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.