From Newbie to Uber Geek

Around the World

2007-03-11T05:44:00.000+01:00

Dear friends,
Please excuse me for taking 5 months to make a new post, I don't have any other excuse than just being busy and not making time for it.

My last post was on September 9th, when I just started my internship in Barcelona. Now looking back I realise I really had an amazing time in which I learnt a lot, not only business wise but also personally. Life in Barcelona was hectic & fast as a roller coaster and super easygoing & spontaneous at the same time, full of surprises, (dinner) parties, work, Star Wars, friends, drinks, beach life, sun, and some cultural and architectural experience.

I had a really good experience working at BME Global, and I think I did a really good job there.
I got hired to do marketing research, but as their events coordinator left the day I arrived I automatically got assigned for that job. This meant that I had to organise a conference in Prague within 3 weeks. It took me many hours trying to figure out what actually I had to do because everybody was too busy with their own jobs to help me, but went surprisingly well. Me and 4 other colleagues went to Prague for 6 days while the conference only took 2 days, so we got to see a lot of the city, too! I also organised another conference in Barcelona, which was a success as well. I really enjoyed what I had to do, and I learnt a lot in these 5 months, sometimes especially how not to do business.

Because I was working at an international company my Spanish isn't that well as I hoped it would be after 7 months, (was mainly speaking Spanish when going out with the influence of alcohol, somehow it would always be easier then :) ) but I can understand it really well, and can have easy conversations.

But seriously, my time in Barcelona was better than I could ever have hoped for, this also because of all the great people I met there, and especially Carlos & Robbert, my dear roommates and friends who always treated me as a princess :D they were the reason that I felt home in BCN, may the force be with you! Navana, a very successful woman and my sweet, luvly girl, I’m glad I met you! Jordi, my Dutch companion at BME, he’s fun, but a bit fat ;) see you February next year with carnival!

Currently I’m studying in Canberra, the capital of Australia, so far I’m having so much fun here living on campus. I promise this week there will be a new post on my life in Ozzie!

Take care,

Janneke

Alive!

2006-09-09T15:16:00.000+02:00

Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin' but a...
While you were sittin' home alone @ age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin', sorry you didn't see him, but I'm glad we talked...
Oh I, oh, I'm still alive
Hey, I, I, oh, I'm still alive
Hey I, oh, I'm still alive….. “Pearl Jam, Alive”

Pavello Olimpic de Badalona, Friday September 1^st, 22:00h (10:00pm), Pearl Jam starts playing after a great warm up by Wolfmother, and the crowd goes crazy! At that moment the crowd included Carlos, Robbert and me, jumping, screaming and enjoying the perfect moment!

We booked the tickets about 2 months ago, and since I paid them with my credit card, only I was able to pick them up with my ID the night of the concert. This was a great opportunity to blackmail Robbert and Carlos, (since they wouldn’t be going if I wasn’t going) making them to do the dishes, cook for me, getting me drinks, etc! :D

We were very scared that we would be too late so they would sell our tickets, that’s why we decided on meeting 2 and a half hours before the concert would start. I’m off at 16:30h every Friday, but usually all the office people (15 to be exact) go for team spirit building drinks then, so unfortunately I already had to leave after one drink, to go home, change, get my stuff and meet the guys. Pavello Olimpic is a bit outside Barcelona, a metro ride of about 30 minutes. When we got there the diehard fans were already waiting to go in (2hours before the doors would open), and it was rather crowded already. Anyway of course we had plenty of time to get our tickets, and there was even time for some food and drinks at a bar.

We had standing tickets and when Wolfmother started playing it was not very busy yet, so we had perfect view on the stage (also that the Spanish people are usually small played a role in having that great view on the stage). I never heard anything of Wolfmother before, Robbert already knew them and kept telling us that they are really good, so it was very exciting. When they started playing it became clear that Robbert didn’t say anything too much, Wolfmother was amazing!!! Really, they had a great sound, good interaction, and as a bonus the singer said after a couple of songs something like “the next song needs some help, I’m afraid we can’t do it alone” and then Eddie Vedder came up and they were singing together!!! How cool is that???

While Wolfmother was playing people kept on coming so it got more crowded by the minute. And it was sooo hot in there, goss. By the time Pearl Jam started playing it was packed!! As soon as they started playing we lost Robbert, he wanted to go a bit more to the back because it was too warm and full. During the first songs it was really cool, Carlos and I were jumping around, but after a couple of songs I also had this feeling of, ok, I just want to enjoy the music with out getting annoyed with all those people hitting me. So I went a bit more to the side, and over there it was perfect, I had a great view, the people were still jumping around me, but just without getting bounced around.

Pearl Jam was fantastic!!!!! They had such a great interaction with the crowd, at one point we all started singing like “oleeee ole ole oleeee, oleeee, oleeee”… You know that one? Anyway, and they just like improvised something on that and started singing and playing with us! It was so cool! At another point the singer of Wolfmother came on the stage and they sang and went totally mad together again! They played really long as well, like about 2 hours!!

Like I said, it was very warm and crowded so by the end a lot of people went a bit to the back or side already, so about half an hour before they ended I decided to get back in the middle again! Like right about were I left Carlos, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.. After the concert when the lights went on and people were leaving I was moving towards the stage to look for my friends, and right at that moment I saw Carlos, totally exhausted, bruised, scratched, broken, sweaty, but soooo satisfied! He had been jumping like right in front of the stage the whole 2hours! That moment was like a perfect ending of a perfect concert!!!

Marketing Guru to be

2006-08-12T15:34:00.000+02:00

Wuhooo, I found a great internship (the actual reason why I’m here in Barcelona :P ) and I’m already starting next Wednesday!

When I decided I wanted to go to Spain for my internship my student counsellor recommended me “Alumno Astralis”, this company specialises in finding internships or placements, summer jobs, traineeships and work for (foreign) students across Spain. So I had contact with them, but since I wasn’t speaking any Spanish yet it was difficult for them to promise me an internship already, but because of their “we will keep searching for you till we found you an internship that actually suits you” attitude I was confident enough that they would find me something before the first of September, as long as I was motivated to learn Spanish!

And last Tuesday, after six weeks of Spanish classes I had my first interview…. at an English company! :D

The first thought when I heard that I would have an interview at a really great company was “Ow shit, what do I have to wear?” Offices here in Barcelona are not really formal, actually not even business casual, like Carlos & Robbert sometimes wear shorts & sandals or flip flops to their office! So I didn’t want to go overdressed, like in a suit, but since I knew it’s an English company I certainly didn’t want to go underdressed either! Fortunately my fashion expert “Dragana” was up for a shopping session, I already had a really nice skirt, black/grey, very elegant and stylish, and I found a perfect black really simple but elegant shirt! Combined with black half open shoes, with about 3 cm heels it was a perfect outfit!

So that problem was solved, the next thought was; “where am I going to talk about?” I didn’t want it to be like a boring interview like they asking me stuff about me and I would answer, but I wanted to be able to have a nice conversation, with me having some knowledge already and so being able to ask some intelligent questions as well! Thus I did a lot of research after the company, and the more I found out the more enthusiastic I got! After the research and thinking of some good questions I called Dirk, my brother (he’s studying Human Resource Management) for some last advice, and he told me “Janneke, if he asks you something, think about that question first, then think of an answer, and after you did that you can respond. It’s not a bad thing if there’s a short silence, they will only think that you’re serious and thinking carefully about what you want.” It sounds really simple, to just think, but it was the best advice ever, I know from myself I really can get carried away in the moment when I’m very enthusiastic about something!

The interview was at 16:00, but Carlos (he always has 2 hours siesta/lunch time) and I went there around 14:00 to find out where the company is located and to have some lunch there in the area. And I was getting more nervous every minute, Carlos was making all kinds of jokes, and telling about random stuff to make me more comfortable, which kept me sane a bit. Exactly 4 minutes for four I was about to ring the bell when at that moment a guy walked out of the door and recognized me from my picture on my resume, and he was like “hey, you must be Janneke, I’m so sorry but I haven’t eaten all day, do you mind if we’ll go to that bar over there to have coffee?” And from that moment it was really relaxed, and we were talking all the time, about everything first about the company, about the job, about my interests and experiences, passions… It was great, not scary or uncomfortable at all!! We were talking for about an hour in that bar, and then he showed me the office (they have air conditioning!! ) and the people working there looked really nice, stylish and young!

So after 1 ½ hour I left their office really happy, I made my point, told them I was very motivated and interested, because the internship seems fantastic and perfect for me, and I had the feeling that they were rather interested as well. They would call me the next day, and even though I had a good feeling the day before I was pretty nervous, you never know if something else came up. But he called me and was like “yeah we were very enthusiastic, so when can you start?” I was so happy!! Next week is my last week of school, I’ve got a final test on Wednesday, and if I pass that one I’ve got officially the “intermediate” level. And then at 14:00 I start working! :D

I will keep you informed about my adventure from newbie to marketing guru!

Changes and Frustration

2006-08-10T15:08:00.000+02:00

Here again another message from Barcelona! This is the sixth week I’m here and time has been flying and everything keeps changing! Like for example, when I moved in my apartment there was one French girl, one Dutch guy and one German. Since the French girl was not feeling happy at here work she left after 2 weeks, then Carlos who’s half Mexican, half American moved in, to move to a place closer to his work after 15 days, (well officially he moved out, but he’s practically still living at our place) at the same time the German guy moved out and two Italian girls moved in. Next week one girl is leaving and a Spanish guy will come in her place, and the other girl will leave the 19^th of August, and then Carlos will move back in (he’s missing us too much!) what makes me living with 3 guy’s again! :D This is a lot of fun, except when Robbert and Carlos decide to imitate the dude’s from “dude where is my car”! And they really can go on for the whole evening “dude, sweet dude” “Awesome dude” “where’s your car dude?” Carlos uses the word Awesome for pretty much everything, and even though I think it’s an annoying word I caught myself on using it… Thanks Carlos!

People come and go here in Barcelona, like last weekend, we were out doing some touristy stuff with Robbert, Carlos and my Italian roommate (I’m so sorry but I forgot her name) and we met Tim, a great guy from America, who spent the rest of the day with us. Carlos, Tim and I went to a great local (cheap!!) tapas bar for diner, and later for drinks at Oveja Negra (black sheep!) and had margarita’s at Margarita Blue! We had so much fun that night, and the other day Tim left Barcelona to continue his Eurotrip and walked out of our lives again…

I’m meeting so many different people here from all ages and nationalities, and everybody has his/her own stories, goals, past, idea’s and interests, it’s amazing listening to all those stories and interest. The great thing here is that the people are so open, and into meeting other people too, like the first day in my new class I sat next to a Scottish girl who seemed really nice, so I just asked her like: “hej, I’m thinking about going to the beach this afternoon, do you feel like coming” and she was without hesitation telling me she was, and we had a great day on the beach.

It is really great for me being so busy, even though when you are not having any specific plans for the day or evening there is always something coming up! Before I went here I was actually next to being really excited, really scared as well, you know, I didn’t know anybody here, didn’t know the language and I was so used to having my friends and family around! But I’m very lucky with my roommates, they’re great, and of course Dragana, a girl from Belgrade, we became really good friends, she’s the only one who’s still here from the people I met in school the first week, and from November on she will be living here in Barcelona! Every Saturday we’re going to the station and get on the first train going somewhere outside Barcelona, even though the beach is nice here in the city, the beaches in the small towns are amazing! So with all these people around and things to do it is a lot easier being “alone” than I expected, I don’t really have time to miss my friends and family, (also because my mom is still calling me everyday of course :D ). But I can feel myself changing and getting more independent everyday, not only financially but also emotionally, and discovering what I want! Also the weather has a great influence, in Holland it’s always dark, cold and rainy, and here it’s always light, sunny, nice warm… It makes you more positive and relaxed!

Of course things are not only great, there are many frustrations too! To start with our landlord, he is a real ass****! Last week they decided that the apartment was not clean enough (without even seeing it) and sent in some one to clean (as in a weird guy who was wandering around the apartment for 2 hours doing nothing) and we each had to pay 20 euro for that!!! That’s 80 euro for one guy wandering around for 2 hours! I’m mean, well, fair enough if they’re gonna send in a cleaner who we have to pay when the place really is dirty, but I’ve been cleaning the bathroom like one week before that, and the place was really not filthy at all! And now the water boiler thing is broken! First it was only leaking, but it was still working, and yesterday they finally sent someone to repair, but what did that guy do; he totally took the boiler apart, and then said; “ow I can’t repair this” and left…. So here we are, with a very old not working boiler, so without warm water, with a landlord who’s a pain in the ass and not willing to fix it…

It’s a great adventure! :D

ow btw, of course I would love to stay up to date with your lives as well! If you click on the 0 comments, you can leave a message!

Corrida de Toros

2006-07-25T20:10:00.000+02:00

The first weekend in Barcelona, Dirk, my brother, and I went to a real Spanish, Corrida de Toros, bullfight with my (now ex-) roommate, a French girl and her (now ex-) boyfriend. And it was shocking!!

Sophie, my ex-roommate, grew up with bullfights, apparently that’s a tradition in the south of France as well, and she knew a lot to tell about it, which was good because I had no idea what they were doing! I had this image that one very brave (or crazy) man would have an one on one fight with the bull, but actually there were about 8 men in the arena torturing the bull! First when the bull is still very energetic there are two “Picadors” coming in the arena, that are horseman (of course they are high and safe on the poor horses) whose job is to weaken the bull by spearing it! Then there are several “Toreadors” – bullfighters who are basically there to exhaust and distract the bull after the “Banderilloros” insert the Banderillas (the special sharp stick) in the bull’s neck. After that, when the bull is weak and bleeding very badly the “Faena” (art of bullfighting) can begin, with one man and his red cape teasing the bull, this man is the “Matador” the leading toreador whose in charge of the killing the bull by sword. This spectacle is about 15-25 minutes, after the killing, the arena is cleaned, and a new bull is brought in!

It was amazing to see how much blood there was coming out of the bull and how people were encouraging the Toreadors! The only moment that Dirk and I were cheering was when one guy got seriously hit by the bull and had to leave the arena! But I have to admit that after 3 or 4 bulls you’re getting used to the blood, and can see the “art of bullfighting”.

After the fight the Matador made a round of honour, and the crowd went mad!! Everybody throwing flowers and screaming. Also people were waving with white a tissue, which apparently means that the fight was very exciting and good!

Anyway, I can everybody recommend to just to go and experience this real Spanish spectacle, even though I probably won’t be going again!

Vivo en Barcelona!!

2006-07-25T18:39:00.000+02:00

Well, about four months later, finally a new post! A lot has changed in these past four months, most importantly of all, I’m living in Barcelona now since 3 weeks, and it has been amazing so far!

I’m here to do my internship (remember that I told about the year abroad, half a year internship and half a year studying), which will start in the beginning of September, but since I do not speak Spanish yet I arrived almost 4 weeks ago to take an intensive Spanish course!

My brother was sweet enough to bring me to Barcelona, which was really great since I had about 45 kg of luggage! We had an amazing weekend, the first night we had to stay in a hostel because there was still someone in the room I was going to move in to, (which I knew of course before I got here). On the first night in Barcelona we have been wondering around in the Gotic area which is really old, with very small streets and great lively plaza’s at places you would never expect someone to come. Of course we also had great paella, sangria and Cerveza!

My room and apartment are really cool! I’ve got great roommates (3 guys, lucky me ;) ) who are so much fun, one from Germany, one from Mexico and one guy, Robbert, from Holland! Robbert will still be staying for about 4 months and unfortunately both the German guy as the Mexican will be moving out next week. Carlos, the Mexican guy will stay in Barcelona though so we’ll definitely meet again (every Tuesday night Grey’s Anatomy night!!).
Right next to our front door there is a relatively big supermacado, and not even 50 meters further there is a metro stop for one of the main lines!! So within 10 minutes by metro I’m at the Ramblas, the heart of Barcelona. Unfortunately the metro only goes till 12 weekdays and till 2 in the weekend (Fridays and Saturdays), which is very strange since (tapas)bars are so cheap everybody is going out for dinner, and Spanish dinner is around 21:30/22:30! But there are plenty of good bars/restaurants/clubs on walking distance from our house, so it’s ok!

I’m in my fourth week of Spanish classes now, 25 hours a week, it’s going ok, I just wish learning Spanish was going faster, but I’m doing what I can. I can pretty much follow people, just speaking it stays scary and challenging! The language school is called “Enforex”, and no offence, but I’ve got this feeling that there is totally no system there. The teachers are really nice and doing there best, but like for example; I had afternoon classes the first two weeks, which means you’re going to school from 1:30 – 6:30, so you wake up late, go to school, come home, and then there is not really time to go sightseeing, to the beach or whatever, you’re just going out for dinner, to a bar later maybe.. But it felt like I was wasting time, so I asked for a transfer to a morning class, which wasn’t a problem, but they placed me in a class who just got in their second week, while I was supposed to be in my third week! So last week was a bit of a waste. Anyway, of course I studied for myself, but it’s just weird. Still 3 and a half week of school to go! Time is flying, even though it feels like I already have been here for months!!

I love being here, I've met so many great and interesting people, the weather is great and the whole Spanish atmosphere is so relaxed! And Barcelona is so beautiful, with great architecture, museums, beaches, parks, shops, bars, terraces etc etc.

So far the general information, I’ll write about my adventures soon, and I’ll try to put on some pics!

Hasta la Vista!

I’m Going DownUnder!

2006-03-26T21:36:00.000+02:00

These past few weeks have been so exciting and at the same time so scary and stressful.

Currently I’m a second year student at the School of International Facility Management (IFM) at the Hanze University. Since the course is international, my class is multinational as well; people in my class are from all over the world (Aruba, St Martin, Bulgaria, Nigeria etc). The cultural differences may create many miscommunications but also makes the study so very interesting and instructive!

The third year of IFM is going abroad, 5 months on internship in any country you like and 5 months studying at a partner school of the Hanze. The Hanze University has 5 partners schools; in Austria (Kufstein), Finland (Jyvaskyla), US (Arizona), China (Macau), and Australia (Canberra).

Before the first of March we had to hand in our 3 favourites with motivation letters, copy of our grades and other stuff, then one week later we would hear where Hanze had decided to place us. You saw the people in my class (definitely including me) getting more nervous every day.

Anyway I’m placed in Canberra, and I’m so excited about it! I’ll be going with a friend also called Janneke, and she is definitely much fun. The term will start halfway February next year, but we will probably fly to Sydney (which is relatively close) 2 weeks before school starts to do some great sight seeing. Then we will be living on campus of the Australian International Hotel School, in Canberra for 3 months. After that we’ll still have 4 months before our fourth year will start to do some seriously good travelling.

If everything goes according plan, a really good friend of mine, Piia, will be doing her internship in Sydney at the same time, so hopefully she’ll have time to travel with us. I can totally see us driving in our flower power hippie van, wandering around, going from beach to beach, surfing everyday…. :D

I also want to go bungee jumping and snowboarding (fingers crossed that Johan can come for a couple of weeks then as well) in New Zealand. And if possible I want to visit Indonesia, Thailand, and China, too!! But looking at the time limitation we have, that will probably be something for another trip.

Ow goss, there are so many great places to discover in this world….

Snowboarding in Harrachov

2006-03-21T18:29:00.000+01:00

I've got the snowboard under my feet
I can fly so high, I can fall so deep “Guano Apes, Lords of the Boards”

February 17^th me, my family (parents, brother and sister) and Johan went, for a great week skiing and snowboarding in Harrachov (Czech Republic).

Harrachov is a small though very popular ski resort situated in the border of Krkonose Mountains (Giant M.) and Jizerske Mountains with plenty of good restaurants, hotels and bars. We stayed at the Sport Hotel which is perfectly located next to the elevator up to the slopes!

When we arrived it had been snowing the whole week so the snow was perfect, (Johan and I went off the slope the second day, which was really difficult but so beautiful being the first one boarding in that powder snow). But when we were in Harrachov the weather was so nice, with the sun shining every day, we actually had one day that it was 10°C!

The first time I went snowboarding was two years ago in Austria, where I took snowboard classes. The thing with taking classes is that you are mostly sitting and waiting for the teacher having time for you. I didn’t like it that much and spent more time relaxing in the sun than boarding.

This time it was a whole different story, every morning we got up at 7 and were on the slopes from 8 am till the elevators closed at 4 pm. First because I wanted to impress Johan, who is an advanced snowboarder, but when the boarding went so surprisingly well and it turned out to be much fun, I got addicted to it as well.

So because of the great snow, nice weather, good located hotel, much fun we had and good snowboarding this week couldn’t have been better!

First Crisis!

2006-02-03T12:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I had my first blog/html crisis.

I was changing something in the template when suddenly the links and the previous post got all messed up and looking weird. So of course I started panicking, and if my prince charming Johan would not have been there to rescue, my blog wouldn’t be here today the way it is now.

So now you’re probably wondering what I, as an inexperienced person, did messing with the html, well this started after I just had my first internet/html lesson on Monday, how to see my statistics. I got a guided tour through statcounter, and pasted html code in my template (of course this was all carefully done by step-to-step guiding and explanation). Ok, so far so good.

On Tuesday I found out, (on my own) how I could add links to my blog, so I added Johan’s Terpstravaganza blog, this still went ok, but then I wanted to delete the example link “edit me”, come on, this looks so unprofessional. And I did not realize that you have to be very careful with what you take out, I mean so many symbols/special sign things, what would it matter if I deleted some of that!? And I deleted among the edit me, "> from the < a href= ”><⁄ a > ….. So only those two little symbols caused a major crisis (ok, this actually took 5 minutes to fix, but still).

What did I learn from this:
Everything in html starts with an opening tag and a closing tag, the closing tag is like the opening tag but with / in it. If you take (part of) the closing tag away, the computer will get confused. Like a header is; < h1 > Here you write your header <⁄ h1 > (or use < h2 > <⁄ h2 > , < h3 > <⁄ h3 > for smaller headers) But if you leave the closing <⁄ h1 > out, then the computer will think that all what is written after that is still part of the header and will mess everything up!

And when you have like the links on the right an unordered list so without numbers or anything, it will look like this:

< ul > (beginning unordered list)

< li > point one <⁄ li >

< li > point two <⁄ li >

<⁄ ul > (end unordered list)

I feel so smart! \(“,)/

This is what I wrote Wednesday, of course I did not realize that blogger would implement the html, so I had to “translate” the characters with bloggerkeyboard first. Guess I’m not so smart yet after all.

Nike Wristband Cuff Watch

2006-01-31T18:09:00.000+01:00

Wow, guess what the postman brought me today; a pink/green Nike wristband cuff watch! I got it as a present, and the cuffs are so cool. This wristband cuff watch is a great design and product by Nike; it is a combination of a sweatband, and a digital watch, which is also water resistant. You get three different cuffs with it, so you can wear the one that fits your mood best.

Even though I love surfing, snowboarding and wakeboarding, I have to admit that I’m not really into sports. Officially I’m a member of a hockey club since the summer, but I never went there yet, I actually never played hockey in my life, and I’m not even sure how it is played either, it was just one of my weird spontaneous decisions to join them.

But I must say that this Nike wristband cuff watch, adds a whole new dimension to doing sports, so who knows, maybe I’ll finally go next week ;)

So what is this blog about?

2006-01-30T21:58:00.000+01:00

Okay, so this is my first real post, I’m still totally lost, figuring out how this blog thing works and what all the possibilities are. Really, I don’t have any experience in the internet world at all, of course I do USE internet on a daily basis, but I’ve never been part of it. (I do know who googlebot and slurp are by the way!)

So what is the reason of this change by making this blog then…Well, I’ll have to blame my boyfriend for that! He is the ultimate internet guru (well at least to me he is!) and for my 18^th birthday he bought me (among some other really beautiful things) an internet site. He will be doing all the stuff behind the scenes, and I will be responsible for part of the marketing and the articles, so I can write about my big passion; travelling (I'll reveal the domain name when we launch it!). A really sweet and useful gift, but that means I have to get familiar with this complicated internet world, make geek friends and do stuff I couldn’t even imagine they existed, to make this site work!

And well, since I love learning and doing new things; here I go, making this blog and struggle my way in to the world wide web.

On this blog you will be kept up to date with the progress I hope I’ll be making.

From newbie to uber geek…. A long but interesting and hopefully fun way to go.

Test

2006-01-29T19:19:00.000+01:00

Wuhooooo my very first post!