Show me that smile again

Firstly, any of you who enjoy a good, intelligent read, click on my link to 'Wake-up man' in my side-bar. Nick, if you are reading this - I think you write superbly, and I do enjoy a good little debate now and then! I just wish I had the knowledge and spirit to allow myself to see both sides of any good argument clearly.

Here I am on a Tuesday evening (whilst Tom is at uni) awaiting my university results, and I thought I should mention the topics we covered in Nederlands Niveau 4: AIDS campagnes (without focussing on the sick, rather on the healthy individuals who struggle to remain integrated in society), Jails being overfull (globally), the passing rate of allochtone students (people a language other than Netherlands as their primary language) and last but definitely not least: 'Geluk' (or happiness for the english speakers).

Perhaps I am in denial, but lately I thoroughly enjoy reading about happiness. As corny as it sounds, not to mention idealistic I do believe happiness is truly the most wonderful way to feel. This doesn't mean that one doesn't see the 'bad' in the world, or that one has everything one desires, but it does mean that one is able to enjoy why they are here, and see the good in what is around them. You probably notice that I am not writing in the first person - this is clearly due to me not having achieved this yet... nor will I probably ever achieve it. I still see the ugliness in the women in the area I live in who drive monsterous 4x4s (yes, they exist everywhere) while their husbands drive the largest Lexus's while they all drive their children the 1,5km to their fancy tennis clubs and burn every light possible in their colossal mansions. While these people are definitely in the minority, I still wish I could see the good in them rather than the rage I feel for their blatant disregard to what goes on around them.

Now, onto another subject we covered at uni: the environment (an ongoing issue...). Since I have recently read Nick's blog, I have no need to reiterate what he has already covered, but I did find it ironic that my entire Nederlands exam consistered of articles (from both Dutch and Belgian newspapers and journals) eerilly similar to his 'debate'. I really did enjoy the aricle on my dutch exam which concluded that 'Global Warming is not Unique' (for those of you who can understand dutch: http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/wetenschap/artikel/asp/artnr/25495/index.html). I am actually glad to have finally read something along these liness (despite being in an exam room, and reading in another language...) because since it has come out, it is amazing to see how people react to this claim. It's almost as though they don't need to feel guilty for not doing as much as they can! Personally, I don't care if many more articles come out with the same subject content... why don't we do our best for the environment, regardless? This brings me back to happiness - I certainally feel a great deal happier with myself for helping something - whether it be the earth, a beggar, or even letting in that crazy bitch-mum in her 4x4 when she is trying to turn into a busy street. But I still have a hell of a long way to go.

Yes, more snow

I know there have already been some photos of snow on the blog, but this is the most I have seen here in Belgium since I arrived 2,5 years ago. We had enough beautiful white powder to even allow the local children to drag their parents' old sleighs out of the their attics and drag eachother down the street! I was just happy to be home on 'study-leave' so I could lay in my bed and marvel at a form of weather which I am afraid will no longer exist when my children are my age (well at least in this part of the world).

News this week... a very dear friend of mine (Kelly Chan) gave birth to a healthy little boy - Kaemon - on Monday. So I look forward to taking the trip back up to Nijmegen in the very near future and visiting their new little bundle! I have seen so many photos already, and believe that if only this feeling of pure elation and ecstasy could be extended and felt by everyone, then there really would be less reason for anger, jealousy, bitterness and pure hatred. How I read this from baby photos, I don't know...

And, I have finally finshished my advanced Netherlands course at university... still awaiting results though. But overall am pretty chuffed that I have a second language - almost fluently (there is ALWAYS room for a great deal of improvement!).

No particularly entertaining stories this week! Until next time, my loyal readers xxx

Celebration

Yay - one semester down, 9 to go! So, we all decided to go for dinner and a drinky in Brussels on Wednesday night! What a lovely evening!


Tom, Louis, Stephanie, Tom and Mieke all go to uni together, and us girlfriends came along to celebrate with them... so after a few beers, we were all great mates. I ended up spending a lot of time chatting to Louis' girlfriend, Daphne with only one slight problem - no language in common! She is a native French speaker, so we struck up a deal that she would speak french to me and I would speak englsh to her (to help eachother learn) - problem was that her english was far better than my french, and we ended up speaking a mix of both language (wih a touch of Dutch)! There is ALWAYS a way to communicate with someone!

Thanks heaps to Louis (pronounced in that saucey French way - also the same way as Donald Ducks' Nephew...) for the great photos. I think Tom has met someone at uni who will definitely keep him on his toes!