Crazy Times
Apr 20, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Here is the summary of today in a series of haikus:
***
I lost Eric H
Then I found the poor lost boy
Then I lost Katie
***
I took a wrong turn
I saw a lot of red lights
I met a call girl
Hometown Cameroon
Wants to move to Canada
To make more money
***
Dutch bookshop woman
Talked about homeschooling kids
She thought I was nuts
***
Dinner with the Dunns
I ate two awesome Shwarmas
And yummy deserts
***
Take a break tonight
Ren and Stimpy on TV
With Dutch Subtitles
Amsterdam
Apr 20, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Yesterday was an awesome day. I don’t really have time to type a lot, but here are the highlights from my little brain:
*Eric, Jen, and I headed into a little cafe yesterday and met some really cool people. I am probably going to slaughter their names, but these are my horrible American spellings: AnnMarie, Renee, Desiree, Bus, Roel (pronounced “Rule”). They were celebrating their graduation from college and they let us join them. That was very cool. We hung out for a few hours and I learned a ton about Dutch culture from them. We talked about religion and politics (everyone here wants to talk about politics and George Bush), 9/11, and tons of other stuff. It was awesome.
*Roel invited us (Jen, Eric, and I) to a invite only beer tasting last night. Apparently, each month a bunch of bar owners and bartenders, etc. get together and listen to a presentation from a different brewery and taste beers. We were the only non-Dutch people there. The guy doing the presentation was from an organic brewery. One out of three were good.
*After the beer tasting, we hung out at the brewery until 12:30 or so talking with Roel, Bus, and another guy Martin. Martin and I talked for hours about everything under the sun. It’s kinda a joke here that you are not supposed to talk about Religion or Politics, but that is what everyone wants to talk about! Very cool open people. There is a Dutch word I can’t remember that describes a cool, ambient environment that you feel comfortable in. That describes the time very well last night. After Martin took off, we stayed and had a lively discussion with Roel. He is really intelligent and is really open to talking about spiritual things.
Here are some other random Amsterdam thoughts:
1) Amsterdam has a bad reputation that it does not live up to. Yes, from what I hear the Red Light District is pretty wild. But that seems to be an anomoly in the city. Yes, it is more “open” to pot (you smell it around), sex (there are posters here and there with full nudity on them), etc., but it feels like any other artsy community and I feel real comfortable here.
2) I have met people from at least 7 different countries in the last 2 days.
That’s all for now. CYA.
Sleep
Apr 18, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
{ MOOD: Grrrrrreat! | NOISE: Eric talking nonsense}
So last night I went to bed at 8:00 PM (2:30 AM Michigan Time). I slept until 1:00 AM and then I was totally awake. I stayed awake until 3:30 when JD woke up and hooked me up with some Melatonin! This wonder drug is my best friend: I fell back asleep until 8:30! I think I have screwed up my sleep pattern, but at least I have had sleep. We have a team meeting at 9:30 and then it is off to play some Foetbal with the Dutch. Yay. I’m so in shape, so this should be great!
30 Hours and Counting
Apr 17, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
I have been awake for 30 hours and counting. Just thought you’d like to know.
More to come…
Trains and Coffee
Apr 17, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Well, here are a few things I figured I could share with you about our trip so far:
Our first building
After catching a train from the airport, here is the first building we encountered here in Amsterdam. This is the train station:
My first pot of coffee
If there is one thing I figure I can do in any culture, it’s make coffee. Apparently not. Here is a picture of the coffee maker I nearly destroyed by doing it wrong:
Ah, what a lovely beginning. We have a team meeting in 24 minutes, so I should go wake up the boys. CYA.
Well, well
Apr 14, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
{ MOOD: Pleasant | NOISE: Birds outside my window }
Well. The last few days have been interesting. Here’s a recap:
Easter Sunday: Had a decent morning at Riv, then headed to my parent’s house with Kite. This is his third year as an adopted family member and he always leaves with a lot of food. This year, it was 2 cakes. My dad took a ton of digital pictures and some were really good (whoever said Lawyers can’t have an artistic eye?) Here are my favorites:
Monday: Had lunch with Roger, a guy who had a huge impact on my life in High School. It was awesome to catch up and have him kick my butt in darts.
Tuesday: Had our last Amsterdam team meeting before leaving the country. This team is getting along so well that it took me an hour and a half to get the meeting started. Crazy. We ate and prayed and went through last minute details. It’s kinda weird to think I am leaving in two days. Especially since it hasn’t sunk in yet.
Food
Apr 9, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
{ MOOD: Still Tired | TIVO: Still Reno 911 }
So my wife is throwing a baby shower for Suzanne tomorrow. There are a great many things to be said about this, but I want to focus on the important one: food. She is making so much food. And I cannot have any of it. She has made homemade oreo cheesecake (with Raspberry Drizzle, no less), cheeseballs (trust me they look better than they sound), chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, etc etc etc. And while we had these lovely smells in the house, what did we have for dinner?
Taco Bell.
Did I mention I’m not getting any of this food? Oh well, at least the house smells a little worse because of the Taco Bell…
Mach 3
Apr 9, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
{ MOOD: Tired | TIVO: Reno 911 }
From Ananova, here’s an awesome story:
Mini ‘caught speeding at Mach 3′
A Belgian motorist has been sent a speeding ticket for travelling at 2,100 mph.
The ticket claimed he’d been caught doing Mach 3 in his Mini in a Brussels city suburb.
Police have apologised for the mistake, and have blamed a faulty radar.
They said human error was to blame for sending out the ticket, even though it was clear the man’s car couldn’t have been travelling at three times the speed of sound.
Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure said the alleged speeding incident happened in December, but only came to light when the ticket was sent out this month.
Prosecutors asked to follow up the unpaid find said: “We called the local police to find out what height the plane caught speeding along the Boulevard Lambermont was flying at.”
After the call, police apologised to the motorist, and promised to make sure the radar was repaired.
Passion Thoughts
Apr 8, 2004 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
{ MOOD: Average | NOISE: Printing Sounds }
From Ship of Fools, here’s an interesting article. And, as always, I reward the lazy by quoting an excerpt:
YOU’D BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING there was not much fun to be had from Mel Gibson’s paschal bloodbath, The Passion of the Christ. It’s an unrelenting two-hour gorefest in Latin and the only joke in it is extremely poor.
But you’d be wrong. The display of double standards from Christian anti-violence campaigners happily denying everything they have preached for a quarter-century has been thoroughly entertaining. For years they have told us that ketchup explosions degrade and corrupt viewers, that graphic violence inspires copycats and undermines society.
Now, without so much as a grinding of gears, they have stolen all the liberals’ best arguments to explain why the film Roger Ebert called “the most violent I have ever seen” is the greatest story ever sold.
