enjoy what you do

Time goes slowly here, especially as i had a holiday week. I have a chance to visit swimming pool every day at certain hours, so i wrote down the schedule and went there. Finally i have an opportunity to swim! I hate running, although i decided to do that as well. I discovered a library here and waiting for my card to come later. I fell in love with its amount of books about art, photography and design. Next time i'm gonna try to find books in English or even in Russian ;)

We had a night out in a restaurant with a big group. It was kind of Asian style with starters buffet and wok, for which you can choose ingredients by yourself. Nice and tasty, still not enough sauce for me :D

I eat a lot of vegetables here. Every tuesday and friday there is a market with vegetables and fruits and many more. I bought mushrooms and paprika last week and still have them in my fridge.
Small walks around the town every now and then and some more pictures from my life here :)

tea moment at famous Boon

starter

wok from vegetables and mushrooms

market place and moby dick :D

with brie, cashew and honey <3

one moment - hail, another - sun! welcome to belgium

raw champignon, avokado, paprika, cucumber, tomato

last days in tampere

I had some unpublished photos i still wanted to share here. I am a vegetarian for some time, so i'm all the time discovering new recipes and food products and combination i haven't tried before, so i like to capture them.
I feel myself better at least because i eat more vegetables than used to, and it's good.

rice with mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes

pasta with soya meatballs and sauce

And some photos from my last day in Tampere before leaving to Belgium. We went to a restaurant, but we bought a coupon beforehand, so 3 course meal was 34€ for 2 persons. Nice and tasty.

vegetables with goat cheese

always with a camera 

doughnuts with chocolate and vanilla sauces

hasselt and i like it

So it's been over a week since i've arrived to Hasselt and i had enough time to do many things. I got familiar with the city even more, received some tips about this town and where should i travel in Belgium or abroad. I like that everything is so near and Paris is only 3 hours away! Holland is in a hour ride and there are also a lot of places to visit in Belgium as well. I had classes in my Uni and found out that i'm the only one studying tourism this semester (max there is one boy, but i'm not sure about him). I get personal teaching! At first i was terrified and confused, but my teacher is amazing! She helped me more than any coordinator and she is really, nice, friendly and helpful. I like that she shares experiences from her own life, so it's even more interesting to listen her.

As for the studies, i took tourism courses and journalism courses: about EU and television journalism. For this week i have only 3 days of contact lessons and i can say that i have a loooot of free time. That's why i started to plan what should i do, where to go and so on. At least i found swimming pool that is free at certain hours for students and already went there. I consider taking Dutch, maybe a little bit later. Already next week we have holidays, so i feel more like i'm on a holiday all the time, but for a longer period.

I live in a student house, so in my own room with a sink. Toilets/showers are on a each floor and we have a common kitchen,a tv room and a very bad internet. First days it was really hard to adjust to this slow internet, but i got used to it.
I met some exchange students, living in the same building with me. We have been to a pub and bowling together. Further we are planning to travel around and go to a restaurant and dunno what else is waiting us in the future.
The weather now is awful....it's warm, but because of rain and wind it feels very uncomfortable, so most of my evenings i spend at home. There is no laundry possibility in Studho, but there are common laundry services around the town.
Hasselt is a small cosy city with a lot of restaurants, cafes, clothing shops and students. I like it here so far, i just wish the weather would be better.
As always, a lot of pictures, cause i'm lazy to post continuously :D

first belgian "beer", it was a cherry flavour, so i wouldn't call it a beer

come and pour, i took olive oil with basil and some other herbs

oil&vinegar shop, very nice!

taste and bring home

exchange students out :)

vege burger <3

i found vegetarian sausage <3

common laundry

something new for me - bread machine!

also something new for me - hot chocolate with a teacher in a cafe!

you get a stick with chocolate, put it into hot milk and start to stir...mmm!

settling down...for a while

My second day in Brussels. Walking a lot, flea market with a lot of interesting stuff (such a pity i can't take any furniture with me..), eating delicious food...again :D and everything without a camera, totally forgot the memory card at the hostel.
In the evening, with my two heavy suitcases, i traveled by train to Hasselt and with help of google maps, found my student apartment.
As today i didn't have any classes, exploring the city and university was my goal. Once again walking (in comparison with Finland, i walk a lot here) around my cute, small and cosy city. At least for now, i like it a lot and this time i accidentally found a great restaurant and fell in love with it and food i tasted there. I feel like thinking all the time about food, but it gives me so much emotions and mostly positive, so i like to take pictures of something i liked :)

hostel in brussels:

 on the way to school:

3e!

hasselt special mousse

 details.hasselt:

Tomorrow are first classes! :)

new country, new life

From now on, i'm gonna write in english, as my exchange adventures have already started. Yesterday was a really long and exhausting day. Flight from Tampere to Riga after sleepless night, whole day on foot. As in Riga was too cold to walk, i just bought a movie ticket and spent 2 hours for a boring movie.

First impression of Brussels Airport: BIG! After Tampere airport this one is huge and i was lost at some point, as  i didn't know where to pick up luggage. All in all, i have prepared all my tickets and maps, so i got safely to the hostel and went to sleep almost right away.

Today i woke up and it took me couple of hours to prepare myself for a walk. Thanks to the airbaltic magazine, i found an exhibition of photographs in one museum, so it was a plan for today, but first i had to eat something, so i just went straight.

I couldn't resist shop windows with belgian waffles, so i just went insight one of the places

this man made me my first belgian waffle <3

and here it is, with chocolate, nam

After delicious breakfast, good time to walk around

santa claus after christmas season

street photographer

cafe leffe

take a bath

After buying a map, i had to find this museum "Bozar". My favorite part was a documentary about the artist, it was so inspirational, that i want to make a movie on my own now :D

 The weather was great, at least the sun was shining.

I started to feel hunger and realized that all the food places are closed, so went back to the more touristic area and on the way i found

There is a restaurant street, it reminds me italy, when waiters are inviting to eat at their restaurant. Although it would have been nice to eat something belgian again, i was too hungry, tired and frozen, so went to eat asian noodles. It was really nice, but too much, as i ordered a soup too.

sweet and sour soup

curry tofu noodles

Full and happy i just went to one shop and that's how i spent next few hours and of course bought something, but all that stuff later, really tired once again. Tomorrow - check out, some time in brussels and in the evening - a train to hasselt!!!