Comings and Goings

Exams are here. Some people are not. Unfortunately many erasmus students have to leave Gent to go back home (some even have to sit exams in their own countries too!) This was Kate's last night in her student residence room - we are all very attached to our rooms, its a sad event to pack up :( However, there are still lots of people staying for the Gentse Feesten in July!! Apparently it's Europes' 3rd biggest festival after Las Fallas in Valencia and Oktoberfest in Munich.

Thank goodnes the Crusaders beat them Aussies... can't have a non-NZ team winnin the 14! Anyways I'd better stop procrastinating n get back to studying... Here, have some feet :)

I finally graduated from something

Can y'all spot me in the photo above??

Got my certificate for completing Low Countries Studies tonight. We had a ceremony for it and everything. The Rector (Vice Chancellor) of the University handed out the certificates, and got so excited when he met a 'Nieuw Zeelandese!!!' Granted, I managed to make an ass of myself because I fell when trying to jump out of the row of chairs I was stuck in (massive bruise on leg) but I got a certificate in Dutch AND another in English!! Plus free wine and nibbly things. Yay.


And when I came home and parked Isobel, I found a lil chicken egg. The chickens like to roost in the bike shed sometimes... photo for mum :)

Just 30 days

One month today til Mish arrives in Belgium!! I'nt he lovely :)

Studying is so unexciting when I know I will be travelling soon!

Mop chop

I finally got a haircut. Usually this would not make for a very exciting story, but you know how bright and bubbly you always feel after getting a haircut? (or is that just me??). I was gonna get it cut REALLY short, but the hairdresser talked me out of it because my hair is so curly it would turn into an afro... seriously (this pic is after she dried it straight).

So the hairdresser proceeded to wash my hair and all that usual hairdressing stuff. And then she let her 2 dogs into the salon. Both of them - a Lab and a handbag dog! - promptly settled themselves on my feet. Belgians are odd. They take their dogs EVERYWHERE - supermarkets, libraries, bakeries and butcheries - dogs are allowed in all sorts of places that you would never ever take them in NZ. Then these other Belgians came in and there was lots of discussion about going on a diving trip in Iceland! So my Dutch must be improving!! Not very customer focussed, but interesting all the same. And I then hobbled out of the salon because my feet had pins and needles!

Anyway I'm enjoying that just-got-a-haircut feeling :P
xxx

Trip to The Netherlands!

Today we had a trip through Flanders and into the Netherlands with Low Countries Studies. We're not supposed to call it 'Holland' because Holland is only one province of the Netherlands, so to call it that would be neglecting other important provinces such as Zeeland!!!

We had all sorts of stops on the way through Flanders, fields used for medieval cloth trade, a town called Kaprijke, and another strange town, Boekhoute, which used to be coastal but is now about 50km inland (there are fishing boats in the middle of fields).

Then we headed across the border with the Netherlands. These were my first steps :)


We stopped right on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium. The buses in the photo below are parked on the border dyke (the type to stop flooding :P) Behind the buses is the Netherlands, this side is Belgium!!


We stopped to drill for peat. Not a typical tourist activity but our tour guide was a geologist hehe. There is a bout a metre of marine sediment covering the peat, because the area apparently flooded a lot from the sea (because its all reclaimed land) before the dyke where the buses are park was built.

Then we headed to a town called Hoofdplaat for lunch. Where we all had free beer and icecream. And we stopped at the 'beach' aka the delta of the Westerschlde.


Then we had a tour through a windmill that still grinds corn! Yuppers.


So that was my trip to the Netherlands! Lots more photos on Flickr page :)

xxx hope yer all well

Pink Underwear

So I've officially done it. Finished ALL the assignments for both my Degrees! Today I presented my paper for Penal Systems which was on prison labour. I decided that the class would be sick of boring presentations so I included some random pictures and funny stories. These guys above are a real-life chain gang in Phoenix, AZ. The County Sheriff decided to make an example of them as DUI convicts by dressing them in pink shirts AND undies... and making them bury the homeless alcoholics that had died in the area. Only in America.

I'm also ecstatic because I just found out that my visa issues are sorted and I can now stay in Gent for the festival in July!! This also means Hamish will be able to relax here for a while, and we can sort out where we're gonna go from here :)

There is NO CAT

This had me in stitches;

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

- Albert Einstein, explaining radio