Amsterdam. Day three. First impressions: Flat. Lots of bicycles, whose drivers have the fearless 'as a matter of fact I DO own the road' attitude that only a very well established series of victories over the car can bring. Wide bicycle-only lanes in most roads. A mob of British lager louts off for a weekend of heavy drinking and worse. Big banners warning of pickpockets, and the taxi driver advising that wallets should be carried in the front pocket. Canals everywhere, very much in use. Elegant thin canal-side houses dating from the eighteenth century, with hooks sticking out under every gable, apparently for hoisting furniture to the upper floors.

Most of the course faculty team (nine faculty members, two faculty coaches from St. Charles, one overworked technician from the Paris office) got in Friday afternoon, and we went out for a bit of an explore. The weather was quite cold--mid teens after Toronto's high 20's--and I'm regretting having only brought one jacket. Chris, Ivy and I had dinner in a cafe by one of the canals and got acquainted, then joined up with a larger crowd for a trip out to a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. I quickly ran out of energy and retired for the night, slept 10 hours.

Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day of faculty prep. We worked from 9 to 5, going through the structure of the course, splitting into threesomes for the three class sections, running through a couple of the exercises to get a feel for the problems we would be asking the students to handle. Dinner was a wonderful Indonesian cuisine involving bowls of rice and a selection of small dishes, rather like the Spanish tapas. Then we went out and found some tables beside another canal (they're everywhere) and drank beer. The weather's warming up, which should continue throughout the week.

Today is self-study day, where we work through the presentations and learn the material. Although I'm familiar with all of the basic concepts taught in the course, I seem to have the least experience with some of the technologies we're discussing--actually setting up ASP's and JSP's and Websphere and MTS and so on--so I have some studying to do. So far, jet lag doesn't seem to have been much of an issue, but I anticipate some difficulties staying awake today.

It's going to be a great week! I feel like I've missed a lot of things in my description of the days so far, and it's only day three...
posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | link |