So, I'm trying to redeem some free PrePaid minutes for my mobile phone, and to do so, I have to fill out a survey. Everything is in Dutch, so I resort to online translation to figure out out to fill this damn thing in. Here's the translation result for one of the questions:
I have elected until prepaid, because:
* I the cost within the handshake wish keep
* I little bubble
* I within young one have been until one subscription
* the facile upon within supply is
* I the phone present have groans
* the reverse
I really need to learn to speak Dutch...
Oh, and in case you're wondering, I checked the "I little bubble" box.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
honesty is the best policy
I was catching up on my Boston blogs this evening and read about Evan's budget hotel adventures in New York. Coincidentally, one of my colleagues had just showed me a fantastic series of advertising campaigns for a hotel chain in Amsterdam called Hans Brinker Budget Hotel.
Go to the History section and "take a walk down memory lane (watch out for the dog shit) and enjoy the advertising that helped make the Hnas Brinker a home from home for thousands of visitors to Amsterdam." This is perhaps the most truthful (and hilariously funny) advertising I've seen in a long time.
Perhaps this is where I should threaten to send unruly house guests when they come to visit me in The Netherlands...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
"the community"
Week 2. Adjusting slowly...still not feeling at home yet, but I figure if I never shake the feeling of being a tourist, that can't be such a bad thing, can it? The nice thing about living here in Delft is that there is sort of a built-in community of ex-pats from work here.
This weekend, i went shopping in The Hague with one of the guys in IT, who needed to get some of those wheely shoes for his kids back in Sweden. I ended up picking up a crappy prepaid phone since i can't sign up for a mobile contract without a residence permit. I was all excited until I got back to the apartment, opened up the box and realized that all the instructions were in Dutch. Oy!
Later that evening, I was walking over to meet up with one of my colleagues, a fellow editor, when I ran into a girl from HR who was unloading some tables for some friends, another IT guy and his girlfriend (who used to work for the company as an architect, but has since left the fold) that they had picked up in Dusseldorf earlier that morning. Helped them move tables up to their apartment, then went to go grab some food so we could all have dinner before going to the main market square around the corner to see a midnight show of the theatre festival (De Mooi Weer Spelen).
At the festival, we ran into another girl who works in my department doing distribution, but lives in The Hague), as well as a graphic designer from iceland that I had met back in Tokyo last year, along with some other work folks. So, just from one day in Delft, you can get an idea of how interconnected the ex-pat community is here. The nice thing about it is that the organization is so big that you can hang out with all sorts of different people (I hung out with a completely different set of folks last weekend, including a girl from aruba who doesn't work for the company, but has sort of been 'adopted' into the clan). And even though we all work in the same organization, we don't all work directly together, which makes avoiding 'shop talk' much easier...sometimes.
The show itself was spectacular! Kind of a Cirque du Soleil type show, with lots of fire, pyrotechnics, live music, and brilliant costumes. The basic premise was a race where different countries test out their own flying machines, but fail. Finally, the female racer is the only one to succeed, despite being denied a chance to test her flightcraft.
Today, I stayed away from work folks altogether (which is difficult, but still possible...I think) and checked out more of the festival with a new friend from The Hague, before grabbing some Turkish pizzas and lounging around one of the squares chatting.
This weekend, i went shopping in The Hague with one of the guys in IT, who needed to get some of those wheely shoes for his kids back in Sweden. I ended up picking up a crappy prepaid phone since i can't sign up for a mobile contract without a residence permit. I was all excited until I got back to the apartment, opened up the box and realized that all the instructions were in Dutch. Oy!
Later that evening, I was walking over to meet up with one of my colleagues, a fellow editor, when I ran into a girl from HR who was unloading some tables for some friends, another IT guy and his girlfriend (who used to work for the company as an architect, but has since left the fold) that they had picked up in Dusseldorf earlier that morning. Helped them move tables up to their apartment, then went to go grab some food so we could all have dinner before going to the main market square around the corner to see a midnight show of the theatre festival (De Mooi Weer Spelen).
At the festival, we ran into another girl who works in my department doing distribution, but lives in The Hague), as well as a graphic designer from iceland that I had met back in Tokyo last year, along with some other work folks. So, just from one day in Delft, you can get an idea of how interconnected the ex-pat community is here. The nice thing about it is that the organization is so big that you can hang out with all sorts of different people (I hung out with a completely different set of folks last weekend, including a girl from aruba who doesn't work for the company, but has sort of been 'adopted' into the clan). And even though we all work in the same organization, we don't all work directly together, which makes avoiding 'shop talk' much easier...sometimes.
The show itself was spectacular! Kind of a Cirque du Soleil type show, with lots of fire, pyrotechnics, live music, and brilliant costumes. The basic premise was a race where different countries test out their own flying machines, but fail. Finally, the female racer is the only one to succeed, despite being denied a chance to test her flightcraft.
Today, I stayed away from work folks altogether (which is difficult, but still possible...I think) and checked out more of the festival with a new friend from The Hague, before grabbing some Turkish pizzas and lounging around one of the squares chatting.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
small space living
Luckily, I got the keys to my temporary apartment this evening, so I'm no longer putting on shows for the tourists. I did have to lug all four pieces of luggage from the hotel to the apartment, tripping over cobblestones as I dragged everything over, but now that I'm here, I've been able to unpack and attempt to settle in a bit. The suite is compact, but comfortable.
When the landlady showed me the suite, I thought the place was pleasant and well-kept, but I wondered aloud where the bedroom was. "Oh, the sofa converts into a bed. Let me show you!" she said with great enthusisasm.
"And the kitchen?"
"Behind the folding doors that looks like it leads into a closet, right here!"
"The bathroom?"
"Beyond the pocket door, of course!"
"And if the kitchen is in what I thought what was the closet, where's the actual closet?"
"Tucked behind the door!"
Talk about small space living!
The church bells ring every hour from the steeple of NieuwKerk, just a few steps away and I've got a view of a waterlily strewn canal from my window, where red geraniums are spilling out from the window box, so it's making me feel like I'm in a postcard world.
As for work, the team here is great. I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with them all yet since I've been at appointments with local authorities trying to sort out my paperwork, but they're a great bunch. And, get this – my first official day isn't until tomorrow, but I was in the office today, and I've already requested vacation. Before I've even started! I'm going to Rock Werchter, a four day music festival in Belgium. The line-up is pretty awesome, so I couldn't resist. I'll be spending some $300 USD for tickets and the campsite, and it'll probably be one big boozefest, but it should be fun.
When the landlady showed me the suite, I thought the place was pleasant and well-kept, but I wondered aloud where the bedroom was. "Oh, the sofa converts into a bed. Let me show you!" she said with great enthusisasm.
"And the kitchen?"
"Behind the folding doors that looks like it leads into a closet, right here!"
"The bathroom?"
"Beyond the pocket door, of course!"
"And if the kitchen is in what I thought what was the closet, where's the actual closet?"
"Tucked behind the door!"
Talk about small space living!
The church bells ring every hour from the steeple of NieuwKerk, just a few steps away and I've got a view of a waterlily strewn canal from my window, where red geraniums are spilling out from the window box, so it's making me feel like I'm in a postcard world.
As for work, the team here is great. I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with them all yet since I've been at appointments with local authorities trying to sort out my paperwork, but they're a great bunch. And, get this – my first official day isn't until tomorrow, but I was in the office today, and I've already requested vacation. Before I've even started! I'm going to Rock Werchter, a four day music festival in Belgium
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
first impressions
After weeks of farewell parties and send-offs, my friends finally got sick of me and put me on a flight to the Netherlands. I think even now, as I walk the cobblestone streets, watch the mallards and swans swimming in the canals, brushing past the water lilies which are just starting to bloom, and listen to strains of Dutch being spoken wherever I go, it still hasn't sunk in that this is my new home. Part of me thinks I'm just on a business trip and that I"ll be back in my comfort zone soon. And then I remember that all my stuff is packed away in a shipping container headed to New Jersey before crossing the ocean, and that my apartment in Boston is empty and ready to be moved into by the next tenant.
I don't think it was until I tried to use the pay phone at the Schiphol Airport this morning to track down my taxi, or went to the train station in the afternoon to take some Dutch passport photos in a photo booth which had all instructions listed in Dutch that I realized what's in store for me in terms of settling in, acclimatizing and making this place my new home. At least I could make out some of the menu selections at the restaurant that I went to earlier this evening.
I checked into the hotel this morning. It's a small little inn, really, located in the heart of the city. With my two large suitcases, a backpack and my laptop case in tow, I climbed up a few flights of steep, narrow stairs, sweating it out, and finally
setting the bags down and taking the suitcases up the remaining staircases one at a time. Once I got into my hotel room, I marveled at the large dormer windows in both the bedroom and the bathroom and was in awe of the fantastic view of both the Old Church and the New Church situated in the main square, just several rows of houses away.
As it had been a long morning, I really needed to make my way to the bathroom to relieve myself. Now, being jet lagged and completely worn out from carrying my bags up the staircases, I wasn't really paying much attention to anything aside from the business at hand. I did pause in embarrassment however, when I noticed that several flashbulbs were going off at the top of the old church from the tower. I realized then that I had neglected to lower the blinds in the bathroom and was essentially putting on a show for the tourists from my bathroom window. With a shrug and a sheepish smile, I waved at them
and said, "Welcome to Delft!" and then quickly washed up and ducked out of view.
....and I've only been here for a few hours.
I don't think it was until I tried to use the pay phone at the Schiphol Airport this morning to track down my taxi, or went to the train station in the afternoon to take some Dutch passport photos in a photo booth which had all instructions listed in Dutch that I realized what's in store for me in terms of settling in, acclimatizing and making this place my new home. At least I could make out some of the menu selections at the restaurant that I went to earlier this evening.
I checked into the hotel this morning. It's a small little inn, really, located in the heart of the city. With my two large suitcases, a backpack and my laptop case in tow, I climbed up a few flights of steep, narrow stairs, sweating it out, and finally
setting the bags down and taking the suitcases up the remaining staircases one at a time. Once I got into my hotel room, I marveled at the large dormer windows in both the bedroom and the bathroom and was in awe of the fantastic view of both the Old Church and the New Church situated in the main square, just several rows of houses away.
As it had been a long morning, I really needed to make my way to the bathroom to relieve myself. Now, being jet lagged and completely worn out from carrying my bags up the staircases, I wasn't really paying much attention to anything aside from the business at hand. I did pause in embarrassment however, when I noticed that several flashbulbs were going off at the top of the old church from the tower. I realized then that I had neglected to lower the blinds in the bathroom and was essentially putting on a show for the tourists from my bathroom window. With a shrug and a sheepish smile, I waved at them
and said, "Welcome to Delft!" and then quickly washed up and ducked out of view.
....and I've only been here for a few hours.
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