Too long, way too long.. in Belgium

There are numerous lists of “you’ve been too long in Belgium, when..” so I thought to write my own. ;)

1.     You don’t mind that it takes forever to queue to a cashier in a grocery store.

(I’ve started to examine what my co-shoppers are buying and “judge” them based on their purchases)

2.     Don’t get annoyed when the customer front of you in the queue chats with the cashier, pays with coins and once made the payments start to pack their purchases … really taking their time.

(Thank God for iPhone and all the apps in it.. )

3.     You consider a square km of planted trees a forest.

(I don’t really do so.. but Belgians DOES)

4.     You started to miss nature.

(I really have started to miss the real nature and fresh air..)

5.     Consider anyone using public transportation a lower class person.

(I haven’t start to think this way myself as I use bus + train; but it seems like that the only way of transportation for Belgians is either their own car or bicycle.)

6.     You think it is normal behaviour in an intersection that you drive long as you can move which means that the cars who would cross it from other direction will get blocked.

(I just cant put it into words.. hope you get my point.. it happens every bloody day here.)

7.     All public places such as busses and airports are very warm during winter, but houses so cold that you need to wear a down jacket when visiting Belgians.

(Never put your jacket on during the winter when getting out of the plane, it’s very warm at Brussels airport; in addition you have to walk about 10 km to get out of the airport. Oh, and I’ve once caught a cold when visiting a Belgian home!)

8.     You consider egg as a vegetable.

(If you order a sandwich with all the vegetables you get a slice egg in there as well.)

9.     You consider big sandwich made from white bread as a healthy lunch choice.

(They’ve been educated bit differently when it comes to healthy and nutritious food here than compared to Nordic countries..)

10.  You think it is totally normal that people of same nation speak English to each other as they don’t know or don’t want to use the other one’s native language.

(Noticed on a course that French and Flemish speaking Belgians do speak English together, even though no-one else on the course said that they do not speak French except me.)

Well, in December I am less than a half month in Belgium, yay!

How was it in Finland?

I am stuck listening just one artist for weeks now! Forsome reason I can’t stop listening her! I guess the reason being is the factthat I don’t have good nor bad memories linked to her music and it is verygood. Usually I link memories to music and it can ruin the music quite a lot to me, so I have to keep looking new music. Well my close friends think that I am totally untalented person when it comes to music, so they would not take any music recommendations from me. But believe me Laleh is a really good one! So now again it’s onthe background when writing this little blog of mine.

Lastweekend I was “home-home.” You know “home” is the place where Ilive; where I am officially registered, where I go after work. But placecalled “home-home” is the place where I am from, where I go to relax and spendtime with family and friends. So my parent’s place is the ultimate home, whereactually all my stuff is stored at the moment. Have to say I would like to have a home with my stuff around, but that has to wait now.

I alwayswonder what I should answer to people who ask me the surprising question of“how was it in Finland?” or “was it nice trip to home?” Iknow those questions are asked out of politeness, but I am frankly quite boredwith them. As it is always the same when you go home-home; you eat your stomachfull of mother’s cooking, enjoy the clean air by jogging or biking and best of all see dear oldfriends!

Anyhow, itis difficult to come up conversation about trips that you make few times peryear and they are pretty much always the same. Sometimes I also meet up with my old colleagues, but the outcome of the trip is the same: GOOD. Wonder, what kind of answerthose people asking are expecting.. “Oh, what a horrible trip! I just hate togo home, but one has to do it few times a year!!” Well that’s something you’llnever hear from me :P You know one of my favourite things about living abroadare those visits to home-home as then you’ll really enjoy all the positivethings about Finland and nothing bothers you. If somebody there suddenlycomplains me something about Finland – i.e. traffic I just advise how itis in Central Europe andmake them to understand that nothing is so bad in Finland.

Now I thinkI have booked all flights that I’ll do this year, unless something surprisingcomes up. Wondering what such a thing could be… Well like a party somewhere!This weekend I had very quiet weekend, but as of next weekend I am quite busyuntil mid December when I’ll fly back home-home. In between I’ll make a dayvisit with two of my friends from French course to town called Breda in Netherlands. Yes, very logical to visit Netherlands with friends from French course.BUT we’ve all finished (read quit) our French studies over a year ago. Theother friend is Dutch and the other one dating a Dutchman, so suddenly thedestination makes bit more sense.

Thenweekend after I’ll head to Göteborg. This will be my second visit to that cityand I am very much looking forward my long weekend in Sweden. Practicing Swedish with Swedes isnever bad and I gotta have another huge cinnamon roll in a café called Husarenin the old town of Göteborg!! So this means that so far it seems like that I won’t go to Stockholm anymore this year, unlike theoriginal plans. But then again one has to remember that plans are made to bereplanned.

Ooh, andthen there is the compulsory Christmas shopping coming up. That’s something I actuallydo not look forward, as I never have great ideas when it comes to Christmaspresents… Best thing about Christmas is the food and the quietness once thecrazy shopping period is over. Even though yesterday I got a little bit into aChristmas mood as I prepared a birthday present to a friend, that actually is anadvent calendar. I enjoyed doing it even though wrapping 24 little gifts takestime and patience especially since I had way too many somewhat round things towrap.

Now I’llreturn back to my latest project, as I am knitting a sweater to myself. It’syears since I’ve knitted such a big thing. Hmm.. well it won’t be as bigas before, as I’ve lost weight, but still a lot of knitting to do ;)

..oh and I’vebought groceries, which means I need to cook today! :O Busy afternoon ahead: knitting,jogging, cooking and ironing!

What a Great October !

I’ve been thinking about last few weeks while listening a melancholic album by a Swedish artist that was introduced to me over a year ago. Despite the sad music in the background I have to say it was a very nice month!

In the beginning of the month I spent an excellent weekend in Amsterdam with a friend that I had bit problems to locate at the Amsterdam airport. The "locating issues" were due to non-functioning phones and the fact that I was standing buy the exit 1 and he was by the exit 2. But not to worry, we finally found each other and got to spend two days in sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy Amsterdam. There we got to watch funny rowing contest in the endless canals and do bit of shopping; not to forget sightseeing on a canal boat and a lot of walking. In addition I found the cutest and funniest winter cap to myself there, now just waiting for a cold weather so that I can shock people here with that funny cap. ;)

Then last two weekends I’ve had visitors from the north. Week ago a friend from Finland visited me, and we finally made a visit to Luxembourg. We’ve basically been planning to visit the city of Luxembourg almost ever since I’ve moved to Belgium, as one should visit ALL the Benelux countries if one lives here. Well now I’ve done it and it was cute and pretty little town, once you got out of the train station area though. Then on the following day we visited caves in the town of Han-sur-Lesse, that was interesting as well since I’ve never been in any kind of cave in my life. Although have to say that the guide was bit slow, so we, three Finns decided to speed up a little and walked ahead.. Eventually leaving the group far behind. Once we got out of the the cave we were stopped by a locked gate. After waiting for some minutes a man came to us and asked where have we left our guide, well we advised him that the guide is still inside. Then we got a bit of lecture about the fact that there are about 14 km of caves in and we could have got lost. Well, why on earth anyone would leave the lighted bath?

In addition to my visitors at home, there even were visitors in the office this week. It’s always nice to meet up with colleagues from other locations, and socialise with them. This time we did enjoy a couple after work drinks as well in the city of Mechelen. Have to say the town was quite dead on Wednesday night. Luckily German, Finn, Swede and Belgian were willing to bring some life there.  

My (home) visitor number two, from Sweden, arrived on Thursday evening. I had to leave her to explore Brussels alone on Friday as I had to go to work. But she survived very well, even found Manneken Pis by her self, and it is not an easy task to find that tiny statue in the historical center of Brussels. Once I got off from work on Friday we spent the night drinking beer and socialising in one of the most famous pubs in Brussels. Funnily enough we ended up spending few hours of the night with two Norwegians. Well, somehow Nordic people always seem to find each other, and what is nicer company than Norwegians? They are always so damn friendly and happy!

On Saturday it was time to visit Atomium and Little Europe. When it comes to Atomium I have to use a Swedish word to describe myself, which is fegis. As I didn’t dare to go up the top ball, the restaurant. I am afraid of heights and truly felt uncomfortable to go to a lift that is in a tube.. What if it gets stuck somewhere in the middle..? But I did go to the other steel balls that were open, despite the uncomfortable feeling that I experience when I am exposed to heights. After Atomium, we went to see the wonders of Europe in the Little Europe. It was cute, hilarious and interesting all the same time.

Now it is Sunday afternoon, I left my visitor to the Ryan Air bus almost seven hours ago, since then I’ve been being just a lazy ass on the sofa. But it has been very very busy week, so I am allowed to have a lazy Sunday!!! Although, I have to say that I wouldn’t mind having more months like this.

  

Luckily my life doesn’t slow down much now, as in two weeks I’ll spend a long weekend at my parents in Finland. In the end of November or beginning of December I may make a weekend visit to Stockholm and naturally I’ll go to Finland for the Christmas period. Flying there already in the mid December. Time’ll just fly; like me in the northern European sky ;))

Dilemma called LUX

I thought to write few lines while waiting for a friend to board a train to Brussels central station (coming from the airport). She has already got out of the airplane, so not too much time to write this.

We are planning to go to go to Luxembourg City tomorrow. Yeah, Luxembourg City! People seem to be so confused every time I tell them that I’d like to visit that place. I guess people here (Belgians especially) just do not like going down there. Then again that is more than 20 km away from their parents so it must feel bit uncomfortable to go that far. But have to say it’s not only Belgians who don’t see a point to visit that city. Basically I’ve been told that there’s not much to see and it’s expensive. Well I’ve decided that I want to see it my self and then make my decision about it. In addition how come I can tell anyone that I’ve lived in a Benelux country if I’ve never been in LUX?

Okidoki, just got a message from my friend that she is about to board to the train!! (it takes only 15 – 20 min for the train to come from the Airport so I gotta run now!!)

Laters!!

Happy Thoughts

I’ve been in good mood for last week and half or bit longer I think. Not sure if it’s the endorphins that I get from my training, travel plans or shopping. Those three things just keep this girl going, with a smile on her face.

I also like gifts very much, giving and receiving. Usually they are the most fun when they come totally unexpectedly. Then the giver has thought about the receiver, not because of Christmas or birthday or another occasion, but just because! Now I actually just finished knitting a present to a friend, as a surprise. I am quite happy about the result, as I haven’t been knitting anything for a long time. Now I’ve made a gift that has part of me and I hope the receiver will be positively surprised.  

Yesterday I spent some time in the city of Antwerp to shop, as I needed a pair of walking shoes that I can wear with skirts. You know, usually shoes that goes with skirts are not really “walkable”. I know all the thoughts that any man reading this may have. This is just a fact of life; high heels just look so damn good, but they are not really for walking. Especially in this promised land of cobble stone streets. Well, anyhow I found two pairs of flat shoes that will look cute with skirts, so I bought them both. Now I’ve already been matching my skirts and tops in my mind with those shoes. I will be wearing them next week in the office and of course during the weekend in Amsterdam.

Talking about Amsterdam, I am really looking forward for my little escape from Belgium. Unlike Brussels, Amsterdam is really pretty city with picturesque canals and beautiful old buildings. In addition people there are easy going and friendly. Not sure if the people in Amsterdam are the way they are because of the widely available herb they are selling there, or the Dutch people just are much more social than their cousins here in Belgium.

Amsterdam made me think about my favourite holiday, which took place last spring. I travelled then in Norway and Sweden. The holiday started with a small exchange student reunion in Drammen Norway; it was so great to see old buddies and go out to party with them in Norway. I still am very proud of myself since I managed to communicate with Norwegians in their own language! Well I spoke Swedish with a Finnish accent and they replied in Norwegian, and then I just smiled. After catching up with exchange student friends I took a bus with one of them to Göteborg (I don’t like the English name of Göteborg, so I wont be using it) and visited her there for two nights. I was very positively surprised about the “Åbo* of Sweden” as it was very relaxed city with nice people and delicious kanelbullar (cinnamon buns). From there I headed with a Finnish friend of mine (who flew to Göteborg to meet up) by bus to Linköping to visit an old colleague of mine there, who actually has managed to escape from Belgium. And the final destination of my Scandinavian tour was Stockholm, the beautiful capital of Sweden. During this tour I just kept smiling all the time mostly thanks to old and new friends, and bit of thanks to Champagne, cider and rosé.

Just started to think what time I should get my fix of endorphines today. Seems like I'll have to wait until the evening so that the air will be cooler. The heat wave has hit Belgium and it is bit bizarre to have a temperature over 25 degrees in October.

 

*) Åbo also known as Turku is one of the biggest cities (towns) in Finland and also located on the western part of the country, and the people there do not like much people in Helsinki .. And it has come to my attention that people in Göteborg do not like the Stockholm people. Hence calling Göteborg as "Åbo of Sweden" :) .. and have to say i stole this term for my friend's uncle.

Anything Funny about Belgium?

Today I tried to find jokes about Belgians, and actually didn’t find any that really were funny. I guess it is just a sign that out of this boring nation you can’t even make funny jokes about, or I have very bad sense of humour. Have to say I really doubt the latter, even though recently I haven’t been on my “funniest” mood.

I have now lived in this country for three years, my first year I lived in a small town called Mechelen, which was very bad choice to live in. A single person who doesn’t know anyone in the country should never move to a small town full of Belgian families that do not mingle with the scary foreigners. Ok, in Mechelen there also live other foreigners, but they are other kind of foreigners that Belgians do not like and they stay pretty much to themselves as well.

Then the last two years I have lived in Brussels, which is probably the ugliest capital in the world, filled with foreigners; mainly EU people & north Africans. Once when I asked in a bar from a couple that where they come from, I got a reply that “we come from here” meaning Belgium, have to say that I was very surprised about that answer. So based on that there are some real Belgians in Brussels, but you really get used to the fact that people who talk to you in a bar in here are foreigners. In general the locals are not interested in meeting new people; and they tend to stay with their old friends and normally do not move further than 15 kilometres from their parents.

I think this nation is even more introvert than my own nation. Though, I don’t know how it is to be a foreigner in Finland and how easily you make local friends there, but at least when Finns are drunk then they are very social and find themselves talking fluent (or “fluent”) English. But what does Belgians; they don’t even ever get drunk! They just drink their glass or two wine, talk about politics and then head home for steak and fries.

Just thinking, that I tend to spend all my free time out of the country. And that is the great thing about Belgium (yes I am just about to say something positive about this tiny country!); it is very easy to travel from here and thanks to its location you can fly almost anywhere in Europe within max two hours. In addition you can take a train to London, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, etc. 

In October I will be taking the train first to Amsterdam and later to Luxembourg - can't wait!!!

..and here's an example of a joke that i found earlier today about Belgians..

A Belgian came into a bar and ordered a beer. The waiter put a coaster and a
beer on the table.
Ten minutes later the Belgian ordered another beer. The waiter brought him
the beer and saw that the coaster had disappeared. So he fetched another
one..
Ten minutes later, another beer. And again the coaster was missing. This
time the waiter decided he would not lay down another coaster..
- "Hey" the Belgian said, "where's my cookie ?"

Bloody Koffiekoeken !

Good news, bad news, no news, well what ever happens, you then get koffiekoeken! At least in our Belgian office. Koffiekoeken is a Flemish (Dutch) word and it basically is a croissant type of sweet pastry filled with sweet of stuff. 

The fundamental problem to me about these pastries is the fact that they are not particularly tasty, but still filled as much calories as a warm meal at lunch. If I really need to have 500 kcal eaten by a couple mouth fulls, then I’d rather eat some delicious chocolate instead of this fluffy tasteless pastry. Although, I do occasionally end up eating them, basically due to the fact that I've felt hungry. I've never really had a graving for them, but I guess the reason for this is the fact that back home (Finland) our "koffiekoeken" is different and of course much tastier, at least to us Finns.

The reason why I started to think about these pastries was the fact that this morning we got some good news in the office, and then of course there were THE box; full of koffiekoeken. This time I ended up having one as I didn’t eat breakfast, so I substituted my yoghurt & banana breakfast with a koffiekoeken filled with vanilla stuff and covered with chocolate. Then after the announcement I Googled a bit to find the amount of calories of one koffiekoeken has. I was bit surprised about my findings, somehow I just don't get it that how come something so tasteless has so many calories. It's like paying 100 Euros for jeans from H&M, crazy. So you should at least have quality calories if you want to eat so many at one go. 

So now on, when there is any kind of “koffikoeken-moment” in the office I won't touch those calorie bomps. And if my sweet tooth decides to bother I'll rather take a chocolate bar from the vending machine then. One should at least like the unhealthy stuff one eats.

Lazy Sunday and thoughts about training

It is another grey day in Brussels. Though despite the look of it; it is a good day for jogging! Not too hot, not too sunny and not raining. But not sure if I’ll get my wide butt off from this sofa. I have trained enough for this week, so I don’t have an urge go got to the Royal Park to do my training today.

I started training almost daily, bit over a year ago, as my close friends did encourage me to do so. This was to cheer up my not-so-good mood, and the endorphins did the trick. Also a very cute trainer in the gym didn’t hurt either, hehe.. Have to say that I don’t get why people do drugs, they just should head to the gym and get over dozed from endorphins!!

During the first couple of months of this new exercise routine, I was basically glued to the cross trainer at the gym and lost about 7 – 8 kg. Since then I’ve been dropping weight, but not in such a speed anymore. Anyhow in total I think my weight now is down about 12 kg since last summer, and I’ve gone down size or two, depends on manufacturer and piece of clothing. Have to say this really feels very good, especially since I haven’t dropped my beloved chocolate from my diet.. Nor actually changed my diet at all :D I guess if I’d have changed a bit of my eating habits then I’d have loosed more weight. Then again my goal has never been weight loss, but feeling good. Loosing weight just was more like a very nice side product to my hobby.

Although I do have to admit that occasionally I get bit stuck on the weight issue, and then I start writing down what I eat. This actually happened again today, I guess third time this year (noticed a weight gain this morning..). But writing down what you eat actually is a nice way to avoid extra snacks, and in addition it also makes sure that you also eat enough. When I do it, I use a Swedish website for it, http://www.matdagboken.se/ and it is very useful as you can find most of the food products there and also you can enter your calorie consumption from training. One very good feature of that site is the fact that the basic service of that website is free. I’ve seen similar sites before, but none of them has been free. I wouldn’t buy that kind of service as I tend to use it irregularly and then it’s bit annoying to pay for it.

Now I am bit afraid how my training will go in the future, as I decided not to renew my gym membership. They raised the prices by almost a double and I also am bored with the cross trainer, which I’ve been using when visiting gym, if I don’t attend a class. Recently the only class that I have been to is Body Pump, as my gym stopped having XCO classes that were very fun (by that cute trainer that I mentioned earlier). So, don’t see a reason of paying for the membership, if I just occasionally go there.

As I am bit of “equipment & outfit junkie” when it comes to sports, I bought myself a pair of long running-tights last weekend. Hope they’ll encourage me to go out to jog when the weather gets colder and evenings darker. I do look bit funny in them, but I don’t care what people think when they see me training. If they are bothered with my looks, it’s their problem not mine ;). Anyhow now I am fully set for jogging in bit colder weather, and I hope the dark and cold nights don’t prevent me putting my trainers on and going out for a “run”.

In addition to cool jogging outfits, I’ve had to buy myself Polar heart rate monitor to show the time and heart rate of my training and an iPhone to track my routes & to listen music. Wondering how come anyone can train without some fancy equipment on them? ;)

….Went jogging after all today, and of course it rained.. not very clean trainers anymore.

Saturday nite at home

.... and i got a brilliant idea - to start a BLOG !! As so many people seem to do it and I tend to have an odd desire to write. In addition have to admit that I occasionally bug people around me with useless emails, or numerous FB updates. So why don’t I just collect my sometimes quite silly thoughts into blogs. Then I get to write as much as I want, and some people get bit more time to do more important things as their inbox won’t fill up with emails from someone called Jenny. Well, at least they’ll receive less of them, I suppose. ;)

Another note; I am not a native English speaker, nor writer as a matter of fact ;) .. So you can expect many spelling and grammar mistakes, but I prefer using this language over my mother tongue. As have to say English is easier language, and of course my goal is to have a global audience, and that is just not possible with my dear Finnish language. Although, I do want to believe that Finnish is a world language!!

I assume that anyone, who may stumble to this very first post of mine, knows me well enough.. But just a little recap: I am in my VERY early thirties, living in the ugliest capital in the world (also called as Brussels), work in trading environment, love to travel, exercise and set some exciting goals to my life.

Back to my “starting-a-blog” business… Now I’ve been surfing a bit to find a free blogging site. Wondering if I’d like to use an exotic Swedish site. I call it exotic just because it seems like for people, basically outside Nordic countries, Sweden sounds more exotic than Finland. (Well, some people that I've met in my travels didn't even know that Finland is a country... )Then there is always an option to use an English site, but isn’t that bit boring. If I’d like to have a bit of challenge then I could take a site in Japanese, but I am afraid that’d be bit too much of a challenge! I think I’ll now go for a Finnish site, as I AM a Finn and proud of it! ..even though not too eager to live there, but that’s another story.

I suppose a blog should have a theme. Mine really doesn’t have one, as my life is filled with many little things not one major thing that I could keep writing blog after blog.. Or does it..? Maybe living in Belgium, and complainging about it could be a theme; not to forget my jogging hobby! But then again with my concentration skills, I don't think I could keep up with only one theme. So, we'll see where my thoughts take me.

Have to say I am quite excited about this, and now starting to wonder how long I can keep up with this.. Well, no-one could have believed last September that I still would carry on with my exercise routine that I started now over a year ago, so there is something in me that doesn’t allow me to quit.. But I do get also bored with some stuff, let’s see if this will bore me some day. 

[...it became really late - went to bed - and now it is Sunday morning..]

...after well slept night and long breakfast, I realised that the Finnish blog-website doesn't really serve my purposes.. So had to be boring after all and use a site in English..