Typical...

So, every Monday when my colleagues and I arrive in the office, we are always complaining about how cold it is. That is because the heat gets turned way down over the weekend, and then our Facilities Service team doesn't turn it back up until around 6am, which doesn't give the building enough time to heat up.

Rather than turning the heat on earlier (as I have to think we would do back at home where things are "normal"), here is the solution in our Facilities Newsletter:

Climate control
When you come back in the office after a cosy Christmas, the temperature may feel low around the office. We assure you that it is regulated to within accepted levels. If you are cold, an extra layer of clothing could well be the answer.

Way to go, Dutchies!! Couldn't help but post this... it kind of represents my frustrations in general. Rather than fixing a problem, just deal with it!

Wishing you all a happy (and warm) Holiday! :)

Slight Change in Plans...

I had originally planned to go to Luxembourg this weekend with Leslie and Eric, but, unfortunately, the two of them came down with a horrible flu on Thursday, and we had to cancel our trip. I was bummed not to go, but, not much you can do about the nasty flu that's been going around here!

Friday night was our holiday part at work, and I had SO MUCH FUN!! It only lasted until 12:30, and the time went by WAY too fast! There were so many people out at the venue that was rented in Amsterdam that it was hard to keep track of everyone that I had come with and wanted to see. I know that I talk about all the people that I've become good friends with, but I honestly didn't have a picture of some of them until last night. So, now you can put some faces with names. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! xoxo


KP with Zoe and Nadia - my friends since orientation on the first week there! Two awesome gals from the UK! :)


Good looking bunch of gals... Marilou (my yoga instructor), Sonia (my cute Spanish friend), not sure who this chick is, Mayte (fun colleague from footwear), me, and Gulsun, who you all have seen before - my friend from Rotterdam who I ski with!


Sanne and KP - one of the footwear designers that I love and who turned me on to Bikram yoga


We had a cover band... they played Phil Collins and U2 - sometimes, the music tastes here make me scratch my head...


Stefano, my little brother, and his lovely girlfriend Rixt... love these guys! :)


Erwin & KP... I think I can say that Erwin was my first Dutch friend... love him and his lovely girlfriend, who unfortunately couldnt' make it.


Alex, my tiramisu instructor, Claudia, my dear friend from RoPa Run, and, hmmm... looks like Hugh Hefner... oh, wait, it's my crazy friend Anthony! :)

Gulsun, my buddy for the evening, Paulette from the UK, and Dom, a fun designer friend who had me over for some pre-funking...

I have to say, I am so blessed with friends. Everywhere I have lived - Enon, Toledo, Portland, Amsterdam... everywhere, I have had the most amazing friends that make living so much fun! The friends that I have made here are what is going to make it SO HARD to leave. Thanks to all of you for being you and being a part of my life. All the best to you and your families over the holidays!!

Hospitable Hungary

I'm on a mission. My 30th birthday is this coming July, and my goal is to see 30 countries by the time I turn 30. After this past weekend, I'm at 26. I know, I know, I'm crazy, but these are the things that I enjoy... a little personal challenge never hurt anyone, right? :) In the meantime, I've seen enough cool things for a lifetime!! :)

So, I've pretty much seen all of the countries that are pretty close to the Netherlands, so I'm having to branch out a bit. This past weekend, I visited Budapest, Hungary. I didn't really know what to expect. One of my first boyfriends was from a Hungarian family, so I did know a little about the food, but, other than that, I went with an open mind.

Prior to going, I had been in a training class, and there happened to be a guy in my class that was originally from Budapest. I barely knew this guy, but I could tell he was really nice. I told him I was going to Budapest, and he told me that he would tell his family that I was coming. I thought maybe I'd meet up with someone for lunch or something, but, no, his family went totally out of their way - his dad met me after lunch on Saturday and took me all over the city doing sight-seeing, and then he made reservations at a traditional Hungarian restaurant and both he and his wife met me there for dinner. What a heart-warming experience. I travel by myself a lot, and, while I don't mind it, having people to share meals with was SO much nicer. I was just blown away by this hospitality - and to a girl they didn't even know! Wow!

I got in late on Friday night, and found my way to the apartment that I had rented. I like staying in apartments when I can - it just feels more like you are a part of the city, and you can get locations where there are not hotels. The location was fantastic, the woman who met me gave me a hug goodbye (seriously, these people are SO nice), and the price was amazing - 30 euros a night! That evening, I walked about 5 minutes up to the Christmas market that was alive and kicking up the street... I had a yummy dinner of potato dumplings with onion and paprika, and then called it a night.

The Market

Palace by Night

Saturday, I got up on the early side and had breakfast at this lovely cafe that felt like it was straight out of the 1920's. I then took a bus tour out to an amazing sight - it was a statue park of statues from the communist era. Might not sound so interesting to you, but, in a Europe where communism has been gone since 1989, it's not everyday that you get to see this kind of thing... most of the statues were destroyed, so this was a real treat.

Stalin hailing a cab ;)

This one was amazing - if you see the guy next to it, you can imagine the scale

After the revolt of 1956, the big statue of Stalin was torn down, Saddam Hussein-style. All that was left were his boots, and these are them (is that even proper English?? Seriously, the longer I am away from home the more I start to think things sound funny!!)

When I got back to the city, Mr. Hamori met me and walked with me around the city. First stop was the big Market in town, which was designed by Gustav Eiffel. It was sensory overload once again - food, crafts, people - wow!

KP with the Market

After a few hours, Mr. Hamori dropped me off at Hero's Square, which is supposed to be like the Place de la Concord in Paris - a celebration of Hungarian heros

I did some sightseeing on my own for a few hours, and then met up with the Hamori's for dinner that evening. Mrs. Hamori didn't speak English, but I could tell she was SUCH a sweet lady by the twinkle in her eye. We spoke through her husband, and it was such a nice, relaxing evening.

Me with Mr. and Mrs. Hamori after an amazing Hungarian dinner

Sunday morning, I started the day off early and went to one of the famous Hungarian baths. Turned out it was me and people my grandparents' age at that hour. :) But, still super relaxing. I have adult-onset ADD, and have a hard time sitting in one place at a time, so it was fun to jump from lap pool, to warm pool, to warmer pool, to steam room, and back again. I ended my experience with a massage, and felt oh-so good. :)

The bath house was within this lovely hotel. :)

After relaxing all morning, I wasn't really feeling up for a ton of sight-seeing, so I had a lengthy-lunch (complete with cold wild berry soup - yum!), and then just walked around. I saw a few churches, etc, but nothing too exciting. The view from the top of the hill I walked up, however, was amazing:

The Hungarian parliament building

I had to head back to the airport around 3, and found my way on public transit no problem. I think that's one of my favorite parts about new cities - trying to figure out how to get around without a car. I NEVER do this in the US, but maybe it could be a new challenge. :)

Next stop... Luxembourg this weekend with my friends Leslie and Eric. That makes 27... ;)

Thanksgiving Visitors

Okay, okay... I'm a little behind on getting this updated! :) The Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to get to welcome both my parents (on Saturday) and Sean (on Sunday) to Amsterdam. My parents' flight got in at 6am, so I boogied over to the airport to get them, and then proceeded to tell them that we MUST take a nap when we got home. Despite my dad thinking that he "wouldn't be able to sleep", both of them passed out for a few hours, along with myself! We had a really nice, normal day that day, as I didn't want to plan too much with them getting in so early and having some jet lag. They are such troopers! It's so fun to take my parents around - it's really cool getting to show them things that are normal to me that they are seeing for the first time. :) Best part of Saturday? It was the Ohio State-Michigan game, and I had recently downloaded ESPN America - and the GAME WAS ON!!! We got to watch the game (and some serious Wolverine butt-kicking!).


Dad and I sampling an "Oliebollen", literally "oil ball". Mmm... healthy! ;)


We also checked out a local brewery which is inside of a windmill! Fun! :)

Sean arrived on Sunday morning. His flight unfortunately had been delayed, and so, since we had planned on going to Germany that day, he willingly came with us directly from the airport on a two and a half hour drive to Cologne for the Christmas Market... he was a trooper too. Especially since the Christmas Market didn't start until MONDAY. Oops. :( We still had a fun time walking around, trying German food and beer, and seeing where the Market would be... the next day. Needless to say, I felt like a major idiot, but everyone was totally understanding (or so they say...). :)

Pitsticks (plus Sean) at our lunch spot in Cologne

Monday and Tuesday, Mom, Dad, and Sean toured a few of the towns in Holland while I went to work. It's always so hard for me to be at work when my loved ones are in town, but, 1. I'm running out of vacation time and 2. I've already been to most of these places anyways. Still, I would have much rather been with them than at work...

Tuesday, November 25th was my parents' anniversary, so we went out for Italian food to celebrate. As I think you know, because I've been b#$^$ing about it so much, Dutch customer service isn't exactly a highlight of living here. BUT... when I called to make a reservation, I told the host that it was their anniversary, and they brought us all limoncello and my parents a piece of cake FOR FREE. I couldn't believe it. It was a super nice evening. :)

Wednesday I took the morning off and went with Sean and my parents to the Flower Auction at Aalsmeer - it was fascinating. Most of the flowers that you see all over the world pass through this auction. Bidders bid on various plants/flowers as they go by, and then the flowers are immediately packaged and shipped, maybe to be found on your front door tomorrow (ha - if only we were that lucky, right?!?). ;) Watching the operations was like watching ants on an anthill, and I'm seriously surprised that I didnt' see any accidents with the crazy way things were going. It was definitely a unique experience. :)

The Wall Street of Flowers

The flowers getting packaged and shipped

Our Thanksgiving plans did not include the following: 1. Turkey 2. Pumpkin Pie 3. Football 4. Fat Pants. What they did include, however was this: 1. Belgian Beer from a Monastery 2. Belgian Waffles, straight off the grill 3. A delicious local Belgian dinner and 4. The Mannequin Pis. :)

Thursday morning, we drove first to the town of Westmalle, Belgium, to check out the monastery there that brews one of the 6 Trappist beers from Belgium (Trappist is an order of monks). You can't go into the monastery, but you can walk around the grounds and then drink the beer across the street. We then made our way to Brussels, where we just relaxed for a bit before our amazing Belgian dinner. The restaurant we went to was fantastic, and the whole thing was run by one man - he did all the seating, order taking, food bringing, and plate taking away. Not to mention made sure that our glasses were full at all times. Seriously?!? Belgian is another word for heaven. :) It was a really nice dinner, and I have to say, I didn't really miss the turkey.

The next day, we did some sightseeing between the raindrops. It was fun to see some new sights, but, to be honest, the weather was pretty crappy, so we chose to get home early and have a night of pizza and beer! :)

Sean and I with the Mannequin Pis in Brussels

Mom with her Belgian Waffle... beer, waffles, fries, and chocolate - CHECK! Trip complete! :)

My parents and I with the Royal Palace

Sadly, my parents had to leave on Saturday morning after a quick week. It's always nice to see them, and I love the relationship that we have. Sean and I had two more days together, and we tried to make it as normal as possible - going to movies, out to dinner, to the driving range, and just making dinner together...

I'll be home (HOME home) in Ohio from December 22nd through January 2nd. If you'll be around and want to get together, you know how to find me.

Happy Holidays!! :)

My New Hobby

Alright, I know. I'm kind of all over the place. I get bored easily, and so I try lots and lots of different things. My latest obession? Bikram yoga. If you've ever heard of "hot yoga", this is it. Basically, you spend 90 minutes in a room that is 105 degrees Farenheit with 40% humidity, and then go through a series of 26 yoga poses twice each. Why am I doing this? Well, why AM I doing this? It might sound like torture, but it's actually amazing. With all of the running that I do, my muscles get SUPER tight. This is an amazingly great stretch, and having the heat there to warm the muscles first really helps... It's kind of like heating up a piece of metal before you can bend it - it just makes it a lot easier when things are hot. Being in the room this hot, you sweat. A lot. Supposedly, all of the toxins are leaving my body. Not sure about that, but I have more breakouts on my face than I have had since high school. According to the website, this is normal and will go away. Let's hope so. I'm trying to go three times a week. We'll see how long this new hobby sticks. :)

A city with no cars?!?

Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen... there is a city in this world that contains NO cars! I visited Venice this weekend with my lovely friend Claudia (who I met during RoPa run). I think for the first thirty minutes, I just looked around with my mouth open. Water, water, everywhere!! There are no cars or bikes in the city, because the streets are actually canals. It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen!! When we arrived, it was "acqua alta", which means "high water". The famous San Marco Square was flooded - but, not to worry - this happens pretty frequently, and the city is always prepared. There are risers all over the city that are put down when the flooding occurs, and there is enough room for a single file line going each way to walk along without getting wet. You can either do that, or buy rubber boots. Claudia and I opted for the riser route. It was amazing - the water went about mid-calf on our last day there, and went into the entrance of Saint Mark's Basilica - amazing that this kind of thing occurs!

Anyways... we arrive really early on Friday (and I do mean REALLY early - we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch our flight). When we arrived to Venice via bus, we then had to take an hour long "vaporetta" ride to our hotel. A Vaporetta is like a tram - a means of transportation to move masses of people. We found our hotel, which was in a great location right near San Marco Square. Then, we hit the town - we saw Saint Mark's Basilica, which was great! It was kind of funny to read about it though - most of the things inside are stolen from when Venice was the most powerful city in Europe! We then checked out the Doge's palace, which was kind of a preist-governor guy. Beautiful inside! :) We did a bit of shopping, and then did my favorite thing - you guessed it - EAT! :) The food in Venice is a bit different than the rest of Europe - less pasta and more things like polenta & risotto, less olive oil and more butter. I have to say - the food here wasn't my favorite - a lot more heavy and less savory. But, hey, I didn't turn any down! ;)


KP in San Marco Square - FLOODED! (it gets worse!)


Doge's Palace


These are the roads - no cars, no bikes, no trams - just boats!


Dinner our first night - a regional specialty - pasta with black ink sauce - it turned my mouth BLACK - it wasn't just the pasta that was black like I had had before - it was actually INK on the pasta - kinda gross, but if there is a regional specialty, I want to try it! ;)

We had a pretty relaxing evening, and woke up around 9 to hit the town again. We did a walk over the famous Rialto bridge and saw the Rialto market.

Rialto Bridge

Rialto Market

We visited a beautiful church, and then eventually made our way over to the island of Murano, where the famous Murano glass gets its name. We totally hit the travel wall at this point, and made our way back to our hotel for a nap! However, we got a second wind on the vaporetto, and decided that we wanted to take a gondola ride before dinner. :) There was a gondola stand just outside our hotel, and about 5 guys were very excited to take two young ladies for a ride. :) We paddled around for about an hour. No singing, no guitars, just a nice ride on the canals.

Our romantic gondola ride. ;)

Claudia with our gondolier

We had another nice dinner, complete with lots more wine, and then proceeded to get completely lost. A nice man from Murano not only told us where to go, but walked us there. He wasn't creepy at all, just very nice and friendly. We found that was pretty much the case in Venice - a nice break from the grind of Amsterdam. :)

We woke up Sunday to rain, rain, and more rain. The square was totally flooded - I couldn't believe it!! :)

A couple trying the boot route to getting through San Marco Square in Acqua Alta - holy smokes!

All in all, it was a nice weekend. I have to admit, Venice was not my favorite city in Italy. It was charming, but I'm big on efficiency, and having to get everywhere either by foot or by boat takes FOREVER! Maybe there is a lesson in this for me - that I need to slow myself down. Anyways, I'm glad I got to see it, but I'll consider that box checked. ;)

Pumpkin Mania!

Okay, friends - let me just be honest. I love pumpkin. I love pumpkin in a BIG way. So, right around this time of year, I couldn't be happier. Well, I didn't THINK I could be any happier... until I got invited to participate in a pumpkin cook-off at work. I had been an honorary participant in the last cook-off, which had an eggplant theme. I just got to taste everything, but didn't get to actually make anything or judge. This time, I actually got to cook, which I love to do! :) I had a few ideas for recipes, but decided to do a pumpkin roll in the end. It was really fun to see what everyone did - we had 8 dishes in all, 4 main dishes and 4 desserts. Everything from pumpkin burgers to pumpkin curry to homemade pumpkin ice cream (complete with homemade cones - holy smokes!). It was good fun and good food! There were four judges, who judged the food based on originality, presentation, and taste. I ended up winning 3rd place, which felt like a big success after being up against such amazing dishes!! :) Can't wait for the next cook-off - ingredient TBD. :)


The spread


The judges - they were required to dress up :)


Dao with her pumpkin ice cream cone


Leslie won 1st prize, which was an apron that said "sexy woman" and has a picture of a hot lady dressed only in underwear... sometimes, I shake my head and smile, thinking "this would NEVER happen at work in the US." :)

Beantown

Oh, the things we do for love! :) Sean and I have been trying to see each other about every 6 weeks to try to get through this last part of my time here in Europe. He's come here a few times, and I spent some time in Portland back in August. We are running into a vacation time problem, however, so we decided that rather than having either one of us take a whole week off again, we would just "meet in the middle" for a long weekend. The true middle between Amsterdam and Portland is somewhere in the middle of the ocean, so Boston was about the best we could do. It was a 5 hour flight for Sean and about 8 hours for me to get there. It seemed approriate to visit Boston v. New York City since it is also the city that we had talked about wanting to visit on our very first date two and a half years ago! :) It was both of our first times in the city, and we both absolutely LOVED it! :) It was kind of trippy for me - it's one of America's oldest cities, so it felt almost European, but it was full of Americans! Best of both worlds?!?

We both arrived at about the same time on Thursday afternoon. It was so great to see each other after weeks of "counting down"... we always count down the days, then the hours, until we get to see each other. Our method of counting is different though... I believe that you don't count the day that it is or the day that you are actually leaving, so I'm usually about two days less than Sean's count. :) He thinks I'm a BAD accountant! ;)

Rather than getting a hotel, we rented an apartment in a part of town that looked really cute - Beacon Hill. It was so nice to feel like we really lived there, and we checked out some shops and cute restaurants in our own 'hood.

Our first night, we ventured out on the underground system to the "North End", which is where all the Italians live. We ate at this cute restaurant called Dolce Vita, and the owner ended up being from Agrigento, one of the towns I visited in Sicily. He was SO excited to hear that I had been to his hometown, and kept kissing my hand and calling me "Bella." It was cute, and made me feel not so far away from all the great places I have been lately. The food was pretty good, but I'm becoming a bit of an Italian snob... I could tell that the bruscetta was about one day too old (usually, you use about 1 day old bread... this was older than that!) and the espresso wasn't quite right. I'm going to be in for a rude awakening in a few months! :) We spent that evening at an Irish pub, just enjoying each other's company and bad kareoke. :)

Friday we spent the day on the "Freedom Trail". It's a path that is marked with red bricks and goes all through Boston, passing by famous places like the old town hall where the Declaration of Independence was read and the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried. It was a nice little walk through my gradeschool history book. :)


Acorn street on Beacon Hill, where we stayed



The State House


Paul Revere's House on the Freedom Trail


Creepy headstones at an old graveyard


KP with the USS Constitution


View from the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial - 296 stairs! :)


Boston Commons - we loved the fall colors!

We had another nice dinner, and more nice conversation. The thing that I miss most is exactly this - having time to talk for hours... I miss this with Sean. I miss this with my friends. Everyone has tried to make an effort to keep in touch, and it has been great and has gotten me through, but I cannot wait to chat with a girlfriend for hours at a coffee shop or over a bottle of wine. These are the moments I treasure and miss.

Saturday we started the day with a trip to the JFK Memorial Library. Okay, silly me, I thought that since it was called a LIBRARY, it was a LIBRARY. Well, no, not quite. It's an amazing museum and memorial to JFK. I was once again super inspired and enlightened, and saw the "I have a dream" speech for the second weekend in a row. So glad we went. That part of history has always interested me, and it was great to learn more.

JFK Library
After that, we took the subway to Harvard, which is just outside of Boston in Cambridge. We had a nice time just walking around the beautiful campus.

Hah-vahd, dah-ling

Sean near the Business School at Harvard

Harvard by Night

For dinner that night, we went to the place where everybody knows your name, the bar that inspired Cheers. Well, they didn't know our names, but we still had a great time. :)

Yes, Sean, we HAVE to take a picture!

Sunday, my Aunt Carol & Uncle Brian drove into the city to have breakfast with us. It was really nice to get to see them, as it's been hard for me to get to see my mom's side since I moved to Portland. We had a nice visit, and then they drove us to the airport to pick up a rental car. We had done really well with planning up until Sunday... we weren't staying at a hotel, and our flights weren't leaving until that evening, so we hadn't really thought about what to do with our bags... we solved that problem by just renting a car and driving with them! We visited the beautiful town of Marblehead, and then made our way to Salem, home of the Salem Witch Trials. It's especially busy around this time of year with Halloween coming up! :) We visited the Witch History Museum and then just walked around.

Witch Memorial... 19 people were innocently hung/pressed during the Salem Witch Trials

Beautiful East Coast View

When we got back to our car to go to the airport, we had a mini-panic... there was a HUGE Harley parade blocking our car in. We took a deep breath and waited for it to be over... and waited... and waited. It finished up after about 15 minutes, and then we heaved a sigh of relief and made our way to the airport. Saying goodbye is always so hard. To be honest, the whole thing is really hard... saying hello. Saying goodbye. Trying to pretend things are normal when you only get to see each other once every 6 weeks. But, somehow, we manage.

Harley's, Harley's everywhere!

Looking forward to the next time... which isn't too far away! Sean will be here with my parents at the end of November! Can't wait to see all of the people I love most! :)