Dinner with Housemates

Lukasz and a few others from the office are heading out this evening for Greece for a week. I was pretty hungry by the time I got home, so I ate dinner, but I went out again with Sasha, Mimi, and Aihua since I had nothing better to do. We first stopped to back Sasha up on a visit to one of her lodgers. Then we went to the usual Chinese-Indonesian buffet. Aihua and I did not eat tho, since we already had dinner. I had couple of hot chocolates, and we had some interesting conversations all around.

Dinner at Thomas's

Mimi, Lukasz, and I were invited over to Thomas's for some real German home cooked dinner. Started around 7, and we got some yummy soup (chicken noodle like), some meat thing, noodles, and cabbage. Most of it was pretty good. We had tiramisu for desert, but I did not like it because of the coffee. I had avoided it all these years because of the coffee, and finally I tried it and confirmed I do not like tiramisu. But there were cookies and chocolates too. And very good champagne. It was good food overall, and good conversations, and a good night.

Sports Day In Brussels

Today was sports day in Brussels!! Mimi could not go, but Lukasz, Isabel, Cedric, and Marco all went. I sat next to Lukasz on the ride up and we played cards with Cedric and Isabel. Once there, we grabbed lunch with a few other people. Lukasz then went for a swim, and I went to bowling at 2. They were so unorganized tho, so by 3 o’clock, I’d only played one game. I think the lanes were pretty crappy, because I played so horribly. Anyhow, at that point, I took off to go play table tennis. Didn’t win, but I did pretty good for not having played in ages. And I had fun. After table tennis, I went to the field to run, but soccer was still going on. Lukasz and Isabel were playing. I saw Lukasz in action here and there, but he was also chilling a lot on the ground. I guess he was going to go for a swim again, but I did not have my swim suit and was planning to run. He and Isabel took off and I did about 10 laps around the track for some exercise. Afterwards, I borrowed Cedric’s tennis rackets to play with Lukasz and Isabel. I first hit a bit with Lukasz, but he couldn’t get the ball in the court much. Then I played with Isabel. Seemed like we were on the same level so that was good. Then Cedric came along and took over Isabel. He was about my level too. We played until about 5:30, at which point I had to go shower so we can be at the bbq at 6. The bbq wasn’t really a bbq but more of a buffet. Lots of wieners for dinner. By now, I was starting to fade. I was tired from last night. I pretty much slept the whole way back on the bus.

Belgian Party

Tonight was a party at Gorik’s place. He lives pretty close to me, about 4 tram stops away. He’s got this huge 2 floor, 3 br place all to himself – paid for by the company. He even gets wireless and a cleaning lady!! Anyways, there weren’t a whole lot of people there but it was still a good time. Just enough for some card games. The French cadets brought this game that involves grabbing this stick in the middle of a table depending on what cards are flipped. If two people grab it at the same time, they have to fight over it. It was a pretty exciting game. I almost got my head knocked off a few times tho sitting between two people who had to duel. It was usually Marco and Gorik. After that, we played shithead and asshole for a bit and called it a night at about 1:30. I ended up staying over at Gorik’s for the night since Mimi had already gone home earlier. I was too tired and drunk for a bike ride home, and I think Lukasz was too.

Berlin, Germany

It has been a pretty quiet week since Lukasz left on Wednesday to go home to Poland for the weekend. So I went to lunch with Andre, Marc, and Gorik on Thursday to the beach. The weather had been great the last couple of days, and they said it may be the last time they get to go out for lunch. They are pretty cool bunch of guys to hang out with. I didn’t realize Andre was a Scientist. He wants some cheap labor too, so in addition to Thomas & Dario, working for him might be an option in January. And he says he’ll let me go on the ski trip…. Anyhow, since I had absolutely nothing to do this weekend, I decided to go to Berlin this weekend instead of next. It was my last Eurail trip. I took half day off from work & headed out on a 2:48 train. I was supposed to get in at like 9, but an accident in Rheine caused a delay in our train. Fortunately, I met a cute German boy – Timor – who kept me company and up to date on the announcements. We took the rest of the trip together, and it was like 1am by the time I arrived at my hostel…. I was so tired.

Surprisingly, I was up around 8 and out and about by like 9. It was a beautiful day in Berlin. Absolutely gorgeous weather. I first walked through Potsdame Platz to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. The Reichstag had a huge long line so I didn’t bother going in. I hung around the gate area a bit, getting a donut, and chilling, enjoying the weather. At about 1045, I joined up a walking tour, led by Matt – an American. It lasted until like 1430, with a 30 min lunch break. He took us all over the place, giving us a little history of each place. Very good tour, and it was free!! But of course, we tipped him in the end. The tour started in the gate and parliament area, and then moved on to Hitler’s bunker & the wall. Then to Checkpoint Charlie, Babelplatz, museum island, and so forth, to Alexander Platz. I walked back from the end point to the hostel, stopping here and there for a break. It was like 5 when I got back, and I had been out and about walking for like 8 hours! I was so beat, especially since I didn’t get to bed until late last night. So I took a nap, got up about 7, ate dinner at an Indian place, and then came back to the hostel. I was going to read a book for a bit, but a stupid American girl turned off the lights. On top of that, another stupid fat girl snored the whole fucking night. It took me forever to get to sleep. You could hear other girls tossing and turning and sighing too. I shook the girl awake a few times but she fell right back asleep and started snoring. Uggghhh.

I didn’t have much of a plan for the last day here. Thought about heading home a bit earlier since I couldn’t be bothered to lug my backpack around and walk a lot today after yesterday. But I did go back to the gate area, and realized, hey, the Berlin marathon is today. You could see bunch of people, kids and adults, running around warming up for the race. The race starts at 9, which I was there in time for, but I decided to head to Reichstag to see if the lines were shorter today. Sure enough, I got up right away to the cupola. Nice view, but I would not have waited more than 20 minutes to come up here. I saw from top tho that the race had started, so I headed down and over toward the gate. Turns out the finishing point is near the gate, and it would be a while before the first runners got there. But, the kids and paraplegics got a head start or a shorter leg or something so they were coming up on the finish line. It was pretty cool to see these kids and paraplegics giving all they have to this race. I cheered on a few, and then grabbed a donut again at the Dunkin Donut around the corner (they have free bathroom). Around 1030, I decided to stake out along the fences since the first adult runners would be by in about 30 minutes. A few party favors to cheer on the runners were being given out. I got a flag from Kenya and Japan. I think the male lead was from Kenya and the female lead was from Japan. They run the 26 miles, or 42 km, in about 2 hours. Incredible. That’s like a 4 minute mile. I couldn’t do a 4 minute mile if a mile was all I had to run. Anywas, I also picked up a balloon clapper, a thumbs up poster, and a whistle. I was running out of hands to hold all this crap. I stuck the flags in my hair to free up some hands. I stuck around until close to 12 to watch and cheer, but I think majority of the runners came in well after that. Anyhow, I took off for the zoo station, still looking like a spectator with flags in my hair and clapper and whistle in tow. One dude wanted a picture with me. I guess I looked pretty silly. Anyways, I managed to catch the 1256 train, got all my connections, and made it home by 8.

Quit Your Day Job

I woke up around 12, and Lukasz had gone out to get breakfast and a toothbrush for me. Marc had come home by then and joined us for brunch. Nice way to spend the morning… er, or the afternoon. Lukasz also let me call home (mom and Jason) from his house. Then I got tired again and took a nap, and then another nap. I don’t know why I was so tired. I guess I didn’t really have a whole lot to do so I couldn’t motivate myself to be productive. I finally got up and went home around 5, only to shower and come right back out to meet Lukasz at the Central Station to go to Amsterdam. We were going to go watch Quit Your Day Job in concert. They are a Swedish band with these really short (max 2 minutes) lyrics like – “Look, a Dollar!”, “Sweden, We Got a Problem,” etc. (See www.quityourdayjob.com). We had dinner first, and showed up to the concert a few minutes before it began. There was like 20 people there… if even… ha ha. I enjoyed it anyways. It’s pretty funny. It lasted 30 minutes only, which was enough. We got a t-shirt on the way out (and wore it to work the next day).

Movie Night... again

I had a very lazy day… Of course I slept in after 2 nights of partying in a row. I kinda enjoying lying in bed listening to LOTR soundtrack. I forced myself out of bed eventually tho and went shopping and running. Then I met up with Lukasz to watch “The Skeleton Key” at Pathe. Afterwards, we went back to his place and watched The Ring, Dog Soldiers, Rat Race, and Code 46. We were up until like 4 am watching movies….

Beach Party

I guess twice a year – at the beginning of summer and at end of summer – the international organizations hosts a party that everyone can intermingle at. There was one tonight on the beach. It was a typical party – drinking and dancing. I took a nap after work for a bit, then joined Mimi and Dario for dinner. Luckily, Dario drove there so we were able to avoid the long walk. The place there was packed!!! And it was five fucking euros for a Smirnoff. Anyways. We danced. Mimi had a soccer game early next day, so we headed back around 2. I could stay longer, but I wasn’t really in the mood for heavy partying today. Lots on my mind I guess… about the job situation and otherwise.

Party at Lukasz's

Since Lars was going to be gone most of the last two weeks that I am here, we made plans to have one last party tonight before I leave. Turns out though, I could stay an extra few weeks if I wanted to. Although that would mean leaving my job back home because they probably would not extend my LOA. Not that I would mind quitting. Anyways, so the usual suspects, as well as Andre, Gorik, and the French Cadets – Cedric and Isabel, were all there. We played asshole most of the night, and migrated to karaoke, and then Jenga. I was so horrible at karaoke!! I knew I was bad, but I was especially bad tonight. Quite embarrassing, but karaoke was my idea…. Last time I make a stupid suggestion.

Bowling

Tonight was the first night of a new bowling season at work. Mimi and I are subs, but we got to play today. We were on the same team – Spare Us. We played with Norbert and Mary. Theo was on another team, and Lars was on the team next to our lane. Thomas and Joe were there also. Lukasz came, but he did not sign up to play so he cheered us on and drank with us. I played pretty shitty on the first game. Barely broke a 100. I did really well on the second tho – 160. And shitty again on the last one – 116 :P But I suppose I at least broke a hundred in each game so it wasn’t too bad. Not much went on afterwards. Joe, Theo, Lukasz, and I walked over to King’s Arms, but no one was there so we chatted outside a bit and called it an early night. We have heavy partying to do on Thursday and Friday, so I suppose it’s best to take it easy.

Antwerp, Belgium

Boy, was I tired. I guess the late nights have finally caught up. I got up about 11, and caught the 1:05 train to Antwerp. I had just missed the bus tour, but just as well since Antwerp is small enough to walk around. It was about 15 minutes walk to the historical center where Cathedral of Our Lady and the Town Hall is. Couple blocks down is also the river, and another couple blocks from the center is the St. Paul’s Church. Today is like open monument day or something, and most places were open to visitors. The weather was kinda crappy, so I walked into the church and found it to be, probably, the most beautiful church I have ever been in. It wasn’t gray and dark inside like most churches were. Instead, it was bright with beautiful paintings and sculptures. After checking out the different areas of the church, I sat in the pew and listened to the organ playing for a little while. It was peaceful. After the church, I stood in the line to tour the Town Hall. The line was considerably shorter by now, but it was still a good 20 minute wait I think. The tour wasn’t in English tho, so I broke from it and walked around a bit myself and took off. Just in time to buy more chocolates, eat Japanese noodles for dinner, and catch the 1830 train home.

Brussels, Belgium

Lukasz was going to a concert in Dusseldorf this weekend so I figured it was a good weekend to travel again. Mimi had soccer, and didn’t have any Eurail days left, so she could not join me. I initially planned to go to Luxembourg and Brussels, but there doesn’t seem to be much going on in Luxembourg and it’s a five hour train ride away, so I decided against doing that trip. Instead, I decided to do a day trip to Brussels. Fortunately, I actually got up in time to catch a 9:05 train, getting me there by noon. Anyways, once in Brussels, I immediately got on a hop-on/hop-off tour bus. I was pretty beat from staying up late last night so I wasn’t in the mood to walk around too much. Besides, I had no idea where anything was, or what there was to even see. The tour was pretty good. It was an open top and the weather cooperated, so I got to take whole bunch of pictures from the bus. Half-way through the tour, a family came on, and the one woman who sat next to me was actually from Williamsburg! I hardly see Americans as it is, but what are the odds of the rare American sitting next to me and being from my area. I didn’t chat with her too long though as the tour ended shortly afterwards. She continued on to the rest of the tour, and I headed over to the center area – the Grand-Place Grote Market. There is a nice gothic cathedral here. There was a band playing today in the plaza, and there was some sort of a parade in the streets. Many many tourists too. I also managed to find the peeing-boy by accident, and it turned out there was some special ceremony going on there at 4 today. Many tourists were there waiting for the pee boy to be revealed. I don’t understand why this little peeing statue is so famous. I guess they change the statue’s dressing/clothes every now and then. When the statue was finally revealed, everyone got all happy. All it did was pee, and squirt people once in a while. How silly. Reminds me of the massive number of observers that the clock in Munich gathered. At the end of the day, I picked up a box of chocolates for people at work, and headed home.

Havannah's

I finally got some time after work to do some laundry and go running. I also took a short 30 minute nap and ate dinner before heading out to meet Lukasz at 10 in the city center. We went to Havannah’s next to Pathe. I was pretty tired tonight tho after being up all night last night watching movies. Didn’t eat much of a dinner so I was getting drunk pretty fast. Couldn’t finish the second shot…. We danced until like 0130, and he gave me a ride home on his bike.

Mimi's Soccer Game

Lukasz picked me up near home today so we can go watch Mimi’s soccer game. It was a long ride to Kijkduin on his bike. The game had already begun by the time we got there, and we cheered Mimi on rest of the game. The PGS league that her team was in was playing against Marc’s team. Marc’s team won 2-0. During half-time and after the game, Lukasz and I kicked a soccer ball around. That was a lot of fun. We then joined the soccer players in the bar afterwards for couple of drinks and then headed back. We did the 3 man bike ride again to the tram stop….

Work Dinner

Work is still going well. I have been working with Ronald to create some libraries to decode/encode KLV metadata from media files. I am getting a lot of Java experience.

After work, we had dinner with some people from work, initiated by Thomas. It was him, his wife, Mimi, Lukasz, Dario, and Thomas’s German friend. We ate at an Italian restaurant, which was okay. Nothing too exciting went on tonight besides the dinner.

Mosel to Cochem

Our Eurail tickets gets us on the K-D line from Koblenz to Cochem for free, so we took advantage of that. The boat departs at 0945 and is 5 hours to Cochem. Along the way, we saw many other towns, churches, ruins along the Mosel. We also went through a few locks. The five hours went by pretty quickly, and we were in Cochem by 1500. We spent some time walking up to see the castle and getting a view of Mosel/Cochem from a top, and then through the streets of Cochem. We popped into a restaurant for a late lunch/dinner, and then realized after ordering that we were going to miss our train. Woops. We had to catch a later train back, which got us in around 0030 in Den Haag Central.

Koblenz, Germany

Lukasz and I were drunk, drunk, drunk by the time we left Crazy Pianos. We had a tequila shot to start, and I had a bottle, or two, or three of Smirnoff Ice. Lukasz mixed drinks, and beer. The other guys from work kept buying us drinks too…. Anyhow, I ended up staying at Lukasz for the night, but because we had a 7 am tram to catch from my home, we had to get up at 0530 to bike over to my place so I can wash up and grab my stuff. We got there in just enough time for me to do all that, and grab Mimi, and we were on our way to Central Station.

The ride to Koblenz was like 4 hours with a change over in Utrecht and Cologne. We stopped once in Cologne so Lukasz can see the cathedral, and so Mimi and I could look for Birkenstocks. I found a pair. Once in Koblenz, we found a place to stay for 85 euros all together. Not bad considering all the events going on in the area at the time. We spent the rest of the day walking around Koblenz taking silly photos. There are a lot of basilicas. Another point of interest was where the Mosel meets the Rhine. Later in the night, we ferried over across the Rhine to check out the Fortress. There was some Goth party going on, but we didn’t go in. The view of Koblenz from the fortress at night was pretty nice tho.

Wedding Crashers and Crazy Pianos

TGIF. After work, there was a plan to meet up for a movie (Wedding Crashers) at 9, but Mimi never showed up so it was just me and Lukasz. Afterwards, I had no intention of staying out, but I decided to tag along with Lukasz to Crazy Pianos. I planned to stay only an hour since we had an early start tomorrow, but we ended up staying there until 2am. There were several other folks from work there, and it was a really good time. The songs were mostly the same ones as before, but nonetheless, dancing with Lukasz was a blast.