a fundamental change.

I got a new job... I'm going to be working part time at an online poker company as their Danish language operative. Or at least I'll try.

lo siento, no entiendo

I almost got a job with the bank, but they needed a full timer, and I'm not quite willing to give them that with all of my onerous commitments at the institute. Plus the institute has now honoured me with my very own office. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, I have an office that I share with my colleague. Notice the professional terminology? Oh yeah, I'm moving up. We even have our own phone. Unfortunately I think the whole thing was just a backhanded ploy by the institute to make sure that we actually do some work, since they can now check how often we're in. I also have to attend the dreaded Monday morning staff meetings to help complain about the provost, and comment on how malevolent the University administrators are. (The director's in a bit of a tiff with them because they're moving us and the Pacific Institute to the third floor at considerable expense, in order to make room for some new institute, instead of putting the new institute on the third floor.)

The good news is that the pub next door has vastly improved the food this year, so I will probably actually be able to eat there on my lunch break.

I also noticed that the world press is starting to take much more note of the deteriorating political situation in Belgium. They still haven't been able to form a government after the election which happened back in June, and the country's pretty much split along linguistic lines. After my trip to the Belgian history museum and living there for a while, its my learned opinion that Belgium is going to split up sometime before I'm very old. Its already so decentralized they have almost nowhere to go but finally cutting it up. Really the only thing holding them back is what to do with Brussels. (I heard an interview with a polisci prof from Leuven who said that the real reason was an innate lack of courage and imagination on the part of Belgians... but I prefer to believe the Brussels story) Both sides want it; its mostly french, but its in Flanders really... I guess that's one thing the city is useful for: saving Belgium.

Udo

This picture was taken pretty much two years ago today, while I was probably about as far from home as I ever have been. It was on Udo island, just off the coast of Jeju Island, just south of the Korean mainland.These ladies were having so much fun racing up and down the beach in their stockings carrying umbrallas and wading in the water. It makes me miss Korea and all of the random stuff like this that you never ever see here.

A bad day...

So far the life of a research assistant is quite trying.

Memories of Brussels

Moi je ne sais pas. C'est quoi l'énigme de Bruxelles? Brussels raises a lot of passions in people.... mostly bad. But at the same time there's an animated counterspin to that, coming mostly from those who have had a real chance to get to know it. But there's still a lot of those who've lived there for years who hate it.



The Royal Palace: I guess its pretty nice.... but not really spectacular enough to keep people interested for long.



The stereotype is obviously that its boring and full of eurocrats. Personally I think that's idiotic, but I guess I'm sympathetic to eurocrats being essentially a eurocrat in training. Eurocrats are actually pretty interesting, educated people and one of the saving graces of the city. They come from all over and make for an unusually dynamic and mixed crowd of people...

Most of the modern EU buildings are quite hideous.





One real problem is the crime level and generally unsavoury attitude of some residents. I've never been to a city in which I knew personally of so many incidents of crime violent and otherwise. I saw several violent incidents first hand. The homeless population is fairly large and aggressive in its panhandling, and in its treatment of each other. Incidentally the police don't always help since they're quite transparently racist, as I can attest from an overheard conversation with a cabbie who they told "to learn the rules, this isn't Marrakesh anymore"...



The city is also very dirty, and run down in many parts. It smells of urine, probably the result of a dire lack of public facilities, and the generally high fees charged for them. The sidewalks are horribly uneven, not in an interesting cobble stone kind of way, but in a run down, we can't be bothered to fix them way. Its generally just not a beautiful place. It rarely grabs people at first sight in the way that many other European cities do.

The weather is terrible. That's about all that needs to be said on that file.

Other annoyances include bureaucracy, pig headedness, and baffling inefficiency on the part of any institution or business. The hospitals give you the run around, the metro closes at midnight, the police are jerks, taxes are high (but services are poor), instituions close at random times, stores and any businesses close at completely random times, officials are unhelpful, etc...

On the other hand, its not a huge city: you can easily walk anywhere in the main parts of the city within 45 minutes at most. Its easy to get to know places; there's a lot of interesting restaurants, bars, pubs, etc...; there's enough intersting parks and monuments and stuff to be fairly interesting in an indolent kind of way, though this is obviously not excellent by european standards. There's music going on all over the place. The city isn't outrageously expensive, certainly by west European standards.



Best of all, are the wide variety of neighbourhoods, that offer a vibrant street life and different things for different people. From immigrant ghettos full of markets and cheap everything, to expensive areas full of fashionable people, they offer a real variety for different moods. I really liked Louise, Étangs d'Ixelles, Most of Ixelles, Etterbeek, St. Catherine, and some of Anderlecht (though a lot of Anderlecht is in more of day trip kind of way).


I'm working on this, but here are some pictures of Belgium, mostly from Brussels.

The pic is of Ry Guy and JBo and their reaction to Brussels after returning from Dubrovnik. In retrospect they're spoiled brats, but it does give an insight to our general attitude to the city at the time. Now we know that despite its annoyances Brussels still a great place. Its is no Dubrovnik, but we all still miss it.

Conjuring

I met all of the first years finally. Hard to tell what to think at this point; everyone is always so enthusiastic and polite to begin with. There's on older student this year. One from Lithuania, although he's lived in Finland for five, an American, and a Belorussian. I guess its the year for the "new Europe" after our solid French and German representation. I have a job interview on Monday morning with a personnel placement service. I'm hoping to be richer than I've ever been.

The Jewel of the Pacific

I am careful to take plenty of exercise. I ride my bicycle and swim and at weekends take long walks by myself; but solitariness is, to me, attractive only in prospect. I find the lonely hours disturbing.

The few remaining students are now being initiated into the lore of academia. I have taken a job with the department, although it remains to be seen how onerous a proposition it will be. The director is confident the project is worthwhile and will soon be of the highest priority in the offices of power, both here and in Europe. For now, myself and a colleague, best referred to as "JBo", will share the task between us, with occasional assistance from more senior colleagues "Big R" and "Kaustik K".

Soon the new recruits will join us. One of them, "Kolorado K" preceded the main group, and has joined us on various outings around the region. The most interesting was to Cypress Mountain, a place I had been once before, but then only in winter; it hardly needs mentioning that the place is much changed. The site is, in fact, much shabbier in summer, as the constant glare of the sun exposes the many years of neglect and poor maintenance. Nonetheless, we all seemed pleased by the outing, and a break from the frantic pace in town. Other days have been consumed by less ambitious visits to the region's many famous beaches: English Bay, Kitsilano, and the infamous Wreck.