Monday, July 30, 2007

Life is good

Living in this house has really treated me well I must say. The people here are great and they've been taking me to all kinds of different parties. Having champagne on Mondays because come got his certification and Tuesdays because of the bi-weekly French party and marketing updates from Iris.

Starting to get comfortable at work. I've been getting more responsibility and projects (3 now) which I need to prioritize and manage.

And last weekend I met some more people myself to hang out with. One of them being a girl that has lived in NL for 4 years. One of my neighbors I met by crashing their party at 4 am on Saturday night.

People are starting to plan to come and visit me. And I love the thought of that. Also, I like the impression that by now I'm starting to know stuff to show them once they're here.

Going to Las Vegas in August with my PokerChamp bro, he'll be here for a week first. Then Marko, JJ and Joel in October, that should be good. And then there's Marija and James around newyears if I understood correctly. Adriaan and Albert, I hope you guys can find a weekend in the meanwhile if you wanna stay for a couple of days.

Anybody else interested in coming here, feel free to let me know your plans. I'm here and I will be, and your welcome to visit. Haven't got a lot a space to share, but what I got you're welcome to enjoy. Anyway, take care. Still love y'all. You know who I mean Simone, Roland.

-x- W

Trimming the lurk over distinction

One day Ima go to New York to a bigga hotel.
I go down to eat soma breakfast.
I tella the witress I wanna two piss toast.
She branga me only one piss.
I tell her I wanna two piss.
She say go to the toilet.
I say you no understand.
I wanna two piss on my plate.
She say you better not piss on the plate, you sonna ma bitch.

Later, I go to eat somma lunch at the restaurant.
The waitress bringa me a spoon an an knife, but no fock.
I tella her I wanna fock.
She tellsa me, everybody wanna fock.
I tella her, you no understand, I wanna fock on the table.
She say you better not fock on the table, you sonna ma bitch.
I don't even knowa the lady and she calla me a sonna ma bitch.

So i go back to my room inna hotel, and there's no sheet on my bed.
I calla the manager ana tella himn I wanna sheet.
He tells me, go to the toilet.
So i say, you no unnerstand.
I wanna sheet on the bed.
He say you better not shit on the bed you sonna ma bitch.
I don't even knowa the man an he calla me a sonna ma bitch.

I go to check out ana the man at the desk, he say peace to you...
I say, piss onna you too. you sonna ma bitch.

I GO BACK TO MY COUNTRY

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Posting comments

Just modified the settings for the comments here, sorry I didn't do this sooner. I never realized you needed to sign up in order to be able to add comments.

Anyway, anonymous comments have now been enabled, meaning you don't have to sign up anymore.

Want to leave a comment? Just click the comments link under an article or click here or in the sidebar on the right. Select other or anonymous for identity as you like and fill out the form. Happy blogging.

-W

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Explosion in the city

One of my housemates wasn't allowed in the 6 train I had used only 20 minutes before. Not knowing what had happened she did arrive here in panic, thinking there might have been a terrorist attack. A steam pipe exploded today at 6.

www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/nyregion/19explode.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

My office building, located at 299 park (49 st) apparently has no power now. I'll need to get in touch with my boss in the morning to determine what to do. I'll keep you guys posted.

Monday, July 16, 2007

And after 3 days

This picture is taken three days after the other one.

When you do manage to keep your bike though, one block east from where I live, there's bicycle polo to play. And don't let the impression fool you; there's about 40 poeple watching and 20 people waiting to go on the field.




Tonight I'll be in Bryant park: http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/thisweek.php to see the movie. Tomorrow's a party in Central park I guess...

A regular Sunday

As you guys know I have a house. And this would be a good time for me to tell you a tiny little something about it. I’m living in New York, on Manhattan, in Chinatown.

Actually, I have been known to refer to my house as a drawer. And that is not too far off. My space is 7,5 by 10,5 foot. About 80 sq foot which would translate to almost 7,5 sq meter. The smallest place I’ve every lived in for the largest amount of money. 1200$, but I got a 100$ discount.

The reason I decided to go live there anyway is the people. There’s 8 rooms in the house and since this weekend we’ve got 10 people living there. 5 French (of which one I haven’t met and including 1 guest), 4 American and me. 5 girls and 5 guys. Come (FR), Thibault (FR on holiday), Iris (FR) and Camille (FR visiting), Guillaume (FR), Anna (US) and Jane (US), Wouter, Dave (US) and Carrie (US).

Now the great thing about this is that there are always people about the house. Either just to relax and listen to some music or to eat something or hag out in a bar. And this is where I wanted to go. Have some people around to spend some time with. People to know where to go.

Yesterday, I got breakfast at the Italian deli, 2 blocks downs from me. French bread, Italian cheese, Italian Parma and some salami. We ate it with 5 of us, the American girl moved in, I went to the beach with the 2 French girls, hung around at a Brooklyn bridge restaurant. Then went back to find out that the American girl decided to have someone else living in her room as well. Spent the evening watching the sequel to the one we saw last week. A French movie, I forgot the name and then went to bed. Great stuff, I had a good day.

Nothing extraordinary though, days like that happen all the time.

So many impressions

Spoke to a few of my family over the weekend. And ofcourse the guys at home that went to dance valley. Great to hear you had a good time guys!

But as I was saying, spoke to my family and they seemed to feel my blog is hard to read in a way. Difficult to find the actual meaning of what I'm trying to say.

See, here's the thing. After having been to NY for over 7 weeks (the actual amount I'm not sure), I find new and exciting stuff hapening to me every day still. Although I've now been here for a while, I feel like it's only been a couple of weeks. That might well be because I've only got my house for a few weeks now. Or because of the fact that still every day, I have new experences. See new stuff, new places, shops and meet people. Whatever the reason is, up to now, it made it kind of hard to just sit down and write up all ithis stuff.

So I guess, still very much getting used to the place. Now don't get me wrong, I do love the experience so far. It's been great. Just capturing several new experiences and impressions that I have every day in a blog like this is pretty hard. I'll give it a go anyway. I'll get it. Eventually.

And yes, I'll post some more pictures soon... :P

Monday, July 9, 2007

Tiesto is confirmed


Vrijdag de 20e: (2 weken) Tiesto in de Hammerstein. En ik ben d'r.


Sunday, July 8, 2007

Contact info

Wouter's contact info:

Email: wouterst@hotmail.com
Skype: wouter.steenbergen
Phone/txt: (+1) 917 348 0751
Blog: http://wouterst.blogspot.com/

Wouter Steenbergen
240 Grand st, Fl 5
New York, NY 10002-4952

And guys, don't be afraid to leave your comments, ok... ;)

Subscribe info

OK, for everyone interested in subscribing to my blog, I've added a little utility ---->>> Just enter your email address and do the required stuff and you'll receive an email when I've posted a new something. Oh yeah, and I won't be able to see if you have.

En in het nederlands betekent dat dus dat je je kan aanmelden in de dingus aan de rechterkant. Blogarithm. Geen idee wie zich aanmeldt, ik wordt niet geinformeerd.

Got a bike

I guess I told you guys I decided to find a room after about 1 week. Sure I knew I was going to live in the village, but still I wanted to have a look around town. So, dutchie as I am, I bought a bike.

Of course, from living in Utrecht, I knew I should be well aware that people would be trying to steal my bike. I went ahead and got myself a decent lock. Second hand bike: 250$, decent lock: 100$.

In NY, you're supposed to use anything available to lock your bike to. You should have seen the look on the cop's face when I asked him where to in Times sq. Anywhere at all I guess.

The first week I had the thing, 14th street station outside worked like a charm. I guessed that'd be the case anywhere in the city. I might have been wrong.

Check the picture out. (The rack I mounted myself). Be sure to check the peddles and the handlebars.

Time to call my bike shop guy I thought. Howmuch for a rear wheel? He'd get back to me.

NY impression #1

Union sq is always pretty busy. I guess the time is right to go hang in the park. Nice weather, pretty much around 90 degrees out every day since I've arrived.
It has been raining. Not so much though. And when it does, the subway's always one block away to get you to a nice and dry spot.
By the way, the people on the picture, might seem like a lot, but its not. At 8 there'd be half, at 10, there'd be about a third left.
A friend of mine once said at 10 pm: if it weren't for the fact that it's dark, you wouldn't be able to know it's not 2 in the afternoon.
Different vibe all around.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

How to translate to English

Thanks to my buddy up in OZ, here's the English translation link:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=nl_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwouterst.blogspot.com

Future postings might be in English, but this'll get you started.
(Makes me sound like Yoda I guess, but it's something anyway)

Working on the subscribe link, it'll be there soon.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

wouterst.blogspot.com

Ok, dit is hoe het werkt. De bovenste artikels zijn het laatste gepost (scroll naar beneden om aan het begin te beginnen). De foto's komen er aan en de rest van de tekst wordt ook leuk.
Laat me weten wat je vindt. Grtz en x, Wouter

Kamer gezocht

Na een weekje in New York leek het mij tijd om eens uit te vinden hoe ik een kamer kon krijgen. Mensen op mijn werk hadden verschillende ideeen. AOL roommate finder, the village voice en city habitats zaten ertussen, maar craisgslist werd het meest genoemd. Craigslist is een gratis advertentiesite en daar worden 20 tot 40 kamer NYC advertenties per dag geplaatst.

Voor eenieder die het wil zien: http://newyork.craigslist.org/roo/

Vraag was nu alleen waar ik dan zou willen wonen. Brooklyn werd me aangeraden voor de prijs en zelfs Hoboken in NJ (aan de overkant van de Hudson River aan de westkant) zou een optie zijn. Voor mij niet alleen natuurlijk, hoewel ik me realiseer dat het prijsverschil groot is wil ik uiteraard op Manhattan wonen.

Manhattan is iets van een km of 2,5 bij een km of 20 tot Harlem, wat boven central park begint) http://maps.google.com/?q=loc%3A+greenwich%20village%20nyc

Nou was ik in Oktober in NY geweest om een beetje rond te kijken. 2,5 week heb ik besteed en heb in 5 verschillende hostels gewoon om de buurten te onderzoeken. En mijn conclusie was dat de Village (either Greenwich Village of East Village (rond Thompkins Sq Park) leek mij goed.

In ieder geval, (anyway), daar dus maar een paar kamers gezocht en gereageerd. Een weekje (en zo'n 20 emails) later kon ik 3 kamers bekijken.

Nou mijn idee was om een kamer te zoeken in een huis met meerdere huisgenoten. Op die manier kan ik wat mensen leren kennen die de omgeving en nog andere mensen kennen. En zo begon mijn zoek avontuur.

Stukje over werk

Zoals de meeste van jullie weten werk ik voor Sogeti. Sogeti is een zusterbedrijf van Cap Gemini en zij hebben een visum voor 3 jaar werken in de verenigde staten voor me geregeld. (Op mijn visuam staat ook Cap Gemini). Het is een L1 visum, wat inhoudt dat ik alleen voor Cap Gemini en gelieerde bedrijven mag werken.

Sogeti in New York is een relatief klein bedrijf. De Vice Precident heet Alec en is degene waarmee ik afspraken maak. Er werken hier (slechts) 2 Account Executives, de verkopers die de mensen plaatsen bij de klant, 2 support people (1 HR om cv's te zoeken en mensen binnen te krijgen en 1 mand die administratief werk doet). En dan zijn er iets van 80 consultants van verschillend nivo.

Martin Viklund is een Zweed die hier een half jaar geleden naartoe gekomen is. Hij weet ook hoe Sogeti in Europa werkt (heeft toevallig contact met mensen in NL omdat we daar verder zijn dat hier op het gebied van Mobile Solutions.)

De eerste week was er sprake van een interview bij <>, een pharmaceutise tussenpersoon in NJ. Iets waar ik niet bijzonder op zat te wachten; ik wil uiteraard op Manhattan werken. Gelukkig vonden ze me te ervaren voor wat er moest gebeuren (direct te vertalen naar te duur) en werd dit interview afgezegt.

Op dat moment heb ik maar even Alec ingeschakeld, hij en Andrew waren toch al bezig een nieuwe klant binnen te halen. Ze waren op zoek naar een Sharepoint Architect, zowiezo de technologische richting die mijn Microsoft Practice Director me graag op ziet gaan. Altijd goed om zo hoog mogelijk verkocht te worden dacht ik zo, en Alec regelde gewoon even een sollicitatie bij <> op vrijdag.

Halverwege in week 2 kregen we de bevestiging, <> koos mij uit de 3 aangeboden kandidaten en 2 weken geleden ben ik er begonnen.

Guess what? I'm a New Yorker!!!

Hi guys,

Eindelijk, mijn eigen plekje. Iets waar ik al een tijdje aan toe was zou je kunnen zeggen.

Het is een tijdje geleden dat de meeste van jullie iets van me gehoord hebben. En toegegeven, mijn idee was om eerste een stukje tekst jullie kant op te doen komen maar dingen gaan zoals ze gaan.

Heb het net even gecontroleerd en het lijkt erop dat ik hier al sinds 24 mei ben. Meer dan 5 weken. Wow, time flies when you're having phun eh... ;)

Zoals gezegt ben ik aangekomen op donderdag, mijn bagage in mijn hostel gedropt (een kamer met 4 bedden) en wat gegeten. De volgende dag was ik uitgenodigd om evt ff langs kantoor te komen en dat heb ik dus maar gedaan.