So, the first week is down. Four more to go. I’m going to get quite fit here, as I’m practically cycling every day.
The weekdays were all fairly quiet. I spent most of he time sitting in front of a computer, either coding, thinking, or messing around on the internet. Kurt was out of the office for Thursday and Friday, so I couldn’t chat to him about stuff. There was another defence on Wednesday evening, which I watched. The topic of the research was odd, as it was application research, rather than regular research. But, it was important (saving intensive care patients). At the reception, I hung around with the office guys drinking wine ’til late-ish.
I spent most of Friday trying to sort out paperwork regarding my stay here. In the morning I cycled into Leuven to the international office only to be told that I needed to fill out a LONG form online. And I apparently need some particular documents with me. Which is a pain. I also managed to get a proper laptop (not a Mac) that day too. Although Windows’ notorious networking capabilities stopped me from setting up the printer connection.
That night, I was invited to join Robby at a pub. Guy and his girlfriend also showed up and we spent the night playing the many board games present in the pub. Apparently, games (board and card) are quite popular in Belgium. Played Backgammon (a close win for me after three games), Go (I won with a reduced board size, but I still don’t quite know what I’m doing), and Carcassonne (a unique game). During this, I was able to try three beers. The first, I can’t remember the name of, but it was a Trappist beer (brewed in a monastery). EDIT: It was Westmalle (pronounced ‘Westmullah’).It was perhaps the best beer I have ever tried, so I must return and find the name of it, or ask Robby. The second was Orval, which was ok. And the third was a red beer, apparently a “woman’s beer,” due to its sweet taste. It did almost taste like a wine, but it was nice.
On Saturday, I returned to Leuven again to be touristy. Lieve told me that I could obtain tourist maps with routes around Leuven for seeing the sights. I got one of these and set out along the red path to see the sights. The photos will be up on Facebook when I can upload them, and they should provide a reasonable enough explanation of the history. One thing I could not take photos of was the artwork within the newly opened museum. For 10 Euros I was hoping it was worth the cost, but most of the stuff inside wasn’t really my taste. Just paintings and sculptures, mainly of Jesus and Mary.
After finishing the red path, I grabbed a McD’s burger for comparison. the meal price seemed quite costly ($14NZD for a combo) and I was lucky I had the (almost) right amount of coins. I had a slight hiccup with my cards, neither of which were accepted (accepted almost everywhere my foot!) so I had to pay in what cash I had left, which was 5c short. Luckily I was let off and could have my meal. The McD’s itself was fairly average. the burger wasn’t spectacular and the fries tasted like fries. But that’s McDs for ya’.
I then set out on the green path. One of the most interesting sights I saw was something I didn’t get a photo of, and if I did, it wouldn’t have been good enough anyway. There was a homeless guy walking around, rambling and making excited gestures to phantoms only he could see. It was awesome. The green path was less interesting than the red, but I think that was the idea. I realised now that there was more red path for me to see. Perhaps I’ll do it today.
After returning to the centre square I did two things: Have a Stella Artois at a Belgian metal bar. Well I thought it was metal, but it just seemed to be alternative, judging by the music they put out (Pop? Rap? Enter Sandman?). But the waitress looked metal and the bar name was Mephist’O. And two: have a Belgian waffle. I had caught the scent of a stall earlier and the waffle was delicious! I don’t know why Guy played them down. I guess Belgians are simply used to them. At this point, my legs were exhausted and it was getting late anyway so I headed back.
Like last Saturday (and every other Saturday, I imagine), the night’s dinner was sweet bread with hot chocolate, followed by cards (a game similar to 500) and cake. I was not so lucky in the cards and lost, but we (Joost and I) did have the lead early on.
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Europe 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
9/27/09 @ 9:34 pm #
Best part of this entry: YOU HAD A WAFFLE! Win for you.
I don’t know why you expected the McDs to be “spectacular”. It’s McDs!
10/6/09 @ 1:56 am #
It’s Westmalle and Robby :-)