Mango
Brian Siy Joined: April 12th 2005
Logged in: August 13th 2008
Logged in: August 13th 2008
Travel Blog Posts
Miles away from ordinary
It's one of AJ's buzz phrases. AJ is of course my buddy and a cousin of my best friend Kylan who masterminded the whole Jamaican adventure I'm about to chronicle in this here blog. He likes to emphasize the truthfulness of what he's about to say or to diffuse the bluntness of what he just blurted out with those 4 words. So, I too am not gonna lie.... * it's been a helluva long time since I posted. Forgive me. * it's been over a week since I got back from Jamaica and I've been too exhausted/busy/lazy to catch up * this is probably gonna be an overly long blog, as per usual * Jamaica was ridiculously awesome and I think I'm way cooler than you if you've never been Hey, I'm not gonna lie. First ... read more
Chillin' in Winterberg
I made one rule for myself for my ski trip to Germany: don't try anything stupid. But much like bones, rules are meant to be broken. Fortunately, my one foray into snoboard hotdogging ended without any serious injury and much like Lindsey Jacobellis' silver medal boardcross run: humiliating, but surmountable with enough BS and the whole "yeah, well I don't see you trying it" factor. There was a split second of a "My knee hurts and I want my mommy" moment when I thought I tore something, but after a few minutes of Peter Griffin pain management, I was able to finish the run and make it down to the bottom of the mountain. It's now late on Tuesday and the limp's almost gone. Whew. Otherwise, the trip was awesome. I got to see some amazing ... read more
Laser Tag in Rijswijk
Well, one more week down and I'm starting to feel a little fat and sassy, to quote a Don Hertzfeldt cartoon. I sit around at work all day, I'm helpless to resist the variety of the Shell cafeteria at lunch, and living out of a hotel forces me to eat out every night. No such thing as a hotel gym in the Netherlands, and I'd rather buy all new pants instead of going joggin around The Hague in rainy, near freezing weather! Case in point: today I had half a chicken for lunch and in the course of this week I had a 16-course tapas dinner, a Thai smorgasbord, and a steak dinner. I think I might've done like 40 pushups one night, but the balance is clearly in fatness's favor. I did however manage to ... read more
Snow!
...SSDD was also another potential entry title, but it was rejected for possible negative connotations that I feel degrade the cheerful spirit of my ongoing European adventures. And go on we shall. I'm back again for the third time. First it was 6 months in 2005, then 2 weeks in January 2006, and now another month (or maybe more) here in March. I'm here so much it's getting comical. I've run into a few people at work who are like, "hey, I didn't know you were still here!" and "wait, aren't you based in Houston?" Deja vu seems more fitting. I've gotten the hang of this whole international travel thing, I think. I've stopped paying attention to the pre-flight safety demonstrations. (This may be due to the fact that Continental stewardesses seem to be generally less ... read more
Monday: Cloister Beer Menu
...and the party never ends. At least it didn't this week. It's now almost 4 on Saturday and all I've managed to do is check email and eat some cashews. I finally had the opportunity and ability to get in a full 12 hours of sleep, so sleep I did. It feels good, since it's been a busy week. Monday After 3 months away, the Shoarma pizza from Pizza Dennis never tasted so good. The sweet taste of victory, however, was not ours to be had, as we came in 3rd place with 57 points, which really stinks since the other teams scored 58 and 59 respectively. I blame the music round since the only thing I knew among the assortment of Euro dance pop was Shaggy's 'Boombastic'. Tuesday Ton, being the sociable Dutchman he is, ... read more
Kwak Time
'Belgium'...well, maybe it's 'Girl All the Bad Guys Want', but nothing ruins a song's appeal like too much Grammy praise and radio overplay...except maybe if it's being performed by Nickelback. Those guys are no-talent-ass-clowns. In any event, let's go with Belgium, since that's where this is all leading anyways. As options are limited for a weekend trip, medieval city hopping next door in Belgium seemed like a good idea. A three hour train ride on Friday night got Eugene, Bec, Shruti, Lesley, and I to the hometown of Spurs guard Tony Parker and supposedly the ever quotable Dr. Evil. Vegetarian sensibilities among the girls and the fact that Belgians aren't predisposed to post-sunset economic activity limited our choices and caused us to pick fast food for the first evening's fare. If you think McDonald's is crap, ... read more
Susie's Leaving Do
Ok, so you'd think that for something as simple as a few paragraphs of attempted wittiness that I could keep this thing updated at least a few times a week, but here I go again falling into weekly reviews. I have my reasons. That being said, here's as painless of a recap of the first work week of the trip as I can muster: First, the whining: About the blog title... I think those guys said it best in 'Pinch Me.' (Ah, such high hopes for an interesting entry crushed so quickly!) "It's the perfect time of year Somewhere far away from here I feel fine enough, I guess Considering everything's a mess" Oh man...has it been a rough couple of days. Lots of emotional stress over Kat going to NYC coupled with extremely little sleep ... read more
Houston wins
Duty calls, and Brian answers. Especially when it involves an expense account, business class travel, and catching up with the NL gang. For lack of a full line of American television, and thanks to the marvel of hotel WiFi, the blog is back in action. So yup, at the request of my 'colleagues,' I'm back in the Netherlands for a quick 2-week stint to try and kick some ass and take some names. Thanks to the help of a seasoned last-minute packer and Village shopping veteran (Katherine, you're my hero), I was able to get packed up and ready for the trip the day of the flight, including the procurement of one super-swanky overcoat at a mere quarter of the original retail price. Sweetness. Why did I need to go out and get a big new ... read more
Fiddler Finale
Well, the European adventure is finally over and I'm back home in good 'ol Texas. I got back on Friday, Oct 7th. It's been a couple of weeks, so I figured I needed to close out the trip with at least a lil sumthin' sumthin', cuz nobody likes an unfinished story. My last week in the Netherlands was a blast. That Monday was the last quiz night, so the shoarma pizza tasted extra good, as did the sweet victory we pulled on the rest of the teams. Sure, I forgot that Nelly Furtado is the artist for 'I'm Like a Bird' in the music round, but I feel like more of a man for doing so. The Cloister really made my last quiz special; Helmur, Arno and company presented me with a big bottle of La ... read more
Night in Rotterdam
Well, not just yet, but pretty soon. I threw some dates out earlier, but nevermind, cuz I booked my flight, and unless my 'leaving do' (that's European for 'going away party') gets ridiculously out of hand, I'll be snuggled into my cushy business class seat on October 7th at 10:30 AM, Central European Time and bound for that good ol' IAH airport we all know and love. As I'm writing this, that's a 10 day countdown until this whole European adventure chapter of my life comes to a close. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's about 2 weeks of mischief I somehow still feel obligated to chronicle on this here little blog, so let's get started. First off, I hope everybody's OK and that Rita didn't mess your lives up too much. I know ... read more
