Online Dating

Over the years I've been a single man in my 20s and basically find all avenues to meet women. I go out basically 95% of weekend nights, I try to go to the mall, or get out of my house as often as possible, just to have more face time with people in general. Whether or not that works is not important to this topic; online dating provides another link to women.

So I've heard stories where a lot of people have success at various websites which is nice. I also have heard people complain that websites usually are just tailored to white people. I'm not sure how true this is. I, for one, have not been on any dates with anyone through an online website, but have registered for a few and haev never paid any fees.

Match.com. I've heard this is for people who just want to hook up with others. I didn't pay the monthly fees, so I wouldn't know. I put up a profile, have gotten a few winks/messages, but can't read or write messages back to others since I don't pay, so it's fairly useless. It is a nice site that provides you with 5 daily matches, great details about matches and decent search options.

OkCupid.com. I've been on this for a couple months and it's completely free. I don't go on it often and don't see any girls I'd consider cute on it. They have 3 daily matches too, but they seem tailored to 3 people you'd absolutely ignore if you saw them in real life; odd right?

PlentyofFish.com This free site really is the best of all of them. It is a bit tough because there is no search criteria, but there is a chemistry test you take in the beginning (which I learned alot about myself by). The site searches for % matches to your test. It will also recommend people who it thinks you would find "hot" and the 15 or so they show are spot on.

All this is fine and good, but the problem for me is, I don't think people know a) how tall I am through these pictures, and b) I feel like I have some sort of positive aura that is not captured in these pictures. What I'm trying to say is, I'm ugly, and if people don't meet me/talk to me, they will NOT give me a chance.

haha.

Back to the Red, White & Blue

I spent the last night getting severely cock blocked in Amsterdam. What was cool though, was I went out myself and talked to 2 Latvians, a Swiss, 2 Hungarians, and some Dutchies. It was overall a great night despite being pancaked so badly.

The next morning, I purchased some postcards, a shotglass, and headed to the airport. I got my ticket and headed to gate C. On the way there, I spotted a sign for something I would never expect to be in an airport outside of Las Vegas (or Macau for that matter). A CASINO!!!!!!!!!! I quickly followed the sign as I had 2 hr before my flight. Given potential security going into the US, I wanted to have ample time to get through that. I probably walked/used the electric walkways for like a football field's length when I came upon a converted restaurant/food court that was now a casino!!! It was full of slots, but somehow also had 3 blackjack tables and a roulette wheel WITH DEALERS!!!!!!!!!! There were about 5-6 people in the casino playing EUR 10 minimum blackjack hands and EUR 5 minimum roulette. I put my EUR 10 bill on black and walked away w/a EUR 10 profit!!!!

The overall security at Amsterdam going to the US is not as stringent as I expected. I got to my gate, we got called to get up and each passenger was interviewed by a different security guard. The guy asked me for my passport and ticket; my hands were full so i put my ticket in my mouth, then grabbed my passport out of my pocket and gave them both to him. He commented that I had put the ticket in my mouth, then gave it to him, so I said sorry haha.

Other than that, we went through a regular security gate (putting our stuff through sensors). No one had to go through this at the front of the airport.

The ride home was enjoyable. I watched Devil Wears Prada and The Blind Side (almost cried 4 times). When I finally got back home i was exhausted. I went to bed around 8 and woke up at 9AM. I suggest for anyone trynig to get over Euro jet lag to not get much sleep for the last couple days in Europe (go to sleep at 3-4AM and wake up at 10), then fall right asleep when you get back around 8 and wake up after 10-13 hours of sleep. I felt great the next day. I slept from 11-10 the following day and really never felt tired during the day. I only felt extremely tired at night around 11, which is normal.

Taking in the Beauty of Paris

I got a phone call from my coworker Ivan the first night I was there before I planned to go to sleep early. He told me to check out the Louvre, Notre Dame and City Hall at night. He also told me about a jazz club that was awesome near Notre Dame. Unfortunately I was only able to see 2/4 and those two did NOT include the jazz club which I couldn't find. The louvre was HUGE (I think it's a museum). The outside includes a big arc and a big glass pyramid. Notre Dame is an enormous cathedral that just seems amazing when you walk up to it.


The next day I checked out the Eiffel Tower which is breathtaking to actually see, the Arc de Triumph, also pretty amazing because it's so big, and Chammps-Elyses, the 5th avenue of Paris. The LV store was just amazing. I checked out a tie case and realized a) i do not have money, and b) the tie case in "Up In The Air" is from LV and is over $600!!!! There's a tax refund you get when you make a purchase at a store for >~175 Euro. You get 18% back I believe. Unfortunately, you multiply all the prices by about 1.43 because of the exchange rate then add more for credit card transaction fees. It still comes out to about a 20% discount for LV stuff which is really good!

I also was able to check out the Aviation Club which is Paris's downtown poker club. Unfortunately, you have to pay EUR 100 to be a member, then play at their various tables. I definitely could NOT afford that.

I was happy with my sightseeing, but the most impressive part was Mount Martere which is a small section of Paris that has an amazing view of the entire city and a large cathedral. I ate there and really enjoyed how quaint it is.

The next day I checked out the Gallerie Lafayette (most famous mall in Paris) and the other Gallerie Lafayette which I believe also is a mall, but it was the section of Paris (south) that had the best Crepes. I searched for a lady to ask where good crepes are, but was running out of time, so I got a croissant (decent) and then went to a stand for a banana/nutella crepe that was super delicious.

I caught a cab from my hotel to the train station and it was a young dude in an E320. He freaking sped through traffic which pleased me. I commented that he drives like I do in NYC. I also commented that I liked the music, so he got out of his car at a stop sign and grabbed some cd's from the trunk. He popped in DJ francoise (I think was his name) and it was hot. He jacked up the volume and we listened to the techno the entire time. It was really a great time!

The train ride home went well as I spent EUR 13 for some spotty ass internet, and despite that, won $90 which is about a $70 profit.

Totally Broken Down Trip to Paris

My trip to Paris started on Thursday morning; I woke up and almost was late checking out of the Renaissance. I went w/o breakfast/lunch until right before my train ride. I picked up some last min gifts and went to Centraal station. I bought a small pizza, sandwich and croissant w/ham/cheese which were good, good and ok respectively.

The train ride went smoothly, except when you consider it was an hour late. Unfortunately, I did not print out ANY of my itinerary and realized this as I got off the train. I asked the cab dispatcher to get me to the Marriott Vendome, and he had NO CLUE what i was talking about. He just told the cabbie to go to the vendome and look around. We drove to the Ritz and stopped. I got out to ask and they pointed in a general direction to the southwest. I walked, went in the Hotel Vendome, and that was wrong, they gave me more directs. Stopped in 1 more hotel and they said I was warm; "go around the block to the opposite side." So I finally made it.

Once inside, the front desk told me I had no reservation. I realized in horror that I didn't get a confirm email although I remember picking through my hotel preferences when I booked it online. Fortunately, the nice people had a room available until my checkout date of Sunday, so it was all square. 80k Marriott Points down the drain.

My first room looked AMAZING, but had a slight hint of smoke, so I moved. The room has a DVD player, nice phillips TV w/ glass border, amazing cabinet setup, comfortable King bed, beautiful bathroom, and best of all, BVLGARI Bath Products!!!!

I settled in, then went to Chez Flottes to eat authentic French. Had some salmon tartar (looked like a less than uncooked beef patty (very pink)), then a duck w/these cheese mashed potatoes. I've never had anything like them. You know how those potatoes should kind of fall if you tip your spoon? These dripped almost like syrup, but would stay connected like bubble gum. It was good, but I couldn't finish them because it was too cheesy for an asian like me.

I topped it off w/a caramelized rice pudding. I almost sent it back because I thought it was creme brulee, but they MEANT to make the top hard! It was delicious!!!

I must warn you though, I don't know how other people feel, but I felt really intimidated in Paris because I didn't speak ANY French. It also didn't help that I just learned some Dutch and most people look the same in Paris as in Amsterdam (much like when I was speaking predominantly chinese for 2 months then went to Japan for a weekend and got confused when everyone did NOT speak chinese (yeah we all look the same to me too). I really found it difficult to figure out what to say to people upon meeting them (I even botched bonjour a couple times). I really like saying Sa Va (how are you) and au Revouir (bye).

US V. Holland Friendly

I decided the day of the soccer match that I would go despite having no one to go with. One of my coworkers had a flight to Barcelona, while the other just punked out saying he had to pack and had a 7AM flight the next day (poor decision). I was hopin to ask one of the ladies at the hotel to come, but never really got the chance to do that either.

We got back from work on Wednesday relatively early since we finished, and went to Toro Dorado (an argentinian steak place) to grab dinner. Wow it was delicious. They had some Wagyu filet which was $60 for 8 oz. It was highly marbelized because the cow is fed beer and masssaged (in the past it was all manual massage). I'd actually like to pay 60 and be fed Beer and massaged instead of the cow, but that's another story.

After dinner I rushed to the Centraal station and bought my round trip high speed train tix to Paris for Thursday (today). I found out if i had bought them 3-4 days earlier I'd have saved another 30 Euro which (anyone that knows me knows) def pisses me off.

I hurried over to the subway part of the station and got help to purchase a one way ticket to the stadium (weird you can buy more than one way...). I got to the stadium, walked a mile to the OTHER SIDE of the stadium to buy a EUR 40 ticket to sit in the front row of the 2nd level. I walked halfway back to where I started and headed up. When I walked through the gate to my seat and the view rose into my vision, I was overwhelmed. The greenness of the pitch was beautiful and it was a lot closer than I thought it would look. The crowd atmosphere was great and it was fun to watch these amazing athletes kickin around the ball.

My overall thoughts are that the US is very very sloppy (although one of their best guys got injured very early). They turn the ball over all the time. Holland looked real good and smooth. #11 a black dude w/a mohawk was super fast. I saw him practicing at halftime and he did some move where he is trotting, steps over the ball w/the left foot going forward and heels the ball into his back right foot which automatically pushes the ball forward; it was really really cool and looked so easy.

Anyway, the game was a fun experience. US lost 2-1 and almost tied it in the last 3 min of the game (all in extra time which was very very long!!).

The ride back was tough; I first couldn't use my credit card to purchase a train ticket, it needed a chip (CC security in Europe is really really strict), so the people behind me let me have EUR 0.35 to get me a 2.6 Euro ticket. I got on the train; when it stopped, everyone got out, but I saw a sign that said rookfort, so I stayed on. For some reason, no one else got on for a while, so I went outside to check what happened, and didn't see any signs saying it was Centraal Station. I stayed on.

30 min later, some people got on and the train started moving in the opposite direction; I asked and they confirmed we WERE just at my destination... DAMN. I got off at the first stop, went to the other platform and got on a subway back to CS.

Unfortunately, when I got off at CS and tried going through the subway gate, I couldn't since I had a train pass and not subway pass. The cop told me this, and I asked him how I could get out!??!?! He said, "Upstairs where the train gets out." I asked him how I get there fully knowing he expected me to go back to another station and take the train back... but he was nice and let me through!!!

What a trip.

Marathon week to get to Friday

Well, my schedule stayed the same from the work week before. It's as close to clockin in and out of work as I've gotten in a while. I even slept through my alarm on Tues or Wed and had to get called by the Manager to get my ass up!! I took 15 min and hurried downstairs. It was all good though; I was wide awake out of embarrassment, so I drove the hour to work.

I won't be surprised if we get almost 1 speeding ticket per day. There are rarely cops on the roads in Europe, they just have speed trap radars every so often. Our GPS picks up the traps and gives us warnings, but who knows if a) it's getting all of them, and b) if it posts the right speeds. There's also a ton of construction on the highways, so the posted speeds are 90 km/h, but the GPS tells us it's 120... we'll see what happens. We're splitting the bill 3 ways so that makes it a little better, but I think every speeding ticket is EUR 150!!!!! That's like $200!!!

The weekend was an entertaining one. Friday night I went out myself to Bittersweet (the only hip hop club) but this time it was pretty wack. They weren't playing hip hop, and it was a bit dead, although there were some Bboy's in there tearin up the rug. It was cool to watch, but I wasted 8.5 Euro there.

Saturday, I woke up around noon & got some Shwoarma for brunch. It was a pita filled w/chicken, lettuce, fries, tomatoes, chili sauce & Garlic sauce; very very good!! I ate it on the drive to Antwerp! I didn't really decide to go until Friday afternoon, so I wasn't able to contact Ivan (who's from there) to tell me what to check out. I did arrive around 2:30 and walked around the main busy street. It was BUSTLING. I even bought 2 t's from Zara; they have a zara home store (like macy's home department). Pretty crazy.

I settled to eat at this cafe right near the side of the cathedral. I targeted a Nile fish on the menu, since it would be AWESOME to eat fish from the Nile River. The waitor suggested Beef stew and fries because that's more local of a dish. I obliged and it was really good! I followed it up w/some belgian waffles which were DELICIOUS!!!!!!! The waffle was so crispy! I had diced fruit over it with a lot of powdered sugar... OOOOooooOOOOOO.

I really took in all the architecture and statues that were amazing. Really beautiful structures. They even had a castle close to the water. Beautiful beautiful city. I ended up driving back around 7. I was pooped when I got back to the hotel and proceeded to lose ~100 in poker online.