to read anonymously, that's ok too :)

I’ve been gone from the U.S. for 2 weeks now and have gotten settled into my new temporary home quite nicely. I’ve pretty much embraced everything... except the Asian food. Of course there are some great Asian restaurants, but I’m talking about the hawker centres which are the only options at lunch. Hawker centres are open-air food centres with lots of different stalls selling inexpensive food. I have tried to like this food... I usually go over, walk around, look at the pictures, scan the options usually lined up in pans behind the counter – but when I don’t recognize what something is and when there are dead chickens hanging above my head to dry and when it’s 90 degrees out, and all the smells and the fermented fish paste, ginger, and curry... by the time it hits my mouth, my lips are already puckered back in disgust. Not to mention that they do not have chicken breasts in this country. The women on the project and I joke that there must be lots of chickens running around without breasts because seriously – the only chicken meat we can find is dark meat. No worries though, I have plenty of oatmeal to get me through the work day!

Aaaanyway, onto the weekend happenings.

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you know that the weekend before last was mainly devoted to all things super touristy... city tour and heritage tour all over the island, botanic gardens, shopping on Orchard Road, checking out Chinatown, Little India, etc. Not going to lie, this weekend was a little more focused on – ahem – partying. Friday night, a bunch of us went out in Boat Quay.

Boat Quay (again, pronounced “Key”) is basically a very laid-back version of Clark Quay. So if Clark Quay is Dallas than Boat Quay would be... Fort Worth (only within walking distance of course). So we started with drinks at the hotel, headed over to Boat Quay, had a few drinks near the water at a pub, went to a Hindi dance bar (this was a very bizarre experience) and finally ended up at Clark Quay which is my favorite spot – expats everywhere, really cool bars & clubs, just an awesome scene.

Saturday.

Had to work, but only from 10-3. Everyone strolled into the office around 10:30... very relaxed day. I don’t think I did anything productive except order lunch for the group haha (to my credit, I didn’t have much to do anyway). Got back to my hotel and took a lovely nap before dinner/drinks with some colleagues. It just ended up being 3 of us because a lot of people were going to Indonesia on Sunday. I considered it, but many of them were going to play golf and the only other thing to do really was to sit on the beach or sit by the pool, and tanning in the sun is not so much on my to-do list. I would like to go to Bali, but it’s much further (not just a fairy ride away like where the other guys were going). It was tempting for the cool Indonesian stamp in my passport though. So anyway, those that were not going to Indonesia went out pretty hard on Saturday night. We were going to do dinner at SupperClub, but it started down-pouring so instead we skipped dinner and just started drinking at (one of ) the hotel bars (always an excellent choice). It finally stopped pouring, giving us enough time to get to Clark Quay – went to an awesome club called Attica – then from there, went to SupperClub (turns into a super posh club at night), then finished off the night with some live music at a place near the hotel called Chijmes. And no night would be complete without some late late night food so we enjoyed some greasy appetizers before heading home at... well... let’s just say the bars are open well past 2am here. And I have some fun colleagues!

SupperClub

Sunday.

There’s the cutest little Asian girl on my team. She’s probably 80 pounds, originally from Malaysia, works out of the San Francisco Deloitte office, and has an adorable personality. She and I decided to check out this cool mall in the area called Vivocity. We spent the afternoon shopping, and then it pretty much poured rain the rest of the day. Good thing I decided not to do the Night Safari which I was originally thinking I would do Sunday night! So it was monsoon weather for the rest of the evening which was kind of nice because it gave me a chance to just chill – actually I went and sat in the sauna for awhile!

At the mall - I got a "creamy beetroot smoothy." It was actually quite tasty!

My view from my hotel room - monsoon weather

Oh I also got a Singapore cellphone! My number is... shoot, I don’t even know. I have it written down somewhere... so if you get a call from a Singapore number (country code +65), answer it! It’s probably me.

Thirsty Thursday

2009-02-27T08:23:00.003Z

Went out last night. I decided it was time to break the streak of 10am bedtimes and naturally waking up at 6am. Although I enjoy being fully rested and alert during the workday, sometimes you have to sacrifice a little for a good evening out on the town. Hence my excitement when I got word that some of the team was going to Clark Quay (pronounced "Key") for dinner/drinks/more drinks.

Clark Quay is a short walking distance from my hotel, located along the Singapore river. It's basically THE place to go out in Singapore. Here's what the Singapore tourist website had to say about it:

Named after Sir Andrew Clarke, Singapore's second governor, Clarke Quay had been the commercial centre, where an unending stream of lighters would transport their goods upriver to the warehouses. Now present day, you can shop, eat and be entertained by the riverside. Featuring five blocks of restored warehouses, Clarke Quay offers a quirky alternative to mainstream attractions, with second-hand and antique shops and restaurants with an amazing array of food and beverage options. In the evenings, dance clubs and pubs come alive with music from the 1960s to the present.

Let's just say we had dinner and then decided to kick off the rest of the night with a shot of Jager (why not?):

above: me, consulting boss, client, client boss, client (all from U.S. offices)

Already Friday?

2009-02-26T09:25:00.004Z

Yes, tomorrow is Friday! Wow, quick week. I think we'll be working a little bit on Saturday, but only a shortened day. I have a few things in mind that I want to see/do this weekend including the Night Safari at the zoo!

-------------------------

A word about Politics...

On one hand, I feel very detached from the U.S. – the news, the markets, the politics... – but on the other hand, it’s kind of crazy because no matter what part of the globe I go to, I always hear about our President, our pop culture, our economy, etc. The crisis is a global one, and even Singapore is talking about it. Whether it's NBC news, BBC news, or any of the newspaper publications sitting on my hotel room doorstep, everyone's talking about Obama.

Obama’s got the whole world in his hands.

No pressure. :)

In other news, I went over to Suntec Mall last night to walk around, do some shopping, and grab some dinner. The mall has some fabulous stores! I didn’t have a lot of time so I’ll have to go back later to really shop. Then again, I haven’t really felt like buying clothes lately – I am saving for my big move across the pond (whenever that may be). Accessories on the other hand are wonderful... I like looking through my jewelry and recalling the story or time/place behind any of my pieces.

And in further news, I am almost done with Eat, Pray, Love.

Yes, it takes me MONTHS to read a novel because 1.) I am an extremely slow reader 2.) I get impatient and can’t spend “hours” reading and 3.) I am busy. Rarely have time to read...
But I only have about 15 pages left and let me just say, that if you haven’t read it, add it to your list!!! Also, fun fact – The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, by Time Magazine in 2008. wow!

FOR CORTNEY

2009-02-24T11:38:00.009Z

Yes, I found some jewelry. Would you expect anything less of me??

I went shopping along Orchard Road, which is known as the Park Avenue of Singapore so natually, I found a couple things...

Pearls. I love love love fresh-water pearls! I added some new ones to the collection:

I also got 2 lovely pashmenas in green as shown below, as well as in black.

Sunday

2009-02-24T05:44:00.010Z

Morning.

Woke up early and enjoyed another lovely breakfast at the Café Swiss. I then ventured off to check out the Botanic Gardens. The Gardens are not only a botanical institution and a regional park, but a tourist destination as well – and since they had been highly recommended in my guidebook, I decided to check em out...

The park is free to walk around and do whatever, which is why it's also a good park for people watching. I saw people running, walking thier dogs, practicing some sort of meditation, performing martial arts, participating in organized dance, marching in unison... it was interesting. Funny story actually, upon leaving, I saw a group of about a dozen Asian people learning a dance in the park. As I got closer for a better look, I discovered that they were line-dancing in unison to the country song, God Bless Texas. I wish I could have gotten a short video of this, but my camera ran out of juice.

Singapore's national flower is the Orchid so natually, there's an Orchid garden within the park. Entrance for this part of the park is a small fee, but worth it. The flowers were really beautiful...

Afternoon.

I was originally thinking I'd take the cable car to Sentosa for the afternoon, but my feet hurt from my flip flops and I decided I'd do something more low-key. I had heard about a natural health method practiced by the ancient Chinese called foot reflexology and had even seen a place within the Raffles shopping mall that offered it. I googled it though - thinking if I was going to do it, I should head to Chinatown, and sure enough, there were plenty of places that offered it (according to Yahoo web forums anyway). I walked to Chinatown and into some sort of mall...

it was a sight to see. I found plenty of foot reflexology places, but got kind of nervous. There places were definitely no-frills... I'm talking little hole-in-the-wall places with a menu out front of the services offered. I couldn't chicken out though! I hesitently settled on a place that already had a few customers mid-foot-massage... the little Asian ladies that ran the place looked nice. They barely spoke a lick of English though. The smallest Asian lady motioned for me to put my feet in a tub of grainy (scalding) brown water. uhhh... ok maybe this wasn't such a good idea? Sitting up with my feet in the bucket, she did a quick shoulder and neck massage followed by lots of hard chopping on my back. At this point, I started laughing.. and then she started talking to me in Chinese and doing these motions with her hands, and I was so confused that I just smiled and nodded and more laughing. Luckily, the Asian guy next to me could a little translating - she was asking if this was my first time in Singapore, if I'd ever done this type of massage before, how it is very good for the health, etc. She motioned to my face and he said that she was saying I was pretty and that I looked 18 or 19 years old. Ha! I mean my hair was a mop - not sure why I bother straightening it in this humidity - and my skin was greasy from a combination of sun screen and sweat. But hey - it's a complement so I'll take it. Anyway back to the foot reflexology experience. This little Asian lady spent a full hour massaging my feet - pushing (and in some cases pulling) on every area and bone on my feet. It was quite painful at some points! I didn't know how this little lady could have so much power. I left there though with my feet feeling much stronger, healthier, and better. It was pretty cool actually. And only $30 SGD ($20 USD). I noticed when I got back to my hotel that every vein in my feet was sticking out - I took a picture which I will NOT be posting... it's a bit gruesome. My feel are now back to normal now :)

Friday & Saturday

2009-02-23T05:34:00.022Z

Editors note: this will probably be a long post so feel free to scan and/or just look at the pictures... I did a lot over the weekend. I'm having fun in Singapore (!), although I do miss a few things back home (1. my friends 2. my bed :) ) Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Friday.

Got back from work and headed out to explore for the first time since landing early Thursday morning. I decided on Bugis Street as my first stop since it was relatively within walking distance to the hotel. A lot of people on the team went out of town for the weekend to either India or Malaysia so I was pretty much on my own, but Singapore is a safe city so I wasn’t too worried. I think India is about a 4 hour flight from Singapore, depending where you fly to in India so a lot of the Indian guys (and girls) on the team from the U.S. were taking advantage of the close proximity and the work-free weekend to visit family.

So anyway, armed with my map of the city, I headed toward Bugis Street which holds the reputation as the largest street shopping location in Singapore with over 600 stores offering a wide variety of fashion, accessories, gifts, souvenirs, and food/drinks. Ten million people walk through Bugis Street annually! On my walk over, I stopped in some neat open-air shops which after the fact, I found out were called Bugis Junction - a more upscale Bugis Street. I browsed the shoes and apparel and walked away with 2 pashminas for around $15 USD (for both). They claim to be 100% cashmere... not sure if that’s true or not, but they will be nice for the office since the A.C. is always on full-blast. I finally made it to Bugis Street and it was different than I had pictured. There were people everywhere and tons of little stalls selling trinkets and well, to put it bluntly, junk. It kind of reminded me of the shopping in Mexico. It was a neat cultural experience though – also lots of authentic Asian food - all of which I was scared to try - the fresh fruit and juices looked good though. Here are some pics-
Bugis Junction:

Underground Bugis Street:

Got a little lost walking back to the hotel.
Ended the night sitting outside at a restaurant/cafe sipping a cocktail and having a bite to eat (still jet-lagged... crashed around 9pm)

Saturday.

Decided to do the touristy thing and bought a hop-on hop-off double-decker tour bus pass.

I figured this would allow me to see a lot of the city, learn a bit about the history, help me learn my way around, and give me an idea of the places I wanted to go back to. Here were some highlights:
The Singapore Flyer – the largest Ferris Wheel in the world, even larger than the London Eye. It's a 360 degree panaramic view of the island and surroundings - you can even see Indonesia and Malaysia. Beijing is currently building a Ferris Wheel slightly larger though to surpass this one.

Raffles Hotel – the oldest and most prestigious hotel on the island

Boat Quay (pronouced: "Key")

Clark Quay:

Largest Mosque:

Most of the residents in the island live in buildings like below, which is government subsidized living. Since there is a limited amount of space on the island, homes are built up rather than out... and in order for someone to live in one of these places, they must (a) have around 100k and (b) be married.

Little India:

Old police station and living quarters. There are 911 colorful windows to signify 9-1-1 (no longer in use)

St. Andrew’s Cathedral – it’s been hit by lightning not once, not twice, but three times.

The Merlion is Singapore’s tourism symbol – half-fish, half-lion. The fish body comes from Singapore’s ancient name back when it was a fishing village. The lion head represents Singapore's original name, Singapura - meaning "lion city" in Sanskrit and Malay.

Esplanade, a massive theater costing 600 million to build. It was designed to be extremely green-friendly.

Singapore Library – really cool architecture

Chinatown

on the bus... after an Asian couple motioned for me to take a picture with them. I think I stick out in this country...

I decided to "hop off" the bus at Orchard Road. Orchard Road is a famous shopping street in Singapore with all the high-end names. Actually, Singapore has shopping on pretty much every road and every corner. There's even a 24 hour shopping center in Little India. There are shopping malls connected to more shopping malls - but I was told the best shopping was off Orchard Road. I grabbed a Starbucks (yes, there are Starbucks everywhere here!) and walked down to Takashamaya.

Spent a few hours shopping... left once my feet stared hurting... but had to wait out a big tropical rain storm first.

...will post Sunday later on tonight!

The Food

2009-02-20T07:41:00.006Z

Since Singapore is one of Asia’s premier financial areas, it’s no surprise that there are plenty of choices when it comes to food. My hotel, Swissotel Stamford, is connected to the Fairmont and has no joke about 15 different restaurants and bars between the two serving pretty much any type of cuisine from local Singaporean food to European, all the way to Western American and everything in between.

Conversely, the client’s campus is a short cab ride outside the heart of the city and the on-site cafeteria is strictly traditional Asian fare. There are about 8 different lines to get food from, but it all looks the same to me... mystery meat, noodles, vegetables, rice, everything covered in all sorts of different sauces, usually spicy (lots of curry)... a mix of Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Chinese for the most part. Really the only Asian food I eat on a semi-regular basis in the U.S. is like Pei Wei or P.F. Changs which is hardly Asian since it’s so Americanized. Haha. So I’m checking out my options and trying to ask the Asian ladies behind the counters if there is any chicken in typical Laura fashion (I can be an adventurous eater, but not at lunchtime). They don’t so much understand my American accent so I begin pointing at the pictures. Luckily there are lots of pictures! The first few stations only have fish soup and some fried claw thingies. Finally found some chicken, but after checking out the picture, I decided I may be better off just going to the fruit stand. For this one, a photo was absolutely necessary (click to enlarge):

Mmm Black Fungus. How lovely. Haha. So I am still getting used to the authentic Asian food here in Singapore. In the meantime, I am enjoying all the fresh fruit! I have eaten all of these today: pineapple, lychee, papaya, apples, dragon fruit, star fruit, guava, kiwi, watermelon, oranges, and cantaloupe. You can buy them ready-to-eat in clear plastic baggies - they’ve already been cored and/or peeled. Yum.

Happy Friday everyone! We don’t have to work this weekend (YAY)!!!

Singapore.

2009-02-19T21:40:00.007Z

View from my hotel balcony - to the right

View from balcony - to the left

lovely self-portrait lol

Went to dinner/drinks at New Asia on the 70th floor of my hotel. It was a very posh and trendy bar and lounge. The watermelon martini was delish! Here are some pictures of the view:

Blonde Moment

2009-02-19T05:51:00.000Z

Got into Singapore early this morning around 12:30am local time. No issues with the flight – I flew Japan Airlines from Tokyo to Singapore and was in economy this time, but I scoped out an empty row in the back of the aircraft, popped another sleeping pill, and slept most of the way again. Going through customs was no problem – got another stamp in my passport (!), picked up my luggage and jumped in a taxi. The weather was hot and humid even in the middle of the night. Hotel is really really nice. I got up to my room though and I couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on. I seriously fumbled around in the dark pressing buttons for about 10 minutes until I called the operator.
Hi Miss Bailey what can we do for you
Um I can’t get any of my lights to turn on…
Oh ok, we’ll send an engineer up there immediately.
Thanks.
So the engineer comes up, sticks my room key in a slot near the door, and shazam, all the lights magically come on. Wow I felt so dumb. Let’s blame it on my jet-lag. How was I supposed to know this? Anyway, slept for a couple more hours (I think) until waking around 5:30am. Hit up the breakfast at one of the MANY restaurants at my hotel and WOW, I am so impressed. It’s a ginormous breakfast buffet… kind of reminded me of a cruise with all the options, and everything was super fresh. Fresh squeezed OJ, lots of fresh fruit (exotic types like papaya and starfruit), even a real honeycomb that you could scrape fresh honey off of for cereal or yogurt. Some unique foods too that I will maybe try later like chicken porridge. Now I know porridge means oatmeal, but chicken + oatmeal together? Hmm. Anyway, had my coffee & some food and headed down to the lobby around 8am to meet other team members and jump in a cab to the office. I shared a cab with 2 guys from the U.S., a Deloitte manager out of the L.A. office who’s actually from Australia, and a client manager out of the San Francisco office who’s actually from right outside London. The Deloitte guy was telling me how he refers to Singapore as “Asia for beginners.” I found this kind of funny, but I can see why now… it’s clean, safe, pretty much everyone speaks English, plenty of cuisine choices, not too crowded with tourists, and no crazy bicyclists that’ll run you over if you don’t watch out.

Ok gotta run. More later including some pictures that I took of the view from my hotel. Need to get some work done tho.

14 down, 8 to go

2009-02-18T07:58:00.004Z

Hola everyone! Or shall I say konnichiha! I've made it to Tokyo. I’ve got a 3 hour lay-over until my flight to Singapore so I thought I’d check in. The 14 hour flight over wasn't too bad. I slept most of the way. Thank goodness for business class seats! I sat next to a nice man that was probably the most cultured person I’ve ever met. Every city I mentioned that I enjoyed visiting, he said he had lived there at some period in his life... I mean, Singapore, China, London, New York, you name it. He also gave me some contacts in Singapore. Anyway, I killed some time on my lay-over and took a couple pics. enjoy.

Um hi, which one is the flight to Singapore??

Checking out the shops. I didn't have any yen, but it was fun to look :)

Food for Thought

2009-02-17T14:54:00.000Z

Well I’m at DFW airport waiting to leave for Tokyo. I really don’t understand why I have to be here 2 hours in advance for an international flight. I’m absolutely exhausted and I haven’t even left Dallas yet! This is due to the fact that I’ve gotten 4-6 hours of sleep each night over the last 4 nights… staying out too late, stressing about my flight, stressing about packing, stressing about sleeping through the 2 alarms that I set this morning, and finally feelings of excitement/anticipation. Luckily I have 23 hours to sleep! I decided that Tylonal PM was not going to do it for me this time. Nope, I needed something stronger so I thought I’d give Ambien a try. My British friends tell me that Americans are way too self-medicated. So true. So true. Haha. So I’m armed with my sleeping pills and ready to rock. Mom, I know you warned me that people can die from taking these. Rest assured though that I will not be operating any large machinery while in my Ambien-induced coma. This also got me thinking about death. Statistically speaking, I wonder if I’m increasing my chances of being in a plane crash since I fly so much? Hmm. I guess that’s the risk that I take. Then again, this is how I feel about death.
When it’s my time
Then it’s my time
I’m not really worried
I know where I’m going.
No point in worrying about it. Whether I die at 24 or 104, there’s not much I can do about it… besides preventative measures like a healthy diet, exercise, etc of course.
But if I were to die in the sky
I would just hope it would be quick
And you know what
I think I would die
Happy.
Let’s hope I get to Singapore without any troubles though!

I'm headed to Singapore!

2009-02-17T02:47:00.010Z

Welcome back friends and family! In lieu of the most recent events, I will be starting up my blog again. But first, I thought I’d do a quick recap from my last post until now since it's been awhile. Lots of fun-filled adventures to report...

First off, London was amazing. I know I rarely posted updates, but that's because I was so busy having fun! I enjoyed the city so much in fact that I plan on moving there once the opportunity presents itself. Whether that be 6 months from now or 6 years, I do not know. There's just so much to do... salsa dancing, live jazz, amazing architecture, great clubs, Broadway shows, incredible shopping, tons of super fun British people... awesome city. Can't wait to go back.

After returning from London, I hit the beach. And by the beach, I mean the bench. I sat on the sidelines un-staffed for a couple weeks, which was actually a nice change. I found several things to help out with though so by no means was I bored, but I got to enjoy a nice work-life balance. I also had some time-off planned for a lovely trip to New York with some fabulous friends and fellow Deloitters! Nancy was interviewing with Stern so why not make a weekend out of it? I am so proud of her - she is dominating the grad school application process! Here are some pictures from the long weekend:

The shopping tour through the garment district was fabulous... highly recommended. I got some amazing jewelry for a great deal and Elana got, well, a ton of awesome things including a coat from Paris for $200 that retails for $900. Here's the website if you want to go: The Elegant Tightwad

We celebrated Nancy's birthday first with cupcakes from Magnolia's Bakery, and then a night out in NYC that started off at the Comedy Cellar. Minus the fact that the waitress spilled a whole tray of pink drinks all over us and our table, it was a good show. Funny comedians!

Of course after a night of heavy drinking, late-night food at 3am is a must. Elana and I dined at Cafeteria - a 24 hour restaurant that serves absolutely delicious food. I think it's even Rachel Ray recommended.

and a trip to New York would not be complete without seeing Mary! and Katie Egan too! Mary joined Elana and I on Saturday for the Sex and the City tour - a tour that takes you all over New York pointing out scenes from the show and movie, and showing clips as you go. We also hit up a winebar in the Lower East Side called, well, Winebar. Such a creative name. The above picture though is from the beer bar that we went to called Spitzer's. Oh and we had brunch at the Mercer hotel on Sunday... delish!

Ok back to the present. I was asked back to my old project on Saturday and long story short, I leave for Singapore tomorrow morning. 23 hours of flying time plus a 3 hour layover in Tokyo. Definitely the longest flight I've ever taken!

As tradition whenever I leave Dallas for a long period of time, I enjoyed some American things over the weekend… Starbucks, Eatzi's, DRIVING, more Starbucks, etc. I also tried a new frozen yogurt place in Dallas called Yogilicious since Elana had raved about it for umm every day since she's tried it. The website actually calls it a "Dessert Lounge" ooo fancy schmancy. You walk in, self-serve to fro-yo and toppings, and pay by the weight. Check it out if you haven't yet! It's in West Village on the other side of Blackburn.

Well, it was a fun little evening up until we couldn’t find Allison’s car – only to find out that it was towed from my apartment complex! Note-to-self: going to the impound lot at 10pm is not-so-safe. It was in the middle of nowhere where the land is cheap and the boogie monsters are probably hiding behind every tree (or navy blue G35). $144 later, we got blueberry back (yep, that’s her name haha). And we (luckily) made it back to the bubble safe and sound!

Alrighty back to my main point... I am going to Singapore tomorrow and thus, this blog will be the communication link between me and all my fave people back in the states (and/or Europe). I'll have my cell though if there are any big updates where a phone call is necessary! It's just a bit expensive to chat... more so than when I was in Europe. So how did this all come about... well as my mom says, sometimes we need to be careful what we wish for. As many of you know, I started off 2009 with one new year’s resolution. No, it wasn’t to lose weight or eat healthier or budget better like many of the traditional American resolutions. It was to be more spontaneous! I actually do not enjoy being spontaneous since I like to be able to PLAN my every move, but the goal here was to jump completely out of my comfort zone and just enjoy living. living hard. So there I was. Late Saturday afternoon on Valentine's day and my old manager emails me requesting that I fly to Singapore as soon as possible for a previous client, and that I would be there for a month. what? huh? how really am I going to pull this off??? but I have plaaaaans. And that's the thing about being spontaneous, you pretty much don't have plans or you scratch the plans you have for new plans and new adventures. So first I was uncomfortable and unsure, but now that it's sunk in, I'm excited!

I have never been anywhere in the Asia Pacific so this should be quite the adventure. In trying to explain Singapore, one of my friends said it is like “New York on steroids.” Well, I love love love New York so this should be good. And for those of you wondering where exactly Singapore is located on a map, here ya go:

I don't know much about the country, but I do know that it's incredibly safe and incredibly clean. In fact, you can eat off the subway floors. As far as the crime, there is none because there is zero (ZERO) tolerance for anything disrupting the peace. If you bring drugs in, prepare to get hung. If you litter, you'll get caned. If you have a weapon, they'll kill you. The laws are very strict! I hope I don't get caned...
As far as everything else, I don't know much. I didn't even get any Singapore dollars yet. I'm winging it! I do know though that I will be staying here:
Swissotel Stamford
Also, the time difference (from U.S. Central Time) is 14 hours. Yes, I will be half way around the world.

I'll check in with everyone when I get over there!

xo

Found the Bench!

2009-01-13T18:52:00.008Z

A quick update from London... I know I have not been good about letting you all know what I have been up to, where I have been in the city, how much fun I have been having, etc., but rest assured that I have been busy and I am loving it! I got up today and decided I would venture out to find the Hornblow bench. It was quite the treasure hunt. I first thought Grovesner Park was the right park until I realized none of the benches said Hornblow on them and that I really wasn't at the right spot after all. I eventually found it though based on the landmarks that Caroline provided me with. Here is a video I took!

After I found the bench, I walked down Park Lane and toward Knightsbridge. Visited the huge Harvey Nichols and Harrod's sales. Very overwhelming. Sales were good, but a lot of things were still quite expensive (i.e. Burberry purse that I liked: originally $3000, on sale for $1200 or something) haha. So I mainly just window-shopped. I've found that the clothes in London are either really cheap [fabric and cheap-looking] or incredibly expensive. Still searching for that happy medium...

Also - on two different occasions today, people asked me for directions. First, a British lady was looking for the Dorchester. I was able to give her good directions! Then, an American couple approached me and I was able to lead them in the right direction. They wanted to go to the Hard Rock cafe. Typical Americans. haha.

Additionally - visited London Business School yesterday.

It's awesome. I may just be moving to London. First I went to the tour of the school and brief info session - every Monday and Friday at 3pm - found this on the website. It was a small group of about 5 of us. Most had already been given an offer and were just checking out the school. The school is literally 2 tube stops away from my hotel at Marble Arch (had to switch trains once). LBS is relatively small at around 320 people per class size, 25% women, but it would give me the perfect global MBA experience - should that be what I want. So the tour/info session was 1.5 hrs long and then it just so happened that they also had an Admissions meeting later that evening. What are the chances? I think these are offered about 3 times between Jan and May. So I went back for the Admissions meeting where they talked about getting in, had a short mock class on Fixed Income, had a panel of 5 current students and alum, and a Q&A. So for the panel, there is a a German girl, an Italian guy, a girl from Holland, a guy from the U.S., and a British guy. We get into the panel and the American guy mentions that he went to a small college in MN for undergrad - St. Olaf!! He then moved to NYC for work, and is now in his first year at LBS. Seems like a great school. The average age though is a little higher than schools in the U.S. at around 29. And it would be more expensive than any other school I'm looking at in the U.S. Ok gotta get going... ttyl!

(Another) Change of Plans

2009-01-11T13:26:00.002Z

I'm staying until Saturday.

Re-booked my flight this morning.

I need more time in London.......

Saturday Morning.

2009-01-11T12:36:00.000Z

I am in London!

My morning went a little like this…
.
Alarm went off around 6:15am and I found myself craving a day of sleeping in, but I couldn’t argue with myself since I knew London was only a few hours away.
Was too tired to take the train from Amsterdam into Schipol so I jumped into a cab from the hotel. Or maybe it was my booze-induced headache; whatever. I didn’t feel like schlepping my luggage over in up down and around the station.
I get to the airport way too early, but I guess better too early than too late.
Killed some time in the shops and bought some of my favorite Milka chocolate… the kind with the huge hazelnuts engulfed in a sea of milk chocolate. I was never a chocolate person, but this stuff may make me convert.
Ate chocolate hazelnut deliciousness for breakfast.
Why? Because I felt like it. Haha..
Planned my London arrival in my head.
Find ATM. Get pounds.
Buy 1-way Gatwick Express ticket. Get on Gatwick Express. Double make sure it’s the right train. Keep track of belongings.
Don’t lose passport.
Went to the terminal way ahead of time. Waited for the gate to be announced.
Waited.
Waited.
Waited.
There is no seating area. Just a huge crowd of people staring up at this one monitor waiting for the gate to post.
Waited some more.
Finally it posted 25 min. before the flight was due to leave.
Everyone flying to Gatwick took off to the gate like a herd of cattle.
Waited in boarding area like a herd of cattle (no assigned seats since it’s one of those discount airlines).
Finally boarded and said good-bye to Amsterdam. Very short flight, under an hour in the air.
Oh and I was able to buy my Gatwick Express ticket on the plane via credit card. 16 pounds. What a deal.
Got into Gatwick. Walked about a mile or more to customs.
Got my passport stamped!
Picked up luggage. Went to South terminal to catch the train. Now here is where I can see that it’s easy to get on the wrong train. Yes, there are signs everywhere saying which train is going where, but when all you’re thinking about is getting to the city to
Eat
Drink Pimms & Lemonade
Shop
See a play
Visit a museum
Get lost in the city
It’s easy for the mind to wander and just step on the wrong train in over-excitement.
Luckily this didn’t happen to me. I asked to be sure and then asked again. I was headed to nonstop Victoria station.
And here I am.
On the Gatwick Express.
Weather is cold. As in -7 degrees Celsius. Whatever that converts to? Very cloudy and foggy. Feels a tad warmer than Amsterdam though.
I’ll try to find some Wi-Fi somewhere around my hotel to post this.
More to come!
Xo
L

Last Day in Amsterdam

2009-01-09T19:03:00.003Z

Last night in Amsterdam so I'm going out with some colleagues and then I head to London tomorrow!! At first I thought 5 days in London may be a little bit much all by my lonesome, but now I'm thinking it's not enough! I'm flying on a discount airline called EasyJet so hopefully that gets me (and my luggage) to Gatwick without problems. Luckily for me, Aunt Caroline has given me the 411 on how to get from Gatwick to my hotel off Park Lane without having to take out a small loan for a taxi (the Marriott website recommended a taxi). I'll be flying out of Heathrow back to the U.S. so that will be much closer and convenient. Anyway, not much time for a post tonight as I have one last call in 30 minutes with some folks in the U.S., and then I have a week off to myself. Also, not sure how the wi-fi situation will work out so I'll try to keep yall updated, but no promises until I arrive and scope out the situation. I've been paying 20 euro a day on the client's dime for internet, but on my own dime, I think I'll pass. haha. In any event, I have my iPod touch so if I do find wi-fi, I can at least check my Gmail if anyone wants to email me!

So I'm still not sure exactally what I'll be wandering around doing, but I found this list of 101 things to do to help get me started (in addition to lots of great suggestions from C). Like I said, I've already done a lot of these 4 years ago, but some might be fun to go back to. Here's the list:
1. Visit the Big Ben.
2. Photograph the Thames River.
3. Take a river cruise on the Thames.
4. Visit the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. You can take a river cruise to get there!
5. Ride on the London Eye, the largest ferris wheel in the world.
6. Stop by Grosvenor Square.
7. Immerse yourself in culture at the British Museum.
8. Watch a Broadway show.
9. Buy gifts for friends and family at the over 300 shops located on Oxford Street.
10. Stroll down The Mall, a road that leads to the Buckingham Palace.
11. Visit the Buckingham Palace.
12. Experience the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
13. Hike up the geometric staircase at a St. Paul's Cathedral tour.
14. Take a bus through one of London's largest transportation hubs: Victoria Station.
15. Pub much? Be sure to visit one of the J.D Wetherspoon chain pubs.
16. Take the London Underground: These trains have cushioned seats and there's a nice LED display overhead that gives riders the estimated time for the next train.
17. Make sure to "mind the gap."
18. Go on the Circle Line ... in a circle. (I did this in college.)
19. Witness the fountains in Trafalgar Square, or photograph the great Christmas tree that is erected during the winter
20. Tour the Tower of London, where you can see the very precious Crown Jewels.
21. Find out where British Prime Minister Gordon Brown lives: 10 Downing Street. Visit his residence.
22. Sherlock Holmes fan? Visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum.
23. See hundreds of books, writings, and photographs related to the Holocaust at the Wiener Library.
24. Be amazed when you visit Stonehenge, which is outside the city.
25. Grab lunch at the Porter's English Restaurant (17 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden).
26. Enjoy the scenic nightlife in Piccadilly Circus, which is likened to the Times Square of England.
27. ...and spend some time with the teenager in you at the Funland or Golden Nugget Casino located within Trocadero. The centre is packed with dining and other entertainmnent venues as well.
28. Visit the global headquarters of Reuters at Canary Wharf.
29. At the Victoria and Albert Museum, walk through rooms filled with ceramic and glass designs, as well as beautiful paintings.
30. Take the family and have a picnic in Battersea Park.
31. ...then take the kids to the Battersea Park Children's Zoo.
32. Experience the diversity of the Golders Green borough, with a mix of Kosher, Japanese, Turkish, and Italian restaurants.
33. Get seen on the London cam.
34. Check out Belgravia's beautiful streets of townhouses and famous embassies.
35. Go shopping at Harrod's in Belgravia.
36. ...and sample some ale at the Grenadier pub in Belgravia after you finished shopping (18 Wilton Row).
37. Stop through Bayswater.
38. Explore the galleries at the National Army Museum.
39. Set aside at least two hours to explore the extravagantly decorated rooms at the St. George's Chapel in the Windsor Castle.
40. Witness Evensong at the Windsor Castle. (Be sure to check the schedule!)
41. Embrace the vastness of Queen Mary's Dolls' House, which is also located inside the Windsor Castle.
42. Check out the wax sculptures at the Madame Tussaud's museum.
43. Step through the academic city by stopping in Bloomsbury.
44. ...then enjoy the lunch you packed for your trip at Bloomsbury's nearby Russell Square.
45. Absorb the history of Covent Garden in central London.
46. Wake up early and experience the local flavor of Spitalfields and be sure to check out the fruit and vegetable market!
47. While in the Spitalfields area, go to Dennis Severs' House.
48. Explore the city by water (and in comfort) by taking a lunch or dinner cruise.
49. Learn about the Bank of England at its museum.
50. Set your sights on the beautiful architecture at Westminster Abbey.
51. ...and be sure not to leave without viewing the monuments at Poets' Corner.
52. Relive the life of The Beatles.
53. See a show at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
54. Buy your children toys from Hamleys Toy Store.
55. Go to Hampstead Heath to see the city from afar.
56. Catch a movie premiere at the cinema in Leicester Square.
57. Take a train to Dover, and witness the famous White Cliffs.
58. Witness the protestors at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, and take a guided tour or attend the London's fair during the winter holidays.
59. Prepapre for an expensive dinner at the highly regarded Michael Moore restaurant (19 Blandford Street).
60. Stroll down Whitehall.
61. Contrast the city lifestyle to the village life in Canterbury, home of Geoffrey Chaucer's famous tales.
62. See where the Mayor of London lives: City Hall.
63. Get overwhelmed by the massive monuments at the London Wall.
64. Photograph one of the many red phone booths on the city streets.
65. Read a book at one of London's specialized libraries.
66. If you're in London between March and October, check out Legoland Windsor with the kids.
67. Book a night for a show at the London Palladium Theatre.
68. Step into royal history at the Hampton Court Palace.
69. Enjoy an organic meal at the Lavendar Lady restaurant (644 High Road, North Finchley).
70. Stroll around the aisles in the National Gallery and see some of the greatest European artwork.
71. Wine and dine at the House on the Bridge Restaurant.
72. Take advantage of free admission to the Science Museum.
73. Pay tribute to the late princess Diana by visiting the Diana Memorial Playground where you can dash by teepees, see a pirate ship, and then enjoy a light meal at a cafe.
74. Relax and have a drink at the Salisbury Pub (90 St. Martin's Lane).
75. See the city on a Original London Sightseeing Tour: book your ticket (which includes a free cruise) online at a discounted rate.
76. Watch a judicial hearing at the UK Parliament.
77. When it reopens (Summer 2007), walk through the newly transformed London's Transport Museum.
78. See the animals at London Zoo.
79. Ride in a traditional London black cab.
80. Shop at the elegant Burlington Arcade, which has its history dating back to 1819.
81. See where Princes William and Harry went to school by stopping in Eton.
82. Be up close to The Da Vinci Code movie and explore the Temple Church.
83. Relive the Harry Potter books and movies by stopping at Platform 9 3/4 in the Kings Cross station.
84. See the exhibitions at Tate Modern, a museum of international modern and contemporary art.
85. Get spooked at the London Dungeon.
86. Visit the Notting Hill district.
87. Take the kids to a puppet show at the Little Angel Theatre.
88. Sample some Italian food at Carluccios.
89. Feed the ducks at St. James's Park.
90. Cross the River Thames on the Millennium Bridge.
91. Read Charles Dickens much? Take a Charles Dickens Museum stop to see paintings, manuscripts, and more memorabilia relating to the famous author.
92. Explore Chinatown at night.
93. Plan an adventure at Chesssington, one of England's most famous theme parks (it's 12 miles outside of London!)
94. Eat lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (150 Old Park Lane).
95. Take a tour of Wimbledon, even if you don't love tennis!
96. Go to Bath and see the magnificent Roman bathing complexes that give the city its name.
97. Enjoy the culture at the Somerset House.
98. Feel scholarly after taking a trip to Oxford.
99. Buy some Cadbury sweets.
100. Watch a live Gilbert and Sullivan operetta performance at the historical Savoy Theatre.
101. Buy a London Pass for more tips and discounted rates!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Change of Plans

2009-01-08T14:27:00.002Z

Surprised? Me neither. But before I go into what the next few weeks holds, here’s a quick update from the past two days…

I got all caught up on sleep the first night and have enjoyed feeling well-rested so honestly, I have not so much been up for going out in the city. I want to take advantage of being in Amsterdam of course, but it’s been so cold so I’d rather be in bed at a decent time, and not curse my alarm clock when it rings at 6:30am for work. So with that said, my update isn’t too exciting. We’ve been working until around 7pm, then taking the 7:30pm train back to the city so we don’t really get back until a little after 8pm. Tuesday, 4 of us Deloitters went out for a Mediterranean dinner. Mediterranean is one of my favorite cuisines! I love hummus, the yogurt-based cucumber sauces, the greek vinaigrette flavors, pita bread, etc. I was very tempted to get the chicken dish, but decided to go for the yoghurt and grilled lamb entrée on top of a pita. It was dark meat, but quite tender oval strips of grilled lamb on top of pitas and a little bit of tomato-based sauce with yoghurt dipping sauces on the side, with an authentic hummus appetizer. We also tried a Turkish alcoholic drink called Raki. It tastes kind of like Sambuca and black licorice. In Turkey, raki is the unofficial 'national drink' and it is traditionally drunk mixed with water. The dilution causes this alcoholic drink to turn a milky-white color, and possibly because of its color, this mixture is popularly called aslan sütü (or arslan sütü), literally meaning "lion's milk" (Wikipedia). So we drank some lion’s milk… and it wasn’t very good (not sweet enough for me), but I tried it.

Wednesday was business as usual. Not much to report here. Oh I did run into one of my friends on the train that I had met back in December. We randomly got to talking last time and he was telling me all about his move from Mirabella (France) to Holland. It’s very interesting learning about the difference in schooling, culture, etc., and he speaks about 5 languages. Anyway, I pretty much worked all day Wednesday, got back to Amsterdam around 8:15pm, walked by my favorite soup place, picked up some soup, went back to my lovely hotel, did some research for a new project, and went to bed.

Ok now onto the latest updates on my travel plans. Basically, a lot has changed! I was originally planning on being here for 2 weeks, then traveling to Barcelona, then flying to London, then flying back to the U.S. on 1/21. Well, we are ahead of schedule so we were all asked to move our flights to this Saturday, and then plan to be in Santa Clara next week. I am determined to go to London so I explained my former plan to my manager’s manager and asked if I could at least take Monday off and then go to London Saturday-Tuesday, and then fly directly to Santa Clara from Heathrow on late Monday or early Tuesday. Well she proposed that I just move my vacation week (scheduled for 1/19) up one week and then go to Santa Clara the following week (1/26). Yay. That means I get to go to London! I am skipping Barcelona since my colleagues are no longer going. So I am headed to London on Saturday… flying out of Amsterdam on Saturday morning 9am, and staying until 1pm on Wednesday, so about 5 days. Looks like I will be making friends when I get there. Since it’s kind of last minute planning, I’ll most definitely be flying by the seat of my pants, but I do know that I will be staying at the Marriott on Park Lane (and using 110,000 Marriott points!). So I’ll get back late Wednesday evening next week, then I have a meeting with a partner in Irving the following day, and I need to look for a new project, then I’ll get to enjoy the long weekend (MLK on Monday) and get caught up on sleep. On that Tuesday after MLK, I head back to Santa Clara for my final week on Sun. I rolloff the project for good on 1/23 and it looks like I may be un-staffed for awhile… not sure if that means 2 weeks or 2 months or more…

Uh-MAZE-ing

2009-01-06T09:42:00.000Z

So I was in a bit of a rush last night, not to mention a state of exhaustion, so I forgot to properly welcome everyone back to my blog. I have returned to Amsterdam for who knows how long, and thus, decided to keep the blog alive for the remainder of my stay here in Holland or wherever else my European travels take me. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope 2009 is a year full of joy for all! And I guess what better way to kick off the year than a trip to Amsterdam? Granted, it is starting to feel routine flying out here, but I’m hoping this time I will finally get a chance to explore, jump over to the UK, and do what I want to do, un-interrupted by client demands and my inbox. We will see! For now, I am content knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, i.e. I have definitely been confirmed for roll-off on January 16th.

Anyway, Christmas break is over and here I am. In Amsterdam. Again. Remember when I was here a couple months ago and I had small creatures in my hotel room? Well because of the infamous mice that ate my granola bars at the Victoria, I decided to book a different hotel this time around. Let me preface this by saying that I am a hotel snob. Yep, that’s right. I learned early on in my consulting career the difference between good (W Hotel New York) and bad (Best Western, Houston). In both the former and the latter, I faced flight cancellations and had to scramble for an overnight stay until I could get home. So anyway, this time I booked the Marriott Renaissance. I had stayed there back in August a few nights and remembered the nice beds, but that it had been under construction so the entry way was kind of ghetto (read: in an alleyway). Well, the complete renovation has been finished because when I walked into the new glistening lobby, my mouth about dropped. It’s an amazing hotel! Not only was I impressed with the lobby, but it looks as if I have been upgraded to a nicer room (thank you Platinum status), free breakfast every day (thank you again), and free drink coupons for the bar (woo-hoo!). I am finally reaping the benefits of my Marriott loyalty. I stayed 97 nights last year alone (which by the way does not include all my stays at Sheraton properties or Hilton properties… yes, this may be why I am a hotel snob). I will post pics of the hotel later...

Here we go again...

2009-01-05T17:02:00.001Z

I am back! And I am very sleep-deprived… the flight was around 10 hours and quite uncomfortable, but I maybe slept an hour or two. Come to think of it, I believe I have pulled more all-nighters post-college than I did in college! We landed in Amsterdam at 8am local time (1am Central U.S. time). My Deloitte manager happened to be on my flight which was pretty nice since he had already reserved a car for us at Schipol upon arrival. He also informed me that travel plans could be changing, and that we may only be here one week – flying back to the U.S. this weekend and working in Santa Clara next week. This is a problem for 2 reasons… one, have been planning on going to London and two, I packed enough clothes to stay here for several weeks (a girl has got to have options). Had I known I would only be here a week, I would have carried on my luggage and packed extremely light. But, in true [consulting] fashion, we will not know what the next few weeks hold until later in the week. More to come on that. Anyway, I watched the sunrise from the cab ride over to the client, and have managed to make it through the day… somehow… only with 1 redbull. I haven’t been too productive since my eyes have really just been glazing over my computer screen, but hopefully I am at least LOOKING like I’m being productive. Gotta get going for now, but check back for more updates shortly.
Xo Laura

Belgium.

2008-12-15T12:45:00.010Z

Well it's Monday again so I thought I'd provide a weekend update. But first, the news of the day... I didn't want to say anything until it was "official" since things change so easily on this project, but now that it's been confirmed, I thought I'd share it with all of you. I will be coming back to the Netherlands in January. I need to be back January 5th to be exact so I'll be flying out on Jan. 4th from the states. As of now, it's only a 2-week stint, but I may extend it a little bit and actually take some vacation days since I currently have 25 in the 'bank.' I'm thinking London, but could be persueded otherwise if any of you will be or want to be in Europe around mid-January. Think about it!! The british pound is not very strong right now which means things are much cheaper there than in previous years. Also, with all my Marriott points, the hotel will probably cost me, well... nothing. Some of my colleagues are considering renting a car and driving through Germany which may be equally as fun. Let me know if anyone has any thoughts on this! And since I'm headed back to the Netherlands in early 2009, I'll most likely be keeping the blog alive so hope you all are still enjoying the updates!

Now, onto the weekend recap...

You know how during the week you can look forward to a weekend of no work, sleeping in, relaxing, and rejuvenation, right? Well my weekend was nothing of the sort. First of all, I worked Saturday, second of all, Sunday night hit and I've never been more tired in my life. So extremely and utterly... exhausted.

So Friday came around and it was a bit of a teaser. It didn't FEEL like Friday since I had to work Saturday, but I ended up going out anyway. ha. Two of my colleagues and I (aka the three Stooges as we are starting to be known as) had plans to hit the one, the only, the hottest club in Amsterdam: JimmyWoo. We had tried before and hadn’t gotten in, but this time, the concierge had made sure we were on the exclusive list. Just to paint the picture, it’s one of those clubs that enjoys it when a bunch of people crowd around the black velvet rope waiting to get let in, only to be turned away for the sake of turning people away. It’s dumb really, but we had heard all about the hype (and especially with both of them being from L.A.), we wanted to see what it was all about. Well we head down to Leidseplein where JimmyWoo is located and lo and behold, we get in. It was a neat club, two levels, great music, lots of people. The club is really neat inside too... lined with hundreds of lightbulbs on the ceiling and walls, and flashing in different patterns. We drank. We danced. We observed the European-ness. It was a good time. We capped off the night with a stop for food at 2am, where we got some delicious kip sharmas, and finally to bed around 3am. Oh a kip sharma is like a pita with chicken inside. I really wasn’t planning on staying out until 3am since it was a work night, but life is about choices, and I was fine with being a bit tired the following day. Plus, the boss had told me that I didn’t need to come in until 10am. I didn't take many pictures at JimmyWoo, but this one illustrates the light-bulb effect that I was talking about:

Saturday morning comes a bit too early and I wake up to gather my belongings and check out. Oh yeah – forgot to mention that we decided to go to Antwerp, Belgium for Saturday night through Sunday. I get my luggage stored away and just bring a small duffle with me to the office so that we can cruise on over to Belgium after work. I decide to start a book on my way over to Amersfoort which I'm sure many of you have red: Eat, Pray, Love. It has been on my bookshelf for quite some time, waiting for me to get into the reading mood which is rare for me since (1) I am a terribly slow reader and (2) who has time to read? Well for whatever reason, I was in the mood to bury myself in a book for the train over and I’m really enjoying it so far. Anyway, fast forward through the work day to the evening where the 3 of us get on a train to Antwerp. It was very last minute since we were on the fence about going up until literally Friday night. I had tried to find a hotel and 99% of the hotel rooms in the city were completely booked and those that weren’t booked, were like $400 euro. The only option was to risk it and book a room at the Hilton for $390 euro, hoping that Super Diamond Platinum status would get us upgraded to a suite or something. My initial reaction to the plan was no, but hey you only live once and it’s only one night so... there I was, on a 2 hour train ride to Antwerp. We arrived that evening at the Hilton and to our dismay, there were no suites available to upgrade us to, but we did get an executive room on the executive floor and a roll-away which meant we all each had our own bed (the European standard of 2 twin beds + a roll-away). We pretty much threw our stuff into the room and bee-lined it for the executive lounge (read: complementary open bar) and were able to enjoy some more benefits of being at the top of the Hilton food chain. The rest of the evening was packed with more drinks, first at a Jazz bar, and then at a club in Antwerp (discotech as they're called in Europe). It was neat because one of my colleagues had two friends that recently moved to Antwerp so we met up with them and they knew where to go. We didn’t have an appropriate dinner so somehow decided to eat Falafels at 3am (which is becoming a trend...), which is like a big pita with vegetarian- how do I explain them.. meat-balls? Except they are vegetarian.

The following day, I, being the morning person that I am, got up around 10am and headed out to see the city. The Hilton is located in the heart of the Centrum so I was literally across the street from the massive Cathedral. It was so beautiful inside and out. I’m talking completely ornate, massive, unbelievable. Around 11am, the KerstMarkt opened, also known as the Christmas Market. It’s basically all these portable houses lined up, selling tons of Belgium food and drinks, clothes, Christmas things, etc. It was definitely fun to people watch too. The guys got up around 1am - in time to get checked out and do some more exploring. It's customary to drink a lot on Sunday so we sampled a few of the Belgium liquers in the market called Jenever. They come in all different flavors, in a little shot glass, and I tried the Amaretto... yum. We stayed pretty close to the Cathedral and all the tourist-y areas, but it was really neat to see everyone out and everything decorated for Christmas. Here are some pics:

Antwerp Cathedral of our Lady: Built between 1352 and 1521 as one of the world's tallest buildings at the time. It is one of the finest gothic buildings in Europe.

The Hilton - located right next to all the Christmas markets

Getting our Jenever shots... a very delicious liqueur. Europeans love to drink.

KerstMarkt

The portable houses with the Cathedral in the background

The beautiful Antwerp Centraal train station, decorated for the season

More pictures to come...

I left Antwerp around 6:15pm, enroute to catch the 7pm train back to Amsterdam so that I could get checked back into the Victoria, and catch up on SLEEP!

My Nepalese Experience

2008-12-12T11:14:00.006Z

1 week left!!! At this time next week, I’ll be heading back to the states. Time flies when you’re having fun… and even when you’re not! Haha. (For the record, we are having fun, but it’s not always fun and games… such is life). Truth be told I really can’t believe I’ve survived this long without Starbucks. Yes I miss my bed and I miss my friends and family and car and home, but I have a bed to sleep in (albeit not a very good one, but I am usually too tired to notice) and due to the wonderful world of advanced technology, I am able to get in touch with the people in my life to fulfill that aspect. I have yet to find a substitute for Starbucks though! There is just no replacement here for a giant extra-hot triple-shot vanilla latte. The coffee here comes in one size (small) and in one strength (not strong enough). Ah yes, I long to give my lovely Starbucks gold card some good wear and tear; it has been so lonely in my wallet from not being used! Ok ok I know I talk about Starbucks far too much, but it really has become my make-a-bad-day-better "vice." I mean, wake up late? Case of the Mondays? Missed the train/bus? Bad hair day? No problem. With a $4 latte, you too, can turn that frown upside-down. In just 7 days, I will have access to around 8 starbucks within a 1-mile radius!

Ok I’m off my soap-box. lol. Onto the reason y’all read my blog… travel updates!

Yesterday was pretty unproductive. And that is an understatement. The team in the U.S. decided that the application environment needed to be brought down at the end of their day in order to fix a few things and apply patches. Well, their day-end affects our day-beginning so we got in to work to find out that the environment was not in service. It was only supposed to be down half a day (Europe time), but it ended up that this down-time window kept getting longer. They finally told us to head home around 3:30pm. Needless-to-say, we did not meet our testing targets yesterday, but it was an extremely nice surprise to be able to head back to the city when the sun was still up. My 2 colleagues and I went back to the hotel and all took naps! All this traveling, working hard and then partying hard to compensate for the work/stress/craziness that defines this project was definitely catching up to us. I actually feel like I’m getting a slight cold, so I increased my sleep and tea intake earlier this week to hopefully ward it off. Anyway, we all slept a little while and then woke up in time to head out for a late dinner and perhaps after-dinner adventure.

We bundled up and took the tram to Leidseplein, in search of some good food and drinks. Walked around a bit and settled on a Nepalese restaurant which the other two had eaten at and absolutely loved the first time around. Me, the American girl, was just thinking, I don’t even know where Nepal is on a map?? And I have no idea what is involved in Nepalese food, but I was in a very laid-back mood so I went along with it. It literally felt like I had stepped into Nepal with all the authentic decorations in the little restaurant and it looked as if the owners were sporting clothes straight from Nepal. So my colleagues and I sat down and began discussing the Middle East and it just proved even more how incredibly white American I am. This may be a blanket statement, but I really do think that Americans are clueless when it comes to the rest of the world – the languages, the culture, the traditions, the way of life. Yes, this includes me – I am a bit clueless – but I am learning, and probably the best thing we all can do is to travel! It’s interesting that the U.S. doesn’t really focus on world news, but when you turn on a radio or TV over here, they always start with the world news. And furthermore, most people over here know at least 2 different languages (fluently) as they all grow up speaking multiple languages at once. So we are sitting at dinner and then we start talking about India (they are both 100% Indian, but now live in L.A. – one is a U.S. citizen and one is an Americanized Indian although not a citizen), and it dawns on me that the U.S. was originally populated by Indians. Now granted, I was not exactly born with the gift of remembering history (or geography for that matter), so once I brought this up, it pretty much proved my ignorance. I started remembering the story though… 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He planned on reaching India so when he hit America, he thought it was India and thus, called the people that inhabited it, Indians (ok now that you mention it, U.S. History 101 is coming back...). And Laura the politically correct term these days is Native American. Gosh I am so blonde. For the record, Native Americans and Indians are unrelated. So back to the food. It was good – a mix between Indian and Chinese palettes since (as I found out), Nepal is between India and China.

I tried a little of (almost) everything including the Nepalese cocktail.

Post-dinner plans entailed a Jazz bar across the street. I had read about it and wanted to check it out so we headed over and it was actually quite crowded. It was a narrow, dark bar with plenty of locals, but a good spot to have a drink, enjoy the scene, do a little people-watching, and then head back to the Victoria.

----

For entertainment, some work photos:

Yes, this project makes us all a little border-line crazy at times!

An Amsterdam First

2008-12-10T10:46:00.003Z

Tuesday night, I did something that I had not done in a
Long
Long
Long
Time.

Drum roll please.

I worked out.

Granted it was not the best of efforts since there was only 1 treadmill which was being hogged the whole time I was there (learn some gym etiquette people!), but it was an attempt nonetheless. I really can’t remember the last time I went to the gym which is sad since I used to be a gym rat. It did feel good to get back in there, lifting some weights, and getting my heart rate up. However, I still longed for a breezy run outdoors or a blade down the katy trail, hair blowing in the fresh air. The gym wasn’t bad though considering that it was after all a hotel gym. I paid the $13.5 euro to get in (ugh) and racked my brain, trying to remember the ol’ gym routine. The weights really threw me off though since they were not in pounds. Kilograms maybe? All I know is that what I lift in pounds was much more than the number on the weights that I lifted. Or maybe my muscles have shrunk considerably!

In other news…
We were told Saturday is a work day.
Not sure yet if that means I have to work.
We were also told that Friday, Dec. 19th is a work day.
I am flying back that day. In the morning.
We were asked to look into changing our flight for the following day.
Really?
No, REALLLLLLLY?
I’m going to pretend that conversation never happened.

This Saturday may be a work day, but I am going to Belgium Saturday evening - Sunday!

Weekend Update

2008-12-08T11:37:00.013Z

Things are finally looking up! lots to update everyone on…

The end of my work week last week was pretty manageable. Without boring everyone with the exact details of what I’m actually doing out here, my part of the project (invoicing) is downstream and dependant on a lot of processes. So when there are issues upstream, these need to be resolved before anything can get to me. Anyway, my point is, we had issues upstream which meant that I wasn’t too busy and my other colleague from the client side said that I didn’t have to come in on Saturday! I found this out Friday evening so I didn’t have time to arrange a mini-vacay to Paris, but I did have a few things in mind to do around the city.

Also, Friday was Sinterklaas Day in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas is the patron saint of children, and is very similar to Christmas Eve in the U.S. The story goes, that Santa Clause and the Santa idea & tradition actually first started in Holland in the 1600s. Sinter Klaas became Sint Claes, and then transformed into Santa Clause. Every year on Saint Nicholas Eve (December 5th), Sinterklaas and his Black Petes ride in on a horse, usually carrying a bag, which contains candy for nice children.

Sinterklaas – look familiar??

So anyway, since Friday was Sinterklaas, we actually got back from the office at a reasonable hour (7pm). For dinner, I finally got to try Walk to Wok - It’s an Asian fast food chain in the area which I had heard rave reviews about. It was really really good! You basically choose what you want in the stir fry and they make it on the spot so it’s hot and fresh and quick. I got brown noodles with chicken, broccoli, peanuts, pineapple, and teriyaki. Yum!!

Friday night we went out to Leidseplein. We first went to the Zebra Lounge, but weren’t too impressed so we sampled some other places in the area. We met some English friends too that were in town from Manchester. That’s one thing I love about Europe… it’s so easy to meet people and make friends and it’s not awkward at all like it can be in the U.S. Anyway, I love English people and I love accents! Everyone has an accent in Europe. Or maybe it’s me that has the accent. But accents are fabulous. It’s also funny when everyone asks [instert accent] “Are you from America?” Like it’s this far away land or something. You mean the U.S.? ha. Also meeting English people reminded me that I may want to apply to London School of Business if/when the time comes to apply. Wouldn’t that be great? So we all partied until pretty late Friday night and I think I finally went to bed around 4am. Haha.

On the tram - headed down to Leidseplein

Saturday was a Laura day. I got to SLEEP IN for once and woke up around 10:30. I woke up to the SUN shining through my windows – a nice change from the rain/snow/clouds that we’ve been experiencing pretty much every day. I emailed work to make sure they still didn’t need me to take a train in since several people were working. Nope, I was in the clear. With that confirmation, I headed to the 9 streets which I had heard are full of good shopping. Here’s what the reviews had to say:

The Nine Streets - De Negen Straatjes - is in the heart of Amsterdam's canal district and is one of the city's most delightful shopping areas. Just two minutes walk from the Royal Palace in the Dam Square these picturesque streets straddle the 17th Century canals from the Singel to the Prinsengracht. Spend a fabulous day wandering from one to the next exploring the designer boutiques, art galleries, jewelers, gift shops, fashion shops, specialist businesses and there are plenty of great bars, cafes and restaurants to refresh you along the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself bopping in and out of the little shops in the sunshine. :)

I made it up and down all 9 streets and then it was time to head to the Anne Frank Huis (House) for my 3:30 reservation. It was GENIUS that I had bought my ticket ahead of time at my hotel. This means that I didn’t need to stand in the tourist mob to get a ticket; instead, I got to go in a different reservation-only entrance. Perfect. Oh but first I got a delicious fresh fruit and vegetable smoothie from this juice place that I found! It had carrot, apple, orange, and ginger and was actually very delish and fresh. So I got to the Anne Frank and it was much different than I remembered. Granted, I was 10 years old when I went, but still. It was much more commercialized and had obviously undergone a remodeling to accommodate all the tourists. I did remember the incredibly steep steps in the house though. And wow what a sad sad story. I had forgotten that Otto Frank (Anne Frank’s dad) had survived. The whole museum was very well done and I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated it since I had been there before.

Saturday night and time to go out again. We tried to get reservations at JimmyWoo in Leidseplein which is, arguably the hottest and hippest nightclub in town, but we had heard it’s very difficult to get in so we passed on that one and instead headed to Club Escape in Rembrantplein. It was a huge club, everyone dancing and having a good time. We got the full European disco experience and again, ended up staying out way too late. We also picked up some delicious pizza from “NY Pizza” on the walk back to the hotel. Mmm a slice of the U.S…

Sunday.
More sun!
I woke up with an urge for adventure and spontaneity. After a light lunch at my new favorite soup place, I headed to Centraal Station. Should I go to Haarlem or Delft? I couldn’t decide so I settled on both. After all, Haarlem is on the way to Delft. Armed with my guide books to read on the train, I headed to my first stop with pretty much one goal in mind: do like the locals do. I would find the main square, check out local landmarks (i.e. every Netherlands town seems to have an old Church and new Church), perhaps get an espresso, and just enjoy the day. Haalem is a short 15 minute train ride away from Amsterdam and I was pleasantly surprised! The cool thing about the Netherlands is that you can get off the train at nearly any town and just follow the signs to the Centrum. This will in turn lead to the main square, all the locals, restaurants, markets, and shopping. Haarlem was very charming. It was really nice to get outside of Amsterdam and away from the huge crowds of tourists and craziness that defines the city. I really just spent a lot of time walking around Haarlem and checking out different stores. There was also a festival going on. Although there were crowds, it was much more family-oriented or locals coming into the square from surrounding areas.

Haarlem Grote Markt / Main Square

I got a pretty late start so by the time I left Haarlem, en-route to Delft, I wasn’t sure if anything would be open. I really wanted to go to a Delft-ware painting factory, but unfortunately, by the time I got there, it was dark and after 5pm on a Sunday. I began my journey toward the Centrum anyway thinking maybe a few things would still be open, but everything was closed. Determined to get at least a little insight into the culture in Delft, I found a local bar and restaurant that, among the deserted shops lining the canals, looked pretty happening. I sat and ate (more) soup – I have been eating a lot of soup – and enjoyed a glass of white wine while observing the locals. My stay was short since I didn’t want to have to catch the train back to Amsterdam too late – and I was so exhausted by around 7pm. I (barely) managed to keep my eyes open for the 50 minute train ride back to A’Dam!

The only picture I took of Delft...

Oh and as promised, here are some of my room:

Living area

Dining area with "complementary" beverages

true story

2008-12-04T19:16:00.002Z

I’m doing my update from the train today since it seems as if the 30 minute commute from Amsterdam to Amersfoort and back is about the only free time I’ve been getting. So after the whole mouse incident, I came back to my hotel Tuesday evening to a new ‘executive’ suite. It had a great view, a king bed, and a fruit basket waiting. I literally popped in, saw that all my luggage had been brought over and arranged as I had left it in my previous room, threw my briefcase on my bed, and headed out for drinks and a bite to eat in the city.

Fast forward to after drinks… came back to my new room.
Heard a scratching noise.
Checked under the bed. Checked behind the curtains.
Nothing (was I just paranoid?)
Checked under the bed again
Nothing
Picked up my laptop bag from the bed aaaaaand...
out runs a little grey mouse, across the bed and towards the windows.
He was eating my kashi granola bar in the open flat in my laptop bag!
I screamed.
Then I called the front desk.
The manager came up and assessed the situation, apologized, and explained that this was a common problem they were having due to the construction going on around Centraal station.
Common???
Is there ANY room that you have that has not reported animal friends?
In fact yes, our large suite.
Third times a charm?
He helped me move all my luggage to my new digs
It was much larger. I now have a couch, chairs, dinner table, huge bed… definitely a step up from day one.
Finally got to bed around midnight.

Wednesday.
Typical day at the office.
Told that we’ll have to work this Saturday.
[bummed, but not surprised]
I still have a lot to do in Amsterdam anyway… maybe the Anne Frank Huis, the Heineken Brewery, the Diamond museum, etc..
Got back to the hotel around 8pm. Threw my stuff in my new suite, which by the way now had a whole complementary mini-bar waiting for me on my dining table. Excellent. Make up for my troubles with free water, beer, redbull, soda, and nuts. Considering a bottle of water is around 7 euro, I guess I’ll take what I can get. (note though that I will play the 'mouse' card the rest of my stay here and hopefully get plenty of free baileys & coffee out of the deal)
Headed to an Argentinean place with two of my colleagues. I had gone there back in August and thought it was worth a repeat visit. It was not as good as I remember, but maybe that’s because I took a risk and ordered the salmon. It came grilled, but had some bones sticking out of it. I ate around them and it actually didn't bother me so much. Maybe I am finally embracing the dutch food palate!

Post-dinner plans included a walk to Rembrantplein… one of the hip squares in the city. It was pretty crowded for a Wednesday night! We stopped for a hot waffle at one of waffle the stands. For those that don’t know, Suiker (sugar) waffles are a Dutch dessert here in Holland. Imagine a hot Belgium waffle with sugar crystals baked in and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Delish! Made it back later than I had planned. Oh well… I will catch up on sleep one of these days!

Oh and I will post some new pictures soon, including a pic of my new suite!

Eeewwwww …what's next??

2008-12-02T12:15:00.004Z

I am back I'm Amsterdam after a lovely visit to the states for
Thanksgiving. It was short and sweet but enough to feel refreshed and ready to get back to it at work. Once again, my flight was made very last minute so I was stuck in economy on the flight over the Amsterdam. I had my sleeping “kit” and took a sleeping pill, but as hard as I tried to get comfortable and snooze, I just couldn't get into an REM sleep. 9+ hours on the plane and unable to sleep. Uggh! I even got jealous of the sleeping man next to me, just snoring away. Wow, how pathetic! I know that I have mild insomnia but this was bad. Oh well, it will be a caffeinated day for me.

I finally landed in Amsterdam around 11 am (4am US time) and thought I'd take the train to drop off my luggage at my hotel. But then the ticket machine wouldn't take any of my credit cards (I tried all 3) so I gave up and jumped in a cab. I dropped off my luggage at the Victoria and decided to give the train station another shot. It was my usual route from Amsterdam to Amersfoort on the speed train, which I knew well. Apparently though, I didn’t know it well enough because there was in fact 1 stop before Amersfoort. Everyone was getting off so I figured I should get off too, thinking it was my destination. My gut told me to stay on but I didn’t listen. I ran up 50 yards, saw the train station sign that did NOT read “Amersfoort,” and turned around to watch the doors of the train closing. NOooooooo… Well, looks like I’ll have to jump in another cab. I grabbed a redbull (!) and a taxi and was off to the office. Suddenly, my cost to get to the airport went from 7.10 euro (train) to 100 euro (taxi + train + taxi). Ahhh!

Besides being incredibly exhausted the entire day, it was a pretty normal day at the office. My friends went to Paris over the weekend so it was fun to hear those stories. They were sad to go without me, but they didn’t think we’d have a completely work-free weekend coming up so they jumped when they got the opportunity. I guess I can’t blame ‘em.

After my eyes couldn’t take it anymore, I left work around 6 and headed back to the city. I had a delicious protein bar for dinner and hit the sack around 9am. I woke up this morning, well rested, and *hoping* that it would be a better day. I was wrong.

Before I left the states, I bought a bunch of granola and protein bars since European grocery stores do not carry anything like we have in the U.S. Well when I woke up, my 5-lb zip-lock bag full of granola bars had a hole chewed through it. There were also some wrapper scraps on the floor. Apparently, there was an animal in my room!!! Ew ew ew ew. I am not even in a hostel – I am at the Victoria! Here it is below-

Yet there is a fat rat running around and will probably be back for more. There goes my breakfast for the next 19 days! I got the heebie-jeebies and called a manager. He came up and confirmed that it must have been a mouse. At this point, I had to get to the train station so he assured me that he would pack up and move all my stuff to a different room which would be ready for me when I got back this evening. I then met my colleague and it was a mad dash to the train station. We were literally sprinting (me in heels) across the street and through the station. Which by the way, I can’t remember the last time my heart was beating this furiously. We finally got to the platform with our train… but the doors had closed. And off it went without us. Ahhhhhh! And then my mind resorted back to the whole mouse incident and I got to thinking… do mice like cashmere?? Oh no oh no! They better not or the hotel will be writing me a check! I think I may switch hotels….

At least my week can only go up from here, right..?

Gobble Gobble

2008-11-30T02:57:00.002Z

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that I’ve changed my URL. It is no longer http://rulesofaroadwarrior.blogspot.com. I randomly clicked on that site the other day, after I had changed it to http://laurabsadventures.blogspot.com and found that my previous address has already been put to use, displaying a selection of incredibly odd, semi-inappropriate videos. I don’t know who’s the author behind the content, but it just goes to show that there are some weird people out there!! Anyway, just be sure to go to the new URL: Laura B’s Adventures (super creative, I know)

In other news.....

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all participated in national stuff-yourself-silly day and took time to reflect on all that you are thankful for... food on the table, a warm home, friends & family, a steady job, good health... yes, we are all so lucky. And speaking of luck, I am lucky to have been able to be in MN for the holiday. I felt guilty for about a nano-second since many of my colleagues were staying on-site in The Netherlands and working but I needed a break and darn-it, I deserve it! I arrived in the states on Wednesday and after an interesting experience trying to get through customs (which is a story in itself) the guards finally let me through. I was exhausted of course, but couldn’t miss out on dinner with Caroline & Michael and the fam at Lord Fletchers so what do I do? Get a cappuccino of course and I’m good to go! The walleye was fabulous and what a treat. Thanks C&M! and oooh I will definitely be reading up on my guidebooks that yall got me! (Say a prayer that I will get a weekend off to explore :) )

Then it was Thanksgiving which was delish. My schedule for the day: rest, relax, eat, relax, rest, repeat. Love it. I used my willpower to not check work email and just enjoy the day and I did well for the most part. Ok maybe a couple slip-ups. haha.

Friday was of course national shopping day, also known as black friday. I woke up at 4am since I was still extremely jet-lagged. I waited for mom to get up at 6 and we were at the mall around 8! Let’s just say that we did our parts to stimulate the economy. I hope you all did your parts as well. We need to kick some serious recession butt and the only way to do that is to start spending! Of course we did not go overboard, but I did find some amazing things at Banana. And at 40% off on outerwear, cashmere, and more, you really can’t go wrong. I also enjoyed a starbucks grande xtra-hot skinny caramel latte. mmm. It was a wonderful day and some much-needed mother-daughter time :)

Saturday... spa day! ok spa morning, but still. Cort and I had 8:30am massage appointments at the Aveda institute. After our rub-downs, we grabbed a light breakfast and finally got a chance to catch up which consisted of laughing for a few hours since life is, well, so funny sometimes and even when it’s not, you just gotta laugh. Oh and we decided that we are taking snow boarding lessons together around Christmas. Will we be any good? Time will tell! But first things first, she is leaving for vay-cay in Aruba in 1 week! so jelly. And btw, she has a super cool blog HERE. She is probably the girliest girly girl I know, yet she's a walking sports encyclopedia. Like you know how guys can name sports statistics or list so-and-so's name, team, jersey number, position and complete bio out of thin air? She can do that!! It's craziness. Read her blog and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, it's after 9pm and well past my bedtime... yawn. I am so lame, but yes I am serious. It’s my attempt to stay on (near) euro-time. bye!

my blog is now by invite-only

2008-11-24T22:38:00.004Z

In order to get access to my blog, you need to be invited... by me! So if you're reading this, you've most likely made the invite list. But, if you know of others that want access or if you have a different email address that you'd like to use, send it over to me and I'll add it to the list. Also, you don't need a gmail account or a blogger account to sign in. Let me know if this is confusing...

Day 3, 4, 5, & 6

2008-11-24T21:23:00.011Z

Hi all!
If you’re new to my blog, welcome. This is a place where I’ll be recording my travel stories and trying to give you a little insight into what it’s like to be a consultant. Some of my posts may get long or too detailed so feel free to skim, but I know Mom and Dad will want the whole picture so bear with me :) Please feel free to leave comments when you stop by too! You can do this at the end of every post. I’ll also try to post some pictures. Oh and I'm a pretty terrible writer so be prepared for spelling and grammar errors!

Day 3
Friday snuck up on me this week since my flight on Tuesday threw me off my routine schedule. But on top of that, it didn’t really feel like Friday since we were expected to work Saturday. Regardless, the day went by pretty quickly and Friday night was upon us. We’ve all been way too tired to go out (as in OUT out), but one of my colleagues and I have been wanting to visit Utrecht, one of the other big neighboring cities. Turns out, several other people from the project were up for it as well so we journeyed over to Utrecht for dinner. I would have liked to have eaten somewhere in the Centrum so that I could have really seen the center of Utrecht, but we ended up at an asian tapas place that was actually quite the happening spot. All the tables were packed when we got there so we headed back to the lounge area where we kicked off our shoes and sprawled across these leather couches. We ordered some very delicious cocktails including a European mojito and then proceeded to order enough tapas for a small village. In Europe, everyone eats very small portions and one of the first things the local clients say about us Americans is that they don’t know how we can eat so much. Well, I’m sure the staff at this restaurant was wondering what the heck we were doing ordering so much food! haha. It was yummy though and an awesome ambiance too...

Day 4
Saturday. Work day. More rain. A little snow. You can tell how super excited I was about working on Saturday. I thought it was pretty dumb since no one from the business side in Europe volunteered to work thus we had to do all the business stuff ourselves which was way out of formal process. The U.S. was working too, but only because in the U.S. we’re allowed to demand the business to work so they didn’t really have a choice. I think the U.S. should adopt the work laws that Europe has in place. Aaanyway, our project team did end up having fun; we joked around a lot and even found some beer at the office to drink. Lol. We all got pretty slap-happy near the end of the day and finally left around 5:30 back to the hotel. Then it was down to Amsterdam that night for a team dinner. We met for pre-dinner drinks at the Barbizan Palace where I had the most delicious Irish Coffee with stroopwafel (Irish coffee = amaretto + coffee):

...and followed that with an Indonesian dinner at Sarang Mas in the heart of the city. That’s another cool thing about being on business… it’s a great opportunity to try different foods! I don’t think I’ve ever had Indonesian before. It was actually quite good, a mix between Indian and Asian flavors. Oh wait, is that why it’s called INDO-ne-SIAN? I can’t say I know where Indonesia is on a map. ha. Here's a group picture though:

After dinner, I really wanted to make myself go out, but we were all too tired so those of us staying in Amersfoort headed back to the Klepperman. I actually hailed a cab for us. I’m not sure if you hail cabs in Europe like you do in NYC, but I did. And it worked!

Day 5
Finally a day off!
Woke up early today (still haven't caught up on sleep) to head down to Amsterdam with my client boss and another consultant that had never been to the city. The consultant and I were actually moving hotels too since we wanted to be in the city where all the action is. So we checked out and headed over to the 'Dam. I was the tour guide for the day! I was actually very impressed with myself by how well I knew my way around. It was a little stressful because I felt like I had to plan the day and entertain my boss, but I think it went really well despite the weather. It got really chilly and started snowing around mid-day and continued into the evening. It didn’t stop us though… we started off with a walk down Damrak (main-drag), saw some interesting creatures (Amsterdam is a PERFECT people watching city - even in low-season/winter), and then took the tram down to museumplein. Saw the IAMsterdam sculture the moment we got down there which was funny because I had been looking all over the city for that last August (found out that it was under construction). Here's a pic... not the best angle, but I can go back later to get another shot. I am standing in the "m" and if you click on the picture, I think it enlarges.

My boss wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum. I am not a museum person and I even contemplated going to the Diamond museum while the other two went to the Van Gogh, but I decided what the heck, it's her day. It ended up being really amazing! And by the way, Van Gogh is pronounced Van-Gaw or Van-Gawk(gotta get the Dutch accent to say it correctly). I got the recorded commentary which helped explain everything so well. I enjoyed hearing about the artist cutting off his own ear, but wow what a sad and crazy life he had. Oh and I saw his famous Sunflowers painting (one of them anyway - there were 5):

After the Van Gaw, we did a little shopping, ate a late lunch in Dam Square, and really just tried to stay warm. I bought a hairdryer (I wonder if I can expense it...) and made note of all the clothing and shoe stores that I need to go back to when I have free time :) We wanted to finish the day with the Anne Frank house, but never got to it since it would have been a long and cold walk up to the northwest side of town. Ended the big day in Amsterdam with hot drinks at my (new) hotel bar across from Centraal station... yes, I had the Bailey's & coffee and it was SO good. My new favorite thing is to get coffee + alcohol drinks at bars since all of the bars in Europe have espresso machines behind the counter. yummy. Maybe this can be my new Starbucks drink? haha.

Day 6
Monday. uggh! Day started off pretty terrible! Our train was cancelled so we had to take a Stop-Train aka the SLOW train so we didn't get in until 8:45am. Boss was not happy that we were 15 minutes late. oops. Half of us commute from Amsterdam though and it was out of our control! She got over it. Oh and the train station was a big embarrassment. I bought a smoothie, bottle of water, and crossaint beforehand, put then in a paper sack. So I was trying to get on the train and the doors were closing. I thought I would stick my paper sack full of my breakfast between the 2 doors (like an elevator) to keep them open. No sensors! Bag went squish and bottles fell into the train while I was outside on the platform. I panicked for a few seconds until my colleague found the button to re-open the door. Nice dutch people picked up my breakfast from the floor and handed it to me. sad times! Oh and then there was drama drama between the U.S. and Europe teams and I had to be in the middle of a very uncomfortable situation/conversation. Good experience I guess? Boss not in a good mood the entire day; luckily though, I think I am still on her good side because I majorly backed her up during all the drama!

Only one more day to go and then it's a few days off.:) HOO-RAY.
Now it's almost 11:30pm. Sleep time!

Day 2

2008-11-20T21:34:00.002Z

So exhausted that I can barely see straight, but thought I'd post a quick run down of day two. Day started off very well, went down to the lobby to check out breakfast and it turns out De Klepperman had a continental baffet. Actually very delish! I stayed away from the milk since one of my colleagues said it was some sort of sour goat, but enjoyed some dense brown bread with jam and some fruit. Realized it was 18 euro after I ate, but I didn't care since it'll be billed to the client. The glory of being on business...

Made it into the office around 8:30 and pretty much just worked straight through only stopping briefly for a bite to eat. oh and found out that we are going to have to work the weekends. Actually, under European laws, we can only ask the business to volunteer to work the weekends, but all of us on the management team don't really have a choice. Luckily Barbara tried to get us all one day off so it may just be Satruday that we'll have to work. It sounds like this may be a regular thing while we're in this testing cycle which kind of ruins my plans to Paris. bummer!!! The thing is though, the management team can work all we want, but if we don't have backing from the business in NL, we won't be much good. hmm.. Anyway, made it through the day (exhausted since I woke up at 3am this morning) and decided to go along with the group to dinner in the Amersfoort square. The square is very cute... lots of shops and cafes, although we could tell that it wasn't nearly as crowded as it was in August. We ate a neat restaurnat called de 3 Vrienden which was kind of like tapas, but in a dutch sort of way. food was quite good! All of the locals are so so so nice and I love the accents. I finally made it back to my hotel at 10pm and I am beat!

Day 1

2008-11-19T19:57:00.001Z

I have arrived. And I’ve even made it through day one which is usually the hardest day when traveling internationally. It seems as if Wednesday came and went in a flash which is no surprise since I was en route to the Netherlands for 12 hours (including an hour and a half layover in Memphis) and on top of that, I lost 7. For some reason, I was a little nervous before the flight. Pre-flight jitters maybe? It was a weird feeling since I fly every week, but I think I was just worried about the trip from every angle. Luckily I got two seats to myself on the plane and was able to lie down for most of the ride and even sleep a bit. We landed around 10:30am Netherlands time and once I got off the plane, I bee-lined it straight to the bathroom to change into my work clothes and freshen up before cabbing it to the office (my boss had already called me asking if I was on my way or what). I luckily brought along a refreshing Evian travel spray for face and/or body... have you seen this stuff? I think it says on the bottle that it “moisturizes, tones, and refreshes,” but I don’t think it’s any secret ingredient except water. Nonetheless, it did the trick (can't really explain it so here's a pic)

After brushing my teeth and applying some light makeup, I looked good as new again (or at least presentable). Who says I’m high maintenance???

I went over to the “baggage hall” as they say in Holland and was so happy to see that my luggage had made it safely. I think I actually packed light. Yes, it was 60 pounds and yes, I had to pay 50 extra bones to get it there, but I am so prepared for any and all weather and activities, and yes, I DO need 3 pairs of boots, and I even put a little duffel bag in there in case I do any weekend excursions. So I'm exiting Schipol and the only Starbucks in the Netherlands is at the Schipol airport, but lo and behold with my massive suitcase, backpack, briefcase, and purse, I did not have an extra hand for a latte :( Dutch coffee at the office it will be.

I grabbed a taxi and was off to Amersfoort. It was probably a 30 minute drive and cost me $130 euro! Yep, I am definitely in Europe. Luckily, the day went by rather quickly as there was a ton to do so I didn’t have a chance to realize how badly I needed a shower and a nap. I stopped briefly for lunch with my client boss, at the café and it was exactly how I had remembered it months earlier – small, plain, boring, and sometimes gross, but good enough considering the alternatives (a Home Depot sandwich shop, McDonalds, or Ikea).

Now I’m back at my hotel which by the way is cute and comfy (better than the Hilton in Soest) and I'm completely exhausted, but adjusting to it all. I have done quite the 180 from under a week ago when I was asked (read: told) that I would be in the Netherlands for 5 weeks. I may have broken down in tears and contemplated all the excuses in the world to keep me in the U.S., but I am ok with it now. I would even venture to say that I am looking forward to the next few weeks. I think I take change really well when I can prepare for it, but this was so unexpected and out-of-the-blue, and I don’t appreciate when things pop up that I can’t plan for, especially if it means clearing my calendar for 5 weeks and giving up things that I've already committed to or gotten myself excited for. Then again, I know that God does not always give us what we want, but he does give us what we need. So maybe this is exactly what I need…
Until tomorrow.. good night!!!

10 Things...

2008-11-18T06:28:00.001Z

In light of leaving the country today, I thought I’d compile the top ten things I’ll miss the most over the next five weeks… here they are in no particular order

1. My Dallas friends!
I am sad to be missing out on the holiday party and any other fun weekend extravaganza in Dallas. Please save all the stories for me until I get back

2. Talking on the phone to friends and family.
I have become quite the Chatty Cathy as of late as evidenced by my cell phone bill. Just think, 5 weeks without long phone convos? I mean, if most companies do business on a global scale, then why is it that the phone companies have yet to offer an unlimited global calling plan?? It's a mystery to me.

3. Starbucks!
I am a Starbucks addict. It's rather sad to say, but if given the choice between buying lunch or Starbucks, I would pick the latter. Did I mention that I am now a goldcard member? There are no substitutes for Starbucks in The Netherlands; Dutch coffee is just not the same.

4. Breakfast… and skim milk, whole wheat bread, a ginormous salad, and fish without bones – who would have thought to take these things for granted?
Europeans don’t exactly take food on-the-run which in the U.S. is the whole point of break.fast. So basically, no breakfast for me :( And note-to-self, if you order fish in the Europe, you will most likely get the whole fish staring back at you on a plate, bones, scales, eye-balls and all. Here’s the picture from my August trip to the Netherlands as proof that no, I am not exaggerating:

5. My car
I looove driving my car. It’s the feeling of freedom that I can go anywhere… and it often takes me to the mall! I also love Sirius Satellite radio!

6. My wonderful bed
I am all about saving money, but I think a bed is one of those things that you need to splurge on. Don’t we spend like 1/3 of our lives sleeping? Well, probably more around a quarter in this day and age. But anyway, I’ve become quite the bed snob now that I’ve stayed in my fair share of hotels so it was only natural for me to want/need a nice mattress. I will miss! Oh and I recently got this lovely duvet cover + shams from West Elm. Looove it….

7. Paying with credit card
Apparently Europe has not quite adapted the American standard of “put everything on credit.” This will make it impossible to do my expenses. Greaaat.

8. Working out
Oh wait, I haven't done that in ages. Whatever happened to free time?

9. Flexible Fridays
I will unfortunately be working ALL 5 days of the workweek while I'm there

10. Tanning
No, not in a tanning bed, silly! I'm talking about mystic tanning... the sunless, 10-second tan that offers instant gratification. It's genius, really.

In denial?

2008-11-18T04:01:00.001Z

I think I am seriously in denial about leaving tomorrow. Perhaps in the back of my mind, I have convinced myself that I am flying to San Jose instead. But then I get a lovely picture of me sitting on the plane tomorrow in a bright blue coach seat, eye mask and ear plugs in one hand, sleeping pills in the other. unable to sleep. Please please let me sleep tomorrow! That's the only way the 9 hours will go by semi-fast. Then I could wake up refreshed and ready for the work day since I'll be heading straight to the client once I land in Amsterdam. This time, I will NOT be renting a car... I am cabbing it all the way! This means that I will not be getting lost for 2 hours every day, I will not be pulled over by the cops (twice), and I will not get 3 speeding tickets, all of which happened last time. So anyway, I thought what better way to spend my last day in Dallas than to do a few of my favorite things that I would not get to do for awhile. This involved kicking off the day with Starbucks - tall espresso brew coffee w/ spenda and half & half - and ending the day with Mexican food & margaritas with a few of my favorites. I have been anti-tex mex for quite some time ever since I rolled off the Dell project down in Austin (we ate it EVERY day), but I am finally coming back around to the deliciousness. We tried a place I had never been before called Matt's Rancho Martinez. Nothing like a margarita, chips & salsa, and hot fajitas before I leave the country.

Here's the website if you want to check it out:
http://www.thetexmexchef.com
And it was great to see the girls again one last time before leaving too. Bree is thinking about visiting the 'dam. Hopefully she'll be able to swing it!

Feeling a bit better

2008-11-17T04:20:00.000Z

Hello! So I've allowed everything to sink in over the weekend and I've come to terms that I will be leaving Dallas/the country for nearly 5 weeks. As my mom says, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade! And that is what I will set out to do. Not that I'm exactly being handed "lemons" with this business trip to the Netherlands, but well, it will be tough mentally, physically, and emotionally and it's terrible timing. But back to the lemonade, I'll hopefully be able to travel on the weekends with some colleagues to Paris or Brussels or elsewhere, AND some of my friends might visit! But before I leave in 2 days, I had to have one last hurrah weekend in Dallas. Which brings me to the other reason I may be in a better mood - I had a great weekend, mostly in part to my amazing friends! Yes, they all threw me a 'going away' party yesterday night and we had so much fun! Allison, Bree, Nancy, Elana, and Vivian all hit the town with me and, while it may be fun to spend Saturday night with guys, a solid girls night out is highly underrated these days. And as always, when we go out together, we always end up VIP. obvi. It was a good last night out in Dallas. Except that Allison left her debit card at the bar. haha. Luckily she went back today to pick it up. We also got late night food at 3am at Cafe Brazil. I can't even remember the last time I did that. wow. Oh and I must not forget that we kicked off the night with dinner at Village Burger Bar. They have my most favorite salad in town, called the chopped salad. Yes, I venture to say that it may even top Eatzis! They also have a full bar and make a mean margarita. And did I mention that I can walk there? It's literally right across the street from me!

In other news, I have been frantically packing and wondering what else I need to buy in order to be prepared for anything and anywhere my European adventure takes me. I decided that I needed a pair of tall, flat boots to keep me comfortable, warm, and stylish since I will probably end up doing a ton of walking over there. Since I didn't want to break the bank, I headed to DSW, my new favorite shoe store after my friend (and fashionista) Cortney, mentioned awhile back that she had found some great purchases there. Sure enough, I found a pair of tall suede slouch boots in a pretty grey color. Perfect! For some reason, I can't find an exact picture of them online, but this one comes pretty close:

The only difference is that mine have a slight built-in 1-inch hidden wedge. I was so happy to find them. While I love love love my classic black pumps, they are not so friendly to my feet and the cobble-stone streets in Europe are not so friendly to the stiletto heels.

Eurotrip. T-minus 3 days

2008-11-15T22:24:00.001Z

I thought I might as well start a blog since I won't be able to talk on my cell phone for about 5 weeks. You see, apparently I'm going to Europe. For. five. weeks. At least that's what my boss told me 2 days ago. Stay tuned for more updates once I get to Europe. I've got some packing to do.