current working conditions

The Delta POEMA Comfort team (my current team for this project) and the other teams as well are moving today to another location. So while the movers are doing their thing, we are currently crammed into a small conference room, waiting for the phone call informing us that our new 'home' is ready for us. In the meantime, I am sitting on a chair that's perfect for my height (my feet are touching the floor!), but working on a table that's too high for me (my wrists are just about chest high when I'm typing).

Of course when we get to the new location, everything still has to be fixed up and arranged. I'd have to reconnect the cables, check the network locations and ensure that my little platform was not misplaced.

My little platform of course was a 'gift' from one of my teammates from Accenture. See, while sitting on my chair (not the one I currently have, but the one I really use in the office), my feet do not touch the ground at all. So that squeaking, squarish thing that resembles those foot pedals on old sewing machines are supposed to fill in the gap between the floor and my feet.

Its worth mentioning too, that we have a kick-ass monitor for our desktops. That, coupled with a rotation software that allows you to make your monitor even bigger by turning it sideways means I can view my photos at original size in pbase and love every single detail of it (of course, only after office hours *wink* *wink*). The downside, the monitor ends up to be too big for me, that I literally have to move my neck when I want to see what's on top or on the bottom of the screen….its like slow motion headbanging for 8 or so hours a day sans the whiplash and the heart thumping music.

I have a dream..

...that one day I will be able to return to Europe with both my parents, my brother and sister and their kids. We'll climb up to the peak of Milan's Cathedral and I will be able to hear my brother remark about the astounding architecture, the unbelievable detail and how long they must have worked and how hard to finish such a masterpiece. I can sit at a cafe in Rome and chat with my sister about what people are wearing and which outfits she'll love to try and how much we missed out on bonding as single women. I'll be able to have raclette with my parents and use the only frech phrase I can confidently speak l'addition si vous plait (bill please). I'll be able to go to other European cities that I've never been to, like Venice maybe, and we can all explore together. I'll be taking a canal tour in Venice and worry about one of the kids falling off the gondola, or of them moving too much to rock the boat.

I also dream that my first visit to South America will be with my friends, and we can all wonder and gush about how revealing the swimsuits and how women can actually wear them. We'll go out at night and party like crazy because after all, partying together in such an exotic place is a once in a lifetime experience. At daytime we'll find some place to just chill and watch people, the most enjoyable past time of all, all the while chatting, talking, and recounting some funny experience we've had in the past.

Maybe someday. I hope someday.

Easter in Germany

Faced with a four-day weekend, whats a foreigner to do in Middelburg? Drive to Germany of course!

I wish I could claim that it was my idea, but it wasnt. It was Kevin who persisted in going to Germany, and I'm glad he did.

We went to Cologne (or Koln) which turned out to be just three hours away from Middelburg. Its amazing how you can find yourself suddenly in another country in a matter of minutes. In our drive to Germany, we went from the Netherlands, to Belgium, back to Netherlands, back inside Belgium and then to Germany. If it werent for the different signs we saw along the way, we never would have known what country we were in!

Coming from a country filled with speed traps, Germany was surprising and shocking. Sure, I've heard of the autobahn where speedlimits are nonexistent, but crossing the border and then suddenly noting the noticeable fast speed that the other cars (including ours!) marked our welcome to Germany. I have to admit I was scared. I was braking half the time, fearing that we wouldnt stop in time to stop what I thought was an inevitable crash with the cars in front. But, nothing happened, we're back and we're safe (yay!).

Now I'm wishing for more long weekends. That way we can cross yet more borders!