Belgium & me

Train zombies

2012-07-21T04:02:00.001-07:00

The feeling of being alone in the universe is even bigger in the train. I travel long distances and spend daily one hour and a half in the train where everyone is plugged to an eyephone, a book/newspaper, or just simply listening music. No one makes eye contact and certainly do not talk with those strangers they see everyday. They are train zombies and I live daily with them. I observe them and most of the time they don't notice it. I feel so lonely without anyone to talk or just hang out with, I can't sleep in motion -I so much envy the ones that can- and listening music just gets to my nerves after 30 minutes. Reading is awesome but I need peace for it.

I started to draw people but after old man gave me some evil looks, I stopped. By the way the old man still looks at me everytime our path cross, he hated to be drawn.

There is Mr. Tielen as well, he seems nice and so far is the only person who smiles back. I imagine him living in a white house with a wife,three kids and a dog(don't ask why). Sometimes I think, he smiles back because he thinks I'm a sort of mentally challenged person but I hold on to think that's he is still human

Lately, I have pushed myself to use my time in the train to improve some skill or learn something new. I started with origami, I can make the crane, a box and a star open box. The lily flower is so hard but I have time to make it eventually. I still do not know what challenge, I'll set myself for next week but let's hope I find something soon because a crying adult woman singing "all by myself" in the train is not cute.

An unique place to be

2012-07-14T03:29:00.001-07:00

The City Hall and the center of the old town seen from the Mont des Arts.

Brussels is a wonderful city full of monuments and exciting cultural life. It's amanzing to see pieces of history in nearly every corner mixed with modern new architecture. I feel so inspired there thought I feel that I am more alone than ever, perhaps it's the language(supersonic French) or the hectic life or perhaps it's just me alienating myself.

I love the fact that you can tied a monkey in your head, wear it as a hat and no one will look at you for a second. The fact that everyone is completly and ultimatly into their own worlds. I draw people in my way and back from Brussels, mainly in the trein and I found out that's not that easy, after a week and a half, I've been caught once by someone who woke up suddenly and our eyes met. It was embarrassing but I smiled and go on like nothing. It is so cool to see people in terms of lines and shapes, everything else fades like beauty,age, gender,ect. I was always looking for beauty but now as beauty has denied me, I just look for willing subjects for my art.

I always walk the beautiful Mont de Arts down to the trein station, frecuently, there's music and tourist photographing frenetically for a perfect picture. I feel that I'm not only discovering a city but little by little I'm discovering a new phase on my life.

A project that took too long

2012-03-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

Last week, an amazing thing happened. The square infront of the Turnhout's Grote Markt kerk was re-opened after more than a year of being closed. Being closed for so long lead many small cafes of the area to disapear. The Grote Markt area now looks revitalized. I took some pictures of day the machinery left, thinking that another day, it would be sparking clean. I returned on Friday just to see that, it was crowded again with a fair and a huge stage that blocks the view of the other side of the street.

An empty space should be always fill? can we just enjoy the minimalism of Grote Markt & kerk? Apparently I can but the rest of the city refuses. I can not enjoy the beauty of the different arquitecture styles while waiting for the bus or walking around the area again. The view has being taken away by a huge black stage and several noisy fair's attractions.
I feel that a view forces me to look up and think. Discover new details on a city that many consider quite boring and plain

The forgotten manor

2012-03-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

On high round windows, I can see the remains of the splendor of past years. The entire city has move on and this old manor frozen in time as an old clock. Everyone can see this decaying building so close to the Grote markt (city center). It's placed across the street one of the most emblematic buildings of Turnhout, the medieval castle and a walking distance from the Begijnhof(béguinage).
I constantly wonder why it has being left behind to decay so openly. I can not avoid thinking that this wonderful building can be a gallery or literary cafe. Perhaps, I tend to look around and wonder about buildings' historical background too much. It's facinating even to imagine the life of people who used to live in those beautifully decorated manors that still are scattered around this city.
I think, I'd lost my bus too often lately and I had time to walk around the city as only a lone foreigner can. People do not even look at eachother in this city(perhaps it's everywhere) and it's hard to believe that they actually would take a second of their busy minds to start looking up to old buildings.

Different perspective

2011-04-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

Looking the busy Patersstraat from a different angle, a second floor. I was drinking tereré (mate, ice tea version)with a good friend and while chatting, different people/cars have passed by. To watch from above gave me the sensation that time passed all around me in an odd intensity.

When everything around changes so fast but you remind in the same spot, feels unnatural somehow.

I noticed that the bakery infront has art nouveau decorations, not impressed by. It is way too simple to qualify (according to my standards) as good example of art nouveau style in Turnhout or anywhere.

Afraid of starting to analize my life together with buildings, I kept drinking my minty drink and talking about the nice weather and irrelevant topics while discovering hidden details all around.

A nice town

2011-04-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

Turnhout always have something new,I stroll around streets of quiet crowds.Somehow some streets are more meaningful than others to me. Today was like any other day, I was in hurry both to enter and leave; rushing to hardly productive work related appointment.
Same old stories repeated by different people, the most striking comment: "your art is a nice hobby" ...- it is not useful for anything else THEN?-...translation my call in life is totally irrelevant for actual,real work-world. Another comment: I do not see you as a cleaning lady(which would have been flattering, if I did not needed a job desperatly).I love the honesty of belgians but It would be nicer if they disguised the true in nicer words(wishful thinking, ain´t gonna happen)
I am proud to say that my interview went fine in the sense of 70% dutch spoken and the rest in English.
As always in my way back, I focus on the buildings and people around me, I saw a lady with extremely short dress with big sagy tights walking in the merodelei and a guy(unshaved legs)dressed as a woman in the supermarket, things that I would not see at home(aka Asunción).
I took some pictures of the castle,rustic,squaredish and medieval but still with certain charm. No matter how many unpleasant moments I have to go through in this town, I can not avoid coming back just to sit next to the castle and take a deep breath.

Art noveau

2011-01-27T03:28:00.000-08:00

Almost two months ago, I started a serious quest, looking for a job. Unfortunatelly, language barrier is a great mountain to climb. I need to be really fluent in Dutch besides that more than half of the population understand me quite well in English.
After walking a while,using my basic Dutch,getting in all the job agencies and receiving many hurtful comments like "Go home and study Dutch,be fluent and come back". I wanted to say something except nodding and say thanks for your time, I really wanted to say, go to hell! do you really think I will be looking for a poetsvrouw position(cleaning lady) if i had perfect understanding of this f...language?.
I felt and still feeling frustrated.Then I looked up,trying to see God, open the skies and see him to shout him "please, mercy,I really need a decent job,make a me a miracle"but the skies were grey and I only saw some Art noveau inspired buildings.
No matter how hard for me it's to live here, I'm surrounded by beauty and history..
Somehow focusing on the background than in the situation makes easy for me. I took some pictures..check them out..Oh, the first one from the right, its just nice but awkard combination between dutch style building('cos the stair like roof)and victorian style.

The Vlaams Belang organize...

2010-11-28T06:46:00.000-08:00

27 November 2010.
Yesterday, I was witness of a march against the installation of an asylum center in Ravels, when I read the invitation for the march said -FAKKELTOCHT-like “torch march”, to be honest It didn’t cross my mind that They will actually have torches; They looked exactly like people from the KKK, they just needed hoods. I had some flash back from my childhood, when I saw “Mississippi burning”; this kind public display of “strong dislike” and ungrounded hatred against other people( foreigners, afrikans, musulims, and whoever doesn’t look caucasian& belgiam).
I’d never experimented that before in my life, never thought that kind of hatred was here in a little town, not far from the border.
I saw families with kids participating in this hate-parede, this young kids that will grow to teach hate to their own kids in the future and make the chain more lasting. I wonder why they do that to their own kids, impose such ideology on them, thinking is fine to hate others just because you don’t understand them or like their color of skin.
It always start small, with marches and manifestations but like a ball of snow on top a mountain will grow and squash the entire village.One day, they will reach some power and people will suffer because they don’t have the right pedigree(yes,like animals- either cattle or dogs)
The vlaams belang is a political party and I fully understand that they have rights to do this kind of marches but it’s just not right to spread such a twisted ideology(even thou this time was just to protest against an asylum center). Above all what people from the Vlaams belang can say, I strongly believe that they are dangerous, like the nazis were once upon a time. If the past teach us (the entire human kind) something is that evil can grow in unstoppable proportions when no one do nothing to stop it.
FUNNY thing,when I saw the leaflet in the background looks like a procession of people with hoods and torches in dark outfits, I wonder if They are using subliminal information as well?