so it might not be a big deal for any of you, but i have not played minesweeper for one entire week - since i linked it with my odd illness, that magically disappeared with one night of solid sleep (and one day without minesweeper).

this is of great substance. before that vital moment where i informed the world (i.e. those who care to read this) of my decision, i had been playing a sickening amount. no wonder i got sick! i hate to think how many hours i spent, eyes glued to the screen... but then that momentous decision and i have done well. my addiction has waned.

okay so ive found this new game which requires being a yeti and hitting a penguin. but i dont play that very much. not in comparison. and its all about comparisons as far as im concerned.

thesis is not going well. the computer i am working on, which seems to have been suffering for many years, has come to a conclusive death. the files i use are too big to copy anywhere else and thus i am stuck, until next week when hopefully the man will come and fix the machine (or better yet, provide me with a new one!). so once again a weekend approaches and i feel things are not going my way.

however, despite the miserable predicament of work, the weather is keeping me happy, and distracted! it has snowed for three days now. three days. and this morning when i got up at 8, it had been snowing all night and the snow was thick and fluffy, all over the ground. i nearly slipped over about 20 times and found this quite amusing. i walked down streets and paths that were untouched and perfectly covered (until i jumped through them and caused footprints that would probably resemble a rugby team at training).

how can i be disheartened when there is snow??! its just not possible!

so, since i last wrote, a sudden realisation wave swept over me, and work had to occur.

1) next monday i am giving a lecture for an hour to the rest of my class, and yesterday i had to give them all an abstract and a run down on what i would be talking about. this required me knowing what i would be talking about... hence work was required. by 2am monday morning the typing stopped, and after a visit to the lab to print and then the photocopying shop to photocopy, i made it to my 11am class just in time, with handouts to deliver.

2) thesis. ouch. my eyes are blurry after spending the day down at the lab, struggling to work out the elevations and slopes of all of my sites. this is how i go about it: firstly i select one point from one computer programme. this point represents a village and the programme is made up of tables that give data about that village. however i want more than tables so the point must be transferred. so, secondly i export this one point out of the programme into what i shall call twilight zone, where it sits in a form that allows it to be manipulated into other programmes. thirdly, i import the one point into another programme. however, while the point can be seen, the programme does not yet understand it. thus, fourthly, i have to convert it into a file that this programme understands. in order to do that i have to create a fake map to act as a background for the new point, and then once the point is put on that fake map i can give it a name and then, fifthly, put it into the map containing slopes and elevations. the complexity has not yet begun. this little village then needs to be overlayed in such a way that everything is black except the little dot representing the village, which then shows the elevation map, that is behind it. i then zoom in, find the centre of the point. and mark the elevation.

one village down, 34 to go!

and then i do the slopes. and then i put a 1km radius buffer around each of the sites and find a mean elevation and a mean slope. then i compare the over all mean elevation and slope of the entire region (sadly my supervisor mentioned standard deviations and statistics today... so prepare to be ambushed with data if you know things about stats - heh heh, i have a few contacts up my sleeve. heh heh.).

then? i switch to another computer and start to use satellite images that give geology and terrain and vegetation stuff, which in turn can also be analysed. by similar type methods as above.

3) i have much reading to do before friday. but at least im not presenting this week.

enough about work. what else have i been doing? um. well. i am in the midst of planning a week long trip to spain. cool huh? morna, eric and shannon are heading to morocco for two weeks around easter time. and then me and joe are planning on flying down and meeting them in southern spain, hiring a car and driving up the east coast to barcelona. ryan air flights are pretty cheap and hiring a car, not only is cheap, but allows me to stop at every single deserted beach i see... need i say more?!! (ha, of course i will say more, but i have no more to say right now).

today is shrove tuesday. so tonight we eat pancakes.

for once the sun is still shining and its now late afternoon. what a breakthrough (note the literal play on words there). yet, unfortunately i am fighting internally with the feeling of illness upon me, thus dont appreciate the outdoors in the way that i should.

now really, i dont quite understand how this can be possible? i mean, up until now, apart from two days when exam pressure caused my head to hurt, i have been 100% healthy. which i have been quite impressed by. however i am not impressed that it has been less than a month since my last slight under the weather feeling and now the back of my throat is demanding attention. it just will not do.

the only suggestion i can put forward is that it is my body trying to tell me to stop playing minesweeper, which i have become far too addicted too. even if this is not the case, it is a good thing to believe and an opportunity to stop playing!

anyway, i refuse to accept the condition at hand and shall 'soldier on (with coldral, solider on... solider on...) - eh dad?

today i gave a presentation in class. its a class on the origins of christianity and naomi and i were cast into the limelight as we discussed paul and his missionary journeys through asia minor. the limelight was actually more of a spotlight, a spotlight that moved between us and our lecturer who loves to interrupt! ha. but we kept it up for the two hours and he gave us a big nod of approval and a thank you at the end. and now i have a much better understanding about many things.

i think thats all. time for minesw... oh no wait. nope. time for... other stuff.

yawn. am being extemely lazy. so lazy that ive felt the need to update this site three times today! what does that tell you about my state of mind eh?

so firstly, i just came to a realisation that the little ads that appear at the top of the page, somehow have picked words up out of my entries and turned them into ads... i.e. the other day they were talking about buying owl pellets (coincidently after my blog about seeing an owl) and now its all about squirrels. perhaps i should have noticed this months ago. probably all of you did. this obviously shows my disregard for advertising - which i view as quite the positive thing!

secondly, hurrah i got mail! and its none of this 'youve got mail' internet stuff either. but real mail in the post. thanks rachel. am listening to the cd now and am bobbing my head with the rhythm. just like when we used to study (or where i pretended to study and you got terribly distracted and couldnt study, due to my amazing bobbing and dancing abilities).

thirdly, tonight morna and leigh are the djs at a bar called wink. its sort of the international bar - it apparantly has international parties every saturday night. this is exciting. the dj-ing i mean. they will be playing classic indy-rock tunes. but good for them for getting in the door i say. so we are heading off to that. later.

anyone planning to visit me soon by the way? five new canadians have arrived (either they are extremely loyal, extremely rich, or flights here are ridicuously cheap!!). no, to be honest, most of them are studying somewhere in europe. seems half of the humanities department from carlton, ottawa, are on exchange this year, somewhere in europe. 7 of them are here. anyway, its not christmas and im not at all homesick, so i welcomed them all with a 'gday'.

thats all really. might go play another game or two of minesweeper. i need some serious motivation to get work done these days.

today is the most beautiful sunny day. bright blue sky. white fluffy clouds. the sun is beaming, happy to not be concealed by fog-like, overcast-like matter usually dominating the scene. ahhh. after what feels like so long in greyness, sunshine is, quite literally, a ray of light urging me to venture outside. i can almost smell the possibilities of spring in the air. if only the weird grinding noises of some construction drill tearing up the concrete in the very near vicinity would cease, all would be right in the world.


update: hmprh, two hours later and somehow those little fluffy unsuspicious clouds have mutinied into one giant blanket, once again covering the city and in doing so, have merged into the ever familiar greyish tone ive become so use to seeing. meantime - concrete drill work has quietened down, or at least is more periodic as opposed to continuous.

apparantly belgium has squirrels. apparantly these belgian squirrels are big. big and red. and fluffy. as squirrels should be. as i've always imagined squirrels to be. and just how i want squirrels to be. apparantly they run about, up and down trees, collecting nuts, making squirrel-type noises, and just generally being squirrelish.

now i've known about these so-called facts for some time. i've known that if i leave the cobbled streets behind and head to the outskirts - no further than the outskirts of leuven in fact - that squirrels will appear. and they will appear in big and red and fluffy forms. i know this.

and so saturday was 'the day to find a squirrel'. of course this required me leaving those cobbled streets of leuven behind. and finding some trees. because, as far as i'm aware, squirrels like trees. and so that seemed like the logical step to take. in my mind, this is how it should work:

bex + camera + multiple trees (preferably with some sort of nut attached) - cobbled streets = big and red and fluffy squirrels.

and so off i went, camera in hand. and i found the trees, equipped with some nut variation, and i departed from the streets of leuven...

squirrels? no. none. not one. horses? yes. dogs? yes. birds? yes. water buffalo? yes... okay, well they looked like water buffalo but actually ended up being some large 'water buffalo look alike' rocks. but squirrels? no.

in retrospect i am wondering exactly what went wrong. i'm not that much of a squirrel expert. so i cannot come up with any definite solution. though, it has just occured to me, that despite entering a forest, the tracks were all like miniature cobbled streets... perhaps my fundamental 'seeing a squirrel' equation was foiled as i didn't specify that cobbled paths in forests are different from cobbled paths in town. hmmm.

however i will not give up. i will succeed. the squirrel will not pull wool over my eyes and lead me astray. the squirrel will be found. and i shall reign triumphant. (and this is sounding like one of those speeches the president gives in the movies before they attack the aliens...)

so the results are in.

and after sorting out a slight mishap whereby they thought i didn't sit one of my exams, i can now be very happily contented with the following: three 15s, two 16s and one 17. out of 20. so it looks like i can handle a university system on the other side of the world after all!! but the best news? the 17 was for the course my thesis supervisor lectured... i.e. hopefully i'm in his good books, despite the lack of thesis!

and in other news. frank and i have decided to write a rap. i'll be keeping you informed as it comes together.

i have this friend. his name's dermot, which of course means he's irish! and a lovely one at that. he's studying at the music school here in leuven. we met on the very first day i arrived in town, when i was still very sleepy and confused from 37 hours in travel mode.

last night i finally got to hear dermot play the piano. the piano.

now, i know a thing or two about the piano. i myself played it for 7 years, members of my family have, and still do, play... but when dermot played last night, i was swept up into a world i have never been to before.

he played, not with music, but with his heart. i have never heard a piano be played in such a way. i felt like i was inside each note that sounded. and all i could do was shut my eyes and let it all soak into and through me.

one of the pieces, i later was told, he had created himself... at one point, he was joined by another guy who played a bass jazz type rhythm and dermot just started playing melodies - completely ad lib and free, in a way i have never seen or heard or experienced before.

it blew my mind and has left me refreshed. if there could ever be such a thing as musical cleansing, i have just come up from total immersion.

thank you dermot.

so i found this material store. uh huh. and there was a sale going on. a half price sale in fact. which of course requires a rummage about to see what was on offer. typically i found some random orange type material that is always useful to have about. and this great purpley pinky fabric with big flowers - very 70s curtain look i suppose. i am not in need of curtains, i have them already. but i am in need of brightening up this grey and bleak town that consists of people wearing the darkest or dullest possible colours invented. they might blend beautifully into the overcast sky, but really... what this place needs is some colour. some action. some boldness. and of course, that is where i come in. yeah, so there's no sewing machine. but since when has that stopped me? that's what safety pins, and tape and string and other handy devices are for...

ahhh, when there's work to be done, there is nothing more satisfying than putting it off with great ideas about starting new fashion trends throughout europe.

hmprh. it is still raining. and i don't feel like leaving my room.

now this brings about slight complications to my plans. my plans had been to get up bright and early and walk down to the lab and put in a solid day's work on my thesis. it is nearly 11:30am. i am still in my pyjamas. hmmmm. the things is, rain just doesn't inspire me to go outside. unless i really have to. in fact, it doesn't really inspire me to get up either. but i successfully pulled myself out of bed by 9:30 this morning so am quite pleased with myself (despite the fact that i had set my alarm for 7:30...)

this is most frustrating. however i have reshuffled my plans slightly and now will spend the day attempting (no - accomplishing!) to write chapter one. inside. without needing to leave my room. and going to the lab can occur tomorrow. when it will hopefully have stopped raining...

why does it have to rain? and why don't i have a car that would allow me to get to places without getting wet? and why did i leave my umbrella at davis' place?

today is raining. and rain just isn't as fun as snow.

however i currently have my hands on the book 'flowers for algernon' by daniel keyes. hence meaning i do not need to go out into the rain (except to go to the laundromat...). anyway i've read it before but reading it again, now having noticed the quote at the start by plato, gives it such a new meaning. if you've got time on your hands (or even if you don't) - i highly, highly recommend it.

"progris riport 1 martch 3: dr strauss says i shoud rite down what i think and remembir and evrey thing that happins to me from now on. i dont no why but he says its importint so they will see if they can use me. i hope they use me becaus miss kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. i want to be smart. my name is charlie gordon i werk in donners bakery where mr donner gives me 11 dollers a week and bred or cake if i want. i am 32 yeres old and next munth is my brithday. i tolld dr strauss and perfesser nemur i cant rite good but he says it dont matter he says i shud rite just like i talk and like i rite compushishens in miss kinnians class at the beekmin collidge center for retarted adults where i go to lern 3 times a week on my time off. dr strauss says to rite a lot evrything i think and evrything that happins to me but i cant think anymor because i have nothing to rite so i will close for today... yrs truly charlie gordon."

first semester in belgium complete! what a funny feeling - to be half way through (though theoretically, with a thesis yet to be severely tackled - it doesn't feel in the slightest like half way yet!). and it is nice to be done. to be able to sit and type this and know that i'm not procrastinating!

snowflakes are falling outside my window. it amazes me: the huge variety of snowflakes. i mean, of course, people always say that no two are alike - and of course i believe them... but i don't just mean that...

the wind is swirling, in a kind of spiral, and large floating fluffy flakes are being swept up in the current and spinning upwards, tipping in different directions, until the wind slackens, ever so slightly, and the snow starts to gently descend, only to be caught in another waft of air.

it reminds me of when i hear my brother play the piano. the wind builds to such a speed and with such a force, and the snow tumbles and collides and turns seemingly out of control. and then things die down, become quieter, and the snow drifts and settles to the window sill and the roof and the tree that the owl lives in - and somehow moulds together with other snowflakes until a fresh white line appears. and it gets thicker gradually - yet not so gradually that you can't gaze out the window and watch it occuring.

truly beautiful.

shall i begin with some updates? i think i shall begin with some updates.

firstly i am now well. all it took were two nights of good sleep and decent food - you know, food like meat (just as an aside - nobody except me uses the term 'mince' - they all call it ground beef. interesting.).

secondly - that decent food came via a trip to the grocery store. and guess what? the 'wet your finger' technique for opening a plastic bag really does work! how brilliant. guess that means i don't need to recycle now. heh heh heh.

thirdly - the owl was white. well, more of a white-ish blur through the tree. but definitely a shade of white. not as big as hedwig mind you.

and fourthly, five exams behind me, one to go this coming wednesday. am feeling quite content with my current situation!

okay, with the updates out of the way i have discovered i have no more news. as of yet. so, until next time...

(also, after next wednesday i'll be putting up more photos...)

today is a great day.

today is a great day despite the fact that i had my toughest exam this morning (which, subsequently, wasn't so bad).

today is a great day despite the fact that i am sick and am about to go to bed (hoping that sleep + sprite will cure me).

today is a great day because i finally saw my owl.

that's right. i have an owl. okay, so theoretically he is not 'my' owl... but that's how i like to think of him.

i discovered i had an owl a few months ago. at first i was a bit confused as to what was making the 'ooo-ooo' type noises. my confusion comes from the fact that my owl is not nocturnal. nope. not at all. in fact he prefers to sleep at the same time as me. at night. and all day, when i'm awake, he's awake too. hooting and whooting and ooo-oooing and generally making rather mournful sounds. all day long.

and today we met. at least, i saw him fly from the tree he lives in - which is across from my window, to a neighbouring tree.

i think i will call this entry 'the day i saw my owl'.

yawn. tonight is one of those evenings. one of those evenings when i really don't feel like doing work. one of those evenings when i know, without a doubt, that i need to do work (after all, wednesday is looming ever nearer, and that is the day that i sit my hardest exam). but one of those evenings nevertheless, when i would much rather procrastinate and chat to all of you instead.

so. here i am.

today i had another exam.

- are you getting tired of me talking about them? sorry, but currently they are all i can talk about. unless i made something up. and i don't seem to have any imaginative abilities at the moment, i think the exams (there's that word again) are causing me to be rather boring. -

anyway, it was oral. again. however each exam i have had so far has been different somehow. i think it is a belgian thing. little surprises all the time. keeping us foreigners on our toes. so to speak. anyway i showed up at the time i was meant to, only to find that the lecturer was taking his time... like, 'really' taking his time. two hours later, i was still sitting in the room, twiddling my thumbs and feeling decidedly hungry. funny how you get hungry at those very moments when it is not possible for you to eat.

anyway it was fine. the exam i mean. the worst part about it would have to be the hunger pains i suffered from. however my stomach behaved at the crucial moment and didn't interrupt audibly as i talked to my lecturer.

afterwards, on the walk home, i scoffed down two mcdonald hamburgers to console myself. mmm. it's a rare occurrence to eat such delacacies in europe. so expensive. far cheaper to go to a restuarant.

and that sums up today. hmprh.

oh, i know what i can talk about. the 'storm'. the 'storm' that arrived suddenly last week. funny kind of storm really. i'm used to the ones where it starts raining, then you hear the thunder in the distance, then it gets a bit closer, then you see some lightning, then it dies down again. belgian storms are obviously like belgian exams. always unexpected.

so yeah i was sitting in my room. as i do. it is raining quite heavily outside, but i'm fairly used to that. then all of a sudden there is the biggest flash of lightning i have ever seen, followed (split second i assure you) by the loudest, most rumbliest thunder i have ever heard. i wish i had words to describe the noise. perhaps imagine a big construction drill digging into concrete. or something. anyway i had a headache for half an hour afterwards. but the crazy thing was that everything shook. all the things on my shelves fell off. the house was vibrating.

it seems the lightning stuck the library's clocktower (which reminds me a little of the clocktower that you see in back to the future). this makes sense as it is the highest point in leuven. the clock still isn't working. the library is, hmmm, two minutes walk from my house perhaps? maybe three. depends on my speed...

so at 2:45 i wander up to the arts building to get ready for my third exam - this time it's written and i feel quite prepared. written exams, after all, are what i am accustomed to.

at 3:10 we're all sitting there. outside the room. waiting. waiting. no lecturer. hmmm. this is not exactly what i am used to.

3:15 and in we go, only to be told that pens are not necessary... hey, wait a minute... how do you write an exam without a pen? this exam is not going at all the way i thought it was going to go...

(i should also inform you that this guy is an austrian with a thick accent that always makes me laugh - so instead of saying "site conservation" it's more like "zite konzervaation".)

so instead we have a "group discussion". and what happens in a "group discussion"? so he asks us individually a question and when people want to add more information, we add more information.

that's it. that's the exam. the "written" exam.

but wait, there's more. oh yes, there's more. after "discussing" for 2.5 hours he returns to the front of the room, sits down and ponders...

"zo, vot do you thinkz you zud get?"

silence.

"vell, you must have zome ideaz vot you zud get?"

i meekly ask "do you mean as a group, or individually?"

finally a conclusion is reached. we all get a 15 (out of 20 - an exceptionally good mark by belgian standards) and if we want more, we say so and he will ask specific questions and then give us an extra mark if we answer correctly.

of course i would like another mark so i answer a question or two, and wham, there you have it - my first mark - a 16!!

one down, five to go... six exams is quite a significant amount i feel. quite significant. but it was fine. the exam i mean. for those interested. and i made the lecturer laugh. a good laugh too i might add. that must be a goodish sign, and i was wearing my orange woolley hat and not looking very formal at all...

also, what is wrong with me? why is it that i can't open plastic bags? no, don't laugh, i'm quite serious. every time i go to the supermarket, i dread the 'opening the plastic bag' process. you know how they have them, on the counter, all joined together in a big heap? and once you're done paying, you pull one off and open it and put your groceries inside? yes, that's what i'm talking about. i just can't figure out the technique. and i've tried a variety. it just doesn't open for me. ever...

it can be incredibly embarassing when there's a big queue (and there nearly always is...) and people are waiting for you to collect your food and leave so that they can leave too...

i think my new rule is to recycle more. who needs plastic bags anyway, right?

so, wish me well... tomorrow i undergo the belgian examination process.

this is how it supposedly functions. in formally dressed attire one student enters the room and is handed questions by a formally dressed lecturer. student then sits down and has 20 minutes to prepare for examination. student then speaks for 20 minutes regarding questions. lecturer intervenes as they feel necessary - asking for clarification or for more information or just generally opening up a discussion. formally dressed student then departs from room.

i don't have any formal clothes! the only shoes i have are sneakers (well i have jandals but it's raining outside)! and i certainly don't have time to check out the shops right now... but surely they'll let me get away with it?

did i mention that i met a guy in the czech republic who knew my grandmother in tauranga?

who would've thought...

so here i am once more. sitting in my pyjamas in my room in leuven. pondering how best to fill you in on my two week trip. pondering how much procrastination i can do before feeling exceptionally guilty about the lack of study i have done (first exam is one week today). so i'm going to try the bullet point entry for a change. not sure if i can pull it off. but i'll give it a shot.

21st december: start the day at 5:30am walking through dark quiet (perhaps the most quiet i've heard it) leuven to the train station. me, eric, sandra, peter. me and eric nearly missed the train. a sign of things to come...

saw a squirrel! highly delighted! the trip is off to an excellent start. little grey squirrel. running up the branches and down the branches. its grey fluffy tail making little wavy movements.

and then snow! yep. it starts to snow. what a way to begin a trip across germany. little snowflakes drifting through the air as the train speeds through german countryside.

14 hours of switching trains later... munich.

excerpt from diary: 21-23 december: "i felt like i was inside one of those glass balls that you shake and then watch the snow float through the air... climbed up a big church tower to view the city... very very beautiful... ornate old churches, palace gardens, old and new town halls..."

saw lord of the rings - jumped, laughed outloud and cried. proud to be a kiwi.

ate sausages in a very typical german beer hall with big heads of deer with antlers on the walls. one litre mugs of beer.

23-26 december: christmas in salzburg! snow everywhere. most beautiful little town i've been in to date.

walked up to the castle and into the abby used in sound of music. saw where they hid from the baddies near the end of movie. also saw "you are 16 going on 17" gazebo. hurrah! not to mention archway that mum and dad always say "we've been there kids" when we watch it...

spent christmas with eric's cousin and his family. absolutely perfect. shared christmas eve and christmas day with them and their two kids fiona and julien (5 and 7) and took delight in them running around and squealing as they opened their presents and then proceeded to jump on top of me and try to pull off my socks. loved it.

despite cell phone issues, was able to get in touch with family back home.

went to christmas mass in the big dom cathedral - gorgeous building - liked it more than st peters in rome to be honest.

went sledding!

26-29 december: grunau - little skiing hostel type place up in the mountains in austria. meet many aussies. walked through the snow. i spend time on my own (eric is skiing) and try to study a bit. nice, relaxing - let my feet rest from all the walking we do.

excerpt from diary: "saw both the big and little dipper - reminded me of the fact i am on the other side of the world - viewing the stars upside down. in a different place. stars hold such a peace. a peace and a clarity at the same time. the night sky is so deep, not only literally but how it can penetrate - right inside my eyes and almost through me... i marvel at the enormity of creation sometimes. the creativity, the uniqueness, the openness. no straight lines, no systematic patterns. it's all random beauty. in a world full of straight lines and codes, where people try to keep their surroundings manicured. the stars defy that thought process."

29-30 december: vienna. despite what so many people say - about how beautiful vienna is - it just wasn't a city for me. the extravagance and excessiveness - everywhere. every direction i turned was another huge building, trying to outdo the building on either side of it. more windows than i could ever count. too much and i felt out of place. vienna to me seemed to be a place that worships money.

the parks had too many park benches in line - so i moved one of them into the middle of the path - just to try and make things not so perfect.

did go to a concert and hear mozart, beethoven, strauss, brahams. that was good. in a place mozart had performed in when he was younger.

highlight - meeting up with sandra and peter and spending an evening in a far too classy for us bar, listening to old american jazz, drinking a drink that was called casablanca and catching up with good friends.

excerpt from diary: "as we walked home in the rain - i finally caught a glimpse of a pretty vienna. perhaps the rain washed away some of the immaculateness. perhaps it washed away some of my negativity and cynacism. but a mist lay over the city and the lights - lighting up the palaces - no longer with an air of disdain. the rain somehow glistened through... vienna isn't the place for me, but it wasn't so bad afterall."

31-2 january: the czech republic is awesome! and it begins with cesky krumlov - little town right on the border...

went to a bar that had a live snake under the glass counter. it was green. it was big. but it didn't move. all very exciting.

wonderful hostel where i met kiwis and spent new years eve dancing with them and people from all over the world. fantastic fireworks display that involved utter randomness and slight danger as people held up strange wand type devices that spurted forth fire and magic into the sky.

hello 2004.

walked up, over and through the castle - to read a sign saying "watch out for the bears" who sadly seemed to be hibernating. instead i made a snow bear much to my delight.

thick powdery snowy snow. fun fun fun.

2-4 january: onwards to prague. gorgeous. far nicer than vienna. most beautiful city in the world. fell in love with it. amazing buildings, bridges, castles, churches...

walked for kilometres and kilometres in freezing conditions where i had to hop and jig to keep myself moving.

went and saw don giovanni - a marionette puppet performance of opera. mozart's gift to the city of prague. funny and very very good.

found and bought orange earmuffs.

missed our train connection (was bound to happen as we had so many close calls along the way) and ended up taking a bus right through germany and back to leuven - a good 14 hour ride i guess, including a crazy 3 hour wait at the border whilst the germans inspected us...

excerpt from diary: "checked out the huge metronome - ticking back and forth, keeping the music of prague in time like a giant conductor - overlooking the orchestra which is all of prague itself. bitterly bitterly cold. could hardly feel my nose. ouch. fingers dying. literally i'm sure."

and here i am. off to study now. hope you all had a lovely christmas and welcome to 2004!!!