Things that make you go Hmmm...
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
10
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Monday, May 26, 2003
Here in Amsterdam we don't have Memorial Day off - however we do get this Thurday off as it is Ascension Day!!! I have no clue what it is but I think it is related to something that happened to Jesus. Let's see, he wasn't born then, he wasn't crucified then, I guess he must have ascended then...thus 'Ascen'sion Day. I remember seeing it on my calender back in the States but since it never applied to me, I just ignored it. But now I can't wait to celebrate Ascension Day!!!
Nothing really is happening here. I spent most of the week hangin' on my couch, watching movies. I am getting pretty eager for Julie to finally arrive. She will be here 2 weeks from yesterday so we're almost done. It's odd, I have been lucky that the few people I know here have included me in a lot of fun things. But, they are all very single, and I am very not single. So after a while, it starts to get a bit weird. I have seen 5 am more often in the last 6 weeks than, well, probably ever. I am eager to slow down my life a bit and get into a normal routine, one that doesn't involve multiple 5 am nights in a weekend. I am soooo old.
I'm also not fully married here either. I'm in between. There is a lot of great things to be done in Amsterdam and Europe in general that I have put off from doing until Julie gets here and I'm getting pretty antsy to start to do some of them. Every week I get an email from KLM that has cheap flights, similar to American Airlines' NetsAAvers. The thing I like about the KLM Click 'N Go more than NetsAAvers is you book a flight leaving the next day and can stay for up to 30 days. So it's not like you are booking a $300 flight for $200 and have to be back by Monday because $200 for a weekend is still an expensive weekend. But if you can book a E300 flight for E200 and spend a few weeks away, it's a bit more worth it to me. I guess you would have to be open to a few destinations but then again, you could also just wait until the city you want to go to comes up and then book it. Julie and I have talked about going to Scandanavia and so far, either Oslo or Copenhagen has been offered each week. So we'll see what happens. I guess the last 200 words or so can be summarized as "I'm excited for Julie to get here".
Work has been going well. I am still enjoying it and learning a ton. I am amazed that they have me doing such important things already. One of the things I am working on now is helping to prepare presentations that are being given to the external rating agencies (ie. Moody's, Standard & Poor's, Fitch's). I have also been heavily involved in preparing information which goes to the Wall Street analysts and to the managing board of the bank. So, if any of you own stock in ABN AMRO, sell it now! Not because it is over-valued, or under-valued for that matter, but because at any moment, I could fuck up big-time and ruin the whole damn company.
On a lighter note at work, 1 of the guys in my group who I really like, Wagner, will be on a pretty important assignment for the next 6 weeks so I'll have a lot of quality time with Sjoerd. Wagner's assignment sounds pretty important, although I don't know anything about it as it has been kept very quiet from everyone. It sounds like it is a really great opportunity for him though. Wagner is an expat from Brazil and hopes to someday return to Brazil as ABN AMRO has a very large presence there. Anyways, since he seems to be doing very well around here, I might have to ride his coat-tails for a bit...I think I could live in Brazil for a few years =)
But first thing's first, what's new in Amsterdam? As I said, last week was fairly tame so I will give you some observations I have made from the past 6 weeks in the return of...
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THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM...
*** Sports on TV in Amsterdam is surely lacking. Of course the year that I am gone, the Cubs are in first place (although based on the Cubs track record, I'm sure they will be out of contention by July). I have yet to see any of the NBA playoffs, which is not necessarily a bad thing...although they are always talking about Dallas since Dirk Novitski is European - don't they know that my fellow Wisconsin alumni and close friend (Mifflin Street block party 1995) Michael Finley is the star of the Mavericks. I have been watching a little of soccer, ur, futbal, although it is never in English. I guess I just need to see someone running around chasing a ball of some sort. Although I experienced a true low this weekend. I actually watched the International Darts Championship. It was like being back in Bullfeathers with Justin and Scott, although none of the "athletes" were nearly as drunk as we were. Darts just doesn't seem as cool without a pitcher of beer. I don't even know what I'm going to do when Wisconsin is playing for the National Championship in January.
*** I watched a BBC documentary on bin Laden's right hand man. I forgot his name already. It was really good. He met bin Laden in Afghanistan fighting the Russians. I couldn't help but think how strange it is that we felt Communism was a threat. Not that Communism had it survived would be a great system but we are now seeing that the other side of the battle, fundamental Islam, seems to have some issues as well.
*** I also watched a BBC documentary on soccer hooligans. Pretty scary stuff. I never realized how racist they are. They're a bunch of thugs. They're like the LA police department.
*** I found some good sushi although it's pretty boring. Basically only 1 type of fish. No Dragon Maki or Spicy Tuna or anything fun. Oh well.
*** I also noticed that there is no ice in the whole country. Order a soda, you get a glass and a soda. What's the deal with that?
*** The grocery store has a whole aisle dedicated to cooking oil. I thought that was odd until I realized that everything is cooked in oil. Everything. You want a burger, it's fried in oil. Vegies, fried in oil. For a country on the right track with the amount of bike riding, they sure are missing it here. Maybe my mother-in-law needs to send the whole country a newspaper clippings about cooking with oil.
*** You thought American Idols was bad? You should have watched Eurovision 2003. I didn't really watch it but this is what I gathered (again, it was in Dutch so I know I missed some). Each European country enters a song and performs it. Their claim to fame is that it helped launch the careers of Abba and Celine Dion - 2 of my personal favorites. It was really bad. And to prove how bad it was, Turkey won, and Britain can in dead last. Now when I think about music, I know Turkey always comes to my mind. And Britain? It's not as if they've been able to produce any descent music over the last few decades.
*** I went to the foreign police the other day. STRIKE 1! The Expat Center is completely useless. They are supposed to tell me what I need to do to get settled. I called the woman there to let her know that I want to move in to the new apartment on June 5. In order to do that, my stuff needs to clear customs. In order to do that, I have to get my residency permit from the foreign police. In order to do that, I need to have an appointment. And in order to do that, my paper work has to be filed. Well, although my paper work was supposedly filed over 6 weeks ago (and it should take 6 weeks), I do not have an appointment yet. So the Expat Center told me that I could go to the foreign police to get a special document which says my residency [permit is in the process which will allow my stuff to clear customers and thus, get delivered. So I schlepped (Is "schlepped" 1 "p" or 2? Where is my Yiddish dictionary?) about 45 minutes to the foreign police only to have some guy who likes like a member of the SS (short blond hair and all) tell me that I was misinformed. He said that I can not get what I am asking for, that even if I could, it wouldn't help me clear customs, and that the department that hands out this form closes at 1:00, not 3:00 like I had been told by the Expat Center. So after I called the Expat Center, the lady told me that I went to the wrong place. Well, excuse me? How the hell am I supposed to know where to go? I asked at reception where to go and I went where they told me. Whatever, so I'm going to try again tomorrow. But I am starting to run out of time if I want my stuff delivered my next Thursday. I'll keep you posted.
*** On my way to the foreign police I saw my first show of public aggravation. It was awesome. I was on the tram and I heard this old lady yell "helpen" which I gathered means "help". These 2 men were grabbing one another's arms maneuvering for postilion. It was almost like some sort of leverage wrestling move, and not that fake Olympic stuff, I mean the Hulk Hogan kinda wrestling. So they are dancing around while everyone stands and looks at these 2 men and the old lady until finally some woman gets right up in the face of the bad guy. I guess he's as scared of Dutch woman as I am because he let go and bumped his way to the back of the tram. Like the chicken shit that I am, as I saw him coming my way, I got out of the way, and quick. He walked to the back of the tram, stopped at the door, grabbed the the silver handlebar with both arms, pulled himself up like it was some kind of gymnastics apparatus, and with great precision, kicked the emergency door release. And like that, he was gone. Something tells me he has done this before. And will probably do it again too. Well, at the point, the whole Amsterdam tram system was out of commission so everyone left the tram and just went on there way. Nobody complained, they just went.
*** Nobody ever says "bless you" after a sneeze.
*** The other day I made a small donation to TravelPod. It is a free service but it must cost someone something. So I made a donation. Within hours, I got an email thanking me and telling me that my page will no longer have banner ads (which I didn't even notice anyways), that I will get extra memory (which is already a lot to begin with), and that I will be a featured user (so when I went back to TravelPod.com, my picture was on the front page). I'm beginning to think that maybe I was the first person to ever make a donation.
*** Every time I meet a Dutch person, he or she introduces themself and I say "what?" as I can't understand the strange name they've given me. They then repeat it..."Roger". This happens all the time. Everyone has some hard-to-pronounce name and then the Americanized name. It's pretty funny.
*** They serve beers here that are the size of a dixie cup. It's like a shot of beer.
*** ABN AMRO employees in the branch have to wear ABN AMRO uniforms. They're horrible. It is a suit coat with the ABN AMRO emblem on the back near the center of the shoulders and little ABN AMRO emblem cuff links, an ABN AMRO emblem tie, and a shirt with the ABN AMRO emblem all over it. If I had to wear this when I was in the branch I probably would not be in banking right now.
*** There was a lot of noise about the new colorful $20 bill. I'm sorry, look at the Euro. Adding a dark blue eagle to a green and black bill doesn't make it colorful. Although at least the dollar is a normal size and fits in a wallet. Every Euro bill I have is completely mashed as the bills are too big for a wallet.
*** I finally got access to my Chicago work email address. This was a major hassle. I had over 300 emails to deleted and that was just through the letter "G".
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Ok, that should be enough for now. I actually still have a ton more but I'll be here another, what is it Joey, I know you're keeping track. Well, hope all is well Stateside. Speak to you soon.
-Stephen
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