May 14, 2003 : no yoga, lunch, dinner, no yoga
We had originally planned on being very strict with our yoga practice at night. It was so great for the first two nights to go to bed so relaxed and exhausted. But last night we stayed up so late, that we didn't have time to do it. Obviously it's an excuse, but it takes us at least an hour to get set up, do the routine, and then get to bed. I'm beginning to think that our being graceful and our really-slow motions are a bit too graceful and slow. I suppose we just have to concentrate more to be graceful! :)
The weather here in Antwerp/Belgium is as schizophrenic as ever. It's living up to the saying that in Belgium one can have 10 seasons in one day. This morning it was nice for a spell and then broke out into drizzle. It is, in fact, quite chilly, and the rain doesn't help much on that account. I would, however, choose chilly over humidity any day.
Today I went to Mechelen to meet Eva. I had already stuffed myself full of an egg-salad sandwich, so I vowed not to eat anything additional. (my form of dieting!) Apparently her boss is now starting to time people and their length of lunches, something I find completely ridiculous in a company the size of Lu's Paragraph. If it's a corporation, where long-lunchers can remain undetected for hours upon hours it's a somewhat different story. I'm all about trusting employees though. I suppose I was in a very extreme situation of trust at Tellme, but even at GalvinKemper were we "allowed" the occasional long-lunch to make up for the times that we ate and worked at the same time. It all evened out in the end.
All of this to say that Eva readied her watch. She knew exactly what time she had to be back and not a second before or after. We decided to kill two birds with one stone (very violent saying, isn't it?!?) and went to Del Haize to buy spaghetti sauce, a sandwich for Eva, and any additional things we wanted to buy. We were wanting to buy bubbly/sparkling red wine as well (we tried it at Fredrick's and Anne's a couple of weekends ago and it's delicious!) but as soon as we had it in our hand, we put it back and said, "maybe next month."
We checked out and headed to the car where I sampled a wasa and fake-meat pseudo-sandwich, and Eva munched on her chircurzo (Italian pepperoni with strange bits in it) broodje. There in the privacy and rain-protection of our car, we had the most wonderful picnic, with even the occasional remark of, "20 minutes to go..."
We've decided that we should do this occasionally, only realizing how fun it is after we've had the car for almost two months already and she only has a little over a month left at her job.
We are still, of course, occasionally freaking out about what happens after November. We're actually only trying to think in reference to July. I say we should go away to Barcelona for a couple of days after she's out of work and I'm done with school. Only then will we be able to truly get ourselves straightened out.
Tonight, after a dinner of meaty spaghetti for Eva and tomato sauce with meat-ball spaghetti for me, we stumbled upon our back-burner option.
Today I sent even more emails regarding teaching positions in the states knowing full well that only a handful will get back to me. Besides, school's out in most universities I expect, so the teachers are probably either about to rest or in full end-of-year swing. (so am I, for that matter!)
Our back-burner option is heading off to Paraguay. Ok, so it's not the most feasible option, but it sure lights up Eva's eyes when we talk about it. What are the chances that we can legally be in the same place at the same time after my visa runs out? Besides, I want to learn Spanish, I owe it to myself. Well, like I said, it's a back-burner idea.
So no yoga tonight either. Eva sat on the couch until nearly 2 in the morning working on emails, updating her CV, and scheming for ways to convince schools that she would be a great teacher. I sat at this computer staring blankly at the screen wondering what I should do next. When it gets to the point when there's no more internet/computer stuff left to do, I suppose it's time to do something else. I should have switched to War and Peace. I'm only a hundred pages to the end.
IN THE NEWS:
Well I wish I could still find the story. Maybe it was so troubling that they decided to remove it. The New York Times reported that the US had told their soldiers working in Iraq that they could shoot looters on site as to curb the looting currently going on. Someone was even quoted as saying that shooting a few would send a message to the others, though they admitted that they didn't know how to tell the Iraqi people of the new trend.
