Home again

There is something quite delightful about coming home.  This time was a bit different though, for the first thing we had to do was put the house back together again. 

The new floor is lovely--and what a difference from the wall-to-wall carpet that we used to have.  For me, I am exhausted, but we couldn't go pick up the cat until we covered up all the vents again.  So, we washed walls and returned the house to order,  and then went and pulled Lynxy away from her grandparents.  They were sad to see her go, and that was charming to me in the most inexplicable way. 

But she is home.  And he is home.  

So am I. 

Happy birthday, old friend

Hey friend...

I am thinking of you, and hope that your day is perfect.
You really make my world better!

Happy birthday!

Holland has a way

Holland has a way of saying

• "hello" with rainy weather
• "are you enjoying your visit?" with stormy weather

and

• "come visit again soon" with a gorgeous cloudless day.

Hmmmm. Is she really trying to tell me something else?

Cheese and Mustard

Yesterday when I was taking the train, I wisely decided that it couldn't hurt to have a sandwich in my bag, since you never know what will happen. It was a good choice, given that the trip was twice as long as it should have been. The problem is deciphering the menu choices in a short amount of time--I resorted once again to the point at the food, lift one finger method.

First bite in totally reminded me of my grandmother. When I was a kid, she once called downstairs to me and said 'What do you want on your bologna sandwich?!' "Cheese and mustard," I replied.

But she apparently didn't hear me so she called again "what do you want on your sandwich?" "Cheese and mustard", I repeated.

And that's what I got. Just cheese and mustard, no lettuce, no bologna, nuthin extra.

And that's pretty much what I had yesterday too, though I would venture that there was more mustard than cheese on that bun.

I miss you Gram. Thanks for 'visiting' me yesterday.

Back in Amsterdam...still going in circles

Oh my this day has been frustrating. I had a later start than I wanted just because I had to wait for the post office to open. Once there, I needed more Dutch than I have to make myself understood, but eventually we got my kit and my books all packed up and ready to be mailed. I am not surprised, given the weight and the size of the thing, that it was expensive, but in fact it cost more to send these gifts home to Canada than it did to send me between two cities on the train. Ah well, it is done.

The train was to have been a simple affair, but somewhere along the way, the problems (I am assuming here) of yesterday's schedule seem to have carried over. So, We pulled over to the 'side of the track' and waited while two trains passed us. Then we carried on with all sorts of explanation but in the midst of it, I thought I understood that my train was going to be a half hour late. Not bad that, considering that I don't know Dutch. That was before we pulled over for somethign a second time. In the end, I missed my connecting train, which resulted in me needing two transfers instead of one, and the trip was an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to be.

That being said, I made it, and I'm proud of myself for doing so. So proud in fact that I looked at my map of Amsterdam on the train and forgot to pull it out for the actual walk to my hotel. You see, I have a compass now, so I wasn't supposed to get lost.

Except I did. I even knew why I was lost, thanks to the compass which said to me, "you're too far south and not far enough west". I found my street, and I recognized that I was only two blocks away from the mistake that I made last week doing the same thing. This is silly. There are SIGNS to Westerkerk, and my hotel is but a block away. It's sillier too to watch my little compass take me south, west, north...and yet, I barely felt the direction change. What a lesson for me.

Nonetheless, here I am. There is a delightful woman who is training at this hotel, and she checked me out last week, and in this week. I appreciated her smiling friendly face, for I am anxious to get back to familiar things.

And that will happen tomorrow when I fly home. My old home with my newer floors!

I can't wait :-)

I've lost my opportunity to go shopping today, which had been my original plan. I probably have about two hours of light left, so I am going to see what I can see, shop where I can and that will be that.

I'm taking the map AND the compass.

Raining, yet again

I am a bit disappointed, I have to confess. I've been hoping that the rain would let up just long enough to be able to take some pictures, but really I have very few. Today I woke up to howling winds, which frankly had been doing so all night long. And it was accompanied by drenching rain, that just never quit. I had all these plans and none of them are coming true thanks to the weather.

But it is an interesting thing, rain in Holland. I am complaining a bit because I wanted to take pictures, but I love my little camera, and don't think it would function well in the wet. But the Hollanders are out in force. Today happens to be the only shopping Sunday in October, sot he streets were well crowded with people, french fries, umbrellas, lovers holding hands, parents guiding children, pastries, more umbrellas, students reading while walking (an interesting feat indeed), and yet again, more umbrellas.

Which all makes it sound as though I didn't go to school myself today. Our conference started at 8 a.m, breakfast meeting. A colleague of mine who excels in training methodology had called a cab to take us to the conference, and I was so grateful. I've been walking, and I've enjoyed that but today a cab was an extra special treat. It turned out that there was a problem with the room he had already set up (as in, someone else took it away from him) so he was a bit flustered with having to reset somewhere else. I stayed and helped him, and in the process I was able to get a glimpse of some of what he is doing. He is talented, no mistake about it, and he is passionate about it, which makes it all the better. And not only that, he has asked me to give an interactive presentation at his conference next October in London. I have to think about that, though I am terribly flattered. His rule however is that it needs to be dynamic and interactive, so I have to really analyze if there is anything I can do in that realm.

The session that I did attend this morning after helping him, was on essentials of participation. It was really a theory of change management and there were times when I was rather lost with it all. However, after the break we regrouped and ran it as a peer coaching or mentoring session. From that angle I could really see some benefit, and since I have been asked to mentor some colleagues when I get home, I think that there are things that I can use. It also makes me think more about my own life, and so I will use this method to analyse some decisions that I must make.

For lunch today, I had more cheese sandwiches and while it was tasty and all that, I confess I am getting tired of bread. The Dutch seem to eat a lot of it--bread and cheese for breakfast, bread and cheese for lunch, more bread for supper. I like bread well enough, but I have probably eaten more these last few days than all of last year. It isn't that there isn't other things available, for certainly they eat more than that. Rather it is that the venue we were at was a bit limited for weekend choices (and was much better during the week).

There was more networking and discussion in the afternoon but the most prevalent topic of conversation was 'how are you getting to Schiphol?'. Today apparently is a routine maintenance day for the rail system, but the day turned out not to be so routine after all, and there are many many many delays. I am grateful that I don't need to take a train until tomorrow, and then just to Amsterdam. I will take the long trip home the following day. I have a bit of freedom tomorrow morning, but I have discovered that the post office opens at 10, and I have decided to parcel post my books and supplies home. I can make most of them fit so that I just have carry on, but they are dreadfully heavy, and it seems silly, really, to fight that hard to get them there.

The problems with the train have also derailed some of our final plans for the day, as many people who were going to leave this evening have been worried over hte delays and have decided to head out now. It will mean some waiting at airports and train stations, but there it is.

So I'm by myself again. I'm not sure what I will do for supper tonight. I find that I am tired and a bit cold, and still fighting the chill I got on the way over here last week. I will probably finish packing, take a bath and call it a day.

This conference week has been very good for me. I've learned a great deal, been affirmed on some of my skills, and encouraged to do more. I have made friends from London and Dublin, and also here in Groningen. There was a young student named Hannah who wants to do her communication internship in Canada. She was delightful, and so I will try to find some information for her. She certainly was very helpful to me. At the conference, I saw some excellent facilitators do their thing, I learned a few new methods to try, and truthfully, I also saw some things that I want to ensure I don't do. I hope that I will be able to take the best of it all and begin to apply it to my own sessions. Some of them will be simple to implement and others will take a bit more creativity. But I have been well challenged, that is for sure.

And I am ready to go home. Tomorrow, I head to Amsterdam, and Tuesday it's back to Canada.

I didn't plan for this!

So today we had another full conference day. My first session was on peer coaching, and we actually ran through a small case presented by one of hte participants. It was quite enlightening from a process point of view, and I can see that there are some techniques that could be quite useful to me.

Later, I attended a 'top up your toolbox' session which was quite frankly, brilliant. The facilitator has become a colleague; we attended the pre-conference session together. And it was fascinating to see how different his personality was portrayed in the session. It was fun, and energetic, and he pulled out some techniques that I had never seen before, and hope to use before too long. So much information, but those three hours flew by.

And at the end of it, I won a door prize--a facilitation kit that is loaded with paper and stickies and good markers. I know that this is a good product, but quite frankly I think it is overpriced. That being said, I'm thrilled to have it. It's quality stuff, and it will last me a long time.

Now I just have to figure out how to get it home. With the materials from the pre-conference, and the conference, and this door prize, and the book I won earlier--and the one wee little book I bought, I have enough stuff, in pounds and dimension both, to double what I brought with me.

I didn't plan on that!

the bad, the good and the ugly

Good morning all you sleepyheads.

It's early afternoon, and I've had quite the adventure so far today. It all started out with 'note to self: you might want to turn off the alarm for six if you plan to sleep in until eight'.

After a breakfast of pumpernickel bread, strong cheese, ham, yogurt, fruit, three cups of coffee and a pastry, I was ready to face the day. I had some specific goals today, the first to go to Grote Markt to look closer at the Martinitoren. You can read more about it here, but since my hotel room looks out at the tower, and it marks the centre of the town, I decided to go look closer. It's old and kitschy and quite interesting to look at.

My second goal was to find some commemorative plaques that are on City Hall, and the Provincial building. These were important to me because they are thanking Canada for their part in liberating the city in 1945. While I was successful at finding those, I also wanted to go and look at the Liberation Wood, but this is where my day started to fall apart.

The problem with cities that are built around moats and canals and waterways is that nothing runs straight, everything runs the direction of the water. So when I think I'm going the right direction, so often I am completely lost. If I keep Martini Tower on one side for example, I can actually walk in a complete circle around it. And this means that if you get it on the wrong side you can take the long way around.

The really long way.

In fact, from the information station where I first started out (and yes, thank you, I did ask for directions), I made a mistake right out the door. An hour and a half later, I walked right by the plaque on the Provincial building. You remember, I took the picture of that before 10 this morning? Yes, THAT's the direction I should have gone. And while I don't begrudge the journey, for I certainly saw some lovely sights, getting lost frustrates me. It really does. At home, I tend to keep my directions straight because most of the malls give you a sense of direction (I mean, it's logical to think of Northgate being north, Southgate being south, West Edmonton Mall being West, is it not??). But here, the markets are all in the square, the streets all curve, and water gets in the way.

I decided that I will still go there, and will likely take the bus on Sunday after the conference. The lady at the information station was so helpful in spite of my not understanding which way to start out. I am a little anxious for home, and I think the sight of all those maple leaves would really cheer my soul--and be very pretty right now.

In the end, I realize that I needed to buy something to help me out, and so I did. I now have a cute little watch sized compass clipped to my jacket where I will always be able to look. Now hopefully, I'll at least start out the right way!

Back in the GroteMarkt, I was enjoying watching the market traffic. There is an unwritten code of traffic here, and it seems that pedestrians have the right of way if they don't slow things down, then bicycles then cars. But sometimes, if a tired tourist is gawking all around her, it's entirely possible to get run over in both directions. Not only that, apparently I had tired tourist written all over me since someone attempted to pickpocket me. I did lose about twenty euro, which is nothing, really. And I am fine. My wallet is attached to my belt, so while it came out, it didn't diasappear. And, it's not my only one, so I am quite safe and still rich enough.

So the good--I now own a compass, I am unlikely to forget it, and I finally found cocoa, which I had been asked to look for. This sounds like an easy task--head to any grocery store--except not every grocery store seems to carry it. I found it today at my fourth one. And lunch, well, I just picked up a sandwich at the grocery store. So it's all been fixed.

I have to go get ready for my conference now. I hope that I can overcome my natural shyness to get the most out of tonight, but I'm feeling a little battered and bruised today. Oh well, this too shall pass. After all, I'm here to learn, first and foremost, and new friends are the extra bonuses along the way.

Groningen, Day Two

Well, I made it through another fast-paced day of facilitation training, and what a day it was. For one thing, it started out MUCH better than yesterday. My walk was leisurely, I didn't get lost, I made it there in plenty of time and people seemed glad to see me. We went through about 60 different techniques today (and while that sounds like an exaggeration, it actually isn't). During the two days, we had a little game going that involved little orange dots--we would get them for returning on time after breaks, for answering questions correctly, for providing helpful thoughts and suggestions of our own. Yours truly won, and I'm grateful for the book that I received as a prize (I'm told that it is the number one book on facilitation at amazon.com. I actually was told that alot!). Anyway, it will be a good resource, but I think that I will have to mail home my three inches of material.

I was supposed to meet the gang again for supper, but given the issues I had with the telephone yesterday, I asked them to call me. They had problems too, so I ate alone again. This is late night in Groningen, though I don't think that many of the stores and restaurants actually close. I wasn't all that hungry, truth be told, so I indulged in some french fries with mayonnaise.

North Americans need to learn this way of making fries. They are always served piping hot. They are always nicely seasoned, and it isn't just salt. They are always crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They taste good. REALLY good. And, they are the perfect wander around town kind of food. I also tried something from the frickendel, which is a wall of food, literally. I was curious, but the problem is that I really couldn't tell what I was getting. And I didn't like it.

There was one other thing I didn't like today but I gave it a good try. Apparently, there is a type of milk in the Netherlands, called Karnemelk. In my opinion, the Dutch can keep it! It was kind of yogurty, kind of sour, kind of milky, awfully thick, and generally...icky. I guess it's really a type of buttermilk. And I didn't like it one bit. That could be because I was expecting something totally different!

Tomorrow I get to sleep in a bit, and I hope that I do. Then I have the morning to look around and perhaps some of you will get postcards eventually. If it's not raining (again, and again, and again) I might wander somewhat the other way (I have been walking the 4 km each way to school so it would be nice to have some different scenery).

Speaking of walking, I am incapable of using my ipod here. Oh, many do, that's for sure...but I can't look, and walk, and avoid bicycles, cars, and people..and the occasional duck...at the same time.

That's it from me. We'll see what day three brings!

Groningen, Day one

Well, today was the first day of the conference, and it was a full day indeed. To begin with, my shower was far too leisurely. It felt good, but it made my breakfast a ltitle bit rushed. Then, I left in plenty of time to have a leisurely walk to the conference--almost an hour away by foot. But about ten minutes in, I realized that I had forgotten both of my travel wallets, and consequently all of my money and credit cards, open to the world in my room. It probably would have been okay but I didn't want to take that chance. So, my fifteen minutes grace period (that would be the leisurely part of the walk) quickly turned into an aerobic sprint. I was the last one to arrive at the class, a few minutes late, but looking a bit like I'd just come from the gym. Not exactly the first impression I had carefully planned out.

Nonetheless, it was a good day. In this workshop, today and tomorrow, there are six of us. The facilitator is from Atlanta, there is one woman from California, another from Sweden, and three gentlemen, one from Paris, another from Dublin (with the MOST delightful accent) and the third from London. They are all lovely people, and the class size is nice for what we are doing.

This is a fast paced course--normally given in four days, but brought down to two. The information is good, some of it a refresher course, much of it new, and all of it presented well. There is some shameless self-promotion going on too, but I can forgive that for the other stuff that I'm getting out of it.

It's cold and rainy though, so my walk back was a little on the wet side. I still wanted that walk though, because I know that if I sit for such a long day, then sleeping is always a problem. I was to meet some colleauges for supper tonight, but I'm having a hard time with the telephone number I was given. Ah well, I will sort that out tomorrow, so I will dine alone tonight. That's okay too...I've had a lot of people time already today!

Tomorrow's plan is to a) take the money, b) start breakfast earlier and c) walk to school again. Sounds perfect to me!

apparently this isn't my blog anymore!

So, I have an imposter. Sure, when he had the chance to be part of my 'this is the places I go' blog, he didn't want to. Doesn't want to take pictures, can't be bothered to comment.

But if I go away without him, he thinks that it should be open to him again!

I'm thinking of changing the login password, but I'll leave it open for a vote. Till tomorrow.

A new shine

and so it goes. Darien is off wandering and the destruction on the home front continues. Floors ever so shiny were found under the ancient carpet...

then the stairs, cursing, swearing and grumbling followed by millions of nails and then it was free of carpet. Now, stripped to a bare, clean, barren surface!

and today emerges, ever so slow, color, very provincial. So, a new shine is indeed emerging.

Yahhhooooo!