Because...

starting a career is something I'll do when I'm older and depressed.

Balkan Plan: leaving september 9, 2013

LifeResolutions.

Gloomy Sunday.

Gloomy sunday rests my mind, at least for now. My harbour's safe and wind is calm but with the hours striking the cold gets closer too and all that I'm afraid off will creep back into time.

It's that time off the year again, when fall creeps slowly into winter. The time for allowed depressed faces, listening to Lykke Li's darkest songs on repeat and gloomy sunday mornings where everyone seeks comfort in a cup of winter tea. As much as I claim that I'm a strong and independent person (wild at heart, ya know), I would be a total hypocrite if I didn't admit that it's nice from time to time to go back to your safe old grandparents nest on these gloomy days and sleep in your old bed in fuzzy, blankets (hidious blue blankets with cats, clouds and suns on them smelling like familiar washing powder). Then you wake up the next morning to the sound of trees rushing in the backyard and the smell of sea when you open the window. Sometimes that's all you need to get you back on track and get the last push to finally go on with the rest of your life rollercoaster.

B-DaY note to self: WAKE UP

It's my b-day and on days like these I allow myself to give in to the cliché things you do on bdays... Like taking an imagery fresh crispy white sheet of paper and writing down with feather and ink my resolution for my 24th year to come on this planet. We all have resolutions every time a life-event takes place and we all know we never really make all of them turn into reality but as we get older it feels like this could be your last shot at making them true. I won't bother you with the stuff I wrote down in calligraphic handwriting on my imaginary to-do list, but one thing is of major priority: TO WAKE UP. Life's too short and sometimes it's easy to slip away in a stream of unconscious self-pity, sometimes we think to much and do too little, we fear and fear makes action freeze when it's needed most. So this is my note to self: wake up, get it over with all ready, do the things that frighten you and stop you from being who you truly were once. Enjoy life at the fullest, forget about the tiny things that make you feel miserable like a pair of undies that became to tight since last year because you indulged your thesis stress with chocolate. So be it, buy a bigger pair and go run a mile or two. I think I just realised that I reached my limit of "spoilable' life time on unimportant nerve-wrecking matter a long time ago. Excuse me while I go and live my life the fullest.

Take a Step for Fairtrade.

I'm halfway the infocycle training program I follow at the Belgian development agency and I must say that the whole experience is great. In a conference about Fairtrade Belgium, their latest campaign movie was presented to us and I just had to share it on my blog. Many people don't realize the amount of Fairtrade products available nowadays in their local supermarket and the change they can make by buying every now and then but preferably as much as possible fairtrade equivalents of their daily consumed products... Many popular brands have fairtrade products under their normal product range (even stores as Lidl and Colruyt) and even though this doesn't mean that all of the ingredients used in those are 100% fairtrade produced every small step helps in my opinion...

Out of surveys every Belgian family just buys one fairtrade product every 6 months... mainly because they aren't aware of the possibilities in their local stores or they think the prices are too high... But prices of unprocessed products like banana's or mango's are the same for fairtrade or regular products. I think we all can do better, so find that label and switch your unfair banana stock for fairtrade banana's...

The share of fairtrade chocolate on the Belgian market needs most improvement as only 1% right now is produced fair trade...  Therefore during week of Fairtarde awareness on this topic will be raised! Every night on één a short documentary will be broadcast and we will be able to buy "Max", the chocolate mascotte of Fairtrade Belgium in shops. Click here for more info.

And you can do something too, many companies or office in our country buy fairtrade coffee or chocolate. Many multinational brands have jumped on the fairtrade wagon and have replaced a share of their used ingredients by fairtrade products. But a share is not enough... Brands like Starbucks, Ben&Jerry's have even switched to 100% fairtrade coffee or main ingredients... Here you can find a list of all brands who follow a partial fairtrade policy.

If you want more info for your company or work place to be involved in the fairtrade program click here.

http://www.maxhavelaar.be/nl

http://fairtrade.be/

Life Lately.

Not much to tell other than my last days of granted solitude behind my desk are coming to an end. Thank god. Feels like New Year is coming up and I should make some resolutions for the new year coming up, at least that's how september feels to me at any time. And inspired by the wise words of Jenna Hamilton in Awkward, I'm convinced that making no resolutions is the best thing to do. No resolutions = No Disappointments. Last exam tomorrow but nowhere near the end of my course. Next week I start a two times 4 day junior training program on development cooperation at BTC Belgium, so excited about this. The purpose of this post was actually to share this awesome the XX link with you guys, share and stream that shabam. Coexist is again such a good album. Totes Amazeballs.

Salad Saterday

Currently experiencing a rare moment of efficiency. Woke up this morning all grumpy as rain cancelled our tennisplans, went for a jog much later anyway (this after convincing myself for hours that I wasn't going to die, if I went jogging on a saterdaymorning)* , made fresh juice with the juicer I won at Princess Missia's giveaway (happy), studied and seeked healthy lunch inspiration. Since my dad is going trough, what I think is, a post midlife-crisis (because all of a sudden he pledges to eat oatmeal in the morning and salads for lunch, he buys soy products and comes home from the grocery store with the strangest fruits and veggies...) I guess he's inner hippie has awakened or SHOULD I BE WORRIED? Lucky for me I like that kind of "cuisine" but I strongly doubt if my chocolate-addicted sister will stay calm under these circumstances. Anyways, here's what we made for lunch. Superyum pinkyswear.

Ingredients:
(serves two)

1 bell pepper (red or yellow)
250 grams of cherry tomatoes
3 hands of rucola
3 slices of smoked ham (ardeense ham is perfect for this)
1 small red onion
1 cup of lentils (5 large tablespoons)
1 laurier leaf

For the dressing:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon of pressed garlic or powder
salt and pepper

\\ How to:

Boil water and cook lentils for about 25 min. until they have a nice bite.
Chop onion, bell pepper and quarter the cherry-tomatoes.
Heat up a grill pan lightly oil the surface. Slice the ham in tiny pieces and grill until almost crispy. Turn deom time to time. Add to the veggies.
In a small bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients.
The lentils should be ready by now. Drain excess water and add them together with the dressing to the salad. At last add the rucola and gently toss. Let it chill in fridge or serve immediately. Recommended with a slice of bread. //

Femme De La Rue.

Sexism on the street - a documentary

The house where I've been living the past 4 year with 5 other students lays in the middle of Ghent's red light district. This might sound very odd but actually a whole mix of things are situated in this area: besides some streets with girls sitting behind glass windows and pimps driving through those streets at night there are fancy coffee bars (Ycono), closeby high-end fashion stores, the best ice-cream in town (Ferrara), popular restaurant as "El Negocito" and "The Vitrine". Not really spots where you would spot the criminal type of pimps dining.

Anyway that's not the point of this post, I wanted to talk to you about a certain type of people often wandering through these streets, a certain type of men...
After all it is still the "Rosse Buurt"  but one where a lot of students and families live as well. Needless to say, every time you step out of your front door dressed in what according to me is non-provocative clothing, men often throw not so women-friendly remarks at you. "How much is it?", or "Hi can I have your number, can we come into the house to drink some coffee?" Coffee my ass.  On top of that, if you're not responding, they throw a "slut" or "pute" mention at your head.  Although me and other girls in our house mostly laughed with these situations, situations happening rather often. Over time you notice something in your behaviour starts to change: you think twice before you step out of your frontdoor... "Will they say something when I'm dressed like this?", "Do I look provocative in these clothes ?", "Maybe I should wear pants even if it's the first time the sun hits our country this year and it's above 30 degrees celsius outside"...

I am lucky that I don't consider these remarks personally but just something "they do". So I just do or wear whatever I want, neglect comments and walk (a bit fast) down my street. In the end I just have to walk down the street and I'm in the most fancy shop area of Ghent where people don't make any nasty remarks at all.
However I can imagine this must be a heavy burden for some women who may have experienced worse things than just some insulting remarks. If you get this every single day, you've got to have elephant skin. Sofie Peeters is a young RITS student who made "Femme De La Rue", a documentary around the subject: "sexism on the street".  I was so surprised when I saw it 'cause I never realized that it's actually something that happens a lot and I never really questioned "why" but kind of accepted the whole thing. But most importantly it made me realize that as a woman I shouldn't just accept this and go with it.  So I am truly pleased that a young emancipated girl opened the debate for this rather delicate subject. Delicate ? Well it's sad to say but 80 % of the men who make these remarks to me are foreigners. So the judgement of being racist can quickly be made...

What is your opinion or experience with sexism on the street? Do you just ignore it or do you step up?

The whole documentary can be viewed here. Only 18 minutes but so worth your time.

Interior Inspiration.

In August I move in with three friends in a small family house in Ghent.  As it's not the first time I move to a new place, I kind a learned from my interior faux-pas from the past. So instead of going to IKEA on the loose and cramming in thirty cheap randomly chosen design proof items in my new room. I'll do it the proper way this time. Starting with some inspiration research (Hooray for Pinterest!) , sometimes a bit unrealistic inspo but a girl can dream, right? Anyone getting rid of old furniture/other junk, call my name. I'm currently experiencing a fierce DIY phase in my life.

Time.

Words: Pink Floyd      Picture: my own

Radiohead.

That friday morning I had promised Charis to set my alarm and wake up at nine to make sure we got our hands on tickets for the radiohead concert in october. So while I was slowly preparing my lazy friday morning breakfast in the kitchen ( in total zen modus ) around 9.20 AM it suddenly hit me like a rock, the tickets!!! I rushed back upstairs, mueslibowl and coffeemug in hands, sincerely hoping that I still had a shot at buying them. After some nervewrecking minutes watching the buyers page reload and reload and reload, I finally got them!

So far so good, next challenge is to learn Thom's choreography  on Lotus Flower by heart by october 18th.  Sweet.

Radiohead music always brings out some dark and heavy mood in me and and maybe weird but despite that fact I really enjoy listening to them. Their music creates that stream of unconscious thoughts on which you float away from reality on busy days like these. I spent to much time not listening to them over the past months. So if you see me wandering by, head in clouds, I'm not on drugs but dancing Lotus Flower in my head.

There's an empty space inside my heart

where the weeds take root

so now I'll set you free

I'll set you free.

Radiohead - Lotus Flower

Twunch and Miike Snow Pre-listening @ Bar Buro

At last my friends at last, a non thesis-drama related blogpost!Let me explain.
Last night I joined Deborah and her twitter gang on a twunch.

Excuse my french, twunch, c'est quoi ça? Twuch is lunch (or in this case dinner) twitter-style where twitter peeps gather around to talk about the stuff that make them tick or just about random shizzle. You can check all the twunch meetings here and subscribe to them with your twitter account if you would like to join.

At first, I thought it would be awkward for me (=social media rookie) to join a twunch, but as I find myself more and more interested in the power of sites like twitter, facebook or pinterest, I decided to give it a shot.

Sony Music Belgium organised this twunch as a pre-listening session to  Miike Snow his newest album "Happy To You". For sure you heard "Paddling Out" the last couple of weeks popping through your radio and after hearing the rest of the album I am strongly convinced there will be more Miike Snow tunes that will make your mood springproof in the future. But don't be mistaken, the lyrics are rather dark and some songs are even a bit dramatic like "Devil's Work" (up to the point where I could hear a horn go off in a song) and they even hired Lykke Li's sweet voice to do a verse on the track "Black Tin Box". It will be released March 16 but you can check it here.

The event took place in Bar Buro, a new pop up bar in Ghent, powered by chocolate bar Quetzal and Avenue L. So we were spoiled with quite original smoked salmon-rucola-chocolate drop panini's and moelleux (I die!) for dessert.  I'm still enjoying the afterglow of that chocolate inspired meal while listening to Miike Snow his happy electropop album (we got a copy to take home, yay!). I really hope to see them on the festivals this summer.

And the twunch thing? I'm looking forward to my next one. The only thing I have to overcome is my fear of getting my prehistorical mobile phone out of my pocket. Quite intimidating if you're surrounded by a dozen of foursquaring and twittering Iphone ninja's :-). Still, I'm proud to posses a historical artifact mobile device.

Happiness is a warm gun.

cycling through Ghent.

home is where the ..... is.

sunday morning.

Back in Belgium for over two weeks now. The weather last weekend 
was awesome and seduced us to organize several summery festivities (read: Barbecues and outdoor Apéro's). Tried to convince everyone that I'm the one who brought the sun home in my suitcase, hoping now they'll give me eternal gratefulness (and candy) in return. Chaos still rules my current state of being but that's not always a bad thing. There are just too little hours in one day to do everything calm and steady. Greatest thing about being back besides the reunion with my extended post-stamp collection, is catching up with everyone I haven't seen in such a long time. Although things have changed in everyone's life while I was gone, friendships last. Talking about lasting, I turned 23 tuesday, so I officially reached the age now were I'm supposed to start rubbing anti wrinkle moisturizer over my face. Cheers to that! And thanks for all those kind bday wishes, Facebook isn't such a bitch after all...

Last weekend, enjoying last vibes of summer.

Igor, such a poser.

Ghent by night.

via music philosophy.

Het spijker. 

Night Strolling through Ghent. I love it when I ride back home from a night with friends and I got my camera with me. People mostly give you the awkward look if you start taking pictures of buildings and other people in the middle of the night or they just think you're trying to be all arty farty. But I couldn't care less, I just like taking pictures of random uselessness (is that a word?) and even more at night...

Lomography ColourSplashFlash (Bday present from ninja sister)
too bad my camera hasn't got a hot shoe, so if anyone has an idea what to do, besides buying a lomo-camera...

This weekend, weather sucks and gives me no excuse to procastrinate on thesis shizzle. I was supposed to go to a snowboardworkshop with my sister today but it got cancelled, maybe next weekend. Looking forward to next week: concert of SBTRKT and Ozark Henry and hopefully finding the courage to go training in the cold cold swimming pool for my lifeguarding recycling exam, it's coming way to close.
Enjoy your sunday! 

Visual crack for the occular friend by yimmy yayo, weheartit, les petites pestes and me.