Nick's Blog n@

Spinach Shake

2012-01-28T16:02:00.001+01:00

Drinking my first spinach shake today. Man, it is good!!! Actually looks pretty cool too I think.

Alena's Leaving

2012-01-25T22:26:00.003+01:00

Tonight I had dinner with a few friends, including Alena who is moving back to Germany tomorrow. It really is sad because she was one of the first friends that I made here in Holland outside of work. I remember meeting almost 2 years ago now at my first My Haarlem event. Over the last two weeks we all hung out, had pancakes, went to the pub, and now tonight had dinner.

I just amazes me to think that I've been here in Holland long enough to have met someone, became friends, and they are now moving away already. But, at least Germany is only right next door. I will be visiting for sure because I want to finally make it to one of these German Christmas markets that I've heard so much about. And hey, in the meantime, there is a My Haarlem event this weekend...I wil just have to recruit a new German person with a British accent to our group of friends :-)

Paris

2012-01-15T20:47:00.001+01:00

Wow Paris, it impresses me more and more every time I go there is just soooo much to see and do. I think if I were to move anywhere else in Europe and I had the choice, Paris would be at the top of the list. Everything there is just so amazing, the architecture, the amazing transportation, the stores, the food, list list just goes on. I think every time I am there I find something bigger, better, and more interesting than the time before. For example this time I walked into a store that was seven stories high, I was looking for the mens section which I thought the signs were saying was on the 5th floor, then I realized, no, there was no mens section because it actually had it's own building next door that was 5 stories high! Geeze!

I also ate some amazing food as usual. I honestly think it doesn't matter what restaurant you choose, it is always good. I even had roast duck across the street from the train station and it was perfect! The salmon tartar that I had was great. I think if summertime had a taste, this would be it. And of course I had foie gras as well. Mmmmm.

One thing that I would of course have to work on is French! It is a nice sounding language and I am kinda working on it in my spare time, but man, it is hard. Especially since I live in Holland and there is not much opportunity to hear it all the time. But I am going to keep at it, because you never know what the future might have in store.

New Years Resolutions

2012-01-01T19:30:00.001+01:00

Ah, it is time to list my 2012 New Years resolutions. Over the past couple of years, I have been quite ok at keeping my goals, so lets see what happens this time. Here are my goals in no particular order:

Travel more. Mainly more weekend trips and not trying to depend on others to make travel plans. Now that I've been to Prague, I know it's possible to see places on your own.

Some places I'd like to go include: Scandinavia, Bruges, Mexico, and maybe somewhere else in Eastern Europe

Make a better effort to learn basic French. With my number of trips to France increasing, I would really like to be able to speak some basic French. I want to dedicate a few hours per week to learning French. My biggest obstacle to overcome here is to get it out of my mind that spending time on French is "wasting" time that I could be using on Dutch.
Make some new friends. I have some good friends here in Holland already, but I want to make some more who are more into doing the things I want to do, and more willing to go out on a regular basis. Would also be nice to get a few more Dutch friends as well (although international friends are also good.)
Follow a better diet. Ever since moving to Europe, I have been letting my diet slip. I used to be so conscious about what I ate in the US. While I still do not go crazy here in Europe, I am not at the point where I want to be with it. My main problem here is time and proximity. Time because I now have to commute to work and that takes up a good portion of my day (I did not really have to worry about this so much in Pittsburgh.) Now when I get home I want to scarf down food ASAP and get myself to the gym. Most of the time I will eat whatever I can get fast. Proximity is an issue because at work the only lunch option is the cafeteria which does not serve healthy food and I hate packing my own lunch. My plan is to work on these two points and see where I end up.
Stop biting my nails. I did such a good job almost 2 years ago with this, now I am back doing it in full force. Stopping with this nasty habit starts NOW!

Well, these are my goals. Let me know what you think.

What are your goals for 2012?

Looking back at 2011

2012-01-01T19:17:00.000+01:00

Looking back at 2011, I had a pretty full year. I traveled a lot and learned (I think) a lot more about living in Holland. The year started off with me still being very uncertain about me speaking Dutch and constantly worrying about it. Thankfully over the course of the year, I've gradually became better with Dutch and am now at a much more comfortable point with it where I don't let every little thing bother me. Dutch is now an every day skill that I use while I still of course try to perfect it in my free time.

I got to see a lot of places this year, such as various cities and towns in Holland, Malta, Paris, Munich, Washington D.C., Prague, Antwerp, and some others I just can't think about right now. I plan to continue my travels in 2012 and hopefully get to see more cool places.

One thing that I am not so happy about is the frequency (and sometime the quality) of my posts on this blog. I hope that this year I will post more frequently.

Cake Flavored Vodka?

2011-12-19T02:27:00.001+01:00

Of course, in America.

Prague!

2011-11-27T11:19:00.001+01:00

Prague was just as good as I expected it to be. It was so cool and so old! There were magnificent buildings everywhere and not just in the center of the city. Wow, such great great architecture.

It all started out very very early in the morning last Saturday. As I was walking to the bus to get to the airport, there were actually still people in the bars from the night before! So yes, I was tired! At the airport, I was in the plane and all ready to go when they made and announcement saying that hydraulic fluid was leaking and we would have to use another plane. I was actually kinda glad because then at least I would not be in Prague so early anymore.

Once I made it there, I bought my public transport ticket and was off to the city. Public transport in Prague is pretty good. I bought one ticket that worked for three days (from about €10 or so) and it worked on all buses, trams, metros, and even the incline! Luckily when I got to my hotel really early, they let me check in anyway. My hotel was right in one of the main squares there. After I got my stuff in my room, I headed out to explore. I walked around the center, then crossed the Charles Bridge (built in the 13th century!) and headed up to the castle. That was a lot of walking but well worth it for the view. After coming back, I had dinner and was extremely tired from being up so early and then walking all day. I went to bed early that night.

The next day I started out going up the incline to see a replica of the Eiffel Tower, it was okay, but nowhere near as nice as the one in Paris. I walked back down and stumbled upon The Museum of Young Art. I ended up deciding to go in and was really glad I did. It was very interesting and was in an old palace. After that I had coffee at one of Prague's famous old grand cafés called Kavárna Obecní Dům. The place was pretty nice and I had a nice relaxing snack. That day I also had a traditional Czech meal of roast duck, potato dumplings, and red cabbage. It was awesome. The night, I went to go see some black light theater which apparently originated in Prague. It was cool. Everything was done in black lights and some people would wear all black clothing and carry things making it look like things were floating. I saw "Rock Therapy"which was a show about The Beatles.

My last day, I walked around a bit more and saw the old train station which was cool and a modern building called "Dancing Houses" (translated to English):

Then I got a Thai massage. It was nice but very different from the Swedish ones that most people are used to. Check it out some time if you come across one. I did some more walking around to see some sites and then ended by having an awesome dinner at a French restaurant.

All in all, I really liked Prague and was glad I decided to go.

Almost got arrested in France!

2011-11-14T22:53:00.001+01:00

Last week I had to go to Paris for the day. I took the Thalys (fast train between Amsterdam and Paris) as usual. When I was at the train station, O thought "O. shit, I forgot my passport!" I did not worry too much about it because they never check.

When I was on the train somewhere in France, the French police come in and say "Police! Identity Cards!" I was like OH NO!! So when they go to me I gave him my Dutch drivers license hoping he would just accept it, he was like no, ID card and I was like I forgot it. He did not understand me and told me to wait. He then checked the next guy's card and showed it to me "ID card." Me: "I know, I forgot mine." Then a couple other Frenchie cops came over, none of them spoke English of course. I was starting to think, oh no...

Finally a Dutch cop came over and I was able to explain to him in Dutch what was going on and that I was not even staying overnight and that I would be coming back that same day. He asked to see my return ticket, I showed him, and he explained the the Frenchies what was going on. They did not look too happy but they accepted it. Then the Dutch cop told me to make sure I don't forget next time. Feeeewwwwhhh....

Then after they left, the Dutch guy sitting across the aisle was like "Um excuse me, your drivers license is not valid for ID outside of Holland" I was like "...ya...I know..." and was thinking "WTF? you just heard me having this discussion with the cop!" He went on to tell me that he takes the train every week for the past 2 years and this was only the second time they checked IDs...Of course it is the day I forget mine!

O well, I made it there and back with no problems and did not end up in a French prison! :-)

Amsterdam in Paris

2011-11-08T23:24:00.001+01:00

Just do it, Don't wait

2011-11-03T16:03:00.001+01:00

Last night I finally booked my trip to Prague. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. At first I was so set on finding other people to go with me, but no one either wanted to or was able, so then I thought, maybe I will wait. But I continued to look around at flights. Then I was not able to get the absolute lowest price anymore which I did not like, so I thought I would wait. Then things started to get more expensive, so then I thought I would put it off or just go somewhere else. But then the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much time I was wasting by trying to make everything perfect and turn out exactly the way I wanted it. And by wasting all of that time I lost focus on the fact that I wanted to go to Prague, the details really should not matter (too much anyway.) So last night, I got home from work and said to myself, "Nick, you want to go to Prague, so lets just do this." I booked the ticket and I am going!
No I am not going with someone, and no I did not get the €99 price, but you know what, I got a decent price, and I am still going to have a good time even though it is by myself.

Moral of the story, don't wait around for other people, or wait for things to be perfect, otherwise you will be waiting around for a long time. Live life to it's fullest, NOW!

Paris ip-label Training

2011-10-26T22:59:00.000+02:00

Finally I will complete writing about my month off. The first week of October I was in Paris for training with a few guys from GO and Wouter. We stayed in the La Défense section of Paris and that was my first time there. Everything is very modern and does not feel like you are in Paris at all. It was okay, but I much prefer the older sections of the city.

The training itself was a bit boring for me because it was very technical in an area that I was not at all familiar with. But, the people that worked there were all very nice and brought us to so many good places to eat lunch. They also took us to a dinner one night and WOW, I can't even describe to you how good it was. I just love food in France. We started with starters including foie gras with is really good, but you can't really think about how it is made...force feeding geese. Read the link for more info. The I had a dinner of a variety of duck and goose items which will sound gross to most people if I explain everything (so I wont) but this is typical French food and once you get past what everything is, it is really really good. We were buy the way throughout the entire dinner drinking really good 10 year old red wine (the restaurant specialized in wine and traditional French food.) Then we had coffee and three nice little mini deserts to go with it, and finally we had 40 year old cognac...probably the best I ever had.

Besides all the great food, I showed Shawn and Kara around a few nights before they left for Rome and I also hung out with my colleagues as well.

Nice trip, looking forward to going back next month for some more food! :-)

Oktoberfest

2011-10-21T22:57:00.000+02:00

So after the fam left, I had a day or two to myself, then I was off to Munich to meet Shawn, Matt, and some of Matt's friends. In one word, Oktoberfest was awesome! I knew it would be cool, but it was way better than expected! This is the world's largest festival, and I can see why. The tents were huge and it's hard to call them tents, they are more like temporary building. And, the rides, it is like an amusement park. They literally build entire roller coasters just for Oktoberfest!

The first day we pretty much got right to drinking beer, early... The tent we were in first had all old people and the waitresses looked like grandmas. It was still fun, but the next tent was a little more our speed. Being that we started really early and did not eat much, most of us were back at the hotel and passed out before 9 PM!!

The second day we made it a bit longer. For the first part of the day, we walked around Munich. It is a beautiful city, so much to see, and the weather was perfect. We went back over to Oktoberfest later on and this time had a bunch of food first. We ended up drinking 4 liters each of beer that night and then after all of that I road a carnival ride because they dared me to and said I could not do it with out throwing up. Well I did it and did not throw up! It was really fun the first 10 seconds, then I was really ready for it to be over.

The next day Shawn and I walked through Oktoberfest one last time to checkout anything we might have missed, then caught our plane back to Holland. We hung out here for a few days, and then Kara came over to meet us. I think they liked it here which is cool. After that we were off to Paris, but that will come in a later post.

The Fam in Europe

2011-10-17T22:59:00.000+02:00

So the fam finally made it to Europe to come see me. Mom, dad, Mike, and Lyndsie all came. When they first arrived, we hung out in Haarlem and in Amsterdam.

Next we drive to Eindhoven to fly to Italy on RyanAir. We went to visit our cousins who have a house there. They were great hosts. We got to eat and drink a lot of good food and wine, and even get to see an unexpected country while we were there! San Marino is a city state that is located within Italy. It was a cool little country that existed only at the top of a mountain. The one day we went to the beach (it was 5 minute walk from their house) and I got stung by a jelly fish! That was the first time that ever happened to me. Really, I did not know what happened, I thought I brushed up against something but I did not see anything. When I got out of the water, it started to hurt, then get red, then finally swell up. After a few days it went away, and then about a week later it came back in full force! Now it is finally gone, but that was crazy.

We even got to see Vila Santa Maria the village where Bruna and my grandfather's family came from. It was pretty interesting to see this place since I've hear about it since when I was little.

I also took the fam to Antwerp on the train for a day. It was really cool to see Antwerpen Centraal Station which is said to be one of the most beautiful train stations in the world, and I can see why! I think they really ended up liking Belgium.

Finally we got back to Holland for one last day of their stay. They got to meet Cory and Novita and then we went to Sumo for dinner. At the end, I think they were pretty ready to go back but I hope they had a good time because I enjoyed having them. Sorry there are no fam pics, I'm still waiting for them to send them to me.

Rested

2011-10-16T21:48:00.000+02:00

Hi! I'm finally done with all of my vacations/business trips (at least for a while) and have gotten back into the swing of things over the last week. I plan on writing about my experiences soon over a few posts since I have a lot to talk about. But for now, I will talk about my weekend.

Saturday I decided to use my all day train ticket that I bought in August from the grocery store for only €14! The ticket is good for one day to ride the train as much as you want anywhere in the country! What a deal. I ended up on purpose and randomly while underway selecting:

All were very nice but I really ended up liking Eindhoven. I would not have even considered this, but recently I read in the paper that Eindhoven ranked this year as having the best binnenstad (center of the city) in the Netherlnads. I can see why it won, it was pretty cool to walk around in.

In Gouda I of course tried cheese and ended up buying green cheese! I it wasabi flavored cheese and is awesome. Still got some in my fridge.

After all that traveling around, I was dead tired and stayed on the couch and watched the discovery channel all night...

Today I went to Batavia Stad Outlets. This was the first time I've been to outlets in over 1.5 years. They were pretty nice. It did take a while to get there but was a nice day out since the sun was shining all day. I bought a few things but nothing major. I even ate at Subway also for the first time in a very long time. It was really good!!

That's it for now. Stay tuned for vacation storied and pics.

Pittsburgh Shirt

2011-09-21T17:22:00.000+02:00

At a store in Amsterdam. The back says South Hills!

Espresso to Go

2011-09-20T10:32:00.000+02:00

Pocket Espresso to Go in Italy! Yum!

Moord in een café

2011-09-10T23:17:00.000+02:00

I wasn't really even going to write about this, but I happened to be reading through my blog tonight and came across this old post. It was the day that I joined the library last August and signed out a bunch of children's books. Well, as of last night, I am happy to say that I finished my first "grown ups" book (as pictured above.) I read the whole book and only had to look up a few words. I felt pretty accomplished when I closed the back cover last night. I've really come a long way. :-)

Water Skiing

2011-09-10T19:29:00.002+02:00

Today I went water skiing at Lido in Almere, the picture above is from their website because we did not have anyone there to take pictures of us. It was fun but hard to get used to.

At Lido you do not go behind a boat but rather hold onto a cable that pulls you around the lake. I messed it up my first 3 or 4 tries. The one time I made it almost 1/2 way around and missed the one turn which really sucked because I had to swim the whole way back (maybe about 10-15 minutes.)

After that I finally made it the whole way around, that was a cool feeling.

This is not something that I would have thought about doing, but had a good time doing.

So Excited

2011-09-09T21:50:00.000+02:00

I only have three more days of work left until I'm out of the office (five days short of) a month!

First my parents, my brother, and Lyndsie are coming to visit me! We will be in Holland for a while, then visit some other family in Italy, come back to Holland, go to Belgium for the day, and still then come back to Holland for a while.

Two days after all of that I will meet Shawn & Matt in Munich for two days of Oktoberfest (the real deal!) Then Shawn is coming back to Holland with me to hang out for a while. Later in the week his girlfriend will meetup with us and shortly after we are all heading to Paris.

Paris is not really vacation time for me. I am there to meetup with some co-workers from the US and Holland to take a training class for the week but will still no doubt have time for some fun at night. Shawn and Kara will be there for about 1/2 the week with me until they head off to Rome (I unfortunately will not be joining them there.)

After that I am headed back to Holland with my Americans co-workers and even though I will be back to work, will be showing them around the city as well I am sure.

It's going to be a hectic month, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Free Umbrella!

2011-09-07T23:06:00.000+02:00

Tonight I was at meetup at In de Wilde Man in Amsterdam. When I went to leave it was raining and the girl that was working there told me if I would wait she would get me an umbrella. I was like ok, sure!! A couple minutes later she came back with a whole bunch of umbrellas and just gave me one for free! This has to be the best customer service I ever received from a Dutch business. Wow. I felt bad though because not even 30 seconds after leaving it stopped raining. O well I guess. I will definitely go back now since all of the people that worked there were pretty cool and I like the beer selection.

English or Dutch?

2011-09-04T20:52:00.001+02:00

Interesting story happened last week at the data center. My boss and I went there in order to meet with our account manager and the new guy who is responsible for our projects. Our account manager comes into the room and starts talking in English (the other guy is late.) So we talk about random things for a while, then he gets a call. It is the other guy (who of course he is speaking in Dutch to.) I was laughing at the things happening on the phone and replying to them in Dutch. Then h switched back to English after getting off the phone, I was a bit annoyed, but ok.

Later the other guy comes in, say hello in Dutch and then proceed to give him a tour of our racks in the data center. This little tour took about 1/2 hour. It was for the most part all in Dutch except for a few comments our account manager made to me in English. (annoying)

Then we go back into the office and finally do introductions. My boss introduces himself in Dutch as did I. The new guy starts proceeding to introduce himself in Dutch when all of a sudden our account manager is like "wait, wait, Nick, do you understand this?" I think I shot him a look like are you crazy? We literally we just speaking in Dutch for 1/2 hour and now he asks me!!

Even though he asked the question in English, I responded in Dutch, "Ya, I understand it! We do not have to speak in English, I know when Arjan [my boss's boss] is there he thinks I can't understand anything in Dutch so he always says 'OK lets do this in English for Nick' (this pisses me off so bad when he does this) but that is not necessary." Then the account manager says in English, "okay, because Nick is not Dutch you know."

I'm sitting there like WTF? I'm sure this other guy knows I'm not Dutch and he is not making a big deal about it like you are.

Then finally, my boss jumps in and says (I think in Dutch, but can't remember now) "Ya, Nick and I pretty much have been speaking almost totally in Dutch for the last couple months, this should not be a problem." Thank you Jeroen! after that, finally our account manager stopped with all the English BS.

Now in the past this whole situation would have made me mad, but now, I think I'm pretty much over getting mad about things like this. Was I annoyed? Yes, a little, but not a big deal like it used to be for me. I actually thought it was a bit funny because of the great lengths this guy was going to try to speak English when, to everyone else in the room (at least from what I could tell,) did not think that it was necessary.

So that's it, just a random story that I thought was kinda funny.

Where Have I Been?

2011-08-28T22:30:00.000+02:00

Hi, and first of all sorry that it's been so long since my last real post. I need to get back into blogging more regularly for all of my avid readers/fans ;-)

It's still pretty cold and rainy here as it has been all summer :( I am really hoping for an "Indian Summer" when I am on vacation in September/October. It would be great since I have so many people coming to visit me if the weather is nice.

I guess I haven't been blogging too much because I am spending quite a bit of time on Dutch (as usual.) I kinda have a system now of things that I am doing and I just get right into it when I have free time. If your interested, my current method goes something like this:

Do chapters in my CODE 2 book
Always write down words I don't know at all times wherever I am

Make flash cards of all compiled words
Learn the cards by seeing the Dutch and saying the English
Learn the cards by seeing the English and saying the Dutch

Talk to as many people as possible in Dutch

At Meetup (almost every week)
At work
Around town
Where ever else

Read Dutch books (real ones now, not kids)

But, ya, I want to make more time for blogging again.

Today I made polenta for the first time. It was pretty good I must say. I of course did not just make it plain... I spiced it up and also added chicken sausage! Yum. and the best part, I still have some for tomorrow.

Only 2.5 weeks of work left until a nice long vacation. Looking forward to it for sure!

Park Camping

2011-08-21T12:56:00.001+02:00

I think it's funny that Dutch people go camping in parks that are in the middle of the city.

Webify Me

2011-08-17T23:19:00.000+02:00

I just webified myself. Here is my link:
http://mzl.la/mQls9T

Try it and comment with your link.

Watching the Races

2011-08-14T13:23:00.000+02:00

Watching the races in the dunes at Zandvoort. Finally a nice day!

Rain, Cold, RAIN, COLD ----> Miserable!!

2011-08-11T21:27:00.000+02:00

I hate to complain, but maaaannnn.... This summer sucks! (weatherwsie)

Not only does it rain all the time, but it is freakin cold all the time. A lot of days, I have to wear a jacket! We are talking July and August here!! I think I am seriously starting to get depressed about it... Here we are in August and summer really has not even started for us yet. I think about winter coming and I really did not get a chance to enjoy much nice weather yet.

Above is the view looking out my back door, it is this dark and gray at around 6 PM! Every day, because of this rain and these clouds.

And yes, my back yard needs weeded, but it is raining every day so I can't. And if by chance it is a nice day, I'm not going to wast the only nice one weeding!

I really hope the weather is at least 1/2 way decent for Saturday. Matt and I are going wadlopen and I hear it is awesome.

Sunset

2011-08-05T21:18:00.001+02:00

Not exactly picture perfect, but still nice.

Bliss

2011-08-05T19:35:00.000+02:00

So nice to be able to come to the beach after work, read a book, and listen to the sea...

Malta

2011-07-26T09:47:00.000+02:00

Just got back from Malta this past weekend. I went with Kris and Erik for a week to explore the islands and get our advanced diving certificate. For those who don't know, Malta is a very small country built up of three islands in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya.

The first day we went to this small beach (pictured above) to hang out for the day. It was pretty nice and very warm.

Diving was good. I did not see nearly as many fish as I thought I was going to see, but that is okay. I did get to do some other cool things like dive through a sunken WWII destroyer, go through underwater caves and caverns, as well as dive then the water was very ruff, it looked like the whole ocean floor was moving from time to time. While the dive experiences were good, I don't feel like there was much teaching that was done like there was at the place I went last year, but somehow at the end we all got our certifications.

Going out was alright. The drinks were incredibly cheap. Really, there was no one there our age. Most people who where at the bars were between the ages of 14-17. Apparently a lot of people send their kids to Malta to learn English (even though I thought they all spoke pretty okay English.) The Maltese language was pretty interesting to hear. It is a mix of Italian, English, and Arabic.

The last day that we were there, we took a ferry to the island of Gozo. There we were able to get a taxi to take us around the whole island to see different things. The driver waited for us everywhere we went and it only cost 40 euros between the three of us. The picture above is from us at the oldest standing structure in the world. We got to also see some nice beaches, caves, and old cities/forts.

In the end it was a quick trip, but I had a good time especially because I got some time to hang out with Kris and Erik which never really happens anymore.

Malta Temps

2011-07-15T20:39:00.001+02:00

Wow perfect temp! Can't wait.

Delft and Leiden

2011-07-11T21:12:00.000+02:00

Today I had the day off since I worked over the weekend in Paris so I thought since it was a nice day it was a good opportunity to go see more of Holland so I went to Delft and Leiden.

Both were pretty cool and very picturesque. I ended up liking Leiden better. There I also had a really good lunch from a hip little sandwich place. As usual, I updated my Holland Sites album with more pictures.

Holland Sites

Mmmmm

2011-07-08T08:34:00.000+02:00

Best food I've had in Paris yet!

Utrecht Pub Crawl!

2011-07-05T16:00:00.001+02:00

This past weekend I was back in Utrecht and finally got to have the Utrecht pub crawl (without the two other official planners, but that is besides the point.)

We started off having to ride the NS bus to the Amsterdam Sloterdijk station because there was no train traffic between Haarlem and Amsterdam Sloterdijk last weekend... I hate it when that happens.

Right after I stepped onto the bus, I noticed that the screen on my BlackBerry was broken after I just used it two minutes before! I could not believe it, this was the second phone that broke on me in a week! (My iPhone is currently getting repaired because it totally "bricked" when I tried to instal iOS 5 beta 2) So I was out a phone the whole time we were there.

It ended up being Leo, Novita, Sammy, and I going. We got to the city, checked in to our hostel and were out on the streets around 6. We started having a few drinks outside at cafes and even tried some beer brewed right in the centrum of Utrecht. Then it was time to eat. We found a pretty decent French restaurant that had a three course meal for about 20 Euros. It was a good price and tasted pretty nice too.

For the rest of the night we just walked around and tried to find good bars to go to. It ended up being a bit harder to find a lot of bars which surprised us a bit, but it was okay. The Winkel van Sinkel was having an 80s and 90s party that would have been fun to go to but we had to be back at our hostel by 3 so that was not going to work. We went to a couple more bars, got Turkish pizzas, then went back and slept.

The next day was shopping Sunday so we did a bit of shopping and then headed back home. Was a nice time, but maybe a bit too short.

Français!? Whaaaat???

2011-06-30T22:09:00.000+02:00

So, the other night right after I got back from France, I decided that I wanted to learn French! I am going to be there a lot over the next few months and would like to at least be able to communicate a little bit in French. And...I already started learning it! I know, I know, "But Nick, you're learning Dutch now, I thought you didn't want to learn two languages at once, and what about Italian?"

Yes these are all true points, but still none the less, let me address those:

Yes I am still learning Dutch and I said that I don't want to learn two languages at once, but, if you keep putting things off, you are never going to do them. And besides, I can communicate pretty okay in Dutch now. It is by no means perfect, but some days, I am actually satisfied with myself now...some days! ;)
Italian, yes, I think it is a really cool language and would love to learn it, but right now, French is more important and useful to me at the moment. I will not say that I don't want to learn Italian, I'm just saying I will put it off for a bit. But even with that said, I'm going to Italy now in September so it would be nice/polite to learn a bit before going.

But ya, French is crazy so far, there are so many strange things that can happen to words like how they combine with another or have silent letters and all this other stuff, but you know what? That's okay I'll figure it out. And, unlike Dutch, I really don't care to really good at French. I don't live in France so this will be something that I am going to do when I have time and when I feel like it, no pressure!

Crazy Two Weeks

2011-06-25T23:32:00.000+02:00

The past two weeks was a big project in Amsterdam and Paris to get new equipment installed in the data centers. There were three guys who came over from the US and I was pretty much the only person from Europe who helped for the most part.

First we started in Amsterdam. The first day was crazy. There was a ton to do at the site and a bunch of other issues to manage that was going in with AT&T in Paris. By the end of the day, my phone was totally dead and I had had it with Global Switch and AT&T, they were really pissing me off.
The rest of the week we remained in Amsterdam trying to get everything worked out which luckily we did. I will spare you all the details but trust me they were long days.

Last weekend was the PPG Tennis tournament. It is a tennis tournament held every year for people who work for PPG in Holland. Basically you pick a skill level for yourself and you get put into four random games with people you may or may not know. It is a great way to get to meet people. One person is your partner and the other two are your opponents. The whole day there are free drinks and a BBQ lunch. I ended up winning one game (against Kris! :-) ) loosing two games, and tying the last. It was a nice time.

The next day I hopped the train to Paris, it was going to be another week of getting things setup there like we just did in Amsterdam. I met the guys when I got there and took them into Paris. They did not like it all that much so we did not stay for very long, after that, we never went back into the city (while they were there)
My favorite part every time about going to France is eating. This time, I found a great little bakery not for from the data center that had fresh sandwiches and pastries. I went there almost every day for lunch...great!
We ended up getting done a bit early so the guys changed their flight and went home early, none of them really seamed to be big fans of Europe. Me, I stayed because I did not want to change my ticket and I like France.

Wednesday I took the train and worked in the not far off PPG office in Rueil-Malmaison, France. After that went back to my hotel and was getting ready to go into Paris. I though why not just check to see if the Louvre would be opened. And guess what? It was! Wednesday is the only evening that it is open and it was Wednesday! Cool! I got there not long after and bought my ticket, the place was beautiful and huge. There was all kinds of famous paintings, but the coolest of all was seeing the Mona Lisa! Wow!

The next day it was back to the data center to finish up then catch my train back to Amsterdam. On the train. It was a very busy two weeks, but it was nice to be busy for a change, things have been moving so slowly at work and this was a nice change of pace. After I got back, I was glad to hear people speaking in Dutch again so I could understand what was going on around me...I still don't know any French, but I think I'm really going to have to learn with having to go there so much. One other strange thing is when I hear people speaking in French, my brain automatically starts thinking in Dutch! Is that weird? Then I would think to myself, these people are not going to understand Dutch!

Looks like I will probably be in Paris again in two weeks, then again in August, and probably again in October. I don't mind though because Paris is pretty cool.

It's not all fun and games

2011-06-05T00:34:00.000+02:00

A couple of things have been on my mind lately. So, why not talk about them here.

First of all, I haven't talked about Dutch on here for a while, so I thought I'd give an update. I had my test from my class on Monday and Wednesday this past week. I did not think it was too bad, and my teacher then asked me if I wanted to go to B1 or B2 in September. (I am in A2 now and B1 would be the next class in order.) Since I thought that A2 was pretty easy, I told him that I wanted to try B2. He checked my scores and I was okay in reading, but was 1 point under the cutoff in both writing and listening. He said that he thought it would be okay anyway so he is going to recommend me to go to B2. That was cool news but at the same time, I wish that I actually made the cutoff myself.
Secondly, I am starting to feel a bit more confident in using Dutch and people are starting to notice that I can use it which is exciting, but at the same time frustrating. There is still so much farther to go. Everyone tells me that I am learning fast, but in my mind I feel like I will never be comfortable with myself. I want to be to the point where I can be comfortable with myself in all situations and not have to plan things out in my head or be nervous in any way.
Overall I can see that it is coming along, and I am happy about that but I really could use some motivation and direction in this area.

So far, this summer is not really turning out to be like last summer. Last summer there was non-stop fun every day. The whole time was planned with things to do or if there was no plans, impromptu nights out and crazy times that were not expected. This year is different. I've had some good times, don't get me wrong, but they are further spaced out. Last year I had only a few days where I had nothing going on and this year the number is rising. I know it's on me to make the best out of things, but all of a sudden I feel like I've lost two of my best friends here. It's kinda been bumming me out and I guess I just need to look past this and make the best of things. I still have a separate group of friends here that I can always count on for a good time. And who knows, maybe this is a good opportunity to meet some new people as well.

Work is going okay. It has been really slow so far this year, but I'm looking forward to things this month. There is going to be a lot of activity in the European data centers and I will be involved with it all. I really wish my work could be a bit more spread out, ether I have a ton of stuff to do all at once or I have nothing to do at all. For me, I like to be busy all the time. At least I know that for the next month (and probably a little beyond) I will be very busy, and that is a good thing. I don't like sitting around at work and I don't like sitting around at home, I am always happy when I have something to do and something going on.

Other than this, not much new going on. Hope to have some more exciting news soon.

Randstad Complete

2011-05-29T22:40:00.000+02:00

Today I went to Rotterdam for the day thus completing me seeing the four big cities in the Randstad (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, and Utrecht.)

Rotterdam was cool. It had a bunch of big modern buildings which I m not used to seeing around here. This is mostly due to the fact that most of Rotterdam got blown up during World War II so new buildings had to be made. I walked all around looking and taking pictures. I saw the famous bridge called Erasmusbrug.

You can see all of my pictures here in my Dutch picture collection:

Holland Sites

Rotterdam

2011-05-29T13:24:00.001+02:00

Finally made it.

Pittsburgh Trip

2011-05-28T23:11:00.000+02:00

Been wanting to write this one for a while but haven't gotten around to it, so here we go...

My boss and I left Holland in the beginning of May for a trip to the US. This would be the first time that my team was all together in the same place at the same time. From Amsterdam, we flew to Detroit where we met Kavin, the guy who works in China. From there we continued on to Pittsburgh. That was Saturday night, so I spent it with my family who came to meet me at my hotel. We went and had Mexican food!! mmmm. Next next day was Mother's Day so we all went to Schenley Park for Race for the Cure. It was a good time as usual. After that, we went to Irwin to have Mother's Day dinner were I then got to see the rest of my family, some of which I haven't scene in over a year! So that was really nice. We went back to my parents place for a bit, but then pretty much everyone left. Would have been nice if they could have stayed longer, but I'm glad I got to even see them in the first place.

Sunday night I got to see Erin and Sara in the hotel bar. I wish I got to see more of them but unfortunately, it was a short trip.

The next day we went in to work. It was pretty nice to have the team all together for once. It would be nice if we can do this every once in a while.

It was also good catching up with everyone back Downtown. A lot has changed since I worked there. Market Square has a bunch of new places. Some, like the Cajun place were really good.

While I was hanging out with my fam on Mother's Day, Jeroen and Kavin went to the Chinese grocery store in the strip and asked for an authentic Chines restaurant. They suggested How Lee in Squirrel Hill. I could not believe that is were they picked. I never ate there before, but there is no way that place could have been good. After we got there, it turns out they totally redid the place. Kavin ordered all of the food for us, and it was awesome. So good...
We met Megan and Justin after that and hung out for a bit in Squirrel Hill.
Kavin also brought me some hot oil from Hong Kong that I've been using here in Holland. It is so good.

We had a couple of other nice dinners and then on Friday it was already time to leave. It was a quick trip and was glad that I got to squeeze everything in that I could while I was there.

Zaanse Schans

2011-05-22T23:19:00.000+02:00

Today we went to Zaanse Schans which is a traditional Dutch village that has windmills, little shops, and clog making.

The coolest part was going in the paint windmill, you got to climb up all through it and see how it worked. It was amazing to me that the whole thing was mad out of wood! No metal at all, wooden beams, gears, and everything. Sometimes it would really start turning fast and the whole building would move if the wind picked up enough.

We also got to see clogs getting made. It was pretty cool to see. The machine that they used was an old German machine that works on the same concept of how a key is copied. With these machines, you can actually make a clog in 5 minutes.

We also saw and tasted some cheese, went in a bunch of gift shops, and played with some old Dutch toys.

It was also pretty amazing how many Japanese people were there of course with their cameras the whole time! :-)

There were some other things to see like the first Albert Heijn, but we were not there in time to do that. We had dinner at a pancake place. It was okay but nowhere near as good as the Pancake Bakery in Amsterdam.

Nice Lunch

2011-05-09T21:36:00.001+02:00

Koninginnenacht and Koninginnedag

2011-05-01T19:51:00.001+02:00

Queen's Night and Queen's Day were fun this year even though I did not feel like going to Amsterdam. For Queen's night, Novita made an awesome Asian dinner and Alena made a Russian cheesecake. After eating too much and being really tired, we took some shots and went bar hopping. Fun as usual.

On Queen's Day, I woke up and went looking around the vrijmarkt for stuff to buy. I ended up getting shoes, chocolate, and underwear all at really good prices:

€2.50!

€1.00

€10.00

I also of course bought a bunch of food all over the place then took a break for a while. Later on I met up with Novita and we went to a bunch of different concerts and walked pretty much all over Haarlem. Then we met Alena, had some beer and sat in the grass by a canal. Finally we had dinner at a pretty decent pizza place that did not coast all that much. Will have to go back.

To end the night, Novita and I went to the carnival in the Grote Markt. We road the Dancing Monster which turned out to be a really good ride:

http://youtu.be/nu8K5AbBgqU

Then we met Leo and his friend, road the bumper cars, had one more drink, and called it a day.

Walibi Holland

2011-04-26T22:41:00.001+02:00

Today I went to Walibi Holland with Kris and Justyna. It was a better park than I thought it was going to be. It was a bit small, but the rides were good and there was not too many people there at all! The weather was perfect, sun all day and warm. The only bad thing was the park closed at 5 PM! WTF? This is pretty much a normal closing time for them. I just could not believe that. It would have been a little bit nicer to take our time and have a nice leisurely day, but I was not about to slow down what I paid almost €30 to get in. So we got to ride most of the roller coaters at least twice and road some of the other rides as well. The food was disappointing. I don't think any amusement park will ever have as good of food as Kennywood. Eating is 1/2 the fun there...

All in all, it was a good day and I'm glad we got the chance to go this year.

At Walibi Holland

2011-04-26T12:02:00.000+02:00

The First and Second Day of Easter

2011-04-25T19:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday had Easter at my house. It ended up being a BBQ since the weather has been so nice here. There were seven people here including myself. We had a lot of food and some good conversation. I made key lime pie and potato casserole with some make shift ingredients and also some from an expats grocery store. As I was sitting there with my friends eating and having a good time, I can't help but think how far I've came from last Easter when I had dinner by myself at McDonald's!

Today was yet again another great day. Started out at the gym with Kris, had a quick lunch, and hopped the train to the beach. Today was my first day at the beach for the year, and it felt great!

Tomorrow is Walibi Holland!

Everyone is coming to the Beach.

2011-04-25T12:43:00.000+02:00

A Beautiful Spring Night on the Herengracht

2011-04-19T21:21:00.001+02:00

Flowers in Holland

2011-04-17T23:04:00.000+02:00

Today I went with Alena and Sammy to bike through all the tulips. It is really not all that far from Haarlem in Hillegom. We went by bike of course. It was really amazing to see, there were just flowers everywhere and then you went a little bit further and saw even more. Flowers in all colors and the smell was also really nice.

Here is just a sample of the range of flowers that there were, of course there is a windmill in the background! After we got tired of biking through the flowers, we stopped and had some beers and then continued on. Later we came across this little village called De Zilk. They were having a street festival so we stopped had some beer with cotton candy and listened to some people sing. After that back on the bikes and we made it back into Haarlem just in time for... more flowers! It was the end of the flower parade and I was able to get a few pictures of some of the floats.

Here is one of the floats that we saw. After this, we went to the Botermarkt to drink some more beer, but it was too crowded so we decided to go to StadStrand de Oerkap. I see this all the time on the train and always wanted to go last summer. It is a little makeshift beach along the river in Haarlem where you can sit in the sand, drink beer, watch the water and the trains, and just relax. I think this might be a great place to go after work in the summer. I will have to organize something later.

I ended up taking a lot of pictures so if you want to check them out, I created an album on Picasa. Check them out here:

Flowers in Holland

New Camera

2011-04-16T18:43:00.000+02:00

My new camera came today and I went out to take some picture. I found out that a lot of the stores in the new Raaks development are open so I checked that out. There are some nice places and some good looking restaurants I would like to try there. Here is a picture:

Also, here is some coffee I had at Douwe Egberts today:

Perogi from Poland

2011-04-11T16:47:00.001+02:00

Yum!

I'm 27!

2011-04-10T22:39:00.000+02:00

So somehow I turned 27 today! Does that officially put me in my late 20s or does that start at 28? Hmmm, I think 28, right? Seriously though, I don't mind turning 27, I'm happy with life and healthy so that's all that should matter, right?

Last night I went out with some friends to a few bars in Haarlem and had a pretty good time. Today was a beautiful day and I spent a good amount of it outside. I got some reading done on my Kindle and washed my car for the first time since I bought it in October. I also went to the gym. I am pretty psyched because I have a workout partner again for the first time since Shawn and I used to workout together at Trees. Kris joined clubsportive for 50 days as a trail and so far he has been really good about coming almost every day with me. It is nice to have someone to go with again and to put myself more that I usually do. Hope he ends up staying past those 50 days.

Today I also made my favorite cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with chopped peanuts and cinnamon. In Holland you have to bring in food for people on your birthday, not the other way around. So I am not bringing cake like most people end up bringing, I am bringing in real chocolate chip cookies to show these Dutch people what a real cookie is all about. :-) I am looking forward to seeing what they have to say.

Tuplips

2011-04-09T15:01:00.001+02:00

Figured, why not grow some tulips this year like everyone else around here.

Skyping with Nate

2011-04-03T22:22:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, my little cousin Nate downloaded Skype and I got to talk to him and my aunt and uncle. It was the first time I've "seen" them in over a year. It was cool and I was really glad they decided to download it finally.

Nate is an avid reader of my blog and he requested that one of my posts be dedicated to him, so Nate, this one is for you.

While I was talking to them I got to hear a song that Nate came up with all on his own and that he played for me on his keyboard. I was pretty impressed. He was also very interested in where I live and work now. I even taught him two Dutch words, hoi (hi) and doei (bye.)

Well Nate, now you've been on my blog and because of that, you are now pretty famous. ;-)

One Year

2011-04-03T01:42:00.000+02:00

Since Thursday, I have officially been in Holland for one year! It's strange because I think, "wow, I can't believe I've been here for that long!" But at the same time, I feel like it could have been longer. For the most part, I still really love living here. Work is interesting, life is fun, and I'm pretty happy for the most part. Over this past year, I've made more friends than I would have ever expected and I am very thankful for that, they are the ones that really make being here awesome. The only thing that I still can't get over is that I can't speak Dutch yet, but I am still working on it each day and hopefully sooner than later it will come.

I was going to make this a long post and kind of reflect on everything from the past year, but now that I'm looking at what I wrote, this kinda sums it up nicely. That and it is 1:42! :-) Good night and thank you Holland.

Zomertijd

2011-03-27T22:01:00.000+02:00

Did you know that "Daylight Savings Time' is a term only used in the US? I just found that out. Most other places use "Summer Time," or here in Holland "zomertijd." Anyway, last night we moved the clocks ahead and today was the first day of summer time. It was a beautiful day! Above is my street and it looked so nice out that I thought I would take a walk to enjoy the weather.

Everywhere you look, there are flowers just growing everywhere. Take this picture fro example, this is just some random patch of grass by the railroad tracks, yet it is filled with flowers. It's pretty cool how they just come up everywhere almost like weeds.
Some flowers have already come and gone at this point believe it or not. For example I had a picture on this blog earlier with purple and white flowers along the canal, those are already gone.

Then, there are others that are just getting ready to bloom, check out this patch of daffodils that is just about to bloom. Basically I walked all around just enjoying the sun. I even discovered that some stores are open on Sundays other than the first Sunday of the month! I was happy to learn that. Not all of the stores were open, but I would say there were somewhere between 40% and 50% of them open for business. So I walked in a couple of stores but did not buy anything except for some Flemish Fries with mayo and sambal sauce. Lekker!

It was also nice to see the tables out again on the Grote Markt. They were of course packed with people eating sandwiches, drinking coffee, wine, or beer, and just watching people go by.

When I got home it was still too nice to stay inside so I read a couple chapters of a book that I am reading outside. I am reading "De Gouden Sleutel" Het verhaal van een heel kleine reus. It is my first Dutch book that I am reading that is not a children's picture book, and so far it is going good. It has about 120 pages of text and is for older kids. And even though it is a kids book, I am actually enjoying the story! Haha.

It stayed light today until about 8:20! So cool, I can't wait until it lasts till 10:45ish around the end of June. :-)

Decent Weather

2011-03-21T07:33:00.000+01:00

Wow, not a bad week at all this week!

Spring!

2011-03-14T17:52:00.000+01:00

Signs of spring are everywhere in Holland!

"Het is altijd lente in de ogen van de tandartsassistente."

My Second set of Visitors!

2011-03-13T21:42:00.000+01:00

I had here for the last week my second set of visitors since I moved to Holland. Megan, Justin, and Shawn came to visit. We certainly had one jam-packed week! They arrived last Friday. The first day they were here we hung out in Haarlem. We walked around the stores and I finally made it into the Grote Kerk! It was pretty cool inside. The church was built in the 1400s and the organ behind me was played by Mozart! The whole floor of the church is a bunch of old graves from the 1700s. The women that worked there were upset with me for it being my first time but happy that I was learning Dutch. They said something about my accent being good when I got my ticket and I thought they were kidding with me, but they swear that they were not. Was kinda a nice feeling when the one was trying to explain something to Justin but her English was not that great so she just started explaining to me in Dutch about the graves in the church and the tours you can take...I understood her.
That night, Justin, Shawn, and I had a few drinks and went to the Haarlem Red Light District. I saw the hottest (and nicest) prostitute I ever saw! She was very attractive and she was actually talking to us through the window.

Saturday I took them to Amsterdam and I took my first canal boat cruise. It was nice but nothing all that great; they seamed to like it a lot so that is good. The rest of the day was spent shopping and walking around.
Saturday night I took them out in Haarlem with Kris and Erik. Was a great time as usual and then we introduced them to Shwarma...love at first bite of course!

Sunday we went to the beach and somehow I lost my camera! I am so pissed! After the beach We went to Sumo for all you can eat Sushi, they liked this as well.

Monday we were back in Amsterdam. I brought my bike on the train and they rented some. They went to Anne Frank and while they were there, I went to a market I've been wanting to see, it was not at all what I was expecting...it was really big but not that great at all. They like Anne Frank so that is good at least. Next we had Dutch pancakes, they loved those. Megan does not even like pancakes and she was crazy about them. After that we went to Heineken Experience. Still like this one.
That night I went to Dutch class while they were getting ready for Paris the next day. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked while they were in Paris.

Thursday we went to Köln (or Cologne in English) Germany. This was my first time in Germany. We got there and checked out Dom which it the big old church right by the train station. It was pretty impressive. After that, we waled around the shops then had lunch at some German brewery. I had a cold German Sausage salad (pictured to the left.) It was actually really good, never ate anything like this before. After that we ended up going to this chocolate museum, it was cool and not something I would have expected to go to. After walking around a bit more, we stopped to have some beers at this one bar. The cool thing about drinking beer in Köln is that they keep giving you new beers until you put your coaster on top of your glass to signify that you are done drinking! We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I warned everyone that it would not be the Mexican that they know and love in the US, but we went anyway. Megan, Justin, and I got quesadillas and they ended up being this rollup thing that in no way resembled a quesadilla. O well, at least the taste was decent. We did a bit more shopping and finally caught the train back home.

Friday we were back in Amsterdam. We went to the Van Gogh Museum (it was my first time) and it was really cool. I really do like his style of painting. After a quick trip through the Red Light District, we came back to Haarlem and pretty much hung out for the rest of the night because the next day they were returning to the United States.

I was glad they came and had a good time with them. It also provided a nice (and much needed) break from work. So thanks for coming guys, and I hope to have some more visitors soon.

Sticker from Today

2011-03-07T13:24:00.001+01:00

Round the world - op de fiets

2011-02-21T22:34:00.001+01:00

This weekend, we had "Round the world - op de fiets." Basically everyone who was interested picked a country and had food and drink from that country at their house. Then when we were done at one house, we would bike to the next. We only had four people turn out to do it, but it was still a good time.

First we had French at Jessica's house. We had baguette, brie, foie gras, and champagne.

Next we had German at Alena's. She made German potato salad and we had about three shots of Jägermeister (which did not make the picture.) Alena...just so you know, Grolsch is not German, sorry...

After that, Matt was an overachiever and picked the whole continent of North America. We had Ceviche and tequila. The homemade ceviche was pretty good. After about three shots we headed to the last country.

I picked Sweden and had salmon, cheese, flat bread, and Swedish cookie along with Swedish beer. Ended up being not too bad, it was all from IKEA. Next time we have this I hope to have time to actually cook something.

All together this was pretty cool (probably because I always like to eat.) But hopefully we do this again every so often.

Livemocha

2011-02-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

I love Livemocha!

I signed up for Livemocha a couple weeks ago and have been hooked for a long time. Livemocha is an online community where you not only learn a language, but you help people learn the languages that you already know. Here is how it works:

First, you get a lesson about something in the language that you want to learn.
Next you get a quiz on the things you just learned.
Now is when the cool part comes...You are given a task that you have to write about from what you just learned. Usually the tasks are really simple, but I try to make them harder so I can get some good feedback.

You submit this task and then it is send to native Dutch (or whatever language you are learning) speakers to correct for you.

Next pops up a box where you correct someone who is learning English (or whatever language you speak)
After that, you are given a paragraph to read out loud and then that (which is recorded into the computer) is sent to a native person of that language.
Finally, you get one more thing to correct in your own language.
Then the process starts again with the next lesson.

I love it! People on here are genuinely really nice and want to help you. I've met a lot of people who have taken a lot of time to help me...it is unbelievable how much time they will take to help a stranger. I even like checking the English ones and spend some time helping these people as well.

Some examples of how people have helped me are:

Correcting my grammar/spelling

I can use someone for that in English too, but I'm sure you already know that if you read this blog...

Recording audio to help me to get the sounds right or recording audio on an all text exercise just to show me what if should sound like.
I've had multiple people send me messages saying they would be willing to help me as well, just ask.
And just tonight I had a someone who teaches Dutch IM me and we typed in Dutch for a while. He even offered to help me on Skype and have an actual conversation.

If anyone else out there is trying to learn a language, I would highly recommend this site. It is just...awesome!

I should say though that the lessons themselves are pretty simple. I get the most value from the interaction with the people on the site. I apply the things I already know to the lessons, then get corrected, and learn a lot from the corrections.

Dutch News...the Whole Way in....

2011-02-11T08:39:00.000+01:00

Today Kris drove to work and decided to listen to the news on the radio. The whole way into work, I just got more and more depressed. I still can't understand the news. It is so frustrating to have him there listening right next to me while I am sitting there trying and trying to figure out what is going on. Then when a story comes on that he thinks I would find interesting, he has to translate it for me. It is nice of him to do that for me, but...it really makes me feel like a little kid. Man...I spend every night studying this fucking language and I still can't understand a fucking newscast. It's not like it is some kind of scientific topic that is way over my head...

I really don't know what to do anymore. I feel great when I am at home and practicing, I'm in a good mood, I feel like I am learning, and I enjoy it, (this is why I am doing it all the time.) Then, it never fails, I get out into the real world and can't function. I just don't know what to do. The only other person who I know that is not Dutch and learned it is Kris. I tried to ask him before a couple of times what he did to learn and he said he did not really do anything at home, just asked people at work questions. This makes me feel extremely stupid. Here I am spending hours every day, day in and day out on this and then there is Kris that didn't really study but can understand everything and communicate, not perfectly, but pretty damn well.

It almost makes me mad at him, but I'm not, it's just a feeling I start to get when I am thinking about this stuff. It is not his fault that he is good at this and I suck. I really wish I could be like him and just have it come to me without much effort, that would be so nice. Now I'm starting to wonder if I will ever get there or if it is even worth it...this is putting me through so much stress and probably taking years away from my life. The one and only thing that keeps me going is imagining how good it will feel one day to actually have accomplished this. But, until then...haaaaaa....I just hope I make it.

Mixed Emotions

2011-02-07T17:26:00.000+01:00

Well today is the day that my Dutch classes start. In about 2 more hours I will finally be there. I should be really excited, but I must say that all day I have been really nervous. I have been wanting classes for so long, and now they are finally here. I have literally tried everything else I can think of and now this is the last thing. But, what if this doesn't work? What if I take these classes and come out still not being able to converse with people? I have these terrible visions in my head that all we are going to be learning is the stupid stuff like "Hi my name is Nick." or "How do I get to Amsterdam?"

Another thing that kinda topped things off today was that I found out from a Dutch woman who was correcting one of my exercises for livemocha told me that "ontmoeten" is only used when you are first meeting someone, not when you are meeting them next, for example "want to meet at 7?" This is a word that I use all the time with a lot of people and I just can't believe that not one person could take 5 seconds to correct me...how embarrassing that I've been using this wrong word for so long. I understand that people should not have to help me learn Dutch all the time, but man...come on...

I just hope these classes are good and they put me over the hump. It is really nice to hear people telling me that they think I am doing good, and I do appreciate it when they do, but...usually they are telling me this in English...so how good can I possibly be? I just wish there was a date or s time that I could look forward to and know that by this time, I may not be perfect, but I can be at a point where I am comfortable with myself. This brings me to another point, I really need to have more confidence. Not with just Dutch, but with life in general...my confidence level for pretty much everything is 0. I never look at the list of good things in my life or the things that I already know...usually I just consider this to be trivial (and most of the time it is not.) I really should be proud of myself for where I am at today both in life and with Dutch, but I just can't be. Is there something wrong with me that I can't see the good that I've done and take pride in myself. This is something I really need to work on but I'm not even sure where to begin with that, I would basically have to change my whole mindset.

Haaaa, and here we are at yet again another one of these posts that I know everyone hates to read. Blaaaaah, I know. Keep your fingers crossed for me that these lessons are really going to pay off. Thank you so much for listening, even though I hardly ever get comments anymore, it's nice to know that people are listening...

My Appartment

2011-02-06T18:14:00.000+01:00

Been wanting to make this video for a while now, so without further ado, here is my apartment.

Energy Syrup

2011-02-05T19:16:00.001+01:00

Yes, I bought energy syrup today. Mix on part with seven parts water
and...presto you have an energy drink!

De Tandarts!

2011-02-03T00:05:00.000+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZgbzVX6izM

Some good news from yesterday. As you saw from my last post, I was pretty upset about all of this Dutch crap, but I have some good news now at least. I went to the dentist yesterday and did the whole thing from answering questions about what I've been doing to listening to what the hygienist said and making my next appointment helemaal in het Nederlands! It was pretty crazy. I walked in and the receptionist of course starting in Dutch so I responded...easy so far, no big deal. Then the hygienist and started in Dutch...she new from last time that I was there I spoke English, but I thought...hmmm, let's go for it and see what happens. After about 2-3 minutes, I was thinking wow, no English yet. Then about 1/2 way though I was getting pretty psched and when it was almost over I was really hoping I would not have to switch to English since I did so good, and...I didn't have to! I walked out of the office and literally said out loud "Oh my God..."

The song above is a funny Dutch song by the way it is called "Het is altijd Lente in de Ogen van de Tandarts Assistente." It means It is always Springtime in the eye's of the dentist's assistant. Haha

Some other things...

I got a good number of compliments at meetup last night by a woman who lived in the Netherlands for 30 years, a native Dutch woman (She even told me I did not sound American,) and an American dude who's Dutch was pretty good. I was pretty happy about that too.

Then today at work someone at work came up to me and said that HR was talking about me to him. I was like WTF? Why? Well I sent HR and email a few weeks ago (in Dutch) and apparently they were impressed and are telling people about it now. That was cool to hear, but at the same time, the guy told me all of this in English, so... I don't know

Finally a girl last night at meetup (who was only 3 weeks in Holland) told me about livemocha.com. It is so cool and I am already addicted. You can basically learn any language you want while helping people learn the language(s) you already know. They teach you things, then test you on them. After that you have a writing exercise that gets (almost immediately) review by real Dutch people. Then you review someones English submission. After that you speak a paragraph that they give you, and submit it, again almost instant feedback. Then finally you review someone's English submission. After that you can move on to the next lesson. It is really great.

Also, I almost forgot, I got into the Dutch classes here in Haarlem. I start already on Monday! I was too late to take the intake test (they were last week) to see what group I should be in, but they said that the teacher should be able to figure it out of me next week. I am looking forward to this but am going to be a bit reluctant to get too excited. So far every time I get really excited about a new learning tool in Dutch, I expect magic and that never happens. I am just going to go to the classes, hope for the best, and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Will You Teach Me?

2011-01-29T19:20:00.000+01:00

The worst feeling in the world is desperately wanting to learn something and having nowhere to learn it or no one to help you learn it. I don't know where I would be today without the Internet. There is so much that you can learn from it, almost anything. Just type it in and whatever you want to know is only seconds away. Can you imagine if you had to go to a library or search for the answer to almost every question you had? I know one thing is for sure and that is that I would not know nearly as much as I do today, not because I wouldn't be interested, but because it would take so much extra effort to find out. "Nickapedia" would not be the great source of information that it is today! haha

As most of you who read this blog know, I have been very excited to find out that I was able to take inburgeringscursus after thinking that I was not allowed. I was looking forward to this so much, finally some much needed direction and help with Dutch...something that cannot unfortunately be found on the Internet like most things... Anyway, I was supposed to receive an invitation form Gemeente Haarlem so we could discuss which class would be right for me. Well the invitation never came so I decided to call them again yesterday. The woman that I spoke with on the phone then basically told me that I was not allowed to take the classes because I was a kennismigrant (knowledge migrant) and my residency status was listed as tijdelijk (temporary.) I told her that I know I don't have to take the courses but I wanted to because I wanted to speak Dutch better. I also told her that I have no idea how long I will be staying in Holland so I would like to learn. She told me it was not an option and that the Gemeente would not pay for it. I was so mad because the person I talked to before said it was okay and no one every called me back saying that I would not receive an invitation.

Needless to I was really disappointed and upset when I got off the phone. I should have been at least a little happy because this entire conversation happened in Dutch but I just could not be happy and the moment and I could kinda tell the woman was dumbing things down for me while one the phone. My day was pretty much shot after that, I ended up staring at my computer screen for about 15 to 20 minutes not even touching the keyboard or mouse. Lunch was right around the corner and I really did not feel like sitting in front of everyone being all depressed and upset, hearing them all speaking in Dutch would have made things much worse anyway. So I decided that I just needed to go home so I left work, drove home, and just worked from home for the rest of the day. I did not know what I was going to to, the regular Dutch language classes the you pay for had already started (or so I thought) and the next classes would not be offered until September! What was I going to do, there is no way that I would have been able to take it for that much longer. These thought were running through my mind all day.

Later in the day my boss called me to see what was wrong (I previously sent an email to him and my team before I left work saying that I got some bad news and had to go home, I just could not concentrate on work.) He was relieved that my family was okay and was a bit surprised about my reasoning. Then after I explained a bit I think he finally understood. I have been asking and asking him what PPG could do for me in the way of Dutch training, he keeps saying that he is going to find out but never does. Now maybe he will see that this really is effecting me in a really negative way. He said he is going to check for me on Monday, and I hope this time he really dose.

He and so many other people keep telling me that I should not worry and that I am learning fast, but that is not the point, it could be a lot faster and cause me a lot less heartache if I had organized lessons. Like just last week I met a woman who has only lived in Holland for six months and her Dutch was way better than mine because she had classes. Now I know I can take the classes on my own and not worry about having PPG arrange it, I was actually going to do that this January but did not because I thought I was going to be able to do inburgering. The other thing is that Dutch people just don't understand. They all say the same thing, "you don't need Dutch, English is just fine." And it is true if you wanted to have a very unfulfilling life and live each day just by getting by and understanding nothing around you then yes, you do not need Dutch, but it you want more, Dutch is a must! Now that I can handle some things in Dutch, I can certainly notice that people treat you way better than they do if you were to be speaking English. Not that Dutch people are rude to English people, I would just say they are passive towards them.

Last night, Sammy mentioned that Volksuniversiteit did not start classes until 7 Feb. and that I could probably do the intake test next week. I do plan on checking it out next week, but I've already been to their website and they only mention taking the intake exam last September! So I don't really even know if this is going to work out either.

So we now get to the subject, will you teach me?, of this blog entry. I am desperate at this point. If anyone is willing to sit and help me, I would be very grateful, I would even pay you if you wanted. I need help and there is only so much that I can learn on my own. I don't care what you want to teach me, I will sit listen and learn everything that you will tell me. I am getting to the end of my rope, if I don't find some way to start seriously learning faster and in a more organized way, as much as I would rather not at this point, I might start looking for another job back in Pittsburgh.

Summer Plans

2011-01-23T20:00:00.002+01:00

I'm getting excited for summer. I know it's still a long way off but I'm ready. I was just looking over my bucket list...anyone want to help me fulfil anything on it? Take a look here.

Glasses

2011-01-22T19:11:00.001+01:00

Finally bought European sized glasses. Here is a comparison to my
American ones.

Dutchieness

2011-01-20T22:33:00.000+01:00

If you've noticed, I haven't been posting as much on here anymore because I felt like everyone is getting tired about hearing about me learning Dutch all the time, but the face is, that I spend a lot of my time on this right now and I think I want to continue to write about it. I really don't have many people to talk to about this, and writing about it on my blog (even if no one reads it or cares) still makes me feel better. So, here we go...

First of all, I just want to say that even though learning Dutch takes up a lot of my free time, I would never skip out on things that come up just so I can study Dutch, I only study when I'm not doing anything else. The reason that I moved to Europe was not to learn Dutch, but to enjoy myself and explore, and that is what I do when the opportunity presents itself.

So, let's see, where to start? Coming back to NL after being in the US for two weeks made me a bit nervous about remembering what I had already learned. Turns out, I was worried for nothing, I ended up pretty much remembering everything, and maybe even somewhat better since I had a break! I'm not sure if I mentioned this on here yet or not, but I made speaking Dutch more often at work and with Dutch people that I know, my New Years resolution. I use it always at the store and with people I don't know, but with those that I do know, I always felt too embarrassed. It was hard at first, but I'm starting to use it more and more now at work and with friends sometimes. Almost all of my emails to Dutch people in general are now all in Dutch, that is much easier though since I have much more time to think that when I'm speaking.

Some cool things that have happened recently are:

I wrote a letter to my auto insurance company totally in Dutch and because of the letter, (and an attached letter from my old US insurer) they lowered my rates. It was so cool to have something substantial take place and I did not even have to use English.
The other day I got a letter from Gemeente Haarlem about a bezoekersparkeervergunning (visitors parking permit). I told Kris it was nice that I could read the whole letter because that usually does not happen with official things like that because the language they use is a bit harder to understand. He then told me no way man, it is because your Dutch is getting better. And I of course said no way! Take for example things from the IND (branch of government that deals with immigration here in Holland) those things I do not understand at all! Then a couple days later I was thinking about that and what Kris had said so I went and got out some of my old letters from the IND. Guess what! I could read them and pretty much understand what they were talking about!! I could not believe it for one that Kris was right and for two that I could read it! It was pretty exciting.
Last week I called Gemeente Haarlem and was asking about the inburgeringcursus which I mentioned in this post. What I did not say was that when I called I only spoke in Dutch to the woman on the phone. I kept thinking when am I going to have to switch to English? At one point, I did not understand something that she asked me so I said (in Dutch) that I did not understand and instead of her asking me in English, she asked another way in Dutch, I understood and answered her and we continued on! When I hung up the phone I just sat there and was like "Wow, what just happened?" I could not believe that I actually arranged something like that on the phone with no English.
I made reservations at a restaurant last week and it went totally sooth. The last time I did it, it was also totally in Dutch, but there were some awkward moments, this time, I had none.
Yesterday, I had a meeting with my boss, his boss, and an external company. I was looking at the meeting invite and was like "oh no, I am the only English speaker here." I hate that because then everyone has to change to English just for me. When we got to the meeting, my boss's boss (who knows that I am learning Dutch) asked if I would like him to do the meeting in Dutch! He said that it would also be perfectly fine to to in English. But I said no, I want to try Dutch and I will let you know if I get totally lost. One and a half hours later, I was totally exhausted because of how closely I had to pay attention, but you know what, I made it through that whole damn meeting!! I generally understood everything (excluding the details) and answered every question that I was asked. I was pretty psyched after that. Now my boss will actually come up to me and ask me things in Dutch which he never really did unless I was the one who started in Dutch, so that is also kinda cool.
Last night, I met a Dutch woman at meetup and she told me that she was very impressed with me for having no lessons and only living here for 9 months. We talked for a little while and even though I struggled through a lot of things, it was cool to have a conversation with an actual Dutch person at the meetup.
Last weekend I went out with Kris and Eric and they both told me that I was going good. This met a lot coming from them because complements in Holland don't really come along like the do all the time in the US, people here only say things if they really mean it. We had a bit of a chat about it at the end of the night and it was really nice to actually talk about this with real people for once than just on this blog.
I worked through an entire issue with my boss over IM in Dutch and was able to take care of the problem.

I can't wait for my classes to start. I really hope that they are good and that I can actually communicate well when I am done.

After saying all of these things, I can finally see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have no idea how I am going to get to the end of the tunnel (no at all) but I am pretty sure that I am getting closer and closer every day. I still cannot imagine myself having a Dutch conversation without struggling, I thing that is still a long way off, but we'll see, only time will tell.

Den Haag

2011-01-17T22:21:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Alena and I went to Den Haag. The above in a picture of "Plein." The coolest thing that we saw was this:

This is a glass dome at the top of a store.

We just walked around the whole day and had a few beers. It ended up being a really cool place so I will probably go back.

Spring??!!

2011-01-16T22:52:00.000+01:00

First signs of spring as scene by Alena and I in Den Haag today!

Back in Holland

2011-01-12T21:17:00.000+01:00

First of all, sorry I haven't written in a while. I guess I just haven't felt like blogging lately. I've been back in NL for about two weeks now, and I was actually glad to be back. I really feel at home here now (sorry mom.) This is not to say that I am going to live here forever, who knows what the future holds for me, I'm just saying that I am happy right here, right now. Things are really starting to fall into place for me here now. I already have more friends here that I did in Pittsburgh (a lot of people moved away since college) and there is always something going on. I guess too I kinda like the challenge of living life in a place that is different from home. The challenge is becoming easier and easier every day and that makes me so happy.

Now, this post would not be complete without a Dutch update, so here it is. Dutch is...getting better...yes I said it, I can finally see that I am improving. I hardly ever have to use English anymore when I am out shopping which is pretty cool. I can even deal with some wrong numbers on the phone now (which I get often.) Also, as more and more people at work start to realize that I really am trying to learn Dutch, they are becoming a lot more interested in me, which is cool. Just today a co-worker (who I thought didn't like me at all) told me that he thought it was really cool I was learning Dutch and that I am probably better at this point in my learning than another co-worker was back when they first moved here. That made me pretty happy hearing it from this person. It felt like a real complement.

Another thing I found out was that I am allowed to take inburgeringscursus (integration classes) to help me learn things useful to know while living in Holland and...TEACH ME DUTCH!! I was so happy to find this out but so mad at the same time because I've been asking about this and no one really knew. I feel like I kinda wasted nine months on just trying to figure things out on my own. I WILL be starting these classes soon for sure! The best part is, if you pass an inburgeringsexamen (integration exam) the government pretty much pays for most of the money the classes cost!

That's about all for now.

Sushi

2011-01-11T20:02:00.000+01:00

Making sushi in Amsterdam.

My First Trip Home!

2011-01-04T19:05:00.000+01:00

I finally made it back the the US for a visit with some friends and family and it was really nice. It was crazy being back. When I was flying over Downtown Pittsburgh I just a huge smile on my face and just could not wait to land. My dad picked me up at the airport and I was so excited to see him. On our way home, it was strange, as we were driving I looked at him and said I felt like I never left, everything just looked so familiar. When we got home, I gave my mom a big hug. She made dinner that night and it was good to have some of her food again. Not much else happened after that, I was dead tired.

The first two days I was working in GO but I did not mind. It was really good to see all of the old people that I used to work with. We went out for GOOD coffee and Mexican both days.

My first weekend home, some of my friends and I got a hotel room in the city and stayed there the whole weekend just hanging out and going out. We went out in Oakland the first night and Southside the second night. I was so happy to eat some Mad Mex!!

The rest of the time I home I spent mostly visiting with family and friends. The one night my parents took my brother and I to a Pen's game, that is us above. And the next night, Mike took me to a Steeler's game. I thought I was going to hate it at first because it was so cold (and it was COLD) but I ended up enjoying the time with him, it was fun.

Christmas was good, I got a kindle! I didn't even ask for one, but it was a nice surprise, I can't believe how real the text looks...WOW!

All and all it was a good trip home. I may be back again already in February for a business trip. Hopefully I get lots of visitors this year in Holland.

Thanks everyone for making my trip home really awesome. I really missed you all.

Voor mijn Nederlands Sprekende Vrienden

2011-01-03T19:25:00.000+01:00

Hallo en beste wensen in 2011. Nu is de tijd voor resoluties en ik heb één van mijn eigen. Dit zal een moeilijk resolutie te houden worden omdat ik maak het zo voor mijzelf...
Mijn nieuwe jaar resolutie is:

Spreek meer Nederlands in het bijzonder op het werk.

Ik spreek Nederlands overal maar op het werk of met mijn Nederlandse sprekende vrienden. Ik wil graag met ze in het Nederlands spreken maar ik ben bang. Ik weet niet waarom, maar het is zo. Misschien het is omdat ik ze goed ken en wil niet om dom te kijken. Misschien het is omdat ik heel langzaam ben en ze niet. Misschien het is omdat ik niet genoeg Nederlands ken. Maar het moet stoppen! Ik moet met ze in het Nederlands spreken als ik een goede Nederlands spreker wil zijn.

Als je dit leest, kun je me helpen? Praat met me (langzaam) in het Nederlands wanneer je een conversatie met me begin. Ik zal heel blij zijn en zal in het Nederlands antwoorden. Ik heb veel oefen met email, IMen, en SMSen in het Nederlands maar nu moet ik mijn mond openen en spreek in het Nederlands!

Ik had vandaag op het kantoor gefaald en sprak ik geen Nederlands. :-( Ik hoop morgen zal beter zijn. Ik zal het proberen.

koekje?

2011-01-02T15:24:00.000+01:00

Nee bedankt, ik ben geil!

Beer Tasting

2010-12-27T04:29:00.000+01:00

With Kathy.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T16:03:00.001+01:00

This ornament has been on my tree for as long as I can remember.

Pgh

2010-12-22T22:50:00.000+01:00

My old city :)

Water Fountain

2010-12-20T22:12:00.000+01:00

I miss these!

Coming Home

2010-12-20T17:15:00.000+01:00

It was so cool coming back home for the first time in 8 1/2 months. Flying over New Jersey (on the way to Philly) was cool just because I was seeing America!

When we landed in Philly, the first English I heard was from two ghetto women who worked at the airport on the Jetway. I was thinking to myself "I'm home!"

The line for security in Philly was crazy and I though I might miss my flight to Pittsburgh, but I ended up making it in enough time. On the plane to Pittsburgh when I got my drink I was thinking, wow, this is really cold. Then I realized, OMG, the cup is full of ice! Once we were over Pittsburgh, it was almost magical seeing everything. I had a huge smile on my face. When I stepped into the airport I was so happy. I ran down to baggage claim and saw my dad, it was a great feeling.

As we were driving back home I told him it almost feels like I never left.

This weekend I spent pretty much in Pittsburgh hanging out with my friends. It was really nice to get to see them all. The strange thing is more and more every day that I am home, it really feels like I never left. Everything is almost just how I left it. I feel right at home and already really disconnected from The Netherlands. Strange, I was not expecting that, but o well, it's nice to feel at home and like I belong for a change.

I've been eating Mexican food, drinking good coffee, and ordering in English this whole time so far. It's pretty great! :-)

Cappacino

2010-12-18T22:36:00.000+01:00

I miss coffee like this!

The "Dutch Club"

2010-12-14T23:42:00.000+01:00

I think my theory about Dutch people not really liking you unless you speak Dutch gets stronger and stronger every day. This is not to say that Dutch people hate you if you don't speak Dutch, they don't, but they are also very passive towards you.

Today I was at the datacenter and one of the guys that works there walked into the room. This guys has maybe said two words to me the whole time I've ever been there besides when he had to ask me a question regarding PPG's business there. Well today was totally different, he walked right up to me with a big smile on his face looking like he genuinely wanted to talk to me! I was thinking to myself, WTF? He came right up and was like hey, who's it going? Are you learning Dutch!? I was like ya...how did you know? He said that he read one of the emails I wrote in Dutch to the workers at the datacenter. (I usually try to do emails in Dutch but I can't really think fast enough to talk in Dutch yet.)

I was like I ya, I am learning and explained to him why I don't speak it to him. He was like o wow, that's great, you will get it soon. And then he went on and on talking to me, asking me questions, telling me about himself...I was like wow, this is crazy, as soon as someone finds out that I am trying to learn Dutch, all of a sudden they want to talk to me.

It kinda is strange that it has to be that way, but at the same time, cool! I thought those people didn't really like me there. But now that they know I am a member, or at least trying to become a member of the "Dutch Club," they will gladly talk to me.

I think it is going to be an interesting next 6 moths. I wonder if I will be a member by then, or even by April after I've been here a whole year. I guess only time shale tell.

Paris, Not as Planned

2010-12-09T21:51:00.000+01:00

What a crazy trip so far...

Right now I am in Paris laying in bed tired as hell. Yesterday, my train arrived at the station a little late. It was about 10 o'clock at night. I got in line for a taxi around 10:15. The line was really long and there was only about one cab coming every 15 minutes. I ended up waiting 3 and a half hours to finally get a cab. It was pretty terrible. I was wearing my book bag the entire time because the ground was all wet. Everyone was miserable and upset. I finally ended up getting a cab and got to my hotel around 2:10. My toes were so cold that they were literally blue! As they started to warm up in the shower they hurt really bad and I could not put any weight on the front of my foot. I was a little nervous about frostbite, but it ended up being okay after a little while longer.

Today I arrived at the datacenter and met up with Amir and Christophe. We were waiting for our shipment to arrive but we only got one box, the most unimportant of the two. All it had in it was a printer. So we called DHL and it ends up that the box is stuck in Belgium somewhere and whould not be in France until at least tomorrow.

So I went back to Amir and Christophe's office in Rueil and got some things done there. So that means I had to stay in France one more night. I almost didn't go into Paris because I was tired but decided to at the last minute. I walked on the Champs-elyées and saw it all decorated for Christmas, it was very beautiful. They also had Le Village de Noël which was a bunch of stands setup selling things. I ended up getting some mulled spiced wine and some sweats, all was really good. After that and dinner I was really not feeling like walking around any longer so I came back to the hotel.

Hopefully tomorrow goes better at the DC.

Parlez-vous français?

2010-12-08T19:53:00.000+01:00

Non!

Unfortunately, I must say besides only remebering a few words and phrases here and there from my THREE YEARS of French in high school, I don't remember anything and thus must answer the question, "No, I do not speak French."

If only I knew back then that I would be living in Holland, have French friends, and actually be in France from time to time, maybe I would have paid attention. I am sitting on the train right now on my way to Paris and I hear the French language everywhere. It is very disappointing to me that I can't even pick up on a little bit of it. Not that I want to be fluent in it, I don't live in a French speaking country after all, it would be nice though if I would have taken French more seriously in school and could use it at some level now.

Really though, I would like to seriously question my three years of French. What did I really learn? I could not even say anything at all in French while I was even in the classes. I don't want to point fingers at the school or the teachers (I did have 2 really good teachers, 1 that sucked) but why don't I know anything?? I think I want to say it was a serious lake of motivation at the time. Sure I knew enough to pass the tests, but that was about it, I could not have a conversation, shit, I could not even make simple sentences then...
I think language classes in the US should first point out how truly valuable it really is to know another language. The students, I think, need to really want to learn the language first, and coming from the US, we (and ya I am including myself at the time) think that English in the whole whole..."why the hell should we learn another language, that is just stupid." Also, during the course of study, the importance of languages should be reinforced. If I could go back, knowing what I know now, you better believe my French would be better, and who knows, maybe I would have even took more than three years as well... I just remember that I could not wait to be done with my third year so that I could fulfill the requirement that most colleges had in order to be accepted. Get in, do the work, get out, that was my mindset, no wander I don't remember anything. Man, I would kill for those kind of lessons right now in Dutch!

I realize that it is not to late for me to learn French now, but there are so many other possibilities at this point. First of all, I'm not sure if it would be a great idea to learn to languages at once, and second of all, maybe there is another language I would like to learn instead. Maybe even Italian, the language of my great grandparents. For right now, I want to put all I have into learning Dutch, it is really starting to get interesting now that I can have actual conversations with people. Though simple and awkward, conversations non the less, and I must say, that makes me really happy.

I knew this post would somehow start to sway towards Dutch, but I'm done talking about that now. I think the next time I come to France, I am going to put a little bit of effort into learning some of the basics. And who knows, maybe some of it will come back to me from school without much effort, hey, that would be nice! :-)

Pumpkin Pie

2010-12-05T20:59:00.001+01:00

Thanksgiving is long gone, but finally had my pie, oh so good.

Geeze

2010-12-04T10:22:00.000+01:00

People told me it does not snow in the Netherlands like it does in
Pittsburgh...I say bullshit!

Sneeuw

2010-11-29T16:39:00.000+01:00

Should be a fun ride home in all this snow.

Happiness

2010-11-28T19:38:00.000+01:00

:-) | :-(

From as far back as I can remember, I was never happy with who I was or what I had. I always wanted to be someone else or have more things. Still to this day I have issues with this. It never seems to matter to me how successful I am or all of the good things that I have in my life, from time to time, I will just sit and dwell on what other people have and think about how much better other people are than me. I hate feeling this way because deep down, I know I have a good life, filled with great memories and people who care for me, but I don't know, sometimes I feel like it's not enough and I am missing something. I really don't want to get into a lot of details right now, but it is just strange, I am a happy, healthy, and successful person yet I always see other people as being better than me, I can never be good enough to be happy with myself. There is always someone who I feel is better than me. I guess this could be a good thing because I am always trying to make myself better because of it, but at the same time, it is really tiring. I need to start being happy with who I am and not worry about everyone else, but at least for me, that is way easier said than done. Even though it is going to be hard, I am going to try to make it a point not to worry about this stuff anymore. Let's see how it goes.

I am Thankful

2010-11-25T09:56:00.000+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Unfortunately, I am writing this from work even though against popular American belief, (at least most who I've talked to) Thanksgiving is NOT celebrated outside of the US. I know this is hard for most of you to belief, but alas, it is true.

I just wanted to take a quick moment to list some of the things that I am thankful for, because there is a lot this year.

I am thankful for:

Having this awesome opportunity to live and work in Europe and get to experience a bunch of new things and see the world from a totally new prospective.
Meeting wonderful new friends who have made this experience even better.
Traveling all around Europe and getting to see things that most Americans can only dream about for relatively cheep.
Having family and friends at home who still love me and support me. I think about them often and can't wait to see them all in December.
Being successful in the fact that I can do pretty much whatever I want when I want to do it. I am by no means rich, but am happy with the fact that I have what I need, and that is all that I want.
Being healthy.

On a side note, I will be cooking American Thanksgiving for my European friends next weekend. That should be fun.

Now I want to know what you are thankful for. Leave me some comments.

Fish Shoarma ?

2010-11-20T13:09:00.001+01:00

Wander if this is any good.

Ups and Downs

2010-11-20T00:32:00.000+01:00

Life has given me a lot of ups and downs recently. More ups with is a good thing and of course I'm sure you all know the subject, Dutch!

I am still studying Dutch almost each and every night, all night. I am doing a number of different things to help me, and I am pretty proud of myself so far. I know a lot of words, and partially follow conversations pretty well now, and can get by at most stores/restaurants. Just Wednesday, I went to my third Dutch meetup.com group where we speak pretty much exclusively in Dutch. Everyone there says that I am doing pretty good for being here seven months. There was even a Dutch teacher who showed up this past meeting who told me the same thing. Made me feel pretty good. Also, I even talked to someone at the datacenter where I often go for work. He started talking to me in Dutch today (which surprised me!) but I went with it for a while and he also told me that I've come a long way since the last time he tried to speak Dutch with me. There are also people at work and some friends who are impressed with what I know.

I am very happy to try and speak Dutch around the meetup group, at stores, and with fluent Dutch speaking individuals one-on-one. But I am very uncomfortable speaking whenever there is a group of Dutch speaking individuals, it still makes me feel really dumb and I don't like doing that so much yet.

So now we get to the not so good part. Even though I am really happy to see some progress with myself, there is still just so much more to learn. I still can have "real" conversations with people which I still have such a strong desire for. I know that the process takes a long time and things don't just happen overnight, but I wish there was a date or timeframe that I could be waiting for where I know that, after this point, I will be where I want to be. I think that is the most frustrating part is not knowing when this will be coming. I still get upset (though not as frequently) and thing to myself that it is never going to happen and that I am just wasting my time every night studying and studying and studying. Sheesh, I though all this studying would be over after I graduated from CMU. Guess it never ends. I have piles and piles of flash cars stacked up here and and making more every day. They have been pretty helpful in learning new words but I just can't help but wander, how many do I need to make in order to just be "normal" here and go on with everyday life? How much longer will it take? Is all of this trouble worth it? What if I finally learn this crazy language and then I decide to move back to the United States (or even some other non-Dutch speaking country!!) will this all have been in vein? I sure hope not, but these and many others are the questions that run through my head each and every day.

I know I need to start speaking more for sure, but that is easier said than done. It is quite embarrassing to speak with fluent Dutch speakers whenever your speech is really cumbersome and s-l-o-w. But I HAVE TO get over this or else it is going to stay at this level forever, and that would be terrible!

So generally speaking I am happy with my progress but still really frustrated. Either way, I am still, of course, going to continue with this and hopefully someday look back at this post and laugh.

Kamerbordje

2010-11-19T12:14:00.000+01:00

Finally, my name is on the room where I work!

1°

2010-11-16T08:33:00.000+01:00

Brrrr

Winter, go away!

N

2010-11-13T18:48:00.001+01:00

Look what Sinterklaas brought me!

Erin's Vistit

2010-11-11T23:14:00.000+01:00

I had my first visitor from America last week! Erin came to visit me for a week. I went to go pick her up at the airport last Wednesday morning. Unfortunately I had to work from home that whole day but she got to catch up on some sleep then. That night we had dinner with Wouter and his girlfriend at Pancake Bakery in Amsterdam. The pancakes there are really good and big, you can get pretty much anything on them. Here is one I had another time Erin and I went. It has cheese, basil, pesto, tomatoes, and onions...so good. After that Erin wanted to see the Red Light District. She was a little disappointed that the girls don't really do anything in the windows besides talk on their cell phones and smoke! haha.

Thursday we drove to Brussels for the day. It was a nice city but we really didn't know what all to do so we ended up walking around and around. Finally at the end of the day we found Manneken Pis. It was a lot smaller than we expected.

Friday we spent the day shopping in Haarlem and then went out that night there as well with Kris and Erik. Sophie met us out too after a while. It ended up being a really fun night. We haven't had a chance to go out like that in a long time, I am really glad everyone made it out.

Saturday we went to Amsterdam but the only problem was there was maintenance on the tracks between Haarlem and Amsterdam Sloterdijk for the whole weekend. We had to take an NS-bus from Haarlem to Amsterdam Sloterdijk and then continue on the train to Amsterdam Centraal. That really sucked, it took about an hour when normal time is only 15 minutes. While there we went to House of Bols which was pretty interesting. Then we had to hurry home since it was going to take an hour, get ready, then go back again on the bus/train to go out in Amsterdam than night.

Sunday Erin was tired of walking so we ended up going to Zandvoort for lunch and she picked up some shells on the beach. I can't believe how many people were on the beach with their jackets! Thought we would be some of the only people there...I was wrong. After that we went to the movies in Haarlem. Erin got to experience her first movie with Dutch subtitles and an intermission! haha. After that we just hung out, ate pizza, and watched the EMAs.

Monday we went back to Amsterdam and went to Anne Frank House. It was interesting to be in the house we her and some others were hiding from the Nazis. My new goal once my Dutch is better it to read her diary in it's original language, Dutch. Next we went to Heineken Experience which was really cool. There was a lot to see and do and probably ended up being my favorite thing that we did the whole time. I would recommend seeing this one to other visitors to Amsterdam. Finally, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Café. I can't believe how American everything was there! It was crazy, almost like stepping out of Holland for a couple hours. The people that worked there did not even know how to speak Dutch! Nothing was in Dutch, everything English, all the people there were speaking English, they had Ranch dressing on the menu, and there was a tip line on the credit card receipt! haha Now I guess I know where to go in case Holland ever starts to get me down and I am home sick.

Tuesday I dropped Erin off at the airport before going to work and they were stopping everyone driving to departing flights checking for illegal weapons. We both had to get out of the car and be searched. They looked in the car too but did not even open the truck or look in Erin's luggage...kinda pointless. O well.

I had a good week and was glad that Erin could come and visit. It was nice to see an old friend again. Anyone else who wants to come, just give me a call and let me know.

Not Cool

2010-11-06T14:12:00.000+01:00

No trains between Haarlem and Amsterdam Sloterdijk this weekend. Take
three times as long on the NS bus...

FML!

Snowing Christmas Tree

2010-11-06T11:51:00.001+01:00

Random

2010-11-05T14:15:00.000+01:00

Steelers shirt at a second hand store in Haarlem. Only €2,75! Haha