06/12/2013

Christmas is just around the corner...

So here we are, Christmas is around the corner and my working experience at Human Rights Watch is almost over. I have so many projects for the next ‘adventure’ but they all mainly involve reshaping my life focusing on education and some more personal aspects. I have learnt a lot from this experience in Brussels, mainly on the personal level, and this makes it a positive staying. Now I know who I am and what I want and I owe all this to these months here. Since I should probably leave this reflections for my last blog from Brussels, I will move onto something else.

It feels like I haven’t posted on the blog in a while and so I don’t really know where to start. I should probably begin with my friend’s visit from London two weeks ago. I had been looking forward to the weekend for a while, especially because the last time we had seen each other was right before I left for Belgium and for us it is quite a long time. When she used to live in Bath we would see each other at least once a week, I felt like I was always at her place and so I had really missed her. I don’t think Brussels is super exciting, especially if you come from London, but despite that we had a really good weekend. On Friday I went to meet her at the station and I treated her to a hypercaloric dinner involving mostly pancakes and Belgian chocolate. Saturday, we first went to have brunch near Grand Place so she could see the most beautiful bits of the city and then we just walked around. I took her to the European area, my office (now one of the highlights of Brussels) and the rest of the centre. The weather was very nice; cold but dry. In the evening we had dinner with a bunch of my colleague in Matonge, the African neighbourhood, in a very nice Senegalese restaurant. It was a very nice way for her of spending Saturday night in Brussels. If there is one thing that makes Brussels special is the mix of people from different African and Middle Eastern countries that add colour and life to the city. Matonge is definitely a good example of that. Then we moved to a bar when she could try the famous Belgian beer. That didn’t go down very well or better I think it was a bit of a shock for my friend, so I don’t think she will have another Belgian beer again. On Sunday we decided to take it very easy and so we just went to have lunch in a nice Ethiopian restaurant not far from my place and spent most of the day watching tv series, exchanging pieces of advice about any possible girly topic you can think of and making silly plans!

In conclusion, the weekend was lovely. It was so great spending time with her, chatting and catching up. I believe that you can tell someone is a good friend when you can have fun even without doing anything cool or crazy. The feeling coming from a good friendship is one of the most special.

The next thing I am looking forward to would be Christmas, now. Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I love when the weather gets colder and all you are craving for is a good cup of tea, a blanket and a lit fireplace. I love the magic of Christmas and the preparations. I always feel so excited and full of hope. Just before Christmas I am going to London to visit a friend (yeah the friend who just visited) and then mom is joining me for a last minute Christmas shopping. I feel like we haven't done this, a day out in London just the two of us, in a while. I am so excited that I am already thinking of the many places we can go to: a new exhibition, a nice lunch, a look at some shops we don't have in Bath and maybe a nice afternoon tea to get into the Christmas spirit. I always overplan this things without taking into consideration that I have just a few hours in London not an entire week!!

Apart from my excitement over Christmas, everything is going pretty well. Because of the coming-up holidays the workload has decreased dramatically (I am writing the entry from the office!) but it is still interesting. Thanks to the fact that we work for an international organisation we have the opportunity to go to meetings and talks at the European Parliament. Those are always interesting and mind-opening and then because of the office location, many researchers come here and they kindly take some time to talk to us interns and give insights into their work. It is very useful for someone who is just starting his/her career and is still looking around for opportunities and possibilities.

Belgium still looks like a crazy and disorganised country to me. It is very difficult to explain as I think you need to come here and see it for yourself. A couple of days ago I was walking home from the metro station. It was early, probably around 6 or so. Soon I realised that the streets were pretty busy and while I was trying to determine the reason, I noticed that everyone was drunk!!! What the hell they were doing at 6pm completely wasted all dotted along my way home? That I couldn't find out but once I reached my street there were also many policemen who were trying to deal with all these drunkards. Now, there is no police on earth that looks less harmless than the Belgian police. They are all very short and small with this blue uniform that looks more like the one a technician from your local gas company would wear, and they just stand around in groups chatting all the time. I know Belgium is very quiet and safe but I don’t know how that is even possible with this kind of police force. One would probably argue that the Italian Carabinieri carry machine guns most of the time and if you go to Naples you definitely don’t feel secure! But I mean Italian have to deal with Mafia, of course things sometimes get out of their control! But Belgian? Maybe they just walk around thinking: “Our Italian colleagues deal with horrible stuff everyday. We don’t need to worry so I just act cool!”

The metro and train stations still don’t make any sense to me and I feel like everyday something new and a bit insane could happen. Last week we had problems with the metro. What would happen for five days in a row always at rush hour was that the train frequency was reduced for some mysterious reason. As you can probably imagined things got out of control pretty quickly. All the people that are trying to go to work in the morning and back home in the afternoon are ready to fight their way onto the train and by reducing the train frequency you might get three times the amount of people on just one carriage! I had my moments too: I pushed, stepped on other people’s feet and fought as well but also I was just an inch to give up and walk home so many times!

Nevertheless, I think Brussels is a easy city to live in. You can literally walk anywhere and if you need to use public transport you wouldn't travel more than 30 minutes. It is very quiet and it has some cool places but they mainly involve food and beer. Even though it is ok in general, you can get tired of it pretty easily too. If that happens you are still nicely located in the middle of Europe with convenient connections to Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, London and other major European cities. The Flemish countryside is lovely too and it has some nice villages and little towns not more than an hour away from the city. When you get tired, it is easy to escape!!!

Last weekend I decided to take it very easy. As you all know I just like to spend some time on my own now and then, it’s good to recharge. I made big plans about all the things I would have finally got done but none of it happened really. Instead, I baked cookies, had long reading mornings in bed with a nice cup of tea and draw. On Sunday I went to Ghent just for the day. I enjoyed it more this time. I think winter just makes everything pretty, it was just missing the Christmas atmosphere a bit. We had a tour of the castle and enjoyed the stunning with from the top of the tower. We also had a look at the disturbing torture museum that just made even more sure that sometimes man is worse than animals; animals don’t invent horrific devices to torture one another! Then, to end the day we stopped for hot chocolate and a waffle, so good!!!

This week all of us colleagues are going to see the Christmas market that just opened last weekend and then we have scheduled a tasting trip to a Moroccan restaurant that is very good, according to my flatmate. I have also had a look at their website and the place looks like something out of a postcard from Marrakech (Lately I have been having this crush on Morocco!).

I realise this is quite a long post and I am sorry but I felt I owe to the people waiting for news!

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for next time!












5 comments:

  1. Ciao Flavia, come stai?

    Era da un po che non ci scrivevamo!
    Ho trovato il tuo commento al post di oggi su Madrid e mi chiedevo su cosa fossi perplessa :)

    P.s. Che bella la prima foto, che atmosfera!

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  2. Scusami Flavia, ho appena trovato il tuo commento di risposta :)

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  3. Rieccomi, anche se sono in ufficio e non potrei rispondere fino a sera :)
    Ho risposto sul blog, ma comunque il concetto di fondo sarebbe che canotte magliette e camicia sono ben diverse tra loro :)
    Buon mattinata!
    Anna

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  4. P.s. ti ho aggiunta su facebook :) Abbiamo alcuni amici in comune, ho visto!

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  5. E' sulla lista delle prossime mete assieme a Stoccolma, Berlino ed Istanbul. Il mio fidanzato ci è stato un anno fa e ne è rimasto affascinato. Anche mia mamma che ci è andata pochi mesi fa l'ha trovata una bellissima città :)

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