Antwerp - My new home (temporarily at least)

It’s been nearly 3 months now that I’ve been here at Antwerp/Antwerpen/Anvers, so am quite getting used to the place. I mean when you forget your (only) house key at the local supermarket or get drenched in a sudden shower and then have to sneak in late into the last row at your very first presentation, in damp clothes, it kind of takes away all that “new place” feeling you have initially. It’s been a good 11 weeks though.

The very first day I was here, got up quite early (which is a relative term since I’ve found that most people here turn up at office by 7 am!) for office. But the moment I stepped out of the building I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I mean, people walking around in big black hats and long black coats, with beards and long n curly strands of hair on either side, is not something I was expecting to see in 21st century Europe. It seemed a scene straight out of some movie like The Sound of Music, complete with the girls in long frocks! Have gotten used to this now, I understand there is a large Jewish population here who maintain their traditional way of dressing. Wonderful really, especially when you see the “modernization” taking place in our own way of dressing back in India.

I’ve always heard phrases like “common language”, “language of the world”, etc about English, but that premise doesn’t seem to hold much water here. The local language is Flemish (a form of Dutch), and all writing is only in it (right down to our monthly salary slips!!). Shopping at the supermarket is interesting, with you having to guess the contents of the box from the cover design. Now this is quite tricky when you are a vegetarian! Most packaging though have, very helpfully, additional text in French and/or German.

Am learning to live without an Idiot Box over here, since I understand you don’t get English channels (forget Indian!) unless you opt for the higher end subscriptions. So have to make do with an ordinary 15 Mbps Internet connection :D Miss my regular dose of “Scrubs” or “The Big Bang Theory” though :(

F1 - A Dream Come True

A LOT of people have been reminding me that my blog seems to have died after a good (going by responses received) start, so here goes. This should have been posted here waaay back, but then...


Have long dreamt of going to an F1 race, and finally got the chance! Went to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, and it was A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

Really, TV does absolutely no justice neither to the speed nor to the sound of the cars! It is rather startling to hear a jet-engine-like sound from such a small piece of machinery! And the track at Spa is built in such a way (part of it is normal roads during off-race periods) that you get really close to the action. The setting too was absolutely stunning, a remote village surrounded by scenic hills. (BTW, from the TV you get no idea of really how much difference there is in elevation around different parts of the circuit. Got to appreciate that as well today!)

Your hair really stands on end as you see all 22 of those cars wrooming by at full throttle. And the way these people downshift at the corners, it sounds like ...well, try to imagine a Bullet bike, increase it's sound thousand-fold, and you still fall short! It really sounds like some kind of chain explosion is taking place! (And in this respect, we all agreed the BMW engines were by far the noisiest).

Really, it was an experience of a lifetime :D

Was really worth all the time, money and effort getting there. Some pics: