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I will be flying in to KCI on Monday, December 11th. My plane arrives at 4:30pm!!!

Only a couple more days!

Sinterklaas Surprise

This Sinterklaas surprise was in my mailbox today at work. It's a big chocolate letter C. The magazine behind it was also in my box. Unfortunately it's in Dutch, but I think it says that EY is supporting a part of the Olympics.

six days...

Only 6 days until I come home! I can't wait to see everyone!!!!

(Lynsey, where are you my love?!?!?! I haven't heard from you in awhile--you must be working your butt off for my mommy dearest. Watch out for the wire hangers,...or no hangers at all. I'm not sure which is worse.)

miss you mcbkk!

Sinterklaas

Instead of Santa Claus, the Dutch children get a visit from Sinterklaas. This is a picture of him I found on Wikipedia since I haven't actually seen one yet.

However, I did see these guys in Eindhoven playing for a huge crowd.

"Zwarte pieten" (Black Petes) are Sinterklaas's helpers. According to most Dutch, they are black because of sliding down chimneys.

Sinterklaas visits the children on the eve of his feast day, December 6th. They put out their shoes by the fireplace and when they wake up, they have gifts waiting for them.

Because of this holiday, EY employees get off work at 3:30pm. : ) Works for me!

Maastricht Winterland

On Saturday, December 2nd, Charla and I went to Maastricht, Netherlands to see the winter/Christmas festival they have each year. Here are some pictures of the Maastricht Winterland:

There were many little shops and food stands strewn throughout the square.

This is the ferris wheel that we rode for 3euros. It was breathtaking to see the city from that far up.

This is one view from the ferris wheel. How gorgeous!

There was a huge ice skating rink that Charla and I decided not to grace our presence upon.

We are drinking "gluhwein"--a warm wine they serve during the Christmas season.

Sofinummers and Casino Royale

This week has been pretty uneventful. I had a meeting with my mentor, Melissa, about my goals for the internship and how I felt about the last two months. It went just fine and she’s very confident that I will learn a ton if I want to. Right now, I’m not sure that I’ve been recruited to the audit side of accounting.

Also, I went to get my sofinummer today—which is what we would call a tax ID number. I called Den Haag to get an appointment last week and they didn’t have any openings from then until I leave and they couldn’t schedule for January when I get back. Hmmm… I also had to have a colleague talk to the lady on the phone b/c she didn’t understand much of what I was saying. It was rather frustrating as you can imagine. So I called another city and asked if I could go there and they got me in the next day. I showed up today and they require the original of my work permit, which I was not aware that I needed,…so I have to go back tomorrow with it. This is how most things go here. No one knows anything and if they did, they forgot to tell me. I’m just hoping that HR at the Den Haag office has learned from the process of bringing a new intern from the US into the company and the process will be smoother for the next ones. J

My landlord finally responded to my requests for items that should have been in my fully-furnished apartment and weren’t—only after I had a colleague call him and tell him what I wanted. This language thing is really getting in the way…haha! I now have a larger tv with a remote, two more pots, and the heat in my entryway is working now. If I could just get the laminate floor to be glued down so that my vacuum doesn’t try to suck it up, I’ll be ecstatic! Haha…

Oh yeah, I went to go see Casino Royale the other day. I loved it! Guys need to watch out for those accountants in red-dresses! (Yes, Daneen, I know we talked about how I should wait to see it, but I was bored at home and it sounded fun. J) The subtitles in Dutch are a little distracting, but soon, I didn’t notice them. One thing that was quite interesting was one of the commercials before the movie—it had about 100 women in bathing suits running through fields and over hills with their boobs bouncing so much I thought they were sure to fall out! Soon, the number of women grew to thousands and they were all running to this guy that was spraying AXE spray on him. Haha… (boys: don’t try this at home—it obviously only works in Europe.) That’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t necessarily see in the states.

Well, I see that it’s supposed to snow a little in Buckner today. Yikes. Good luck with that!!!! Mom, take care of Ol’ Red…I’m going to need her when I get back because all the money I was saving is now going toward my love of traveling. Sorry Edward Jones, I’m going to need some of that money that I told you I wanted to keep in there for 20 years. Hah…. : )

Brussels, Belgium

Friday night, Charla hopped on a train to see me here in Den Haag and we went out with some friends (yes,...you're right...they were the Marines) to the city center. Here are some pictures from Fiddlers:

Well, we didn't plan on staying out late that night because we wanted to get on a train early in the morning to get to Brussels at a decent time,...but....you know how that goes... After getting into bed about 2:30am, I decided to still set the alarm for 7am, but as everyone can expect, I hit the snooze for an hour or so. It was quite the struggle getting up and I had to pretty much scream to get Charla out of bed...haha...

Jonny decided to join us in our mission to become official tourists so we gathered our cameras and travel book and arrived in Brussels.

As you can see in the pictures, it was raining--more like a constant annoying sprinkle--and I forgot my umbrella.

The buildings in this square, called Grand Palace, were amazing! Their details were incredible. Here are some of the statues on them:

When we went looking for a place to eat, we came across a bunch of streets that look like the one in the picture directly below. They were streamed with restaurants with one guy representing each and then they would hassle you into coming into their restaurant to eat. It was like a contest and very annoying.

We finally got something to eat and walked around some more. Our night ended at a nice little square that had Christmas lights strung everywhere. We had a couple plates of cheese and meat...and my new favorite beer, Leffe. I am determined to find it here in Den Haag.

This little guy above is the Mannekin Pis--a very small statue of a boy pissing...and you can actually see the stream if you look close enough. haha There were so many people around it that it was hard to get in and get a picture.

We found this statue (in the pic below) as we were leaving. It was in a little alley all by itself and I thought that it was much better than the little statue of the boy pissing (Manneken Pis) that is so popular that crowds gather around it all day. No, we didn't really kick it.

Thanksgiving...twice

Jonny invited me to the Marine's Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday,...and it was delicious! I was so stuffed after dinner that it was hard to finish the dessert...but i finished the piece of homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream....YUMMY!

There were two little children there and with my lack of interaction with little ones lately drew me right to them! By the end of the night, they were practically sitting on my lap. It was nice and quite refreshing.

My second turkey dinner was at Kevin Zaugg's house on Sunday afternoon--he was making a deep-fat fried turkey. That meal was also very good and once again, I got to see some little ones. He has a 3-year old and a 6-month old. The older one was happy to see me and showed me all of her toys and gave me a tour of the house...but the baby cried if I got too close to her. hehe... I had a feeling that was the case,...so I kept my distance, but when Kevin moved her closer, she started screaming. : )

Lastly,....

More catching up...

Now...where did I leave off...hmmm...

Training ended on Thursday, November 16th with an exam and a 70's party. The exam was fairly simple and I think that those that studied felt like it was quite a waste. It's a good thing I wasn't one of those guys. haha... I think everyone passed though. At the party that night, they presented a slide-show with pictures from the week--they had a couple of each class and a bunch taken at the parties and events goin on. I saw myself in one taken during Tae-Bo....it was just lovely... : ) (Can you sense the sarcasm?--there's nothing like a picture of someone sweating their butt off and in the middle of a punch or kick where it looks like they're falling over b/c they've tripped on the floor.) The DJ's were extraordinary! They knew each and every song and had little skits and outfits for each one. It was cool.

All in all, training was an amazing experience and I'm glad I got to go. I met a ton of new people and learned a ton, too.

On Friday, November 17th, I picked up my dress for the Marine Ball--it was 100euros for the deposit,...so I was not thrilled about handing that much money over,...but whatever. I also went out to find a shawl or something like that to put over my shoulders b/c I knew it would be fairly chilly--at least on my way to and from the Ball. Success...I found a really soft scarf. Dual purpose--very nice.

The Ball was on Saturday night and a driver picked me up--along with one Marine's parents and brother,...and girlfriends/dates for three of the other Marines. We got there and were given a rose--very nice, as well. : ) (speaking of...I forgot mine on the table...oops!) The boys looked very handsome in their uniforms--as expected--don't all guys in uniform have a certain appeal?--haha...

There was a formal ceremony in the beginning. Then, we took pictures, drank wine (Vino Rouge as Mr. Showalter calls it), and ate a little bit. We also danced a ton once the liquor started setting in...they played some really great songs in the middle and end! Who requested the Shakira is what I want to know...

Here are a few pics....(I have to admit that most of them didn't turn out as well as I would've liked--the lighting was not that great):

This is my date, Johnny. What a gentleman!

This is Jana--the girlfriend of the guy in the pic below. We had a ton of fun together that night.

The picture of Johnny with the scowl on his face is freakin hilarious to me! One of the Marine's Dad brought some 'moonshine' with him from Tennessee and we all had a little swig. I think my face was just as bad--tasted like what rubbing alcohol smells like. Gives me chills thinking about it.

This last picture is of Tahitis...the bar we went to after the Ball and stayed at until 6am. Don't even ask why. : ) I don't seem to have any of the good pictures I've seen from this night...so I will be exchanging with others that had their cameras out all night like I did.

Getting Caught Up

Hello everyone! I apologize for not updating my blog these past couple weeks. I've been at a hotel for two weeks for EY training (which you'll read about below). There was limited access to the internet, so no time to post to my blog as often as I would have liked. Instead, I wrote in a word document and now I've posted it below. It's a long one!

Amsterdam

On Friday, November 3, 2006, I headed to Amsterdam to meet Charla and Charla’s neighbor and his friend (both from Brazil, one visiting and one living in Charla’s building). I arrived about 10pm with my backpack stuffed with one (or maybe two) night’s clothes, my makeup, and my European travel book. Charla’s neighbor, Maurcio, had booked us a couple nights at a hostel in the heart of Amsterdam that we had no real say in because we just told him to get us a couple beds at the same one he and his friend were staying at. The ‘hotel’ is called the Hans Brinker and its slogans include:

Haha…

We first went to the hostel and checked in, made our beds, and dropped off our backpacks. Since we were there late, we got the two top bunks above Marcio and his friend. The sheets were insanely stiff sheets that were just thrown together with sloppy stitches. There were three bunk beds (meaning six beds) in the small room, a bathroom with a shower that smelled of bleach, and tall lockers that we got personal keys for. My first impression was that there was no way this place was worth 21euros a night! But, I was in for the ride and if I never did it again, I would at least be able to say that I did stay in a hostel in Amsterdam. : )

The hostel had a bar on the first floor that was actually fairly nice, so we had a beer there and then went out to explore as this was the first time Charla and I had been there. We hit the ATM’s and headed to the Red Light District…no…we didn’t get money for the reason my statement may have suggested…hehe… Anyway, we walked down one side of the Red Light District and indeed, there were women in lingerie standing or sitting in the windows of many of the buildings on the street. I saw all sorts of women—young, old, big, skinny, Black, Chinese, etc…. There was a huge selection and the alleys usually caged the more specialty choices. I wanted to see the at least one man walk in (for curiosity purposes), but usually the men were just standing and watching from the street. It was definitely exactly what I expected—although I anticipated a bit more nudity and I think I only saw one woman’s breast in one of the alleys.

After the RLD, we hit a couple bars and headed home about 2am or so. I wasn’t too excited about getting back to the hostel to sleep in my less than attractive top bunk, but I took it in stride. : ) When we got there, our roommates were already there sleeping. They were two men, one older and one younger….we tried not to wake them, but it was quite impossible and I think they stirred a bit….but I only felt bad until the morning when they got up at 7am and made a significant amount of noise. I got up about 9am and I had already decided that a shower was not going to happen for this girl. Charla didn’t take one either…

We set out for a more tourist view of Amsterdam in the daylight…and I can definitely say that Amsterdam is a beautiful city. We first went to get something to eat and what you see above is what we had--it's a Dutch pancake.

The canals that wind throughout the city are gorgeous and quite neat….so we decided that a canal tour would be a great way to see more of the city. The tour was more than an hour long and talked about the history, architecture, and main tourist spots in Amsterdam. We went by the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh Museum, and many, many beautiful streets. Something interesting that I learned on the tour was that the houseboats on the canals own the spots they are 'docked' at and that they have full access to electricity and sewage hookups.

After the tour, we went to the Heineken Brewery down the street and took yet another tour…but this one was a little different. : ) It cost 10euros and we received 3 beers and a little gift at the end—so after 2 hours inside doing the self-guided tour, I think it was well worth it. Some of you were sent my lovely pictures and videos from there—haha….and no, I was not drunk!

Next, we did a little walking around and some window shopping (Amsterdam, so I’ve been told and I now agree, has great shopping). By then, it was about 10pm and I was exhausted! I’m seeing a small pattern recently that I need a bit more sleep lately. We went back to the hostel for a little nap and ended up deciding that we’d rather sleep in our own bed—so we left for the train station shortly after that…even though we had already paid for the night.

So, with my first night in a hostel under my belt, I can definitely say that it might have been worth the experience….


Training

I left on Sunday night for a 2-week training course in a city 24 kilometers north of Den Haag called Noordwijkerhout (pronounced Nord-wike-er-howt but in a sort of Dutch way). It’s located in a great hotel and each of the 250 Central-European EY new employees is staying here in the hotel with free room and board. There are a lot of Germans and Swiss, only a handful of Dutch, and a few other nationalities represented. In short, these Europeans just started working at Ernst & Young a few days before they arrived at training. Charla and I are the only trainees because really, this training is a ton of money to spend on someone that has no obligation to the company when they leave (although the colleagues and superiors in my office are really pushing me to choose EY). Anyway, it’s a great learning experience and introduces the “EY Global Audit Methodology”—not to mention, the social and networking opportunities are endless.





The food here is buffet-style and delicious….which is obviously not a great thing for someone with no self-control over eating. I feel like I want to at least try a bit of all the new dishes I’ve never had, so my plate fills up fast with little piles! Last night for example, I had sea bass in a lobster sauce….well, it wasn’t that good, but at least I know now….

Every night there’s happy hour at a bar in the hotel called “Cheers” and most everyone is down there for awhile each and every night. That is the case for myself, too—usually by 11pm, I’m ready to go, though, but Charla makes me stay for a while longer. (Isn’t that right Charla? Haha…she’s a convincing one.) Tonight, however, everyone is heading straight to the Rotonde for karaoke!!!! No, I don’t plan on partaking of the embarrassment pie myself, but each classroom (about 12, I think) is performing and had to pick a song. Our song is I Will Survive…and my, oh my, it must be hard to sing that song if English is not your native language. We practiced it a couple times after class today and it will be interesting. No one wants to take the lead, but maybe after a few drinks (its open bar, by the way) that will change. Usually, as we’ve been told, there’s a little dancing or skit that goes along with it, and no one in my class was offering their suggestion as to the extra, so I offered mine. In the whole EY theme, I thought that we could put a desk in front of the stage and have an ‘auditor’ sitting there all stressed out with a ton of papers on his desk with his computer and a couple phones to answer, and then have more people bring him stuff to do. Then, he should be dramatically stressed out and feel like he ‘can’t survive’ and maybe fall on the floor something. So, that was my idea and everyone seemed to be cool with it, so that’s the plan. Hmmm….but we’ll see how it goes! I know, I know…it’s a song about love, but no one was offering any other suggestions. : )

More things about the hotel: there’s a gym here that’s pretty nice, and I’ve been going to it after class each night. My legs are very, very sore right now. There’s also a small bowling alley, billiards and pool tables (no, they’re not the same, as I found out last night), a really big indoor swimming pool with sauna, and shhhh….a tanning bed…but I haven’t been to it unfortunately for my very white skin).

So, now I think I’m caught up and can start doing a day to day blog again. By the way, I miss you all back home in good ‘ol Missouri… and of course the one particular one in California. Only 5 more weeks till I see you again!!!!!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

The Dutch that are my age are usually still finishing up their Masters which includes classes on Fridays, so with the training being in the Netherlands, we had yesterday off. So, in place of classes, there was an optional trip to Amsterdam… and of course, I jumped on the chance to visit the city again. They arranged all the transportation to and from the hotel…we just had to designate which of the three times we wanted to be picked up at. We left the hotel about 9:30am with a sack lunch in hand--the hotel had packed each of us a meal that was actually really great. I felt like I was in grade school again—so fun!

Charla and I wanted to stay with the group of people that we’d met on the first night here and hung out with most of the week, but they were going straight to a canal tour. Since we had already done that, we decided that we would just go on our own. Our first stop was at the Anne Frankhuis. I remember reading portions of Anne Frank’s diary, but I’m not quite sure if we read the entire thing in middle school. Anyhow, this house in Amsterdam was the house that 8 people hid out in for 2 years—one of which was a young girl that kept a diary of the hard times she encountered. The tour of the house was about an hour long and directed us through each room while telling the story of the Frank family and the outrageous actions by Hitler. It was a rather depressing tour, but something that every tourist that comes to Amsterdam takes. (We couldn't take pictures inside, so this is all I have--the front door of the house.)

Next, we went to Maddame Tussaud’s Museum. It was definitely worth the 15euros we paid! I think I took a picture of almost every ‘statue’ in the museum—it was incredible how real they looked…you can see the pictures here:

I had a little fun with it, so don’t make fun of me!!!!

After that, we sat in Dam Square to eat lunch. While sitting a bench, Charla decided to throw a little piece of bread on the ground in front of her. About 50,000 pigeons rushed over to partake—meanwhile, I’m eating my sandwich and watching them fight over this little piece when a damn pigeon landed on my knee while another fluttered in front of my face. As expected, I freaked out and spilled my milk! Why didn’t they go after Charla?!?!?! Anyway, I think it would’ve been funnier if it didn’t happen to me.

Our next stop was going to be the Van Gogh Museum, but we were slightly distracted by some shops nearby. Right then, I knew our sightseeing was over and it was down to business. Haha… I tried on a few things, but left with only a few souvenirs. Charla, on the other hand, came away with two pairs of shoes, a coat, and a couple scarves. I’m on a budget—haha—a, “I have no money.” budget. I’m hoping to have my chance at shopping here, but it’s not right now.

After walking for about 7 hours straight, we left about 6pm and had dinner here at the hotel—once again, it was great. I went to sleep fairly early b/c I was exhausted and we also had classes all day today.

Tonight is the Moulin Rouge party…open bar…should be fun.

Oh! I forgot to write about the outcome of the karaoke contest!!!! Well, we were the tenth class to perform, so after watching all the other groups, I was not too thrilled about my whole ‘auditor’ idea, so I found a bunch of my fellow classmates and made the executive decision to just forgo the whole thing—and just get up there and sing away. We didn’t win anything, but it was still fun. One of our trainers grabbed the mic from me and I was more than happy to give it away. Most people stayed out late and had way too much to drink—which they really regretted the next morning in class….but I was a loser and went back to my room about midnight to crash. I felt just fine the next morning.

Now, it’s off to the Moulin Rouge party for me, so….doui!



Sunday, November 12, 2006

Well, the Moulin Rouge party was so much fun….as I expected it would be. The decorations were neat and the food was good as well. They had a photographer set up to take as many pictures as everyone wanted. My class took one and then Charla and I took one. We danced until 2:00 in the morning and I even broke the stem off of one of my boots! I had a feeling they were on their last leg, but it wasn’t the best timing. That didn’t stop my dancing though—so my calf on that leg is a little sore. Haha…

I got to sleep in until 11am today!!! It was great. I signed up for a “Fit for EY” activity today—cycling. EY rented about 40 Dutch bikes and we went exploring the city and the dunes they have next to the ocean. Unfortunately, it was raining off and on and the wind was crazy, but that really didn’t stop me from getting on the bike. After riding it today, I have decided that I’m going to get one…soon. : )

Training starts up again tomorrow…with a new set of trainers. I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to be as good as the last ones; their English isn’t as good and it’s hard for me to understand them sometimes. We’ll see, though.


Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Well, I was right…the new trainers aren’t as great as the ones last week…but oh well…it’s only 4 days with them and 2 are already over. Today, I started falling asleep listening to a really long lecture about substantive procedures for inventory (hmmm…wonder why I’d be sleepy) and at the break, someone told me that it was really funny watching me the last two minutes because I was slowly drifting away.

Last night, we had a formal dinner here that focused on etiquette and a fashion show. The dinner was 4 ½ hours long because of the many courses,…and the etiquette lessons in between and during each course. It was very interesting, however, and I learned a lot of European rules for formal dining experiences. We sat boy, girl, boy, girl at each table and were required to attend in business attire. (I had to borrow a jacket from Charla…shame on me for not bringing one.) We were served oysters first and since Charla had never eaten one, each of us at the table slurped one down with her…I still don’t see the point, Dadd! Haha… The main course was duck…and the desserts were fabulous! All in all, I think it was a great meal, but for most, it wasn’t enough food.

Dinner was followed by a fashion show on business attire, business casual attire, and ‘what not to wear to the client’. The models on the catwalk were actually 6 people from each class—volunteers, really—that chose their corresponding outfit. The business attire went first, then the business casual (which Charla participated in), then the crazy, funny, absurd couples came next. The first two groups were pretty laid back and formal…but then the last group of ‘what not to wear…’ models came out two at a time and it was amazing what they were wearing. Most had the equivalent of a swimsuit on, and some guys had only a speedo looking thing on….It was more like a European porno at times. My jaw was definitely on the floor the whole time—can you imagine having those pictures of you pretty much naked all over the EY servers globally?!?!? Whewww! Apparently, this is usually the way it gets, but I wasn’t ready for it.

More later (including pictures) about training and the Marine Ball...