A quick message from "Americans for Fairness in Lending"

Don't be FOOLED!

To Stay or Not to Stay

Eurodad has a strict 6 month policy when it comes to Interns, that worked very well for me, and therefore as my six months are coming up at the beginning of Feb. (the 3rd to be exact), I have been making some great plans to do absolutely nothing but hang out with family and friends once I got home. However, Alex, the Director of Eurodad, has asked me to stay an extra month.

Now, I was planning on sitting around and waiting for the Peace Corps to send me somewhere during the month of February. There was some skiing tucked in there, along with eating out of my mother’s fully stocked fridge. However, now that his opportunity has arrived, I’m torn between hanging out with my family (before I ditch them for 27th months) or working in Brussels a little bit longer.

Thoughts?

It's like watching two chimps throw poop at each other, it's gross, but you can't look away!

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It's so strange, she goes off about single mothers and how awful it is for the nation that we have so many children raised by only one parent....what percentage of those single mothers do you think actually WANTED to be single? I mean honestly, how many thought about their life and were like "hmmm, I want to get pregnant at age 17 by a man who is going to leave me and be stuck as a single mother working a minimum wage job so I can support my child who will have no father figure"...I'm thinking not too many, and the fact that the "liberal" media/culture recognizes the hardships these woman face and show how amazing it is that so many single mothers are not only succeeding at their job as mothers, but also in their own personal life (which I suppose Anne doesn't believe mothers should have) is clearly our way of showing disdain for the nuclear family. Obviously.

Brussels' uncleared sidewalks: 3 - Philippa's bruised butt: 0

Just keeping score on how many times I've eaten it on the uncleared, unsalted/sanded "sidwalks" (often confused with a midget version of slip and slide) in this wonderful city.

It's FREEZING in brussels right now!

God I'm cold, Brussels high for the day was -6 degrees C.

How is this global warming? I think it should be called global climate change. Or global coldness.

I'm lying in bed wrapped in my blankets with a hat on, socks on, a scarf on and my gittens (half gloves/mittens).



I know I just had a holiday, but I need a vacation to go somewhere WARM!

"Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech." Bush to the Pope - April 2008

I was reading the Huffington Post (genuinely part of my job) and there were some Bush-ism in one article that made me reminisce about the "fun" times we've had over the past 8 years.

Here are some good ones:

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." _ September 2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee _ I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee _ that says, fool me once, shame on _ shame on you. Fool me _ you can't get fooled again." _ Sept. 17, 2002, in Nashville, Tenn.

"The fact that they purchased the machine meant somebody had to make the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there's jobs at the machine-making place." _ May 27, 2008, in Mesa, Ariz.

"Throughout our history, the words of the Declaration have inspired immigrants from around the world to set sail to our shores. These immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and growing nation of more than 300 people." _ July 4, 2008 in Virginia.

"This thaw _ took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw." Oct. 20, 2008, in Alexandria, La., as he discussed the economy and frozen credit markets.

Happy New Years

So the vacation is over, and I am once again sitting in my office watching it snow. I left London this morning at 5am with a nice thin blanket of white, which still looked pretty and untouched as I drove out towards St. Pancras Station. Upon my arrival in Brussels, the snow had already become slushy, grey and wet, so my walk to work with all of my bags was a little awkward.

For those of you who are my facebook friends, I’m sure you could tell that I had a great New Years (re: the pictures posted by my sister), for those of you who aren’t, it is probably safer that way.

However I spent most of my holiday down at my parents’ new house in the New Forest eating, going for walks and napping. It was nice. It was also the first (and maybe last time for a while) time in about two years that all five of us (my parents and my two sisters) were all together.

I have just over one month left in Belgium before I head off to my next adventure (this ‘adventure’ may be me crashing at my parents’ while I figure out what is going on…my life = super exciting). I hope everyone had a great New Years/ Christmas / Hanukkah/ Kwanza / whatever.

Google Reader

I've recently become a big fan of google reader. It is sort of like Facebook, without the networking, if that makes sense. You can see my reader page here, these pages are GREAT if you want to procrastinate at work (not that I EVER do that...as I write this blog, at work...). You can share interesting articles, and your opinions! Spread the love.

The Bike Theft

This week is quite quiet in the office. Alex is in DC and Lucy and Nicolo have left, their replacements will begin in January. Therefore, it is usually just Marta, Nuria and myself working, with Javier popping in a few hours a day. Our office however, is an open plan office, and therefore, it gets VERY quiet. Almost eerily, you can hear EVERYTHING, (or so I thought). However, a very strange (and creepy) thing happened yesterday; while the three of us were upstairs working at our computers, someone snuck into our office and stole Marta’s bike out of the kitchen.

I KNOW!

It’s so strange, because the door is SUPER creaky, so we should have heard the it open, the slower you open it, the louder it is. Therefore, the person that broke in, either must have known this and whipped the door open really fast, or was simply in a rush and just whipped it open without worrying about the noise.

In addition, there are about 3 or 4 bikes outside in the hallway to our office, none of them are locked and none of them were taken.

Marta’s bike was in the back corner of our kitchen, and for someone to come in and take it without being noticed, they must have KNOWN it was there, come in, gone straight to the bike picked it up and walked out.

Oh, and Marta got food poisoning yesterday too, it’s definitely her week.

Checking up on the news. Some serious news for this serious time.

Personal ads at their best, if anyone needs a nemesis, give this guy a ring.

Sooty, after what was probably, the best night ever.