Found a very funny site, Expatica, that describes how it is to live in Holland for a foreigner:

"Dutch men tend to be boring, unimaginative and have an aversion to making 'real' contact. The only thing they have really taken to heart is 'going Dutch', warns a New Zealander. So ladies, when he asks you out to dinner, don't forget your wallet. And don't expect him to hold doors open for you either."

The article is here.

I'll have a meeting with Petra now, my stage begeleider from the company. The rest of the week I'll have meetings with various people on various projects, and see if there's something nice for me to do. Also have to spent a few more hours on my paper HCI, probably tomorrow.

This weekend I went to see my parents, had some stuff to do there. Yesterday we with to visit my grandmother. The weather was very nice and we went to a small harbour in Friesland where we spent 2 hours watching the boats. There were many young people on sailing-holidays, and not all of them were really experienced with sailing, so it was an interesting view.

Saturday evening I played Steden & Ridders with my parents. I like this a lot better than the original Kolonisten! It was their first time playing this game but... my mother won! Picture courtesy Spellengek.

Currently I'm at my work, fixed the Office problem and brought back my old laptop. My desk is starting already to feel cosy, the worst mess is gone and I moved my own stuff here already. Hope to find some pictures of the Chess building, or -even better- a digital camera to put a picture of my new desk online.

Yesterday evening Sasha and me went to Amsterdam for a drink, it was nice. Milan went to the Amsterdam Tournament and saw 2 soccers matches.

Now it's raining quite a lot.

Today I started working arranging the paperwork necessary for an internship. Nice to get started with it, instead of installing software all day (like yesterday). I'll have my phone this afternoon, my laptop is almost ready except for this b***dy Office that, once installed, still requires a CD-ROM to install the last part.

Back at my work, had a bit longer break, for a very nice reason: Irena and Ilana arrived! They came by train from Brussels, where they arrived this morning from New York. I suppose they must be tired but currently everybody was just very happy to see each other. Sasha's family is together now, and also the grandparents can see Ilanche... they were extremely pleased with that, very happy. To bad I had to go back :)

I'm installing software on my new laptop again. I think that's the 3rd of 4th time in the 2 years I've worked here that I got a new laptop.

Started my stage today, the work at Net.Footworks is definitely over. I will certainly miss it, as I've had a very nice time there. In the two years that I worked there I've learned many, many news things. Learned how it is to work in a real 'big' company, to program together with others, the connection between technology and business. Very important was the fact that I had such nice colleagues. We had a really nice time together, and I'll certainly miss working together.

But at the same time I'm happy to start my internship. That is to say, at this moment I'm looking for an assignment here at Chess-iT, and then I'll make arrangements with my university.

And of course, we shall have our guests! We just came back from my parents, we had a really good time there. Two nice dinners, and sitting outside in the garden. Yesterday during the day we went to see some Dutch things: the polders, the water level, the sluizes and of course the Afsluitdijk. We had a coffee in Friesland. Everybody was happy that they could see each other.

Another extremely warm day, it actually is summer in Holland!

We'll go to Middenmeer in a while, so our parents will see each other again, nice.

Today I cleaned my desk at Net.Footworks, a bit sad feeling.

We had pizza for dinner, and it's nice that it's not as hot as yesterday in the house.

I'm at the VU now, doing research for my paper. It's such a nice weather again, I saw the traffic jam to the beach.

I removed Hammie's turning wheel because it makes so much noise, hope he still had a good night. At least he wasn't too hot.