After leaving my friends, I took a train to Amsterdam Centraal. With my heavy bags, I just took a taxi to my hotel in Westerpark. The Conscious Hotel was our designated accommodation for the training, even though the training itself was held at other locations. This is yet another modern hotel, but placed in a former factory in a beautiful park. So the location was nice, but kind of far away from everything. Check in was similar to my first night, where we had to do it ourselves. But my room was ready and it was huge. And freezing. Someone had left the window open and it didn't warm up until well after I went to bed.... I was able to take a nap and a quick shower before meeting our group at a nearby restaurant, ... read more

I had training for work in Amsterdam at the end of October, so I decided to leave a few days early to see the Netherlands and visit with friends. After a quick of the area, I decided to stay my first night in Rotterdam. Of course, I got business class on my morning flight from Dubai. Many friends had told me how easy the trains were here, and after a few minutes of figuring it out, they were right. I arrived at Schipol, went through customs with little wait, and got my checked bag. After walking out into the waiting area, I looked for signs for the train and found a site map nearby. At first, getting tickets was a little confusing and the station information (that I saw) was in Dutch, but I was able ... read more

My last day in Singapore. I have to say, I was so impressed with this beautiful city. So, while I enjoyed sleeping in and taking my time to pack and get ready, I also wanted to get in a last glimpse of culture before I left. I also needed to make sure that I used my hop-on, hop-off pass before 2:30 pm. Malay Neighborhood So after checking out and storing my luggage, I got on the bus to head towards the Malaysian area of town. Chinatown and Little India are more well known, but I was interested in the Malay area. Once I got off the bus, I got just a little lost before I realized the majority of the sight-seeing part of the Malaysia area were tucked well into the neighborhood. I soon saw the ... read more

I slept in a little later than I had planned, but I think I needed it to do what I had planned for the day. I got my included breakfast, just a lite bite for me: two strips of bacon, a salmon mini-quiche, and fruit. Little did I know I would not eat again until 3pm!! Once I put all my stuff in my purse that could fit, including the provided phone from the hotel (really!), I made my way down to Marina Square Mall and across the street. It was only just after 9 am, but it was already a humid hot. Gardens by the Bay The walk itself was quite pleasant, along the bay, over the helix bridge and along the promenade. I bought a combined ticket to see the Cloud Forest and Flower ... read more

Wow, has it really been almost a month since I wrote? Time has flown by. I've been back almost six weeks now and in some ways it's like I never left! I really missed this rush I get at work, the pace, the stress, the interesting projects. I'm definitely where I'm supposed to be. It has taken a little time to get back into the swing of some things though (project coordination when most of the people are out on site) or even just remembering some technical details that used to be at the forefront of my mind. Seriously, three years ago in Qatar, there were techniques we used constantly and someone the other day asked me about what the process was and I was caught off guard - it had literally just gone from my ... read more