i have been busy. busy and yet not busy. if there is such a thing? i don't know. all the same, too busy to come on here and write about my life. and despite still being busy, or at least believing that i am busy, it is high time i enlightened you all, once again, about things going on, over on this side of the world.

my last entry may become redundant soon. i'm not sure. i have been in a bit of a panic for this last week because everywhere i look, all i find is french and german literature. there is nothing in english. nothing. that almost deserved capitals letters. which is a big deal for someone who never uses capital letters. and this is a big concern for someone who knows no german whatsoever and who has very basic conversational french skills (which have somewhat improved since arriving here which is a good thing). but definitely not french 'academic article' skills. not good. i think this is because the topic i have chosen is very much history-based. so i have written to my supervisor and hopefully will meet with him tomorrow to discuss my options. it is just concerning that, if in the first week of very basic research, i have found nothing in english; then 2 months down the track i could well be starting to stress. writing a thesis is one thing, but writing a thesis using only french and german literature is quite a different story!! i am unsure where this is going to lead - but quite possibly i will lean more toward a geographical approach, as, thankfully, geography seems to have a lot more english!! no doubt i'll let you all know at a later date.

food. food is good. when i think of food at the moment, i think of two things. i think of my fridge, and i think of saturday night.

my fridge. one of the big things i miss from home is the fact that i could walk into the kitchen and open the fridge door and be greeted by all sorts of food. food that i could consume and not think about where it came from or how it would be replenished. as far as i was concerned, i had the luxury of eating anything i liked, and to any quantity that i desired at the point of time that i opened my fridge door and looked inside. unfortunately i do not have that luxury anymore. i share a fridge with 5 other people, so for a start, when i open the door, i am limited to only looking at my own little section of the fridge for things to eat. and because i am on a very tight student budget, the food in my little section of the fridge has no resemblance to the food i would have found at home. gone are the days of fizzy drinks and fruit juice and cheddar cheese.

saturday night. one of the girls from my course, eleni, is from athens and she cooked for 4 of us on saturday night. real greek food. real greek food. oh wait, did i just repeat myself? some of you may not be aware my relationship with greek food. some of you may not realise how much i love greek food. some of you may not understand my feelings toward greek food. but i do. and on saturday i was surrounded by greeks salads and pita bread and tzatiki and kebabs... mmmm. a lot of garlic, a lot of olive oil, a lot of generally delicious food. i am still recovering from the experience. i had forgotten how good tzatiki is. i had forgotten forgotten how good greek food is...

on other news, it rained in leuven the other day. now really, this should not be an unsual situation, because leuven, and belgium, are renowned for having rain for half of the year. however, it seems europe has been confused this year, with exceptionally hot summers, snow in october and no rain... i, of course, have not been complaining, because the sunshine is great and the snow, of course, was quite the event for me. but i think it might start to rain more now. it's different rain from auckland rain. lighter i think. and it comes down vertically because it doesn't seem to get very windy here. so it is actually possible to stay dry, even when it rains. good eh? i think so. so the rain is not as bad as people may have tried to lead me to believe. then again, i have'nt really experienced much of it; so my mind may change in a few months...

so i hear we are doing well in the rugby. good. i have not been able to watch the games as i often have a class when they have been played. however i will endeavour to be watching the next few matches, which are the ones that really start to count from now on. and i will attempt to get together a crowd who will support new zealand alongside me. might be difficult in a place where i am yet to find another kiwi - though i'm sure if there is one or two lurking around, i'll find them at the match!!

take care everyone.