Hi all!
A new short comment from the other end of the world: Japan!
First of all: the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.vandongen/Japan
I will write more, but later...
Greetings,
Dave

Wow, more than a month since I have last written something...
Well, guess what, I have been busy again... Still very busy with the house. Most of the arranging connections and stuff like that seems to be done. (I have got gas, water, electricity and i.net all arranged now) Now it's just fixing things, changing things, stuff like that. Amazing how much time it takes to get your house a bit like you want it... Meanwhile work continues, which takes up a lot of time as well, but at least it pays the seemingly never ending stream of bills. And I get to do some pretty cool stuff at my work once in a while as well, that makes it worth while most of the time.
Nora and I are still trying to find arrangements for our situation. For now, I will travel to BsAs soon to visit her again.
Ok, not much other news, so I leave you guys again. Until next time! (next month!?)
Love,
Dave

PS. Sorry for not writing everyone (as much) emails, like I should, I hope to find a bit more time soon to do that. But I haven't forgotten none of all you lovely people that I have had the pleasure meeting in my life until now!

Hi everyone!
During the last post Nora and I were travelling around Europe. We finished that travel a few weeks ago and Nora stayed one more week in Holland, while I was working again. Then she had to go back to Argentina and we are separated again now :(
Ever since Nora went back, I have been busy with my new house. Moving house, cleaning, arranging gas, water and light and making some modifications. I also ordered an internet connection, but it will still take a while until I am connected, so for now I only have internet at my workplace, if you were wondering why the silence on the net from my part.
Ok, I have to get back to work, I will post more later.
Greetings to all of you!

Hi all!
Just a short message from Paris! Me and Noa have been travelling for the last 2,5 weeks and we have seen and tried a lot of nice, beautiful and tasty things. Now we are heading for Holland again, which I will try to show Nora in a week time (while working at the same time)...
More to come later!
Love and greetings from Paris!

Hi to all!
I am extremely busy, so just a very short update. I have 2 more days of work and then my holiday will start. Sunday I want to arrive in Madrid and Nora will already be there. We will spend some days in Madrid and then visit Barcelona, the Riviere coast, Italia (Rome, Florence, Venice?) and then back to France, to Paris and through Belgium up to Holland. Nora will be one more week in Holland, while I will already be back at work, but hopefully we can still see some things in the evenings, before she has to return to BsAs (snif...). Ok, hopefully I can type an update somewhere during this holiday and otherwise I will speak to you again in 4 weeks! Greetings!!! :)

Hi good people of the world!
It's been a while since I my last post and that has a reason: I have been busy.
Especially at work it has been quite full-on, as some big project we are doing, was about to go completely wrong and we had to work hard to keep the customer happy and on board. If that wasn't enough my good friend and most direct colleague, Arnold, had bad tidings in his private life (Arnold, my thoughts are with you guys) and couldn't work for the last few weeks. Obviously that he made the right decision not to work, but still this meant even more difficulties at work. Anyway, the last weeks I have barely done anything more than work, eat and sleep. Still I am trying to do my things: sorting through my stuff I put in storage 5 years ago, wondering what to do with it now and getting it to work or in the right place, sorting, processing (scanning) and looking at all the pictures of the big 4,5 year travel and trying to give some attention to old and new-made friends. I have to admit that the last issue is not going that great. People how know me, know that I am not to good in replying with emails and phone-calls and the people how don't know me that well, you know it now... Sorry guys, for not writing and phoning you as much as I would like you too, but I am just not so good at this stuff and besides that I am still struggling to organize my life. But I am trying to catch up at least a bit and to write very short messages (although I not very good in that neither...) to all of you.
For the future, I am very looking forward to Nora coming to visit me soon! Half June she will fly-in to Madrid and I will go there by car to pick her up. From there we will try to see as much of Europe as we can for 3 to 4 weeks. The last week (2nd week of July) we will arrive in the Netherlands, as I probably have to work that week, while Nora will sightsee some of my country.
After Nora's visit I have a contract for this job until the end of July and then me and my employer will have to see what we can mean for each other. Either way, the beginning of August I will also visit my dear friend Nico, who will be back in Sweden (from Japan, where he lived and worked for the past year and will for next year). As Sweden is a lot closer than Japan I will visit him there and hopefully also see something of this country (I have a good guide now!). I am also very looking forward to see him and his family, as it has been almost 5 years now.
Ok, that was my most interesting news for now. I hope to have nice stories next month during our travel of Europe!
Until that time, take care, lots of love to you all and maybe see you around! Dave

Hi everyone! (if anyone is still reading this...)
Gee, I have been in the Netherlands for almost 2 months already...! I still feel a bit strange, with everything being so familiar (pretty much the same as 4,5 years ago), but also remembering very clearly all the stuff that I have been living in the last 4,5 years. Sometimes I feel I was only away from Holland for a few weeks, but then an awful lot has happened, what makes it feels like even a lot more then 4,5 years!
Anyway, what have I been doing since my return? My first 2 weeks back in Holland (15 Feb - 4 Mar) were spend sorting through all the stuff that I had in storage with my parents, finding a place to live in Haarlem and finally moving there and arranging some things for my work and life.
Since the 5th of March I have been working at the same company that I worked for (for 1,5 years) 4,5 years ago: FCS, which is now called Moog FCS. So most of the time was spend working and getting accustomed with working and the type of work again. In the evening and weekends I tried to visit some of my friends and family, kickstart my social life and arrange my room and all the stuff that's in it. Some basic stuff, like getting my computer to run, getting a mobile phone card and getting a health insurance, took more time than expected and in most cases is still not entirely finished yet :(
In the meantime I am hoping that in the not-to-distant future I will have my stuff sorted, have some new-found regularity in my time outside work and have a good plan for the future.
I miss my girlfriend Nora, although we call and write emails, and I am thinking about visiting her in Argentina in the near future, while she is looking into visiting Europe.
Ok, not much really exciting news, I am afraid. If something slightly interesting happens, I will put it here for you to read!
With love to you all! Dave