emménage, fais le ménage, déménage, … je suis en nage!

What’s up? The month of may has been rainy, even stormy. But no matter the flood, I started to look for a flat, closer to my jobplace. Thanks to my relatives, I could stay a bit in Brussels, as long as needed to find a cosy nest. 

Het regende wel in mei, een echte zwembad! Maar onbevreesd, startte uw lieveling avonturierster een nieuwe apart te zoeken, naast Puratos. Bedankt mijn oom, tante en mijn schattige broertje, kunde ik in Brussel te blijven slapen lang genoeg om een fijn apart te vinden.

Quoi de neuf, du côté de votre héroïne préférée? Le mois de mai a été pluvieux, orageux, même. C’est le moins qu’on puisse dire! Malgré le déluge, je me suis mise en quête d’un lieu de vie plus proche de mon lieu de travail. Grâce au soutien de mes oncle et tante, ainsi que de mon petit frère adoré, j’ai pu loger à Bruxelles quelques semaines, le temps de trouver un bon petit nid bien douillet.

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I also went back to Poland for Fotofestiwal. Łódź remained practically the same. The main difference is that the tram station under construction previous year is now finished and functional. It looks nice. Another difference : my EVS friends have left the city :'( . I just saw Tayfun (he lost weight, by the way 🙂 ) But the city has definitly not the same flavour outside the EVS context. No feeling of « home sweet home » anymore. No keys anymore. No more polish class on Tuesday morning. No more dedicated place to sit, or to leave my luggage (after hours in the plane and car, verdomme!)…

Ik ben ook naar Poland terug gegaan om aan de Fotofestiwal deel te nemen. Łódź is dezelfde gebleven. De enige verschil is dat het tramstation die vorig jaar onder constructie was is nu functioneel. Het is heel mooi. Er was toch een andere groote verschil uit mijn oogpunt. Mijn EVS vrienden die daar niet meer waren. :’( Ik heb juist Taifun terug gezien (hij heeft trouwens gewicht verloren 🙂 ). Maar het stad had zeker niet dezelfde smaak uit de EVS verband. Geen “home sweet home”. Geen “te huis” gevoel. Niet meer Poolse les op dinsdag morgen met Michalina. Even ter werk had ik geen kantoor waar ik kunde mijn zaken laten liggen. (Na huren op rijs, ‘domme!)

Je suis aussi retournée en Pologne pour le Fotofestiwal. Łódź est restée pratiquement la même. Seule différence majeure, c’est que la station de tram qui était en construction l’an dernier est à présent terminée et fonctionnelle. C’est très joli. Autre différence : mes amis EVS qui avaient disparu de la circulation. :'( Je n’ai revu que Tayfun (qui a perdu du poids! 🙂 ) Mais la ville n’avait définitivement pas la même saveur hors contexte. Geen thuis! Plus de « Chez-moi », plus de cours de polonais le mardi matin avec Michalina… Même au bureau, je n’avais plus d’endroit où poser mes sacs (après des heures de voyage, sapristi!)…

Piłsudskiego estakada.

I have been welcomed by Zuza, my mentor. She lives in the flat of her grand parents, and has just make some renovations. Fortunately, she started after my return to Belgium.The weather was really great (ładna pogoda!), and thanks to Zuza I could discover Zgierz, a city in the North of Lodz, that has got an hedgehoge and a tour as symbols. I told her that I have got some polish colleagues, and hope to keep my language level. We also played scrabble. I was a bit surprised when I saw the letters. I guessed that the repartition would have been different, but I didn’t expected to have accented letters, like the ł, ć, ś, ź, ż. 

Ik was door Zuza, mijn mentor, onthalen. Zij leeft nu in het apart van haar grootouders en heeft juist ontwikkeling werken gedaan. Gelukkig voor mij, het had nog niet gestart toen ik kwam. Het weer was heel mooi, en ik heb dankzij Zuza het dorpje van Zgierz, in de noord van Lodz ontdekken. Die dorp heeft een egel en een fort als symbolen. Ik heb aan Zuza gezegd dat ik polsen collega’s heb en zou graag mijn enkele Poolse kennissen niet te verloren. Wij hebben ook met scrabble gespelen. Wat een verrassing! Ik dacht toch wel dat de tegels zou verschillende zijn, maar niet op die manier. Inderdaad, hebben ze geaccentueerde letters, zoals ł ć ś ź ż ó. 

J’ai alors été accueillie par Zuza, ma mentor, qui a récupéré l’appart de ses grands-parents et vient à présent tout juste de finir des travaux d’emménagement. Heureusement pour moi, ils n’étaient pas en cours lors de ma visite. Il a fait super beau, et j’ai découvert grâce à Zuza la ville de Zgierz, un peu plus au nord de Lodz, et qui a pour symboles une forteresse et un hérisson. Je lui ai dit que j’avais des collègues polonais, et que j’espérais pouvoir entretenir mes quelques connaissances. Nous avons aussi joué au scrabble. J’ai été surprise en voyant les lettres. Je me doutais bien que la répartition serait différente, mais je ne m’attendais pas à ce que les lettres soient accentuées.

After a first night, I could find back some benchmarks in Lodz : the « international boat of culture » festival, Samu, Cata, and also Krzysiek. It was nice. I like the atmosphere that exist there. It’s all about mind opening, culture, sharing. You alltimes come back from this festival with some new ideas. 

Na de eerste nacht, kunde ik toch een paar andere vrinden terugvonden. Samu en Cata van het “international boat of culture”, en dan, Krzysiek. Het was heel fijn. Ik houd van het atmosfeer die daar staat. Alles is over ruimdenkendheid, culturele verschillen, uitwisseling. Daaruit komen we echt verrijkte.

Après une première nuit de sommeil, j’ai tout de même retrouvé quelques repères à Lodz : l’international boat of culture, Samu et Cata, et puis Krzysiek. C’était sympa. J’aime bien l’ambiance qu’on trouve à ce festival. Tout tourne autour de l’ouverture d’esprit, la différence culturelle, le partage. On peut vraiment en ressortir enrichi.

At my return, it was still raining in Belgium. (‘ you kidding me?) and I went back on the track to look for a flat. I learned something about internet : You may access plenty of free stuff, that everybody can access, but if you are looking for something more precise, something unique, you should be ready to pay for it. I suscribed for a premium account on the website appartager.be and the miracle happened. I still try to understand where is the trap. 🙂 Can you imagine this : for less than 500€/m all fees included, at less than one hour by foot from my job, with enough transportation meaning, a big room, with nice flatmates, in a nice square. So clean. 🙂 It’s so good! !! 😉

Toen ik kwam terug w belgii, was het stil regende (serieus?) En ik heb voortgezet mijn zoekopdrachten. Ik heb iets geleerd over het internet gebruik: Daar mag men veel dingen gratis vinden, maar als je wou iets unieke, of erg precies vinden, dan heb je daarvoor te betalen. Ik heb voor een premium account op appartager.be betaald en het wonder opgetreden. Ik vraag me af waar de scam is. Ik heb een echte parel gevonden: naast Brussel, minder dan 500€/maand, ongeveer 40 minuten te voet naar mijn werk, maar ook met vervoermiddelen, een groote kamer, leuke kamerburen, een mooi district. Alles is proper en opgeruimd.

À mon retour, il pleuvait encore sur le sol belge (sans blague!), et j’ai continué mes recherches. J’ai appris une chose à propos d’internet : On y trouve énormément de choses gratuites, auxquelles tout le monde a accès. Mais lorsqu’on a une idée précise de ce que l’on veut, il faut, pour l’obtenir, être prêt à en payer le prix. J’ai souscrit à un compte premium sur appartager.be et le miracle s’est produit. Je me demande encore où se cache l’arnaque. 🙂 J’ai trouvé un vrai bijou. Une perle. Imaginez-vous : à Bruxelles, pour moins de 500€/mois TCC, à moins d’une heure à pied de mon boulot, mais bien désservi en transports en communs, une grande chambre, dans une collocation sympa, dans un chouette quartier. Tout est propre, rangé, confortable. Le pied.

fanny et moi

I am not the only one to travel : Fanny, my favourite Breton, has come from Budapest in Brussel to visit me (and some other friends). And there, near to Brussels South station, EVS atmosphere came back for some hours. This invites me to visit everybody. I ‘d like to start with Sicile. 🙂

Ik ben niet de enige meisje te reizen. Fanny, mijn schattige Bretonne is door Budapest gekommen om mij te bezoeken. En daar, naast het zuidstation, heb ik het sfeer van mijn EVS teruggevonden. Het geef mij zin in iedereen te gaan bezoeken. Ik zou graag naar Sicile te gaan tijdens mijn volgende vakanties.

Je ne suis pas la seule à voyager : Fanny, bretonne de mon coeur, est venue de Budapest me rendre visite. Et c’est là, à proximité de la gare du midi, que j’ai retrouvé l’ambiance de mon EVS. Comme quoi! 🙂 ça me donne envie de revoir tout le monde! J’irais bien faire un petit tour en Sicile lors de mes prochaines vacances 🙂

As I dont loose anymore two time a day 2:30 hours in the bad smelling familiar to shuttling people, I gained some time and a new energy to do some sport. With my little brother, we try to go to the swimming pool every Saturday. Last time, I have been swimming during more than one hour! It was funny to realised that I had forgot how to perform in swimming, but it was finally coming back! As I do again some sport, I quicly lost the weight gained during my stay in Poland. As I lost weight, I started back to cook. People say you can gain one’s heart by taking care of his stomach. My flatmates already adopted me. I even had a deal with Selim : I do the cakes, he washes the dishes. And as I dared to eat some disgusting canned-bolognese sauce in front of him, he proposed me (or rather, he forced me) to cook an authentic bolognese: tomatoes, garlic, oignons, … I know I will love the place. :p

Als ik verloor niet meer elke dag s ’morgens en s ‘avonds twee uren dertig in de pendelen stank, ben ik terug vol van energie. Daarom zwom ik graag op Zaterdag’s morgen met mijn broer. Het latste keer, heb ik meer dan een uur gezwommen. Ik heb opgemerkt dat na een paar minuten de technische bewegingen die ik had vergeten terugkomen. Dankzij het sport, heb ik ook gewicht verloren. Daarom mag ik lekkere zelf-gebakte koekjes eten. Is er een beste manier om door zijn kamergenoten adopteren te worden, dan keuken? Ik heb zelf al een akkoord met Selim gedaan. Ik bak de koekjes, hij doet de afwas. En als ik durfde een beruchte jam bolo saus naast hem te eten, heeft hij mij aangeboden een echte, artisanale, bolo-saus samen te koeken. Ik weet dat ik zal van die plaats wel houden. <3

Comme je ne perds plus deux heures et demies matin et soir dans la puanteur familière aux navetteurs, je retrouve du temps et une énergie nouvelle s’empare de moi. Je me suis remise au sport! Avec Guigui, on va nager les samedis. La dernière fois, j’ai fais une heure de brasse! C’était marrant de constater qu’au bout d’un moment les mouvements techniques réapparaissaient alors que je les avais oubliés. Comme je refais du sport, j’ai vite perdu le poids gagné à Lodz de février à novembre dernier. Et comme j’ai perdu du poids, je me suis remise aux fourneaux. Rien de tel qu’une délicieuse tarte brésilienne pour être adoptée par mes nouveaux colocs. J’ai déjà passé un accord avec Sélim : je fais les pâtisseries, il fait la vaisselle nécessaire. Et comme j’ai osé consommer devant lui une infâme sauce bolo en bocal, il m’a proposé (ou plutôt, imposé) qu’on fasse notre prochaine bolo ensemble, et de manière artisanale : tomates, ail, échalottes, … je sens que je vais me régaler! :p

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Puratos Company Groot-Bijgarden

Hello dears friends.

It’s hard to find time to write you.

It’s also hard to write in English in a good way, because I am right now in a Flemish company. You remember when I arrived in Poland, I did not knew English anymore, and it came back to me after three months. After four years without practicing Dutch, it’s time to practice again.

Zou ik zo vlaams praten nu? Amaï, zeg! Da’s erg moeilijk! 

It’s such a linguistic mass here. My boss is french-speaking, one of my colleague is bilingual French-Dutch & the other two ones speak mostly Dutch. And for my job, I usually have to write and speak English. From time to time, I have got the opportunity to practice Polish and Spanish… Hem I know really few words of Polish actually. ^^ and Hemhem… Did I studied Spanish once? I even don’t remember how to say « good bye » (Roger, Marta, Please! Help me! ) such a shame! … Only one solution… Erasmus again! \ 🙂 /  I would like to go in Peru. Or south America at least. ) In my office, we actually all speak many languages. Our typical conversations look like this:

– Éline : Est-ce que tu veux something te drinken?

– Catherine : Nie Dziękuję …Aâatchi!

– Anne : Salud!.

Well, I have to admit, it’s mostly only three languages-speaking, but, it’s still something quite interesting.

En ze babellen graag, hé! Zo heb ik nu Nederlands again in mijn kop. And my mind that becomes so big as a pumpkin.

What else?

I am working with Puratos, a company that exist all around the world and that has started in Belgium. They are making some basic product for bread and chocolate. The first week, my job consisted in sending emails, one by one. (Tayfun, I think they need you here) This should be possible to ask to a computer to do it thanks to only one click, but I don’t complain : thanks to this miss, I have got a job^^  Progressively, I got some other tasks, more interesting… For example, I have to help employees to log in for the first time into SuccessFactors (their brand new intranet platform). I have also to make sure that every country take part to webinars (a brand new word of vocabulary for me : it’s a kind of meeting on-line, like a skype, but that can be registered and it looks like you can share many materials with this program). So, I have to collect everybody’s answer in an excel file. Last week, I had also to help an Indonesian and a Chilean colleagues to come to visit us in Belgium. I ordered Taxi and Hotel for them. I could try to speak Spanish. I mean…prober hablar español ^^.

I like this job, and this place. But it’s really far away from Namur, where I am living right now. Every day, I have to wake up around 6 (What I also did in Łódź, actually), take a breakfast, go to the train station by car with a friend. Then, we take the same train to Brussels-South. He goes out of the train at Bxl Lux station, and I go out the train a bit after, at Bxl North. Then, he has got to catch the subway, and I have to wait for a bus from a Flemish company which is called « delijn ». This waiting place is disgusting. There is more waste out of the trash than inside : cans, cigarettes, plastic, glasses, chewing-gums, … beurk! Inside the bus, it’s not really best : inside the double glasses of the windows, you can see some water, due to antiquated materials. There is even a kind of algae inside this water. 🙁 … re-beurk! During the all bus trip, I can see as much beautiful building and trees full of waste. Exotic wastes actually… Who, what kind of people, is able to loose his shoes or socks or even his jeans in the middle of the road street? Who believes that a plastic bag or a coca-cola can will biodegrade, just like an apple? Can you imagine that this kind of giant trash is actually Brussels, the head of Europe? It’s not anymore »Bruxelles, ma belle », it’s « Bruxelles, poubelle »! Such a shame.

Once, I could even see something ridiculous : our bus was just behind a coca-cola truck. On its doors, we could read something like « Coca-cola is nature-friendly : our trucks respect the speed limit to emit less CO2 ». A few meters around, a one-month old Coca-cola can lied on the ground. Such a nature-friendly behaviour! Such an Irony. Such a shame.

Around 8:45 AM, my journey finally ends. At 09:00 AM, I arrive at the office to start my working time. Around half past five, my working day ends and it’s the same landscape, this time in the dark of the night of Belgian winter time. Around eight PM, I am back in Namur, and I go by walk to the board game cafe owned by my friend. Aux 3D Namur, he welcomes me warmly. I get use to some accustomed customers. 🙂 Around 22, we are together back in the flat, and we fall as asleep as stones. Eight hour after, the same story starts again.

There is no more level four in Brussels, and I have not seen more soldiers. It’s supposed to be still level three everywhere in Belgium. Actually, life looks like normal. Well, of course, there are some migrants in the train, asking some help to find their way. I can also observe that people are a bit afraid of each other. Two years ago, in the busses, people were mixed. No matter their skin, or sex. Now, I can observe that people prefer to sit near to someone like them. And you can observe something like this: black people prefer to sit at the end of the busses, women closer to the doors, (especially the ones with a children car), North African ones in the middle of the bus and white people in the front. I hope this will not last for years, because it looks like american racism from old movies and comic books. At the same time, I have to admit that i understand this behavior. It’s because of fear of stranger… I behave a bit the same way. I guess it’s our humain nature. And, you know, if everybody acts like this, I will be the strange one if I just don’t care about my seat when there is still some place near to young white woman… It has suddenly became significant to sit regarding to who looks like who. When we were, some years ago like m&m’s in a pack. No matter the color, we are all the same inside. Suddenly people believes that it has got some sense to sort ourselves. When actually, no matter if we are young or old; man or woman; white, black, yellow, red, beur, métis… ; Belgian or European, or migrant; …every of us might be a bad guy actually.

Migrants. They are lying on the ground, outside the station, sleeping, freezing, … sometimes they come inside the station, I guess to have a bit of warmness. They are also smoking inside the station. Nobody dares to tell them it’s forbidden. Come on. They are just humans looking for some warmness. Who will be the first one to blame them? And, at the same time, I don’t want people to get used again to smoke in public places. I would like the migrants to come to ours countries with a real wish to become one of us… and to respect our laws and habits. For sure, they need help to do so. :/ At the same time inside the station, voices says to be aware of pickpockets. Trains arrive too late in the station. I have to wait, rounded by strange people, looking at me with a joker face. I really don’t like those hours in the trains, stations, and busses.

I hope you are all feeling good at home my dears friends. Take care.

Another point of view

It’s really strange. Imagine that you have ever seen youself in front of only one mirror. All the time the same one. And once, you don’t really know why, you are suddenly in front of another mirror. Or maybe the same but, something has change. You, and the world around you is not anymore the same. That’s how we come back form an experience such as an EVS.

One month ago, I was in Poland, country in peace where all people look like each other : same history, same heritage, same religion, same language, let’s say … the same look. Now, I am back in Belgium, and have to cross Brussels every day to go to work.

Brussels. It suddenly appears strange to me how very different people are living there, all together, without knowing each other. Media says it’s cosmopolitan city. Actually, we are far away from a « living together ». Of course, we share the same city, the same streets, the same train, tram, metro and buses. But.

But I can feel that everybody has got his/her own bubble. People don’t really live together. Don’t know each other. They don’t speak together. Or really few. Citizen are all anonymous. Together alone.

And, suddenly, Brussels is not the same as before my trip in Poland. Every morning, I can see soldiers. Even if it’s not (yet?) war. Does it mean that war is coming? I guess, but I hope I am wrong. War is not far away from here. It’s our neighbor. It lives inside us, among us. Government act. We all would like to believe in them. We all would like to avoid a war (1).

Every year, we remember first and second world war… We wanna show that we have won the wars,… We finally forgot about everything we have lost. Individually. I wonder why to do such a commemoration, if we just don’t learn and repeat the worst part of history? Why do people want to fight again? What kind of people desire war, fears, sadness, darkness, destruction, death? What’s wrong with them?

I have been nine month in Poland, building Europe, building a brand new world where people from every part of the globe can live together, in peace, really, and try to do steps one to the others, try to understand other’s point of view. Open their minds to different way of living together.

And suddenly, I come back home, and people around me are speaking about war. (2)

Does it make sense to send young people abroad, speaking them about brotherhood of man, and then, suddenly ask them to fight together again another enemy? Do we build peace in order to be stronger if an other war appears?

Unfortunatey, Yes. That’s actually exactly why European Union has been created (3). Such a pitty.

I still would like to build peace here. But you cannot build peace with someone close-minded, that cannot imagine another point of view as a good one. That doesn’t want to open his/her mind.

Yes. Government should continue to send young people abroad. All of them. All of us should have one year of Erasmus, far away form his own culture, to think about what is « good » or « bad » by himself. To consider wearing another pair of glasses to see the world.

 

Cath.


 

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQs0OrHiPY
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhHwdFeyt_A
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#History