Hej,
This story is actually a couple week's old, but I am finally getting around to sharing it.
I had a co-worker return to the US to propose to his girlfriend. When he got back, none of the Swedes asked him about it, even though they all knew why he had flown home. Finally, after about a week, he mentioned her by the new appelation (fiancee). The Swedes all heaved a great sigh of relief, then asked him where his ring was. Turns out, when you get engaged in Sweden, both the woman AND the man wear rings. So, our Swedish coworkers were all afraid to ask him about it, thinking she had said "no" since he came back without a ring.
I then learned that the women in the office thought I was a big jerk for being engaged but not wearing my ring!
When they learned of the American custom, they understood (sort of), but they still think we're weird. :-)
Jared
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tallinn, Estonia
Hej All,
Just got back from a great weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. Very cool little town that often gets called a "Medieval Vegas". The sites worth seeing there are all old buildings, churches, etc, just like in the rest of Europe, but Tallinn definitely has a better preserved medieval feeling to it. I highly recommend the city to anyone interested in the middle ages! On top of that, it does have casinos and an amazing night life. I didn't gamble on this trip, but I did check out a couple of the night clubs - Friday night we didn't leave the last club until about 4 AM, and Saturday night I called it quits "early" at 2 AM.
Here are a few pictures and some video from the trip...
This is the outdoor concert hall. There is a choral concert and festival held hear every 5 years that involves 30,000 singers. All at once. The "stage" is a massive choral bench. The lawn in front is where the festival attendees sit and stand, and has held as many as 300,000 people at a time.
Here's the Russian Orthodox Church - quite spectacular.
Just a panoramic view of the city.
Finally, here's an Estonian hip hop group that played at the club on Friday night. They didn't start their first set until 2:30 AM. The sound quality is pretty bad (sorry, my camera isn't great at videos), but the group was really good.
On Friday I am meeting Ashleigh in Paris, which should be a really good time!
Later all,
Jared
Just got back from a great weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. Very cool little town that often gets called a "Medieval Vegas". The sites worth seeing there are all old buildings, churches, etc, just like in the rest of Europe, but Tallinn definitely has a better preserved medieval feeling to it. I highly recommend the city to anyone interested in the middle ages! On top of that, it does have casinos and an amazing night life. I didn't gamble on this trip, but I did check out a couple of the night clubs - Friday night we didn't leave the last club until about 4 AM, and Saturday night I called it quits "early" at 2 AM.
Here are a few pictures and some video from the trip...
This is the outdoor concert hall. There is a choral concert and festival held hear every 5 years that involves 30,000 singers. All at once. The "stage" is a massive choral bench. The lawn in front is where the festival attendees sit and stand, and has held as many as 300,000 people at a time.
Here's the Russian Orthodox Church - quite spectacular.
Just a panoramic view of the city.
Finally, here's an Estonian hip hop group that played at the club on Friday night. They didn't start their first set until 2:30 AM. The sound quality is pretty bad (sorry, my camera isn't great at videos), but the group was really good.
On Friday I am meeting Ashleigh in Paris, which should be a really good time!
Later all,
Jared
Monday, April 14, 2008
Apartment
Yeah, I'm slow. Here are some pics of the apartment... It's a little messy, but that's to be expected from me :)
Living room/dining room/part of kitchen:
reverse view that gets more of the kitchen
here are the stairs up to my room. I am convinced I am going to fall down them one night when I am too drunk to climb stairs that steep, and too drunk to know better!
Here's the bathroom and laundry room in one...
Anyhow, it's late, so I'm off to bed.
Later all!
J
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Snow Day!
Hej,
I moved into an apartment a couple days ago - I'll post some pics when I get around to taking them, but it's a pretty cool place. Vaulted ceilings, "master" bed room is in the loft, lots of sky lights, HUGE bath tub (I'm thinking about going hot tubbing in it later...) - all in all, not too bad. Not a really big place, but not too bad. Of course, it took several phone calls to the States (thanks Mom) and to the Swedes to find out how to work the washer and dryer, but I finally managed.
We got a couple inches of snow last night (1.5 - 2 inches), but word on the street is that our 50 degree weather is supposed to come back soon. Don't know if I believe it yet, but here's to hoping!
Work is still kicking my butt, but at least it's easier to deal with after my couple days off last weekend. I am sticking around Stockholm this weekend, but have made it quite clear that I will not be working (at least, not for this client). Next weekend, a few of us are headed to Tallinn, Estonia for a few days. Should be cool!
Catch you all later!
Jared
I moved into an apartment a couple days ago - I'll post some pics when I get around to taking them, but it's a pretty cool place. Vaulted ceilings, "master" bed room is in the loft, lots of sky lights, HUGE bath tub (I'm thinking about going hot tubbing in it later...) - all in all, not too bad. Not a really big place, but not too bad. Of course, it took several phone calls to the States (thanks Mom) and to the Swedes to find out how to work the washer and dryer, but I finally managed.
We got a couple inches of snow last night (1.5 - 2 inches), but word on the street is that our 50 degree weather is supposed to come back soon. Don't know if I believe it yet, but here's to hoping!
Work is still kicking my butt, but at least it's easier to deal with after my couple days off last weekend. I am sticking around Stockholm this weekend, but have made it quite clear that I will not be working (at least, not for this client). Next weekend, a few of us are headed to Tallinn, Estonia for a few days. Should be cool!
Catch you all later!
Jared
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Supper Club
Hej,
Final Amsterdam post here... Last night we had one of the best dinner's of my life. We were looking for a good restaurant, so we decided to check out the Supper Club, one of Amsterdam's elite restaurants (rumor has it that you literally eat your meal off of someone). Apparently, you need more than a day (closer to a month) to make reservations at the original Supper Club, so we booked ourselves on the Supper Club Cruise.
Talk about an experience!! We were shown to our table, only to find that it's basically a massive bed inside of a floating club...
This picture is after the 4th of 5 courses and a good quantity of beer...
The host for the evening was a very flamboyent man. If you have ever seen the 5th Element, his voice was exactly like Chris Tucker's character... If you haven't seen the 5th Element, go see it! :-) In between courses, he got people up on a little ledge in the middle of the bed for some dancing...
About half way through dinner, they also had a masseuse come around and give 15 minute massages!
Some of our fellow guests:
After the cruise, we headed out bar hopping until we were finally ready to stumble home for the night (about 3 AM). Instead, we stumbled upon this incredible Tuk Tuk - think moped converted into a golf cart - which we hopped into for the trip back to the houseboat.
All in all, it was a pretty fantastic evening!
Jared
Final Amsterdam post here... Last night we had one of the best dinner's of my life. We were looking for a good restaurant, so we decided to check out the Supper Club, one of Amsterdam's elite restaurants (rumor has it that you literally eat your meal off of someone). Apparently, you need more than a day (closer to a month) to make reservations at the original Supper Club, so we booked ourselves on the Supper Club Cruise.
Talk about an experience!! We were shown to our table, only to find that it's basically a massive bed inside of a floating club...
This picture is after the 4th of 5 courses and a good quantity of beer...
The host for the evening was a very flamboyent man. If you have ever seen the 5th Element, his voice was exactly like Chris Tucker's character... If you haven't seen the 5th Element, go see it! :-) In between courses, he got people up on a little ledge in the middle of the bed for some dancing...
About half way through dinner, they also had a masseuse come around and give 15 minute massages!
Some of our fellow guests:
After the cruise, we headed out bar hopping until we were finally ready to stumble home for the night (about 3 AM). Instead, we stumbled upon this incredible Tuk Tuk - think moped converted into a golf cart - which we hopped into for the trip back to the houseboat.
All in all, it was a pretty fantastic evening!
Jared
Bridges for Ashleigh
Hej,
Some of you may already know that Ashleigh used to design bridges in her former life. There were a couple really cool draw bridges that are completely hand operated that I had to take pictures of. So, here's the special post, just for Ashleigh, with some pictures of bridges. I believe these were all built in the 1800s or earlier - we saw a couple paintings of bridges similar to these from circa 1850... Talk about built to last!!
J
Some of you may already know that Ashleigh used to design bridges in her former life. There were a couple really cool draw bridges that are completely hand operated that I had to take pictures of. So, here's the special post, just for Ashleigh, with some pictures of bridges. I believe these were all built in the 1800s or earlier - we saw a couple paintings of bridges similar to these from circa 1850... Talk about built to last!!
J
Amsterdam
Hej,
We have had a really good time in Amsterdam! Enough so that I need to split this out into separate blog entries... We flew in on Friday and were met by a good friend Sunil who was gracious enough to let us crash with him on his houseboat (ignore the mess).
Here's the view from the deck...
And, of course, this is just a beautiful city...
We got to see the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, both of which are excellent. Missed out on seeing more because of work obligations, unfortunately, but we did have a great time!
Jared
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Par-tay!
Hej,
After working 10 straight 11 hour days (or at least, averaging that much), I organized a little event last night to help people blow off some steam. We sent the first guy home in a cab at 9:30 (my PM, in fact), because he was a little too inebriated. And then we really let loose! :-) I'm a little tired today, but spending a night on the town with 15 co-workers helped out with the stress levels quite a bit. This weekend, I am headed to Amsterdam (I think I may have mentioned that once or twice before), which will be a really nice change of pace - no work for 2 days; what a relief!
Jared
Pics from last night:
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