Coming back from the Italian party at 1am, I packed the rest of my stuff and crawled into my sleeping back.
The alarm went off at 5:05am and I got ready. After saying goodbye to Camillo, I closed the door behind me and went to Gare du Midi. The train travel back to Austria passed really fast even though it lasted 11.5 hours. Altogether, I was traveling for 14 hours, changing trains 4 times in Köln (with a short stop at the Dome), München, Salzburg, and Bischofshofen. I was sleeping, listening to music a lot, doing Sudoku, staring out of the window and watching the changing landscape, and eating ;-)
Heidi picked me up from the train station, and when we arrived at home, we could see that the suitcases had already been delivered!! Inside the empty house, I found a lot of lovely notes and signs of my mom, welcoming me back home.
I can't believe how fast time was passing... Tomorrow, I will take the train to move back to Austria.
I keep telling myself that it will be alright, that I’ll be fine, even though I don’t know about the what to do, when, and where yet. I know it will be like coming back from the United States after my studies abroad and that everything will be fine and sorted out once I’m back in Austria.
But at the same time, I simply cannot compare studying in America with working in Brussels because in the US, *all* foreign students were going home after this one year. Here in Brussels, nobody except for me goes home; my friends will still be here and continue working, having dinner parties, going to the movies, eating out, drinking beer, visiting cities, organizing trips... whatever fun stuff we were doing this year.
But I’ll be fine... I hope.
As with all the other previous days, I'm wondering how fast a day can pass - even if you are not doing anything at all, like me. I'm unemployed.
For the evening, we invited some people to have a Carbonara night. Check out the pics!
Ruairi generously allowed Camillo and me to be part of his quizzing team together with Steve from America and a British guy named Jai. Even though our team name was "Losers", we didn't suck that much.
The time listening to Jazz music in the Bizon was nice, but also made me kind of tired. #
Another nice day ended around 1am.
I felt very comfy in the sleeping bag on the couch, and I guess Camillo and Catia needed some good rest as well for none of us was getting up before 1pm.
After having a shower, Catia and I went to the Delaize to buy some stuff for having pasta with tomato sauce and tuna with some green salad and bread.
We then left for the center and experienced it in complete chaos, even in the parking garage, we spent about 30 minutes for getting inside and outside, too.
Catia left shortly after 5pm. As it was raining, Camillo and I stopped by at Marco's place before heading to the cinema to watch "In Bruges". If you live in Belgium, you have to see that movie - and you have to know the city of Bruges, too. It was hilarious...
After a nice milkshake (at least for me), we went home around midnight.
Our friend Catia, who was with us in Disneyland Paris in October, came to Brussels, so we walked throughout the city a bit.
Marco was coming back from Liguria around 6pm, so we picked him up at the airport before having food at a Japanese in Saint Gery. Again, we had to wait a long time for the food, but we got a nice menu with soup, salad, kebab sticks, and rice.
Marco was in touch with Nicola, so we met him and his friends at Le Corbeau. It was fun being there and especially towards the end of our evening (it eventually ended around 4:30am), I enjoyed dancing on the tables a lot.
Daniel, Camillo, and I wanted to go for dinner at Per Caso, but the restaurant was completely full. For a change, we decided to go to Saint Gery and found a very good Thailandese restaurant. We just had to wait some time for the starters and then the food, but it was worth waiting for my chicken with cashewnuts, vegetables, and rice.
After that, we met Ruairi, PJ, and Barry at the Coolok bar to have a beer before heading home.
After a long time of having slighly handicapped eyesight, I managed to go to the optician to get my freshly polished right lense as there were some scratches on it. But now it's fine again and I'm supposed to see 100%.
I also went to Cora, so it was good moving a bit and going around. Plus I went to the Photo Hall at the Woluwe Shopping Center as some pictures were waiting for me...
In the evening, it was crazy again. Camillo, Daniel, Francesco, his Polish girlfriend Gosia and I had a quiche Lorraine at Arcadi, followed by a "Tatin Chaude" as the day before. Even though it is a bit sweet, I like that mix of warm apples and honey, serverd with vanilla ice cream.
Then we went to Delirium where we first met my Greek colleague Evripidis and then the Irish gang. The mood in that beer bar was so good because there was live music, and we continued having fun.
We ended up leaving Celtica around 5am, and that's about the time when I started having problems with my stomach...
In the early afternoon, I met with Davina, the girl from Cologne, who is trying to get a job in Brussels. We were going to Saint Gery for a drink before ending up in Arcadi with a "Tatin Chaude" and vanilla ice cream, chatting a lot.
In the evening, I was not going out for a change but watched "Step Up" lying on the couch.
As Raffaello and Consuelo got an ice cream machine, they invited me, Marcin, Samuel, and some friends of theirs to taste some home-made chocolate and coffee ice cream with brownies.
We played a very cool speed game called "Jungle Speed" before it was time for me to take the last metro to get home.
Camillo however was still at the center and got home around 3:30am only, so it seems I missed a great night out with Serbians and Irish...
Francesco Marabotto invited us for dinner. It was him, his flat mate Federico with his wife Regina, me and Camillo, Camillo's ex-flat mate Andrea, Marco's current flat mate Ale and - as the only non-Italian besides me - Ivana from Serbia.
We had some pasta with mushroom sauce and delicious crepes with coconut ice cream and nutella afterwards... yummy!
Leaving Camillo's hometown Finale Ligure around 7am, we went through 6 countries in one day (Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxemburg, and Belgium) to eventually get home after an 11 hours road trip. It was cool!!
Finally, my real holidays are here... I will go to Camillo's place in Finale Ligure, Italy, coming back on Monday 11!!
Back in rainy Brussels...
Pamplona and Austria, here I come!!!
I've been sitting on the balcony all day long. It was so hot and sunny... now it's a bit clowdy without sun, but still warm. A nice gentle wind.
And I'm feeling so bad because, again, I was just eating and eating and eating. I cannot control myself, and that sucks so much.
Anyway, I might be able to move my ass to Place Lux tonight to watch Italy playing against Spains, seems to be interesting.
But lately, I don't have motivation for anything. And I cannot wait to be on holidays. 10 more days at work, and I'll be in Spain... and 5 more days, and I'll be in Austria on July 11!!!
I don't have a clue what's going on today. I'm so very dizzy as if I would be drunk. The floor is shaking a bit, and when I'm lying down and closing my eyes, I'm feel like being on a carousel. Really strange, I only had one glass of wine yesterday and some decent hours of sleep...
Being quite tired after spending the whole day on a high priority case with several conference calls (thankfully, Nenad was speaking and doing the lab repro...!!), I will go to bed now. It's 9:40pm only, but I'll listen to some music :-)
After work, our trip to Budapest started...
With me on board: Camillo and Marco, the Italian mafia :-)
Oh what a night ;-) The pics say it all...
A day off shift, how nice... I did not have this in such a long time. However, as all the last weeks, I did not feel productive at all and was finishing my last email at 5:30pm due to slowness. I cannot even say I was wasting my time by going for a coffee which I didn't, I just stayed out for lunch a bit longer as we had the monthly pizza day and I bought some strawberry yoghurt afterwards.
After a not so productive day at work, I was very productive at the gym by stepping for 20 minute, stretching a bit, running for 10 minutes, stretching some more, and doing exercises on the machines.
Getting home, I made some fruit salad and enjoyed sitting on the balcony. At some point late in the evening (around 9pm), eventually Camillo and Eniko arrived – poor Eniko, her flight was delayed for three hours...
We just chatted a bit while the two of them had dinner, and now it’s already 0:30 so I’ll go to sleep now...
The development session with my managers went well, I just did not expect them to ask me some questions but to go over the list I had (read: was forced) to prepare instead. After talking about my future plans and next development steps, we made a lot of jokes including cooking, and I committed myself to bringing my famous applemouse cake to the office on Monday as Ullie will still be in Brussels. As some kind of compensation, he and David will make my fellow engineers sing Happy Birthday. I don’t want to be in the spotlight...
Denying Vafa’s suggesting to come and play basketball with David and David, Francesco and I went to the gym after work. I managed to be on the stepper for 20 minutes before stretching and running a bit.
When we came back to the office, it was about 7:30pm and Nenad was still in front of the screen while Camillo and Daniel were still at the meeting about the Assessment Center graduate de-briefing. They arrived while I was in the process of finishing talking to my mum on the phone, being very comfortable with my headset and kneeling on my chair, spinning around a bit.
Instead of joining Nenad to go to the Aperitivo party, we just went home and I had dinner before doing some more Sudokus as every day and listening to The Corrs before going to sleep.
After work, Camillo and I went to Cora to do shopping. An hour can pass so fast when you're at a huge center...
Now we had dinner together and I'll need to get some money from the bank as I completely ran out of cash due to recent events and visits during the weekend ;-)
Then I need to have a shower to look decent for tomorrow: I have my personal development management talk with my current (David) and previous (Ullie) managers plus there is the Assessment Center going on for the graduates joining Cisco this September, and Stephanie, the organizer, asked me if I could be a silent observer to show that there are indeed female engineers :D
After a nice conference call with a customer asking for a high severity case (basically, Nenad killed him verbally), I was Nenad's front-seat passenger in his Audi when going to Place Jordan. There, we met with Camillo, Francesco, Daniel, Raffaello and Consuelo to have pizza at Mamma Roma. After eating various pieces of pizza in 3 rounds, we chatted some more before going home.
We managed to go to Gare Central early and, after 3 hours on the train which were passing really quickly, we arrived in Amsterdam around lunch time. Going to our hotel, we checked in and unpacked our stuff a bit before getting a nice map at our reception. Following the indicated streets, we walked throughout the city until reaching Dam Square where we sat down in the sunshine to get some coffee and ice cream.
In the evening, we went to an Italian restaurant where I had a lasagne menu.
My mom and I spent a nice day in Brussels. And even though it was raining some times, we managed to stay inside during the most heavy thunder and lightning. We walked around the city and relaxed as much as possible. In the evening, we went to a fish restaurant where we ate a delicious menu. Take a look at the pictures to get an impression ;-)
Due to a thunder and lightning including hail, my mom’s flight was delayed, so instead of arriving at the airport by 10:10pm, we eventually managed to go home by taxi at 1:30am.
Planned Holidays:
July 5 - 10: Flight to Pamplona, Spain, to see the festival of the bulls chasing running people.
July 10 - 21: Home sweet home, going to Austria!! Will YOU be there..?
As it was very sunny and hot again, I met with Nawelle at Gare Central to go for a walk before sitting down and having a drink at Saint Gery. Daniel was joining us, and even Marco was available for eating at the Japanese.
It was an amazing day that I started off by sitting on my balcony with short sleeves - and that while having breakfast, so kind of early in the morning!
In the evening, I went to a piano concert with Thierry before going to the party at the Autoworld which was, as usual, crowded and hot lateron that night.
All day long, I was on Cultural Awareness Training with a funny and lively American trainer, so the day was so much fun and passing so fast, too.
In the evening, Camillo, Daniel, and I went to Place Lux (yes, again) to have dinner. I took my usual lasagne ;-)
After work, Marco gave Francesco and me training in another product which was very nice and professionally prepared.
In the evening, I went to Place Lux to get tickets for the party on Saturday. Francesco and Daniel joined me, but as it was raining, we had to get a drink inside one of the pubs.
Making the huge mistake of having breakfast and not realizing that the milk was bad, I spent an awful morning in the office where I had to run to the bathroom a lot.
Luckily, around midday, it stabilized again so I need not go home.
Moreover, my manager had some news for me, which included either staying in the current position I'm working at or leaving the company. Of course, for now, I'm staying, even though it will be hard sometimes.
After work, we had one of those nasty and long work presentations, but this time, it was really fun and interesting, so those 2 hours passed quickly. And of course we got good food and beer afterwards, as usual.
I met with Thierry, the Belgium guy I got to know at Le Corbeau as he was going there with our Italian friends, and watched "The Other Boylen Girl" with Nawelle afterwards. It was a really good but touching movie, hard to digest, so I had to decline going for a drink afterwards.
Nothing extraordinary that day. I just joined Camillo working from 10am to 2pm and it felt good to do valuable work for the next day.
Camillo had to work this weekend, so I decided to do the same. However, shortly after connecting to the work network, Ruairi called me, so I left and met with him to go to the shopping center.
In the afternoon, Camillo and I were doing desserts while Marco was making pizza at our place. At 8pm, people showed up for our dinner party which lasted until shortly after midnight.
Francesco and I had to attend the CCIE preparation session which in my opinion was nice but way too long and too much unnecessary information. I was glad when it was over.
After work, Andrea and Alberto offered beer due to passing their CCIE, so this was a nice opportunity to chat with people from work.
In the evening, I met with Marzia at Louise. We walked to the L'Ultime Atome where we had dinner before going to the Spanish Party. As usual, the place was too hot to dance or breath or simply enjoy being there, so we left at 2am.
After work, I met in Place Lux with Marzia to get the tickets for Friday's EC party. We had a drink and I met the Indian guys who I was in touch with before heading home.
A member of the development team - who was working as a Customer Support Engineer before - was giving us training on the device/technology he develops. Pretty interesting!
After a long and very tedious day at work including a lab meeting and discussing about a case that is causing me a lot of headache because I have no clue about all the stuff I should know, I was leaving the office at 7:30pm.
The good news: I left the office with Daniel, but it was ME who was driving his car!! Yeah!
It was a really lazy Sunday... but I managed to read a bit for work (before falling half asleep). I liked the part of doing riddles and sudoku though...
In the evening, the boys went out for a couple of beers as Daniel got back from holidays. I was already tired and preferred to stay at home to get some more rest before the new week would start.
In the evening, we met with Ewa, Katja, Wenche, and Francesco to go to a nice place called L'Ultime Atome where we had some drinks.
While Camillo was going home after that, we were walking to Le Corbeau to dance on the tables... lateron, our Italian friends joined and we danced until 2.
When waiting for the Noctis, the lovely night bus, I met a very nice Irish girl, but unfortunately, we did not have time to chat much longer as she was getting another bus.
After two great weeks of having him over, it eventually was time for Dekel to say goodbye to Brussels and to leave for Israel.
In the evening, I did not want to do anything but relaxing as the last week as been pretty intense. Looking back, I was going out every day starting with Friday, except for Wednesday.
So I just watched a couple of movies before going to sleep at midnight.
As it was Dekel's last evening in Brussels, we had another Content dinner at the Copenhagen Tavern.
This time, it was Dana, David, our two specialists Nenad and Vafa, Dekel, Francesco, Michael (our to-be-specialist), his German girlfriend Lena who I got to know at Marco's crazy party some time age, and me.
