So here I am starting my European adventure. To say I am excited is a major understatement. I have never left the US so I will have nothing but new learning experiences. I am writing this in a journal that TT has given me for the trip, because I had expressed the idea that I wanted to keep a journal of everything that was going on.
One thing that I was pleasantly wrong about was the length of this flight. It is a 6 hour flight, not a 9 hour flight like I had thought. However, it does mean that when we land it will feel like 1 AM since I will still be on East Coast time. I should try to sleep on this flight a bit so I am not too badly lagged. I read some advice to stay up until it is time to go to bed at the local time of the destination you are at; it does make sense.
Surprisingly enough I have no one in the seat next to me. Either someone didn't make their flight or that seat wasn't sold. Now that is something I do not see on Southwest Airlines. I am feeling a bit odd now as I did not realize just how much I was connected to my cell phone (it's staying home for this trip) until today. I kept on thinking of things to tweet and I could not do it. Couple that with no wi-fi available at Dulles and there weren't much that I could say.
Right now there isn't much out the window, we just passed over NYC and are at 36,500 feet so below all I can see are clouds. This plane is a 777 (my first ride in one) and it seems nice so far. There is a good selection of movies, I plan to watch "Up in the Air" when that comes on.
So since we are landing so early, this means a bonus of being able to explore Amsterdam. I don't know exactly what to do yet, but I will find stuff. I know there is a roller coaster available nearby the train station, but that may wait until another day. At some point we still have to get to Heerlen.
The first part of this trip is for business, and it should be a good meeting with StatNeth. I will be talking about CARI and my co-worker will talk about Blaise NG testing. My presentation is in order and I hope to make a good impression for them and for the folks back home, especially since I will have to report on this meeting next month.
So let's see what happens on this adventure. I hope for lots of good thoughts and stories in this journal and also great pictures.
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