North Africa

I had some kind of smart ass observation ready to post on here, but it doesn't seem particularly appropriate with some of what's going on in the world.  I don't know if people in the states are following what's been going on in N. Africa with Tunisia and Egypt, but their governments have been recently deposed, and it looks like Libya is next.


We've been watching the English language version of Al Jazeera here, the Arabic news channel based in Qatar.  The Libyan government has, at some point, cut off the internet to the country in an attempt to maintain order.  Al Jazeera responded by giving protesters and soldiers small handheld video cameras to take footage, which was then broadcast by the network.  There are multiple reports that Libya has used helicopter gunships to fire on crowds of protesters, and soldiers and paramilitaries are firing from cars.  Several hundred people have been reportedly killed, including several soldiers who were then killed and burned after refusing orders to fire onto the crowds.


I guess that horrible things are going on in the world is nothing new.  It's rare for me, however, that I can do more than glance at a headline or have an informal water cooler discussion.  In the last few weeks I've been interloping in a class called Islam, Conflict and the State that deals with recent tensions in the Mid-East.  The lectures have been quite good, and I'm kicking myself for not taking this class from the beginning.  Last week the professor discussed the difference between Sunni and Shiite muslims.  The actual differences are no more profound to me than the differences between Protestant and Catholics, but the history of the conflict between these groups fuels much of the overall militancy of the region.  The professor made the point that the Sunnis of the world are no more eager for Shiite-controlled Iran to get atomic weapons than the West is.  They fear that they are as likely a target for Iranian aggression as Tel Aviv or Paris.  Today we talked about the Libyan conflict, trying to make sense of the forces at play, and debated a bit how much effect, if any, new web technology has on these revolutions, comparing to the Iranian revolution of 1979.  I'm probably going to steer my paper in my Globalization class to a topic dealing with some of this material to take advantage.


Anyway, life is good.  I blew out my knee (again) playing soccer (again) this weekend.  But I was on the couch all weekend so I actually did some homework.  I'm limping around this town but maybe I can use this socialized medicine thing to my advantage.

French Class

I found some French classes.

This is a good thing, because I need to learn French while I'm here.  There are a few options for classes. Private tutors cost somewhere around 30 Euros an hour, so my language budget would be eaten up in about 90 minutes.  The campus across the street from our building, the VUB, Vriaje (“free” in Dutch) University Brussels, with whom we share library facilities, had classes available, but the beginning French class filled up before I could enroll. So when my friend Holly told me that she received an email telling her that classes were available in the VUB language center I was eager to enroll.

Holly told me to show up at 11 am on Monday at the language center, which is actually in an annex office in our building. When I arrived, she told me that the classes were actually in an hour on the main campus across the street, in room A302. Holly couldn't make it, so I did some work for a bit and then headed off to find the classroom.

I couldn't find building “A”, so I went to the library to ask one of the clerks. He showed me a map of the campus and told me that there was no building A. The buildings started at B and went up to M or so. To this day I'm not sure why they would skip A in naming their buildings, but I'm sure it's due to some sort of centuries-old spat with the French.

I was confused so I called Holly. She was positive that this was the class number that she was told. We finally realized that the letter “E” is pronounced like “A” in Dutch. Maybe it was E302?

I trudged over to building E and found E302. It was empty. But a class was entering room E304 as I walked up, and I asked them what they were learning. French. Success! I walked in with them and took a seat. The instructor came in and sat down and talked for about 2 minutes in French. I pretended to take notes while I wondered what the hell kind of beginner's class this was. Finally he asked in English if everyone was there to translate French poetry into Dutch. Four of us looked around and stood up. “Non” we replied and shuffled out.

That's when I met my language class. We stood outside the classroom and compared notes. “They told me it was a beginner's class.” “Yeah, me too.” “Where do we go?” “Back to the language center, I guess?” We introduced ourselves. Jesus (Hay-soos) is an exchange student from Spain, Basia is a Pole working as a research assistant, and her Polish boyfriend is Mathew who is a grad student. We headed back over to the language center in my building.

We entered the language center and found an administrator, who appeared flustered and apologized for the scheduling error, and then out of nowhere Madam Avril appeared. “There you are! Bonjour! My classe!” She is a 5 foot tall woman, French I think, about 60 and with curly gray hair. “Come this way!”

She led us to an office with circular table, where two women in their 20's sat. “Here you go. Sit! Do you want coffee? Yes? No. Water? No?” The two women, who must be grad students, spoke in French introducing themselves and then translated what they said into broken English. They asked a little about us, and then began teaching us some French. “Sur la tabla.” She put a cup over the table. “Sous la tabla.” Madam Avril crawled under the table. Jesus clutched his bag close to him.

The lesson didn't last long. They explained that due to the scheduling mishap and the fact that they didn't know who was going to show up that they didn't have a lesson prepared. We would start la semaine prochaine. We left without any registration details. They didn't ask us for any enrollment information, or any money. They said that we could invite whoever we want to the class. It was odd, and to be honest I think we might be part of some psychology project, but I've never had a class with a 4:3 student to teacher ratio so I'm not going to argue.

School on the whole is going well. One of my teachers was one of the negotiators for the Good Friday Peace Accord, in Northern Ireland in 1997. It's kind of funny how your best laid plans can fall to pieces in front of you, and then you can fall ass backward into what it is you've been looking for. C'est la vie.

Panoramia

This is the view from outside my bedroom window this morning using the photo stitch mode on my new camera. Thanks again, Aliquant!

The buildings aren't acutally crooked, just my shooting technique.

Apartment

Rob "RZ" Zaman and I just moved into our new apartment.  I think I've already droned on enough about how hard it was for us to find a spot to live, so we're happy to be settled.  The apartment is in a great location, about 50 meters from a grocery store and a metro station.  The subway comes about every 5 minutes so I can be downtown less than 15 minutes from when I leave my front door, with a baguette in hand.


The apartment building itself was built in the 30's, and Belgium has a history of some "unique" design considerations so our apartment can be described as historic, quaint, and odd.  For instance the shower and bathroom sink are in a room that can only be accessed by going through the kitchen.  And when I say "room" I mean a partition with a 7 foot wall and a door, no ceiling.  So the shower is basically in the kitchen. 

If you forget your towel, someone can just toss it over the wall on the left.

"Where's the toilet" you might ask.  Well, there is a door in the front hallway that you might mistake as leading to a coat closet, and it opens up into a room that is about the size of a coat closet.  Inside is the toilet.  I am not exaggerating when I say that it is much more comfortable to use the facilities aboard a 737.  The window in the toilet closet and the window in the kitchen open up into a ventilation shaft that all units in the building encircle. 

Surprise!

View outside the kitchen window.
The window to the left is someone's toilet closet.

View down the shaft.  Scary!

A few oddities aside, the apartment is very comfortable, furnished, and good for entertaining guests.  The south facing windows get plenty of sun and since we are on the 4th floor we have a great view.

My bedroom.

View outside my window.

Head outside the window.

Living room.  Couch is very comfortable to sleep on (hint hint).

Well, that's it for my virtual tour.

RZ and I.  First night in the new pad, with a pair of celebratory 59 Eurocent beers.