Back to the U.S. of A.

Today is my last day in Europe.  I have spent the past two weeks in The Netherlands at my company's European headquarters.  Overall, it's been a good trip, and aside from spending nearly 18 hours a day with my co-workers, I have relatively few complaints.

On the humorous side of things, I am staying in room 420 at the hotel this week.  Quite the irony, right?  If you see no irony in that, you are not alone.  Neither did a good friend of mine.  Here's the explanation I gave her.

Europeans really do not like George Bush.  I received more than one apology for having him "appointed" as my president.  And they knew that the Democratic National Convention was going on.  Would I ever know if Holland was having an election?

Since I enjoy a variety of different cuisines, I generally adapt pretty well to eating food in different countries (have I ever had a problem finding food to eat?).  The only food that seems to be distinctly Dutch is deep-fried meat products.    I am not sure what the exact ingredients were, but I believe I ate a deep-fried meatball for lunch yesterday.   How I long for the high-quality foods in the U.S. like hot dogs and bologna.

Everyone who works in an office The Netherlands has to have a window in their office, by law.  Apparently natural sunlight is a guaranteed right here.  Obviously, that's not the case in the U.S. or the building where my office is located, the Merchandise Mart, would never have been built.

On an unrelated note, those darn gays are now invading the longest running prime-time cartoon show, The Simpsons.  Is Homer going to leave Marge for Ned Flanders?   We must wait until January...