Friday, March 11

Winter Break in the Deep South... Sunny? Not a chance!

Angel Arms in Brussels, Belguim

Two days after the Nuit ICAM, Jaq, Val and myself went to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of Europe! We ate Belgian waffles, Belgian beer and Belgian french fries and they were really really good. We went to see the Manekkin Piss (a statue of a kid pissing; when he is wearing a new costume his piss is beer and not just the usual water), Atomium (a really gigantic gigantic model of an atom with 8 electons), Tintin Shop (because Tintin is a Belgian cartoon), outside of Mini-Europe Theme Park (because it was closed for the winter! Twas really a pity), and of course the European Commission and the European Parlianment. We had a guided tour inside the Parliament, and we got to see the Parliamentary Debating Chamber! It was awesome. And the most interesting part of our visit to Brussels was my chance encounter with Rana, my german friend who used to work in ICAM but transferred to Strasbourg just a couple of weeks before. It was really really unbelievable, that we were inside the same building (a church, of all places!) at the same time. This is a really small world we have. I never imagined I would ever see him again, let alone see him in Brussels, inside a church! It really made my day. hehe See you again soon Rana, maybe in Manila next time!

NUIT ICAM 2005

Isa lang masasabi ko: I look good in a suit! hahaha Im kidding of course. The NUIT ICAM (thats ICAM Night, the grand school ball of ICAM with ICAM students, ICAM alumni and just about anybody who wanted to party). But this was not just any regular party, 'twas the biggest and most exciting party I have ever been to. The theme for this year was Capitals of Festivals, so they transformed all the hallways, classrooms and amphitheatres of ICAM into replicas of famous world capitals of culture, among which are of course Paris, Barcelona, Hollywood, Kingston, Vladivostok, Bora-bora, Montreal, Tokyo, Bombay, Manila (kidding, although the ICAM director of studies suggested that they include it and naturally I should manage it, but hehe I couldn't do it on my own), Rio de Janiero and others. The students of my batch (that's Promotion 107) did a really fantastic job making all the venues and bars authentic and perfect. I really felt I was in a different world (my being so notwithstanding). There were a lot of people, and the drinks were overflowing. And I danced a lot! Yeah! It's unbelievable that I danced. This is the first time I danced in a disco setting, and I had a really great time. I didn't care what other people thought, I just wanted to have fun. So we danced and danced to techno and pop music until 3am, and when my feet started to hurt (we were dressed in formal clothes and leather shoes, not really the kind of outfit for disco dancing) we went to Bar Tokyo and played PS2 games, racing games and my very first virtual reality fighting game. I really had such a blast! Surely, I had a nasty hangover the following day, and I had to be up at 10am because Val and Jaq (Atenistas who studied in Limoges) just arrived in Lille the day before.