I really really love spring except for the first few weeks. It's not allergies, the general coulple-ness of the world or anything else spring-y. See, my internal clock follows the sun: when the sun is up so am I, when the sun is down I'm tired. During winter, this works out quite nicely because I end up getting anywhere between eight and twelve hours of sleep every night and I generally function best with about eight and half hours of sleep. Then spring comes around and everything goes to shit.
First off, you've got Daylight Savings Time throwing everything off. My body's gotten used to the sun rising and setting at a certain time. Then the world changes by an hour and I've got to adjust to all that which usually takes me a few days. At the same time, days are actually getting longer which means that my body decides that I should stay awake for longer periods of time. Add on to all of that the fact that I am currently living the closest to the north pole that I ever have (haha, that's actually kind of cool). Brussels is about 50 degrees north of the equator, the closest I've lived to that is Davis which is just shy of 39 degrees. And that means that days are even longer! All that adds up to me getting less sleep, which does not make for a happy Brenda. Hopefully my sleep schedule will regulate itself sometime soon :(
28 April 2011
26 April 2011
Celebrated Two Holidays In One Weekend
Belgium is a predominantly Christian country which means that yesterday (Monday) was a national holiday for Easter. ING gives the Friday beforehand off as well, so I had a four day weekend, which was nice. I'm not religious (I might get around to that in this post, if not, maybe another) so I didn't really celebrate Easter so much as just the fact that it is spring. The other holiday occurred in the middle of last weeks and involves reading books. I figured since I was in Europe and only a three hour train ride away, I should go to the mother of all libraries, Amsterdam.
There was a bit a mix-up at the beginning of my trip. I got to the station about 12 minutes before the train was supposed to leave but I wasn't sure where to buy my ticket. Finally, I found the Thalys (that's the name of the high speed train company) booth and told the woman there that I wanted a ticket to Amsterdam. She told me to go somewhere else on my left. So I wandered around but I think she was messing with me because there wasn't anywhere else to buy tickets except the BNCB (or something like that, it's the national rail system which doesn't include high speed). At the time, I figured, 'well the woman told me to buy my ticket at a place on my left. This place is on my left and selling tickets so it must be right'. I bought my ticket, ran to the platform and made it on the train with two minutes to spare. If I'd taken more time to actually think things through I'd have realized that I didn't have the right ticket but I really didn't want to miss the train or I'd have to wait another hour. Anyway, so I got on the train and when the conductor came around to check tickets he tells me that I've got the ticket for the wrong train and says I'll need to buy the right one. Ok, no problem right? haha... Earlier that morning as I was getting ready to go I was figuring out what I needed to bring with me and decided to leave my larger wallet at home and just bring my metro pack with me (it's this little plastic bifold that holds my metro pass, ID, and Belgian bank card) so I didn't have my debit or credit cards on me.
aside: Belgian bank cards have two different ways of paying on them: Bancontact/Maestro or Proton. The first requires a PIN and the second doesn't, you just stick it in a machine and it automatically takes money out, no numbers required.
Anyway, the machine that the conductor had didn't take Bancontact or Proton. I searched through my backpack and then remembered that I'd left my wallet at home and was like 'shit, wtf do I do now'. I only had 15 euros in cash on me at the time because I hadn't been planning on spending much more than that and thought I'd be able to use my card if anything came out. So, the guy asked for my ID as collateral and told me to wait for him on the platform when we got to Amsterdam and he'd walk with me to an ATM to get cash to pay for the ticket. When we got there, I waited and I'm pretty sure he forgot but I found him as he was getting on the escalator. We got to an ATM and my card didn't work! (I just have a temporary card right now because I just opened my account and apparently it doesn't work outside of Belgium, whoops). So the guy, throughly amazing, just had me pay 15 euros to make up the difference (kind of but not really because they are different companies).
So after all that, I was a little flustered and stuffed everything back in my pockets. At that point I only had a few euros in coins (which would definitely not be enough to buy any books, the entire point of the trip). I wandered around trying to find the time tables to figure out when the last train was and after I knew that I calmed down a bit. I walked outside, decided to organize all the stuff I'd pocketed haphazardly and low and behold, hiding behind my ID was my US debit card. I felt pretty bad/stupid when I found it but it made my life a lot easier.
After I'd gone back inside to get some cash, around 10 am, I wandered around the city for about three hours. I started out in the western part of the city, which is pretty residential but wow is it gorgeous, I must have taken at least fifty pictures just of the canals! After about two hours of houses and canals I made my way to the red-light district because really, how could you not? Most of the people going into coffeeshops were pretty shady looking but that could have been me being paranoid because I was alone. Anyway, I went into one and picked up two space cakes and put them in my backpack for later. I was pretty hungry at that point, so I decided I'd stop for lunch at the next place that looked decent. On my quest I happened on the Sex Museum. Thoroughly interesting and well worth the 4 euros; I highly recommend visiting it. And happily, right next door there was a pizza place.
Earlier, I'd looked at a city map and omg there was a zoo! I haven't been to a zoo since my freshman year of college and I thought it would be fun to have a cake and go to the zoo (I was not wrong). I sat down at a fountain and ate my cake; right across the street there was a fair with a ferris wheel and other things, I thought about coming back if I was up for it later (I was definitely not up for it).
Right as I got to the zoo, the cake started kicking in. Monkeys, turtles and elephants are seriously the most entertaining animals ever. There was a turtle that was eating out of a metal tray but the tray was slightly too tall for it, I think I stood outside it's stall watching it elongate it's neck trying to get at the food with little success for at least ten minutes. Across from the turtle there was a huge snake that enthralled me; I could see it breathing and that was the most amazing thing in the world right then. And the elephant, omg! it was balancing on a ledge about a foot wide and swaying back and forth; rocked my world.
In an hour or two, I think it was closer to two, I realized I needed a little less stimulation so I sat down on a bench that looked out over a little pond with birds. A light wind was creating ripples on the surface. Me, being me, thought that the ripples weren't being caused by wind at all but by sound waves. There were sound waves hitting the surface of the water and creating ripples but they were outside the range of my hearing which brought me up to a whole other level. I could see evidence of something I couldn't hear; it made a lot more sense to me then, that's for sure. I actually had the presence of mind to write that all down ... kind of ("It was like every single sound wave was hitting the water to make ripples and I could see the sound waves but I could[n't] hear the sounds").
Anyway, that was Amsterdam in a nutshell for me. The next day, I ate half of my second cake at home and that was still pretty potent. Good stuff.
There was a bit a mix-up at the beginning of my trip. I got to the station about 12 minutes before the train was supposed to leave but I wasn't sure where to buy my ticket. Finally, I found the Thalys (that's the name of the high speed train company) booth and told the woman there that I wanted a ticket to Amsterdam. She told me to go somewhere else on my left. So I wandered around but I think she was messing with me because there wasn't anywhere else to buy tickets except the BNCB (or something like that, it's the national rail system which doesn't include high speed). At the time, I figured, 'well the woman told me to buy my ticket at a place on my left. This place is on my left and selling tickets so it must be right'. I bought my ticket, ran to the platform and made it on the train with two minutes to spare. If I'd taken more time to actually think things through I'd have realized that I didn't have the right ticket but I really didn't want to miss the train or I'd have to wait another hour. Anyway, so I got on the train and when the conductor came around to check tickets he tells me that I've got the ticket for the wrong train and says I'll need to buy the right one. Ok, no problem right? haha... Earlier that morning as I was getting ready to go I was figuring out what I needed to bring with me and decided to leave my larger wallet at home and just bring my metro pack with me (it's this little plastic bifold that holds my metro pass, ID, and Belgian bank card) so I didn't have my debit or credit cards on me.
aside: Belgian bank cards have two different ways of paying on them: Bancontact/Maestro or Proton. The first requires a PIN and the second doesn't, you just stick it in a machine and it automatically takes money out, no numbers required.
Anyway, the machine that the conductor had didn't take Bancontact or Proton. I searched through my backpack and then remembered that I'd left my wallet at home and was like 'shit, wtf do I do now'. I only had 15 euros in cash on me at the time because I hadn't been planning on spending much more than that and thought I'd be able to use my card if anything came out. So, the guy asked for my ID as collateral and told me to wait for him on the platform when we got to Amsterdam and he'd walk with me to an ATM to get cash to pay for the ticket. When we got there, I waited and I'm pretty sure he forgot but I found him as he was getting on the escalator. We got to an ATM and my card didn't work! (I just have a temporary card right now because I just opened my account and apparently it doesn't work outside of Belgium, whoops). So the guy, throughly amazing, just had me pay 15 euros to make up the difference (kind of but not really because they are different companies).
So after all that, I was a little flustered and stuffed everything back in my pockets. At that point I only had a few euros in coins (which would definitely not be enough to buy any books, the entire point of the trip). I wandered around trying to find the time tables to figure out when the last train was and after I knew that I calmed down a bit. I walked outside, decided to organize all the stuff I'd pocketed haphazardly and low and behold, hiding behind my ID was my US debit card. I felt pretty bad/stupid when I found it but it made my life a lot easier.
After I'd gone back inside to get some cash, around 10 am, I wandered around the city for about three hours. I started out in the western part of the city, which is pretty residential but wow is it gorgeous, I must have taken at least fifty pictures just of the canals! After about two hours of houses and canals I made my way to the red-light district because really, how could you not? Most of the people going into coffeeshops were pretty shady looking but that could have been me being paranoid because I was alone. Anyway, I went into one and picked up two space cakes and put them in my backpack for later. I was pretty hungry at that point, so I decided I'd stop for lunch at the next place that looked decent. On my quest I happened on the Sex Museum. Thoroughly interesting and well worth the 4 euros; I highly recommend visiting it. And happily, right next door there was a pizza place.
Earlier, I'd looked at a city map and omg there was a zoo! I haven't been to a zoo since my freshman year of college and I thought it would be fun to have a cake and go to the zoo (I was not wrong). I sat down at a fountain and ate my cake; right across the street there was a fair with a ferris wheel and other things, I thought about coming back if I was up for it later (I was definitely not up for it).
Right as I got to the zoo, the cake started kicking in. Monkeys, turtles and elephants are seriously the most entertaining animals ever. There was a turtle that was eating out of a metal tray but the tray was slightly too tall for it, I think I stood outside it's stall watching it elongate it's neck trying to get at the food with little success for at least ten minutes. Across from the turtle there was a huge snake that enthralled me; I could see it breathing and that was the most amazing thing in the world right then. And the elephant, omg! it was balancing on a ledge about a foot wide and swaying back and forth; rocked my world.
In an hour or two, I think it was closer to two, I realized I needed a little less stimulation so I sat down on a bench that looked out over a little pond with birds. A light wind was creating ripples on the surface. Me, being me, thought that the ripples weren't being caused by wind at all but by sound waves. There were sound waves hitting the surface of the water and creating ripples but they were outside the range of my hearing which brought me up to a whole other level. I could see evidence of something I couldn't hear; it made a lot more sense to me then, that's for sure. I actually had the presence of mind to write that all down ... kind of ("It was like every single sound wave was hitting the water to make ripples and I could see the sound waves but I could[n't] hear the sounds").
Anyway, that was Amsterdam in a nutshell for me. The next day, I ate half of my second cake at home and that was still pretty potent. Good stuff.
19 April 2011
Wanted To Go 'Home'
I really don't like not having a plan, it just sucks. I don't mean the kind of plan where all the nitty-gritty details are mapped out. Those just suck the joy out of life. I mean the big picture, hazy in the distance, that's where I want to end up kind of plan. And right now, I don't have one. I know what I'm going to be doing, mostly, until mid-July but after that I have absolutely no idea and I really really don't like that, at all. I always have a plan. It might change, in fact, it does change, sometimes on a daily basis, but there is always something there to hold on to and take my bearings from. Sometimes that constant plan ends up as plan C or D but it's still there to fall back on if I need to. And I don't even have that right now. I'm finding, being alone over here and all that, that I need some stability in my life. I guess I've never liked the idea of needing it because I've romanticized the idea of traveling around the world and going off on awesome adventures and all that crap. As amazing as it is to be over here, I really don't know if I could do it forever. I want to end up in a place and stay there, never have to move again. And I'd always liked the idea of doing it in a new place but now I'm not so sure. I don't mind the idea of ending up living in the Bay Area, actually it'd be pretty cool to live in the neighborhood I grew up in as a kid. I have good memories there.
17 April 2011
Picnicked in Europe
Technology is awesome. There is no better way to say that. Yesterday, Picnic Day (if you are reading this and you haven't heard of it for whatever reason, click on the link. It's pretty much the best day of the year in Davis, CA), I was nearly 9000 kilometers away from my friends, my band, and one of the greatest traditions ever. The days leading up to the epic event, Facebook was covered with excited statuses (statii? status?), which I probably could have done without. It just made me feel so alone over here and wish like no other that I was back in Davis. In that respect, technology can suck it but the day of, I was able to text a good friend (interesting conversation, that one ;p), and keep in the loop on the day through facebook and whatnot. As terrible as it was not being there for the first time in five years, not being able to tell someone to get some sleep before hand, not being able to see updates when people were waking up or during the welcome break for lunch or when freshmen, finished with the day, posted about how amazing their first Picnic Day was, would have been so much worse. I can't imagine living before internet; coming over here for ten weeks would have been like a death sentence (not actually that bad, and maybe it would have forced me to dig deeper than I already have over here, maybe it would have forced me to connect in an entirely different way, but that's all a different train of thought).
I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people that I don't see on a weekly basis. I've haven't spoken to anyone from high school since I graduated, except my best friend and that's most likely because she ended up going to the same college as me. But with technology! I can see what's going on in people's lives even though I'm not actually there. While most of the stuff you see on facebook is pretty trivial ("haven't finished my paper due in 2 hours but soooo tired", link to lolcat, etc.) you still get to see the major triumphs and events in a persons life. I know, a lot of the stuff that has happened to me over here, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to tell more than six or so people about. But I put up pictures and a status every now and then and I'm connected with not just my close group of good friends but also the outer rings of my social circles as well. It's different than past ways of socializing, definitely but I wouldn't say it's better or worse.
Ok, I've totally gone off from where I started here and I forget exactly where I wanted to go other than I'm glad I got to talk to who I got to talk to and that I've been able to see pictures of a place that I miss the day they were taken and that technology is awesome!
I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people that I don't see on a weekly basis. I've haven't spoken to anyone from high school since I graduated, except my best friend and that's most likely because she ended up going to the same college as me. But with technology! I can see what's going on in people's lives even though I'm not actually there. While most of the stuff you see on facebook is pretty trivial ("haven't finished my paper due in 2 hours but soooo tired", link to lolcat, etc.) you still get to see the major triumphs and events in a persons life. I know, a lot of the stuff that has happened to me over here, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to tell more than six or so people about. But I put up pictures and a status every now and then and I'm connected with not just my close group of good friends but also the outer rings of my social circles as well. It's different than past ways of socializing, definitely but I wouldn't say it's better or worse.
Ok, I've totally gone off from where I started here and I forget exactly where I wanted to go other than I'm glad I got to talk to who I got to talk to and that I've been able to see pictures of a place that I miss the day they were taken and that technology is awesome!
06 April 2011
Lived Without Electricity (For A Day And A Half)
This past weekend the power went out in my apartment. It started Thursday when half the lights stopped working. That was easy to deal with, just turn on the other lights and make do. By Sunday morning when I woke up at seven, I had nothing; no lights, no stove, no microwave, no toaster, no laptop (it had run out of battery the night before), no tv. Everything got fixed by Monday afternoon but living with absolutely nothing, even for just a day, made me realize just how much I really don't need it. If I had a way to cook my food and I had a way to power my laptop/get internet that didn't involve electricity, I could live without it. That feels pretty weird, especially knowing that it is doable. They have things now where you can charge electronics with a solar charger for backpackers, I don't know how well it would work for a laptop but I imagine it will only get stronger in the next few years. And cooking, all you really need is fire (hehe, fire). Oh, just realized that refrigerators need power, hmm ... that one might be a little harder (slightly random tangent: supermarkets in Belgium don't keep milk in a refrigerated section, it's just on regular shelving. It really weirds me out).
On a completely different train of thought: while I was walking around after work today I was thinking about urban planning and how the pictures I've been taking have a lot to do with it. I've generally been taking pictures of how a city is arranged which is interesting considering I hadn't heard of urban planning until recently. My thoughts wandered around in the region and I got to thinking about public places. I feel like people use them a lot more here than in the states. Maybe I'm just noticing it more and maybe it's just because I am outside more than I usually am. Anyway, my thoughts meandered about along the lines of "what exactly is a public space? and why do people use them? what makes people more likely to use one public space versus another one? probably proximity but also about what is in the space or near it so then what should a public space have in order to make it more appealing to people?... (and on and on)". I really hope I get into that Urban Planning program and if not that one, a different one at some point in the next year. I think it fits me and that it would be good for me.
On a completely different train of thought: while I was walking around after work today I was thinking about urban planning and how the pictures I've been taking have a lot to do with it. I've generally been taking pictures of how a city is arranged which is interesting considering I hadn't heard of urban planning until recently. My thoughts wandered around in the region and I got to thinking about public places. I feel like people use them a lot more here than in the states. Maybe I'm just noticing it more and maybe it's just because I am outside more than I usually am. Anyway, my thoughts meandered about along the lines of "what exactly is a public space? and why do people use them? what makes people more likely to use one public space versus another one? probably proximity but also about what is in the space or near it so then what should a public space have in order to make it more appealing to people?... (and on and on)". I really hope I get into that Urban Planning program and if not that one, a different one at some point in the next year. I think it fits me and that it would be good for me.
03 April 2011
Went To Walden Pond (II)
I'm writing this after I have delved into Walden a bit. What was typed above was written without having started the book and was only based on what I'd previously know of it. And in that I missed out on a really important aspect of Thoreau's message: it isn't just about leaving everything behind and completely separating yourself from the world, in fact I wouldn't say that's what it's about at all. Instead, it is about truly getting to know yourself, learning the limits of what you can handle and realizing what you can cathartically shed off from your life and in doing so become a fuller person. Granted, I'm still not quite finished reading it as I have juggled between that and the french version of Speaker for the Dead. But that is what I have gleaned thus far as the most important message and I've tried to take it to heart. While I'm here, I'm trying to figure out what in my life has been superfluous and what is truly fundamental.
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