A rather exciting Week(end)!

Hi People

Hmm…I seem to be writing on a once a week basis, hence my uber long entries with this one being no exception. Monday (the 21^st) was a typical working day and Dutch class night (and the weekly pub gathering). Pub night was fun, but it was special since we held a special tribute to Jose, who will be leaving on the 1^st of April. It was also Shangxia first meeting most of the AIESEC people. Jose brother and cousin arrived from Spain on Tuesday for a visit. It was fun since they barely spoke English, so there was a lot of Spanish in the house for the coming week. Wednesday and Thursday past by with relatively little fuss and that leaves me with this long Easter weekend and the main focus of this entry

On Friday, I left in the morning for the reception weekend in Nijmegen. No offence to my AIESEC Twente peers, but it was the best reception weekend I experienced yet. Nijmegen is about 2 hours train ride South of Enschede. It is also one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, as it was built by the Romans. It is also an oddity in the Netherlands since it is one of the rare cities built on high ground, making it quite the strategic city in early times. Due to the ideal location, Nijmegen was once a walled city, and much of the buildings and layout of the city reflects this aspect. Also, Nijmegen is near the banks of a River, and is prone to flooding every year. The Dutch have created a series of walls to keep out the water as well. About 10 of us AIESEC Twente people and I (being the only trainee that could come) arrived a little after 1pm and met up with the other arrivals from the other parts of the Netherlands. The first activity was a walking tour of the city. I learnt a lot of history about the city (too much to be able to write about here) and took a lot of pictures. It was the most descriptive walking tours I have had yet, so I quite enjoyed. As part of the walking tour, we had a pit stop at a chocolate factory. We learnt how to make Chocolate and Easter eggs (including a lot of free samples). I took plenty of pictures and videos. The walking tour continued afterwards and ended when we got to the place for dinner. My only negative remark for the weekend was the dinner. We had a choice between fish or Pork and I should have ordered the fish. The pork was done in a stir fry style and served with potatoes and damn were they salty. No matter though, it was the party in the evening that made the day. The party had a beach theme so people were decked out in colourful clothing. I brought along the most “beachy” thing I had with me and had a very good night. Talked and danced with a lot of people and had a good time. After lunch the next day, I left early back to Enschede.

Saturday continue…

The reason for rushing back was that we were planning to go out to a nice dinner since Eric was leaving on Sunday. In addition, Eric’s brother and his wife (as in Eric’s brother’s wife), came over to visit and give Eric a ride to his parents place on Sunday. Jose’s cousin and brother were still with us at well. We decided on the nice looking Mexican place that I have always wanted to try. It was good food since I haven’t had Mexican cooking in a while. I also satisfied a craving for Tiramisu by sharing it with Mizu for dessert. It was a nice dinner and a chance to give Eric and Jose our parting gifts that Mizu, Shangxia, and I had bought covertly during the week. We got Jose a webcam, and Eric a Japanese cookbook.

Sunday

Sunday was an emotional day. Mizu left bright and early to go to Amsterdam to see her Mom who came up from Japan. Also, Eric left in the morning. We said our good byes and Eric officially left the AIESEC house for Japan. Eric was leaving is going to be hard since he was my tutor, the person that I seek advice from, my toughest critic, and my strongest advocate. It is also sad since I feel like the original crew of the AIESEC house are almost all gone. Solimon, Shi, Eric, Jose, Mizuki, and I seem to be the original members in this new house, and after next week, only Mizu and I will be left. To fill in the gap, and start the 2^nd generation, we have 2 new trainees arriving to fill in the space with Shangxia already arrived last week. 20 min after Eric left on Sunday, Shangxia and I went to the station the welcome the newest addition to the AIESEC house. Ana, after spending the weekend in Amsterdam with her sister, finally arrived in Enschede. Ana comes from Serbia and will be working for Tronex (sp?), the same company Solimon use to work for. Ana is a great fit to the house, and I get along well with her. The rest of Sunday was spent getting to know her. Embarrassingly, due to mix up in communication with Jose (who spent the day in De Haag with his brother and cousin), nobody was ready to prepare supper that night and all the stores were closed for holidays. Ana stepped up to plate on her first day and made a nice Moussaka, basically Greek (but really Turkish) lasagne, using the food we manage to scavenge from the fridge.

Monday

It’s weird here. Dutch people here usually don’t get Easter Friday off, and instead Monday is a holiday. I took Friday off to go to reception weekend therefore having myself a nice 4 day weekend. After finally being able to sleep in this weekend, Jose prepared a nice (and coronary incident favouring) lunch of eggs and Dutch bacon for all of us. After lunch, Jose’s brother and cousin left to go back to Spain. Afterwards, I took Ana for a walk around Enschede. Strangely, I have yet to take any pictures of the sights and sounds of Enschede, so I brought my camera along. Since it was Easter weekend, I had in mind to prepare a special meal. I made a Pork roast (marinade in a pork rub, garlic sauce, soy sauce, and the special ingredient, Apple sauce). Along with it, I had rice, corn, bake potatoes and a smoke salmon on a lettuce bed as a starter. The pork roast took longer then expected due to the face that we didn’t have a shallow baking pan and I used a glass salad bowl instead. Besides reducing the amount of heat that reaches the roast (and lengthening cooking times), I also did not have meat thermometer so I has to improvise. After an hour delay, the roast was finally done, and we had a nice dinner to celebrate Easter.

Today and the rest of the week

Today is a normal work day for this shorten week. I have a business trip on Tuesday and Friday so I’ll be having a busy week. The Japanese trainee will be arriving Wednesday night, and with Jose leaving on Thursday, we’ll have to squeeze him into the littlest room until Ana can move into Jose’s room and Shinichiro, the Japanese Trainee, will get the two littlest rooms. Mizu returns on Thursday while Jose leaves that day. Depending on his schedule, I may go with Jose to the airport to see him off. I’ll miss the guy since he’s my drinking buddy, and his term of endearment for me, “Mr. Choy” is something I’ll miss hearing. Jose is an around great guy, and we had many good times together =(

Mizu should also be headed home on Thursday. On Saturday, I’ll be headed to Amsterdam for the first time. My aunt is over there for business and I am going to meet her and tour Amsterdam with her.

I’ll try to update this again later this week but no guarantees. Following this entry, I’ll be putting up a lot of pictures from throughout this week

Enjoy

LEs