I’ve only been here for just over five months, so my views are a bit limited, but here are my pros and cons so far: Pro – Ghent is family-friendly. People always seem willing to lend a hand with a stroller, there are tons of parks, playgrounds, and walking/bike paths around, and the city is …
Author Archives: Kirstin
a colorful peek inside a demolished building
I thought it was some sort of large-scale art piece when I first saw it. It’s an old apartment building that is being dismantled in pieces. Right now (but I’m not sure how much longer), an entire face has been removed, letting everybody have a peek into the empty rooms. On their own, some of …
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must learn Dutch: resources
I wanted to go into more detail about my attempts to learn Dutch. Duolingo. I’ve been using DuoLingo for French… because I love wasting time? I don’t know, I really do enjoy the format. Plus, I studied French in middle school, high school and university, so it’s been nice for my ego to blaze through …
when the sun shines
…I strap Darwin to my back and go for a long walk, because tomorrow it’s going to be cloudy and cold again.
I could live here for a long time
I won’t go so far as to say the “f” word… (Forever.) …but I think I could see us living in Ghent for a long time. Longer-than-three-years, long time. Longer-than-Kyrgyzstan, long time. Moving to Bishkek, the plan was open-ended. Well, initially we said, “Let’s stay at least a year and see where it goes from …
must learn Dutch
No, really. I’m serious this time. I have to learn Dutch. In Kyrgyzstan, I gave up on learning Russian. Work was the ultimate excuse, plus I had reached a decent level of speaking and comprehension. I was good enough at Russian, I told myself. It wasn’t even a personally satisfactory level, I always wished I …
Darwin’s DIY Learning Tower
I’m not much of a DIYer. I want to be; I’ve wanted to be one for a long time. In Kyrgyzstan, it seemed too daunting, so I silently pined away for a life located near a Hobby Lobby or Joann’s fabric store, filing away all of the DIY projects of my dreams. One day I’ll …
Kyrgyz Music Friday
Kyrgyz Music Friday is a (now defunct) weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is …
Dear February
Let’s break up. We’re just not compatible. I was lured to you under an illusion of progressing further into 2014; the only direction for us is up, I thought. But it was a lie. You’re wedged between the depths of winter and the promise of spring, but, let’s face it, that’s the worst place to …
our mini-trip to Bruges
Farrell’s commute (which I do not envy at all) involves two bikes, a train, and about 3 hours total every day. He rides a bike from our house to a train station, catches a train to Bruges, then rides a second bike to his office at the far side of the town (beyond the cute …