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!