faculteit letteren en wijsbegeerte bibliotheek

vanity trip, obviously. nobody reads engineering like this. this photo was taken as a token of the small, quiet, desk-less section of the library at the plateau where i usually stay when i want to rehearse before oral presentations.

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white christmas, finally!

after almost two weeks of steadily rising temperature, it plummeted well below zero overnight and i couldn't be any happier. a few minutes after the first snowflakes fell i was already out and about prancing in the snow forgetting i was only in my cotton pyjamas (yes, cotton. my room is in the tropics haha). anyway, the adrenaline rush lasted only a few minutes before the tugging cold reminded me i should wear warmer, not to mention more decent, clothes especially outside at midnight. it's a really a good thing my flatmates all went home for the holidays so i don't have to be in any way discreet about feeling like a kid running up and down the stairs in record time and making large puddles of water on the floor ^^

it didn't snow much last winter and when it did it always fell on an exam day. every. single. time. so i couldn't bloody well enjoy it. not this winter apparently, yipee!

too thin, couldn't build a snowman, but whatever, haha.

grayer than grey.

:)

my shnowy wintery wonderland.

guess where the wind blows from.

it's mostly bricks but i love my backyard view.

sint-niklaaskerk.

nothing warms the heart more than watching older brothers being older brothers - one hand on the penguin, the other holding their sister's hand firmly, guiding them through the rink; or fathers gliding through the ice, a daughter on each arm. i want one..of each! weh, not really, hahahaha.

flowers for the hanged man.

i still keep my black socks in the freezer, though. who knows i might still get a good macro shot of a snowflake in the coming days :)

bidyow!

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ballet dancing in the moonlight

slept later than usual because when i finally turned the lights off around one this morning the moon was THIS bright..and little ishchan couldn't resist to play. who needs bedside lamps when you've got beautiful moonlight like this streaming through your window?

and the song that entered my mind was, "goodbye, goodbye, good friends goodbye. but now it's time to go. the moon, the bear, and the big blue house will be waiting for you to come and play!" haha.

peace, man. why does peter pan hate his shadow so much when they're so much fun! :P

getting ready to go on pointe.

shhh burglar alert. nag-effort to fit into the window's silhouette.

okay, this one's a little creepy.

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does the moonlight shine on paris after the sun goes down?

does the moonlight shine on paris after the sun goes down? ♪

apparently, it does, along with the eiffel, the arc de triomphe, the streets, and everything else in between :)

youtube: La Vie En Rose/Eiffel

not to mention brains lighting up with eccentric ideas :P

youtube: All About The Bass - Paris 2014 Edition

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ただいま戻りました

the process of moving is never over until my little dream catcher has taken up his rightful residence over my head. これからも宜しくお願いします。

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vandaag in zwarte-witte

special thanks to ali for helping with the move. you'd be surprised how heavy 12" of course notes weigh.

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selfie

obviously, a selfie. because getting on the wrong train and having had to endure another hour more on the road brings out the closet narcissist in me. lels.

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lee

:D :D :D

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define your love life

Optical Materials, Neyts, K. et. al., p.45.

i got more than a sentence, i have a freaking image! hahaha. so to sum up my 1000 words i suppose one interpretation could be that my love life is non-existent? sheesh, that's depressing. but, wait, there's more! forget silicon, i could be germanium! which means i have the possibility of actually having a love life when strained significantly? but what if i don't want to be strained? :( or, or we could add dopants to lower the gamma valley. what does that even mean, like, introduce third parties to the relationship? this is ridiculous! i don't wanna shaaaare :)) either that sucks equally well or that just goes to show one should NOT take dating advice from engineering text books :)) 

this is funny, stuff like this should go viral haha. it's like taking horoscope to a whole new level - fortune telling by band diagrams. HAHAHAHA 

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long drive

drive → laag with no particular destination in mind → buntings → fiesta → lechoooooon

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big dogs and bookshops

rue keyenveld 48, ixelles, brussels.

little heaven <3

OLD books everywhere!

i hope old, hard bound books like these would find their way into my own library someday.

avoc and the kind grandpa who allowed me to play with avoc :)

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summer school (dummy post)

spss 2014

the red sun sets

i walked the long way past madou towards mont des arts yesterday in an attempt to clear my head before cutting short towards the congres column and took a right towards parc royale. from this street you can see all the way from saint marie's church to the edge of the royal palace where the road turns sharply to the right. i realized i could now name all the tram stops all the way from louise to schaerbeek gare. i also remembered my first day in brussels when i went out to look where to buy a bike. without noticing it i had already purchased one and it was quite a dilemma how to get it home because i took the tram to an unfamiliar part of town and quite far away from where i live. fortunately, the tram lines do not go underground in this part of the city so i was able to follow the tracks home. the francois englert exhibit on the 2013 nobel prize is still on display at the park. when i reached mont des arts, the sun was only starting to set and the golden lining on the clouds are slowly turning red. the skyline here is pretty good because you're in direct view of the grote markt but the view is very limited because of the huge art museum on the left and the theatre on the right. so i decided to head a little further and took the tram to poelaert and was greeted with this stunning view of the big, red setting sun. the street performer, my fiddler on the balcony, was playing such a slow, melancholic tune i'm not familiar with but complimented the atmosphere well.

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猫ちゃん!

キューカンバーを買いに出かけたくせにこのネコちゃんの靴下(yay!)といろいろな果実とトルコの有名なドネルケバブを買って帰った ^^,

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baby cyd

yeheeey, i'm a tita! :D

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sunset at 9:03

8:30PM, Spring 2014. Schaerbeek.

dear dad, i'd like to negotiate the rescheduling of our curfew from 6 pm to 9 pm given that it's still so bright outside right now at 8:30 :P

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beauty and brugge

to say i like brugge would be a terrible understatement. i LOVE brugge, and it took all but less than half an hour to fall in love.

i arrived early at 7:30 am to a peaceful, cold, and foggy brugge, just starting to wake up from a good night's rest. the city center is small enough to explore on foot so i didn't buy a day pass ticket for the public transportation. i took a 9 minute walk to the minnewaterpark, passing by locals taking their morning walk with their pets, or jogging, or cycling (there are cyclists anytime, anywhere. brugge is like the cycling capital of belgium). arriving early afforded me the time to appreciate brugge without the distraction of other tourists and i have never said "wow" and "kireiii~" so many times in less than an hour in my life.

brugge station

onze lieve vrouw kerk (church of our lady) as seen from the brugge station.

still and silent.

minnewater park

the park actually holds a canalized lake where the river, reie, enters the city. at one end is a gate controlling the height of the canals on the other side and separating the minnewater park from the lake of love.

(left) view of the lake from the bridge. (right) messy scarf.

begijnhof

a few steps from the minnewater park is a cloister for the nuns of the order of st. benedict. the field of daffodils and leaning trees surrounded by white-washed stone houses is, in every way, breathtaking. and at 8 in the morning the park was all mine.

belfry of brugge

"In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown;

Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town."

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

i was there when they opened the tower for viewing at 9:30 and it's definitely wise to be there early before the whole place is riddled with tourists. otherwise, you'll find yourself having to wait in (a loooooong) line because they allow only a limited number of persons into the tower due to its size. as a matter of fact, the stairs are extremely steep and small only one person can take the stairs at any time. i was there at the top when the bells played a melody the moment the clock struck 10.

boat tour

in a way, yes, brugge has become quite a touristy city with gift shops and tour perks everywhere. but the wonderful thing is, the touristy part hasn't gone overboard and they have not transformed the city into a giant amusement park. so i took a little boat tour but i didn't get too many pictures since i was too busy enjoying the view. i have a blurry picture of our captain/tour guide, though, who's very accommodating and funny and looks like tintin's captain friend.

(left) aye, aye captain! (right) hotel used for filming the movie 'in bruges'.

basilica of the holy blood

after the boat ride i went back to burg square to the basilica of the holy blood. the basilica houses the relic of the holy blood of christ and i was lucky enough to be there when they brought it out for veneration.

"the kiss"

after a short lunch of fries which the whole belgian community seems to be proud of (i tried and i'm really sorry but i couldn't find anything special about it), i set out to look for fidel.

lovely view from the seat by the window.

fidel

fidel could be everyone's average pet. what makes him special, though, is that he has this habit of hanging out by his window overlooking the canals every sunny afternoons without fail. and i guess that's how he got noticed by the boat tour guides who passes by his window everyday. i looked for him right after i had my lunch but he wasn't there. i thought i'd never be able to see him but when i came back later in the afternoon, there he was! i practically ran down the bridge in my excitement. he ignores everyone though, except for the occasional swan that passes through. he did make a short cameo in the 2008 movie 'in bruges' which means he's been looking out over his window for at least 6 years now.

volkskunde museum

the city of brugge is a museum in itself. every step you take through the cobbled streets and the stone bridges is like walking through a carefully preserved 12th century artifact so there's not much point in actually confining yourself inside dark museums when you can enjoy being outside in the open. but, nevertheless, i decided to have a look inside the volkskunde (folklore) museum. because they have a resident cat. teehee.

this way to the volkskunde museum!

when you hear "folklore", you think about fairy tales and legends and children's stories yet the volkskunde museum isn't like that at all. it's literally "folk" and "lore" and shows replicas of life in brugge (or europe, in general) through the years. there's a room showing a typical schoolhouse, a shoemaker's shop, an apothecary, a typical living room, a pub, a tailor's and a hat maker's shop, and a lot of other things. on top of that they also have a display of various laces. brugge has a good reputation for its laces in the middle ages and they make laces out of anything and for anything.

typical schoolhouse

collection of various laces

tailor's shop

and they have a resident cat named aristide. i was looking forward to meeting him but after 20 minutes and still no sign of the cat, i almost gave up and busied myself with the displays. i was in the tailor's room when i heard the meows and it took me a while to realize "omg, the cat!". when i turned around there he was pacing by the door, LOOKING at me and meowing. awwww, hello aristide :)

(left) hallway inside the volkskunde museum, (right) aristide

after the fated meeting with the cat i still have three remaining must-see places on my bucket list. 5-minutes walk away are the windmills of brugge.

sint-janshuismolen

the windmills are constructed at the edge of the city center around the end of the 13th century. there were quite a number of them made and all but four remains. sint-janshuis mill was constructed in the 1700's and is still operational, grinding grain, even today.

sint-janshuismolen (left) and a neighboring mill (right).

it's a beautiful park right by the edge of the city center's outer canal with bike lanes and walkways. i must have spent a good amount of time just lying on the grass by the mill, basking in the sun because my feet has started to ache from all the walking i've done. good place for a picnic. and people-watching ^^,

view of the other side of the city center's outer canal where modern architecture is allowed to be built.

outside looking in.

gentpoort

if you walk along the river bank for twenty minutes from the mills, there you'll see gentpoort. this medieval city gate faces gent, hence the name, and was crucial to the city's defenses. it also serves as a passageway where goods are delivered in and out of the city.

onze lieve vrouw kerk

last but not the least, i wouldn't forgive myself if i miss the chance to see a work of art by michaelangelo with my own eyes and they have one right here in brugge!

madonna and child by michaelangelo bounarotti

"the 'madonna and child' (1504-5) by michaelangelo buonarotti is carved in carrara marble. originally it was intended for an altar in the cathedral of sienna but the muscron family of bruges bought it and gave it to our lady's church. it is one of the few works by michaelangelo outside the city." (inscription by the statue)

and i've accomplished my objectives! :D except one --- beer! >:)

there are beer shops all over belgium, belgians are very proud of their beers, and brugge is definitely no exception. you can drink beer anytime of the day and no one would discriminate you, haha. so i grabbed a beer. tagay ta bay!

beer wall

the weather in brugge is normally cold and cloudy even in the summer but i was so blessed the sun was actually shining the day i went there. all in all i had a fantastic time in a very lovely city and i'm contemplating about going back for the procession of the holy blood which takes place yearly on holy thursday.

brugge, they say, with all its canals and bridges and cobbled pavements and centuries-old charm is a very romantic city. and by romantic they mean it would be quite a waste exploring it on your own. i beg to disagree. i do not doubt it would be best enjoyed with your significant other but it's not the people you explore it with that makes the whole thing romantic because the city, ITSELF, is romance embodied. it is so romantic, in fact, it inspired men to write poems about it and create songs.

to end this post, here are random photos from all around brugge.

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