Online Dating

Has anyone tried this? Is it weird meeting someone online? I honestly think I'd be open to it. I'm signed on friendster and myspace but these sites are more tailored to meeting old friends or showing off how many friends you have. =) Just as a tangent, I sometimes cruise through these sites to look at all these 'self portraits' people put up on their page. Its so hilarious. You gotta love people that spend all this time taking pictures of themselves so they can upload it to their friendster or myspace page. It's so funny. Gotta love the self-portrait from the webcam! Or even the random people that ask to be your friend but you have no idea who this person is. I love online communities.. so addicting to look through.

I'll admit, I've sent a 'smile' and sent random messages to people I don't know.. Sometimes I'll get a response, more often won't. Its all in good fun.

I'm in those London groups for Myspace and Friendster, but I think its not enough. I've been itching to fill out one of these 'profiles' on these online dating sites for fun.

So I did. OMG.. What a PITA!! It was for fun, but I didn't know it took so much hard work!

What I long process... you gotta fill out all these damn questions, check these checkboxes, fill out these dropdowns, I swear it was worse than filing for taxes.. Where's the mystery when you're revealing everything.. so I tried to answer only the required fields.. =)

I love those questions where you have to rate your looks, body type, etc. Of course you are going to try and sell yourself. There's one question that I laughed at..

"How honest were you in filling out this survey?" HAHAHA.. good stuff.

But I can't think of anything catchy that would make my profile stand out... first you have to think of a login name, then they have these taglines on top of your picture that I guess serves as your 'selling point.' I was trying to think of a few..

I love looking through the women profiles and reading their taglines..
"Where have all the good men gone?" or "Looking for my knight in shining armour" or "Looking for my soulmate!"

Its so funny.. I'm not making fun, but it just such a new concept to me..

There's also this required field where you have to describe yourself with at least 20 words.. what a pain... so once you describe yourself, you spend the next 20 pages filling out what characteristics you are looking for.. I guess all these questions make sense so you can filter through your 'requirements.'

It is pretty impressive though once you fill a profile out, because depending your requirements and her requirements, you get this percentage rating on how her requirements match yours!

So just by answering a few hundred questions, a percentage can determine whether you have a match! The worst part of all of this is even if you are remotely interested in this 'match' You can't even contact this person because you have to pay for a subscription!!!

So I figure I'll put my profile out there and see what bites. =) My profile explicitly stated that I was all about just meeting up and chillin.. so we'll see what happens.

I'm still that hopeless romantic where I believe I will meet someone just like Ewan McGregor in Big Fish, or John Cusack in Serendipity..(or his other romantic comedies)

Oscars
Oscar Nominations are out! And Lucas snubbed out of 'Visual Effects'? I guess he at least got Makeup. I have to catch up on my movies.. perhaps catching Brokeback this weekend.. maybe even with a cowboy hat! Thing is, where does one get a cowboy hat in London?

Adventure suggestions
Please keep them coming. I want to do one this weekend.

State of the Union
Is on tonight.. well, 2AM for me.. which I could see what Mr. President has to say.

Choose your own adventure

Does anyone remember those books called Choose your own Adventure?" Basically its one book and depending on decisions you make while you read a passage, it takes you to different pages throughout the book where you continue your journey. I use to love those books. I would actually cheat and find a good ending and work my way backwards. Anyway, I'd like to take that idea and make it reality, but in a different way.

I'd love to take suggestions from people on what things I can do in or around London or even in Europe. It can be stupid, daring, or even something very simple. If its reasonable enough I'd take the suggestion, try it out, and blog about it. If possible, I'd provide proper proof that I actually did it.

For example: What if someone suggested something stupid like doing the 'robot' in public in front of the main intersections at Piccadilly Circus. I'd somehow perform this, capture it on video and show it to all of you. How fun would that be?? ;-)

Anyway I think it would make my life and possibly this blog a little more interesting. I keep thinking about things I can do over the weekend and what to do with my free time, so I'm asking for help! So for anyone that actually reads this, I challenge you to think of ideas. Of course, like I said, it would have to be something reasonable. I prefer the suggestions in the 'comment' format, but if you are way to shy, feel free to email. =)

We'll see how it goes. It can bomb or it can be funny and interesting. I guess it depends if the suggestions are good and if I actually do them.. so keep them coming..

Yoga Part II
It was actually tougher the second time. I was sweating profusely halfway into it. We were doing more advanced movements and positions. Its quite relaxing and a great workout. And, everyone had their socks off! Yes, even the other student that didn't want to the first time. The funny part of the whole thing was when I walked in for class, I saw another guy paying for the class. Guess I'm no longer the only guy..

Cheese part II
I tried to cut the cheese again with the cheese plane and it slipped and cut the same thumb!! URGH.. now I have two band-aids on one thumb. I'm an idiot.

Free Willy

How can I have a blog about London without talking about the whale that wondered into the River Thames? It was all over the news. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to wonder over to watch the rescue effort, but its so sad because the whale didn't make it. =( It was a northern bottlenose whale and I've read that its an animal of the very deep seas and usually found at depths of 1000m or more where it likes to eat deep sea squid. In any case, RIP friendly whale.

In a lighter note.. do you hear it?? I do.. Michael Jackson.. Will you be there..
awww yeah..

Cut the cheese
So I bought one of these:


a cheese wheel from Amsterdam. Its covered with wax because it cuts down on the mold growth and it also prevents the cheese from dehydrating to the point where its rock hard. Thing is, I've never bought cheese like this before. I bought a cheese plane and everything, but it was so hard to cut/peel the wax off. I was careless enough that the cheese plane slipped and cut up my thumb. Urgh.. I just wanted a piece of cheese!! So much work for a little piece of cheese.. Kind of reminds me of eating crab legs.. so much work.. just for a little piece..

"It tastes like chicken."

"You know what it really reminds me of? Tastee Wheat. You ever eat Tastee Wheat?"

Ah yes, coming from one of my favourite movies. I think its funny sometimes how people like to compare things to past experiences when describing something so that an understanding can be created between two people.

For example: Let's say for dinner I had frog legs. And if you've never had frog legs I can easily tell you that it tastes like chicken. Immediately you can gain familiarity with my experience because of that simple comment. You understand what chicken tastes like and can immediately relate. Whether or not you will try it is another story.

I find myself using this technique very frequently since I've moved here. Last Friday I went out with a few guys and we went bar hopping. Each and every bar I went to I thought of a bar it would resemble back home. I thought about the people in the bar, the atmosphere, and what part of Chicago the bar would be in. I guess its just my way of creating familiarity with my surroundings.

We went to a few bars. The first was called LoungeLover which was quite cool. Zagat describes it as an "English country house on acid." The lounge was in this dodgy alley. Immediately I tried to compare this lounge to something back home, but I'll admit, its quite unique. But the crowd was definitely River North.

The next was called dreambagsjaguarshoes which apparently got its name from two shops that occupied the site, but now its a very crowded bar with lots of 'artsy' and 'grungy' types. Definitely Wicker Park area bar. The unique thing about this bar is its 'exhibitions' I guess the walls of the bar are painted differently each month depending on the 'exhibition.' So it gives the bar a unique look and feel each time you visit every month.

Spoiled
I really appreciate the times I had a car back in the States. I really do. Today I went grocery shopping for the first time since coming back and I bought a lot. But I decided not to bus it and try walking back home. 15 min walk, no big deal. I was wrong. After stuffing some groceries on my backpack and carrying heavy plastic bags (where the handles cut up your fingers) in each hand, I can say I won't do that again! Next time you go grocery shopping and fill the boot of your car full of your purchases think of the people that don't have that convenience!

Eating well
Being my first trip to the supermarket I thought I'd buy healthy items such as fruits and vegetables, fresh fish, and stay away from fried and greasy food. I was really proud of my purchases and can't wait to cook them all. Unfortunately, I had a craving for fast food and bought a Big Mac for dinner. It doesn't help that I have a McDonald's just outside of my flat. I tell ya, the BigMac doesn't taste the same as I remembered. Maybe its because there wasn't enough of that thousand island secret sauce on it.

Blank Stare
Coming out of my elevator I saw one of my neighbours. I smiled and said "Hello!" and he look at me and gave me a blank stare. So much for being friendly.

Wireless
If you had a laptop with a wireless internet connection, have you ever taken it to the bathroom with you to surf the internet to "pass" time? I tried it once, but its just so weird.

Dhalsim

I attended my first yoga class yesterday. I initially took interest in it while flipping through the London Time Out Magazine. There was an article about yoga and I immediately took interest. While reading an article, I noticed that there were yoga classes taking place just down the street to where I lived. So I figured, why the hell not?

First off, I didn’t know what to expect. The only thing I knew going into the activity was that the class was probably going to have a high percentage of women.

Boy was I wrong. I guess other guys had the same idea as I did, and most of the class consists of all guys! I walk into the class, with high expectations of being surrounded by all women, but these hopes came crashing down as reality set in. Not that I signed up to be around women. Of course not! But the stereotype that I had in my head was false and I almost walked out of the classroom in disgust!

What was I to do?

I’ll tell you what I did.

I'm joking. Yes. I did attend my first yoga class, and yes, I’m indeed the ONLY guy. Hahahahaha. How funny would it have been if it was mostly guys! Not that there would be anything wrong with that! Anyway, I walk into the basement of this building not knowing what to expect. The teacher looked at me and I think she was shocked to see a guy.
In any case, I'd be very a memorable face.

The first things I notice is everyone’s socks are off. I immediately think about the fact that guy’s feet are ugly and I wonder if my toenails are too long or if my feet are too hairy. Despite this, I run off to a corner and take off my socks. My self-consciousness disappears as wonder what these women are thinking. It’s a weird feeling being the only guy in a class like yoga.

This class is called Shadow Yoga so basically the yoga teacher performs a pose or movement and we just simply shadow her movements. It ended up being quite fun.

I can tell you now that everyone in the class knows my name. You know why? Because the teacher would always point out what I was doing wrong! I think she called on me like 10 times to correct my poses or movements. Hey, at least she knows my name and so does everyone else!

I think the funniest part of the class was that this one girl didn’t want to take off her socks!! So the teacher almost kicked her out of the class! They got into this heated argument and she was even willing to sign a waiver so she doesn’t have to take them off! I guess she was really self-conscious about her feet! But the teacher let her stay in the class because she said she’d take them off next week or something. Maybe she’s got some weird bunion or fungus on her feet. Gross!!! Can't wait to see her feet next week!

Overall, the class is quite interesting. We did all these different movements and I immediately found out that I have no balance or flexibility. Though, I broke out in a good sweat afterwards. I use to be quite limber during my gymnastics days, so hopefully my muscles will remember those times and my flexibility will all come back! I use to do the splits quite easily you know!

I have class every week for the next five weeks so stay tuned for weekly updates!

And can anybody comment on today’s title and how it relates to all of this? =)

Extracurricular Activities

I promised myself that I'd get involved in extracurricular activities with the start of the new year. Hopefully this evening I will keep this promise. If it works out, I'll be one of the few guys surrounded by many women. Lovely!

Amsterdam!

What a trip. Probably the best one yet. It was a lot of fun. Lots of partying. Lots of drinking. Learned a lot as well! Lots of interesting stories came out of this trip that I'll reserve at a later time! Our trip included a 4 hour bike ride around the city, visiting a cheesefarm and clog factory, and nearby countryside where I saw this windmill. We also checked out the Van Gogh museum and finally saw popular pieces such as 'The Bedroom' and 'Self-Portrait as an Artist.'

Walking around the city reminded me of my trip 6 years back. Its funny walking around a city you visited a while back and having flashbacks of the time you spent there.

Amsterdam was founded in the 13th century as a fishing village. The damming of the Amstel river gave it its name. Once the dam was up, put the words together, replace the 'l' with an 'r' and there you have it: Amsterdam!

Beer
Heineken is soooo good in Amsterdam. It's like having Guinness in Dublin. I'm not a fan of Heineken, but now that I've had it fresh from the city where it all started, its pretty good. Maybe its because its not from the bottle but off the tap, I'm not sure. But I do have a new found appreciation for the beer. It was funny seeing it in aluminum cans instead of glass bottles!

Bikes
Bikes are everywhere in Amsterdam. I've never seen so many bikes. And I mean pedal bikes! What's so funny about this is that a lot of people ride their bike to the pubs and 'coffee shops.' After a night of drinking or visiting a 'coffee shop' you'll see people jump on their bike to ride home! We'd come back from a night of partying and you'll see all these people riding their bikes in the middle of the night!

Cannabis
Yes, it is legal to smoke and carry (up to 30g) in Amsterdam. But the coffee shops have to obtain the proper licence to sell it. There are about 250-260 of these 'coffee shops' around Amsterdam. The proper shops are indicated with a Green and White label outside each shop. Its very similar to obtaining a liquor licence. I also learned (from the bike tour) that you don't have to buy and smoke it all in one coffee shop. You can take what you didn't finish and bring it somewhere else!

Red Light District
The women in this area that work the windows are known as self-registered independent business women to the government! Because of this they can 'expense' all the tools they need to perform their job as a tax writeoff! I thought this was quite interesting. Since prostitution is legal in Amsterdam, you'll see police officers walking through the district with prostitution happening, cannabis in the air, and one of the worst offenses they can charge you with is riding your bike without proper lighting! The area is pretty safe and the government want to keep it that way for reasons I shall state below. Its a very popular tourist attraction and the worst thing that could happen is for it to obtain a bad reputation and have business decline!

Taxes
But with these 'freedoms' available in Amsterdam, it all comes with a price. All the revenue for these 'products' and 'services' are taxed at 17%, and all go to the government!

It's quiet

There is something that has to be said about living alone. It's quiet and hard work. After living with my parents for 3 weeks, the silence is deafening in my flat. I actually miss the background noise of my family, and I find that playing music in the background falls short of a replacement. But as weeks pass, I guess I'll get use to it.

Not only that, but I have to prepare my own food! Blasphemy. Back home food just appeared on the table and I would just sit down and eat! Or I'd have plans to meet up with a friend and catch a meal. Here my dinner date involves answering the knock on the door from the pizza delivery guy.

Coming back to London the second time around hits a little bit harder because the excitement of moving is gone. The novelty of a new environment disappears and you simply just have to get back into a routine. No worries about finding a place to live, getting a bank account, or exploring new surroundings. The buzz of the trip back home slowly disappears and reality sets in.

The good thing about all of this is the travel opportunity starts again with a trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands this weekend. I've been before, about 6 years ago, and it was quite memorable. It will be hard to top the previous trip, but I'm sure this time, it will be much more educational.

The color purple
Check out the latest photo blog of a coworker.

Globetrotter, and pick up your poo.

Ah.. back in good ol' London. Nothing like grey skies to instill you with that morose feeling. Trying to get back into the routine... Nothing like being jetlagged... Constantly yawning, I feel like a zombie. People talk to you and everything registers so slowly. I've been using, "Huh?" and "What?" a lot today.

So I just realised that in a little over a month I've been on a plane too many times to count. I don't know how people can constantly travel. But it’s been a good month of travel to say the least.

I believe 2005 is by far the year where I've traveled the most.

I started in Cancun to ring in the new year, a visit to the native land over the summer, various European cities in between and ended in NYC, Miami and Chicago to close it off.

Just in the past month in a half - 4 different countries (Italy, UK, the States and Netherlands), 5 different states (CT, NY, IL, GA, FL), spanning 8 cities (Venice, London, Stamford, NYC, Chi-town, Atl, Miami, Amsterdam) and 2 continents if I count Amsterdam, Netherlands this weekend. It didn't hit me until I wrote it down just now. I've been very lucky with the opportunity that’s for sure.

Looking down
So on my walk to work, reminiscing the fun times I had back home, my mind wanders. When this happens I tend to look down at the ground with a smirk on my face. (Random thought - I believe that when most people daydream or when they are thinking about something deeply while walking, they tend to look either down on the ground rather than straight up in the air. Wouldn't that be weird if people looked up in the air with a smirk on their face. At least when you look down at the ground you tend to know where you are going. If you look up into the air and smile, you simply look crazy, psychotic in my opinion. I mean, picture it.. am I right?)

So anyway, as I continue to walk and daydream, I notice, more than usual, the amount of faeces on the ground. Can I tell you how much this disrupts my daydreaming? Sheesh. I counted four instances along the path to work. I don't understand why dog owners can't pick up after their dogs. Usually when I see people walk their dogs in the States I notice they are carrying a plastic bag with them for proper cleanup. Unfortunately, I haven't noticed dog owners here carry this necessary accessory. I'm not saying none of them don't clean up after their dogs, its just I haven't witnessed it yet.

I hope..
Things get more interesting here so I don’t have to write about dog poo.

Thanks.

Thanks to everyone that made it out last night. It was good to see everyone! I can't believe my visit has come to an end, but my journey continues again and I hope its filled with interesting and funny stories.

Coming back home had put me into a comfortable zone with friends and family, but another test arises as leaving again makes me wonder how bad homesickness will strike.

I think I'm better prepared this time than the last. We'll see. =)

Back to the Future.

So if someone could predict your future and could tell you where you would be in 5, 10 years, etc. would you do it?

Initially I would say yes, but come to think about it further, I would say no. What fun would life be if you already knew your fate? I wonder how you would live each day?

I found my high school superlatives and it asks:
"Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"

You would think I'd have these high aspirations or high achieving goals when answering this question.

But Being 19, and not knowing much about life, I answered, and I quote:

"Hopefully, I'll be 29."

I think about that answer and I'm trying to understand what I meant by that. Was I trying to be clever? Did I have a weird negative view in life that I didn't think I could live till I was 29?

Well, I made it. But this whole thing about living and working in another country, traveling around Europe and leaving family and friends behind, I would have never guessed.

So I'll pose the question to you, and to myself.. where do you see yourself in 10 years?

For the record:

"Hopefully, I'll be 39."

Thanks all for the birthday wishes!

Random Thoughts..

Happy New Year!!!

Whew.. Its been a while since I've updated this thing, and I apologise. I've been very busy meeting up with old friends and family that I don't have any "me" time. I guess you can say I tend to write more and be more reflective when I'm not surrounded by people I really care about. ;) Talk about night and day compared to London!

Lots of things have happened since my last post, and I will simply post random thoughts that I've come across the past week or two..

Miami
Nothing like sitting on a beach and watching ladies tan topless. =)

And talk about partying like rockstars. Private seating and complimentary bottle service. Thanks cuz! NYE was a blast and partying till 5AM will take its toll on the body.

Beautiful people. Everywhere. This is my third time in Miami, and talk about eye candy. It never ceases to amaze me how good people look there. Even 60 year old grandmas where white see-through pants. (Someone on our trip took a picture of it.) Everyone looks so good there. I don't know what it is. If there is a place to people watch, try eating outside a restaurant on Ocean Drive or Lincoln Rd. But if you plan on going clubbing, make sure you bring more ladies than dudes, otherwise you'll never get in!

It was a good vacation overall. I laughed so much during the trip. There were times I couldn't even breathe and my stomach hurt! I love that feeling.

ATL and Chick-fil-A
So on the way back we had a stopover in Atlanta. Unfortunately they closed the airport when we were on the way there due to the weather! So all the flights were backed up, and our flight even got CANCELED!

What a pain. Anyway, we end up staying there overnight. Went to the mall and even enjoyed roomservice and the hotel's hottub.

The best part - finally having a sandwich at Chick-Fil-A!! I enjoyed it! Wheat bun with honey mustard and waffle fries.. hmm hmm good. My good friend would talk it up and I agree, it was pretty good.

The worst part - I lost my luggage. I still don't have it as I type this. I never check my luggage in, but this time I did. It's stuck somewhere between Miami, Atlanta or somewhere in the dark corners of O'Hare. Sux.

One last comment - Atlanta people are so nice. Everyone is so kind and helpful. I guess its that southern hospitality.

Board Game Tour
I don't know what it is, but board games are fun. I mean, it passes time and you can get so many laughs out of it. In the past 2 weeks I've played True Colors, Imagine If, Would you Rather, the annual Cranium competition with cousins during xmas, Extreme Jenga and Guesstures. The thing I realised is that I need a board game "clique" in London. I think I'll blog about that when it happens.

Back in the old office
What a weird feeling to be in the old office. The commute, the people, the city. So wierd.

Food
Cross out Portillos and Boston Blackie's off the list as my food tour continues. Still have to hit chipotle.

Finally..
You know how I hate walking around in wet socks?? I blogged about Venice.. wet socks with dirty canal water. I took it to another level by walking on dog urine. Yes, wet socks due to dog urine. I only write about it because people asked if I would. So I have. Happy? =)