Archives for the 'Stories from the Road' Category
It’s 2008
It’s 2008. I spent the holidays in Texas and it turned out to be a very American, and maybe even more Texan experience, including barbeque in Lockhart, outlet malls in San Marcos, and walking out of a church in protest against a horribly inappropriate homily that rambled about the homosexual threat against families (clearly a [...]
Trip to the Netherlands
I just returned from the Netherlands, my only trip there this year. As usual, I have some interesting observations to share. The first one starts in Chicago, at O’Hare’s airport security. The person in front of me had a really beaten-up, torn and tattered ID card from Arizona or some other state. The security officer [...]
Beautiful Galena, Illinois
I just celebrated my second wedding anniversary in the picturesque little town of Galena, Illinois and in what must be one of the most unfortunate moments of forgetfulness, I didn’t bring my camera. We stayed at the beautiful Victorian Mansion, a cozy and historic bed and breakfast, where, apparently, U.S. Grant’s “departing speech was delivered [...]
The Subliminal Eagle
A year or two ago I was standing before the cage of a bald eagle in Lincoln Park Zoo. The poor bird is crippled and can’t fly anymore, so it just sits there. You can imagine my surprise when the lady next to me exclaimed in a nostalgic and patriotic mood that this was “the [...]
A week in Texas
I spent all of last week in Texas, mostly in Austin. I didn’t go to South by Southwest and a planned trip to Antone’s didn’t happen either. So much for going to the live music capitol capital (yikes!) of the world.
I spent the week mostly relaxing. A bit of running, a bit of biking and [...]
How a train to Vienna ended up in Chicago via London
Last Friday it was exactly five years ago that I boarded a train from Arnhem to Vienna. Little did I know that my entire life would change as a result. The plan was a one-year sabbatical working in Austria followed by an undergraduate degree in communication in Eindhoven, probably followed by a job in the [...]
Dutch observations
I just spent around 10 days in the Netherlands, celebrating the holidays with family. Every time I go back, I am becoming more and more aware of some of the differences between the Netherlands (or Europe in general) and the United States. I found myself saying the often irritating “well, in the United States we [...]
Three days in New York
I spent three days in New York from Thursday night to Sunday night. Going there proved a little more difficult, as the plane was delayed, and then delayed even further when it was about to take off. Someone actually got on the wrong flight! We had to turn back from the runway to return this [...]
Understanding and Mexico
As I just returned from Mexico, one word really sticks out: understanding.
Language was the most observable. I understood most of the Spanish and by the end of the week I was able to hold a basic conversation. But communication went beyond language; understanding the communicators was equally important. Furthermore, beyond the communicators, understanding the environment, [...]
A week abroad
On Tuesday I visited the Rembrandt-Caravaggio exhibition in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The Netherlands is celebrating the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth throughout all of 2006 and this exhibition is a major part of the celebration.
I don’t usually like to browse with an audio guide, but since it was free of charge I [...]
