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July 07, 2003 : first day off/treading water
It wasn't the best first-day-off that one could imagine. It was, in fact, filled with the sort of to-do list that one begins to unroll and then it gets out of hand, and falls down on the floor unraveling like toilet paper. First up was getting up at 4:30 to pick up Jasper, Rita, and the man who was her boyfriend two weeks ago. (nice explanation!) Eva and I headed to the Opel to drive to Rita's campervan which was parked close to the brother's apartment where everyone was gathering. Wouldn't you know that I left the lights on in the Opel!?!? We walked. We got to the car, picked everyone up and sped to the airport, waved our goodbyes and left BRU. We had planned on eating breakfast with Agnes, but it all happened so quickly that we were stuck now in Brussels with nearly nothing open and it so early that we felt bad about waking our friend up for a non-existent breakfast! So we returned to Antwerp and went back to bed. We woke up around noon and headed off to run errands for Susan and Leila who were both in dire need of errands being run, but unable to run them. (sickness and pain) I actually had a lot on my plate today as well, but somehow everything became errand-centric, so Eva and I talked it over and made plans that included errands, jumper cables, lights for our bikes, lunch at Sbarros (pasta bar), mega-low-prices at the GB and a return home. We only made it home long enough to drop off our things and get back in the car to head to Brussels (again) for Eva's contract-signing appointment. We didn't have time to jump the Opel, so we headed into the windy streets of Brussels in the gigani-VW-van, sure that she was going to be late. We actually maneuvered quite nicely and she arrive precisely on the dot! She was a little embarrassed to be escorted to the door (the embarrassing factor I have long since lost) and so we parted ways and agreed to hook up 45 minutes later. One thing that is great about Brussels is that it's cities within a city. One can get continually lost in it. It's not that it's sprawling by any nature, but for me, as an Antwerpenaar, it's a vast new place. I suppose it helps that it's predominately in a different language, so that gives it some sort of an exotic twist. One street over from Eva's new job lay a huge park right in front of (or behind) the arch (yes, just like the Parisian version) that Eva and I saw/found for the first time only several weeks ago. Apparently Brussels has something like 70 parks, and I must admit that the greenspace happens to pop up in the most bizarre locations, and green is always a welcome treat. I walked in the park for half and hour and the began heading back to our meeting point. "I could live here" I thought to myself, and as badly as I am wanting to learn Dutch, I saw myself learning French yet again. (not learning French a second time, but for a second time, seeing myself learning French!) Wasn't French the language that we all though was poetic and beautiful when I was growing up? Isn't that the language of romance? How did I stumble upon the soft-germanesque Flemish and find it beautiful all of a sudden? Oh what will the coming months bring?!? I circled back around and hung out on the same corner where we had parted ways and saw her visiting with a new college on the doorstep of her new space. I laid low. She stared walking toward me and I still continued to play it low. I broke out my mobile phone and pretended to chat and told her to "keep walking" when she got up to me "as to not let anyone think I was here waiting" for her. She started babbling on and on about her new job and it's prospects of being great, and though I'm dreadfully excited for her, I can't help but with I was in the same situation. I too want to babble on and on about employment. ANY employment. I'm sort of in a rut at the moment when it comes to being excited about prospects both here and stateside. I am so sick of the unknown that I am somewhat comforted by the long-string of mini-catastrophes as of late. At least it seems that I can somehow "count" on their happening! But we were happy for those brief moments, chatting about which building we'd love to live in, how close the park would be, our daily jogs at about 6:30 every night, and where I'd take my French classes. We headed to a nice plaza and bought snel-koop (quick-sell) almost-old salads for dinner. We headed back to Antwerp where I dropped her off for a De Magneet debriefing, and I rolled on home to finish up some loose ends, chat with my mother online (catch my parents up to speed), and to be phone-ready in case any job-calls came through. Eva came home and we readied an application to take to a school in Gent. I'm nearly perfect for the job if it wasn't in Dutch, and of course we dream about their emailing me and telling me that I am perfect for it. Somehow during the day of errand-running, this little detail was the one that got moved around. Therefore we had to make a mid-night run to Gent to drop it off. The only thing standing in our way was the Opel. It didn't really stand in our way, it was my desire to stop driving the steamliner and start driving the paddle-boat. Besides, we bought jumper-cables and everything! The Opel was sitting where I had last pushed it. Into a nice little spot on a nice little one-way street after a kind man attempted to pull me in an effort to get it started to no avail. I pulled down the one-way street in the van, and somehow, dodging parked cars on each side of me, managed to turn it completely around. We then pushed the Opel up a few meters to face the van. Granted, it was midnight, but I was sure that it'd be up and running a few minutes later. Nearly an hour later, from the time I first started turning the van around, the car had started once, and me in my greatest shining moment of daily genius, I had rev-ed the engine, let it sit, and then turned it off. (only to have it not start again.) I was pretty devastated, as one can imagine, Eva was none-too-pleased, and neither were the neighbors. (a diesel revving up outside your bedroom window) Finally we gave up and decided to add it to our tomorrow-list and head on to Gent in the people-mover. We dropped off our envelope and tried to get our barrings for the way home. Wouldn't you know that I ended up driving down a one-way street with a cop coming head-on? He turned on his lights and I kindly rolled down the window and said, "he he...um...I'm going the wrong way, aren't I?" To which he said, "yes" and that I'd best "turn it around." Thank goodness I had so much practice today with backing up and inching forward or we'd still be in the parking-lot of Wijnegem Shopping Center stuck between two cars, on the one-way street in Antwerp next to the Opel, or in Gent causing quite a stir on the tram-tracks. We finally made our way to the E17, and I began to feel a bit tired (of it all.) Eva and I got into a rather lengthy discussion about the toekomst (future) and I came up with the concept of "treading water" and that being the last thing I want us to be doing for the next year. As I am prone to very long-winded analogies, I will leave it at that. Oh how I want at this moment to bring in symbols like flotation devices, children's blow-up arm bands, life-savers, air-mattresses, surf-boards, dingies, and the big gigantic lead anchor in the back of our minds that comes complete with an ankle-band...but I won't. On a positive note, I was reminded at 2 this morning of what I always loved to drive at night. Not a soul on the road, the lights only mine, and knowing full well that most everyone you are passing is sleeping. One has to love that. IN THE NEWS: ALSO IN THE NEWS:
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