Wonder World

London

2007-08-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've finished the Bar exam and am on a three week trip to Europe.

This week finds me back in London and loving it. Sam and I flew into Heathrow yesterday . We've had a great time so far. Dinner last night was at a little Moroccan place with great cous cous that America hasn't seemed to discover yet. I had the same when I was in Belgium, but haven't found it in the states though I've tried several times.

After dinner we went to the Globe to see Othello. The Globe isn't the original, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but a pretty authentic replica. The tickets were sold out, but there was a line for people returning them. Sam and I were hoping for tickets for seats on the wooden benches, just like they used in Shakespeare's day, but we were able to get them. Instead, we ended up with two standing tickets for the area just is front of the stage. As in the Elizabethan era, these tickets are the cheapest, £5 each (about ten dollars), but have a great view. As you know, Shakespearean plays can be quite long. Though I really enjoyed the show and getting to experience the authenticity, I think next time I'd prefer to sit.

We got a late start today thanks to our jetlag, but after having a quick lunch we checked out the National Portrait Gallery, one of the few big museums here that I had not yet been to. It was interesting because you glean loads of historical information from the tiny bios accompanying the portraits, but the focus clearly was not on the art itself. We are talking about going to the National Gallery or the British Museum tomorrow, so my art fix isn't far away.

Tonight we're going to see the Drowsy Chaperone, which got rave review and a few Tony's when it opened on Broadway. Sam and I never saw it in New York, so I'm looking forward to seeing that tonight.

The trip so far has been great. I hope we continue in the vein. I'll try to keep you posted.

Countdown

2007-04-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

26 days until we leave New York. There are plenty of things I will miss, but mostly, I just can't wait to get back to a place that feels like home. Of course, finals stand between me and graduation, and I have yet to finish the giant paper that has been plaguing me all semester. I know these are just bumps along the road though.

Today is the first really nice day we've had all spring. I can feel it heralding the summer just around the corner, a summer I hope will be relaxing and enjoyable in spite of the Bar exam I have to take at the end of July. At least my friends will be nearby, and that will certainly ease the burden some. There are so many people I can't wait to see.

Sam and I are driving back with our dog Madge. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post. Here's our route:

Christmas Break

2007-02-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

I suppose it's a bit late to post about Christmas break, seeing as it is almost late February. Nevertheless...

Sam and I rented a car, packed up Madge and our things and drove to the suburbs of Chicago for Christmas break. Besides the absence of my friends and family, it felt a lot like Salem. There were a lot of strip malls and suburbia seemed to stretch for miles in every direction. Sam's family was great and really made me feel welcome. Sam and I didn't do too much, which was fine with me as I needed a break. We did beat Gears of War if that can be called an accomplishment. We also made it to a couple of art museums.

Sam's grandma wanted to go to the Milwuakee Art Museum to see an exhibit on furniture from the Biedermeier period. I knew nothing about this, so it was pretty interesting. I also took the chance to see the rest of the museum's collection. I have to say that I didn't enjoy there collection that much, but there were a few things I thoroughly enjoyed.

This painting, called the Woodgatherer stunned me. I stood in front of it for several mintues absorbing it. The girl on the left seems as if she could leap off the canvas. Though frozen she seems alive and the painter, Jules Bastien-Lepage somehow managed to capture the feeling of her movement with his brushstokes. The woodgatherer behind her, old and worn down, seems to be on a different plane. He is frozen, and not just by the medium he is represented in, but by his age, by the weariness he feels. It's as though the life he has led bares down on him more than the wood he carries. If that weren't impressive enough, the woods behind them are painted so intricately that you have the sense that some woodland creature is going to come suddenly into view. Click on the photo for a bigger version. It's worth it.

I also saw Lichtenstein's "Crying Girl". Pop art isn't my favorite, but I know Tym likes it. So here you are.

On the day of New Years Eve we drove to Chicago and went to the Art Institute. They have a pretty large collection, but I was a little dissappointed. Their sculpture collection is really weak. Just a few works, several in plaster. They did have an impressive collection of impressionists, but it's not my favorite period. This piece, whose name and artist I can't recall, did impress me. The light is amazing. If anyone knows who the painter is or the title of the work, I'd love to know.

After we were done at the Art Institute, we grabbed an expensive dinner in Boy's Town, Chicago's gay area, and then rang in the New Year at a local club.

Overall, the break was good. It was nice to spend some more time with Sam's family and his friends out there. I think I put on about ten pounds with all the food Sam's grandma tried to feed us. Luckily, she's a pretty good cook.

I am looking forward to celebrating the holidays with our friends and family on the West Coast next year though.

If you want to see more photos, check out my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92012730@N00/

Great News!

2006-12-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hey All, I know that, once again, it's been a while since I've posted. Finals are afoot, so my head has been in the books. I did get some exciting news today though that I thought worthy of breaking the silence. I've got a job! I got a call today from a firm in Seattle that I recently interviewed with. They've offered to hire me next fall as an entry-level associate.

I'm really looking forward to being out of school, after my 20 years in the education system, and gainfully employed. In another 20 years I should have all my loans paid off :) I also can't wait to be back in the Northwest. It will be great to be able to see my family and the majority of my friends on a regular basis again. Thanks for all your support along the way.

The new year is already looking happier!

Thoughts on Being Haggard

2006-11-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Rev. Ted Haggard, the founder of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado which has over 14,000 members, admitted to being "guilty of sexual immorality" after a gay man claimed to have had "drug-fueled trysts with him".

Haggard was a vocal opponent of same sex marriage and had preached that homosexual activity went against the teachings of the Bible.

Many bloggers and editorialists were quick to jump on Haggard as a hypocrite, which he certainly seems to be. But I couldn't help but feel sorry for Haggard. In a letter to his former congregation, Haggard wrote "I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life."

As a gay man that was raised in a conservative Christian family, I related to Haggard's desire to pretend to be something he's not; straight. I lied to the people I was closest to and hid my true feelings from them because I was told all my life that it was wrong to feel the things I did and that if I acted on the intractable feelings inside of me, I would be committing a deeply immoral act.

I came to accept that there is nothing wrong with me or with being gay. Poor Haggard is planning on entering counseling with James Dobson and two other men, and seems to have a nearly religious faith that these men will be able to give him the "healing and restoration" that his prayers were unable to provide. I believe Haggard, who has already tried so hard to fight against that which he finds repulsive, will find his sexuality unchanged.

I hope some day people like Haggard will be encouraged to use all of their talents for constructive purposes instead being pushed by society or their religion to fight an unwinnable and destructive war against themselves. Perhaps the members of his congregation that claim to love him so much will forgive him for the mistakes of his past and accept him as he is, without asking him to hide or try to change something he cannot. Perhaps some day soon, he will be able to do the same for himself. I hope so.

The Last Days of Summer: Seattle

2006-11-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, loyal readers, I can't believe it's November already! I know I haven't posted in a while, so you'd have to be really loyal to still be checking back.

As for the rest of my summer, which I promised I'd fill you in on, I was in Seattle. Sam and I went out at the beginning of August. He was working and I was looking for a job. Though the Firm I worked for had treated me well and was filled with great people, Sam and I want to be in Seattle. Unfortunately, my search was not successful, and I'm still trying to find a firm out there that wants to hire me.

I did get in some hiking while I was out there. I climbed Hidden Lakes Peak, and let me tell you, it was one of the best hikes I've ever done. The weather was perfect, cloudy in the morning with no rain and sunny in the afternoon. It made for a hike at a pleasurable temperature with stunning views from the top.

Here's a view from the trail on the way up.

This is the hidden lake in Hidden Lake's Peak.

And here's the view of Mount Raineer, which I intend to climb some day.

Eden and Tym also came up to see us for a few days. They stayed at the house we were renting from a friend of Sam's. It was so nice to have a house that we stayed home almost every night they were in town. I miss these ladies terribly, and I can't wait until we are both back on the same side of the continent. Here's a picture of them which they probably wouldn't want me to post.

The only other big news is that I am now an uncle! My beautiful neice Anya, born on the same day as my dad, is pictured below. Way to go Sean and Amy!

Besides that, there really hasn't been much to update you on since I got back to school. I've been studying a lot. All my classes are unfortunately reading intensive. Sam and I are trying to get out and see the city a little more, with some success.

Summer - Part 2: NY

2006-08-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

Besides my trip to London, I also had a lot of fun in the United States this summer.

Early in the summer, my friends Tym and Tristan came to visit me. Sam came up from D.C. that same weekend, so we all got to explore the city together. The first evening they were in town, Tym, Tristan and I (since Sam hadn't arrived yet) went downtown and saw the World Trade Center site and the New York Stock Exchange. It was a bit warm, and we all felt like stopping for a drink. Luckily, we happened upon Stone Street, which I'd never heard of or seen before. I felt like I was back in Belgium. The entire street was filled with cafe tables full of people drinking beer, smoking and laughing. Though these were mostly investment bankers instead of the students I was used to in Belgium, it was a nice reminder of the fun times I had not so long ago.
After stopping for a beer, we went down to Battery Park for some beautiful views of the Statue of Liberty. Then we headed back toward the village, stopping in Soho at my favorite Cuban place on the way. Sam got in kind of late, not a surprise since he took the Chinatown bus. We all stayed up late chatting, but tried to get up early the next day anyway.

Still a little bleary eyed, we went to breakfast at Grey Dog before heading uptown to Central Park and the Metropolitan museum of Art. In case you haven't picked it up by now, I'm really an art lover. The Met, along with the Louvre in Paris and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, is certainly one of the greatest museums in the world. It's really too big to see in one day, but it didn't stop me from trying. Sam can't stomach hours upon hours at a museum, and Tym and Tristan wanted to spend some of their time doing other things, so I got to spend less time there than I would have liked. I had been before and knew I was going later in the summer though, so I didn't worry too much about it.

The museum does have one sculpture by Canova, Perseus with the Head of Medusa. The statue, pictured below, really amazes me. That Canova could get the arm to extend so far out from the support of the body without breaking the marble is incredible. He had to hollow out Medusa's head to make it light enough not to break, and the cape, which looks like it's pulling the arm down, is actually acting as a support for the weight.

My favorite American sculptor also has a lot of work on display. I think the Angel of Death and the Sculptor is the best work of his I have seen. The statue was a commission from another American sculptor in honor of his brother, who died while carving a funeral monument. The contrast between the almost two-dimensional sphinx and the very three-dimensional Death stopping the sculptors hand always seemed very powerful to me, as though the sculptor's work is suddenly part of a different world.

After a quick visit to Grand Central Station and Times Square, we headed back home for a much needed rest. Sam and my mandatory Times Square shot is below.

For dinner, we went to John's Pizzeria, which is allegedly the best in the city. Then we went to a comedy night that a friend of Sam's hosts. Unfortunately, including the four of us, there were only six people in the audience. Two of them bailed out before the show was half over, leaving Sam, Tym, Tristan and I to try and laugh hard enough to not offend the comedians. When the room is that empty, they can tell who's laughing. By the end, the last comedian was asking only half joking, if he could pay us to leave. The sad part was that the comedy was, for the most part, quite good. The lack of an audience wasn't very conducive to big laughs though.

The next morning Tym and Tristan had to head to the airport, and that afternoon Sam took the bus back to Washington, D.C.. It was nice having everyone come visit, though I think I was cleaning the apartment for the next three days. Four people make a lot more messes than me alone.

Unfortunately, I've got to get to bed, so it looks like I'll have to post the next part of the Summer series later. Next time: my trips to Washington D.C.

Summer - Part 1

2006-08-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the summer in New York. I was working at a big international law firm near Rockefeller Center. Sam, unfortunately, was working in Washington D.C. So after four months in Belgium, we still weren't living together. Besides that one big downside, my summer was pretty great.

I don't want this to seem like I'm bragging, but a job as a summer associate is just about the coziest job a person can have. I was taken out to lunch every day by different attorneys to some of the nicest restaurants in Manhattan. I was frequently invited to events around the city, everything from a Broadway show and a cooking class to a karaoke night and a Yankees game. Almost every evening event was followed by free drinks at some bar. I was paid very well, and honestly didn't have to work that hard. They asked that we spend 7.5 hours a day doing firm-stuff, and this included the long lunches and events. To top it all off, the firm flew all their summer associates to London for a long weekend.

This firm in particular was nice to work at because, though located in New York, it has a non-New York atmosphere in the office. By that I mean that the lawyers don't take themselves too seriously, work a few less hours than the lawyers at other firms and are exceedingly friendly. I shared an office with a friend of mine from law school. We were actually in the same 20 person lawyering group for out entire first year, so that added to my comfort at the firm.

The trip to London was definitely the highlight of the summer. Since I got back from Belgium just three weeks before the trip, I wasn't thrilled to be enduring the lengthy flight back across the Atlantic. Seeing London on a law firm's budget didn't disappoint though. The firm put us up at the Waldorf Hilton near Covent Garden. The rooms and service were incredibly nice, and the beds were miraculous. I'm sure part of it was jet-lag, but these beds felt like the most comfortable I've ever had the pleasure to lay on.

The summer associates went out drinking every night and I acquired a taste for expensive single malt Scotch. We saw a musical there called Blood Brothers. It's been running in London since 1982 but for the life of me, I can't figure out why. It was, by a long shot, the worst musical I've ever seen in my life. This includes some pretty awful high school fare. The best event was a private dinner at Madame Tussauds. We got to have cocktails while touring the museum, then we had a fairly good dinner. Here's a pic of me with not one, but two handsome princes.

During our free time, I checked resist checking out a couple of the museums I had missed when I was in London in February. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London's museum of decorative arts (think fashion, furniture, home appliances, gates and sculpture), was a bit of a let down. There were parts that were interesting, they even have a beautiful statue by Canova, but for the most part the museum seemed like a jumbled collection of things the other museums didn't want. Mostly this meant small groupings of similar work; there was a fashion room and a gate room. Occasionally, this came together well, like in the sculpture room (picture below), most of the time it just looked like a jumble though.

I also visited the National Gallery, which was incredible. No sculpture really, but a fantastic collection of paintings by Da Vinci, Monet, Carravagio, Van Gogh and many others. Unfortunately, no photographs allowed. You'll just have to go see it for yourself.

The rest of the summer went by quickly, and I made a few good friends at the firm. I suppose that's what the firm is going for, since having a social circle at the firm makes us more likely to come back after we graduate. I do feel like I got a good picture of what big firm life is like, though not through first hand experience. I made enough associate friends to realize there is a reason they pay their lawyers so much. The work is very mentally challenging and the hours are extremely long (one of the associates I know stayed at the office all night twice in one week to finish a document he was working on and coming in on both Saturday and Sunday was not uncommon). As a summer associate though, I, thankfully, had my weekends off.

It's getting late, so I'm going to call it a night. I'll try to do part 2 of my summer in the next post. So if you're interested in my trips to D.C. to visit Sam or my trip out to Seattle to find a job, check back soon.

An Overdue Conclusion

2006-08-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well folks, it's time for a long overdue ending to my Leuven story. I got back to the States on June 1st, but haven't found the time to write.

I spent my last few weeks focused on successfully passing my finals. Having completed my last final three days before I was to leave, I made a last minute decision to spend my last two days in Europe in Paris. My friend Analyse from Norway accompanied me.

Paris is a quick train ride from Brussels. The trip takes only about one and a half hours on the Thalys high speed train. Analyse and I picked a budget hotel between the train station and Notre Dam. It was definitely "budget", with paint peeling off the ceiling and poor service (when I arrived I had to wait an hour for the manager to return so I could be let into my room). But it was a safe and convenient place to store our stuff and sleep.

Analyse had taken an earlier train, so we met up in front of Notre Dame.

After touring the Cathedral we wandered through the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter. I bought a small but delicious quiche from a bakery to eat as we walked past the light stone houses. We stumbled upon the stunningly beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg, one of the most popular parks in Paris. The park itself is very large. The beautiful landscaping incorporates a few large fountains, some statues and the Palais du Luxembourg, which houses the French Senate.

We walked the few blocks to the Pantheon (below), a former cathedral converted during the French Revolution to a temple to the great men and women of France. Among the most famous buried in the crypt beneath the marble floor are Victor Hugo, Jean Monnet, and Marie and Pierre Curie.

We were both pretty tired at this point, so we took an expensive coffee break on a pretty little square we found nearby. It rained a little while we were drinking our coffee, but by the time we headed back towards the hotel the weather had become more agreeable. We crossed one of the beautiful bridges along the Seine, stopping for a quick picture in front of Notre Dam. After taking a quick break at the hotel, we took the subway to Montmartre, home of the Moulin Rouge, for dinner. We didn't go to the Moulin Rouge or any of the other cabaret's because they were too expensive. We did take in the free and beautiful views of the cathedral of Sacre-coeur (below) and the city available at the top of Montmartre.

We found a place for dinner. The food was pretty bad (honestly the worst french onion soup I've ever had), but we split a bottle of wine that was quite good. Then we wandered back down the steep hill, stopping to snap some pictures of the Eiffel tower on the way, and called it an early night.

The next day was even more inense. We got up early, bought some croissants from a street vendor and then I dragged Analyse to the Rodin museum. He's one of my favorite sculptors, and though I had been before, I enjoyed returning to the museum. Then we made the obligatory visits to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. It was a cloudy day though, so we decided not to go to the top of either. We grabbed lunch at (oh the shame!) McDonald's on the Champs-Elysées, one of ritziest streets in Paris. The tree lined avenue is home to some of the finest (or at least the most expensive) restaurants and shops in the city and streches from the Arc de Triomphe to the Tuileries, the gardens in front of the Louvre. On the Louvre end, the street is lined on either side by two parks, the Jardins des Champs-Elysées. Analyse had to shop and I had to visit the Louvre, so I headed up the street towards the Tuilieries while she spent an hour in Sephora.

I can't speak highly enough of the Louvre. It is a bit expensive, but it's worth every penny. The building itself, a former royal palace coverted to the world's largest art museum after the French revolution, is both impressive and beautiful. The collection itself, unmatched (in size if not splendour), is incredible. The Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Virgin on the Rocks, Winged Victory of Samothrace, a few statues by Canova, and a sizeable Delacroix collection would be enough to make the Louvre one of the top art museums in the world, but these are just the highlights to a well rounded collection of pre-1900's art.

Some of my pictures are below, but if you are ever in Paris, please go. They are much more beautiful in person.

Canova's Cupid and Psyche is my favorite sculpture by my favorite sculptor. The marble is cut so thin on his wings that light glows through them and the posing is miraculous. Poised forever on the verge of a kiss, Canova captures the moment of highest potential energy between the two lovers. Here's two pictures because I couldn't just pick one.

Chaudet's cupid is a bit crueler. He's kneeling down pulling off the wings of a butterfly, which according to all the books is supposed to symbolise cupid's torture of man's soul. A bit gruesome, but a beautiful sculpture all the same.

After several hours in the Louvre, Analyse and I met up near the Mona Lisa. We got our stuff from the hotel and caught our train back to Brussels. When I got back to Leuven, I just had time to drop off my things and get to my going-away-get-together at one of the first bars I went to in Leuven, Den@. Most of my friends were able to make it out for at least a drink, despite the proximity to finals. It was hard to say goodbye to all the friends I had made, but I know I'll see many of them again when they visit the States or I travel to their cities. It's nice to have friends all over Europe.

It was a good thing the evening wound down early. By the time I finished packing and cleaning, I only got to have about 40 minutes of sleep before I needed to get up to leave for the airport. There was plenty of time to sleep on the long flight back though.

Living in Leuven was a wonderful experience. I got exposed to both Belgian and European culture. I met a number of interesting and fun people from all over Europe, and I learned more about myself. I think more than anything else, that is what I value about my time there. I came to Leuven to see what life is like in another country, but what it showed me is what I am like, what I value and what is just part of my culture. I still have a lot to learn of course. So it's a good thing that there are a lot more places in the world for me to visit.

Waterloo

2006-05-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to Waterloo.

For those who have forgotten their high school history lessons, allow me to remind you that the Battle of Waterloo served as the final military defeat of Napolean Bonaparte, who managed to lead the French army to conquer most of Europe and is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders to have ever lived. After being defeated in Russia, Napolean abdicated the French throne and was exiled to the island of Elba. He had some fight left in him, however, so he escaped and reinstalled himself on the throne of France. In order to avoid being conquered a second time, the rest of Europe united to defeat Napolean. Knowing that the best defense is a good offense, Napolean rallied his troops and marched them to the East to divide and conquer the Anglo-Prussian forces before they could mount a serious offensive of their own. The armies met at Waterloo (73,000 French soldiers against 111,000 British and Prussian allied troops) and a huge battle ensued. By the end of the day, June 18, 1815, the rest of Europe was safe from the imperialism of France, Napolean was permanently defeated and 40,000 men had lost their lives.

5 years later, the Dutch King William I ordered construction of a massive monument on the spot where it was believed his son was wounded. The monument, a giant hill topped by a statue of a lion resting his paw on a globe, pierces the old battlefield as though the Earth itself has risen up to bear witness to the blood spilled there.

The view from the top of the man-made hill was incredibly beautiful and illustrates just how flat the country is naturally.

There are a number of educational activities around the monument. The best one is a huge panoramic painting of the battle, showing what it would of looked like to have been right in the middle of it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2006-05-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

About half a month ago I had my 25th Birthday. I am now over a quarter of a century old. Here's what I looked like that day.

I went out to dinner with my friend Karina (pictured below) from the U.K. We went to a really good Moroccan place on Muntstraat, Leuven's restaurant street. I must say the middle eastern/arabic food here in Belgium is about ten times better than any I've had in the States. The company was great too. Karina let slip that she used to be in the British equivalent of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp, and we spent the rest of the dinner talking about how great camping, hiking and climbing are.

Afterwards, we met a bunch a people at Ron Black's, one of the nicest bars here, conventiently located right next to the law school. It's supposed to be a modern English bar and it certainly feels that way. There more of an emphasis on cocktails than beer, and it feels distinctly un-pub-like, which is a nice change from almost all the other bars in Leuven. From left, Nella from Finland, very nice guy from Germany whose name I can't remember, Tim from Australia, Karina from the U.K., Sanne from the Netherlands, Susanne from Denmark (barely visible with red hair) and Erna from Iceland. There were more folks on the other side of the table, but I don't have a good picture. They all kindly chipped in and got me some very nice cologne as a present. I'm trying to believe it's not a hint about me having body odor.

As it was a Tuesday and many people had class the next day, a lot of folks went home early around 1am. A few people followed my to the kebab place near Oude Market (the Old Market), which was again top notch compared to the places in Grenwich Village, and then to another more Belgian bar with an assortment of beer stein's hanging from the ceiling. After being bought a few more beers, I headed home so I could call Sam and say goodnight. It was a good day, though there's a lot of people I didn't have the chance to see or talk to that I would have liked to.

Beautiful Leuven

2006-05-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

Leuven continues to enchant me. It gets more beautiful here everyday, and every time I think I've seen all there is to see, I find a breathtaking new sculpture, building or park.

Saturday, on my way to class (I'm taking a negotiation workshop that meets all day on Saturdays), I discovered a flower market on the square in front of the library. There were several rows of merchants peddaling beautiful flowers, decorative fountains and potted herbs to gardeners getting a late start on their spring planting.

On a break from the workshop, my friend Sofie (from Sweden) and I bought some cones of gelato and walked through the city's central park. The park wasn't as full as it is on weekdays, but the tulips were stunning in full bloom.

After class, on the way home, I walked part of the way with Sofie. We ducked into a small park along the side of the road to snap a picture of this old sculpture. It's one of my favorites in Leuven, and another example of the city's many surprises.

The gray days are finally gone, and now, just when I'm about to leave, it really starts getting nice. I'm looking forward to coming home, I just wish I could trade a few of those gray days for more of the nice ones that I'm sure to miss. Leuven's hard to beat when the sun is shining.

Cantus Day

2006-05-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, May 3, was an interesting day for me. For one thing, it was the first day it was warm enough to wear the one pair of shorts I brought with me. My first class wasn't until 4 p.m., so I met some friends of mine in the park before hand. In every place I've been to where the sky is overcast for many months in a row, sunny days are always greeted with enthusiasm. Belgium is no exception. It seemed like all the students in Leuven were outside laying in the grass or sitting outside at the little cafe tables that have taken over the narrow streets. This picture shows just one small portion of the park in the center of the city. It was thick with students. The only gaps between people on the grass of more than a few meters were for the frisbee players. My friend Karina's pink socks can be seen in the foreground.

After sunning for a few hours, I went to my Mergers and Acquisitions class: more proof that even an interesting subject can be boring when taught in a monotone. The real highlight of the day though was the Cantus. Cantus is Latin for "song", but in Belgium the meaning is a little bit more complicated. For quite some time, centuries (if the Belgian students are to be believed), the students of Belgium have understood a Cantus to be a large party organized around a game involving copious ammounts of singing and drinking and a smattering of Latin phrases. As it is a Belgian tradition, I felt I couldn't pass up the opportunity when the law school student organization (the VRG) announced that they were putting on a Cantus for the exchange students.

My friends and I showed up at the designated bar, Pavlov, promptly at 8:0o p.m. We were warned it's not the kind of party you can just show up to at any time. After paying our 9 euro, all the participating students, about 45 from all over Europe plus me, sat down around two large tables in the back room and servers brought out beer, lots of beer, two glasses each that got replaced as soon as we drank them. It wa Stella all evening, which was fine by me as it's still my favorite.

After we all got our two full glasses in front of us, the Belgian student from the VRG who was running the show went to the front of the room and explained the Rules. His role for the evening would be that of Senior. He was to be obeyed by the rest of us, known collectively as the Corona. We were only allowed to go to the bathroom on designated breaks unless we could come up with an AABB rhyme beginning with the line "During the night of the VRG Cantus at Pavlov". This made me a bit nervous since I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with Pavlov, and I hadn't yet had anything to drink. Furthermore, anytime the Senior said "Ad Fundum", which means "to the bottom", we had to salute the Senior, the Corona and then finish all the beer left in our glass, even if it was full.

After explaining the rules, the Senior began to lead us in song. We started with two Dutch songs that are apparently sung at each Cantus. Each was followed by an "ad fundum", which quickly left our first two glasses empty. Then we moved on to more familair songs, mostly in English since that was the most common language among us. We got progressively louder as we sang "Oh my darling", "Loch Lomon'", "Yellow Submarine" and others. The singing was interspersed with various silly games including a drinking race between the Scottish and the English (the English won) and the German and the Spanish (the Germans won). For a few of the songs, the Senior called up volunteers to help lead. Here's five lads who thought they were attractive doing a rendition of Backstreet's Back.

We had a good time singing YMCA too, but it was "I Will Survive" that became the anthem for the evening. Everyone seemed to know the words and really get into it the first time we sang it. Since it was the most popular song of the evening, the Senior suggested we sing it as our last song as well. By this point in the evening, we had all had enough to drink that most of us, including yours truly, ended up dancing on the tables as we shouted the lyrics with all the force our inebriated lungs could muster. My friend Mike from the U.K. demonstrates below.

Despite all the beer, I somehow managed to avoid a hangover the next morning, though my voice was a little hoarse form all the singing. It's certainly not something I could do every night, but I'm glad I had the experience. The Cantus is one tradition I wouldn't mind importing.

Markets of Brussels

2006-05-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, on April 22 to be exact, my Belgian friend Pol showed me some of the markets in Brussels. Being from Seattle, the home of Pike Place Market, I thought the markets of Brussels couldn't compare, but they were really something.

First we went to the Brussels flea market. People from all over the city come and lay down a blanket and sell their trash/treasures. I really wished I had some space in my suitcase because their were a lot of fun antiques and novelty items, including one rather lewd Japanese sculpture that I would have liked to have brought back. There was also an assortment of stolen goods for sale. It's inspired me to make a point of going to the New York flea market when I get back to the City.

The market that really impressed me though was the Moroccan style market near Gare du Midi (one of Brussels three big train stations). Brussels has a big (compared to the U.S.) Arab population, and this market caters to them. There were rows and rows of stalls. The ones selling CD's blasted Moroccan music from cheap speakers, setting the mood. This market was huge and everything from meat and fresh produce to cloth and stuffing for making floor pillows was on sale. The long line of nut and olive sellers was particularly enjoyable, though all the people taking nibbles from the sample tray with their bare hands seemed a bit unhygenic.

Pol and I found a nearby cafe and sipped some deliciously sweet mint tea and enjoyed one of the first really warm days since I've been here. The weather has been getting warmer and warmer, and that makes it increasingly harder to study. I've got to crack down soon though. I come home in less than a month. I'm still hoping to do a bit more traveling if I can squeeze it in between all the reading I need to catch up on. Wish me luck, with this weather, I'll need all the help I can get.

Catching Up

2006-04-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a bit shameful. I haven't posted in over a month. Fun stuff is still happening, it's just such a daunting task to post about it all because I'm so behind.

So, I'm going to catch you all up very quickly.

Classes are going well. School is a bit more relaxed here than in the states. Some of my textbooks aren't ever for sale yet. This is getting a bit scary since I have to take some of my exams early and one of these textbooks is over 1000 pages long, but what can you do?

Sam came to visit in March, shortly after my last post. We had a great time. The day he got here Leuven celebrated Carnival, which is like Mardis Gras only smaller and less sexually charged. I didn't know it was going to happen, we just sort of stumbled on it. There were some amazing floats and interesting costumes though and it was a great welcome for Sam to Leuven and Europe.

We spent the next few days exploring Belgium.

I took Sam to see the Begginhof in Leuven. Beggins were like nuns who didn't take a vow of celibacy. They lived in the Begginhof, which was supervised by a woman. It gave women a chance to work in medieval Europe without relying on a man. They are all over Belgium and the Netherlands and many of them are quite beautiful. None I have seen are better than the one in Leuven though.

We went to Brussels, tried the waffles, and saw the sights. Here's a picture of Sam in front of the Palais Royal (Royal Palace).

The next day we went to see Brugges. Brugges is the most visited city/tourist attraction in Belgium. Brugges was a big center for commerce, particularly cloth, which made the city very wealthy and attracted a number of artists and nobles. When the supply of wool from England was cut off because of war with France, the city suffered greatly and many of the artisans left for other cities. Unscathed in both World Wars, the city is excellently preserved. That said, it's become a big tourist trap, packed with tourists even on a cold day in March. I can't imagine how bad it is in the summer. It was a little disappointing after all the hype, but it was pretty.

The next day, we took the train to Amsterdam. In case you aren't aware, Amsterdam is one of the most liberal cities on Earth. Not only was it the first country to allow gay marriage, they have also decriminalized marijuana and mushrooms. Guys sell cocaine on the street, and prostitution is everywhere. With a description like that, it might sound like Amsterdam is a dingy city best to be avoided, but it is actually one of the best cities I have visited in Europe. It's built on a multitude of canals criss-crossed by bridges and dotted with attractive old buildings. It's clean, safe and small enough to walk across in 45 minutes. They have top quality museums, including the Van Gogh museum, with large collections of art from around the world. I could easily do a whole post about our time there, but since I'm trying to get caught up, let me just say, I loved it and hope I get to go back someday.

Sam and I came back two days later and the next day he had to go back to the States. Since then, things have been pretty low key here. I haven't really done any more traveling as I'm low on funds. Sam had a great time though and we are hoping to come back after we pass the bar exam.

It's Spring Break now in Leuven and finally starting to get a little warmer, though I still have to wear my jacket every day. I'm still frequently discovering new and wonderful things in Leuven. Hopefully now that I'm caught up, posting won't be so daunting. School starts again on Monday, and I'm going to need to hit the books and start studying. I come back to the States in about a month and a half and I've got a lot of learning to do before then. So, maybe I won't have much to post about anyway.

Feel free to send me an email, they always brighten my day.

Ghent/Gent

2006-03-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, February 12, I forced myself out of bed at 7 a.m. The orientation program was smart to require that tickets be purchased in advance. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have made it out of bed. As it was, I almost decided to let the 20 EURO go to waste, but my "penny saved, penny earned" background got the best of me (thanks mom).

I bundled up as well as I could, but the morning was frigid as I hurried across Leuven to the orientation group's meeting point. I was disappointed to see that not one of my new friends was going on the trip.

I slept for most of the hour-long journey, waking only to catch glimpses of the small farms dotting the rolling green countryside.

Hard as it was for my body to believe, Ghent was even colder than Leuven. The orientation program had paid for guides to take groups of students through the city. My group's guide was an opinionated older woman with greying auburn hair. She began our tour by leading us to the Gravensteen (Castle of the Counts) in the center of the city. There, she proceeded to offend the French speaking Belgian students among us by saying that the country should be part of the Netherlands. This is a very heated topic in Belgium and one best discussed with great sensitivity if discussed at all. Our guide lacked said sensitivity and made offensive comments about a number of groups throughout the tour. Let's just say, I was glad not to be French-Belgian, German, Scandinavian or Polish.

Our feisty tour guide aside, the castle itself was beautiful. The oldest parts of the castle were built around 868 by Count Baldwin I, but it was expanded to its present form by the Count of Flanders in the late 1100's. Unfortunately, much of the castle was being renovated, but it was still fun to walk through the castle and up the steps, polished by nine centuries worth of steps, to the ramparts on the roof. It was as cold in the castle as it was outside, even if there was less wind. I can understand why life expectancy rates were so low in the middle ages.

The castle also holds numerous pieces of medieval armor and weaponry. For a time, the castle was used as a dungeon. Many of the tools used to that end are know housed in a museum of torture on the second floor of the castle. They don't know how some the torture implements were used, but the various hooks and spikes conjure up all sorts of horrendous possibilities.

The best part of the tour was the view from the roof of the castle. Though it was freezing up there, the view was worth the numb fingers and burning ears. The castle was built next to the river so that the city could be defended against raiding Vikings. Even on a cloudy day, this makes for picturesque views.

After leaving the castle, we broke off into smaller groups. I ended up with a guy from Hong Kong and two Belgian students. I tried vol au vent, a Belgian dish consisting of meat (here chicken) in a cream sauce poured over a puff pastry, for the first time. It was actually quite good and I'm looking forward to trying it again. After lunch we crossed a large cobblestone square (ubiquitous in Belgian cities) to a bar that served over 500 Belgian beers. Still trying to warm up, I opted for a coffee.

Having finished our drinks, we headed back to the center to find our tour guide. It had begun to snow, and a Portuguese girl in our group was delighted. It was her first time in the snow ... ever. Seeing her unrestrained, childlike joy in the snow mitigated my displeasure at the cold a little bit, but we spent the next hour walking around the city taking in guildhouses, churches and canals. The city really is very pretty, but the weather wasn't right for sightseeing. Under the cover of a bridge that looked like it had been in place almost as long as the castle, I snapped this picture of a church across the canal.

After visiting the St. Bavo Cathedral, a massive gothic cathedral in the center of the city, I was invited to go to drinks with several French-Belgian students. I tagged along, but the conversation was less than stimulating. A few of them made an effort to speak to me in English, but they would always revert to French and I would be forced to sit there blankly. I did find another beer I can tolerate though, so that's good.

Overall, the trip wasn't very good. I don't think it was Ghent so much as it was the cold. It made enjoying the visit very difficult. With school starting the next day, I was ready to put sightseeing on hold for a while. Perhaps I'll make it back to Ghent when it gets a bit warmer.

Orientation

2006-02-28T06:08:00.000-08:00

I got into Leuven at about 9 p.m. After checking my email, I went to bed and slept for a good 10 hours. Despite my lack of acquaintances in the city, I did have plans the following day. The exchange coordinator had planned a lunch for all the law exchange students who were already in town and just waiting for the semester to start.

We met at Alma 2 (Cafeteria 2). The food was surprisingly decent compared to what I was used to at University of Washington. I sat next to a quiet couple from Iceland who I couldn't get to say more than a few words and across from a nice French speaking Belgian guy whose name I can't remember. When lunch was finished, we all made plans to meet for a drink later and the exchange coordinator said she'd email the students who didn't come to lunch. A few people had affairs to attend to, but eight of us went to coffee in Oude Market (the Old Market), the social center of Leuven. The cobblestoned, pedestrian square (more of a long rectangle really) is lined with around sixty cafes and bars. The only distinction between the two is that cafes open and close earlier than bars. The cafe's close around 1 a.m. while the bars are often open until 6 or 7 a.m. They both serve liquor, you can smoke in both and both feel just like a bar. Oude Market is full of students every night of the week until the bars send them home.

We stepped into one of the cafe's, Den@, on the West side of the square. Everyone got coffee of some kind. I ordered a mokka (mocha). It tasted fine, but it came in an esspresso shot glass, not the Grande cups I'm used to. We all sat down and preceded to get to know one another. There was Tim from Australia, Hanne and Kristina from Norway, Susanah from Denmark, Belinda from London, Susan from the U.S., and a few others I just can't remember. We talked of law school and our various educational systems, where we were living in Leuven, the gossip we had heard about which classes to take and which to avoid. We all lingered in the cafe for a few hours before deciding to split up. It was nice to finally know some people in the city.

I needed to venture to the laundromat before going out that evening. I won't bore you with the details except to tell you that laundromats in Leuven are remarkably similar to those in the U.S.

That night, we met at Erasmus, a bar near the law school. Almost 20 students showed up, not all of them law students, and I got to know some more people. I met a nice Polish girl named Natalia who studies English linguistics. She had courses in English and American literature so we had a nice chat about our favorite books.

For those of you not in the know, there is a lot of beer in Belgium. They don't claim they invented it, but they do like to say that they've perfected it. It's a small country, but apparently there are over 600 Belgian beers. And Belgians take their drinking seriously. As I mentioned, their bars are open late, well into the morning, and it seems like everyone goes out at least a few nights a week. Furthermore, there is a whole culture surrounding beer here. In the U.S. where we might go to coffee, they go for a beer. Each of the 600+ beers is usually served in it's own decorated and labeled glass. Some of these resemble tumblers while some look more like brandy snifters. Some beers even have their own pouring technique.

Much to my amazement, I noticed that people kept giving a pinkies up to the bartender. At first, I thought Sam had really spread his fad to Europe, but someone told me that's how people order the house beer in a noisy Belgian bar. You just put up your pinkie and someone will bring you a Stella or Primus. In fact, our word for the littlest finger comes from the Dutch word pinkje, a diminutive for pink.

Anyway, my new found friends were encouraging me to try a wide variety of beers. Stella is still my favorite, though that's not saying much. Needless to say, I've used the pinkies up quite a few times. After a couple of drinks at Erasmus, we went to Oude Market. It was atypically reserved that night because most of the Belgian students were finished with their exams and had gone home or skiing until the next semester began. We ended up back at Den@, this time drinking beer not coffee. I met Phillip, a law student from Duke University in the U.S. and Nella, a nice Finnish girl and a prodigious drinker. Nella had been in Leuven for a month already having come early for an intensive Dutch course. She became our unofficial guide for the evening.

After a drink or two at Den@, Nella led us across the square to a bar that had dancing. Unfortunately, the music at this bar was really bad. This bar was in company with all of the other bars I've been to since I've been here though. It's like they have taken all the "pop trash" from the last twenty years and put it on eternal repeat through all the bars here. They have a couple of modern songs they love to play too, including that awful "My Hump" song by Blackeyed Peas (sorry Dave, but it's just awful). I didn't need anything more to drink so I made an effort to dance to a few songs and then headed home. My companions were disappointed that I was quitting so early, but 3 a.m. seemed plenty late for me.

I slept in the next day and tried to get my room setup. I went shopping again, this time at the main grocery store near the center. They have their own grocery bags and a much wider selection, but it's still a stressful rush to bag everything with everyone waiting.

On Thursday the 9th, Orientation began. We gathered in University Hall, the gem of a building I had to register in. I found a seat next to my new found friends, Nella and Hanne. A rather dry official greeted us and welcomed us to Leuven, and then they unleashed us on the room next door for coffee and more socializing. Whenever they serve coffee here they have to include a chocolate or cookie and this was no exception. I'm going to be quite fat when I return to the states.

We broke for lunch. My friends from two nights ago and some new folks went back to Alma 2 for lunch. Later, we all went to the international student cafe. It's supported by the University, so if you pay 4 Euro you can drink all the coffee you want for the semester. It's great. Now, if we could only find the same deal for Sam in New York, we'd save all kinds of money. That night there was more beer drinking and more dancing, but I called it an early night.

Friday was more orientation, including a survival Dutch course. I didn't really learn any more Dutch than I already knew though. I'm still limited to please, thank you, and where's the restroom. It really does seem that everyone here speaks English though. I'm yet to meet someone I can't communicate with. I honestly wish there were a few more Dutch only speakers so I could use the little I know and learn some more, but as soon as they hear the accent, they switch to English.

That night there was a big party at the international student cafe. There must have been almost 300 people there from all over the world there dancing together. The party was good, though the music was the same stuff the bars play. A guy I met from Greece, Vassilis, got a drink with me after we left around 3. He's become a good friend since.

There were more orientation programs on Saturday, but they weren't really applicable to me. So, I just hung around home and recovered from all the late nights. I went to bed early because Sunday morning the orientation program was taking us all to Ghent, but that's a story for another time.

I didn't take a lot of pictures at orientation, but here's one of the school's main library. It's been rebuilt three times, once after each of the World Wars and once after a fire. After WWI and WWII American universities and schools donated a lot of money for it to be rebuilt and plaques lining the front of the library still commemorate the gifts. The thing that looks like an upside down fly pierced by the shiny metal pole on the left is just that. A gift to the university from one of Belgian's most famous sculptors. I bet the entomologists had a great party the night that went up.

London

2006-02-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been much to long since I've posted. I'm sure at least some of you are wondering what happened to me (I know because I have gotten several emails asking exactly that). Nothing really, I just got distracted getting my bearings in Europe.

As I said in my last post, I went to catch my bus for London that Thursday night, the 2nd of February. The bus was set to depart around 11:30 p.m. (or 23:30 as they say in Belgium). It was unclear where I was supposed to catch my bus. I just knew it was in Leuven. I figured it would be leaving from the closed Eurolines office which is near the train station. I showed up about 5 minutes early and no one was there. I waited. And waited. And waited. No one showed up. About 5 minutes after my bus was supposed to have departed, I started getting worried. Then I noticed a very small sign on the door to the office almost obscured by shadows. "The bus will leave from terminal 12 of the Leuven train station". I ran across the street to the station and quickly found terminal 12. The only person there, a Polish guy waiting for the same bus, said the Eurolines buses were notoriously late and that the bus that brought him into Leuven was over 4 hours behind schedule. I heaved a sigh of relief that I hadn't missed the bus, and began to worry I would have to wait in the gusty, subfreezing temperatures for hours. The Polish guy had another bus to catch in Brussels so he gave up after about 10 more minutes of waiting and took the train. Luckily, I only had to wait another 5 minutes for the bus to arrive.

The bus wasn't as bad as I was worried it would be. It was surprisingly uncrowded. Everyone who wanted there own seat had it. The seats were close together, but no worse then on an airplane. I reclined the seat hoping to get some sleep, but this was nearly impossible. At every city we stopped in, maybe 4 or 5 in Belgium and France, the driver announced the city and then turned on the harsh overhead lights, waking me up without fail. Then, we reached the coast and had to exit the bus for customs. The French had to look at my passport and visa. Then the British had to look at my passport and visa. Then we got to climb back into the bus for 30 minutes. After pulling onto one of the massive ferries lining the terminal (shown here), I thought I'd finally get to have some rest. However, unlike in Seattle, passengers aren't allowed to remain in their vehicles during the trip. So, we all had to go up to the passenger deck. At this point it was about 2 in the morning and I had managed about an hour of sleep total. I had an expensive and revoltingly greasy breakfast on the ferry and then found a seat to pass out in until the ferry crossed the channel and we could get back on the bus.

When we finally did arrive in Dover and I got back on the bus, it was about 5 a.m. I got on the bus and immediately fell asleep. The next thing I knew I was in London. The bus arrived around 6 a.m. Just walking from the bus to the terminal made my muscles knot from the cold. The inside of the terminal wasn't that much warmer, but I thought I better wait for a little while before I ventured out in the city. After about 45 minutes a small shop in the bus station selling hot cocoa opened up. Hoping it's heat would help me tolerate the cold outside, I bought a cup and headed onto the streets of London.

I had thought that the grey light begining to filter through the clouds would help me find my way, but I still made a wrong turn immediately outside the bus station. I could have sworn the sign said Buckingham Palace was to the left, but I was wrong. After a lovely, if frigid, 30 minute detour, I ended up at the Starbucks across the street from the bus station. I must say Starbucks caramel lattes are just as delicious and warming in London as in New York or Seattle. Leaving the Seattle embassy behind me, I went the correct way down the street towards Buckingham Palace.

I had seen the Palace when I was in London in 1998, but it was at night and I remembered it poorly. The Palace and the parks opposite it are surrounded by cast iron gates with touches of gilding. It makes for a splendid affect that the distance of this picture does not do justice. Another thing that's hard to see in this picture are the guards next to the open arches on either side. These aren't the ones with the big black hats, they have guns and look ready to stop any intruders should they try to overthrow the powerless monarchy.

Outside the gate lies one of the best monuments I saw in the city. In the front, a queen (perhaps Elizabeth???), sits on her throne, scepter in hand. Intricate sculptures line the three other sides and a gilded angel alights on the top. Sculpted bronze fountains, not shown here, poured at the base of the monument despite the weather, and, to top it off, the whole thing is framed by the hulking Buckingham Palace in the background. Though it was before eight in the morning, the sun was dim behind the clouds and it was freezing, it was a thing of beauty that energized me for the next several hours.

On the way to my next stop, I passed through St. James Park which was breathtakingly beautiful. The park itself easily beats anything in New York, including Central Park. It was more sculpted than the parks in Seattle, but equally beautiful if in a different way. A number of birds I had never seen before in different sizes and colors played in the pond giving the park an air of life that New York's parks lack (rats and pigeons don't count).

After crossing the park, I walked up Whitehall, the road lined with many of the buildings housing the British government. I passed Downing Street hoping to see Tony Blair's current residence, but the small street is now closed to the public and massive gates have been erected to keep the tourists and, presumably, the terrorists at bay.

After a couple more blocks of drab government buildings, I went through an archway back towards the park. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized there was a motionless guard in the shadows. He was wearing a golden helmet and resting his sword against his shoulder. I'm not sure what he was guarding. The place is called Horse Guards Arch, so maybe horses. Interestingly, Princess Diana's funeral procession passed through this arch, a privilege only allowed to members of the royal family. In 1540, the parade ground in front of the arch, shown in the picture, was the site of a huge tournament held by Henry VIII that attracted knights from all over Europe.

I walked up the road and through yet another arch and found myself in Trafalgar Square. None of my pictures of Trafalgar Square really capture it in its entirety. It's a feast for the eyes, but the table is just too big to get in one picture. A giant column, Nelson's column, crowned with a bronze (I think) sculpture of, you guessed it, Nelson juts out of the South end of the square. It is guarded by four humongous, carved, black lions. Two fountains spray water into the air on either side of the column. Their source is refreshed by mermen perched on both sides of the fountains spurting water from the mouths of dolphins. Various other statues litter the square, including an unfortunate modern sculpture of a torso with women's breasts and a man's head. The North side of the square is marked by the columned facade of the National Portrait Gallery, and across the street to the East sits the beautiful-on-the-outside, hideous-on-the-inside Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields Church (that was a lot of hyphens).

From here, I walked up through Covent Garden. For much of it's history it was the largest fruit and vegetable market in England. Now it's just a fancy mall. I think I would have liked to see it as a produce market better. I did get interviewed by a TV crew that was interviewing people for a Valentine's day bit. They asked me which celebrity I'd most like to go on a date with (Prince William), what the worst date I ever had was (went to a movie with a guy who wouldn't stop trying to grope my leg despite my obvious lack of interest) and what the worst pick-up line was (Nice shoes wanna f!#$). I thought my last answer was a bit cliche, but they loved it. Apparently that joke is not as big in Britain as it is in the States.

After that quirky interruption and a failed attempt to find the Royal Opera house, I hurried to the British Museum. It was good to get out of the cold and the museum has an amazing collection. The museums walls hold the Rosetta Stone, one of the Easter Island Statues, the Discus Thrower, plenty of Greek and Egyptian statutes (including one Ozymandius affair complete with broken forearm the size of a tree trunk), several of those Assyrian sphinxes like they had in the Neverending Story, a large collection of Islamic and Asian art, numerous mummies, and much more. Those are just the highlights. I took a ton of pictures, unfortunately, I'm not really supposed to post them on the web. I'll just my favorite, at least until I get a cease and desist letter. They stole it from Turkey anyway. This is the Nereid Monument, so named for the female figures between the pedestals. Nereids were believed to be personifications of the waves of the ocean and friendly towards humanity. Here, though chiseled from stone, you can almost see the breeze from the Mediterranean blowing across their tunics. If you click on the picture to view the larger version, you can see that each of the stones making up the monuments foundation was also carefully sculpted.

I spent the rest of the day at the museum. When I was done, I was exhausted, but I had managed to see almost the entire collection. I met up with my friend Gary and we went out for dinner and a couple of drinks. Then we went back to his place where I'd be staying for the weekend. Gary lives in Essex, which I had thought was a suburb of London. In a way it is, people do commute everyday to London, but it's a long commute, almost an hour by train. It was further away than I had expected, but the price was unbeatable and it was nice to see Gary. We didn't get to his place until around 2 a.m. I quickly went to sleep and didn't wake up until almost 2 p.m. After Gary and I got breakfast, the day was pretty much gone so we just decided to stay in Essex. We went and saw what was once the longest pier in the world at 7080 feet or 1.34 miles and wondered through the town. It wasn't as old or as picturesque as Leuven but did have that small town feel that was a nice change from London.

Sunday, we again got up late, but we were determined to get into London. We walked by the tower of London, but neither of us were excited about paying the high entrance fee and I had done the tour on my last trip.

Here's a picture of Tower Bridge down the Thames, not to be confused with London bridge (one incarnation of which was bought by an American and moved to Arizona).

After a little bit of site seeing, Gary and I went to Tate Modern, London's modern art museum. I'm not as big of a fan of modern art as I am of older art, but the museum had several nice pieces including a large collection of Rothko paintings. There were also a few of Monet's Water Lilies, though I'm not as big a fan of these as I know many are.

Right next door to the museum was the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

After this, Gary and I grabbed dinner at a touristy place near the Tower of London and headed back to Essex. I got up at around 7:30 the next morning. I had to take the train back to London, the subway (tube) to the bus station and then catch my bus. Unfortunately, the subway was running really late because of an earlier breakdown. I was 10 minutes late for my bus. Luckily, my bus was running late too. I was the last passenger on board before it departed. After that lightning visit, I didn't have any trouble getting sleep on the way back to Leuven. In fact, I could barely keep my eyes open.

Arriving in Leuven

2006-02-15T01:45:00.000-08:00

I took the train from Brussels to Leuven. The country side is made up of rather flat, rolling green hills. Much of what we passed looked like farm land, but I couldn't tell what was planted there. It is winter after all. The train had been going for about 30 minutes when it stopped at a station without a sign. I noticed a sea of bicycles parked at the station and the Stella Artois Brewery and realized this must be my new home.

When I left the station I wasn't sure I was going the right way. The directions I had been given said look for the big street in front of the station and go down it, and the map itself showed a large road across from the station. I finally realized that the narrow two lane road bisecting the brick laid square in front of me was the "big" road I was looking for, and for Leuven it really is a big road. When I discovered that from the square in front of the train station, I could easily make out the spires of Leuven's town hall breaking the skyline at the end of the street and, I knew, marking the center of the city, I began to realize just how small Leuven is. Walking across the entire city wouldn't take more than 30 minutes.

Thankfully, I only had to haul my uncomfortably heavy belongings two blocks to get to my room. Anneleen, the Belgian girl I am subletting my room from, had cleaned the place up nicely and removed the vast majority of the floral decor she seems to enjoy. The room was a bit bigger than I was expecting, and the other students she introduced me to seemed nice. They were all Belgian, which I was happy about, and two of them were even law students.

After Anneleen left, I quickly unpacked and then headed out to see the city. It really is quite beautiful and full on intriguing statues. At some point I pulled out my map and in no more than 30 seconds a kind woman on a bicycle was asking me in English if I needed help finding something. This is a bad picture of the center. The town hall is on the left and Saint Peter's church is on the right.

Not everyone here is so kind. The next day I headed to the law school the meet the exchange coordinator. I found the law school easily enough, just a ten minute walk from my room. Here's a picture of the court yard. I didn't have a room number for the coordinator and the info desk was closed. I wondered around for a while searching each floor before I asked a girl there if she knew where the office was. She looked me over, harrumphed and then looked away. "No, then?" I asked. She didn't even give me a harrumph that time, just kept staring into space avoiding my eyes. I thanked her for her kindness and continued looking. After 15 more minutes of combing the halls, the info desk opened and a women told me in broken English where the office could be found. The coordinator herself was very kind and invited me to a lunch the following week with all of the exchange students.

The coordinator informed me that I would need to go to the university registrar's office to complete my registration. After getting lost in Leuven's winding streets a couple more times, I found the registrar's office. Housed in a magnificent stone building that was at one time the weaver's guild house, the registrar's office seemed closer to a palace than the dingy, cubicle filled, modern rooms I got used to registering in at the University of Washington. Here, fluted stone columns supported the high, vaulted ceiling and the bureaucrat sitting at desks between the columns were bathed in light from the stained glass lining the walls.

After getting my student I.D. card and registering with the university, I had to go to yet another office and register with the city of Leuven itself. This is quite a process. After telling them where I live and showing them my passport and rental contract, I was told that the police would come and visit me to verify that I was indeed living here and that I was the only one living here. Then I would be required to come back in to the office on an appointed day with all my information and three passport photos to complete the process. It's all a big headache, but I suppose the police in Leuven need something to do besides chasing down bike thieves.

After all this registering I was tired and hungry so I decided to go pick up some groceries. Anneleen had told me about a cheap supermarket just up the street from my room. So, I headed there. Not seeing any baskets, I tried to grab a shopping cart, but they were chained together. Apparently, I was supposed to deposit a euro to release it from the chain and then I would get the Euro back when I returned the cart, but I didn't figure this out at the time. I decided I would just grab what I could carry. The prices were pretty cheap, at least compared to New York. I grabbed some staples, including shelf milk. I haven't seen fresh milk since I got here. Instead, they sell milk which has been so pastuerized and preserved that it can sit indefinitely in an air tight container on an unrefridgerated shelf. I got used to it in Russia, but it really isn't as good as what we have in the U.S. As I waited in the checkout line, I realized that not only were the customers bagging their own groceries, they were using their own bags. The supermarket didn't have any of their own. Luckily, I had my backpack on or I don't know what I would have done. I quickly shoved my groceries in my backpack. Meanwhile, the checker and the whole line waits for you to finish bagging and paying before starting on the next customer. Besides being inefficient, it's really stressful to be holding everyone up and trying not to smash your eggs at the same time. I go to the more expensive supermarket now. It has free bags and carts, even if everyone still waits for you at the checkout line.

Still recovering from my jetlag and partying, I got up late the next day. I managed to configure my computer for internet access here. So, Sam and I were able to talk and see each other over webcams using Skype. That was really nice. After chatting with him, I did a little bit of research on things to see in London, and then I was off to catch my bus for the United Kingdom. But that's a story for another day.

I don't have a lot of great pictures of Leuven yet. The weather here has been awful and not particularly good for taking pictures. However, here's a picture of the interior of St. Peter's Church for your viewing pleasure.

Brussels Part 2

2006-02-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Unsurprisingly, I was exhausted the next day. I set the alarm for 11:00 though because I wanted to get into Brussels time and see more of the city.

On my way to the center I bought an orange juice and stopped for yet another Belgian waffle. Though it was only a couple of blocks away from the Grand Place, somehow I had missed the Bourse, the city's old stock exchange. Studded with sculptures representing everything from Industry and Navigation to Asia and Africa, this building was one of my favorites in the city despite the ugly metal bars blocking the entrance. According to my guidebook, some of the sculptures were even designed by Auguste Rodin, my favorite sculptor.

Further away from the Grand Place, I made a point to visit the national botanical gardens. They were less than awe-inspiring in January, but it made for a nice walk and the indoor part of the garden gave me a chance to warm up and, hopefully, a preview of what spring will be like here.

On the side of the hill above the gardens, a gothic cathedral towers over the rest of the city. Construction was started on this beast in 1215, though it wasn't completed for another 300 years.

I spent the rest of that Sunday and the next day wandering the city. Here are a few of the highlights. By the way, don't let my few pictures of Brussels convince that there is not much worth seeing there. I took a lot more pictures, but my skills as a photographer leave quite a bit to be desired. I spared you the bad ones of which there are many.

This little street is just a few paces across but is loaded with restaurants. Brussels is full of cute little streets like this, and stumbling upon them makes wandering the city a real treat.

The interior of a large church. I'm not even sure which one. I ducked into numerous churches and was always rewarded with views of the high, vaulted ceilings, beautiful stained glass and even a few paintings and sculptures.

As a big fan of multilateralism, I had to visit the headquarters of the EU while I was in Brussels. Unfortunately, I missed the tour. I must say that the headquarters, though beautiful (in a modern sort of way) is almost impossible to take a photo of. The building itself is massive and it is surrounded by other EU buildings preventing anyone (or at least anyone with my resources and photography experience) from taking a good picture of it. But just to give you an idea, here's my best shot.

Still recovering from jetlag, I headed home early on my last night in Brussels. It was a nice visit and I'm sure I will return often while I'm living in Leuven. There is so much I didn't see, and it is only a 20 minute train ride from the city. Since a ticket costs less than 5 Euro, there's really no reason not to continue exploring.

Brussels

2006-02-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Leuven now. My trip to London was exhausting and I'm looking forward to a couple of restful days before school starts up again. My next few posts are just going to go back over what I've been doing here in detail as I promised in my last post. I started this post 4 days ago, but then orientation began and I didn't have any time.

I got to Brussels on the 27th. I had a found a cheap bed and breakfast to stay in on the internet. The accommodations were minimal: a bed, a desk, a shared bathroom. I opted out of the breakfast part of the deal to get an even better price. The host, Wim, was very nice though. He had studied Law at Leuven as well and his son still lives there. He was Flemish, i.e. from the Dutch part of the country, but speaks fluent French and passable English. He was actually the only Flemish person I met in Brussels which is dominated by the French speaking inhabitants of the country.

As I mentioned in my last post, I hadn't slept at all on the flight over so I was completely exhausted. I just couldn't stay in though. I wanted to get out and see some of the city. Brussels has a nice subway, though small, but, since I wanted to see the city, I decided to walk. This wasn't the best decision since it was well below freezing out. Even bundled up with my hat and scarf I had to hold my self back from shivering.

I don't regret the walk though. Brussels is a maze of narrow, winding streets and old, beautifully ornate buildings. Sculpture, which is my favorite art form, crops up throughout the city, sometimes in completely unexpected places. I must have come across at least seven different statues just on my short walk that day.

The one pictured at left was tucked into a little ring of trees right next to a broad modern avenue and was one of my favorites. I discovered beautiful statutes like these all over the city. I'm not sure what this statue commemorates. The inscription was in French and the language barrier was a constant problem for me throughout my visit. It's so frustrating not being able to communicate or understand simple things like menus or signs. It really made me want to learn French.

After walking a little bit further I realized I had been going in the wrong direction and ended up taking the subway to Le Cinquantenaire, my destination for the day. Frankly, I was glad for the excuse to take the subway so I could warm up.

This little picture of Le Cinquantenaire really does not do it justice. Click on the pick for a bigger image. This amazing archway, which cars still drive through, was commissioned by King Leopold II to mark the 50th anniversary of the independence of the Belgian state in 1880. Attached to it are two giant stone halls that were originally built to house an exhibition of all things Belgian. Now they house three large museums, none of which I saw. The Belgian flag is hanging in the middle archway and the statute on top is of the raising of the national flag. If you can see the person near the middle archway you can get an idea of jut how massive this thing is. The gentle slope below the archway is covered by a disappointingly run down park, but it also had several nice statues.

At this point, I was freezing again so I headed back to the subway. On the way, I met my first waffle vendor. I'm not sure exactly what they do, but these waffles are fabulous. The edges are coated with a sweet, slightly carmelly sauce, and the smell, which is spread throughout the city by its numerous waffle vendors, is nearly impossible to pass up. This was only the first of many waffles I had while in the city.

At this point I was so exhausted that I went back to the B & B and went immediately to bed, even though it was only 8 pm.

I didn't wake up until almost ten the next day. Feeling quite refreshed, I took the subway to the center of town which is the oldest part of the city. I followed Wim's advice and got off at the top of the hill and worked my way down.

The subway lets out on a beautiful park, Parc de Bruxelles, laid out in the formal French style and including loads of statues. It made for a beautiful walk to the Palais Royal (for those who don't know French: the Royal Palace), which borders the parks eastern edge. The park, pictured at left, was beautiful, despite the lack or greenery and the fountains being turned off for winter.

It was impossible to get a good picture of the palace. It was to massive for me to get the whole thing in one shot and the light from behind obscures the picture, but it's the best one I've got.

This part of town was pretty ornate. Right around the corner, the Church of St. Jacques sur Coudenberg borders a cobblestone traffic circle that surrounds a statue of one of the leaders of the first crusade.

From here I headed down towards the oldest part of the city and the building Brussels is most known for. The Grand Place is at the heart of the city. Anchored by the Hotel-de-Ville or Town Hall (pictured below) and lined with guild houses built in the late 1600s it has served as the city's center since the marshland on which it sits was drained for use as a market in the 1300s.

On the other side of the Grand Place, across from the town hall, a number of guild houses line the square. Built in the same period, they are equally beautiful, if not as large. This one was my favorite.

A couple blocks a way, Brussels most famous fountain splashes before a constant sea of tourists. My friends Tymberly and Tristan might recognize their corkscrew based on this diminutive little man. Whenever a dignitary comes to town, it is a tradition that they bring an outfit for the little fellow. Here is dressed as a baker.

A few blocks North of the Grand Place the opera house where the Belgian revolution for independence began celebrates the 250th anniversary of that event. The opera, the Mute Girl of Portici, so inspired the audience with its nationalist themes that they poured out of the theatre to raise the local flag against the Dutch, signaling the start of the rebellion. Who said theatre is just for entertainment?

After touring around the center a little bit more I went up the only hill to the art museum. It was rather disappointing. Their sculpture gallery and modern art wing were closed, which left little but scenes of the crucifixion. They can be beautiful, I admit, but after a few hundred of them it gets a bit tiresome.

That night I went out to a big party. It was held near the canal in a catacomb like structure called the Caves of Cureghem under a square that was once a vast market. Goods used to be stored there before shipment. It was really very beautiful, and I met several nice guys from the French speaking part of Belgium. I stayed out until the subway started running again at 6am. It didn't help my jetlag, but I had a great time.

By the time I made it home to go to bed my trip to Brussels was half over. Luckily, the next half wasn't so intense, but I'll save the rest for another post.

So far

2006-02-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know it's high time that I update this blog, but I've been in a whirlwind of activity since I got here. I'm in an internet cafe in London, so I've got to make this quick unless I want to pay an arm and a leg for it. The exchange rate here is awful. Thanks W.

You may be asking yourself why I'm in London as you know if you've been following along that I'm supposed to be in Belgium. Well, here's the story. I left New York on the 26th, landed in Zurich, Switzerland on the 27th. Seems like a beautiful place from what I could see from the plane. Tall mountains poking through clouds, beautiful countryside. I wanted to stay, but I had to get another plane an hour later and fly to Brussels, Belgium. I was going on no sleep at this point, but, let me just say, if you have to travel on no sleep, Swiss Air is the way to do it. Hot towels in the morning to wipe your face with, chocolates after every meal and a wide selection of entertainment options.

Brussels was beautiful too. It's highly underrated. I took a ton of pictures that I'm going to post when I get back to Belgium. I stayed there for 4 days while I was waiting for my room in Leuven to be ready for me to move in and had a great time. As I said, details to come.

I got to Leuven on the 31st. Even prettier then Brussels but much smaller. In fact, even with all the students, it's the smallest city I've ever lived in. I'll post a lot more about Leuven, but I was only there for two days before I came to London. I spent most of that time wading through administrative bureaucracy, so I haven't seen much of the city yet. What I did see, I liked though.

School doesn't start until the 13th and all the students go home between semesters so Leuven was pretty abandoned. I decided to go to London since it was only going to be 50 Euro to get here on the bus. I had to take an overnight bus, but it was cheap and now I'm in London.

It reminds me a lot of New York. Again, I'll post pictures when I get back to Belgium. I got in at 6am and just hung out in the frigid bus station for an hour until it got light enough out that I knew I wouldn't immediately get lost. When I left, I got lost anyway, but not for very long. I soon found myself at Buckingham Palace. I walked up past Whitehall and through Trafalgar Square and then over to the British Museum where I spent the entire day. Theyhave aa huge collection from a broad swath of cultures and time periods. Some of their best stuff was closed though, which is too bad. It's going to be an early night tonight and then more museums tomorrow. The museums are free here, which is great because I don't have any money.

Anyway, that was all very rushed and there will be more on most of this later. I just wanted to touch base, and let you all know I made it to Europe. Things will settle down once school starts on the 13th and then you can expect a lot more posts from me. I go back to Leuven on Monday.

Take care,

Matt

Manhattan

2006-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

By request, here's a post about my life in Manhattan. Your welcome mom.

Sam and I live on MacDougal Street. It's only eight blocks long but it has quite a history. Matthew Broderick, Eleanor Roosevelt, playwrite Eugene O'Neill, Louisa May Alcott (who wrote Little Women while living on out street) and Bob Dylan all lived on the street at one time. Famous visitors include JFK who gave his first presidential campaign speech on our street; Miles Davis, Tennessee Williams, and artist Jackson Pollock who all used to hang out at the San Remo, where Gore Vidal once picked up Jack Kerouac; Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, and Ernest Hemingway met regularly at a tavern on our block; Andy Warhol got in a fight with Bob Dylan across the street; Jimi Hendrix gained fame by playing at a club here; and numerous modern comedians including Jerry Seinfeld, John Stewart and Collin Quinn regularly perform at the Comedy Cellar (which I love) a block away. More history of MacDougal Street can be found here.

The picture is of the street during a sunny summer morning. Most of the shops are closed and it looks like a quiet street in the big city. It's completely misleading though. Like most of the streets in Greenwich Village, MacDougal's shops only start to open around eleven in the morning and it doesn't get busy until about five at night. Some nights it seems like all of lower Manhattan is trying to cram themselves onto the sidewalks in the village. Often on weekend evenings, people are forced to walk on the street because the sidewalk is too crammed with pedestrians. Every bar, of which there are plenty, has people spilling out its doors to takeover the sidewalk, especially in the summer.

Our apartment, on the fourth floor of a walkup building, is small, and this is, perhaps, an understatement for those of you living on the West Coast where land is plentiful. The entire place could easily fit in many of your living rooms. The building itself is an old tenement that has been renovated. The picture at left shows our living room (the futon at the bottom right of the picture), dining room (out kitchen table, which requires one of us to sit down and pull the table towards himself before the other one can sit down), our study, and our kitchen. The front door is just to the left of the desk. The bathroom is through the door to the left of Sam. It's really too small to even take a picture of, but, just to give you an idea, let me tell you that I can sit on the toilet, wash my hands and put my feet in the shower at the same time.

The whole place is kind of a mess (Sorry mom). "A place for everything and everything in its place" really only works if everything has a place.

I think the kitchen is the worst part. It's so small that cooking anything is a big chore. We often have to expand onto the table to be able to cook because the little counterspace we have is taken up by our microwave. The gas stove is fun though, and we have a full size fridge which not everyone in Manhattan does. We also have high-ceilings and big windows, which is nice.

This is the bedroom and the rest of the grand tour. Behind the curtain you can see the bottom of our Manhattan Lock, a big metal gate meant to protect against intrusion from the fire-escape and also hideously ugly. We never open that curtain. All our other windows look out on brick walls (though we can see part of a tree through some of them), but at least they let a little light in.

The real highlight of the apartment is that it is so close to the law school. We can leave the apartment and make it to class in less than five minutes. That's about all it has going for it though.

Of course, this setup is only temporary. I'm really looking forward to moving back to Seattle where there is more space and a lot more trees. Living in New York has been a good experience, but it's nowhere I would want to stay.

In other news, I found out the other day that the Firm is going to fly me back to New York in March for an orientation. I'll have to miss a couple of days of class, but it is totally worth it to see Sam.

Visas and Housing

2006-01-12T18:37:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I went to the Belgian embassy in midtown and picked up my visa. I was quite impressed with my first brush with the famed Belgian bureaucracy and found it almost totally painless. Some of the paper work was a bit tedious and, I thought, unnecessary. For instance, does the doctor really need to verify I don't have ebola before I am issued a visa? If I did, I'd almost surely be dead before I could use the visa anyway. That said, picking up my visa was a snap. The Consulate is located on the 26th floor of an office building. The office was smartly and simply decorated, and, best of all, there was no line. I walked in, told the woman behind the glass I was there to pick up my visa and gave her my i.d. She had all my papers rubber banded together right there on her desk. She slid the bundle under the glass, and I left. In and out in less than two minutes. I hope the rest of the trip is that easy.

I also think I've found a room in Leuven for the semester. It's small but cheap and just a short walk from the law school. Luckily, a girl from my international law class is from Belgium and her sister, who goes to Leuven, is subletting her room this semester while she is in France. At 230 Euro a month its a steal. Pictures below. The decorating is not really my style, but I'm sure I'll adjust.

The price includes broadband internet access, which is great. Sam and I both got webcams for Christmas and plan to keep in touch over Skype. If any of y'all have a webcam or even just a microphone and speakers, let me know. Skype will let me call you for free.

I'm really not into the flowers everywhere, but whatever.

There's a sink behind the screen. I share one toilet, a shower room and a kitchen with four other people, all Belgian students. Two of them are law students.

The red dot is the approximate location of the room and the green dot is the law school. The girl I'd be subletting from says it's about a seven minute walk. (You can click on the map for a bigger picture)
Well, that's about all that's new for now. I've been writing a lot in my spare time, reading and cooking for Sam almost every night. I know he'll do the same for me someday (right sweetie?). Hope everyone's doing well.

Rest of the Trip

2006-01-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Let me fill you in on the rest of our trip. Wednesday morning, we got up early (well, 9:30 is early for a vacation) and went to breakfast with "the girls", Kim, Shayla and Roxanne (Pictured on the left with Sam) in Ballard at the Wild Mountain Cafe. The food was pretty good and the service was great. On the ride back there was some craziness with the blond Marilyn Monroe wig that Roxanne had in her trunk from Halloween. Sam requested I not post the pictures, however, so you're out of luck there. Anyway, we all had a good time as usual and the morning ended up being much too short.

Sam was going to coffee with a friend of his, so I had him drop me off at Discovery Park in Seattle's poorly-named Magnolia neighborhood. I really wanted to get out into nature before going back to the concrete jungle that is my current home. I took a lot of pictures, and I've posted the highlights below

The 534 acre park is rather hilly. This was near the entrance to the park. All of the other "stairs" I encountered were just steps dug out of the dirt and reinforced with boards to prevent erosion.

Some remnants of the parks origins as a military base are still visible. These were the houses of officers and still house the few remaining servicemembers based at Fort Lawton. Though it seems the base will soon be completely closed.

Another remnant of the base is the dingy old chapel near the officers houses. The brush around the chapel is overgrown, but it looks like it might still be used.

When officers lived in those houses they certainly had an incredible view of the Sound and the Olympic Mountains beyond.

Trails crisscross the grassy hill below the officers houses leading to more expansive views of the sound.

A couple of trails wind down through these bluffs. This was my favorite part of the hike. Not only was it downhill, it was also very isolated. For a few minutes I got to feel like I was out in the woods instead of fifteen minutes from downtown Seattle.

South Beach, at the base of the bluffs, was picturesque. Providing stunnging views of Mount Ranier.

At the other end of the beach, stands the West Point Light House. Built in the 1881, it is the oldest light house on the Sound.

Anyhow, the park was very pretty, and I captured a lot of it with my camera. At least enough to get me through the next month in New York.

That night Sam and I grabbed dinner with our friend John (Pic on the left). After dinner, I left Sam and John to go meet up with my friends Courtney and Carmen again, this time at Madison Pub, a gay bar in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. After hanging out there for a while we went over and checked out Purr, a new addition to the bar scene in the neighborhood. When we were finished, I met up with Sam and we headed home.

The next night I got together with my very good friends Tymberly and Tristan (pictured below). They were up from Portland because Tym had an interview at UW's Nursing School today. I'm hoping it went well and that they move to Seattle this summer. It will make me want to move back to Seattle even more.

We went to Blue C Sushi for dinner since Tym had never been. After swinging by the Chapel on Capital Hill for a couple more drinks, we dropped them off at their hotel early and went home and packed. Our flight left at 8:00 this morning so we had to get up at 5:30. Luckily, our friend Billie offered us a ride to the airport or we would have had to get up even earlier to take the shuttle.

We made it back to New York in one piece, though the ride was a little bumpy. Sam still managed to sleep through all but the last thirty minutes of the flight. It's good to be home, though I already miss Seattle.

Catching Up

2006-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've never been very good about keeping in touch. So I always find I have a lot to catch up on when I visit old stomping grounds like Seattle.

On the 30th I got to hang out with a lot of the brothers from my old fraternity, Delta Lambda Phi. Tom, one of the brothers, had a potluck at his parents house in Redmond. It was great to see many of my old brothers and meet a few of the new ones. My "Little Brother", Eric, was there, and I really enjoyed catching up with him as we find it impossible to keep in touch.

Yesterday, I got together with my friend Kristen (pictured at right, much to her dismay). We went to lunch at the Thai-ger Room in the U-District. I think we were both craving it because it's hard to get good Thai food in New York and, I'd imagine, nearly impossible in Colorado where Kristen is now living. After that we grabbed some bubble tea on the Ave before going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I thought this movie was the best one yet, though Kristen, who has actually read the books disagrees.

After Kristen dropped me off I got to do a bit of reading. I'm currently wading through Knife of Dreams, the 11th tome in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It seems like his books keep getting progressively less interesting, but after getting through ten of his books, I am too invested to quit before finding out how the epic ends.

Later that night I went out to Sushi with my friend Courtney. We went to Blue C, which isn't the best sushi joint in town but is certainly the most entertaining to visit. The sushi is moved around the restaurant on a shiny metal conveyor belt and you can make your selections as it passes or order directly from the chefs. Court and I have a good time when we go, and this time wasn't any different.

Then we went to pick up our friend Carmen (on the right with Courtney) and go drinking. We went to the People's Pub in Ballard, a fine establishment that Courtney and I used to visit on a regular basis. After allowing Carmen and I to get a bit soused, Courtney drove me back to Sam's grandma's house.

Today's been a bit slow, which is to my liking at the moment. I got up around 11 and did a little more reading. Then I went to pick up Sam, who had been busy catching up with his old friends in the student government at UW. Now we are at Zoka, a local coffee shop we like. We are taking Sam's grandma out to dinner later and will probably call it an early night. Tomorrow we are both getting together with more friends, and in a couple of days we head back to New York. I'm not looking forward to going back, but it will be nice to be back in my own bed and my own space. Everyone has made us feel so welcome, but there is something about one's own home, even if it is in New York that feels ... well, homey.

Seattle

2005-12-31T16:51:00.000-08:00

Sam and I came to the Pacific Northwest for winter break. We were down in Salem for Christmas and my mom's birthday, but now we are in Seattle until the 6th of January. We're staying at Sam's grandma's house in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood. Here's a picture.

Sam got me a digital camera for Christmas, so I've been taking pictures a bit excessively. I think he's almost wishing he hadn't gotten it for me.

The weather has been typical for Seattle since we got here: grey and overcast everyday. I'm enjoying it though. It's more mild than New York and far more green. Before I head back I hope to get in a little hiking somewhere, even if it's just in Discovery Park.

We've been trying to find something to do for New Years Eve, but we haven't been very successful. We're probably just going to go out to a club, and I think my friend Courtney is going to come meet us.

It hasn't been much of a vacation yet. I keep waiting for some time to relax, but there is always someone else to see. I have enjoyed seeing everyone and know I would regret it when I get back to New York if I hadn't tried to do so, but it isn't very relaxing. That said, it remains far more enjoyable than law school. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get a break one of these days.

Beginnings

2005-12-30T15:16:00.000-08:00

I thought it was time for me to break this blog in. I've had it for a few weeks and kept meaning to start posting, but with finals and the holidays, I had been putting it off. I intend for this blog to be mostly about my trip abroad and time studying in Belgium. I don't leave until January 27th and probably won't post too much in the interim. But before I leave off, let me fill you in a little bit about where I am at in my life.

I just finished my third of six semesters at NYU School of Law. It's good to be halfway done, and I can't wait until I've completed it entirely. For those readers who haven't been to law school, let me explain that it is the amount of work rather than the work itself that makes law school so tedious. Studying the rules of the game is thought provoking, but the quantity of work means that I spend all day, every day doing nothing but studying. Now, I'm all for hard work, but I need variety to feel like I'm really living, not just trudging through, my life.

I hope the European system of education will be more to my liking. I'll be studying law at the Catholic University of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium next semester. Leuven is about 20 km (12.5 miles) east of Brussels. I hope to do a lot of traveling while I'm there. Luckily, Belgium is conveniently located in the center of a number of amazing countries.

My boyfriend of almost four years, Sam, will be staying in New York. Understandably, he's not too happy I'm leaving, but he says if I send him Belgian chocolates every month he'll let it slide. He's a much more dedicated blogger than I am, so, if you're interested, I'm sure you will be able to find whether I sent them each month by reading his blog. He's going to come visit over Spring break in March and, hopefully, we'll do a bit of traveling then.

Next summer, when I get back from Belgium, I plan on working at a big New York law firm as a summer associate. To protect myself and my future careers options, this firm will be known simply as The Firm in this blog. For those not in the know, the summer associate program is like a summer long interview for both the student and the firm. The students try to pretend they are non-stop billing machines who love to work as many hours as they can, taking breaks only to schmooze partners on the hiring committee. The firm tries to hide the fact that their lawyers' lives are consumed entirely by their billable hour requirements by lavishing the summer associates with perks and requiring them to work only a small fraction of the hours they have to work once hired. At any rate, it should be an interesting summer.

I guess that's all you really need to know for now. Please feel free to leave comments and send me emails.