Made it by the skin of my teeth!

  Rheden, Gelderland, Netherlands
Friday, May 30, 2008

I made to Amsterdam, but just barely! By the time I de-boarded my plane in Newark, NJ I had just 15 minutes before my connection to Amsterdam was supposed to leave! I ran through the airport, and made it on the plane. In Amsterdam Mr. Johan Mandemaker picked me up at Schiphol. Mr. Mandemaker works at Thomassen Compression Systems, my employer, and offered to take care of me for the first day. His wife Willy is cousins with Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, so Mr. Mandemaker has been Holland, MI and seen Calvin College.

Mr. Mandemaker and I went to Zwolle to first take care of my immigration and tax documentation so I could work on Monday. We walked around downtown Zwolle and had lunch there because we had some extra time. It was a beautiful place, and the church in the center of the city was absolutely beautiful-- we took a tour of that church.

In the evening Johan and Willy took me to the local Pancake Haus for dinner, which was a special treat. After dinner we took a walk in the forest across the street from the Mandemaker's house. This forest is very special in the Netherlands because there is not much open space in the country, and there are many walking trails. It was a peaceful and relaxing way to spend the evening, and after that I went to bed and worked off my jetlag.

Today, Friday, I went to work for about 5 hours. Work doesn't start until Monday for me, but I went in to do some paperwork, meet some co-workers, and get a little tour. The company makes extremely large compressors-- here's a picture from a pamphlet so you can get a sense of scale:


The company makes both reciprocating and centripetal compressors, and services them all over the world. Each compressor is custom made to the desires of the customer. 90% of the company's business is export. For my job I will be working in the department that puts sensors on the reciprocating compressors. Here is a schematic of the reciprocating compressor design:




Thomassen reciprocating compressors feature a free floating piston design. These pistons are revolutionary in design because they use the process gas as a type of o-ring in the cylinder that seals the piston. As a result there is no metal-to-metal contact in the cylinder. This does a very good job at preventing wear.

Well, today I am off to Doetinchem to move into my flat for the summer.