Vocabulary

Ingibjörg gave me an idea in her comment on the last post. Sort of. She said I could be the inspiration for a good, Belgian comic character.

Now, this somehow stuck in my head, and after brewing in my brain for the weekend, a most pleasing beverage of an idea is ready to be tapped.

My old friends, Svalur og Valur, aka Spirou et Fantasio, aka Robbedoes en Kwabbernoot will help me improve my vocabulary. After all, I am living in their country of origin. And even though many of their adventures have been translated into Icelandic, many of the 49 (arguably, depending on how you count) books will be new to me.

IFIL BBÚLGROZ!

Proud bike owner

Proud bike owner,
originally uploaded by 't Beertje.

You wanted a pic, so here's a pic. :)

My adventures with the bike so far:

Day one: Accidentally threw the rear light in the river while trying to take it off the bike
Day two: Left the front light behind in the Hot Club de Gand jazz club (it was fortunately recovered by Renaat.)
Day three: Bought a replacement rear light, but managed to lose the screw from the fastening thing before I even managed to put it on the bike for the first time.
Day four: Broke the fastening thing for the front light, so now it cannot be taken off the bike (probably for the best, or it might end up in the river as well).
Day five: Got the rear wheel stuck in the tram tracks and flew off at maximum speed. Luckily only hurt my pride.
Day six: Didn't ride the bike that day; nothing to report.
Day seven: No incident so far...

Despite all that.. I LOVE MY BIKE! :D

Bicycle-Björn

Wild van fietsen,
originally uploaded by 't Beertje.

I bought a bike last Saturday! It's old, it's green and it's lovely.

I picked it up from a guy who lives in a small village just east of Sint Niklaas, the repair and restoration of bikes is a bit of a hobby of his. So my bike's in a perfect state: bad enough to be fairly cheap and less likely to get stolen, but good enough to get from A to B with some pride and grace.

I've already covered quite a few kilometres on my bike, and my thighs hurt alot. Still, it's totally worth it. From my place to the city centre it's about 10 minutes' drive (Ghent is a maze of one-way streets if you're on a car, so the quickest route takes you away from the centre before you get there), plus five to infinity minutes to find a parking space. By bike I can take more scenic routes and it only takes about 15 minutes. Gent is quite flat like most of Flanders, which adds to the pleasure.

The cobblestones are a bitch though.

Snow in Ghent

Snow in Ghent,
originally uploaded by 't Beertje.

This is what I woke up to last Thursday. Just lovely.

I believe this is the river Leie (someone please correct me if it isn't ;)). The Leie is known as the Lys where it starts, far away in France, but passes through Dutch speaking lands before going to the sea.

Registering

De Lijn,
originally uploaded by 't Beertje.

Orders: Go to the stadhuis (city hall) and register.
One afternoon just before 4 I drove to the city center and entered the lovely picturesque stadhuis close to where I used to live. Turns out that's not at all the right place for me to be, I should go to the administrative division, close to the main bus station, Zuid. Furthermore, it is open from 08-13, so I'm way too late. It is open on Saturdays, though (handy!) so I can go then.

Updated orders: Go to the stadhuis, administrative division on Saturday and register.
So on Saturday I enter the administrative division shortly after they open and take a number. There are more than 40 people ahead of me. 2 hours later it is my turn and I find out that not only is it not possible to register on Saturdays, but I'm in the wrong place. Because I live south of the railwaystation I should go to the dienstcentrum for my area. The dienstcentrum is at Rerum Novarumplein, just a few blocks from my house. It is not open on Saturdays.

Updated orders: Go to the dienstcentrum by Rerum Novarumplein on Monday and register.
I did and it worked!

Now I have to wait for a policeman to visit to check if I actually live where I say I live, and I'm formally a resident of Gent. Huzzah!

The only Björn

I've grown accustomed to being one of the Björns (there were three of us at Hexia), so I'm finding my newfound uniqueness hard to cope with.

Still, there's alot of other naming coincidences I can use for comfort; my boss and his boss are both called Jan, across the hallway is an office of Marios, and the Stijns are too many to count.

This is my second workplace in a row where I have a colleague named Yuko.

Anyway, it was fun being Icelandic this morning. Everything was covered in snow, and wherever you looked you could see a car stuck or spinning wildly on the icy roads. A long line of cars stuck behind a Porsche. Snowmen on bicycles.

I got tremendous satisfaction out of overtaking slow drivers on the narrow, twisty roads near the centre, and proudly displaying the Icelandic flag on the back of my car before disappearing into the distance.

Mwahahaha!

Lokeren

Lokeren,
originally uploaded by 't Beertje.

Me and Elisa went on a sofa hunting tour around neighbouring towns and villages, including a short stop in the scenic centre of Lokeren. Didn't meet any of the dozens of Icelandic football players living there, but the church looked nice. The weather on Saturday was fantastic: clear skies and sunshine, and felt a bit like early summer in Iceland.

The sofa was only found the next day and close to home: in Ghent.

Winter in Berlin

Together in Berlin,
originally uploaded by 't Beertje.

The photos are here

Expecting pictures?

Hope not, still haven't uploaded any.

I did take a few Berlin, but fewer than I would have liked, mostly due to technical reasons. The technical reasons being I forgot to charge my battery before leaving, I forgot to bring the recharger with me, and I forgot to take a spare battery.

This meant I was on low batteries all weekend, and tried to save it for as long as I could.

So what, Berlin was far to cool for me ever to get it properly on film/chip. Yes, Berlin rocks and I can't wait to go back.

In other news, I'm getting sick of Danish. Wish we'd beat the bastards the other night, but no such luck.

Back to the stød.