July 30, 2002 : the Flemish word for Fan.

I spent most of the day dodging sun rays that poked through my well-curtained window. As there was little breeze for the 3rd straight day, I had every window open, hoping to catch air movement from swooping birds or restless butterflies, even the slight jostling of air from city buses passing outside. One window I had curtained as to convince me to start working on my computer--the curtains providing me with ample shade to actually see the laptop screen. A word to young designers. Never alter images (such as photos) in bright light. You'll think they look good and then once the sun goes down you'll realize they are completely out of whack.

Yes of course I've done this before in my life. Numerous times...hence the curtain.

So curtain aside, literally, the house beckoned me to be cleaned. "I'm trashed" it told me. And it was quite true. Sleeping bags originally set in the sun to air out and dry out from any 2 week old dampness were definitely dry. They'd been dry for a couple of days now. Piles pulled from backpacks and bags had been sorted into very dirty and very clean. Shoes had somehow managed to end up in every "room" of the house. Something had to be done. And like I mentioned before out trip. I'm a changed person. I'm into this cleanliness business. I'm in to domesticality now. I'm the 1950's housewife and Eva's the "Honey I'm home" bring-home-the-bacon provider.

And so, without delay I proceeded to pick up, sort, pile, repile, stack, move, sweep, wash, dry, scrub, and listen to the BBC. Actually I listened to the news on the BBC and then once it went into it's cycle of the same news told slightly differently, with sudden breaking news bits like a new suicide bombing in Jerusalem, I switched to KQED, the NPR station from San Francisco.

And like I mentioned earlier. It was hot. I had this great idea to buy a fan somewhere and stick it in the middle of the room to pull air from one set of windows to the next. Jessica and Eric were headed down for the night because Eric leaves tomorrow to go back to the states and I didn't want them to suffer in the ways of sleeping as I had suffered. (all stretched out with barely an inch of skin touching my loved one) So off I was to buy a fan.

No fan.

By the time Eric and Jessica got here, I had already scoured the neighborhood winkles for fans. Nothing. We hopped on a tram and searched for a fan in the main shopping district. Finally, in a grand realization of utter defeat, the sky clouded over, it started to drizzle, and Eric came up with a hypothesis that there wasn't even a word for 'fan' in Dutch. We were wrong, of course, because Eva spouted a certain word for it when she got home, but we were certain there wasn't a fan in a 20 km radius. And the clouds explained why. I suppose anyone can suffer through a couple days of heat if they know that breezes and overcast are due any day now.

Smart...these Belgians. Very smart.

IN THE NEWS:
My favorite cheap airline back in the states, Vanguard Airlines, filed for bankruptcy today. You'd think that a Ryan Air-esque airline could manage in the states. I guess there wasn't enough advertising and obviously not enough revenue. It was a nice try anyway, and as a consumer, I suppose I did my part.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
This part of the journal might not last long, but I figure if Eva wants me to tally what I eat (as a part of the Eva Cordery the girl who never needed to diet in her entire life Weight Loss Plan) then what a better way to tally. Most people would simply say that the first step would be to drink more water. As I have already mentioned numerous times, I already LOVE water, so please keep in mind that Water is a very staple item in my diet (pun) and is taken in large quantities.

- 4 small biscuits made from my last packet of Bisquick. (I'm talking small here, less that the fork scrape they mention on the box, virtually a little more than a bite a piece)
- 1 Nectarine
- 4 pieces of Double Bubble gum (it's the sort of gum that is only good as long as it's flavor lasts...and I've always chewed it two pieces at a time)
- 2 handfuls of Nerds candy (as I was cleaning I found the forgotten box and began to finish it off. But then I decided I should ration the nerds, so there are still 2 handfuls left)
- 1 bite from Eric's kaasbroodje
- 1 Strawberry Margarita
- 1/3 of a portion of guacamole and chips (shared with Jessica and Eric)
- half of a kaascrocette at the American Disaster
- several stuks (bits/pieces) of bread
- 1/2 of my serving of lasagna
- 1/3 of Eric's portion of steak
- 3 or 4 beers (over time)
- 1 orange juice

In Defense Of My Intake: The beers seem somewhat excessive on a Tuesday night, but it was Eric's last night in Belgium, and I drank them over a period of about 4 and a half hours or more and the bread that I ate was Gratis with the meal.