My Last Day in Belgium

I never thought this day will come. This time two years ago I was getting ready to leave Malta, and now I am getting ready to leave Belgium. The day I'm leaving is not to different from the day i came, the sky is full of clouds, its cold and its raining!!!!!

I leave this country with loads of memories and many new friends. Memories of adventures, depressions, laughs and experiences. I'll probably never forget:

-working in an all Guys team after an all Girls one!!!

- picking apples in France for Cider

- Team Days in a Castle in Brugge

- Cooking, burning the food, fire alarms and firemen behind my door

- laundry experiences - machines leaking and flooding the laundry place, men coming out of dryers, and clothes stuck in washing machines.

- sex talks with Petra and Claudia

- Poker nights at home

- the Schaerbeek house (my first house in Belgium) where there was Benny and his chicken, Evy and her Guitar, Francisco and his beans, Claudia and Sheeba and her burnt vegetables, Petra and her alarm, Dominique and her marriage problems and Bilar and our inability to communicate

- the depression times with Stephan and Petra, crying out eyes out, punching all my soft toys, then going out and having a good night out!!!

- Amsterdam and sleeping outside the train station cause we cannot find hotels

- The thank-yous from AIESEC members to whom's life I made a little difference and who made a difference in mine

- Surprise vists from Odette, visits from Maria, Francesca, Martin, Andrew and a thousand more people

- Walking by my favorite statue!!!

- The visit from my parents, when they finally realised that their little girl is no longer little and very independent

- Almost killing the trainees with my excellent driving skills

- Nights at Sphinx and Tiramisu at 4am with Adeel!!!!!

- The White Night and walking drunk home with Petra

- Leaving to the Rock Mart in Leuven with the last train and returning with the 1st train straight to the office

- Having Bart bugging me for over 6months so I cook Rabbit for him

- Going to Egypt and staying with Jen

- Going to Romania with Stephan

- Ice-Cream nights with Eva

- Chairing the Conference in Malta!!!!

- Surprising my Parents who luckily do not have a weak heart

- Getting robbed, running after my theif and catching him!!!! :D

- Getting robbed and not catching him!! :(

- drinking champagne and smoking cigars in the Grand Place

- The fantastic light shows in the Grand Place

- Partying with the EU Comission Trainees, and crashing at the ELSA house!!

- eating amazingly good chocolate during depression period!!

- and having a choice of 2000 beers to choose from when on a good night out!!!

..... and many many many more!!!!!!

My last days in Belgium

After a couple of more fights, and a few threatening by me to the internet providers, we finally have internet in the office, so now its gas down trying to catch up on all the time I lost.

The time has finally arrived for me to leave - gosh 2years fly!!! It has finally hit me, while rushing around Brussels trying to close bank accounts, collect deposits, return my residence card and visit some of my favour shops and spots, I have finally realised that after all, Brussels was home. I think I will miss Belgium terribly, the chaos, the Grand Place, the weird pple in the streets, the laundry places and all my funny memories there, as well as my friends, our frequent visits to El Mettico, Mezzo, Minos or Sphinx. As well as my visits to the waffle man down the street or the Leonidas chocolates. I never thought i would actually feel my eyes watery as I walk in the Grand Place admiring its grandeur and splendor. I cannot believe I'm actually getting teary right
now!!! So let stop getting soppy!!!!

My time to start a new Thea adventure has come, I have spent the whole month trying to clear my room and pack stuff, I have rehearsed jumping on my suitcase a couple of times already, so when the final time to close my suitcase and say bye to Belgium comes I'll be ready!!!!!

I also cannot help doubting myself, doubting if I did the right thing, when people tell me that I cannot
wear sleeveless tops, or I cannot smoke in the streets, or the men will stare, or I will have to start from scratch and build myself a home once again. Do I really feel like this? do I feel like starting from scratch? Or would I rather go home and start a life I can finish? I do not know, but i guess these are doubts that will always come up, doubts i had when i left for Belgium, and doubts I had when I decided to run for MCP and stay another year in Belgium. The greatest consolation is that is it very different from Belgium, new travels, new continent, new way of seeing people, and I will make sure that I will not make the same mistakes I made in Belgium - I will go for what I really want to
do, and will not fall into everyday routine.

Ahh cannot wait!!!!!!
Hopefully next Blog will be in Egypt

Will keep you updated

No Internet

I never imagined that I would feel soooo frustrated without internet, but when I have been left without internet for 2 weeks I realized that it not only delayed much of my work, but also detached me from the rest of the world!!! I have to rely on my mother's perception of what is happening in Malta, and my knowledge of French and Dutch to understand what is going on in this world. Ahhh the amount of anger and frustration I feel right now is indescribable!!! Especially once I had been so excited to blog away on my new web log, and write my last mails to a couple people.

The Belgian bureaucracy is insane!!!! We tried changing from one internet provider to another, but one of the parties did something wrong during the switch and none of them can figure out what!!! What is worst is that for two whole weeks Easynet has been blaming Belgacom and vice versa for the bad service!!!! Ahh I just want internet!!! It has now been regular routine to call these companies a couple of times a day. God knows how many times I called and they did not reply cause they saw my number!!!! ;)

I wonder what Egypt will be like, I'll probably be invading the LC office a couple of times or making one of the computers in an internet cafe mine!!!!

Saturday Night Out

I must say that now, after a good night out, my weekend in Malta is finally complete. Cynthia and I decided to go back to our old days. We indulged in those deadly Snake Bites (I cannot believe that we still have to explain to bar men what are snake bites!!!!) and my dear Export. We visited old dear Coconut, which in my opinion, has not evolved with time!!!! I am sure they put on the same CDs, in the same order they used to do 3 to 4yrs ago!!!!

But nowhere beats Ryans, which has now become my 2nd home, and which, if I could, I would take it with me everywhere!!! They can prepare decent Snake Bites, and they know what a Mother’s Milk is – try beating that ha!!!!! Ryans also contains memories of many drunken nights, watching football and fighting with random strangers, and a confused relationship, where as though to really make the night complete my very drunk ex turned up and decided to entertain us for the last part of the night.

It actually feels awkward being out again!!! I missed walking in the streets and continuously meeting people I know (though I realised that after not seeing most of them for so long its hard to converse, as most of the conversation would consist of – Hi how are you? How are you doing? – then silence until you find some silly excuse such as going to get a drink at the bar)

The Maltese dress style is by far much more different than the Maltese, though I must say not better! The gaudy colours, loads of make up, short tops and the short tight mini skirts with tummies and thighs bulging out is still many of the Maltese girls’ ‘party dress code’ – Gosh don’t these people have mirrors at home???

I must stay a night out in Malta is not only something you experience just that night, but an experience that lingers on till the morning after. When you wake up with a massive headache as soon as the sun starts shining into your room, you have black bags under your eyes as you could not figure out how to take off your make up last night, and finally you realise that your feet are numb and your ankles hurt as a results of walking around up and down Paceville in high uncomfortable heels, stumbling in potholes which you ‘accidentally’ fall into due to the alcohol!!!!!

I am now off to end this weekend by buying loads and loads of Maltese goodies to fill up my empty suitcase and to pig out on during my last week in Belgium!!!

Weekend in Malta

I cannot actually beleive that i got to be home for the weekend!!!! - Thankyou Government of Malta!!!!

I actually have a lot of mixed feelings about being back home. A certain feeling of happiness and annoyance. Happy to be HOME in my bed, in a country with white buildings, blue sky and blue sea and where there is a feeling of being laid back. Happy to jump into my sofa and watch TV, eat the food i love and drink the drinks i like with my friends!!!
On the otherhand a feeling of annoyance of the closed mentality of the Maltese, of the way people act, the fact that i have to visit every single relative before leaving the country and the way in which you meet people in the street (who you have never met in life) telling you welcome back from Belgium thanks to my Mother's ability to spread news faster than the speed of light!!!!

Nonetheless I am enjoying the attention here at home (though thank god i am staying for only two days otherwise i'd go mad!)My mother stocked up the fridge with my favourite food, and my father is preparing and octopus, rabbit and many more delicacies for me to enjoy while i'm here!!!

We spent the day going shopping with both my parents - after two years living on my own i found this a bit hard!!!! After a while i agreed to give me the credit card and go for a coffee phew!!!! Then we got all the injections done!!! My mother made the doctor prescrible all the possible medicine i might need in Egypt including the strongest malaria tablets, although the doctor said i did not need them!!!(Mummy there are pharmacies in Egypt too!!!!) I got my Typhoid injection done, this was also quite a sight for the people in the clinic, cause my mother was paniking more than me!!! Telling the doctor to make sure he does not hurt me and whether i'll get fever or not!!! Thank god he had enough sense to ignore her!!! and i was done while she was still going on and on about not hurting me!! i love my mummy though!!! :D

I must say that being back in Malta brought me to myself again!!! I've had a go at falling a couple of stairs already, plus not to mention the slip flat on my ass in the clinc!! and the final fall while running after my dog around the house!!!

Now off to my delicious home cooked meal!!! and dose of Maltese sun!

TROY

I had been wanting to watch this movie for the past two years - since I heard Brad Pitt was in Malta filming, tanning and
enjoying the Maltese life!! (and I was in Belgium with non-stop rain and cold!)!!!!! Yeap Troy was filmed in Malta - unbelievable!!! The beach and sea is all Maltese!!! I don't think the Maltese were very happy at the government though!! the summer is not the best season to close down one of the best beaches in Malta for 3months!!! But I guess none of the Maltese really complained as I am very sure a lot of money came in that summer!!! (except for the disappointed tourists that had to take their bags and tanning oil to some other part of the island)

The movie, in my opinion was a big disappointment. You spend the whole movie waiting for the horse to come, when he finally does, the movie is over!! The whole story is actually in the last 10mins of the movie!! Another thing, who has actually figured out who is the good or the bad??? Are the Trojans the bad? are the Greeks the bad? You spend the whole movie figuring out whose side are you going to take!

Though one last thing I feel that they should have worked upon is explaining to the people the actual Myth behind this movie, the fact that Achilles is a half God and that he has a weakness in his heel, and maybe an introduction on the Book of Homer and where does this story fit in. I watched the movie with people who were not European and thus not really aware about Ancient Greece and stories of the many Gods, and they were quite perplexed at the end, until the story was explained to them and then everything fell into place!!

Otherwise the plot with Helena and Paris is actually quite good - and Hector and Achilles and the fact that it was filmed in
Malta are three good enough reasons to go and watch the movie!!!!!

Chill Weekend

Last weekend was the weekend I had been looking forward to for a very long time!!!! It was the weekend where Petra, Claudia and I got to hang out!!!

For those who have not met them, they are two amazing people, Non-AIESEC, Non-Belgian. We lived together during my first few months in Brussels, and I guess the circumstances in which we met in made us the what we are today - 3 girls who can sit, drink coffee, smoke, and feel comfortable to speak about EVERYTHING to each other!!!!
We are 3 completely different characters, with different views of the world and different tastes in many things!!!! Though the amount of worries, be it physical, emotional, work related etc, I have unburdened my thoughts and worries on them so many times during those 'coffee' sessions. And the amount of crazy stuff we did together is uncountable!! ;) My experience in Belgium would have not been the same without them for sure!! They are definitely two
people I will miss the most!!!!

The weekend passed by quickly though, and all good things come to an end - though we planned to meet up in Egypt next year!!! I hope that works out!

1st Blog Ever

Hey, after quite a while I have finally got down to designing my own online diary!! :D. The totally computer illiterate Thea has put her mark on cyberspace. It took Petra and me quite a while to figure it out but Voila - here you go!!! Thea's now ready to jot down her thoughts on pen and paper! - well actually not really pen and paper, shall I call it keyboard and monitor!

I have totally regretted not doing this before, and thus not writing down my feelings during my experience in Belgium. But I guess its never too late. Especially now that I'm passing though a month of turbulence, leaving the place I have been living in for two years, not exactly in the best of ways, and entering a totally new world, of a completely different culture, religion and environment.

I'm really looking forward to starting a new life, and a new adventure!!! and you guys are going to hear all
about it!!!

BTW, those people who know me well, are aware of my untactful straightforwardness, and my ability to offend,
so whatever I write here is meant as no offence to everyone!!! they are just how I feel, and I guess everyone has the right to an opinion no!?! ;)