Protest in Antwerp

27 april 2010

Lots of excitement last night. After work we went for a couple of drinks to celebrate Fluers birthday but she had to go pretty early to catch her train. As we were walking out of the bar into the grote markt police cars rushed past us to join the 10 others already parked in the square. At this point it was just Bert, Vincent, Elise and myself there. Turns out there was a protest going on - people were upset that they had sound level restrictions placed on them which limited their... er... partying capacity. In any case, we rushed up to the office to get a video camera and microphone, then rushed straight back down to the scene of the action. The police had formed a line and everything, a few people got arrested, presumably for being drunk enough to actually attack the police. Oh yes, lets not forget the alcohol; I've never seen the streets so full of bottles. To the city's credit, the clean up began as soon as the protest ended. Which I can only guess is about the time when most of the protesters could no longer resist the tempting prospect of anything nice and greasy to eat frrom the conveniently placed local frituur (french fry place) or kebab outlet. It was really exciting - because the others had 'press cards', it meant we could get right up to the police without being ushered away all the time (although they didn't let anyone through the police line.) It was a really cool experience. Part of what made it so great was the fact that for us it was very spontaneous.

After the protest cleared we went back up to the office to begin editing and writing an article - they wanted to get it publicised as quickly as possible. As I couldn't really help too much with either of those things I appointed myself the food runner and went to grab food plus cigarettes etc. We were at the office until about 12 doing all that until Vincent, Bert and I made out way to Berts place.
And for your viewing pleasure, (for those of you who don't know Dutch, just look at the pretty video and listen to the music), this is what happened last night. Check it out, its pretty cool.

So that was my monday. Lets be honest, they don't usually come much better than that. The weekend consisted essentially of me being at the AFS mid-stay camp. Which was actually pretty good. Was nice to hang out with the other volunteers and get to know them better. Plus it gave us a good opportunity to plan some stuff for the next few weeks. We relived our youthful days of staying up late, wondering around in the dark, sacrificing demonspawn, that kinda thing. Speaking of demon spawn, at the place we were staying at (which had massive grounds), there was also a theatre group. Late at night as a dramatic exercise/just for fun, a few of them dressed up like cult members with dark capes and white masks and went around scaring the hell out of the rest of their group - which were wondering around in small groups in the dark. When we were wamling around we stumbled across three of these would-be-killers dancing around three lit candles on the ground. Now that was creepy. Anyway we survived.
During the day we played some stupid but fun games in between doing workshops on our community service projects and our host families etc. Which pretty much sums up my weekend.

Don't have time to write anything too crazy today as I only started this 25 mins before work finishes... Which was 10 mins ago. 

Planning on going to Maastricht (think thats how you spell it) with Monica, Julie and Lisa this weekend - probably just for the sunday though. Which meansme and Monica will have to travel to Julie's hometown on saturday night so we can all leave early in the morning.

Ok, well thats it for now people, I shall return... Probably.

Cheers

Spontaneous epic weekend

23 march 2010

Hey,

Everyone had work off yesterday, cause basically no one with a key was coming in. So the long weekend was good. Had a pretty insane weekend actually, which involved lots of partying and very little sleep. Remember how I was planning on just having a drink on fri night then going home? Not so. Cutting a long story short, me and Vincent (from work) went for a quick drink before I was meeting Monica at the train station. When we had to meet her, it turned out that Vincent would have to wait 30 mins for his train. So he joined us for another drink and eventually we decided we should all do something instead of just going home. Vincent said a bunch of people were going out in his home town, Sint Niklaas (hope I spelt that right), and he said we could stay at his place after. So we went and it was awesome. We ended up getting to bed at about 7.30 in the morning, something I have not done in a very long time. We then proceeded to get up at 12 and go back to Antwerp. Meant to see a movie but the trains made us late.

Monica then went home and me and Vincent met up with Bert to watch the Ireland/Scotland rugby game. (along with a few other people) I intended to go home after the game but ended up staying and hanging out with people until 1ish that night. Caught the last bus home at 1.45 but only ended up getting to bed closer to 4 (its a long ride and I was hungry when I got back).

The cultural dinner turned out to be more like cultural afternoon tea. But it was pretty good - most of the group made it and its always good to hang out with them. Went to bed at 8 that night. Which was awesome. Slept in a bit then went Antwerp later that afternoon too finally see Alice in Wonderland with Monica. The movie was pretty good overall but what Tim Burton was thinking when he made Alice do that weird dance at the end I'll never know. Obviously he felt people hadn't cringed enough during the movie. Or some such.

So today I'm feeling a little sick (again!!!). This time its just a sore throat though. So I guess it could be worse. Hopefully it clears up by the wekend as the group is planning on spending the night in Brussels. Which should be good. Provided that I'm feeling healthy etc.

I'm not really in the mood for writing today, so I shall bid you fare well for now.
cheers

Sick Weekend

17 march 2010

Ok, firstly I've been sick, which is why I've been neglecting the blog over the last 2 days. So forgive me - or thank me, whichever you deem appropriate.

Right. Lets talk (really I mean monologue) about the weekend. On friday night I did end up going out with Valerie, Monica and Onur. The night was quite an ordeal all things considered. We met at 8.30ish at Antwerpen Centraal, then ill fatedly attempted to make our way to the hostel to drop off our stuff before the party. Naturally we purchased some really bad vodka plus some red bull along the way. I mean, goes without saying doesn't it? We caught a tram recommended by a security gaurd and when we got to our stop, asked further directions. We were told to go straight and then turn left and follow the highway. Like normal people, we thought "hey, lets not die" and so continued past the highway. That was our first mistake. Turns out that the dodgy looking park, with lots of dark places for an assortment of criminals to remain hidden in, contained a small meandering path we were meant to take. Incidentally, this path ran roughly along the highway. Oblivious to this, we forged on stoically in the wrong direction. To summarise the next hour or so, we flapped, fluffled and otherwise blundered time and time again. We asked directions but no one really knew anything about our mysterious hostel. Eventually we found the coolest taxi driver in the world. He tried calling us another cab (he was supposedly unavailable) but said they would take some time to get there. So he said he'd just drive us there - it was about a 10 min fast paced drive and he didn't even turn the meter on, even after we mentioned it. He charged us a grand total of 1€. I tried to give him more as a tip, because honestly this guy saved us, but he wouldn't take it no matter how much I insisted.

Having said that, anyone who's seen the movie Hostel, would initially be a little weary about shooting down the road in a Taxi who mysteriously isn't charging you, taking you to a HOSTEL that mysteriously no one seems to have heard about... There were most definately moments when I casually wondered whether I was being taken to have my organs ... redistributed. Regardless, I'm fairly sure I still have all the essential body parts, so at least if they did steal something they were considerate about it. Then again I did get pretty sick within the next 2 days so maybe they didn't do such a great job. I live on for now. Die another day etc etc.

Midway through explaining my epic fri night saga I had to go help out with the dishes (at work, which means it needs to be done for coffee = good cause).

Once we eventually arrived at the hostel, we had some drinks and set off for our night. Nothing too crazy happened, drinking, parties, bars, the usual kind of thing. So for a change I'm not going to go into detail. *Shock* Enjoy it while it lasts.

Dutch lesson again today, for better or worse. Which somehow reminds me. It's St Patricks Day. Which somehow leads everyone into claiming even the most stretched blood relation to Ireland. The Irish, of course, have even more reason to drink (Because you need a reason to drink right? Right??). All of this inevitably ends in a gutter in the early hours of the morning. Perhaps I'm just being cynical. The funny thing is, despite my views, I still I wish I was entirely healthy so I could fully do the St Patricks thing. Gutter and all. Thus the great cycle of humanity churns ever onwards towards the great abyss of predictable yet unavoidable self destruction.

Happy St Patricks Day everyone! :D

To very quickly detail my weekend after friday night... On saturday we walked around Antwerpen for a bit, I went back to Turnhout and had a quiet night watching the Sopranos - Dirk and Terry were in Germany for a family thing. The next morning I woke up really sick and stayed in bed all day, had a fever and loads of other pleasant stuff, but I'll spare you the gory details. Pretty much the same on monday, although was slightly better, tues I was getting better and now here I am. Not fully recovered but getting there.

Back to work for me, so I'll be back here tomorrow. A pleasant day to you all.

Weekend

1 March 2010
The weekend was great. So much for an early night on fri though. Ended up going for a few drinks with the workmates. Met another of Dirks friends - Daan. The three of us ended up going to an Irish bar and playing some pool plus some more drinks which was good. Eventually we went back to Berts and watched some stuff on the tv - Black Books plus some others. Got up late the next day and slowly made my way back home. Onur (one of the volunteers from the dutch group) wanted to go out that evening but i decided not to because for me it would have meant a 3 hour train ride and only getting there around 10/11 at night. Considering how tired I was from the previous night I thought against it. Would've been good to go though...

So I just relaxed at home that night. Dirk and Terry were out so it was just me. Which sounds pretty depressing but it was ok - been so busy lately I don't really have much time to just relax, so it was good. Mom and Dad called for about 2 hours, was really good talking to them and I talked far too much as usual.

Sunday went pretty quickly. May have had something to do with me getting up at 1 in the afternoon... Meant to get all this stuff done but didn't actually do very much - needed to get some things from the shops but forgot everything closes really early on Sundays. So that plan was thwarted. Did get some washing done though. Hooray for for everyday mundane tasks! Terry left for Portugal late that afternoon. Dirk and myself will be leaving for Portugal on thurs after work and getting back sun evening I would tentatively guess (you can tell I'm a great one for remembering these kinds of things...).

Anyway, Dirk and I got chips for dinner and watched Snatch. It was good but I think I still prefer Lock Stock and 2 Smoking barrels. Finished my book the other day. Which sucks. I require another. Just another thing to add to the list of things to do. No idea what I'll get. hmmm....

So here I am, monday morning. No monday is a good monday. That should be put on some kind of family coat of arms. Maybe I'll have some made at some point... It'll have an overzealously loud rooster (is there any other kind??) getting pummelled by a grumpy bear. My motto written underneath. I could become a pioneer in mildly sadistic, semi-satirical coats of arms.

But I digress. Not that I was really saying anything before, it was more of a general digression away from anything....normal. Don't really know what today holds apart from work etc. As with most things, only time will tell.

Really looking forward to seeing my bed again though. We've become pretty close lately.

I should go look for more things to write about so,
bye for now...