I wish I had my camera...

I try to carry my camera with me everywhere I go - but sometimes I get caught without it. Today I was at the airport getting tickets for a flight back to the US, and they had airport karaoke! There was a woman singing her heart out about the Olympics - all set to the tune of "Hit me baby one more time!" I'm not sure what it was all about but I think you would have smiled like I did if you saw it.

Other random tidbits from Amsterdam:

1) French fries with peanut sate sauce and mayonaise on top is a delicious snack (according to my co-workers). Maybe not the lowest calorie snack, but they swear by it.

2) My Dutch colleague and one of Brett's colleagues both came back from trips to the US complaining about the high sugar levels in US bread. I never thought of US bread as sweet. We'll see how my tastes change over the year we're here.

3) When my co-workers bring their lunch to work it's often a sandwich or two. No chips or other sides. Just a bag of sandwiches or for a snack, slices of bread. What's interesting is the fillings and the quantities of those fillings. One slice of cheese is the sole filling on a sandwich here. No lettuce, tomato or other toppings. Whatever the filling, it's often about the thickness of a slice of cheese, so sandwiches are typically very thin. Popular fillings include egg salad and tuna salad and what they call "filet American" but what we might know as raw ground beef.

4) Our mouse doesn't seem to like the traps we bought, and he's very brave - even coming out during the day while Brett was in the dining room. Blah.

Other than that, there aren't too many new insights to share. We did have fun giving directions to a driver last night. When we were done he looked surprised and said "Thanks - that's good....you sound like a tourist!" :-)

And for those of you reading from the US, I'll be in Rochester, NY August 14-17, San Francisco August 18-22, and Washington, DC August 23-25, so I hope to see you soon.