Some more

I've just had an amazing dinner at Lukemieke. That place rocks!

Lunch was nothing special; just a mixed salad with pomegranate seeds, hummus, whole wheat bread and carrots, plus a banana.

This picture isn't really illustrative of my lunch, but I love the colors!

***

I said goodbye to all my friends here since my flight is tomorrow. I'll miss them all for sure! =(

Gilmore Girls

Despite the ordination mess, yesterday was a nice evening, especially after a whole day of packing. My mom and I went to Mykene, a restaurant that i loved the first time I went there, but where I've never came back during these six month basically because it'a a little pricy for a income-equal-zero (or almost) college student like me. So, having a paying-parent around it's a good excuse to go in nice places to eat great food (or I thought this!). Anyway, first things first!

I really appreciated the time I spent with my mom since I don't live at home anymore and when I came back for the weekend we couldn't have proper time to chit chat or to really talk with each other, because there were always something to do or someone to meet. I think that this whole moving-madness has actually helped me to get closer again with my mom like we used to be.

This is my mom, say hello!

***

Back to the restaurant that I loved so much the first time, well, we broke up. Definitely.

Why? I'll tell you soon...

The first course and the bread were amazing, like I remembered

a vegetable soup (really appreciated since here is sooo cold)

and 3 slices of whole wheat bread, mmm

The second course was planned to be jacket potatoes with grilled vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese plus a side salad, well, not exactly what I received...

Ok, I hate when the waitress mess with my ordination, but this time (I'm usually more bitchy on this point) I decided I could live with that (and eat it) since it looked like spinach and cheese jacket potatoes and sufficiently yummy.

Well, it turned out that there weren't only spinach and cheese on the jacket potatoes, but also a meat-hamburger in the mix! (Can you spot it?) I was really pissed off since I explicitly told the waitress I was vegetarian even if the dish was already marked as vegetarian. By the time they changed my dish (actually I'm not even sure if they redid the whole thing or just switched the hamburgers), I knew for sure I won't come back again!

What do you usually do when the waiter mess with your ordination?

Do you change it or you eat it anyway?

***

Yesterday's lunch was this

Whole wheat Spaghetti with tomato sauce, black olives, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes

Now I'm off to the real-deal at Lukemieke, a vegetarian restaurant that I hope won't reserve me unwelcome surprises!

Fit one room in four cardboard boxes

It's not easy, I tell you!

I hate moving! Totally. Every time I wonder how many things I'm able to accumulate in just a short period of time (6 months, this time in particular) and every time I make the promise that I won't do this mistake again. What mistake?To bring every single dress and pair of shoes that I own (or almost) even if I didn't wear it for ages.

Just in case, I tell myself; just in case what? That I feel the compelling need to wear my high school (or maybe even middle school) green corduroy skirt? Or that I want to wear one of the many pairs of flat shoes with an average of -6 C°?

I know it's all my fault and I'm so frustrated right now!

But I have a way to redeem myself: in less than one month I'll move again from my hometown to my university town (I know, crazy) so I'm here and now challenging myself to bring there all and only the strictly necessary. We'll see...

***

My mom arrived today for helping me with the all moving-thing. I'm so glad she is here so that someone can hear my complaints about how stupid I was to bring all this stuff over here. I love you mom!

This is becoming the most moanful (and boring) post ever, so here are my food intake of the day and I'm off to try to calm me down (I see ho chocolate and a book involved).

• Breakfast (plus a soy Cappuccino)
• Lunch:

Whole wheat tortilla,

creamy goat cheese,

tomatoes

and Brussels sprouts

(I'll miss them soooo much)

• Afternoon snake: an undocumented apple, you know why.
• Dinner at Greenway (the beauty of having a paying-parent to hang out with!)

There is a spinach burger under all that lettuce, I guarantee.

And it was also delicious.

I also had side salad with mixed veggies, wheat berries and raisins

and as dessert a spiced tea with a little piece of brownie

I talked a lot with my mom about what I wanna do after college (NO IDEA), if I have to choose a master (what kind?) and where to go to do it. I've really missed these long talks even if I'm not sure if this time it was effective to clear my mind.

Ok, time to go, an exciting packing day is waiting for me tomorrow!

Take it up to the next level

I'm a grown-up!

Now I have a "real" about page, a kind of recipe page and a guide to travels one.

I'm so happy to have all these new spaces where my uncontrolled need to talk (and to write) can move freely.

I also didn't make a mess with all the nerdy computer-related things that came along with having a blog. That means: I now consider myself ready for my database exam of the next Friday.

An Antwerp guide by an italian girl- Part II

So, here we are for show you the first reason why I decided to spend a day in Antwerp, and I'm not afraid to say so: Shopping!



Antwerp is full of nice shops and especially of my beloved vintage ones, but let the addresses do the talk:

Belchique

Kloosterstraat 177

Labels Inc.

Aalmoezenierstraat 4

Jutka &Riska

Nationalestraat 87

Sussies

Oude Koornmarkt, corner Zwaluwstraat 69

Bonaventura

Aalmoezenierstraat

Pardaf

Gemeentestraat 8

Think twice

Lange Klarenstraat 21

I also went to Urban Outfitters because I love so much their clothes and here in Europe the stores are rare (only in the northern part) and in England.

***

With all this shopping you'll become hungry at a certain point (like I did; many times). The city is full of cute places for lunch or for a snack. Unfortunately I can't suggest you any place for dinner since I didn't dine there. I really appreciate the fact that there were a lot of  clearly indicated vegetarian option on the menus of the restaurant that I checked (it's usually the same in Leuven, but one time I couldn't take a soup because all the option -6/7 soups in total- were made with chicken stock; this won't happen to you in Antwerp for sure!). Anyway, for lunch I went here:

Lombardia

Lombardenvest 78

I basically chose this place because it was colorful and it has the same name of the italian region where I study, so I was curious to discover why (= the name of the street is Lombardenvest and it has really something related to the italian region). I had one of the best pumpkin soup ever, but it went with only a slice of bread (I need more carbs to tackle an afternoon of shopping!).

Earlier I stopped for a coffee and to plan my day here:

Exky

It's a kind of all natural high quality fast-food restaurant chain and it was full of yummy sandwiches and cakes. I got a good coffee (yes! It wasn't dirty water as usual, a carrot chocolate and some dark chocolate that I'm finishing as I type this, yum)

Another place really worth to mention for baked goods is this:

Desiree de Lille

Schrijnwerkersstraat 14-18

***

To finishing up this afternoon guide to Antwerp, here are two more reasons to visit it:

It's super girlie

Even walls are worth to notice

Enjoy it!

An Antwerp guide by an italian girl- Part I

Antwerp is damn cool!

Yeah, I've finally found a Belgian city that I really love. Mission accomplished!

So, this "guide" won't be exhaustive nor particularly cultural since yesterday was the first time that I visited the city and I wanted to go there primarily for shopping-releted reasons. Indeed Antwerp is known for being a fashion city (it hosts the Royal Academy of Fine Arts) and for the Antwerp Six, a group of influential avant garde fashion designers.

I just wanted to share with you some nice things to see in Antwerp and cool shops that I found when I was there, more like a guide for an afternoon of shopping rather than a cultural and historical visit of the city. I also wanted to share some nice pictures of funny things!

***

The first thing to mention when you arrive in Antwerp by train is the Central Station. I was stunned! It's gorgeous and it's only a little taste of the beauty of the city.

And it also as this beloved place in it (the only one in the whole Belgium- or almost-, unbelievable!)

Afternoon snack: a tall Cappuccino with skim milk

***

Things to see

St. James' Church

Rubenshuis

Cathedral of Our Lady

Grote Markt

Boerentoren

(the oldest skyscraper in Europe, ohhh)

Statue of Brabo and the giant's hand

Momu: Fashion Museum

Momu

***

Coming soon.. the second (and funniest) part with all the nice vintage shops, my purchases and cute places to eat (and more random photos).

Boring day, boring workout

Just two days of freedom and now I'm back to the good old all-day-long-studying days.

So that's what exactly I did today, minus the blogs-reading and some really needed time chit-chatting with one of my BFs.

I'll be brief because, guess what? More study-time is waiting for me!

Food intake of the day

• Breakfast
• Lunch at Coup de Soup

Tomato soup

(the waiter messed with my order so I got a big cup instead of a small one, yes!)

Whole wheat bread

plus an undocumented Cappuccino with skim milk,

an half chocolate-covered marshmallow

and a pear

• Snack

Soy vanilla yogurt with grapes, pomegranate seeds and sliced almonds

(and some giant clusters of granola straight from the box, mmm.

To be honest I actually always look for clusters

and I'm truly happy when I find one )

• Dinner

Hummus and roasted Eggplant Sandwich

Tomatoes and Brussels sprouts

and a pear

(I was so close to eat a giant bowl of  cereal for dinner

that I should be proud of me for having cooked a semi-decent amount of food)

***

Today, the workout was a total FAIL: boring and lazy at the same time. I ran a little, then stopped, did some legs exercises, then ran again (really slooowwly), then I was too bored to continue so I went  home for some (boring) ab exercises. I know that it would be a disaster since:

1. I delayed it during the whole day

2. My ipod was dead just a second after I started to run

***

Apparently I'm back to my exam session exciting life. Good to know!

Tomorrow I'll go to Antwerpen IF the weather will be decent for some shopping, maybe not a such great idea since I'm moving in less than a week and I already have tons of stuff to fit in my baggages... mumble mumble

Random Monday II

Second post of the day. Lucky you!

I collected my database book (exciting!) from the post office and now he is menacingly staring at me... brrr

It doesn't even have words!!!

***

As snack I had an eat natural bar, documented (and eaten) very quickly since I didn't want to look like a crazy while snapping a photo of it. I don't think I succeed.

It was good, but they practically forgot the dark chocolate part

in the cranberries, macadamias and dark chocolate flavor's expectation

Ok, I know I've just promised that I would not have gone grocery shopping anymore, BUT that was before I passed by an asian food shop that I had never seen AND I remembered that I needed some tomato sauce if a wanted to cook the premeditate dinner for tonight. So I just did it, but I limited myself at just one item:

Whole wheat soba noodles

I have NO idea how to use them,

Any suggestion??

Dinner was a long-term (=yesterday) craved item:

Whole wheat Pasta with Eggplant, Chickpeas and Black olives sauce

It was delicious and it took me like 20 minutes to make it.

While waiting for the water to boil, I sliced a small onion and browned it with some oil in a frying pan; then I added 1/2 medium-size diced eggplant, chickpeas and some water to make them cook. When the eggplant was tender, I added the tomato sauce, pepper and hot pepper to taste, black olives and some basil (not fresh because I forgot to buy it, ehm ehm). Then I threw the cooked pasta directly in the pan to mix all the flavor. Enjoy, I surely did! =)

"Dessert" was a boring pear, but I'm sure I'll eat some chocolate later since I'm studying database... Moral support needed!

Today, I didn't run but I walked for like three hours (not all at once!) and I'll probably do some stretching later since my back is hurting me. Mmm I forget things, my back is a pain, I don't go out because I'm tired, it definitely looks like I'm 81.

Random Monday

This morning I wake up relatively early for a no-class no-study day, but I thrown a lot of my morning time away doing this (totally worth it!!) and reading blogs (also totally worth it!) instead of starting to pack (bleah).

I ran some errands, though. Among these were returning my rented bike (I actually walked to the bike shop since after five minutes out it started raining. A lot!), going to a grocery store; completely forgetting what I had to buy; going out from the store; remembering what I had to buy; going in another grocery store; buying the THING (that you'll see as part of my lunch); chasing the bus and finally take it.

Oh right! I also made some thrift shopping; for 9.55 € I won:

Two fancy glasses (I see a lot of nice parfaits in my future),

a plate, a rainbow table cloth, a not-needed grey dress,

plus the blue plate that I used for lunch (and I didn't want to wash yet ehm ehm)

***

Lunch was practically thrown together with the same ingredients as breakfast since I need to finish as food as possible before leaving -that means NO exciting grocery shopping this week =(

a Salad made with:

Baby spinach leaves (the THING)

1/2 pear

lamb's lettuce

pomegranate seeds

mixed seeds and nuts

(sunflower, pumpkin, almonds, flax, courgettes , pine nuts)

balsamic vinegar as dressing

2 slice of whole wheat bread with goat cheese

plus an orange and caffèlatte

Now I'm off to the post office to pick up my database book (bleah) for the exam that I have to do at home. I was secretly hoping that it was lost somewhere in Europe, but nope! So I don't have more excuses, dammit!

Quality time

I missed sooo much some time by myself, doing things that I really love to do, that today was almost close to my idea of a perfect day! (not a whole perfect day since I missed the only important thing, though).

I started this Sunday in the best way you can (late) start a Sunday: a brunch, of course! Lot of yummy food and staring at people in the street.

Then I walked randomly around Leuven to photograph random things. So happy it wasn't raining!

Obviously bikes because they are everywhere!

And they are also parked in the most creative ways

Then I went to the Jardin Botanique. I know, not such a great idea in the middle of January , but it actually was more alive than what I expected.

And I also found this:

Run, run, run

I ran 7.5 km in 45 minutes. YES! It was also raining= bonus point.

I came back home completely soaked, eh eh but I love sooo much running in the rain.

The plan for the night was dinner+ going out, but I'm too tired for going out and for cooking a decent dinner (= not directly coming out from the freezer). So I had frozen tomato soup (that I actually really love, the frozen version, I mean), hummus, whole wheat bread, and surprise surprise: Brussels sprouts. I've saved you the pictures of this creative and never seen dinner =)

I'm looking forward to going home and to have a REAL oven to bake with!

Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with (you) me.

What is your idea of a perfect day?

I don't see fun in my near future

I'm free from exams here (I have a couple more at home, duh!). So this week I'm gonna pack all my teeny tiny room FULL of stuff and leave Leuven. I'm almost done with my exchange, I cannot believe it! These 6 months were super fast (
and completely free from studying
). Sometimes I feel like I could have done more (more study, more trips...), but then I remember that I discovered something that I really like to do (photography) and I met great people, I saw Paris many and many times, so it wasn't wasting time at all!

So now, in my near future I see:

• moving (with an help to pack the HUGE amount of my stuff (20 pairs of shoes, ehm ehm). Thanks mom!)
• one month at home and then moving again (Yurray!) to my University city
• starting to think about my thesis
• doing my last 6 exams
• thinking about what I want to do after (absolutely.no.idea.)

So all funny and pleasurable things, you see. I'm also planning a travel somewhere, so I won't be crazy by the end of the semester.

Today my food was meh meh meh, exactly like the whole day. Besides breakfast which was yummy I had:

a PBJ sandwich and a pear

Since I wasn't really hungry before my exam and I had nothing else in my fridge (literally). I snacked on a

black
very ripe banana and caffèlatte (no photos, because it wasn't a nice view).

Dinner was a HUGE salad with everything

(mushrooms, broccoli, cherry tomatoes,carrots, Brussels sprouts)

since I was very low in veggies today, hummus and whole wheat bread

plus an orange

Now I'm off to a birthday party in a place called Villa Ernesto where they do the best mojito of Leuven (and also the only one, I suppose).

I see a very late brunch in my future, though.

A Leuven guide by an italian girl

I know, probably it's not the first city that you want to visit in Belgium (anyway, are you sure that you want to visit Belgium?), but Leuven is nice and really university-friendly (the university was founded  in 1425, uhlala) and it's also were I live now (at least, for another week!), so here there are some random places and nice things to do if you ever will be here.

Things to do

From above:

The Town Hall and Grote Markt

Le Jardin Botanique (or Kruidtuin in Dutch, so harmonious)

Ladeuzeplein, the University Library and the giant beetle

The Church of Saint Michael

St. Peter's Church

Even wander around the city is nice

Things to eat (for lunch)

The food maker

(grab n go snacks without preservatives)

Coup de soup

(well, soups, great multi-grain bread)

Nosh

(bagels and other yummy stuff)

Things to buy

Tante Jojo

Hexagoon

(Ravenstraat, 81)

Living lounge

You can see the strangest bikes here. I love that!

Winning combo

I'm looking forward to restart to do things (besides studying), so that I can photograph them.

In the meantime here is what I ate today. I'm officially the leftovers Queen.

Breakfast was this and this:

and a caffèlatte

Lunch: Whole wheat bread, tomato with basil, spinach and guess what? feta!

and a pear (apparently)

plus caffèlatte (i'm coffee-addicted, you know)

As snack I had an apple with peanut butter, but I forgot to take pictures, nothing special anyway!

Dinner was the reason why I deserve the crown of leftovers Queen

Pasta with frozen grilled veggies, peas, chickpeas, black olives, Brussels sprouts (no not feta!)

If you don't know what to do with random

I-have-to-use-them-asap ingredients, make a pasta!

and a pear (again)

I also had the revolutionary (at least for me) idea to bring my notes to the gym. Advantages:

• not fail the exam
• not have a look-like-a-flat-frying-pan butt at the end of the exam session
• being able to do more than five minutes on the elliptical without dying of boredom

It's brilliant! I know that tons of people are already doing this, but I've never realized that it was such a brilliant idea. (It's clear that I need some excitement in my life if I'm so happy for being able to study more)

Have you ever had a multi-tasking idea who has solved a lot of problems?

Dealing with post-exam mood

Since I ate only boring food today, (in order: breakfast, 1/2 banana, tomato soup, multi-grain bagel at Nosh, a pear, caffèlatte with soy milk, whole wheat bread, carrots, Brussels sprouts, hummus, an orange, and maybe some chocolate later) I won't post any photos.

Instead I did a reflection (not serious, I mean) on my post-exam mood which is incredibly similar to the five stage of grief:

1. Denial: I feel fine, the exam went well, I didn't make horrible mistakes in english and dates

2. Anger: Oh wait a sec, I completely misplaced an event in my answer/ I created some serious language-monsters/ I translated italian words in english only by removing the last vowel

3. Bargaining: Maybe the professor won't notice the mistakes/ He must take into account that English is not my mother-language/ I'd do anything to better explain some points

4. Depression: I'm fucked

5. Acceptance: What is done is done/ it's gonna be okay/ Let's move on to the other exams

Now I'm between the stage 3rd and 4th (actually more towards the 4th). I'm looking forward to the 5th, less to my next exam (on Saturday).

Random things of the day:

• A Polish guy went to the exam wearing a suit (!!!). All the other people wore jeans (including me).


• I went to the gym, but I hadn't been properly fueled, so I made lazy random exercises.


• No one of my friends wanted to go out tonight because of the exams session.


• I drank an espresso with salt on the edge of the cup (bleah!).


• I found 1 cent. After all, not a totally bad day!

-1

No, not the temperature (that, for the record, was a sunny 12 C°. In January. In Belgium. While I have to study), but the days before my exam, actually now we can speak of hours. 12 to be precise.

As usual breakfast is here.

Lunch:

Bruschette with frozen grilled veggies, pesto, black olives, fresh basil and feta cheese (again)

and some more topping on the side (with more feta)

one pear and a huge caffèlatte

As afternoon snack I had an apple pie without pie,

so basically microwaved apple with cinnamon and

leftover (ehm ehm) Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream

Dinner was random food on a plate including lentils and tomato sauce,

whole wheat sesame bread, Brussels sprouts

and a sweet and juicy orange (=sticky laptop)

No gym. No run. No workout of any kind, today. Except that I walked to the laundry and back. The only thing that I did apart from studying (and wasting time on internet ahem).

Now I'm gonna prepare the breakfast for tomorrow so I'm sure I won't running late since my exam start at 10 am!

Don't you hate blah Sunday?

No weekend week

That's it, I've studied all day long without interruption (or almost). Yes, maybe, if I had turned off my laptop, I would have been more productive since my study break were much more than it should.

The only photographable thing during my day was food, so here we are:

(For breakfast, check here)

Summerish Greek pasta

made with tomato sauce, black olives, fresh basil and feta

I also add a humongo pear and caffèlatte

Moroccan tea (

while studying

)

as snack: a slice of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and chocolate

(actually, Belgian chocolate= heaven)

Dinner was some leftovers since I'm trying to clean the fridge before going home

Starring: Greenway falafel,

Brussels sprouts (I'm soo into them- I know that sounds weird),

Ghemistà

and an orange

I made the Ghemistà (it's a Greek dish) changing a bit the original recipe; I added peas and feta cheese to brown rice and fresh tomatoes.

Mmm it looks like I'm in a Greek food mood!

Bored of studying (what a exciting life these days!!) I went for a run. I was listening to music (like always) and I can definitely say that the Cure made the workout for me and before I knew it, I ran 7.5 km (4.6 miles). Not bad, given my sucky performance on Monday!

Sooo I think I deserved a dessert, vanilla ice cream anyone?

I'm curious:

DO you also crave food that are NOT meant to be craved (like Brussels sprouts)?