December 22nd, 2007
(7 Votes)
Photo by Donna
Today I want to talk about diversity. In the last 6 years I had the chance to experience it first hand. A trend that I’ve been noticing lately happening around me, is that people take diversity for granted or do not really understand it. For many people diversity lies in the color of the skin, speech, culture or in names of exotic countries they’ve never heard of.
There’s more in embracing diversity than accepting one’s skin color, culture or speech. It’s also about being open to different ideas and ways of thinking. I believe diversity lies in thought, in the way people come up with their ideas, in the way they express themselves, in accepting the fact that no two people are alike.
December 17th, 2007
(2 Votes)
I’ve been writing less lately, especially because my laptop broke down and I couldn’t write from home anymore. After a long time I have it back and now I’ll try to write more often.
I can say that life’s good right now, there is no need to complain about the small challenges or little things I’m dealing with every day. I do realize I have a lot: relative health, family, real good friends, a job, a bank account, what to eat and a roof over my head; All this and the fact that I’ve been traveling around Europe this year, visited 5 countries, some of them twice and spent more than 3 months abroad. This is quite something :).
Right now I strongly feel the need to settle down. I want stability on personal level, more than anything. I’ve started spending more on myself, and I’m taking steps to bring more balance in my life. I want to live a healthier life, stop abusing this body of mine by working all day, eating one time a day mostly junk food, and sleeping 4 hours a night. I’m trying to get myself to exercise, swim, get out in the open. I’m not 18 anymore and it shows, whenever I’m stepping over the limit.
December 14th, 2007
(5 Votes)
Hey guys,
I never missed an LTS but this year it was really close. I’m glad I didn’t. It took some skill to convince my brother to drive 200km :). The drive there was nerve wreaking because of the poor quality of the road, tight turns and icy road. We arrived in the evening right in time for the Alumni session. I don’t think we’ve been so many ever. We talked from the heart about old times about the beginnings, challenges and advice. We definitely did our magic there. Afterwards all of us went to find a suitable place to try out the beautiful layer of snow that had just fallen down that evening and spent 3 good hours, riding downhill on plastic bags, banners or whatever we could get :).
November 30th, 2007
(7 Votes)
As you may have noticed I traveled a lot this year and to conclude my voyages, earlier this month I spent almost a week in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first trip ever abroad together with my work colleagues. The main purpose of the voyage was a Cisco Networking Academy conference, but somewhere on the way I’ve made some adjustments :).
Once I debarked the plane in Istanbul I realized I had a an absolutely wrong mindset about Turkey. It’s so different from any country I visited so far. During the days spent in Istanbul, I tried to cover as much as I could of this wonderful city. This city is unique. It’s the only city in the world that spreads over two continents. I’ve visited the Mosques, the old and new parts of the city, toured on the Bosporus, got lost, spent huge amounts of money shopping, made full use of my negotiation skills, ate the best food ever and chilled out at the river side.
October 31st, 2007
(4 Votes)
Somewhere during the last days of September, I got on a plane with my brother with destination Venice, Italy. This is the second time I’m visiting Italy this year. In January Rome and now Venice. I’ve been traveling a lot this year. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, I always wanted to “see the world”, but after returning from Rotterdam, last summer, I’m beginning to feel anxious only at the thought of leaving again. Rotterdam took it’s toll on my personal comfort and it’s gonna take a while till I will be happy to travel again.Nevertheless once I was on the plane, I was alright. The ride was smooth and the view just before landing was breathtaking: an endless waterline full of small boats with their sails glittering in the orange sunset. The airfield was just a few feet away from the water.
We checked in at a nice hotel in a small town near Venice and after a 20 minutes bus ride we were there: a big square filled with buses and cars. The place where land ended and water began. As the whole city is built on pylons over the water, the only way to get around Venice is trough its maze of narrow streets and channels. From now on we either walked or took a boat to get us from one place to another. It took us a while to get accustomed before we started to explore Venice. In the two days we would walk in and out of Venice, visit the islands and enter lots souvenir shops.
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