Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in gin_news' LiveJournal:

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Saturday, October 18th, 2008
12:13 am	Peru... crap speechless Just now... I'm sure I'll be able to write down the whole thing later on but it was, by far, one of the craziest and still most amazing trips ever!! (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
2:36 pm	SUMMER IS MAGIC?? It’s been a long, long time since I last wrote… and it’s not for lack of exciting, interesting or simply amusing happenings, I’ll just say it plain and simple: I’ve been a major league slacker… After Estonia, this event being the peak of 2007 so far, the little car of my life took a steepy slope… Slacker and liar… what a nice combination! Actually July offered a great amusement with the preparation of my birthday celebration; my skills, when it comes to climb rocks, are those of a newborn goat, you know, feeble, trembling knees, pushing hard to make it to the top, and when managing, swearing it may be the last time I try something so stupid, but there I go, again and again… rowing also ended up with sore wrist, more blistered hands and burnt-as-coal arms… but I simply can’t help it, I adore outdoor activities and I’ll do as many of them as I can! Another important issue is that I dyed my long, bloody long hair, black and blue. Simply as that, the objective was to enjoy the shinny blue before cutting my hair for it hasn’t have a proper cut for over two and half years… everyone that knows me, knows the reason… that silly oath I made of not cutting my hair until finishing university. Some odds were on my ending up seating on my hair, even stepping on it when walking or using it for sweeping the floor… those that bet on that are truly disappointed… I passed my last subject at university, yes, the dreadful microeconomics was finally beaten and all that was left for me was dealing with the bureaucracy around the paperwork necessary for establishing a date for my dissertation (amidst being totally ripped off – this studying in a private university is indeed a very bad business if one decides to pay it all by oneself!!). As simple as it seems, the issue of the date happened to be ten times more complicated than any normal human being can imagine: first scheduled for ending of June, it was moved for the 3rd of July and… at 5 pm on the 2nd of July I was informed that it was postponed till… the 28th of August, reasons varied but bottom line was: papers weren’t ready, examiners went out of town, summer holidays… Since today is 15th of September and I was supposed to be somewhere else (in an ideal world this place would be Greece) but I’m here, it’s not hard to figure out that the dissertation finally went OK – just some rain exactly 10 minutes before the exam started- and that I’m happy to announce to the world that I’m done. I can’t really say done for good with school since two weeks prior to my dissertation I was already accepted for studying my Master (MBA) in Germany, starting this Fall… However, I may not go to Germany this year but take the next months off for redirecting my personal and professional objectives… With that purpose in mind, I am amidst the whirl of getting a job, how cool is that? This process itself is known as the “momentum” of self-discovery and endurance… to be honest it’s been an interesting learning process, it challenges this virtue that I lack the most of: patience. Let’s face it, I can denominate myself as an action figure – though currently on a stand by process and that affects all those close to me, either here or overseas for my mood swings manifest themselves by different means: not writing at all or writing too much, sleeping in till midday after going to bed at 4am, etc, etc, etc. Now you see why my postings had been scattered and rather random – there are lots of small news, funny things every now and then (I’m crafting jewelry, exploiting my creative side on with the “words” project, going out with my friends, reading Stephen King till late at night, -also going back to my very old habits of reading about nuclear physics amidst other offbeat stuff- pestering against companies that do not reply to one’s applications or those that contact you and offer you shitty posts) and still with the mood up, hoping that soon many exciting news worth sharing will come on the way! Stay tuned, the best is still to come and the magic summer is not yet over, is it? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
11:07 pm	The March Aftermath It is hard to sit down and write in just some lines about the so far most amazing month of this year… well… there’s only 1 word to describe the overall Estonia experience: AWESOME. It was just a blast, everyday something new happened, people were plainly fantastic and my job was challenging, inspiring… haven’t felt so free, happy and diverted for quite a while. Never mind my staying up till 3 or 4 doing thesis stuff or my getting bloody lost at 4 am in the Old Town… the coffees with friends, dinners, chats, even the plain chatting over pancakes and honey was amusing and unforgettable. I even ended up writing a soap opera based on the fascinating characters I met in there – it’s strange to reckon something like this, but I think I changed… a lot… the gloomy person that left rainy Amsterdam in December vanished totally… and not for a “new” me… but the old me with improved features… it’s hard to describe, but those that know me for long, know what I mean… a proof was my enrolling to a very random road trip to Northern France organized by some friends in Amsterdam… one day Itziar wrote “are you in?” and within two minutes I replied positive… and I went with the flow, simply as that… not stress, not thinking… or perhaps a lot of thinking but with a soothing effect regardless we were lost at 3 am in a small French town and I was chasing pedestrians asking for directions. THAT was unbelievable… but true. Even my checking in at 1 am at Schiphol, leaving the house at 10:10, arriving to the airport at 10:35 to drop 32 kg luggage were a good omen for a pleasant 11 hour flight… As days pass, the date of my thesis submission is around the corner and I’m already filling in the papers for my graduation… one word can describe my current state: levity. I feel like floating… Tracking weekends back, all of them include a tinge of adventure and randomness that spice up my life and that I know some of you kinda enjoy reading… My last update by mail was about my watching a random opera on TV… it was Shakespeare's "Coriolanus"... another of his bloody (literally mean it) tragedies in which one wonders if Will was depressed or what... to be honest that would be one of the least plays of Shakespeare I'd ever think on seeing as an opera, but music was good and in general it was a great background for working on one's thesis During that month I read one of my very, very favorites: Tomas Hardy, the title of his book couldn't be more accurate to my current situation - out of the madding crowd. What a balsam for one's shattered nerves after a full day of work and traffic jams!! Everyday had a surprise... I think all of you already know the creepy experience of a Wednesday night, which was like a call for randomness and a casualty just too big not to be considered against odds... it was just to make me ready for Thursday... when I was invited to the opening of a casino... funny enough the thing itself became another of those amusing experiences one needs to describe... The casino is located at the very heart of Tallinn, very close to the old square and actually is inside one of the largest theatres built during soviet times, thus it shares address with a cinema and a club named "club hollywood". When I arrived I noticed that there were two veeery different crowds standing in front of the building. The first one were people wearing fancy clothes, long dresses, tux, you know, the casino goers standing next to the red carpet... the other crowd also wore long coats, black, leather... their bodies were pierced in the most inimaginable places, their hair coloured with the most outrageous colors, they wore chains, spikes and some of them really looked like out of a teen horror movie!! that was the crowd going to hollywood... the organizers of the casino event were going insane with the gathering of the darkies, so they kinda accelerated the admission process to the casino... then a bus stopped just in front of the square... and more darkies came out of it!!! you must have seen the faces of some of the people going to the casino!! it was hillarious!!! But that wasn't all, oh no... when the bla bla of the casino opening was over, they started playing music such "la vie en rose" and so on, you know, to give the montecarlo environment or so... dunno, but suddenly the walls started shaking... oh yeah club hollywood had more powerful speakers!... I really have no idea of how the whole situation is gonna end between the club and the casino (and I'd like to see what would happen if the cinema has an event of its own!) this sharing with the neighbours issue can be really annoying sometimes, such as coming home and defrosting your food... I had the chance to realize that still, the club is louder because on Friday two friends and I went to see a French movie, shown at the very cinema I was mentioning - after the movie (very funny one by the way) we went to a small cafe and one of my visions of the perfect lazy evening came true... we were seating by the fire place, on comfy couches, sipping hot wine, sharing a big peach cake and chatting... if it wasn’t because I barely had time to catch the last trolley back home, we would have stayed there longer... St Patrick's came with rain, sleet and snow... luckily, by the time we went out the night was just chilly but nothing else... good for we tried a very weird green beer and went to the two Irish pubs we found, later on we moved into the karaoke and then fetched a taxi back home… My last weekend in Tallinn included a small housewarming party on Friday night, a rafting trip to Jagala river on Saturday morning (good lord I LOVE the waves!), cooking and a very crazy dinner at my place that ended with a visit to the room of the Finns where Vytas and I killed’em by emptying their reserves of Finnish and Russian traditional drinks :P How I managed to wake up on time to go to Parnu the following day is still a big mystery, but the trip was simply fantastic… the place is beautiful and being walking on the soft sand, feeling the cold water on my feet… I even managed to sneak into the Latvian border for a nice picture… next time I’ll go visiting Latvia properly… Putting together all my memories of these days is not a hard work, they make smile and remember… and long for these people I’m sure to catch up with any of these days… As a closing chapter is approaching, I better hurry to finalize my thesis – what comes next is still in the mist. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
4:30 pm	Estonian blues part 2 On Thursday, the worldwide celebrated women's day (this is sarcasm obviously - but my feminist discussion on the issue won't be in this mail) was actually a day in which a lady bug walked on my finger inside the office and that I actually cooked at my place for the first time. (check how full of relevant things is my life) Valentine, Greek girl doing her masters in environment and geology, lives across the hallway and we met pretty much on our first day in town... yesterday we went downtown to the Irish pub and today we dined together for I cooked my extraordinary dish of cold pasta and tuna with veggies... the only thing was the opening of the tuna can since there was no can opener at all... I had my little razor (yeah, the one from the black CEMEX card) and with the help of a brand new bottle of olive oil, I kinda hammered the lid so we could get the fish out - the procedure was odd but the meal was goodie good!! I also had my first ride in trolley and bought my transport ticket - with student discount! - Estonia has the fascinating bills of 2 and 25 crowns... weird enough the ticket costs 160 EEK, and I had the wonderful amount of 159.5! (oh yeah 2 bills of 25 and 2 of 2 were in the lot) the woman had a good laugh at my situation and the ticket actually cost me 50 cents less!! And on Friday I was given another lesson of Estonian etiquette... no matter if there are three girls and one guy, if he's the one inviting, he literally pays the whole thing! .... I came home and, again mastering stabbing the can with a small razor, I made an awesome dinner with chicken,mushrooms, rice... and as I thought I was going to spend a lonely Friday (valentine is studying... no comments) a friend came up and he brought his girlfriend along... so the three of us went downtown and when we were done with the pancakes and coffee we stood up and I went to pay my part when my friend said it wasn't necessary for he paid already... I wanted to give him my part and he told me I shouldn't do it... then his girlfriend told me that in here, girls barely pay anything excepting when is an all-girl gathering... actually it is considered quite tacky when a girl asks how much is her share of the consumption (guys don't expect a girl offering to pay at all). Can't help feeling quite uncomfortable with this but who knows, maybe I'll end up getting used to it :P (shut, I shouldn't say this in a mail that will be also send to boys). Unfortunatelythat night I didn't bring my camera and I couldn't take pics of the city, which looked beautiful, though the occasion was a sad one: the conmemoration of the bombing in the 2nd world war - there were candles lighted everywhere, especially downtown, on the ruins of some destroyed buildings. Anyway, after a small sightseeing downtown by night, we went to a veeery weird party... a vasque guy (yes Itziar, he said he's from Vasque country and he does have an unpronounciable name that sounds like gazpacho but has xt somewhere) is celebrating his 24th birhday... so basically a representative of each region of Spain was in there (Galicia, Andalucia, Navarra, and of course like 6 catalans) also at least two representatives of each Baltic country amidst a couple of lost Finns and Russians... and of course the super intruder: me. So, Spanish party in a flat where only guys live (5 of them! - squeezed in a 2 room small flat downtown, 2 of them literally sleep on the couches) with nordic booze on a Friday night... wicked! no wonders why in the morning some of them were able to speak fluent Estonian! I managed to convince my boss to take Saturday off - you know, we have a very tight and ambitious agenda for only 3 weeks - so basically the morning sightseeing began quite early (not really good considering I went to bed at 3 after the Spanish party), two Estonian friends took Val and me to very interesting spots of town (yes, pictures will come later!) we've been to an open space concert hall, were in summer choirs sing and in winter kids go snowboarding, to the harbor of the olympics in 1980 (bet you didn't know Estonia hosted part of the olympics when they took place in the USSR) and I got to know that Estonia existed as independent country for an aggregate of 40 years!! the rest of its history has been spent under someone else's domain, no wonders why so many people is not really happy about the European Union thing... Later on we went to a place named "beer house" the concept is similar to the beer factory in MX, however in here it was like a German yard... even the size of the mugs! and there was so much noise! my gosh, who could ever say that Finns were so noisy? anyway, after spending over 14 hours downtown the day was far of being over... believe it or not, the long deseased Johnny Cash has a lot of followers in this part of the town and there was a festival to which I was invited. I was dining at the house of a Bulgarian guy in company of a Lithuanian, Spanish and 4 Slovaks, a Hungarian picked me up and we ended up in one of the newest clubs in town surrounded by Estonians and Finns (some Latvians were in the house as I knew later on) listening to 60's country music... and if you ask how more random can the whole thing get... well.... The place itself was a warehouse, but there were many bands playing live, not only Johnny cash stuff but other as well - and as peak of randomness, some bands actually translated some of Cash' songs into Estonian!! At the end of the night (4 am) they made a funky ensamble with musicians of the different bands that were playing, it was a big hit! Today I had to sort some homey issues out... since I'm sharing kitchen with another girl the logical thing to do is to buy common soap and so on, right? when I arrived I told the girl I'd pay half of the stuff since I'm leaving in a month... well, somehow she quite didn't get it for now she hid the knives (she bought'em I believe) and even the sponge for the dishes disappeared!! so now I'm buying common stuff with Val, it's really weird for I have to cross the corridor to get salt and oil but well, that's how it is gonna work with the soap and the sponge for dishes as well as the dressing and other funky stuff you really can't buy for a short period of time. Also today is pretty much the first spring day of the season, after yesterday's snow... (oh gosh it was so weird to walk out of the club we were at and walk on clean, new snow, especially when we stopped by a small kiosk to buy emergency food -jusstuburger:cheese burger) everything is melting and is muddy, so the beauty of the clean sky and blueness of the seaside is equivalent to the mud and slosh of the sidewalks and parks, but I'm 100% this is gonna look awesome with everything in bloom!! I wish I knew the name of the opera I'm listening / kinda watching as I type, it seems to be very funky stuff for it is in English and some of the characters are wearing jeans while the other one has an army shirt... but they're telling to the soprano that she's jealous, and the whole choir is pointing at her and she's now crawling... jeez, I'll cut this mail right here, right now before I'll kill you with boredom (Comment on this)
4:29 pm	It's middayam in Tallinn... 11:00 am in Amsterdam, 4:00 am in Mexico City and to be honest I'm kind of asleep, awake and pissed for I realized I forgot the wire to download my pictures and my backup cd with some music... On Wednesday I went to six flags after almost 3 years of not doing so… I managed to get on 5 rollercoasters (check batman the ride, superman, medusa.... gosh, just too good!) the only problem were the queues for they're the most popular attractions of the park – yeap, 2 hours to get on the batman and almost 3 for superman… by the time the concert of my sister started I could barely stand on my legs… but the thing was great and I was so happy to see my little one playing with such energy and enthusiasm! And the best, I got the whole thing in video! On Thursday I didn't dye my hair blue as I wanted to for I had a packed morning – thesis stuff at uni, breakfast with Ale, visiting grandma, and finally checking in… I was at the airport 2 hours before the flight and all window- aisle seats were taken. Spending 10 hours flying between a Japanese guy and a fat Dutch lady ain't the most exciting thing to write about excepting that not even the infusion of red grape fermented in the shape of wine helped me at all…. Yeap, I looked like a zombie by the time I landed Friday was the day to celebrate... I finalized my thesis database and got it accepted (Mash and Len can give their opinion on the particular), I was on my way to my new job and, what makes things even more exciting... I was in Amsterdam!!! But instead of rainy, the day turned out into a blue, shiny and beautiful afternoon that I seized to go around scaring my friends for I was the last person they expected to see and carried on in a red, fully red and white evening in which Mash and I were the veeeery last ones to leave ABN Friday's recreational activity, thus were amidst the last ones to arrive to Diemen for Adina’s good bye (but by then we had Len with us!!) and we stayed dancing up till music was over at 3 sisters in Rembrandplein… obviously it was too good to be true so we had a non-stop-only-in – Amsterdam rain on the way back home which left us soaking to the bones. What is better for a Saturday after partying than waking up for a healthy brunch at 2 pm? Visiting a dear friend, eat an awesome fruit salad and…. A moon eclipse. Unfortunately the largest and thickest cloud of the whole Amsterdam was in front of it by the moment the moon was totally shaded by the Earth, however, we saw pretty much all the way it got darkened and the party at club 8 afterwards was good enough to overcome the tragedy of not seeing what happened with my beloved moon but well… I also sucked big time playing ping-pong since it’s been such a long, long time I played… despite my cramping legs and thanks to voltaren, I could also dance non-stop, and we walked the way back home… no rain, no chilly wind… great time We improved our waking time for Sunday – brunch took place earlier, and thanks to Vija’s coffee-like-tea system I was fully awake to carry on too… so by 4 pm we were downtown, bade good bye to our little Len and loitered around town. Mash’s idea of getting a coffee turned into reality with a huge frozen cappuccino we sipped along Singelgracht before our failed attempt to go to a movie and buying lovely tulip blossoms later on… Our tour continued through narrow unknown alleys along damrak, where we carried on drinking coffee and chatting, gosh, this catch up was so needed!!! Three coffees later, we met with Itziar, David, Agne, Vi and the two Brazilian guys that stayed at our place and we went to a place that looked far too poshy for just coffee… but that at the end wasn’t that expensive… and we continued the journey all the way to Dulac for a dinner and more chatting, now with the squashing band (Igor and Istvan) – needless to say that though my apple pie was yummy, by the time I arrived home I was exhausted. And I still needed to pack – couldn’t catch up with all the people I wanted to and that saddens me a lot, but luckily we’ll have time on my way back, for now everyone knows I’ll be there. Mash and I had a great aftermidnight snack, and, as happens when best friends are sharing their last moment together in a long, long time, we also spent a lot of time talking till we fell asleep. For pictures of the weekend: sorry, there are none! (don’t even try to ask Mash’ price for these images!) THE LEMONY SNICKET 5!! Amsterdam doesn’t want me to leave!!! Morning rain was over by the time we left home. Luckily Mash convinced me to leave early so we could have a last coffee (as if I didn’t drink enough of it during the catch ups!) at the D tower… since I had checked in online (ensuring a strategic window seat) I only needed to go to Schiphol, drop my bag and be back at 10:40 for boarding… With my super heavy backpack we split at Lelylaan… I went to buy my ticket… And the machine didn’t accept my card writing on screen it wasn’t working… Machine 1 – failed Tried with chipnik – obviously after Friday I didn’t have enough credit Machine 2 – failed Went to the small ticket shop at the station… the man said they weren’t part of ns (Dutch railways) and that they only sold gvb (public transport) that I could only buy tickets with the goddamned machines!! Machine 3 – failed Why did I manage to get rid of all my coins??? I had only a fifty!! Machine 4 – failed again I still had the strippencard! Went to the bus stop and asked the driver how many strips I needed to go by bus to the airport… (the two zone pass worked for me wonderfully in the past!) and the guy said I didn’t have enough stripes left!! But strippencards are gvb’s thing, right? So I walked back to the ticket office… since my card wasn’t working, I couldn’t pay with card… nevermind, I could use my bill for a normal 7 euro strippencard I can use on my return No, I couldn’t. They didn’t have change – it was still too early. And no, they didn’t have cards of 20 euro left, it was Monday, new cards would arrive soon… Needless to say that by that moment I was already on the verge of a nerve collapse for obviously I wouldn’t manage to the coffee, couldn’t carry my backpack anymore and it was almost possible I wouldn’t even make it for the flight! At least my phone is still working so Masha came on the rescue and I could get a stupid ticket from the not less stupid machine. Escalators were not working. And as I approached the lift, it went up… so I had to wait till it came down, slowly, veeeery slowly, (just an odd detail to spice up the situation) Anyway. I reached the platform with the ticket in the pocket, a falling backpack and in deliberately bad mood… oh surprise… my train was delayed What kind of cosmic conspiracy was that?!?!?!?!?! It was the moment I began laughing As the train was approaching I was clever enough to search for my ticket – ha, great thing, it wasn’t in my pocket… looked down, it was on the floor. So I had to take away my backpack and get the ticket. I was unable to carry the backpack again, but I didn’t really care for I pulled it into the train. Inside the train a man went to the controller and asked him if he could buy a ticket because he couldn’t do it at lelylaan… the controller told him that the ticket in the train was much more expensive (5 euro) and that they never checked from lelylaan to schiphol, so he shouldn’t worry, if he was going to leyden or den haag or anywhere further than schiphol, he could get off the train and buy the ticket without extra cost… Seriously. NO COMMENTS. Vi was at the airport… and it fell so strange for it was just… so different than the last time I was there! Unlike my departure in December, when Zorana and I could barely carry my things and walk for we were soaking and I had about 80 kg luggage, this time we went straight to the drop-off My superheavy backpack weighted only 20 kg – and we had time enough to go to the panorama terrace and drink a couple of “lazy noons” the specialty of the house as Mash and I proved during our trip to somewhere… Went to the boarding gate on time… hum, since my aircraft is really small (Fokker 50/100, blue and white KLM cityhopper fleet – for those interested on these details) we had to take the funky buses that drive through the whole airport, leave the Netherlands and drop you next to the plane so you can go up in an old-fashioned Casablanca style… (you know Ingrid Bergman going up, waving good bye to humphrey bogart, who stays down, watching her leaving) But wait… We had a delay of 15 minutes… seemed aircraft wasn’t ready 17 minutes later we were queuing to get in the bus… Suddenly they stopped the boarding of the bus…. System was down… what? Yes… they machine that reads the tickets wasn’t working… big deal, you just need to cut’em and cross the name of the passenger, isn’t it?? 10 minutes later we were told that our new aircraft wasn’t ready yet and we would depart briefly We did depart. But that wasn’t all… I went to the sanitary facilities… which are at the rear of the aircraft – unfortunately, once I had my hands all soaped… the water system stopped working. I had to cross the whole damn airplane with my hands up to go to the attendants’ station so they could pour some water on my hands and I could wash’em off… ah what a picture of me… Obviously by the time I landed in Estonia my reception committee (alias my boss and a friend) weren’t exactly happy either… Well… I came home, dropped my stuff and went out – it was a lovely evening with sun and snow, buildings and… yeah, I came back around midnight… but story is not yet over… I was done rearranging the furniture of what's to be my room for the next 30 days – I'll send you the pics later for I used all my available memory for pictures of the moon, snowy landscapes and medieval buildings today… and, as I said, I have no means to get the images out of the camera, clever, huh? – I have a double bed, and thanks to my moving everything also a LOT of space!! Photos on the wall, stars on the roof… and my closet is almost empty. A Japanese girl with a humongous flu lives next door. We have a common space with kitchen and so on and in general I like it in here… it’s different than a flat, not so small like a dorm … originally this is a youth hostel, but since is too big, they let rooms to the students (mainly foreign ones) of the university nearby… I’m by the way, close to the building where skype was created :D I also have TV! And this is almost the last of the odd adventures from yesterday… I wanted to listen some music, so, using my wonderful tv remote, I found a channel which wasn’t in Estonian, or in Russian or in Swedish and it had music… I left it on (how unsustainable, I know) as I went to shower, eat something and blabla… I certainly wasn’t paying attention to what the screen was showing for by the time I returned to my room what was on screen was plain hard core porn – I’ll be really embarrassed if at the end of my stay the charge me for that! Ain’t these channels supposed to be paid ones? Anyway… finally, I had to do some desperate last minute sewing… so I got my needle (a big, thick one I usually use for canvas) and stared my work, it was like 2 am already Shortening the story: sot the needle right through my finger. Think I hit a nerve or something for there was not really a lot of bleeding but I can barely move my finger now, it’s swollen and it hurts a lot… anyway, I went downstairs to ask for a first aid kit… any antibiotic or so… and I was given a funny little bottle and a plaster – the funny little bottle is vodka. The girl told me it is also used for healing and as antiseptic Really no comments. That was my first day in Estonia. Now I gotta rush to the supermarket for I am starving and I have to be at the office in about 2 hours – we may sort the car issue this weekend, but so far I think I’ll use public transport – considering the office is literally at the other side of the town, well, let’s see what Estonian buses do to my temper… If you wanna come over for a visit, please do it, can ensure you’ll have a great time, this place proved so far to be big fun!!! Me Ps. And from the office, I can walk along the shore of the Baltic Sea!!! Isn’t it awesome??? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007
12:04 pm	And 3 months later... It's middayam in Tallinn... 11:00 am in Amsterdam, 4:00 am in Mexico City and to be honest I'm kind of asleep, awake and pissed for I realized I forgot the wire to download my pictures and my backup cd with some music... On Wednesday I went to six flags after almost 3 years of not doing so… I managed to get on 5 rollercoasters (check batman the ride, superman, medusa.... gosh, just too good!) the only problem were the queues for they're the most popular attractions of the park – yeap, 2 hours to get on the batman and almost 3 for superman… by the time the concert of my sister started I could barely stand on my legs… but the thing was great and I was so happy to see my little one playing with such energy and enthusiasm! And the best, I got the whole thing in video! On Thursday I didn't dye my hair blue as I wanted to for I had a packed morning – thesis stuff at uni, breakfast with Ale, visiting grandma, and finally checking in… I was at the airport 2 hours before the flight and all window- aisle seats were taken. Spending 10 hours flying between a Japanese guy and a fat Dutch lady ain't the most exciting thing to write about excepting that not even the infusion of red grape fermented in the shape of wine helped me at all…. Yeap, I looked like a zombie by the time I landed Friday was the day to celebrate... I finalized my thesis database and got it accepted (Mash and Len can give their opinion on the particular), I was on my way to my new job and, what makes things even more exciting... I was in Amsterdam!!! But instead of rainy, the day turned out into a blue, shiny and beautiful afternoon that I seized to go around scaring my friends for I was the last person they expected to see and carried on in a red, fully red and white evening in which Mash and I were the veeeery last ones to leave ABN Friday's recreational activity, thus were amidst the last ones to arrive to Diemen for Adina’s good bye (but by then we had Len with us!!) and we stayed dancing up till music was over at 3 sisters in Rembrandplein… obviously it was too good to be true so we had a non-stop-only-in – Amsterdam rain on the way back home which left us soaking to the bones. What is better for a Saturday after partying than waking up for a healthy brunch at 2 pm? Visiting a dear friend, eat an awesome fruit salad and…. A moon eclipse. Unfortunately the largest and thickest cloud of the whole Amsterdam was in front of it by the moment the moon was totally shaded by the Earth, however, we saw pretty much all the way it got darkened and the party at club 8 afterwards was good enough to overcome the tragedy of not seeing what happened with my beloved moon but well… I also sucked big time playing ping-pong since it’s been such a long, long time I played… despite my cramping legs and thanks to voltaren, I could also dance non-stop, and we walked the way back home… no rain, no chilly wind… great time We improved our waking time for Sunday – brunch took place earlier, and thanks to Vija’s coffee-like-tea system I was fully awake to carry on too… so by 4 pm we were downtown, bade good bye to our little Len and loitered around town. Mash’s idea of getting a coffee turned into reality with a huge frozen cappuccino we sipped along Singelgracht before our failed attempt to go to a movie and buying lovely tulip blossoms later on… Our tour continued through narrow unknown alleys along damrak, where we carried on drinking coffee and chatting, gosh, this catch up was so needed!!! Three coffees later, we met with Itziar, David, Agne, Vi and the two Brazilian guys that stayed at our place and we went to a place that looked far too poshy for just coffee… but that at the end wasn’t that expensive… and we continued the journey all the way to Dulac for a dinner and more chatting, now with the squashing band (Igor and Istvan) – needless to say that though my apple pie was yummy, by the time I arrived home I was exhausted. And I still needed to pack – couldn’t catch up with all the people I wanted to and that saddens me a lot, but luckily we’ll have time on my way back, for now everyone knows I’ll be there. Mash and I had a great aftermidnight snack, and, as happens when best friends are sharing their last moment together in a long, long time, we also spent a lot of time talking till we fell asleep. For pictures of the weekend: sorry, there are none! (don’t even try to ask Mash’ price for these images!) THE LEMONY SNICKET 5!! Amsterdam doesn’t want me to leave!!! Morning rain was over by the time we left home. Luckily Mash convinced me to leave early so we could have a last coffee (as if I didn’t drink enough of it during the catch ups!) at the D tower… since I had checked in online (ensuring a strategic window seat) I only needed to go to Schiphol, drop my bag and be back at 10:40 for boarding… With my super heavy backpack we split at Lelylaan… I went to buy my ticket… And the machine didn’t accept my card writing on screen it wasn’t working… Machine 1 – failed Tried with chipnik – obviously after Friday I didn’t have enough credit Machine 2 – failed Went to the small ticket shop at the station… the man said they weren’t part of ns (Dutch railways) and that they only sold gvb (public transport) that I could only buy tickets with the goddamned machines!! Machine 3 – failed Why did I manage to get rid of all my coins??? I had only a fifty!! Machine 4 – failed again I still had the strippencard! Went to the bus stop and asked the driver how many strips I needed to go by bus to the airport… (the two zone pass worked for me wonderfully in the past!) and the guy said I didn’t have enough stripes left!! But strippencards are gvb’s thing, right? So I walked back to the ticket office… since my card wasn’t working, I couldn’t pay with card… nevermind, I could use my bill for a normal 7 euro strippencard I can use on my return No, I couldn’t. They didn’t have change – it was still too early. And no, they didn’t have cards of 20 euro left, it was Monday, new cards would arrive soon… Needless to say that by that moment I was already on the verge of a nerve collapse for obviously I wouldn’t manage to the coffee, couldn’t carry my backpack anymore and it was almost possible I wouldn’t even make it for the flight! At least my phone is still working so Masha came on the rescue and I could get a stupid ticket from the not less stupid machine. Escalators were not working. And as I approached the lift, it went up… so I had to wait till it came down, slowly, veeeery slowly, (just an odd detail to spice up the situation) Anyway. I reached the platform with the ticket in the pocket, a falling backpack and in deliberately bad mood… oh surprise… my train was delayed What kind of cosmic conspiracy was that?!?!?!?!?! It was the moment I began laughing As the train was approaching I was clever enough to search for my ticket – ha, great thing, it wasn’t in my pocket… looked down, it was on the floor. So I had to take away my backpack and get the ticket. I was unable to carry the backpack again, but I didn’t really care for I pulled it into the train. Inside the train a man went to the controller and asked him if he could buy a ticket because he couldn’t do it at lelylaan… the controller told him that the ticket in the train was much more expensive (5 euro) and that they never checked from lelylaan to schiphol, so he shouldn’t worry, if he was going to leyden or den haag or anywhere further than schiphol, he could get off the train and buy the ticket without extra cost… Seriously. NO COMMENTS. Vi was at the airport… and it fell so strange for it was just… so different than the last time I was there! Unlike my departure in December, when Zorana and I could barely carry my things and walk for we were soaking and I had about 80 kg luggage, this time we went straight to the drop-off My superheavy backpack weighted only 20 kg – and we had time enough to go to the panorama terrace and drink a couple of “lazy noons” the specialty of the house as Mash and I proved during our trip to somewhere… Went to the boarding gate on time… hum, since my aircraft is really small (Fokker 50/100, blue and white KLM cityhopper fleet – for those interested on these details) we had to take the funky buses that drive through the whole airport, leave the Netherlands and drop you next to the plane so you can go up in an old-fashioned Casablanca style… (you know Ingrid Bergman going up, waving good bye to humphrey bogart, who stays down, watching her leaving) But wait… We had a delay of 15 minutes… seemed aircraft wasn’t ready 17 minutes later we were queuing to get in the bus… Suddenly they stopped the boarding of the bus…. System was down… what? Yes… they machine that reads the tickets wasn’t working… big deal, you just need to cut’em and cross the name of the passenger, isn’t it?? 10 minutes later we were told that our new aircraft wasn’t ready yet and we would depart briefly We did depart. But that wasn’t all… I went to the sanitary facilities… which are at the rear of the aircraft – unfortunately, once I had my hands all soaped… the water system stopped working. I had to cross the whole damn airplane with my hands up to go to the attendants’ station so they could pour some water on my hands and I could wash’em off… ah what a picture of me… Obviously by the time I landed in Estonia my reception committee (alias my boss and a friend) weren’t exactly happy either… Well… I came home, dropped my stuff and went out – it was a lovely evening with sun and snow, buildings and… yeah, I came back around midnight… but story is not yet over… I was done rearranging the furniture of what's to be my room for the next 30 days – I'll send you the pics later for I used all my available memory for pictures of the moon, snowy landscapes and medieval buildings today… and, as I said, I have no means to get the images out of the camera, clever, huh? – I have a double bed, and thanks to my moving everything also a LOT of space!! Photos on the wall, stars on the roof… and my closet is almost empty. A Japanese girl with a humongous flu lives next door. We have a common space with kitchen and so on and in general I like it in here… it’s different than a flat, not so small like a dorm … originally this is a youth hostel, but since is too big, they let rooms to the students (mainly foreign ones) of the university nearby… I’m by the way, close to the building where skype was created :D I also have TV! And this is almost the last of the odd adventures from yesterday… I wanted to listen some music, so, using my wonderful tv remote, I found a channel which wasn’t in Estonian, or in Russian or in Swedish and it had music… I left it on (how unsustainable, I know) as I went to shower, eat something and blabla… I certainly wasn’t paying attention to what the screen was showing for by the time I returned to my room what was on screen was plain hard core porn – I’ll be really embarrassed if at the end of my stay the charge me for that! Ain’t these channels supposed to be paid ones? Anyway… finally, I had to do some desperate last minute sewing… so I got my needle (a big, thick one I usually use for canvas) and stared my work, it was like 2 am already Shortening the story: sot the needle right through my finger. Think I hit a nerve or something for there was not really a lot of bleeding but I can barely move my finger now, it’s swollen and it hurts a lot… anyway, I went downstairs to ask for a first aid kit… any antibiotic or so… and I was given a funny little bottle and a plaster – the funny little bottle is vodka. The girl told me it is also used for healing and as antiseptic Really no comments. That was my first day in Estonia. Now I gotta rush to the supermarket for I am starving and I have to be at the office in about 2 hours – we may sort the car issue this weekend, but so far I think I’ll use public transport – considering the office is literally at the other side of the town, well, let’s see what Estonian buses do to my temper… If you wanna come over for a visit, please do it, can ensure you’ll have a great time, this place proved so far to be big fun!!! Me Ps. And from the office, I can walk along the shore of the Baltic Sea!!! Isn’t it awesome??? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
2:04 pm	Belated Update Odd enough, it’s been almost 3 months since I last updated this journal… months full of work, joy and amazing adventures that kept me busy, really busy… Since it’s January… I think it will be easier for me to track back the last weeks rather than starting from October… I have to submit my thesis this Friday, I’ve been reading and writing and researching and… driving myself insane in the creative process amidst antibiotics for the last month. Yes, it’s been a month since I left Amsterdam. NYE was a blast – champagne and a proper dinner always get me in good mood… Christmas was sweet – family, presents… good memories always. And I cooked the dinner, which meant another recipe to my list of “don’t do this” in the kitchen… never mix white wine with whiskey and try to flame it on a turkey, it simply doesn’t work and tastes yuck… however adding some pineapple syrup can save the dish… Before Christmas I had a tough round at the uni… and with my patience since… well, I was driving my sister to her exam… we were on a highway and my tire got flat… punctured… managed to strand on an emergency bay… mom came and took my sis to her exam… and my sis drove away with the keys of the car!! Luckily I could call her (with my wonderful Dutch number) and get the keys back after explaining the situation to the transit police and so on… good adventure… Without forgetting that my trip to NYC didn’t lack of other oddities such as being requested my ID when asking for wine, or that my umbrella was lost, or that I had to pay overweight, or that I traveled with a sprained shoulder… The first weekend of December was a bittersweet one, being my last weekend in Amsterdam, and Sinterklaas day, a combined farewell party with the traditional celebration made me laugh and cry… realize how many people I learnt to love very much and that I won’t see for a while, how many people are so close to me now… well, it was nice though I was exhausted for the rest of the week! My last week at work was everything but monotonous, I was given a fantastic project which I finalized at 6:30 on Friday 1st… gosh, I blush to recall how… hum… interesting were my last drinks at the office… Last weekend of November was a combination of fantasy with crude reality… I love mountains and since the Netherlands isn’t exactly full of them, Luxembourg offered me the height, the view, the landscape and the inspiration to feel like transported to a fairy tale!! Mash, Jen, Istvan, Zorana and Mari Paz had to suffer my driving (oh how I adore highways!) for we rented a van and had a blast!! Both, in terms of speed for visiting locations and moving around (rush, rush…) but also in terms of experience since it was just amazing! And the cherry of the cake was our visit (also quick one) to Maastricht, where we could spend some time with our dearest Len! The weekend before, we were wondering what could we do with our lives to break the monotony of our existences… it wasn’t the first time though, for we managed to have a great weekend… Masha and I went straight to Schiphol airport trying to catch the first flight anywhere… we didn’t really manage though for there are a bunch of restrictions, but we spent a funny, funny day at the airport, drinking exotic coffee and taking pictures with the local flora and fauna… afterwards we went to Albertcuypstraat where Mash bought a very nice purse and later on we hit the road to go partying… we were celebrating what I didn’t celebrate on Thursay, the submission of my first thesis’ draft (11th nov) and in general, between late sleeping and tiredness, Sunday was a cozy one! Museum and casino nite in one… 8th of November became a memorable Saturday due to its randomness… starting with the more-than-quick dinner of sandwiches we ended swallowing at the tram stop! The unsolved mystery of the Halloween’s party “death count” disappearance was the most shocking new that shattered us after realizing the damages of the party… what a party!! All kind of costumes and consumption… a night worth to remember… my 26th Halloween party, and far off one of the best ever!! It included police visits, surfing in the lake, bike chase… And… here I am, back to October… GRI conference, preparation for the party, crazy search for pumpkins… It’s hard to believe that I wrote such an important time of my life in just few lines… anyway, the most interesting thing is the process of moving on… I’m still missing my life in there so much, I go to bed thinking on what would my friends be doing, but in general, a chapter was closed and now is matter to see… what comes next. And I seriously will go back to my thesis, now. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 13th, 2006
4:54 pm	Friday 13th is supposed to be a good day... Though it’s been quite a while since I last wrote a lot of thins had happened in the last weeks, included going to Den Haag for bungee jumping with Masha… September also had a crazy party with Haarlemmerweggers at Haarlemmerweg and later on that week a dinner at my place with them (dinner included playing guitar and lots of wine), Ved’s good bye party + a very weird Slovak party + the beginning of our Dutch lessons… Work front is stuck as well as my thesis but well… just need to find the little trigger to start moving on in the proper direction. Writing the thesis seems to be it though! Anyway, yesterday something very odd happened, Jen, Zorana and I went to the movies made it perfectly on time... we got great seats and saw a couple of good previews... It was a movie I really, really wanted to see… movie began… in English... suddenly... they switched to Dutch (it’s a Dutch movie) and oh... no subtitles... Shortening the story: Wednesday was the last day the showed the movie with subtitles – and we went on Thursday. We walked out... and wanted to get tickets for "Open Season" couldn't get'em in that moment because it was too early... we went to Kalverstraat, tried some hats (certainly black is more becoming on me) and had a good time before we walked back to the movies Only Zorana and I made it for Open Season but it was hilarious, really... besides we had a huge pack of popcorn to go through... After the movie we met with the other girls (Vi, Mari Paz, Jen, Mona, Itziar, Adina) to go for dinner and we went to the pancake corner in Leidseplein and we got a quite good seat in a cozy corner... suddenly a guy with a joint came to our table, followed by the waitress who was whooshing him away... the guy offered us the joint and then started taking our order despite the complains of the waitress and ours because we really didn’t fancy the stinky thing on our table... when he walked away, stumbling, the waitress returned to double check the order and apologized saying "it's so bad when managers are bothering the clients, are you guys OK with the order?" whilst taking the order the guy asked me what I wanted, considering the popcorn fest of less than an hour before, I wanted a plain burger... the guy asked why not a sky burger with bakon and cheese, or a royal one "because we make our own meat".... what would you think if a stonned guy comes and tells you they make their own meat?? I became vegetarian right in the spot and ordered a cheese toast (two slices of bread and almost no cheese, for what I paid I could have bought a kilo of Edam)... anyway... we were seated underneath the stairs... suddenly someone stumbles, dishes fell and crash and a sharp knife flies on Vi's back... if the girl was leaning against the back of the couch I really wouldn't like to imagine what would have happened... when the waitress came we told her... then the manager came (yeap, the stonned guy IS the manager) and we told him and he was shocked... he promised us to find out who was the responsible of the accident... then he came and said "oops, I just got to know it was me" then... another waitress came with a tray with 10 shooting glasses full of something blue... the manager appeared on the other side and said "Girls, I made this cocktails for you to apologize"... we were 8 but we were given 10 glasses (I seriously think some other members of the staff were also stonned) we had some chit chat and bla bla...and then we stood up for we knew our bill was gonna take another century to come... the manager saw us and bade us good bye... the other waitresses were also wishing us good bye... and we could have easily walked away but me and my big mouth screwed it all when I asked the only waitress that seemed to be not so stonned if they could give us our bill... and considering we were 7 people eating, paying an average of 10 euro each, our bill was way lower than expected... we asked if Vi's dish could be for free but it was too much so we paid and left... just to bump into an almost naked guy wandering around Leidseplein before he would do something with a rope... we didn't stay long enough to see his performance but it was pathetic to see an old man wearing a harness like a nappy… And today, again I went to the mall for an ice cream. There’s one hour to go before working time is over but just now I feel inspired, isn’t it odd?? (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
11:12 am	smashed potato (polish style) After Mazzy’s accident my life has been kinda hectic… sleeping and proper eating hasn’t been a regular activity so far. The trip to Poland was a blast, catching up with old friends and making new ones is always a refreshing activity… on Thursday, Karolina and I stayed late eating chunk and chatting, on Friday we went bowling with a crowd (and my team won like 3rd place – unbelievable but true) and from there we went partying until 6 am. By 10 am I was already on my way to the discussion panels (at the other side of Warsaw) and somehow I even managed to dance and enjoy the gala dinner that night. Obviously by Sunday morning I wasn’t really up to any activity that required minimum thinking, thus I just went to the picnic where I had a great time chatting, drinking coffee and playing blackjack. After leaving Karolina’s place I went to the conference venue where I chatted with some other friends and stayed up till 4 am for the party. On Monday I was still up for more… I helped with the workshop that the bank offered for the delegates and I even managed not only to have a coherent presentation but to go back to the airport. And I don’t remember when we took off. Ming, Jana, Mazzy and I had a very nice dinner when I got home, and then I stayed until midnight chatting with Mash… Tuesday at the office was a nightmare since my brain and body were still pleading more rest… so, as soon as I went home, I crashed on the living room and watched TV until I gained strength enough to go to my room. By 11:30 I was gone. Yesterday was Phydeline’s good bye dinner… and tonight we’re going for a girls’ night out… I can’t wait for Saturday to come so I can sleep!!! (Comment on this)
Friday, August 18th, 2006
4:04 pm	Belgium and beyond... Last time I wrote about the trip to Germany... and the week after... well, what’s worth mentioning is that on Friday we went to Wagamama for dinner, it was Antti’s birthday – and as if it was a kind of weird gift, his glass got broken when he was pouring his beer... then the waiter forgot about his meal... but thanks to the Aussie conviction-skills both, beer and meal ended up being Wagamama’s gift to our friend :D Later on that night, Mazz and I biked to „Chocolate Bar“, being among the first ones to show up and last ones to leave... though I biked home at 1:05 and arrived at 2:10 because, as usual, I got quite lost on the way back... it was a very spooky experience that I don’t wanna go through ever again!! Somehow I managed to wake up on time to go to Centraal Station and catch up with Ola.. Tuomas and Ming barely made it on time but the four of us were happily seated inside our train to Brussels at 9:23. We had a great fat meal once in town, and we hit the road for catching up with the rest of the crowd and going to the flower carpet in the center (3 euro for 3 minutes of observation but was worth it) and continued sightseeing around this beautiful city of big, clean buildings... we stopped for fries and beer and then we walked back to the flat... a loooong walk However we also had a fantastic time playing until midnight, when we slept like little babies...and it was really nice to catch up with friends I haven’t seen for quite a while (Pedro, Boris, Eva...) On Saturday we left Brussels quite early, but magnificent Antwerp was waiting for us!! Since our arrival to the city everything became a reason to laugh... we decided to have a scrapbook (good for Mazz who always carries clean notebooks and markers!) and ask locals for wisdom... well, the first „locals“ that gave us a map were actually Dutch... then we had an awesome breakfast and continued walking. I even had a religious moment when I got into the cathedral and stood in front of some of Reubens’ master pieces... good!!! The „locals“ were Belarusian musicians, Italian tourists… until we met a chocolate seller and a painter who signed our book… After the bright sun shining we were attacked mercilessly by hail… and we had to walk to fight for a place on the train back to Amsterdam… I finished another paint. A dragonfly…. Veronica came over on Sunday night, and on Monday I could go to the office feeling like a smashed potato but happy. In the afternoon we went to “The Wind that shakes the Barley” EXCELLENT!! The funniest part was to see the four of us (Ola, Jana, Vero and I) screaming and covering our eyes in certain scenes that were far too… crude. On Tuesday, after work, I was mentally exhausted and Mash was quite down cuz her folks left that day… so we went to watch a neurons-no-required film which wasn’t the most hilarious thing either but quite OK to spend a gray afternoon, “you, me and Dupree” it’s hard to believe that Kate Hudson is my age!! (sorry Kate but you look older) Wednesday… it was the second round of the Culinary Tour through Finland… this time hosted by Tuomas, who, thanks lord, lives close to our place! So we biked our way and tasted another Finn dish… makaronilaatikkoa and ruisleipää… which accompanied with heaps of wine made our evening a more-than-merry one!!! Thursday wasn’t that merry considering it was rainy again and I was mentally and physically exhausted… I decided to do my house duties and stay home for a change. I even made dinner for Vero and I: salad with caviar and smashed potatoes, how fancier can I get? Considering that I have the caviar for about two months and I only bought like 2 lettuces and a bunch of tomatoes it wasn’t like we had a lot of choice either. Today we’ll have Peruvian dinner (veronica cooks) after the bank’s drinks and tomorrow we’ll go to the canal festival… (Comment on this)
Friday, August 11th, 2006
4:57 pm	quick... I’m at the office… grey rainy day outside, lights off inside and we’re listening to soft music, this is gooooood!!! Anyways the last two weeks have been those worth remembering for quite a while for its total lack of coherence, after the superman-farm weekend, I was pretty frustrated when we went to the movies to see “Transamerica” and they realized that dates were wrongly published in their website… anyway on Tuesday we had a very nice afternoon at home and on Wednesday I packed… because on Thursday I went to the beautiful and cosy city of Bremen!! The journey to Germany didn’t lack of excitement, since I was in quite rush I didn’t have a proper meal in the whole day, it was raining non-stop when I went to Amsterdam’s Central Station… later on, the train from Osnabruck to Bremen was delayed… 25 minutes! By the time I arrived to my destination I was starving!! But Mel had a pizza ready and I ate the whole thing (shame on me, I know!!). Friday was a walking day… because we visited all the hot spots of Bremen, including the famous statue of the town musicians (donkey, dog, cat and rooster) surrounded by tourists… and the two large gothic churches (well, cathedral and church), I even cooked dinner on Friday, a large dish with cheese and sauce, pretty similar to my successful invention of the Supersaturday… just with more cheese and sausages instead of chicken… on Saturday we went for cocktails in the afternoon (Happy hours rock :D) and on Sunday we bade a gloomy good bye for it’ll be a while till we meet again :( Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were my days of bike riding, painting and reading in the afternoon, obviously by Thursday I had an overlap of activities for three of them took place at the same time… but yeah, tomorrow I’m going to Brussels!!! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
1:45 pm	end of July... Well, what can I say? Not a lot happened since last Thursday, excepting a week… and that it’s being raining since yesterday, which is cool because temperature lowered though it’s not that nice for I can’t come and go by bike as I’d like to, anyway, one can’t have everything at the same time :S As you may know, last Friday I stared my new job (same office, same desk, just different job description) and so far I’ll be busy from now until Dec 1st. I better tell you what happened last Thursday in the evening rather than bore you with my existential job-seeking crisis. Last Thursday we were celebrating Hetal’s birthday, so we went to dine to a Spanish restaurant… it was fun, I ate a huge salad and the highlight was that I went by bike to Marie Heinekenplein… and obviously I got a bit lost on my way there and back, but it was worth the adventure :P On Friday I stayed at Erica’s good bye drinks and then we went home to spend the evening drinking milkshakes and trying to see “Legends of the Fall” which unfortunately, wasn’t working as it was supposed to, so somehow I went to bed around midnight. I had planned a Saturday full of activities. I woke up at 8 am to have time enough to do everything… but the book I was reading (The long way down, by Nick Hornby) was far too good and… well… it was midday when I realized I didn’t have time to go downtown and seize the last summer sales or even clean my room, so I could only have breakfast, do my handcraft activity, go to do the shopping for the dinner we planned and go back on time to start cooking at 5, cuz dinner had to be ready by 6:20 so we could leave at 7:40 to take the 8:03 metro to Arena, arrive at 8:30 claim our tickets to Superman (premiere at IMAX 3-D) and be on time for the film that started at 9:30 pm… The best was the cooking process… I created my own version of a Mexican dish made out of nachos and a sauce made of all saucy elements I could find such as tomatoes, canned tomatoes, curry ketchup, pasta sauce… mushrooms, chicken and a ton of cheese… while doing this, Tuomas, one of the Finns, was smashing beans and chopping the chicken whilst Masha was making salad, Ola was walking all around posing for the pictures and Antti, our Finn chef, made a cake that I still wonder how he managed because it not only had a cream made out of perfectly whisked egg-whites but also ice cream… which actually was still thick and creamy even after he took the cake out of the oven!!!! The Aussies arrived later and we had a great time, eating like pigs because everything was delicious… and almost bouncing our way to the metro… The movie was another surreal experience, the best were the HUGE 3-d glasses (and by huge I mean they were so big that I needed to tie them with my hair band in order to keep them on my head) and the signs to put them on-off in different parts of the movie, including the last two seconds of it. Obviously we took a lot of pictures and were making fun all the time – the movie was better than I expected (I mean, is a Superman movie, but Bryan Singer is an awesome director!) and we had another adventure because the metro wasn’t running beyond Zuid WTC, 6 stops away from our house. It was almost 1 am when we finally managed to get a taxi and get back home. On Sunday I finally managed to clean my room, even to mop it. After doing the cleaning (5 hours!) I went to a Dutch dairy farm!!! My friend Marianne moved to Boston yesterday so she invited me to dine at her place and see the farm. It was awesome!! We not only walked the horses out and saw new-born calves but we were walking on cloggies (obviously that’s what they were made for), feeding the fishes and in general living one of these unique adventures that not all foreigners have the luck to have. On Monday we had a meeting to plan the activities to solve our electricity issue… as I was inspired I decided to make cookies, though I really don’t know what I am doing wrong that they get so bloody hard!! I am a cookie monster for you really need to dunk the cookies longer than an hour to be able to eat them!! Our going to “Transamerica” yesterday was a failed attempt because although they show the movie in the website, they don’t have it in the theatre. We went back home and had a great time… and tomorrow I’ll be on my way to Bremen to visit Melanie…yeay!!! A fantastic Wednesday is in front of me, maybe I’ll manage to do some thesis stuff among laundry and other long postponed activities :P (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 27th, 2006
5:14 pm	roller coaster Yesterday, Wednesday, I vanished from earth’s face… because, after almost 6 months of work, I ended my project, which I handed today at 9 am. Today, after 4 pm I’m no longer working for the Foundation but for Strategy and Reporting, Communications team. And I’ll do so until December, 2006. What a spin, huh? Anyway after the weekend in Rotterdam, everything has been a roller-coaster… On Tuesday 18th we went to cirque du Soleil… an outstanding and fantastic performance, which I’d enjoy more if I wasn’t seated in front of a column or if security didn’t allow people to get in the show once it started. However I managed to see almost the whole thing by moving seats constantly… On Wednesday I tried to call my dearest lil’ sister kiki until I succeeded in the evening and went home to chill on her behalf :P Thursday represented a two-day activity for I had a CSR talk at de Heffer at 7 pm and immediately afterwards going home to the Aussie gathering which ended at midnight after our neighbors were looking at us in a very unfriendly way… Friday was my solo day… me, myself and the computers had a fantastic day at the office but later on I went with Mazzy to the “Hawaiian-Pirates party” which reminded me of those long gone days in secondary school parties… it was a sauna and police came twice… first time to pack us inside the flat, second time threatening on packing us inside jail… well, we didn’t stay to see if they would do it or not, we just biked back home… we had to be fresh for our picnic on Saturday. Lena’s good bye picnic During the week all days were too sunny, too hot… On Saturday… the day suddenly became cloudy… at 3 pm it started to rain. That meant, no picnic anymore but hectic calling people out to make sure everybody would go to Rembrandplein to say bye to our little Ukrainian…we went to see “the Lake House” and later on to ride around the lake at home… then we pushed ourselves to meet the people and socialize… funny thing, we ended up dancing until 4 am!! Even funnier, Lena didn’t leave on Sunday. Though she woke us up at 9 am And came downstairs 10 minutes later telling us she read the date wrong and she was actually leaving on Tuesday. No comments. Well yes, we were too tired to go upstairs so we stayed downstairs following the fascinating conversation in Russian between Len and her folks, who weren’t exactly pleased… however the rest of Sunday was a chill-out day that included another round to the movies (and again “the lake house”), lots of creativity for Mils’ good bye gift and a Russian dinner to close the day. On Monday… again I had an agenda collision. Dinner at Harlemeerweg to say good bye to Mils and Finnish Dinner at Diemen. Since I had the later booked beforehand I had a great evening eating Finn dishes and trying some salmiakkikossu just to make sure I won’t do this to myself again! Later on we went to Luxembourg café for Mils’ good bye drinks – and on Tuesday I had my double round at Schiphol, waving good bye to two of my dearest friends in Amsterdam. Helping Len with her luggage excess problems and supporting Mils with her packing was a good way to block myself to think they’re gone and it will be a while until I see them again…. Besides I had to work from home to finalize my project And that’s it. My week. On Saturday we may go to the premiere of superman in IMAX screen, fancy, huh? Keep you posted me (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, July 14th, 2006
3:26 pm	HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! Thursday, 6th July. My thoughts around 2 pm… “Yesterday we went to the movies… to see “Over the Hedge”, Lena, Eoin, Mils, Ana Maria and I… it was hilarious!! I wonder if it makes sense to finally go to “Tara Road” or if I better go home, do my laundry, do the packing for Poland and spend a lovely homey evening” I didn’t have too much time to think about movies. I was in rush… and at 17.15 I was having a meeting with Sandra to talk about my future life in the bank… I was surprised to see the post-it on my desk after my “French speaking” lunch with Hetal and Phydeline at the 16th floor. Thanx to Antti, the excel formula seemed to be working… and it was just a great day… sunny, quiet…we even have had a good chat with Herman when we went to give him our good bye gift (Hetal and I). Sandra summoned me to her office, we chatted… I left her office to continue with my excel puzzle… suddenly at 17:45, Sandra came out from her room, really excited, with an envelope in her hand “This is for you, it was on my desk”. Estranged, I took the envelope, ABN AMRO one… “Private and Confidential, open at 17:45”. I opened the envelope and there was a page folded with a riddle inside… I read the riddle and the whole story begun, as I wrote last Friday (I wonder if you managed to read till the very end of the last entry) But Friday 7th, after I left the office, was waiting with more surprises… from sales at the Body Shop in Schiphol till being back to dear ol’ Warsaw, spending some minutes in front of Palac Kultury, remembering how awful the building seemed to me when I first arrived there 7 years ago… (and the building is still really ugly). Marek was there and I also met Iwona, I had a great chat with the two of them before going to sleep, managing to do so at around 2-3 am… Saturday 8th. Hittin’ the road… with Marek, Iwona and after some hours, Ola Wach… we were going to Krakow… my home town in Poland… Krakow, to meet the old rwkl (part of it since Karolina couldn’t make it from Canada)… it was just too great to be with these kids again!! Despite of the heat and rush (we left Warsaw later than planned), we managed to make it on time to catch up with the others, dress up, take a cab and go directly to the church. Kasia and Michal were radiant… and it was a lovely wedding though the whole thing was in Polish, which added more charm to the ceremony since I understood less than 1/8 of what was going on in there, gestures were enough… Something really nice was the welcoming Kasia’s mother gave me; 4 years later she stills remember me, that was so great! After the church we went all the way up Wieliczka… though the reception wasn’t really in the salt mine but in a very nice lodge at the top of mountains – we were a very small party, which made things cozier. We ate, chatted, drank and danced… and continued eating, chatting, drinking and dancing until the dawn started smiling to us. Day was clear and blue when we finally were driven back to Krakow. Sunday 9th I left Maciek’s house around 11 am, so I had time to purchase my ticket to Vienna and wander around my town, which, as usual, was under restoration, crowded, sunny, with pigeons threatening tourists, carriages passing by, music floating in the air… I even heard the Lajkonik’s trumpet from Mariacki’s roof… Something funny happened when purchasing my train ticket… Sales girl asks: do you have a student card? Gin: yup, can I use it for this train? (note: in Poland, the international student card isn’t valid for transportation –and almost nothing else-) Girl: yes, let me print your ticket… (girl writes down name, destination, date, etc.. etc.. then she needs the number of the student ID, since I don’t know it by heart, I gave her the card, so she could check all the data. Suddenly she looked surprised and turned to me) “Oh, your birthday is tomorrow” Gin (smiling): yeah I know… (girl checks card) Girl: but… but… you are turning 27!! … I’m so sorry… it’s my mistake… Gin: no worries, I’m still a student, you can see the card expires in December… Girl (blushing): yes, yes… but it’s not only for people under 26 Gin: right, but today I’m 26… and I’m traveling today Girl (really puzzled): yes… but is for people younger than 26, when you turn 26 the discount is no longer valid, I’m so sorry!! It’s my entire fault, I thought you were younger!! (OOOUUUCCHHH!!!) Gin (freezing a smile that was far of being a happy one): OK, no worries… just issue the ticket… Worries??? Damn the thing cost me 43 euro!! Anyway, she could actually had given me the discount for ticket controllers never check any ID and passport controllers never check tickets… nobody would find out that I was already 26 on the verge of 27… but nooooooooo!!! (sigh) Anyway. My train was delayed at the Polish border, it was really packed as well and I was happy I paid a reserved seat because otherwise long part of the journey would have been spent in the aisle, which is certainly not very comfortable… and we continued all the way down to Czech Republic, Slovakia… and finally… Austria. By the time we were approaching Austrian border, almost everyone was gone, so I could lay on the seats and manage to have a short nap (by this point I had slept less than 8 hours since Thursday), interrupted by ticket and passport controllers. However, it was just too nice to be there. Flo, Jorg and Patricia (Flo’s girlfriend from Canaria) were waiting at the platform. The sight of these two boys, whom I met six years ago, was just unbelievable… they looked pretty much the same… Flo rode us to Jorg’s house in his brand new (newly acquired), super old Mercedes Benz, he told me the model but I forgot which was it, I can only say that the car is a classic and I know a couple of people who’d be delighted to see it ride (daddy?) and in there I was introduced to Nina (Jorg’s girlfriend) and Lola (lovely chocolate-colored dog). We watched the final of the world cup while having bbq in the garden. At midnight they sang the happy birthday to me, and my birthday was officially started… in Vienna. MONDAY, JULY 10th HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!! I stayed up chatting with Nina until around 4 am, and at 7 my family called to sing and wish me a great day… Indeed it was a great one considering that by midday, after eating croissants with café au lait (Ray had join us by then) we started the most amazing sightseeing in great Vienna… St. Stephen’s Cathedral marked the initial spot… then we went to the place Jorg appointed as where the “best ice creams” were sold… indeed they were good! The problem is that it was so hot on Monday that before I could fully enjoy my ice cream it began to melt in such a speed and dirty fashion that in less than two minutes my hands were sticky and covered by green ice cream, which continued dropping on the sidewalk… ah piggy ginny!! I’m sure my friends had a great time making pictures of the shameful show! The coolest thing of the spot was actually a huge wooden-made and very picturesque clock (picture to be uploaded) - - once I was done with the ice cream, we continued the way downtown, seeing Mariehilfestrasse and the shops on it and getting into a very old and poshy one before seating at the Griensteidl coffee, which still keeps the cool atmosphere of the 18th century. While drinking mélange, closing the eyes could transport you to these ages when all intellectuals went to seat and read, chat or simply spare themselves in these cafes. It was almost surreal. Once done with the coffee we walked to the entrance of Hofburg… we walked through, enjoying the view of the gardens and the buildings not so far in the distance. As we walked by, a man asked us if we could get into the taxi-bike for some pictures the company needed for their advertisements… surprised and amused, Nina and I sat on the back while Jorg acted as the driver. Pictures were shot and a free ride was offered for us in the very hum… unstable… “Faxi” (fahrrad-taxi) we passed in front of the twin museums (history and botanic if I remember right), and other great buildings before going back to the place we departed from. After a walk through Burggarten, where Mozart stays still as a white statue, we went to Schmetterling Haus, one of the most beautiful spots in Vienna… because butterflies live inside!!! It was terribly hot (a sauna, really) but worth it to the last minute since the artificial environment resembles a magic forest where butterflies of all colors and shapes fly around… cocoons were opening, butterflies were spreading their flimsy wings… huge butterflies were languidly standing on the leafs whilst small white-winged ones were chasing each other in a playful air-dance. We visited “Hotel Sacher” where the sachertorte was created… and after wandering around its all-dreamy lobby rooms, we were out on the street again. We then went to a large open air market where all kind of species, oils, vinegars, anything for cooking can be found! Including our Chinese take away lunch :D. Funny thing, in there we met with the sister of one of Jorg’s friends and she gave us a free sample of our preferred soap (it was a soap shop) great! More gifts!! After the market we went to Schonbrunn’s palace. These Habsburgs really liked to show they had cash!! Baroque to its last detail, the “little” palace has a breathtaking presence… hindered only by the trucks parked in front of it preparing the ground for some event taking place in there later on. Quite vexed because the front entrance was tainted with such unfancy and ugly things such as common plastic chairs, we walked to the other side… THAT was exactly what I wanted. A LAAAAAAAAARGE garden where can picture the arrival of these carriages transporting princes and princesses wearing delicate fabrics and feathers… and on the top of the hill… the Gloriette and its terrace, providing a wonderful view of Vienna… but to reach such a view, one must walk all the way up without forgetting visiting the zoo, where a big bunch of lovely pandas live… It was already 5 pm. The sun was still up and the evening plan was already clear. Going to the Rathaus park for the open-air film festival. With a very hum… interesting… Gregorian singer as background, Ray and I went to the parliament before catching up with the rest of the people. Luckily, the horrid sounds of the singing (sorry, but after half hour the soprano just sounded as if she was poisoned) were over and gave place to an operetta “the land of laughter”. Good. With this music as background, we sat around a table next to a fountain and spent the rest of the evening there. Jorg, Nina, Flo and Patricia gave me a bottle of Stroh as present, Ray and Marta brought a small tartlet with a candle… Full moon. Vienna, family, wonderful friends… what else could I ask for? … A walk to the Donau!!!! My granny was right. The Danube is not as blue as the waltz insists… actually it was kinda grayish, at least the canal we saw when crossing on our way to the island… it was 2 am when we realized we wouldn’t really make it to the island this time for my feet were soared and blistered after the walk and Ray and I were also really tired… so we took the night bus back to his place. The ride included a jammed door and a really pissed-off waitress due to a cheeseburger… no comments. Tuesday 11th After seeing my friends off for their jobs, I found my way to the opera (I was introduced to the building the previous evening) and met with another of my dearest and oldest friends… Karolina, with whom I couldn’t meet in Warsaw but she in Vienna, where she arrived the previous night. After 7 years of knowing each other, again, we spent my birthday together (she was also present in my 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd…) and we had breakfast together before I went to the airport. I was supposed to meet Andras at Schiphol (in Amsterdam) once landing at 5 pm… but I couldn’t help the feeling that something was going to happen… and it happened… my flight was first delayed 40 minutes. Strange because Austrian Airlines flight to Amsterdam departed on time… I started smsing everyone… crappy weather in A’dam, perhaps that’s why… I went to KLM’s desk and not only the system was down but they informed that the problem was with the aircraft. No wonder since the flight was delayed until 5. luckily I had an owarszanki from Poland and about 3 lt of water so I didn’t need to continue my crazy shopping at the airport… when I returned to seat in front of my departing gate, I saw the two Korean girls who were at first told that they’d be sent to China to connect flights (jeez, they panicked with the idea) but after all they were just to stay a night in Amsterdam and then continue their journey (ah memories of last year from Romania to home!). Between us was a woman. German, as I heard when we first started talking. This chat was one of the most meaningful and great things of this trip!! It was so nice to meet that I’m sure we’ll continue in contact for quite a long time! Even better… I had three seats for me, so I could stretch and relax on the flight back home When we finally landed in Amsterdam, Andras was already there, after a quick and fruitful shopping at the body shop (SAAALEEES!!) we got in the bus to lelylaan and from there… home, sweet home… where mils, mazz, len, mash and sarika were waiting with MORE gifts… a wire for my camera (so now I have no excuses for not editing my movies) and a nice dinner… soap bubbles, music, and even line dancing accompanied our dinner as well as mozart kugeln with stroh… and the news that Lena will move to Maastricht… Wednesday 12th… and the surprises went on and on… I slept in. I had to. Exhaustion and other phenomena made me stay in bed until the time I went to the metro to get pissed for its 30 min. delay. But I came to the office. And a nice bouquet was waiting for me. On behalf of Group Sustainable Development. Though only 7 people were in the department, everybody congratulated me… and not only that, Sandra opened the cabinet and took two large parcels out… “From the Foundation” Canvases, brushes and even a lectern!! I was shocked. And grateful. And happy… it’s been a week lasting birthday celebration… AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS GO ON AND ON…. THURSDAY 13th of July Yesterday evening Masha baked my cake… I added the highly alcohol-stinking fruits (thanx to the Stroh!) and today I brought it to the office. Half of the people is gone for holidays or somewhere else… don’t really care for at the end it wasn’t enough cake since also trainees in other floors came for their slice. But the big surprise was at lunch time. Phydeline called saying she’d be delayed… and she wanted to go to the second floor. Fine. I could wait. Once downstairs, I was surprised to see Lena and Hermine outside, wow, finally Oval Tower decided to come to Gustav Mahler!!! Spoiling the surprise, I walked out… to see a quite smashed cake (long story from Lena’s part) with 27 candles… and all trainees around it sang the happy birthday to me. Unbelievable!! It was just great, great…. We wanted to go to the premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean”, putting together the movie maniacs back to action… we didn’t succeed, instead, Lu, Ola, Mazz, Len, Anna, Karel and I bought our tickets for “She’s the man” (a funny chick flick adapted from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth night”) and the funniest was to see Pedro and Tuomas joining us for they were veeeery reluctant about going to a chickflick of any sort!!! After a good laugh, we went to Cocos, (Lu, Anna, Pedro and I) where Andras and Jeroen joined us. At midnight we were finally coming back home. And here I am. 3:19 pm. Friday 14th, ending the story of my birthday week… or closing it’s Amsterdam-Krakow-Vienna-Amsterdam chapter since tonight I’ll have the last birthday round… in Rotterdam. Next time the entry will be shorter… I didn’t expect a week lasting birthday celebration… but that’s what it was… and a great, unforgettable one… even Dutch weather is cooperating with sun no heat!! ah... and cheers for the French Revolution :P (Comment on this)
Friday, July 7th, 2006
4:56 pm	Follow the clues... Another Friday… gray, rainy… I can’t even distinguish the shapes of the buildings that are just two metro stops away. But I don’t care! I’m going to Poland tonight!! I’ve been postponing the update since the whole week has been just a nightmare in terms of workload; the deadline for my final project was moved for one week earlier thus my finding it hard to seat and write something coherent… I think I should start by what happened on Wednesday 27th of June, just for the sake of coherence… I made cookies. I’ve made them in the past and each time they were just getting better and better… until the moment I followed the recipe exactly as written and at the end the cookies could be taken as solid rocks capable of breaking a thick window, which is exactly what happened on Wednesday last week. However, after serious licking and even long dunking in coffee or tea, people was able to swallow’em, still fearing their teeth would break, but the soft chocolate topping was the best. We were supposed to go to the premiere of the movie “Tara Road” I made reservations and 7 girls showed up for the event… before going to Tuschinski, I went to Diemen to have dinner with Ana and Alicia, rush Masha (who could only show up for 10 minutes, vacuum her dinner and hit the road) and go to Rembrandplein to catch up with Ola, Phydeline and Hetal. We were highly surprised when they wanted to charge us 12.50… I went to talk to the manager to ask about the reasons of the sudden change of rules for premieres and well, the result was that they’re still checking what’s better for the company (memoirs of a geisha was normal entry fee + drinks) and, since we ain’t exactly wealthy girls, we decided to walk around and go for the 21:30 show of “Inside man”… afterwards I went to Diemen Zuid for what was supposed to be a “girl’s night” but we were so tired that after 15 minutes chat we all were sleeping. But it wasn’t enough sleep so on Thursday I was quite sleepy by the time we had lunch at Oval Tower but I was fully awake for the meeting afterwards. Nothing more exciting than meeting our landlords happened on Friday… I went to bed awfully late because the girls and I stayed awake doing calculations on all the payments we have to do (oh grown-ups world how cruel you are!) What surprised everyone, me included, is that on Saturday I managed to wake up on time to go to the swimming pool at 9 am! And I stayed there until almost midday… I even went to the Jacuzzi, where I stayed for about half hour just enjoying the bubbles… and getting ready because later on we went to Westerpark (by bike, yeah! Masha and I got lost but we found the park) to celebrate Canada’s day with all the Canadian girls (and boy), we had a nice bbq and a great time until almost 10:30 pm, when we went to a very cozy pub (just imagine that outside they had long mattresses and cushions where people could seat and chat) and even the mosquitoes weren’t that annoying… it was the night France won against Brazil. So once the match was over and the pub shut, we biked to Phydeline’s house. Todd had about 5 bottles of wine in his backpack, and we were a merry group of 7 people who stayed up to half past three chatting in the kitchen… then we rode back home. My dynamo wasn’t working (first I made the stupid thing of putting it apart of the tire and I was unable to place it back, then, in a moment of frustration, I kicked the bike, aiming directly to the dynamo) so you can imagine what a ride was that for Masha didn’t have lights either, luckily Sandra borrowed me one bike light and we made it safely home. I saw the clock for the last time at 4:15 am. And by 9 I was up again. And ready to go to Guns n’ roses concert in Nijmegen!!! I even managed to cook a fantastic omelette… We were supposed to meet at 13:30 at Duivendrecht train station just to make sure we’d see something of the city before going to the concert. Knowing how unreliable public transport is in Amsterdam, I decided to take the metro at 12, just to make sure I would be on time… and I was a bit earlier than expected… I was in Duivendrecht at 12:15!! But that wasn’t the only thing… my companions had a rough day on Saturday as well, and they missed their metro… shortening the story, we took the 14:29 train to Nijmegen. Sunday was 33 degrees and there were no clouds or wind or anything between the sun and our skins… No Nijmegen sightseeing for us. Once arriving we took the bus that said “Pop concert” (hello?!? Pop?!?!) and we literally arrived just on time to get inside the field… the first band blood something, was OK, it made me remember these days in which I used to listen to that kind of music all day long and I wondered how I didn’t go deaf… anyway, band #2, stone sour, if I remember the name right, appeared on stage and played for about an hour… then after other 20- 25 minutes wait… Alice in Chains… good… it was already about 7 when they were done… and the sun was up there, shiny and hot… Stage was mantled for Guns… everybody was getting closer and closer, the parade of weirdos, tired people and other species seemed to have no end… but the concert wasn’t starting… why? Because the stage is placed on the western side of the park… so all the sunlight from the sunset was right on the screens… brave thing to use a light-show and screens when the sun starts to get dim at about 10 pm!!! The concert begun at 9:40… And it was awesome… Axl looks like a retired NFL player but… there’s no need to see him… closing my eyes and listening was enough… 15 years… it’s been 15 years since I first saw these guys on stage… and I’m turning 27 on Monday. …11:40 and the concert was still on… crap, last train to Amsterdam was at 11:50… last metro from Duivendrecht to anywhere was at 10 past midnight… the journey from Nijmegen to Amsterdam takes 1 hour 10 minutes… …the place was crowded… so we started walking out… Axl still singing… they said good bye when we were walking out of the field. Good… we were heading towards the bus to the train station… No… not good, they jumped back to the stage and started playing “Paradise City” I heard it from the bus, I saw the stage in the distance… saw the confetti flying as we drove by… OK. I was pissed. Maybe because it was midnight and I was exhausted… but that wasn’t all… oh no… there were no direct trains to Amsterdam anymore, but to Utrecht. We literally got into the first train ready to depart… and when we arrived to Utrecht and got out of the train, a controller passed telling us to go to the train to Amsterdam, which actually was the very same train we got out from… they decided to take it to Amsterdam at that very moment. We arrived to Amsterdam at 1:20 am, MONDAY Night bus to Geuzenweld/slotervaart passes at 1:32. Not this time. My bus came at 2 am And it doesn’t stop where it used to anymore. So I had to walk. Too tired even to think, I crashed on my bed at 2:40 am And went to work at 8. Obviously my neural capacity on Monday was at its minimum, luckily we had the good bye breakfast for the head of our department, it was a great event and it didn’t require a lot of deep thinking, which helped me to go though the day. But it was too hot. Too hot… Around midnight I was still rolling on my bed, unable to sleep… but I saw the life of Lord Byron (the actor was really cute too!) and finally I could go visiting Morpheus Tuesday was a great day – I went to the change community lunch and a new window opened… I just hope everything will turn out well… we’ll see… and I went to swim. But we had to go to the outside pool and it was too cold despite of the sun outside… nothing better than a good swim and bike riding in order to sleep like baby! Wednesday… we wanted to go for Tara Road again. All girls confirmed… and they changed the show time. So we ended up going for “Over the Hedge” to cry out in laughter… Ana Maria, Masha, Mils, Eoin and I spent an amusing evening!! Later on we went for the match Portugal-France, to the house of the Portuguese… and afterwards I spent like 20 minutes in Leidseplein chatting with Vero and Daniel, who went back to Rotterdam. Yesterday, Thursday 6th of July 2006 was simply one of these days to remember forever… The day was slow… as usual. We had plans for Tara Road… and suddenly the two confirmed people cancelled… I went to the Diversity and Inclusion workshop and ate cheese afterwards… I came to have my meeting with Sandra about my activities after my project is over… went back to my desk and decided to go by myself to the movies, good thing was that Mazzy confirmed she’d go with me so I’d meet her at 18:15 at the main entrance… At 17:45 Sandra got out of her office and came to my desk, very excited, and handed me an envelope “Private and Confidential. Open at 17:45” Surprised… I opened it and I read a riddle… written in celtic-style characters, four paragraphs… cryptic language sending me to the statue in front of the gym… estranged, I put the envelope and the letter on my desk wondering what was going on. Sandra came again and I read the riddle to her, she said “that’s the gym… what are you doing here?” I blinked, surprised… “I’ll go as soon as I’m done” was my reply. Sandra looked at me, reproachful “But it specifically says the time… I think you should go now”… when your manager makes this kind of suggestions one has no option but to stand up and say “I’m going”…. Sandra looked at my desk “Aren’t you gonna take your stuff with you” Gin shrugged “what for? I’m coming back, I plan to leave at 18:15” Sandra pointed at the envelope “ I don’t think you’ll be back today…” Suspicious… hum… I closed all my work, shut my computer down, grabbed my stuff and walked towards the gym… met Zoe and Laura on the way and told’em to tell Mazzy I’d wait for her at the entrance. Wondering what was going on I went straight to the statue nothing. I was wondering what to do, when I saw Phydeline, she had a white paper… she heard me and the paper disappeared. She was going to the gym… I went to the loo and when I got back the envelope with the second riddle was on the crown of the statue… I read the thing twice… “where dinner barks” that could mean only the way home and nobody but my roommies were behind the whole thing. I met Mazzy at the entrance… she didn’t remembered about our meeting but luckily Zoe told her so she was waiting for me there. And we went home. The clue was exactly at the bridge… sending me to a yacht harbour… and the last line said “Typical piece of Dutch Art”. We went home because I thought we would need the bike. Mazzy told me not to get in, she got the bike and I saw Ana Maria for one second… hum… Somehow I managed to ride with Mazz on the back. We took a shortcut to the yacht club. Bad Idea. Mazz said that it wasn’t the right place, so I started biking to the other side of the lake, where the other harbor is… People were calling mazz to my phone and soon I realized we weren’t supposed to be there but somewhere else. 45 minutes later we made it to the big sculpture in the park that is pretty much in front of our house. And we missed it because I took the short cut. Lena was there with another clue. Room of no sleep or water… where my travel companion lays… at first I thought on Mazz’ room, but it wasn’t there… it was a huge green-wrapped package inside the suitcases’ room!!! And not only that… outside Mils, Alicia, Karl, Eoin, Phydeline, Isabelle, Masha, Lena, Ana Maria and Jana were waiting with balloons, snacks, strawberries, grapes, wine, crackers… “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”…. Couldn’t imagine a surprise like this one… the riddle game was just great and even though on the way I realized what was the whole thing about, I … I just felt so special and happy!! I love my friends!!! I’m quite concerned about all the people I invited to my surprise party without telling my roommies, but well, I’ll think on something later… yesterday was just an amazing, unforgettable day!!! I’ve got presents :D A basket for my bike… a book, very special one “The First”… it has the history of things when they appeared for the first time… my friends believe that one day I’ll appear in there as well… as first of what I don’t know, but we’ll see, it’s great to see somebody trusts so much in one… We chatted, played charades and “reporter” until almost midnight, when people realized they were about to miss their transportation back home… despite our neighbours hushing us since 9 pm, everything was just great. I managed to pack everything and sleep It’s 5:03. In three hours I’ll be taking off... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
4:53 pm	Weekends should last longer... Had it ever happened to you that you need a day off to recover from the weekend?? Well, that’s my story – office work was… as usual, with its highs and lows and my every time more pressing need to find a new job, read the thesis material and think on new adjustments in my life plan… Now I totally understand why weekends are so precious… because they represent a tremendous paradox… these are the days you can sleep in till late, very late… but also are the only days you can actually have some time to do whatever you need to do or would like to do, such as shopping (groceries at least!), going to the museum, go swimming, or simply have some leisure reading… one also needs to clean the house, do laundry and perform all those little domestic activities we don’t do during week days because we return home totally exhausted… Besides, we have the world cup, which implies another round of socializing activities beyond mere going out for dinners or to the movies. I am NOT complaining. I am ENJOYING myself tremendously excepting the part of waking up early in weekends to talk with landlords. But not everything can be perfect. Anyway, I’m just describing in brief why I’m soo tired although it’s only 4pm in a grayish Tuesday evening and I’m writing at the office, which in theory I shouldn’t be doing, but after a round of meetings in the morning and other neuron-power demanding tasks, I decided to give myself a break. Yesterday, I spent the whole day in a conference-workshop with Dr. Khosla, one of the main authors of all the sustainable development/sustainable enterprises theory and later on I went to see the disappointing match Italy-Australia, me cheering for the Soceroos, who lost… but then I went for dinner with Ana Maria and Alicia to their house in Diemen Zuid… later on we hit the road to de Heffer in order to celebrate Phydeline’s birthday. Was hard to wake up on Monday… The reason? On Sunday at 11 pm we were still on the street on our way home after spending an awesome time watching the match Portugal-Netherlands at the house of the Portuguese… no comments about the match but the atmosphere was awesome. Though we were all wearing orange, I must confess I walked out with a red-green scarf. But still my hopes are with Germany (just wanna see these lil’argentinian arses kicked so hard!!). before going to the match, my roommies and I were struggling between willingness of socializing and staying home resting… for we went partying until 3 am, rode back home and waked up at 8 to clean the kitchen before the landlords came for the almost last round of agreements, this being a tenant is actually a very tiresome activity! Saturday was the day of rush… Just managed to wake up on time for swimming (at 10 am) before preparing mazzy’s gifts, going quick shopping downtown, coming back getting ready to go for dinner at the pancake house, going to the pub… and well… Doesn’t sound that bad… if I don’t tell you that the night before (Friday) Masha and I went to watch the film Marie Antoinette… which is one of the most boring movies ever, but we gave it a whole new perspective with a nice (and very smelly) bottle of wine we ended at home next to tea and chat with Lena. On Thursday we also went late to bed… this time because in the evening we went shopping (mazzy’s gift) and then we went to see the very hilarious typical disney-pixar movie, “Cars”. On Wednesday evening, I left office earlier, just to be seated between a very-well spoken Mexican girl (Eri didn’t utter a single curse!) and a very calmed Portuguese who enjoyed the result of the match… I bade bye to Eri and went home… to succeed in my I don’t know which number attempt of salmon with cheese and mushroom sauce… I used 4 different cheese types! Lena came over and, as usual, we chatted till late. Since Eri came to town on Tuesday, and her brother was also here, I went to bed around one am after walking around downtown, having coffee in leidseplein and chat as good friends who haven’t seen each other for a while (a month) do. In Monday 19th I had to stay up late writing my life plan in readable version, it certainly took me longer than expected and the worst is that on Tuesday I woke up terribly early… Sunday was a lazy day spent partially in downtown (we went to see “American Dreamz”), the day wasn’t lazy enough to recover from the previous day when we went to Vondelpark after spending the morning at the Rembrandt-Caravaggio exhibition at Van Gogh’s museum - - and still, we were quite tired for we spent the previous night watching chickflicks until almost 5 am , the reason is that Mils, Mash and I were really disappointed with the ending of the movie “The Breakup” so we decided to rent some movies with happy ending: “Must love Dogs” and “Nicholas Nickelby” (the later was mainly my request since I wanted to see the adaptation of this Dickens’ story) did the trick. Obviously it wasn’t that perfect since after almost four hours of movies my computer went crazy so we spent almost another hour trying to see the last 20 minutes of the film. We managed. On Thursday I got my baby bike repaired, with a functional dynamo (yeah I’ve got lights!!) and not crooked “fork” and tire anymore and well… I’m back to the road!!! This weekend promises already another restless time… Saturday being Canada’s Day and Sunday… Guns n’ Roses concert (with Axl included!) update… will come later. It seems sun is finally appearing on Amsterdam’s sky… yeah! I’m going swimming after work… (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 12th, 2006
2:31 pm	catching up What’s worse than working on a Sunday when the sun shines, the temperature is around 30 degrees and you’re out of Amsterdam for the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Rotterdam? Overworking on a Sunday, standing in a pavilion offering pamphlets and wristbands for random pedestrians who’d like to join the bank’s employee day… (who organizes an employee day on the weekend the Netherlands plays in the world cup??) If I knew that the cool party and celebration of the Volvo Ocean Race would be on Saturday night instead of Sunday, I would have gone to Rotterdam right after the beach on Sat!!! Because believe it or not… I went to the beach on Saturday, me, the sun-hater, was lizzarding (or attempting to play badminton) for about 3 hours at the Bloemendaal beach!! I didn’t get amazing tan but cancer-like burnt arms (despite my 75 spf sunblock) Anyway, back to Sunday, all I saw of the race was the parade of the boats on their way to the harbor, and the boats anchored. And that was it. Not such a big fun though the day was lovely and Rotterdam seemed to be a very interesting place, especially because it took us less than 1 hr to reach Rotterdam and about 1 hour 15 minutes to find the place (oh yeah we’ve been all over Rotterdam’s ring). Howbeit, Saturday was cool since we were a quite large ensemble going to the beach… which was rapidly being taken over by the sea and children, like good Dutch, were building dikes that were soon washed off by the waves. In the evening, Maja, Mils, Ana and I decided to quit the sun and crowd to go back to Amsterdam, where we enjoyed a nice dinner along Karel and Lena, and later on we were biking around with Lena, who is really fond of my little “dragonfly”. Friday deserves a special chapter for the simple reason that not only Lena won a full scholarship to study her masters in Maastricht but I cooked a dinner worth the applause of a cheff and Masha made a desert that resembled cozy evenings at the Caribbean Sea (pineapple stuffed with fruits and vanilla cream, with some strawberries and walnuts) and a very light punch with even more fruit, juice and red wine. I made Mexican Food – Ginny’s version 1. Tostadas were made out of wheat flour and water. Shaped by the expert Australian hands of Mils and Mazzy and overcooked (some were actually burnt) in our oven. But still tasty and veeeery functional 2. Since we don’t have a blender at home, I smashed two huge cans of beans and sort of fried them with some chili powder and lemon powder. The results were great beans but we still have like half of them left since I made far too much. 3. We had traditional tuna mayonnaise-lemon salad, chicken made with tomato sauce and red paprika and meat with veggies dressed with the Indonesian sauce which flavor I’m unable to distinguish but tastes damn good! 4. A fresh lettuce, tomatoes, paprika, onion and cucumber made the salad, and, in combination of the sour cream and sliced cheese we had food worth any restaurant specialized in Mexican food in part of North America and beyond!! Previously that Friday I wanted to go to the movies and although I made it on time to the show, didn’t manage to get in for it seems the movie wasn’t on screens though the website said otherwise. At work it was a great week – everybody was out for conference, training, holidays so actually I had a Friday-like lasting week, highlights were my going with Masha to the movie “Man about town” on Thursday and scared Lena when telling her the plot of a story I came up with…; I went to “Imagine me and you” with Alicia, Ana Maria and Masha on Wednesday; watching Desperate Housewives with Mils and Len on Tuesday brought me back to the feeling that things were back to normal after my week of sickness when big parties took place and I went to none… The week began well with my going to Boom Chicago and the World Photo Exhibition since Monday 5th was Bank Holiday so I could wake up late and enjoy the chill of the day with my friends. Sunday 4th… Vero came over and we reviewed the funny questions I made for the game about the Netherlands that was used at the transition session of AIESEC International… questions I wrote the previous night in the middle of a coughing attack that spared me precious moments of sleep and although I try to recall what I did on Saturday besides sneezing –though not regretting my going to the office on Friday evening, sleeping in the morning, going to watch X-Men on Thursday after a very bad morning with my flu and not sleeping (due to it and the fact that I was reading “The Undomestic Goddess”). Wednesday 31st of May was a gloomy, cold day and it was just the peak of lemony-snicket like events I faced after returning from home. Luckily these days are over and now I’m moving on. Where to? I don’t know But I’ll figure it out and keep you posted. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 4th, 2006
12:37 am	Back to the track Today was the first sunny day since I arrive back from home, exactly a week ago. Friends, jetlag and the beginning of a new stage in my time in the Netherlands began last Saturday. Needless to say that I slept almost the whole weekend, excepting on Sunday, when I went to my boss’ house to have a very nice dinner with her and my coworkers Monique and Manfred. It was a very lively and nice time which allowed me to get to know a bit more of the people I work daily with and at the same time help me not to miss home too much. A great surprise was waiting for me back to Mezquitalaan… Katiusha, my very green sister, and her friend Natasha, were all her way from Moscow and Paris… Monday was a tough day to go because of the jetlag, however we had a great dinner before going to de heffer to enjoy the Romanian presentation and catch up with people… Tuesday was Simona’s small good bye drinks at her house, it was raining a bit so I got wet biking my way from Mils’ to Simona’s, I didn’t think it was going to be too serious until my throat started hurting earlier on Wednesday morning. Katiusha gave me tea and coughing pills but the harm was done. On Wednesday I had to return home from the office without going to Jeff’s party and feeling particularly sick, with fever and the whole nasty picture of having the mother of all flus. Thursday was a lazy day at home. I slept in… but really in because the coughing didn’t allow me to sleep until 5 am so I read a book (started at 11 pm, ended about 4 something: the Undomestic Goddess, funny, light reading) and woke up just to bade good bye to my two Russian friends before going back to my bed. My biggest adventure of the day was going to Arena to watch X-men III with Masha. We made a pigs den where we were seated, first Masha dropped half of the popcorn and then I sneezed when I placed my tea between my knees with the result of not only spilling the tea on my (awful yellow stain remained) but also making everything sloshy around us. We met Lena on her way to the metro but we dragged her back to the huge shopping area (I didn’t know it existed!) next to Bijlmer to do some shopping for Masha’s family. I went to work on Friday. Feeling still a bit dodgy, with nasal voice and very soared throat I was on the platform back home when I decided to go to the movies… I had declined the invitation for a fantastic night program but I had to think on my health… I ended up going to Tuschinski to watch “The Libertine” with Masha. Johnny Depp’s performance was good and in general the movie was also good… there’s one line which particularly caught my attention: “your critics will always be the ignorant and the jealous. Once they know you, the ignorant will stop criticizing you, the jealous, never…” the earl of Rochester was a cynic, but very much a man of his time… anyway, Mash and I came home to catch up with Lena, Sarika and Karel and to organize our trip for today, Saturday. I wanted to join the people who was going to go to Groningen by bike, but considering that I’m still coughing, chocking and not really healthy, doing something like the journey proposed, more than fun such a thing would have actually been stupid. So, using the common sense that sometimes I have, I decided to join the people going to Zaanse Schan, Volendam and Edam… At 10:58 when Lena, Karel, Mils, James and I were on our way to Zaanse Schans, a small Dutch village not far from Amsterdam we knew it was going to be a long day of walking and fun… and indeed it was… all the time in Zaanse Schan had the smell of cocoa in the air due to the factory nearby, windmills, cheese factory, even the wooden shoe museum are part of the lovely village, without forgetting of course, the first Albert Heijn in the Netherlands (for those not familiarized with it, AH is the largest retailer for groceries in the NL). Volendam, another very nice fishing village where we walked up and down the place, Lena and Karel made a picture of them wearing typical Dutch outfits and we ate a fantastic fish and chips dish before taking the last ferry to Marken Island, a place entirely worth a postal card for all the houses, streets, gardens, everything, is just a portrait of a cozy village. Today I learnt the reason behind the wooden shoes, which actually are very easy to make (by having the proper machinery, obviously) but that in the past it certainly was a field to make a career on considering the time and labor they took!! The cheese factory would have disappointed me if it wasn’t because of the free samples of cheese!! I’m exhausted. There are still two more days off to go (yeaaaah!! Monday is a bank holiday for being whit day, don’t ask more) so we’ll see which nice surprises is the weekend going to present… (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 26th, 2006
5:12 am	a short summary of the month Hum… it’s certainly been a while since I last wrote in this journal… the reasons are known for almost everyone close to me, no matter where on earth they are… the results of which is supposed to be my very last exam (advanced microeconomics) were supposed to be out today, but they weren’t. Tomorrow I’m flying back to Amsterdam and hopefully I’ll do so knowing I passed because I can’t bear the idea of failing!! I also got my thesis case approved – being with my family was just fantastic, although it was just for a short while, I’ve shopping and driving and in general I had a glimpse of how my life would look like if I wasn’t living in the Netherlands. Recalling the events of the whole month will be tough… however, I can start by the week prior to my departure. Sunny some times, grayish other times… on Thursday we went to the Da Vinci Code, on Wednesday we had a very funny girly “tea party” and during the weekend Masha and I had just a fantastic time with an insane shopping on Saturday, followed by a night-long session of “Pride and Prejudice” (BBC Edition – 6 hr lasting show) which continued with a great sleep in and the movie “Last Holiday” in the evening of Sunday. Wednesday became the day of lost and found… for I got lost almost 2 hours on my way from Waterlooplein to the office, visiting the highway to Utrecht, riding in front of the “delta Lloyd” building I can see from the window of the office, discovering Station Rai and the wonderful park nearby, and in general losing my breathe to finish earlier and leave to make it on time for Lidl before it closed… and I surely wouldn’t make it if it wasn’t for the help of a German guy (Johannes, thanx heaps mate – as my aussie friends would say) who literally lead the way to Postjesweg and I made it 10 min before the closing time. The amazing Dragonfly (my bike) behaved in a fantastic way though I almost crash against a tree!! The weekend before that we went to Keukenhof, a poem made flowers… it certainly is one of the most beautiful, inspiring and lovely places ever. After an almost 6 hours lasting visit to this park, we went back to Amsterdam where we had one of the funniest barbeques ever… with a disposable grill, tons of salad, fries, wine… Sveta, Vero and Joost came from Rotterdam to join the already merry party of Keukenhof goers (Lena, Karel, Masha and I) and Amsterdam wanderers (Mazzy, Mils, Laura and Eoin). We started playing cards and ended at 3 am, when our eye lids were closing automatically… Sunday was obviously a sleep-in disrupted by my studying in the morning, ridding bike in the evening and Mission Impossible 3 in the late evening before going back home to sip tea and enjoy a cheerful chat with my roommates. On Friday it was fun to go to the drinks at the office despite my stupidity purchasing tickets to Poland for the wrong dates (no comments) and the evening went smoothly with the Brazilians at Jeanie’s house in Waterlooplein, I like this kind of gatherings, conversation, snacks and fun. And now is even tougher for me to recall what did we do during the week besides movies, dinners and making cookies, but everyday presents something to do, nice people to interact with (and some others, perhaps not so nice but still interesting), and in general life in Amsterdam I good, is fun and it is always offering room to great ideas (outside of the office, but hopefully inside as well!!) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, May 1st, 2006
8:55 am	Queen's day 30th April 2006 Almost every word uttered during last week made reference to “Queen’s day”. The birthday of the former queen of the Netherlands was 30th of April and it was celebrated every year… since the current queen has birthday in the winter, the spring date was kept to celebrate… celebrate being Dutch I guess, or simply celebrate having canals in all cities, or celebrate the orangeness of the orange color missing in the Dutch flag. Queen’s day is just a celebration day. Everything to be celebrated finds is time and space in Queen’s day. This year the queen decided to celebrate the 29th, Saturday, than the 30th, Sunday… Wise woman for the celebration itself began on Friday night and ended… on Sunday morning. Anyway, Monday was one of those long days in which one just longs for Friday to come… but actually I left the office earlier for I went to buy my new camera, a digital recorder which I’ve been unable to charge or to fully enjoy yet for I haven’t had time for it… however, it’s nice. Then I went shopping the last parts of Mils’ birthday gift. I walked up and down town when I finally met with Mazzy and we went to the Ethiopian restaurant where the dinner was to take place. It took us ages to reach the place for we were pretty lost about the location, but once in there we had a simply amazing time. The food was delicious and the companion excellent. Two enormous bowls with pancakes upholstering them were the base of one of the most varied but great dinners ever. Eating with our hands, sharing everything on the bowls, we not only had this feeling of sharing with your community but also quenching your hunger in a way barely seen before… we vacuumed the food, literally, it was served at 9:33 pm, by 9:47 the bowls were clean and the 10 of us (Lena, Frauke, Mannie, Eoin, Peter, Lauren, Veds, Mazzy, Mils and I) fully satisfied and ready to go to de Heffer for the second part of the celebration: the cake. On Tuesday I had my first business trip… to The Hague (45min away from Amsterdam by car) it was a conference given by Professor Stuart Hart from Cornell’s Johnson School and one of the main authors of the “Bottom of the Pyramid” theory. It was not only a very inspiring presentation, but also an interesting one in which a couple of cases were debated and the best was my conversation with Professor Hart at the end. I chatted with the Professor and then with various people present in the place, I even had an interesting discussion with the girls of the catering service about tv shows… Monique drove me home just on time for me to watch Desperate Housewives with Mils and enjoy a great dinner prepared by Lena and Masha, our new roommate from Russia. Wednesday… was movie day. Mazz, Lena, Mils and I went to wipe and sigh to Pathe Arena, where we watched “Tristan & Isolde” later on that evening, Saki (Japanese working in the UK that we met in Ireland) came over to our place where we dined and chatted until late for these good conversations tend to last hours and hours. Thursday was another interesting day in terms of activities out of the office…starting by the guys of the NGO who placed a huge plastic whale at the main entrance of the bank to demonstrate against a project while inside, decorated with pink lights and piggy banks on the tables, the shareholder’s meeting was taking place. It was also Guigo’s birthday so I went twice to the 17th floor, once for a slice of cake and the second time for the sake of company. Later on, Lena and I went to enjoy ourselves in the wonderful world of Kalverstraat after pay day when stores shut at 8:30 in the evenings… I bought a wonderful body buddy (massage glove) at the Body Shop, the most relaxing and fantastic thing ever… and then we hang around downtown looking for orange stuff for Queen’s day… when we returned home, we were starving, and the worst, willing to pee… Mazzy caught up with us around the corner… at the moment I had to open the door I discovered with horror that my purse had a huge hole… everything was in there but my key… Lena gave her keys to Masha, who at that time was downtown with her friend and warned us she was planning to come back home late, and Mazz’ keys were also nowhere to be found. Sarika was flying back from Dubai and Fe was out of town in an offsite meeting. Before panic took over us, we remembered there was a way to break into our house. And so we did. I was really vexed because my keys were gone and actually I was just thinking on where to go to make a copy of Lena’s… but Friday is “casual day” at the office, I can wear jeans and my loved old ragged jacket… the first thing I felt when I kept my hand in my pocket was… the key of my house. How on earth it got in there?? I don’t know. I haven’t worn this jacket since Sunday the previous week and it just didn’t make sense. I still wonder how did that happen but well, my keys were there… and it was already a good sign that it was gonna be a good day… which just became better and better as time passed. Friday’s are trainee’s day by nature, Hetal and I had the office for us. We had music on, we sang and chatted with Elizana, the secretary, and the best was the moment in which one of the senior managers of the bank, came to sit with Hetal and me and was showing us the pictures from his trip to India and was telling us about his experience… I finished my presentation and went to the second floor to say hi to people joining Friday drinks although I left just on time to come home and prepare tortellini Mazz, Lena and I had for dinner. After calls and quick decisions, Mazz and I went to Café Dante in Spui, where we had our first overview of what was ahead of us on Saturday. It took us 10 minutes to go through the crowd before we could get to the second floor, which was surprisingly empty. Slowly, people started joining us and by 2 am the place was as packed as downstairs, but we were having a great time, Lena and Karel came later, as well as Mannie and other French boy I met before, Julien, and Andrea, Kristin and Paul from the UK also joined us. Russ, Heather and Lauren came later as well as Anna and the new Brazilian trainee whose name I can’t remember. That was Queen’s night. At midnight, music changed and a martial march (loud trumpets) was coming out from every speaker in the country, the national anthem, Queen’s day was officially started. When at 2 am we decided to leave the place, I went back home for the sake of my well being for Saturday… and it was good because after a nice breakfast in the backyard we went downtown for what became one of the longest and craziest days ever. We walked from 2 pm until 3 am. Simply as that. We wandered around Jordaan, Nieuw Markt and Spui the whole day, following crowds, dancing, snacking, looking at all the random stuff people was selling in the flea markets located all around Amsterdam. Yes. On Queen’s Day people can get out from their houses whatever they want to sell, find a nice spot, set their stand and spend in there all the time they please selling their stuff… and people walks all around, wearing orange and Dutch flags in all its modalities, drinking, eating and buying stuff… When at 10 pm, exhausted after dancing on Spui (literally, on the street) we decided to go to Leidseplein, where we stayed between two pubs, going in front of one if the music was better than in the one next… we ended up going to Three Sisters Pub where we stayed dancing until 3 am. Mazz and I went back home with the night bus, but I couldn’t go straight to bed, not with my hair so dreadfully burnt because of the orange paint I sprayed on it earlier that day. Shortening the story, my Sunday begun at 1 pm when I noticed it was late but I was still exhausted from yesterday. It was a veeeery lazy day which started with a weird breakfast made of smashed potatoes, salad and defrosted pizza (Lena, Karel, Mazz and I were outside sharing the meal) and ended with an awesome lasagna dinner cooked by the Master Chef Karel… but that was not the best… my personal accomplishment of the day: I baked cookies. YES! The first time in my entire life I make cookies all by myself and the cookies were a great success!! I downloaded the recipe from internet and I did everything but following it properly and the result were a very strange looking chocolate cookies that tasted wonderfully!!! So now, my eyes are closing and I’m going to sleep. This week promises to be full of crazy happenings so I hope on Sunday a nice update will come – all I can tell is that Queen’s day was great, the preparations for it, the happenings of this week, everything was just like in a movie, an action-suspense one!! (Comment on this)