Ryanair vs Easy Jet

I had quite the weekend. Last Friday I flew to Rome (with Ryanair) thinking my last hours on planet earth had presented themselves. There was so much turbulence that the plane didn't stop shaking and it took about 50 minutes to actually put the plane down. Another five minutes and I would have had to search for one of those cute little paper bags. Felt sick all evening but still couldn't pass up on my future mother-in-law's home made pizza. Last weekend was the last weekend I flew to Rome before moving in January. The Italian will be spending the holidays Belgian style and then we will go back together. Writing this I get kinda nervous. Not so much for the move, but for all the things I still need to do. I'm the master procrastinator.

On Monday I flew from Rome to Milan for a job interview. I think it went alright. I had a talk with the Italian H&R manager from the company I work for now. He told me, what I already knew, that they didn't have a job opening in the company we have near Rome, but that he was going to see if he could do something for me anyway. It was a very long day, but I figure that it's never a bad thing to know people like him (read : with his connections).

The flight from Rome to Milan was the first time I flew with Easy Jet. I had made sure I took the smallest trolley I had so I didn't have to check in any baggage. The (young) girl behind the check in desk then decided to show me what kind of power she had. She asked me to please check if it would fit in one of those iron baggage size things. It didn't ofcourse. The little wheels must have stuck out for about half a centimeter. I had woken up at 6 and had a headache from hell, so I wasn't particularly very amused by this. She got very rude in telling me I couldn't take the baggage with me. Ofcourse when checking in for my Milan-Brussels flight (again with Easy Jet) about twelve hours (!) later, the nice (older) lady at the check in didn't see the problem and let me take the trolley as hand luggage.

I blame the Italian. He was with me checking in in Rome, and the rude girl was obviously struck with the 'Foreign Girl Has An Italian Boyfriend and Therefore Is Taking Down My Chance Of Happiness By 1' -fever.

I say to her : go find yourself a Belgian guy and we'll call it even.

And then the bubble burst...apparently people are not equal after all.

Just when you think people are doing the right thing, just when you think we are moving ahead in this world... that's when you read an article about Prop8. Prop8 wanted to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that granted gay couples the right to wed in California. And they did it.

Also in other states in the US people voted YES on the ban for gay marriage.

Unbelievable. In the first place this is not about marriage, this is not even about gay people, this is about equality! Apparently there are a lot of people out there who feel that straight people should have more rights than gay people. I got quite sad and angry when I read this and most of all disappointed. Hopefully they can turn this around again.

Someone explain to me why people get bothered by two people getting married because they love eachother, cause I don't understand. According to me this is just plain discrimination.

I'm inviting all the gay people who did get married or want to get married to Belgium. Yes we have gay marriage and adoption. Here it doesn't matter if you are gay or straight and for that I'm proud to be Belgian.

Can we just for a moment...yes we can!

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the US of A. The first black president in America. They made him the symbol of many things..mixed races, change, a new image for America in the world after the last horrible 8 years of Bush.

The man sure knows how to deliver a victory speech. I particularly enjoyed this part :

''It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled ....''

And also McCain gave a very nice speech I think. I have to admit that I do respect that. Not necessarily for his VP pick, but he did lose like a winner.

Today the criticism already starts : What will change for Europe? Was McCain a better choice for world economy? Will Obama be able to commit himself to do all the things he promised?
I understand, people need to ask these questions and I think it's a good thing.

Ofcourse he will not be the answer to all the world's problems and will not only do good things. It would also be unfair to put so much responsability on one man.

But can we just for today.. maybe also tomorrow and next week.. have that feeling of Hope. That feeling that we are World Citizens. In a World where colour of skin, religion, sexual orientation, physical condition,.. does not matter and that we are all the same. That we are all people. And that we should just Love. Can you just leave me in my bubble.. just for today?

London DAY 2 and 3

DAY 2

I really wanted to buy a new jacket so we went to Carnaby street to end up with just buying some tea. Went around Regent and the likes to look for shops.
The best thing about visiting a city for me are the walks. I don't need to have seen everything that you are supposed to see. I just love walking around.
We checked out some museums and also went to Tate Modern which I really love. We found out there was a Rothko exhibit but decided not to go because of time and money. (what a stupid decision!)

In the evening we checked out more of the Concrete&Glass festival and saw Lykke Li play at Cafe 1001. They were really great. I love it when bands are better live than on record after loving the record.


DAY 3

First we had to drag our bags to another hotel, thanks to the friend of the Italian. ( see previous post)
The hotel was not really my thing. Clean and everything, but too business like. It did have a nice Apple IMac in the room with free internet though.
After playing with the IMac we went to Portobello market and Camden. Camden is for a lot of people probably too crowded, but I still love the neighbourhood and all the little markets.
For dinner I found this vegetarian restaurant online which got all great reviews.
After taking several tube lines we found out it was full, and since we were starving we didn't want to wait.
Before we had run into a pub that seemed nice, so we decided to just go for it. We ate for
like 12 pounds. This included vegi burger + chips for me, burger and chips for the Italian, a jacket potato to share and two huge beers. The food was great and the scenery entertaining including a drunk middle aged lady who fell over in the middle of the pub and stayed on the carpet floor for about 10 minutes.

After that we went back to the Tate, I really wanted to see that Rothko exhibit but we didn't make it on time... damn it. (I guess we have to go back before January 2009)
To get over this disappointment, we decided to hit the hotel bar, I had what was the best Mojito I have ever tasted and The Italian enjoyed his fancy Scotch.

* pictures to follow

London : oh how I heart thee..

DAY 1

The Eurostar is one of my favourite ways to travel : a mere two hours and you are in the middle of London. I really wanted to go to this Art&Music festival in East End London. But a certain friend of a certain Italian told us that that neighbourhood was comparible with the Bronx in New York. Now, I have not been in New York (it's on my list!), but when I heard 'like the Bronx' I was a tiny bit worried. So we booked two nights in 'The Bronx' to avoid having to take the tube late at night and then moved to another hotel to see the more touristy sites of London.

But East End London/Shoreditch is fine, I didn't get what the fuss was about. As a matter of fact I really loved the neighbourhood. Great art shops, nice pubs, great atmosphere... Anyway, the hotel was great! - and I am one picky chick when it comes to hotels. They don't have to be all that fancy, but they have to be clean! We went to pick up our wristbands for the festival and had lunch /dinner at Cafe 1001. Best vegi burger and pasta salad I probably ever had in London and a great place to hang out! After having freshened up at the hotel, we went to check out the festival. There were so many bands playing and art shows in different venues all over Shoreditch.
We saw an amazing photography show in Shoreditch Town Hall. The photographer was inspired by a poem by C.P. Cavafy and that message came across very strongly in the beautiful pictures she took in the Olympic Rain forest. Very strong images and huge prints.

Ow and another great thing about art shows : free drinks.. and there were plenty...

DAY 2 .. to be continued...

The last couple of weeks...

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Some nice things and some horrible things.
I decided to only write about the good stuff...

The Italian and I went to London two weeks ago, which was great. London still rocks -incase you were wondering... will be writing about that in another post.
I tried out some new recipes. I usually stick to pasta with tomato sauce alla me, but suddenly I wanted to try out something new. Does this mean I am slowly turning into the perfect housewife?

Because the Italian loves his peperoni on bruschetta I decided to do a test run before I poison him with my creation. I actually found this perfect recipe on the frutto della passione blog.
The problem was that I didn't have all the ingredients. So I decided to swing it. I grilled the peperoni and garlic, peeled them and added cream cheese. ( I only had cream cheese which was already flavored with herbs). Added salt and pepper and voilà : a tasty spread for my sandwich.
It tasted quite good actually. But that was not all...
Since going on vacation in the US last year, I couldn't stop thinking about those oatmeal raisin cookies. For some reason I can't find them anywhere here. So - yes you guessed it- I made them myself . Pictures to follow later.

I also gave Jamie Oliver's recipe for pasta with little round tomatoes a try.
You just take yellow and red little round tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, some aceto balsamico, some olive oil, salt and pepper. Cut the tomatoes in half, put in a big bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix while bruising the tomatoes a little. Boil some pasta and add all together... It was delicious and very easy.

On top of that I packed a whole bunch of stuff for The Big Move, cleaned, did laundry and washed my car.
A productive weekend it was indeed...

I feel like...

I feel like I have aged at least 5 years the previous weekend. Why?

Well :

* On Friday I spent 4 hours ( yes 4 hours!) at the hairsalon. It was absolute torture. Besides the waiting I was struck by the - gossip magazine overload syndrome.

* On Saturday I spent my morning at the post office to send the fridge magnet for the fridge magnet swap of the At Home in Rome Blog which actually went quite smoothly. (Surpring as post offices here always make problems) After that I went grocery shopping, which in general is not a good idea to do on a Saturday.

* Saturday evening there was a housewarming party of a couple of friends of mine in Antwerp.

It was really nice and fun.. which resulted in me staying way too late. I got home around 4.30h. I'm still ''young'', but I'm not young enough to go out till 4.30h and not sleep enough hours. So strange how this can change during your 20s. When I was in college I had no problems staying up late and waking up early. Now in my late 20s (ugh!) I just cannot.

Which resulted in ....

* Sunday : buh.. I felt like I got wasted on Saturday, which was not the case. ( I was driving, so there!) But still I felt like I had a hangover or something. I was just incapable of functioning all Sunday long. And today it's not very different.

The Sunday Blues has made room for the Monday Morning Bad Mood*.

* Expected to go away in an hour or two

US Open - I just couldn't watch it

Over the past years I absolutely loved to watch Women's tennis. I would watch all the Grand Slams and major tournaments, so it might seem strange that this year I didn't watch any game of the US Open. I just can't.. after the departure of our number one player last year, Kim Clijsters, we were so happy to still have Justine Henin left to defend our national colours. Kim was more about the fun, Justine was all about the competition. With Kim quitting last year, I watched more Justine games and became an even bigger fan, then came May 2008.. Justine announced her retirement.

The player with the most beautiful backhand in Women's tennis decided it was time to do something else. I tried to still follow the US Open this year, but I just can't root for the Williams sisters or the Russian girls. I don't think Women's tennis is what it was and secretely hope Justine will make a come back, but I guess that won't be happening. Let's hope some other champ will stand up to bring some great tennis back to Women's tennis .... I miss The Backhand.

The one with the moving...

Finally we have a date set for my big move to Rome. My boss knows, my parents know, my friends know.. pretty much everyone knows now that The Belgian will still be celebrating Christmas in Belgium, but will be celebrating La Befana* in Rome. I have worked out some issues with my boss and we came to this agreement. She and all my collegues are really excited for me ( I think!) and my friends are already planning trips to Rome expecting to be able to crash on my not-yet-existing Roman couch.

I do get a bit emotional sometimes but I was surprised by how easy it is to let go of material things like my car/furniture which I won't be taking probably. And yes it is hard to not see your friends and family, but Belgium and Italy is not THAT far away so I expect to be going back for a quick visit quite often.

I wonder how other people went through this process and if it was easy/difficult to let go...

* La Befana : 6th of January!

London Baby!

Yes yes yes.. The Belgian and The Italian are going to London. It was actually me who really wanted to go, but The Italian was convinced rather quickly. I have only been to London once, but fell in love with it. They often say you either like Paris or London and although Paris is a fine city.. I wouldn't doubt for a second and pick London any day. I just love the atmosphere of the place. Booked our traintickets... isn't it wonderful you can just take a train and a mere two hours later you are in the middle of London without have to be there 2 hours before to check in etc etc.

I'm really looking forward to visiting the Concrete & Glass Festival in East London. It's an Art&Music Festival with lots of bands (Lykke Li, Errors,...) and lots of art shows in several venues around East London. Will def report after we have been!

As you might have noticed...

I'm trying to find the perfect background.. well, maybe not perfect but one I like. It's a long process of nights lying awake trying to figure out how to make my blog look nicer... right.. it might still change over the next few days/weeks as I'm still not really happy with it..
Ps : it might have been better to think about backgrounds, headers, etc. before starting this blog, but it wouldn't have been so much fun, would it?

On weddings and whatnot...

Last weekend the Italian and I attended my cousin's wedding. Yup the Italian was in itty bitty Belgium and witnessed his first Belgian wedding. Yup his first, as most of my cousins and friends are not really 'the (conventional) marrying kind'. Somewhere between the wonderful dinner buffet, too many glasses of wine and the decadent dessert buffet, THE conversation started. Who will get married next?
I sometimes hear stories of girls who have -since they were little- dreamed about the big day with the white dress and I never quite 'understood'. Some years ago I was still an avid defender of the 'why would anyone get married'-theory. After that I started to understand why someone would want to get married and now.. well.. now I'm even considering it myself. Maybe I do want to get married someday. A sentence that some years ago would not have crossed my mind!

Even though I thorougly enjoyed the ceremony and the dinner and party last weekend, I doubt I would ever want to get married that way though. The (expensive), you-are-the-center-of-attention-for-a-day day, but getting older I do get now why people want to do this..

TMML - This made me laugh

A Belgian guy followed his TomTom driving in Sicily.. and you see what happens :

http://www.agrigentonotizie.it/notizie/leggi/27583/raffadali-tradito-dal-tom-tom-finisce-giu-per-le-scale.html

Apparently even TomTom loses his way in Italy and sent the guy down the 'scalinata'. I think it's great to see all the Italians helping him by lifting his car back up. I wonder if Belgians would be so helpful... any volunteers to drive down some stairs in Brussels and test this theory?

It's official..! I'm getting nervous...

Last week I finally asked my boss if it was possible to find me a job with the company in Italy. ( same company, but different as they don't make the same things as we do)
She already knew I was toying with the idea of moving, but I never made it a 'sure thing'. Now, you should know that my boss and I get along very well, so she agreed to take it up with her boss and then some higher people to check if there was a possibility. I don't know yet if it will be possible, but it's nice they are checking it out. Even the P&O lady is helping me figure out some practical stuff even if they can't move me and I have to quit. This is all wonderful and I can't believe they are willing to help me with this in such a great way. However it's making me nervous.. the move is becoming very real all of a sudden and it's scaring me a bit.
The fact that one of my best friends gave me some tissues that say 'Friends Forever' didn't really help and almost made me cry. And today my boss asked me if they can put out an anouncement next week or so to tell the whole company... so yup there is not way back.. To be absolutely clear : I don't want there to be a way back. I'm sure about going to Italy, being with the Italian, getting rid of taking planes every 1-2 months... still I'm getting nervous.
Nervous, but also excited to live with the Italian, in a new place, with a 'new' culture,and (hopefully) making new friends...
Yup.. this kid is growing up... or so it seems...

Bookclub : Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner

I'm always careful about hypes. I didn't like Titanic, The Da Vinci Code-book ( ok I gave up already after 20 pages), and more of those overhyped movies or books. There was a whole hype around this book, probably also because it's the first book Hosseini had ever written.

The story is situated in Afghanistan and is very beautifully written. You can imagine exactly how the atmosphere was and I really love that about a good book.

It is sometimes a bit hard (yes, I'm sensitive), because some bad things that happen are described in detail.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, although I have to add that I like the first chapters more than the last. It's an easy read, even in English for someone who's not an native speaker.

Today Is A Great Day For...

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the grass is making my nose itch..today is a good day for some nice catchy rocky/poppy/indie songs. Partially inspired by StuBru playing on the radio at work, these are the songs that will make today a good day, heck even a great day.

In no particular order :

The BlackBox Revelation - Gravity Blues : Belgian band. Young guys, Runner's up at Humo's Rock Rally* in 2006. They have even played in the US and will be playing in Belgium/ The Netherlands and Germany in sept/august. I also love the video for this song.

The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name : Ok, this song has been out a while, but I still love listening to this song driving in my car with the sun on my face. It makes my head bob even in the morning, and that's a rare thing.

Freaky Age - Where Do We Go Now : This is a Belgian band of guys who are only like 16 years old, but this is one catchy song. They are playing a whole bunch of dates this summer/autumn, so maybe I'll go check them out.

Air Traffic - Time Goes By : Not necessarily a band that has come up with something that's totally new, but I can't help really liking their album Fractured Life and Time Goes By is perfect for singing along in your car (or at your job, depending on your collegues) while banging your head.

A Brand : Time. I really liked their first single,Riding your Ghost in 2004, but Time shows that they have grown as a band. Great song.

If you haven't heard about some of the songs, you should definately check them out and let me know what you think!

* Humo's Rock Rally is an important contest in Belgium for rock bands who are starting out

Belgian Pride - sort of

Last Monday was the National Day of Belgium. Now, I'm not a very 'nationalistic' person and I don't remember ever watching any parades on the national day. The only moments I feel some sort of Belgian pride is when for example the Belgian soccer team wins, which in the past years has pretty much not happened at all.

For many things Belgium is not an inspiring country :

* it rains here most of the time (even when the weatherman says it won't);

* politics have been kinda crazy the past year.

I'm not actually sure if we currently have a government or not;

* the quality of the roads could definately be better;

* the fact that we are so small that most people have no clue where it is.

I still regularly see American journalists on tv referring to Belgium as the capital of Brussels.

I don't blame them, the Belgian government does just not do enough to promote the country correctly.

Having said that, I do think journalists should do their job and do some research.
* Belgian soaps, tv shows are mostly really boring

But on the national day I did think about all the things that do rock Belgium :

* Belgian Chocolate : THE best in the whole world, no competition.

* Belgian Beer : Again, the best in the world.

* Belgian Waffles : ditto

In general Belgian food is just really good.

* Sports : Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters ( tennis), Kim Gevaert ( Running), Tia Hellebaut ( High

Jump), ...

* Art : Victor Horta, James Ensor, Henry van de Velde, Rene Magritte, ...

* Music : K's Choice, Deus, Ozark Henry, Jacques Brel, Arid, Hooverphonic, Toots Tielemans,..

* Some political decisions: Euthanasia law, gay marriage/adoption law, anti-discrimination law,

first country in the world to ban clusterbombs, ...

* Social Security, facilities, education are all quite good and of a high level

* There's no dubbing movies/sitcoms in Belgium, we have subtitles.

* Some beautiful cities: Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges,...

* ...

So when I make the comparison between the good, the bad and the ugly, I must admit that Belgium is not such a bad country to live in after all. I still want to move though...

Bookclub : Dan Brown - Angels&Demons

I finally finished Angels&Demons by Dan Brown. Since last summer I was stuck on page 400-something. I took it with me to Italy as I thought the atmosphere would help me to pick it up again, considering that it deals with a bunch of 'historic' facts that have to do with Rome.

And so it did. I finished it quite fast actually. I'm still not sure what to make of this book.

It's entertaining and once you get caught in the story you really want to read on. It's also nice to read about places like Piazza Navona, cause you can exactly imagine them. But some things that happen are just a bit too unrealistic for my taste.

To other people who've read this : what did you think about this book?

Back to the Chocolate

Yes yes yes.. I have been slacking on the blogging.. that's because I was enjoying my time so much in Italy I didn't have much time to do anything but just that.. enjoy..
I did lots of stuff - about which I do intent to blog later - but for now it's all about sadness.
I'm back in Belgium. The country of chocolate and beer but unfortunately also the country of rain in July (I actually had to put on the heating today cause I was freezing).
I would blog about the crappy weather more, but right now I need to do some serious wallowing...

Birthday

Almost a week ago it was my birthday... it was quite a treat. The Italian cooked lunch for me and did the dishes! I was explicitly told not to lift a finger, which was easy.
In the early evening we went to the 'Giardino degli Aranci' to find some shadow and enjoy the beautiful view of Rome you get from up there.
We took a little walk around Piazza del Popolo and we met someone famous!
It went like this.

Me : oh my god, do you know who that is?
Italian : who, what, where?
Me : That's Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi.
Italian : Who? ah yeah that comedian you like. Go to them and ask for a picture no?
Me : Noo, I'm too shy and I'd look like some crazy person.
Italian: Come on , it will be fun
Me - After thinking long about it : ok

So we went up to them and took a picture and she was really sweet actually.
Afterwards I told the Italian, you know that Portia will be in Nip/Tuck right?
And so he cursed and regretted the fact that he didn't take a picture with the hot girl who will be in the series he likes.

After that we had dinner at 'Il Margutta'. A vegetarian restaurant, the best vegetarian restaurant I ever ate at. I never really bothered looking for vegetarian restaurants in Rome cause :
1. You can find a lot of vegetarian things to eat at pretty much any restaurant in Italy
2. The Italian used to be an avid meat eater

But because The Italian has changed his ways (not under my pressure!) and has become an aspiring vegetarian, we went to 'Il Margutta'. I read about it on the Red Scrapbook blog and it seemed nice. It's a bit expensive though, but because it was a special occasion, we went for it anyway. It was absolutely wonderful. Service, food, drinks, everything was perfect.

So I had a really great birthday... well apart from the fact of getting older ofcourse...

Amalfi, Ravello, Paestum, Atrani etc...

Last weekend we went to the Amalfi coast. We found a little bed & breakfast the day before and got lucky they had one room left. We arrived around lunchtime and dropped all our bags at the b&b and went on our way to see Ravello. Very cute little city, with amazing views.

Having not read a thing about the Amalfi coast before leaving, we didn't realize these little towns were all so small and you could actually see them in an hour. We had lunch in Ravello and went on our way to Amalfi. In the evening we had a great dinner at 'our' b&b. It had a spectacular terrace filled with lemon trees and amazing views on the coast line.
The day after we decided to head to Paestum and then head back 'home'.

Belgian's Holiday

The Belgian (me!) has arrived in Rome for a three week holiday.. yay!
I should also start to think about the practical issues of moving here,
but right now it's all about relaxing.. and getting used to this boiling heat!

Geek

I just finished the 5th year of my Italian class. One night a week, three hours, a whole schoolyear.
Today was grade day. Went there and it went a little like this :

Me : I'm here to pick up my grade

Teacher : So how do you think you did?

Me : Alright, worse than last year though

Teacher : How much did you take last year?

Me : I don't know, around 80%

Teacher : Well, you shouldn't be so modest! Your result is ... 88%

He said I made a very good exam. Ok, really, this doesn't mean so much, it's just Italian. Still I felt again like a little girl whose teacher just told her she did good! Because let's face it, that didn't happen anymore since like primary school. Not because I didn't do well after that, but - from my experience- high school teachers and university professors don't give a crap about their students.
But that's a totally different discussion.

Point is that I was proud of myself for doing well. It sounds geeky even writing it down, but it's the truth! (I do shamefully have to admit that I didn't study for it that much)
The problem with this result is also that it shows that I'm not that bad at Italian, the only thing that's missing is the guts to actually speak it around Italians... which could be useful!

After my intention to blog more, I also need to speak Italian more.. with all these good intentions it kinda feels like the 1st of January...

Blogging Newbie

Today My Italian told me that if I really wanted to do this blog thing, I should actually blog.. I thought he had a point! So that's my intention for the future.. blog more! I can use the excuse that
June is always quite a busy month because I need to get everything done before I go on holiday (yay!). But truth is also that I'm very good at procrastinating. Everyday I was thinking about writing a new blog, but I thought I would do it the day after. Well, no more!
Also, because I'm kinda new to this blogthingy, I didn't know that people had to login and register before posting a comment, so I turned that off now.. So no more excuses for not leaving me comments! And me from my side.. I promise to write more.. and possibly also about more interesting things. Really! You'll see!

Soccer Fever

When I was younger I used to watch a lot of soccer. Not just the national team, but also the Belgian league games. I don't anymore. BUT when there's a European Championship or a World Champion ship I do watch soccer. I love seeing all these countries compete and everybody dressing up in 'Their' colours. Unfortunately the Belgian team has been going through a rough patch the last couple of years and we aren't in the European Championship this year. One of the good things of having an Italian boyfriend is that noone is surprised I support the Italian team. Unfortunately they haven't really played very well. If they don't beat France on Tuesday and Romania wins against Holland, they are out of the Championship.
I have lots of Dutch collegues who are pushing me to support Holland together with them, but until the Italian team is out, I can't, I won't, I shall not.
After that... you could spot me wearing one of those (ridiculous) orange shirts...
Let's hope the Italian team stays in though, I wouldn't want to miss all those good looking guys in their tight shirts and shorts..
Because let's face it, when it comes to having cute soccerplayers, there is only one Champion and that's Italy.

Blogster

More interesting news to follow soon.... check back!