Easter in Holland

As the title suggests, I spent the weekend in Holland. As I have no family here to share the Easter cheer, plus we all got a 4 day weekend, it was decided.

I stayed with a couchsurfer in Amsterdam, who i stayed with a few months back. It was another great CS experience. For half the weekend, the guy wasn't even home, but he seems to trust me and my friends enough to do the right thing (which we totally did).

We started the trip at the Keukenhof. A well kept park only open when the tulips are in bloom, which they currently are. It was really amazing. Im not one to be blown away by flowers, but this is something you need to see to believe. The most impressive was the fields of colours.

It was kindof a spontaneous idea to head out there, but it turned out to be great. I don't feel much like writing, or have much to say for that matter, so i will just post some pics.

My Lazy Ass

So I've been sitting with my thumb up my ass for the last 4 1/2 months.... well not literally.

I have alot of stuff to update so i will make it short but sweet, and try to add as much content as i possibly can. Here goes!!!!

I first went back to Canada for about 2 months. It was awesome, saw almost all the people I care about, which was the reason for going back. But this blog is about me in Germany, so i will fast forward to when i got back.

One of the first things I did, was go snowboarding in Austria. It was great. A couple of us drove up there, rented an apartment for the weekend, and hit the slopes.




This is my buddy Sam and I. The conditions were premium.

As all good road trips, this one had homemade sandwiches and tubes of mustard. haha, Sam looks mesmorized by his mustard.

Just a sweet pic of the snow there...

I've also since started my masters thesis here. If you're really interested into the physics, feel free to ask, but to save the non physics enthusiasts, I will just post some pics of the lab. Its kinda jaunting the first time you see it, but surprisingly, its all started to make some sense to me.

This is the main chamber where all the magic happens

This is the laser table, full of the gagillion optics components that help make the magic happen

A couple of the diode lasers

A close up of the optics components

k, enough of that noise. More to the travelling and the partying. We proceeded to head to Cologne for Carnival which is a big deal there. Unfortunately for us, we kinda missed the celebration as we showed up at 11:30pm, and most of the city had been partying since noon. Plus it was a Thursday so the only real people left were those who didnt have to work on Friday (ie. the retired)



This is Sam shakin his sweet thang for the camera




This is my favourite old man in the world. We were at that bar for about an hour and the man didnt move. He just kept jirating and thrusting his cane in the air. Believe it or not, it didnt get old.

We ended up in Aachen, on the border of Holland, visiting some friends. Sure enough, there was Carnival celebrations there as well. Here, however, we only caught the parade. What amazed me about the whole thing was the stereotypical German efficiency. You have to see it to believe it.





Man, these Germans know to take care of business. Its insane. But I must admit, its very effective.

We were also in Amsterdam, as I feel it is my personal mission in life to see that city as often as I get a chance. I seriously feel like i know that city bettter than Stuttgart at times. Anyways, here's a couple pics.

I cant resist hitting the motherland of Boxtel, Netherlands

Our view from the balcony of the hotel we scored real cheap

An ice rink in front of the Rijksmuseum

Our distorted view of the city

And while Im here, may as well drink while riding shotgun... I love being a law abiding citizen

Whew, this is getting to be an epic post. I only got a couple more things. In the south part of germany the Swabians (I never liked that translated word) have these egg noodles called Spaetzle (the ae is an a with the umlaut(funny double dots) on the top). I finally got some real locals to show us how the made it. This is a simple clip of us doing it.



And as a final note... we can drive as fast as we want here. This is a movie of us hitting 200km/h in our friend Sandi's Austin Mini



Oh! One more thing, for those who have braved the length of this post, I have been recording some music recently, I have one tune half finished. You can check it out here

And, on a more 'embarrassing if I had any shame' note, we were all out at a Brazillian club the other week, they were getting people from different countries to get up and dance, so in my rather intoxicated state, I decided to represent Canada.



Whew! Thats all I got. I'll update this more regularly, as this was a marathon for me to post.

I'm out!

Slacky Mc Slacker

So once again, Ive been slacking on this blog thing. Mainly cause theres really nothing too exciting happening right now. I have my first exam next week, so Ive been trying to keep a low profile, in order to get some real studying done.

Although, Ive been getting a bit restless, just sitting on my butt, face deep in physics, so Im heading to Switzerland today for the weekend. A few friends here rented a car (A BMW, i believe :), and we're making the drive down. Were getting hooked up with a free place to stay which is always clutch.

So hopefully, I will have some funny stories from there. The only exciting thing thats been happening here is the influx of new people. In my building alone, we have at least 10-15 new people. almost half. So Ive been getting to know them, and hanging out with the few people still left here.

My thesis still isnt finalized, as my supervisor has been on vacation for a while. But I believe hes coming back next week, so I hope I will have something exciting to share then.