ER story: office campers
Nice. Nice to camp in the office and to find another office camper in one of the companies you're working with with. I've received an e-mail from him at 9:50 pm last night...
A Letter
Today I got a letter.
A Regular, Paper Letter.
Two white pages with handwritten text and nice decorations.
With a postacard from Vilnius, my home city.
With stories of a live person, with emotions, that I was able to see through the signs of the pen.
I've just remembered how much I love paper mail :)
Vaida, thanks so much!:)
Drafts
I love
Drafts folder. It's great, it's incredible, it helps so much.
I was so depressed on Saturday, lonely, angry and thinking that Nothing Goes Right. And I wrote a very depressive post which was about to show up here. However, something stopped me and when it happens I always wait for one day to make sure it's worth doing it. This is where
Drafts were used.
Apparently I did the right thing. The rest of the day and whole weekend turned out to be very good, not that lonely, angry and depressive. If that post would show up, probably lots of people would not understand the post itself, would not understand what I mean by it, and, what would be the worst, would take it personally. But now I see that even if Nothing Goes Right, noone is to take it personally. And I don't blame people, I don't blame circumstances, I just think it's the way it's meant to be. It doesn't mean that suddenly all issues of life were solved. Hard times come sometimes, and I will get over them. I will make Everything Go Right.
I just need to let everything go... And receive a call sometimes...
THANK YOU, my dearest
Drafts folder, for saving my and others peace of mind :)
Funny crazyness in the office
Before BoA meeting all the team is staying late in the office, and when works are asking to give tehm a break, we play with a stress ball, read newsletters and make fun of them, just fool around and make silly jokes, until Kevin says:
Okay guys, let's stop brainstorming and get back to work...Then after a break he corrects himself:
Well, alright, there is not much brain involved, but anyway...
:D
Good time
Last weekend was just awesome, I had the most incredible people from Lithuania visiting:) Ignas and Gintare, who have been deciding their trip, finally informed two days before that they are landing in Brussels airport on Friday morning. Yey!
I caught a bad cold while in Paris, so they came up with a rescue operation with the help of
Krupnik (national Lithuanian alcohol, honey liquor). To tell you the truth, I have re-discovered this drink. Amritha, of course, said it's too strong, and she couldn't understand the medicine effect, and she is not the only one :) Anyway, the rest of the world will not understand how Eastern Europeans cure cold with alcohol, but seriously, vodka is used to prevent freezing of the body up North in Siberia. And there is nothing so strange about that :)
But I am not about that anyway :) The agenda of weekend was chilled out and very relaxing :) even though in Belgium it was above-zero temperature (while in Lithuania it's -28), all the outdoor sightseeing places were closed for winter until March(!). We have also experienced total disorientation in Brussels, not without my unique skills in that :) The guys got to see what is 'Little Turkey' about, and what is the biggest attraction in Brussels, and some other nice things. Music Instruments Museum is really something worth seeing and experiencing in Brussels, I think I could just live there :)
Saturday evening we went to the
mirano club which is so close to home and appeared to be very good place with a lot of beautiful people :) The most exciting thing there was free sushi served in the club and the twisting dancefloor.
I don't remember exact situations, but I remember we got to laugh a lot. Getting quite surprisingly tipsy after two Belgian beers one day, however, the other day we had a whole Belgian beer degustation evening and it was perfect. Have you ever had a beer with Grenadine? If not - try that one :)
Leffe blonde with red sweet syrup ;)
Gintare has tried our unique language in
GB, by saying 'atsiprashau' (which means 'sorry') to local shoppers. It appeared to be unique and universal at the same time - everyone understood:) And she has beated her personal record of amount of beer consumed in a year (before it was zero).
Together with all those beer degustations we also had
Delirium with a no-jam-session-tonight attitude (although it was supposed to be on Sundays), hovewer, the bar gave us a random-drunk-French-guys-come-up-and-talk-nonsense-when-you-are-about-to-leave bonus. And a 'Zdes my govorim po russki' ('here we speak Russsian) sign on the way back.
A diffusor addiction is also something to remember, but my hair-dryer is not for adoption.
Jammer, as Flemish would say.
And even more, I have lots of national food and drink in my fridge now :) Thanks guys!
So, who's next to visit me?
France and Belgium: MC office exchange!
AIESEC in Belgium is currently working in France...This is the voicemail mesage Kevin set when were departing from Brussels Eurolines station. We are heading for Paris!
MC in France are just so nice. Dani ahs picked us up, we have spent two evening with them with good drinks and chats, showed us how to get around in teh office, house, city...
...
CITY. It's HUGE!!! It is my second time here, but only now I realized, that Paris is just gigantic!! let's see... Brussels vs Paris... 1 vs 15 million of people... 2 vs 14 metro lines... 6 vs 70 minutes of going to the office... I really felt that I'm spoiled by my life in Brussels :) It is just so incredibly manageable :)
During those couple fo days I managed to see the places I've already been before, was very nice to remember the nice things, also discover new stuff which was missed the last time, join the shopping maniacs in the stores that are open until
midnight, also going for the brands I've been missing in Belgium -
Starbucks and
Hard Rock Cafe :D The latter one, together with la
Crazy Horse, was something that gave us a feel of decadent team. Crazy Horse show was as naked as possible, good to see, but probably one time is enough for me...
Hard Rock Cafe was really cool though, I got to take pic next to a cap and a signature fo Jay Kay, and there was the cutest waiter at the bar, also good drinks and extrelmely large apple pie that
Pedro hardly could eat... Good fun.
Also I saw Karina and Egle, alumni from Siauliai from my AIESEC times in Lithuania. That was extremely funny evening with tea, wine, and nice chats about the past, present and our international experience. It was a mast minute thing for me to call them, and it was just so nice!
When we got back to Brussels we got back togetehr with French MC, had a drink and sleep, said goodbye and got back to work..
I miss that kiss,
That sumer in Paris...
Unfortunately this part of DJ CAM's track was not 100% applicable for our teamdays. First, as it was winter. Second, even though we have posted an MC newsletter's love edition, the romance was not of that kind. But it was great anyway :) And, I will be coming back to Paris :)
gone with the wind to Paris
Announcement me with the whole MC team are leaving to Paris this Saturday, and MC in France is coming to Brussels next week ;) Stay tuned;)
Cycling in January
Now people in Lithuania will think that I'm crazy.
But in Belgium biking in January is very common, as there is no enormous layers of snow on the streets :) Last weekend I was in Gent, visiting Juste. We got a bike for me from her flatmate, and did a good tour around Gent. That was just awesome! I love cycling, and did quite a bit of it, with decent stops for coffee in decent places.
Randomly we went to SMAK, the Gent's alternative of Contemporary Art Centre (CAC). Even though I am an art enthuasiast, modern art makes me feel silly. Anyway, there were some cool things, like 'making sound visible' by putting vibration on water surface, some instalations and photography. And what gave it a real CAC feeling, is a cafe. Of course, the crowd in SMAK cafe is different, but it's just funny to kind of transform my habits I used to have in Lithuania to a Belgian reality.
We also went to visit a few Juste's friends, who live.... in a castle!! I am serious, they rent for very cheap and live there... Somehow I couldn't upload the pix, but you will see soon!
After a glass of Martini (that kind was very good!)we drove to one of the local clubs, but it was boring, so we went through a couple fo places, ending in a super-stylish-lounge bar :)
It was nice, another decent weekend in one of my fave cities in Belgium.
Full time shopper
The first month of the year is crazy in Belgium... Sales time!! Weekends during sales are completely crazy, the shopping streets become like in India, you cannot get through the mass of people... so I became a full time shopper, going almost every day to some shops and buying stuff little by little... It's good, it's not that stressful, not that spontaneous so it really helps to save my budget :)
I love shopping there! A LOT to choose from, it's incredible!
...2006...
Happy New Year!I hope 2006 has been great so far.
Thanks guys for your wishes, kisses, emails, words, text messages, hugs, presents, cards... I wish you to have the best year ahead and have your dreams come true!
As during the holiday period there are so much more other things to do thank blogging, it's time to give the update of my life...
For me holidays have been intense but fun... I don't know if I will manage to summarize but I'll try... Xmas back home in Lithuania, to which I had an adventurous journey by Eurolines bus... After bus being late in brussels by 5 hours, and in Vilnius by 7 hours, having not enough space for luggage and generally acting rude really convinced me to join Eurolines fan club. I am being sarcastic, of course :) Xmas season is crazy. A trip back was way nicer and the crowd was very very nice to talk to. Incredible to meet some Lithuanians that live in belgium or the Netherlands, hear their stories, and also meet people who are just fascinated by Lithuania. There was one French guy who was a volunteer in Lithuania for a year, and now he speaks fluent Lithuanian! I was seriously amazed. I wish I could say the same about my French...
It was also interesting to hear a perspective fo a foreigner about Lithuania. That guy ahs just proved what I've noticed myself while living in Belgium - Lithuanians are the ones that are not opening themselves at once, but when you gain trust, they will be friends forever. And it's more of a cultural, not an individual based feature.
Anyway no matter how inconvenient the bus journey, it didn't stop me from enjoying bus or train journeys, 'coz there I had enough time to sleep, to relax, to think or not to think about Life, Universe and Everything.
Vilnius had around -10 degrees Celsius, 20 cm layer of snow everywhere and all homy environment that I almost have forgotten :) Was very nice to see my family, spend a quiet traditional Christmas Evening dinner with 12 meals, give and receive presents, meet friends in the most favorite places in my hometown. What are those places? Contemporary Art Center, bar BIX, Balti Drambliai, Double Coffee, we even tried the fancy and highly expensive fashionTV bar and somehow after being abroad those cocktails didn't seem so expensive:)
New Year's Eve was already back in Brussels, with a bunch of trainees. We had dinner at Boban's place, went to see fireworks, then party in a club, and then a day long sleep on Jan 1st. Was fun, although I think that NYE in a way is a party when everyone is forced to be happy. But I like it, coz a lot of positive energy comes to the air :)
