Today is my little brother's BIRTHDAY!!!














Happy Birthdaaaaaaay!!!!!!

Yes in fact that's a picture of a golf cake. Imagine that. What's more, imagine a curly blond haired, blue eyed boy somewhere in a Staten Island country club runnin' around making birdies. At the age of 7 my little bro is already categorizing his girlfriends by ALPHABET! And he is just turning 8... ohhhhh my parents are going to need some strength! (And as my mom said, they'll need to build a LARGE fence around the house so no one can get out... OR get IN!)

But for now, we are can all sleep well since the latest obsession is just golf :)

I asked him if he would visit me in Holland, his first question was:

Are there golf courses??



Well actually there are plenty, moreover, there is one right in TOWN, practically next door! Yey! He will come visit!! :) But who knows maybe the tastes will change again? Well if they do, there are plenty of cute girls here as well!

Read more...

Oh no you di'n't!!

As I got out of the train in Amsterdam (yesterday) it was slightly drizzling. As I started walking towards my new work (unpaid, but work!) it started really raining (booooo!!! rain!!! boo!!!!!).

BUT!

I walked by Village Bagels and got myself a Latte. A LARGE Latte. Please look at the picture... makes you wonder what a SMALL one would be like right? LOOK! If I can hold it in ONE hand, it's NOT LARGE!!! OK!??? Large is when TWO hands need to be involved. To their defense I must say it did taste good. The nice boy behind the counter did ask me a dumb question: "To stay or to go?" It's a Tuesday morning, it's raining, I'm OBVIOUSLY not on a pleasure walk, I'm clearly going to work... (work!) so yes to GO!

Half way through the cup I SIGNIFICANTLY became nicer... even the downpour did not matter anymore. Oh and btw, if you are in Amsterdam and you don't want to look like a tourist do NOT use an umbrella as you walk around under the rain. The only people I saw with umbrellas were Spanish tourists. Dutch people do not use umbrellas because they are waterproof.

On a very happy note, behold the view from my office... (office!!). I can't believe the prime location, on a canal... OHHH! And the windows actually OPEN!

Read more...

WHAT!?!

Day 3... grey... Yesterday it rained the entire day and around 8pm there was a brief moment when the cloud cover broke up and you can see a tiny glimpse of light.

Today it's back to grey, but it's not raining. It's quite fitting because I'm going to work today. Officially first day. AND, you better believe it, I'm going right back to my old tricks! On the way there I spotted a "real bagel shop" all New Yorkers please sit down and calm down, of course I will not defile my pallet with non-New York bagels, that would be an adulteration way to grand. I will however take one of their COFFEES TO GO!!!!! Yes, believe it or not people, there are NO STARBUCKS in the ENTIRE kingdom of Netherlands. A few month's ago one opened up at Schiphol airport but it is in the International lounge therefore doesn't really count. I don't particularly care for Starbucks exactly (due to extortion of $5 cups), but I do care for walking around with my coffee in hand so I can continually administer caffeine into my body.

So yes, walking around with your coffee is just not done around here. I think that's nuts, if there is no sunshine, coffee is the next best thing! Oh and just in case you're wondering what's the third best thing... well OBVIOUSLY new shoes!! DUH!

Well, to be exact these are more slippers. Shoes without heels are NOT shoes. But they're golden! So they're excused...

Read more...

The Dutch "suburbia" and other surprises...

And just like that the weather changed. It's now grey and rainy. (My little weather pixie girl is trying to brighten up the situation with her pink umbrella.)

But in the meanwhile, why not post some pics around my neighborhood. We've been viewing lots of gorgeous canals of Amsterdam, but how about some views of the "suburban life".

Here is a random apartment building...

This is just a five minute walk beyond my neighborhood. Some fields, and there are trails for running and biking.

This is also one of the neighborhood castles. About the other one I wrote here.

And here is another very typical street.

I'm a bit backlogged with many pictures and many happenings. Like just within last week there was: PIU PIU in town for an evening! Sushi night with the girls, Liberation day party in Haarlem, and beer tasting at a windmill brewery...

But this you have GOT to see!! The other day came a little puffy envelope in the mail. "Oh it's for you." Vito said. Mmmm presents for no reason!!! How romanticoooo!!! Hmmm what could it be...? It was SOME LIKE IT HOT!!!!! My absolute favorite movie in the WORLD, no, UNIVERSE!!

I remember watching it for the very first time with my parents when I was about 8 and we were on vacation to the Black Sea. When WallStr and I were in San Diego, we specifically made the trip to the Coronado Island to see the famous hotel del Coronado that was featured in the movie (though in the movie it's supposed to be Florida.)

What's your favorite movie? And I mean MOST favorite EVER!??

Read more...

Loooong road ahead... you got your guns?

Lesson 1- pronounciation

Zus = Sister (in Dutch)

My new private dutch teacher: zus...

me: zus...

her: no, ZUS

me: ZUS

her: ZUS

me: ZUS!!!!!!!

her: ZUS!!

me: ZUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

her: ok, lets just go to the next word...

Yesterday I had my first private Dutch lesson. The thing is, due to my immense time commuting to work back in New York, I've gotten quite far in my own study of Dutch and was able to place into an intermediate level class in the language school (classes start in a week). I can understand lots, for example I can read the Metro in Dutch, and many various other things. However, because I studied on my own I wasn't exactly able to practice and correct my own pronunciation even though mumbling to yourself on nyc public transportation is THE norm.

So first lesson... hmmm I just could not HEAR the difference between what the teacher, Sarina, was saying and what I was repeating... I don't get it, I'm a master of the Spanish rolling RRRRrrrr; I can even fake a pretty good Napoletan dialect!!! But this Dutch thing... hmm... it's even more difficult then BIKING!

There is no use for the Spanish "R'' nor the sway of Italian to help me learn Dutch, but one thing my previous experience with languages taught me is that you must put in the TIME. There is no way around it, to speak well and to speak correctly you must practice and that takes time.

I'm going to study with Sarina once or twice a week to really concentrate on talking and making correct sentences. Judging from the first lesson, this promises to be very helpful, the entire time she spoke Dutch exclusively and if I didn't understand something she phrased it differently but always in Dutch. On my part I continually kept trying to feed her various cookies and explained (in Dutch) that I come from a family that eats ALL the time. She is the typical tall and slender Dutch chick, but boy oh boy, she likes the cookies!! We're going to get along great! More cookies she eats, less for me!! Hurray! Oh yeah, and the whole language lessons thing is really helpful too... Excuse me, I will now go and gargle... Oh, not for the purpose of dental hygiene, just to practice the gurgling "G" in Dutch... Ohhhhhhhhh.....

(Picture above: is one of the trails leading to the beach... it looks isolated but right next to it is a bike pad and next to that is a road... but there are other trails just like it going through the dunes that ARE isolated, I'll only go on them with big bad Vito, because I don't want to be robbed at gun point or anything... yep... It'll also take TIME to rid myself of New York City mentality.)

Read more...

Yo, someone is clearly playing with my mind! What would YOU think if you arrived at your new home in a new country and saw your old car parked RIGHT IN FRONT!???? (A car that you SOLD!)

Yep, every morning as I come outside I see it... I have to spy up who the owner of the car is. Maybe it's like ME, but DUTCH???? Whohw dude, that would be like... soooo weird!!

Ok, and now on a serious note. I'm proud to announce that I got a JOB! YEY! Ok, calm down, it's not paid since obviously I'm my work papers are still in progress, but a volunteer position at a non profit organization. The great thing is that I get to be their marketing/PR chick! And it's part time so I'll still get to enjoy the summer and etc! (That is, unless I get another project somewhere...)

The office is in the center of Amsterdam on a canal street with big windows overlooking the canal...

Read more...

Queen's day Amsterdam 2007!

That's right people, I'm here to report on the biggest street party in the Netherlands. If you want actual history and other educational value type information please read more here.

In essence Queen's day is a HUGE country wide STREET party! Some people dress up in the royal color orange, some wear orange hats or other accessories. Live performances by bands are set up in many squares and there are beers sold everywhere along the street.

Canals are packed with boats some sailing by with loud music. Oh yes, and many people set up blankets where they sell everything they don't need. (Exactly like a garage sale, a country wide one.)

Now in spite of what should be inevitable craziness that usually seems to result when you put hoards of people, beer, boats and water together, I must say all the festivities seemed very nicely contained. That is, everyone seemed to be having nice clean fun. There was no pushing, not too much yelling, a bit of very subdued dancing in specifically designated areas. Really, I was surprised, I did have an idea that there might be some ruckus. Once again proves that Dutch people are normal... that's just SO weird! I've never been around so many normal people.

One thing I do have to comment are the bathroom breaks. Yes, if you're throwing down a few sooner or later you just gots to go, ya know what I'm sayin'? Anyway, for boys the resolution is a simple one. Portable street toilets... (I did not take this picture, just got this one of the internet.)

For girls it's a bit more tricky. All the pubs and cafes have HUGE lines to use the bathroom and obviously us ladies are not about to pie in the street like the boys! The ladies use a Royal Toilet! Well in the spirit of making a buck or two, some people not only sell their junk but also put out a table with home made goodies, cookies, cake, lemonade, tea or whatever... some people were very creative and opened their house for toilet use! A big orange sign outside labeled the house "Royal Toilet" and for a 1€ fee (50c more then to use the bathroom at a pub) you can use their bathroom! There was hardly a line and a nice clean bathroom. I just thought it was hilarious. While there, the owners offered (for free) some home made candies!

It was on this street... see the hordes of people!

And now just some pictures of all the excitement...

....and street food galore!!! Indonesian chicken with peanut sauce...

That's all folks, move it along, nothing more to see... :)

Read more...