Hi everybody,At the moment I'm in Buenos Aires in the youth hostel Milhouse {http://www.milhousehostel.com/}, and yes it has started!! I'm happy to see that so many of you people have joined me here on my (virtual) journey (for you it's virtual!). I think it's a good idea to introduce everyone to each other, it's always nice to know who you’re travelling with. Hope you like the journey!
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mark reisen I don't know how he did this, but he’s on top of the list. Mark is my oldestfriend, i know him for more than 35 years, it's one of the persons in life youmeet and instantly feel comfortable with. He is living in Sweden,physiotherapeutist (pöt), married to Lena, and has two kids (Hedvig andHenrik). There are not many certainties in life, but this one is sure or he's going to bury me or I'm going to bury him!
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Afke&Bertus Bertus is brother of Jan-Gert (see down below Mika), and oncewe went skiing with each other. From that moment Bertus and Afke are friends.It's one of the places with a 50% chance of getting a hangover, after a dayand night of too much drinking and laughing.
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Ainsley Ainsley I met in Brasil last year, and during a very pleasant week Itravelled with her and three other Aussies in the Pantanal, and Bonito. She has travelled in 2004, and just has come back to Melbourne. I hope my stories are as inspiring and humoristic as hers were. Ainsley is different compared todutch girls. Dutch girls normally are starting to shake of fear for seeing a tiny little spider, let alone a snake. Ainsley however gets enthousiastic if she sees a Tarantula, and jumps in the air when she watches a snake )(out of joy Dutch Ladies!, not out of fear.). Maby it’s not a littlebit fair, because she has been working in a Zoo.
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akke Akke Engelberts was my (boezem) friend during high school, and we haven't seen each other for far too long. Last year we met again, and when I'm back one of the first things I'm going to do is have a few beers with him....Akke was a schipper for years, and decided last time I met him to do something else.
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bart Bart is my oldest and youngest brother. He's a dentist and lives in Utrecht, has three kids {Wouter, Jojanneke, and Rick, is married to Anita, who's a teacher. One of their passions is playing bridge, which often results in a lot of noise at the carting table. One of the things I dislike about Bart, is while being five years older than me, he's looking at least 5 years younger.
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ben I know Ben (Hendrickx) from my work, he's a lawyer, and has his own company, juridical advise on soil polution and environment, and he's living inUtrecht. At the moment, he's starting a big holiday park in the Ardennen, so if you're interested in hiring a luxurious cottage there, just send him an e-mail. Ben's girlfriend Mireille probably will add some comments nowadays. Ben is a bon vivant, and that's why I like him!
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benno Benno is a good griend from work, although he’s working in a different field (innovation). We play tennis at tuesday evening, and allways end up drinking Leffes, eating “bitterballen”, and talking a lot. ( I think I have read this before.) Also during weekdays we like to talk the day away, but don’t think Benno is not a hard worker. (What you think of me I don’t care!)
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bert en yvonne Bert de Wilde is my maestro. Thanks to him I learned painting, Bert is a wonderful teacher because he´s always giving you enough space to do your own thing, but he´s garding the result in case things go wrong. Bert is very critical and precise, and I highly value him for that.Apart from that Bert and his wife Yvonne have become very good friends. And yes the story is a littlebit boring, we like to drink a good glass of wine,(sometimes more than one), talking the night away, and I normally get out of bed totally broken. Yvonne is working at “het Roessingh” (Mark, you’ve been there!), a centre for people with physical disabilities.
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Hans & Ingrid Beumers Hans I know from tennis, we played in a team together for more than 5 years, and we also train together. Hans is also a fanatic runner. He's planning to do the New York marathon {So Mark, maby you can hive him some advice on that, originally planned in 2005, but that seems to have been postponed. Hans is always interested in people, and that's a very good quality of him. Ingrid his wife is very sportslike either. Both work in building companies, so Ben H if you have trouble with your luxurious cottages, call them!
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charlotte Charlotte Axelsson I only met recently, but's a meeting I will not soon forget. She’s from Sweden. I met her at Mark Reisen's wedding, she's also a pöt, and she's working for an organisation in former Yugoslavia, working with children that are disabled, thanks to again a useless war. One of the reasons I immedeately liked her was that she started translating Swedish, without me asking.
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Anne for friends, Anne-Marie Startman it’s officially. Anne is working in“het ondernemingshuis”, the place where I was working too, and we are allreadymore then 8 (?) years playing tennis, first indoors and later also playingcompetion outdoors. For one thing Anne likes people and is always there whenthere’s something to celebrate. She’s always teasing me with my age (yes she’smuch younger, but one day………….she will leave her dipers.)
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Dirk (van der Valk) is my former boss. There many things I learned fromhim, f.i. being a littlebit more patient, but one of the most important lessons was, that not all bosses are assholes.
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Jan Emmens Jan is probably my second oldest friend. We first met at the footbal field playing in a soccer team when we were 7/8. Later we coincedentially went to the same high school, and did all those things you do when you're at that age, f.i. we secetly went to a concert of the Golden Earring in the Hague, when we were 13,when we were 15 we went on vacation with a motorboat along the Vecht for a week, to dicover the local pubs, and we supported each other during our first night through...... Probably i could write abook about all those things. We share a lot of memories of the past, and we should build on a few more in the present. We'll do that in the future!
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erica erica is presenting the crew of ladies at the reception of theOndernemingshuis. I’m very happy that they are following my journey, andwhile underway I hope to get a lot of motherly advise of how to behave myselfproperly!
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Erik Erik is the second son of Marleen. Unlike me, he's a party animal, allways in for a few beers, while enjoying a lot of talking, and he likes to be part of large groups, sometimes organizing one or two things [f.i. with a busload of students to Daviscup meetings, organising tennis tournaments, being webmaster for the club etc.), so probably he's well known in and around Eindhoven. Carlijn, his girl friend has a strange hobby -collecting lantern poles-.
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enschede Enschede is incognito. So I will not give away her real name.Only one small hint, I met her during painting classes in Enschede, and if she’s laughing , the windows start shaking, and that’s one of the reasons thatI like her a lot.
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fokke Fokke is far more than a friend from painting, but’s there where we met. He’s working at the university of Twente as UD-er (EL). This year he will do his PHD. Fokke likes to talk and I like to talk to Fokke. Art,Literature, Stupidity, Music, Whine etc. etc. are favorite subjects. By theway, we like a good glass of wine!. Funny is that I met his wife Yvonne 17 years ago when I myself was working at the university, it’s a small world.
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gilles Gilles is one of the Twente Gang (a sort of Hofstad group), and he’s belonging to the chess section. When I was working at the University ofTwente (17 years ago) we were all in the same ship ( or must I say shit), andthat has created a life time bondage. Gilles is teacher, and also director ofa florishing business (alternative energy etc.). So if you have cold feet callGilles, and all your problems are solved!
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Han ten Broeke Han was my collegue for more than six years. Working with Han is very pleasant, because Han's humor is dryer than a Martini. Han I hope I don’t have left to much of a mess for you to clear up. Han is living with Susan and they have adopted three kids from Afrika (Sam, Abrishje and Daniel).Han is a family man, coming from a family with so many children that I lost the numbers. Every year they hire the footbal stadium in Almelo to have a reunion.
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feil , Herman (for friends!) is again from the Twente Gang, and he too is belonging to the chess section. Herman has his own company, mainly stimulating R&D and developing ideas in all sorts of things that have to do with cellulose, but also he’s working on roof constructions and biotechnology. Probably Herman is (looking at all my friends) the most nosy type (in a positive way), he’s married to Gülfem, she’s from Turkey, and there marriage in Instanbul has resulted for me in the greatest hangover ever endured (and probably will never to be beaten by me{I hope})!
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johan While I'm writing this introduction Johan drops in on the list, so who the hell is johan??. OH yes, Johan was until three days ago another one of the people I saw everyday because he's working at the IMK. Johan is probably also interested in my journey because he has a passion for Latin America, and Spanish. I hope I can make you longing for some spots I find, and give you inspiration for some other trips you're going to make.
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Vikingo de Ocotlan Again we have a person in disguise. This guy is one ofthe reasons that I’m doing this. He went on a journey around the world about 4(?) years ago, he always said to me that I one day would do the same, I guesshe was right. Nowadays Leo (Oops… slip of the keyboard..) lives in Mexico, yes he met a Mexican girl (Ruth) and has married her. Formerly during weekends he was my guide in Groningen showing me all the pubs that are there (and believe me there are a lot there!). Best experience -waiting in line at 6.30 AM to get into the “Benzine Bar”. Hint for Leon (down below), sometimes Vikingo deOcotlan was called Dr. Oetker!
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leon . Leon is also of the Twente Gang. We have a lot of common interests.Skiing f.i., music (every year we attend Pink Pop, a big pop festival inLandgraaf, so a big apology to Leon for not showing up this year), computergames etc, and one of the reasons why I value him, is that while being in my first year in Twente, and feeling lonely, Leon was the first who was asking me to drink a few beers in local pubs. Few became many. Leon is married toMarieke en has two kids (Lisanne and Bas), who also probably will frequent this site. To them also a big apology for not joining them on skiing holidays (Hopefully next year).
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ben & leonza Ben is my old Biology study mate. We first met during the second (?) year in the biology soccer team (a team with incredible talents,and hell! we also were incredibly good in filling tables with empty beer glasses, sometimes we won with more than 120-0). We became very good friends in the last year of our study, while doing research at the lab of prof. Jansz (institute of molecular biology Utrecht). We were very fanatic researchers with our direct mentor often asking us if it was good if he left while we were working till late. Later Ben and I became soccer coaches –again quite fanatic-for Kampong ( a big sports club in Utrecht). Nowadays Ben is a big shot in America, vice-president at Medimmune (check out their website
http://www.medimmune.com/ ), and unlike other big shots Ben is still Ben. Ben is married to Leonza, who is also abiologist, she too is extremely nice, nowadays Leonza is broker (so Ben Hendrickx, maby she can help you if you going into holiday cottages in America!). They have two kids Bart (probably named after my brother, who was a big friend of Ben), and Elisabeth.
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marco Marco Platvoet I know from my recent working days In Enschede. He’sworking for external relations at the Chambers of Commerce, which means that they’re trying to enhance contacts with entrepreneurs in other countries. Hee, mayby I can help Now! Marco is quite cool. We also played tennis a few years ago, but unfortunatelyhe had to stop.
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marleen Marleen is my oldest sister. She’s a real mater familias, has produced a lot of nice children, and has green fingers. So if you are having trouble with Orchids, just contact Marleen. Marleen is married to Johan, who’sworking for that light company in eindhoven (I’m still hoping they will sponsor my trip, but until then no commercials!). Right now Marleen and I are entangled in a fierce competition for the predicate “Most greyish of thefamily”. I think I’m going to win!
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mika Mika is the son of Seya and Jan-Gert and he’s 13 (by the way I’m hisgod father, sic) . Probably during this year he’s going to hack my site, but at the moment he’s not yet capable of it. Seya and Jan-Gert are again part of the Twente Gang, where I especially had a lot of fun with Seya (while Jan-Gert being away in China!?!?!). Actually Seya was the first person that dared to speek to me in my first year at the university. With Seya, Jan-Gert, Mika and Marko (their other son) we spent many holidays together (america, bulgaria, skiing vacations), and I go very often to their house, which has given me the predicate “Housefriend”.
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monica en erik Monica I know from my years as a member of the Enschede Group of Greenpeace (or were it green peas, i can’t recall). Monica was the president and secretary general of the group and a fanatic one too. Monica is arried to Erik, who workes at the University of Twente as accountant. Monica is quite spiritual, while one the other hand Erik is rather down to earth, a nice balance. Celine is their daughter.
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Thesy & Robert Thesy is my youngest sister (but one year older!). She was a very sports like person, excelled in many sports (some even say she was a better soccer player than me – which is of course ridiculous-). Unfortunately she had a skiing accident which resulted in a rotten knee. Now Thesy has set a new world record getting children ! It probably will never be beaten. Thesy is married with Robert, who is working for a company connected to Dutch Rail, and I’m not going to make jokes about that! (They feed my fish, so I must be a littlebit nice, for else they might be buying piranhas.) Thesy and Robert have 4 kids, Tom, Rosemieke3 (cows they also give numbers!), Carolien and Marlies.
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Marjolein Marjolein is a daughter of Marleen, and twin sister of Rosemieke2. She’s studying medecine in Utrecht. Marjolein is a very good tennisplayer (same club as you BEN H.!), can sing in a very low voice (sort of Louis Armstrong), and if she’s starts to laugh fully, you look at the sky andexpect an air-raid.
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Niqui I met Niqui (Pichel) last year in Brasil. She travelled through South America, and her e-mails made me that jealous that I decided I should do the same. Thanks to her I will have some very nice expericiences. Now it’s my turn to write some interesting stories. Niqui is now suffering from a very irritating disease, coming home after a year’s travel. I hope my stories will relieve the pain a littlebit.
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Rosemieke2 Robokip de Hair is actually her real name, but we decided that having a few more nicked named Rosemiekes in the family would distract the world from the real Rosemieke (who is living as a secret agent in Canada). If you want to get acquinted a littlebit more, her website is a few clicks away. She’s my lovely crazy niece (21 years of age, twinsister of Marjolein), quite volatile in all aspects, and since she had a little pluck of hair -standing right up while she was a baby (“Punky”)- my feelings for her have never changed.
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Rosemieke There she is. THE REAL and one and only Rosemieke. She has inspired the name givin of a lot of kin, she’s living in Canada (Ottawa), is married to Tony, and has two kids (Marieke, and Robin). Miek is very creative, f.i. she paints, although she has been a littlebit lazy the last few years.Like me she likes to party, although I think she should do it more often.She’s working at the Duch Embassy in Ottawa and also works in an exchange program (
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canadaeuropa/youth/ywcn_ca-en.asp).
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Raoul Raoul van Dongen is also working at the Chambers of Commerce. We have been playing tennis together for more than 8 years. Raoul recently has become father, so if his remarks are a littlebit off record, consider he has had a night with too little to sleep. Raoul has a very strange way of ordering drinks. It’s not that he does not drink but what about this: Bitter Lemon, Coffee, Cola, Aquarius, Hot Chocolate with crème. Normal peoplewould go sick!
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Chantal Schraa Again a lawyer in the field of soil pollution, Chantal is working for the city of Almelo, in which I to came to know her as a verybright and friendly person. Always willing to take the initiative, and never to shy or lazy to do a lot of work. Chantal is OK!
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Mark Soekarjo Mark also is a friend from my old high school days (stedelijk gymnasium Utrecht), I bumped into him the last dies natalis (sic), and later we had a pleasant conversation about a lot of different subjects, one topic was finding your destiny and going for your passion. Mark did his PHD in chemistry in Switserland, and then decided chemistry was not his cup of tea.Now Mark is trying to make a living with his passion (tango), has a tangoschool in Utrecht, so if you’re interested in learning Tango, contact Mark. You can also find more information on
http://www.elgancho.nl/
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Michiel/Stefanie Michiel is the oldest son of Marleen. Stefanie is his girlfriend, Michiel is working at Fuji, Stephanie works for TNO. They like to bicycle. F.i. after graduating from their studies they travelled to Rome by bicycle. They now have made an incredible big mistake, although they don’t know yet, so don’t tell them. Beginning of februari they are going to New Zealand for a bicycle vacation of 6 weeks (aaargh)! Poor them, now they will be addicted to travelling for the rest of their lives!. Maby you can even follow their adventures, because they had plans to make a weblog too. So clickthose links, folks!
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verena I will miss my conversations with Verena on the phone, so I hope she joines me frequently here in this place. Verena works for a advisory company on soil pollution, and the last years we worked together frequently.Verena is probably the most jeaulous of all you folks, because when she was young (a very long time ago) she too has been travelling, and has seen also major parts of South America. Well Verena you can’t have it all! But don’thesitate to visit me somewhere out there in the jungle!
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Wouter ah, the last from the chess section of the Twente Gang. With four crazy fanatics we play “vluggertjes”, which means 5 minutes per person for one match. Actually a lot of fun. Wouter Hinrichs is working as assistant professor at the University of Groningen, pharmaceutical area). Wouter is my other guide in Groningen, and yes you guess it right, it’s about pubs and drinking. Wouter by the way was the guy who trapped me into my greatest hangover of all times in Istanbul. That was a splendid week, except for days 2and 3!
I'll be back. Now it's time to see what BU A is like. See you!Wim
