JAMON

Independents day of Estonia was the day when all the MOCOMA students from Estonia got together to celebrate that glorious day. Me, Doris, Riina and Kristina decided to celebrate the day with decent meal which ment pork and oven baked potatoes. Everyone had their hand on something. Doris and Kristina worked on potatoes, Riina on wine and me on meat. Oh and Kristina also made biscuit cake for dessert. At first i thought it won't be hard job to get meat and also with good selection but unfortunately it was a challenge. Because here they don't really sell meat in the stores that you could buy by weight. You have to go to butcher's. Only that I had no idea where to find one. Then I realized I have a good local friend here, Louis, who I also met the other day. So I sent him sms with the question of where to get good meat and price at that point didn't really matter to me, it was independent's day after all. And for my luck it came out that the place is actually 2 blocks away from my house. Oh and how I liked the place, huge selection of different meats, herbs and spices. So I bought a piece of back fillet of a pork. It was 1kg and cost 10 euros. I also found a mixture of herbs. The smell of it was just marvelous and i could already imagine what it could do to my pork when i add it. It is a mixture of: oregano, rosemary, savory (piparrohi), thyme (tüümian) and basil. Ok, i had the meat and herbs and it was time to go girls' home to cook it. I used my inspiration like I always do, I never use any recipes because I don't know how to read them actually and it only takes time. And believe me guys the outcome was awesome. Meat was tender, tasty and it had the smell of the herbs I bought. Everyone loved it and the whole night was great success: good food, tasty wine, delicious dessert and president's reception - all you need to celebrate the independents day.

Another cool thing happened this week. With one course (Social and Cultural Affairs) we went to have a lecture in the museum named S.M.A.K. (Museum of Contemporary Art). The lecture started at 8:15 but the museum opens at 10. Yes we were privileged with the opportunity to be there while no one else could and later we also had a private tour. No, not in the rooms for regular visitors but actually we could see what happens behind the scene, in the "back stage". And it was very interesting cause museum for contemporary art isn't just a regular museum about history. It's a museum of now, present. Art and artist that present their vision and ideas about things around them. So we could see unusual materials that have been used to make art. For example slime from an artist nose or pieces of broken class bottles and so on. But to explain what happened in the "back stage" then there took place the whole preparation and restauration for an exhibition. For example in one room they had grey boxes for each artist with their plans and schemes to prepare their art. In other words to fill up all the exhibition rooms with art you only need this grey box and start building it according to the plan what's in there. It explains what materials to use, how and where you need to paint and sometimes even before you sart working on it you have to tell the artist to come there to see if everything is the way he or she imagined. And that is contemporary art.

One last thing. The other day I felt something that my senses haven't felt before. I had JAMON. It is ham from Spain that Alvaro and Manuel had brought with them when they came to Gent. But it's not just a regualar ham, a very expensive one: 100 euros/kg and the taste was just indescribable. You might think why it is so expensive, well the way it's done and how long it takes to make it. The most important fact about it is that the pig that jamon is made from eats only acorns (tammetõrud). The process is also important of course but to understand it google and read about it, it's easier this way. Anyway I had an experience that I will not forget for a long time.

And the school has started

First of all, sorry guys that I haven't been active here but to be honest, then last week nothing much happened other than I was waiting for the school to start. Here are my courses that I picked for my spring semester:

1. Social And Cultural Affairs

2. Europe in Media

3. Multimedia

4. European Economics And Trade Politics

5. Business Ethics

6. Graphical Design & Print Buying

First week in school was great. Our campus is brand new, built 2 years ago and very modern. Every day I ride my bike to school that takes about 10min. I got my bike from the people who were in this appartement before me, so big thanks to them, specially to Juan. What I like the most about this school are professors. You can see how motivated they are and they are not good at just teaching and theory but everyone has also a practical background to show. For example Print Buying professor has his own printing company and is a part time professor in our school. Same goes for the Europe in Media, the professor is a journalist in Brussels for Belgium television company. And another point that makes the studies very diverse from Estonia is that every course has about 9-14 students, cause the whole program is just for us, international students that are part of MOCOMA (Module in Communication Management) program. So it makes the lectures very interpersonal.

Last two weeks I picked up sport again and been doing it very regularly, pretty much everyday and it feels so good. I started to go for a run twice a week and to the gym 3 times a week. And from this week basketball and volleyball which are provided by my school and it cost only 10 euros for the whole semester - perfect!

Oh yeah, and now I have my permanent flatmates here - Alvaro and Manuel from Spain. They arrived on Sunday. We have a good bond cause they like same things in the house like i do: clean and organized. So I am really happy with their attitude on that. We set the boundaries right away and discussed everything that concerns the appartement, food and cleaning. For example for the food we decided we go together to a big and cheap supermarket to buy all the stuff we need and share the cost. And it was really worth it cause yesterday we rode with our bikes to ALDI (kind of like Säästu Market). Spent 63 euros and our kitchen/fridge is full on groceries. We'll see how long they last for.

Today we plan to check out a party in a kind of culture centre. It promises to be a good one couse the presell ticket is 13 euros and at the door is 16. So I have big hopes for that since I haven't had a party here with good music for a long time. Here they only play mainstream pop music everywhere and I'm seriously tired of that. Or maybe I am just too spoiled with music that Neljapäev With Lazers provide me in Estonia and spending time with Mowka (Martin Veisman) all the time. Since we talk about Mowka already then he's in Paris for Erasmus, studying graphical design there at the moment. We are more than sure that we'll meet up either in Paris or Gent, but in the meanwhile if anyone's interested about he's life there, then that's the link to his blog (it's in Estonian, but lot of pictures): http://veismanpariisis.tumblr.com/.

From now on I'll try to be more consistent with the blog. See you soon!

Local address and phone number

Hey guys, I just got myself a new permanent local phone number. Now you can call and text me when ever.

+32 486 21 79 12

My address is:

Heilige-Geeststraat 1-1

9000 Gent

Belgium

It has been just great!

All right guys, I know my time here in Gent has been very short but still I can confirm with no doubts that this city is just so beautiful and an awesome place to live. I won't be long with my posting this time cause not much time has past since the last one, but I'll put the pressure on visual then.

Couple comments though. The erasmus party was great. Met lot of new people form all over the Europe. Literally there's a street by my university (Artevelde University College or in Dutch - Arteveldehogeschool) where are all the bars, clubs and fast food places for students, to enjoy the night life. And this street literally doesn't sleep! Always something going on there. Then yesterday we went to a VERY cool bar. Now this one was in the the old town, not on the sleepless street. It's actually indescribable how nice it was there. It's called Hot Club de Gent. To get there you have to take a very narrow path/street (check the picture) and you end up in a small patio. Inside the place it was bursting of chill and old environment. Who ever comes and visits me I'll definitely take him/her there. And that wasn't all. There was a live band playing jazz music and I have a video of them as well. So I hope I delivered the feeling with the pictures and video of that place. But keep in mind, to fulfill the feeling you have to have a beer which tasted just SO GOOD. Seriously it was the best beer I have ever had! Maybe I am bit overwhelming with the whole situation, but you always have a chance to come and disapprove my feelings there.

Today me and Riina went to movies to see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Ticket was 9.30 and it was worth of it, liked the movie very much. But didn't wanna talk about the movie, more about a very weird situation that happened there during the movie. Well, about half of a move had been watched when suddenly lights went on and film stopped. And it was time for PAUSE! :D. Yes, it was written on the screen that it's a 10min break and go refresh yourself, which I actually did :).

One last thing, we also went up to a tower/church , it's the building right next door to me :). Had a great view of the whole city durin the night.

Allright, enough talk and more proof. Enjoy!

Click here to watch the video.

Home sweet home

Yes, I am not back to Estonia. But I'm finally in my permanent home for the next 5 and a half months. Arriving here was really easy thanks to the fact that I visited Gent last Saturday. It's amazing how easy it is with the public transport here. To take the right tram from the train station to the city centre is piece of cake and the trams come in every 5 minutes. I was already very anxious and nervous if I would like the place and the people who are there right now. In Leuven everything was perfect, I had my nice private room, which was cosy, I kept it clean and my way. One thing I new already, I definitely like te location.

I'm at the door, I ring the bell and Juan comes to greet me. We go in, I meet Alicia and her mother who's visiting her. They are all very nice and friendly. Alicia and Juan give me a tour in the appartement. There's actually one guy more, Jose, but he wasn't there at that time. The appartement is very homey and nothing really special besides it's literally in the middle of Gent and has quite a lot room: two bedrooms (1 is very big), living room and a kitchen. I had a little chat with them but not long cause Juan and Alicia have to study for their exam tomorrow. So I leave them and meet up with Riina who arrived here one day earlier than me.

We had late lunch together and after that headed to the city. We were very lucky, cause it was the opening day of Gent Light Festival. That means every evening from 6 p.m. till 12 a.m. until Sunday the city is full of art, related to light: bulbs, electricity, wires and of course music. Fortunately it happend to be that just as we finished our late lunch we went for a walk and noticed people gathering in a square. We saw some important people on the stage that gave their speech and it wasn't like gutting the ribbon to celebrate the opening. It was riding an exercice bike to "make" the electricity so that the miljons of small bulbs that have been used would lit up. I have a video to prove that as well.

Watch the video!

When I got back in the appartement the environment was very relaxed and chill. Everybody did their own stuff. Alicia and Juan studied, Alicia's mom was on the computer and I joined them. After an hour or so we had a nice Spanish dinner that Alicia and her mom made. It was tortilla with a chicken fillet sauce and some local cheese. It was very delicious and I was happy cause it had been more than 2 weeks since I had nice homey food.

Hope you enjoyed the video. Today I go out to a real Erasmus party! Bye!

Second trip -> Gent

I was very anxious about the trip. Gent will be my home town for next 5 and a half months and this is the first time I visit it. Will I like it, I better right!

It all started kind of a same way as with the tip to Antwerpen. We all met at the train station of Leuven. Since here are huge sales in the stores then actually it's the same for the transportation. They want people to go shopping by using the public transport and therefore the return ticket to Gent cost us only 10 euros each (which I actually didn't have to buy, it's included in the language program). The ride was little bit more than an hour, so again a good time to chat and inquire about life somewhere else than Estonia. This time I sat together with 3 Hungarians - Gábor, Gábor and Réka. We talked about cost of living in Hungary and I found out that it's really cheap compared to Estonia. But then again salaries are seriously low as well. Since the guys are related to IT and one of them actually has finished his studies and works in Brussel, then we talked little bit about IT in Hungary. I think I was a good opponent on that subject, since I own lot of inside information in this sector thanks to my lovely (no homo) buddies in Estonia. I asked both Gábors what would be the salary for a developer/programmer if he/she has finished or half way there in IT studies and this will be his/her first job experience in the field. They told me that if you start from scratch with the background I provided then the salary would be around 400 euros. At this point I can quite surely confirm that with the situation in Estonia (lack of experienced and hardworking developers/programmers) the salaries in IT, even for rookies, are higher. Companies should import IT work outside country borders and actually I know they're doing it already. So I think it's no news for "the big sharks" in Estonia.

There are two train stations in Gent: Sint.-Pieters and Dampoort. Sint.-Pieters is kind of the main train station and location is outside city centre, around 30min walk. Dampoort on the other had is on the edge of centre. We arrived to Sint.-Pieters and had a little walk to do which I actually liked a lot because I have to take the same route when I go to Gent on Thursday.

Our first stop was........ of course a brewery - GRUUT. We paid fixed price (I again didn't have to pay anything) and got to taste 3 different beers that they are brewing there with a guy or guide explaining the whole process and why they are so special. But I won't go there cause anyone who's interested on that can find the information online. But one thing actually that I found interesting and worth of pointing out is called anamorphosis. Maybe you guys have herd about it but basically it's an ancient way of drawing but to see the image you have to use a certain device or a tool to understand what is really featured on the picture. Why I am saying it is ancient? Well because in old times erotical pictures (nowadays porn :)) were not allowed and with that technique it was made possible to draw pictures of naked women. And to come back the the brewery and drinking beer then on the beer glass is little mirror to reflect the drawing on the coaster (in estonian: õllealus/klaasialus). Check the picture and you'll know what I mean. Anyway, I now found it very cool and interesting art. :)

After the brewery we had lunch and then city tour, only that this time we didn't have a guide to take us through the city, but we also didn't get away that easy. We made group of fives and Ellen (our language teacher) gave each group a paper full of tasks to do and questions to get answers to. That meant talking with locals in local language so we could put Dutch in practice. I know you guys think that hell we were talking in Dutch when actually we could get away with English easily. But to be honest, we really did ask the questions in Dutch and by the way I got a compliment from a local of my very good Dutch. So get your dictionaries ready cause the next postings will be in Nederlands :).

Oh yeah, on more thing, actually two. I also had time to check the location of my soon to be new home in Gent and you guys will be very very jealous. But I will talk about it when I'm there :). And secondly to go back where I started with this posting, if I would like Gent then my answer is - HELL YES!!! - and the pictures are to prove that. Hope you enjoy.

First trip -> Antwerpen

8:30 in Leuven train station. 9:05 train to Antwerpen. Weather: +7, cloudy. The ride took little bit more than an hour to Antwerpen, so a good time to get to know other course mates, but I sat next to teacher and her friend which by the end game out very interesting conversation about Belgium. Did you know that prime minister of belgium is Elio Di Lupo and he's actually a son of two Italian immigrants, he doesn't speek flemish, which is actually most widely speaking language in Belgium, but he's learning it. And he is gay. He game out with that already in 2006. He openly confronted that he's gay: "Yes. So what?" were his answer to the question. I think that shows quite a lot of Belgium as a country and people who live here (I know Mart would comment it: "That everyone in Belgium is gay" :D), cause Elio Di Rupo was elected to be the prime minister. The huge problem that Belgium, and not only Belgium has/had, was with the illegal workers and unemployment. The government game out with a nice solution to that. Belgian can go online and buy certain checks. Every check is worth of 1 hour work that is 7 euros. The checks are sent to you and now all you have to do is hire a person to do what ever you need: cleaner, caretaker, plumber, painter etc. You think why would you hire someone for 7 euros, actually it is even less that that. You see, the government gives certain percent back for every check you used and the worker gets certain extra percent from every check he has earned. And finally we get a win-win situation. WIN 1 - job is done at my house and it was cheap, WIN 2 - no illegal workers, rate of unemployment goes down and people have health insurance. Of course this law only works in Belgium cause they are rich. Actually now they have another problem, the law turned out to be so popular that it has been eating a lot of money.

Ok, back to Antwerpen. We had a nice and interesting city tour with a guide. City got its name from a legend. How a giant didn't let anyone pass through on the river without paying tax. One guy stepped up and managed to cut giant's hand off and threw it in the river - hand werpen, in english it's hand throwing or to throw a hand = Antwerpen. After the city tour we had free time/lunch. And I went with couple more people to have chinese food where I got myself a new nickname: Spicy Boy. Cause I like spicy food and I told nice chinese waitress in her fifties to make my food extra spicy. When she got back with our lunch, she handed the plates by saying "this is for Spicy Boy". After lunch we went to the MAS - Museum Aan de Stroom. It's a new museum, built and opened in may 2011. The idea of the MAS is to present exhibits owned by Belgians. It means that all the exhibits are bought/used/brought by Belgians in the past. They have exhibits originally from Japan in the times of samurais, or exhibits owned by the great Mayas like sculptures and statues. You might think how it's possible, well many years ago Antwerpen was the first passing point to Western Europe. And after the MAS we went back to train station to catch a train back to Leuven. Next saturday we'll visit my soon to be new hometown Gent.

Two cool things I wanted to add:

1. Antwerpen's train station works on different levels. And from the atrium you can see all those levels/floors full of trains. And in 2009 American magazine Newsweek judged Antwerpen-Centraal the world's fourth greatest train station.

2. There's a tunnel for pedestrians connecting each sides of the river and it's 527m long and 31m under the ground.