Two weeks ago I went to Namur (capital of Wallonia) with a friend. On the train ride to Ottagnie, I was stupid and left my camera on the train. By the time I realized, the door of our train to Namur had closed and we were on our way. Haven't heard anything from the station since, so chances of recovery are null. :( Waaaah. I'm still beating myself up over it occasionally. I mean, it was a really nice camera, and I had it only for 6 months. Gaaaaah. Now I feel naked because I normally carry my camera everywhere. Sometimes I'm like, ooo, that would make a nice picture. But now they're just pictures in my mind. Which means I'll forget about them the next day. Sigh.

Anyway, no point in dwelling on that, I guess. Must move on.

Namur's a really beautiful city, especially on a sunny, warm day (shock! in Feburary?!). My friend and I just went without a map or tour book or anything. So when we stepped out of the station, we were like, uh, where do we go? What do we do? Which way's the city? Wandering around a bit, we found the citadel, which was pretty hard to miss once you get out of the building-filled area since it stood on a pretty tall hill. We made that our destination and had a nice hike up the huge hill and surrounding areas. Thankfully my friend had her camera with her.

Pre-citadel, city shots:

Churches, cathedrals can be found everywhere, and Namur was no different. When we were wandering around, we decided to head in directions of churches since that meant there was a square or market place near it. This church allowed us to see the citadel. :D



There's a river that runs through Namur, which makes the city even more scenic, especially with the citadel being on the other side.

View of the city from the citadel, but this was when we had only started to climb. Nowhere near the top, so you can't see as much yet. But the citadel itself was so peaceful and quiet. And even though it was a really nice Saturday, there weren't as many people as I would have expected. Later, when we wandered into the center of the town, we noticed that's where everyone went. Shopping time! :P

Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures of the citadel itself didn't turn out as well. But! I bought some postcards while we were there, and this one is a pretty nice artist's rendition of the place. :)

(All pictures were taken by my friend, Mireya. Nice shots :P)

I'm not a nerd, at least that's what I tell myself. Heh. But when I'm in class, I really can't stand it when other people around me are whispering, but not in the quiet-so-others-can't-hear-you way. The loud, obvious whispering that goes on in the relatively large classes here really pisses me off. It's hard enough trying to understand what the professor is saying without other distractions going on around you. It's kind of crazy how rude some of these people are to the professors. Even the people in the very first row are chit chatting as the professor's lecturing. Argh! But the professor doesn't say anything at all, not even a glare in their direction! Errrrrrrgh. So frustratingly annoying!

/rant

Yup, it's Carnival weekend here (and the rest of the world except Asia). I never knew there was such a thing until I came here and learned that it happens in other countries as well. Yaaaah, sheltered in Taiwan? Maybe just a tad. Or I just didn't pay much attention to my surroundings. But anyway, we were going to go to Aalst today because they apparently have a pretty big parade each year. Alas, it was not meant to be. It was a rainy, gloomy, wet day, and my friend and I decided that we didn't want to go out and get wet. So instead I stayed at home and organized and cleaned the room.

Yesterday while we wandered about Leuven, there was this small musical procession. So green! Reminded us of St. Patty's Day. But yah, the music was nice. :D



Room redecoration project! First up, the walls around my bottom bunk. When I first moved in, the sofa was on the bottom, so there was no wall space. But now that I'm using the bottom as my bed, plenty of space. Lots of pictures, but not enough. I actually wanted to cover all of that white wall, until I realized I did not have enough pictures. :( The rest are Nancy Drew Postcards.


Close up of the other wall. Two of the lines of pictures are held up by string, but then I ran out of pins to string up the rest, so I just taped them on. :P Ah, I cheated.


Nancy Drew postcards! Got these (30 total) when we went to the Spy Museum in D.C. I love Nancy Drew! I think this is when my fascination with mystery novels and tv shows got its beginnings. :P