Paniek!

De bibliotheek deze morgen om 11.30u, op mijn terugweg van de broodjeszaak

Ik lag zojuist rustig op mijn bed even na te genieten van de ongelofelijk interesante les politieke marketing die ik juist heb gehad toen ik plots besefte dat als ik niet vlug in actie schoot er deze maand voor het eerst geen blogpost op deze site zou verschenen zijn!
Dat kon ik uiteraard niet laten gebeuren, dus bij vandaar dit geschrijfsel.

Ondertussen zit ik weer in Leuven, en ben ik al weer volledig in de normale cadans van de lessen terechtgekomen. Al heb ik wel maar les op dinsdag en woensdag dus het valt nog wel mee.
Aangezien de enige bedoeling van deze post, namelijk een post hebben in februari 2007, al bereikt is, zullen we mijn en jullie tijd sparen en het hier bij houden. Tot binnenkort!

Regenachtig, buiig, druilerig, miezerig Leuven

Herbert Hoover Square

All above words mean "rainy" in Dutch, except for Leuven which means Leuven.
I allways heard that the Eskimos have 50 different words for snow, don't know if it's true, but we are blessed with a lot of rain. Certainly in the last week, it seems like it never stopped raining. So as I was walking home from class, I passed the Herbert Hoover square, where I took this picture, and then it suddenly started raining really badly. So I took refuge in the University Library (The big building at the end of the square).
So once I was there, there was nothing to do, I couldn't go inside since I didn't have my student card with me. So I started taking pictures of the names of American universities and other schools that can be found everywhere on the building.
Why are those names there? I'll just quote from the library's website

Leuven suffered badly from (especially) WW 1. The torching of the university’s ancient, precious library, along with 1300 private houses, was universally decried as unforgivable. The 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty explicitly states that Leuven was to be rebuilt “more beautiful than it ever was”, and 100s of US universities or colleges donated books and cash for the new library. You can find their names engraved into the massive stone columns of the outer gallery.

After taking about 25 pictures, I realized it would take me ages to take pictures of them all, so I went home.

Woohooo California! ;-)

you really have to look for them sometimes

Princeton

More info can be found here.

Reflections on Erasmus

Mein Zimmer in Löwen

Talk about a pretentious title, but every blog post needs a title and that's just the first thing that sprung to mind. Many people have told me that you should write the post first and add the title am ende, and that's probably a smart move since you avoid situations like those that happen 90% of the time in my dutch blog, where the title has absolutely nothing in common with the rest of the text.

I just noticed that Natalie commented on a picture on my myspace site, saying that I should write a blog about life here in Leuven. Now, I think she probably ment that i should write something in German, but I'm too tired to think in German right now, so I'm just going to put on my Toten Hosen cd to compensate for writing in English.

I've been back in Leuven since sunday, wich, as it turns out, is more than enough to be completely adjusted to Belgian life again. The first evening, when I went shopping (yeah on a sunday, take that heidelberg!!) I said "bitte" when I payed, but thus far that has been the only sign of not yet being fully re-integrated.



This is the view from my window, I'm looking at the back of the statue of Justus Lipsius, and the street were he (=the statue) is looking at is my previous street, called Bondgenotenlaan (Avenue of the Allies) where I have lived for the past 3 years, so location-wise moving was not a big adjustment.

I'll probably write a big post about Leuven später, right now, let me just quickly list what I like and dislike about Leuven vs Heidelberg. (Im just comparing the towns here, not the people who live in it)

Heidelberg ist besser als Löwen weil:

• Public Transport, after 3 years I STILL don't understand the Leuven bus-system, plus, Leuven doesn't have a Straßenbahn , Ich liebe den Straßenbahn!
• The Neckar, I'm sorry but the Dijle really doesn't compare
• The view, Heidelberg looks nicer than Leuven, also Heidelberg feels less polluted, I miss the forests on the hills around HD (not that I ever went there, but you know, the possibility to go there was always there) (I need to find synonyms for "there)
• I-punkt
  

Leuven is better than HD because:

• Better Kebab (allthough HamHam in Rohrbacherstraße is great as well)
  
• Better, stronger and cheaper beer
• You don't need to tip in bars/restaurants
• The University, I can't speak about other faculty's but as far as political science is concerned, the KU Leuven is way better than the uni Heidelberg. Everything is just a lot more professional here. More staff, modern equipment, offices that are open at hours other than 10-12u, and more interesting courses
• Better sandwiches
• Night shops everywhere
• Location, HD is a bit in the middle of nowhere, ok you can go to Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, but that doesn't really compare to Brussels or Antwerp
• and finally...

Different flavours of Jenever, as far as the eye can see... There IS a God
(In case you are wondering, yes I do get funny looks from other people while photographing alcohol in the supermarket)

All in all I think Heidelberg is a lot nicer than Leuven, but less convenient.

This semester I only have 2 courses, one Tuesday vormittag and one Saturday vormittag, the big idea being that I should use all that free time to write a beautiful thesis. I'll keep you up to date on how that's going... (current status: 0,5 % completed)