pretty prague

two weekends ago i had a wonderful weekend in prague - a city almost surrreal in its beauty and grandeur...thanks to the wonderful hospitality of Jenny and the other trainees at Club Andel we saw "the sites" of Prague...the castle, old town, new town, charles' bridge and hilltop lookout etc...as well discovered two great cafes - La Patio, set in a three level antique shop and Cafe FX - a funky vegetarian place (quite different to other restaurants who listed ham and chicken in their vegie menus)....unfortunately we also came across quite a few groups of British hen and stag weekend partiers who were set only on taking advantage of the extremely cheap beer....but overall it was a really lovely weekend and was also good to catch up with Ludek and Diler and his wife, Manjeet...here are a couple of photos (including sections of the John Lennon wall which started as place of protest for democracy during communist times) but you can see the whole collection here

queen's day 2006

queen's day weekend in amsterdam....somehow brought forward by a day so people wouldn't be too tired at work on monday (?!?)....national day of orange, drunken, flea market celebrations :) this year somehow felt more relaxed and less busy than the previous year...so dresssed in the two pieces of orange clothing that i own i wandered the streets of the Jordaan, looking for flea market bargains (bag, candle holder, oil burner, CD and picnic blanket for EUR10), having a drink or two and listening to live music...and seeing some interesting sites along the way....here in photos are: Dutch version of a family sedan; dedication to Princess Maxima the size of a 5 storey building and one of the cute kids who also had a stall on the day, part of the Dutch entrepreneurship development program for youth ;)

brasil - here i come!!!

i am still waiting for the final offer letter this week, and well guess i should be wary of visa procedures (a-la swiss fiasco ;) but....it was agreed in the last week that i will transfer with the bank from amsterdam to sao paulo to work in the diversity + inclusion department in Brazil for two years!!!

it is about two months now since i first got a phone call from the head of diversity in brazil (where the bank has 30 000 employees) and she asked me to join her team....and after receiving lots of great advice from good friends (thanks Ade, Marcelo, Patrice, Brenda, Maria, Mazzy, Lara especially!) and my family, and trying to maintain my patience...it seems it is all coming together and i will be starting my first day of work in brazil on 24 july

i managed to negotiate with my new manager and i will have two weeks in amsterdam doing intensive portuguese classes and then go to portugal, not just to test out portuguese, but for pita and anya's wedding

personally i'm really excited about this chance to live and work in latin america which from my brief exposure so far is a region filled with passion and teeming with life and energy...and also there is pretty strong expectation for me to become fluent in portuguese (giving me 300 hours of classes to get through!) and i've always dreamt of moving to a country and becoming fluent in the local language through real interaction with the people around me....also gives me chance to keep to my "home by 30" plan :)

professionally i think it is also a good move because the bank in brazil is more advanced in their d+i journey and it will put me on a different learning edge...also will be great to be closer to the business and working more "on the ground" compared to headquarters...

so looking forward to this move very much, so for next couple of months trying to get the most out of amsterdam and europe (trips booked to london, paris, prague, egypt and slovakia!), make sure i pass my final uni subject to graduate, start to prepare my portuguese skills and enjoy lots of special moments with my friends here.

when you hear the words you needed to hear...

they are the sweetest melody :)

"You will find the answer if you let it go
Give yourself some time to falter
But don't forgo this
Knowing that you're loved no matter what
And everything will come around
In time"

SARAH MCLACHLAN FROM "PERFECT GIRL"