Belgium.

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

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.

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For entertainment, some work photos:


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

An Amsterdam First

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

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

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??

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..?