The office has been going through a partial redecoration process during the weeks leading up to Christmas. It has often been difficult to concentrate because of the noise from the sanding and the smell of the paint.
In the last two days that I was in the office, before taking the rest of my holidays, the redecoration work had spread to the main office space. We moved all of the computers into the front meeting room. Those two days were lazy. I finished off a few things that I was working on and helped to purge some of the old files from the shelves downstairs. We could throw out any folder from 1996 or earlier. There is now so much more space than there was before!
I had a strange feeling when I left the office on the evening of December 23. I felt like I was leaving the office for the last time and that this was the end of my traineeship. I was listening to one of my Bic Runga CDs (her first one) at the time, which usually puts me in a reminiscing mood, so that might have something to do with it. I was noticing a lot of detail – the patches of snow on the side of the road, the huge white ’s-Hertogenbosch sign at the train station (with the “g” that doesn’t light up properly) and people waiting for their respective buses in the light drizzle.
In this strange mood, I was feeling regret for incomplete goals. Of course, I have at least two months left, so there is still time to do these things. It seems like an interesting perspective to have at this stage - imagining myself a month from now, and thinking about the things that I wish I had done, but hadn’t. They can form the basis of my plans for my remaining time here.
When I think about the future, I really only think of the things I will be doing in Europe. Even though it is only a couple of months away, New Zealand and my life there seem so distant. It only seems realistic to consider plans that involve my current life in Europe.
I have a quiet anticipation. My travel plans are falling into place – it looks like I will be able to visit both Portugal and Russia at the end of February, without having to ask for extra money from home.
I have made enquiries at the travel agencies in town about return ticket prices for St. Petersburg and Portugal. Taking my probable receipts and expenditures into account, I have created a detailed budget for January and February. It is broken down into weeks and calculates a running cash balance.
A lot of my predicted payments fall within the first fortnight of January, so I will need to ask Paul for an advance on my salary. With my clearly set-out spreadsheet and a good explanation, I should be able to convince Paul about this. It will be like what we do at the office – preparing a business plan (complete with a financial forecast) to present to an investor to get funding for a project.
While Agnieszka was back in Poland, for Christmas, I was at home by myself. I don’t mind spending time by myself, but it is always nice to have someone downstairs or in the next room. Then, at least, you have the option to spend time with other people if you want to.
I spent most of Christmas Eve tidying my room – the last major clean up of the year. I realise that I have so much to take back to New Zealand. Actually, I think that there is too much! Along with what I brought with me here, I have accumulated a lot of souvenirs and there are the boxes of clothes that my parents posted to me. I will have to invent a special compressed packing manoevre or give some things away.
After 10pm, I sent Mum an SMS wishing her a Merry Christmas and inviting her to call me back. I continued tidying my room and shortly afterwards the phone call came. For my parents, it was already Christmas morning, so the call was well-timed. My parents spent Christmas at my uncles beach house, up North. So, after speaking with my parents, I spoke with my aunt and uncle. Everyone was happy and enjoying Christmas at the beach.
Karin had invited me to spend Christmas with her family in Brussels. I was excited about this, because I would be having Christmas with my friend’s family and it was my first trip to Belgium. It was also my first Christmas outside of New Zealand. George, a former trainee from Kenya (who had been received by Amsterdam), was also going to be there.
The Dutch recognise two Christmas days. The second one is what I would call Boxing Day. I was reminded of this when I researched information about train travel during Christmas. I asked the person at the ticket office whether the trains were running as usual on Christmas Day. He replied “Which one?”!
I took the train to Brussels on the morning of December 25. I arrived in Brussels just as it became afternoon and I called Karin. The conversation was very short because my phone was running out of credit. Karin was studying and helping to prepare Christmas dinner, so we agreed that it was good for me to spend the day exploring the city centre.
I am a walker by nature, so I welcomed the opportunity to look around the city, on foot. All of the signs were in French and Dutch. For instance, Grote Markt, the first place of significance that I visited, was also referred to as Grand Place. From what I understand, these two languages officially have equal status. But, whenever I went to a shop, I was spoken to in French. I relied on my limited French whenever I wanted to say something.
My semi-random walk around Brussels was influenced by a two-part policy. If I saw a sign indicating directions to a place that sounded interesting, I walked there. Also, if I saw a grand-looking building on the horizon, I would hike towards it to see what it was.
I walked along one side of the Royal Palace then sat in the huge park in front of the Palace, thinking about nothing in particular. On one of my hikes towards a grand-looking building, I crossed the road to inspect the Congress Column. This commemorates the signing of the first Belgian constitution in 1830, the same year that Belgium won its independence from The Netherlands.
By 4pm, it was getting dark, so I caught the metro from Centraal Station to Stokkel, a suburb on the outskirts of Brussels where Karin’s family lives. Karin and I had earlier agreed that I would contact her, once I got there, for further instructions on how to find her house. I hadn’t topped up my phone credit during the day, so I only had reserves for a solitary SMS. I got what seemed like a reply – to make sure that I caught the metro bound for Stokkel! I was already there, so that was a useless SMS.
I had little credit left on my phone, but not enough to do anything with. I went for a short walk around the surrounding streets, looking for a place where I could buy phone credit, a phone card, or at least borrow someone’s phone. It was almost 5pm on Christmas Day, so I knew that my chances of success were slim. No shops were open, at least no shops where I could buy any phone cards or phone credit. I couldn’t persuade anyone to let me use their phone, as calling Karin’s mobile (a Dutch number) would be charged at an international rate.
I walked back to the metro and waited. Karin called me, I told her I was at Stokkel, then we were cut off because my credit was entirely used up. I waited some more. I knew that Karin would come eventually, and she did 15 minutes later. She brought the car to pick me up from the metro.
I wasn’t surprised when it was such a short car ride to her house. All that time, I had been within ten minutes walk of Karin’s house, yet I hadn’t known it.
Karin is a vegetarian, so I was prepared for us to have a vegetarian-style Christmas dinner. My prediction was correct. Instead of the typical Christmas turkey, we had a dish of baked potatoes and pears, green beans and tomatoes. I learnt that “opscheppen” means to dish out (as in giving yourself a serving of baked potatoes and pears) and it also means to brag or show off. An “opschepper” is a “show off”.
Discounting what we ate for Christmas dinner, Karin’s family followed some of the same traditions practised by my family. They had exchanged presents on Christmas morning and there was a Christmas tree (a real one!) in the longue.
On Boxing Day, we were intending to see Finding Nemo, but when we got to the cinema we learnt that only the French dubbed version was showing. So, I found myself with a lot more time to do some James-style city exploration.
As I walked towards Grote Markt to find my bearings, I noticed a sign indicating the way to Mannekin Pis – the famous statue of the small boy urinating. It is a small statue (only about 40 cm high) yet there were many tourists in the area, having their photograph taken in front of it. (I had a similar photo taken, the next day, when I had my camera with me).
When I reached Grote Markt, I was looking for a tourist information office, but when I saw the Brussels City Museum, I decided that I would go there. The ground floor had an interesting exhibition about the Brussels pottery industry from 1650 until 1950. The other floors housed permanent exhibits about the history of Brussels. One of the rooms on the top floor had a scary display of a crowd of Mannekin Pis statues – each wearing a different costume. There were over 100, all told, wearing costumes defined by profession, sport and country.
In the city centre, one can easily find a shop selling delicious hot waffles, every 100 metres. I bought a waffle and stood on the side of the road, watching the people walk by. The streets were crowded with people walking from shop to shop, possibly exchanging imperfect Christmas gifts.
I continued walking north, with the idea of turning around at the Brussels Noord train station. That’s where I found the Brussels red light district. It is just like the more famous one in Amsterdam – big windows with fluorescent neon trim and there was no doubting what the people behind the windows were selling. As I am an amateur human geographer, I walked up one side of the road and back down the other side, turning my head left and smiling on a regular basis. With my curiosity satisfied, I headed back to Centraal Station, buying some slabs of Belgian chocolate on the way.
I got on the metro back to Stokkel and Karin’s parents were also aboard. They spotted me first and called me over to sit with them. This was a nice surprise, considering that a metro train leaves Stokkel bound every eight minutes and there were probably ten metro cars that I could have chosen.
After dinner we played the New Zealand version of monopoly. Karin won despite me cursing the money I gave her in consideration for staying at her hotel on Market St.
I spent most of the following morning reading a book on the couch. Karin, her mother, George and I went to the city at around 2pm. George was to catch his bus back to Amsterdam and me, my train back to Tilburg. Yet we still had ample time to have a last look around.
George had yet to see the Mannekin Pis, so I offered to help him find it. We were on the way there when we ran into Moise, Maja and some of her housemates! How unlikely was that! It was such a nice surprise. Moise and Maja had each spent Christmas at the house of a Tilburg AIESECer and had spontaneously decided to go on a mini road trip to Brussels for the day. They were also randomly walking around, so George and I decided to join them.
Maja developed an immediate penchant for Belgian waffels. I have a penchant for anything sweet, so I followed her lead and bought a waffle at a stand near the Grote Markt. Afterwards, we went to a bar to enjoy a Belgian beer.
I arrived back in Tilburg on Saturday evening. I stopped by the supermarket on the way home to buy some badly-needed phone credit.
Since that trip, my days have been peaceful. I have continued reading the few books that I have going and gone for a few runs.
Agnieszka came back from Poland yesterday. She is such a nice housemate! When I returned from doing some supermarket shopping, she made me lunch. She also brought me back five Polish chocolate bars!
posted by James 11:31 am