Around Amsterdam

So, I just got back from a long weekend break in Amsterdam. I flew in Friday night and met up with my friend Fal from Hoboken/NYC. Here are just a few of the beautiful sights we took in.

The adventure begins... couldn't have wished for a better day!

As you can see, this is my type of place!

The flowers aren't too shabby either... what variety they have!

All in all, it was a great 4 days: walking the canals, eating crepes, drinking hot chocolate to forget about the cold and rain, trying multiple dutch sweets, seeing Rembrandt and Van Gogh, visiting the very cool, interactive Jewish museum, and of course, time with Fal and breakfast with Becky!

PS: That was some of the highlights... I also had a bit of an accident, getting my foot stuck in a tram track as I was crossing the street. The tram was coming in the distance. I ended up busting my two knees and ankle, putting an ugly hole in my favorite corduroy pants. Health report: I will live, but I can't kneel right now.

Night Owl - Yes, I am

It is now 10:30 pm and I'm waiting on my dinner to finish simmering. Good news is I'm making my first lentil soup. No, it's not rocket science, but for some reason this is my first fore into soup.

I am embarrassed to say, but I could have eaten at least 1 or 2 hours ago. But, no, I was totally taken in by a project at work -- our new Intranet -- trying to work out some technical quirks and try out some new gadgets. Ever have a certain picture in your head of what something should look like or taste like? Well, in my case, I most certainly do and this perfectionism is driving me crazy these days.

Well, it wasn't just my obsession with figuring some stuff out on Sharepoint... I also got a call from my mom just as I was about to turn my computer off and head to the gym. It was sweet to hear her voice and worth the delay.

I have another sneaky suspicion as to my burst of night energy...Could it be Sudafed and Claritin? To help me breathe at night, I am now taking the two allergy meds every day. This is a switch from Zyrtec which knocked me out and had me feeling loopy more often than not.

I'm definitely not complaining about being energetic after a long period of serious lethargy, but I sure wish I could simply get up early instead of staying up so darn late. It is now 10:45 pm and I am just turning to my Russian homework. That will for sure take me at least an hour. C'est ma vie!

My whereabouts

Well, I got an email today from my dad asking for my blog address so I thought I'd best start writing again. It has definitely been a long break and I'm not quite sure where to start... rest assured it has been an eventful end of summer and entry into fall.

This September, I spent 3 weeks in DC, which was good to get my bearings. While I did work the majority of my time, I had the opportunity to reconnect with dear friends and family, including a mini-roadtrip with my brother Mark and friend Siutang down to Duke to celebrate my sister Stephanie's 25th birthday along with my other sister Karen and her husband Christian and what seemed at the time to be about 1/3 of Duke's 2nd year medical school students. Yes, Stephanie is a super social one! Long story short: time stateside was jam-packed, but very rich. I returned to Prague refreshed and refueled... with absolutely no connection to the amount of Starbucks coffee and Cosi breakfast sandwiches I put in my body. And, I'll add, it had nothing to do with the fact I had phenomenal success at poker over at Raymond's and Justin's place. Okay, well, maybe just a bit :)



Over Columbus day weekend, I hopped a plane to Venice where I attended my friends' wedding. The barrier island of Lido was the perfect place to retreat from the crowds of Venice and Prague. I have to say Trieste this July tops Venice in terms of food, but I did enjoy a great weekend catching up with friends and former colleagues from NYC and my corporate paralegal days. Hard to think my life (at least 2.5 years of it) revolved around distressed debt transaction work. That I'm glad to say feels like a lifetime ago. I would have liked to explore Venice more, take in the Murano glass factory and wander through the canals, but to be honest I'm not sure if my patience for overflowing tourists and water transport would have lasted much longer.

This coming weekend I'm meeting my friend Fal - another NYC or rather Hoboken friend - in Amsterdam. I can already smell the smoked gouda - yum!

And, when I haven't been on the road or in the airplane, I have been totally enthralled by the HBO series, The Wire, the police drama set on the streets of Baltimore. Tonight I finished season 3 and I'm happy to say Avon Barksdale is once again behind bars along with most of his gang; Stringer Bell is no longer; Omar is still kicking, yes, indeed; Cuttie left the game, now doing his best to reach kids with boxing, and Bubbles seems to be relatively clean, peddling "whities" in a grocery cart. I love the fact I can't name one favorite character - I'm taken by many of their stories. I am told season 4 focuses on the Baltimore school system and can't wait. If you haven't seen The Wire, you simply must. End of story.