Adrep adrem

ADREP ADREM (2006-2009)

This is me and my family at our rental home in Montclair, New Jersey, shortly before our return, February 2009.

I´m the ‘ad rep’ (advertising representative) who can be pretty ‘ad rem’ (Latin for outspoken) - hence the title.

Pictures on the cover and this first page of this book were taken by Arthur Stofberg.

Thursday, February 09, 2006 Today is my day.

Was invited to come and talk in London about growing my business. Growing my career, would be a better description. Invitation accepted and flights booked same day. This is a long term thing and patience is required. Financials to be organized and right questions to prepare. Working on that. Looking for best clues, what is expected, what can still be gained.

The usual. Will keep you posted. Exciting things ahead. Can't say more now, but will do when time is ready.

Friday, February 10, 2006 Today, the day after.

You wake up and wonder what happened, and what next. Should I buy a new suite? Have a haircut? Change my attitude .....

Never done that for similar occasions, so no need for drastic adaptations this time either.

Suddenly remembered the career move to that international magazine, back in 1995.

Stayed calm, prepared well and won the pitch with 2 other contenders.

Consulted my close friends - thumbs up. Going for the next traffic light. See if the color stays green. What does the Rudderman think? Looking back at my sail course so far (43 years), there hasn't been a long straight line but no hick-ups either and - more important never a dull moment. Other sailors would choose a more steady course, but hey, that's me.

Always going for the wind. Looking ahead, can't say it's clear skies, but foggy either. Can see as far as I need. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Just realized it's been a while since my last blog entry. Time for an update on the changing places project. Since I visited the insurance guy 10 days ago - and specific questions were asked - secret silence on the line. Apparently 'they are working on it' but can't tell. Take it slow, check before speak. When you get used to it, you start appreciating it. Respect for a different way of working. When they do things, they do them meticulously and step by step. No embarrassments.

But today - important hints from the other side. Documents are prepared for the meetingof-the-year. Any question I could have will be addressed. They are prepared, but am I? What questions do I have apart from salary? For starters, I don't know yet officially (but still know) I'm the only candidate. Even when the signals are green, in our culture your expect them to be expressed openly - an initial offer would be nice? They operate differently and make moves and counter-moves. Intriguing. Still momentum is building, no way back.

Going for bulls-eye, finishing throw. Game, set and match.

Saturday, March 04, 2006 Dazed and confused. I think I got married this week. To a foreign company in a foreign territory. How complex do you want things to be? Typical me.

Why easy when you can do things in a difficult way?

So, the interview finally took place. See if I fit the job. Of course I do, otherwise you won't invite me. But it's the universal need for touch and feel. A face to a CV. Listening to the language from this non-native, but fluent English speaker. His looks and control of the situation. His drive and passion for sales. His knowledge about publishers and magazines.

And now all we do, is waiting for the formal offer from Headquarters. Last stage of the

process is the president's blessing. Formal, but necessary. We can wait for that. And then the negotiations really start. Filling in the tech details I prepared already. Things will move fast from now. Drastic implications. Wife, children, school, house, car, tax position, healthcare and some more. Will be dealt with in due time. First things first. It all starts now.

Monday, March 27, 2006 When decisions are taken at last, it seems like time is flying all of a sudden. It´s already 3 weeks since D-Day. After March 4, the interview, and the official hiring confirmation from Tokyo, the carousel has started spinning. Although details of the labor agreement itself have not been agreed yet, working on a gentleman´s agreement will do for time being.

First fix the basics: insurance, visa, housing (selling and renting), schooling (exit and entry), moving house and storage. Only then you know the costs of this operation and can start talking about allowances and time schedules. Underestimated (as most will do, I think) the sheer number of papers and documents to study and reply to. Mills have started though on both sides of the pond. Asking the right questions. Showing papers to prove your skills and education.

Well, initial planning looks like me starting up in July. Combine school holidays in August, bring the family over and get used to the area and possibly future place of living. Return in September to finalize moving procedures and pick up visa. Start officially by October. How about that?

Will tell you in some days if this schedule is feasible.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 Didn't realize it's been so long since the last posting. Been doing lots of relocation preparation stuff in the meantime.

Looking for a house in the US through internet is helpful, to put it mildly. Don't know how I would have done that without. Still, a physical check is needed and soon to happen.

Kids started private English lessons. Cute.

House on sale now for 3 months, but also offered it for rent, recently. Who knows.

Been to Tokyo to be trained and discuss our contract details. Needs further attention.

Next trip is to SF and NY to meet clients and prepare myself for the big job. High expectations.

Promised myself to do more tracking of the thoughts on the go.

Thursday, July 06, 2006 Sometimes news about yourself can hit you in a funny way. Especially when it is out of your control. I was shocked and very pleased at the same time when I learned today that my visa application for the US was almost the last to be accepted.

A visa quota makes everyone nervous, including the visa consultants. When will it run out?

The doors open on April 1st and visa kick in at October 1st. They compared with last year and estimated it would run till July this time. So, hurry guys, don't forget to send in those papers. One tends to think it's a cheap consultant trick to keep them working and cash in on each individual application form they organize for you. But no, they were wrong. The quota ran out way before they estimated it, only 6 weeks after the doors opened for applications.

My application was sent in by May 15..... Something to do with the economy.

Anyway, would we have waited for whatever stupid admin reason, say 2 days, it would definitely been over and out for this guy to start working in the USA. Although the official go-ahead can still take at least 1 more month, the family can breath a little slower again.

This boat is soon sailing across the ocean!

Monday, September 11, 2006 We took a vacation. A much needed one. The brains started going in overdrive. So many things to organize, so many people to contact. You have no idea what has to be done when moving abroad. The more people you talk to, the more suggestions, advise and good ideas come up. So, again more things to remember and organize.

But then the crucial issue of them all is - will they allow me into the land of milk and honey?

The immigration service is behind schedule and only 1 month of applicants have been processed (started April 1). Mine is 2nd half of May and we are 18 days away from flying.

Mentally, we are preparing for a longer stay in the land of water and potatoes.

The kids are learning their new language at great speed. Watching BBC programmes, DVD in English and talking to their daddy what was watched. Also little projects on topics they will come across soon, such as hospital, school, transport, shops etc.etc. Amazing how fast they pick up a new language! Still, they will go through culture shock once they put their feet in the other school system.

Friday, October 06, 2006 Time's up! A well-known call at quiz programs on TV. No more time to think, give your answer NOW or you're out.

In our case, time for planning is up. Everything planned for during the last 6 months is now getting fulfilled. The visa are printed, just waved off the boxes sent to New York by ship, some other boxes stay with family. Suitcases packed, last kisses and hugs. Last envelopes in the mailbox. Bye bye, so long, God Speed.

We plan to write a book for fellow-expats. Incredible how many lines you have to disconnect, things in the mail to stop, subscriptions to cancel etc. And every disconnections produces new issues to solve. Banks, insurance, travel plans, housing and not to forget my JOB. In all the hassle one tends to forget why this is all happening in the first place - work, income, career.

Try to explain that to your children. The "Why?" questions keeps popping up. We keep trying, first for ourselves of course..... But then the feeling that it's ok to go remains. So many things said to us lately, things we read during meditation - all reassuring that we can cross that big river, but to have have faith and courage. Just like in the old days with Joshua. And he found a house too!

Facts: flying on October 8, 9:30AM, arriving noon at Newark Airport. Hotel booked. People to meet on Monday, hopefully first housing option to check. Would be great.

The adrep is taking his family to New York. Exciting! We'll keep you posted. Give us your adrem comments. Appreciate.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 You have arrived! After 6 months of preparation, we have arrived indeed. In New York, of all places. A dream come true. A new publisher career. A new home for all of us.

Flabbergasting. Hard to believe. But so true.

First days in Manhattan have past. Knew the way, transport is relatively easy. But the cool city environment, repeatingly making huge impression. Working on the 29th floor, close to Chrysler and Empire State Building adds to that picture. Pictures to follow.

Family trying to settle too. Hotel in the country, time to look for a house. So much to choose from, but also so much that is not what it looks. Decorating laws in the US are different from Europe, to say the least. We need an Ikea or Hema! Made our first offer today for a rental. Typical American setting, with outside pool. Kids' thumps up. Lots to do, however. Would be major next step in immigration process. Next is buying a car.

Watch this space. More updates to follow faster.

Sunday, October 29, 2006 Welcome to the USA! Banners hanging at the airport greeted us on arrival Oct.8, almost a month ago. We felt excited, especially the kids. So this is America? Where is the Statue of Liberty? :-) Friendly custom officials, easy airport and taxi van waiting for us. Nice gesture from my new employer.

After one night in an airport hotel (the only one close to accept our cat), we decided to hire a car and meet our first contact in Montclair, NJ. A friendly lady from church who invited us in her home. Her house might be for rent soon, her kids were at this school and where to look for good places etc.

First impression of Montclair area (the Garden State) was great. Hilly, England style, lots of green and big houses. Would this be our new town? We didn't know, because no home picked yet. The afternoon was spent with our realtor, showing us around. Houses for rent, plenty, but hardly suitable for various reasons. Landlords living downstairs, upstairs strange. Strange setups, lots to change, no time for that.

Booked another hotel, closer to Montclair from Tuesday and for me job started in NY. Knew the place, tried the trains first. Busses as 2nd choice. Kids not yet to school because of lack of permanent residence. So, staying at the hotel, bit of swimming, watching TV and playing with the cat. In the meantime, Marlies could tour with the realtor, searching for that one house fitted for us. But, not much luck the 1st week.

Then, we visited church Oct 15 and met other people, who knew people, who knew other homes. The usual networking. One house was still being painted by a friend of a friend.

Come and have a look, same day. Impressed, small but cute.

Met the landlords the following day. Positive impression, but high lease price. Negotiated a bit and made a deal for one year. Pictures to follow.

Next notes will deal with the house, kids school and my new job. Stay put!

Saturday, ay, November 18, 2006 All aboard! This train to New York station! All aboard!

Standard calls and yells you hear everyday on the US trains and stations. At first, somewhat overdone, but after a while it's becoming normal and reassuring you are on the right train.

Similar to the standing in line for your papers and permits. Waiting for civil servants chatting their day away with ith their colleagues can be annoying. But once your number is up, most of them are very kind and helpful when they find out you're foreigners and doing this first time.

We bought our own car this week. After you applied for a car insurance (2 weeks proces process) you get your title (proof of ownership) and apply for New Jersey drivers license. You drove a car 24 years in Europe? Well sir, sorry, but this is New Jersey. Here's the theory test, we will do an eye test and might also ask you to drive around the block block to show us your skills.

Have to do this within 4 weeks otherwise the car insurance will become void.

But then for the spouse who has no social security number. Not allowed to work in the US, so no SSN, makes sense. But for a drivers license you need an SSN, SSN, for sure, said the official. No, says Social Security official, that's not true. Well, says the Motor Vehicle Commission, then we need a letter of exemption that you don't get an SSN, otherwise no Drivers License. Trapped in the NJ laws! Unbelievable.

The car is running ok. Picture in our web album for the record. Let's hope it survives the NJ winter. Which, to people around us, can be extreme. We'll see. First a few more papers to fill in.

Saturday, November 25, 2006 Thanksgiving weekend. A new cultural cultural experience. We were invited to join an American family (with other families) to celebrate this special moment in the year. Thoughtful.

Tasteful too!

The food that is consumed is Christmas in duplo. Everyone brin brings gs something in different flavors, mostly consisting g of non-complicated non food recipes. es. Based on the thought that the original settlers from Europe didn't know how to cook in their new land with its new vegetables s and animals. So the natives ta taught ught them and the settlers 'thanked them' for this. One of the stories behind Thanksgiving.

You thank people who helped you. We could thank people for helping us find our way in the new land. Very appropriate. Good timing too!

Christians thank God for things received. A church service was held on evening before b Thanksgiving. Moments of reflection. We're here to share because it was given to you too.

Testimonials heard how this worked in lives. Very concrete. Honest. Realistic.

Another big event is now announcing itself in shops and on radio. The confused an anniversary

of an old man with a beard and the man from heaven. Light in the darkness and peace, but also huge presents and big parties. Families spending long weekend together will be reunited again soon. All within 4 weeks. Amazing how they do it. One almost needs another break to recover from all this. The media pressure on 'everybody going mad' does its work and takes its toll. Keep you posted!

Sunday, December 10, 2006 How to get a New Jersey driving license? This could well be the title of a new book. Soon after arriving in the US, the state you found residence in, can require doing a driving test, both for theory and practice. Explaining you have 24 years of driving experience in The Netherlands, both manual and with automatic gear, 'that don't impress me much' (as the civil servant said). Ok, you think, maybe we can get around it. But the car insurance also demands a NJ driving license to complete the procedure, or else .. no insurance. They will give you 2 months to realize this.

Well, at least you should abide your host country's laws and start the procedure to apply for a NJ-license. So, you join the line at NJ Motor Vehicle Commission and wait for your number to come up. Don't forget to bring ALL your papers, proving you are real and living where you say you live etc. Visa, Social Security Number (SSN), recent energy bill, bank statement, salary statement, proof of marriage, car papers and more of these things.

For me, the procedure was pretty easy. But Marlies had to show her SSN too, which she does not have and never will have. Explaining that she is here on my visa, but not allowed to work herself and therefore no need for SSN, got the 'that don't impress me much' reaction. Get the papers and we will start her procedure as well. OK, you think, just call Social Security Office and find out. Another line on the phone and finally the result: your wife won't get a SSN because she can't work here. Can you please explain your colleagues at MVC? Well, call them and tell them they are wrong! Which we did and got as reaction 'that don t impress me much'. Get a letter of exemption, telling us you don't need SSN. It's really true. Are you still there? Now it's getting exciting!

Marlies lines up at 9AM and waits 45 minutes to get a simple preprinted note with stamp telling she is exempted. WOW. A miracle. Let's get back to MVC and show them our newly acquired NJ document, teaching these guys a lesson! First Marlies went on her own.

Mistake. Bring your husband because he is prime visa holder.....

Yesterday we went again (3rd time). Guess what? Mam, can you show proof of living at the same address as this Mr. Leerling? He is your husband? Well, 'that don't impress me much'.

Any bill in your name, gas, water, telephone. NOOOOO, she can't because no SSN, so no way to apply for anything in the US. Or maybe you can bring a bank statement, with your name and your husband’s name?

I exploded and got furious for all this nonsense, just to apply for a driving license. But, as you can guess, 'that didn't impress them much'.

The bank could produce something that looks suitable, so a 4th visit is planned for next week. The car insurance demanded a NJ driving license before Jan 15 2007 and Marlies has not been able to apply officially yet. But, we have started to study the specific NJ driving laws and regulations. Impressive booklet with indigenous rules of conduct, speed and signals. I can't wait to do the test. Marlies has different feelings .... and she is already 3 months on the road in NJ. Stay tuned, because this story hasn't ended yet!!

Monday, December 11, 2006 Stop that BUS! But, which one exactly? A question every new commuter to New York City no doubt will ask as he enters or leaves the city. Like ants moving into their ant hill, incredible.

In my case, it was decided that due to many travel days in December and less commuting, this was experimental bus-month. Tickets bought in the local shop and realized for starters that the rate for 20 singles (do your own math!) was already higher than a month pass for the train. Well, it's 15 minutes faster, so this could be the reason, you think in an optimistic mood.

DeCamp bus service picked me up on top of the road, only 1 minute walk from our home, so that's another bonus. Last one in, more or less, so full, crampy house. The traffic jam before the tunnel looked insurmountable, but cost only 10 minutes and we arrived just 10 minutes late on schedule. Monday morning, said the optimist.... Happened to the train as well.

But the return was a ZOO. Waiting for the train at Penn Station (where platforms for departing trains are only announced 10 minutes before) is Disneyworld compared to Port Authority Bus Terminal. No screens, nobody behind counters giving info, massive number of people running to their own gates where the busses are loading passengers.

It started with being sent to the wrong 'gate'. Only when boarding the bus I found out I was on the wrong bus and my ticket was another company. 'Go to the basement for this bus company' was the advice. This sounded like bad omen. And it was. In the first place, the level I was on was built for departing only. Arriving is on another floor. You can imagine the feeling - how to get down? Finally found the fire steps. Downstairs, for each 5 doors of DeCamp bus 'gates' were approx. 100 people waiting in queues as if waiting for their new Wii-game machine. How many seats does a bus hold? 40? OK. As long as it's moving, but nothing happened. No time schedule, no announcements, just these enormous queues in a tiny crampy place. People phoning home - 'honey, it's one of these days, might have to wait for another bus' etc. I started to realize that even when you have a ticket, it's no guarantee you can ride the bus of, say 18:35. Busses are full and only when you insist, you are allowed to stand.

Finally, 'gate 23' opened and I just managed to get as last passenger on the bus before the doors closed with the driver's call "bus full" - one more guy who was willing to stand was allowed in. The driver pushed the pedals and drove like a madman. I was lost for words.

Something which not often happens.

Action plan: trying to get a refund for my remaining tickets and crawl back to the train. ALL ABOARD! Please wait for me!!!!!

Saturday, December 16, 2006 Need Driver's License in NJ? And you are a foreigner? Tough luck! Recipe: Block 4 Saturday mornings in your agenda and start an anti-depressant medicine before you queue up.

Remember the don’t-impress-me-much lady of last week? Well, she was on duty again and we were on a collision course.

Short recap of the previous editions of How-to-prove-you-can-drive-a-car saga.

Applicant has to bring various documents showing it's really you. Points are given for more and less important docs. Fair enough. We can bring loads, done it before. My application was relatively easy, 4 weeks ago. Marlies, however, needed an SSN registration, which she will not get with her wife-of-visa-husband status (=no work permit). Still had to get a letter from Social Security Office to support that. MVC mistake? Law has changed 5 years ago on this matter.

Remember: divine rulers are never mistaken.

Ok, got the letter, but she forgot to bring her visa-husband. Went back, but, had then to show she actually lives with that guy from Holland. Bank statement organized and back for 4th time, this morning. Irritation level reduced dangerously by now.

First check looked good. Points needed were scored. Next counter. Show me your SSN! Please read the letter from SSN Office, because I don't need one. Right. So, then, please fill in your SSN number, he told me. Strange, but, don't fuss with divine rulers. Big mistake.

Typing my SSSN-number in the system said Male. But all I see is a woman! It's my number, sir, you just asked to fill it in. No, I didn't. Sssst. mind the divine rulers!

-Take a seat, have to discuss with my superior.- The woman I didn't want to see appeared again. And .... they found something, again! YES. -Show me your State ID-. Sir, that's what we call passport, with HB visa. You checked that 3 times now. -And where's your out of state drivers license?- Mam, I have two: a Dutch and International version. Which do you prefer? -None- I can't read Dutch and the International doesn't count. We want an official translator to translate the Dutch Driver's License.Steam coming out of my ears. But I'm still polite and pointing out this is ONLY a drivers license and your government approves the International version. Please do your thing. And what exactly do you want to translate? Name, Address and date of License? The stupidity of this request was beyond my grasp.

And at that point, she felt personally attacked and was about to call security. It's true! So that's why this guy in uniform was for? Waiting all the time at the door? Glad tax money is not wasted! I stepped back and tried to control myself before doing stupid things.

Conclusion from our divine rulers of MCV: -if you refuse to have this translated, it's your own risk when taking drivers test, eye sight, theory and road test.- What exactly will happen is not clear to us, but we decided to take the risk. If only to get out of MVC Hell and its divine servants. TAXI!

Sunday, December 24, 2006 White Christmas? Dream on! No snow, no frost, just barren trees and +12C. It all fell in Colorado this week, it seems. But Christmas is apart from lack of snow, seemingly less stressful than in the Netherlands. Well, that is for the food. They passed that post here at ThanksGiving. In the Old Country, food is for many the centerpiece of Christmas, whereas here it's more the presents. Traffic jams in and around the shopping malls. Even on Sunday - the last day before. Shops open till 11PM just to accommodate the last minute shoppers who can't decide - diamonds again or the new HDTV? Advertising on TV is normally already almost suffocating. But the jewelry spots before Christmas are just unbearable. And

surprisingly, nearly all spots are the same. You wonder what traffic will develop once all boxes are unpacked - return and change or the start of 'regifting' = passing on unwanted presents. We will see in 2 days. And let's start dreaming of a White Easter.

Friday, December 29, 2006 Today Statue Day A Christmas present to our daughters. Something that should be redeemed soon before it gets a joke. They got their own replica as a present on Thanks Giving Day. As token of our appreciation and admiration of their courage. They deserved a statue and got one! Now it was time to see the original with their own eyes.

The trip took us from the New Jersey side to Ellis Island first. A story you have to hear or read yourself. The 1st and 2nd class travelers from the Old World could travel to New York directly, whereas the 3rd class and lower class (!) passengers had to be checked and interviewed first at Ellis Island. They brought almost nothing, little money from their home country and spoke no English. About 2% was sent back - too old, too fragile or too sick to be accepted in America. It is estimated that approx. 100 mln. of the current 300 mln. people in the US can be traced back to these immigrants that came from Germany, Eastern Europe, Russia etc. They had been proceeded by Dutch, English, Irish and Italians immigrants.

Nice film with voices of immigrants that tell how they arrived at Ellis Island. Interesting information on the background of this huge intake location. It stopped working as such by the year 1920.

After Ellis Island, you are taken to the next island with The Statue of Liberty. A true impressive moment to experience on a mild winter day. For so many people passing this monument by ship it meant a new start in a land of freedom and limitless possibilities without being oppressed. You can still feel that emotion seeing this statue with your own eyes.

Considering what people in those days went through to get to this country, our own hurdles to settle ourselves recently become somewhat more bearable.

Monday, January 01, 2007 We almost missed it! Something that wouldn't happen in the Old World. After we wished some people back there Happy New Year at 6PM, we decided to sit out our time till 12. The usual time fillers, like church or TV comic commenting the year, were not found. Visited the regular Sunday morning church service at MCC with a cracker of a sermon, that must be said.

But at our real home, the kids would stay up, or be waken up just before, if only for the fireworks that would break out at the year change. And the view from our terras was always phenomenal! But, we noticed here in Montclair no early crackers, and certainly no obnoxious little boys testing their works before the bell! Very Quiet, on the contrary. We

almost missed it.

But then, Times Square came up. We interrupted our 'usual suspect' program and did the countdown so that we wouldn't miss it as the last people on earth.....

Anyway, it's 2007! A full year in our temp new country lays ahead. We look forward to it with full confidence and filled with new courage to make things happen with help from above. AdRep wishes you all, dear readers, a blessed and healthy New Year. God's Speed!

Saturday, January 13, 2007 The New Jersey Drivers License. You read all about it here before. The procedures just to apply for one. The lack of politeness and professional interest of employees at MVC. The mistakes made at the shabby counters etc.

No more about that. We are now living proof that also non-US citizens can pass. You need to prepare, though and study the New Jersey Driver Manual. Tell yourself you are 17-years old and taking the test for the first time. Let me give you some examples so you get a little of this feeling.

Do you know how to indicate left, right or stop with your arm out of the window? Just in case you have no signals! What's the difference between Highways, Parkways and Turnpikes? Toll is paid for the latter, the others - no idea. Stopping for School Buses, very strict laws. They use yellow, amber of red flashing lights. First two are used before stopping, red when it has stopped. Just that you know! And more important - must stop on both sides when on two-lane road at least 25 feet (8m) from the bus. You can see it every day here, so that's part of life.

Oh, and don't forget what to do when approaching or overtaking a 'frozen dessert truck'.

You won't find them much in winter. But expect them in summer. You must yield the right of way to any person who is crossing the road to and from the vehicle. Why this rules doesn't apply for Home Depot trucks or Milk Container trucks, escapes me totally! How do you identify these kind of Ice cream trucks, anyway? Furthermore, you are not allowed to use your cell phone, but you may ... only when you must. Keep the phone in one hand and the other for steering please! Ever heard of bluetooth or earplugs?

When driving in the city, how far should you look ahead? In seconds please. Send me your bets. Did you know that in NJ, hosts who serve alcohol at a party, may become involved in a lawsuit if a guest is involved in a drinking-and-driving accident after leaving the party?

You'd better offer them to spend the night at your place!

We won't discuss here the color order of a traffic light, even when it's horizontal. And what to do when it shows a flashing red light. I would simply stop and repair the light, but in NJ you must STOP. So, now you are ready to do the test. The other 30 questions are piece of cake. You must pass 40 out of 50.

We are done, have a nice one and drive safely!

Ways around it (1) the hairdresser There are many rules of conduct in the US and ditto number of ways around it. A few hairraising examples.....

It's a nice habit in the US is to send new people all sorts of coupons for discounts, free first visit etc. The free haircut came handy, so I called to check if it was by appointment of 'free walk-in'. The latter was the case. Saturday was determined as my 'walk-in'. Hi, what's your name? The hairdresser searched on the small notes at her desk, but mine wasn't there. She made a new one. - No suspicion yet -. Have a seat and you will be called soon. Fine. There were 4 active hairdressers, so it shouldn't be long. But then this guy came in, his name was on a note, and he was waived to the first available chair. Huh? That's a quick walk-in! Now, don't get upset Dutchman, stay calm! Next comes a family with 3 kids and they take all the remaining chairs. And another guy asking how long the wait is. Leaves his name and gets a coffee nextdoor. Suspicion growing that I missed something elementary.

Finally, my name is up. Once the lady starts cutting, I try to find out how this listing works.

Well, she says, we have walk-in, as you just did, but most people call in and agree on a time they want to walk-in, so we make a note. So, this is the way around the 'walk-in' risk of having to wait? You got it, son! Great, I just learned another survival rule in the US - if you have to wait, just don't and get around it!

Monday, January 29, 2007 Ways around it (2), the bus stop Many rules of conduct in the US and ditto number of ways around it. You learned about the hairdresser, now it's about the bus. Say bus and you think bus stop. Say bus stop and you immediately picture a queue of people. First come, first serve. It took me a few days, however, to realize what was happening at my bus stop the other day. A way around it, in fact. The famous De Camp (commercial) bus service has certain stops appointed in its schedule. That's where everyone waits. Well... almost everyone. You might remember from my earlier blog on the busses that they can get full and in my case, getting on the bus at one of the last stops, the risk is that you have to stand or wait for the next bus. But, so far, I've been lucky.

Last week, I spotted the lady living across the road from the bus stop. She gets out of her house, looks at the bus stop and starts walking. Direction bus. But only a short bit, to the next corner. When the bus arrives (late as always), she hails it and gets on. The bus accelerates, only to stop immediately again for the official stop. Where we, the other 4 people get on. You get it? A stunning way to jump a queue and getting around it. Around what exactly you still wonder?

Well, to avoid standing up and by hailing the bus earlier, the chance of getting a seat is higher. Why the bus stops at all for this kind of rule-of-conduct-offenders? I don't know.

Nobody protests and conquers his (last) seat and sits down. Organizing the iPod, unwrap the paper, check the BlackBerry etc. Pondering why you haven't thought of such a sharp way around it.

Thursday, February 01, 2007 Keep your lane!

Walking in the city requires special skills. Some observations. Nothing more refreshing than a walk to and from the office. According to Google, it's 1.4mi or 2.24km, so a nice way to get some fresh air. My record, with all pedestrian lights in a green wave is 15 mins.

Once you have disembarked from the DeCamp bus, it's basically walking from Midtown West to Midtown East across 42nd street. Easy? Au contraire! For starters, the sheer stream of pedestrians is frightening. And getting out of the bus station even more. According to their website, approx. three dozen bus lines operate from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, serving approximately 55 million riders a year. That's on average 150.000 per day. Try to imagine that! It feels like a beehive when you try to find your way out. You don't want to think about panic breaking out in case of fire on those narrow platforms. This station is simply not built to on and off-load that many people. But you get used to it soon and tend not to think about it too much.

So, keep your lane? That's for using the highway, right? Well, yes. But imagine the broad walks in New York as highways. Divide the peds in 3 cats: pacers, walkers and strollers (ignore tourists). I reckon myself to be a pacer (hence my record). I admire the strollers at that time of day. It's dangerous to be out there!

Soon as I'm out of the station, I take off. My shins hurt the first 5 minutes. I usually walk on sneekers and change shoes at the office. Nobody knows me in NY, so why bother?

But being in the fast lane requires utmost concentration. You simply won't believe what strollers are doing while going the same direction: calling, checking emails and even reading the paper. So, watch out and avoid collisions all the way. It still hardly happens and you see fellow walkers keeping an eye on each other. Funny! Soon you get a feel for it and calculate the traffic lights on your way. I normally have two reds and the rest green at a certain pace.

In Holland called the 'green wave'.

I also started recognizing fellow pacers. We keep the same speed. I hardly get overtaken in the fast lane and it feels like riding the German Autobahn sometimes. You have arrived before you know it. In winter it's nicer than in summer. To do with body temp and the rest you can guess. I keep my lane on 42nd, so do thousands of New Yorkers every day, albeit in different paces....

Red tape, repair and service (1) After a few months in the US, social patterns become clearer. You wonder why people are doing things the way they do it. And sometimes you simply ask. Most of them react quite normal, but some stunningly indifferent.

The jobs filled with ‘civil servants’. They are meant to serve, but very often just fill a seat.

We talked about institutes such as Motor Vehicle Commission. Why being so difficult?

Status, no matter how low, should be sustained and not be attacked by some smart ass from the Old World. Red Tape, be aware and prepare. Don’t get lost, just follow the line on the floor!

Another area to earn your living is in repair. Because things don't work or get broken easily.

No problem buying stuff, sometimes at ridiculous rates, but it's no problem to have it broken within days either. Take the water cooker we purchased the other day. Let's go cheap! It’s simply for boiling ing water? How they make money you don’t know, but hey, this is America. So we bought the cheapest brand.

Mistake. Big mistake. The switch got stuck after using it once. Why always us, you wonder.

But, returned the cooker, got money back, no problem sir. You ou think, wow, so easy, so simple. Bought a new cooker, same brand, checked the switch this time, worked ok. Got home and the next day... you can guess … same switch broken. Went back again and told them that this can’t be true. Why do you sell this crap? No reaction, only - sir, you want your money back? And they just shrug, don’t give a toss. Life at the service desk! You wonder why things are produced at all with this quality. But most of all you are shocked by the salespeople’s attitude. They are told to to give unlimited service, with a smile (of course), but they lack interest in your situation, show no emotion. It’s just a job, you know!

Next time, another real story from our cable provider. Worth a chapter in the next marketing & communication handbook. handbook Stay tuned!

Sunday, February 11, 2007 Red tape, repair and service (2) Service in America. They really go the extra mile, I must admit. Call Call-centres centres for almost every product and mostly 24/7. But why so many people behind service counters? You start wondering how much they trust their own product ……. the same goes for cars. Ame American car brands are rapidly losing sing market share vs. Japanese cars and to some extend European.

The unsurpassed Japanese eye for quality and low maintenance costs defeats its thousands.

The loss numbers are staggering. Very soon, Toyota will be the nr.1 car seller in the US. Imagine that! The inventor of the motor vehicle, beaten on its own turf!

Toyota only just became nr.2, which was a shock to the Americans. But even Americans A refuse to pay for cars that break down easily and cost a lot of money to keep rolling.

Slogans like ‘buy American’ cease to have their effect. Once you buy a Toyota or Honda, you hardly see your garage for at least 3 years. With a Ford or Chrysler, Chrysler you become very close to your garage and similarly the technician to your purse!

Internet does the rest. All these sales people trying to convince you about a certain car are becoming obsolete. You do your homework on the internet, read car evaluations by fellow consumers, check the best deals and make your final call for the test drive and negotiations.

Cut the crap car salesman! Just do the deal.

As European with no credit history, I was the unexpected prey. Normally, you can lease easily as consumer and nd go for a new car. With no proven record of paying your bills on time, you are forced to buy used cars (it takes min. 6 months to build up records). The sales process quality was staggering. I should have taped the sales encounters. I can hardly repeat was as being said, you simply won’t believe it. In short, I was being treated like a child.

Too stupid to understand the world of value, car performance and negotiations. I walked out twice, leaving the salesman in despair who thought he cornered me. ‘Do we ha have a deal?’

‘Just tell me sir, how much do you want to pay?’ and ‘I will accept any offer as long as we have a deal’, that sort of crap.

So, eventually we went for the local garage who had a 15 year old Honda on offer.

Recommended by a friend who knew them well. People you can trust, brands you can trust.

So you buy without negotiating…. And it still runs even when its -20C. And the service?

Haven’t been back yet.

Monday, February 12, 2007 Red tape, service and repair (3) Tomorrow is the big day. Our cable provider’s representative will pay us one more visit. We tried to keep record of the number of visits so far, but simply lost count. The time spent on calling for help runs close to 15 hours. Technicians of all levels have come through our front door. And left again. Without solving the problem. Tomorrow is final, we decided. But they won’t bother, that’s for sure.

The problem? It’s called ‘dropped calls’. During a conversation of say 2 minutes, at least 40 seconds are ‘gone’. The caller doesn’t hear anything and thinks you hung up. So we warn every caller ‘this is a ComCast call, so be aware’. Not very ‘comcastic’, as their current commercial sounds. Cable providers offering TV, phone and internet. Not with those cables hanging outside!

They checked all the wires indoors at least 4x. Even replaced the telephone cable to the main system in the backyard. Checked the wires again, made calls and decided 3x that a ‘senior’ was required. The problem was recognized, but nobody found the real cause. We left at least 15 complaints at their call centre between the dropped calls. Received 3x credit, so after 3,5 months of service since the start, we almost didn’t pay because of credits for lousy service.

You start to grasp the complaint system. They even give credit on your bill for not showing up. Huh? What’s that? Well, technicians are scheduled, but don’t necessarily have to turn up. “It keeps me going” said one of them when we asked him what exactly he was doing, checking the wires for the 4th time. And we kicked him out. He couldn’t care less. And they when they don’t turn up, (happened 2x) you complain and get credit. Too bad they don’t pay you for the time hanging in at their call centres, listening to the same melody for 30 minutes.

After asking around, we more or less found the cause of our trouble ourselves. The main wire going from garden to garden is rotten. And when you are at the end of the line ….. You got it! No senior technician can do anything about it. Solution: cancel the contract and go wireless. We suspect that will be the conclusion from the senior technician tomorrow. When he turns up.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 Keep your lane! (2) Today was another sore commute. Standing up in a bus for 75 minutes is no fun. Especially when the bus driver is not up for his job. In general, these guys (and gals too) are notorious for treating the bus like their own car. Fast, slow, changing lanes suddenly, braking too often, in short: no traffic flow anticipation. So, we won't call him 'chauffeur' as we would do in Europe, he is more a 'conductor', his prime job: keeping the bus from going off the road.

No more, no less.

While driving in slow moving traffic, one doesn't expect sudden stops. But the conductor has other things on his mind. He has to check his cell phone, like anybody else, and counting the morning's profit. Like domino tiles we, the bus penguins, almost fell, at a sudden stop, me in front of the aisle. No point in confronting him about his terrible driving. It's just a job, you know. And probably not his only one considering the low wages in this sector.

But, once arrived at the infamous Port Authority Bus Terminal, one tries to make up lost time. It's almost 9AM and you will remember that my PR stands at 15 mins to the office.

But this week it's really winter, also in NYC. Lots of snow and ice means no more speed walking and only 1 lane available! No more diagonal crossing, because of heaps of snow and melting ice. Still, you would be surprised how fast this salary man (Japanese for white color man) can do his miles on snow. My sneakers were replaced by the Austrian mountain boots.

Passing by the old peers from the pacers unit, who now joined the rest of the pack. All going very slow, just as everything else in town.

Once on the 29th, all is dry and tiday again. Time for serious sales work and after 8 hours the reverse route is taken, just to be in another traffic jam. This time taken seated, with a slightly better conductor. He even answers our friendly greeting and remembers me from the previous 40 commute days! He almost makes it to 'chauffeur' level. If only he would use both hands steering on these icy roads .....

Saturday, February 17, 2007 How much is your cat worth?

Funny question? Dead serious! Make your calcs before taking your cat to this area. First answer questions like: How much did you pay for it? What's the emotional value in $$ and how long could he/she stay with you? Come on, make your calcs and tell me. For us it's too late, I'm afraid!

Health insurance is a big issue over here. Lots of people are not insured and take a gamble with their lives because of the high insurance costs. Once taken to a doctor or hospital, a non-insured-discount will be offered, but pay you must.

But, how about animal health insurance? Ever thought about that? You should.

Our cat, for some reason, started collecting kidney stones. Some say it could be caused by the long confined stay at the hotel or in the plane. Whatever the cause, stones were formed, little crystals and it slowly blocks the urine ways. Until it blocks it completely and the cat starts moaning and groaning and looks like it will explode anytime. So, you get him to the doctor. Who recognizes the serious state the cat is in and refers to the pet hospital.

Sounds friendly, but be aware! First sign this paper, then we can start the treatment. They say things like: surgery needed, it's serious, you are lucky, it almost died, have to stay here, he will make it, we have to de-block and save his life. But, first sign here.

HOW MUCH? Seatbelts on! $800 now and $300 after pick up. $400 more for the vet who will do after-surgery care and prescribe drugs, food and further treatment. The ladies said they had to sign (sure). But you immediately start wondering what are the alternatives, right? How many cats can you buy for 1500 bucks? Wrong questions, because I was almost stoned to death in my own house. But, I saved the girls' pocket money for the next 6 months, to compensate at least a bit on the unexpected expenses. I threw back some

stones.

And the cat? He is doing fine, as if nothing happened. After his medication and special food, he seems ok. But I warned him. Next time.....

Sunday, February 18, 2007 American schools (1) At first sight, a highly disciplined and strict (secondary) school system where we live. Lots of people with different jobs. School nurse, 3 security officers, admin unit and maintenance people. After a few weeks you start getting the weekly messages on your phone, the written communication on various issues and calls to support some sort of fund raising. Time to write some blogs on American schools.

This week, we received a 5-page pre-notification of non-low impact pesticide use. Take your time to read it again.... Based on the New Jersey's Integrated Pest Management Law, parents and guardians of students are informed about non-low impact pesticide use that will occur on Wednesday Feb 21. This work is necessary to curtail a mice situation.

In practice, this means that pesticides will be used in the cafetaria to kill mice. No adverse effects are expected. But don't swallow them, even when your mum didn't pack lunch for you. Don't throw the pesticides to fellow students, because they can cause eye irritation.

And if they still do, which surely can be expected after this note, wash thoroughly with soap and water after handling.

We have now read page 1 and 2. Page 3 deals with the form of the pesticides so you can identify them easily when you managed to unpack the boxes them come in. Also a picture of a mouse, in case it didn't eat the nice smelling, mini blocks. For the specialists among us, the marbles contain 0.0025% of difethialone and 99.9975% inert ingredients. Makes a total of 100.0000%.

Page 4 is hardly readable, but talks about generation mini-blocks that have killed mice over the last decades. Highly effective and successful. The producer can be proud of its work.

The material safety data sheet does not really give the sense of security. In case of emergency this 52x copied sheet will give confusion, no doubt when panic sets in.

Page 5 is a 63x copied page and vaguely show the Aegis Rat Bait Station. So, this is where mice and rats start their journey to animal heaven! They have their own station, impressive.

There are actually 2 stations, one for rats and one for mice, so I hope the mice will be able to make the right choice. Handwritten comment is worrying even more: Tamper proof stations locked - need key. I've read it over and over again, but 'need key' is the most hilarious of it all! Who has the key? Where can the mice find it? I hope they find out before they locked themselves in the Bait Station. Or they are lucky and the Bait Stations are not opened, so they can't get in? Confusion. Reasons enough to call Montclair Board of Education, Buildings & Grounds Department. HELP!!! MICE!!!!

Saturday, February 24, 2007 American Schools (2) Homework. Who didn’t hate it? But, once a parent yourself, you tell your kids how important it is. And, when homework is done, there is always a reward. Watch TV, play on the PC, have fun outside etc.

But in the US it never gets to that reward point. It simply never stops. When homework is done it's time to go to bed. OK, I know what you’re thinking - non-native speakers tend to spend more time on their homework. Trying to understand the questions and stuff to read.

Initially yes, but they are up to speed now. And even that considered, it is still too much.

Before we started complaining about it and compare the situation to ‘back home’, we got unexpected support by a recent article in a serious national newspaper. Titled “Schools turn down the heat on Homework”. Limit to the workload, a 45-minute cut-off is proposed. You know what that means. Studies have been made to document the negative effects of too much homework. They also found no link to improvement in academic performance later (when lots of homework was done at prime and secondary education).

In general, American students aged 6-17 spend nearly four hours on homework a week, that’s 50 mins per weekday. That number is up 51% compared to 25 years ago. It doesn't sound too bad, but in practice our kids spend 2-3 hrs per day on homework and they are not the slowest in class, I can assure you.

American schools have suffered from increasing pressure on various levels. Homework was added thanks to new state-mandated tests. Checking student performance and quality of education offered by the schools. Another study shows that two other issues play a role.

Government program to push children into further education and parents pushing their kids too hard and put too much emphasis on schoolwork. This leads to ‘too little unstructured playtime, which helps in emotional development’.

But the most striking argument used, also in private conversations with school teachers is yet another one. It’s the international competition. Americans are worried that their children might be behind other countries. And it’s true: US students continue to lag behind many countries academically. A study on 15-year olds in 40 countries puts US students on rank 29th in math and problem solving and 23rd in science. Most education experts say more homework still isn’t the solution to this problem. The real problem is that standards are too broad in current classroom. They need to ‘focus’. So simple! Just doing more isn’t helping students understand concepts in a deep way.

For the next teacher meeting I will bring this newspaper article and ask them to include it in their own homework

Sunday, March 04, 2007 American Schools (3) Selecting good schools is a favorite American activity. Not like in Holland where you pick your own favorite school. Protestant, Catholic, or Neutral. Even when it means travelling a bit further than the nearest to your house or different from your own personal beliefs. You want what’s best for your kids, right? Americans want the same, but can go very far on this.

Some even move from West to East, leave family and careers behind, just to do ‘what’s best for the kids’. I read a recent newspaper article and had to read it twice, because

couldn’t believe what I read!

For non-Americans readers: in America, when choosing a (public) school, the decisive factor is the address you live (unless you choose a private school). The school closest to your home is where your kids should be registered. It’s therefore not uncommon for parents to search beyond their own neighborhood for the best school. Generations have done this and simply shift addresses within a certain town to be nearer a particular school. When parents want their kids to join another school, they just move one mile down the road. They choose school first, location second. Simple as that.

But what if you only want ‘the most perfect’ and can’t find it in the area you are living? Well, you then select the very best by searching the internet and move from Los Angeles to, say, Boston! The newspaper article put it as ‘families that uproot their lives in search of a perfect education’. That’s drastic. Not to say outrageous. Putting not only huge pressure on the parents, but also on the kids. - My parents did this for me! Now I have to perform also to the max. – Rest assured, in this case, the parents’ friends and relatives also thought it was a bit over the top and ridiculous. The parents main argument for doing this: in the current uncertain labor market, moving for school makes more sense than it ever did before. In the past, US families usually moved mainly for work. Now it’s the children’s future that matters most.

Some observers say that schools increasingly provide a source of values and community for their children, replacing neighborhoods, churches or workplaces. The school becomes ‘the new town centre’ with after-school programs and future career planning schemes.

We have not touched yet on the costs of this kind of operations. In this particular case, the family moving from West to East USA, could not afford to move their furniture and had to choose a smaller house. All the money from their home sales was being used for the children’s tuition. It amounted to …. hold on tight …. a total of $56,000 a year (2 kids). The sacrifice these the parents were prepared to pay for their kids’ future, incredible! Let’s see where these kids end up in 15 years…… I honestly have my doubts.

Saturday, March 10, 2007 American Schools (4) Fundraising A fascinating aspect of American society. A standard ingredient, not only for political parties, but also for healthy financial PTA’s (Parent Teacher Association), music bands, cheerleaders, church groups, girls scouts etc. School kids are asked regularly to sell products to their family, friends and neighbors in order to raise money. In order not to let this extra source of income slip away, professional organizations are supporting schools with ideas. One of them tells how good they are: EZFund.com has the EZ answers to your fundraising needs for your ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Like your child's first experiences at school, it should be as stressfree as possible, yet extremely rewarding. EZFund has been helping elementary schools all across America to exceed their fundraising goals for years now. We have helped schools in Texas and across the U.S. raise over $150 million in profits. Wow, you don’t wanna miss that kind of money, do you?

The fundraising website also shows the top 3 ideas for products to sell: (smelly) pencils, cookie dough and pretzels. Apparently, this is still bringing lots of money for the school.

Especially when taking in account the profit levels, which is between 40-50%. But why this system? Why not ask parents to donate money for specific projects? It brings the extra

money needed to accomplish their goals, is the common answer. And lots of people still accept it as normal and take part. And, as everywhere else, school balances seems to be quite weak. Money is always short for outings, special projects, sports etc.

A recent press article presented yet another development. In areas close to the city, like New Jersey, it’s the city (financial) professionals getting involved in PTA’s. And they don’t act like the old mom-and-pop groups that ran bake sales for generations. They are forming new powerful forces at many public schools and making enemies with some parents who say they have become ‘self-important and make too many demands on members’. Conflicts have been reported with teachers and school principals who hate being told how to run their schools by some parents with their own agendas and little experience in education.

Also our children were recently asked to sell cookie dough. Money is needed for school trips for 6th grade, they were told. Door-to-door selling with sign-up lists and delivery in 2nd stage. We told the teacher we won’t allow our children to be out on the street selling products, especially not in winter. But to strike a positive note, we suggested they tell us how much is needed per student and we would donate the money. No immediate reply. But it was a big relief when we found out we were not the only parents refusing. Most children in 6th grade simply ignored the call to take part in the fundraising project. Result: angry PTA-members in class demanding for an explanation. The bill was presented this week: a (stay-over) trip to Washington, $300 per kid. I just wish I would have done some more cookie dough sales, if only as chaperone …………..

Thursday, March 15, 2007 Watching TV Installing your new American TV brings that high expectation feeling. This is, after all, TVcountry! Zap till you die. 240 channels, hiha! All kinds of programs. Detectives, Sports, Soap, Games, Information etc.etc. Never a dull moment!

Wake up! You can cut out 230 channels for starters. Rare pieces of crap, hot air filled with advertising each 10 minutes. Hardly any public stations, most are (super) commercial and depending fully on advertising money. And, for more serious content you have to pay extra.

Of course! So what is left? Law&Order, a bit of CSI, 2 OK food programs and - thanks to some filantropic sponsors - BBC World for the daily bits of world news. Oh, and the local New Jersey station for the weather - repeated every 15 minutes….. So I decided to pay a monthly extra fee for .… yes, the true sport of football. Commercials only at beginning and end of a game. Big relief! For non-Europeans among us: football is the game where the ball is played with the feet, not the hands (unless you are goalkeeper). Hence the term football. They simply won’t understand that here. American rugby? No chance! Soccer, agh!

Follow me watching Law&Order (true timing): after the opening trailer of 1 minute – bang 3 mins commercials - 10 mins of detective - 4 mins commercials – 10 mins detective – 3 mins commercial – 7 mins detective – 3 mins commercial – 6 mins detective – 3 mins commercial – 7 mins last bit. Total: 40 mins detective and 5 blocks of total 17 mins commercials. And the funny things is, you get used to it. I won’t be able to recount the commercials, the brands and which ones were repeated. Maybe the worst of them, or most annoying. Maybe it stays unconscious and having its effect only in the supermarket? Who knows!

I should know. It’s my business. Branding has its effect long term. Once you have to make

choices, the brand impression over time helps to give that final push in the right direction.

Assuming it left a positive mark, of course.

Pills against insomnia, little cuts, wrong bacteria in the air - most airtime for which is lost on precautions to ‘always call your doctor’. Airlines, cars with the latest killer aps. Lottery, cable TV, wrestling programmes, more cars, breakfast cereal, huge fat-free snacks, pizzas.

And pills to get rid of that belly again. Simply too much to bear, so your brains switch off.

You can only take so much. Especially when most commercials are of a low quality and targeting a true mass audience. No wonder TiVo (Philips) has been such a huge success.

Even Americans can’t stand this avalanche of commercials. The annual American Football Finale (Superball) is only remembered for its (expensive) advertising. How bad can things go!

Friday, March 16, 2007 American trains (2) All aboard! An all too familiar call. But after my earlier train test I decided to try the bus for a change. With as result waiting at the bus stop, no seats, more waiting in traffic jams and the scary exit at Port Authority. At the worst time of year – winter.

But this month I had no business travel scheduled and could save 50 bucks buying a train month pass. Little further walk to the station, but at least a schedule to plan by, you'd think. And, not unimportant, a guaranteed seat (station is early on the route and the bus was almost the last stop before hitting the highway).

The ride is longer –min. 50 mins- and the office is further away – 7 mins longer walk. But I forgot the other elements that annoyed me the previous round. I only remembered the positive. Like the friendly conductors, greeting everyone, talking to passengers. Wishing you a great day while getting off the train at Penn Station. Impressive! But soon I realized I made a mistake and the bus option wouldn’t be that bad after all. The luxury of having a choice between two public transport evils. Which one is the lesser? Round two.

I’m leaving 7:25 from home, walking 10 mins. Train leaves 7:39. And it’s still winter.

Severe cold, wind and snow were my share the first week of March. Nice wake-up call! I wonder if I would see DeCamp bus coming my way, late as always! You can clearly hear the train coming. I’m walking parallel to the train tracks. The train honk (officially called trainwhistle) is real LOUD all the way. The noise one expects only in heavy fog. Not here. Once at the station, there are also these typical bells. Imagine living near these train tracks.

Trains start running from 5:30AM. Wake-up horror for these poor people …. Luckily there is no service in the weekends! (Maybe in 2008, I just heard) I had to wait twice this week for a late train. Nice. Once on the train I was proud to show my pass to the smiling conductor face. But then I realized again - these amazingly old trains! Built in the 70-ies and never replaced? Producing noise all the way. Vestibule doors that stay open (easy for conductors to walk up and down), producing extreme cold winds to blow through the train. Chairs that hurt my back after 5 mins, old and worn-out springs.

Drivers who ‘play’ with their locomotive. Coaches rocking back and forth, no flow. I know where the emergency brake is positioned. Just in case a wheel is spotted going off the rail! I wouldn’t be surprised at all..... Last week something was wrong with the springs (didn’t know there were any). On a particular track, every 10 seconds all passengers in my coach were jumping up and down like in a comic movie. Hold on to your hats!

Apart from the noise, it’s comparably quiet on the way TO the city. No station announcements, because people only get on. So no need to tell where you are. Only the

daily apologies why we are late this time. ‘Slow signals’ is a popular one. Or, ‘slow trains ahead of us’. Or the most hilarious so far: ‘we have an unfavorable light ahead of us, as soon as we have a more favorable one, we will proceed’. Driver attempting seriously to uplift his position. Dream on!

And don’t dare to miss the train! You should be at the platform at least 2 mins before scheduled departure. The platforms are too short to host the long trains, so when coming from the wrong side (like me), you can’t get around and it will leave without you. To one of the most busiest cities in the world, at peak hours, NJ Transit offers only one train each 30 min. After peak hours, one each 60 mins. Don’t be late in the evening either, because your are stuck! The busses on the other hand are still going and offer a handy alternative.

Once going back, you have these ridiculous station calls. Both from the pleasant automated lady voice and also from the conductor. The 'live one' tells you at least 3x which station is next, 3 secs after the lady voice told you the same. I wonder who will ever notice this overdosis of info. And the digital info (!) above the vestibule doors doing the same, when it’s working properly (hardly). Imagine missing a station. Don’t blame or sue NJ Transit! You were informed properly.

So, summing up – NJ Transit trains offer timely service and are relative cheap, but have amazing low frequency and use lousy rolling stock. Busses offer lousy service and are expensive, but are mostly fast and have comfort seats and when having a choice – like in my case – the bus must be the winner. But still being the lesser of two evils sums it up nicely …….

Saturday, March 24, 2007 American Schools (5) automated calls.

We thought we were smart by blocking our name from the national tele-marketeer system in the US. I could still remember the annoying calls at my friend’s place when I visited him years ago. You register online and it kicks in after a few weeks. Should keep us safe for our full stay in the US. Haha! Not smart enough. There is a party that can’t be blocked – school. Yes, school, you know, the place where kids go to learn things! Where teachers teach and report to the parents once in a while how your kids are doing. A place where communication is trained and information on lots of everyday life is given. Mostly interactive. But apparently, some teachers don’t like that feedback element. They get harassed increasingly. The same as in Europe. I don’t envy them. Parents complain about almost anything, even when their kids are notorious for being a devil in disguise. ‘At home, he is such a sweet boy’. That kind of crap.

Parent-School communication used to go via the good-old yellow or white fliers.

Announcement, Important, Parental Consent needed etc. But to our horror, our kids’ schools have found a new way to save time and money. And, maybe even more important, cut out the negative side of their job – the complaining parents. Solution: install a one-way info system, cutting out response. Brilliant, isn’t it? Well, once the phone starts ringing, you wonder how you can block this new telephone terror. On average, we get 4 calls per week.

Two different schools, with their own system, mind you! From general things, like parent info evenings, tests being conducted and how to prepare your kids etc. Usually stuff your kid already told you at home. But what is normal these days?

The technique: automated phone systems than can quickly place thousands of recorded calls. Originally it was intended to notify parents of emergencies. But it is getting more about routine matters. As always, there are the specialized companies offering the systems, with sometimes 600 ‘canned messages’, including one that says a child is “a pleasure to have in class”. Or, "he or she “been late to class, five or more minutes”. But also recently about the school-bus accident that had no injuries. Talk of the town! And we have only 2 kids on different schools, imagine having 3 or 4 kids! The different calls you can expect.

They can even target different groups of parents or send messages in different languages.

Teachers LOVE it. Parents can’t talk back. Ain’t that wonderful?

The negative effect is already being noticed around the country. It’s called “cry wolf routine”. You simply stop listening because of overkill of stupid messages. And the real messages are missed among the well-intended blabla recorded in the school studio by the administrator. The better systems can do tracking as well. 50% of parents don’t listen to the full message. Some hung up immediately once they understood who’s calling and the rest is going to answering machines. What a waste! But hey, the school sent the message, it’s up to the parents to listen to it. Don’t blame school when things go wrong with your kid.

Now, where did we hear that before?......

Saturday, March 31, 2007 American Foot-Ball (1) Spring in the air! For sports loving America, that means the opening of the Baseball season and closing of Basketball and Ice hockey. I overheard people complaining about the baseball ticket prices. Used to be a family outing in the weekend. But what they paid 15 years ago for 4 is barely enough today for 1. Lots of money involved these days in American sports.

So, where does ‘our’ football stand in this arena? Got some figures for you to get a feeling.

The big 4 US sports are: Football, Basketball, Baseball and Nascar. For fans of ‘true football’ - American soccer is a dwarf compared to any of them. TV ratings, very important for commercial investments, merchandise value (shirts, posters etc.) and sponsorship revenues stay consequently behind. Even ice hockey is struggling to stay alive and that’s big especially in the northern states. The Major League Soccer (MLS) only got on average 15,000 fans at a game over the past 10 years. Often in huge (non-specific soccer) stadiums with no atmosphere. Here in New York, they decided for that reason to build a smaller stadium. Downsizing, very non-American! But probably a smart idea.

Only at the World Cup tournaments like last year, figures jump up. TV ratings showed an average of 3 mln. total American viewers on English and Spanish channels. I’m currently watching both channels at Fox Soccer Channel, by the way. English Premier League, German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga. And bits of Dutch football and European cup matches of course. Don’t under-estimate the Spanish Americans who are true supporters of ‘samba-football’ as we know it from Brasil and Mexico. In order to reach out to millions of the Latino fans and tap more money from the market, the MLS and Mexico’s top domestic league teamed up and created a SuperLiga. Generating (TV) dollars and sponsor deals.

Starting April 7.

And now, the next big thing is the arrival of Mr. Beckham. It’s expected to promote MLS’ goals in even higher perfection. TARGET, a large retail chain, will promote MLS gear at more than its 1,400 stores and Adidas started selling MLS-branded apparel for the first time. Even British football clubs like Arsenal are trying to get a part of the pie by signing strategic

cooperation with youth training centres and developing Arsenal-branded youth tournament.

MLS is simply linking to the rest of the world.

In Europe, already 25 Americans are now playing football. Money to ‘buy’ our game is not a problem as we can see in England - three Premier League teams have been bought already

by US multi-millionaires. The Yanks are coming! Before you know it, football as we know it, will be turned into a worldwide franchise business. Think McSoccer. And the only way for Europeans to keep watching live football will soon be by buying the famous ‘french fries’ and brown ‘soda’.

American Foot-Ball (2) After 6 months in the US, I am starting to get bored on weekends. Time to pick up my hobby in stead of gaining weight just watching football! As licensed Dutch referee, I decided to volunteer again. I wrote a few emails, but got no reply. Blame it on the soccer hibernation! Only after talking to some people in the area, I got connected to both the local soccer club and regional ref federation.

The local soccer club invited me to their Spring kick-off ref meeting. A true eye-opener!

Approx. 50 teenagers attending! I couldn’t believe my eyes. All these volunteers! Wow. I was quickly back in the real American world. This European volunteer would get 14$ a match and fuel compensation. Spending min. 4 hours on a Saturday for 1 match. Here, even the Under 12 years (U12) matches are paying more, $20 for an 1 hr match. For an average 14 year old, reffing 3-4 matches a day is normal, so a nice ‘weekend job’ in Spring and Autumn. More than frying at McDonald’s. So that’s how they manage to get 50 ‘volunteers’ on the fields! I got the message – this is not your game old man!

I attended an U10 match last week and was disappointed about the (junior) ref performance. Two (2) refs (no sides men) for a doo-dee-le-doo match! Both positioned passively in the middle, hardly following the game. Whistles hardly used. Only showing which side throws. And, shocking to an experience ref, the refs were in (official) yellow, exactly the same as the guest team players. Nobody seemed to bother. It was ‘recreational’ soccer after all, as it’s called here. Not very serious, local village stuff. But the refs got their payment ok. More serious level of youth soccer is called ‘travel’ (you can guess why). The next U14 match was more encouraging. The usual team of ‘centre ref’ and two sides. Good pace, good calls and for U14, not bad football. I could see myself ‘warming up’ in this environment.

Once a few grades higher, you get 60$ a match. Some do 3 matches a day, staying on the same pitch all afternoon. Most soccer pitches are in public parks with no facilities apart from public toilets. So you arrive fully dressed. No need to come dressed in civilian clothes, behaving as the union’s rep. No meetings with chairmen or secretaries. No point in checking the nets, they are rotten anyway because publicly accessible. Balls? Flags? Bring your own please!

I sent in my papers to the regional US Soccer Federation and explained the Dutch ref system. They appreciated the help offered and my experience. The transfer process was done in 1 week. Placed at level 6, just one level away of national youth soccer. Expecting U19 matches soon. Bring them on! Watch this space!

Monday, April 02, 2007 American banking Americans and finance. Sounds like inseparable twins. Like computers, software and automation. It all started here, let’s be honest. So, when you arrive in the US and try to get your finances organised you assume the same levels of efficiency as in Europe, not necessarily the same tools, but at least the same efficient thinking. Wrong again.

It started with checks (American spelling) and hence, the ‘checking account’ (your bank account). In Holland we got rid of ‘bank cheques’ over 10 years ago and switched to the ‘pin code’ system (‘debit cards’ called in the US) and online banking. Over here, checks are still very common. You use them to pay your home rent, gas bills, but also grocery bills and even charity. Online banking is only just slowly starting, but not as easy as in Europe due to all the security checks. My salary is paid bank-to-bank, but business expenses are paid monthly via check, so is my monthly commuting allowance. You have to cash the checks at the bank. Either in person at the counter or by putting them in an envelop and sliding in the cash machine. Money to re-appear on your account in 2 days.

So, how is it working? Well, you simply ‘write a check’, slid it in an envelope and send it to the person/company that has to be paid, by regular mail, not directly to the bank like we used to do. This then takes some time to be processed.

You can feel the problem – fraud and time loss. Fraud is of all times, so we leave that issue.

But time loss, or ‘float’ as it is called here is a funny one. The time lag is in the processing time of ‘unpaid checks’. US check-writers could play a little with this time lag and try to use the time to add money to their balance before it’s debited from your account. The checks are handled manually. A situation also the American banking system realised was something of the 20th century and needed to be improved. How about doing it electronically? Wow, you mean not manually? Maybe switching to electronic banking in the meantime al together? No, we do this step by step. Even when we use internet to pay a company in 2007, the bank will produce another check and send it to the creditor. Only the larger utility companies can accept electronic banking.

According to a recent article in the NYT, more then 35 billion paper checks are still written each year. A next step to a cashless society (well, without checks that is) has been installed recently. Checks can now be converted into an electronic payment in stead of being processed by hand. The shop accepting your check would have to go to the bank to clear the checks. Now the checks can be cleared electronically by the shop. There goes your ‘float’! Paying your shopping on Saturday would normally only be processed Tuesday earliest. Not anymore. Retailers will save a lot of money. Next step will be retailers refusing checks and promoting debit cards.

Consumers will start realising that when you actually pay your bills, money is leaving your wallet and will enter that of the retailer at the same time. Nothing revolutionary! But it’s not announced widely and is already in place without many consumers knowing about it. A silent revolution in financial America, at last!

Tuesday Monday, April 09, 2007 Doctors and medication We thought we had become overnight experts in dealing with American admin procedures.

And we don’t complain because things are just ‘different’. But each time we are introduced in a new system, we still assume it’s part of a modern and thus efficient society. Often we

were amazed, sometimes shocked. You can read our horror stories in previous blogs.

Simply said - all modern means are available, but not all sectors use them. Manual procedures are simply preferred above automation. And the effects show when you enter a new large system. This time we try understand the medical system. Not just because we need an allergy spray or another headache pill. One of our kids is diabetic and needs constant medication and ditto medical checks.

We were referred to a so-called Family Practice. Said to be more equipped than an average ‘home doctor’ as we call them. No need to go to the hospital for important, but quite regular checks ups. Sounds good. Seeing too much of a hospital isn’t very ‘healthy’ either for a young kid.

We filled in the usual papers, for both kids. Where could we be reached. What is the insurance policy etc. Takes some time, but should save time next time, right? Wrong! Each 3 times so far, we had to answer the same questions. Loud talking that could be followed by all other patients in the lobby. Our papers going from desk to desk. Assistants checking your papers 3x on spelling of our names, birth dates, telephone numbers etc. Try to stay calm daddy!

What we were here for. Huh? I called you last week for the mandatory injections for our kids. Aha. Which ones? Well, maybe you can check your records? By the way, we had 8:30 in our agenda. It’s now 9 and we are your first patients. Where is our doctor? Oh, he is not here, you are assigned to another doctor. And so we got to know yet another doctor. So happy to have joined a family practice!

The process starts again with each new doctor. So, why are you here? - Excuse me?

Injections, remember? Ah. Sure. And how many did they have so far? Check YOUR records.

If they could look in OUR papers to check the previous injections, because their own dates didn’t match. Steam coming out of my ears!

We realised we entered another tedious pre-war admin system. This time a system where professionals also cover for each other, afraid to be sued for possible mistakes. And apologizing all the time. Sorry! So Sorry! No wonder mistakes happen, it’s almost unavoidable. The telephone is required everywhere and again blocked by voicemails. Using internet and email is regarded as exceptionally modern. This morning it took them 45 minutes to get all the data correct again and decided after 44 minutes we were 10 days too early for the 3rd injection. Nobody noticed this before. We were sent home and wasted an 2 hours of school, work and domestic activities. So sorry! But, really, we don’t care.

Wait till you have to order medicines in this system. Watch for part 2.

Tuesday April 10, 2007 On the bus again I think I owe my readers an update on my latest switch back to the bus. The train was reliable but slow and arrives further from my NY office than the bus. In a month of business travel, I need a flexible ticket system. Hence, the bus choice.

I felt a little excitement last week. Back on the bus! Earlier at the office, less walking and earlier home as it’s much faster on the way back. Well, the first days were indeed a relief.

Bus on time first three days and early at work. But my luck ran out pretty fast. Thursday morning 7:30. No bus. More people than usual waiting. Couldn’t have missed it, it’s always few minutes late. 7:50, well we’ll take the next bus, I guess. Nobody says anything. I asked if anybody could call DeCamp. Somebody had a number and made the call. Well, the trains stopped running at a certain station and everyone is taking the bus in stead. That’s about 10 stops before us. Result: all busses pile up and hit the highway without passing our stop on their route. No need to tell your loyal passengers. Who cares? Just let them guess what’s wrong!

OK. I knew an alternative. There’s another line just south of our stop. Some people joined me, others decide to take the car. It’s now 8:15. Again lots of people waiting at this stop.

They didn’t know yet. And 3 busses pass by, waving sorry, not stopping. Packed. Hello!!

What about us? Finally a bus stops and tells us he is also full but maybe the next one could take passengers. It’s 8:45 now. Calling the office I’m late. Too stupid to explain why. 9:00 wow, a bus finally stops, standing only. No seats. At least it runs. Slow track all the way due to some other bus tech failure, so all in all 10AM in the city.

After Easter Holiday you have new hope for a better world. But today it was no-fun again.

No seats, standing only! And an accident in NY made all traffic go slow. 65 minutes of standing up. Listening to podcasts, trying to read the paper, checking emails. Why the bus was suddenly packed today remains a mystery. But why traffic is slow isn’t. Such an enormous number of busses that push into 2 of the 3 tunnel tubes to Manhattan. Bad roads, narrow lanes and lunatic car drivers can cause accidents easily and clog the whole line of busses coming from all directions. Little service cars have to be guided in and pull or push (!) the unlucky bus aside.

The way back has still been easy with little traffic jams and timely arrivals. So we stick to our decision and hope for sensible bus drivers, well maintained busses and clear headed car drivers!

Saturday, April 14, 2007 A day (or two) in the life of a salesman (1) Time spent on travelling and waiting for taxis, planes, trains, clients. Working around a major city like London, Paris or Frankfurt, you would be able to plan 4-5 meetings in a day, easily. Including lunch an maybe a dinner on top. In my case, advertisers I need to see are not based in New York, but spread all over the East Coast. So travel is required. And the number of meeting goes down to 3 a day max. as long as you stay around a certain town for more days. Let me take you through a typical day of an American salesman/woman.

Say you have to be in Boston. Not far from NY, but still 5 hours by train. So, most people decide to fly. 6:15 taxi to the airport. 6:45 get in line for security (no luggage to check in).

We are used to this in Europe, but since 9/11 also the Americans have to queue up for security and you’d better calculate 30 mins extra for it. It’s 7AM and you can put on your shoes again, jacket and check all your belongings they wanted to know about.

7:30 boarding time, 8:00 scheduled departure time. But, did I tell you it’s Monday morning?

Tough luck, the pilot just tells us there are approx. 15 planes ahead of us in line to take off,

so sorry, but we won’t be flying for another 30 mins and ‘sit back and relax, you may use your cell phone’. How nice.

Once airborne, the update from the flight deck sounds reassuring. The lost time will be compensated because scheduled arrival time was deliberately delayed so to catch up with expected congestion at departure and in the air.

1 hour flight. Boston (Logan) Airport. Car hire. Taking a taxi from any airport to the city is already half of the average car hire, so hop-on the bus to car hire desk. The time is 10:00.

Things go fast from now. Car was pre-ordered, so just pick up and ride. Navigation system built in, or using your PDA-built in navigation system, saving again some money. First client meetings at 11. By then, you have been travelling 5 hours. Lunch. Meeting at 3:00 and then it’s time to head back to the airport. Traffic jam, because a few other people had the same idea. 5:00 drop off car. Fast process. Hop on the bus back to airport. You already checked in for the return flight in the morning, so, straight in line for security again. 6:30 scheduled return flight.

Hey, not started boarding yet? Delays are common at Boston airport, connecting to one of the biggest airport cities in the US. Waiting 30 mins, then another 15 mins. Finally, the plane is boarding after waiting for 60 mins. Once on board, you get the pilot on the speakers again. Air traffic control won’t let us depart. On this distances to NY, they rather let you wait on the tarmac than start flying and circle above the city. So another 30 mins waiting. We are now 8:00PM and finally back in NY at 9:15. Waiting for a taxi, 9:45 and back home at 10:15. 16 hours day return trip. A normal day for many businessmen and women. Some live at airports, hopping from plane to plane. Changing flights, booking hotels, checking voicemails, calling home, talking to colleagues etc.

Some flying on Sunday to work all week at the office on the other side of the States, 5 hours flying.

Tomorrow evening the show starts again. 4 days in a row, touring Chicago, Boston, Detroit and a conference in New York. Probably worth another blog.

Sunday, April 15, 2007 American Foot-Ball (3) This weekend should have been my referee-initiation in the world of American Youth Soccer.

But a ‘storm warning’ made the union to cancel all scheduled games. An excellent moment to look at what really forms the basis of US Youth Soccer.

Absolutely crucial in Youth Soccer are the Soccer-moms. They are an institute. Without Soccer-moms no soccer. As simple as that. What Football-dads do in Europe, the Soccermoms do in the US (and more): organizing, travel, coaching, (ref)payments, drinks, food etc. Since a couple of years, Soccer-moms have become a socio-demographic term to describe a certain sub-urban target audience, for car sales, but also for politicians.

Cars are interesting as example. Imagine an average ‘travel game’ to a nearby city. It’s not the usual line of cars we know in Europe trailing to the other football pitch. Here, it’s max 2 mini-vans, packed with soccer kids. To be recognized by at least one bumper sticker! And guess who’s driving? Right. And, as usual, the men choose the main cars and women end up with a ‘less sexy’ car, right? In case of a Soccer-mom it’s even worse because you need that nerdy minivan to pack 8, looking so un-cool! But as we will see later with politicians, now also the car industry has invented this new target audience. New cars are offered combining practicality with good looks. And they will explicitly target the Soccer-moms in

their advertising. The new breed is called “Crossovers”. Combining best features of SUV and station wagon into one vehicle (I’ve been reading some brochures as you can tell). Just perfect for Soccer-moms!

Politicians are also a special breed. Looking for ‘buyers’ all the time too. Their famous ‘swing voters’ are becoming crucial in each election. A group that can change shape from election to election. And who are an increasingly important part of American political demography ….. the Soccer-Moms. Women were always good for Democrats (the Dems). Women just love good-looking men with liberal ideas! Think Billy the-comeback-kid. But since 9/11 Soccer-Moms are getting more Security-Moms and are looking for strong men again. The swing voters swing back to the Reps these days. Praying for a new Reagan.

But the Soccer-Moms don’t care about politics anymore. Not since David Beckham is coming to Soccer-town. They couldn’t have wished for more. Forget the un-cool cars, liberal dems and strong reps. Soccer-Moms just got their own hero and they will be cheering for him in the many soccer stadiums. Yo-yo. David for President!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 American Foot-Ball (4) In order to explain the origin of the word American word Soccer for 'the beautiful game' of football as it's called her. Maybe even more original than we had suspected! I'm compiling some internet sources here.

Soccer is an abbreviation for Association Football. The first Football Association was formed in London in October 1863 when representatives of eleven clubs and schools met in an attempt to standardize the rules of the game. One of the rules prohibited the carrying of the ball, a rule that would lead to the Rugby-oriented clubs leaving the Association several months later. The name Association Football was coined to distinguish it from Rugby.

By 1889, the abbreviation socca' was in use, and the spelling soccer had made its appearance by 1895. We have to thank the students of the 1880s for the word "soccer". It seems it was the practice amongst the well-bred students of Oxford (and still is among many circles in the UK) to abbreviate words whilst adding "er" to the end; "brekkers" for breakfast, for example. On asked if he wanted to play "rugger" (i.e. the "rugby rules") a student replied "no, soccer", an abbreviation of "association", or the "association rules", i.e. the rules of the Football Association in London. "soccer - 1889, socca, later socker (1891), soccer (1895), thus originally university slang has become the official sports name for what later would become football in the birth place of 'the beautiful spor

American Schools (6) I wrote about our amazement over the ways American schools raise money to support various projects. Honorable goals mostly, but with worn-out means. This week, our daughter came home with the latest in fund-raising ideas: what normally is strictly forbidden, wearing a hat in school, is allowed tomorrow just for one day, but it will cost you 1 dollar. Save-another-animal-day. So much for strict rules and what money can do to

nullify them.

More interesting was another recent newspaper article. It headed “Parents Rebel Against School Fund-Raisers – tired of being forced to sell wrapping paper and raffle tickets”. One of the problems with fund raising is that it’s not clear what the need is. Is it for the library, or a music program?

Schools also compete on how much they can raise. Using the latest techniques and the most professional 3rd party support. But they take too big a share. Less than 50% of the money raised is often going to the schools according to a recent survey among schools.

Raising on average 3,000$ per action. So much energy and time lost when so little is gained.

As a result parents are complaining increasingly. And tell their kids they won’t take part anymore. But also the teachers start feeling the heat. Principals of Elementary Schools say in majority they will stop the fund raising if they could. It’s becoming too much of a distraction from the traditional role of school: a place of teaching and a place where kids feel relaxed and not pressured to partake in yet another fund raising project. It’s so easy to impress the kids and tell them they ‘must’ do their part and not become the ‘school jerk’ because their parents refuse to have them involved.

More parents increasingly write a check and donate money so teachers can get the supplies for their classrooms. Only one or two fund raising event per year will do. No more the usual 10-15 a year! Alternative projects are being invented. Such as the Yellow Pages-like school directory in which local businesses pay $35-$50 a year to be listed. The directory itself costs nothing to produce and is given to parents for free. Producing more money than an average fundraising project. Everybody happy.

The internet also contributes to the scaling effect. Once invented, it can be used by many schools at the same time. www.donorschoose.com is such an example. Used by 5,900 schools by now it helped to raise $12 mln in the past few years. It helps teachers and schools alert parents, friends and businesses about individual projects that teachers need help funding.

Parents aren’t lazy, they are just burned-out and tired. New methods and refreshing ideas help to bring back the ultimate goal: more money to help kids remember school as a great place to discover the world.

Friday, May 11, 2007 American schools (7) The school bus. A normal part of the American public school system. They started appearing on the roads around 1920. They simply had wooden bodies built on standard truck chassis.

Cattle vans really.

When kids live more than approx. 3 miles from school, they can be picked up by the famous yellow/orange bus. Our daughter's school starts at 7:50 and is picked up at 7:15 on the corner of our street. About 52% of public school students ride the bus each day according to a recent survey. A slowly decreasing number, by the way.

Since 1977 new federal rules resulted in stronger, more-crash resistant buses. They also became a prominent part of the Driver License exam. Lots of rules apply when the bus is close to you in traffic. Main rule is "do not pass or closely approach a school bus with flashing red lights". When a bus stops, motorists travelling behind or approaching the bus must stop at 25 feet (8m) distance. On both sides of the road! The bus also has a special 'metal arm' to stop kids to cross in front of the vehicle. Kids from the other side of the road are offered a complete stand-still of traffic to be able to cross safely.

This all has resulted in a minimum of 31 kids that still die while boarding or getting of the bus, each year. Fewer than 8 children die in traffic crashes while riding on school buses.

Many more kids die while being driven by their parents or riding bikes and walking.

Despite this low casualty number, safety of school busses remains an popular issue. New bus models are equipped with seat belts. And the driver is helped with extra mirrors to see students outside the bus. Most parents seem to be happy with the safety record of school buses and feel secure as their kids board the bus in the morning and back home in the afternoon.

Real wild stories about safety violations are related to the bus drivers. Volunteer bus drivers - mostly retired people - are accompanied by a volunteer parent. The bus drivers form the weakest link in the safety issue. Driving through red traffic signs, taking corners too short or assuming other traffic participants will stop for the big yellow tanker. Parents notice it and call the bus company to complain.

School buses. They will be around for some time. Pay the drivers a bit more, train them on safer driving and the casualty numbers will be driven down further!

Thursday, May 17, 2007 Sports and politics Question: what is the most patriotic sport in the USA? Answer: Baseball. A recent article in NY Times paints a picture of a typical American sport with strong traditions. It’s quite normal to have any major sport event start with the national hymn “Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America”. The flag is raised, hands to the heart and emotion can be sensed going through stadium. Especially after the Sept.11 terror attacks, American patriotism peaked and understandably became a big consolation in insecure times. And so the Major League Baseball decided to move the national hymn to be played later in the game to make it more prominent. At every game. For one season. They scaled back next season and directed it was ok to do it just on Sundays and holidays.

New York, being hit so hard by the attacks, hosts the New York Yankees. And this baseball club decided to keep the new tradition of playing the hymn at each game. An pure expression of patriotism. And the club tries to remind the fans about the importance of honoring the nation, the victims of 09/11 and the soldiers at war. But not everybody seems to be charmed by this and behave as typical New Yorkers. Doing what they want at the time they want (mostly eating and talking). That again annoyed lots of other people and complaints were made. At these solemn moments, everyone has to stand still and honour the hymn and flag. And the Yankees went far to enforce this. They instructed ushers, security personnel and other volunteers to hold up chains to restrict movement. They will stare at fans moving through the stands and ask them to stop.

They are the only club to do it this way. The other NY club, the Mets, don’t have these severe measurements. But many clubs will still prevent fans from moving around when the songs are played. And now the Civil Liberty advocates are protesting. They are afraid of “enforced cultural conformity and the use of a ballgame to impose political correctness on a captive audience”. I couldn’t have said it better. Because, what if you like baseball and the Yankees, but don’t agree with their patriotism? Good question. No answer.

Monday, May 28, 2007 Sports and food Inseparable it seems in the US. Watching sports and not eating is something that nobody will understand here. It is actually THE big excuse to fill up with food and soda. And that has been discovered as new marketing tool. The Los Angeles Dodgers claim to have the primeur. They tried everything to solve a famous problem – how to sell the worst seats in the stadium? Latest solution: offer them unlimited food. Hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos and soda. As much as they can handle. It’s that simple!

So far, this formula was limited to the high-end seats, better known as the VIP boxes. It comes as part of the package. Now, also the low-end seats will get this treatment, but this time, visitors have to pay. A higher seat price. And they find sponsors for it as well. So, you can expect to find the “BP All-You-Can-Eat Pavillion”. Serious! And it’s working. But not making money yet. Same as in casino’s where it is used just to attract visitors and spend more money on the slot machines and card tables. People pay more for their tickets and think they have a great deal.

So what do people consume on average? The Dodgers estimate it’s 2,5 hot dogs, one bag of peanuts or popcorn, and one plate of nachos per game. Drinks are not calculated as it’s self-serving and can’t be tracked for that reason. And you know the biggest attraction to this service? It’s so fast! Because it’s included in your ticket, no money is involved at ordering the food, so virtually no wait time at the stands. For some Americans this is bad news. No limits to eating. A bad experiment according to those worried about Americans’ expanding waistlines.

Or as somebody once said: at sports in general, it’s the upside down world - those in the field sometimes look like they need a rest and those on the fan stands look like they need a good (home) run.

Monday, June 04, 2007 Job submission and the consumer Suppose you need a good book or CD. As you are member of the local library, you decide to step in and ask for advice. So, once at the library you spot a lady sorting out books and CD’s and ask her for advice. Goes like this: “Excuse me, you work here? I wonder if you could help me”. She would say: “yes, how can I help you?”. You: “I want a CD with classical music”. She: “sorry I can’t help you, I must refer you to the front desk”. By accident we knew the person quite well and we asked her what was going on. Simple explanation: she is

too low in rank to give you an advise. Something only her senior library colleague could.

Explicitly described in her job contract.

You think it’s a coincidence. But then you visit a doctor. Even though you have been there 4x by now, they still need to fill in papers as if you were a new patient. Explaining where your were born etc. It’s all on your personal medical pass, but nevertheless. You made an appointment with Doctor X, but that’s no guarantee. Somebody else could take his place.

Without an explanation. The word ‘service’ is not yet found out here. Back to the main issue. The ranks are again strictly kept. One nurse for weighing and blood pressure, one nurse for filling in other, new forms and nobody who checks our records. The lowest in rank is a nobody and paid accordingly. The same old pattern: low pay, low interest and low work pace.

Today, I definitely knew there is a pattern. Had to buy a simple sting relief cream. Over the counter, no prescription. Local small supermarket where also prescribed medicine are sold.

Lady at the counter. "Can you please tell me where to find this particular cream? I have some insect stings." “Ok, she says, I see”, and walks away leaving me at the counter.

Another lady appears, dressed in white pharmacy dress. “Yes? How can I help you?” Well, I asked your colleague a simple question. I know, she says, maybe you can repeat it? Sting bites cream, please? OK, it’s around the corner on the shelve. You can pay at the main checkout. What the flip is going on here? This is job hierarchy seldom seen! The first lady was not allowed to advise me, even on the most simplest issue.

It probably all originates from good intention. To protect the consumer for getting wrong advise (bad classical CD) and protecting the worker for giving wrong advise and be sued (cream taken orally). But it just doesn’t fit in a open and grown-up society. The consumer is well informed and knows instantly when something is wrong, either by TV, radio or internet.

Only those institutes serving these smart consumers still have to wake up that that new time and age before they become obsolete.

Saturday, June 09, 2007 Outdoor Rooms The new American dream! Outdoor rooms, according to a recent press story “one of de decade’s most visible symbol of excess”. Be independent of your indoors fridge and cooktop.

Just imagine not having to walk to get things for cooking, but everything at hand while being outdoors. About 1 mln. US households have one already.

It’s the next big thing for the rich. A special TV program is showing how you could organize your own kitchen outdoors, including 2 different cooktops, fridge, washing machine, 2 different ovens, barbeque island etc.etc. Looking nice, but what’s the price? And more important, why? Most heard arguments pro was “to entertain friends”. Basically, it’s “showing off” but that sounds so bullish, ‘entertaining friends’ sounds more decent.

Costs? Think 50-70,000$ for starters, but some don't blink an eye spending 100,000 or more on the complete garden. Because redoing one’s garden is yet another thing. An easy thing to show your neighbor, of course, and easily picked up by others, mostly the female side of the neighborhood. Swimming pool comes standard, but don’t forget a separate hot tub, bubbling fountains and the waterfall. Maintenance free wooden deck, or slate and concrete. Don’t forget a large plasma TV and the waterproof pool table! Perfect for hosting outdoor dinner parties. You bet.

But, they forget one thing. It’s outdoor stupid! Birds love love it, dust is common in the dryer US areas. So, taking care of the expensively furnished backyard is now a whole different story.

Before you can swim, cook and drink, man, the work needed! Hours of upkeep and costly repairs. Ants just love speakers and TV’s, T people recently found out – it’s the vibration!

Squirrels just love the teak furniture to chew on and speaker wires. Electronics getting in contact with water, dust or pollen. Nightmare. Don’t’ forget the food remnants in stoves that attract rats, who in turn attract snakes.

Call the 24/7 repair man! A whole new trade is being created. Apart from doing your grass, weeds and sidewalk, now also your expensive outdoor play tools. And they come not cheap.

They know what you spent on it. Restoring patio fur furniture, niture, sand blasting the tiles, new coatings, replacing worn cushions. As result, a new trend is spotted: families that admire their outdoors from inside the house, because they hate all the preparation to start using them. American dreams. Dream on! Get a life.

Saturday, June 16, 2007 Overbooked kids This time of year (June) is called ‘season finale’. Meaning that TV series come to an end. For most parents, it’s also season finale and the start of summer hols (10 weeks mostly). That means kids back on the street. Playing ball games, cycling, chatting etc. A picture you haven’t seen much during school season.

Try, as my kids did initially, to find a playmate during weekdays. No chance! Although plenty living around, ound, there are hardly any children in the neighborhood to play with after school time. Only now when outdoor temps go up, a few ball games might take place in front of our door. Play dates mostly take place during weekends as weekdays are simply fully-booked booked during school season. Play dates are made by mothers on the phone or at school when their kids are being dropped off and picked picked-up up by car. Sleep-overs Sleep are very popular from 10-year year olds and up as well.

We raised our eyebrows and wondered if this this packed schedule of activities is healthy for young kids. And we are not alone. It’s a serious issue here and it made it to the papers recently - titled overbooked kids. kids. The overbooking is not so much with the play dates, but more with the so-called extracurricular acurricular activities. activities. Kids who take sport practices practic or extra lessons. ons. The mothers have to organiz organize it and get into a their own mommy marathon. marathon Parents believe kids have to keep busy in order to help their development. The mommy marathon is heaviest for ages ges 9 to 12. Results: hurried children, involved in three or more activities, or four or more hours of activities outside regular school time. Most popular sports: swimming, tennis, golf, soccer, basketball and baseball. But also drama, dance, singing, painting.

In general, parents also realize kids need more time for free play and family time. But stepping off the treadmill isn’t easy. What will the other parents think? And would you not limit your kids’ future by cutting out activities now? But, more important, important, kids who don’t play organized sports are sometimes excluded from playground games at school. Boycotted.

Pediatric experts advise to choose first essential activities and let the kid choose an extra option. Parents should ask themselves ‘what activi activity ty will make my child glow?’ But it’s maybe already too late. Schools allow kids to use their extracurricular activities as extra points on your score card. This is then used again to get into better schools later. The career rat race starts very early!

Special Education Schools are about to start again after 10 weeks vacation. Kids are gearing up for the new season and already parents are complaining about a new issue at schools: they let some kids graduate without any skills. Some mail back the diploma to the school they left before this summer vacation. Special laws for kids with learning disabilities have good intentions.

But schools try to avoid the high costs of extra tuition that would be necessary to make them really pass the tests. So, teachers are instructed to inflate the grades and accept poor homework. We heard these stories from our daughter last year, but after reading these stories in the paper this week, we realized it’s a national problem and not just here in town.

In the past, students with disabilities would simply lag behind their colleague-students. They often got separate education in a different building and were not included in the standardized testing. But new laws from about 25 years ago made it a state policy to hold almost all children with disabilities to the same academic standards as other students. The idea was to promote having special-education students in normal classrooms. A more recent law (No Child Left Behind Act) would even punish schools when disabled children won’t pass the same state tests as other students!

Statistics show the new measures are paying off. Disabled students are scoring better.

Some say, however, that these increased grades are result from schools playing with the laws. When schools are told to help disabled students to pass their exams, they simply give them too much help or make concessions. Calculators are allowed on math tests, for example, easier tests are allowed, or they are asked to participate in fewer subjects. As long as the figures are looking good, schools have done their job!

Naturally, you would expect parents of disabled children to cheer these developments. But the protests against too-easy passing of tests is growing. Parents are complaining about their children not deserving the diplomas they received at school. Primarily because the level of learning is far behind what can be expected, just because schools let them ‘float by’ and not really support in their (handicapped) learning. This would cost the school too much time of their teachers. Parents have to jump in and hire private teachers to lift the levels themselves. Some of them are complaining and fighting in court to get financial relief.

Monday, August 13, 2007 Extravagant kids parties Another new experience. Different time frames, different activities and different presents and related ceremonies. Being from abroad, our kids were quickly added to parties as ‘the foreign girl’ giving their party that international flavour. The first time our daughter was invited to the local bowling alley, she was surprised by the invitation as she didn’t know the girl at all. But, off she went. Just for the experience. The inviting girl didn’t talk to her during the party (apart from ‘hello’) and hasn’t since. We have no idea why she got invited in the first place.

Next (more personal) parties learned that American kids parties tend to be very similar.

Parents bring and collect their kids at the party location (hardly ever at the homes). Food is a central element, but mostly limited to pizza and cake, with soda of course. Activities for the smaller kids is very often a movie or 90 minutes at a play gym. And the more the merrier, sometimes complete school classes are invited. Presents are not opened, just left behind on a table or ‘raked in’ by the parents. At leaving, the partying kids get a goodie bag filled with sweets and little presents - ‘thanks for coming’.

The trend is that kids become spoiled and tend to ask more and bigger, also for their birthday parties. Parents feel guilty for being so busy at work and spend big money on parties. Don’t underestimate what throwing your kids parties can create among the circle of school parents! It all starts with the personalized invitations and could go as far as ‘themed confections’ baked by wedding cake designers. Kids have also started with listing their wishes called ‘favors’. Going to the movies is ‘boring’. Latest extravanganza overheard at school ….

We decided to stick to our low-key Dutch tradition of a party at home. For our eldest (12) we decided to invite a limited number of kids whom she considered close or at least friendly (or excluded by others). Did different creative things, like self-decorating cakes and create their own jewellery. And they still had fun and talked later about the special, different party.

It’s the challenge to bring in some creativity of some form. We are on soon again for our youngest daughter. Curious to see if the kids of that age group (9) will accept our different norms of throwing a kids party!

Thursday, August 16, 2007 Independence Day We visited Washington DC the day after Independence Day, July 4th. The capitol of the USA is a popular destination for Americans on public holidays. So many monuments and so many famous pieces of art that are on the ‘must see’ list. Among them statues of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Martin Luther King Jr. But also the Vietnam Memorial Wall and bigger than life Einstein with his famous formula E=MC2.

But the one and only ‘must see’ is the national treasure in the Capitol Rotunda. What the Dutch consider their largest national painted heritage – “De Nachtwacht” in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - is for the Americans the "Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776". A large painting made by John Trumbull, seen by a never ending flow of 2-3 mln. people each year. Reproductions are everywhere, not in the least on the 2-dollar bill.

So far, the facts that every American can cite when asked about July 4th and the painting telling the story. But what exactly is on the painting and what is true and what is fiction, is not so well known. The portrait shows the birth of the nation at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776. And here it starts going wrong. The signing only started a month later and not all delegates to the Continental Congress were present. One delegate even signed only one year later! But more importantly, the painting was painted 10 years after the sacred event.

Most important to the creator of the painting were the 48 faces (while 56 eventually signed). It should be clear to all Americans that the signers were ‘identifiable and

accountable free men who were taking one of history’s most courageous steps.’ Trumbull had to travel for years with his sketchboard to paint as many of the signers as were still to be found. John Adams was in London, while Jefferson was in Paris. Other interesting details: Jefferson and Adams are the most important persons present in the picture. Jefferson is the tallest and holds the document. But Adams who is the only one presented full-figured and placed exactly at the center of the composition. Who could tell that story of the NightWatch?

I wouldn’t.

Saturday, August 18, 2007 Vacation Deflation.

This week I returned from a well-deserved two weeks vacation. I need that time-off to ‘debug’ and break away from work, the daily rhythm of commute, office work and travel. I don’t need more, but with less I know I would not wind down. Cultures differ, because according to the Japanese, one week of summer vacation is the norm. You can’t expect your colleagues to take over things for you any longer. And in August, one collective week of vacation is mandatory, so that helps! According to Americans, two weeks of holidays would be nice but also implicates consuming all of your annual ‘paid-leave days’. More importantly, it’s not practicable anymore in this time and age of business life, according to a growing number of business people.

A recent press article talks about the new trend of ‘vacation deflation’, or: breaks getting shorter and being reduced to long weekends. How come? Basically, it comes down to increased ‘work demand’ that are cutting into weeklong holidays. Busy schedules simply don’t allow busy executives these luxuries anymore. The article quotes a consumer research into vacation trends: “there are no more ‘off’ switches in life”. Some hard facts: 35% of employed US adults aren’t taking all their annual vacation days (it was 33% last year). Only 14% plan to take off a full two-week vacation this year, down from 16% last year.

Why? Well, simply because the work force has grown leaner (and meaner!). Would most employers previously hire temp workers to replace salaried workers while they were gone, not anymore today. Another factor is the dual-income couples, making it hard for people to coordinate their vacations. Last year, 40% of married-couple families were dual-income, compared with about 35% in 1977 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

As consequence, new vacation trends can be seen. Researchers say we are moving into the ‘era of the long weekend’, replacing the traditional long summer break. People are insecure about their jobs and rather stay in touch and on top of office things. So, some business people bring their family on trips to combine leisure with business. They are used to being connected to work 24/7 anyway, thanks to mobile devices like the Blackberry and Palms.

And in stead of coming back to the office, with full email in-boxes and answering machines, they rather stick around and keep running in the treadmill.

How long will this trend sustain? New (internet) companies like Yahoo! try to encourage their employees to ‘take a break’ to avoid burnout. But, some employees simply didn’t understand the good intentions when this message recently came in and started complaining that they just didn’t want to take the vacation and if their boss just could ‘mind his own business’. ‘Living to work’, and no longer ‘working to live’ seems to be the adagium these days for an increasing number of people. For me, it’s simply ‘let’s get back to work again!

Sunday, August 19, 2007 The Amish (1) We had friends over for 10 days vacation in July and planned a trip to Washington DC (4 hrs. by car). We decided to make a stop in Pennsylvania to get a glimpse of the Amish people. A special group of immigrants in the US. They’ve been living in Lancaster County since their arrival in the early 18th century and survived as group by sticking to their own way of dressing, farming, speaking as it was back in Germany since the years their religious group started, late 17th century. The Amish clearly did not go through the American ‘melting pot’ through which most immigrants were transformed into some form of model Americans.

The Amish are close connected to the Mennonites, a similar religious (protestant) group originally from the Netherlands. The region where the Amish live in Pennsylvania is confusingly called ‘Dutch Country’ referring to ‘Deutsch’ or ‘German’ and not as you expect today to ‘people from the Netherlands’.

The Amish form for many Americans an intriguing group of people. They shy away from others and don’t want pictures be taken by visitors. They try to keep their community closed by providing for their own clothing, daily food and transportation. They still do the things they always did - farming - and don’t use mechanical devices such as cars, tractors, bikes and other machines. So, farming goes with horsepower and additional manpower.

Transportation on special occasions (church visit) with horse and carriage and for the rest … walking, or by scooter (or ‘step’ as we know it in Holland). Large families, men with untrimmed beards (= ‘married’) and straw hats and women wearing the same blue dresses with the white caps. Children are also easily identifiable as boys and girls. They speak some old German language that we as Dutch recognize as close to our language.

Key questions is ‘why?’ Why is this necessary and what is their conviction that keeps them to the basics of daily life? Basically, the Amish started as a small religious breakaway that was a result of the large church reformation, which was started in Germany by Martin Luther, early 16th century. In Switzerland, the reformation thoughts were picked up by the Swiss church reformer, Huldrych Zwingli (Zurich). Till that time, church and state were closely connected. Everyone was member of the church and children were routinely baptised after they were born. The government-guided church was hindered in a free teaching of Jesus’ teachings. This produced radical thinkers who did not accept anymore the state controlling the church. They would rather form a community of Christians, following their master’s example – peaceful non-violence and non resistance to worldly enemies.

Furthermore, sharing of personal goods and practicing mutual aid among Christians. They became known as ‘free church’ radicals. No more standard baptism of children (not old enough to understand the implications of Christ’s teachings). The first group started in 1525 by introducing adult baptism and literally going through a second baptism or in Latin ‘anabaptismus’ and so they were called the ‘Anabaptists’. (soon part 2 of 3 will follow)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007 The Amish (2) This group called Anabaptists formed a danger to the state and traditional church, challenging the unity of the church and social fabric of society. They refused to accept the state’s authority in matters of religion and even more important to the state, refused to do military service, making their cities vulnerable to foreign attack. Consequently, the Anabaptists were persecuted, imprisoned and exiled, fined and threatened and eventually thousands would be killed. The stories of persecution are still recounted today among the Amish.

Now more of these (small) groups emerged, spreading out from Switzerland to other German speaking areas of Europe. They saw themselves as meek, simple, humble and nonresistant group of people, simply doing what the Bible taught them to do. They called themselves “Swiss Brethren”. One of the new groups also formed in the Netherlands were grouped around Menno Simons, followers of whom were later called “Mennonites”. The first Anabaptist in southern German regions calling for church reforms late 17th century was Jakob Ammann. His calls for changes formed a rift between the Mennonites and “The Amish”. In the early 18th century the Amish became intrigued by the prospect of immigration to the “New World”.

Even back in the early 18th century, the Ammann-followers were identified as a plain group of people. They were described by a local Catholic priest in the Alsace as “men having a long beard and the men women wearing clothing made only of linen”. The Mennonites those days had shorter beards. Both groups still felt socially unwelcome in many European places, being different from the majority and avoiding religious and state compromise. Early 18th century, the Swiss (Bern) government decided to get rid of Anabaptists by simply shipping them elsewhere. They asked the Dutch East India Company to take Swiss Anabaptists to islands in the Pacific Ocean! The Dutch did not respond and so the idea was formed to bring them to North America. The Dutch government intervened and offered ‘asylum’ in the Netherlands, while others decided to immigrate voluntarily. Destination Pennsylvania.

Virtually all Mennonites and Amish would start their new home here. William Penn had invited them, among many others, to join his “holy experiment” – a colony where religious toleration would be the order of the day. Alls sorts of religious minorities would join his mission: Quakers, Moravians, Schwenkfelders, Mennonites, Dunkers and Amish, but also Lutherans, Reformed and Presbyterian arrivals. First Amish arrivals are registered from 1737 when 21 Amish families arrived. Many would follow. (see also part 3 soon)

Saturday, August 25, 2007 The Amish (3) Once in North America, a new life without oppression would lay open. Upon arrival, all these different small German-speaking religious groups were called the “Pennsylvania Dutch” by onlookers. But also the one thing they had in common, their dialect, became known as “Pennsylvania Dutch”, a language very different indeed from the British-rooted neighbours

who arrived at the same time. As the first waves of Amish arrived mainly in Philadelphia, a new wave early 19th century immigrants, arrived in New York and New Orleans with final destinations Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana and Eastern Canada.

Settling in the New World brought its own new challenges. Their social avoidance and attitude to stay away from frivolity of the world would also be central in their new home country. Although now in the state of ‘religious freedom’, still some federal requirements were also asked of the Amish, such as paying taxes, military conscription and compulsory school laws. Time and time again, they still managed to avoid assimilation and they stuck to their social avoidance principles. One of them was and is producing your own food.

Including bread, milk and butter.

Milk? You mean from cows? Yes. They process milk and drink it. You mean the raw milk?

Yes. Not pasteurized? No. They think this is better and swear it will keep you healthy, more than the (processed) milk we drink from the supermarket. So what’s the problem? Well, in the US you can’t do that. Drink raw milk. It’s forbidden by law. Nobody really cared until recently, especially when you use for personal consumption. But there is a true explosion of interest in organics in the US today. Consumers want to know and trust the source of their food and are buying organic food, such as raw milk from traditional farmers, like the Amish.

The Amish dairy cattle is being organically grass-fed without giving hormones or antibiotics (which are passed into the milk and into consumers of milk). Raw, or un-pasteurized milk is frequently promoted as a "health food," especially to those who are already ill or have compromised immune system, such as patients with cancer or AIDS. Others link pasteurization to the change of a protein which is linked to autism, asthma and diabetics.

So, all of a sudden, the Amish are ‘reinvented’ for being traditional farmers producing food as it should be. A weirder combination of Amish and the bio dynamic cult, or ‘foodies’, is hardly thinkable. But it’s taking place all over the country and we witnessed a meeting of the two groups, supporting each other in their common goal: stay simple and eat natural food. The Amish have a message. Shame they have to dress and behave so weird. But, then again some ‘foodies’ have no problem with that either …..

Cost of Business Travel (1) This week was another of those tiring travel weeks. Visiting a trade show in Chicago was the goal. The costs for flying down there were not that bad, but trying to find a reasonably priced hotel room was hard. I decided to fly back the same day but got caught up in the usual delays at the airport (late incoming aircraft), followed by wait in the plane before take-off. I didn’t know waiting could be so tiring!

A recent article in the press touched on the subject of changing ‘secondary profits’ of business travel, or ‘penny pinching’. What used to be the compensation for being away from home - nice hotel, good meals, minibar in the room, air miles and hotel miles, is now under attack. After the cuts on airfares – companies forcing employees to fly ‘coach’ and take cheaper connecting flights – now also the hotel stays are subject of closer study. Recently, hotel rates have increased considerably (in the US on average 20% over the last 3 years and still growing) and companies are telling their employees to cut down on these

expenses. What I experienced during the dot.com time is now becoming normal in a growing number of companies during longer stays – sharing rooms with colleagues. It is considered the most annoying for employees while on business travel and I would do anything to avoid for this to happen to me again. Some employees have to explain why a certain hotel rate was paid and why not the cheaper alternative was considered. Other companies have decided to allow reservations only with certain hotel chains like Marriott and Holiday Inn. Sometimes, certain more expensive hotels (in my case $200+ per night) will charge separately for a simple breakfast ($20 is normal). Personally, I find that outrageous and try to skip it when staying longer than 1 night and find a cheaper breakfast in a local restaurant (half the price). Some companies are known for asking their employees staying longer than 2 nights even to cook their own food. Travel alternatives are plenty. Working with teleconferencing is a way to cut travel costs. And for distances under 1 hour flying, the (Amtrak)train becomes a good alternative, like in Europe between London and Paris or Amsterdam and Paris, for example. Next week I’m doing again New York-Boston, 3.5 hours by train. With all the delays at airports, this is getting close to flying. Most attractive is however the cost cut from $600 to $200 and much relaxter and room for flexing the muscles. My boss agreed that I could take the slightly more expensive hotel as compensation for the slightly longer journey. Some managers know how to please their sales employees in stead of ‘penny pinching’ all the way!

Sunday, September 02, 2007 Labor Day This weekend is Labor Day weekend (or Labor Day as the English would spell it) and it’s basically Monday off. Labor Day, as in May 1st in Europe? Well, yes sort of, but low-key and less ‘leftist’ as in socialists countries like France and Spain. Labor Day is a so-called Federal Holiday and always taking place on the first Monday of September. ‘The holiday began in 1882, originating from a desire by the Central Labor Union to create a day off for the "working man". It is still celebrated mainly as a day of rest and marks the symbolic end of summer for many. Labor Day became a federal holiday by Act of Congress in 1894’.(Wikipedia) We can notice it around us. Everyone is outside with the barbecue heated up and friends are invited. Labor Day weekend marks the end of the summer holidays. Schools are starting this week and the fun is over after 10 weeks. Back to (school)work! It’s also the last chance for parents with kids to take some days vacation together. Traditionally, all airports are cramped with people this weekend and roads around big cities are very busy. Think of the Dutch Ascension Day weekend which we consider as the start of the Summer Holidays.

Labor Day also marks the beginning of the season for the most popular American sport American Football (I still mockingly refer to it as ‘American Rugby’). The NFL is playing their first game the Thursday following Labor Day, ending with the Super Bowl in Spring which is known as Super Bowl Sunday, the most-watched US TV broadcast of the year (40% of all households are tuned in, which is 80-90 mln. Americans watching the full game!). It is also the second-largest U.S. food consumption day, following Thanksgiving. Sounds big, but it’s estimated that almost 10x this number watched the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup

(forza Italia!) (Wikipedia). American Football is still a very big, but local sport!

I participated yesterday by helping out as ‘real football’ (sorry, ‘soccer’) ref at a nearby soccer tournament. This marked the beginning of the NCSA Fall Season, which will run until November and only to start again in March. Helping hopefully to make the real football as popular as it is everywhere else worldwide. Think the Beckham-project but then with less financial reward ….

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 Grass warfare At first we didn’t know why these tiny little signs were for, pinned in some gardens we pass by every day. You can’t read them clearly and we thought they were for … well … whatever (support Bush?). But then I read an article in the paper the other day about the use of chemicals to help grass grow faster and keep the weeds out. The little signs are there to warn you that the area is chemically treated and you should keep children and pets off till it’s dry. Or else, well, that’s your own risk then, they warned you!

OK, so we learned another local thing. But it doesn’t end here. It’s nice they warn you, but can you just put anything on your lawn it being ‘your own business’? The newspaper article talks about a growing local movements that say using pesticides is a choice that affects the whole neighborhood. People in the US learned by now that the widespread use of DDT affected birds of prey and some almost disappeared from the skies due to the use of that chemical in agriculture. On a smaller scale, pesticides in your garden can sometimes become a real battle, a true ‘grass warfare’. The local activists will ‘tell’ you that using pesticides on one lawn brings everybody nearby in danger, including kids and pets.

In this age of doing things the easy and fast way, keeping your garden lawn in good shape is also made simple and cheap. Some keep using the fast stuff to eliminate the weeds and keep things in a shiny state and consider it ‘their own business’. But in some neighborhoods, you can expect a message on your doorknob urging you to stop using pesticides and ‘go organic’. Remember that in the US kids can run back and forth between gardens (few use fences) and windows are open all the time during the long summer time.

Data are used to convince people. Research is said to show there are links between exposure to pesticides and Parkinson’s disease. Dogs that have been close to herbicide treated lawns have a greater chance of developing cancers.

But deep down, a more important factor is playing a role. As reported earlier in the outdoorkitchen-story, it’s an image issue – the outward looks of a garden. Most of the time, the garden is a typical male point of pride. They have to take care of the grass (mowing) and hate to spend more time than necessary. Most men like to show off their grass to the neighbors and refuse to believe the little quantities dropped on their lawn is harming anything. Things might change fast though. The law is stepping in, starting with a ban of pesticides in public properties, such as school lawns and parks. I wouldn’t be surprised when pesticides are not available anymore in a few years. But, as image will stay the overriding factor, either more money will have to be spend on gardens, the inevitable stones brought in or the garden completely abandoned. A great development for lawn keeping companies!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 The Amish (4) We learned earlier that the Amish have ‘brothers and sisters’ in the US that go back to the same protestant splinter groups. Closely related to the Amish are the Mennonites (originally from The Netherlands), but there are also still approximately 50,000 Hutterites living in 450 communities (or ‘Hernhutters’ – followers of ‘Herr’ Jacob Hutter). They also insist on living in close communities in social isolation in certain areas of Northern USA and Canada. They are similar to the Amish and Mennonites in their social avoidance attitude and living in simplicity and self support. They also use the same German dialect as common language.

They differ however from the Amish by stressing the community feeling, sharing all possessions like machines, cars and money. Living life built on faith and family, but when it’s useful to the community, they will adopt new technologies. So, farming equipment and cars are ok, TV and other electronic entertainment equipment are not. Elders, or head preachers in the community decide what’s ‘in’ and what’s ‘out’.

But what to do with the cellphone? Are they useful to the community? The conventional telephone was accepted long time ago, but restricted to just a few per community, leading to long lines of people waiting to make a call. As result, it never became the wired chat machine it has become in most American families. Only recently were ‘landlines’ accepted in certain communities and families got their own telephone line. In the wake of this development, also the cellphone made its entrance. The head preachers in some communities decided to share a few phones with 100 families. But the full control is gone.

Everyone can own one without much trouble, especially handy for farmers and businessmen (as such allowed by the elders). But also friends ‘outside’ are providing for the phone to (girl) friends ‘inside’ the colonies in order to stay in touch. Text messages are very popular and don’t forget the built-in cameras and games! Hard to control for the head preachers.

Young men are offered jobs outside earning so much more than the fixed monthly allowance inside the colony. Once accepted, they stay in touch with their families by…. indeed… cellphones. They tell about the movies they watch, the clothes they buy etc. The tightly knit Hutterite society is becoming heavily influenced by the outside world. Maybe they should join the Amish and ‘close the gates’ completely again. But probably they already gone one compromise too far?

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 American Foot-Ball (4) Soccer fans in the US had the idle hope that with the entry of David Beckham on the American soccer fields, their minority sport would become better accepted in de US. What complete teams tried to accomplish back in the late 70-ies (NY Cosmos - Pele, Cruijf cs), would now rest on the shoulders of just one handsome 32-year old Englishman. Well dear US soccer-fans, I have bad news: Becky won’t be back on the pitch this season. He’s injured

for 10 weeks. Did they add the small print ‘no cure, no pay’ in his contract, by the way?

What a waste of money ($50mln)!

My last blog on the ‘real foot-ball’ game in the US was at the beginning of my ref career in New Jersey back in Spring. In the meantime, 6 months and 60 games down the road, a more realistic assessment can be made. Is this game ever to become popular with boys and girls older than 15, you wonder? The age when they typically choose for either baseball, football, softball or lacrosse. It’s doubtful. I’ve been ‘reffing’ different age levels in the last 6 months and what struck me most was the sheer lack of knowledge of the basic rules of soccer among spectators and parents. That as such is no shame. I don’t know anything about football or baseball. But I don’t pretend to know the rules. Americans are very open and interested and will ask questions about the game. “Ref, I thought there were no more indirect free kicks?” “Why do you keep waving your hand after an off-side?” “Why don’t players wear knee-protection?” etc. Others pretend to know the soccer rules and will make pointed comments on off-site and hand-ball (more or less at each contact).

Some will behave obnoxiously like the bearded guy last weekend. The game was close to New York in a public park, so spectators were sitting and standing close to the pitch. I had heard him made remarks before - I would give throw-ins only to ‘the whites’ - referring to their shirts? But when a (Asian looking) girl fell on the hard (astro-turf) field and cried because she hurt her shoulder, it was ‘show-time’. I stopped the game for treatment. My bearded friend starts yelling at me that I ‘missed the foul again’. I challenged him to take over this toddler soccer game or otherwise just leave and irritate other people – ouch! bad move! Coach walks up and so did my friend to check the girl out. “Excuse me, who are you?

Please go away!” Coach whispers – “it’s her dad, give him some space”. Right! Centre of the universe has his attention again. Dad swears he won’t move his daughter until an ambulance arrives and dials 911 – she obviously must have broken something. From previous experience I learned that this could easily take 20 minutes and another game was waiting. Finally, the coach convinced the girl to stand up and walk off the pitch. I apologized to the father, who walked off saying for the 5th time “you still missed it”.

At moments like that, you feel you can’t win. How do you explain that when somebody trips over her own legs there is ‘no foul committed’ and nobody is to blame. But in the US, there is always somebody to blame and if possible, he/she must be sued and damage compensation paid. Well, I love to brag: “talk to my American Soccer Association lawyer!“

Sunday, October 14, 2007 Elections 2008 Even US citizens are getting confused. “Elections, is that already next month? November, right?” “Yes, November” I told the taxi driver, “but only November 2008, so next year!”

Wow, so all the debates and campaigning is just to warm up? And the money raised to pay for their campaigns is just the start? Yes, it’s just the start. We have 13 more months of political debate ahead of us. Good luck to you guys!

This taxi driver was an exception on the rule though. He kept on talking about politics and I sensed he didn’t get his wisdom from the local gossip paper. He watched BBC instead of Fox, he told me. Pleasantly surprised I asked why? Because the American channels are all politically biased, he said. BBC just isn’t and they give you a fair picture of what’s going on

in the world ….. and in America. Things are too complicated to be explained in black and white sketches. Things like the former enemy of your enemy (Taliban in Afghanistan) are now again your own enemies and sponsored by your new enemies (Iran and Al-Qaeda).

While some people would like to stick to the easy story ‘it’s us against them’ and ‘let’s just nuke them’, more and more other Americans want to learn about ‘the inconvenient truth’ not only on melting icecaps, but also on who runs The White House behind the president’s back.

They then learn to understand why so many people in the world become anti-American, because it’s obvious that other motives in world politics are playing a role. I didn’t tell him I agreed, but in the corner of the taxi I just smiled. Somebody gets it! You can’t rule the world with muscles and gun power and certainly not on your own. Deciding what’s important to protect you own interest (oil production) but use other pretexts (mass destruction weapons or Al- Qaeda) is too easy, even for Americans. The costs for a ‘quick war’ in Iraq costs unbelievable amounts of money - estimates run at 400bln US$. But also in human terms - current counts estimate 80,000 civilians died in Iraq since the invasion of 2003 and 3,800 soldiers were returned to the US in body bags. Everyone knows that this will determine the outcome of the elections next year.

And now we are back at national political level again. Does America want the Clintons back?

She has raised most money so far for her campaign. Or maybe vote for their first black American president (Obama)? He has the most enthusiastic followers. Who will be the Republican (GrandOldParty) candidate? Another former TV actor (Thompson) or former NY mayor Giuliani? Issues that will surely dominate the TV programs for the next 13 months on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox ….. and, oh, don’t forget BBC.

Thursday, October 18, 2007 American Dentist It’s 9 o’clock and I was one of the first patients today at the friendly local dentist family practice. “Do you still have to go to work today sir?” I confirmed, sure, and indicated I didn’t quite understand the question. Well, after 1 hour I did! Two cavities filled within 20 minutes, but with a sedation enough to numb a horse, I had to take off the rest of the day to get rid of the numbness. I couldn’t speak for 3 hours and had to call in a sick-day.

Last time, at the first round of cleaning and fillings, I told the dentist it’s quite common in Europe not to have sedation when the treatment isn’t that bad. He laughed and said that must be either Holland or Germany. Dentists in these countries are known for this way of working. But at least you have a choice and you get used to some form of pain. After all, you are a man! Here in the US, that’s not important. Every man, strong or weak, gets sedation and the dentist can do his job quickly without the patient stiffening in his chair all the time. And still, between 9% and 20% of Americans state they avoid going to the dentist because of anxiety or fear (recent survey).

I don’t fit in that last category and have visited the dentist quite a lot during my life so far.

In my youth, I guess there was too little education and too much filling of teeth as a consequence. My teeth didn’t all come through well either and I had to visit a specialist in hospital to ‘uncover’ my two teeth still buried in my upper jaws. He used some kind of

anesthesia pistol to shoot in at least 15 shots. So, don’t talk to my about fear of going to the dentist, I’ve been there, done that: braces, root canal, crowns and 2/3 of my teeth filled now. But I agree, going to the dentist is uncomfortable for nearly every human being. It’s simply scary being treated inside your head!

Let the dentist explain it: ‘Local anesthesia is usually given to a patient requiring minor tooth extraction or surgery. A gel-like substance is applied to the patient’s mouth, and an injection is administered to numb the treatment area. Local anesthesia lasts anywhere from several minutes to several hours before it wears off.’ Ok, thanks, so even for the injection itself, the gums are made numb, amazing! Imagine feeling some pain….. It’s now 2 hours since I lay down on that chair and it feels as if I could have at least 3 more teeth done without feeling a thing. Hope I can laugh again watching Mr. Bean doing the drilling himself after having sedated the dentist by accident. After all, the amount needed to make that dentist go to sleep is about the same he used in my jaw today!

Saturday, October 27, 2007 Halloween Now Summer is gone, the festive season has broken. Starting with Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. The first is the most uncommon for us Europeans, although gaining ground there too. For the traditional carnival-fans it’s nothing new: wear a costume and behave like an idiot for a day. You will get invitations to join a dress-up party from school, the neighborhood and your work. Basic theme in everything you do: scare the death out of your peers. Some go the extremes and rebuild their garden into a grave yard or hang skeletons in their trees.

Office parties are awkward. For me, it’s easy as my non-American employer won’t join in any Western festivities anyway. But we are invited by our neighbors on the 29th floor. These company parties are supposed to be socializing and networking for its staff and clients. I’m not really tempted to go, but in case I should, what to wear? According to a recent survey, 34% of adults say they plan to dress in costume for Halloween this year. Don’t think they just bring the costume in their bag and change for the party. NO! Another survey tells us a third of workers plan to wear a costume to work! I can hardly believe that figure. Imagine your colleagues dressed up like a witch, pirate, vampire, a cat or princess? You’d better be wearing a costume yourself in order not to fall out completely! Or call in sick, of course.

So what else do people do? Well, there is the (less crazy) pumpkin carving tradition. Plastic versions are becoming popular, but the real ones are still supposed to be fun. Complete guides can be bought, and websites visited, from ‘basic’ to ‘Extreme Pumpkins’. You simply take a smashing pumpkin and carve out that grinning face (“triangular-eyed Jack-O’Lantern”) and lit it with a candle. Spooky and a personal statement! And there are the kids knocking on your door on the evening of October 31. Why? Well, tradition tells us that on the evening before All Saints (Old English ‘all hallow E'en’), kids in the Middle-ages used to knock on doors and offer to pray (‘hail’) for the deceased (‘all saints’) of that year. Pray that they would enter heaven from Purgatory. You could pay them with a small cake, but if you refused, they would curse you, hence the term ‘trick or treat’. We just give them a lollypop to buy them off but don’t dress up like the Grim Reaper. Too early and too scary.

Happy Halloween? (2) The origins of this popular fest go further back than the Catholic Church makes us believe.

Christian churches feel awkward about the current trend in Halloween with its open admiration of death and demons. As we have moved away from the Catholic customs of praying for lost souls and try to get them from fire to heaven, today we see it replaced by rise of Paganism. Paganism? You mean dating back to the cave man age? Well, in the 21st century, the age of technique and science, it’s quite weird to notice people putting up skeletons, witches, tombstones, ghosts and crows outside their homes as ‘funny decoration’ and act like their house is haunted. Where did they get their ideas from?

Before the year 800 when the Catholic Church took over main control in Europe, the Celtics in Ireland celebrated this night of October 31st as an eve of death and communication with the deceased. The Celtic people were very conscious of the spiritual world and had their own ideas of how to get there. They also believed that in this dark period of time, the line between the living and the dead became very thin. Ghosts of deceased were believed to start moving among the living. Spirits of the dead would rise out of their graves and wander the countryside, trying to return to the homes where they formerly lived. To appease their appetite, people put food and treats outside their homes. The church later ordered the customs and habits that existed among the people to integrate into the Catholic Religion.

Halloween has since become a confusing mixture of traditions and practices from pagan cultures and Christian tradition.

Another element of Halloween is the night before. In New York, some bus lines stop earlier because of fear to be attacked by youngsters. Throwing eggs or worse to their busses. In many parts of Britain and Ireland this night used to be known as 'Mischief Night', which meant that people were free to go around the village playing pranks and getting up to any kind of mischief without fear of being punished. Many of the different customs were taken to the United States by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the nineteenth century, and they developed into 'trick or treat'. Finally, the Jack-o-lantern is the festival light for Halloween and is the ancient symbol of a damned soul. Originally the Irish would carve out turnips or beets as lanterns as representations of the souls of the dead or goblins freed from the dead.

In the US the beets became pumpkins. Pumpkins cut with faces representing demons were originally intended to frighten away evil spirits.

The doorbell has stopped ringing and the sweets are gone. We’ve seen funny little kids in bunny dress and weird dressed-up juveniles, all politely saying ‘trick or treat’. They didn’t mean harm, but clearly had no idea what they were re-enacting. I have to think of a way to counter the ‘trick or treat’ next time.

Maybe ‘heaven or hell’?

Cost of Business Travel (2) Some have to save money on travel, others don’t know how to get rid of their money. A world you and I probably won’t know from direct experience. So let’s talk about the luxury travel alternative, where first class is taken to a new level and some fliers are more than willing to pay. A new breed of business travelers is being created, like in the early days. We won’t notice it too often, because they have their own privileges and private gates to pass through. Lufthansa was reported recently to treat its first class passengers in a special way, in a separate facility in the first-class terminal in Frankfurt. Greeted by attendants, speedy security and immigration checks for starters. Bubble baths or a smoke in a cigar room.

Driven to your airplane in your choice of a Mercedes or Porsche, using the staircase only used by pilots, bypassing the cheap air travelers (us!) all the way.

Surprisingly, the ticket sales for this special (Lufthansa) treatment, have gone up by 40% since it was introduced two years ago. Other airlines are following fast to grab their share of this lucrative group of business travelers. The Concorde-experience has found its successor!

Heathrow is building a new terminal 5 and plans to include five lounges for first-class and business-class customers only. The move upwards in luxury is clearly forced by so many cheap tickets around, attracting new herds of cheap flyers. You need to distinguish and separate from these people, right? And don’t forget the new giant airliners soon to take the skies, like the Airbus A380 which also have more first-class seats to fill. In recent years, lots of airlines eliminated first-class service on international flights and only offering business and coach classes. Less and less companies were prepared to pay for these expensive tickets in tough economic times (see my previous blog).

Competition between the airlines these days is decided not in the air, but on the ground! In the plane, mostly the same luxury products are offered, from good folding seats, food, entertainment etc. But on the ground you can distinguish as airline. It’s reported that some passengers arrive earlier than needed just to enjoy the luxury, like the excellent food and the well equipped bars. But most passengers will use the shorter lines to cut back on arrival time before departure from the usual 1,5 hours to 30 minutes. Time is money! You know what also tickles the first class passengers? No upgrades in their own kingdom from the cheap business class! These days, it often happens that frequent flyers (like me) are upgraded to fill up last seats in business class. This will not happen to the happy few of first class, who paid for it and won’t have to sit with people who can’t afford for this. Luxury has it price and you have to be sure it stays like that, exclusively for you. Drinks, anyone, it’s still free!

Need Oil? Renting a house while being used to other energy systems back home, can bring some unpleasant costs. When signing the lease agreement, we agreed paying our own energy, TV and telephone bills. But arriving in Summer, you have no idea about heating - cooling is more on your mind, with high electricity bills as result! As soon as the first cold hit our

house, the furnace switched on. Running on oil, a system only my grandparents would still consider normal. The first time the system switched on, we called the landlord. ‘Help, something is leaking from the system, it’s hissing and puffing all the time’, we told him. He explained us they installed a steam system and not the traditional hot water being pumped around. So, each morning in winter, you wake up to a steamship feeling and get used to stain spots on the ground where the heating elements are fitted.

But there are other things you will never get used to. The oil bill is one such thing. At arriving in this house, the landlord told us he filled up the tank (forgot to ask how big it was). We took that for granted in summer. They called us in middle of winter to warn us the tank might be empty by now (stupid foreigners!). But how would you know, I asked. Well, you can’t. There is no way to measure it, only by taking in new oil. Wow, that’s risky. So we called the oil man they recommended. A long string of unpleasant phone calls followed.

Filling up, give me your credit card, delivery when I’m in the area, rates can vary etc. I finally agreed he would first put in 100 gallon (400L) to see how we were doing. We were 2/3 full after delivery. So, should be enough to make till next winter.

Last week, ‘next winter’ arrived. This time, we thought we were smart and called the oil man back in October. Good rates? Well, yes (same as early this year) but nobody is ordering, so no delivery rounds yet - we will call you! Well, he called back yesterday, with his hand on the pump and we not being home. 'OK to fill up the tank mam?' Eh well, how much is that? We paid $2,60/gl in February this year, now it’s just over $3,00/gl. Imagine filling up a tank of 500 gallon. The oilman quickly calculated at current level of oil, it would cost $1200 to 'top it off'. Well, how about doing 50% now and see what the oil price will do?

He was here now, so couldn't say no and delivered 200 gallons of furnace oil.

Wise decision? We don’t know. Let’s just hope oil-baron-Bush will keep his hand off the trigger and winter will be not too cold!

Sunday, November 04, 2007 Dining out.

“You are so busy. Such a hectic schedule. No time for cooking. You deserve it.” The old commercial for McDonald’s of many years back. Smart marketing! And it has set a trend in the US. Somebody told me the other day that modern apartments in New York City don’t come with a kitchen anymore. Reason: yuppies these days don’t eat at home anymore and rather use the space for an extra closet! But when you grow up, you start a family and will have friends over (Super Bowl), organize birthday parties or stage annual family gatherings (Christmas). Although you might have planned the main dishes and the fridge is full and the microwave plugged in, there are still these moments you want something else and simply can’t go to the restaurant (again). Now, you could order pancakes with tomatoes and cheese, which the Italians call ‘pizza’. But that’s so ordinary and predictable. For these moments the thought of calling a caterer is appealing.

Different parties jump in: restaurants are improving their take-out division while high-end (‘gourmet’) grocers started offering many catering platters. Not easy, for just $10 per head.

So, what is served for this ‘pizza rate’? Simply go to the internet or call and order: Duck and cranberry salad and pita sandwiches of jumbo crab cakes or mini pastries, fruit salad and cheeses are just some ideas. Don’t forget the fresh orange juice (hard to do at home) and

standard coffee. You might have to call another company for a desert platter, but, hey you can’t have it all. Served on big ‘hero platters’ it will impress your visiting friends, no doubt.

And with ten people, you only pay 100$ and some extra charge and tip. You just saved the day and impressed your friends. And most of all, you didn’t have to go places and simply stay at home, keep watching the important sports event. You are busy, working a hectic schedule, you simply deserve it!

Thursday, November 22, 2007 Thanksgiving.

The only neutral national holiday that everyone can enjoy without feeling ‘trapped’ into someone else’s believe. That’s how I would describe this typical American holiday with the many traditions. No wonder that it’s so big and considered even bigger than Christmas. The air traffic over North America became an issue of national security this week. Military airspace was opened up to make rooms for more airplanes and let things go smoother.

People take kids from school the whole week and take them to visit friends and family across the country. Yesterday, the last day before Thanksgiving, in my daughter’s class only 50% of the kids were present. Try that in Europe and the parents will be cautioned and most often also fined. Not for Thanksgiving in the US! We experienced the Thanksgiving traditions last year when invited at friends’ from church.

After watching the big Macy's Thanksgiving parade in New York it's time for food. A large table packed full of different dishes where traditional elements like squash (soup or pie) are key. It starts at lunch time and you tend to keep eating all afternoon. Followed by a key American football match on TV where you can lay down to digest the excessive food. The next day, Friday after Thanksgiving, is called “Black Friday” because of the shop mania that breaks out. Officially it’s to start the ‘holiday sale’ and make people buy their presents for Christmas, only 4 weeks away. But it has become a shop mania on itself. Some large shops like Sears and Macy’s open up as early as 4AM and offer special deals if you chose to sleep on their doorstep.

But what was again the origin of all this? Giving Thanks. To whom? The native inhabitants of America (AKA Indians) that helped the few first newcomers from Europe (AKA Pilgrims) to survive in their new homeland. All American school children learn that some friendly Indians helped the first immigrants to plant corn, or maize, unknown in Europe, and how to live on the edge of the wilderness. Not the first day they landed, but only after a brutal winter when half of the first colonists had died. The wandering Indians didn’t think of it much at first. But they stopped doing that shortly after they discovered there were a few more immigrants coming who had less peaceful intentions bringing their guns, cannons, horses and even more destructive – diseases. A modern western disease, unguided capitalism, is currently making new (house) victims. A clear lesson to learn from history – Say Thanks and don’t get greedy!

Saturday, November 24, 2007 Dining out (2) Dining out is big business in America. We are familiar with the fastfood chains, but less with the category between the low end fastfood and high end quality restaurants. It’s called the Diner, for ‘casual dining’. Think Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday’s and iHop. Fast Food chains are world famous: McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell. But, the diners are less well known outside America. Restaurants with proper food at low price. Waiters are paid $1 per hour and running mostly on tips. That’s why you simply can’t walk away without paying the min of 15% or else be considered a thief!

Interesting trends are noticed due to the cash-strapped families of this year. The growing economic squeeze makes people feel strapped. Think oil prizes, both for cars and, now it’s almost Winter, also for home heating. Don’t forget the looming house market crisis and connected credit problems. Every penny should again be considered before spending. Maybe less ‘diners’ and more ‘fast food’? Well, recent research proved this trend really is taking place. Families with incomes of $60k or less, the group that used to go to the diner for a treat, is now more likely to hit the McDonald’s, Burger King or Taco Bell again.

But the Diners are striking back. They are lowering their barriers to lure their former audience. The famous ‘combo-rates’ have gone down and, surprisingly, also the entrees are offered in smaller sizes for smaller prices. Other recent surveys show that people still spend more per meal than last year and that New York is the cheapest town for an average meal, compared to Paris, Tokyo and London. So while everywhere else we witness price jumps, dining out appears to be on of the last remaining affordable pleasures. But while the ‘casuals’ are taking hits and trying to adapt their strategies, the fast feeders are soaring and taking share from the casual-dining chains. So, there is still no reason to stay home and prepare your own food! Go get it!

Sunday, December 09, 2007 Flying American style.

You hear about it. You read about it. But to experience it first-hand is really bad. Your worst nightmare come true. No more joking but just wondering how to avoid this in future. You are wondering what on earth I’m talking about? No, it’s not the flying - the Boeing 777 is a nice plane and its (CO) staff are OK. The food as always, average, and the 14 hours to Tokyo, well it’s just ‘sit back and relax’ as the pilot advises you after ‘wheels up’. So what made this flight my worst nightmare? Well, it’s the guy who sat next to me for 12 hours!

Normally, people greet each other and check if he/she is in for a chat. The long distance flight normally makes people hide in their little corner, because once talking, where's the end? My travel agency arranged a seat on ‘emergency exit row’ – no seats in front of me – so I could store my long legs. Nice! Till 10 minutes before departure, the seat next to me was empty and this would mean even a chance to sleep a bit and leave some stuff close to me (no seat in front = no seat pocket). The plane looked fully booked so you wonder if it’s

your lucky flight or ….. no…. it’s not, one more guy gets onboard and is walking your direction. He turns his butt towards me and pushes himself into the last empty seat on the plane. Yes, he is not only big but also fat. The start of a true nightmare flight!

I was about to advise him to take the ‘jump seat’ (staff seat only used at start and landing), but this would be too embarrassing. He was stuck between seat A and C and only got out 2x for the toilet and to disembark in New York. It took some minutes to get out and prepare return to his seat. His problem! But his huge figure blocked my reading light. His huge legs lifted his table and he spoiled his drink on my lap as result. He shouted some incomprehensible words to the poor Japanese stewardess and just ignored me as his victim!

His huge chest made his arms hang over my seat and hindered me from eating. He in fact used 25% of my seat. He was not aware of his bad behaviour. 10 minutes before landing he finally produced some audible words and talked to the stewardess about security checks.

The logic of his argument escaped me and we just raised our eyebrows. Almost home, so who cares?

The next day, I called the airline to complain. They told me the fat passenger also paid for his seat. I corrected them that in fact he paid for 1 but got 50% extra without compensating us. He also spoiled my travel fun (of what was left after finding out the onboard entertainment was crap too) and hindered me from eating my own food. The customer service department promised to come back to me on this. It’s a fast growing issue for airlines – what to do with overweight passengers? Jump seats? 50% surcharge? My local bus company would bluntly say: Sorry! ‘standing only’…..!

Sunday, December 16, 2007 American Banking.

Need to pay somebody, like your power supplier? It’s standard in the US to send checks through the mail (or order to do so online). And yes, they can easily get lost. You will find out when the supplier calls for overdue payment and you explaining you paid 4 weeks ago.

Calling the bank results in the simple conclusion your check must have gone lost in the mail.

The bank contacts the supplier while still on the phone, apologizes and testifies you are not to blame and a new check will be produced on the bank’s cost. Easy does it!

But things can go worse. Like two weeks ago, when we checked our bank account online and realized there was a payment with our credit card that sure isn’t ours. And not just a few dollars, but – sit tight - seven thousand ‘digital greenbacks’. Holy smoke! First you think your sweet wife wants to surprise you with a new car. Would she finally have realized we won’t survive another winter with the 15 year old car? But no, that’s not how we 'do business' in our family. A quick check at home confirms the unwritten spouse law.

So, who done it? Well, you immediately call the bank on one of their 250 toll free numbers and ask them! The payment was done a few days earlier to an unknown company, and of course, nothing was delivered here. The bank hasn’t called you yet, so you beat them on their security check-check, double-check watertight system. You advise them to block the credit card and start an investigation. Sure, no problem. They promise you will receive some papers to report the suspected frauds (possibly two) and the bank will take care of it.

And then three days later – surprise! The bank calling, if those seven thousand dollars were indeed paid by you. NO! clerks, wake up, we called you earlier this week, remember? Then,

two days later, the bank calls you again to tell you are over your credit limit. YES, I know that, thank you. But I didn’t spend those 7k. remember? And when are you going to send those papers? They haven’t arrived yet? NO! Got lost in the Christmas mail perhaps? Well, it’s your problem Mrs. Bank, I’m not going to pay them to you. We still haven’t received them, almost two weeks after reporting the online fraud credit crunch. The credit cards have been replaced and we got very careful with using our numbers online. Paying more through PayPal to avoid people watching over your digital shoulder via spam, phishing or spyware. It gets stolen so easy and the banks don’t seem to care. Well, we do because we feel being stolen from and that hurts, even without direct financial damages.

Monday, December 24, 2007 American Lawn Decorations.

It’s Christmas time! Happy Holidays! Light a candle, or two, and spend money before you die in another pie. Americans go funny around this time of year and how surprising, they enter another competition called Garden Decorations.

Even my bus driver stopped last week and announced on the intercom how wonderfully the garden on the corner was decorated – absolutely perfect! A house, famous for its external season decorations, kicking off with Halloween. Having just ‘buried’ all the ghosts, decapitated corpses and other tortured creepy figures in his garage, the bell has tolled for Christmas. The local energy provider must be smiling and calculating the next energy bill – 25% more use of electricity at least!

Of course, he is not the only one and things are getting out of hand. Beating the ‘guy on the corner’ in our village is impossible. But at a lower level in other streets, the war is on! A serious newspaper reported last week ‘over-the-top displays that inspire loud complaints, even rage and law suits! What to do when your neighbor starts building his ‘Christmas park’ early December. He has to use a crane to set it all up. Cables through the garden will soon be covered by snow and ice, but the figures are getting huge these days. What to think of a 9m high lighted arch and a 18m high tree with thousands of lights and dozens of animated figures. Attracting amazed visitors from everywhere. Families with kids and even tour buses are taking up your street in their season tour.

Not only the light is disturbing, but also music is played. Famous tunes, over and over again. Not just during the day, but also at night, keeping the neighbors awake. The particular house owner was told by the city council he needed a special permit for this kind of ‘special event’. And if he also please could remove the cargo container used to store the display most of the year? He ‘threw in the towel’ and decided it wasn’t fun anymore. This year, no lawn decorations in that particular street. New laws are being issued in other places to curb decoration excesses. The music, huge decorations, light and length of the whole event (max 60 days). In some places, it’s too late and locals have take the law in their own hands: blow-up Santas were stabbed and other forms of violent ‘deflations’ have been reported.

And the winner this year is: the garden combining Jesus with Santa, in the crib, surrounded by the elves and lots of animals. Check for more ‘multiple Santa violations’ www.tackychristmasyards.com .

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 Eternal bodies. The last American frontier.

For those readers with a weak stomach, I would advise to skip this blog. But if you want to be amazed and shocked at the same time, keep on reading. This is about the search for immortality. Starting with the extension of human life as we know it. Basic goal: to beat death. Current record: an extra 10-20 years, despite the fact that life span in the US only has grown with 4 yours since 1970!

You may have heard about the quest for life and how some people just want to live forever.

Well, some Americans take this very serious and have invested in either of the two companies that specialize in preserving bodies in expectation of future scientific developments. We can’t keep you alive now, but probably in 50-100 years we can, they told them. So, we will freeze you when you have died and bring you back to life when we or future scientist are able to. Promise! Just pay now and sign here….

For now, it’s basically taking lots of pills, live healthy and try to live for a very long time and this way compete with mortality. The guy interviewed in a recent article takes 220 pills a day. And on top of that swallows special alkaline water, has acupuncture treatments and doesn't forget his regular antioxidant drips. He bets that science will soon deliver technology to save him from disease and aging. His bet is on the ‘nanobot technology’ - little machines implanted in your body that detect and destroy cancers and other threatening diseases without the nasty side effects.

Ultimate goal for these futurists as quoted in the same article: ”take over the universe and become godlike”. Hmmm, where did I read that before? So, how do you do that when you die tomorrow? Well, instead of mummifying in a pyramid (too hot), they will simply put your body ‘on hold’ (or ‘vitrified’) in a (liquid nitrogen of -196C) freezer. It’s called the cryopreservation technique, to keep you waiting to be revived when science has finally found a way to beat death (what happens to the soul is unclear). It will cost you an arm and a leg, or only just your head. The debate is namely whether we should preserve the complete body or just the head (to be connected to a new cloned body later – easy peasy). Freezing your head is a bargain: $28,000. Entire body will cost you $120,000. Ouch!

If you ask me, it’s the perfect business scam. First victims: the super rich with super egos.

Current score: 77 ‘cryo-patients’ are ‘in cold suspension’ and 800 still alive. The only downside is how long it will take before you can be ‘warmed up again’ and the chance it will really work. Scientific experts think it may take 300 years and the ‘reincarnation chance’ is set at only 5%. So the question is who will remember you (‘home alone?’) and do you want to come back from the Middle Ages of 2008 in 2380? I will try some healthier habits after Christmas, but I think I will stick to the traditional but more realistic after-life aspirations.

Sunday, December 30, 2007 House cleaning American style.

The gift season is nearing its annual cycle end. Can the stupid tv-commercials for diamonds and cars with a ribbon be stopped now, thank you? The endless messages informing you till when you can shop (till you drop) and when they will be opened again. I think I even heard

about the first shop opened also on Christmas Day! That would be SO handy. Poor shopkeepers and personnel.

So what’s new and mind blowing this year? In the category ‘domestic science’ a national newspaper recently published a story on ‘debugging the house’. Products from vacuums (hoovers) to towels – all the new products for the ‘microbe-phobic’. The winter season brings the traditional germs that can cause colds, coughs and, worse, the flu. Recent research revealed these flu germs just love winter and only spread in this time of year because it is so cold. They hate summer and hibernate when it’s hot.

Manufacturers are now betting on the trend of buying new products that can kill all the germs and thus keep the flu out. Just buy the new vacuum cleaner which has germ-killing substance in it. Sprays with silver ions to stop bacteria, viruses and fungi from reproducing.

And don’t forget the all powerful copper oxide in your bed linens. People spray the silver ions on all the doorknobs and countertops and sleep on and under expensive new pillow cases, sheets and mattress covers. Not sure if it works, but just to be careful and ‘to feel safer’. What people don’t know is that 99.9% of all germs are harmless to us humans and some are even beneficial. They are all over our body and they protect us against ‘the bad guys’, experts keep saying. But that’s too technical. People want to have it black and white.

Even if there is only 0.1% bad guys, they have to be killed! And we want to spend money on useful things, don’t we?

And the more sophisticated the product, the better. Ultraviolet rays, already used in hospitals to fight (wrong) germs are now entering the private homes: a $500 vacuum cleaner with an ultraviolet light that shines on the carpet (sorry wooden-floor owners!).

Cool! And hey, you can now also vacuum at night! So, the debugging of the house has started, next wave will be the bug-free body and then the eternal bodies (see previous blog). It costs some money, but it is absolutely worth it!

Monday, December 31, 2007 American Pets.

When we made our move to the States back in 2006, we had to look for a hotel which allowed pets. The girls insisted on bringing their ‘little brother’ to America. Finding a ‘petsallowed-hotel’ wasn’t easy and we had to start with a first night at the airport. Luckily we found something more cosy and friendly close to where we live right now.

An article in a quality newspaper this week brought back memories of those first 10 days in the US, living from your suitcase while searching for a rental place. Only then the girls would be able to go to school (having permanent residence) and could we settle in. The story in the paper was about the trend of American hotels opening their doors for pets.

According to the American Hotel Association, almost half of US hotels accept pets, a growing trend. Why? A few reasons. Research among dog owners told the hotel owners that a majority would be more loyal to a hotel chain that accepted dogs, even when they wouldn’t bring one. Furthermore, pet owners have a higher average income than non-pet owners.

And guests with pets also tend to stay longer when their pets are not in a kennel. So, let’s make more money! And… don’t tell the other group of customers.

We still feel thankful that the chain we stayed in those first days allowed our cat to stay with us. It made things for the girls easier to accept. But, what about guests who are allergic to

dogs and cats? Estimates show that 17% (50 mln.) of the US population tests positive to cat or dog allergens. The problem for the hotels that accept pets is that they lose track of which rooms they allowed them in. So, guests with allergies or asthma can find themselves in beds where animals have slept in the night before. Of course, hotels will clean the rooms, but it various among hotels how intense. They will charge you approx. $100-150 for a stay in order to do the post-pet cleaning: deep cleaning taking twice the time of the normal cleaning, including shampooing the carpets and disinfecting the walls.

According to people interviewed, it’s now more difficult to find ‘dander-freeaccommodations’ (dander-tiny flakes of skin and hair) than for us to find a pet-friendly hotel two years ago. This animal dander cannot be removed from a room by steam-cleaning the carpets or hand-washing the walls. So for severe allergy sufferers, the reaction to dander can mean a rush to hospital when without the proper medications.

The result of all this is that not only allergic people avoid pet-friendly hotels, but also a growing number of ‘healthy’ travelers checking on the pet-friendly status of the hotel before booking their room. Just to avoid having to sleep in a bed that might have been slept on by a dog the night before. Another effect is that hotels now offer blocks or at least one floor of allergy-free rooms, maintained by an outside company using special techniques to clean the rooms. Whether this is really bringing results? Check the previous blog on ‘debugging the house’.

American Banking (2) Your identity stolen online is really bad, but your bank reacting slow and inadequately is maybe worse. Cyber thieves must know this and are taking advantage. Finally, after calling a few times, the papers to report the fraudulent use of our credit card arrived two weeks after our ‘theft report’. What happens in the meantime is another story. In the first place, I wasn’t allowed to use that (stolen) amount of money with my credit card at all. Why the bank didn’t call me to ‘flag’ this transactions remains a mystery, not in the least for the bank itself. As result, we were way over our credit line and couldn’t use the card any further, even though they were replaced by new cards. Only a strong protest and stern complaint helped to get us 1,000$ extra credit for 4 weeks, so I can use the card for business use. Lucky it’s Christmas season and therefore only a few lunches were planned and no travel!

OK, so the papers arrived - called ‘affidavit’. Wikipedia explains: an affidavit is a formal sworn statement of fact, signed by the declarant and witnessed (as to the veracity of the affiant's signature) by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public. A notary, or someone sworn in by the bank to witness you signing the statement, like you do when reporting a theft at the police station. Swift as I am, I had my wife co-sign the same evening and took the papers to the bank in New York the following day. “Who is that?” the sharp female clerk at the customer service desk asked me, pointing at my wife’s signature. That’s my spouse, my dear lady, she also uses the credit card, I explained. “Where is she?” the employee continued her in-depth interview. Well, she is at home, I replied. “Then no affidavit, sorry, she has to report in person and identify herself with a proper ID”. Thanks for your kind

explanation, I told her, but can I go to any local Citibank to work it out? She nodded and continued her more important lunchtime work, eating her sandwich.

The first opportunity was three days later on Saturday. We arrived at our local bank and showed the ‘affidavit’. This was something new for the male bank servant. “Sir, you have to report a theft on this toll-free number”. Wow, personal and professional help! I know that, thank you! I’ve reported it two weeks ago but this is an affidavit to formally report it and get rid of the 7020$ on my credit line. You apparently don’t know these papers! After reading them again, he remembered, and called his senior colleague. Bad luck, she is not allowed to sign affidavits. Maybe the neighbour shopkeeper can help, wait 2 minutes! But no, bad luck again, their ‘notary’ wasn’t in either. After two more calls, they found another local branch office who could handle the case. As if we were the first people in the US reporting online theft, we finally got the signatures and stamp and could fax the forms at the local bank office to the credit card department. Let’s see how long this will take to digest.

Saturday, January 05, 2008 Elections 2008 (2).

After months of preparing, fundraising and organising the campaign teams, the contenders finally get ready for the real thing. The election for the new president of the United States is due November this year. The first round was this week in Iowa where surprisingly Barack Obama won for the Democrats (‘Dems’ - blue) and even more surprisingly Mike Huckabee for the Republicans (GOP, Grand Old Party - red).

But, what is actually happening in these pre-elections and why the different states crisscross the nation? When you read about it in the press and try to understand the procedures, you get caught up in old American election traditions that are sometimes hard to explain.

The candidates hoping to win the White House November’s presidential elections have first to take part in several ‘local elections’ known as ‘caucuses’ or ‘primaries’. In this process, the supporters of the two political parties can show in each US state their preference for the candidate that should represent their party in the presidential elections. Summed up by a TV Station: “Each state gets to send a certain number of delegates to the parties' national conventions in the late summer, where each party's nominee is formally chosen - and the primaries and caucuses determine which candidate those delegates vote for.” The procedures are complex and need long preparations by the campaign teams travelling the country for the next 10 months. The procedures are also different for each political party.

The Dems are famous for their complex procedures.

So, the more voters backing a certain candidate, the more delegates ‘pledging’ to support a candidate will be sent to the national convention. Iowa and New Hampshire are traditionally the first states where Dems and the GOP hold their caucus or primary (different terms per state). Not the most interesting states to start with - they are small (especially New Hampshire), they don't have big cities, and their populations are not very diverse. Small in number of inhabitants, so only low numbers of delegates can be sent to the convention, but very interesting as indicator how the ‘White House hopefuls’ are doing in the first rounds.

Big news from Iowa this week is that Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton with large distance.

Secret of his success is that new voters and traditionally non-voters are turning up. He seems to connect to various groups on different topics and has the historical ‘call for change’ (“change we can believe in”) that almost every White House hopeful from another party is using during elections. A country suffering from a costly war and an economic slowdown is longing for a candidate they can trust again.

The Republicans have a relatively broad field of five candidates, whereas the Democrats have a narrower field of three candidates. Lessons from Iowa: you don’t need lots of money to win elections (Huckabee for GOP) and experience isn’t the only thing people are interested in (Obama vs. Clinton for Dems). Wyoming this weekend, New Hampshire next week.

Sunday, January 13, 2008 Pets in America.

Having been in the US for more than a year, it was time our pet got another vaccination.

You might remember our early experience some time ago when it almost died of taking ‘tainted’ pet food and his kidneys almost failing. With that still in our mind, we reacted on the offer to have the cat vaccinated in the local pet shop at reduced rate. The huge line of people waiting almost made us go back, but the trouble getting the cat in its bench at home and the low costs made us stay to wait for our turn.

Filled out the form with the usual claim exclusions (“I know my cat may develop an aggressive, malignant type of cancer at the injection site”) and permissions to inject the cat (that’s why we are here for!). We chose the 4-in-1 (FVRCP) instead of the 6 or 5-in-1. The usual stuff. But, hey, why not also pick the other injections? For example, the Bordetella vaccination which will prevent the development of pneumonia caused by ‘kennel cough’ (luckily only for dogs!). Or the vaccination against rheumatism or bone cancer (no thanks!).

You would think that all these forms and legal notices would make the pet and the vet protected in daily life. Well, the vet is, the pet not. Think about the tainted pet food (Chinese of course) we had given him the first months in the US! Who to sue? Legal experts will tell you that big payouts for emotional damages are unlikely in the pet-food cases (shame!) but what could be the effect is a growing trend to give pets more recognition under the law. We learned (probably too late) we could team up with other pet owners whose pet was made ill or even killed by the wrong pet food. These are the so-called ‘classaction’ lawsuits that should compensate not just for the money wasted on vet bills and just the ‘market value’ of the cat if it dies, but also damages for emotional suffering. It’s not just a pet, it’s considered ‘family member’ by many (including our kids!).

In broader legal terms, almost all US states have made ‘cruelty to animals’ a felony. In line with that civil judgments increasingly acknowledge the emotional value of pets to humans.

So, concretely, when a pet is killed or injured by negligence, for example, a state like Tennessee will allow non-economic damages with max of $50,000. Replacing a pet in Washington State after it was killed by a neighbouring dog was ‘awarded’ $50,000 as intrinsic value of the cat and $25,000 as emotional distress. I’ve started making subtle hints to the neighbours’ dog that our cat is challenging his territory. Hope he is insured.

Friday, January 18, 2008 My Grandpa's century.

He would have been 100 today. I still have fond memories of my 'opa'. I am named after him and carry the same initials, so a nice memory that goes with my creditcard. He was

born in Friesland and trained to be high school teacher. He was said to be a good one, but not lecturing my favorite subject - math. How I hated that subject - I just never got it.

Couldn't wait to drop that weird algebra stuff. But he could explain it with that patience and tact my own math teacher completely lacked. I think I'm just the typical alpha guy. Loved things like history, geography, languages and even economics. But, please no math!

He was also good at playing chess. And when I stayed with 'opa' and 'oma', he tought me how to play. I never forgot the how-to, but hardly played myself, being a too impatient person. He also loved newspapers. Kept them all, reread them, made the article clips and found it hard to throw things away. I recognize something in that too (to my wife's regret).

But when 'opa' retired at 65, he followed his real passion: travelling. Once retired, my grannies moved to a better location to save his weak lungs and hooked on their caravan to drive to the outskirts of Europe: north, the Pole Circle and south, Italy. So cool. And in that respect he was a family trendsetter. At least some genes made their way through the generations!

Now I'm in the US and commemorate my grandpa on his century today. We buried him 10 years ago and spoke sweet words on his life. I visited his grave in (Old) Zealand only once, buried alongside with my grandma. In the far SouthWest corner of our home country, not a place I normally go to. With that, he followed my grandma's last wish to rest in her birthplace. He went first and was followed by my grandma shortly after, my dear granddad's last trip. He rest in peace, till we meet again.

Sunday, January 20, 2008 New York Police.

Since I’m working in Manhattan, there are two regularly drills I’ve been exposed to. The most important, no doubt, is the quarterly fire drill, crucial when your daily work is on the 29th floor in Manhattan. Every 3 months we are called to the vestibule to check if we still know where the exits are in case the elevators have failed due to fire or some other disaster. The fire department rep rattles his ‘escape story’, asks the representatives of each company if everybody is present and calls it another day. Back to work! This week it’s the annual ‘leave-the-building-now!’ drill.

The other drill doesn’t require personal involvement, but doesn’t go unnoticed either. It’s the NYPD Surge Drill. Something I first didn’t know what to think of, but could figure out it had to do with security. Imagine walking to your office at 8:30AM and witnessing around Grand Central approx. 80-100 police cars and heavily armed police officers on the street corners. All cars flashing their full armor of emergency lights and positioned on both sides of the (42nd) street. At first, you think another plane crashed into a skyscraper (but no smoke), or somebody planted a bomb in Grand Central (but no panic). But then you notice the police officers mostly sitting in their cars, doing nothing. Something is not right! Then without a clear signal, the whole string of cars starts to move and forms a huge carnival parade of police cars that won’t allow other cars intertwining. Street corners are blocked to let them through. Their lights forming a velvet sea in the street. So weird! Typical New Yorker reaction is just to walk on, by the way. Don’t pay any attention. Well, at first you wanna run and get to, eh, Starbucks? At least have a coffee before you go….

After the 4th time witnessing this, I went online to find out what this masquerade is all about and found out it’s the NYPD Surge Drill. It started some time after 9/11. The intentions are astounding and I’d better quote officials before you declare me nuts. The official NYPD

statement: A "surge" is a simultaneous deployment of about 200 cops to potential terrorist targets — and a visible demonstration to terrorists and New Yorkers of the widespread changes the NYPD has implemented since 9/11. Mayor Bloomberg confirms this and says in an interview the purpose of it all is to intimidate: "You'll see surges of police officers all of a sudden, heavily armed, that appear in one — in a quiet, nice neighborhood. And you say, 'What are they doing here?' And then they disappear. Every once in a while, you'll see this stream of police cars go zipping down the street, lights and sirens. And you say, 'What's happening? What's happening?' Nothing! I hope."

Now you know. NY City is safe. Terrorists are backing off and are impressed. Tourism this summer was up to record heights. Thanks to the weak dollar and the Strong New York. The Drills are paying off!

Shopping Malls Just hours after arriving in the US, we found out we were staying right in front of a large shopping mall. Trying to find something to eat there wasn’t a smart move. Now, after one year in the US, the same shopping mall was again on our target list. We had just found out it was one of the largest factory outlets in New Jersey. Official sources tell us there are approx. 1,100 shopping malls in the US (the ‘enclosed’ ones only). And some say the ‘temples of consumption’ are loosing popularity.

In a recent press article, the background of the American shopping malls was explained.

Basically, it was to imitate the cosy city centres from Europe. In the new American suburban living areas, shops had no place. The first big shopping malls appeared after WWII in California, just strips of shops with large department stores. Nice for sunny California, but in colder Midwest Minnesota the same idea was extended with a roof. And not only a roof, but it was also equipped with an air-conditioning system keeping the temperature at 24C (known as the ‘eternal spring’) and the typical huge parking lots. The first Shopping Mail was born in 1956.

In this area, shopping malls are known for the place to ‘hide’ when summer is sweltering hot and winter freezing cold. Especially the older and less fortunate population camp out whole days, just walking up and down, drink cheap coffee and eat cheap food. This is the new American down-town and the malls are part of the American way of life. New food chains that emerged 25 years ago, started in the shopping malls and never went outside.

Other malls offered skating rings, a small zoo and indoor bungee jump. The largest mall in the US offers 500 shops, organized in streets in line with different age groups. Early opening hours are only for ‘mall walkers’ who just come to walk the 1km. as exercise.

Shop owners today complain about shoppers ‘without a shopping agenda’. They just go to the mall to kill time (and be away of their misery?), you could call them the ‘shop zombies’.

Older shoppers start avoiding the malls and the teenagers begin to dominate. Another cause of the downturn is the change of the suburbs. The young and hip population often moves back into town and leaves behind the lower class citizens who tend to spend less. Solution: build new malls with bright ideas to attract more lazy shoppers. And don’t call them shopping malls, but rather ‘lifestyle centres’. So, bring in even more things at one location

and believe it or not: take off the roof. So, back to the cosy European shopping streets!

Open-air centres. We would just call them ‘down-town’ shopping centres. But that, of course, would sound too much as a stolen concept!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 Super Bowl XLII. Nothing to do with a Super Large popcorn bowl, but this was the American Football Final nr.

42 last Sunday. Most American kids had no idea what these X, L and II meant, but it looked cool. Well kiddos, they simply used the good-old Roman ciphers to make it look more authentic. After all, it’s the ‘world final’ and the winners would be ‘world champions’, so it has to look important.

But now for the real news: New York Giants won unexpectedly and beat the New England Patriots from Boston, MA. A sharp European observer commented this could also be seen as the Dutch Americans finally beating the English Americans. I couldn’t agree more. And today the winning team is haled back to New York City with a true ticker tape parade on Broadway. Many people are expected in town to witness their true heroes of football.

And now for the number crunchers: The New York Giants' thrilling win over the New England Patriots was the most-watched Super Bowl ever, with 97.5 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said the day after. Fox Channel aired the complete game, which started at 6 and ended around 10PM, so more than 4 hours of TV watching (and eating!). Large part of which was actually not sport, but advertising: the average price of an ad was $2.7 million for 30 seconds. That is a lot of money, but large US companies compete for the best ‘feelgood’ commercial that make people talk about it. There is even a website showing all the commercials so you can check back when you missed the punch line. I admit having watched too and the one I remember as the cutest was the Coca-Cola ad where the huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons are fighting over a Coke balloon bottle and Charlie Brown won. According to an advertising agency executive the TV ad was “big, epic, sunny and beautiful”. The best car ad was from Audi where a man wakes up in bed with the front end of a car under his sheets (remember The Godfather?). Check it out yourself and vote: http://www.youtube.com/adblitz Conclusion: The annual SuperBowl final is the biggest mass-marketing vehicle in the US. Viewership levels are nearly double that of its nearest competitor, the Oscars. If you don’t like football you have a (long) hard time, but the ads compensate for lost entertainment.

And if you really just tune in for football, you take the ads for granted. And remember most Americans are used to it anyway!

Saturday, February 09, 2008 Super Bowl XLII (2).

Where to watch the game? In the US, that’s an issue as important as where you will be for Thanks Giving or Christmas, so I learned. Primarily it’s the question which friend has the

best TV in combination with the best food! It’s the ultimate time of year to show off your latest ‘home cinema’ purchase at yet another ‘grand sales’. You would check if any of your friends has a 65” (flat) plasma HDTV with Bose surround sound ($9k.). That would make the sports event of the year a real ‘stunning high-definition experience’, wouldn’t it?

Well, some people would settle for a large screen in a sports bar or restaurant. Or why not go to church? You got it right! It’s quite normal in the US for churches to organise Super Bowl parties with big-screen TVs, soft drinks and some ‘pastoral talk’ or testimony from a local athlete at halftime. They have used the Super Bowl to get newcomers and build fellowship among churchgoers. Think of meetings with approx. 500 people easily! But, maybe not for long. The National Football League has sent out warnings. Owning the Super Bowl name and the broadcast (bought by Fox Channel this year), they have restricted the TV screens at public viewings to 55” (except at bars and restaurants broadcasting sports events regularly). How come? Well, don’t forget there is a $200 mln of ad revenues at stake! It’s basically to protect the game’s TV ratings which makes the enormous rate of $2.7mln for a 30-second commercial. And you are also not allowed to air the game at events that combine it with a religious message. Some churches have received official warnings of being sued when continuing the announced public airing and others decided to scale back the event.

The different responses could indicate the level of ‘belief’ in the ultimate ‘football goal’.

Some churches decided to cancel the big sport event of the year, others have simply rebranded their events as “Big Game Fellowship” or “Superb Owl” parties just to avoid the trademarked phrase “Super Bowl”. Other people believe it’s just unfair that sports bars can and churches can’t freely have ‘mass out-of-home viewings’. So a civil liberties group has threatened to sue the NFL on behalf of a southern church. Again others simply decided to air the football game on a 55-inch screen (the legally allowed size). But in stead of the 700 expected guests, there were ‘only’ 400 (I know a church in Holland that would be happy to make that number even on Christmas Eve!). But with 400 people watching a pathetic 55” screen, only a few witnessed the crucial last-minute pass that made the NY Giants champion. Next year, better stay home and watch your own plasma TV and don’t miss a thing.

Saturday, February 16, 2008 American Fitness.

I had the pleasure of escaping the cold East Coast and spend some days in San Francisco this week. While New York was dipped in snow, ice, rain and heavy winds, the opposite US city just came out of week long heavy rains and consequent landslides. My West Coast colleagues were all recovering from two weeks of the flu. Only on my arrival, the sun came out for the first time in three weeks. Lucky me!

Working on the West Coast for just a few days makes you get up early in the morning.

Apart from the chance of an early morning walk outside and sniffing the sea air, I decided to do my morning run in the hotel fitness centre. Mind you, it’s 6AM and you would expect this place to be empty. But there were more people living on an Eastern Time zone. Or were they just fitness freaks? Fact was, the gym was almost fully booked: people were active on at least 15 treadmills, 5 cross trainers, 5 bikes and 5 strength sets. Most of the fitness

machines were equipped with a TV screen with choice of most channels. A small head set was offered free of charge to follow your own favorite TV program.

But some people had their own idea of a sporty ‘kick start’. I noticed one guy biking his calories away while on the phone for at least 20 minutes. He had no time to wipe his perspiration, so he had his towel draped over his head, in the same way keeping the sound down. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a no-cell-phones-sign also in this place next time around! And then the lady next to me on the cross trainer (walking/stepping with the poles going back and forth). She decided to practice multi-tasking in the gym: she brought her own music gadget, watched TV with subtitles and brought her newspaper too. But she had to make a difficult choice – either watch TV or read the paper as the paper blocked her screen. How frustrating! In the meantime she was walking and, believe it or not, turning the pages of her morning paper.

A funny bunch of sporty people, 6AM in San Francisco. Some truly athletic people, running for miles with no stop, burning at least 300 calories. Some fat people in urgent need of burning fat, just walking in slow pace for 20 minutes, burning 50 calories max and those who can’t make up their mind: watching TV, reading the paper and making phone calls and being sporty at the same time. Burning brain cells mostly.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Elections 2008 (3).

Things are getting pretty serious now in the US presidential elections. The GOP (republicans/ conservatives) have one serious presidential ‘wannabe’ left: John McCain. As he is not the ideal conservative Republican to many, there is still a second choice for party members: Mike Huckabee, but he has only a very little chance of winning the nomination now.

More interesting is how the Dems (democrats/’liberals’) are combating state-by-state to choose their presidential candidate in the race for November. The fierce competition between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is bringing forth the best of the American democratic traditions. Not before was there a choice between a woman and a black American. But when this choice seems such a luxury, the rift within the Dems seems to become wider. Winning back The White House from the Republicans never seemed easier.

With this fierce debate within their own party, the Dems must fear that the much expected ‘wipe out’ against the GOP could be less obvious. Most striking of this election time is the huge number of volunteers going door-to-door to make people vote and support their candidate.

In recent presidential elections, the electoral map was quite ‘fixed’. Certain regions in the US are predictable loyal to one party or another. The real combat took place in less than 20 ‘battleground states’ (remember Florida in 2004?). Barack Obama has a huge success among African-Americans, who hardly voted before, and first-time-voters who normally don’t care too much. The participation in recent Democratic primaries have broken any record: in South Carolina the Dems’ turnout has grown with 81% compared to 2004 and among blacks it exploded by 113%.

On the other hand, McCain has problems among evangelical Christians, who still form the base of his party (basically he’s less conservative than average). If McCain vs. Obama would be the election ‘ticket’, you could witness former GOP-voters in less conservative areas,

move to the Dems camp for once and vote Obama. Also, don’t forget the strong black-white feelings in the South. Obama would hardly stand a chance to win a single Southern state, where Bill Clinton was the first presidential candidate to win states for the Dems.

Traditionally GOP dominated territory anyway and white voters in the south simply never vote Democratic, not even for white Mrs. Clinton! When she forms the McCain vs. Clinton election ticket, again different groups are ‘woken up’, such as women and Hispanics, strongly appealed by Hillary Clinton.

So far the Dems are facing a draw in choosing their presidential candidate for the November national elections. Two key states are still to vote: Ohio and Texas, March 4. Today two smaller states: Hawaii and Wisconsin. Stay tuned! This is going to be exciting and interesting to watch, even for us foreigners.

Friday, February 22, 2008 American Highways.

They are available in all sorts of flavours: Freeways, Parkways, Interstates, Turnpikes, Routes etc. But, whatever they are called and no matter if you pay toll, they are often dangerous to ride on. Especially in winters with rain, snow and frost, things can be pretty ugly our there. And you can’t look down all the time to avoid those apparent disasters, because the road signs are confusing too, if not misleading.

We just returned from a weekend trip and decided to rent a car. Not just for fun or to use my ‘free days’ with the (business) rental car company. For distances of more than 100kms and in unknown territory, we don’t want to risk our own (old) car. The chance of hitting a pot-hole or surface rift is just too big and the damage can be huge. After we left our familiar territory of New Jersey, we entered New York State and were guided through a toll system that other cars seemed to pass by. You don’t want to risk a fine, but once we had stopped at the toll booth, we saw a hand-written sign saying “free for cars”. What a joke! On another occasion, I felt so lost what lane to choose, I passed a camera-guided tunnel (payper-ride) and was fined for not subscribing to the system. I wrote a letter, apologized and paid the $1.50 by check. They accepted my ‘me stupid foreigner’ argument.

We are just so spoiled in Europe with our neat road system. And apart from France and mountain roads in Switzerland and Austria, they are free. Kept in relative good condition by national citizens paying for it via national tax system. But controlled and maintained by each separate country. How to do that in the US where a coast-to-coast trip (SFO-BOS) encompasses 4,500 km? For President Eisenhower, the German road system served as example for American presidents after the war. The go-ahead of this huge project was given during the midst of the cold-war. The former war-general remembered from experience that roads are easier to repair after attack than railroads. Just guess the Russians would reach the US with their ballistic missiles?

The building of the interstate system was launched in 1956, after the Federal Aid Highway Act was signed. Target: build 67,000km of new roads in 12 years costing $25 bln. The last bit was only finished in 1993 (I-105 in Los Angeles) and cost a little more than calculated: $425 bln, but it brought the Americans one of the modern wonders of the world. Recent calculations looked at the impact of the highway system on the economy. Simple: costs fell sharply thanks to easier and cheaper transport. They make it so easy to get around by car

and busy roads around the cities are taken for granted. It seems that the Chinese now look at the US and are impressed by their interstate highways. It’s used to connect the fast growing Chinese cities with similar investments. Hopefully they will write clearer signs and keep filling those potholes. Concrete, not rice!

Saturday, February 23, 2008 American Fast Food.

“Hey, no Whopper on the Menu?!” A shock to fast food visitors filmed in December last year for a new TV commercial. It was done with hidden camera and intended to show how loyal the BK-customers really were. It’s called the “Whopper Freak-out” and is used in celebration of their 50th anniversary. You would expect disbelief and people shrugging about it, but some responses were truly stunning.

A small lecture from the marketing guide book: this kind of new market research is called “deprivation research” - marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand or product by taking it away from them. The new insights gained from this technique help marketing people to develop new advertising tactics and create ads that make the click with their customers. It also tells you what role a certain product plays in peoples lives. Having people talk about their successful campaigns also tells you what they know about their clients. BK core clients visit the outlet 5x a month, but also hop in other fast-food restaurants 11x a month. So, 16x a month, or roughly 4x a week.

Back to the remarkable ad campaign. It was shot at two Las Vegas outlets over two days.

Actors played as cashiers and eight hidden cameras recorded the results of the ‘bad news’: “Sorry, but the Whopper has been taken off the menu.” The short films showing what happened after this announcement were shown on TV and on a special BK site. The video was played 3.3 mln times and had 357,367 views on YouTube. Did it help? - Help with what? - Sell burgers! – BK says yes. Background stuff: why Las Vegas? Because California (preferred location) has stricter laws on videotaping people secretly and New York was too cold in winter. Another problem was how to get the visitors with the best comments to agree with the video. Each customer who walked into the stores during the experiment had to be chased down afterward to sign ‘release forms’ so they could be shown in the video and ads. One of the coolest comments “I’m going to call BK Headquarters to complain” couldn’t be used because the guy was so upset he jumped in his pickup truck and raced off.

I’m afraid it will be one BK customer less. He simply took the hoax too serious!

Sunday, March 16, 2008 Adrep Adrem - Centennial.

This is blog nr.100. It started two years ago, back in March 2006. Initially, it served as a way to air my feelings towards the big career jump that was ahead - the start of our adventure of living and working in the USA as a family. Since then, many blogs have been written, first about the process of getting here and leaving our home country. Later blogs

were written about our daily affairs and how we see and experience a different culture. Nr. 100 is a good moment to evaluate, check how we are doing and think about the future.

So, how are we doing? Nice timing. We’re almost half way our 3 year contract and the ideal moment to make a balance. So many things had to be taken care of before getting on that plane to New York, October 8 2006. Only just before our departure, we found tenants renting our own house for the exact same period of 3 years. Only a few personal things and our clothes were shipped to the US - lots of stuff was already sold or donated. On this side of the pond, we found some true angels who guided us across ‘river Jordan’. We found a house to rent within 2 weeks. Got a cheap car and were donated furniture, a bed and bikes for the kids.

The job is what could be expected. Doing what I’ve always done at home (ad sales), but then in my favourite second language and in the country I always admired for its positive business attitude and great new ideas. I looked forward to lots of travel within the US and to Asia, HQ of my employer. In the meantime, the girls have settled amazingly fast in their new situation. Teachers are surprised by how fast they have accustomed themselves to the different circumstances and the use of a new language. They read and write it almost without mistakes and are often set as example of how hard work can lead to good results.

But without the great support of the non-working ‘dependent spouse’ this would have been impossible.

Let’s see how my employer thinks about using my talents, either in the US or back in Europe. Deadline is early 2009 when the visa have to be extended or, alternatively, plans for return have to be made. So many things happening right now. Decreasing ad budgets due to the huge credit crunch in the US and consequent slowing economy. Sales people are always needed, so I’m still confident. This blog will keep you posted on where this adventure will take us.

Friday, March 21, 2008 Callcenter terror There are lots of things you will eventually get used to while staying in the US. One issue of ultimate irritation will probably remain forever – call centres. The overly polite phrase “Your call is important to us” always makes me alert and tells me to expect the worst. But there are these other standard phrases like “an operator will be with you as soon as possible”, or Your call may be monitored for quality control purposes”. Hardly anyone tells you how many are still before you. Waiting times can be 20 minutes easily.

In the US, consumers and business people alike are used to the system of outsourcing callcentres. First you had the call-centres answering your call with as main purpose to keep you away from the company itself and solve issues fast. At least there was a human voice! Then followed the computerized call-centres. I understand the use of it for quick orders or explaining opening hours or getting you to the right department. But when my telecom company asks me first to punch in my cell phone number and then answers the phone with “who’s calling please?” I’m baffled. Nutters, you have my number, I’m your customer! I’ve told them this time and time again. Something to do with advanced software not yet connected to real life.

In an effort to bring the human voice back in the system, lots of American companies have started to use Indian call centres with English speaking respondents trying to help with or

sell you into something. My bank uses such a call-centre. Questions about my credit card or bank account are answered by friendly young people. That’s what I recognize, at least.

Their English is spoken with a heavy accent and maybe it works for Englishmen to understand, but I fear not for Americans. Most of India’s call-centre industry - offering approx. 300,000 agents! - is located in Bangalore by the way.

New developments like rising costs, more demanding customers and increasing competition from countries like the Philippines, force yet again a new technology to be implemented.

New software helps Indian call centres to save time off each call by using ‘context data’, like the caller’s location (“how is New York today?”), caller using landline or mobile, the local weather (“you angry because of shitty weather?”), time of day (“you always angry in evening?”) and records of recent transactions (“wanna buy more?”). The latter is very popular with financial institutions of course. But be aware! This software is also able to examine the call itself, using “word spotting” software to evaluate the agent taking the call and the reaction of the caller. The software will help the agent to answer in similar choice of words as the caller is using (neurolinguistic techniques) after having searched for insight into their psychology.

Big Brother was already watching, he is now listening too!

Saturday, March 29, 2008 American Fitness People over here just love to shop and buy. Watching TV offers them the daily products ‘you really, really need’. Complete TV channels are dedicated to selling you stuff you don’t need, but just want to have for whatever reason. One of these endless stream of commercials are for exercise equipment. If only a few people would buy them and actually use them! We would see less grossly overweight people around us. In reality, people buy them just to feel good. After trying a few times the fat killer tools mostly end up in the basement and reappear after 5 years in the Spring ‘yard sale’.

The most hilarious tool we recently saw was the “Teeter HangUps” ($100) – some kind of stretcher that rotates on an axle and while strapped on the light weight bed, it can turn you upside-down. Why? To get rid of all kids of back pains. Well, don’t get on it while carrying around 200 pounds or more! It will certainly crash at first try. And, you wouldn’t be able to sell it in the next yard sale. Recently, we have seen the “Perfect Push-up Deluxe”. No ladies, not the ideal bra, but two rotating handles, placed on the floor, helping you to do the classic push-ups ($60). No strain on the muscles and maximizing strength. Turns out that it only works for those who already are used to push-ups and fit. Doing it sitting on your knees feels so humiliating!

Then there is the “Urban Rebounder” ($100). Something that will bring out the kid in you.

It’s a mini indoor trampoline to help you do ‘controlled bouncing’ and kind of aerobic activity in the basement. The fun seems to be the high-energy exercise with lots of sweat and funny bouncing. It’s gentler on the joints than many other aerobic equipment (quote from the brochure) But again, don’t try this at home when you’re over 200 pounds! Finally, my favourite product, the Jump Snap ($60) – a jump rope without the rope. No risk of tripping over, especially handy for the overweight people! I’m doing the same exercise on the 29th floor in NY (for free) at each short break and keep the muscles loose. Electronic sensors in

the handles measure your jump-by-jump progress. Professionals will tell you the rope actually improves your coordination. That’s why it’s so popular with boxers.

Exercise is done by people who want to keep fit. Equipment makers come up with new tools every day just to make fast bucks. You can tell from the yard sales which type works and which doesn't (the majority).

Saturday, April 19, 2008 Time Out! The fingers of one hand hit the palm of the other. Time Out! We need to talk, we need a break, or we just want to stop the opponent’s momentum. In most American sports games these time-outs prove to be a blessing for TV. It offers just enough time to have 4-5 30 second spot commercials. One main reason why soccer will never make it to the big pot of TV-millions – there is simply not enough time to project the commercials messages. But the problem is definitely not the length of the soccer game because check out baseball - the worst to watch on TV - they must be running out of commercials to fill the breaks some times!

So, you would expect on a regular soccer game only to have one break, right in the middle and only determined by time, and the ref keeping it. In America, coaches have a lot to say, not only their own team, but also about the rules and the referees. They are simply used to it. Like with college soccer where even refs have to explain each call (“what’s the call ref?”).

Also the time is kept from a central clock and stopped at injuries. Often, the time on the ref’s clock is not running in sync with the central clock – you just wait for the loud beep and stop the game.

So, what to do with these coaches who think they can demand an explanation for each call you make on a regular soccer game? We as refs are instructed to ignore them, but boy, they can get angry! I had one last week who started subbing his players one by one from the start whistle and did so for 10 minutes. It’s allowed in US soccer to sub all through the game with unlimited number of players. But half his team was now substituted by the 10th minute. I told him he was bringing in too many stops in my game and asked him if this was just a coincidence, he went ballistic. The nerves I had to question his decisions while doing something he had all the rights to do! And not answering his request for call his explanation! He fumed till the end and things got worse when his team lost on top of that. I was too polite and tried to explain things at the end, but he was still in full steam.

In case you think this was the final of the American Champions League, relax, it was a Girls14 game on some far away American Footbal pitch with huge yard lines going across.

Even the assistant refs often missed the orange soccer sidelines! No spectators and nothing big happening apart from our substitution debate. But American coaches have their pride and refs who are decisive and stubborn like this Dutchman are to be scolded. I decided next time to pull the yellow card before I create my own soccer timeout.

Saturday, May 03, 2008 Bodyguards A familiar sight in big cities in the US – a group of security guards, these heavy weights, wearing sunglasses and ear phones, accompanying some VIP. It could be a sports star, pop star, politician or captain of industry. He or she has been hiding in the limousine and when once they are out they are protected against your looks, touches or worse: attacks. The signal is clear: I’m important and/or rich, just stay away!

A recent story in the newspaper about this phenomenon caught my attention. It was titled “Entourage Economics”. Reading about the issues surrounding security guards was an eyeopener for me. They don’t have to be your security guards, the team could also consist of coaches, trainers, agents and chefs. Sometimes they could be a 10-person team, following the VIP wherever he/she goes. The costs involved are simply staggering. Think of amounts like $400,000 on annual basis. But salaries have grown fast too: basketball players bring in an average of annually $5mln, baseball players $3mln and football players ‘only’ $1.5mln.

But not only the costs are worrying for the VIP’s, also the liability. Entourages have gotten a bad reputation. ‘loose hands’ we would say in our language. ‘Loose hands’ can carry guns and fire when people are behaving ‘obnoxious’. I told you to ‘stay away’! The assistants bring anything the VIP needs, including drugs. The dangers for the VIPs are not so much attacks or kidnap, but much more mundane things like cellphones and booze. Cellphone cameras can bring every silly move straight into the gossip papers. Imagine females approaching a male star – it can become a questionable situation. So they just need to have people around them to fend off unwanted advances, says a sports agent.

So, what do you do to cut back on these costs? Some start using free-lancers. They just hire two guys when visiting a nightclub or other event where some security is needed. Or just ask your mother to handle your food and finances. Upside – you save a lot of money, downside – you will certainly look less important!

Saturday, May 10, 2008 Air travel lessons Since flying isn’t glamorous anymore and became a commodity long time ago - cheaply getting (long distance) from A to B, there are a few new habits and rules you will adopt fast.

Just to minimize the pain of travel and survive coach (or: cattle) class. Some learned by accident, some from talking to fellow travellers or reading their blogs.

The first thing you would normally look forward to was the food on board. Not anymore. You buy sandwiches or a big salad and water before boarding your plane when flying longer than 2 hours. Between 2-5hr flights, hardly any food is served during the day. So breakfast at the airport or when in a hurry buy something and eat it on the plane. Sorry neighbour. We won’t wait for the flight attendant to bring me my stale pretzels and coke with 50% ice. The other issue is when to switch from ‘travail’ to travel. Working on a plane is a pain. Your brain slows down fast due to less oxygen in the air; you can better watch a good movie or

listen to your favourite music. Try not to hinder the fellow passenger behind you and recline only a little bit. The guy in front of you won’t bother to warn you and collapses his full chair and even eats his dinner with reclined chair. Tip: direct your personal air jet to the top of his encroaching head.

Avoid certain airports and airlines when you can. Some travelers can choose between airlines on their often frequent distances, say New York-San Francisco (SFO). My favorite airline, using Newark as its hub (CO) has the nerve to use Boeing 737’s to fly 6 hours NYSFO. If you weren’t claustrophobic yet, you will be now. I’ve told my travel agent to avoid booking flights this long and using these aircrafts. I recently did a round flight NY-ChicagoBOS-NY, using AA from Chicago to Boston. You step right into the 70-ies when boarding these MD90 planes. The seat almost fell apart and even for lean people like me, it’s impossible to ‘sit back comfortably and relax’ as the pilot tends to advise. Unbelievable!

Upgrades. Seasoned business travelers are working hard to get one. I know where to expect one: the evening flight NY-Orlando. Few tourists and less business flyers. I can’t risk the morning flight, having to drive 1,5 hours to my client. Finally room to stretch my legs and get at least some decent food and wine. And then you are home again. Jetlag. How the really frequent flyers cope with this, is still a mystery to me (they probably won’t). Flying New York-Tokyo (12-14 hrs) is less severe going West than back East. It takes me 5 days to recover from it and not waking up 4 in the morning. I simply don’t get used to it but just know what to expect. That helps. Next trip is …. Yes, Tokyo. Looking forward to it. Meeting my colleagues you normally only email with due to the time difference. Transpacific flights beat even video conference.

Thursday, June 12, 2008 Cancelled flight The economy is stalling and in America we can feel the first effects. Car fuel prices have doubled since we got here late 2006 and is now almost $4 per gallon. In European terms still 'peanuts' transferred to $1 per liter! But the cars guzzle more per mile here, as you know. We started to notice more bikes on the road. Whether that's just because it's summer, or really to cut the short distance car rides, we don't know. But it would be an quick saving, as literally everything here is done by car.

Airlines have also started to find new ways to cut their soaring fuel bills. Only eight years ago, 15% of the price of airfare went to pay for jet fuel, today it's 40%! Cleaning their engines every night to get rid of dirt and reduce the drag (in stead of only at big clean ups) seems to save lots of money. But what about taking less water for the toilets? It turned out that approx. 50% is used during a flight anyway. Weight is also saved by replacing passenger seats with lighter models, swapping bulky drink carts with lighter ones and having both pilots not bring two sets of their heavy instruction books, but put it all in digital format. Wow, that certainly will bring the nose up! Other simple ideas: flying the planes slightly slower to save fuel. Arrival time will only be effected by 5 minutes.

But the more drastic ways of cutting costs are simply cancelling flights. Sure! They offer a flight schedule, connecting flights and passengers pay to use it, but airlines decide that a minimum of customers have to be on a flight to make it economical. So when I had to fly from Minneapolis to Grand Forks (North Dakota) on the last flight at 10:30 PM this week, it turned out to be cancelled. Sorry sir, you are booked on the next flight, in eh... 24 hours.

Goodbye! Sweet dreams. Well, my meeting starts at 10AM tomorrow, any earlier flights? No

sir, sorry. Next please!

Remember this airline: NorthWest. They done it to me before, but then with compensation.

This time it was 'due to weather conditions'.

Well, I had to hire a car and drive the 350miles to Grand Forks. No rain, no lightning, no storm, no nothing, just pitch dark roads with no lights and 70mls/hr max speed limit. Got there at 4AM and managed to get 4 hours of sleep in my hotel.

Sent a complaint to NWA and promised them I will avoid them wherever I can. It won't hurt them, just one passenger frustrated and at the same time thousands of dollars saved. My client didn't notice my sleep deprivation, but I slept on the next day's flight back home. Too bad it was only 30 minutes flying time. It took me 4,5 hours by car. We still need those planes, I'm afraid.

Thursday, July 10, 2008 Here comes the Repo-man!

A riddle to solve: You don't see him until it's too late. He will take away what was yours but you can't afford anymore. What is it? It's the Repo-man. 'Repo' as short for 'repossessing'.

In hard times, banks take back what they once gave on mortgage. Other luxury items are in trouble too, like boats. When you are 'default on loan' the bank hires a repo-man to go and seize its property. As simple as that. They can pick up the boat in a backyard, garage or in a marina, haul it back and will auction it. How does it work?

A recent press article introduced to me a new part of the legalistic system in the US. The enormous housing boom produced the so-called 'easy credit' - it made people refinance their homes and used the cash for down payments on a luxury item like cruisers, yachts or sailboats. Think of boats costing $150,000 for which you would get a $100k. loan. Interest paid upfront, the rest of the money doesn't go down. Others would pay for the kids to go to expensive colleges. Now the house values come crashing down, suddenly people can't pay for these things anymore and the fuel crisis added to that as many boats are fuel guzzlers.

A weekend away on the boat today easily costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Now re-financing isn't an option anymore, some people simply stop paying for their loan. And one day they come home to find their boat is gone!

It was the repo-man. He is busy these days. The guy in the story works around the Great Lakes and does on average one boat a day. Asking around, calling the spouse and trying to find out where the boat is docked. Trying different keys, starting the engine and off they go.

Daily routine. And some boats are even taken from the same person more than once. The repo-man doesn't need special papers to repossess. The bank loans, as with car loans, give the bank permission to recover its property in case of non-payment ('default'). Calling the police for trespassing is useless, the repo-man works according to the law. Living way off your financial limits is what some call 'a calculated risk'. Many are losing, so do the banks.

Saturday, July 12, 2008 Oil and sports Is there a relation? After reading the paper yesterday, I believe so. At least in the US! First, do you know the type of budgets American high schools of name and fame can work with?

950,000$ to run the athletic program for 2008-09 at Mount Vernon, NY, for example. This month, the board of that school decided to eliminate funding for high school sports. The district wouldn't provide the money they got last year, so cuts had to be made. With a minimum of 300k$ the coaches say they could do at least the best teams. Travel cuts are the logic start. No more than 75 miles travel for away-games could be one. Less games in total could be another.

All around the country, state budgets are cut drastically. Inflation, rising gas prices and a slowing down economy force schools to rethink how they fund their sports. In Florida, the link is quite easy: high gas prices forced tourists to stay home. That means less taxes which means less to give to school districts. Parents have to jump in and other private funding is suddenly pursued. School-sponsored sports may quickly be taken off the curriculum. Panic everywhere! Because schools and sports are inseparable in the US. At high schools the feed starts for colleges and universities. Think of high school basketball and baseball. The junior varsity sports.

A funny by-effect is that flying could become more popular again for sports tournaments.

How? Well, parents who would normally take their car to cover the 300 miles or so to bring their kid to a soccer tournament in Summer might now consider flying a more economical means of transport. Sports clubs pick these events 2-3 years ahead and in the meantime the gas prices have sky rocketed. Those who planned to fly to far away tournaments are now cancelling because of hefty airline charges that weren't there two years ago (50-70% increase).

Poor kids! we will probably see less of them this Sumer at American airports. No more backpacks at departure gates and arrival halls. How I would miss that!

Sunday, July 13, 2008 Summer Camps It's that time of year again: Summer vacation and the dito camps. You notice the beginning of the camp season by realizing there are no kids on the street. Nowhere. Our daughter always plays outside, but found no companions the last couple of weeks. We booked her one week of basketball 'day camp'. From 9-2 Mon-Fri in the local gym. Turned out to be more of a neighborhood service, street work. Kids walked in and out. Some boys had a fight and were sent home for the day.

But the real thing costs a little more. And can easily take 3-4 weeks, the so-called 'sleep away camps'. Our eldest had to say goodbye to her school friend for the summer - 4 weeks special camp. Relational problems. And her parents rather pay large amount of money than going out with her camping and do some bonding.

There even is a national association - the American Camp Association, a sector club with 2,600 member camps and 3 mln. campers annually. The ACA confirms that our daughter's friend is no exception. Approximately 25% of the children at its camps are medicated for

'attention deficit disorder, psychiatric problems or mood disorders'. With this development, it is no surprise that the summer camps are loaded with different medications. One company spotted a great business opportunity and created the CampMeds - a summer's worth of prepackaged pills to 6,000 children at 100 camps ($40 per kid). This company confirms a new trend: 40% of children regularly took one or more prescription medications last year, compared to 'only' 30% four years ago. 5% of these kids use psychiatric drugs!

The clever business idea is to wrap packets of pills marked with a name, date and time.

Camp nurses simply open the package and deliver - avoiding risk of error and thus liability.

Mr. Bush, be warned: the next generation of Americans gets used to live on 'real' drugs and nobody cares. I know at least one (safe) camp that won't use 'prescribed drugs': soccer camps.

Bail Bonds It took a lot of energy and papers to get into this country as visa-guest and we are grateful to be able to work and live here for a while. During your stay you make sure you don't have to talk to the legal authorities too much. Law enforcement officers are in general not known for their social talk and gentle approach of citizens.

But just in case you get in trouble, make sure you know there is a typical American invention to stay out of jail - the Bail Bond. The Bail Bondsman is a for-profit part of the American justice system and he will 'post bail for people accused of crimes in exchange for a fee'. In the rest of the world, agreeing to pay a defendant's bond in exchange for money is a crime. In fact most countries would condemn this practice and it would mean 'obstruction of justice' anywhere else outside the US. A defendant - still presumed innocent - who cannot make bail on his own pay, pay an outsider a non-refundable fee for their freedom.

Typical American invention, although already abolished in four US states (where the defendant is required to deposit to the court). Along with lots of other 'inventions' and exception, by the way. What Bail Bond does in principle is to make sure the defendant will show up for trial and not flee. America being quite a vast country without internal borders like in Europe, there was a need for extra forces to make sure defendants could be hunted down. Not for nothing, these special agents are called in some states 'Bounty Hunters'.

There is even a program on TV following their daily practice.

So, in a nutshell, private businesses are allowed to post the bail in exchange for payments from the defendants and the promise to the court that they would do the police job. The bail bond agent will talk to his potential client and estimate the risk and take a non-refundable 10% fee. If they don't appear in court after all, the bail bond agent has to pay the full amount. In doing so, they are allowed to break into homes of defendants without a warrant, put them in prison and moving them across state lines without the normal extradition process papers. The guy in the press article I read recently had only 1% of 'no-shows'.

Main problem is, as always, the money flowing into the judicial system. Bail Bond agents need to have a close cooperation with lawyers, police, jail officials and even judges to make sure the bail is high and 'interesting clients' are funneled to your agency. Scandals have happened in different states in the past, but still the Bail Bond system stays in tact. It's justice-meets-capitalism. When you watch the Bounty Hunters on TV and simply replace cars with horses you realize it even could be a western. This country is too modern to sustain this old-fashioned relict.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 Saving money These are hard times for the USA. The economy takes a nose dive after some serious financial meltdowns. Banks simply took too many risks while providing bad loans and mortgage institutes became too greedy by offering mortgages to people who can't afford it.

Gambling on the ever growing market (house prices will 'always' go up) and strong American economy in general. But other countries also want to grow, like China and India.

They need more energy than before. Oil prices shoot up, the dollar looses value and banks loose lots of money. People loose their job, lots of houses for sale, complete streets sometimes empty. Time for new measurements! Would a new president help?

Some people never learn and will keep lending. You got to keep living and stick to your luxury standards. Your kids got to join that prestigious college and you got to have that new car. Saving money before spending it, is something 'so yesterday'. But what if your house isn't worth more than your mortgage? No 'overvalue' or 'equity' available, ouch! You could still take money from your pension fund, or the "401(k) Savings Plan", or take a quick 'Payday Advance Loan' to buy what you need today.

And then, when you really think this country has gone nuts, there is my own "401(k)" quarterly info sheet. I normally just put it away 'for later', but this time my attention was drawn to the last page. Some suggestions were made to put just a little extra money into your retirement savings account. But, where can you find that money for savings? Well, my retirement savings company has some ideas. Ready? Here we go!

1. instead of running (read: driving!) to the shop in the evening (open till 10), you could stop at the store on your way home from work. Cut miles and save gas! This applies also to the other daily trips - bank, post office etc. They even went further suggesting I can walk to these outlets in stead of taking the car!

2. Instead of buying the fast-food lunches, vending machines snacks and take-out dinners, you could save money by preparing your food at home! Revolutionary thought! Get back on your chair, I've one more! Mind blowing!

3. Replace bottled water by tap water. I'm baffled. Had to re-read that part. I'm doing that every day, you know. I didn't know I had it in me!

Total estimated savings for the above (for an average American) is $148 per month and put that in your pension fund (at 8% annual return) it might easily accumulate to $339,495 after 35 years! I'm afraid nobody has that stamina here and people rather keep spending the money as always. Actually, that's the US government's philosophy - don't save, keep spending, like they do with the tax money.

Sunday, August 17, 2008 RV-ing in the US An excellent way to discover the beauty of this country!Uhhh ... RV-ing? In case you don't know - RV stands for Recreational Vehicle, or as we would call it in Europe: 'a camper' (or 'motor homes'). A variation is the so-called 'fifth wheel' where a large pickup truck is towing the RV and can be left at a campsite while you use the car for traveling around.

We hired a regular mid-size RV back in 2000 and traveled through California and Arizona.

Passed different national parks and visited the main view point at Grand Canyon. Simply awesome! Those were the days. Gas (in California) was bought at approx. $1.50/gallon (or Euro 0.40/l). Those big (34-foot or bigger) RV's (like our Winnebago) take a lot of fuel, but at that rate, what the heck? Despite the slightly cheaper gas rates, the Winnebago today, especially in California, would be charged $4.50/gallon for regular 'gasoline' fuel. The bigger "type A" motor homes use diesel and that is $5/gallon!! Don't be surprised when to hear a driver of an RV asking the petrol attendant to put "$300 worth of fuel". That's not 'filling up', mind you! An average tank can hold 100 gallons. Using 7-10 miles/gallon, which is at best roughly 1:4 in kms. Read that again.

A recent press article reported on the effects of this 'fuel hike'. It could mean less traveling and staying put at one campground. Or cutting the number of destinations and side trips on the next long journey. But a direct hit is of course taken by the RV industry itself. The vehicles sold can range from $5,000 pop-up camping trailers ('fold-up-caravans' as known to Europeans) to the bulky $400,000 motor homes as large as a bus. The industry sales dropped 14% this year. And it's the first thing owners get rid off when they feel financially pinched.

Maybe the RV-industry expects things to pick up, because some large individual manufacturers have taken bigger hits this Spring. Especially the huge A-type motor homes have seen over 50% lower sales figures. Still, the figures aren't that bad, some say. People using RV's still compare their total costs (including fuel) to that of staying in hotels and flying. Vacationing with your RV still saves you money, the RV industry says.

Well, maybe for Americans, but I think foreigners considering hiring an RV this year will think twice when they have to fly first to start their holiday. Those costs have gone up enormously to start with. The 'fill-it-up-please' call will be used more than once. I if remember well, back in 2000 for us it was approx. 4x $150 (full tank) = $600. That same tank would cost today $450 and at frequency of 4x a total of $1800, so $1,200 more on fuel costs than 8 years ago. You could do nice other things with that money. Like taking a cruise perhaps?

Thursday, September 04, 2008 American tap water I remember being invited many years ago to join a so-called network-marketing event.

They tried to make you buy water filters to be installed in your kitchen sink. Once you were convinced of the product's value, you would buy a few more and start distributing (read: selling) them among friends and family. The general reaction among the Europeans was 'our water can't be that bad' so why pay extra money to filter tap water? It was an American company trying to set up the network marketing system. They explained that US consumers were very critical on what they consume. The doubts about the water quality would also blow over to Europe. After a simple test, I decided not to join. The taste of our tap water was good and reports from research institutes confirmed our water was still pretty healthy.

I forgot about this story for a while. But once we set up camp in the US two years ago, the first drink from the tap gave us a wake-up-call: it was heavy on chlorine. We decided to buy a simple 'counter top' water filter (see picture). Costing some money and you need to replace them every two months. This week, I read about it in the press and was confirmed in my doubts about the situation over here.

Reading the article, the most striking part of the story is the proven high dosis of 'chloramine' (combination of chlorine and ammonia) used to disinfect drinking water. You

can smell it best when taking a shower. We noticed it even more after coming back from our Summer vacation to Europe last month.

As everyone knows, US consumers (and Europeans alike!) spend billions of bottled water per year - in 2007 another increase of 12% over 2006. The costs of using bottled water and environment consequences (waste of plastic and transport) makes many people decide to switch back to tap water, but then using a (carbon) filter. But can the filter work 100% on all contaminants in the public water system? Think about the increase of antibiotics and other remnants of drugs people take and flush into the toilet. These are small quantities, but potentially harmful to infants, pregnant women or those people with chronic health conditions. And researchers even fear that traces of antibiotics could contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, the so-called 'super bugs'. Unfortunately, these traces of pharmaceuticals won't be eliminated by the carbon filter. But still, the sales of the carbon filters are at an all-time high.

I'm waiting for a new water filter application: shower filters to take away the chlorine smell.

Simple solution: don't drink while taking a shower!

Saturday, October 04, 2008 Money lost The US lost some money over the years. They got used to it. You borrow and spend it and borrow some more. Because everything is up - the economy, your salary, your house value.

Now, the last thing is pure poison. The average American has become used to the habit of taking money out of their house (equity) to finance almost everything, starting from a new kitchen to your kids' education. So, how do you make sure you get the max out of it? You ask the real estate guy to value your house just a little bit higher and the bank will give you that money. Based on what again? Right, just the 'value' that real estate guy estimated it for. Based on what? Market situation, location of the house and a little on the side, of course. Yes, the real estate guy has to make some money and the bank and ..... the owner.

Somewhere, a few years ago, it started like this.

Money lending, it's the most common thing in the US. I learned this week that the US borrowed 3 trillion dollar from countries like Saudi Arabia, Germany and Japan to finance their balance sheet. That’s a 3 with 12 zeros: 3,000,000,000,000 US$ or 3 thousand billion.

You got it? I don't. Will the US ever be able to repay this unbelievable debt? In order to generate again more money to stop this gap, the US government allowed Investment Banks to play with more money and bring down the safety valves. The banks and mortgage lenders needed expansion to make more money and mortgages were given to people who would never be able to afford it. With ludicrous low payments - for the first 3 years. And then, my friend, you got to pay what all the other guys are paying: 1,000 to 1,500 a month.

Oh, you only make 1,500 a month? That's too bad, we will have to retake your house. And so the banks became owner of thousands of homes lately and no mortgage income. Oops! that's too bad. The two largest mortgage banks had to be rescued by the government to prevent them from going bankrupt. And now it gets important to see who has the best network in Washington. One investment bank fell but the other was saved. An insurance company was saved and nobody understood why.

Finally, Washington decided to save the financial industry by spending 700 billion US$ (for starters) and bail out the sad little financial wizzards of Ozz who lost so much money (but who made sooo much in the last 10 years).

The US lost more loyalty and confidence and in a higher pace than it did with the go-alone war in Iraq. Everywhere banks are falling as consumer confidence is fading and money withdrawn from the banks. Where will this end? Nobody knows. The crisis in Japan - similar to that now in the US - took 10 years to recover. Be prepared!

Saturday, October 11, 2008 Rusting habits Despite the image of being a modern and technically advanced nation, lots of things go pretty old-fashioned over here. Once a rule or system is installed it seems hard to replace it with a better one, let alone accept criticism on this habit. Take for example the buses that take commuters to and from the city. My (non-public) bus line (DeCamp) simply uses tour buses, made to sit down for a long ride and relax. Not to sit (or for me: standing mostly) for 40 mins and get on and off quickly. Everyday, there is a chaos offloading the 50-odd passengers at the NY bus station. Hundreds of buses have to offload 10 people, move a bit further, offload another 10 etc. All in order to have other buses get in the terminal behind them and start offloading too and keep it flowing. Why they never changed to typical commuter buses with front and back exits is a mystery. Let alone the flexible seats that allow passengers to recline. I often ask my fellow commuter in front of me to please bring up his/her chair because I can't put my legs anywhere. Slightly annoyed I dared to ask the 'favor' while taking a nap or reading a book, they adjust the back of their seat.

And then there are the traffic signs. On a through-road, you can drive on unless you see a stop-sign. (In Europe, you would be told regularly you are on a through-road with feeding streets yielding to you.) But once you see a stop-sign, you'd better stop, because police is watching crossings frequently. Again, it's a habit you get used to. But one thing I will never get used to is the massive use of traffic lights over here. They are on 24/7 and almost never work on electronic 'offer/demand' systems. I've been waiting often at traffic lights without any other car being around, even at night. The only concession traffic officials made is the right-turn-on-red (weekends and from 7PM-7AM). Still, these crossings are known for many car accidents as people just hate to wait in vain or can't see clearly around the corner.

Traffic lights also divert driver's attention upward, away from watching other cars and pedestrians around them.

But, there is light in the tunnel. A recent article told its business readers about the rise of a traffic novelty to Americans: roundabouts! Wow, a car traffic revolution, not-invented-here!

Traffic intersections without stop signals. The revolution started in Indiana where new suburbs started to build roundabouts along with the start of new road constructions. It needed some explanation, of course (cars entering a roundabout yield to those already in it). First results are 'simply amazing': a big drop in (head-on collision) accidents involving injuries; the saving of huge amounts of gas because of less 'car idling'. And for the local government - costing less to construct than stoplight intersections and low on maintenance.

And, most importantly for this impatient blogger, so much less delay and more free-flowing traffic.

But I'm afraid my daily commute will stay the same till I return to good old roundabout country!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008 “Today is Election Day. The opportunity to set our country on a new path has never felt more real than it does right now.

The polls are open in most places, and people are already making their voices heard for change.

There's just one thing left to do -- vote and make sure everyone you know votes, too.

You can find or verify your polling location by looking up your most recent registration address at VoteForChange.com.

Go vote today, and make sure you take your friends and family with you.

This is the day when we have to commit to doing everything we can. We can't afford not to -- for our families, our communities, and our future.

Once you vote, you can do more than just wait as the returns come in.

You can help get every last vote for Barack by volunteering in your community or making calls from home. Help put us over the top today: http://my.barackobama.com/november It's not too late to knock on doors, make calls, and make sure that every one of our supporters gets to the polls today.

Change is within our reach. We're counting on you to get us there today.

Thank you for everything you're doing, Michelle�

P.S. -- If anyone you know hasn't yet made up their mind, please invite them to learn more about Barack's positions on important issues:

Wednesday, November 05, 2008 Hi Rodric “ I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing...

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you, Barack “

Saturday, November 08, 2008 . American elections.

We all know the outcome: 'that guy' simply won and didn't have to steal it. Historic moment for the US and it's great to be part of that euphoria. There is not much time to celebrate as the economy is melting down fast. The loss of jobs is the highest in 14 years and it's still not the end of the enormous troubles.

Back at home, when I was a teenager, we were politically engaged. A family member was in parliament and every election it was exciting to see how different circumstances could change voting habits. Back in the 80ies, after each national election, the papers would be spelled on how certain towns and villages had voted. The general trend would be: economy up - time for new things, new parties, extra money. Economy down - back to the centre or even right, stick to what you have and trust government to people with balls.

Being in the US, I'm curious to see how a large group of loyal and steady voters behave in times of trouble - the evangelicals - Christian believers I feel strongly related to. Through the years they formed a reliable backbone of the Republican Party, in fact they formed 23% of the electorate this year. During this election run-up, lots of articles in the press and books were published telling the 'old religious right' was moving 'left' now a new candidate on the other side, Barack Obama, clearly used religiously inspired rhetoric. Were

evangelicals really rethinking their loyalty to the Republican Party or stay conservative in general?

New topics that appeal to Christians could make them change their minds this time, such as the fast deteriorating environment and the need for a stronger government to help the poor and protect the weak. An article in the press this week checked these suspected voting changes after the elections and concluded that Mr. McCain still won 74% of the white bornagain protestant votes. Still a few percentage points lower than President Bush got in 2004, but that was the 'high point' for evangelical support since 1980. The 'special relationship' Mr. Bush had with fellow-evangelicals was obviously something McCain couldn't copy. For Mr. Obama it was a victory over new (young) voters and Latinos (non-white Catholics) but certainly not over white evangelicals.

According to voting experts, it was another issue that stood out in their minds: abortion.

McCain apparently made big impression by stating at a large evangelical convention earlier this year that 'life begins at conception'. And don't forget his choice of pro-life (and downto-earth) Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Concluding, the US is moving away from being 'centre-right' in general, but on social issues Americans are still at that position. Look at the ban on same-sex marriages in states that are not considered conservative (California!). Maybe it's time for leaving the 'winner takes all' procedure, leaving only two parties to dominate the country's government. It's suffocating the political atmosphere and leaves little room for major decisions, unless of course you swipe the House of Representatives and Senate into a Democratic majority, like Obama just did. Let's wait and see how he will use that for real changes in this fascinating new political arena.

Sunday, November 16, 2008 Freedom of speech The First Amendment - a bone of contention for the last decades on many US issues. How far can this freedom go? A recent US Supreme Court hearing shows (again) what consequences a strict reading of this Freedom could imply.

For example, just think of the beautiful monument in Central Park for Alice in Wonderland (my own pic). Now, who paid for this? Probably sponsored by an admirer of Alice, I guess, and New York city council accepted gladly. Currently there are 52 monuments, including one for the Pilgrims and Hans Christian Andersen. But also one for Shakespeare, Columbus and the biggest and most impressive sculpture for king Wladyslaw II Jagiello of Poland (accidently staying in NY during the war). You shouldnt' be surprised when you will find one soon for the Simpsons as well! Nr. 53.

Now, let's move to another part of the country, Utah for example. The birthplace of the Mormons and the sect called 'Summum', the leader of which claimed to have had 'encounters with advanced living beings' in 1975. The founder now wants to erect a monument celebrating the Seven Aphorisms, his seven laws to live by. The lower judge ruled in favor of Summum, but the local government didn't agree and took it to the Supreme Court. A typical matter of how strict you want to apply the First Amendment: freedom of speech and common sense on how to rule a local city. Defending the latter of course is saying you can't have 53 monuments in a small park in a little town in Utah (this ain't Central Park!). Defending the strict rule would give each Boy Scout and new religious sect their own monument if they desire to erect one (and pay for it!). The other reading of the law would say - but an Iraq War monument would lead to one for pacifism (the 'right of

equal access'). People would be offended, you want to avoid that and stay neutral as government.

The fight over whose monuments gets into the public park is not new. With previous liberal interpretation of the First Amendment also the school prayer was banned from US high schools back in the 70-ies. The argument was 'to protect high school students' against any kind of religions and their proselitism efforts. Today, most public schools start each day with what I would call the 'flag prayer'. The Pledge of Allegiance and the oath of loyalty to the country and its flag. Quote: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all."

For non-US citizens that is a funny experience. So many symbols of religion were banned from schools (and driving many parents to take their kids to private schools) but you got to wear the US flag pin (remember Obama being rebuked for that?) and don't ever insult the pledge or damage the flag! It's like feeling a bit being Alice in Wonderland.

Friday, November 28, 2008 America for sale The economic melt-down has effects on all aspects of business life. Including property in New York. The Europeans were spotted everywhere this Summer, shopping not just for electronic gadgets but even also for apartments benefiting from the strong Euro ($1.60 to â‚Ź1.00 at highest level). Now it's the turn to Japanese and Arabs benefiting from the weak dollar and dramatic drop in property values.

It was big news when the Japanese bought the iconic Rockefeller Center back in the 80-ies.

But this year another remarkable change of ownership occurred. It was a super skyscraper sale! My favorite building in Manhattan was sold (for 90%) in July to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund for $ 800mln. The Chrysler Building. An absolute stunning skyscraper. I am lucky to be in the building opposite the road and very often I just walk to our meeting room where this building can be admired from close distance.

The funny thing with these famous buildings is that the buyers can't be doing it for reasons of financial rewards. The Japanese didn't make much money so far, but they got an architectural masterpiece in stead and it seems to be all about that these days. Compared to the Empire State Building (big and bulky) the Chrysler Building is very different. For starters, it is not open for public. The ESB is and a big, bulky tourist trap, with long queues for the elevator almost every day in Summer.

No, New York's favorite is the Chrysler Building. From my level at the 29th floor, I can see the eagle-headed corners on the 61st very clearly. They seem ready to fly off. And at the top the remarkable triangular steel windows in curves, looking like crowns. They sparkle by day and are lit from the inside by night.

It's history is as striking as its architecture. Initially, it was designed to be a 56-story tower, but the owner, Walter Chrysler had more ambitious ideas and wanted the tallest building in town and the world: 11 more stories to 67 and later 10 more to 77 stories or 925-foot. The ultimate height became 1,046 feet in 1929 after the addition of the spire. This was

constructed in secret to beat the Wall Street's Bank of Manhattan who had just reached a height of 927 feet.

I don't know what could be next in the iconic-buildings-for-sale, maybe the Empire State Building, who knows? Our office is located in a tower owned by the Japanese Mitsubishi and so are a few others. What's the difference? Nothing much I guess.

Saturday, December 13, 2008 Pet is king Pets are increasingly considered surrogate kids by lots of couples. Cats and dogs are treated as kids and get the best treatment and food from their human 'parents'. It seems that dogs are part of the family in 40% of American households. And a growing number of them is sleeping in human beds. I noticed a funny new development while leafing through my inflight magazine on one of the long flights across the USA. A staircase for pets? To do what?

To climb the bed? You got to be joking! Not they are not. Think of an investment between $40 and $200 depending on the 'staircase design'.

You have to see a typical American bed to understand this a little better. We had to buy our kids new beds in new rental property two years ago. The salesman asked the standard questions, but we didn't understand why you need the metal construction and a box and then the mattress. You almost need a ladder to get in we thought! And the mattresses keep getting thicker. We bought the set but have been experimenting ever since to bring it down and protect our kids from falling off and hurting themselves. Box and mattress are usually approx. 40 cm thick. But although it's better to flip the mattress regularly (better maintenance), people complained about the heavy job it brings. So the no-flip mattress was introduced which were thicker than ever (50cm the set).

According to a recent article in my newspaper vets across the nation have started noticing a rise in pet disorders as elbow and shoulder arthritis, hip dysplasia and other strange diseases in the bones. Pet owners started getting higher bills and must have realized that their new beds could be the cause. The dog used to jump easily on and off their beds, but since the new mattress, not any more. Although there is no official vet research on this issue, the fast increasing sales of Pet Staircases is telling you there is something wrong indeed. It's even getting funnier when staircase companies tell the journalist that some customers buy the pet stairs for themselves as their bed is too high to climb in without aid.

I could think of cheaper solutions, like keeping the dog out of your bed. But you don't refuse your kids to crawl into your bed, do you? My personal worry would be what injuries I would get falling out of bed, rolling down the pet stairs......

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Annual Report

It's that time of year! 10 days left in 2008. More time at home than at work for the next 2 weeks. Little parties at home, reading, eating, church, people. The usual. But one thing is different each year - the results, debit-credit, new things learned, vices you finally want to get rid off. Reflection time.

Once in a while I write things down in a small diary. To look back and see how things went, and to check if decisions were right in hindsight. Or write a blog like I did over the last 3 years. These are personal and it's difficult to put emotions into concrete figures. I learned recently that some people do this differently. They are putting their 'life statistics' live on the web for all to see. Everything they did in a particular year is put into charts, graphs, maps and lists. They will count all postcards they received in a year, how many games they lost (darts, pool, soccer) and how many book pages they read. One guy was so neurotic, he calculated the miles he walked in New York by thinking of all the streets he walked and he listed all the different beers he drank by country of origin.

"Personal Informatics" gives people a way to find meaning in life, no matter how simple or routinely done. Internet is offering all kinds of tools to collect the data and have them displayed for everyone to see. They become their own 'forensic accountants', as a newspaper article calls it, or 'info-chroniclers'. Apparently, it started with people sharing their travel itineraries, so friends or family could hook up. So far, so good. You can see this also happening on social sites like Hyves and Facebook. And it was done (by hand) for social research purposes in the past as well.

But some go far. For example by telling a trend in the things you do? Does compiling daily activities reveal 'hidden patterns' steering our lives? Maybe our lives aren't that random we always thought? Check out www.daytum.com: "home for collecting and communicating your daily data".

The trend started with online blogs and is moving to 'micro blogging' with online tools like Twitter, where people keep track of every step they make in daily life. President-elect Obama used it during his campaigns to keep his supporters up to date on his campaign trails. There are even online tools that keep automatically track of things you do, like songs you listen to (www.lastfm.com) or movies you watched (www.netflix.com). The one I remember who started this 'remember-for-me-things' was Amazon.com that offered me advise on what other books I might like to read considering the ones I chose or looked for online. One of the best personal Internet applications ever in my opinion. I still use it for wish lists, collecting books I read about and eventually want to buy and then order them in bulk twice a year.

But, there are still limits to what you publish. Just consider the fact that the new Obama administration is using personal data collection as tool to check applicants (social networks and blogs). Careful where you network, what you write and what data you publish on your daily routines. It could be a major stumbling block to your ultimate goal in life: become the next president of the USofA.

Sunday, January 11, 2009 Leaf blower Laws It's winter time and we already had our third round of snow this weekend. Temps are down too. Brooms, shovels and salt are ready at the door to clear our front door path and sideway (the latter is our public duty). The neighbor from a couple of houses down the road has a special snow clearing machine. It's quite spectacular and producing a huge noise, but effective and within minutes his path is 'dusted'. The rest of us on this street simply have to put more energy into the job and have to push the shovels hard.

What I haven't seen anybody doing yet is using the leaf blower machine to do the job in winter that is already done in Autumn. For the clearing of leaves there are gentleman's agreements and even municipal laws to restrict the noise. In winter, it's less of a problem as people are indoors anyway and secretly hoping the neighbor will do 'the extra mile' and clear their path too. The leaf blowers can create quarrels among neighbors each year in Autumn. In our area the houses are big, the gardens deep and the trees multiple. The sudden change of temperatures around October creates a huge pile of leaves in a relatively short period of time. It's estimated that this particular job is done 5x as fast with blowers as with the traditional rakes. Many house owners hire gardeners (or 'landscapers' in this part of the US) to do the job. Whole armies of workers are offloaded each morning and the blowers can create a tremendous noice early in the morning, deep into the evening.

Complaints have lead to neighborhood 'leaf-blower-etiquettes' which have to be observed.

In our town there are specific rules that have to be observed. I'm citing the municipal notice: The Township of Montclair has determined that unlimited use of leafblowers powered by internal combustion engines impairs the economic and social welfare, health, peace and quality of life of persons residing in Montclair. Therefore, restrictions have been put in place to minimize the adverse impact of such equipment by restricting its use within the Township. This sounds like a serious issue with serious restrictions, but in practice.... the use is limited to between March 1 and June 30, inclusive, and between October 1 and December 15, inclusive (between 8AM and 6PM).

But the question is, as always, how do you enforce these laws? Those cities with a law system use a complaint system and an enforcement officer to check the situation after a call is made. It must be difficult to determine the exact location of the noice. Leaf-blowinglandscapers are moving around and before the officer is on the scene, the law breaker is mostly already gone. It's not a police priority either to enforce the 'leaf-blower-ban' rule.

And where there are laws hindering the use (and sales) of these machines, manufacturers come up with solutions and have produced quieter and also more fuel-efficient models and the whole cycle of law making can start again adapting the new noice levels. One things is clear from our local rules - you can't use the leaf blower here in winter!

Sunday, February 15, 2009 My first weblog was written exactly 3 years ago, Feb 2006. Back then, I was invited to come to London for a job interview. There had been preliminary talks and both sides had tested the water, but this was the 'final-nod-meeting'. It was given and visa papers were prepared.

It took till September before we were given the government go-ahead and we could 'sail' to New York.

Today, we are preparing the last details for our return home. Bags are packed to the limit, farewell parties held, last stuff given away and a some things sold. A few tears, lots of hugs, kind words, prayers, blessings and a last bye-bye. Our US adventure is almost over, we are flying in 3 days. Time to look back and make up the balance. Was it all worth it? The energy spent, admin hassle on both sides, starting up a new life and then folding it again? Did we learn things? Earn things? Loose things?

The dominant feeling is of peace. The same as when we decided to take up the challenge and pursue my life's dream - living and working abroad. We did it and succeeded. External factors made us decide to go back a little earlier. The cause is no secret and effecting millions of people all over the world - the deep economic crisis and fast diminishing job situations. In every sector, and also the advertising business. Our company is no exception.

It was time to think fast and realize we were here only temporarily. My contract started when we got here and we therefore have no expat status. Going back is going back to my old (independent) status, no guaranteed job back home. Time to count the beans and take your own decisions before chances run out back home.

Then a job opening came through a former employer. Whether I wanted to come back as free-lancer, but they couldn't wait till Summer. I decided to catch the rope and practise the judo technique of using external forces in my benefit. I started talking to my US employer about my doubts on the current job. They understood but had no solution apart from their traditional 'wait and see'. Another bold step had to be taken - tell them we would go back.

Once that was swallowed, I basically offered them my service to keep selling to their US clients, based in Europe. I made them a bold proposal and after a flew blinks they took it. I will keep working for them, but again as a representative. As my job in NY will not be filled, this way my strong business contacts can be sustained and hopefully lead to successful sales when things pick up again. It will demand travel back and forth, but I know where to go and whom to meet. The world is a global village anyway.

The family is happy to return home. Back to our own home, meet our friends and family again. Continue life, but with a new dimension. Realizing more than ever that life can't be lived without heavenly guidance. When bold steps in life are to be taken and you feel it's time to do it, just go and trust the road is prepared. The headlights won't shine all the way and you can't see the curves in the road from afar (don't drive too fast!). Trust there will be people on the other side to help and show the way. They were there. Angels on our path.

Ordinary people whom we cherish. One who appeared on the right time helping us find a house and a car disappeared shortly after, but reappeared last week. As if to say - it's good to go back, go in peace.

In my blog introduction, I wrote "As long as it takes, this blog will be written". It's not finished yet. Maybe less entries, but this weblog got me hooked. And I don't want to disappoint my readers, whoever they are.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 It's late June and summer has started. Four months now, since we are back on the base in Holland. The first few weeks we were so tired. Was it hard to get back in the system?

Difficult to find your own rhythm again? Just too many things to do?

Thinking about it, it must have been the relief our adventure had been concluded successfully. We just DID IT. But we also miss our new found friends in the US. We also realized circumstances back home haven't changed much (it's just us getting used to them again), but we as persons certainly have. We realized it when doing th ordinary things like shopping. The Dutch shop opening hours and supermarkets with the tiny parking spot. Hopeless! We avoid the small ones now to avoid damage to our car and others'.

Government affairs. We thought the US was slow and bureaucratic, but the Dutch are also working in mysterious ways. One day after our arrival, we registered ourselves in our home town. two months later, the civil servants still managed to send the 2009 tax papers to our address in NJ. Didn't know you were back.....

Traffic. What a mess! The economic downturn helps to reduce the traffic jams a bit, but still.

Why do so many people still have to travel to an office, preferably at least 30 miles away, do their 8 hour work and return all at the same time again? The same as in New York! But then with slightly better public transport.

At home, we immediately started updating our house. The painter just finished the outside and made it look fresh again and the carpenter did some internal improvements. We are looking at our garden again with different eyes. Neighbours have done their things while we were away and we had to adapt to that too.

Good to be back home again. Still working on US affairs and starting up my own business again as I did back in 2004. Network refreshed and new ideas are born. Adrep and his family are back home again.

Thursday, September 24, 2009 And then finally I had the opportunity to go back to NY and Boston. Meeting clients I had only been talking to on (skype)phone or email since Feb this year. Well, that is not unusual, I must say. Looking back, during my stay in the US, I had clients I saw only once a year, but it feels different when you are on 6 hours time difference and 7 hours flying. But then again, for flying distance, that is exactly what my colleague in SanFran would have to do if he would take over my business. Less 3 hours of time difference, of course.

Anyways, I've had 8 meetings so far, both in NYC and Boston area. The latter costs a lot of travel by car. You go from Natick, to Billerica, and Burlington to Worchester. Some places in the periferie of Boston are on 1 hour car ride of each other. A little smart planninig helps to make things easier. I had my new Japanese boss joining and we had time to get to know

each other better. To my surprise, we had talks about our families and how they adapted to the different living circumstances while moving to the US. His daughters are almost the same age as mine and they also joined public US schools with ESL lessons.

It was a little emotional coming back in what is officially my last week of my visa. We just jumped ship 6 months earlier for good reasons, but it feels like finishing it somehow. Still, my contract should be renewed for another year and I really would like that. Chances of former advertisers coming back and current ones staying and increasing budgets - all giving you that new energy to keep sending new offers and come up with creative ideas for media mix proposals.

Today Thursday. Two more meetings in Billerica and Wilmington. Then return the car in Boston, take the train to NYC and have two more social meetings. Friday, office. taking a bit more time with the colleagues I only saw for 2 hours on Monday before hitting the meeting trail. Doing the expenses and packing some stuff I stored at the office to bring back to AMS.

Tuesday, November 16 2010 Since my last blog, I spent a full year of staying in touch with my customers on East Coast.

On special request from my new boss in NYC. They didn’t know what to do with my position.

No replacement full-time, that’s for sure, but what’s the alternative? Another media rep. But which one? Could I keep doing my work during the crisis and a solution will be found in course of 2010. Well, I just spent another few days in Boston and NYC in September to visit my clients and office in Manhattan and it’s official: this is my final year, a new media rep has been found (on my recommendation) and they will take over from Jan 1st 2011. So, if you add it all up, I’ve been doing this work for almost 4,5 years, of which 2,5 in and 2 years outside the US. All in all, a satisfying way of finishing what I started. In the meantime, my own business has started up again and despite the economic crisis, I have craved my own little position again and 2011 looks promising.

Two of my life motto’s are: “Dream big, take risks, live boldly” and “Keep friends for life”. I think our American adventure shows how to do that. Without the ‘dream big’ I would never have told anyone I was dreaming about working in the US one day. When it was offered, we took the risk, closed my company and lived as a family boldly in the beautiful New Jersey.

The kids went to local schools and I worked in NYC and travelled across the USA. Thanks to my wife, everything was running smoothly and she even found us delicious American food!

America is for always in our hearts. We had our ups and downs. These blogs were a way of reacting on new circumstances and trying to understand them. Re-reading them the last couple of days, I noticed a big smile couldn’t be suppressed once in a while. I realize after being 1,5 years back home, I could have written similar blogs about living and working here and how odd some Dutch habits and rules are compared to the US. Our horizon has broadened dramatically and that is not always understood by fellow citizens and family members. A heritage we can’t shake off and have to live with for the rest of our lives. No sweat! I hope our blogs have made you smile too and have given you an impression of our happy stay in the USA. I close with another motto: “Life is a journey, enjoy the ride”.