33 Pictures

The weather changed quite dramatically last week. At the beginning of the week I was still wearing a jacket and by the end of the week I had a sunburn and the temperature was pushing the mid twenties. Finally, summer had arrived! But with it came 80% humidity which has been hard to get accustomed to. It’s difficult when you’re sitting down doing nothing and you’re sweating.

I have started going back out on my epic bike rides now that the weather is cooperating. Halfway between my apartment and Schipol Airport is a large park I wrote about a few ago called Amsterdamse Bos.

It’s a massive park similar in size to Stanley Park. It has a nice balance between forested trails and large expansive fields of grass. This was my third time exploring the park and I have still yet to see much of it. From the Southern side of the park you are very close to the end of one of the runways of Schipol, yet still a few kilometres from the terminals. I found myself near the KML operations buildings which included some of the maintenance hangars. I saw hangars 10, 12 & 14 meaning there are probably 11 more of these massive structures beyond my line of sight.



























































Also in this park is a long artificial stretch of water for longboat races. It was clearly built for this purpose which explains its perfect rectangular shape and metre markers strung across the water at intervals. I watched as some people trained, slicing through the calm water, gliding past me.

On my way back I passed a part of town with new high-rises including this ING building. The glass structure is built to look like a cruise ship and is probably the most unique of the many buildings I have discovered here. In the middle of the building is a 3 storey atrium with tropical trees and interior balconies. It’s quite remarkable.




























As I passed through these parts of town I had yet to discover, I came across one of the only remaining buildings from the Amsterdam Olympics from the 1920s. The Olympic stadium is still standing and being used. I don’t know who uses it these days, but there were soccer players inside practicing when I happened by.















Another ride I revisited was my adventure out to the East side of Amsterdam. I described that ride last time by the large development of new buildings and the fact that I was outside the A10 ringroad, but on the opposite side of the city to where I live.

This time I went through the development, called Ijburg, and was surprised to realize it is 100% on reclaimed land around the size of the Expo lands in Vancouver. It’s a good kilometre and a half in length and 5 or 6 blocks wide. You can get a feel for its size in this photograph of the map, which strangely shows the water in green instead of blue.

As they lay down sand as a base on these reclaimed projects, they built a little beach on the North Eastern side of the island. It sits in a little bay where the Ij river meets an artificial lake that once used to be part of the ocean. They have since dammed it and the water is now fresh. Lining the beach are proper washrooms, snack huts and restaurants making for a full service beach. It’s a good hour from home on the trams and hidden away. I found it by accident and get the feeling a lot of people don’t know about it or can’t be bothered to make the effort to go there. But as it’s the closest beach to Amsterdam, I will be certain to head back one of these days.

I continued East for another 10 minutes and came to the end of Amsterdam. The location of the map was next to the end of the city limits. I guess on my next big ride I need to venture in another direction as I have gone as far as I can this way.

In my last blog entry I mentioned we had finally found a roommate. I guess I spoke (or typed?) too soon. We had in fact found someone we both liked and she liked us. She had been a little apprehensive about the apartment, and in an effort to compromise I agreed to move into the middle room to accommodate her. Everything seemed to be fine.

That same evening we received an Email from someone who looked like she would be a perfect fit. So we invited her over and we all got on really well.

Part of the problem we were having with finding someone was that both Marc and I were coming from completely different perspectives. He wanted a roommate because he enjoys living with people. He wants someone fun and interested in interacting with us as friends. Being friendly and outgoing are prerequisites for him. Whereas I am looking for someone who is respectful, clean and tidy. If they happen to be friendly as well, that’s a bonus.

Afterwards Marc and I went to pub to discuss the two girls. Marc confided in me that he had ulterior motives for wanting Suzi (the first girl). He liked her. In fact, he thought she might be someone he could see himself having a relationship with. This turned me off her immediately as I saw it as a recipe for disaster. My first pick was Jaana, the second girl. But how would we decide? We flipped a coin and I won.

The other problem was that we had already offered the place to Suzi and Marc didn’t want to go back on his word. So I urged him to come clean with Suzi regarding why he wanted her to move in. Seeing as she is in a long distance relationship with someone in Vancouver, she was understandably not interested in moving into an apartment with someone who has a crush on her. Problem solved.

So the new roommate, Jaana, is Finnish. She has lived in Scotland for the past 7 years which gives her a very unique hybrid accent. She is really fun and I think the three of us will get along well. She is attractive, but Marc doesn’t feel attracted to her, which is another plus. She is also quite assertive so I think she’ll be able to hold her own just fine. Plus, I get to stay in my room, which is where I wanted to be all along.

In an effort to get away from Agne, I headed back to see Nina last weekend. In fact I didn’t even wait for the weekend, I left on Thursday. Friday morning Nina and I headed to her office where we worked. Last Friday was also my deadline with Wayne, which I was able to meet. Friday evening he sent the finished documents to the client. In another week they will meet and hopefully the client will happily sign-off on the work we did. Worse case scenario, he will want a few modifications, but we aren’t expecting that to be the case.

In 5 short weeks I had produced a set of 5 manuals detailing the operations of a North Vancouver martial arts studio totalling 234 pages! My first contract job completed.

In completing this job I came to realize there is one particular aspect of my job that I enjoy more than the rest. I like working on the formatting and readability of the document. The personality of it, if you will. And that is the tricky part because most people can’t put their finger on what it is that makes a document read well. But, they certainly know when it’s not there, they just don’t always know why. That is what I would like to specialize in.

As I knew I would only have half a day of work on Friday, I went to the office prepared. Nina wanted to work the full day. So I went on a little adventure in Aachen. A short walk from Aachen West (where the office is located) is a hill in the centre of the city. They built an observatory on top with a wonderful panoramic view around the city and of the surrounding countryside. So with camera in hand, I left the office. As I left I took a picture of Nina at her window which happens to be the first picture of her since getting her glasses the day before.
























That evening after dinner we jumped in the car and headed for one of the mountains of earth from the area’s mining industry. Many of them are not open to the public as they aren’t stable. This one was accessible and was covered in trees and vegetation. You would never know 150 years earlier it hadn’t been there.

From the top were wonderful views of Herzogenrath and the surrounding area. More importantly, it was one of the first clear evenings in some time and we wanted to watch the sunset. As it hadn’t rained in some time, there was a lot of dust in the air creating a rich red sun and a perfect sunset.











Saturday night we had a games night with two other couples. It was one of the more enjoyable evenings we have spent with Nina’s friends. Parties are OK, but I prefer games nights as they’re more interactive. One of the many games we played was poker where I won almost €5,700.
Unfortunately there wasn’t anywhere to cash in my chips. Oh well, good practice.











This past week has been fairly relaxed as my work has been cut in half now that my project with Wayne has come to an end. And now as I type this I am back on the train heading to Nina’s for the weekend. This is a wonderful day because it marks the last time I ever have to see Agne. By the time I get back next week she will have moved out and then Marc and I have the place to ourselves for the week until Jaana moves in on the 10th.