Don' t dare to say U didn' t understand this...

Student way of thinking...

So... less than 2 more weeks to go and then my study period in Belgium is over. Don' t have even time to really think about it, to relax and enjoy this time, because all of us have last projects, presentations, papers, exams and whatsoever one can call them...
Just thought about our "studying style" and attitudes during the university time and I like what I found here:
Ten ways the Bible would be different if university students wrote it:
1) The Last Supper would have been eaten the next morning, cold.
2) The Ten Commandments are actually only five, double spaced, with inch-and-a-half margins and written in an oversize font.
3) New edition every two years in order to limit reselling.
4) Forbidden fruit would have been eaten because it was not cafeteria food.
5) Paul's letter to the Romans becomes Paul's E-mail to abuse@romans.gov
6) Reason Cain killed Abel: They were roommates.
7) The place where the end of the world occurs: Finals, not Armageddon.
8) Out go the mules, in come the bikes.
9) Reason why Moses and followers walked in desert for 40 years: They did not want to ask directions and look like freshmen.
10) Instead of God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, he would have put it off until the night before it was due and then pulled an all nighter.

Latvia has new President...

Today the Saeima (Latvian parliament) by a count of 58 votes elected Dr Valdis Zatlers, Director of the Hospital of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, as the next President of the Republic of Latvia. The other candidate, a lawyer and former Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Aivars Endzins, received 39 votes. At the press conference, President-elect Zatlers answered questions by journalists and indicated his support for unity among the Baltic states. (Source here.)
The presidential elections, being just around the corner was still a black horse race. Most of the politicking was taking place behind the scenes and the latest candidates were not known until the last moment.
This is why the presidential elections in Latvia resembled this caricature from V-Diena:

Now, both, Latvian and foreign media are speculating on this issue a lot, due to the fact that Valdis Zatlers has admitted receiving undeclared income for which he paid no taxes ('expressions of thanks', a gifts). Then, probably on July 8th or 9th when he is sworn into office ("I solemnly will uphold Latvia’s Satversme /constitution/ and its laws”) residents will wake up in a country where it is not necessary to abide by the laws. At least, if following the example set by the highest national official, taxes can be left unpaid with as clear a conscience, as he himself has. Public servants will be able to accept bribes without shame or concealment, only they’ll have to be called ‘expressions of thanks.’ If the nation’s president is allowed to do this, then who isn’t? I think the world is getting crazy...

This afternoon...

... to disperse our thoughts about "Belgian weather" (= rain), we went to our favourite coffeehouse "Krokantino" for a chat, coffee, <--- and... :)
C'était une après midi agréable avec de bons amis, des crêpes, des fraises, de la crème glacée !
J'ai aimé !
Merci, Estelle!
Gracias, Laura!

Check out what I've been doin' lately!

Avec Niko, Laura et Roxanne

Laura and me were fed up with sitting home alone, so we met at Voruit for a coffee, took our laptops with us and were spending time there chatting, surfing in internet, updating our blogs and fotologs (to excuse ourselves-we called it working):)
We ended up with Niko joining us having some nice pizza evening. We came up with idea that Laura should run for President office. WHY NOT???
Anyhow, this was nice evening and since tonight I just love this song! French Star Academy...

J'ai passé de tres beaux moments a Paris

My friend Niko took me and Mireia to Paris. Paris and french language have always sounded to me sooo romantic, that is why I probably started to study French. I am really putting a lot of effort trying to pronounce it, but so far my most successful pronounced french words sound like I was drunk or smth.:) Anyways this was a great opportunity to see Paris from non-ordinary-touristic point of view. We had so cheerful trip to Paris, it was warm weather and in the first evening we went to park Monceau. I had my Starbucks coffee finallllllly!!! I really liked Monmartre avec le Sacré Coeur, where Niko met this celebrity:), La Tour Eiffel and le Moulin Rouge. We had really cool evening (or better to say "night") at Banana Cafe until 6 a.m. in the morning... so next day we were just wasted, but it was worth that :) During these days we came up with different new expressions to add to our "everyday vocabulary" including there
MariAntoinete and "Why Not?" as well as crazy ideas such as "Let' s call Pope!!!" :)

Merci, Niko pour tout ce qu'on vécu a Paris!

Milan; Flashback...

My couple of last days in Italy I spent in Milan. I visited other my friend Ieva who is studying and living there. We haven' t seen each other for a long time and it was a bit weird to meet in Italy rather than in Latvia. We had a lot to talk about and we had aperitivo (of course :)) and later in the evening we went to Bond together with her friends. Other days we spent in the city, having coffee at D&G "Gold" (check the interior once u get there-I would also prefer tv in my toilet doors), walking in the parks and squares. I had a chance to see Melanie C singing live for TRL event there, eat chocolate cheese, meet lot of swedish and norvegian people, try home-made margharita with nice company on the terrace in the candle lights and be in the party of Ieva' s coursemates. I finally had a chance to watch at least 2-3 "Sex&The City" seasons in a row, because the last day my friend didn' t feel well, and so we stayed at home. But these were nice days as well. I left Italy early morning and had some trouble back in Belgium, because of people striking there, but, well, that is already another story...

Bologna; Flashback...

Sooo... my holidays in Italy - something to remember! Lots of fun, lots of sun, really nice people I've met and really cool places I've been! I arrived in Italy, Milan late friday evening, but my friend Ilze came from Bologna to pick me up there, so then we went back to Bologna the same evening and around 2 p.m. we were already dancing and having fun in Kasamatta with couple of her friends.

Next day it was Ilze' s birthday and we started our day with a walk in the city, then some late afternoon aperitivo (coctail, snacks, nice friends' company) and continued on in BoaVista coctail bar. I just love the interior there! We ended up at club Matis. Here You can see some pics from that evening.


What about the Easter? In Latvia we have this tradition to color eggs, but we just couldn' t find anything to color the eggs with, and probably we were too lazy as well, so we came up with original, abstract and creative idea how to decorate them. Ilze was master of pancakes that morning and we had nice Easter breakfast on the terrace. I know that my friends from Latvia were jelous because we were sitting there on terrace with t-shirts, while it was snowing in Latvia! So here You can see the result of our creative Easter morning :)

Ilze showed me around the city and as the weather was so warm, we went to park - Margarita Garden and just lied there in the grass - well I can' t really remember precisely all those names in Italian :) I also tried Italian ice-cream. I have never eaten better pistachio ice-cream than in Bologna! So during my stay in Bologna I had lots of great evenings, aperitivo' s and also some red Daiquiri coctail on my white trousers, but it all fits to great holidays!

One evening Ilze, Matteo and me-we went up the hill with a car. This will seem strange, but we went to a hospital. Just climbed up onto the roof and there we had really nice view to the city at night! We had wine evenings and Italian pizza evenings, so I really can' t wait to go to Italy again!

My new Italian friends

We had more than two weeks long holidays, so I decided to spend my free time in Italy visiting my friends Ilze (in Bologna) and Ieva (in Milan). I had really great time there and because of shortage of time, i will write about my adventures in Italy some other day.
Here I just posted the video with really nice Italian guys that Ilze introduced me with. They were funny and made my stay in Bologna really enjoyable, so just look up the video and You will understand one of the reasons I liked it sooo much back there in Italy.

Wednesday evening...

On wednesday we had dinner at Laura' s place. Ramon (Laura' s boyfriend) and Laura had probably spent all afternoon preparing the meal. When we came and saw what they had prepared - we were astonished! Tortilla de Patatas, Greek salad, Pasta Carbonara and Sangria and more more...

After the dinner we transformed Laura's living room into a small dance-floor and it was really fun!

Some pics from Brugges...

On 13th of March...

...we visited Brugges. The weather was perfect as perfect it can be for Belgium! Me and my friends from MoCoMa had great time in Brugges, we had to take part in a small quiz about the city, which, I think, was pretty weird, because most of us were there for the first time. But our dutch collegues helped. Probably one of the nicest things in that day was visit to the Chocolate Museum. Can You imagine (the favourite expression of Laura from Spain:))a big chocolate egg, which weights approximately 115kg? Me and Laura were going crazy about that! Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate...
After that we had a dinner and another game. We had a pack of postcards with questions and if we answered correctly, we could get further information how to get to a place that was on the postcard. Pretty good idea, but the thing is that we had 14 or 15 such cards, so after the 6th card our group decided to have a hot chocolate and cheat a bit, so that we go to the final destination directly from the cafe:)
BTW, it was my birthday that day and in the evening my SUPER friends from MoCoMa surprised me when showing up at my place. My roommates had prepared snacks and cobbler...and invited friends. This was really nice evening. Even that old man, who lives in the appartment above, didn' t come to complain about noise! Can there be more fine evening than that?

Perfect day!

Today we visited Brussels another time. This was a great day. The sun was shining the whole day and now, in the evening I can even feel my cheeks burning a bit. But this is a nice feeling, because it is the sign of summer getting closer.
We had a nice dinner in the center of Brussels and visited European Parliament again:)
These days have been so wonderful, full of sun, joy and fun!

Happy...

Yesterday my Dad came to visit me in Gent. We had a really great time in the city. My Dad was very happy to try Belgian beers (rapturous to choose between at least 300 sorts of beer), waffles and other yum-yums :) I am happy that these days it has been just great weather here in Gent. Other thing - I received some nice presents from my family back in Latvia and Latvian brown bread. For all those who are calling it "brown bread" you can get in Belgium - look up the pic. This is what we call brown bread :) And the taste of it....mhhmm :)
Tomorrow we are going to Brussels...I hope the weather won't let us down!

Short Night Fever

This was one of the first projects and we had to work in groups. Our group was verrrry international; Ana(Portugal), Aysegul(Turkey), Dorota(Poland), Alejandro(Spain), Georgiana(Romania) and me. I think that some of the BIG things that disturbed our wonderful cooperation were our running noses, because of this "great" Belgian weather, but You won't believe it-our project is done! We had to organize a music festival in Belgium and this is what we came up to! :) What a relief, now we can focus on next projects...

Spanish dinner

We had nice Spanish dinner at my place. Spanish Laura and Pati prepared the meal, but Juli (Germany) and me were just chillin around. Mostly it was me, because kitchen was too crowded and anyways the only thing that I can do best in the kitchen... is...make a mess :)
While girls were cooking, I was taking care of my window-actually I was trying to fix the hole in my window. It was of a size of two my fists and the wind was blowing inside. No pleasant feeling. You will ask why did I have hole in my window? Well, there were some "nice" polish workers changing the windows in the appartment above ours and while they were doing that-there were lots of "stuff" falling down, so no wonder that "something" hit my window. Don't ask me what was the thing that smashed my window-I don't know. But after half an hour of manipulations with newspapers and some scotch tape-my repair work was done :)
And about the dinner...mmm-I hope I spell it right; Tortilla de Patatas + Cherry Beer = mhhhhhhmmmmmmmm....

Seven arrests in Ghent for flirting with a window dummy !

Brussels

I visited Brussels last weekend. It was raining, it was gloomy, but it's just the weather. The city is really fantastic!!!!!!! Probably as walking around I looked a bit woozy-I was admiring the architecture - the old and the new one. What I wanted to see the most - was this "pissing little boy" - don't You think that I am rude; this is how everyone calls him. It's a fountain, and, as I was told, every month this "boy" is dressed up in some country's national clothing, or at least with some national symbols of that country. It turned out that some time ago this "boy" was dressed up in Latvian National Hockey team shirt :) But this time little boy was wearing estonian "Urmas" coat with belt in national flag colours.

And other thing I was rapturous to see was European Parliament building - found my country's flag there :)

I am really determined to visit Brussels again...

Getting used to...

I am almost a month here. Sounds strange to me. But I am getting used to the weather here-probably that is why I have caught a cold, but I will soon get through it. Bicycles....well, I have managed to get some pics with me on the bicycle, but I don't have one yet. And probably there are lots of places where I can go without the bicycle! And...Belgian waffles...mmmm tasty!:)

MOCOMA programme

This is the programme I am studying in Artevelde Hogeschool. It is spring semester programme in communication management, which includes such subjects as Aspects of PR & Corporate Communication, Marketing communication, European Media Scene, Public Relations Case Studies, Advertising cases and many other interesting courses. Probably my biggest challenge is going to be my French classes, because I am the one, who haven't studied French before...."rrrrrrrrrr"! :)

So far, 2 weeks of this programme have pased and I am starting to enjoy this multicultural context; Spain, Germany, Canada, Portugal, Poland, Finland, Romania, France, Turkey...I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!

Student city Gent

If you ask me, what is my first association of ideas about Gent-I would answer you; Beer, Bicycles, thousands of students and April weather. Gent is the third largest city in Belgium and it lives and breathes industrial pride. In the medieval era Gent was the powerhouse of European cloth industry. If you admire fine architecture, then you will love the city centre with its mix of Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance buildings. The city is really old and beautiful and everything's situated so that it is easy accessible for pedestrians and cyclists. Traffic department in Latvia could learn from this a lot about calming traffic. There is a large student population in Gent with all the buzz that goes with that. And the weather - no wonder almost half of students from my program have cought a cold or flu. In the morning there is a snowstorm, at forenoon it is raining, but in the afternoon sun shines and dries all the puddles...I am not sure if it is winter or already spring here?

My roommates

Luckily I was picked up from Gent train station by my new roommates, so I didn't have any chance to get lost at my first day in Gent. I am lucky, because my roommates are really great! They have helped me a lot, although they had their last exams during my arrival, but they did everything to make me feel at home. On my first day I was introduced to almost all of their friends and I was so confused that probably mixed their names for several times. But by this time I can remember them all :)

Me here, in Belgium...

I got here within Erasmus exchange program. Before my arrival I had to manage lot of things. Pile of wastepapers-all the formalities back in my home university in Tallinn, Estonia made some nervous tension. I had some small surprise when I couldn't get past the metal detectors in Riga airport, because they were peeping. I had to take off my boots and let the personnel check them one more time. It turned out that I had metal in my boots and they were joking that I will have to pay fine for that. Well, it did not seem funny for me at the spot, but luckily I am here...