Day 72 & 73 - Twister & Tickets

On Wednesday, I was in my office at about noon, and Kristina comes by to see if I want to go to lunch early (we are supposed to take lunch at 1PM). So we look around and realize that EVERYONE is gone from our wing. I forgot that Ferry was giving a presentation today at noon (in dutch, so I told him I wasn’t going to be there) about the WFM (work flow management) system. I hadn’t put it in my calendar, and I was listening to my ipod, and working in my own little world, and finally when I got up and looked around, it was a ghost town! Hahah. So Kristina and I went to an early lunch. The lunchroom is quite empty at this time.. lots of tables available and no waiting in line at the cash register. I like it! Kristina is really nervous because she’s giving a presentation this afternoon at the TU Delft about a project in downtown Rotterdam. She only has a 20-minute time block, and many of her old professors will be there, plus Adriaan and Maarten P. and other getoechs and industry professionals. In other words, she better know what she’s talking about because there will be people there that will know if she’s making something up. Technical presentations can be so nervewracking when you’re presenting to people that know way more than you. anyways, when we got back upstairs from lunch, Kristina said goodbye and said she was going to get Adriaan from Ferry’s presentation downstairs so they could go to her presentation in Delft. I wished her luck. A few minutes later she comes running into my office, completely panicked… ‘he left without me’! she shrieked. You know that high pitched stressed out voice that girls get when they are panicked?? The poor thing was already stressed out about giving her presentation and now her ride left without her. So I grabbed my keys and coat and said.. I’m driving you…let’s go! I told her to breathe and check to make sure she had her CD with the presentation on it. She did both, and we hurried to the car and we got here there only 5 minutes late. Which ended up being fine, because they started 15 minutes late…. So actually she was there early. I saw her later at Suzanne’s house, and she said the presentation went great and that I was her hero for getting her there! Hahah… I don’t know about hero… but maybe I saved her from a nervous breakdown.

So after work i went to my spinning class (the one with the really good music). The instructor is really cool and we chatted after class for a bit. She says she will give me another few CD’s next time. I should note she’s kind of a cheater instructor… one of those that gets off the bike a lot and walks around and plays with the music etc. I think if the instructor can’t actually do the class they shouldn’t be teaching it. But, maybe she has to teach two in a row or something. Either way, I still think she’s cool.

I took a quick shower at the gym then headed over to Suzanne and martijn’s apartment in voorburg which is quite near the fugro office. A bunch of us met for dinner and to have a game night. There was a bit of a poker backlash after maarten took everyone’s money last time I think. Anyways, their apartment is so cute and they have a big long table with plenty of room for everyone. Suzanne made this amazing pasta sauce (from scratch) and two different types of salad. I brought a bottle of wine that RJ had bought when he was here but we never drank… because we couldn’t find a corkscrew. Amazingly, in all of the **things** that are in my apartment, there is no corkscrew. There’s every other type of kitchen appliance…. Every type of blender, mixer, sandwich maker, juicer, electric knife, salad spinner, coffee grinder.. you name it she’s got it. She even has one of those electric foot massager/warmer boots… which is not a kitchen appliance, but I think worth mentioning nonetheless. But no corkscrew! Maybe she doesn’t drink? Anyways, dinner was SO good. After dinner we had some yummy pudding that comes in milk cartons. And some really yummy chocolates and of course everyone had coffee or tea or cappuccino or some other variation of a caffeinated hot beverage resembling coffee. There was 10 of us there… me, martijn, Suzanne, Elisabet, kristina and her boyfriend, Wouter, patricia, Anouk, and maarten P. we talked about a bunch of stuff, but just had a lot of laughs. Suzanne is so funny, just the way she tells stories.. her timing and delivery are perfect. Although it was supposed to be game night, a few of played a few round sof twister, which was good to practice my colors in dutch and rechter and linker hand and foot. God I am so not flexible anymore. I lost both times I played. I held out for a long time against Elisabet but miss pilates had me beat. I should really work on my flexibility. I hardly ever stretch anything besides my bad shoulder. Now that is one flexible shoulder I must say though. So aside from a few games of twister, we mostly just hung out and talked and laughed. It was a really nice night. We left a little before 11PM. I was really tired when I got home. I had a few things on my list that I wanted to do, but I was just too tired. The dishes will have to wait one more day.

Thursday – I visited suzannes office right after lunch to meet her officemate, who according to Suzanne nearly turned purple after I left when she mentioned that I had been playing twister the night before with Elisabet. He is apparently very sad that I will be leaving back to the US in just a few short weeks. In the afternoon, one of the finance guys came into my office. I had gotten a parking ticket back in November, which I knew about (and I told them right away). They already took the parking ticket fine out of my bank account and I thought that was the end of it. So, it turns out, that on that same day, I got a speeding ticket too!! Jesus! Obviously, November 26, 2008 was NOT a good driving day for me. I had been going 12km/h over the speed limit on the highway on my way back from my dutch class at 10PM. There are speed cameras all over the highways. But seriously, 12km/h? that’s like 7 miles per hour over the speed limit! It was 10PM and there was no one else on the road. I think that’s kinda bush. Well what am I going to do about it? So I just paid it. 51 euro.

Also in the afternoon, Adriaan came in to chat. On Monday he’s going to give me a small project that will do start to finish. its designing some pile foundations for a an equipment pad or a small equipment building. So the piles will be subjected to repeated dynamic loading from the equipment. Some sort of manufacturing equipment. We’re going to go over the details on Monday. I’m really looking forward to it. he also said that he talked to Maarten S. from FWI who had called to check in on me. adriaan said he really liked having me here and that i was welcome to come back. we talked for awhile about the economy and where things are going. we decided to expect the unexpected. i told him i hoped that someone from FIBV could come to FWI, if california isnt bankrupt of course. adriaan is so warm and easy to talk to. his positive nature is infectious. i always feel better after talking to him. he's firm though. i wouldn't consider him a pushover. on my last day, its also annemiek's last day before she goes over to FEBV, and joost and maarten's last day as well before they go back to school (they are both interns). so the four of us are planning something for that day (remember... its the other way around here... for example for your birthday you bring in your own cake or whatever to share). maybe a big breakfast or something. i voted for an ice cream sundae bar. the others thought that it would be too cold for that. really?

Today I’ve been going through the CUR and an in-house spreadsheet trying to figure out where all the numbers come from for a vibration analysis that I’m working on. It’s challenging because the CUR is only available in dutch, which is really a pity because it seems like a fantastic reference and I wish I could understand it better.

After work I headed to the store to get a few groceries so that I have food for when I get back from berlin, and also I wanted to buy some more vacuum bags for packing. i couldnt find any of the roll vaccuum bags, so i ordered some online. they should get here next week. I’m going to need a small miracle to get everything back to the US. I need one of those shrinking machines from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. So when I got back home, I did some cleaning (its very nice to come home to a clean house after a trip isn’t it?), and packed my bag, and did a bunch of other stuff I needed to take care of before I left. i have to catch a 05:15 train tomorrow morning so I was hoping to get into bed before midnight but not dice. I talked to Thomas on the phone earlier today and we’re going to stop by the Fugro Berlin office which I’m really looking forward to. We also have a bunch of other cool things planned I can’t wait!!! This will be my last trip outside of the Netherlands before I go back to the US. I feel like I’ve covered a lot of ground… Belgium, France, Spain, and Germany. Not too bad!!