Late Arrival

Anyway, leaving was miserable as always. Saying goodbye to Marcelle and Dayaamayi in particular was bad - like normal. I was really hoping Emile would piss me off before I left that way I'd be happy to leave him (if only briefly), but he failed to do so. And to make matters worse, he had to go and inherit some of my luck and hurt himself.

Transit was mercifully uneventful, and after a 10 hour layover in a cold and rainy London, I was picked up at the Brussels airport by my friend Samira, who hosted me for a few nights. At always, her family (kind of like mine) went all out and cooked me a beautiful Moroccan dinner to celebrate my coming in. Good people. They made the transition much easier.

Monday I got to Leuven, where it was cold and dreary. It was a bit of a shock, going from a sunny 90 to a cloudy 50-60 degrees.  Turns out that getting there 10 days before the start of term is very late to find a house. Pickings were very slim and I couldn't find anything the first day. I managed to get a prepaid cell phone (+32.04.70.31.31.33) and meet up with Calvin.

I failed completely, however, at coming to grips with the Belgian bureaucracy. It has a reputation, especially in the business world, but that con't compare with reality. It's going to take me over a month to get a bnk account here, because I have to have a binder full of other very specific documents that can only be got, sequentially, from 1/2 dozen university then city offices. Then most of these have to be stamped, signed, copied, lost, found, and filed by all the departments. This got Calvin in trouble as he set up a bank account through the university, but can't access it until he has a residency permit. Unfortunately, he can't get that until he has a housing contract, which he can't get without paying rent/deposit...

On my end, because I am enrolled in 2 different faculties, about half of the university offices assume that I am actually two different people - if they acknowlede the existence of my other half at all. I finally realized this and got it (mostly) sorted yesterday.

Tuesday I found a house with Calvin and a Turk. It's tiny. It's a tri-level, three room place and each room is about15x10, but we got a good price.

 The kitchen is wide enough to fit a skinny person and for some reason the toilet/shower is situated in the kitchen. I get to my room - the top floor - via a series of ladders and hatch doors.

Luckily, our landlady - who is completely senile, it would seem - likes us and let us heavily modify the place, even to the point that we put up sheetrock walls in the living room to make another bedroom. Best part is, my street name is Zevenslapersstraat.  It's something to do with seven sleepers, which I think also could mean hedgehog. I don't know. At least I don't live on Ooiendonkstraat

Thursday, I started meeting people, I saw the sun for the first time in a week, got a mattress, and drank far too much beer. Things are looking up - especially when I finally got around to installing a light fixture in my attic room yesterday.