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Published: February 7th 2010
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Dear all,
It has been a long time since I wrote you but actually nothing happened and it frustrates me. Everyone is kind, sun is still shining, cockatoos are even screaming louder I have the impression (they are really noise makers!) but the work doesn't advance. I even didn't started yet. We want day to Clyde to have look and we planned and even booked tickets for the first Daintree mission BUT cyclones Nelson and Olga disturbed the way. Nothing to do about the weather of course but in the meantime I am here almost 0.5 year and still couldn't start what I am here for. It troubles me but I try to put it aside and just help my students in Belgium as much as possible via mail and work at data I gathered last year although I can't really concentrate since my focus is on Australia now.
So here some not-work related talk and pictures since I don't have adventurous stories to tell or amazing mangrove pictures to show. First, I start to learn the many
abbreviations which in the beginning made reading a newspaper quite difficult. Some examples:
PNG Papua New Guinea
TAS Tasmania
ETS Emission
Trading Scheme
GFC Great Financial Crisis
PM Prime minister
MP Member of Parliament
RSVP You know of course what this means, but I hadn't expect a frencg abbreviation in English!
gloots from gluteal muscles (just discovered recently because didn't find right away in the dictionary where it came from)
abs from abdominals (this one I knew immediately but still why abbreviating)
They look maybe not so difficult but getting the story when you don't know the meaning of them is challenging.
Taking the
bus I noticed that the social life in the suburbs is still bit more a life here than at home. All but really all people greet the driver when they get on the bus and wish him a good day when they get off. I struck me and made me realise we lost that by making buses more efficient because it is true buses are not always on time here. Reason is obvious, drivers can have a chat with someone getting on or off for quite some time without feeling embarrassed in front of the other passengers.
Lefties and no then I don't mean it in the political sense (which were once called in a
newspaper 'lentil chewing hippies' which I found quite funny and sounds good don't you think 😱 ) but in the sense of transport. I am fully used now to riding and walking at left side BUT when I went swimming last weekend noticed I wasn't that adapted yet. Almost swam into the girl sharing the lane with me, oopsie.
Rain is another thing which made me think and realize that Belgium is not a bad place to live. They are busy building about five desalination factories and one was opnened 2 weeks ago! For us it is a bit far-away from our bed but here drought is really a problem since about 10 years. Trees are dying, whole lakes and rivers drying and so they really needed water. BUT everyhting has a down side so now there is an issue about the costs it will create. The household budgets will raise by 100$ or more because these plants cost a lot of electricity and that's something they hadn't told the people before of course. So they now want to stop building new factories and emphasize more on recycling and learning people how to use water more efficiently. Message: think
twice before you open the tap. This is probably also why everyone immediately recognizes me as a foreigner. When I went to the Reclycery to get a new bike (the other one I only borrowed), I asked if they could add mudguards. They looked at me as if I asked something really stupid and answered "well yeah, when it rains it can pour, that's true". In each case, I got my mudguards and am happy now 😊
Democratic is Belgium certainly and our school system is amazing. I was shocked when I learned not everyone has access to the university here. Only if you pass certain exams you can register meaning that not everyone can even try! What's more, we were waiting once in the hallway before boxing class. There was another course going on in the room and it were not the usual people sporting there but a big group of teenagers. There was a youth science summer camp thing and again....only kids with certain grades could attent these things. Isn't that shocking! Another school thing I found out is that sports is not given at school here, only after school in clubs. So again it means that
the treshold to participate becomes higher and you create different classes.
To end with something interesting but bit heavy issue,
aboriginals. At home you don't hear much of this problem and you don't think about it but it seems that it like a little developing country in a country. I even started to compare with our relationship with DRCongo. The people are pour, don't have jobs, get money and lots of public survices via welfare BUT nothing changed to their situation since the government started with this programme to help the aboriginals. Just recently the debate goes on that they should stop with offering all these public services and giving money since that could be the thing that keeps them from evolving. Their responsibilities were taken away by the plenty of 'white' people working for these services and there is no stimulus anymore to search for a job because they would earn little more than they now get. I only saw a very tiny part of Congo but there it was also clearly visible where the ngo's were located in town as it were the walled twonships with big villas. Of course these people are needed in a way,
do great jobs, aren't there to earn big money but still can the money not be spend more useful to serve the people more directly? Difficult question and nobody seems to know the answer or the solution since there are so many developed countries that are supported by developing ones but don't get better neither. Is it because there always have to be poor and rich ones? ....
To end with something more positive: I have found a new way to commute by bike. I don't follow the bike path but Duffy road is a very long road so that you don't have to cross streets often and is right at the foot of the mountains. In addition it seems to be a pretty wealthy neighbourhood so you have beautiful trees to look at and houses AND the road is pretty hilly so certainly not boring and WITH a steep hill at the end which makes you go verrrry fast! Yeahaaa, that's why you shouldn't give up, going up that hill 😊
Big hugs,
Nele
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tandarts
SMETS
Abbreviations
W.W.F. V.U.B. g.v.d. Wij willen foto 's van uw bomen Groeten van Diepenbekenaren