three cats and nodog / tri katoj kaj nehundo
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Anderson" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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12:28 am
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Ducasse de Mons
Unfortunately, when I set up to go to Amsterdam with J and A, I hadn't even moved to Belgium yet, and didn't know that this weekend was the Ducasse Festival. The wikipedia page looks really neat and describes the event in pretty sterile terms.
( not like wikipedia )
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11:33 pm
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Amsterdam
It's been awhile since I've been to Amsterdam, and since J and A were traveling around Europe, TJ and I decided to meet them there. Good food, good company, and good times!
( some illicitry )
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02:13 am
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In Bruges
Last weekend, a few coworkers/friends and I decided to go to Bruges. I didn't really know much about the town exctept that it's a really popular place to go. It's in the Flanders region of Belgium, and luckily my friends speak Flemish, although almost everyone we encountered spoke English as well.
( Bruges in pictures (some by Alexis) and few words. )
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12:32 am
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Surprise Paris
Another long weekend following on the tails of last weekend, so I decided to be a trooper and head to Paris. The trip was a bit last minute, so I wasn't really mentally prepared. When I exited the metro at Place Monge, I suddenly realized, "Hey, I'm in Paris!" My very hospitable guide for the weekend, Belonia, was most gracious with her time in showing me a ridiculous number of sites around town.
( More Eiffel Tower than you can stand! )
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09:15 pm
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late to the party
Just now, for the first time I figured out a song on guitar by simply listening to the song and playing around on the guitar. It is such an electric feeling to do that, and then be able to play one of my favorite songs! Along with that, I'm trying to wrap my head around singing a bit, too, although I am well aware that I suck at singing. At the moment, I don't care though, because I'm improving, and that's all that matters.
Current Music: David Byrne - "Crash"
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01:20 am
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Berlin
I had a long weekend the 21st through the 24th of May (Labor Day weekend, for Americans). I decided to head to Berlin as the major trip of the month for me, and I had a blast!
( This entry is HUGE! )
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11:50 am
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wishing and missing
I just wanted to wish a badass time to all of my friends who'll be attending Flipside. I'm sorry to be missing it and you. In order to distract myself, I headed to Berlin for a long weekend with a fellow expat burner. Hugs and kisses, 'cause I'll be thinking of you!
My new "professional" web image at my new lab.
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10:25 am
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the big question
I was in Brussels the other day buying headphones with a coworker and later, over a glass of 12 year McCallen, he asked me, "why are you here in Europe?"
I was really pleased to be able to answer him so quickly. Without hesitation I said, that although this new job is really cool, it's just the mechanism to get me here and is at third place on The List of What I'm Doing.
The most important reason that I'm in Europe is to try to understand more about what is common and different between humans and cultures. I really wanted the perspective shift that moving here affords. This experience has already been unbelievably revelationary, and I feel like I'm just beginning to understand this culture. Luckily, this task doesn't really take much effort beyond just being me. I'm motivated to put myself into the middle of things, and I spend time mulling over my experiences. There is no question that the experimenter is involved in the experiment here, but I think that's okay in this case.
The second slot on The List of What I'm Doing is taken by learning French to the point of minimal fluency in a country where it is spoken. This has been on The List of Things To Do since I was in high school, though it wasn't specific to French. My experiences with Esperanto really primed me for this task, and gave me a first glimpse at both how language governs thought and how language and thought can be separated. I'm really excited to be diving into "the second language experience" with another, albeit more complicated, language, and to be doing so within the context of the long history and culture of that language. This task is difficult, but it happens both passively and actively, and most importantly, it's happening.
This is the view from a coworker's balcony in Valenciennes, France.
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12:51 am
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my job
I must admit that my understanding of what my job would be was very different from what my job actually is. I have now been working for about eight weeks, and I think that I've got a much better idea of what my work is, though there are still some fuzzy bits. I can completely understand how someone would describe the job that I do in the way it was described, but I don't think I would have.
( a bunch of job description and only two pics this time )
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12:45 am
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belgian stars
Though "my crystal ball ain't so crystal clear," the stars seen from my courtyard are spectacular.
Though I haven't updated in a few days, I'm still alive. Life is starting to take hold, and there's just been less time to sit and recount. I have a few recountings to make, though, but tonight is not the night.
I also found out that I live in "La Maison Chicon" a.k.a. the Belgian Endive House. Whee!
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12:12 am
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London
Friday, I went to London to visit Ryan and Amy, and I had a badass time. They were amazingly gracious hosts, and we went to a bunch of places, had incredible food, did amazing things, and watched a stupefying show together. Yay! It's hard to find food I love here in Mons, so I was so happy to eat Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food. It was all wonderful and relatively inexpensive (when converting euros to pounds, not dollars to pounds). I also seem to have lost 15 pounds since I've been in Belgium, so eating a little extra while I was in London seemed to be in order.
( pictures and details of the trip )
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12:03 pm
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Citadelle furniture
After being sick for so long, I really wanted to get out of the house on Wednesday, so I headed to the city of Namur. Namur is the capital of the Walloonia region (southern French-speaking) of Belgium, and houses the Walloonia Parliament. Namur is also where the Sambre and Meuse rivers come together, and has been important in trading and military protection throughout European history. The city was also on the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII.
On Thursday, Damien remembered some furniture that he had at his mother's house. She was going to be around in the morning, so we rushed off to grab it. I've now got a furnished room (well, still waiting to finish the table). Yay, surprise furniture!
( the train ride, Namur, the Citadelle, and furniture )
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02:25 pm
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sick vacation
Yay, for feeling much better! (Though I'm still a snot factory)
Yay, for having my own space!
Yay, for housemates inviting me to their family Easter meal!
Yay, for surprise vacation! Apparently "Easter Break" for students in Belgium is 2 weeks. That means that the staff at universities get one week off, and that would be the week after Easter. Too bad that started with being ill for me, but that's fine. I'm going to take today (Tuesday) to rest as well, but I'm planning on taking a day trip somewhere tomorrow and/or Thursday here in Belgium (train is only 7€ each direction to anywhere in Belgium). Friday, I'm headed over to London to visit with Amy and Ryan through Monday. I hope to also catch up with a roommate from undergrad, which also should be really fun.
( more stories through pics )
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05:13 pm
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new address
I'm still sick, but at least without the fever now.
I'm also moved. Here's the new address.
Rue de l'Atre 9
7000 Mons - Belgium
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06:39 pm
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sick decision
Okay, so I made a decision to move in with Danielle and Damien. The biggest convincers were the commute (5 min), that I now know of cool stuff to do in Mons, and the ease of getting around that Danielle adds to my life (though I know that I can't depend on her as my personal assistant). Also, there's no specific time on the lease, so I can choose to move to Brussels later with no hitch.
Now, I went and managed to get nose-dripping-into-the-throat sick, and added a fever to that this afternoon. I'll need to move tomorrow and Friday, so the timing is super inconvenient. I'm going to pack myself up under a comforter for the rest of the evening and hopefully burn this fever out. I'll let you know.
Love!
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12:51 am
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several stories in pics
I just got back from Brussels and looking at apartments.
I had pretty much finalized on living in Brussels, and then Danielle and Damien offered me a room in their house. Mons is certainly more attractive now that I know so much about the stuff I enjoy being available in Mons. And a five minute commute is really hard to beat.
But after visiting an apartment or two in Brussels today, I'm reminded of how much bigger and crazier Brussels is. It's certainly a more vibrant city, and the possibilities there seem better. With the folding bike (and good weather, I suppose), the commute would be right at an hour total with around 40-45 min on the (uncrowded) train that could be used for laptopping.
( here are some pics that tell the story )
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08:31 pm
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bike trekking
Today, Darrell, the missionary from Texas, let me ride his wife's bike, and we toured around outside the center of Mons. I was glad to see some things that I hadn't gotten to see on foot before. I also got to meed Darrell's wife, Nicole, and his two cool little boys, Blake and Landen.
Afterwards, I came home, napped, and put together my own folding bike. It's much more solid than I expected it to be. It's about Huffy quality, but that's jsut fine for the price. It gets me out on the streets farther than I could go before.
( bike trek pics )
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02:18 am
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life by 700
Okay.
I've talked to some people individually about this, but I'm making a formal public announcement. I've been suffering some serious culture shock. I've definitely gotten to the "I just want to pack up everything and go home" stage a few times. And then I breath for a while, or take a hot shower, or go get some work done, and I calm down again for a bit. It's been rough. Really rough. Like yeah, this is one of the toughest things that I've ever asked myself to do. I left a place of abundant joy and comfort and put myself in a place where I didn't know anyone, didn't know the culture, didn't really know the language, didn't know exactly what to expect of my job, didn't know exactly what was expected of me at my job, wouldn't have a car or a bike, and would be living by myself albeit temporarily. Yep. That was a pretty big leap.
( the rest of the story )
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02:37 pm
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dry for apartments
Sorry that the posts dried up a bit. I've been spending all of my time searching for an apartment in Brussels, and that has meant a lot of traveling back and forth. I'm no closer to getting a place, but I am much more adept with the tools and I know which neighborhood I want to live in.
In order to get to one place that I went to look at yesterday, I had to go through Brussels's red light district. I didn't even know that Brussels *had* a red light district. That was definitely a check on the "PRO" side. Unfortunately, one of the marks on the "CON" side of that place was that it was a studio without enough room to do yoga. It was ridiculously tiny (like 140 sq ft with a bed, a kitchenette, a desk, an armoir, a sink, and a shower *in* one room). It was brand spanking new, though.
( small studio )
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10:56 am
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apt in Mons, trip to Brussels
To make things harder to decide, I just got offered a furnished apartment in Mons for 350€ that's a 5 minute walk to work and with no specific length lease. At that price, I could almost afford to go into Brussels every weekend. Ergh. But I'm still going to look at apartments in Brussels today.
Also, for the lab taking a trip to Brussels and needing to be there at 12:30p today, there is no excitement about going anywhere right now at 11a. I'm not sure what's going on.
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