Flanders vs. Norway

Flanders Today, my local, English-language weekly on life in Flanders, reports that population density in Flanders has reached 456 inhabitants per square kilometre. In Norway, on the other half, we're about 13. 13 inhabitants per square kilometre. On average. The reality is that... well, just look at the map and compare the two. For those ignorant souls out there, Flanders is the northern half of Belgium.

And for those of you who have a problem with scale, the total area of Belgium is 30.278 square kilometres, while Norway is a grand total of 307.442 square kilometres, or roughly ten times bigger.

Globalisation in everyday brugeois life

"Due to transport problems in London, Professor NN has been obliged to cancel his class today. The Professor and I are very sorry for this inconvenience."

With this short message in my inbox my class and thus also my presentation today was cancelled. Because of 'transport problems' in London, England a class on the European Parliament is cancelled at a school in Bruges, Belgium. At my old university a class was once cancelled, I remember, as the professor forgot to tell us he was out of town that day, but mostly the lecturers walked to the Hill like the rest of us. Here they tell us about the jam at Manchester Airport at 4am or how much they enjoy travelling with SNCB (the Belgian railway company) from Brussels and up to us. It's nice to have 'the best' professors flewn in and its entertaining to listening to them joking about the 'typical Bruges wheather, as it is the same everytime they come here, but having them cancel because of a London traffic jam is just annoying. On the other hand, it does give me the opportunity to be productiv today...Like that's going to happen.

Reflections on extra-brugoise vacation

I'm FREE! Finally FREE! The last exam is over, it's holiday and I feel soo... ...empty? I've got two weeks away from Bruges infront of me, two weeks without articles to read, papers to write, presentations to prepare and notes to revise. I've got two weeks with friends and family awaiting and yet there's a certain emptyness. Two weeks of holiday is also two weeks away from the people I've learned to know as friends over the last moths. It's two weeks without communal breakfast, lunch and dinner. Two weeks without coffee&cigarette breaks in the courtyard. Two weeks without nerdy Community-jokes, late night drinks at 't Potersgat, Bruges Zot, good and warm hugs from cute College-girls, linguistic schzophrenia and long days in the library. Luckily it's only two weeks. Come Monday 5 and everything will be back to normal. How I can't wait for that day to come!

Pre-holiday stress syndrome

It is (fairly) early in the morning of December 18th and in five hours I'll be outside some naked classroom waiting for the professor to invite me in for my final exam. With institutional community law, EU politics and policy and EU political economy off the way the only thing that separates me from two weeks of vacation is a 25m chat about how a/the european identity has been born, baptised and shaped throughout the last 7-800 years. Well, a short-version of the class is Europe from Plato to NATO so I'll probably have to say a word or two about Athens and Rome and how the Holy Roman Empire (which, according to Voltaire, was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire) was a continuation of the Roman Empire, and then a phrase or two about Westphalia and the creation of the modern nation state.

The pre-holiday stress syndrome isn't caused by my fear for the exam. I know my stuff, it's general knowledge and then some. What stresses me is the hours I have to kill before the exam. What to do? What to do?

A story from everyday life

One of the things I like best about Bruges (together with Bruge Zot) is the pathway around the inner city, perfectly made for late night walks. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the hour-and-a-half I spend doing the tour of the town three to four times a week helps keep me sane. On these late night walk I've been accompagnied by my beloved iPod Shuffle. 1Gb, 250 songs and little to no intervention on the order of the songs. A gift from my sister and one I cherish very high. However, as I was about two thirds of the round the other day, while changing the volume, I discovered to my surprise and dispear that the protectiv silicon cover had fallen off. Let it be noted that these covers cost little to nothing but it's still enoying. Knowing that to walk back, in the dark, hoping to recover the cover would be useless I decided to contitue, angry with myself. As I for the n-te time walked the round today I thought it couldn't harm to keep an eye out for the cover, being perfectly aware that the chances of finding it would be next to nothing. As an observent reader you've probably deduced the continuation, but I will nevertheless procede with the end. Half the way through the round I'm at the crossing next to the train station. While standing there, waiting for the light to turn green it comes to be that two days ago, as I was standing at the precise same spot I skipped a track, and it was thus possible that this was the place the cover fell off. I look down, and there, halfway covered in dust, I see it, the cover. On a day that otherwise looked to be a gray one, with a cold holding a tight grip on my body, exams approaching and otherwise just too much on my mind, this was exactly the sort of tiny, insignificant thing that lifed my spirit just that small bit over the edge.

Merkel vs. Leterme

Who are these two? The first one is obvious. Angela Merkel is chancellor of the Federal German Republic and one of the most prominent politiciens in today's Europe. The second is perhaps a bit harder. Would you like to guess? No clue? Let me give you a hint; his name is Yves Leterme. Did that help you? No? Well, he is actually the current Prime minister of the Kingdom of Belgium. Yes, Belgium does have a government and a Prime minister at the moment, but he's not much to brag about. Belgium isn't what it used to be, with strong tensions between the two main communities and ever-reoccuring government crises. On top of this the PM knows neither why they celebrate their national holiday noor their national anthem - he thinks its La Marseillaise.

So why do I even bother to compare the wannebe-head of government of a country falling apart with the leader of the economic engine of Europe? As mentioned in earlier posts, Merkel was to hold the opening speech her at the College of Europe some weeks ago, but the financial crisis forced her to cancel. The other day her replacement was announced. The official opening of the academic year will take place on the 18th of November, just a week before the exams start, and the opening speech will be held by no-one but...Yves Leterme.

Fall in Bruges

It hit me the moment I step out on the street this morning, fall has finally arrived in Bruges. The sky was clear-clear blue and the air crisp. A slight morning fog was still hanging on, with the tower on Markt, the main square, being a bit unclear. The canals still hold a decent temperature, with vapour playing over the surface and rising to the sky. It was, in all, a pleasent October morning.

Friday night blues

It's Friday night and the we the poor students of the College are about to switch over to week-end mode. For most others that means sleeping until mid-day, having looooong breakfasts and generally relaxing before a new week beguins on monday. For us, however, it just means a bit fewer classes, partying, essay writing and researching for whatever presentation or debate we might have in one of the following days. It's 7.30 pm and I've just come from dinner. Some will spend their night working while others having slightly more time, myself included, will actually relax tonight. It's Friday night and tomorrow's a day like every other day in the week.

Bodies moving in harmony

There's nothing as beautiful as two bodies moving in harmony. However, when some 40 twentysomethings from all over Europe, some of them from unrythmic countries like Germany, Belgium or Norway, try to learn how to dance salsa, bodies moving in harmony isn't the first things that would strike your mind. You take a look at the southerners and you see that the rythm comes to them automatically. They don't care that much about having the right posture or doing the right steps. After all, it looks good anyway. Then you look at the northeners. They have no rythm at all, they suffer from permanent body stiffness and they do their absolute best to follow the steps of the instructor, but quite frankly a cow moving sideways is more gracious.
It's tempting to draw lines to behaviour in general, with germanics obsessed with doing things correctly whilst the romanics care more about appearens and thus slides through. However, such generalisations are not very polite, and thus I will not.
On the other hand, as we supposedly are destined to govern Brussels in twenty years time, hopefully having seen oneanother trip in our own legs will make us more sympathetic when we make gaffes in real life. If our bodies can't move in harmony, let's hope the same won't be the case for our minds and hearts.