Sorry Po Po's

Today was Orientation. I slept in of course and when I got there they were doing their club fair.

I saw some great clubs, like the club that listed Palestine as a country.

I think I might write for the International Magazine thing, called the Voice. They had some hilarious articles in there. And we all know how funny I am. In a bad way. Like the time when I slipped down 3 flights of stairs on the toes of my 6 inch heels and then gracefully fell into a heap while 30 students watched.

Anyways, so I went and looked around. I saw the Carleton Canadians again. We met some other Philosophy students and everyone was very exclusive as usual. There was one not-ugly guy....and a lesbian, but she wasn't hot. So far there are only 3 philosophy girls.

I stole a bunch of stuff from the refreshment table. I stole bags of tea, biscuits and then later in the day I stole a litre of Orange Juice. I am trying to live cheaply.


Then I had an appt at city hall, but I had to get passport pictures. So I cycled to the train station and spent my last 5 euro in a photo booth. :(

Then I browsed at some stores because I had time to kill.

Then I went to go get my 'residence permit'. You would not believe the amount of paperwork I have. Everything is SUPER official and I just keep getting sent around to office to office.

So I was pretty hungry and decided to get some famous Frites on the way to city hall, which I had no idea where it was.

So there I was cycling along, in my brown slouchy boots over my sevens with a grey mens am ap cardigan, looking pretty damn innocent, when a man in a blue uniform with POLITIE on it puts out his hand and motions for me to pull over.


I was wondering maybe if this was like someone who dressed up like a police officer to rob me (There was an article about that in Glamour), but I saw his gun, so I did what he said.

The conversation went like this:

PoPo: SCHADNETM OIEGER GOODSTRAAT VESULTSER
Me: um..I only speak English
PoPo: Where are you from?
Me: Canada
PoPo: Can I see your passport?
Me: Why do you want to see my passport?

[aside] It is NOT normal for random officers to see your passport! And the only reason I had it on me was because I was on my way to city hall. What do they do if you don't have a passport?. I was getting a little bit scared now...

PoPo: Come. [and then he motioned towards his truck. omg! Is he going to actually arest me?What did I do?? My cell phone, now this?! I gave him my passport]

PoPo: This is a one way street. You do not have one way streets in Canada?

Me: Not for bicycles.

PoPo: Didn't you see the sign?

Me: I can't read the sign.

[he starts walking further away, I follow]

Me: Can I lock my bike?

PoPo: Just come

[he marches until the end of the street and points to a sign which is a giant red circle with a white line through it]

PoPo: What is this is your country?

Me: Um...Yield? [frantically thinking back to my G1 test]

Me: Our one way signs say 'one way'

[ he takes me back to his his vehicle and shows me a form.]

PoPo: Next time you will be charged this amount.[ writes on the paper 150 euro]

Me: I really wasn't aware that it was this serious. It is not like that in Canada. Do you know where city hall is?

So then I went to city hall, slightly tramatized.

I had my pile of forms, and what they do is they actually send a police officer to your house to make sure you are living where you say you are, so you don't get your identity card for like 6 weeks.

Then I went to the bank. These banks are weird. Theres no tellers, just 2 desks and offices. And there is 2 doors. And the other door won't open until the first closes.
Like big security. The girl couldn't believe in Canada there are tellers lined up.

It took like an hour to open my bank account and I haven't figured out how to transfer my money from Canada for minimal fees yet.

So at the end the girl slides over what I think is a calculator. So I think 'cute, a free gift, I already have a calculator, but whatever.' but it won't turn on. And then she explains that it is like a card slot and you put your card in every time you log on to do internet banking and it give you like a special 'challenge' that you have to type on the computer. Soooo weired and annoying and typcially Belgian.

Then I went to go meet Cute Czech boy so we could go together for the walking tour of Belgium, but he didn't show up! So I went myself and ran into Younger Prince Charles, Adam, Chris and Topshop girl, a girl I met at the party last night and who is really fun. So I did the 2 hour walking tour on cobblestone in my heels. NOT fun. Also with a broken toe.

But I saw some interesting things. There is a village, for instance, from the 14th century which rich merchants built to house their daughters whom they didn't want to pay the dowry for. It's the oldest and biggest one in the world. Now it is the best student housing in town.

I saw the library which burnt down in WW2 and the Americans basically rebuilt it.

Actually half the town burnt down in WW2, which is so sad and unnecessary, but they rebuilt it in the old style. So buildings that you think are centuries old are really only like 60 years old. Damn Germans. The guy giving the walking tour was German and he kept having to blame the Germans. It was funny. Kind of.

And I am about to go to a Philosophy faculty party. We all know how philosophers like to party!

Ps: Everyone I tell that I'm in Philosophy is like 'wow' and I'm like..really? Wow? Why? and their like 'its supposed to be really good here' and im like 'sweet.'

So now I can be pretentious and be like..'thats right..I went to the Catholic University of Leuven for Philosophy."


And I can be pretentious like that as I flip burgers at Mcdonalds.