Just a quick update...

I'll have a longer post on the last part of our Amsterdam trip up soon... right now I am sitting at Washington DC's Dulles airport waiting on my last plane to take off... headed straight for Greenville this time. Oddly, it was actually cheaper to fly direct to Greenville rather than Charlotte... and it worked out because my Jeep is currently in storage in Greenville. That way, I can pick up my Blue Baby without inconveniencing my folks.

Anyways, I'll throw down a few pictures if this internet connection will let me... For right now, I just gotta say that it is nice to be back in the states. A big part of me is really missing life in the states, because when I'm here I have so many opportunities to see the people that are closest to me. Sure, I have gained a lot of advantages from working overseas, but I long for the day that I will be able to actually enjoy the fruits of my toil for longer than a week or two here at home.


Anyways, PICTURES....!

Amsterdammers ice skating near the I Amsterdam sign/Van Gogh Museum.

Shrum outside the Van Gogh Museum...

Predictable? Maybe... ME outside the VGM...

LIZARD ATTACK! This might look familiar to those who have been following my blog since my last trip to Amsterdam back in March, 2009...

Aight, that's enough for now... plane is about to start boarding. Hopefully I will have a little bit of down time in the next day or two to put up a proper post regarding our last couple days in Amsterdam, or what I can remember of it anyways.

Thanks to everyone who follows my blog! Hopefully I'll be seeing you VERY soon!

-Ertter

Just another day in Amsterdam

Some pictures from today...

Jeremy drinking his Heineken. An excellent example of photography. It's got angles, it's got perspective...

Then, there's this picture. Bad light. Bad colors. Guess who too which picture? I will give Shrum points for what is over my shoulder, though.

In the end, we're both just documenting the experience, the mystery that is drinking copious amounts of Heineken during the day.

Seriously though, we are having a good time. We've just stopped in for a couple hours to warm up. It started snowing/sleeting at about 11 am, right when we were in the middle of the Jordaan. My sister knows that I somehow always manage to get caught outside in inclement weather without the proper equipment. Just ask her about our first day in London.

We found a place that looked like a pub and ended up ordering a couple of pizzas. Sure, we probably had a few Heinekens in 1/2 litre increments. So what? We're on vacation. We're lookin forward to some touristy stuff tomorrow... Luckily Shrum wants to see all the same places that I managed to miss during my last visit to the city back in March, when I was traveling with Christa.

Anyways, I've got a bottle of Johnny Walker Black callin to me from the refrigerator... That actually brings up a funny story. We managed to get a bag of ice delivered with our Thai food the other night... don't ask me how I convinced someone that doesn't speak very good English that we needed a bag of ice, but I did. Our fridge doesn't have a freezer, so we utilized the cold, austere exterior to store our bag of ice and keep it at the proper temperature.

Turns out somebody ganked our bag of ice. Granted, it was in an old grocery bag, but if someone finds ice outside in a bag, and that person knows there isn't a freezer in the boat, why would they throw away the ice?

Anyways. Yeah. Creepy, someone threw out our ice. So that means we're drinkin it straight up. Thanks for stealing our ice, buddy.

First pics from Amsterdam (the sequel) and some notes...

Well, Jeremy and I both made in to Amsterdam safely and on time... two days before I left Afghanistan, Frankfurt airport was experiencing 'severe' delays of up to 5 hours, so I was nervous that I was going to be really late and Jeremy was going to get to Amsterdam on time, leaving him to fend for himself until I arrived. Luckily, the day of my flight the weather was cold but clear in Frankfurt and in Afghanistan... well, clear in the sense that there wasn't any precipitation anyways.

We met inside the airport at the giant checkered column that serves as the meeting area and after changing some cash to Euros, we were out front hailing a cab. The cab got us right where we needed to go, at which point we met our houst, Kaya. Kaya is a tall, extremely attractive young dutch girl. She's a student and lives in the houseboat next door... maybe we'll be able to convince her to come hang out with us while we're here, who knows?

Anyways, the houseboat did NOT disappoint. It is very comfortable, and decorated well. Everything we need is right here; we've got a fully equipped kitchen, comfortable beds, music is wired throughout the boat which is especially useful when you're taking a shower because there is music piped into the bathroom. There's also a TV, DVD player, comfortable couches, dining room, and three total bedrooms. One of those is in the wheelhouse, though, so it lacks a little bit of privacy. Underneath that, though is the Skipper's old bedroom, which is where Jeremy would have slept last night if he could have made it up the ladder to the wheelhouse, and back down another ladder into the Skipper's bedroom. We didn't make it out into Amsterdam too much yesterday... both Jeremy and I had been awake nearly 40 hours by the time we got situated in the houseboat, so we weren't up for too much sightseeing... so you might notice that some of the photos below are from inside the houseboat. We're back up at 5am here, having breakfast and about to start our day. I think we're going to go find Dam Square and the Jordaan today, then circle back through the Red Light District before heading back to the boat tonight. We're going to try to hit the Anne Frank house today and maybe the Rijksmuseum.

We'll see how much we actually get to... but after today I suspect we're going to be on a more Amsterdam-friendly schedule. Oh well, here are the pictures:

Here's Jeremy standing in our living room right after we arrived.

This is my bedroom. The mattress is uber-comfy, but really, after sleeping on a cot surrounded by a couple hundred other dudes for the last 4 months, any room with a door would be a luxury.

Jeremy laid up on the couch after a quick jaunt to the Red Light District.

We had some Earl Grey to top off the evening... well, we had a bunch of wine and scotch before this, but who's really paying attention?

Jeremy enjoying a nice breakfast of Earl Grey, chicken flavored ramen noodles, and a PB&J.

I had a similar breakfast, but I prefer coffee in the mornings...

Trying to look surly and grumpy at breakfast.

OK kids, that's all for now... obviously today should be a much more exciting day. Let's see what the day holds for us...

10 random songs Afghani-style...

No, I'm not gonna put up 10 songs from Afghanistan, just 10 randoms from what I've been listening to over here... So here we go!

1) Jay-Z, The Black Album - December 4th
2) Nada Surf, The Weight Is A Gift - Always Love
3) Rage Against The Machine, The Battle of Los Angeles - Born of a Broken Man
4) The Strokes, Is This It? - Is This It
5) Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank - We've Got Everything
6) Pharrel, In My Mind - Stay With Me (Instrumental)
7) LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
8) The Decemberists, Castaways and Cutouts - Cocoon
9) Wagon Christ, Musipal - Thick Stew
10) Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Live At Radio City Music Hall - Cornbread

There ya go, folks! More pics and sundries to come soon, I hope...

I know it's been awhile...

Hell, I haven't posted since I left Saudi I don't think... Anyways, here's a quick update:

I've now been in Afghanistan for about 3 months. I've been to several different FOBs, some small and picturesque, some large and, well... muddy. Currently, I am leading the largest recruiting effort (in terms of the number of incumbent employees) that we have undertaken to date. Well, I guess Bagram is bigger, obviously, but we're doing that in phases... My team is here at Phoenix right now and we are slammed.

Here's a pic of the team after we did our Secret Santa the other night...

Most of us are Fluor, but there's a couple ITT folks mixed in there. Since we all travelled together, we did a big Secret Santa for all of us. Since we're all going to be stranded out in the middle of nowhere in a war zone for Christmas, I thought it would be nice to generate a little Holiday Cheer among our team. It seemed to have worked, as everyone was laughing and enjoying the process of opening our gifts.

I guess at this point, I've got about 29 days until I head out on R&R... I can NOT wait. I'm headed to Amsterdam/Rotterdam with Jeremy, and we've rented a houseboat to stay in while we're there. I'm really excited about finally getting to the Rijksmuseum, since my sis and I missed it the last time I was in the Netherlands. It should be a fun trip, and I'll do my best to take some good pictures.

I have a few more pics that you guys might be interested in...

Check back soon for (hopefully) another entry...

I know it's been like 6 months...

... so here's a quick update on what's been happening...

After I got back from my R&R (you know, the Europe trip) I just kept trucking along until my assignment was completed at the end of August. I was sent home to start training for my new assignment in Afghanistan. I was home for a couple weeks before my training started, but I then started a week of training in Greenville. Training was from 7am to 530 every day, and it was difficult to sit through a lot of it... but I got through it. Now, however, I have to check in ever M-F at 730 am, but I'm then free to do pretty much whatever I like for the rest of the day. It does kind of keep me stuck in Greenville during the week, though, because I am waiting for them to tell me when I am going to fly.

They might not give me much notice, either... I literally might find out the morning of my flight that I have to leave that day. Anyways, I've been all over the place trying to see as many friends as possible every weekend, and of course I've been to two Gamecocks game in the meantime... I will try to get some pics up of all of this craziness tonight...

So anyways, my point is this: I'm going to Afghanistan and I will try to keep this blog updated from now on...

Thanks for all you who have been following me all along!

-J

Amsterdam Exploration

So, I think I mentioned earlier that Amsterdam sort of slapped us in the face when we got there by pestering us with a bitter wind and horizontal rain needles in our faces.

I did not feel welcome.

As you can see from the pics posted previously, Amsterdam is a city with attractions for lots of different types of people. There is a definite lack of inhibitions that you can sense from the city... sort of a wanton sense of personal freedom just throbbing through the streets. This is a city that thousands of college students and adults alike come to specifically to cut loose, after all.

Our hostel was on Warmoestraat, a road that ran parallel to the Damrak. The Damrak was a road that ran directly from Centraal Station to Dam Square, and it was lined with souvenir shops, restaurants, bars and department stores. We later found a free 'visitor's guide' to Amsterdam that referenced the Red Light District. In reading the description of the area, we found a quick description of why they call it the Red Light District (which we had already personally experienced at that point) and that you should be sure to visit Warmoestraat, also known as the 'Hardcore leather neighborhood.' Wow. No wonder there was a gay bar called Cockring about two blocks from our hostel.

Like I said in a previous post, Dam Square was pretty much our starting point for all the journeys we took. Let me tell you, we did a LOT of walking those few days in Amsterdam. It was a completely different experience than travelling with my Dad, as I did the following week. He moved slowly and had to stop to rest every hundred yards or so. It meant that we couldn't see as much in one day as my sister, Christa, and I managed to do.

Let me take this opportunity to say that it would be very hard to find a better travelling companion than my sis. She has such a great attitude about everything - she's open to going just about anywhere, and to spending the day in any way you can think of, from just relaxing at a coffee shop (ahem!) to walking for 8 hours straight around the Jordaan. I can't thank her enough for coming with me on this trip, especially considering the circumstances she had to manage to get free to go.

So, thanks, Christa.

Anyways, our first day was spent getting oriented with the city, more or less. We had to wait a significant portion of the day to check into the room, so we found some coffee to warm up and some food to re-energize. We ate at a little cafe in a shopping center and had our first experience with mayonnaise-drenched french fries. Actually, it's not that bad. I thought it would make me vomit, but it was pretty good, especially when you mix ketchup and mayo together... something magical happens between those two condiments when you dip fries in there.

After that we decided to walk back to the other side of Dam Square towards the Red Light District. We were both so awe-struck by actually being in Amsterdam that even the most generic souvenir stores held a magnificent fascination for us. We walked by all kinds of restaurants, especially Argentinian Steakhouses. Those seem to be really popular over there. There were lots of coffee shops, too, of course... fry vendors on the streets, tiny stores with snacks and drinks, all kinds of clothing stores, stores that sold 'coffee accessories,' and cool little cafes. The city had a really charming feel to it, and everyone on the street seemed to be really happy, or at least mellow enough to tolerate everyone else.

That brings to mind another observation: the Dutch like their bicycles, man. Everywhere we went there were hundreds of bikes tethered there. Anything that was bolted to something else had a bike bolted to it: handrails, bridges, even other bikes! It was craziness, but I guess their tendancy to ride bikes everywhere at least partially accounts for the vast number of hot Dutch girls that I saw while I was there.

That's all for now... more as I find the time...