Don't hate me because I'm in France!

No, really, I mean it. There's nothing to be hatin' I've been here for a little bit under 24 hours and I've seen... the inside of a room and the inside of another room. But I guess that's what the weekend is for, with lovely Vito coming to bring me around everywhere! :)

Kiss!

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Intermission

Is it Tuesday already? Wow.


Well, I'm off to France tomorrow. And big Vito will come JOIN for a fun weekend!

I'm excited I've never been to that part of France before!!

Love it love it!!!!!!

Ok, I'm putting the cord to download pictures INTO my bag now so that when I'm lonesome all alone in my hotel room I can put up pictures. :)

You see, I drink a coffee after dinner not to seem like a wimp in front of clients... and then can't all asleep for hours. Gosh, my life is so hard! heeeehehehe

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Yummi!!!!!

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What your ringtone says about you.

So there we were having a serious business meeting with a bunch of serious people. Then we hear a cellphone ring and this extremely Mexican voice said:

Papiiiiiiiiiiiiii coge el telefonooooooooooo! Coge lo porfavooooooooor...! Pero, coge te loooooooo!

It was the funniest thing E-V-E-R!

Well almost as funny as when I asked him to beam me the ringtone via bluetooth, he said: ''Um... I see 'BarbaRossa' is that you?" ...Right... I was using Vito's phone...

So I had to explain that BarbaRossa is indeed another pet name for my big bad Vito...

Here:

I couldn't find this exact one but here is a similar, funny one too: http://www.mundogsm.com/sonidos-77595.html

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Ahhh Istanbul! It was a real quicky, but I still got a chance to feel the vibe of the city through our work contacts there.

Having never been to Turkey before I spent the entire ride from the airport to the destination trying to take in all the sites. The city seems really BIG. Lots and lots of traffic and making it accross town takes an entire hour. However if you put it in the perspective of a drive from Europe to Asia (yes half of Istanbul is in Europe and half in Asia) then the hour drive sems quite reasonable.

It was a really amazing experience! Will be putting up more reflections in the coming days... I didn't get a chance to take many pictures but got a few smoggy ones so will rely on the kindness of strangers (on google images) to pick out the ones that match what I saw. Here is the fist one. Traffic over the bridge. Yep was right in the middle of that :)

ciao!

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Home candy

Zara Home is kinda nice.... very pretty actually.

Have you been? It's not in the usa yet... momi you would LOVE it.

I like the style a lot, it makes you feel like you're browsing someone's wonderful market finds from all over the world.

I went this thursday for the first time and got some table dressing so I'm all set for Thanksgiving dinner. :)

Speaking of purchases for the home Vito and I were at Ikea last Saturday (again Mom I know you're jelous!) and got a dresser. I can now get to the back rows of clothes! I realized I have so many more things, it was like doubling my clothes!

And also the rug for the bedroom as you see... sorry blurry.

The Heineken truck matches too! :)

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SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Another really cool thing found in Valencia. I can't believe I managed this shot free of people (they were all standing behind me taking the same picture)... looks like some kind of alien compound no!? how fun!

Now many other ''expat blogs'' so to speak talk a lot about the various struggles that one goes through while adjusting in a new country. I pride myself on being an ''international citizen'' therefore obviously nothing could ever shock or surprise me.

BUT banking here just makes me feel absolutely violent and aggressive! Instance 1: when I first arrived I was shocked at the fact that in order to open a bank account one had to show up at a branch. NOT JUST WALK IN but actually make an appointment prior to showing up. Like- are you serious!??? Why can't I just fill an app online and be done with it!????

Oh and it does not stop here. I had to apply for a credit card. Can you do THAT online? NOOOO you must make an appointment at the bank and being the super sexy jet setting world traveler... I could only grace them with my grace setting an appointment a MONTH in advance. The morning of the appointment, Saturday morning, with a cup of coffee in hand I calmly made up my wish list on amazon.com thinking I'd be back in the afternoon with my shiny new CC in hand to finish off the transaction... NOOOOOOO At the appointment I was notified that and INVITATION to pick up my credit card should be mailed to me within 2 weeks. WHAT!? I have to come BACK HERE!????? I was so distressed that the lady had to walk me out of a back entrance as she did not want the other customers hearing all the profanity.

Seriously, what is this????? 16th century England where going to a bank was considered a privilege? They seriously need to stop playing, it's not funny. How am I going to pay for dinner with some clients? By taking out a huge wad of money like some cheap drug dealer??? Ew!

Now I understand why dutch people are so calm and relaxed. They MUST be, dealing with such wackiness one must have nerves of steel.

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I shall pardon a Turkey this year...

Thanksgiving is coming and I invited Vito's parents and his brother for dinner. Excitingly enough it'll be their very first Thanksgiving dinner EVER!!! Yes, JUST like that first one for the pilgrims. :)

I'm beyond excited because it's the first time that I will host Thanksgiving and get to make all the dishes that have once made ME feel American. There aren't many things that Americans do all together as a country, one would be superball and the other would be Thanksgiving. People celebrate it no matter what religion they are because saying thanks after all is a very international concept. (Now CORRECT me if I'm wrong, but I do believe the word "thanks" does not exist in Japanese?) Well ok, fine so it's international - Japanese.

I've already announced that instead of the stuffed turkey we'll have a stuffed chicken and that is because:

a) I have NO idea how to make turkey

b) our combioven is not big enough to hold a whole turkey

c) a turkey in Holland costs about 50Euros -what is that in dollars? like $50,000?

d) I'm not really a big fan of turkey meat...

anyway a stuffed chicken will do just as well!

As for the cultural experience, as they would like to hear the whole story, I figured it would be fun to perhaps re-enact it!!! I will assign everyone to wear either a pilgrim's outfit or a Native American getup... hmmm... I think I will make a super cute Pocahontas!!

Now I just have to work on the menu!!!

**Is it me or are those DUTCH kids on the postcard???

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Sandwich...

There, don't say I never show you anything! :)

*tuna salad

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Last weekend...

Clouds gathered and gathered... and gathered, but then sun told them to go play somewhere else! And it was sunny!!!

The clocks were changed to an hour early the weekend that we were in Valencia. I said, yey one more hour to party! Vito said, yey one more hour to sleeeeeeeep! But relationships are about making each other happy...so! we partied an hour more and sleept an hour more!!! :)

Well to be perfectly honest the next day we had to go to the airport in the morning to come back to Amsterdam. As we got into the metro all the clocks everywhere were showing one hour early. We just wrote the whole thing off to the "Spanish chaos" and thought nothing of it until we finally remembered that the clocks changed! It's ok, we spent the extra hour very productively - eating.

This weekend will be all about -relax- the girls are coming over on Saturday for a day of SPA and lots of Healthy fruity ....drinks! Can't wait!

hugs!

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