We Crossed Oceans To Find Each Other

Working on Nederlands Praten

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:55:09 +0200

Leann has had a sleepover at Diana’s house. This gave me the opportunity to work on the introduction video of Nederlands Praten. The past few months a few things have changed in my approach and things that I do and the old video introduction did not cover these new insights. So last night I have worked on the new introduction video. Enjoy!

Hour of Power: Robert H Schuller time!

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:47:30 +0200

Once a while I get up early to watch Hour of Power. This is an internet church mass led by Rev. Robert H. Schuller. The broadcast compensates for the lack of good local churches that I really can’t wrap my head around.

I found that churches in The Netherlands live in the past too much. I am sure you’ll find exceptions, but this is what I generally find when attending masses. I find that American churches are so much more contemporary, informal and contemporary. It seems that pastors are more part of the community rather than standing “above” them. Frequent readers know that my Father-in-law has been a pastor for many years. When visiting America with Leann attending his Sunday mass used to be something that I always looked forward to. Some of you might say I am biased. I admit that I am impressed with how my Father-in-law speaks in church and tries to get people involved. However, even before I met Leann or her Dad, I have attended a few churches and masses in the US and it gave me the exact feeling.

Robert H Schuller is another well-spoken man. He explains day-to-day life in a very clear way and gives me new paradigms very often. I find his thoughts very inspiring and useful for things I do in life.

Back to the past... Mr Oudmayer

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:01:30 +0200

I have a habit of Googling my name once a while to see if and what other people write about me and where my name has been used. This morning I went into that habit again and I found this entry. The entry is written by my former Dutch and Geography teacher Mr Oudmayer. He came fresh out of college and the school that he was my teacher on was his first teaching job.

The entry is in Dutch. The reason for mentioning my name in that entry is because I have sat in the same class as Mariëlle Tweebeeke, now a top host of RTL Television, a Dutch national TV station. Earlier this year the president of The Netherlands got himself in trouble with her by making a comment: “You smile so cute!” after insisting that he wouldn’t want to answer one of her questions. Not the president’s smartest remark, but oh well. The entry of my former teacher went into this ordeal.

I found it interesting that he mentioned my name there, because not everyone has been mentioned in there. The people that have been mentioned were sort of ‘remarkable’ persons within that class. Now I am looking for this teacher to give him a heads up. I found the school that he was a teacher on last year, but that e-mail address has been cancelled. I hope the school is willing to help me somewhat further. To be continued…

Mariëlle Tweebeeke nowadays

Nederlands Praten might be selling

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:53:05 +0200

As some of you might know I am a language coach Dutch. During the summer I put together a training programm to teach the essentials of Dutch inclusive a website / weblog. Today I received an e-mail from someone that would be interested in “ordering” the training programm. I was surprised by this question, because obviously I am doing a few things right here.

I still have an interest in becoming a language teacher. People being interested in what I offer in that field and actually willing to pay for it, makes me feel that I am sensing in the right direction. It’s an awesome feeling.

Stand by for a brand new look and feel of the weblog

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:15:13 +0200

As of September 1st the E-Controller.Eu weblog will undergo a dramatic change. After 4.5 years of service of the system Serendipity, we decided to change to a weblog system that is more standard in the blogging industry. It’s WordPress. All our other blogs are already in WordPress and it is just handier to have one system to stick to.

Unfortunately I was not able to move the entries created so far to the new system. We have decided that this weblog will stay as an archive. A link to this archive will become available in the new system, so that you have a change of looking in our history. Click here to get a preview of the new weblog system.

Progress on the bacteria, work and voluntary work...

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:28:03 +0200

I am still fighting off the Helicobacter Pylori bacteria. I am over halfways right now. Three more days to go and then I’ll be off from the medication. The medication is pretty annoying. It gives me an ongoig feeling of being tired. I also have a funny taste in my mouth and I feel dizzy once a while. I think I have reached the bottom of the side effects, meaning that I don’t see things getting worse.

Work is somewhat affected by the medication, but I can attend work and be pretty effective. Tomorrow will be Friday after which I will celebrate the weekend. I will have to stay off the alcohol, though. That will be a little different, but I’ll manage. I am still trying to drag some work towards me. I hope it’ll work, but we’ll have to see.

I have been talking to a very local newspaper (just for this area) to do an article on the voluntary work that I do in the community center. I try to help people with filling in forms, taxes and other activities. However, it has not been busy, although we have been opened for quite some time now. I would want to make this work a little more visible and hopefully this will be the breakthrough.

All in all things are looking up. I can’t wait to get off the medication, though.

Happy Birthday Andrea!!!

nospam@example.com (Leann) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:00:23 +0200

Hey Andrea, we hope your day is very special and that you do everything you want to do!! Happy Birthday!!!

Starting the war against helicobacter pylori, starting work, starting other things...

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:49:24 +0200

In this entry I wrote about a bacteria that is within me. It’s the helicobacter pylori bacteria. Today I have started taking the antibiotics to fight that war with them. It looks like that taking these antibiotics does not interfere with my day-to-day activities. The first hour and a half I get bummed out and then things start to be a little better.

I also started work today. I was caught by a report that management is wanting to have and have been working on that the past few days. The fundament of the reports stands. Tomorrow I hope to finalize the details as much as possible. I am happy with a few changes that I have seen at work. Apart from work the schools started here. The train was busy and everything tells me that the summer vacation and break is over. Soon I will start my community work again and I look forward to teach Dutch again as of September 13th.

Things are looking up

Last batch of pictures of Prague

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:06:38 +0200

During the car parade yesterday I took a few pictures, too. Those were the last pictures on my camera. You’ll find them here. Happy looking

Honey! I am hooomeee...! Morning in Prague, afternoon in plane, evening at a party

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:24:04 +0200

Yesterday was a day of a full programm. We didn’t have internet in the hotel that we stayed last night, so I write you this entry now. Yesterday we got up early to get things going. We had to pack everything. The night before Leann’s had problems with her new bought earrings. We decided to try and get this solved at the shop that we bought them at. That worked well. We are very happy with the solution that this shop gave. Its name is Crystal World. After that we went back to the hotel and had lunch in a nearby restaurant. Then the taxi came to bring us to the airport.

At the airport I was faced with the annoyance of check-in machines again. Those stupid machines don’t like me and never have. I was about to beat the crap out of it when an assistant came to help. I explained her my frustration and asked her if she would help me. She did. After that we went through bagage drop off. The really funny part is the question: “How is this all more efficient and faster than the old school check-in?”. In my opinion it isn’t. Airports are not my thing. The check-in/drop-off service sucks, security is a drama and prices to get something are skyrocket high. Did I mention how airports are not my thing? Right!

After getting off the plane in Amsterdam we went through baggage claim and made sure to get back to our car. The driver of the car park company drove way too fast and to scary for me. Car park service is more than just parking a car. This company will yet have to learn this. My feedback will hopefully help.

We drove to the hotel that we spent the night in. A co-worker was having his 50th birthday in that hotel and invited us to join him in celebrating this. The party was in the same hotel which made things very easy for us. We stayed till after midnight and then went to bed after a tiring day. This morning we had breakfast and I talked to a few of my co-workers again. Then it was time to check out and to split. All in all it has been a wonderful vacation week.

Our last full day...

nospam@example.com (Leann) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:19:08 +0200

Today was our last full day in Prague so we made it worth our while, hehe. We got up early and had breakfast and then headed over to the Old Jewish cemetery where we waited a bit till it opened at 9 am. We were the first in line! lol. It’s a good thing we got there early so we could take pictures, of course. It’s just easier and the atmosphere is better. I bet this would be a cool graveyard to go into at night but that’s not for us hehe. It was cool because there are over 100,000 bodies buried there in piles. Next to the walkways there was just big piles of dirt, haha. I kept wondering if bones would wash up after a good rainstorm. Sorry, I guess my gruesome side is showing. It was also very beautiful in a melancholy sort of way.

After the graveyard there were more sites to see on our ticket. We went to several synagogues telling the history of the Czech Jews. All the way from their religious traditions, being exiled several times, and then on to after World War II. I read pretty much all I could. Dad would probably like it, hehe. There was one synagogue where we wished we could take pictures because the inside was really pretty. But they didn’t like that so we didn’t take pictures there.

We walked around pretty much all morning. Then we were hungry so we headed to the end of the line for some lunch. It was good but the yellowjackets (wasps) were annoying buzzing around our drinks and food. I had some more goulash. I do like the goulash at least. After that we headed over to another shopping center where we couldn’t buy anything, hehe. I guess somehow these shopping centers survive for now but we never see many people inside the actual shops. We were pretty tired by this time so we headed back to the hotel and rested a bit and Mickel sorted through pictures. By around 7 pm we dressed up fancy and went out for dinner. I was doubting whether this restaurant would be good or not since it’s so out of the way from downtown. It’s in a hotel but it is indeed fine dining! First we had some soup then we both had steaks that were to die for!! It came with roasted potatoes and spinach all piled up like they do in fine dining. The wine I had with my dinner was also very good. Then we had some dessert that was also to die for! lol. I had strawberry fritters with some chocolate sauce and ice cream. Mmm. We had some cappuccino with our desserts as well. So this was our anniversary meal/last evening meal hehe. It was quite good. You can see pictures of the food, Mickel and the graveyard here. I keep forgetting to mention them but the escalators here are quite scary! My parents probably remember me being a little skiddish of escalators as a child anyway. You can see in the first picture the longest escalator in the EU. Apparently there is one even worse in Russia which is where these high escalators come from I guess! lol. Also, some of them go really fast. Well anyway, I’m sort of getting used to them hehe. Have fun looking at the pictures.

Vyšehrad, public transport, lunch, earrings, relaxing, dinner, drinks

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:56:47 +0200

Today was a pretty full day. We decided to sleep in again and got up by 8:45am. It was nice to get up a little later. We decided to look around on the castle grounds of Vyšehrad. I have never visited this site myself, simply because I was not much into castles or cathedrals. This proved to be a mistake on my part. It was absolutely gorgeous. Fortunately the entrance tickets to the grounds were not that high. In fact a lot of it was free to look around on. That was absolutely nice. The cathedral is very pretty inside and out.

After looking at this castle we hopped on the public transport. I have made use of the tram more than I did in all the visits before. I always found it difficult to use the tram system and rather used the metro system and walked. I am getting the hang of the tram system now and it brought us to lunch in Molo 22. I found this location on the internet and I found the pictures beautiful. It proved to be an excellent choice. We had pasta and it tasted very well. On top of that it was really cheap!

On our way back I got us on the tram to metro station Staroměstská. This was easier than going by metro. It worked well. We went to visit a shop called Crystal World. Leann wanted to buy earrings and she did. The earrings are made of Bohemian crystal and has Swarovski components in it. I am sure they look pretty on her! I ran into some annoyance in the shop. Some Spanish woman was trying to be an attention whore and kept interrupting the shop assistant in her work. I could handle that up to a point that I wanted the shop assistant to correct a mistake she made with us. I kindly asked the Spanish woman to give the shop assistant some room and she went totally bananas. Oh well… sucks to be her.

After buying the earrings I wanted to buy a beer glass and a key chain for myself and then we headed back to the hotel to relax. I was a bit out of it, because I worried too much over things that we need to do on Saturday when going back to Holland. It was a good thing that I took care of that. After that we went out for dinner. We found a restaurant called U Gráffů. This must be the worst restaurant in the entire Prague vicinity. The D’abelská Topinka was way to hard. I was about to order a chainsaw to cut that thing in pieces. The main course was brought while Leann was still eating her starter (un-friggin’-believable). The meat was overcooked and dry. I couldn’t use my fork to pick up a kroket potato (they supposed to be soft). I wanted to bring this to management attention, but they were not available. I am sure that you can imagine that they won’t see us in that place ever again. I explained that in a note to the manager with my business card with it.

We went to a restaurant afterwards that we knew from an earlier visit. Here we had a dessert (Horká Láska) and a drink. Leann has tasted Becherovka and Fernet Stock. These are typical Czech brandys. She disliked both of them . It was awesome that she tried, though.

Now we’re relaxing and ready for bed later on. Pictures of today’s events are to be found here. Enjoy!

Korean restaurant and today..

nospam@example.com (Leann) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:03:55 +0200

For dinner yesterday I just happened to find that there is a Korean restaurant close by to our hotel. Well we had to go there! It was very yummy. We had some bulgogi and pork belly barbecue with side dishes. The kimchi was especially delicious. I also think it helped me get over my cold more quickly (I’m feeling better today). So that was a nice experience for my first Korean restaurant. I just wish we got a bit more food for the price we paid.

Today we also took it pretty easy. We were thinking of going to the Jewish quarters today but it was too busy by the time we got there. We might go there tomorrow but I’m not sure yet. Then we looked around the area a bit more and Mickel took pictures. Then we wanted to see more of the communist Prague you could say, hehe. We headed to a restaurant for lunch in the outskirts where the food was very cheap and quick. Kind of like fast food only much healthier, hehe. Everyone was crowded into a little cellar and they came in an out within 30 minutes. So people eat there during their lunch breaks. I had some yummy chicken soup with bread and Mickel had the goulash with dumplings. That was interesting. Then we looked around the area a bit more by going by bus around the outskirts of Prague. There are lots of block building apartments. They used to be just gray but nowadays they’ve gotten creative and have anywhere from just pretty colors to designs on the buildings. I guess you have to do something to make them look more interesting.

We got off the bus and Mickel took pictures of that surrounding area. It was just interesting because there is Czech stores and bakery’s unlike dowtown Prague where all the western stores have taken over. We both wanted to see something different from the usual. I’d like to buy some Czech crystal here but I’m not sure where to buy any. I guess I’ll have to pay a lot in the tourist areas if I want any. Then we had a bit of ice cream in that area. It was very yummy. After that we headed back to the hotel. We like to rest in the afternoons before dinner usually.

For dinner we headed to a Czech restaurant that was yummy. We had the fried bread with chili sauce and cheese on top and Mickel had like a meat platter for the main course and I had a cheese stuffed chicken breast. The sauce was made from some local cheese. I loved it. After having those two big plates we were too full for any desert. So we headed back to the hotel and are just resting for the evening. The pictures from today you can find here. Enjoy!

No pictures today! A relief?? Shopping, outskirts of Prague and a relaxing day.

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:32:46 +0200

Today we decided not to do a whole lot. Hopefully this will help Leann recover from the cold that she caught and the general tiredness that she feels. She’s still at things, but getting better. We did go to a street called Na Příkopě. This is a shopping street between the main square and the Namestí Republiky (a square called after the Republic. At the end of this street you’ll find a department store called Kotva. Unfortuntely this department store was under renovation, so we couldn’t see everything.

Leann found a very nice new trolley at Kotva. We got some discount on it which was nice, as well. The most important thing: it’s pink/purple! So Leann is very happy with it. We will have to get rid of an older trolley that we have. On the other side of the street they build a new shopping center that holds 200 shops. We were too tired to go through it and the chances of that shopping center being like the ones we have already seen are big. We did stop at Starbucks to rest and get some coffee.

The second leg of today’s trip brought us to the outskirts of Prague again; this time to the Southeast of Prague called Háje. I stayed in a hotel in that part of Prague when I came here the first time. A lot has changed ever since. They expanded the shopping mall BIG time and it actually has a new and big cinema. It appears that the Western influence found this side of town, as well. We actually found the German chain supermarkt Lidl on this side of town. Nevertheless, it was nice to see that a lot had not changed. It still had this old Czech taste that it used to have and I was very happy with that. They did color the buildings to update to the next century.

We found a restaurant where we ate lunch (my review here). Finally Leann got to taste the smažený sýr (fried cheese). It came with sauce and french fries and it was awesome. We hung around in that place a little bit and then headed back to the hotel to rest a little more. All in all it has been a nice day.

Today I didn’t take any pictures, because it was a bit rainy. Stay tuned for the next load of pictures tomorrow, though.

Visit to Prague Market and Prague Castle, having lunch and dinner

nospam@example.com (Mickel) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:08:57 +0200

You might be thinking: “Hey!! Where’s last night’s update??”. Leann was going to do that, but poor her was so bummed out that she couldn’t. She also caught a cold. Hopefully she’ll get better soon. There’s a lot to write, so I will take over from Leann.

Yesterday we visited the Prague Market. This is the biggest market in the Czech Republic. Most of the market people are Asians or local farmers. We bought a few things there, too. Leann bought a nice new wallet and an umbrella. I managed to get a skull as neklace and a new purse that is a little bigger than what I had. The purse can actually hold my netbook, which is awesome, as well. The idea is to get your things for as cheap as possible. They know that you’re foreigners, so they try to get as much as possible for their goods. So, that means bargaining. I like that game and that game has been invented for me. The Prague market has a huge hall in which they have a vegatable and fruit market. Leann thought it was paradise in there and is disappointed that they don’t have markets like that in Holland (or may be they do??). After we sat down for coffee and rested a bit our tour moved on.

The next stop on the tour would be Prague Castle. Prague is the residence city of the Czech Republic and the president resides in a part of the Prague Castle. The castle is located on a hill and we climbed the old stairs up to the castle. It was an incredible climb up there, but the rewards (the view) was wonderful. We also went inside the castle and the cathedral that is part of the castle. To see the insides was really breathetaking. A short impression of the castle is to be found here, here and the wiki page. After our tour we decided to have lunch in the castle. The lunch was yummy. We decided to have Czech Gulash. I had a taste of the castle beer and I also enjoyed that. Czech know how to brew their beer .

The rest of the day we decided to stay in and around the hotel with drinks. Leann tried a Margarita but was disappointed with that. I had some more Czech beer, which was awesome. For dinner Leann had a big grilled cheeseburger and I went with the pork steak. By 9pm we both decided to get some sleep. It had been another wonderful day.

On a different note: I have written a few reviews on Czech restaurants this morning. You’ll find our restaurant guide here. I promised my Mother-in-Law hundreds of pictures. I took 275 pictures yesterday and 180 pictures made it to the picture section. Have fun looking!