We spent Thanksgiving in Belgium this year.
My sister got a project working in Brussels (all expenses paid!), and she arranged flights for my parents and me to come visit her. We were also supposed to go to Italy for a few days, but my sister was still recovering from tonsillitis so we had to cancel that trip.
I was pretty impressed with Belgium. Hearing people talk about the great architecture and the culture is very different from experiencing it yourself. I don't know why Americans think Europeans are stuck up and rude. Most of the people we talked to were more than willing to help us.
We saw a good part of Brussels and then took a day trip to this tourist-y city Brugges. On the last day, my sister had to work so I went by myself to Antwerp. Luckily, the public transportation system is fairly easy (and my sister left great directions) so it was pretty easy to get there.
The best part of Brussels was definitely the food. We tried the chocolate, beer, fries, and waffles. My sister had always talked about great the waffles are, and now I know exactly what she means. They sell waffles on the street like they sell pretzels in New York. Delicious!
Everyone in Belgium seemed to be very stylish. It didn't matter where we went, everyone just seemed to be more fashionable that what I've seen here.
Oh, one of my life goals has changed as a result of this trip. Instead of owning an island, I could easily make do with a castle. I don't know how many are still available/for sale, but a castle would be pretty awesome to live in.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
From/To
Chicago-London: I sat next to this nerdy but kinda hot (in a nerdy way) girl. I might have talked to her but I suddenly got hives and was itchy for the next 7 hours (and still had them for a couple days in Brussels). Real attractive.
Brussels-Washington, D.C.: The crazy Asian lady sitting next to me sounded like she was coughing up a lung for the entire 9-hour flight! I hate having an aisle seat since I can never get my head in a position where it's comfortable to sleep and because the fucking carts seem to come by every hour serving drinks or food or something. When we were landing, the attendant screamed "If we need to have an emergency evacuation, leave everything!" Great, I've been sitting on a plane for 9 hours and now I might die.
Brussels-Washington, D.C.: The crazy Asian lady sitting next to me sounded like she was coughing up a lung for the entire 9-hour flight! I hate having an aisle seat since I can never get my head in a position where it's comfortable to sleep and because the fucking carts seem to come by every hour serving drinks or food or something. When we were landing, the attendant screamed "If we need to have an emergency evacuation, leave everything!" Great, I've been sitting on a plane for 9 hours and now I might die.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Vegas, baby
My manager thinks I'm fickle and quirky - two things which I am not.
I just got back from a business trip to Las Vegas. Our company had a booth at G2E and the response was generally positive.
I was kind of dreading the trip since I had heard that there wasn't much time to have fun since we would be in business meetings at night and at the conference during the day. My manager caught pneumonia right before we left though, so we had to cancel most of our evening plans.
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Me and the other software engineer played poker for the first 3 nights (we would have played more, but he lost his $200 gambling budget - I won $160 overall).
We went out for a business dinner on the last night to a fancy French restaurant in the Wynn and then to a cocktail party at the House of Blues Foundation Room in Mandalay Bay. They had this awesome light show at dinner set to music. The view from the MB is incredible! Since it's at the southernmost end of the strip, you can see the entire strip from the balcony. They've also set it up so that you can't see straight down, eliminating any feelings of dizziness.
The conference itself was huge - they expected 30,000 people and had 750 exhibitors. Our booth wasn't incredibly busy so I had a chance to walk around every day. Let's see - the highlights included booth babes, Hulk Hogan, some famous poker player nicknamed "Jesus" and tons of slot machines, blackjack tables, and automated table games. Some companies opted to not advertise at all and just offered a "lounge" environment where you could get free drinks (including alcohol) and chill.
All in all, it was a pretty fun business trip. It's nice not having to pay for anything and Las Vegas is one of my favorite cities. It's also great to see the more posh side of the city that I'd never be able to experience on my own budget ;)
I just got back from a business trip to Las Vegas. Our company had a booth at G2E and the response was generally positive.
I was kind of dreading the trip since I had heard that there wasn't much time to have fun since we would be in business meetings at night and at the conference during the day. My manager caught pneumonia right before we left though, so we had to cancel most of our evening plans.
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Me and the other software engineer played poker for the first 3 nights (we would have played more, but he lost his $200 gambling budget - I won $160 overall).
We went out for a business dinner on the last night to a fancy French restaurant in the Wynn and then to a cocktail party at the House of Blues Foundation Room in Mandalay Bay. They had this awesome light show at dinner set to music. The view from the MB is incredible! Since it's at the southernmost end of the strip, you can see the entire strip from the balcony. They've also set it up so that you can't see straight down, eliminating any feelings of dizziness.
The conference itself was huge - they expected 30,000 people and had 750 exhibitors. Our booth wasn't incredibly busy so I had a chance to walk around every day. Let's see - the highlights included booth babes, Hulk Hogan, some famous poker player nicknamed "Jesus" and tons of slot machines, blackjack tables, and automated table games. Some companies opted to not advertise at all and just offered a "lounge" environment where you could get free drinks (including alcohol) and chill.
All in all, it was a pretty fun business trip. It's nice not having to pay for anything and Las Vegas is one of my favorite cities. It's also great to see the more posh side of the city that I'd never be able to experience on my own budget ;)
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Long-ass weekend (one fear gone!)
I feel like everything from Friday night until now has just been one extended day.
I went to a friend's networking event right after work on Friday. I didn't realize there would be games and organized events so I got there late and missed out on most of it. Oh well - I still had the hookup for the free food and drinks. ;)
The bar comped all the drinks for the event so they were way under budget. Everyone who stuck around decided that we needed to make up for the difference by getting more drinks! My friend joined us later to help us drink and the two of us decided to hit up some other spots after everyone else left.
I won't say much more about the night, other than it ended on a high note (and it wasn't at the place with the $10 cover). Oh, and I should NEVER be allowed to use my phone when I've been drinking. I made some stupid phone calls and embarrassing text messages that I'd rather forget.
I got home around 3am and had to meet a group of people in about 8 hours to go to Six Flags. Yikes.
I finally overcame my fear of roller coasters! I was deathly afraid of them before Saturday - I blame my parents who never rode them and never made either me or my sister ride them either.
Maybe it was the fact that there weren't any lines (since my friend's company had the park reserved), or the fact that my friends were very reassuring and not being mean about it, or perhaps the fact that I was forced to stand in line with them for the Batman ride so I didn't have to wait by myself. Whatever it was, I decided to just get on the ride so they would stop harassing me.
Surprisingly, it was a lot of fun and way less scary than it appears when watching from the ground.
We rode almost all of the major roller coasters in the park. My favorite was probably Mr. Freeze (it does the entire ride forward, goes into a vertical, and then does the entire thing backward!) or Shockwave (two back-to-back vertical loops). I also liked the Titan - it has this ridiculous 200+ foot drop at the beginning, but after that it's pretty fun.
I still get really scared on dips, scream like a little girl and can't raise my arms, but at least I'll ride roller coasters now. One step at a time.
Geez, this post is long (and probably incredibly boring since I've left out the most interesting parts ;). I'll just finish by saying I won $14 (140%) at the post-Six Flags poker game. A tout a l'heure!
I went to a friend's networking event right after work on Friday. I didn't realize there would be games and organized events so I got there late and missed out on most of it. Oh well - I still had the hookup for the free food and drinks. ;)
The bar comped all the drinks for the event so they were way under budget. Everyone who stuck around decided that we needed to make up for the difference by getting more drinks! My friend joined us later to help us drink and the two of us decided to hit up some other spots after everyone else left.
I won't say much more about the night, other than it ended on a high note (and it wasn't at the place with the $10 cover). Oh, and I should NEVER be allowed to use my phone when I've been drinking. I made some stupid phone calls and embarrassing text messages that I'd rather forget.
I got home around 3am and had to meet a group of people in about 8 hours to go to Six Flags. Yikes.
I finally overcame my fear of roller coasters! I was deathly afraid of them before Saturday - I blame my parents who never rode them and never made either me or my sister ride them either.
Maybe it was the fact that there weren't any lines (since my friend's company had the park reserved), or the fact that my friends were very reassuring and not being mean about it, or perhaps the fact that I was forced to stand in line with them for the Batman ride so I didn't have to wait by myself. Whatever it was, I decided to just get on the ride so they would stop harassing me.
Surprisingly, it was a lot of fun and way less scary than it appears when watching from the ground.
We rode almost all of the major roller coasters in the park. My favorite was probably Mr. Freeze (it does the entire ride forward, goes into a vertical, and then does the entire thing backward!) or Shockwave (two back-to-back vertical loops). I also liked the Titan - it has this ridiculous 200+ foot drop at the beginning, but after that it's pretty fun.
I still get really scared on dips, scream like a little girl and can't raise my arms, but at least I'll ride roller coasters now. One step at a time.
Geez, this post is long (and probably incredibly boring since I've left out the most interesting parts ;). I'll just finish by saying I won $14 (140%) at the post-Six Flags poker game. A tout a l'heure!
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