Home Sweet Home

---

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 Chouffe with a picture of the pub with a little note written on the back. It was definitely an 'aw shucks' kinda moment.

I honestly forget what happened on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm guessing it was probably fun though. I know at some point I sold my car...er, bike, to Jen, ate ridiculously spicy green curry from the Thai place across the street from my apartment (and subesequently paid for it over the next 18 hours), and had drinks at Buddha bar with Geoff, Eugene, and Neville. I also know I slept until 10:15 am on accident, which made for an extremely brief work day.

Thursday was the big going away happy hour sponsored by my boss, Eric. As per tradition, table after table after table was joined up in the patio of the Halve Maan pub and pitcher after pitcher after pitcher of cold Heineken was consumed. Throw in a few plates of funky Dutch pub food (aka bitterballen, cheese, assorted fried thingys), and it was a good time for the 20-25 of my friends and 'colleagues' who decided they could pretend to like me enough for free drinks.

Eric gave a little speech about me coming out to NL and thanking me for being such a ridiculously awesome project manager (I embellish here ever so slightly) and then presented me with a couple of cards everybody signed and a certificate thanking me for 'Services rendered to the IT and partying industries of the Netherlands". How cool is Europe when your boss will sign a certificate like that? ...Especially one that includes a mildly embarrasing random partying picture that Shruti so cheerfully picked out of my online photo album. (I guess I deserved that, huh?). Oh yeah, icing on the cake...I got a sweet ace portable iPod stereo system as a parting gift. Bling Bling, yo.

At this point, still standing, I felt obliged to say a few words describing how my time in the Netherlands had been unforgettable and how much the land and the friends I'd made there had become a part of my life in a way I never expected but am wholly grateful for. It was moving. People wept. I'm embellishing again.

****************************************
Ok, so I started this entry on Oct 21 and now it's nearly a month later on November 19th. Only through the constant badgering of one Shruti Thaker have I pulled myself to try and finish things off...let's see if I can still remember what happened. Join me, won't you.
****************************************

For dinner we hit up my favorite meat-o-rama restaurant, the always awesome and always just downstairs Greek place, Athene Palace. To make a long story short, I ate too much.

This became quickly a problem since my good buddies had scheduled a fair amount of binge drinking into the rest of the evening's schedule. With stomach room at a premium, I had to maximize bang for the buck and so turned to the ever faithful 8.5% Duvel (Dutch for 'Devil') to get the job done. A couple Duvels on the Plein and then we were off to the Fiddler for countless rounds, smack talking, and parting shots from the gang to me and vice versa. Top it all off with some drunken 'I love yew, you wee bastard' from the Scotsmen and some much-hyped parting hugs with those who would rather not be hugged (ahem, Shruts) and it was a night. By night, I mean 3 hours before I had to get up and lug a couple of 70+ pound suitcases to the airport. The big one actually got to the airport with a piece of the taxi's trunk latch. Sweet. Needless to say, this weary business traveller was out like a light for the flight home.

10 hours later, home sweet home in Houston, Texas.

OCTOBER PICS

---