a plethora of entries

Day 114 Gap
CHRISTMAS!!!

Man did it feel good to be with family on Christmas. Last night we had a delicious meal. Oysters, foie gras. delicious, what more could I ask for?

Also got a cool gadget from my dad and myself, an ipod touch. have been fooling around with it quite a bit and it's very fun.

i think everyone was very happy with their presents. DragonballZ has been secretly my favorite these past two days even though it's leopold's. I'm going to miss it...

oh, and it's nice having coffee served to you in bed.

Well, it only took me about 30 minutes to switch out from "ana assif" mode into "Oh pardon" mode when bumping into people in the streets here in Europe.
However, I think, never, again, I hope not, will I be able to switch back into "cross streets when cars are NOT speeding at you" mode.


Day 113 Paris 9h38 ---> Gap 16h30
W

On the Paris-Grenoble train ride I was surrounded by beautiful people, namely a baby whose cuteness was only intensified by his adorable rapport with his mother (totally attractive in a motherly way). omg he just burped up this lovely white liquid all over his shirt and mom's sleeve and was just waiting to get it cleaned up. SO BADASS.

Read the copy of le monde that I picked up yesterday and worked on a Sudoku in vain. Read a few things in Le Monde, namely that:

-In Mozambique: "Et Albertina Bivea sait desormais faire de la confiture a partir de la patate orange. 'C'est vraiment bon, et mes huit enfants adorent ça', dit-elle."

-Francois Mitterand was a badass whose chef, Daniele Depluche, should be studied for all those applying to become my grandmother.

-both Washington (C. Rice) and L'Elisé (N. Sarkozy) estiment qu'il serait légitime d'examiner l'entée du Brésil au Conseil de sécurité, dans le cadre d'une "réforme globale" de l'ONU" (p.8)

Seeing family again will be nice. The whole hectic, crazy, but somehow functional Luyten family vibe definitely came off on the phone when I called them to ask to be picked up.


Day 112, Brussels,
T
What a bitch! it is to deal with train tickets when you're buying them at the last minute!...
Finally arrived in Paris. I called stephana and Doumitra to see if they could hang out for a bit, unfortunately they were both out of town. I might see Doom when I come back through though. Gave them a thorough phone-bisous session and headed to Cat & Pat's.
When I arrived they were drinking Champaign... so nice. We also ate some salmon on little tartines of bread covered in either soja sauce or salted butter. Man do I love

day 111 Ghent
Monday

Ghent. What a nice town. The people seem welcoming and in places cozy.
Unlimited ribs =pork. I really don't know why Muslims have not moved on and began to eat delicious pork. Two hoofed animals are sooooo in now-a-days.

day110
Sunday.
writing this in the Brussels airport while waiting for my baggage in front of the conveyor belt. Met a nice 28 year old who still smelled like wiskey from her night before. God do I smell, I really need to buy some deoderant... jeese, this bag is takning a while but i still recognize people from the airplane so I don't feel lost yet.
That wine on the airplane was a good idea. I wish I remembered the 28 y-o's name. Hopefully I'll meet her again in Cairo at nightspots. I should really turn on my phone but I really don't feel like it. Maybe techonlogy shouldn't have anythign to do with this one.
At least the Cairo international airport had FREE wireless internet.

I've probably missed my bag like 3 times already although that's surprising judging by this shit that i'm writing... let it FLOOOW
oh! there it is!
picked all 16 kgs of it up with one hand and my mac in the other. I have a HUGE adrenaline rush and my heart is THUMPING off the charts.
maybe this is the start of a new blog profusion, now that Maggie's got picked up and she wrote about me in hers...
time to go meet what's coming!

This evening I ate a delicious meal at a Franco-Greek restaurant in Brussels on rue de Flandres/ Vlamsesteeweg. J'ai choisi un menu a la carte commencant par des cuisse de grenouilles (la premiere fois que j'en mange), suivit d'un HOMARD? au Poireaux avec en dessert une patisserie greque a base de miel. Delicieux, puis un acceuille chaleureux en plus... j'ai finit par faire la bise au proprietaire/serveur et salue sa femme qui etait dans la cuisine...


day 108
Friday
woke up at 10h even though I had set my alarm for 11. couldn't sleep any more. feeling slightly depressed. tried to stay busy. couldn't. tried to sleep. couldn't. called Angela to see if I could come over to use her internet. Anyway, internet was down for all of TEdata's users all across egypt. Supposedly the same thing happened in February, for three weeks, all of Africa had no internet because of a severed cable connnecting Europe to Africa...