Getting to the weekend

Every day during the week my schedule was the following:

6:30AM wake up
7:15 Breakfast
7:30 Start drive w/coworkers from Amsterdam to Houten
8:30-9:10 Range of when we'd get in
12-12:30 Lunch (ordered in sandwiches since we're in the boonies)
1PM Back to work
6-7PM Start drive back to Amsterdam
8PM Start dinner
9PM back to room
10:30 hope to be in bed

It was pretty sad. The only thing that would change were the meats and breads in my lunch sandwiches and the restaurant we went for dinner. I wouldn't say it was miserable since I'm in a really nice hotel and I'm in a foreign country, but it wasn't ideal.

The thing that is really fun about being in a foreign country is learning the language. People get really pumped when you can say a couple things in their language and/or show some sort of effort to assimilate. I use how are you in Dutch religiously and everyone has a HUGE smile when they hear I'm actually american. So far I've learned How are you, Good morning, good night, Good, delicious and Do you speak English?

We've had Hotel food, Italian, Thai, Mexican, Asian fusion and they were good, below average, AMAZING, average and AMAZING respectively. Friday came and we went over to the Leidse Plein (a section of Amsterdam with a lot of restaurants/bars). We walked around and settled on Momo for dinner on recommendation from the waitress (I think Denise?) from Blinq. Momo had 2 BEAUTIFUL hostesses. We walked in and I flossed my semi Dutch skills. We were seated near the bar; I went down to the bathroom, it was a 3 min walk. Unfortunately, I passed this real cute asian girl that had been sitting near us, and did NOT chat her up. I don't know why I freeze up when it comes game time. I could've just said how are you in dutch and started a whole convo like what she's doing and blah blah... it woudl've been perfect! She was walkin up all slow too. I dunno. I need to think of something to start up a convo after i botch it haha. Sadly, I saw another girl i made eye contact with going to the bathroom for the 2nd time and didn't capitalize there too. I just get surprised.

Anyway, we went from Momo to Bulldog to chill; there were a lot of dudes and i failed to step up to 1 set of girls where one was decent. We stayed for about an hour and headed to Blinq again as that place seemed more like a professionals crowd. Bulldog was more casual bar.

Blinq was real nice! It had good techno music w/a guy playing jazz sax behind some of it. There were tons of ladies and we were busy talkin to people. I started chatting up this girl on my left who was half tunisian half dutch which made for an interesting look. probably died dirty blonde hair w/a bit of a tan and light eyes. She looked arabic and spoke arabic, dutch and english which is sick. We chatted about work and how she respected that I took time to learn dutch. Eventually I told her she should come w/me to museums, and that's when she told me she had a BF so even if we exchanged info she would NOT call me back. I said I respect that, that's fine. And later, she gave me her business card!??!?!

We moved on to try a brazilian bar, and it was straight empty. I swallowed the 10 EUR i spent for cover and we went BACK to Bulldog. I chatted up a girl who I thought was attractive named Sarah who was really pumped i lived in NYC (thanks rishi). We later just bounced cuz Eric was running out of gas.

I dropped him off at the hotel and I went out to find one last place around 2AM. I walked into NL which is a 5 min walk from the hotel. It was packed up, but most people were talking to each other and I didn't really get any good vibes from anyone there. It was really loud too, so I stayed for about 30 min and walked home. I was out of gas, and just winded down.

Settling into the Renaissance (D2b)

Ironically I checked in w/an Asian lady. I was informed they did NOT have a room ready for me at 930AM, but she hooked me up w/club lounge access, so I could unwind and eat some breakfast in there. It was a nice gesture; they have wireless internet as well, so I started tweeting furiously. I was close to running out of gas around 1030, so I went back downstairs and checked if a) my coworkers had arrived, and b) if my room was ready so i could crash for 2-3 hrs (Anna told me I should NOT sleep at all on the first day). Neither A nor B was affirmative, so I chilled in the lobby for about 20 min.

For some reason I thought I heard the 2 voices of my coworkers, so I rushed upstairs and didn't see them; however, the asian lady told me my room was ready!!!! I rushed upstairs, set all my stuff down and slept for like 3 hours. My head felt like an ANVIL at 3PM when I woke up. I forced myself to get up; I realized I didn't bring shorts, so I set out to buy some.

I walked to Dam Square (pictured, a huge expanse of area wide open in the middle of downtown probably used for concerts and parties?) and up and down these couple streets looking for an athletic store w/basketball shorts and then a restaurant. I found 4 Foot Lockers, Perry Sports, and a million H&Ms, and other shoe stores. It was frustrating since NONE of these stores sold basketball shorts; most had soccer shorts and running shorts that broke the fingertip rule in HS... alas I was not tryin to solicit business as a prostitute.



I did notice the girls in Amsterdam are beautiful. They have beautiful eye, pretty faces and like 90% are not fat. It's really amazing because in 20-30 degree weather, usually you can't tell, but with these women, you definitely can.

I also noticed a lot of people on bikes.

Unfortunately the next 5 days of work would not bring much entertainment aside from the delicious food. More to come...

First Flight to Europe Day 1a (D1a)

The cab driver showed up a bit early at my house, so we set off a bit early and got to EWR w/2 hours to spare as planned. I broke out the ol' corporate card for the first time in a WHILE. EWR was standard; I got my ticket easily and went to the security line where I waited for an eternity. It felt like the regular line was going quicker than the elite line which is odd. There was only 1 gate and 2 security conveyors open for our line which is ludicrous. There's so many other lanes closed that it just makes no sense how we'd have to wait that long to get through security. The airport staff/flight attendant/pilot line was clear the entire time and only when I picked up a tray to put all my stuff into did the TSA agent open up the other line to non staff (literally the person RIGHT AFTER ME got through there).

Once through, I checked out my gate and I had about an hour, so I strolled through the terminal trying to find a place to eat with a bar to sit at (more social). I settled on Garden State Diner. A cute latina hostess sat me at the bar and I got a chicken/fresh mozz sandwich w/sweet potato fries which was very very good for a basic dish. The waitor was very very nice and I thought his service was pretty outstanding.

Later I picked up some gum and chips for the flight to snack on and sped through the elite gate line at around 6:05PM. The plane was 6 columns and I was in the 7-8th row from the door which is really nice. I relaxed and noticed a lot of foreign accents/foreign languages being spoken which got me pretty excited for the trip. As they closed the door, it was noted that I had NOONE else in my row!!!

All of a sudden after we took off, I wondered if I needed a Visa to get into The Netherlands... I was freaking stunned, so I pushed the assist button and asked the flight attendant who told me that it would most likely not be needed, but just be nice to the customs agent since the flight to the US that had that bomber person who foiled himself causing the recent airplane security hysteria WAS FROM AMSTERDAM.

The flight in itself was nice because we had an on demand TV/movie system as opposed to DirecTV. On Demand is totally free w/a lot of movies/shows/music to choose from that you start and stop at your own desire. On the otherhand there is a fee to use DirecTV on flights. I don't really need to watch TV, especially right now when there are no sports on (I guess the dunk contest was on, but I heard that was a doozy).

I caught "More Than a Game" the movie about LeBron James in HS. I thought it was pretty interesting to learn about him and his friends. I even got close to teary eyed at the end when they won the championship and Willie went into the stands to find his brother. It was a heartfelt moment.

That moment almost was preempted by My Big Fat Greek Wedding. What a hilarious movie!! I actually DID cry at the end when Costa bought them a house and hugged Ian. Sorry I'm emo.

Aside from that while I listened to Jackson 5, I reviewed some work and read some newspapers. I tried to fall asleep eventually but for some reason my back was ALLL f'd up. I couldn't sleep. I looked at the wall of my row and noticed now why no one was next to me. "Recline restricted for this seat due to federal regulations" I was freaking in front of the emergency exit row, so I couldn't recline all the way back. WOW. If there's one thing you learn from my trip, it should be DO NOT get the seat in front of the E row on a flight of more than 4 hours. It is really painful.

My landing was smooth, I chatted w/the lady next to me who informed me Coffee shops in Amsterdam are different, Cafe's are the things I should find actual coffee in, if that gives you a hint of what we're talking about.

Security was swift, the customs agent commented that I have longer hair than my pic and I was through. Since I'm elite, my bags were already out and I hopped into a Mercedes Cab!!!

We searched for the BoA, but it was closed on Sundays (you can't even use the ATM aka Cash Machine!!!). I chatted w/the cab driver and learned 3 phrases I'll probably use a lot. They are the following, spelled like it's pronounced, not actual dutch: 1) Uchhartet; 2) Sprektu Angosh; 3) Dank Eoo. (Answers at the bottom)

We turned a corner past the closed bank, drove for max 4 more minutes and there it was, the Renaissance Amsterdam!!!!

Total door to door time: 4PM ET - 9:30AM GMT = 11.5 hr.

(Answers to above 1) Hi, how are you; 2) Do you speak English?; 3) Thank you.

Getting ready for Amsterdam!!

*Note: This will be the first post most people see since I'm posting the link on facebook soon. I am posting this up on facebook to keep people in the know about what I'm doing while I'm in Europe. It's tough for me to Gchat everyone 32 times about what I did that day/weekend. I really love/appreciate comments (well I like people actually reading too).


The past week I've been just completing a project, and getting ready for work in Amsterdam. I packed most of my things up last week, and did a review of them last night. I usually like to bring 6 dress shirts (in case something gets out of wack and I can't get dry cleaning done as well as maybe using one to go out over the weekend. I also go with 4 shirts to work out in because I plan to work out every OTHER day. This usually doesn't work out so well, but I try to use them as shirts I sleep in too, so they double in purpose.

The things I usually forget is my work belt, underwear & dress shoes. I forget my work belt and dress shoes because these are things I never wear unless it's to work, so it's tough to remember while packing (I haven't forgotten it in 2-3 trips now so I'm feeling good about that). I think I forget underwear because I usually like to pack that last since I don't have superfluous underwear. I only have 5 packed in right now.

This trip, I brought 3 ties. The problem is, I don't have something to hold the ties in, so they get all folded up. I saw "Up in the Air"; George Clooney has a tie holder that looks sweeeeeet. It's leather zip up. I need to get that (even though I don't really travel as MUCH anymore).

I also definitely remembered my passport, corporate credit card, Continental and Marriott elite cards (not really necessary, just wanted to mention so everyone knows I have them). I actually realized instead of my hilton AMEX I wish Continental was on AMEX. Maybe they are, I would get that because there aren't many value added hotel privileges (more points per stay, maybe a small gift for lowest status) as opposed to airline benefits (free checked bags, walking through the fast security lines). I'm going to look into this soon.

Well my cab gets here in about an hour, so I'm going to review what I'm bringing to make sure I have all the stuff that's essential. I also need to grab a shirt to wear out of my bag (in order to save space).

Engaging

So Friday we went to Hoboken and I squared off against a heavy weight. Noticed a girl w/big hair who was a bit sexy.

My boy wanted to holler at her friend so we stopped, then she stepped up to me and said, "I want to dance w/him (me)." We started gettin it in. We exchanged names and I went w/my standard "Ken like the barbie doll." This time she said oh yeah i see that, an asian doll :). She said, "I love your hair" while i noticed her hair was very nice, soft, big & poofy.

We talked and eventually my friend couldn't keep up. I had to entertain two ladies at that point. Found out both were PR and fluent Spanish Speakers. The one interested was in nursing school and patient coordinator (gives patients prescriptions (puts all the patient info in to the computer).

When I went for # she put her hand up. As in engagement ring; however, she told me, "BUT IM NOT MARRIED" SHe lives w/her fiancee and knew him for 5 years. How do we feel about that?

She wanted me to give her my #, everyone knows this doesnt' fly. She started accusing me of haivng a gf. It was really weird. "She is probably really pretty and really smart too."

Eventually that just didn't work out, probably good news because I'm not sure I want to get mixed up in that.

Later we went outside talked to another girl who looked Greek and was a very sexy Brunette. I eventually forgot her name, but she was def feelin me. When we went back in, I asked for her name and she was VERY turned off by my lack of memory. I was immediately dismissed.

On the car ride home after this, I was berated for not hollerin harder at the PR girl, i.e. take her home to my friends place. I feel like maybe I should've done that, but is this really the right thing to do? Do we feel like I would be morally responsible too here? I just picture the other dude being all pissed off and disappointed if he found out (i.e. if i found out about my fiancee). I guess it would still suck if he knew she was out doing things like this, unless they mutually agree (whether written/unwritten) that they can chill w/other people and that the relationship is a bit loose.

Let me know your thoughts (all of my 1 readers haha).