Happiness!

I'm sorry but I won't write everything. Too early and too much information, but some people know the main reason of my happiness, so I'm going to tell you the other reasons. I really hope that nobody will be mad at me for non explaining everything or explaining to much.

I've got a surprise for you people: I'm quite happy about my thesis (projecte, or memoire)!

My work is going better and better, and today I could test it and generate a nice file. It has been fast and it seems to work really good! I'm not sure if I could explain a lot of stuff about it because we're using information provided by a belgian company. But I can tell you, people, that it seems to be working. Now I'm waiting for the answer of the PhD guy who's helping me. I have to modify a lot of things, but it's a good begining.

And I'm happy too because my little sister maybe will come (I really hope it) on may to visit me. She is one of the only things that I really miss from Spain. I talked to her a few days ago and she's really well now (perdona Mireia si parlo massa de tu...), and I sent her a coded e-mail that I hope that she has understood (sino diga'm-ho!).

Another important reason is you guys. I've told it to you guys several times, so forgive me if I'm boring you but you are the best feature of Belgium. I won't write all of your names, but you know who you are.

After a sad topic I'm glad to write this one. And I promise you that I'm going to write something interesting, non-phylosophycal, with pictures, and non-talking-about-feelings-and-the-humankind .

So, as Bobby McFerrin said: "don't worry, be happy!"

Four letter word

The question is ‘why’. Why they? Why now? Why he allows that kind of events, If HE exists. Why evil people abuse good people?

In this fucking country, in this fucking place, yesterday, it happened. I know that it isn’t a fault from this country, but it happened here. I’m sorry.

They don’t deserve anything bad in their lives, but it happened.

They are the people who make the earth a better place, but they suffered.

They are the people who make life a beautiful experience, but they’ve been hurt.

People who did it don’t know how much suffering have caused, but they are free.

People who did it don’t care about nothing, but they will do it again.

I’ve been losing my faith in everything last years. But I still thought that there is hope for the human race. My faith in the human race is decreasing too. For every good human being there are ten evil. For every good action there is a fight. For every nice word, there are hundreds of offensive insults.

Where are we going? Where should we do? What’s wrong with the people in this city, in this country, in the Earth. We just have to live our lives in peace. Live and let live. Why there are evil people? How can a human being enjoy the suffering of another?

I really want to have faith in the human race, and I will keep it for people who suffer, for people who help, for people who are good, for people who hate suffering, for people who are changing my life. You know who you are.

Happy Birthday Kristof !!!

Sto lat! Happy birthday! Feliz cumpleaños! Per molts anys! Joyeux anniversaire!

Yesterday, tuesday 14th March 2006. What can I say? We tried to do a good party (notice that Shilpa is the best hostess (anfitriona in Spanish) ever) for a great guy. He turned 24 yesterday. I must say the best thing that ever had happened in my life, happened being 24: meet you people from everywhere, meet you Kristof. You have a whole year since now to enjoy your 24 years!

Ok, this isn't a sad melancholic blog so... There were two really good cakes (specially the coffee one), champagne (I'm not really sure that it was champagne...), Polish Vodka (I will use it to disinfect wounds), and balloons. I really hope that somebody took a picture of the "Kiran's creation" with balloons: I won't describe it.

I learned another Polish word yesterday, and I don't remember the german one (sorry Clemens...): cheers, salut, kiipis, nasdrovia !!! And after that, a shot of vodka.

And that's all! Well, it isn't, but the title is "Happy Birthday Kristof" and it isn't "Lots of people being drunk (not everybody, but some of us...) going from Black-something to Beckett's". Maybe later... who knows?

Anyway, I really hope that Kristof enjoyed his special day, with the surprise party, with us. I hope too that if he wished something when he was blowing the candles it is going to happen soon. And now, personally, I want to wish him not only a happy birthday, because the year has 364 days more, and he deserve to be happy everyday!!!!

Polish-Hungarian dinner

On saturday night (11th March) Kristof, Wojtek (from Poland) and András (from Hungary) arranged a dinner. And it was a great dinner! But, go step by step...

I visited them with Rasmus (actually, we brought them some beers) and they had a lot of work. They were doing everything really good, but they needed help. Three people cooking for twenty people. I don’t remember so many potatoes in the same place, except in a market of course. But let me go through the menu.

Polish soup (please... tell me the Polish name and I’ll update it properly): with typical Polish sausages, boiled eggs, and other stuff. Delicious, and I’m not exaggerating. It is know that I don’t like soup, but I loved that soup! Oh! The final detail: fried bread, fantastic.

Cucumber salad: Andras (with the information of his mother) did a salad with cucumber and a sauce based on vinegar, sugar, salt, paprika and some extra spices. It was acid but good, and we had the chance of put some single cream on it. Good, good!

Fried potatoes: after some hours pealing and cutting them (Kristof, Andras, Rasmus me, and basically Wojtek) as slim as we could, the chef master of potatoes Kristof fried them with olive oil (a great idea) onions and some spices. Another really good plate, and it was and ideal complement of the next plate!

“Fried” turkey: with your permission I will use the Catalan definition for this plate: “indiot arrebossat”. Ok, let’s go. First of all we had a huge piece of turkey that I tried to cut following the indications of Andras and Kristof. After that we followed the sequence of ingredients that Andras knew. Andras cooked the turkey after: flavour, shaken eggs, and breadcrumbs. We did only a small mistake with four pieces, they were... “well burned”, but the rest was really good again! And combined with Kirstof’s potatoes... oh... wonderful!

Now let me take a look at the people who came to the “Great Polish-Hungarian Dinner”. Shilpa, Katia, Kiran, Emma, Maija, Massimo, Graziella, Peter, Sami, Rasmus, Kristof, Andras, Wojtek, Kristof’s co-kotteur Camille, and me. A lot of people, and a lot of really good food! Some beers, some wine, orange juice too... Wonderful!

After that we had a movie session with the Mexican “Amores Perros”. Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo and some dogs having troubles, love troubles with dogs involved in the stories. It is a long film, and it had good reviews. If anybody wants to know my personal opinion, just ask me!

Andras, Kristof and Wojtek worked a lot in their dinner, and it was great. Congratulations guys !!!

Monty Phyton's session !!!

...... It'sssssss.................

Conceived and performed by: Rasmus, Wojtek, Kiran, Andras, Emma and me. With the special appearance of Kristof, Maija, Shilpa, Gemma and Myriam.

The Meaning of Life: part XII, "The Larch". I'm sorry... "British sense of humor". Is known that this kind of sense of humor is not easy to understand. It seems stupid, easy and sometimes predictable. You love or you hate it. But...

Yesterday we watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grial". And there were some memorable moments: "The Black Knight", "Which is your favourite colour? Blue... no no, red!", and "I'm am from France, don't you notice my stupid accent?". And of course... the enchanter called... Tim! And a "larch", sorry, a large list of good gags, Nee!
And after that we watch a couple of episodes from the TV serie, "Monty Python's flying circus". The second one was better than the first. "Number one: the Larch... the Larch". And of course, "The Bicycle Repairman!". And Eric Idle trying to tell fairy tales... "...with a melon?¿". They're great!

Probably we're doing another "Monty Python session" with "The Life of Brian" and some episodes from the TV serie. I'm not completely sure if it will be as crowded as yesterday... but I think that everybody laughed at least one time, and they enjoyed some of the gags.

And probably you don't know it, but the "Monty Python's" american guy (who played the role of the old man in the bridge) was the director of famous movies: "Brazil", "12 Monkeys" or "The Grimm Brothers". And he is the guy who did all the cartoons of Monty Python!

And remember: "Number one, The Larch!"

Barça!! and Beckett's...

8th March, Tuesday, Goldway.

We were lucky because the whole bar was full of Barça fans (except of Andras and a couple of Real Madrid Supporters). We ate a little, drank a little (more) and we enjoyed the match.

No words, he's not from this world: Ronaldinho Gaucho. Amazing. The first half was like a circus, Ronaldinho did juggling with the ball, amazing again. At the second half, at least, he scored a goal. And in the last minute the refree (probably a blind refree) saw a penalty. Obviously it wasn't, so the final result was 1 - 1.

After that we went to Becketts. We means: Eric, Rasmus and me. After that the "scandinavians" came, and after Andras and the "canadians". It was quite funny (probably because of the beers), and Rasmus impressed me again: he can drink six liters of beer without being drunk. Amazing.

I met new people, some belgians who knew Catalunya, and Barça. Actually, one of them was wearing our flag, "les quatre barres" (the four stripes) and it was really good to see. I met an Ultra-Sur too, and I won't tell what I think about him... must be careful. I met more belgians, had some interesting conversations, some stupid conversations, and... no I won't write the conversations!

So, I like football when Barça wins: this year I love football! And I have to remember that I can't compete with Rasmus in musculation, neither drinking!

Sportsman? I thought that I was...

I'm trying to write this little section now. I've just arrived from the "musculation"; I went with Rasmus.

It is known that he was in the Danish Military, that he was thinking and he still wants to join the Special Forces, and he played in a very high level handball and football in Denmark. So... I tried to follow him in the exercices... and now I'm not even a human being.

But I think that it's really good to train or practice with people better, stronger and faster than you because then you try to do your best. Of course that "my best" is at several light years from Rasmus, but I'll try to follow him!

And I can't forget Kristof too. I haven't went to musculation with him yet, but I went swimming, and... the same story. But I feel good doing sport with them!! Thank you guys!

Practice sport, enjoy it, it's healthy, be careful with the injuries and try to practice with people that are better, stronger, faster than you and you'll learn and improve much more!

Binche

The Carnival of Binche. Tuesday, 28th of February. 4:30pm


Nadya, Kristof, Emma, Maija, me, Kiran, Rasmus, Katia (Shilpa and Gemma were having a coffee).


I'm not really sure why it is called "Carnival", because only a few people are dressed up. Ok, there are the 'typical people' with the 'typical costume'. This fancy dress reminds mi... something like an hybrid betweed the Swiss Guard of the Vatican and Ronald McDonald (sorry for the comparison...). And they are throwing bloody oranges to everybody, and if you catch one of them you can't throw it again!



So, we started to collect them and I catched a few but... they hit me in my nose. I admit that it is the easiest part of my anathomy to hit... but it hurted! I won't post a photo about that, because Emma has already posted it.

After that we drank some water (maybe it wasn't exactly water) and we had a lot of fun! If somebody wants to know the "Balls story" ask Emma or Maija please. And we came back to Louvain-la-Neuve by train. When I said we, I wanted to mean: Shilpa, Kristof, Emma, Maija and me. The others had some troubles but they came back with Eric by car.

It was snowing in Louvain-la-Neuve when we arrived and they wanted to show me what is a 'snow wash', or something like that. My jacket... it was an accident but... my jacket! But I didn't worry about it, we enjoyed a lot!

If you go to Binche's Carnival, try to catch a lot of oranges, drink some 'special water', enjoy a lot and be careful with your jacket!

Antwerp

The diamond city!

First take a first look at the people who went there. Wojtek, Katia, Shilpa, Andras, Kristof, Kiran, Gemma, and me (I was taking this photo... sorry about my photo skills).



We have a quiet trip, and I've been asked about Catalan history. I'm proud of my country... you've probably noticed it. It's a really nice city, Rubens was born here and it was, is and probably will be the World's capital of the Diamonds. In the "Diamond Museum" we can see that it is necessary one tone of ground to find one carat of diamond. One carat = 0.2 grams. Africa, India, South-America (and Russia and Canada too) are the places where the diamonds are found. The question is: how? I don't wont to know it, I don't wont to know how many people have died because of the diamonds, or how many people is still suffering because of that. I only was interested in the physical properties of the diamond. Its atomic structure is one of the strongest in the whole creation, and it is a result of many many years with high temperatures and high preassure. Don't forget the graphite and diamond are made with the same element: carbon.

We have visit a couple of churches or cathedrals (which is the difference between them? only the size?) and they are not really different than the others churches in Belgium where I've been before. And we went (but not visited because of the price) to a nice castle which is placed next to the river.
A really nice city, with a diamond story, and one of the most important ports of the world. If you've never been there and you're traveling through BeNeLux, just go there.

Welcome to my blog!!

I'm glad, people, to notice you that I'm starting my own blog. And notice that's it's in English (Andras, Emma...). It's because of some simple reasons. I have to practice and improve my english. I really want that my 'Erasmus friend' to read my blog. I'm writting a diary in Catalan, so it won't be a problem for my family. Ok, my sister will read my blog (oi Mireia?).

I'm not really sure if I'm going to post every day. I'm afraid to became boring, and I don't know yet how to post photos...

But, WELCOME TO ROGER's BLOG !!!