Distracted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CPlF-IEkXQ

Finally another rehearsal with my band today, it's been close to two months now due to different circumstances. We'll also start working on our own songs for the first time today, looking forward to that.

Those moments when shuffle is the best DJ in the world.

I've been here for a while now, never got round to posting a picture so might as well just do it. Picture from my snowboarding trip last week if that isn't obvious enough. I didn't colour the picture myself by the way. Might as well let it get indexed.

Today one of the largest radio stations in Belgium used a picture they took of the group I was in at a festival last summer on their Facebook page to advertise this year's festival season. These guys must have hundreds of pictures, all from some of the biggest festivals in the world, and they end up going with a random group picture from a relatively small, local festival. It's a pretty entertaining photo though, if I may say so myself: we were a pretty large group, and while we were posing for the picture we ended up toppling over and the photographer managed to snap the picture right at the time some of us were in mid-air. Otherwise a pretty uneventful day. Cooked my own dinner because I feel cooking's something I'll need to be able to do before I go to university next year.

Music that's playing silently, so I can hear it's there but I can't really listen to it.

Back from the snowboarding trip. It was great fun. Our group of 5 stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment (3 bedrooms according to the hotel itself, but the third bedroom was just the living room). Each morning we tried to wake up early, then we'd go to the slopes to ski or snowboard, then we went back to our apartment, drank, smoked and then partied a bit before going to bed and repeating the cycle. It was the first time I drank every night for a whole week. It felt strange doing it, but I was surprised how well I managed. We had a blast. And now back to reality I guess. School tomorrow, and last night was spent sleeping in a bus so I'm not looking forward to it.

The last two days were great. Wednesday a few friends and I went to a supermarket to stock up on drinks for our snowboarding trip to France, then we spent the rest of the day at the house of one of those who came along. His parents are travelling so we stayed there all night drinking and smoking. The next day we went to someone else's house where we spent most of the day baking that cake yesterday. Now today I need to pack my bags, we'll be leaving to the bus station in an hour or two, and then it's off to the Alps. I'm looking forward to it a lot. Anyway, you guys won't see me for at least a week. See you all next week hopefully.

We baked a spacecake today.

Zero warning points here. I think it's a good thing I didn't post too much back in the day, cause I was denser than a brick.

The maths exam went horrible, otherwise had a pretty good day. Finally got to go to town hall to request my driver's license, I passed my practical exam last Friday. Then spent time chilling with friends for most of the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow one of my best friends and I are doing a presentation on the subject of our senior paper. Basically, every senior in our school has to write a paper about a certain subject together with a partner they choose themselves. Our subject is 'The history of hip-hop', so we spent some time working on that presentation. After that presentation it's almost three weeks of holidays for me, of which one week will be spent snowboarding in the French Alps.

It might be time to revive that old Alcohol and drugs thread again.

I think you misunderstand the concept of blow-up dolls. Saq, just dance and have a good time at the show. I don't know what kind of place you're at, but I doubt everyone there's gonna be sober, so enjoy the show and socialize a bit if an opportunity comes up. Anyway, uneventful day. Last Thursday I had another Latin exam, which went pretty well, tomorrow I have maths, which I'm not feeling confident about at all, especially considering I still need to do almost everything for it because of my incredible procrastination skills. After that I basically have a three week holiday, which I'm looking forward to immensely.

That sleeping schedule of yours, do you end up feeling tired all the time, or do you just feel regular? Because some people only need half the sleep that's usually needed to stay healthy. Hell, I remember My_Eggs had a similar sleeping schedule that he maintained without problems.

I remember in the Gambia there was this drink called palm wine. I have no idea how strong it actually was, since I've never seen it in stores (people always carried it around in jerry cans), but even with too much water in it according to the locals it felt pretty strong. I never drank it pure because the teachers actually forbade it, but one of my friends took a few sips and was one of the strangest drunks I'd ever seen. Not like he lost control over everything, he was still mostly sober (he didn't drink that much after all), but the way he talked and acted just seemed really off. He told us afterwards that he didn't like it, I don't blame him. Actually, now that I think about it, the teacher who forbade us to drink it was drunk the last night too, and he was acting incredibly strange. You might even say it looked like he had a bit too much palm wine.

And here I was thinking an alcoholic drink over 75% just didn't exist.

To be honest, in our walk around town today the only people who seemed to be celebrating were French (I think, I couldn't really make out his slurs) tourists on a big bus. They were wearing Irish hats and drinking beer and everything.

My friends and I randomly went to an Irish pub today. It was closed.

Tonight I'm going to bike for about half an hour through the freezing cold with two of my friends to see perform that I've been wanting to see for ages. Otherwise, have a nice evening ahead of me, since we'll be sleeping over at the house of one of those two friends.

There's nothing wrong with being proud of where you come from, but there's no need to turn around that feeling and look down on places you don't come from. That kind of attitude isn't patriotism anymore, it's extreme nationalism.

Like I said, it's a second-hand account. I think they were talking about restaurants though. Nice to hear the beer's cheap in the Czech Republic though :P

Honestly, I don't care enough to have a whole discussion about it. From my point of view it's to the east, but I can understand that you view it differently and your point of view makes sense too. So let's just agree to disagree, and from now on I'll avoid saying east side of Europe and just go for a trip through the part of Europe that's to the east of Belgium.

I know it's not Eastern Europe. I consciously said the east side of Europe, because it's to the east from the centre of Europe.

I'm planning on going there this summer with my friends. One of my friends who's coming along said that his parents told him everything's pretty cheap there, which is why we're passing by there. I haven't said this yet, but this summer being the one between secundary school and higher education, means it'll be the longest holiday we've ever had, about 3 months. So in September, my three closest friends and I will go on a road trip (by bus) through the east side of Europe, going from Belgium to Amsterdam, then to Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna and back home if I'm not mistaken on our itinerary.

The opera two days ago was actually pretty nice. It was a relatively modern adaptation (it even had naked female breasts in it), which I thought was nicely made, and well sung (not like I know a lot about opera singing, but the lead female singer did some amazing things with her voice). The only thing I didn't like was the location: normally, an opera in Brussels is held in a nice, fancy venue, basically what you'd have in mind when thinking of an opera venue, but the director opted for the Circus (not a clown circus, a Roman circus), which throughout the performance was incredibly hot, to the point of making me feel faint for a bit, with uncomfortable chairs where we had less leg room than a charter flight. Tomorrow I'm going to Ghent, where I'll be studying next year, to attend an open day of the faculty I'll be studying at. I haven't mentioned this here before, but I'm pretty certain I'll be studying Philosophy next year. I know its image, but in reality it's different: Philosophy degrees are sought throughout the private and public sector because of the skills we learn, so I have a pretty broad choice after I graduate. I'm thinking of combining my Philosophy with a minor in Biology, which would give me the chance to get a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, and then get a Master's in Biology, albeit in 3 years instead of the regular 2 for a Master's. Anyway, that's a choice for the future. It's a bit of a strange choice to tell people who ask me, since they're usually surprised by it (I don't really have a lhilosopher's image, you could say), but it was actually my closest friends, who know me best, who had helped plant the seed in my head that would turn into going for Philosophy.