Day 26 & 27 - Delft Party & Sinterklaas @ Fugro

Saturday. Errands/cleaning day. my favorite!!! i got up, went for a run. it was cold. as usual. when i got back, i did some major cleaning for a few hours. made a little cabinet space for my food in the kitchen, which was a major task becuase every square inch of cupboard and kitchen space is taken up. went to the grocery store, and stopped by the (outdoor) shopping center to get some leggings and a skirt. very fashionable here. leggings with a mini skirt with the high boots.

A side note. the shopping centers and restaurants here act like its NOT cold and rainy here all the time. all the shopping centers/malls are outdoor malls. most restaurants have outdoor patio areas. its COLD and its RAINY all the time. why is everything outdoors???

saturday night i went with rik, my neighbor, to a big party at TU delft. we rode our bikes over, about a 10 minute ride. i had on two jackets and i scarf, but with the leggings and my heels my feet and legs were FREEZING. i couldnt help but laugh. its probably about zero degrees out. i'm riding around town on a bike with a skirt on. and that's totally normal.

we get to the party, and its a big aparment building on campus. apparently this is a big annual party. theres roving spotlights on the top of the building so we can see it from far away. like hollywood spotlights. the building is 8 stories, and each floor has a different theme and DJ. most floors have some version of techno/dance music, others have hiphop, one had rock music. the DJ's are all awesome. some people are dressed up in crazy costumes, like dragons and lizards, football (american football) players, and other crazy things. i'm thankful i'm wearing my heels becuase otherwise i would have felt like a midget.

we went to all the floors - it was insanely crowded but the energy was awesome. saw jasper there and chatted for a bit. he had sent me a text earlier to wear a costume feathers. no, feathers aren't a good look for me. i can't tell if he was being serious or just messing with me. lost in translation i guess. i wish i knew more people there, but still it was fun. rik and i rode our bikes home around 2ish. the party was still raging though, but was so crowded it was impossible to move. when we left there was a huge line of people outside waiting to get in. suckers!!!

sunday i (reluctantly) got up very early and went over to Fugro to help out with the Sinterklaas festivities. armed with my dictionaries, i had signed up to help at the kids' craft table where they make the sinterklaas and the zwarte piet hats. the car was frosted over this morning. wish i had an ice brush.

the fugro sinterklaas party was, of course, perfectly organized. the whole atrium was decorated in everything sinterklaas and zwarte piet. streamers and ribbon and flags and other decorations everywhere. the atrium had the stage set up with rows of little kid benches in front. a big bouce house was there as well. the hat making table, lemonade stand, and a snack table was on the atrium floor as well. the lemonade was green btw.

below the atrium floor, there were about 15 special games set up. these were like real carnival games, not some crappy homemade imitations. i guess fugro bought them and keeps them in storage and uses them every year. all really cool games that even i thought were really fun to play!!! when the kids all arrived, they were given a little card which had all the games and stations listed. as the child completed each game/station, we checked off the picture on the card.

my hat station was a hit!! all the kids loved to make thier own sinterklaas and zwarte piet hats. they were all so cute. the kids here are all well behaved. none were running around or screaming or crying. i didnt see one temper tantrum. i didnt see one parent raise there voice or have to invoke the dreaded 'time out'. everyone was just coasting along pleasantly. kids just sat down and made thier hats, colored, or cut paper.

i got to meet jan willem's girls, so cute!!! he has 2 little ones. i also met many other co-workers kids, including freek's littlest baby boy who looks EXACTLY like him!! adorable!! seeing all of the kids and the families made me want family too just for a little while. maybe some rental kids that i can take back after a few days.

after all the kids had done the games and hats etc., there was a big sinterklaas play, about 20-30 mins long. at the end of the play, which was quite a production actually- you can tell all the people rehearsed and it was really cute, sinterklaas distributed the presents. each child got a present from Fugro that the parent had previously picked out. so each child's name was on the package. sinterklaas read the child's name and then one of the zwarte pieten would bring the gift to the child. once all the children got the gifts, they all opened them at one time. it was a big roar of paper tearing, shrieking and laughing.

i got back home late afternoon and took a much -needed nap, cooked some dinner, and did some studying for my dutch class tomorrow night.

Day 25 - Fugro does the YMCA

You know, Fugro NL never ceases to impress me. The cafeteria with the Fugro monikered plates, cups, and bowls. The glass atrium. The swarm of Fugro rigs and trucks. the machine shop with that cool automatic sip door that keeps the wind out and the machines that you put your hands into like on The Simpsons when Homer is working at the nuclear power plant handling those green sticks. The perfect harmony and fluidity with which everything is done here. Seamless.

Next example - Fugro Infoavond (Fugro Info Evening). Since there are so many people in the Leidschendam office, the evening is actually three nights, with different OpCo's participating each night. I went on Friday evening, about half of FIBV went on Thursday and half on Friday evening. They converted the atrium and constructed a stage and put up a big sound system and and put up black cloth to cover part of the room to act as a backdrop. they had a big screen that was suspended from one of the walkways to project the presentation on. They also have a microphone and sounds system.

So the presentation started at 5PM so i left he office around 4PM to go to the cell phone store. Phones here (at least the pay-as-you-go kind) everytime you turn them off, they require a password to use the phone. WTF?? i can't remember the damn password. so i went to the phone store and they unlocked it and turned off the feature that requires the password. he thought i was weird for wanting the feature off. he said what if someone steals your phone?? i said well, then they can talk for however long 20 euro will last for, and i'll manage to get over it.

OK so back to the info evening. There were about 15 big round tables set up. Presentations were given by 3 or 4 people, including Aarnold Steenbakker who is the head of onshore geotech. he came to for a field visit to one of my projects over the summer while he was in Ventura so i recognized him. The program was in dutch, but i had my dictionary there with me so i could kind of follow along. At the info evening, i saw some other folks i've worked with, Jan Willen (CPT op), Maarten (drill rig op), a bunch of people in my group, some women that i met at the women's dinner 2 weeks ago. it was nice to see everyone all in one place. i ask jan willem about the jacket. he's super stoked and says all the other guys want one. i said no, only him. he's special. hahah he blushes a little.

the presentation was about how the company was doing overall. there were a bunch of charts and graphs that generally trended upwards, so i'm assuming things are going well. i got a positive feeling overall about the company's 2009 forecast, even though the presentation was in dutch so i'm not 100% positive. they played a video of the Statnamic test that I saw on wednesday and they played it in slow motion so you could really see the test. i'm hoping to get a video of it, if i do i'll post it up. they seemed really excited about the statnamic. i'm still not super impressed with it, but it seems pretty groundbreaking over here. we'll see.

After the 'boring' part of the presentation, they had a nutritionist speak about healthy living and working for the Fugro employees. his first slide showed a family of severely overweight/obese americans. of course. a mom a dad and a son, at least 250lbs each. the mom was wearing a red tshirt that said "Special Olympics, Lancaster County". HAHAHAH priceless!!! where the heck did they find that picture??? the next slide showed a black women working at mcdonalds who had the hugest ass i've ever seen. everyone laughed.

so the nutritionist continued his presentation with several maps of the united states showing the obesity rates over a 20 year period. lots of oohs and aahs from the dutch people. i was cringing with embarrassment for our country. the nutritionist's message: the dutch people will end up like americans if they dont continue to eat well and excercise, and not let the kids watch too much TV and play too many video games. I was so thankful that i'm thin. how awful would that have been for me to sit through that presentation if i was fat?? part way through the presentation the nutritionist was making another joke about the fat americans, then stopped and said "oh yes, don't we have a woman here from california?" all my colleagues at my table just died laughing, including me. you could tell the nutritionist was a bit sheepish for all of the things he was saying. i couldnt argue with the presentation though - its true!!! many americans are overweight, don't eat right, and don't excercise, and the problem is only getting worse with the next generation. i can tell that the dutch people think that americans are fat and lazy. i wish we had a better image.

so after the nutrition presetation (within which he stressed not to eat breakfast, sine most people eat dinner very late) there was an awesome buffet. i thought you were supposed to eat something within 30 minutes of waking up the "break the fast" and get your metabolism going for the day??? i think i'll keep eating breakfast. the buffet has foods from around the world, including mexico, america, china, and indonesia. the mexican food is aweful. just terrible. i had a burrito, if you want to call it that. yes it was a tortilla with meat wrapped inside, but that's as far is it goes to resembling a real burrito. no salsa, no cilantro, etc. the american food consisted of fish, shrimp, cheeseburgers, mini corns, shrimp salad, and some meatballs. the US food seemed to be more like "new orleans" food. they also had some curry chicken and other good stuff. yum!!!

so after dinner there some more short presentations, and then the bidg surprise for the night!!! YMCA started playing, and a bunch of fugro people came running onstage dressed up like the village people!!! they had changed the words to some fugro song. patricia and maartijn, who are both in my group, were dressed as the indian and the construction worker, respectively. gitta, the executive secretary was dressed as the military person or maybe its a flight attendant i'm not sure. mark pehlig, one of the senior executives, was dressed as the cowboy. he was the best one by far. great dance moves. there was another guy dressed like the cop but i didn't know who it was. the awesomeness of it is not describable. it was so funny and unexpected and rediculous all at the same time. check out the video below!! i hope you can see it. its in MP4 format. you may need to convert it to an .mpeg or .avi file to play it on the windows media player but my (nonexistant) tech skills are not good enough to do that for you.

after the YMCA awesomeness, there was a dessert bar open with was sooooooooo yummy. cakes and pies, ice cream, tiramsu, chocolate. ooh soo good. :) the perfect end to an awesome evening. oh also i got a cool fugro umbrella! a big one like a golf umbrella. i got home around 10:30 and went to bed soon thereafter. looooong day :)

Day 24 - Bebap Thanksgiving

Today i had a really productive day at work. finally. i feel like i've been spinning my wheels. i want to do better at work. really shine. i feel like i'm finally starting to be a productive member of the team. :) for lunch i had a BLT sandwich on foccacia bread and some soup. not turkey. not mashed taters. no cranberries. no pecan pie. bummer.

actually, i hardly noticed i was missing thanksgiving. i called my mom at about midnight (my time). she was at my cousin's house. i called my brothers too by straight to voicemail of course! other than the calls i'm not too upset about not being home. i really like thanksgiving, one of my top 3 favorite holidays for sure, but i'd much rather be on this journey then back home. there's always tradeoffs and thats ok with me.

after work i went to the shopping center to get a few things. they are only open late on thursdays so i had to take advantage!! i got a bunch of kid's books to help me learn dutch. sticker books and puzzle books hahah. flashcards with funny pictures. whatever it takes - i really want to get better at dutch.

when i got home i ate some leftovers and jumped in the shower. i had plans to meet elisabet and all her friends at the bar for thier weekly thursday night meetup. i went over the elevator guy's room armed with a package of holiday cookies. he answered the door! he's just as i remember. tall, strong jaw, SO dutch. i asked him if he (Rik) wanted to come with me to Bebar, where elisabet and her friends were meeting. about a 5 minute bike ride from our place. he agreed :) we left about 1o mins later and went over to bebar. i had a great time with Rik and some of elisabet's other friends. i met some other cool guys who invited me to a huge Delft party this saturday. it sounds like a ton of fun. one was tall with dark curly hair and shamefully adorable. jasper. he gave me his info. i'll go with him on saturday to he party. Rik is going also so i think we will all go together. rik and i rode back home together. overall a great thanksgiving :) wish i could write more. soooo tired.

Day 22 & 23 - Learning Dutch

Tuesday i went to my spinning class again. still madly in love with my instructor. it turns out that robin's girlfriend knows him through some friends, and unfortunately he has a girlfriend of about 2 months now. So 1) he doesn't speak english hardly at all, and 2) he has a girlfriend, and also 3) he doesnt seem particularly smart. but, i'm not giving up hope. his leg was injured today so he couldn't spin with us, so to teach he mimicked riding the bike. he looked like such a goofball. **sigh**

you'll be happy to know my knuckles are a bit cut up from yesterday's boxing class. that's right. just call me gina carano! if you don't know her, google her.

on wednesday, for lunch i met with a person with whom i'd working on the craney island project in Virginia last summer. harald lemers. he was the wison downhole CPT operator. we would pick him up every morning, and he would be carrying a loaf of bread and a jug of milk. it all makes sense now. he was always walking everywhere and i think he even bought a bike while we were in virginia. in the middle of summer. its so hot and humid there no one does anythign outside. all the wierd things he used to do, now it all makes sense!!! he's dutch!! i don't recall him drinking coffee all the time though.

so i met harald for lunch down in the cafeteria and it was my lucky day!! pea soup!! my favorite! i got two bowls :) harald and i talked about his upcoming offshore work and the upcoming sinterklass festivities. he lived in delft almost his whole life so he gave me some local knowledge as well. we'll get together for lunch again sometime in the next few weeks.

in the afternoon, i went to Utrecht to a presentation of the Statnamic pile load tester. its the first time its been used in holland (or europe i think). its sort of a cross between a dynamic and static pile load tester (axial loads only), hence the name Statnamic (static and dynamic combined). when i arrived in Utrecht, there was a powerpoint presentation, and luckily i was actually able to follow some of it. Flip had explained to me how the Statnamic worked last week sometime so i already had a basic knowledge of the system. there were about 100 people there. 95% men engineers. some from other nearby countries. this is apparently a major event to unveil the statnamic.


after the presentation, we go across the street where they have the pile test program set up. we wait about 10 minutes, then there is a grandiose countdown, and then a huge bang and a puff of smoke as the statnamic delivers the specified energy to the pile. the entire test is recorded electronically. if i had to give a description of the test equipment, it kind of looks like the thing in the movie Twister that they try to deploy into the tornadoes. inside of the cylinder there is something equivalent to a rocket engine. when the 'rocket' is fired, the thrust reaction delivers the energy (load) to the pile. from the test, we can evaluate if the pile, as constructed, is adequate for the anticipated design building loads.

after the test, we all head back inside. servers are waiting for us with champagne. we have sip on some champagne and have a Q&A session. after the Q&A, there's more bubbly and hors d'oevres. i love the statnamic!

but, i only had about 1/2 glass of champagne, becuase i had to drive to amsterdam for my dutch class!! that's right. 2 nights per week, monday and wednesday, i'm taking dutch language classes. my class is located near the WTC (world trade center) and the old olympic stadium (the olympics were held in amsterdam sometime in the 60's i think). there are 3 other girls in the class, 2 americans and one belgium/swedish girl i'm not sure. we didnt have much time to get to know each other, but next week we will have more time. the instructor is so funny. she's a good teacher. i'm hoping i can learn quickly. the small class size is great and our group gets along really well. i 'll need to study every night, but i'll get to practice with my co-workers so that should increase the rate of learning. the sentence structure is quite different than english. i think this will be the hardest thing for me to learn. the pronunciation is tough as well.

well its after midnight and i'm still not in bed. again. when was the last time i was in bed before midnight??? not since i've been in NL i think. i really need to get into bed by 10 or 11. i need to make that a priority. well, it's not going to happen tomorrow night. or friday. or saturday. maybe sunday???

Day 21 - Kicking Some ASS

Today i didnt get nearly as much done at work as i wanted. i'm trying to learn a new finite element modeling program (plaxis) and its tough. good news is that two of my co-workers had a birthday today, and instead of us getting a cake for them, they bring cake and pie for everyone else! it's reversed here! and i love it!!! i had the most delicious, sweet, tangy, mouth-watering piece of cherry pie. i do love pie.

after work i followed Elisabet to the Ypenburg gym (the one i couldnt find last friday). i went to a kickboxing class. but it wasnt a watered down american tae-bo type kickboxing. it was some real no shit kickboxing with gloves and heavy bags. you're probably wondering why i'm swearing today. all of the TV and radio is unedited here. i'm listening to Ice Road Truckers on tv in teh other room. they've said fuck about 18 times in the past 5 minutes alone. when in rome...

the class was so awesome. after a warmup you basically do combos of punching and kicking the heavy bag. towards the end of the class we got to do some roundhouse kicks!! this will be a good way for me to learn my dutch numbers (1 through 8) and the words for 'right', 'left', 'kick' and 'punch'. after the class i was so pumped i haven't felt this good in awhile. the dark days and constant rain are getting to me. i dont feel depressed, just a little less motivated i would say. i bought a pair of my own gloves for about 10 euro so i wont have to borrow again next week. actually hitting something is infinitely better than that tae bo shit.

overall notes about the gym. in the locker room, people just hang out their clothes and leave their stuff out. only some people put thier bags in the locker. just shoes tucked under benches and coats hung up on the racks. what is with dutch people and gel roll-on or spray deodorant?? it doesnt even work that well! didnt they get that memo??

there's a pool at the gym, its pretty small though, crappy for doing laps. i'll bring my suit next time and jump in the pool after boxing. oh and of course there's a very nice coffee and pasty bar in the gym, with big tables and lounge chairs. i think i might do some dutch language studying here after going to the gym. there are definitely a lot of cute guys here. i have some of my workout clothes with me, but i have a lot of cute stuff still back at home. maybe deb can make room in her suitcase for a few things :)

went to the grocery store on the way home. the grocery situation is that for the most part the food is ready-made. here there's a ton more ready made food than in the US. elisabet explains that since people don't go out to eat that much (i can see why - going out to eat at a restaurant is a 3 to 4 hour ordeal), that they like to cook these ready-made meals at home. you can still buy all the ingredients for making from scratch if you want. my guess is that dutch people arent that concerned about food that tastes really good. they just want to eat something. that would explain the basic lunches at least. ive never heard of any famous dutch chefs.

Day 20 - Bruxelles

I get up, check out, and head over to the Grand Place to meet my tour group. I signed up for a bus city tour :) i know. super touristy. its REALLY cold today. i have a tank top, a tshirt, a jacket, then my winter coat over all that, scarf, and gloves, my squin jeans and my high boots on and i'm still pretty darn cold. brrrrrr.

I ate a muffin i bought yesterday at the market. its pumpkin spice or something and it is REALLY good. i hope they have them again next week. i walk over to the Grand Place from the hostel and only get lost a few times. Even walking, with a map, is so confusing. there is not one square inch of space not used in this city. the roads are just big enough for cars. theres narrow sidewalks. all the buildings a connected and are typically 3 to 5 stories high (residential). commercial and other significant buildings are all high rises. its like every street is Wall Street. the buildings are made of brick, stone, and some newer ones of concrete. lots of windows. the older buildings have beautiful distinguishing architecture. arches, quoins, columns, chiseled statues, beautiful detailing. the new buildings tend to be curved, with lots of glass/windows. brussels seems to be a perfect balance of historical influence with modern technology.

about 1 million people live in brussels. the native languages are French (about 80% speak) and Dutch/Flemish. aside from all the cars, there are three train stations, and an established bus and tram system. seems most people either get around by car or public transpo. hardly any bikes. too hilly for that i guess. there are two rings around the city for cars. the inner ring used to be the original city limits. there used to be a stone wall around the city, and when it was demolished, the roadway was constructed about where it was. the outer ring is about the new city limits. the inner and outer rings have occasional tunnels where through traffic can bypass the local traffic on the surface.

a river used to run openly through the city, but it was covered by order of Leopold the 2nd. the river now runs underneath the city, or it was diverted i'm not sure. either way, there is a major shipping port in brussels (2nd largest in europe), mostly exporting coal and diamonds.

so back to the tour. we started at the Grand Place which is right in the center of Brussels. the city museum, city hall, and other shops and restaurants are there. its magnificent. this square was destroyed by the French about 300 years ago, and was re-built after that. they are putting up a huge christmas tree while i'm there and some sort of nativity scene i'm guessing. If i come back before christmas i hope to see the tree all lit up.

We get on the bus and hit all the major attractions. the churches, the gardens, financial buildings, World's Fair site, botanical gardens museum, auto museum, military museum, the royal palace, etc. see some pics below. the tour was a great way to see the city, and i met another traveller named Chantal from south africa. yay an english speaker! Chantal is really cool and she's a good bus companion :)

Brussels is centrally located in europe, and is actually the capital of europe, which i did not know that europe had a capital. Brussels was the site of the 1958 world's fair, which if i were alive, i wish i could have been there. i bet it was a phenomenal event. For the fair, they constructed many things, including the Atomium, which is an elargement of a coal atom (see pics below).

the tour was finished at about 1PM, so i grabbed some lunch (the best soup and lasagna i've ever had) and head over to the city museum in the Grand Place. i learned quite a bit about the history of brussels. more than anything, the impression i get from the city is that there is so much history here, nothing like the US. i try to imagine what it was like to live here during WW1 and WW2. Brussels suffered extensive damage in WW1, and relatively mild damage in the second world war (they surrendered after only 18 days). i get a sense of seriousness from this city. this city has an honorable past.

in the city museum, a whole wing was dedicated to Mannequin-Pis. the story is that during the war, this kid extinguished a cannon or a fire by peeing on it. the details are bit fuzzy, but i guess they erected this little statue of him (about 2 feet tall) which is near the grand place. once per year, they put a funny costume him. there was a whole collection of his outfits in the city museum, and a funny documentary about him. he's something of a national hero here.

after the city museum, i head over the fashion museum (of course), which is showing an extensive collection of 1940's and 1950's era clothing from all the major design houses of that time. the fashion is exquisite. the detailing and the fabrics. loved it!! after that, i went and grabbed a beer at the Delerium Cafe. Delirium boasts over 2,000 beers and is in the guinness book of records. i ordered a Saint Monon au Miel (like a honey brown) and had my obligatory beer there. it was cool, would have been a lot more fun if i was with a bunch of friends. it had a cool pub-like vibe. chill. i would definitely go back there. with loree!!!

before i headed back to the car, i bought some delicious belgian chocolate, and grabbed a belgian waffle. that waffle was the best thing i've eaten in weeks. i'm really loving the belgian food. i bought a hat too. its so freaking cold out. and its snowing also! actually i dont mind the snow :)

the drive home was awful!! i got lost leaving the city (of course), and the snow was much worse than i thought. it was a whiteout. a blizzard!! i almost got off the highway and took the train home. about 2 inches of snow accumulated in about 30 mins. it took my about 4h15 to get home (compared to 1h45 to get there). european cars suck in the snow. all those little cars that weight about 500 lbs, no 4-wheel drive don't handle the snow well. i plugged long at about 30km/hr. so four hours driving and i didnt see one goddam snowplow!!!

Finally made it home and good news! the elevator man responded. he posted a note on top of my note that said "The community welcomes you! - 26C". haha!! tomorrow when i get home from work i'll go knock on his door. maybe bring him some taai-taai cookies :)

Day 19 - Sinterklaas Parade in Delft

saturday morning i got up and went to pick robin up from his hotel to take him to the train station in rotterdam (rotterdam is the largest shipping port in europe, and is about 20-25 mins from Delft) . i had printed out directions and a breakfast place in rotterdam, but i forgot them with my planner on my desk at Fugro. so i went to the office and the damn place is like fort knox on the weekend. usually you have to swipe your badge to get into the building but on the weekends i guess they really don't want you working. badge not working. i kind of remember where the hotel is and miraculously i find it. robin hops in the peugot and we head over to rotterdam.

we find a nice little place to get coffee. robin orders tea and i order hot chocolate. hahah!! we head over to the train station and i kind of lost track of time, but robin was pretty stressed but hiding it well of course. he only had about 15 mins to get his ticket for the high speed train to paris and his family was already waiting for him. as far as i know he made the train, i waited there just in case and he didnt come back out so i think that's a good sign :) the weather in rotterdam was beautiful. crisp and sunny. :)

i head back to my apartment, pack up for brussels, then hop on my bike to go to the market and see the sinterklaas parade. i get the usual things at the market - fruits, veggies, and bread. the market area is bustling today. its really cold though. probably the coldest day since i've been here.

in the main square, there is the new church opposite the city hall, with shops and restaurants in between. the new church was built becuase the old church (about 3 blocks away) has a very noticable lean. its still in use though. you can climb to the top of the new church and see all of Delft. 376 steps i think, according to shonna. i'll get up there soon :)

the parade goes throught the streets in Delft and then ends in the main square. in the main square, there is a little stage set up for the Sinterklass festivities and theres festive music playing. kids sinterklaas songs. all the kids are running around acting crazy, dressed like Zwarte Piet with their faces painted black. the moms and dads are singing along to the kids songs, making faces at the babies. the weird things you do when you have kids, its rediculous.

so Sinterklaas looks similar to St. Nicholas or Father Time. he's tall and thin and wears a long red robe. his beard is long and white, and he wears a tall red hat with a cross on it. he has a helper called Zwarte Piet (black pete), who is mischevious and hands out little cookies. if kids have been good, then they get presents, and if not, they get whipped by zwarte piet.

the zwarte piet thing is astounding to me. they are white people who paint their faces black and wear bright red lipstick and dress in a bright colored jester-like costume. i saw a few real black people in the sqaure and i wonder what they felt? i guess it would be similar to what real dwarfs feel at christmas when they see santa's elves in the mall. i guess?? without all the history of slavery and opression??? maybe i'm overreacting. am i being too PC? i guess so. its just a kid's story yes, but it perpetuates an antiquated class system. i guess a few years ago they made all of the Zwarte Piets blue and apparently there were practially riots hahah.

The parade was really fun, even for an adult. it was so fun to see all the little kids running around, and the families all bundled up. right when the parade came into the square, it started to snow! the bike ride back home kinda sucked. when i got back home, i packed a lunch, and got on the road to Brussels.

i arrived about 1h45 later into Brussels. the drive was easy. once i got into belgium, it began to rain and sleet a little bit. there was no big entrance into belgium. just a measly sign. no big monument, or fence, or customs. blink and you would miss it. kind of like crossing a state line i guess. Belgium and the Netherlands are both in the eurpean union (EU) so i'm assuming that the border between countries is not made into a big deal on purpose.

Driving in brussels is insanity. INSANITY. there is no grid-like pattern like manhatten for example. the streets go every which way, and they change names sometimes every block. all the signs are in dutch AND french (yay!) so that helps a bit. it took me another hour, once i got into the city, to find the hostel. and it was a miracle i even found it!!! i needed a navigator. alexis where are you?!?!? none of the streets have signs. there are signs on the buildings (maybe), but none in the intersection so its hard to tell what street you're on. the names switch all the time. there was so much traffic, so many cars. hardly any bikes. brussels is quite hilly as well, so my manual driving skills were put to the test. the main sreets are paved, but all the other streets are brick or cobble and VERY narrow. lots of one-ways. no parking - anywhere. trams and busses criss-crossing everywhere. several tunnels bypass under the local traffic every few blocks for an added twist on the already insane traffic. add in a few roundabouts too. google a map of brussels and just look at it. unreal. once i get into brussels, here are my mapquest directions. total distance - 1.5 miles.

1) stay stright to continue through Tunnel Belliar-Cortenbergh

2) Slight right onto Avenue Corenbergh

3) Enter roundabout and take 2nd exit to Rue de la Loi

4) Rue de la Loi becomes Rue des Colonies

5) Rue des Colonies becomes Marche au Bois

6) Stay straight onto Cantersteen

7) Cantersteen becomes Place de L'albertine

8) Stay straight onto Boulevard de L'empereur

9) Left onto Rue de Accolay/Rue du Sanit-Esprit

10) Arrive at Heilige Geestraat.

i check into the hostel. i reserved a spot in a 4-person room, but as luck would have it, it got the room all to myself! sweet! i drop off my stuff, and head out to get some dinner. i found a little cafe aroudnd the block from the hostel. i order in my very best french :) what i get is something similar to pita bread with some really good cheese cooked like a quesadilla. so yummy. i'm already liking the belgian food better than the dutch food.

i head back to the hostel and the bar there openened at 8PM so i'm just in time. the bar is pretty cool. stella on tap. big flatscreen with a football game on. i meet these two asian guys, Gi and Eric. They came from London, travelling separately but are sharing the same hostel room. Gi works for hyundai and eric is in some sort of airplane traineeship. the guys are hysterical. super asian. they show me about a zillion photos of thier travels. we hung out in the hostel bar for awhile then went to a nearby bar a few blocks away called Zabar. it had kind of a modern swanky feel. kind of a mellow night, nothing crazy. had to be back in the hostel by 1Am for curfew :) big toursity day tomorrow!!!

Day 18 - I need a GPS

well, my directionally challenged gene is realy hindering me here. i tried to go to the other gym today (my gym has two locations). I've been going to the one in Voorburg (closer to work), but there's one in Ypenburg (closer to home) that is bigger and has a pool. so i went to go check that one out and about an hour later finally gave up and found my way home. i will be getting a GPS.

This afternoon a fellow fugro venturian robin villa stopped by my office to arrange his ride to the train station. he's in town for the big-wig meetings. we chatted for awhile with Adriaan about many work-related things. robin is quite impressed by the bag of lightweight aggregate in my office.

ive decided to enroll in some dutch classes. hopefully i'll start next week. i want to try to learn the native langue. even a basic knowledge would be really beneficial. everyone is so kind here to speak english when i'm around, so i want to show that i'm trying.

as i was walking into my building i remembered about the elevator note!!! bummer -- no response. maybe he didnt see it? its hard to say. i'll leave it up for a few more days, and if still nothing, i'll take it down in defeat.

spent most of the night on the web researching my last minute decision trip to brussels. i know why travel agents exist. there is so much crap to sift through before you get any good info. decided last minute i would go this weekend. booked a hostel for tomorrow night. will leave in the afternoon, right after the Sinterklaas parade :)

Day 17 - Fugro Women's Dinner

on my way to work this morning, i rode the elevator with some guy who's living in my apartment. studying aerospace engineering at TU Delft. i was running late and doing the normal jamie hutchins 'making lists of things to do' in her head as per usual, and i wasnt really making an effort in the conversation. when i got in the car i realized that was dumb, i should have made more of an effort to make friends. so, i wrote a note and stuck it on the bulletin board by the elevator. hopefully he will see it! elisabet, claartje, and noelle (i tell them about it later) think this is hysterical and that a dutch person definitely would not have posted the note. they want me to keep them updated what he does :) i hope he contacts me - i need to make some more non-work friends :)

Today i mostly worked on some pile design. in the morning a fellow venturian here for the big-wig meetings dropped off the Fugro jacket for Jan Willem - i hope he likes it!! he also dropped off some other bartering tools that will likely come in handy in the future :)

During lunch i went on a walk with Claartje and Barbara. they are both great and wonderfully genuine and i had a really nice time chatting with them on our walk. the weather is perfect today. partly sunny and crisp. feels like fall. a canal runs through the park and jumbo size ducks are playing in the water. look like loons or canada geese. they're probably twice the size of ducks in the US!

right after work i went to the little strip mall near the office and FINALLY found the very elusive Perfect Pair of Black Boots. good price too! i only had about 20 mins and could only go to one store, so i think it was meant to be. now i really look european!! i had to be at a nearby restaurant at 6PM for a Fugro women's dinner. we ate at Verdusie, which is a wonderful little restaurant about 5 minutes from the office. about 25 women from all different fugro opco's were there, from FIBV, FEBV, FWI (me!), Fugro UK, Fugro N.V., Fugro Survey BV, Fugro Jason, Fugro Intersite and Fugro Inpark. most of these opco's work in the same Leidschendam complex but on different floors or different buildings. so mayn of these women, although technically working for the same company, have never met.

it was a great night, getting to know everyone and just being around other professional women. many of the women had really great stories about being offshore or a cool project, and i met many people that had been to the ventura office or had worked with people that are in the Ventura office. it always amazes me how small the world really is. the program was in english so i felt like it was really easy to talk to everyone tonight. most people were dutch but some french, belgian, german, and brits. and one other american from nebraska (married a dutch guy and has lived here for 3 years).

after a wonderful buffet, coffee, and chit chat, i left at about 9:30 from Verdusie. i headed home, changed out of my work clothes, and rode my bike over to the "V" bar and met elisabet and some of her friends. these friends all know her from university, and they try to get together every thursday night. i meet her boyfriend and they are so cute together!! he's a really nice guy and he's easy to get along with :) he other friends are really cool and i'm looking forward to seeing them next week. we left the pub around midnight. one of her friends lives in my building so we rode our bikes home together. i told him to keep me posted on any fun things that come up. i ask him if he knows kanye west. he looks at me blankly. :( finding a concert buddy is not looking very promising.

Day 16 - TU Delft Visit

During lunch i went over to TU Delft (Delft Technical University) to meet with the MSCE faculty. TU is a very reputable engineering school in the netherlands. This week is master's week so i went to talk to some professors about the curriculum etc. One was named Sjaak (pronounced Shaq) and he was like an old school geologist. jeans and a plaid shirt. long white beard on glasses. classic!! the other was more eurohip - fun glasses, dress shirt and shiny shoes. they disagreed on EVERYTHING. so i asked a question about doing a thesis at fugro just on a project i was working on. one said yes the other said no. i asked if i could complete the thesis in the US. one said yes one said no. UGH!!! i finally just made an appointment with the international student advisor next monday and hopefully i can get some more info. The program is still quite small for a geotechnical engineering masters, only about 20 students. i'm excited about going back to school, but i'm crazy about it. maybe i'm just not crazy about TU Delft. its a 2 year program. 1 year would be a lot better for me. i will have to make a decision soon. its a committment i need to be 100% behind. going back to school is going to be a schock after working for 5 years, but its very important to me to continue learning, improving my technical skills, and becoming a better engineer. i want to continue working while going to school, which is not possible in SoCal. actually i just want to do everything all at the same time. sometimes i wish i didnt have to sleep.

the Fugro West president stopped by to see me today! he's in leidschendam for the annual big-wig meeting. i didnt know he was going to be here so it was a surprise when he popped into my office! we talked about what i was working on here, and also we talked about how his meetings were going. he indicated that there were many exciting projects coming up this year and that the forecast looks strong.

random thoughts - the pavement is so interesting here. the residential and downtown streets are brick paved. i saw some paving in downtown delft and basically they just put down some grey leveling sand and place the bricks by hand, then fill in the cracks with sand. no mortar. apparently that's all they need for light car traffic and pedestrian traffic. the main streets and highways appear to be paved with some sort of rubberized asphalt, and the highways i think use permeable pavement since it rains so much here (practically every day). they are very concerned about noise pollution here, and the rubberized pavement greatly reduces the highway noise. in certain residential areas, the speed limit is reduced to also minimize the highway noise. the roads overall are well maintained.

other random thoughts - the weather. so far, not too cold! have to wear a winter jacket, scarf and gloves, but not cold at all with that on. it does rain here alot, everyday almost. its intermittent. and the big difference is that the raindrops are very small. almost like a mist but heavier. so even if you're standing out in the rain for awhile, you dont really get too wet. in the US, the raindrops are big fat ones sometimes and the rain can really soak you. so, even though it does rain all the time, its really not that bad. and usually doesnt last that long. but when the sun shines - its so gorgeous and green here; it more than makes up for all the rain. :)

Day 15 - the VTP meets Den Haag

So today my legs feel like stiff as boards. this tin man needs some oil (a.k.a. aleve) and lots of it. i'm still hobbling around. the 2nd day soreness is definitely the worst!! i seriously considered taking the elevator up one floor.

during lunch i was trying to tell some of my co-workers about kanye west. how the heck do you describe kanye west?? broken jaw 'through the wire' era? or flashing lights tour era with those crazy sunglasses? there's a kanye west concert next week in rotterdam (about 15 mins from my house here). its a stop on his new 'glow in the dark' tour, which is supposed to be unbeleivable. so we decide to check out some YouTube videos so they can see who he is. we have to watch on the public computer since that's the only one without the web filter on it. the public computer is right in the lobby area that connects all the offices, right near the printer. can you imaging how funny it is to watch the 'Gold Digger' video in the middle of a stuffy engineering office with a bunch of dutch people who think its socially acceptable to have white people painted in black makeup dressed in colorful outfits who accompany the equivalent to Santa Claus to hand out presents to kids? see the picture of Black Pete (Zwarte Piet) below. Now picture the 'Gold Digger' video. you can laugh now.

So, obviously, no takers on getting someone to accompany me to the concert. i'll do my best to find a concert buddy this weekend.

Towards the end of the day, Jan Willem brought me a big bag of Taai-Taai cookies. my favorite! they are a holiday special around here and man are they good. i gave some to everyone who stopped by my office. Everybody loves Taai-Taai! They are like chewy gingerbread cookies sort of. Kind of a cross between a shortbread and a gingerbread cookie in the shape of a little puff pastry. YUM!!

After work about 10-12 Fugro people met at Kristina's house in the Haag for POKER!! Kristina's apartment is so perfect, its two large bedrooms and a really big living and dining area. there are windows along the entire side of the apartment, making the space feel even larger and more open. the apartment building is right around the corner from the Haag Central train station, and has an amazing view of the government building right across from the courtyard. Den Haag is right on the coast and is more of a metropolis-like city - more high rises, bustling traffic, a bit more 'hip' etc. compared to Delft which has more of a folky feel.

We ordered Indonesian food which was perfect and just spicy enough to make your nose run but still be good. we had a few heinekens, which were in glass bottles but slightly smaller than in the US. everything is smaller here it seems.

so there was me, kristina, elisabet, robin, wouter, maarten, patricia, annemiek, martijn, anouk, and suzanne (and kristina's boyfriend but i cant remember his name!!). only me and robin really knew how to play, so when we finally started (tournament style, 5 euro buy-in) even dealing the cards was a major discussion. we played 2 or 3 practice rounds which were hysterical, then we got down to business :) it was insane and funny and so not serious - so different from the seasoned veterans that frequent the VPT (ventura poker tour for all you non-ventuckians). people were betting and calling rediculous things but no one really cared. most of the time i couldnt understand the dutch, but i could kind of figure things out by people's funny facial expressions and hand motions - especially kristina's!!

i got fourth and we finally finished up around midnight. maarten came away the big winner, as he had been catching some great cards all night (i sat next to him so i could see many of his hands) and he was big stack most of the night too. annemiek came in second and suzanne third. this write up doesnt even compare to Pbot's, but i can tell you that robin went all in with this short stack on pocket aces and maarten hit a set of jacks, knocking him out. it was just maarten's night! i only played about 4 hands all night, wasn't catching much. doubled up early on with a straight on the river, but after that just couldnt get the momentum going. oh well! everyone seemed to have fun and they said they wanted to do it again soon :) i think we'll have another poker night in December :)

Day 14 - Why Does Everything Close at 6PM???

So today when i got up i felt pretty fine, but by mid-morning the lactic acid was in full effect and i was hobbling around like an 80-year old. the soreness level is pretty high. there is a video link where you can see me at the 5K, 10K, and finish line from the race yesterday. click on the link below. see the photo from yesterday's blog entry for whta i'm wearing. for each video i pass at about the midpoint of each video. you can see at the 5K i'm looking pretty good. but at the finish i look soooooo tired hahaha. its pretty easy to see me at the 5K and the 9.2K marks. the 10K not so much. the finsh you can see me ok as well. there is a red number countdown to about when i enter the screen. you must watch the video is priceless!!

http://www.runnersweb.nl/runnerstv?e=ZH0815K&l=NL&n=Jamie%20Hutchins&r=3777&nt_f=01:38:27&ct_f=15:09:40&nt_s1=00:30:55&ct_s1=14:02:08&nt_s2=00:59:11&ct_s2=14:30:24&nt_s3=01:04:14&ct_s3=14:35:27&random=5247&k=5kclose&cct=0000000001100000000000000000000000000000

lunch today. monday is egg sandwich day here. had some soup and yogurt. i was so hungry today!!! probably from the race yesterday. work was good, finished up a report. staff meetings on mondays. in dutch so i'm totally lost. everyone gathers in adriaan's office and just stands. we go around the room and tell what each person is working on. its funny how the guys all stand on one side of the office and girls all stand on the other. its weird to say but i kind of feel short standing in the room with everyone else. i may not be the shortest person in the room but i'm pretty close.

so after work, i head to the grocery store to pick up a few things. i wanted to stop by the bank and the toy store to pick up some playing cards for poker tomorrow as well. well, everything is closed. things close at 5 or 6PM here except one day per week, and that day depends on the town. delft shops are open late on Fridays for example. its kind of annoying that everything is closed when i get out of work. actually its really annoying. definitely a drawback of holland. but, plus side to NL are the un-edited versions of songs. have you ever heard 50 cent's P.I.M.P. unedited on the radio? well i did on my way home from work today. and it was AWESOME.

i did manage to find an open grocery store, and i saw a bottle of spaghetti sauce titled "jamie's artichoke pasta sauce is delicious and chunky". damn straight it is!! i had to buy a bottle and i took a pic, see below. i think i may have found a title for my memoir....or at least the cover pic from my christmas card.

Day 13 - Zevenheuvelenloop

So today i ran in the Zevenheuvelenloop 15 kilometer race (about 10 miles). i was nervous all morning. i haven't really run for more than an hour at a time in the past year, but i've been doing all my cycyling training so i'm relying on that. i didn't train for this race AT ALL since i just registered last week. so yeah, i'm nervous.

I bought the registration of a girl named Eva, so my registration bib said my number (#3777) and Eva's name. (That's right Shonna - Eeeeeeeeeevaaaaaaaaaa). The race was capped at 30,000 people so that's why i had to buy someone else's registration.

I drove to Nijmegen from Delft and it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. i found a parking spot immediately i couldnt beleive it!! i went and picked up my tshirt (a really nice breathable running shirt) and met the rest of the Fugro squad inside of the movie theatre which was being used as a dressing/staging area and place to leave your things during the race. the banks next door to the movie theatre (about 5 banks) were also being used to accommodate all of the runners.

There was an extra Fugro jersey singlet so i put that on over my shirt. its a bit big but its ok i feel more part of the team now. i took a picture of me and elisabet before the race (below), then head out to the starting line. its like a sea of spandex. everyone has long skinny legs and just skinny overall. similar body type to me. everyone. there's young people, older people, men, women, 30,000 netherlanders all with long skinny legs and arms, not alot of curves and hips, not a lot of boobs and butts. no makeup. natural hair. nothing to hide. not trying to be something they're not. such a ReFrEsHiNg change from southern california.

the energy is so upbeat. as we walk to the starting line, there is music playing from big speakers. jason mraz "i'm yours" comes on and I sing along. i look around and have a moment of happiness and clarity. i'm so happy to be in this place at this moment. a wave of intense joy, excitement mixed with peacefullness washes over me. the dutch people are so good-natured and courteous and have a genuine care for others. they are even-tempered and positive. i feel lucky to have met such wonderful people and experience a bit of thier culture.

So the race starts. by the time i cross the start line its already been about 30 minutes. There is a little chip in my shoe that recorded my times at the 5K, 10K, and 15K marks. the first 5K i felt pretty good. i was having some trouble keeping my breathing under control and had a pretty good cramp in my side. The second 5K i was able to get my breathing under control but i was just getting tired. The third 5K breathing was fine but my legs were just so tired. Overall, the first 5K was pretty good, the second 5K kind of sucked, and the third 5K REALLY sucked. i really struggled the last 5K. But, i finished!!! see my splits below, emailed to me at the end of the race via the shoe chip company.

25e Fortis Zevenheuvelenloop 16 November 2008, 15 kilometer

CChipMail bericht van finishpassage voor:

Jamie Hutchins, startnummer 3777

Hallo,
Hieronder staan de starttijd en de netto tussentijden en finishtijd.

Gestart om 13:31:13 uur

5 km gepasseerd om 14:02:08 uur = 30:55 minuten netto

10 km gepasseerd om 14:35:27 uur = 1:04:14 minuten netto

Finish gepasseerd om 15:09:40 uur = 1:38:27 minuten netto

the race was really well organized and very easy for the participants (i mean besides the running part!!). the course was well marked, and the streets are closed to cars so there is plenty of room to run. part of the course is on city streets and part of it goes through some wooded area and that part is really nice. there are random pands, pianos, marching bands etc. playing intermittently along the route. there are a TON of spectators and cheerers along the route. my bib said Eva so people were shouting encourgement to Eva in dutch, probably like "come on Eva! you're almost finished Eva!" or something like that :) it made the race go by quicker.

After we finished a few of us went to a local pub and got a well-deserved beer. i got a hamburger too. i was really hungry. elisabet and i drove home. i'm very tired. i had some green beans for dinner. i think i'll watch some TV and head to bed now :)

Day 12 - Jamie Gets a Bike!

So this morning i woke up with a list a mile long of things to do. i do some more re-organizing in my apartment, then clean my room, kitchen, bathroom and living room. things are starting to look ok around here. the vaccuum isnt working and i'm kind of stressed about that. i dont know if its not working or if its user error :) the whole organizing/cleaning process takes a few hours :)

i take a shower and head down to the market. got some more fruits and veggies and bread of course. lots of sandwhiches. there's tons of people downtown and the energy is palpable. when i get home i got a call from Nel Van der Sande, she says Fred has found a bike for me!! i call Fred and he comes to pick me up on his bike. we go about 5 minutes by bike. he's worked out a deal that i can sell the bike back to the shop when i leave in february. the bike is perfect :) it has a back wheel lock already and Fred gives me a chain lock and a little portable pump. the front brake squeaks but fred and the bike store worker dont seem concerned so i dont push the issue.

now i'm a legitimate dutch person!!! i have a rediculously heavy cruiser style granny bike just like everyone else :) i ride around for about an hour downtown until it gets dark and just enjoy the wind in my hair and pass walkers and smirk at thier slowness. small problem i cant figure out how to turn on my light but i'll figure that one tomorrow i guess :)

i get home, switch over the laundry, and head back out on foot to get some dinner becuase i can't figure out the bike light situation. i'm REALLY bummed about walking. just grab something quick and head back home. big race tomorrow i need to be well-rested for!!! watch and episode of law and order and head to bed :) :)

Day 11 - Drilling

I meet Maarten van Veem at 7Am downstairs in the cafeteria. the field guys are having coffee (of course), so we all sit and chat for awhile. Maarten is a bit taller than me but built very top heavy, like popeye. his hands are enormous and they completely engulf my hand when he shakes it. he's nearly bald, and has a very jolly nature about him. always smiling, positive, making little jokes. we jump in his truck and head out to the jobsite. we have one drill hole today to about 21 meters. it will be a long day though because its a limited access rig. we're drilling in the middle of a socer field so we have to be very careful not to disturb the field. the project is for a HDD electric line that will traverse underneath the field and is about 15km total length.

we meet Arno who is the operator. he's 27, with shocking blue eyes and a bit of a jokester. he and maarten have worked together many times so they are doing little pranks to each other all day. in Fugro NL, there are specific people who do the logging. the engineers dont do any field work at all. Maarten is surprised to know that i've done plenty of logging before. we unload all of the bentonite and plastic tracking from the truck and make our way out to the field. it takes awhile since we have to track out one sheet at a time. i'm really tired from lifting all the bags of sand and bentonite and the tracking. we get the rig positioned and of course, go in for a coffee break.

drilling starts at about 9:30AM and we finish up at about 3PM. drilling is slow and REALLY messy. the upper 15m is all vey soft clays and peats, and the GW table is only 1m below the ground. the cuttings are put into wheelborrows and i have to run them over to a stockpile off of the field area. the sampling is all push tubes (short ones, about 40cm long) and also they obtain bag samples from the cuttings every meter. the sampling procedure is very similar to offshore sampling. the push samples are waxed at the end of the day. classification is done by Maarten using a PDA, like a Plogger i guess or similar. i am COVERED from head to toe in mud. my coverall was orange and now its grey. i dont think i've ever been dirtier in the field. awesome!!!

after drilling we track back out and load up the truck, and go inside again for more coffee and fill out the paperwork. arno wants to email me. i give him my email address. he says he will send me some photos of the rig since i forgot my camera today. sure.

i got back in the office around 6PM after making a detour to check a water level on a well that was installed a few days ago and unloading the truck. elisabet and robin are still in the office and they laugh at my mud-covered jacket. we laugh with Adriaan about the days events and then i head home around 7PM. i go downtown to get some food and walk around and get back home around 9PM. i'm exhausted!!! bed time :)

Day 10 - Robotic CPT Rig

I get into work at about 6:45 and check my email. there is an email from a Fugro Hong Kong person who found my blog on the web! he worked in Leidschendam from a few months back in the 90's and said he remembers the endless cups of coffee and sandwiches for lunch. hahah the internet is a great thing huh?

So at 7AM I meet Jan Willem, robotic CPT operator. I say "hello are you Jan Willen?" he says "Right. Let's go" and marches towards to yard. wow. today is going to be a long day i think. (on another note, Jan looks EXACTLY like Adam and Loree Berry's friend Tom.)

So we get into the nicest, sweetest, top-of-the line CPT flatbed truck transporter (the rig is already on the jobsite). The CPT rigs in california look like we got them at Goodwill compared to this bad boy. I try to make conversation but find it hard to concentrate because Jan is driving this huge transport truck in rush-hour traffic like its a mini cooper. He's one of those drivers that if you cut in front he flashes the high beams and rides your bumper into submision then flips you off on the way by. awesome. but after awhile, i realize that we are by far the biggest vehicle on the road. if any collision were to occur, i doubt Jan's coffee would even spill.

So we get to the jobsite, and the coolest little track rig is sitting in the middle of a mudfield. perfectly painted and shiny and new despite its surroundings. We get into the rig, Jan immediately plugs in the coffee pot and says simply "No coffee, no work." Right, of course. So i try to make some more conversation, pull out all my best witty banter. not getting very far. he makes a comment about my fugro jacket. i'm wearing my black winter fugro jacket that i brought from CA. i can tell he likes it. i offer to let him try it on and he smiles. **i'm in**. its a bit small but i say that i can get a bigger one shipped here and i'll give it to him.

from then on, we chatted and joked and laughed all day. we talked about the running race this weekend (Jan is running as well), the upcoming SinterKlaas festivities, his two daughters, fun things to do in Holland, etc. Jan says all the other CPT operators were jealous of him beacuse i was with him today. its becoming more clear that there really are NO women out in the field. Ever. no women field engineers or anything.

This CPT rig is like the fine italian sportscars of CPT rigs. Compact, track mounted, with a built-in touch screen computer with optional keyboard, onboard wireless, surround sound speakers, a counter area with tools and a vice, a desk and chair, overhead storage, side and back doors, about 8 big windows, and of course, the robotic wireless CPT. there is no wire that goes inside the CPT. the CPT data is transmitted wirelessly from the cone to the onboard computer. the rods are kept upright in a rack and a robotic arm picks up the rod, screws it in, and hydraulically pushes the probe all in a continuous motion. Then, it automatically retracts the probe, unsrews, and puts the rod back in the rack. Its like poetry in motion. This is still a test model so there are some kinks to be worked out. This rig has only been used for about 2 months. its not as fast as an operator + assistant on a regular rig, but i think once the kinks are worked out and the process is fine tuned, then all the rigs will be like this in the future.

Jan let me help pushing the buttons, but wouldn't let me drive the rig around the site inbetween locations. its done with this cool remote control. oh well maybe next time :) when we got back to the yard Jan gave me a fugro polo and hat, i'll be sure to send him his jacket. :) overall, i thought Jan was pretty cool and i enjoyed my day with him. Tomorrow i will be out with a drill rig in Delft and i'm looking forward to doing some sampling and getting a little dirty.

Day 9 - Meet the Van der Sande's

During lunch today, i went to open a Dutch bank account. they gave me this crazy card reader thing that i need to use to access online banking. you insert your card in this thing that looks like a calculator. then you enter your account number. then you enter in your passcode. then the calculator gives you a code that you enter into the computer. the level of security is like fort knox compared to US online banking. i feel kinda cool using the card reader calculator.

Robin is saying its too hot in our office. I'm saying its too cold. he says its like when you get off the airplane in a carribean country and the air hits you like an oven. he equates this to walking from the hallway into our office. i tell him he's full of shit and to quit bitching. he laughs. perfect office mate.

so this sunday there is a big 15 kilometer (~10 miles) race about 2 hours from my place in Delft. its a huge race called the 7 Hills Race, and about 25,000 people enter. Fugro entered 2 teams of 10 people, and i was able to buy a registration from a girl living in amsterdam that is injured and couldnt race. i wont be on the fugro team but thats ok. do i want to run this race? NO. when's the last time i ran more than 5 miles at time? a really long time. but, its important to bond with my co-workers so i've got to do it. its about 40 euros for the registration, tshirt, and a time chip for your shoe. i'll go on one training run tomorrow and then run sunday for the big day. http://www.zevenheuvelenloop.nl/

so after work, i went to the home of Fred and Nel van der Sande (Plotzik). The aunt and uncle of Matthew, Debby's current boytoy, also known as Dr. V, the Flying Dutchman, and most recently, The Chiquita Banana. So i call Nel when i get home and she says they will be right over to pick me up. i go downstairs and wait for their car. Of course, they show up on bicycles. Nel hops on the back of Fred's bike and i ride Nel's bike back to thier house, about a 5 minute ride. Nel reminds me of a strong farm worker. she's about 5'5", solidly built, speaks directly and firmly towards me, and she could definitely kick my ass. She has short black hair with a tinge of gray. Nel definitely rules the roost. Fred is clearly more submissive and he really opens up later in the night when tells me about this cat he's been taking care of. initially, he is quiet and more reserved. Fred reminds me of the farmer from the movie Babe (Mr. Hogget), tall, lanky, with glasses and gray hair.

we get back to Nel and Fred's house. its the cutest house in the world. Its very organized, clean, and minimal. the backyard is a brick patio with some gardens and opens right onto a canal. its so beautiful. the inside is all white and silver and navy blue. big grey tiles on the floor. white kitchen cabinets. navy leather furniture. we sit down and have a drink before dinner. Nel tells me about living on Long Island when she was young and moving back to Holland after high shool when she met Fred. I tell them about working at Fugro and where i'm living in Delft. we talk about obama and palin. we talk about the university.

We sit down for dinner at a little built in table (there is also a dining table but seems used only for formal occasions). Nel has made a delicious goulash with rice and salad. we make fun of matthew and debby for being vegetarians. nel tells me about being the manager of her son's field hockey team. she cooks the team dinner on tuesday nights (twenty guys aged 19-34) and gets thier uniforms and arranges transportation etc. she's been doing this for 5 years. her real job is an aerospace engineering professor at TU Delft. Fred is a chemistry teacher at the local high school. i tell nel that i'll come check out the next field hockey game that's at home. i'll check out the players too.

speaking of field hockey players, nel and fred's son Frank stops by to get his haircut. he looks pretty typical dutchie, a bit more stylish than the guys in my office. he's some sort of water engineer. he's tall and skinny with black hair and framing black eyebrows. he needs a haircut clearly. he's 27 but he has a quiet boyish charm. seems a bit nervous at first but relaxes later. the four of us chat for awhile then nel cuts frank's hair right there in the living room. nel and frank make fun of fred's nearly perfect english (nel's and frank's english was the best ive heard so far). fred tells me about a cat he's semi-adopted that had kittens a few weeks ago and he nursed back to health. he's a softie i can tell.

nel is going to look for a bike for me on friday at a place near her work. that would be fantastic! ive had such a great evening with lots of laughs i'm sad to leave. frank lives only a few blocks from me, so he and fred rode me home. i rode on the back of fred's bike. i held on to his jacket and joked not to tell nel. frank laughed but fred didn't. hahah! got home around 10:30 or so. i'm sure i will see the van der sande clan again :) or at least i hope so :)

Day 8 - Spinning Class and Office Happenings

After work today i went to my first dutch spinning class. i'm completely in love with my spinning instructor. unfortunately, he speaks little english. i guess its not meant to be. sigh. the class was pretty good. was hard to follow since i didnt understand what he was saying, but tried to follow the cadence of his perfectly molded legs as best i could. note to self - bring a towel next time. another observation - the dutch men have the longest skinniest legs! like giraffes in spandex.

after class i did some weights and then hung out with my co-workers (elisabet, wouter, robin, patricia, and annameik) at the coffee bar (located right in the gym area of course) and got home around 9PM. these dutchies love thier coffee. Robin (my officemate) haggled with the gym staff to get me a reduced membership. he was moderately successful, but i think we'll get it worked out soon.

Got another email from the dutch football houligans. they will take me to a football match next sunday. my fugro co-workers find this whole scenario quite amusing. i also re-connected with an old co-worker from when i lived up in northern california. small world.

so i've made some more observations about my office surroundings. i'm starting to figure out who is friends with who, who are the 'black sheep', who's respected and who's not, who's fun, who's serious, etc. its interesting. i've posted two pictures of my colleagues, both were taken quite recently so they are a good indication of the team i've joined. robin and elisabet are so great i'm so thankful for all thier help with translating and questions and gym memberships and trains and all the other zillion things they help with. i never even ask them they just help me on thier own. i've been thinking of something i can do for them to express my gratitude but nothing has come to mind yet. elisabet is very funny and blunt, but she's a bit of a stickler for rules it seems. she gave me her old cell phone and i put my SIM chip in it and its working great now. robin on the otherhand is a bit more like me. likes to do things then ask for permission later. he's more of a smooth talker. his english is perfect (australian mum) so he picks up on little nuances in my speech and my tone and gets my sarcasm. we've had some good laughs.

Adriaan is so funny we talked today about SinterKlaas, which is like Santa Claus. he comes in early december and brings kids toys. its not affiliated with christmas. SinterKlaas has black men as helpers (originally slaves back in the day) named Black Pete (Zwarte Piet). the P.C. version they tell to kids now is that Pete is black becuase he get soot on him when he slides down the chimney to deliver the presents. pretty clever spin on the story i think.

Day 7 - Pile Driving

Dany wakes me up again. i rush into work to get there early for field work. i say goodbye to dany and wish her a safe trip. i'm all alone now!!!

i go out with Alwin from the geomonitoring group to do some pile integriy testing (PIT). he has an incredible stutter that is clearly excaserbated by his efforts to speak english. i feel so bad. i'm thankful at how easy i have it to talk. he would spit and strain in an effort to get the words out. mostly "S", "F" and "V" were tough for him. i tried to avoid conversation with those words. it was impossible!! other than the stutter, he was so nice and seemed like a really hard worker and very diligent. i enjoyed spending the morning with him.

the site has 3 pile driving rigs running at the same time. i can tell safety isnt #1 priority over here hahah. the pile driving workers tell me i'm the first women they've ever seen in the field. apparently female field engineers etc. are rare here. i would say its more like 15% back in the US. We tested about 100 piles see pics below!!

lunch - some sort of egg sandwhich, open face, eaten with a knife and fork. not too bad. some sort of veggie soup. also not too bad. good lunch today.

worked on some pile design for my co-worker Annemeik for the afternoon and chatted with my officemate Robin. he's really cool and very knowledgable. he showed me pics of a project he worked on where a container ship overturned and he worked on getting it right side up. another project with a road on piles and a geogrid reinforced embankment. very cool. he's helped me quite a bit with the dutch codes and translating and i'm very grateful to him. and elisabet. i brought these little chocolate eggs with figurines inside hahahah! a dutch treat. they laughed and i think they liked them. elisabet's egg had Buggs Bunney and robin's egg had the Tazmanian Devil riding a skatboard.

the guy i met on the train yesterday emailed me. adorable broken english. see text below.

Hi Jamie, In the first time nice to meet you yesterday on the train station. (by the way a strange place to meet American ladies).Hope you are fine today and your weekend was o.k. The time was yesterday I think too short, maybe we can now tell / email with more information...So you are in The Netherlands till February is that right? and that time you will life in Delft?For what kind of project are you in The Netherlands? And is the another girl a colleague or a friend of you? So I believe you want to explore the city Delft (country The Netherlands) with also the nightlife in the weekends? So this was the first maybe to small email but I hope to hear from you soon again! Best regards, Michel

haha! spent most of the night catching up on emails and blogging. sent my little god daughter a bday present. a book on how to tell time and a kid's fist watch. pink. i hope she likes it!! ate some grapes and a mini pizza for dinner. no desire to cook. oh time for bed.

Day 5 & 6 - Amsterdam Insanity

saturday morning my personal alarm clock, miss danya pase, wakes me up at around 9am. it stays dark until about 8am and gets dark around 4:30 here and this is really messing up my internal alarm clock. we head downtown to go to the market, and for me to get a winter coat and danny loves my new skinny (sqin) jeans and she wants some too.


we head downtown and spot a possible american. he's carrying a SIM card package, has longer hair, scruffy 5 0clock shadow, and an actual butt. dany notices the butt right away. dutch boys are really tall and skinny and are nearly always clean shaven, or not able to grow facial hair, i'm not sure. we tail the possible american but lose him in the crowd. oh well.


i get an awesome coat from a local store. it was too expensive but i'm in love with it. the coat is the #1 most important thing here. i figure it is a good investment. dany got her sqin jeans and we are looking like europeans. we high five each other. no boots yet, but i'll get some.


the market is awesome. everyone from delft is there. got some fresh fruit and veggies, wonderful bread and cheese. my goal for next week's market is to learn the dutch names of what i will buy.

we get pancakes at a restaurant in the square and listen to the church bells. acutally i got one pancake. it was one really big pancake, thicker than a crepe but thinner than an american pancake. it was really big, maybe like 18 inches in diameter. it was on a special big plate. i put butter, powdered sugar, and syrup on it. i folded it up and hoped i was eating it correctly. dany got some small pankcakes which looked like little biscuits. those were really good too.


we head back to the apartement, grab out backpacks, and headed to amsterdam. dany's dad got us a hotel room for free (he travels 6 months out of the year so he has loads of points). we check into the executive suites at the hilton, drop our bags, and head to town.


outside of the train station, there are about 5,000 bikes parked. maybe more. probably more. the bus depot and tram depot are right outside the train station as well. trams and busses run all round the city. you ride the trams and busses with a blue Stripper card. i dont know who came up with that name but how fitting for amsterdam. we rent some yellow bikes to get around town. biking is insane. its like mr. toad's wild ride. there are bikes whizzing everywhere through traffic. loree probably would have cried. dany and i had many near collisions with other bikes, cars, buses, trams, whatever. i'm comfortable with riding in traffic and genuinely like that the bike is king around here, but dany is kind of apprehensive and seems a bit shaken up.

we go to the heineken experience, which is a history of heineken in a really cool way. it was just re-done and just re-opened last week. heineken is huge here. there is a history portion with old brass mixers, ingredient descriptions, old stables, old bottle labels etc. there is a really cool ride that takes you through how the beer is made and bottled. the ride has a moving platform and other effects it was so cool. there are two tasting rooms spaced apart on the experience. after the first tasting room there is a big techno room with big lounge chairs and images projected on the cieling with techno music playing. the images consist of all the product placement in movies and tv and past heineken commercials. the second tasting room has these really cool touch screen table tops. when you set your beer glass on the table it opens up all these things on maps and fun facts about heineken and different world cities. the heineken experience was way cooler than i'm describing trust me.


we head back to the hotel, grab a pizza donner on the way. my feet hurt. we get ready to go out, wearing our sqin jeans of course. we look perfectly european. i have my sqin jeans on with black heals, a black shirt and my new jacket. my hair is long and straight and looking especially shiny tonight. we take the tram (dany refused to get back on the bikes) to the main square downtown. theres an ice skating rink and open-air urinals in the middle of the square. theres about a zillion crazy people. we hit up a promising bar in the square with the objective of meeting some brits to teach us some songs as shonna had suggested. after a bit we met some fake brits. they all live in london but each was from a different place. will was from brazil or bolivia not sure. krum was from bulgaria. ben was from australia. ben was super cute. they didnt know any songs, but they were fun nonetheless. i met some other folks from the US, one was from santa barbara and worked for shell. small world huh?


the bar had amazing music. it was like being in a time warp to an 80's/90's wedding. they played vintage whitney houston, montell jordan, michael jackson, village people, mixed in with some amy whinehouse and katy perry. our fake brits went crazy when the amy whinehouse song came on. we stayed there for awhile. i got a pen and we wrote rediculous notes to each other on the backs of coasters. a perfect form of scandalous communication since the music was so loud. hilarity ensued. so many laughs :)

we headed to a dance club across the square with the fake brits. awesome techno music, we danced and had so much fun. i disappeared for awhile with ben but somehow dany was able to keep herself entertained. we parted with the boys around 3:30AM, and gave me thier phone number, appropriately on the back of a coaster. dany and i headed to the train station, which was CLOSED! we were told by reliable sources that the trains ran 24 hours per day. we grabbed a bus back to the hotel and got there at 5:03AM. we were so tired.

woke up the next morning. i felt pretty good. dany didnt feel as good as me. we went to our bikes and rode over to the anne frank house. which was phenomenal. really well done. the living quarters were much larger than expected, but still very small to live in with 8 people for over a year and never leave. we got some lunch, walked around a bit, returned the bikes, and headed home to delft. we met some local delft guys on the train ride home. they were coming home from a football game (soccer) and were especially rowdy. they seemed like a fun group. i gave one my email address and told him to contact me as i will be living here for 3 months. we got back home around 6:30 and i fell asleep on the couch at about 7PM. dany still had to pack for her flight home the next day. i wish i could have stayed up and hung out with her more. we had so much fun together and i'm really sad to see her go.

note: i'm having trouble uploading photos. i;ll try again tomorrow.

Day 4 - The Gym Experience

So this is my 3rd day at work. I told everyone about the James Bond vikings at work and they were thoroughly amused. i forgot to write yesteday that outside of the theatre we were talking to some locals and i was eating some french fries and ketchup (my favorite). i offered to one of them and he exclaimed in disgust to his friends "she's eating cold chips!! with KETCHUP!!!" this coming from a guy who was wearing a cape and a plastic sword. native netherlanders apparently eat fries with mayonnaise. i'll stick to the ketchup :)

I went on a field trip this morning to a big dewatering site about 1 hour from Leidshendam. I beleive we were heading east but anyone who knows me can attest that my sense of direction is completely lacking. i rode in the car with my coworkers Henk and Claartj. Claartj is a sweet person, 26, recently married, and enjoys visiting castles. i liked chatting with her in the car and she seems like a wonderfully genuine person. Henk sat in the backseat and told me about his place in Den Haag, surfing, and riding his bike to work. he's seems too cool for school. i try to convince him to have a party at his house next weekend. he didnt seem too excited but i'll keep trying. he helped me pump the gas in the fugro car and was surprisingly non-condescending at my naivite. cars here can take either leaded or unleaded gas depending on the car. who knew???

we get to the project tour (called an excursion here). there is about a 1 to 1.5 hour powerpoint presentation in dutch and it is all i can do to stay awake. i was biting the inside of my mouth, singing in my head. it was torture. i dont want to be rude. maybe james bond wasnt such a good idea last night. i blame the jet lag.

presentation is over, they break out the sandwiches and coffee for lunch (of course), and i enjoy a foot-long baguette with one slice of ham and one slice of cheese. yum. so moist...

we head outside and tour the site which consists of walking about 2 miles around a lake. the weather was perfect and it would have been very enjoyable except i borrowed my co-worker's steel toe boots that were about 1.5 sizes too small. my little toes were hurting. but, i did get an opportunity to talk with another co-worker, i can't recall his name right now, but he's cool and interested in working in the ventura office for a transfer. he will email me for more info soon i'm sure and then i will get his name. he works in another office in north holland. he translates the presentation for me as we tour the site. thank god!!! he has an easy disposition and curly brown hair. he seems very knowledgeable about the dewatering system and is originally schooled in hydrology.


on my way home from work, elisabet took me to the gym. after about 30 minutes of intense conversation in dutch, she was not able to get them to waive the 50-Euro entrance fee, which is normally waived for fugro employees. ugh. i just went on a guest pass and we are going to try again on Tuesday for spinning class. there is a coffee bar in the gym but not one water fountain!! i'm dying of thirst. it seems no one drinks anything but coffee and buttermilk here. there are two locker rooms, one women's (which i see a teenage boy come out of) and one is co-ed. i pick the women's but maybe on tuesday i'll check out the co-ed. there are about 4 people in the gym. they dont look like they're working too hard. i run for about 30 minutes on the treadmill and boogie home to meet dany. i skip the coffee bar.

meet dany at home, and we head to the downtown area in search of boots for me and a hat for dany. the shops are open late on fridays (until 9PM, ordinarily only until 6PM). there are tons of people downtown. i get a SIM card so i can have a local NL phone number. Elisabet is going to give me her old phone to put the SIM card in. i dont find boots but i do find a great pair of super skinny jeans. everyone here is wearing super skinny jeans with high boots. i will definitely fit in now. the flared jeans are a dead giveaway.

we grab a deuner (spelled donner with two dots over the 'o') for dinner as suggested by shonna. she told me what type of donner but i can;t remember so i text her. in the meantime, i ask the man behind the counter if he remembers my friend shonna. he doesnt speak english, but i say she is american, red hair, my friend. he says "short one? Yes, duram donner she gets". hahaha!! shonna. so memorable.

me and dany head home and check our guidebook for amsterdam tomorrow. we crash around midnight. exhausted.