Time, the lack of it, and non-existent blog-posts

No time
lots to tell
read more
probably over the weekend
can't talk now
brain exploding
bye

The Shah of Blah

Salman Rushdie described a storyteller in a land of unhappy people. No matter what wonderful stories he told, the people around him didn't think of him very highly, if they thought about him at all. Harun and the sea of stories is a very good little book. Read it. That said: I'm having a very bad day. No matter what marvellous and heartgripping stories I tell, Reality and its hellish lapdog Indifference seem to catch up with me at a frightening speed today. No matter. It's almost tomorrow anyway... So eh... Blah.

Everything at all

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've got a very valid excuse, so please hear me out.

1. I've been studying for my exams Arabic. I think I passed them both relatively okay, especially since I missed every single lesson this semester. A strange thing happened though: for the first time in my prolonged (i.e. four years) academic carrier I returned an exam with an entire page blank. While my classmates' minds were busy with the question: 'What are some of the major differences in vowelpronounciation between Egyptian dialect and Modern standard Arabic (MSA)?' my mind was busying itself with a much simpler and more basic question: 'When the hell did we see Egyptian dialect?’ Hopefully the other 5 pages make up for this little hiccup...
2. Just before my oral examination I went for my dissertation feedback... My knees felt like they were going to vanish altogether, I have not been that nervous since my first date (and this time, I didn't even have alcohol to numb my nerves). But: all well there too. Friday my knees will have a though day again however, as I will know my final grades then, and if all goes according to my master plan (muhaha) I shall graduate... yuck.
3. The evening after my oral exam and dissertation feedback I had to work... yes yes, work. My job consisted of standing in front of a door, smiling frantically at people, and so scaring them. Boring as it was, my colleagues were nice, and I got paid about 30-40 euros for standing in front of a door.
4. To continue along the job-line: As the people employing me that evening also noticed they are paying people to do completely nothing, the days you can do this job a month are limited to 3 or 4, so I won't be able to buy my ticket to India just standing in front of doors. After brief hopes about a part-time in a university library (which failed because I cannot read Tibetan (apparently Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Farsi and Arabic are of inferior importance) and because some people think librarians should be at least 45.) I am now waiting for a phone call about a desk job for two or three mornings a week. Wish me luck... I'll need it, since I don't know any Tibetan. I am not bitter, by the way ;-)
5. The last part of this excuse-post handles tourism-light-lemon activities. I spent a day touring Ghent with an ex-university-colleague and friend of mine, who will be studying creative therapy in Maastricht for the next three years. We spent most of the day just talking, eating and drinking (no news there). Last weekend was spent in Antwerp, my beloved town of origin, and second only to my current home town, Ghent. We stayed in a wonderful Indian-Eastern B&B 'Siddhartha', and went to eat superb Indian food in 'Safraan'. The room completely ruled: I came home all into Indian-style-tables, and knocked the legs from under my desk and will study sitting comfy on cushions on the floor from now on. It was brilliant. When in Antwerp, one should also drink a few 'jeneverkes' in the best and most sense-soothing bar in the world: 'de Vagant'. Too bad I could not get my partner-in-tourism to go to the zoo on Sunday... I should work on my convincingness (is this a word?).

So you see: I've been busy. I've also bought a hat. More later...