Belgium: the follow-up

According to my housemate this is now the wrong blog to post on, as I am actually in Belgium. Which makes quite a valid point, were it not that I do like to write about being here and that I desperately need some new posts. So, Belgium.
I have been very busy meeting people and catching up with them, so busy even that I have never once succeeded in checking all my blogs in one day. And that says a lot. Anyway, I arrived late on Tuesday night, stuffed some fries down my mouth and went to bed. On Monday, lunch with the housemates was lined up, followed by a social call with two others, dinner with Preparee, followed by training and Reynaert. Wednesday was of much of the same stramine, involving some shopping for contacts (those are SO expensive!), lunch with Katrien, coffee with Bee, dinner with Hannelore and Birgit, watching Kick-Ass (such a weird film) and drinking with the housemates. Early night, which was good (some catching up with Liverpool was prone). And today, well, today is busy again. Lunch in twenty minutes, then drinks at 5 and dinner at 7. Should probably find something to do inbetween. Or someone, but that sounds rather rude. More impressions later, when I do not need to get cleaned up and dressed in less than fifteen minutes.

A night's travels

I ended up stuck in Lille and in Brussels (not at the same time, as these are in two separate countries), calling friends but not having any salvation, crying my eyes out in despair, almost ordering a taxi with three other strangers for the humane price of 16 euros each, considering playing out different taxi drivers against each other, until all of a sudden the train to Leuven flashed up on the announcement screen and I ran up the stairs, accompagnied by ecstatic bouts of laughter, spent a train journey discussing Belgian politics in English with a Wallon software engineer who wanted to practice his English and has a vintage online clothing shop and finally arriving at my old dorm at one o'clock in the morning, where three of my old hallmates welcomed me, before setting out for a bit of true Belgian fried food and a nightly stroll, followed by a solid night's rest and a wake-up to Belgian morning.

Belgium

I want to go home, now. At the moment, so many things are on my mind, of which money is, as always, the biggest issue, and all I wanted to do is go home and relax. And what do I get in my inbox today? An email from Eurostar saying that my train home has been cancelled. If I'm lucky, I'll be stranded in Lille (France) on Monday night and then maybe one of my friends will come pick me up, if I'm not, however, I will be spending the night at Euston station. I am not happy, at all, right now. I am so stressed and just had such a bad day today, where everything that could go wrong went wrong, that I just want to cry and sleep and not wake up til I have heaps of money and everything goes well for me in this world.
Belgium was supposed to be amazing, a breath of fresh air, a week of unforgettable memories, and this has just made it a stressful event which I wish I could just skip. Or better even, not just a trip, but an actual coming home. I am so tired of not having money, of not knowing where my next meal is coming from, how to pay next month's rent. I just want one stroke of good luck. That's all. And what do I get? A cancelled start to my trip.

Time for bed. Time for sleep. Time for tears.

Quickie

I have been so very busy the last week that I simply haven't had time to check my emails, let alone write a blogpost. I have been having heaps of fun and am very happy, but I am also ridiculously tired and ill. I have caught Fresher's Flu and am suffering from it, to such a degree even that I will not be able to go to class tomorrow, no matter how badly I want to. It'll be a day of staying in as much as possible, sleeping in, cleaning my room, calling some people and trying to get some money matters sorted. And then frisbee at night, of course.
But, I am happy, and that is what counts. Speak to you all soon.

Oh, yes, before I forget: I dropped Latin. Well, I didn't exactly drop it, I just dropped going to class. Why? Because I had six years of Latin in secondary school and it turns out that that is useful after all. It's strange how quickly it all comes back to you. Easy pass? I think so!

Pictoral impressions

Some photos from Liverpool and what I've been up - be sure as to check regularly for updates!

Happiness has a shape, it is round and it flies.

So it appears I have rediscovered what I found so amazing about Liverpool in the first place. It's called... *drumroll*... Frisbee people. Seriously, most fantastic people in the world. Not that church people aren't also very lovely people, but these people get me and are just as crazy as I am (well, not júst as crazy). I've spent a lovely week with these people and by Jove (this is my newest expression, do you like it? I'm adapting to a historical level), they are awesome. Tonight I'm having a chickflick night/sleepover in my house/room, as I finally got all my dvd's back and that should be celebrated. As all the guests (4) are frisbee girls, this is going to be freakin' awesome (I'm using the word awesome a lot, must be indicative of my mood).

I am generally very happy. Yes, there are some glitches which are not that great (the old classics, money and guys), but apart from those, which, one has to admit, are just superficial things, I am generally very happy. The financial situation will sort itself out (I am trying to get my hands on some compensation for my dogbite and I'm planning on going to the financial department to get some money from them, plus I will be working from October onwards) and guys, well, it's not really worth being depressed over. Why be sad because one guy might not be in the position you want him to be, while you have such amazing friends all around you?

It appears I have found myself again, my life, my friends, my studies. I have people who ask me around, people to confound in, people to be all geeky about literature and history with. My life is unfolding, the landscape of people is taking its form (for those who know my writing, the landscape of friends is a very popular theme). Soon I'll be roaming its hills, happy and singing like Maria, but without the endless amount of children. I wouldn't object to the Captain, though.

More on uni

As I have a little more time than yesterday, I will give a short review of what the two following years at university will entail.

As I am a part time student, my course has been split up in two parts of a year (that was kind of obvious). This year, I am more or less doing all the interesting courses. In the first semester, I am taking 2 hours a week of the core History module (see last blogpost), 2 hours of Latin (yes, indeed, Latin!) and 2 hours every other week or so of 'Medieval Gender and Identity', an optional module I took to replace 'Locating Sources' next year (and good riddens). This last course is an English department course, which means I will be studying Literature (yay!), and it will only consists of six students and a teacher, all female, and it will be amazing. We will be discussing the stereotypical women in medieval literature (the queen as a goddess, the woman as representative of the country, Guinevere etc). It should be insanely interesting and I am quite sure it will be.

Next semester, I will take the second part of the core History module and 2 hours of Latin Paleography a week (yes, that's why I am studying Latin in the first semester). For those who do not know what Paleography is, it is basically reading old manuscripts in the typescript and in the form they were produced and found. No modern translation, no modern font, just reading pen strokes from scheep skin, so to speak. That too should be insanely interesting, as I've done some Old Dutch Paleography and very much enjoyed it, and always found the translation of Latin texts the most fun in secondary school.

Now, onto next year. That year is going to be endlessly dull. I am taking all the research modules and I just can't be fussed, to be honest. First semester will be 'History and Theory' (Nietzsche, Foucault, Marx...), and for those who know me, you are all aware of how much I loathe philosophy, so that's going to be one long journey of boredom. Together with that, I will get the course 'Sources and Methodes for Medieval and Renaissance Studies', a specific module of a course I failed twice at the KUL and then was mercifully let through because of "failing points". So that too will be a nightmare. In my last semester I will get 'Feasibility Study', of which I have no idea what it entails, but it sure does not sound interesting (it's something about taking the theory seen in the first semester and applying it to your dissertation subject). And then over the Summer, I will write my dissertation. Because this second year sounds so horrifying, I will try and take some extra modules (Irish Studies, Old English), as to try and brighten things up a bit, because otherwise I will never be able to see things through.

But, those are worries for later. First, this year, which is going to be amazing. Hooray!