Monday, July 17, 2006

blog link!

I started another.... way to communicate thoughts ideas, and a bit of self help in the process.

Check it out, www.flockfiets.blogspot.com

Tomorrow will be one week back in the states.....

It is different for sure. All the best and see you out there on the commute! (whereever that may take you)

Departure from Praha, July 11 2006


testing

Saturday, July 15, 2006

where am I?

Hello. I have returned to Cleveland. However, check the pics from the last few days of the euro experience....
ICE (german train) Somewhere between Dusseldorf and Munich.... :-)


Cultural festival... Bavaria!!



Lunch in the English Gardens of Munich!


World Cup Final! Public Viewing Olympic Park, Munich



Christina and I late in the evening...


bye bye munich...


Ljubliana, Slovenia view from the castle tower


This caught my eye as I travelled through the city .....



Metka, and Miha (sorry about spelling, it is probably incorrect...)



Jure offering me a horse-burger, serbian hamburger... heel lekker!


Bright Lights Big City... or something like that... meet the Manhattan, NYC (view from Central Park)


Travelling in the US... do not have a Snel train so I went took the "stop" bus.... It was great! I recommend it...


Now what?

The next day... went to work! A bit disoriented.... not from the time change, but from the friend change... I miss everyone from Holland to Belgrade...

Commuting Culture blogspot... I think...Just give me a moment to set it Up...

I have some fotos I took yesterday from my commute... I changed it up a bit instead of driving to work. I took the bus and train and then walked 3 miles... 5km.
It was a prototype mission... but I think with some tweaking I can get a decent reliable product of a commute.

Choose your own reality.

Thank you all for reading and your interest. It is always said.. this isn't the end, but only the beginning...
so.. be on the look out for the next post...

Monday, July 10, 2006

world cup final last night...

and now I am in Ljubliana....Thank you Metka for communicating my email! I do appreciate it, big time. All worked out perfect!

Nice finish for me. Yesterday I visited my friend Christina in Munich and we spent the day touring munich and hanging out in the English Gardens and drinking beer and eating pretzels! We saw a mult+cultural dance from Crete and from Bavaria. Then in the evening we went to the park complex of the Olympic Stadium in Munich and watched the world cup final. Great beer and snitzel sandwhiches!

It was a pitty the the game was decided in a shoot out round, but nevertheless all things for the game ended in balance with the surrounding world. For example, Zidane, his last game, he did score the only french goal during the play period, being his last game, it made a nice ending, despite the foul at the end of the game which caused france to play 10 men without him. In the end the italians played their hearts out and dominated the match, in my opinion.

Well, as i sit in Mihas apartment writing this, i think back to all the great and bad experiences and I just smile. It has been awesome and would do it all over again in an instant.

I will be including in the next post, most likely the final post for this blog a link for the next blog, Commuting Culture , or something like that...

unless i change my mind on a title.. dennis came up with a phrase on one of our last nights in Eindhoven. Dynamic Plan. Dynamic planning is the act of making plans to do activities, but then adapting the plans real time as needed to continue having fun or to be successful. So, my next blog will definitely be apart of a dynamic plan as I face the culture shock of the US. I will update with the fotos from munich when i arrive...

all the best..

Saturday, July 08, 2006

final post in Holland

I leave this afternoon and go by train to Munich.
I arrive at JFK on tuesday afternoon. From there go by bus to Pittsburgh. See you all soon in the US.

cheers

Thursday, July 06, 2006

clean house..

I finally did some cleaning today.

The place looks like when I moved in..

A bit tired now. Leaving Saturday morning for Munich. Then Sunday night to Slovenia and off to where the states are united.

Food items remaining in the apartment:

Half Jar of Nutella
5 oranges
Half of box of Vlok Feest
Unopened Frit Sauce
Quarter Bag of cereal
1 piece of Jong cheese
3 slices of kip (chicken for sandwhiches)
1/4 bag of salad
1/4 pint of vanilla Fla (similar to pudding)
1 strawberry drink
roughly 20 cherries...

And I have a ton of euro coins in the 2 cent version and little less than a ton of 1 euro cent coins...

these are the items that got stuck... at the boundary...

things always are left at the border or transistion when there is change from state to state.

Understanding how to manage the boundary conditions, and those items that are "stuck", properly is what separates good from great.

i would love to write about something political now just for examples.... oh, but I shouldn't digress... I will leave on high note.

check the pic of the russian shakira!!(guess what song is playing? steve K can tell you)



Dinner on the Dommelstraat (L-R- Natashia from Russian, Daan from Venlo some small village in the netherlands, Nic the Romanian, bald american, Viera from Slovakia


On the Markt

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

additional photos

Maastricht

Crossing the river Maas "in de buurt" of Venlo, Daan and the sleak French racing machine.

Venlo city center

Monday, July 03, 2006

not gone yet...

Interesting story here! Interesting person....


Biking to Germany


The reason we biked to Germany... to drink German Bier.


Back in Venlo (the Netherlands) a small border town.. that throws great parties.

ElectroFunk Fest!!


Check out the boots on the girl in the white....



Picture perfect end to a great weekend!



Oh and I am officially a student again! I am officially back in the academic world, University Maastricht and the MBA consortium has accepted me to begin this September in the EuroMBA program.

Party time is officially over!
The phrase I left the RF group in Best with was, "get it done". I need apply the dutch phrase and practice what I preach. Translated in english it goes like this, simple, You want to change the world, change yourself first!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

saying so long..

Last night and yesterday afternoon was something that I never thought possible for myself at my age.

My colleagues, doing the standard dutch practice, said good bye to me at work.... It was like saying goodbye when someone retires from work. I have only worked directly with them for 8 months, but the feeling I received from them as I stood before them and accepted the gifts and card was like an old colleague of 10 or more years.

A cynic might say, otherwise, but I am positive and really feel that those who came up to me and said some words to me looking me in the eyes shaking my hand, I believe that their words were genuine.

I will miss them.


After work, my colleague Gerrit took me out, chuck calls him the big dutchman, He took me to Best and we had beers with his direct colleagues, the OTM guys, the guys that build and maintain the MR systems in the factory and around the world.
We sat on the terrace, the sidewalk cafe in american, and enjoy the goed weer and drank beer. We went for dinner and then the party started. Gerrit, Paul and I went to Eindhoven to meet colleagues from the RF group. It was awesome! Kenned, Nicole, Mark, Marianne and her boyfriend, Anouk and her cousin(a hottie), Sander, and eventually Birte then Daan shows up.
Party in Eindhoven all night.
I tried something new, a shot of tequila in a bottle of Corona. Not to good, I think it needs something elses with it....

I really had fun and feel like leaving a bit of 'home" here.
This is my definition of home, a place where you have friends and feel connected by good or similar experiences. So, I have another home, and only 8 months. Like I said, I just click here. No hating on the US or any of that crap, I got love for everywhere, so don't believe the hype. My gut feelings from the past just have been verified. I remember few years back an ex girlfriend of mine confronted me when we were dating and told me that living in a different country is no big deal, that it the US is the best place to live, because at the end of the day, if you aren't wealthy, you still have to work. And working anywhere will eventully turn into the grind. I may be misquoting her a bit, the accuracy to the statement may not be entirely clear, but I remember the take away message clear enough. And that is why I am glad I broke with her so long ago. But anyway, I can tell you with clear conviction now, SHE WAS WRONG!!! No way, was that even close to how things turned out for me. I think boring people just find stuff boring and fun people just have fun.

Sorry to all the boring people out there... I still like you though.

So today, the weather is amazing but I am bit hung over, so I rest and prepare for tomorrow. I will get paperwork wrapped up with immigration and the bank and make my way south for my flight leaves from Ljubliana on the 11th of July.

I plan to just stay in eindhoven and enjoy the life of Brabant this next week.

In the end of this experience I have lived so randomly and partied alot that I am actually looking forward to the focus required to return to the academic scene as I pursue my MBA with the MBA consortium at Universiteit Maastricht.

thanks to everyone who came out last night and made me feel at home in this little flat corner of Europe.


p.s. thanks to Chris for the link in the comment section in a recent post....
found this link embedded in that sight, it looks very interesting and I think I will be going to see it when I return, if I can...
http://www.sirnosir.com/home_filmtrailers.html