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Leuven and Boondoggle
- del.ico.us
- digg this!
- Last edited: 3:30, Sep 10 2007
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Life in Leuven and working again (oh no).
I am now officialy a Belgian working citizen. Well not quite a citizen, but I pay tax here. Well I don’t quite pay tax, because I don’t have a bank account so I can’t be paid, but I am working. And I have a contract that I have only have to sign! So all is good and there aren’t any potential problems ;)
Seriously, I am enjoying being here. I am out of my comfort zone in that I cannot speak Dutch and I don’t know a single person, yet Belgians are very friendly and Boondoggle (yes Boondoggle) is very good to work for. The company is very forward thinking and its staff are quite young. Everything is new and shiny as they have just moved into new offices. The view overtop of Leuven is fantastic, being on the top floor of an old industrial building that has been refurbished. So far I am working on a project which is enjoyable although a bit of a turkey. I am trying to build a site that hasn’t had the design finalised yet, which is a nightmare for continuous chnages. None the less I have free reign how to build it much as I had at Click Suite, which is very nice.
The first week I had started two staff members left, and the whole office dressed up in 80s gear to celebrate(!). I did Billy Idol with a receding hairline and an absence of eye liner. There is a subsidised lunch each day, and IT systems to manage everything, which does my head in but I’m glad that there is versioning as I have made several mistakes already.
Leuven is quiet at the moment because of university holidays. Apparently in two or three weeks the whole city is going to go spastic with students vomiting in the streets, or something like that. I cannot wait. Mind you I vomited in the street after the 80s evening, so I didn’t really learn anything from not drinking alcohol for 6 months. I am beginning to wonder how much I am a slave to my own behaviour. 
Two things I have noticed in Leuven, not having anything to do gives one a lot of time for introspection, and travelling really brings to a fore what type of a person one is. Needless to say I have had good days and bad days, but the support everyone from around the world has been giving, both through comments, emails, text messages (check the contact page for my number if you are bored and want to text) and phone calls has been great.
Not much else to say at this stage, if I keep writing I’ll probably write one of those stream of conscious pieces that drives me nuts. Upacking myself on the internet could be psychologically interesting but for the moment I will pass.
