Sushi Addicts!

As tomorrow is Valentine’s day and some of us are left without date, we decided to ease the pain and go crazy on eating sushi tonight. Eduardo, Briseida, Cristina and me spent about 2,5 hours at our favourite sushi place in Seville! Though the miso-soupe never arrived, the sushi maki mix, fideos and spring rolls were again splendid.

Alaaf!

This weekend I went home to Belgium again. I have to meet my dentist every about 4 weeks, to adjust the wires of my brackets. My goodness, what a painfull experience!! I went friday afternoon, and I was scared it would ruin the whole weekend. Luckily, with a painkiller on friday, I survived fine and by saturday it had all been forgiven and forgotten. Cant say I look forward to my next visit though!!
On friday I also went to pick up my new identity card, I visited my eye doctor, went to the hairdresser (brown haired girl now) and bought a big abricot pie which I then also ate completely during the day. In the evening, my mum and dad had arranged for me to go to a wellness place: 2 hours of pure relaxing!! Fantastic! After that my uncle, auntie and cousin came to try the jamon iberico which I won at work right before X-mas. And after that I went to the city centre to enjoy some beers with the girl friends. I heard about the new waiter at our favo bar, he gave my friends free beer the other night. On fridaynight we were 5 girls, and it didnt take long before we again got free goodies. This time he spoiled us with choclates, the little cote d’or mignonnettes. Delicious!! As the other waiter was not allowed to see the treats we got it all had to happen in secret; exciting! We had quite some drinks and ended up in one of the bars filled with desperate Dutch men. Its great fun for a little while, but we soon decided to go stuff ourselves with real Belgian french fries and bicky burgers. They taste even greater at such early morning hours...
Saturday I didnt do much at all. I went round the shops with Kim, we had a big Italian ice cream, and after that I went food shopping with mum. At night I stayed with the family and also had a real lesson from my brother at mixing vinyls. I managed to get the beat synchrone, might have discovered a talent there!

On sunday I went to the carnaval parade in a neighbour village. Moreover, I participated as a blue butterfly. Most of the guys in the group were firefighters or caterpillar destroyers, my friend Ellen was a yellow caterpillar, and me and Kim were butterflies. Lots of sun, people, beer and confetti made us have a great afternoon, alaaf! On sunday night I went to my auntie’s house for more pie, to (sadly) return to Seville again early monday...

Who Needs Men!?

Today I have made myself most usefull. In the morning I realised I could no longer fit all my belongings into my closet (yesterdays shopping was the final drop) so I had to throw out some stuff and rearrange everything. God, what a mess came out of that closet!! Some things I had forgotten all about, fun to find nice surprises though! The problem was that it still would not work this way since I have a tiny-tiny room and it was getting claustrophobic in there. That meant bigger changes: the big book rack had to go and instead I figured to mount a smaller and lower rack which I had still stored wrapped in plastic from the moving from Barcelona. The big rack I put upstairs in Rafa´s music room so that was no problem getting it out of the way. Then I had to mount the smaller rack in such a way it will not collapse when it is loaded with my radio, pile of CD´s and my TV. I guess a boy-friend would have come in handy at this time but since there was none available to me today I had to rely on my female capacities for male-considered jobs. I got out Rafa´s man-kit (I love man-kits!!!!!) and found the right screws and screw-drivers and in less than 30 minutes I assembled my perfectly strong rack! Ok, one screw did not fit the hole anymore but I am positive this thing is not going to give up under the weight. Being totally into constructing things I decided to go mount the mud-caps for my bike. I bought them 6 months ago but never made it to actually mount them. Last week it rained and I got to the lab completely covered in mud; dont want that happening again! My flatmate did not give me a very supporting look when he saw I had more plans with his toys,... It just left me feeling more confident in proving him I dont need his help. I took the man-kit materials downstairs and it did look a little complicated at first but soon I had it all figured out. The flashy red-black-white caps look very neat and they are attached perfectly right and firm to my bike...

Shop ´Till You Drop!

Yesterday I went to the city centre with Cristina. She works part-time in our lab and studies biotechnology at the UPO. She has exams at this moment so is studying all day long. Yesterday, she needed a break, so she called and we decided to go shopping. There are still reductions and though I expected to find nothing but junk, we were pleasantly surprised to find quite a few nice things left, and with our perfect sizes! We bought sooo many things we had a hard time carrying it all back home at night. We spent 6 hours (!) wandering around in Seville centre, but the harvest was good: I found myself a new jacket, 2 pair of shoes, jeans, a pullover, an open top, a t-shirt and some underwear. Cristina also bought 2 pair of shoes, a shirt, a purse,.. and the other things I dont remember now. We ended our shopping spree at Starbucks with a big cup of freshly-squeezed orange juice and a giant piece of choclate mud cake. I then had to get back to Montequinto quickly as Briseida had given me a new movie with Mister Perfect Jude Law to be watched on saturdaynight. Blimey what a guy, what a night.... ;-)

26!

Yesterday was my 26th birthday and I feel rather strange today. I liked being 25 and hate to say goodbye to now be labelled with another number that comes even closer to 30. I mean, 30!!??
The best thing about birthdays is the attention you get. Basically its just another day, no different from any other day of the week, the month or the year. If cell phones really do cause tumors, I think I will get one just from this day as my phone has not been quiet all day. Even my 3 year old nephew finally accepted to come talk on the phone (he never wants to with anyone), my auntie sang Happy Birthday most beautifully and others kept it a bit more modest with a chat. Even only for this I love birthdays.
My flatmates bought me a really cool new shirt. It looked suspiciously alot like the grey one I had which they turned pink in the laundry few weeks ago. Nevertheless it was really sweet of them and great that they remembered my birthday so early in the morning!! The best present came from my 2 girl friends in Belgium. We grew up together and still see eachother very regulary when I am in Belgium. We go dancing, to our favo pub with the most handsome waiters in the universe, to see a movie, go shopping, or just hang out at my parents house or one of their houses. They have visited me several times in Barcelona and they also came to Seville as soon as I moved here. They collected pictures of the 3 of us from travels or nights out, the prettiest or most fun-memory related pictures, and had them made into a big double A4 calender. I think it was one of the best gifts I have ever had!!!!

Cleanness

This weeekend has been beautiful in Seville. Yesterday was warm already, 20 degrees Celcius, but today beats all expectations with its 22-23 degrees Celcius! I went to the city centre yesterday after spending few hours working in the lab. My aim was to go buy sushi take-away but that turned out to be ridiculously expensive for what it was. I then went round the shops to buy some jeans and some socks and (again) underwear. Mine seems to disappear in a strange way from the laundry. Apart from my underwear being abducted by an unidentified flatmate, I have other issues at my current place of residence: cleanness. Initially, when I moved in in May, we set up this schedule ‘to clean or not to clean 2007’. Colour codes determined each of us had to clean the common rooms such as kitchen and livingroom once during our ‘coloured’ week. As I share a bathroom with the other girl, we would alternate in cleaning that one, whilst the guy, who is also the owner of the flat btw, would clean his own private on-suite. It worked, for a few weeks, but then soon turned out my colour was the only one surviving and I was cleaning all the shit from everybody. I dont mind cleaning, with a little music, alot of soap bubbles flying around (and maybe some of my weird imagination) its actually fun at times, like this morning. But the thing is that we share a flat, and therefore we should share cleaning the mess. Right before X-mas I got fed up with it and I confronted my flatmate urging her to bloody clean! Just the floors, the sink, and throwing out dirty clothes or towels, that would be sufficient. But the answer I got is that there is no time to clean, at all, period. So my other flatmate suggested a cleaning lady, which I initially thought was an acceptable idea. Untill I started calculating what it would cost on year basis (over 700 euros!). We then kind of agreed that my flatmates, who supposedly do not have the time to clean once or twice a month, will pay for a cleaning lady to do it for them, alternating with me, cleaning the big (about 100 square meters) flat. The cleaning lady would come right after X-mas for the first time, but that didnt fit with her schedule, so she came last tuesday. She cleaned 3 hours, and finished half of our enormous(read me being very sarcastic today) kitchen. The upper cabinets were cleaned, the food put back nicely ordered (I mean this part). Havin been way too happy with the ammoniak however, all cupboards smelled horribly when opening them and the plates even had water standing in them. The lower cupboards and the kitchen machines had not been cleaned; the cheese was still hanging dripping from the oven plates. I arrived to the flat first to have lunch, and even though the cleaning lady left over an hour ago, the kitchen floor was still soaking wet. The windows, fridge, nor waste boxes were cleaned either. I guess in 2 weeks she will come back to do the other half of the kitchen, then another 2 weeks later do half of the livingroom to then finish that again 2 weeks later. We are march by then, and the bathroom has not even been touched yet by her. What a joke! This morning I cleaned 2 hours straight and our kitchen, livingroom and bathroom look fabulous...

Grappig!!!!

Braces...

12 days ago I got braces on my teeth. I know, not the most exciting way to start the new year!! I have been thinking about it for few years, since my front teeth started moving around like mad. And not just in one direction; they all wanna go their own independent way! Well my little biter friends, thats not gonna work, and certainly not for me!
I had a consultation with an orthodont in the summer of 2006, but I had to think it through a bit and, more importantly, wait for better economical times. Summer 2007 I had spent enough time thinking about it, and the banc account was ready to handle it too. As I am getting a little older, I was most worried about the esthaetical point of it: the thought of looking like a 15 year old when you have steadily reached 25 is not pleasant. So I went for a second opinion with another orthodont, one that seemed to be more involved in making the whole process a little bit more invisible. First thing I had to do when I got to the practise of this other orthodont is fill out a paper, or so I thought; it was a bundle of 7 (!) papers asking me absolutely every personal detail! Then the male dentist had a first look at my teeth. He immediately asked me why I had two teeth, the biggest one on each side of the upper back row, pulled when younger. I assured him I never had any teeth pulled, and that I already knew its some genetic defect. He said that thats almost impossible, that he has seen this condition in text books when he studied (which must have been like 60 years ago btw), but that he has never ever seen it ‘live’. He then got his wife, also an orthodont, to come have a look at their ‘mutant’ (thats how we denote an animal in the lab with a genetic deficiency!). He told me, I already know this, that its heritable. So ok, nobody’s perfect, I’ll just find myself a guy with lots of teeth then huh! Their conclusion came down to wearing ‘invisible’ braces, which make your teeth look like they are made of plastic, for definately a year, with a cost-price of about 4 to 5000 euros (!!). Now that would mutate my banc account, so I decided to stick with my first orthodont.
My lower front teeth carry brackets, the ugly grey ones, with a metal wire on them. They are all in different directions, so it looks messy, but the idea is of course to get them straight in the end. Then my top teeth have some sort of braces too, but on the back of the teeth so you actually dont see much of that. The plan is to push them outwards as they move a little inwards. At the same time, these upper things prevent me from biting and closing my mouth as otherwise I would bite of the brackets on the lower teeth. As a consequence I have to mash all my food. Its like I am cooking for an infant! I have breakfast, lunch and dinner, and nothing more in between. No cookies or choclate. I can only drink water as coffee stains and alcohol or certainly coke or other soda’s affect the glue which attaches the brackets to my braces. Alot of cleaning, some annoying pain and impeded speech at the beginning, but this is only for 6 months. Well, 5 and a half now. I will be freed in June, having the most perfectly straight teeth for the rest of my life. I think thats all more than worth it, and in the mean time, I will not forget to smile.

Crash

Last night I was bicycling home from work to my flat. I have to pass a river, which has only a very narrow area at the left side of the road for pedestrians. Any sane bicyclist in Seville takes tis path too as its way to dangerous to get yourself out on the road, definatly on that dark and remote bridge! So I was going up the bridge when a bunch of guys came down on motorbikes and one on a quad. Crossing with the bikes was not a problem, but the quad took up all the space so it was obvious to me that would not work. Either he had to go up or I had to go down, but when we met halfway the bridge, it became clear none of us was gonna take the long way. Least he slowed down, and I almost made a complete stop trying to make him realise it was not going to work. But he went on, was sure it would work, steered as far as he could to the right, and made it halfway passed me, to then start steering back to the left too early, and crashing into me! As a consequence I lost my balance, and was destined to dive down the river shore. He stopped and grabbed for me superfast, and this way saved me from a very unpleasant fall down. He apologised big time, and his friends came to see if all was alright, but I couldnt help but rub him in my ‘I told you so’s!!!’. Nothing but a little bruise on my right leg where he hit me with his bloody quad I decided to forgive him and go on my way, safely over the bridge, no dangerous dives down.

Lucky

When I go home to Belgium, I usually buy one of these scratch tickets, you know the ones where you scratch away a bunch of numbers and if you get 3 times the same amount, you win this money. The ticket costs 2,5 euros, and I always win either 2,5 euros or occasionally 5 euros. Each time, but never more, its frustrating. When my mum or my sister or a friend buy a ticket, they never win anything. But this 24th of December it went a little better for me. I bought a ticket for 2,5 euros, and won a total of 7,5 euros. I decided to exchange for 3 new tickets, nothing to lose, and won 12,5 euros. Again, I went back and exchanged for 5 new tickets, as what can you do nowadays with 10 euros profit? I scratched again and won... 110 euros!!!!! So I cashed out, taking my newly made money on a little shopping excursion...

City Girl

Last weekend I went to Barcelona, to visit my sister, my nephew, my friends, and to be a real citygirl again. My flight from Seville to Barcelona was the worst I have ever experienced: turbulence and airbags from the very first untill the very last minute! My stomach will never be friends again with Vueling, though I realise its most likely not in their hands to get a nice and smooth flight. On the other hand, flying at 8000 meters only over land asks for trouble, so they should have requested a higher flight altitude. The rest of the journey, bus and train out to Premia de Mar, went fine and very quick, so I got to my sisters flat at about 23h, with my nephew still awake. The first thing he asked me was whether I brought him a present, so it was a little tricky to explain to him that that very night, a real special someone might well come along and bring him all the toys and candies he wishes for. We made him sing a song for ‘Sinterklaas’ (so cute!) and soon he was off to sleep. The next morning, he was pulling my blankets with first daylight, urging me to ‘come play a little’. He had all forgotten about our promised late night visitor so the surprise was even bigger for him when he saw all the toys and candies on the table. Asking Sinterklaas to bring that spiderman on the moto toy was a good bet of mine...
In the afternoon we went to La maquinista, a giant mall. They have many kids attractions on the roof, which my nephew knows about of course, so we spent alot of time there.
At night I went out with Eva Maria. We dressed up, Eva Maria in sexy tank top, me in leopard print sleeveless blouse (my sisters!!) and started the night at La Bolsa. Around 2am, we made our way to Luz de Gas. We skipped the huge queue and went in as VIP (these girls will never pay those 18 euros entrance!!) invited by a lovely new doorman called.... mmm well I forgot his name. The previous one was called Alberto though, least I still got that right!
I had alot of fun with Eva, dancing the night away!! The fishing was a little disappointing, we didnt find any interesting guys. The Italian bartender Fabio is nice, he usually gives us free drinks, and he is rather sweet and fun. And we saw the famous journalist again, we once met him in a club 2 years ago. I think he should change tanning studio though because as Eva stated out loud: his face IS orange! So at about 5 am we made our way out, and it wasnt untill 7 my head hit the pillow.


On sundaymorning my nephew was there again very early, to play. I was evil for an hour or so keeping my eyes tightly closed so he got all upset telling my sister he couldnt get me to wake up. So in the end, with my eyes open a little bit, I gave in and went to play with him and his cars again. We went for lunch at the port of Masnou, in between all the rich and famous people, to eat what I say is the best paella in Barcelona! You pay for it, but boy does it taste heavenly! My nephew was extremely sweet and funny that day talking to all the waiters in the restaurant, making everybody laugh very much. At some point, he walked up to a waiter and told him that a baby from a couple at a nearby table did not have hair on his head. He found that upsetting. When the waiter told him that my nephew himself also did not have hair on his head when he was that baby’s age, he replied that thats untrue and that he has hair at all sides of his body! He surprised us very much with out of the blue writing his name on a piece of paper. Only problem being: he writes in mirror view!


Mondaymorning it was time for me to come back to Seville. Unfortunately I did not travel alone: I caught some bug in Barcelona, making me rather sick, so I started my previous last week of the year in Seville in bed with a fever. I guess I am not such a citygirl after all..

20945

The other day someone asked me what my MSN nickname, Mopje, means. In Dutch, you can translate it as ‘little joke’. But thats not where my nickname comes from. Rather, it was given to me by my grandfather when I was a little girl. My family still uses it often. When I was about 4 years old, I went to visit my grandfather every saturday. He always bought these little cupcakes, soft little delicious cakes with black and white choclate in stripes on it. They are called ‘zebracupcakes’, very original name huh. We call them’ mopkes’ in our Dutch dialect. So every saturday afternoon when I arrived, apparantly the first thing I said was ‘ Grandfather, mopke!!’. He told me one day I’d turn into a ‘mopke’ if I kept eating them as much as I did, and I guess thats how my nickname was born. My grandfather was always old compared to my friend’s grandfathers as he had my mum quite late. Thankfully he was very strong and active for his age. I remember he helped me and my dad build the chicken-coop when he was 85. He lifted a big wooden wall like it was nothing!! Impressive. Next is a picture of me and him, I was 4 years old in this pic, he was 73. I had absolutely white hair when I was a kid. Sadly the pic is damaged.
When my grandfather died 4 years ago, natural or due to wrong medications we will never know, we had to sort his belongings. One of them was a box with very old pictures, many of them taken during the war. My grandfather had to go fight in the war, and he was also taken prisoner of war with the Germans. He survived though, and with his immense and impressively clear memory he always told us many stories about those times. He remembered all the names of fellow soldiers, all the places he’d been to, everything, untill the very last day of his life. I scanned a bunch of the pictures, we have to figure out the best way to save them for the future. Some of them are absolutely beautiful to me, I’ll post a few.

The first is my grandfather and his fellow soldiers in ‘Brasschaet’, Belgium, dated 1934.


The second is in Bruges, Belgium, in a boat on the famous rivers in the city, dated 1945. My grandfather is the one rowing. The third picture is also in Bruges, I love the little kids running on the street.




The 4th picture is taken in 1941 in Eben Emael, my grandfather is the one sitting bottom right.



The 5th and 6th are taken in ‘Zeebrugge’ in 1945. My grandfather is the second from the left in both. With their guns and costumes, the mess in the back, it marks the end of the war.



The 7th picture is taken in Strelitz near Breslau. They are Belgian and French prisoners. My grandfather is the one sticking out the highest at the back row.


The 8th picture is my grandfather in Liege in 1943. I dont know why he was there, probably for business as LaWallonie was the place to be back then (better not start at its current status!). My grandfather always wore his hat when he went out, it was a great toy to us kids.


The 9th picture is my grandfather and his ‘war-friends’ taking a bath in a german river. Now, those swimming trunks are not exactly what you’d find in the Victoria’s Secret men’s collection, but, proven effective, we date war times after all. The picture was taken in Oostende at the North Sea in 1945.


The last picture is my grandfather and his saxophone in 1949. He was a member of the local brass band for many years. I guess this shows why I chose to play the sax as a little girl. Recently, we even found out my grandfather played for the British army brass band.


I think its time we go through all his notes and speak to the last of his living brothers to hear all the details about my grandfathers life during the war. Its a gold mine of information. Some pictures were not kept very well sadly, and I dont have all of them scanned. When my grandfather died I received his now over 90 year old sheet music. He once showed them to me when I was about 14 years old, we went through them all, him singing and swinging his arm to teach me the rhytms. They are very old songs written in an old fashion way and on beautiful coloured paper. We also got his paperwork from during the work: the paper that says he was a german prisoner, his details of the camps (Breemdonk was one of them!), his prisoner number 20945, the nazi stamps on it with the eagle and nazi cross, and the papers of the Germans controlling his whereabouts. Very interesting I find, we also got his membership card of the secret army against the Germans. And then there are numerous papers and medals for his duty towards the Kingdom Belgium in the war. The few surviving soldiers of the world war, my grandfathers friends, came to his funeral with flags and played the Belgian hymne.
I am proud of my grandfather, and though he was very old when he died, I think he died a soul too young...

Bicycle Diaries

Riding a bicycle in Seville I risk my life every day, but I like my bike, its cheap, my work is not far at all (about 15 mins at reasonable speed) and its good for my condition. Being in the very south of Spain it never rains, its still over 20 degrees celcius now and we date December, so perfect to leave the car behind, though I seem to be the only one doing so. Even my two flatmates come to the lab by car every day, often even each with their own car (!), to then go to the gym at night,... yep, by car.
The problem here with bicycles is that 1) people are not used to them and 2) Sevillians are the worst drivers I have ever known. There simply are no rules here, you do whatever you feel like doing in your car. I live right next to a roundabout and I see people taking it left ever day!! Red lights are to be taken like orange, pedestrians or bicycles are invisible, and speed limits are from another planet. I have lived through nightmares being with friends in the car cruising Seville centre, and there will come a day I will get hit seriously on my bike by a car. My friend, who visited here, told me its just a matter of time, so together we bought these red flashing lights to pin on my bike/me. Looking like a Christmas tree on wheels, it already proven not to be effective the very first day I used them. I was on a roundabout together with a car, I was going first, and he simply wanted to leave the roundabout without taking my presence into account. So I bumped to the side of his car, he gave me the finger, I gave him 10. I was in my right.
Apart from dangerous manouvers, I get comments daily. Summarizing this week there was an old dude who called me a ‘hija de puta’ because apparantly I scared him. It wasnt my fault, he suddenly jumped out of his front door on the street! Another lady yelled I should slow down while I wasnt even going fast at all and have perfect control over my bike. Then there was the lady that got upset as I was using part of the pedestrian area. Problem is that they are constructing a metro line in Seville, so some roads are broken up, well, lets say the majority of the roads in my town, and you can only pass through using the pedestrian areas that are still kinda accessible. I dont take much room at all and am extra careful so dont get the fuss some idiots make. Those were all the bad comments (of this week only!) but I also get good comments. Its usually children who like the bike and stop their parents to gaze at me. I then nicely say hello to them and its so cute to see them smile. Yesterdaynight, I left the lab quite late and decided to stop for bread on my way home. I live in Montequinto, which means I have to pass through Condequinto to get to the lab. Condequinto is a town with mainly houses, big ones, so alot of rich people live there. The Sevillian football team trains opposite to our lab so alot of the players live in Condequinto. Going to the single supermarket in Condequinto you are very likely to see some of the famous sportsmen. Last night when I stopped at this supermarket, I had to do a little acrobatics to hop on the pedestrian area right before a big SUV would block it. I admit it was a little risky, and there were children watching. When I put down my bike a small boy came to me. I was in a hurry so I will sound evil admitting I just smiled at him and further ignored him to quickly get inside the store and buy what could well be the last bread of the day. When I came out a minute later, the kid was standing next to my bike and immediately started talking to me again. He must have been about 6-7 years old, tops. He asked me if I am a famous sports person. I laughed and told him I am not. He repeated his question to me and he got all excited so I decided to quickly elaborate before he’d start asking me for my autograph! I told him I am not famous and ride my bike because I like it and it gets me to my workplace. He then told me that was the strangest thing and that ‘there are other ways to get to your job’, meaning a car. I told him the bicycle is a perfect alternative, I am NOT a famous sport girl, and its simply fun to drive your bike everyday. He looked at me like I was sent from another galaxy, and he continued saying he didnt believe me when I hopped on my bike and continued my way to Montequinto. Funny little kid! What a rare thing a girl on a bike can be in Seville...

My Perfect Bed-Time Boyfriend!!!

You keep me warm, I hold you tight,
You stay with me, we never fight.

You never snore, you never smell,
Your wrinkly skin, you feel so swell.

You never moan, you’ll never cheat,
Whichever night, you’re full of heat.

We share our dreams, each every night,
I payed you few, this feels so right.

Me as single, got you near,
Dont feel lonely, have no fear.

Though one day soon, the day will be,
That you will go, that you’ll be free.

I’ll find a guy, to take your spot,
He’ll be the one, he will be hot!

But till the day, you leave my side,
I treasure you, I sleep with pride.

The world is round, and has no end,
Thats how long you’ll be, my hot-waterbottle friend.

Gat van de Wereld- Humo!

Deze zijn toch echt wel grappig!

Shooting Star

Last weekend I went home. I left thursdayevening late and flew with Ryanair from Seville straight to Dusseldorf-Weeze. My worry was we would have a delay, which consequently would have meant for me to stay another night in Seville as we had a very late departure time as it was. But thankfully all went well. I wasnt even overpacked! The security at Seville airport does freak me out, in that its absolutely crap. There was one guy standing next to the metal detector, he didnt even bother looking at me when I walked through it, and the other dude was sitting behind the luggage screener. When I walked through, this weirdo whistled at me!? Thats the kind of thing you expect from a constructor or road worker but so not from an airport security officer!! I couldnt believe he did that and quickly grabbed my stuff and went to the gate. The other thing is that I had liquids in my hand luggage which they didnt care about at all. In Dusseldorf they did not let me pass security as I had one tube of 125ml in my bag, and the maximum allowed is 100ml. Imagine that, the tube was only half full!
Due to strong head winds it was a very long flight (>3h) and I was incredibly bored. My row was 3 seats wide, me sitting at the window so I could rest my head against the airplane interior to sleep, but some girl had to take the middle seat and bug me with her elbows taking over the arm rest. The isle seat was free, so I dont understand why she had to squeeze in so close to me!
That night I slept in my parents livingroom, as Miguel was sleeping in my bed and I didnt want to wake him in the middle of the night plus scare him in the morning when he’d wake up and see a stranger lying asleep next to him.
Fridaymorning I went to the hairdresser. Its always full of women there gossiping the morning away! As my hair gets very light from the Sevillian sun, I decided to dye my hair dark, knowing it will be blonde soon anyways. I chose the colour choclate brown (such a patriot!), and then added some black and some blonde streaks to get a little contrast. I didnt let her cut much off, so its still reasonable long.
Fridayafternoon I went to pick up Miguel from school. Mam waited in the car whilst I waited at the school gate, trying to identify my Venezuelan host brother. All I had seen was a picture, so it was kinda fun, reminded me of this game I loved when a little kid: Find Wally. I sure found mine on friday, he came out looking a little sleepy but I couldnt have missed him with his black curly hair and tanned skin.
At night I went with Kim and Miguel to Maaseik to drink some beer at Vagant. I love the belgian beer!
Saturday eve I visited my auntie and uncle. My uncle bought this incredible new BMW series 3, coupe. We took it for a little test drive and it was crazy! The car pulls up sooo fast, with ease 160km in few seconds! After the mad driving I went with Kim and Ellen to Fuego in Maaseik, to my brother and his friends’ party. The music was very good, the beer was so tasty, just a pity there were not too many people when we got there.
On sunday I went with my mother, my uncle and his gf to Brussels, to a meeting from YFU and to pick up Miguel, and when we got back at night we went to the feria in Dilsen. I convinced my uncle to get into bumper cars with me and laughed a whole lot. Miguel and I also did very well at the slot machines, winning many points with some coins we simply found. Nobody went into the real crazy attractions as our stomachs were still full of Chinese food from earlier that night.
On monday I did some Christmas shopping with Kim. We went to look for decorations for her new Christmas tree. I came back with a bag of choclate, which later was very much appreciated by my co-workers in the lab. Mondaynight I went to drive karts with my brother Sven and with Miguel. I’d never been to this circuit before and it turned out to be quite heavy. When I went to pay for our karts, I asked the lad to let us drive with the other people that had signed up for that night. But he told me that they are all boys... and I am a girl... speaking of discrimination!! But he gave in, and let us race with some others. I think I made some enemies during the race as I ignored the blue flag. When they wave this flag it means a faster driver behind you has the right to pass you, so basically tell you to move over. But its a race, I cant do that!!! Apparantly I kept my brother stuck for 2 whole rounds. When the race had finished and I took off my helmet, one of the other guys came to me and was surprised I was driving with them, he must have thought they were all guys. I told him we had even met on the race track as he bumped my car and nearly made me crash, and he apologised immediately, haha!
Driving from Dusseldorf to Ophoven are some secondary roads where its very very dark. You pass a ghost village, which used to be a military city, and alot of woods. There, in the middle of the night, I saw a shooting star, something I hadnt seen in years living in big cities. I made my wish...

Language Genius!

As I am indulged with work and I dont want to bore you writing about clonings and worms, I will talk a little about a friend. This guy is quite amazing as he speaks 7 (!) languages, and not just at an intermediate level! He is Spanish, correction, Basque and his (nick) name is Otso. He speaks Spanish and Basque mother tongue. He must still have been in his teenage years when he moved to London so he learnt to speak perfect English with a posh British accent. I love it. Then he moved to Berlin for his university studies and his German is as scary as it would come from a real German citizen (I love German people!). After that, he moved to Barcelona, where he once again learnt the language and so speaks really good Catalan. Dont ask me how someone can learn that language, voluntarily, but he pulled it off. He worked, among others, in the Palau de la Musica, where I one day joined a visit tour, him being the guide. He spoke to all the tourist in their own language! Spanish, Basque, German, Catalan, English and French, all fluently like every single one of them is his native! Then whilst living in Barcelona he started to learn Japanese (!?). I’ve seen his notebook several times and his flat is invaded with these little yellow paper notes on all furniture, with the Japanese signs on them. So, he went to Japan last year the first time, I cant remember how long he was gone for but he did come back to Barcelona. Then this summer he went as a tour guide to Africa. Think it was Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa he toured, I’m sure he picked up several languages there, or at least words and expressions. He also surprises me very much with understanding most of when I speak in Dutch to him for fun! Ok, I speak 4 (and a half, cant get that Spanish to stick !) languages and I’m already confused often when having to switch, but Otso, he is a language genius. He came back to Barcelona after Africa so I saw him there briefly but now he went back to Japan, undefined how long for, I’m afraid I will have to get my butt out to Asia if I want to see him again. Otso, you are amazing, keep in touch from the Milky House!!

Dead Man Floating

As not that many exciting things happen to me at the lab, I will write a little about my sisters work. She gets some more action once in a while as she lives in a city of millions: Barcelona. I have been back to Barcelona several times now since I moved last Christmas, and I must say the city is getting way too big and crowded and I dont feel very safe anymore. My older sister Birgit works at the World Trade Center in Barcelona. The building is surrounded by water for about 300 degrees , almost making it a little island at the entrance of the port, so anywhere you look out of the window, you will see water. Last thursday my sister and her colleagues found a body. They went to have a coffee and a snack at a lower floor when they suddenly saw a body floating in the water. As if this was not shocking enough yet (dont read further if you’re sensitive!!), the person did not seem to have a head anymore. Face down, or should I say, chest down, he seemed to have been in the water for some time as his body was swollen. It looked to be a guy, with blue jeans and a white shirt on. The police was called immediately, but it took another 2 hours before they got him out of the water, away from my sisters desk view. I’m happy my desk view is a bunch of perfectly healthy goats and horses...

Coming Home!!

What can you do nowadays with 39 euros?! Well, you can fly 4000 kilometers for that, go and return from Seville to Dusseldorf, with Ryanair. I'm coming home to Ophoven (yay!) thursdaynight very late, and will have to come back to Seville tuesday eve. So: lets meet at Vagant in MSK fridaynight 16th of November at 10-11pm? Saturday we can do the same and then later go to Fuego. Last time I was home, my brothers friend invited us there, but then it was scheduled for the 24th of November, so I told him that I would not be in Belgium that weekend. Then last week, I heard its been re-scheduled to the 17th of November, so I kinda re-invited myself. I know they are not really allowed to advertise for their event, but I will post the flyer on here and hope I will see quite a few of you there.




So, another thing: my family and I are still connected to YFU, the organisation that took me to Australia and my sister to Mexico. We have been host family before, for a girl from Venezuela and a girl from Michigan. Last week, 22nd of October, we got called by YFU, asking us to host a boy from Venezuela. Its only gonna be temporarily, untill they find a new family for him, hopefully in Maaseik or surroundings. His name is Miguel and he is 17 years old. He can take my room for the time being. So if anybody of you (those living in MSK-Kinrooi obviously) knows of a family that might be seriously interested in hosting a foreign student, Miguel in this case, tell me something and I'll give you the contact details of YFU. Let's hope Miguel will enjoy living in Ophoven! I'm very curious to meet him....

Finally!

Finally I managed to find the time and do the effort of figuring out how to make something that is worth calling a weblog. Those that got the LA emails know I love to write. I enjoy writing down words to memorise my travels and experiences, call it keeping a virtual diary for when I’m really in the forgetting and wrinkle era of my life. I hope you enjoy reading some of my posts. When I was a little girl I was hard to keep away from my sisters diary, no matter how hard she tried in hiding them, it was a treasure for me to find and read into someone else’s world, sometimes even out loud when she was in the bath-tub and so unable to stop the horrible teasing. Thankfully, also for her, I grew up, more or less, and moved on to books and certain magazines (Humo!). The LA emails were in Dutch, which I considered simply using for up here, but then I want to keep it uniform and in one language only so that those further away from my home can also read this blog. In time, I plan to also put up here my writings from my stay in Australia. I try use as grammatically correct English as I can, sorry in advance for weird sentences or spelling mistakes though. Have fun and please please please leave a message or reaction somewhere so I know you were here!
Besitos!! Elke

The cutest Little Boy

April 1st 2004 my nephew Raul was born in Mataro, Spain. His father is Spanish, giving him a nicely tanned skin and eyes black as coals. Its not because we share the same blood but he must be the cutest kid ever! He’s only 3,5 years old now but already capturing ladies’ hearts, very young and a little older...

Seasons Come, Seasons Go

What I miss in Seville is the seasons: its always summer here! We date october and its still 33 degrees Celcius out here, likely not to drop even below 20 degrees untill december. In Belgium however, its fall. I love my parents garden. All the leaves on the trees change their colour, ranging from dark green to yellow, to orange to red. Its very pretty! All that rain gives us green gardens and beautiful seasonal flowers. And the different smells... all I get in Seville is the smell of sunscreen, whilst in Belgium you see, feel and smell time changing. I miss that...

Ronda y Alhambra

This week my brother Sven is visiting me in Seville. He spent few days in Barcelona with my sister and nephew first, and then he came down south to stay with me. As you are lost in Andalucia without a car, we had to rent one. We booked an ‘economic’ car at Hertz. That turned out to be a little mistake as initially we could not find our assigned car on the parking lot, and when we fnally found it we were shocked: this was the most ugly car I have ever seen!! A Lancia with a shit brown colour that I would not even drive if they payed me to do so. It was a new car, but boy whoever constructed this creature definetely does not have an eye for esthetics. Luck was on our side as turned out it had a flat tire. We ran back to the office as fast as we could, demanding a change of car as we could not wait for this car’s tire to be replaced. We then got a blue Peugeot, much better.




















On saturday we drove out to Ronda, about an hour drive from Seville. Ronda is built on a mountain, which looks like it is split in two. I’m not sure how to explain it., but the views are beautiful, especially from the bridge they built to connect the two parts.


















On sunday we went to visit the famous Alhambra. We were just in time to book tickets the week before. We had high expectations of this place, as about 6000 people visit it every day of the year. And its true: it is a gorgeous place, a palace built on top of a hill in the city of Granada. The weather was not that great, had some clouds coming our way, but it definetely was hot enough to cool down with a beer.

How Brussels Ran Out of Choclate...

On their final day in Belgium, I took Eva and Vanessa to Brussels. With rain joining us almost all day long, Brussels wouldnt be Brussels without a grey blanket of clouds covering it. The opportunity to see a naked man, no strings attached, could not be ignored, so after a short search we found our Manneken Pis. A little disappointed about the size issue, we went on to the choclate shops. ALL choclate shops!! They give you samples to taste and some shops had great offers: buy a kilo of choclate, get another for free. We’re talking kilo’s here that we bought, so bags and stomachs full of the cacao gold, we got back on the train home, mission accomplished.

Eva Maria and Vanessa in Ophoven!

Finally I convinced the two most lovely girls of Barcelona to come see me in Belgium: Eva Maria and Vanessa. They are born and raised in Barcelona, real city girls. The week before they left they liked to see our house in Ophoven on google earth, but they called me back soon and said they cannot see any city at those coordinates. Of course its not a city! Its tiny, but its there ladies! And we have all the comfort we need, and more. Eva and Vanessa first travelled to Amsterdam for a few days, to visit friends. From there, they took the train to Weert, where I picked them up on saturday morning. Warmly packed in winterclothes, we took them home and showed them around the village. Later we went for a coffee in Maaseik, and we ate all the cake and choclate we could. As real spanish ladies, they had a siesta in the afternoon, warmly tucked in under few layers of blankets. In the evening, we had a good meal, and got all ready to go scout for some belgian boys. Our spanish girls dream of a blonde boy with blue eyes, something they will likely not find easy in Spain. Belgium however, is a pond full of fish for them, so we took them to a bar in Maaseik: Vagant. Sadly it was a very quiet night. As a consolidation, we took a picture of them with the waiter, a good catch we all agreed. To keep our girls warm, we decided the best thing would be to get some exercise and go dancing. We went to a place in the Netherlands, to a club called ‘Bozzini’. We were 6 local girls joining our spanish guests, but none of us had been there before. Its a club I surely love to return to one day; good music, happy people and amazing infrastructure. With a mixture of Belgian, Dutch and German boys, all our spanish girls had to do was throw some bait and take home the biggest fish. But this was a fun girls-only night out, so that sundaymorning, Eva and Vanessa went home without having to pay for extra (male) luggage....

My PhD

During the first 3 years of my University studies in Belgium, I never planned to go into real research. But during my diploma thesis at the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology in the final year of my studies, I realised this was what I wanted to do next. Via via I read an application for a PhD position in Spain on the web, and after thinking it through a few days, I decided to give it a go. Reading the short description fo the research really sounded interesting to me. Two weeks later I took a flight to Barcelona and had my interview. 2 months later I started working with Dr. Peter Askjaer at the Barcelona Science Parc. We were located in Dr. Cayetano Gonzalez’s lab. He works with flies and cell cultures whilst me and Peter use Caenorhabditis Elegans as animal model system. C. elegans is a tiny little worm, the adults are about 1 mm in length so with good eyes you will manage to just about see them. We always use binoculars to look at them at a magnification. I started with a project on a protein called VRK-1, and described its role in nuclear envelope formation in early embryos. After exactly 2 years, in January 2007, Peter got his own brand new lab at the Andalusan Centre for Developmental Biology in Seville. But instead of moving with him in January I got accepted to do a short term visit to Prof. Dr. Paul Sternberg’s lab at the California Institute for Technology in Pasadena, LA, in the US. Reason for this was a slight change in my reearch focus: I started working on the post-embryonic function of VRK-1 and wanted to learn more about development of reproductive structures in C. elegans in Paul’s lab. I was in Pasadena untill halfway April, and then moved to Seville to Peters lab in May. And thats where I currently am at. Peter has now got a second PhD student, Eduardo Rodenas. Eduardo does research on nucleoporins in C. elegans. If I put his picture on my weblog he will attract too many girls to my website, so I wont do that. However, let me say I’m very glad Peter chose Edu to work with us as he is doing a great job in the lab and makes a great friend also outside our little worm paradise (this better all promise me more sushi-lunches!). We now also have a part-time technician, Christina, who keeps our lab running smoothly.



Peter shares the lab with Dr. Antonio Miranda. Antonio has one PhD student, Briseida, from Mexico. I hope they will stay with us a long time, as together we make a really nice lab! So thats the ‘hard-core’, but we also have temporary students, 2 girls both named Maria. You can find more info about our lab and about the institute in general on www.CABD.com. The picture above shows Peter’s current group, although Maria is not on there yet. Left is Christina, next to that Edu who in the mean time had a little scissors accident, then me and then Peter.

Hartbufkes Preuve Maaseik

Every year in august, the city of Maaseik organises an event called ‘Hartbufkes Preuve’. There is lots of great food, nice drinks and live music, and one always runs into people you’ve not seen in a long time. Apart from the best beer in the world, I spent my money on delicious strawberries covered in either white or milk choclate. You had the option for solified choclate or freshly melted, and if you preferred other fruits such as banana’s or cherries, you would be served so. After having left the main event place, we decided to spent the final hours of our evening in whats becoming our favorite bar: Vagant. Walls covered in religious ornaments, its a place to enjoy more of the Belgian beers, providing a very pleasant ending of our day, a day definetely to be repeated next year.

Viva Italia!!!

This weekend Martina came to visit me in Seville!! She went home during summer holidays to visit her family in Italy, so was kinda close. We saw all of Seville on a bike and ate jamon for breakfast, lunch and dinnner. At night we went dancing with the old people. On sunday we rented the coolest mini cooper (this will be my next car!) and drove to the beach in Matalascanas. Hope she comes back to Europe for X-mas, or even better, I might see her in Hawaii in november...

Yosemite National Parc

From San Fransisco we drove to Yosemite National Parc. Yosemite is ideal to go for long hikes and camping. The valley is quite touristic in summer so its hard to find a quiet private place there, but the more you hike away from the center of the valley, the better it gets. There are several big waterfalls, with the purest water inviting you for a swim. On a small hike I ran into lots of forest animals like squirrels, birds and deer. A daytrip is just a taster for an incredible place like this, I hope to go back soon and properly spend time there in the mountains.

Forest of the Giants

With my 1m70, I’m not the shortest girl around, definatly not in the US or Spain. However when driving through Sequoia National Parc, even the tallest person on earth would feel like a midget. Of all places I’ve visited in my (young) life, this is the place that made me feel most impressed: I felt like Alice in Wonderland, driving through this parc honestly feels like you entered a fairytale! The trees are actually not the highest in the world, but boy do they have a diameter!! General Sherman tree is the sequoia with the largest volume in the world. Its the biggest living thing on earth, aged an estimated 2500 years, weighing a solid 1300 ton. A must for this popular creature, but a pity for me; nobody is allowed to touch its trunk, leave alone trying to climb the tree. I think the juices in its trunk can make quite some hearable natural sounds.
Driving through the remarkably quiet parc (we date July after all) we come across some giants that had lost their balance and went horizontal. Look at me sitting in front of a root there, am so tiny!! We took a little hike, finding amazing places hidden in the forest, such as swamps, the greenest meadows you can imagine, and beautiful views over Sequoia Parc. One of the highlights of our hike was running into deer. Thank god we did not encounter any bears, I admit I was so scared all day we’d meet one of them! Though they are not agressive animals by nature, some learnt that tourist carry yummy goods on them, making them as wanted by the bears as candies on a children’s playground.
Driving to our lodge that night it was completely dark and quiet out in the forest and mountains, absolutely fabulous. I sure did sleep like an Alice in Wonderland, and waking up I found myself still in this dream, sadly time to pack up and return back to the city, at least, the city of angels.