Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!
Despite the fact that Belgium passed over our hallowed holiday without any ceremony whatsoever, I managed to have a thoroughly fulfilling celebration (minus my family and absent friends, of course, which always weighs heavily on me). My friends Chris (a.k.a. Frenchy) and Dave threw a very lavish celebration in their thoroughly lavish apartment last night, and many people feasted, talked, feasted, drank and feasted some more. All the usual all-stars were there, and also a bunch of cool people I didn't know, so I got to broaden my horizons as well as enjoy my already opened one. Originally, Chris' idea was to stuff a duck wrapped in bacon inside the turkey, but the farmer talked the butcher out of it, and then the butcher talked Frenchy out of it. We were all suitably dissappointed at first, but the bird came out wonderfully, and along with a complement of luscious sides (and a really tasty tempeh dish for the veggies) we were all groaning with an excess of thanksgiving. I made Mr. Sumnauth's famous sweet potatos, even though I had to use Marianne's only two sweet potatos since there were apparently no other sweet potatos in Leuven. I remember passing hoardes of North Americans in the vegetable section bemoaning the unseasonable lack of traditional thanksgiving foods, but such is the luck of the displaced I suppose.
Tomorrow is Dr. Rodemeyer's talk, which happens at the ungodly hour of 9AM, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless. Marianne and I might go shopping in Antwerp after that, since I am desperately in need of new shoes and some other things... Marianne's a really great person and we get along famously, plus she's incredibly together and industrious, so she exercises a much needed good influence on me.
In the meantime, I've been working on my Aristotle summary, which is (predictably, to those gifted with foresight) a lot harder than I thought it would be. The various connections I have to explain just to get to luck and chance is taking several pages out of ten, so maybe I won't fulfill my ambition to talk a little about Lacan's appropriation, but such is life. The end of semester classes looms just over the horizon (I have an exam in three weeks!) and I'm scrambling to make sure all my ducks are in a row. I have alas not started writing my thesis yet, but between the summary, the various readings, a certain essay, a new editing job and the revision of the workshop paper, I have a lot of writing on my plate, so I'm not being too hard on myself (yet). I'm hoping that once the summary is done I can dedicate a larger block of time to the other things, but to tell you the truth, my optimism is hanging by a thin shred of self-delusion, so my next blog may just be a series of unintelligible frustration expressions, but we'll see. There just aren't enough hours in the day, what with sleeping and eating on top of everything else.
The weather has been absolutely depressing. It rained for four days straight and the only reason I don't count today is because it rained only for about two hours, which is a vast improvement. I haven't been taking a lot of pictures, taking the camera out in the rain seems like a bad idea, but I did manage to get a couple of very blurry pictures of a bunch of us hanging out at Amedee on Wednesday night.
This is (from left to right): Phil, his girlfriend Julia and Arnis, with whom in particular I have had some very interesting discussions. Phil is a really good friend of mine here, we hang out and study all the time, despite the fact that he thinks I'm just a big angry reactionary leftist.
From right to left this time: Phil, Shane's friend Adam (visiting Belgium to give a Kierkegaard paper in Antwerp!) and Shane himself. Shane, Phil and Marianne all live together in their beautiful apartment. So with the addition of Shannon and Frenchy, these three make up pretty much my whole circle. There are a lot of people I really enjoy talking to and hanging out with, but these are the ones I go out and drink beer with night after night. You will perhaps notice two glasses in front of me, both Westmalle Dubbel. I love this beer, but the reason I have two is because it's a pain to get out from behind this particular table, so I was just trying to exercise my foresight. Amedee is a great bar, lots of board games and decent (though flourescent) lighting, and they only play classical music. So when you picture me studying in a bar, this would be it.
Anyhoo, I have to go to bed, get up early.
All my love,
Cake
Despite the fact that Belgium passed over our hallowed holiday without any ceremony whatsoever, I managed to have a thoroughly fulfilling celebration (minus my family and absent friends, of course, which always weighs heavily on me). My friends Chris (a.k.a. Frenchy) and Dave threw a very lavish celebration in their thoroughly lavish apartment last night, and many people feasted, talked, feasted, drank and feasted some more. All the usual all-stars were there, and also a bunch of cool people I didn't know, so I got to broaden my horizons as well as enjoy my already opened one. Originally, Chris' idea was to stuff a duck wrapped in bacon inside the turkey, but the farmer talked the butcher out of it, and then the butcher talked Frenchy out of it. We were all suitably dissappointed at first, but the bird came out wonderfully, and along with a complement of luscious sides (and a really tasty tempeh dish for the veggies) we were all groaning with an excess of thanksgiving. I made Mr. Sumnauth's famous sweet potatos, even though I had to use Marianne's only two sweet potatos since there were apparently no other sweet potatos in Leuven. I remember passing hoardes of North Americans in the vegetable section bemoaning the unseasonable lack of traditional thanksgiving foods, but such is the luck of the displaced I suppose.
Tomorrow is Dr. Rodemeyer's talk, which happens at the ungodly hour of 9AM, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless. Marianne and I might go shopping in Antwerp after that, since I am desperately in need of new shoes and some other things... Marianne's a really great person and we get along famously, plus she's incredibly together and industrious, so she exercises a much needed good influence on me.
In the meantime, I've been working on my Aristotle summary, which is (predictably, to those gifted with foresight) a lot harder than I thought it would be. The various connections I have to explain just to get to luck and chance is taking several pages out of ten, so maybe I won't fulfill my ambition to talk a little about Lacan's appropriation, but such is life. The end of semester classes looms just over the horizon (I have an exam in three weeks!) and I'm scrambling to make sure all my ducks are in a row. I have alas not started writing my thesis yet, but between the summary, the various readings, a certain essay, a new editing job and the revision of the workshop paper, I have a lot of writing on my plate, so I'm not being too hard on myself (yet). I'm hoping that once the summary is done I can dedicate a larger block of time to the other things, but to tell you the truth, my optimism is hanging by a thin shred of self-delusion, so my next blog may just be a series of unintelligible frustration expressions, but we'll see. There just aren't enough hours in the day, what with sleeping and eating on top of everything else.
The weather has been absolutely depressing. It rained for four days straight and the only reason I don't count today is because it rained only for about two hours, which is a vast improvement. I haven't been taking a lot of pictures, taking the camera out in the rain seems like a bad idea, but I did manage to get a couple of very blurry pictures of a bunch of us hanging out at Amedee on Wednesday night.
This is (from left to right): Phil, his girlfriend Julia and Arnis, with whom in particular I have had some very interesting discussions. Phil is a really good friend of mine here, we hang out and study all the time, despite the fact that he thinks I'm just a big angry reactionary leftist.
From right to left this time: Phil, Shane's friend Adam (visiting Belgium to give a Kierkegaard paper in Antwerp!) and Shane himself. Shane, Phil and Marianne all live together in their beautiful apartment. So with the addition of Shannon and Frenchy, these three make up pretty much my whole circle. There are a lot of people I really enjoy talking to and hanging out with, but these are the ones I go out and drink beer with night after night. You will perhaps notice two glasses in front of me, both Westmalle Dubbel. I love this beer, but the reason I have two is because it's a pain to get out from behind this particular table, so I was just trying to exercise my foresight. Amedee is a great bar, lots of board games and decent (though flourescent) lighting, and they only play classical music. So when you picture me studying in a bar, this would be it.
Anyhoo, I have to go to bed, get up early.
All my love,
Cake
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