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1. Cultural exchange: Dutch-Belgian-Italian cooking
There is one general rule when you live with an Italian: do not attempt to cook Italian food, because you will fail. Luckily our Italian is not that strict, still we generally don’t want to take the risk and just stick to other cuisines.
However with Tena scared of the mice and also rather busy last night with filling out dozens of forms, I decided that the courgette risotto should nevertheless be prepared. Pennyless as we are from time to time, I only had money for some simple Belgian sausages to add. Ivonne was appointed as sous-chef, cutting the courgettes and preparing the salad.
Courgette risotto with Belgian sausages
Tomato mozarella salad
And to complete the intercultural experience: ketchup, a raspberry beer, and a lot of salt!
2. Active Citizenship: The PO Box
Where the European Parliament has its time consuming and rather senseless move to Strasbourg every month, AEGEE has its PO Box in Etterbeek. A CD many years ago decided it’d be cool to have a PO Box in the same area as the European Parliament, about 45 minutes to 1 hour traveling by trams and metro away from the Head Office. The poor Secretary General usually wastes half a day to pick up a few letters. Brussels bureaucracy…
So today it became somehow my turn, and it was a nice and sunny day I thought why not to go by bike. It’s a bit risky in Brussels with all the traffic and hills, but what the heck, better than a sweaty full tram. Now that after Percin, also Tena and Ivonne started to get active with their squash, I can of course not stay behind. The joy of peer pressure.
Forty five scary, life risking and exhausting minutes later, I arrive sweaty and tired at the Post Office. And damn it, I realise I forgot the key. Grrrrrrrr. I call Ivonne to complain, she laughs at me, and tells me to come home.
I decide to give it a try, as luckily we are after all in Belgium, and here they do not care that much about rules and procedures. A friendly face, a vague paper having something to do with our statutes, and 2 minutes later I am outside with the mail already. No ID, no key, piece of cake. Phew.
Back to the house, where I crash on our new sofa. Active Citizenship makes you tired.