I’m still thinking about what to get for Americans who don’t really need anything. Is there anything that’s not insanely expensive here but what Americans would love to have because they cannot find it over there. I have some food-related ideas but I’m not sure how that would work with US Customs. I know I cannot bring fresh meat, fruits or anything with European mud attached to it into the USA without getting a steep fine and my goods confiscated. I’m not sure about alcohol though. Would bringing a sixpack of Abbey-beer be allowed? I looked at the website of the US Customs Office, but could not find the max amount of alcohol I can bring to the US: that depends on the state where you arrive, in my case Massachusetts. I cannot find anything related to that at the MA state government site. *SIGH*. I guess it means bringing no beer then.

Then there’s the category of corny Dutch souvenirs like Delft Blue ceramic stuff, or wooden clogs, little windmills and more junk like that. The tourist shop around the corner sells tons of that stuff. I really hate it, I wouldn’t want to own it. But then again: I live here… It could be, however, that my American friends think it’s cute.

Tomorrow I will have to decide what to buy, but I won’t post here what I bought, because I don’t want to spoil the surprise for my friends. It will be also the day I travel to Leyden, an old town in the West of the country in the part of The Netherlands that’s actually called Holland. And since that’s a day of travel, I want to try out some things I’ve set up on Wednesday to see if they work (and to see if I won’t double or triple post stuff to my social networks). So be prepared to see and hear a little bit about the old Dutch town Leyden in my updates tomorrow!

Today it occurred to me it’s only a week from now that I will travel to the United States to attend CNMC MMX in Boston, MA. I also went to last year’s edition, kind of unprepared because I didn’t really know what to expect. This year, I plan to leave much more updates and such, just to look back on later. It probably will be my last CNMC ever since I hope to start a new job early 2011 which makes planning days off really hard. Last year I made the mistake by posting my updates to different kinds of social networks I’m not using any more this year, so therefore I made a dedicated category on this blog to keep things organised. I already saw other attendees are doing similar things on their blogs. For instance, Stephanie is also counting down on her blog. I’m wondering if other people I don’t follow but who do attend the CNMC are doing the same, too.

Back to preparing my trip. Since I’m flying in from The Netherlands I had to arrange a number of things before even considering going to the CNMC. First, I had to get a new passport, since my old one expired and my European Identification Card hasn’t much value when travelling outside Europe. After that I had to apply for the VISA Waiver program at Homeland Security by filling out an ESTA form. After getting a plane ticket, a registration for the CNMC and making sleeping arrangements I think I’m basically set. The only thing I need to figure out is how much cash I bring to the US as I don’t have a credit card. Sometime next week I need to go to my bank and buy United States dollars. I need to make sure not to buy too much, because changing them back to euros will cost me extra and if I don’t bring enough I will run into troubles too.

Today in a week I probably will post some audio boos and other updates on different social networks while travelling, at least for the leg inside The Netherlands using my 3G mobile internet. I don’t know if there’s free WiFi on Boston airport, probably not. Using 3G internet in the US is insanely expensive, so I have to rely on open WiFi as soon as I touch down.

Since there’s not much to do in the real world to prepare for the trip, I’m thinking on how to prepare digitally? I wonder if someone set up a new TweetGrid already? Did you know there’s a TwitPicGrid too? What’s the hashtag for CNMC 2010 tweets? #cnmc10, #cnmc-mmx or something else? What other services do people use to aggregate their social network activity? I plan to try out posterous, but I’m not following many people over there yet. I’ve not posted anything either over there yet. I also set up a dedicated tumblr blog which aggregates everything that has anything to do with my travels. It syncs this blog category, audio boo, vimeo etc. I’m more familiar with tumblr then I am with posterous. What tumblr basically does is merging everything I post elsewhere related to my travels into one place whereas posterous seems to be a posting site that will ping all kinds of other services, including tumblr. I need to see how it works out. I wonder if people who read this use other services? And what’s your experience with it? What do you recommend?

That’s about it for now. A new countdown post tomorrow about gifts: thinking on what to buy and avoiding problems with the custom department in the US. What do you bring to Boston for your friends? Local goodies? What kinds?

In the next couple of weeks I’ll try to get this blog going again (the non-podcasting part) and post some of the prep going on here and overseas. To start of, here’s a blast from the past: Zina’s commercial for CNMC 2008 in Atlanta, GA.

Links from this episode:

• Catholic New Media Celebration
• My CNMC 2009 photos
• Rosary for the Bishop

So the whole CNMC was great, had a great time listening to different speakers, talk to people have a great time with friends, wat a blessing it was. I learned a lot about many things, I’m inspired to move my podcasting and my blogging to another level, but I need to find a balance in my life first. I’m still recovering from the havoc my meds wreaked. It’s not easy to get back in a balanced life if you just escaped from a black hole. But the whole CNMC and my own vocation are so motivating to work hard for it. It’s not something I do for myself, but for God and His Kingdom. I need to fight hard, but it’s for a good cause, right?

It’s hard for me to summarize Friday evening and Saturday, because a lot happened. I liked the personal conversations with people I never saw in real life the most. Meeting BarbInNebraska and all thos other people was great. But at the other hand I also had a moment where I just had to sit down in a quiet corner because I suffered from sensory overload. And of course, the moment you sit somewhere trying to regain sanity, you hear someone talking to you in Dutch to ask if you’re all right. It’s so weird that hearing Dutch at a moment like that is the most comforting thing ever, even despite the fact Dutch isn’t really my native language. Father Roderick is the sweetest person ever too. Which helps, maybe.

After Mass, which was quite an experience too, especially the ‘gospel reading-with-running-commentary’, I tried to arrange with Jeff and Zina that I could sleep at their room for the last night before catching my flight back to The Netherlands. But Fr. Roderick wouldn’t be Fr. Roderick if he hadn’t already arranged something: we could stay at the Vista family. The Vistas are the nicest people ever too! I had been bugging Fr. that I wanted to see UP! by Pixar because it only would be out in October in The Netherlands, and I knew Fr. is a Pixar fan too. So we went to the movies in the US, but before that we were treated at a real Texan Steak House. I completely cracked up when a family, a priest in clericals and a random woman show up and are greeted by the hostess with “Hi Folks!”. Rrright. That’s probably Texan hospitality for you. Funny. The dinner was great, I tried something cheap, because I wanted to save money for the cinema, only to discover that the Vistas paid for my food and Fr. Roderick for my movie ticket. Dang!

UP! is great, at least the beginning is. The end could have been better. But certainly entertaining. I had a blast! We went to bed late, and went up again early, which I didn’t mind, having no circadian rhythm whatsoever left at all, with my body overall having no clue what I was doing anyway. Jeff dropped us off at the airport, and after checking in Fr. Roderick and I had a cup of coffee at Starbucks. We were surprised to meet Jeff and Zina Liss at the gate, and they were surprised to see us in Atlanta, because we could travel business class. I had a funny conversation with a flight attendant at 43,000 feet. I was wearing my Daily Breakfast – Breakfast with a Priest t-shirt and she read the back. “Breakfast with a Priest”. She said “Do you know there’s a priest sitting in front of you?” while she was nodding towards Fr. Roderick. Yeah, I know. I’m traveling with him. But it was pretty hilarious anyway. Fr. and Jeff Nielsen cracked up when I told them at the shuttle train to the parking lot in Atlanta. They dropped me off at my gate which was at another causeway and left for Rosswell.

At 5:30 PM I took off from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta and landed the following morning at 8:47 AM Amsterdam time at Schiphol International Airport. And there I experienced a nasty surprise while waiting for the train at Schiphol Railway Station: I left my H2 on the plane. So I called the number, but it would go in storage and could pick it up later on. I wasn’t too worried, travelled by train to Groningen around 9:50 AM and decided to have lunch at the half way point in Amersfoort. I felt really weird. I skipped a night and came from a time zone that had a time difference of seven hours, which my body couldn’t process. Next time I go to the US I go longer, because at the moment my body started to get used to Central Time, it found itself back in the Central European Time zone. So after I came home around 2 somthing PM I just wanted to crash and go to bed, knowing that is a bad idea. Instead I started to upload my stuff, twitter and plurk a bit and write this post.

I also noticed there’s a ton of work piling up next week as I’m taking this week off to get back in the rhythm. I’m now hungry at the weirdest times and stuff. Next week I will be in Freshman Introduction Period work over my ears until the Introduction Week starts, after that I need to crash again, and then it will be early September. So if you don’t mind, I’m issuing a break again on the blog. This one is planned though.

So, what happened yesterday. Well, Jeff and I had a smooth flight to San Antonio, where it was HOT! We needed to go to pick up a rental car at Avis, where it was really hot too and then drove to downtown San Antonio, to the hotel. Jeff went back to the airport to pick up Lisa Hendey while I was camping out at Fr. Roderick’s Club House waiting for Stephanie to arrive from Milwaukee. We had a great time, as you could see yesterday from the pictures I posted already. When Jeff and Lisa arrived we agreed we were starving, none of us had lunch, so we went up the River Walk to grab some. The River Walk is another weird experience. Every time I go there I’m semi-expecting “It’s a Small World” to start playing with all the barges going by in the river. We had a great lunch and back at the hotel I found out that Stephanie had been looking for us everywhere. I didn’t want to roam data with my Dutch phone plan, so I didn’t watch any social network while being out of the hotel. But she found me, we checked in and our room is awesome.

We did a walk on the River Walk and I took photos, which I uploaded to Flickr right when we entered the hotel again, I love my WiFi capability on my phone! I don’t know what we are going to do today, but it will involve the Meet and Greet tonight, which I dread already. I don’t like social networking in real life, face-to-face. I’m perfectly comfortable behind my computer, but real-life networking is different. Don’t ask me why. After that I will be wasted, most probably and the day after that it’s Saturday and then we will be at the CNMC at the University of the Incarnate Word all day long, probably. So if I am writing a blog post, it will probably after Mass or so on Sunday.

… it doesn’t take long before both my MacBook and my Zoom H2 digital recorder are used by someone else…

So yesterday I got up at 3:30 AM Amsterdam time, so I would be ready at 4:45 AM to walk to the railway station to catch the 5:45 AM or the 06:04 AM train to Schiphol Airport. I ended up catching the 6:04 AM train, hoping it wouldn’t have a delay, since I would be at the airport around 09:00 AM, with my plane leaving around 10:20 AM. I hoped that would be enough time to check in as a stand-by passenger. The train part of the trip went well, apart from the fact I got fined when we barely left Groningen Central Station. I was half asleep when I bought the ticket and purchased a train ticket with 40% reduction before 9:00 AM, because I never travel before that time. I couldn’t pay in cash for it, because I didn’t have any cash on me. The plan was to get some money later that day before checking in. I knew I would pass an ING ATM while walking to the departure hall. So it would be send to me and I would have it within 7 days. Fine, I wouldn’t be at home anyway. *SIGH*

At the airport things didn’t go according to plan either. I knew from the website that Delta Air would be in terminal 3, but since I was on a standby list I asked someone about it. Bad idea. The bloke sent me to terminal 1, where there were no KLM check-in counters. So I asked again. They said the standby passengers didn’t have their own check-in counter anymore, so I should go to terminal 3. So I walked from terminal 1 to terminal 3 (mind you, Schiphol Airport is BIG!). No KLM desks there either, which was weird, according to Delta’s website, their check-in should be there. So I asked again and was sent to terminal 2, where I saw a ‘trainee’ blocking the way to the check-in desks. “Miss, you should use the blue check-in computers.” the trainee said. “Yeah, I know, but I’m travelling standby”, I said. But the stewardess insisted I had to use the electronic kiosks. Which, of course didn’t work. This way, I already had wasted over an hour before I was finally allowed to wait in the back of the queue, where I had to wait for at least another 45 minutes. The stewardess who needed to check me in couldn’t do that, because the gate was already closing. *SIGH*, she managed to phone the gate and I had to run to my gate, which of course was E22, the last gate of that loooong corridor. Finally luck was at my side and I was the last person to board the flight. That’s an early in the morning after a too short night of sleep experience I don’t like to repeat.

At least I was on the plane, which took off in beautiful weather, it was clear with a temp of 20C / 68F at 10:00AM already. But I just left the country, going West to the USA. It’s so weird to realise I’m really in another continent, another world. I never travelled this far by myself. I saw lots of European countries, but they are close to home and similar in culture, this is something completely different.

So after eight hours on the plane I had to wait another two hours at the US Customs and bagage claim before I could shake hands with Capt. Jeff. We went to Rosswell, GA where I could drop off my gear, play with the dogs, see something from the neighbourhood because we got beer and picked up Jeff’s son from his Catholic school. And later we had an awesome dinner. Linda is one of the nicest people I met so far. In an hour or so we need to get going again to the airport, because we need to get on the plane to get to San Antonio, TX. San Antonio is an hour behind on Atlanta, so my jet lag will have a field day.

Hopefully I’ll be able to give more updates later when I check in at  the hotel. I can upload pictures from my phone because I heard the hotel has free WiFi, but I probably won’t type any long blog posts, because of all the social stuff going on. I’m writing stuff down to process later though.