cute lil lambs

It's spring and time to see those baby lambs lying like dead things on the side of the railway tracks again! Dunno why, but I've always liked baby lambs. Sheeps, well, they're alright, but there's not many things cuter than a baby lamb. I think it's cuz they don't bite (as far as I know), scratch, bark, or really do anything bad. They're just kinda there. Lying on their sides with their legs crossed. Relaxing, chilling on the grass.

In the north of the NL, there are a few islands where you can see alot of nature. Dunes, sand, beaches, marshes, and ... baby lambs!! I am planning to go see them this weekend. :D Can't wait to touch one hehe. I hope I can sneak one in my duffelbag.

today was alright

hey y'alls,

It was an OK day today. I didn't get arrested, so that was good. I did, however, do a front flip on my bicycle (unintentionally). As usual, I had no idea how/what happened, but it felt like I hit a big pylon or rock that was in my way, cuz my front wheel totally went locked and the bike just went over my head and before I knew it, I was squashed under my bike on the concrete, waving my arms wildly trying to get the bike off my head. What a sight it must've been. Thank god no one was around...

Life is really funny actually. I can't be too specific here, but I was reminded today that nothing is ever as you expect. And everytime I think something is really really great, I am reminded that it's usually only a matter of time before I start complaining about it. It's just part of humanity I suppose. But anyway, after my meetings today I can't wait to find out what will happen next week!! :)

will try to blog more...

this says it all...

Go ahead, arrest me!!

Earlier this year, I made a resolution to be a tougher person. By tough I don't mean going around with a butch haircut, wearing ripped jeans and leather vests, or punching people out randomly. I just meant standing up for what I believe in more often and being more vocal when I'm not cool with something.

About a month ago, I was able to exercise this 'toughness' with a dumb bimbo in the coat check of Jimmy Woo (club in Amsterdam). We were in a big crowd trying to get our coats back, but I had hung mine with a girl who was still going to stay at the club, so I asked if the bimbo could take just MY coat off the rack and hang the remaining coat back up.

"No," she replied coldly. "There are too many people here waiting for me to do that. Either you take both coats, or you don't take either of them." At that, she decided to throw both coats off the hanger and leave them on the counter. I was in disbelief at her rude and stupid service. Blanking out for a few minutes (seconds??), we finally decided to comply and just ask her to put the coat on another rack, thus having to get a new ticket stub for the coat check.

After waiting for what was probably 10 minutes, watching the stupid coat check bimbos mull around slowly in the coat check, back and forth, slow as snails, she finally issued a new ticket for the coat we were holding onto. I had had enough.

When she gave us the new ticket stub, I said to her, "I hope you realise that you just created MORE work for yourself. You could've just kept the coat on the hanger and hung it back up!!" She responded with a "yea whatever" and walked away, while I then shouted, "MAYBE IF YOU USED YOUR *BRAIN* A LITTLE!!!!!" (this is where i quickly disappeared into the crowd).

[Note: This is a very typical example of the Dutch 'customer service' mentality. They just DONT THINK/give a shit about how to help you.]

Today, I was confronted with another chance to stand up for myself.

I was biking on my way to work when a navy-blue uniform clad Dutch man jumped out to stop me. Saying I had run a red light, he demanded to see my ID over and over, while I stared at him and tried to get him to let me go. After a few tries, he said he was going to arrest me if I didn't show him my ID so he dragged me all the way to the police station.

You may be wondering why I didn't give him my ID?

1. Because if I did, I'd DEFINITELY be fined (and I was still hoping I'd be let go).
2. Because he was being a total asshole.
3. Because I did NOT run the red light!!!

On the way there, I started to cry as a last resort, but it did no good whatsoever. He was just as mean. He even grabbed me a few times roughly, took my bike and walked ahead, making sure I followed him.

Ten mins later, I found myself locked in a little cell in the police station with real iron bars, and no way of getting out. The police officer then came around to search my purse, and only snatched it out of my hands after some struggle. He went to the otherside of the bars and started searching around, including unfolding my foil-wrapped open faced sandwich (rye bread with cheese).

"What is this??" he said while he unwrapped my foil. I shouted back, "That's my lunch, do you wanna take that too? Just take it, why don't you????" Finally he opened my wallet and found my ID, those bastards. I also muttered many other things (such as "There are real criminals out there!!", "I'm a good person!!", "This is no way to treat your citizens!!", "I'm sick of all these stupid systems in the Netherlands!" "Go ahead and kick me out of this stupid country!") that got no sympathy from them as they proceeded to ask my address/name and check my background.

I couldn't have cared less if I got arrested or a record, it was SO ridiculous how they were accusing me of running a red light (there WERE NO bike traffic lights at that intersection, that I'm sure of.) and they were fining me for something stupid when drugs and prostitutionis totally OKAY there.. what the hell!!!

So I sat in that lil room for maybe 45 mins, waiting to be let out and go to work. I was done my crying session and so then decided finally to cooperate (and give them my real address). I did manage to tell them tho that the police officer was a total asshole and was extremely abusive and rough with me. Not that it will result in any consequences for him, but sigh, that's life in the Netherlands.

In the end, I was let go with two different fines: One for "running the red light" and another for refusing to show my ID. Was it worth it? Maybe not. But at least I stood up for my rights!!!!! ARRRGH!!!!!!!

Things that make me laugh

• posters for some woman's concert was titled "The Farewell World Tour" (get it? farewell world?? hahaha)
• You know you're Chinese when...
• the word for "teenagers" in Dutch is 'pubers'!!!!! (no joke, lol!!!)

and of course, who could forget, a few days ago:

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A teenage guitarist got so carried away while bouncing up and down on his bed mimicking a rock star that he flew out of a third floor window to his death, a Singapore newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Straits Times said Li Xiao Meng, a 16-year-old from China who was studying at Singapore's Hua Business School, was a keen musician who liked to jump up and down while playing his guitar in his hostel room.

"But on November 17 he took things a bit too far," the newspaper said, reporting on a coroner's court findings.

Ruling death by misadventure, the court said evidence "points to the deceased unintentionally falling out of the window to his death when he was hyped up with exhilaration, jumping up and down on the bed placed against an open window while mimicking a rock guitarist.""

Normally the windows were locked, the newspaper said, but students sometimes forced them open so they could smoke, something prohibited by the hostel.

Picture update

hello! as i've been too busy (lazy) to post, here is a picture update. Mouseover the pics for the captions! :) tot later, -e

Moments of insanity

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you just lose control of yourself? You kinda know what you're doing, and you know it's not going to end up pretty, but you are doing it anyway and then you just have to deal w/ the consequences that follow.

It can be anything from having a total lapse from logical reasoning, like the time I dropped EUR 200 on a pair of jeans (and only realised a few hours later that I spent CDN $320 on a single pair of jeans), binging non-stop on chocolates and cookies (just for the hell of it, and dammit, cuz it feels good), and of course, hitting my limbs on random street obstacles like parked cars and bike racks.

The other day, I happened to go too fast through a narrow path, with parked cars on my left and a row of parked bikes on a bike rack to my right. Thinking "I-can-make-it-I-can-make-it" as I sped by did me little good, as I was brought to an instant HALT when my right calf got caught somewhere between the bike rack and my bike pedal(??) I still have no idea what happened. All I know is I now have a bruise the size of my fist surfacing slowly on the back of my calf muscle.

I guess we all kinda zone out at one time or another. Like now, for instance, cuz I can't think of anything else to elaborate on this subject.

[Zoning out in progress...]

--
In other news, I was particularly amused by the following incident at work yesterday :

Boss: Please excuse the strange sounds I'm making... [bends over in her chair towards colleague seated next to her]
Colleague: *chuckles*
Boss: [bent over, under desk] *slurp* *squish* *lick* *smack lips* *wet slurps*
Me: [wide-eyed]
Boss: Ha ha ha! It's VERY JUICY... *slurp* *smack* *breathy gasp of enjoyment/relief*

Um.. yea (it was apparently some kinda orange). ^_-

Back from the dead!!!

I HAVE SURVIVED THE EUROPEAN/AMSTERDAM FLU FOR THE 2ND (and hopefully the last) TIME.

I have never experienced more pain. Constant fever (39-40 degrees Celsius), aches and pains, nausea, dizziness, headache, chills, lack of appetite, total inability to do anything but lie in my totally wet clothes drenched in sweat, and of course this lasts for more than a whole week straight!!!

Maybe I'm getting old, but what happened to the days where flus lasted 1-2 days and then I am well again??? Before I knew it, I've missed over 1 week of work, and for the record did not enjoy my days off as I could not leave my room for most of those days.

Of course, I got the dreaded recurring nightmare that I always get when I'm delerious (the one where I almost always wake up totally disoriented and ready to jump out the window hysterical) but luckily this time, I didn't actually have to die in my dream...which is a good change to say the least... :) Something's changed!!

Tomorrow will be my first day back at work after my sickness. I'm not looking forward to it but it will be nice to do something productive after lying around for so long. Oh yea, I've also moved apartments!!! and it is GREAT!!!! I have a king-sized waterbed (fyi - king-sized in amsterdam is more like a Queen bed back home), but hey I ain't complaining as my bed back home is just a Twin (oh but how I love thee Obusforme, we shall meet again soon, I hope)...

Housewarming will come soon... :) I hope I never get the flu again in Europe. My European friends don't seem to be affected by the strain of flu I got at all, it must be something they've grown up with and have fought thru before as a kid. But seriously, I am determined never to get it again! It was the worst experience ever and I really thought I was going to die!!!! :(

PS - super super tak to freknar for saving/sustaining my life the past week... :)

Friday the 13th

Hm... I just noticed that it's Friday the 13th and no one here has mentioned it! SO, I decided to turn to my colleague:

E: HEY! It's Friday the 13th today! :)
M: ...so?
E: You know! Friday the 13th! *making claw-like gesture* Y'know, Freddy Kruger, Nightmare on Elm Street...*baring teeth* rowr...
M: Ohh.. yea...
E: No walking under ladders, avoiding black cats-
M: I have 2 black cats.
E: Oh...so.. I guess it's not a big thing here, eh?
M: ...nope.

Because I was curious and hoping to enlighten my readers about Friday the 13th (translation: i wanted to avoid working), I decided to find out more about this funny date.

Some facts:

• In North America and Europe, a significant portion of the population won't fly in airplanes, host a party, apply for a job, get married or even start a new project today. Some people won't even come into work.
• The medical condition for being afraid of Friday the 13th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia.
• Thirteen is significant to Christians because it is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper (Jesus and his 12 apostles). Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th member of the party to arrive. Jesus was also crucified on a Friday.

Well, that's enough educational material for me to last a while. Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

About work

So life has returned pretty much 'back to normal,' or back to 'business as usual' if I should use company lingo. :P Since I am currently out of ideas on what to post here, I thought I'd maybe give you a glimpse into what my workplace is like. (Mouse-over the pics to see captions.)



Embarrassing moment van de dag (of the day)
In Holland, it's hard to find a water cooler in the office. However, you can bet that in every office, you can find a coffee machine. This coffee machine gives small dental sized cups of coffee, tea, hot water, hot chocolate and sometimes soup. Dutch people can have anywhere from 2-10+ cups a day of this stuff, and it's a social custom to ask your colleagues if they would like a drink when you are getting one for yourself.

Sidenote: The quality of drinks from these coffee machines is quite crappy, but the Dutch don't seem to notice. Hence, the lack of quality coffee in this country.

Anyway, I had just gotten a round of drinks from the coffee machine and rounded the corner back to our section to distribute them. Noticing that one of our colleagues, an older British man had returned from a meeting and I hadn't gotten a drink for him, I said in an overly sweet tone: "Oh! I missed you!"

It took only a second for me to realise how wrong that sounded cuz I saw a strange look on his face as well, but then I quickly blurted out, "I mean, I didn't get you a drink!! Ha..Ha.." -____-

Yay for Christmas!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! Another year's gone by and all those cliches about reflecting on the past year and looking forward into the next can't be avoided... Finally, I get to go on a mini-vacation away from the daily grind of work and just relax and forget about all the problems I've been having lately.

Yes, it's true, the last week has been really really shitty. It had nothing to do with Grace being here (or did it??? Haha just kidding Grace!! ) but I dunno why so much shit happened.

It started with falling off my bike last Thursday. Then over the weekend, we went to a spa, and it turned out to be a NUDE spa, and no swimsuits were permitted. It was really awkward at first cuz of all the 'hairy snouts' flopping around and of course there were nude ladies too but after a while I tried to act cool (didnt' really work). We had signed up for a HAMAM treatment, which was a traditional Turkish bath where you get scrubbed all over your body, and were again shocked to realise it was done by men. Not only that, but it's done in an open area with other naked people all over the place! But in the end, we went through with it anyway.

I shook hands with my HAMAM guy, who told me that all I needed to do was 'relax'. I tried my best and told him to avoid my left knee which I had scraped up while falling off my bike, and he did so that was good. But the massaging/kneading of my legs was BRUTAL and after the 20 min treatment I found a big purple bruise on my left calf!!! (ahhhh the agony!!!)

Next up was a pedicure upstairs. The lady was using some kind of device I had never seen being used for pedicures before, it was sort of like a dentist drill but on the end of it was some sort of screwdriver/flat metal chisel that she was running up and down the side of my big toenail. She started w/ my left foot, and it hurt a bit but not THAT much... but when she went to my right big toe, she just kept on digging deeper into my toe along the side of my toenail, so that before I knew it, I was shrieking like a baboon to her to STOP!! STOP!!! but she just kept going!!!!! for at least a few seconds. By the time she stopped, blood started pouring out of my toe, along the edge, and she just calmly took a cotton to my foot and said that it was 'normal'.

NORMAL!?!? I was NOT convinced. In fact, I was mortified!!!!!!!!! and in a LOT OF PAIN!! I now know what it feels like to be a war victim, I think, the ones who get tortured by having their limbs cut off, or their intestines pulled out of them while alive, etc. because I was WATCHING the lady CUT into my toe and I could do nothing about it! and after I was bleeding, I was probably in shock cuz I started shaking in my chair at what she did to me :(

If that wasn't enough, I found another big cut in my finger (from where I have no clue) which bled and bled... then a few days ago I went to a tanning salon and went to the 'turbo sunner' for 10 mins, thinking that my asian skin wouldnt burn like the dutchies even though I was warned by the girl who worked there... and what do you know... 24 hours after the tanning, my ass and back is as red as a lobster and it hurts to move :(

ANNNNND... this morning when I was washing a few dishes, I accidentally dropped a small glass and it broke into literally 50+ pieces, and I found 2 shards of glass jammed into my left pinky finger!!!! (which bled too). WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all these little bad things have come to an end...

Oh.. btw... Merry Christmas everyone! :)

I used to think it was crazy when people would call me more than 1ce or 2ce in a row when trying to reach me. There was this one time a few years ago when a guy I knew called my house and I really didn't feel like talking to him. It went something like this:

*ring ring*
"Oh look it's BOY-X."
[pick up. hang up.]

*ring ring*
"Oh look, him again."
[pick up. hang up.]

*ring ring*
[pick up. hang up.]

*ring ring*
[pick up. hang up.]

Repeat 5x more.

*ring ring*
"Hello?"
"Hi, it's me, BOY-X."
"Oh hey. Did you just call me a few minutes ago?"
"What..? No..."
"Oh, okay."
[roll eyes.]

Anyway, I think I now finally understand the phenomenon of chronic dialing syndrome. It came upon me last night as I was sitting at our company xmas party, 'alone' at my table while those around me hee-hawed loudly in Dutch. I tried to appear amused with myself and my glass of white wine, but really, how amused can a girl look when she's sitting all by herself???? So, in order to alleviate the boredom, I started dialing for people to talk to, and before I knew it, I was pushing the send button repeatedly and listening anxiously to the beeps on the line and hoping that a human voice would be on the other end to say hello...

I can't think of that many moments where I felt more like a loser. In front of me sat the Head of my business unit, chatting somewhat secretly with the mean-looking Dutch lady who sat beside her, the one with the wrinkled face, slitty eyes, fake red lil lips and fried permed white hair. On my left was my boss, filling up the air with her snorty laughter, having a great time, in her snazzy shiny white blazer.

So ya, it was kinda shitty being there but as most expats in NL know, the Dutch aren't known for being very considerate at all, which includes the fact that they will speak in Dutch around you without caring that you don't understand a word. Even if you tell them you only speak English, it doesn't seem to matter. It would make more sense if they didnt speak English, but most of them do but still choose to exclude people. It didn't matter that much to me actually, because I wasn't that interested in talking to these people about work anyway, which is what most of them resorted to.

--

In other news, I had my second official bike accident yesterday. After the work party, I jetted out of there early so I could get back home and chill. But as I approached the ferry terminal that would take me back to Central Station, I stopped the bike, only to teeter and tip to the left, adn before I knew it, I landed on my knee and elbow, trapped under the bike. I lay there for 2 seconds, thinking "not again..." and then picked myself up and acted like nothing happened.

There were at least 4 people standing about 5 feet away from me, but none of them said a word, and just stood in the darkness. I went towards the water so I didn't have to face them, and then I hear, "How is it?" from behind me.

Turns out it's a 'friendly' Surinamese guy, who in our conversation tells me what he does for a living, that he enjoys walking in the night, that he lives in the SouthEast of Amsterdam (translation: ghetto), that he has no girlfriend, that he can teach me Dutch and that he'd like to take me out sometime.

Big WOOP and WHAT a SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man.. Surinamese guys are so damned predictable. Way to pick up a girl when she's down, man!!!

I did my best to fend him off, but as we got to the other side of the water, I decided to take a peek at my knee, which was feeling rather numb. To my surprise, it was deep red and oozing with thick blood!!! Ahhhh, at least last time when I fell off my bike, I had jeans on and I just got a slight scrape in my knee. But THIS time it was just pantyhose and that got scraped off right away.. and by the time I got home, the pantyhose had dried up w/ my blood and gotten stuck to my skin!!

Ohhh the pain!!!!!!!!! :'(

I'm bored too.

TEN YEARS AGO I...wore oversized adidas track suits and baggy wide leg jeans, had braces and were dying to get em off so I could finally feel the skin of an apple burst against my teeth, chew caramel candies and all that kinda good stuff, and had a scary/stalker obsession with a guy whom I thought we were "made for each other".

FIVE YEARS AGO I...was in my 2nd year of Uni, having dimsum, Costco and grocery outings with my Grandma often, playing with my crazy white cat Pinky and wearing a LOTTA fleece. I also watched Days of our Lives religiously :)

ONE YEAR AGO I...lived with Sofie and Nico in a cute 'dollhouse', in Amsterdam working for the same company in a different department, rushing like mad to get a huge yearbook project completed and planning what to do for Christmas.

YESTERDAY I...ripped the bottoms of my feet open (or at least it felt that way) dancing on the oceandiva, did the YMCA, robot, and the fish, and felt the room (and my head) spin while we danced to '(I've had) The time of my life' (Dirty Dancing)

FIVE SNACKS I ENJOY:
Fruit (especially persimmons and mangos)
Kit Kat
Rice pudding
Stroopwafels
Coconut macaroons

FIVE SONGS I KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO:
Ode to a Friend - Jann Arden
Symbolistic White Walls - Matthew Good Band
Separated - Usher
Rendezvous - Craig David
I Wanna Know - Joe

FIVE THINGS I WOULD DO WITH 100 MILLION DOLLARS:
Invest (that goes without saying)
Give the ones I love something they have always wished for
Get my eyes lasered and my mom's too
Buy a loft in Hong Kong (Island)!
Take a year off to travel the world

FIVE BAD HABITS:
Avoid making decisions
Changing my mind too much
Never being completely satisfied
Getting annoyed with kids too easily
Binging on chocolate and waffles

FIVE BIGGEST JOYS:
BODYPUMP!!! :-)
Going to new places and seeing how others live
Making videos and editing them
Drawing cartoons
Chocolate chip cookies ... mmmm

FIVE FAVORITE TOYS:
Three Fishballs
Excreman
Digital Camera
Treadmill
Ipod

FIVE PLACES I WOULD RUN AWAY TO:
Vancouver
Hong Kong
Jamaica
LA/SF
New York

FIVE THINGS I WOULD NEVER WEAR:
A complete LULULEMON/TNA track suit
White jeans
A nose ring
White pantyhose
Leather pants
A wedding ring (hahahahahah..;)

FIVE FAVORITE TV SHOWS:
Dr. Phil
Oprah
Spongebob
Will & Grace
King of Queens

“Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine.”

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Okay, so it might not be fair to compare work to prison, but you have to agree that there IS a lot of routine involved. You struggle to wake up every morning, put on your suit, trudge down the stairs, get on the tram, beep into the building, sit at your desk, attend a few meetings, zone out at the desk, wait a few hours, and then leave work, only to start the cycle again for the rest of the week.

I can’t decide whether having routine at work is a good or bad thing. I think most people would claim that they want a dynamic, challenging job that throws them curveballs on a daily basis. I would also say the same. BUT I can also see the other side, because it could be very comforting to just go to work, do what you gotta do, and then leave without anything hanging over your head.

“Work” for me also used to be much more defined. Sure, I have things to do now, but my tasks aren’t as clear as they used to be. What do I mean? Well… Back in the hey day when I wore grey clown pants, a greasy white/grey striped shirt and floppy green visor for A&W, my job was very clear. I was to:

• Take customers’ orders (Do you wanna biggy-size that?)
• Serve food to customers
• Bag take-out orders
• Clean the dining area
• Clean the toilets
• Take out the trash, etc.

Every task could be written out and checked off once completed, it was so clear. Oh look, the straws are almost out, we need more straws. Oh, oh, the ketchup’s spurting, we need to fill that up. Running low on extra large soda cups. Milkshake machine’s making a bit too much noise, we need more mix for that too. And so it went…The 8-hour shifts flew by as if they were only 2.

I remember when I first started at my so-called corporate job about one year ago and meeting my fellow coworkers. One of them introduced himself as responsible for Sustainable Development for an entire business unit. During our one-on-one meeting, I kept asking him, “So…what exactly do you do?” to which he responded with a slew of phrases that I (not surprisingly) cannot remember even one, and I am still unsure of what exactly he does to contribute to Sustainable Development for that entire business unit. I just didn’t understand what he was doing while on the phone, or in front of his computer for 8 hours in a day.

But eventually, it clicked, and now I realise that what people do at their desks is really a sort of façade. We’re all working in a maze of emails, corresponding with people, dealing with IT problems, googling something now and then (I’m pretty sure it’s not only me), making PowerPoint presentations, planning meetings, etc. Everyone seems to think that what they do is mighty important, when in fact, perhaps what they do doesn’t make an ounce of difference to the all and powerful multinational corporation.

I guess that’s the difference between working on the front line, and working on a ‘higher’ level (headquarters). On the front line, it’s clear what you gotta do. In fact, it can be very noticeable if you don’t do your job, (ie. No more ketchup!!) and when you are sitting behind a desk, doing ‘high-level’ stuff, it can become very ambiguous and vague what exactly you’re supposed to be doing…

Perhaps it’s just me and the other people in headquarters actually have lots of tasks to keep them busy. It could be true. But sometimes, when I am staring blankly at my screen, wondering what else I can possibly google today, I wish I had a mindless job which was simple enough for me to do without thinking, and just let the time fly by (and the money roll in.) ;)

Nightmare in Rome

A picture's worth 1000 words...

but if you'd rather read through one thousand six hundred and three, here you go:

03:43
Our trip began at 3:43AM with a train taking us to Rotterdam, where we were to take the plane to Rome. It is a very normal connection, running about 60 mins and this should not have been any different. However, somewhere along the way we noticed that we had double backed to Den Haag and was headed back for Amsterdam, and finally decided to ask one of the drunken night-train people what the heck was going on.

Apparently, the wind was so bad that it had blown off the roof of some station between us and Rotterdam, thereby obstructing the rails, so the train was going all the way back to Amsterdam. People who had to go to Rotterdam needed to wait about 1 hr for a connecting train to Gouda, another city which woulda made us miss our flight FOR SURE!

So, we managed to find a train to Rotterdam Hofplein, which was "only 5 mins away from Rotterdam Central Station" according to the train lady, but as we had no idea where we were when we got off, we walked into the black night with all our luggage, while it was pouring rain and before we knew it, we were almost blown off our feet walking on some highway with hail balls hitting our faces like bullets!!!! This lasted for about 5 mins, and finally we found a taxi which we told to book it to the airport. LUCKILY, we made it there 2 mins before the check-in counter closed. (PHEW.)

Rain, rain and more rain
So we get to Rome, and it is pouring rain. We manage to find the hostel and things are fine, we decide to go to the Colosseum and check it out, but it got so bad that we ended up huddling under some kind of arch and staying there for 20 mins or so. Finally, we decide it's best to move on despite the rain and so we walk a bit further. At this point, muddy water is everywhere on the ground, the rain is coming down in big plops and we decide perhaps its a good idea to just go back to the hostel at least for a while. We decide to take the bus, just to save time and not get even wetter, and so we see a bus coming our way and we hop on, each of us with 1 euro in our hands, ready to pay the ticket.

The Incident with the "Police"
Dave goes up to the front of the bus and tries to get the bus driver's attention, but she has already started driving. So, he raises his eyebrows and shoulders, and we all just put our 1 euro in our pockets. Ten minutes later, to our absolute horror, the transit authorities come on board and request to see our tickets. I look at Ching-Yin with extra-wide eyes and then at Dave, who is mouthing the words, "Get off." But it was too late, cuz the bald italian man with a stern expression was already hovering over me. I stared at him and showed him my 1 euro coin, but he was emotionless and asked for me and Dave's identification (passports).

I tried to delay giving it to him as much as I could, by saying things like, "we were going to pay for the ticket but there was nowhere to buy it! We tried to get it from the driver!" etc. but nothing worked. We gave him our passports and he started to write us up. He told us, it would be 50 euros if we paid him now, or 100 if we paid him later, and he would bill it to our embassy according to our passports. I was thinking, there is NO WAY i am going to pay this asshole when we didnt do anything wrong, and meanwhile Dave was trying his best too, with his now signature line, "C'mon...You don't have to do this...seriously (repeat 2-3x)" but that too failed.

At this point, I was getting really annoyed. I told the guy, "this is ridiculous!!!" and apparently I had said it quite a few times beforehand, because the Italian dude took a pause from writing us up, and said to me, "You say the word ridiculous one more time, and i will take you to the station." I was standing up at this point and I stared long and hard at him, and he continued to write us up. So... I said it: "This is FUCKING ridiculous."

The bus stopped at Termini station (last stop), the man grabbed us and told us to get out, to follow him to the station, and he was pissed mad. Hetal and Ching-yin had already been fined by the other transit authority (female) and Hetal was very very compliant and polite. She tried to ask the lady more questions like "So... does this happen often to tourists?" when she had already paid the fine, I just wanted to pull all her hair off of that transit woman and give her a nice kick between the legs!!!!! (ok maybe not in real life but u know what I mean)

So now we're outside and the transit authorities are standing together and the bald guy said , "NO you do not say FUCK YOU to me, I AM A POLICE!" and here I said to him, "I did NOT say FUCK, I was speaking CHINESE, you dont even know what I said, you have no idea what Chinese even sounds like!!!" and now Dave was trying to stop the conflict and he starts to argue with another guy, telling him that we had NO clue how to pay for the bus ticket, etc. and anyway, the bald guy continues to write the receipt up and gives it to me, tells me to calm down and I continue with "This is NO WAY to treat visitors to Rome!!!" to which he doesn't give a shit anyways, but in the end, Dave goes, "Do me a favour? Come to Canada one day, cuz then you'll see how much better we treat people there." [Yea I know, that one hurt the cop real bad.] Finally, we got to leave and we trudged off in the rain.

I was a bit relieved, because I was holding a fine receipt in my hand, of 50 euros which I didnt even pay, and I was like, stupid Italian man!! :) Didn't even remember to collect the 50 euros from me in the midst of all that chaos. But then, when I mentioned this to the guys, they told me that Dave had given 100 euros to the authorities somehwere along the way, and they were like, "You thought they just let you go?? Why do you think we're allowed to go right now!!!?!?!?!" @#$#@%@%#!!!!! I am still so pissed!! I SO WAS NOT GOING TO PAY.

ARRRRRGH. We SO should not have paid, but since Hetal and Ching-Yin already paid, it was hard for me and Dave not to pay too. We were also freaked out because they had our passports, but cmon, we shouldve just let them bill us and not pay the stupid fine. As if not paying 1 euro for a bus ticket would look that bad on our "record", not like we killed someone!!!!! But it was reeeeeealy hard to argue all this when the rest of ur group paid the fine, and especially when someone paid the fine on ur behalf!!!!!!!!! GRRR!!

Okay, so we decided to put this behind us, so no more about this. If you have questions please just email me.

##vent over##

Sidenote: we also found out how bad we are at being bitches/bastards. Our lines at the police were sooo lame. Hehe. We so need to become more gangsta.

Smooth sailing
The next few days were fine, with the sightseeing and everything. I mean, it couldn't have gotten any worse after what we endured the first night. BUT...

On our way back 'home', our train to the airport departed WAY later than expected, causing us to arrive at the airport just 30 mins before take-off time. Right as the train pulled into the airport, Hetal also realises that she forgot her purse (and all her documentation) back at the breakfast place next to the hostel!!!! (AHHHHHHHHH)

We ran to the transavia.com counter but it was just too late, and no one was there anymore to check us in. So.. basically, we missed our flight. :(

We quickly found out that if we wanted to take the same flight out, it would be the next day, same time and with an additional charge of 160 euros!!! (each) KLM was 800 euros and so was Alitalia for the same day flight. Luckily tho, we found a flight out with VIRGIN express for 92 euros to Amsterdam (still bankrupting us).

Hetal and Ching-yin went back to get the purse, but they couldnt get back in time for the next flight out with Virgin Express, so they were forced to stay an extra night in Rome and take the once-a-day Virgin flight out tomorrow. So, they are still there and worse of all, Hetal's bag was with us when they went back to the hostel, so she is there with NOTHING at all... cept (very little) money of course.

---
All in all, a LOT went wrong in Rome and well, me and Dave dont feel like traveling again for a while. We are SO. BROKE. :-(

Last word: F#$% the transit police in ROME!!!!!!!!!! and boycott TRANSAVIA!! THEY SUCK!!

O Canada

I LOVE CANADA!!

Cannot believe this...

Ants eat away woman's eye in hospital

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - A woman receiving treatment for diabetes at a state-run hospital in eastern India lost one of her eyes after ants nibbled away at it, officials said on Tuesday.

The patient recovering from a post-surgery infection shrieked for help as the ants attacked her on Sunday night, but nurses told her it was normal to feel pain from the infection.

On Monday, the patient's family saw a gaping hole with swarming ants in it when they lifted the bandage on her left eye.

Authorities of the Sambhunath Hospital in Kolkata said they were probing the incident.

"It's not uncommon for ants to attack diabetic patients. We have set up a committee to investigate the unfortunate incident," hospital superintendent A. Adhikary said.

Scampering rats and stray cats and dogs sharing bed space with patients are not uncommon sights at India's overcrowded state-run hospitals that are used by millions of poor and middle-class people.
--

Wat the hell!?!

Unwanted Nakedness

Some people are just...strange. Okay so here's the deal. In the Netherlands (and possibly other parts of Europe), nakedness is not such a big deal. For example, it's not weird to see topless women at the beach (not just lying down, but running, swimming or even playing beach volleyball). It was enough of a shocker to me last year to find that there were no shower stalls, and even though it was still just ladies, it still felt a bit err--odd. But anyway, I eventually got used to it.

What I haven't gotten used to though is people who walk around naked in the spa at my gym. Back home, we wear swimsuits when we go to the sauna/steamroom, but apparently, that's unhealthy for the body because the body swells up due to the heat, and it restricts your blood flow to wear anything. I thought that the spa would be split between men and women, but it's not, and it's actually very common to enter the sauna to be face-to-*ahem* with someone's ding-dong!

So anyway, the other day, there was a 20something plump Asian girl who was walking around in the changeroom naked. That's not so odd, but then she showered, and also entered the sauna completely naked! Not only was she naked, but upon entering, she chirped a cheerful "Hello!" to everyone in the sauna, which included 3 other guys and me (wrapped in a towel of course). The men of course replied "Hi's" back, while I just stared in utter disbelief. Okay, I didnt' really stare, but I just zoned out and tried not to look at anyone/anything.

I don't know any other situation more awkward then having a naked girl in the sauna and a bunch of guys all supposedly pretending to avert their eyes. It was just.. weird. THEN, she got out of the sauna and at this point I was sitting on a ledge, soaking my feet in a tub of warm water, and she goes to the tub next to me, BENDS OVER (still completely naked) and starts the faucet for the water in her tub. MOREOVER, she then SITS her naked ass onto the ledge, and plants her naked self there for maybe 10 minutes.

I retreat to the changeroom (ladies only now) and proceed to do my own thing. Of course, she saunters in a few minutes later, showers, and then continues to be naked, this time going to the hair dryer and proceeds to DRY HER HAIR while naked! WTF!?!?!?! I had to use the sink while she was drying her hair, and the cord was actually hanging over the sink so I ducked a lil bit to turn the faucet on. At the same moment, she swung her head over and her boob almost touched me, (OMGGGG!!!!), it was SO CLOSE I could even see the mini-nubs that surrounded her nipple!!!

Eeekk... I'm so traumatised, I dont' want to run into her again, I mean, good on her to be so comfortable in her body, but cmonnn!!! save it for yourself, woman!! >:P

Halloween Pics

Afro-Egyptian (me) and Russian 60's Cop (Dave)

Halloween Party Attendees:

• 60s cop complete w/ small plastic gun and huge (HUGE) hair
• Cleopatra (very cheap one as evidenced by the white polyester 'dress' --damn halloween packaged costumes)
• cowgirl w/ dishtowel around neck
• transvestite witch on a real broomstick
• "geisha" in a chinese cheung-sam dress *rolls eyes*
• rudolph the red nose reindeer
• russian chef
• naughty fairy ^_~ *barf*
• arab

Click here for Dave's pics!

Random musings...

• why did i just eat a whole bag of wine gums (minus a few green ones)??
• how the hell do people forget to flush??
• when will i get home early enough to watch King of Queens?
• where is the line between enduring true love and over-the-top obsession?
• will i ever understand my colleagues when they cackle loudly in Dutch?
• how do pigeons injure their feet and why don't we ever see them die?
• why is it that i only want things when they're gone?
• better stop eating candies, i have no dental insurance!

1 missed flight (cost of flight is too outrageous to publish) + EUR 4.50 per head to listen to string quartet + EUR 5 involuntary tip + EUR 8 hot chocolate + 2 unwanted but paid for bottles of white wine = one very expensive weekend in Venice.