Only 6 weeks left...I'm sorry, what?

It's that point, where we realise how quickly our time here has gone and how soon it will be over. 

Well that sounded dramatic. 

But it's definitely thepoint where we can't have a conversation without bringing up who's leaving next, or that we're leaving soon, or how we're going to get all our belongings home again (spoiler alert: it's going to take 2 trips and possibly a bag sent with anyone who visits me between now and then).

Last weekend we went to Amsterdam and until the early hours of this morning we were in Ghent and May has just been the best month so far and that I only have 4 weekends left in Belgium until I leave is the weirdest thing I've ever heard.

So I'd really like to spend the time I have left accidentally staying out all night because we lack the organisational capacity to check the time of the last train back to Brussels before about 11pm (the last train was at 11.30pm - we tried), and having lunch in castles and making full use of the best maps I've ever seen.

Although it's probably a good thing that I'm going soon because for something that's so important to my job and the general conduction of my social life; my laptop has an awful lot of bare wires showing and bits of plastic falling off it.

I wrote another article for StudentNoodles.com ->5 THINGS THAT HAPPEN EVERY TIME YOU START A NEW JOB

Also I joined Tumblr recently and I was hoping to find loads of good writing and gifs from good films but all I seem to have found is pictures of hot girls and really depressing quotes and I just feel like this isn't what I came here for.

Probably just your poor spelling and grammar though isn't it really.
http://clairegillesp.tumblr.com/

The next one will be more detailed I promise but I wanted to get this done and I've only had 4 hours sleep so...well, I've only had 4 hours sleep. 
 À la prochaine!

xx

Good news

It feels like I've done a lot complaining in these posts since I moved here, although that's hardly because I'm not enjoying myself, and mostly because posts saying 'everything is great!' would be short and not very interesting. So this post is going to be some good things,one tiny tiny bad thing that was so disappointing  it can't go without comment, and some photos.

Good things:

• Well first of all Brussels is lovely, I'm settled and very much enjoying myself, also we get 2 new housemates this weekend and meeting new people is never a bad thing.


• Turns out the 'third time lucky' myth really works, third time walking to my meeting building and I got there absolutely fine (and without wandering round streets I had no reason to be on), have since made the journey twice more with great success. And never without an umbrella.


• My coat arrived, it's actually way too warm to wear at the moment but I'm now fully prepared for the infamous 'Brussels weather'.


• The self-service machines in Delhaize don't have a bagging area, which is probably the best idea I've ever heard. They also don't yell at you like the ones in British supermarkets do, it's definitely all-round a more relaxing experience if you dislike human contact/are in a rush.


• It's only 5 days until my family get here! I've never been so excited to see them, in 2 years of university I was barely homesick, but I feel so far away over here, and this isn't helped by their inability to use Skype because the home computer is so slow it's actually more time-effective for them to wait for me to come home at Christmas.


• I found a shop that sells these things:
  I think you can still get them in the UK but I haven't been able to find them for years and I'm so picky about sweets that I end up giving away the majority of a normal packet of fruit Mentos, so this is pretty exciting.


• It's only 50 cents for a hotdog in IKEA, and you can get 2 and a drink for €1.50, a packet of 4 donuts is only €1.60. I don't (and probably don't want to know) why it's so cheap, but I'm definitely not swimming in money at the moment, so it was good to see.

One tiny tiny bad thing:

• This barely deserves its own section but it was a pretty big disappointment; basically, when I first visited Delhaize I spotted some pre-cooked waffles with jam in the middle, obviously having just moved to Belgium this was pretty exciting. So, finally, when they came on offer this week I bought some, excitedly went home, only to be completely disappointed. Far too much jam, they tasted nothing like waffles, I only ate half and was so devastated I had to throw the other away.

That bit wasn't very interesting, I apologise.

Some photos:

Au revoir!

xx

Packing up

So I'm less than 2 days away from moving my life to a little room in Etterbeek, Brussels and I thought I'd start blogging because it's probably the easiest way for anyone who cares to see how this move pans out given that I will no longer be easily contactable by phone and sending out group emails is a bit weird. This also might end up being where I post stuff I think is cool, or it might crash and burn within a couple of weeks, it's basically completely dependent on how interesting my life is.

I still have a list as long as my arm to get done before I go, most of it will involve making phone calls and being stuck on hold for longer than the conversation will actually last and printing things (which I'm still struggling to do despite the fact the printer is literally a yard away from me). I also don't have a phone number, a bank account, or a map. Oh, and I don't really speak French well enough to have meaningful conversation. So overall, it's probably fair to say this is going pretty well.

But despite all this, hopefully, the journey will run smoothly, my lovely landlady has agreed to meet me at the house herself, which is also luckily not too far from where the bus drops me off, and only ten minutes away from where I'll be working. All of which is much appreciated when I have to travel by myself and I don't arrive until 6am on Saturday. Another piece of great news is that I'm not expected to dress too smartly in the office, so (fingers-crossed) I won't have to buy any more clothes on top of the minimal shopping I've already done. This might not sound that exciting, but if you were my bank balance, I promise you would be ecstatic.

I think that's all I've got for now, realising only yesterday that I had no currency has confirmed to me that I think I've still got ages to prepare. I have not. So I'm going to go and panic for a bit and hopefully make it to Brussels in one piece :)

À la prochaine!

xx