I wrote this post yesterday...

My dearest blog readers, I am so sorry that I have been delinquent in posting.  If the past two weeks is any indication of what my worklife is going to be like in Europe…  well I am exhausted at the thought. 

(Side note:  I am currently sitting on the train from Brussels to Amsterdam, and directly across from me is the type of foursome that I see every five minutes here in Europe- especially since its summer.  They are four bum American backpackers, talking about the standard things they seem to talk about: the legalization of drugs, superficial references to the need for freedom of speech, what chicks their friends are with right now, things they did for really cheap, how freakin’ awesome it was, remember that one bar?, and what the hell are they going to do now that they are turning 20 soon.)

The week of the 15th was filled with meetings, no time for blogging, barely any time for packing even, since I was leaving immediately after my last meeting that week for a weekend in the U.S.

That weekend was not work related: very good friends of ours got married in Belgium (yes Belgium!) Wisconsin.  Though it seems a little crazy to fly to mid west America when I had just moved to Amsterdam just over two weeks before, it was the type of thing where I know I will be friends with these two twenty years from now and I will think, why the hell did I not go to their wedding?  What did make me laugh was that after 18 hours of traveling, I was welcomed to “the land of the beer and the cheese”.  I had just left the land of the beer and the cheese!  I could have just stayed home if that is what I wanted!   Though there is one thing they have in Wisconsin we don’t have in Holland: cheese curds.  The name takes some getting used to, but they are squeaky and good. 

Here are the two newlyweds:

Could it have been a more gorgeous sunny day?  They got married on the beach, and the second she walked down the aisle the sun broke out of the clouds and everything was just brilliant.  Amazing.  It being the first wedding I have attended since being engaged, I was experiencing a solid emotional meltdown in my seat.  Anuj was standing at the altar – he was one of the groomsmen.

Ok, so when I said before I couldn’t possible miss the wedding and that’s why I flew to the U.S., well that is true of course, but its only half the reason – it was my first opportunity to see Anuj since moving!   It was fantastic, though hard because we wanted to cram so much into one weekend for the two of us.   And it was even harder to say goodbye at the end of the weekend. 

Then I hurtled into a crazy week.  My flight from Milwaukee to Philly was delayed, which made me thisclose to missing my connecting flight to Amsterdam.  US Airways was completely unhelpful – when asking whether they could do anything to help me make it to the terminal on completely the other side of the airport to what was after all still a flight with their company, their only comment was “Good Luck”.  Thanks a lot, arghhh!  I sprint/sweat my way over to the terminal, which I arrive at in time because lo! this flight is ALSO delayed.  Of course.  So I buy an arsenal of American magazines and a Twix bar, and settle in for my flight, which should get me in on time for my morning meeting at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam.   I get to baggage claim in Amsterdam and wait for my bags.  And wait.  And wait.  Until only a handful of us are standing around waiting… no more bags are coming through. 

Baggage Claim desk: complete chaos.  I am already and hour late for my meeting and I smell bad and look wrinkled.  Plus I am in a horrible mood.   Baggage claim desk people?  Completely unhelpful.  All they can tell me is that my bags might be in tomorrow. 

I run home, without bags, without anything really.  I missed my meeting completely.  I open up email to see I definitely should have been checking them during my wedding weekend.  Wait, I am flying to Oslo this week?  Wait, I am leaving TOMORROW?  I frantically call Baggage Claim Desk again – I find that no, they cannot get me my bags before I leave on my week long business trip, and no, they can’t put me through to someone who might be able to figure out because, heck they don’t even work for US Airways!  They are just some outsourced company to deal with really unhappy people.    Argh!!!   

I leave for Brussels on my business trip.  (edited on 11/30/2005 to eliminate reference to employer).  I leave for this trip with no bags.   After a long day of meetings in Brussels on Tuesday, I take the 2.5 hour train ride back home, getting to Amsterdam just before midnight, to pick up my bags, which had now been dropped off at my office, after being delayed again.  I get home, unpack, email, and repack, and catch two hours of sleep before getting on a flight to Oslo.

Yes, Oslo.   I am not saying I don’t like traveling for work, but it did seem to be more fun when I stuck on a couple extra days at the end of a trip to Central America and visited a community forestry operation in endangered mahogany primary forest…  this week it was just a heck of a lot of conference rooms.  I did have two free hours to walk around Oslo…

Apparently it’s famous for trolls.

But hey!  That’s just for tourists… this is where it’s really at:  Norwegian rap!

And some local disgruntled youth that made me laugh:

Then off to Helsinki.   I have no pictures from here.  I would have only shot the wooden paneling of the hotel conference and no one reads a blog for that kind of stuff. 

I spent the weekend in Belgium – visited both sets of grandparents, which was great.  Moving closer to them was a big plus point to moving to Amsterdam in the first place.

My friend also threw a killer party at her new apartment on Saturday night, so that was really great.  We tried to get some dance grooves going, but I guess they weren’t having that…  The only victim of the night was the guy who decided that right in front of the door to the toilet, on the cold cold tile, was a great place to take a late evening nap.  No amount of prodding could get him to change his mind.  People just stepped over him to pee.

Now today I had meetings in Brussels again, and I am finally on a train headed home.  Not for long of course.  I have meetings in Amsterdam tomorrow, Wednesday I have “free” to catch up on ten days of work I am behind on, and then Thursday I leave for Germany, with Austria, Norway and Finland again on the itinerary for next week.  Sweet traveling skills…

This might have been a long-ish and maybe rather boring update but I feel so bad about posting so little I feel compelled to justify my absence.  All I can say is, internet, please keep reading…

Comments

[dogra]

Joke, you're such a slacker!

p.s. Send some of that beer and cheese to Brooklyn. Consider it hurricane relief.

[Katie K.]

Hello over there! The east coast isn't the same with out you... but it seems like Europe is showing you a good time. Ah, train rides -- I was one of those Americans once... I think Andi and I had the same conversations - comparing hostels & what chicks we were interested in... um, boys, I meant boys! Just joshing. Miss ya Joke!