I guess i am in awe of people who can find the energy and effort to blog constantly. I would like to spend time writing and updating and talking about stuff but i can’t believe that i am actually busier than i thought it would be. Heck, i am busier now during the summer hols then i was during the semester! damn this Erasmus exchange thingy which makes you think you got the larger slice of the pie when you actually got duped into having some fun while other people are studying and stuck doing super amounts of work when everyone else is having fun.

Of course it is not really anyone’s fault or that exchange program is a bad thing. I’m just complaining cause i am stuck in Mcds or some coffeeshop day after day doing my stuff when the festivities rage outside all around me because it’s the city center and heart of the festival. And why am i in Mcds or some coffeeshop? Because the lousy internet isn’t working. It’s so crap. It’s so frustrating because it cuts efficiency into half. or less. You might infer that oh, no internet, no surfing = more productive but I keep on needing the internet for this small matter or other, and you have to collect all the things you want to do into a to-do list for the next day when you are finally again in a free wi-fi zone. Bah. And to think i paid 2 euro for each gig of bandwidth for an Internet Service Provider that isn’t working half the time, and now i have to pay some euros for fries or a coffee each day just to use the internet for a few hours.

I am back in Ghent safe and sound, except for a terrible toothache in the final days of the trip that was really the only bad thing about the past two weeks. The change in the city in preparation for the festival is palpable. The construction of great temporary stages of steel and plastic in marked areas of the city center, with the largest one constructed over a waterway of all places. A sudden influx of young people crowding the streets, and notable are the sudden increase of foreign faces and languages. Posters and flyers decorating walls and street lamps and just about everything, free timetables of the events being distributed to eager youths. Security is out in force too - extra patrol cars, key roads prepared to be closed, the presence of extra security personnel… all sorts of subtle reminders signaling the start of the festival.

It’s time to party!!!

*no internet access at home (again) which explains the short update.

We’ve just arrived in Berlin, the last big (and my, how big) city of the trip, also the super highlight and climax of the past 11 days or so. For two nights we are staying in a huge youth hostel part of the Hostelling International chain, the same one we used during the first weeks in Ghent. It’s the first time we are actually sleeping in a proper room with our own beds - past nights have either been depending on the hospitality of Alex’s friends or in a tent.

Internet time is running out; bye

I’m in Stuttgart now, the birthplace of Mercedes Benz, Porsche and the guy who made lots of hot-air balloons for traveling.

Last night we spent the night at a friend’s place where 3 out of 4 guys were named Alex. Alex Tee, Alex Schumm, Alex Lang. Talk about originality..

Wanted to post some photos again, but was 5 minutes late, all of them are in the external drive now, safely packed away..

Got to go!

About two years ago I was doing some research on the Commerzbank tower in Frankfurt by Norman Foster. Well, two days ago I finally saw it in real life. That’s one wish achieved…. I was gonna post some pictures of Germany, but in the end I couldn’t. Complicated story.

Anyway, tomorrow we leave Mannheim, where Alex stays and where we have been for the past 3 days and go erm, lots of places… First stop, Schwarzwald - otherwise known as the Black Forest.

An important thing i learned - the ß in the German language actually stands for ’ss’. So, schloß is not actually the German version of ’slob’, but Schloss; or castle in English.

Might have no access for internet for awhile, and I keep my phone switched off most of the time, so email me if you need me.. probably not.

I wanted to write more, but as usual i have been procrastinating and now I have to go to sleep… Early day tomorrow.

Guten Nacht!

So i spent today poring over books in preparation of the Architecture History & Theory essay. A particular book which was interesting was about tourist-historic cities, which are the type of cities most people visit when they go to Europe. I bet you didn’t know that for different types of historic cities there are different types of marketing strategies used to milk the maximum profit from a bunch of musty old buildings and crumbling statues, just because some guy decided to do something there once that ended up being remembered by everyone. It seems strange and i have to admit that i never thought of looking at the “historic-tourist city” from the viewpoint of a functional and highly efficient money-making model.

Um, this is probably the last update for some time. Tomorrow we go to Luxembourg via Waterloo & Han-sur-Lesse, and I have then only Thursday and Friday to wrap up LOTS of things that are at hand before heading off to the two-week trip in Germany. Things to finish include laundry (how mundane), sending out the first batch of cvs and portfolios to offices in Edinburgh & London, print out a bunch of forms and have them signed by the people at the University here, get my results, clean my room (again), read and return the books to the public Library………….

That said the last week have been largely enjoyable. Pace of life has been blissfully slow - sleeping in, eating ice-cream and taking long walks through bookstores and shops, spending some time with work, chilling, beer and chips by the Graslei, Euro Cup accompanied with more beer & chips…..

I read somewhere that Ghent has a problem with midges and gnats because of the presence of so much still water. I have to agree. For the past few days i have to fight my way through the living room through mini clouds of insects. And then again from the kitchen to the toilet. We didn’t know why because we had a no-food-waste-inside-the-house policy so all the pesky flies should be at the garbage shed and not everywhere. Finally today we couldn’t stand it anymore and went on an insect-killing rampage armed with a fly swatter and some DIY flytraps. Along the way we discovered the culprit(s) - some bananas of unknown origin hidden atop the fridge, and an opened but unfinished can of tomato puree in the hard plastic bin.

I hate flies.

Watching football in the terrace - Wellingstraat 9. Clockwise from the guy sipping wine (me) - Martyna, Eliska, Pei Fun, Xevi, Wiert, Krzysztof, Andres.

Yes, i have to do an internship/year out/training/work for 10 months. No, i have not sent my applications out yet… I am aware that it take ages for replies (here’s sincerely hoping that there WILL be replies asking me to attend interviews) But seriously… I have my reasons. Mostly it’s because it doesn’t make sense. I have booked my air ticket to Glasgow for the 5th of August (because i have to go back eventually), and the lethal combination of fuel price increase and summer holidays have driven travel prices so high up that it’s unfeasible for me to make the trip across the North Sea more than once. Also, my family is coming to visit in September so i can only start my internship proper in October. Thus i am waiting until i get back from Germany on the 19th of July before sending out applications. Ideally, replies will coincide nicely with the date of my return, so i can then attend these interviews while waiting for my interim and final presentation and external examination on the 13th, 20th, and 21st of August respectively. Here are the important dates for the upcoming 2 months:

5th of July - Super Germany trip starts
19th of July - Return from Germany, Gentse Feesten starts
28th of July - Gentse Feesten ends, packing starts…
5th of August - Glasgow; time to look for a place to stay next year and to find a job
13th of August - Interim review date
20th of August - Exchange students’ Final Presentation date
21st of August - External Examination
8th of September - Family arrives (gotta find a house and a job by then)

One thing about this summer is that everything is spaced in blocks of two to three weeks, ensuring that I do not get too long a break at any time or that i would not be too busy at any time. The pacing is perfect, but it sucks that It becomes exponentially harder to get a part-time job.

By applying so late i hope to avert a few problems - the first being the likely possibility that even if a firm is interested and invites me for an interview, they’re liable to lose interest when i tell them that i am too stingy/rather go traveling than to go back just for an interview, like it has happened to Flora and Nicholas. Secondly i hope to capitalize on the fact that during late July and early August, many of the firms’ existing trainees who have stayed on beyond their required 10-month period to work through the summer will be leaving, freeing up spaces otherwise unavailable up till late June.

Well, I do really believe in the reasons i laid out and i do stick by them, but last but not least I am (conveniently) also only about 70% ready to send out my applications.. haha. Any excuse is better than none to pacify the feeling of uncertainty and pressure i get when people around me are all talking about interviews and jobs. I’m easily satisfied =p

Now stop asking!

In recent months I find that I have lost the ability to articulate my thoughts properly. I have an ever-increasing notion that whatever I am writing does not reflect my feelings or what I am trying to say. Normally i end up getting more confused. I usually have a few things running simultaneously in my head at any time, but when I start to type I often end up blank and/or typing something totally different. My fingers have always had a habit of acting on their own, but it seems much more worse nowadays.

It’s annoying.

For almost a week a full-suspension mountain bike like the one above was locked to a post outside my school along the Zwartezusterstraat. On the second or third day, while walking past it i sauntered over to have a closer look at the bike. Upon going closer i realized that the owner was a real idiot because the lock was placed under the seat, around the top tube. Normally that would have been enough, but with a full suspension bike i reasoned that technically the lock could be removed by merely lifting it over the seat. So i tried it, and it worked - the lock came off easily.

A little context - bike thefts are rampant in Ghent. The general idea is, lock your bike or it will be stolen. The prevailing rationale for the would-be thief when they come across an unlocked bike is if you don’t take it then someone else will. Moreover, as bikes are more a mode of transportation than something for recreation (as they are in Malaysia and i bet other countries), the majority of bikes are simple and functional but ugly and usually something is broken (most bikes in Ghent operate with only one brake from what i can see). So it was quite a rarity to come across a full-suspension bike.

I have to say that I’ve nicked a few things before, but never something that could cost up to 500 or 600 pounds. It was a real struggle between my conscience and the kleptomaniac in me, but in the end my conscience (or the bright daylight) prevailed and i left it there for the time being. I considered it for a couple more days but I didn’t make any decision. Johannes told me sometimes the police leaves traps, and Flora and Nicholas told me not to do it. I couldn’t decide because i know how sad the owner would feel (unlike if it was, say, a typical half-broken old bike) but then again, it’s a brutal world, =p and it was there for my taking, however morally wrong it is. Like it or not, it was a valid opportunity, particularly so in a place where it’s almost expected that if you don’t lock your bike properly it’s likely to be stolen. Plus i couldn’t understand how someone who spent that kind of cash for a bike like this couldn’t even be bothered to keep it secure.

Earlier tonight I went out to have a few beers. When I returned the bike was gone. The only thing left was the lock, still locked to the post.

I don’t really know how i feel now; I suspect there’s a lesson to be learned here. But which? In the meantime, I feel like I’ve found 400 Euros on the street and walked on.