A piece of advice

Be careful with the drinks tonight! Champagne is a nice tradition, but the headache and the hangover are not..

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Almost there

Are you ready to dive into the new year?

Run, Forest, run!

That's how I feel when I make a studying plan and set small goals to achieve on the way.. The good thing is, I have some progress.. in a way...

From under the blanket..

I like pretty much everything about my room.. but there is one thing that I don't enjoy quite a lot: I'm not allowed to start a fire in here. And that's exactly what I need when the heating isn't working.. which is approximately 24 hours a day..

Damn safety requirements!

To-do list..

..for more structured and efficient studying.

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New Year's Resolutions

In case you haven't already started to fool yourself with how much better you will do/be next year.. you can get some ideas from Levni Yilmaz's new year's resolutions:

Decoration

The common Christmas spirit is fading away. But before it's completely gone, I will share a piece of my Christmas decoration..

As it is obvious, this is how my bathroom got refreshed a couple of months ago..

* Her legs are covered with pieces of grass and there's a little bit of mud on her knees.. She must have been busy with gardening before the picture was taken..

And here's how she changed for the holidays.. It's not a lot, but it's still better than the no-snow, no-tree, no-decoration reality.

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Christmas spirit selection, vol. 10

When I came upon this picture two years ago, I hadn't heard of Anheuser-Busch InBev and that it was the brewer of Leuven's pride: Stella Artois..

This evening I'm having a Stella in Leuven, thinking about all the things that I experienced in the last two years.. and I hope you can also look back and find at least one thing that you are grateful you had the chance to experience!

Merry Christmas! :)

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Christmas spirit selection, vol. 9

Christmas may look a little different when you are away from home.. But that does not necessarily mean it's worse. :)

Christmas spirit selection, vol. 8

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Christmas spirit selection, vol. 7

Christmas spirit selection, vol. 6

Christmas spirit selection, vol. 5

Оrange Christmas

I just got a bag of mandarins (or it's called tangerine... or clementine.. I'm not sure, but you get the point). The second I peeled one, the whole room started to smell like... Christmas.

The brain and its ways to call memories to mind... weird, eh?
 

Christmas spirit selection, vol. 4

Christmas spirit selection, vol. 3

* by Glenn Jones

Snow globes

Another advice for the travelers:

I want snow

.. so that I can build a snowman.

No stress

The adventures of a KUL student

For the last three months the guys from my group and I have been working on a project. Today we have our presentation in a weird form: each team prepares a poster and presents their paper in a (what I imagine) cocktail-like atmosphere... Quite an innovative idea, as can be expected from an Innovation Management teacher. Unfortunately, the thing is in the morning... and I doubt it that there will be any alcohol..

So, people will be circulating around, asking questions. Groups from the next poster session are forced to attend too.. And I just can't help it imagine that while you're watching the others answer questions and wait for your own Q&A time to come, it's gonna feel this way..

Cohesion

A reminder to self:

When it rains, paved sidewalks get slippery.
The soles of your Converse snickers are too smooth.
Falling is embarrassing.
Even in the dark.

Time for a cup of energy

Erasmus = party?

I just attended the last class in my life...
Unless I fail an exam - then I'll have more chances to enjoy the academic experience in a classroom... The thing is, in my KUL reality the possibilities to fail are quite promising...
So, please, wish me luck with winning the fight, 'cause I am starting to feel extremely tiny and pretty damn scared...

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Christmas spirit selection, vol. 2

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Home for the holidays

If you're abroad, you'll most probably go home for Christmas. There's also a 50 % chance that you are male.. Well, I have a video for you: "The six girls you'll see back home".

And if you're not going home, check the blog the next days and share my away-from-home Christmas spirit..

Ho-ho-ho!

Monday

Hot in cold!

You guessed correctly, I was talking about myself in the winter.. hehe
A friend visited me and we spent a whole day walking around the city. It was so cold that I got muscle fever from trembling and trying to contract my body to a size that fits me entirely under the jacket..
Anyway, this story does not change the facts:

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Saturday

Another brilliant piece of work by Lev Yilmaz.. who seems to be making all his short movies about me..

Cranky, spoiled, whining little girl

Well, I'm definitely not loving the rain right now.. I don't want to go to classes, I want to stay in bed, I don't want to write my paper, I want pancakes, I want summer.. dammit!

Am I right?

I once heard that "rain is not sad - sad is the person who watches the raindrops go down the window".. And I really think that it depends more on your momentum state, than on the way you were initially "programmed", if rain makes you feel this way:

..or this way:

 You choose!

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Seasons change..

A relaxing song with good lyrics*.. for sweet dreams.

____________________

* not necessarily sad

Christmas moods

Tension

If you were working on your computer all day long, you might need to..

_________________________
* I was told by several males that this kind of pictures increases the popularity of a blog. I told them that I don't care about fame and I am not going to post any of those demeaning images! If you ever see such a thing somewhere.. especially here, please people, don't share it with your friends... with these buttons on the lower left corner.. right under the labels.. Ok?

Dear Rain,

I don't mean to sound rude or something, but I really don't like it when you're all over the place.

See, I'm almost out of food, so I should go get some groceries.. but the store is far and I can't carry an umbrella, and all the bags..

Seriously, we all got it - you're in town. But if you don't stop being such an attention seeker, at dinner time I'll look this way:

Thank you in advance!

Sincerely,
Kateto

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Word of the day

A dedication

.. to all project-creators, paper-writers, assignment-makers, essay-composers, group-workers and individual-taskers.

The art of beer

Drinking an 8.5 % beer and leaving with a peach breath is something you can easily experience in Belgium.

Opening a beer with whatever one has in hand can happen everywhere... but I learned how to do this when I came to Belgium. Yes, I look funny while struggling with each bottle..yet, the facts say I did open one: on the beer case, with the handle of a ladle (that's interesting to see), with another bottle, with a lighter (the classic).

I thought I will only use that new skill to impress people on parties, but the beer-need caught me alone, without a bottle opener. So, you know.. I just wanted to show off a bit.

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Simple math

There's so much beauty..

I've mentioned before, I am from Bulgaria - a place full of beauty. I had the chance to enjoy beauty in other parts of the world too.. And there have always been people around me.. living in the same scene, sharing the same surroundings.. But most of these people.. most of you.. just seem to have forgotten how the smallest things can take your breath away..

 

("...It was one of those days.. when it's a minute away from snowing.. and there's this electricity in the air,... you can almost hear it. Right? And this bag was just... dancing.. with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized that there was this... entire life behind things..., and this incredibly benevolent force.. that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Ever. The video is a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much... beauty.. in the world,.. I feel like I can't take it,... and my heart... is just going to.. cave in..." )

The 4400

You won't really get it, if you never heard of The 4400 ... If you heard of it, probably you still won't get it, because there's nothing much to get... The thing is that I'm happy this page was loaded 4400 times until now.. and I hope you enjoyed it at least once! :)

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A hard-working woman

Another proof for how devoted I am to everything that I do: I sprained my wrist while hand-washing some clothes.
Does that even happen to people?
I mean.. Seriously!?

Having the requisites

Sometimes I wonder.. is it me who is lacking something or it's f*cking difficult for everyone else at KUL...

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The current situation

Integration as a business

I received a letter from Inburgering Vlaams-Braband. "Inburgering" seems to mean "integration".

These nice people are offering me complete integration program for free: with language, job search, free time and culture courses. They say that if I want to get integrated, we will sign a contract. If I don't do things right, I will pay a fine. But if I do, in the end I will receive a certificate saying I was integrated. Splendid!

This might be a good moment to share the following video*.

_________________________
* I want to stress on this: I am NOT intending to offend/ mock/ make fun of Belgium or Belgians! The text was written by Marcel Sel (a Belgian writer) which makes me assume it is not supposed to be insulting in the first place. I just find the video funny. Moreover, I believe every single country (including my own) should have such videos - pointing at the absurd way things are done.. who knows, maybe this will be a good first step to a positive change. :)

Orjana, thanks for the video! :)

Just a little lovin' early in the morning

It's not really early in the morning.. and it's only a song.. But, I'm giving it to you!

(Useless) Facts #1

"Learning can be fun" - they tell you when you're a kid. I can definitely argue with that, but there are still some facts that earn a delighted "Аh!" from the reader/listener.

Warning: Don't use this one to impress girls at a bar!

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Sex sells

And since I can't think of anything else to share right now, I decided to put this old principle to the test.

(at 2:27 look for Kate!) 

 

Life is full of surprises

sharing a kitchen with others can lead to unexpected events.. A fresh example: I left a dirty dish (everyone uses their own) on the kitchen plot, went there in 20 minutes with the intention to wash it.. and found out that someone has taken it.. Apparently it was chosen amongst all the other dirty dishes around the sink.. which kinda flatters me...

However, I might have to find a set of these..

Start the day

Today coffee just doesn't seem to be enough..

Get stuff done

Mornings

Do you sometimes wake up and feel like you were run over by something?

Triple happiness

December 6th - a great day for at least 3 reasons:
- My most-awesome-in-the-whole-world big brother has a name day. :)
- There are exactly two more months till I go home. Woohoo!
- It's Saint Nicholas Day in some (many) countries.

Send your essays on "What I love the most about today" to the editorial e-mail.. then do the Double Dream Feet dance.

Brain, unfreeze! Now!

They call it "writer's block". It sucks.

There's always an exit

..and sometimes it sounds better than the original option.

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______________________
Universe and Rainbow - streets in Albuquerque, NM
picture by: Brian Arnold, creative commons license
seen on: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/this_weeks_sign_of_the_apocaly.html
Marto, thanks for sending it to me! :)

Kate on caffeine

Sometimes I have tons of coffee and I can fall asleep while sitting on my chair.
Other times.. well,.. let's just say I look somehow like this little fella:

I'm sayin':

"Good morning!".. with a smile!

Old habits die hard

7 + 5 + 4 + 1.5 years of school..
..and I'm still doing it the same way - at the last moment.

Concentration

My ability to focus on the one thing I'm doing at a given moment is so low that I started to think I might be suffering attention disorder. I'm losing interest in whatever I'm doing up to 5 seconds after initiating an activity.. So, I decided to search for answers on the internet.. it should know.

I wrote "attention disorder" and pressed "enter",.. results loaded,.. I opened an article.. and lost interest in reading it before it appeared..

Well, since I couldn't read it, I'm not yet sure if there is a problem.. But I'm sure I'm just fine!

Things I have to do

Sometimes there's just not enough time for everything in a day..

... and there are these days when you feel like it's been this way forever..

* the second picture I found here

Is is Christmas?

More and more Christmas decoration appears each day around the city.. This can be very confusing. You might start to wonder,.. is it here already?

So, if you are in doubt, but you are embarrassed to ask the ones around you, this page will make it a lot easier for you.

Keep refreshing it, until you get a positive answer.. This means it is Christmas.

You are welcome!
 

No ovens around

As far as my personal research went, Belgians are not very fond of using ovens. Very often they don't even own one.
As you can imagine, the owner of my building (who provided only one fridge (no freezer) for 15 people), did not bother to add an oven to the newly-furnished kitchen.. Therefore, I decided to learn how to cook in a microwave..
My search for instructions led me to an unexpected (yet important) advice: Don't wash your vegetables with soap! Did you know that? I mean, seriously? Even when they are... dirty?..

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In the end of the day

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Nostalgique *

People ask me all the time: "What is it like in Bulgaria?" I finally have a thorough answer:

_______________
* everything sounds better in French.

Economics - a better choice than Medicine!

I was just in a(nother) race against time to submit my homework in Danish before the deadline. I won. But this got me thinking.. It is really good that people's lives don't depend on me.. With my time management skills they would be all dead...

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Save me a bit!

People around the world save money.. Students in Leuven might not be doing that.. but they sure save internet.

KotNet is a service.. or a project, or aaam... whatever, through which every student has access to the internet in their rooms. I'm not really sure if that is sponsored by the university or the price is just included in our rents. In any case you have a monthly limit on your download.

One never thinks about it, but every picture you open,.. every video you play on youtube,.. every word you write/say in skype.. is download. Without realizing this, students turn into upright savers that search for places to use someone's wireless.. Questions like: "How much do you have left?", and answers like: "Mine is not green anymore, it's yellow..", are a normal part of conversations..

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Energy

Have you ever been that tired?

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs -> top!