Friday, April 6, 2007
11:25:51 PM

Today, was a very internal day. Despite missing my train to Hilversum, I still made it there to the host family one of my coworkers. We set up office upstairs and set to work. I mainly worked on the student schedules and allocation cards. In the afternoon, they went to check the driving directions with their host mom in her convertible while I stayed alone and continued working on the aforementioned items. In the evening we were scheduled to all have dinner with my host family but we were nearly an hour and a half late. It was all good though.

Thursday, April 5, 2007
9:46:13 PM

Today, even more boring. We spent the most of the day in the office just trying to organize things. The major accomplishment of the day was that we got everyone allocated Aside from that there wasn’t too much else accept that I was kicked off the train home because I didn’t know that the ticket I has wasn’t valid for the train; its only taken them a few weeks to check it. Ah well, Its aLL G ood™

Wednesday, April 4, 2007
9:46:13 PM

Today, even though I was tired out of my mind, was good day. I slept in and didn’t get up until about 10 minutes to 8, I still made my bus and train; arriving at the Utrecht Central station just shy of 8am. The morning was spent in the office working on the powerpoint presentation for the host family meeting later that day as well as the student schedule which must be finished for tomorrow so it can be printed and fabricated. For lunch, again I went to the market and bought some bread and peanut butter to go with the hazelnut spread I already had as well as some more “straw waffles” to go with the coffee. We obtained our “chipcard” to get fresh coffee and cappuccino from the vending machines in site as well as to print our flyers and other information. Following lunch, I headed downtown to tidy up a few details. First I headed to the University of Utrecht where I was able to book for free the largest most lavish hall in the entire facility; all that and immediately off of the Dom square. Next I went to the VVV (tourist information place) to confirm our tour times and guide for our tour of the church tower. I looked around for a bit for suitable places to eat but found nothing that could accommodate a group as large as ours. I then set out for the Theatre School where I was to have a meeting with a professor there about doing some admissions or promotions work on their campus. The meeting went well, but I’m not sure she was sold 100% on the idea. Anyhow, I did what I could and gave her some flyers to put around and hopefully we shall hear back sometime next week. With that all done I returned to the office to prepare for the host family meeting to take place at 7pm. The meeting was very well attended and despite the fact that the powerpoint presentation that I had prepared didn’t work very well on the account of it being an older version of the program. In retrospect, I just should have interjected and told them we could use my laptop just as before. Too bad I have to work with a bunch of Mac haters though, well at least Karin is. Anyhows, the presentation was good aside from that and then I had a tour of the building on campus where my host mom teaches physiotherapy, and then we went home.


Busy Morning at the Hodgeschool where our campus is located
The Dome
The Room I was able to book for FREE for our tuesday morning meeting




One of two Apple Stores here in Utrecht



Where my Host Mom Works

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
April 4, 2007 2:00 AM

Today was probably the most boring day so far. In the morning, we went to Zeist and put up posters around the town, it was cold and raining. We also picked up the complementary tickets for the host families, then headed back to the office to work on stuff. I put together a keynote of pictures from our cast so far for the host family meeting and also worked a little on the student schedule. There’s still lots more to be done. For lunch we went to the market and spent far less than before and got a better meal, well, in my opinion at least. I got half a loaf of bread, a jar of hazelnut spread, a can of Dr. Pepper, some chocolate truffle pudding, and 1.5 litres of orange juice for 3.5€. It was all good.


Netherlands Sunrise


Mmmm "Straw Waffles" a new obsession
Chris, intern # 1
Mark, intern #2
Me

my new Sony Ericsson
Houten Construction
Waiting for the bus
Netherlands sunset

Monday, April 2, 2007
8:00:04 PM

Seeing as today was such a long day, I am journaling while on the train to Houten. I got up this morning shortly after 6. The sun was not yet up so I made sure to take in the sunrise. It was nothing short of spectacular on account of the fact that there was much haze on the horizon which created an interesting shadowed layering effect with everything back lit. The sun now is setting again, I can see it from my train window. I was able to get myself dressed in my finest attire as we had a meeting today with the rotary club here. Since the tram was still broken down, I took the bus to Houten Centraal station. This is where I caught the train to Utrecht Centraal. I have yet to travel the same way twice since I have been here. Unfortunately it wasn’t the first train as it was full, instead they stopped an intercity train and picked us up. Arriving to the station just one minute late, I realized that my contact was not yet there. One of us will always be a little late. We eventually did manage to make it to the office at the Hodgeschool Padualaan campus where we worked for the most of the day. For lunch I went to the Italian Pizzeria again and ordered at ham and cheese pizza. They are really good pizzas and I eat a whole one myself as we were not to get supper until later that evening after the presentation. We left for Bilthoven around 17:30 or so and were picked up at the train station by one of the rotary contacts we have. Our presentation was to be more of an update about our progress in the city as they are more of a sponsor than anything. It went well though. We got a ride back to Utrecht Centraal station with Karin’s host dad in his new Volkswagen. From there I made my way back to my host families house and settled in for the night.