small calender, brussels 2012

At this moment, just an hour before 2013, I have a small calendar in my hand titled “Brussels 2012”. Last year, I mean, in December 2011, my former colleague and his family came from Brussels to here in Maryland, and stayed for a while for sightseeing around DC area. At the time, they gave us this small calendar as a souvenir, and since then, I’ve put it on my desk next to my PC for an entire 2012. The calendar has twelve different pictures on each month, and they are, of course, a famous, beautiful piece of scenery of Brussels city I had once enjoyed. For example, crystal twilight Atomium at Heysel is in the page of September, and a Christmas tree in white at the center of Grand-Place is in the page of December.

Curiously enough, looking at these pictures now, I find there are few people in each scene. Here in pictures, there are just historical buildings, trees and flowers, and blue sky, sometimes, twilight-orange, water-blue sky. At the end of 2012, looking at familiar Brussels scenery without any people, I feel like listening to Gymnopédies, Erik A.L. Satie’s music, maybe something like a farewell for 2012 Brussels.

Anyway, having said Gymnopedies, I once went to Honfleur to visit historic Satie’s house, though I just found the house was closed at the time.

Brussels, Belgium in my small calendar.

philadelphia sauerkraut and bratwurst

It was just before Christmas when I was at the center of Philadelphia city, and just walking along with the Broad Street. Behind me, there was an old city hall famously known by the statute of the city founder sitting on its top. I walked up the street to go to the Kimmel Center, the home of Philadelphia Orchestra, to catch up the opening of its Christmas concert. I remembered that the concert at the time would be performed by the guest-Maestro coming from Vancouver.

It was in the evening, and the wind came from cold Delaware River to this skyscrapers’ valley, and made me or anyone walking around here quite chilly. At some point, I just turned back to the city hall. I could not see the opposite side of it I've already passed through. 

Around the opposite corner of the hall, there was a small squared park, which had a small fountain at its center. At this season, the park was occupied by the Christmas market, lots of small stalls and vendors selling small Christmas ornaments. At first, I felt the market seemed to be quite similar to what I often enjoyed around the cities in Germany, such as Köln’s, though the latter was apparently bigger than here. Later I found it was actually similar, because the market was organized by German society of Philadelphia, and more than that, at least I enjoyed the same smell of hot wine and taste of sauerkraut and bratwurst here in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

golden arch and flea market in warterloo

There was a golden arch of the McDonald at the corner of the relatively newly founded Carrefour in Waterloo, and on Sunday around noon, I used to drive to there to get just a burger meal. The taste was same, and maybe, the scene I saw inside this restaurant was also same as everyone could see anywhere under the same golden arch in the world. I heard that around the Ville de Waterloo, quite suburb of Brussels, was one of the favorite places for American residents commuting to the capital by car. Quite often, I heard American-English conversation in this restaurant from the families who happened to sit next to me.

The uniqueness of this McDonald was not belonged to this fast-food-store itself, nor a huge Carrefour store sitting next to it, but the flea market opened at the parking of these stores in every Sunday morning. This flea market was opened in the very early morning and closed around 13:00. So, sometimes, I was walking among vendors while biting a burger and French flies with my fingers, and looking for nothing, but enjoying looking at what they were selling. They were selling toys for children and antiques.

Here was Waterloo, Wallon Brabant, Belgium.

a long hole near my apartment

I think it was at the end of the winter, and maybe a few more days before the beginning of eagerly-wait-for-spring, several years ago, I found in the morning that several blue excavators painted "KOBELCO" on its big shovels were suddenly digging the ground on the avenue just in front of my apartment. At the time I remembered that I got a notice from STIB (Brussels public transportation company) on the very previous night, and it said that the current rails of the tram 92 around my apartment area should be replaced for new ones. When roughly reading it without paying much attention, I thought the construction would start several weeks or a month later. Then, in the very next morning, looking at the excavators digging a hole, firstly I just made a slight smile unconsciously without saying anything, then, rushed to the workers and shouted that I needed to get my car out of my garage before they made big holes in front of my apartment.

Later, I called the commune/town office to ask whether they could offer a temporary free-parking lot for residents including me who were forced to make cars out of garages until the end of the construction, maybe for several months. The officer firstly asked me my address, and seemed to check a map around my area over the phone, then said that I was so lucky that I can park my car anywhere around my apartment without any permission, because streets and avenues around here were parking-free (besides construction area), really lucky, anyway, in any means.

At that night, first night of the construction, I left my office at the late hour, maybe around 22:00, then came back to my apartment around 23:00. Unlike normal operation, the tram 92 was forced to stop at the temporary final stop, which was well far from my apartment, so, I had to walk for a while from there. Near my apartment, I found excavators did a really good job on its day one, making a really deep, long hole along with the avenue. Then, around two blocks from my apartment, I saw a white sedan car literally fell into this hole. The car seemed to go to the garage as usual, just without knowing that there was a hole in front of the house, unlike the day before. 

Around 24:30, rescue crews (the resident called) came to pull the car from the hole. I saw it through the window before going to bed.

Here was Brussels, at midnight.

at chesapeak bay

The sky is so high and blue, and the color of the beach is light-brown. The beach at Chesapeake bay is a little bit crowded, but I totally have no difficulty to find my space to stab my beach parasol into the sand deeply. lying back in a folding chair, I see the young father trying to fly a kite in front of his young son, still a toddler,  and the mother just lies down on the towel for a sunburn.

I cannot listen to the sound of waves from Chesapeake, simply because the sound of winds keeps coming around me, but the winds are not so strong, rather makes me feel a little bit nicely cool under the parasol, while the sun blazing down on us in the afternoon. People are everywhere, say, in the water, they are enjoying swimming just inside the rope connected by several red buoys, which keeps people away from the deep offshore. 


Several people also make a line in front of the water-tap, especially for washing sands off from their feet. At the very front of the line, there is a young mother washing his son, just 3 or 4 years old. The mother washes not only the boy's feet, but also his entire body by using a small cup. Obviously the small cup is not enough large for showering the boy quickly, so naturally, the line becomes somehow a little bit long. 


Here is the beach in front of Chesapeake bay, Maryland.

paris marathon, not this year

Back in Paris, the Paris marathon was my first full marathon, and one of the most enjoyable runs in my narrow running history. One of the most memorable moments for me came at the very first of the marathon. We just began running through l'Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Concord square. At 8:30, still just a few crowds were on the both sides of the avenue, and a few runners, who might miss a precious opportunity to go to the restroom before start, were just wandering around there to look for a toilet. 


We were heading to place de la Bastille, then going to bois de Vicennes, and coming back to Bastille square again. Then we found la Seine on our left. I remember that I saw only the top of cathedral Notre-Dame while running, but it was soon disappeared. After going through a tunnel near the riverside of Concord square, many found la tour Eiffel suddenly over la Seine on the left, maybe, it was around 30 km. And at the point, I remember I reduced my speed significantly simply for being tired, and mainly for fully enjoying scenery of rest of the course. After this point, I surely enjoyed the race with very slow speed, occasionally walking, but curiously enough, I have absolutely less memories of this last 10 km than the first 30km with my maximum speed for a long run. For last 10km, we went into bois de Boulogue, then headed for Arc de Triomphe, the official goal of this marathon. 


One impressive memory. It was maybe just 500m before the goal, I fully enjoyed my walking with seeing the surrounding, including both sides of the course, and its crowds, then seeing the back, thinking how far I've just run at this moment. Maybe, a runner walking and seeing the surrounding with pleasure (especially in front of the goal, not using final propulsion power) like me seemed to be very rare, so at the time, some crowds and runners coming behind me encouraged me, saying "don't give up! you are almost there!" With smile, I fully appreciated them, their kindness. 


Here was Paris.  

sipping a cafe at the coast of nice

Sipping a cafe at the coast of Nice, I just remember that one of my colleagues in my previous office came here, in order to participate in two weeks French language program at the center of this city, as his summer vacation. He then lived in Brussels, so took a flight to go here, and lent an apartment room/studio near the school for two weeks. It was a small, but cozy room, he said, and everyday he prepared for French lessons, and studied in the school during the day, then came back to apartment and cooked for dinner. 


That did not sound like "vacation", I said to him after he came back to the office at the time. And his response was that, of course, he and fellow students in the same course, occasionally or each weekend, went to a bar or restaurant for dinner, for getting to know each other, or just for joy. 


The program had one day field trip in the city to learn city's history by visiting its landmarks, by walk. And my colleague said that he had an pretty interesting impression on the historical background of one of its fountains. I almost forget why he had such an impression, and at this moment, I have totally no idea where that fountain is/was in this city. So now, all I can do is just sipping a cafe again, and listening to the sound of eternal sea waves.


Nice, France.

walking along with avenue de toison d'or

Walking from Louise square to somewhere along with Avenue de Toison d'Or, I was passing through literally the shopping center of Brussels city. On my right side, I found lots of  somehow affordable apparel shops and other stores including HEMA, dutch casual chain-dimestore, and on the left across the high-way like Tunnel Louise, I saw seamless luxury shops and a tallest hotel around there, which was once crowned Hilton name on it, but recently Swiss-capital bought it and renamed it, just "The Hotel". 

The name of Avenue Toison d'Or seemed to be quite popular here in Brussels, like 5th avenue in New York City or Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, maybe from my personal viewpoint. On a night of Friday or Sunday, I watched a local talk show on TV in French (by the way, Brussels has two languages, and I often watched French programs), and in a show, the male host/middle aged was costumed like a quasi-taxi driver, and whenever a guest/celebrity of Belgium came to his show-studio/ Taxi like set construction, the guest says her/his destination to go. And watching the show at the night, the actress like pretty woman said to the driver/host, just "Toison d'Or !" with an impressively chic accent. At the end of the show, the actress actually came to the Avenue, gotting off the real taxi (without paying, of course), at the very front of newly built galeries de la Toison d'Or/ shopping arcade containing a cinema, a couple of restaurants, and young apparels like scotch and soda, also Dutch chain, again.

Here was casually kind of the center of Brussels, Avenue de Toison d'Or.  

brocante at heros square

There is a small street named "rue de nieuwenhove" near Heros square in Uccle commune area. On the side of this street, I was just sitting and looking up at the nicely blue sky on a sunny day in late May, because this was the space I was given by the local chamber of commerce for its annual brocante/ flea market at the square. Though it was at the end of May and nicely sunny day, but here in Brussels, many people including me took a coat at a certain point on the day, simply because it was enough cold to do so.


Anyway, on our space, my wife offered used tableware including several dishes and cups, clothes, and toys for babies. And I put my old collections consisted of several books (all in English, they were about sports or business), a baseball cap (Chicago Cubs), and a soccer/football neck scarf (Paris Saint-German FC, a souvenir of my first visit in Paris). All were just for 1 euro at the time.


I still remember my first customer, who was a junior high school boy near Heros square, coming alone. At first, he took a look on a neck scarf of PSG, but showed more interest in biography books, particularly four of them, which were about football coaches, Mr Mourinho (Portuguese), Mr Wenger (French), Mr Cappello (Italy) and Sir Furguson (Scottish). Again, these books were all in English, and the boy spoke French, his native, and average-Dutch (both are must-learn-languages in Brussels school), but had totally no idea of English. While all these four people nicely attracted this boy because he took so much time to check all of them (actually checking pictures on the books), only, but a sky-high-barrier of English language prevented him from choosing neither of them. So, I actually helped him. I offered a special discount only for him, one for 25 cents (centieme euros), saying he surely could learn English with them. After my encouragement, he took Mr Mourinho's for 25 cents decisively, because it was the thinnest book among them.


Here was in the middle of Heros brocante, Uccle, Brussels.   

twilight sky at louise stop in summer

I'm not quite sure how many times I was just looking up at the twilight sky at Louise stop, especially in summer like today, while waiting for tram 92. Tram 92, my only commuter-tram, no alternative, was rarely coming soon whenever I was at the stop, and I saw always two or three tram 95s sharing Louise stop, coming firstly there. I do not know why so many 95s always came first before single 92 coming. I still think 95 trams did not outnumber 92 trams during evening-hours. And also I saw two or more 92 trams running opposite direction (inbound) before my destination's (outbound) coming. For several years, I've learned, maybe, it was just a nature of tram 92 outbound. 


Waiting for tram 92 outbound at Louise station, in the evening, I used to look up at the billboard of red "Q", Quick Burger chain-restaurant, Belgian version of golden "M" arch, at the top of the building standing at the corner of this Louise square. Then, usually I moved my focus on the opposite corner, where the Nespresso store was under construction at the time, later newly built. 


Sometimes, I saw a car with big "Red Bull" drink can/display on its roof led lots of roller-bladers, -skaters, including kids and adults, along with avenue Louise. On the other day, that Red Bull car also led lots of cyclists with lousy music. Each time, police cars followed them for safety.


Maybe, since I was waiting at Louise stop for such a long time, in total, I think I still have lots to talk about the events I happened to encounter there. Nonetheless, at this moment, just the twilight sky I looked up at in the summer evening keeps coming in my mind. So, the colors of Louise square were always orange and water blue.


Here was Louise, also a nice shopping center in Brussels. 

running uccle 10k event

The commune/ town Uccle has had its running event crowned with its name, Uccle 10 K, and in my memory, it's inaugural competition was held in the early summer in 2008. The entire course was 10 kilometer, having mix of up and down hills. So, it was really quite tough one. One of its uniqueness was we started from a horse race track at the very beginning of the race. We have to finish the entire horse truck before going into bois de la cambre/ Cambre forest park, then passed through la observatoire/ observatory, and jumped in Saint Job square, then went up to Fort Jaco, and finally came back to Cambre park and crossed the finish line at the horse race track, welcome back. 

Each time I participated in, a local TV camera took a shot of the start-dash of most competitive runners who eagerly occupied the front line of the entire participants. After on your mark, getting set, then go-signal echoed, several high school student-runners always got pretty good start-dashes. In a particular year, I found one of those "dash men" even did not wear a running shirt and pant, but put a casual T shirt and jeans on, with a pair of Converse sneakers. And as everyone can easily expect, these dash men slowly lost their propulsion power, like after launching of a space-shuttle putting into orbit, then they were among the mass stream. 

Here was in Uccle. The mascot of this event was a blue running man, quite simple. 

delhaize proxy in saint job square

Usually, on Sunday, there were few stores open for customers in Uccle. So, at the beginning of my Brussels life, I often wandered around my apartment in each Sunday morning, in order to look for any glossary stores, which could be open on Sunday and offer any slices of breads possibly consisted of my simple breakfast. And it took 15 minutes walk for me to reach a Delhaize proxy, a mini-supermarket, which was obviously a chain-shop of its parent company "Delhaize supermarket group", and open 7 days a week. I'm not quite sure how this store could be an exception to the strict Belgium rule banning Sunday operation for any stores and shops.


Anyhow, on every Sunday in Uccle, unless I was in a vacation-trip, I surely went to that Delhaize proxy, by walking, by running, and sometimes by taking tram 92. When walking, I cannot count how many times I crossed a bridge over the railroad to reach there, though the government owed railroad corp did not run any commuter-trains on Sunday, so, I did not see any train whenever I crossed. Passing the bridge, I went down a slope along with tram 92 line, and sometimes, the tram 92 was passing by me. I over-looked the saint job square from the slope, while already smelling baguettes or petite pains in that store.


Saint Job square, here was in Uccle, Brussels. 

going to delhaize through marronniers arch

The nearest supermarket I used to go so many times in Uccle was "delhaize". In my memories, there were two delhaize supermarkets around there, and to go to one of them, I usually came around the street slightly sloped down from la observatoire/ an astronomical-observatory. There were tall marronniers/ horse chestnut trees along with this street, and in the early autumn or at the end of summer, whenever running under these sacred-arch-like tree-tunnel, I often found lots of house-chestnuts accidentally crashed under my shoes.

At a certain point, I used my car to go to that delhaize. I always chose same avenue and street to go there from my apartment, hence, I drove down that same street under same tall marronniers. Maybe, since then, I never care house-chestnuts and its trees, and literally never saw them while driving. I also never thought about the sacred-arc-like tree tunnel, until I missed them now, with help/hidden-power of a glass of biere/ "coors-light", in here, in Maryland.

It was in Uccle, Brussels. By the way, I also miss the landscape I saw from the roof parking lot of that supermarket. Lots of tree-greens and browns, and also orange-brown roof tops of houses nearby, that's absolutely beautiful.

tram's chauffeur goes to a boulangerie at an intersection

Maybe, it was a mild day in the morning in Brussels. As always, I took a tram to go to my office, and the tram, as always, already had several commuters on board, and several seats were still empty when I got into it. I sit on  literally the front seat, just behind the tram driver/chauffeur. And as the tram was going, I was just looking at the scenery from the tram window, just as always. 

It was a nice day, so, sun was shining in the morning in Brussels, and I think it was rare in here. 


When the tram passed through several stops, there was a boulangerie near an intersection, which was not big, not like franchise-chain store, but seemed to be a family owned and managed small bakery, and always had various sweet rolls, croissants and brioches in its showcase. And at the time, I realized that I was not the only person who just wanted to take one of these good looking sweet rolls. While the tram stopped at the intersection with red traffic light, the driver quite naturally went outside, and quietly entered the boulangerie. He seemed to say "bon jour" to the baker, and pointed his finger at a quite nice sweet roll. It took just 5 or 6 minutes for him to go back to his seat with a nice roll, but the traffic light already turned from red to blue, and then red came again. This means that  he had time to take a first bite of the roll, at least until the traffic light allowed the tram/him went on.


Here was Brussels, maybe, in spring or early summer, several years ago. 

same rainbow

Today, I saw a rainbow hung in the western sky in this Maryland. At the time, dark clouds gathered as if we would have a huge evening shower sooner or later tonight, and as my everyday routine exercise, I was running through the country road leading to nowhere, but a local supermarket or discount wholesale warehouse. While running, I found that that rainbow was quite similar to what I saw when taking "tram 92" running through Uccle, southern Brussels, almost 4 years ago. That rainbow was above a small, local chain supermarket, named "GB". At the time, GB was already purchased by Carrefour S.A., French hypermarket giant, but allowed to remain its name for a while. I remember the billboard painted with strong colors of red "G" and blue "B" on the top of this supermarket roof, and above these, again, a beautiful rainbow was hanging. And maybe, that was the very beginning moment of my Brussels life. 

That was in Uccle, Brussels.

everyone looked upward at the sky for f18s

On the hill near the inner harbor, everyone looked upward at the sky for six F18 jet fighters, named "blue angles". The fighters came from far over the mouth of this small harbor, maybe, originally from a military airport located in this small, Belgium-size Maryland state. Maybe, near Chesapeake bay, I'm not quite sure, though.


On the hill, most people just kept looking up at the sky, and some people held their ears with hands because the thunderous jut sound also came right after the fighters passing through the blue sky. 


The couple of young women sitting in front of me talked with a past middle age man. This aged man just happen to sit next to these women, and asked how they came here. One of them said that they took metro, and the old man picked up a name of metro-station nearby. All of them sometimes stopped their conversation to look for F18s in the sky, always flying high. 


On the day, blue angels seemed to pass through skyscrapers of this busiest city in this state.


Here's Baltimore.

in the shimmer of summer heat, milano

In that summer, I was in Milano, and still remember it was so hot and humid at the time just like today in DC. I was walking on the top of Duomo di Milano, 'cause it was accessible for tourists for just 10 or 15 euro, or walking around an intersection near Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, looking for the science and technology museum, so-called "Da Vinci" tech-museum. Anyway, anyhow, I  reach the gelatteria, ice cream shop near the tech museum instead, and was drinking a icy diet-coke there at first. Having a creamy,  white-green pistachio-gelato, and sitting one of only two or three small steel chairs, I was just aimlessly looking at people walking outside, all seemed to hate that afternoon heat. 


Basilica was literary in the midst of the shimmer of hot air.  With a bottle of diet-coke still filled around half, I just went outside and walked to the wrong direction, opposite to the museum, just thinking to be in that hot shimmer.


Maybe, in that evening, I went to the pizza restaurant somewhere in the city, which had only a piece of pizza Margherita and beer on its menu. Both are my favorite, but I reluctantly washed down the pizza with beer. I knew that this piece of Margherita was one of the best I've ever had, but still was able to hold my excitement or surprised-good luck at the time. I just looked outside, and knew that still people were walking in the shimmer of summer heat in this evening.


Here's street in Milano, Milan. 

underground greens at malmö station

When I saw the sea of Öresund strait from the train eventually going to Gotebourg, the sea diminished its boundaries between itself and the gray sky. In the sky, the white snow flakes began to fall gracefully, but a little bit heavily. A few sea gulls were just flying over the strait. They seemed to literally just fly, not look for small fishes for their dinner, or not enjoy going over the snow-strait which had myriad small white waves on it. 

 

The winter at the end of that year was so severe that all I remember while walking around Copenhagen or around the Malmö city at the time, were the cafes where I always needed a cup of hot coffee to escape snows. Maybe, I had a paper cup of a hot coffee in the train  that eventually stopped at the Malmö station, because of the severe weather.

I took off the train, and saw the lines of screens on the wall of this underground station. There were green trees and blue lakes on them. No sound, no people, no music and no voices. Just images of scenery. Outside, maybe, some cm (inches) snows maybe would bother me to walk from the station, to find still opened cafe around there. Thinking about that,  I just looked at these images, crushing a paper cup in my hand after finishing the coffee.

Here was underground at the Malmö station.

snow, silent, a sign board and frederiksborg slot

After getting off a train at Hillerød station, at first I saw a small station having white snow on its roof. It was in the morning on Sunday, at the middle of winter, and the sky in here was cloudy gray as usual, and a small bird flying enough high near the ceiling of the gray looked like a tiny black dot.
On the way to the bus stop, I had to take care of my steps on the powder snow, which had hardly been frozen tightly even under the freezing point. Its color was kind of a mixture of white and light brown.The bus for the famous Frederiksbourg palace had yet to come there, so I had to wait for a while. A middle-age woman and I were the only potential passengers for the bus at the time. On Sunday, few merchandises were open even in Copenhagen for not only tourists, but also even residents. So, under freezing point and with few shops open on street, I saw few people walking around the stop. Nicely silent and powder snow.


Taking a bus that would take only less than 10 min ride to the Palace, I found a relatively big shopping mall, which had a big sign board of "H&M", Hennes and Mauritz, one of tenants of that mall. Curiously enough, when I went back to my memoir of Frederiksbourg slot, at first, I happened to encounter the red sign of these two words that I saw at the time through the bus window, without thinking any, but maybe looking for a hot coffee somewhere around there or my destination, the palace.


Here was Frederiksborg slot, a beautiful palace in winter for me.

once a driver living in apartment in monaco

Maybe, it was my teens when I watched an hour-long TV documentary program, which focused on a life of a not-so-famous driver for formula one, in short, F1 driver. I'm not a kind of F1 geek, but I think he was not a type of well-known figure that typically had won many trophies with an envious red ferrari, because the program just showed his everyday life as it was, and it seemed to be quite ordinal, not the special, or celebrated one. I do not have any words for it, but just do say it is ordinal.

 

He lived in his home country with his wife, and he bought a small but nice house in the countryside, and he just did his training and necessary duties as a driver routinely in his countryside house, and sometimes went to a big city, maybe capital in his country, and sometimes went abroad. Nothing was special, except he also bought an apartment in Monaco, where always one of F1 grand prixs has been held since mid-50's. Whenever Monaco grand prix was held, always he had stayed in his apartment alone. The apartment was at around 10th floor, maybe, and he had always enjoyed the beautifully shining sea from a wide window, while doing routine training in his apartment.

This is the reason why I came to this small country, sovereign city state, at the middle of April. The breeze was so nice, and always the blue sea was shining with reflecting the warm spring sun. Of course sea gulls flew high. In my teens, I just imagined that when I was enough old to come to this city state, I could buy or rent an apartment like the envious one F1 driver enjoyed. 

Now, still, all I can do was just looking for the window of that apartment I watched on the TV program once, while waking around the uphill and downhill slopes.

Here was the Principality of Monaco.

at a bagle cafe in leuven

It was in autumn when I saw some college students riding their bicycles on the old stone pavement in Leuven city. Their bicycles seemed to be a little bit old fashion, but its silver body was nicely glittering. I just stood at the end of a small alley at the center of the old town, and after the bicycles passing by, I walked across a relatively busy street. Maybe it was around 13:00, and just in time for lunch in here Belgium, so fortunately, I found a nice, casual bagel cafe standing along with the street. 


In front of the cafe, there were several tables which were already occupied by young people enjoying the afternoon sun shining. Inside the cafe, I listened to the mild-sound of jazz-like music running like a favor of coffee. I took a small table, and ordered a salmon sandwich with sesame bagle, a small glass of beer, stella artois, and a cup of espresso. The sandwich was good, since I enjoyed the incredibly fresh salmon. Shipping an espresso, I saw young people, maybe students of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, talking like singing with cups of coffee as if they were holding a seminar in a classroom, though it was Sunday afternoon.


Here was Leuven, this city has an old university.  

a cold day in florida

The sky is so blue and high, and the breeze in Merritt Island is unseasonably chilly. I take an additional shirt and a little bit thick coat to go to this Island, but still feel cold. When walking so-called "LC-39 observation gantry", in short, observation of space-shuttle launch and etc, I hear the birds crying, which sometimes come down to trash boxes to pick up pop-corns around there.

At the fourth floor of the gantry, I also hear the sounds of the chilly breezes, and at the time, I see the launch complex 39s, where astronauts in maybe 70's, 80s, 90s, and 2000s went to their journeys. Their journeys. In here, the space center, it is said as "our" journeys with full of dreams and hopes in future. 

This night, the TV news says that it is an unseasonable cold temperature in here in two years, and farmers are worrying about damages from this chillness to their crops, especially fruits.

Here is Merritt Island, Florida.