some friends out having a drink

what a week- i dont know where to begin;
we traveled to Den Haag (The Hague) on Saturday- met up with a friend's brother, who lives there; Rico was kind enough to invite us to a party- we ate some good food, made some new friends, and even kept them after the karaoke started! Den Haag is the seat of government, where it all goes down, but it's actually a cool little town, with cafes, coffeeshops and lotsa people, Dutch, US, Asians, everyone!

we made it into Amsterdam, right after work- what a crazy town! there is so much going on, so many people, cafes, shops- it's overwhelming. i'd like to come up 2-3 times during the week, now that I've mastered the transit system. I thought Vegas was an international destination- now, it cant even compare. what a fun place- great stuff!

all right- i'm off to the big little town- i need to travel from hemmestede to haarlem to amsterdam. should take no more than 40m each way, but tourists have a way of.....getting lost.....losing track of time. work is done for the day, and now is the time for play. details to follow.......

day two: work is done for the day- everyone is very friendly, in a cool detached euro way. speaking of euros, man! do they go fast! everything is smaller, and costs more. jet lag is still lingering, it's raining HARD, off and on all day. it feels like fall, really, like the last day of summer before school starts, all the time. later, i'll probably go out for some coffee, and make a night of it.

whew, i made it over here in one piece. flight ok, we luckily were met up with at Schiphol Airport by a fellow engineer, who drove us "home", then took us out. Talk about culture shock! Sticker shock! Biker arrogance shock! We spent the evening in Haarlem, a local town- strangely quiet, because most shops are closed on Sundays, but the cafes were overflowing. We soon joined them. A pretty little town, full of friendly people.