It's no secret that I've grown to hate October. I was spoiled growing up in Minnesota, where October meant crisp dry air, crackling colorful leaves, apple cider and hay rides. October in Europe is nothing of the sort. It is the most depressing, dreary, rainy time. During this month, I've been doing my best to stay positive, although it's not always easy. I've watched many of my favorite TV shows online... enough to satisfy me for a year. I've hand mended some of my clothes. My mom would be proud, I've been sewing buttons back on and fixing holes in my clothes all month. I've also been cooking. I made some great chili yesterday that set my Polish friend Ola's mouth on fire. Still though, I get nostalgic for the months of spring and summer, when the sun made an occasional appearance, and my travels took me to some interesting places. I found these photos on my memory card today, and they pulled me out of my October blues for a moment.
My and Ablerto's friend Pasquale (aka Paky). Paky and his girlfriend Filomena visited Brussels with Alberto one weekend in June, and we had a great time. As you can see, we started with a nice beer sampler in the early afternoon.
Two samplers down, we continued the trend until well into the evening.
It's so sunny in Brussels in June, even the dogs need shades!
Alberto, our friend Fabio and I visited a zoo near Milan sometime this summer. These monkeys really liked us... or really liked the food we were carrying.
Gentfest! Alberto and I took an impromptu trip to the medieval city of Gent one evening in July with my roommate and a friend of hers for a music festival. We had a blast.
I traveled a lot for work this spring/summer, first to Indiana, then Florida, and finally to San Fransisco in July. The travel schedule was hectic, but it was fun and interesting. However traveling to California is quite a trek from Europe. The trip is long enough, but a missed connection on my way back to Europe forced me to spend an extra 24 hours travel time as I was stuck in Philidelphia. I'm in no hurry to do that trip again!
But honestly, not much has been happening in my life lately. In fact, things have been extremely boring. Work is slow do to some technical problems in the lab. I haven't done any traveling, except for one weekend trip to Milan 2 weeks ago to see Alberto, and I've had no visitors here in Brussels.
Something fun is bound to happen soon, and I'll be sure to keep you updated when it does.
In the meantime, here a few pics from Brussels from the past few days.
Brussels looking dreary and grey... typical October weather
This is only a replica of the mannequin piss that they brought into the grand place (the main square) for a beer festival a few weekends ago. The real deal is just a few blocks away, but his pee doesn't have quite the projection of this replica.
school children being bored out of their minds by their teacher who is rambling on and on about the art nouveau architecture that is common in Brussels
This garden is beautiful in the summer, in October it's really just depressing.
waffles are the only thing that keep me happy in October!
