Hey!

Hey!

No Santa Claus until Wednesday!

POST 200

Dear Consilium trainee, this is the post n°200 of the blog.
To commemorate this "anniversary", we decided to make some personal remarks about the courageous consilium artists

86 posts Atanaska : denigration, plagiarism, copyright infringement, music piracy… How come she’s not in prison yet??? (…because she’s waiting for the season 2 of prison break!)
29 posts Martinned Hollanderman : Mr copy/paste
16 posts Angelina : very successful start, but now she’s lost forever, doesn’t read the blog! why?
11 posts Anna : our new favourite, original posts, new ideas...
10 posts JM (El Creator) : la fuite de cerveaux vers les Etats Unis nuit au blog, au bloggeurs et aux bloggeuses !
10 posts Olivier : mais que fais tu mon petit Oli? Après un début ô combien prometteur (food safety ou la viande de stagiaire), on attend toujours de tes nouvelles, surtout la partie II de l’épisode missing !
6 posts Zenaida : Zenadia Zenadia jeje ;) funniest posts of the year!
6 posts Franzi : O Solana! Future Foreign minister of Yurop!
5 posts Ricardo: young artist that we admire, excellent choice of layout and content!
5 posts Jojo : Jojo gave us our first photoshop lesson. thank you!
3 posts Chris : enormous potential! excellent choice of layout and content as well! now he can even photoshop pictures with someone who’s putting a laminate ;) and tries to make us believe that he can do it by himself.
3 posts Ale : great sense of humour, do you remember the vodka post? :D
3 posts Filipe : Doesn’t keep his election promises ! Remember his first post? March 1, 2006: I am now finally on the blog. Yes, there is little chance to avoid me=)))… there is a chance on the blog! Nice posts, but… can do better!
3 posts Julian: tu te caches mon petit goujat? faut que tu bloggues plus !
2 posts Melinda - ditka barabitka! (eh oui, elle est à la base de tous les posts de citka, because she is citka’s alter ego). Elle a fait une entrée fracassante dans le top 17 avec le poste « Rocco »
1 post Alex: il va y avoir du sport!
1 post Bianca !!! Where are you??? I still remember your post, the picture was very important for the collective memory.

Thank you all!

...and thanks for the comments ;) one can be an artist in a comment, like Francesco, Fiammetta, Pelagia and Carla for example.

Janina's email of November 20

Dear all!

It felt really good to hear from you guys! And
whenever I read a mail of you, I remember how much I
miss the good old Brussels times!

I've just come back from a trip to the US, where I
visited my former Brussels-flatmate in Washington,
Miguel (thanks again!!) in New York and my sister in
Miami. It was a really great trip and I am super
relaxed now - and even a bit tanned:)

During my trip, I found out that I finally got the
PhD-scholarship I had waited for for such a long time.
So my lazy days are over and I'll concentrate on my
dissertation now.
Right now, I live in Hamburg (I just got a new
appartment there), but I will probably move around a
lot - so maybe we get the chance to see eachother!
I might work part-time in Brussels for a German MEP
focussing on ESDP (starting in January), but it is not
yet clear. And I also don't know, if I am ready to
leave Hamburg already - now, where I've just settled.
Most of my friends from University are still here, and
I started playing Handball again on a competative
basis, which is really great - although I certainly
miss plying soccer with you!!! (for Martin: football:)
So I feel pretty happy here right now.

As the summer indeed seems ages ago, I am super happy
to hear from you frequently.
And I hope, we can organize a little reunion some time
soon!

Liebe Grüße aus Hamburg
Eure

Janina

Rome...the eternal city!!!

What about some days in the company of friends, with a great weather, and a wonderful city to visit? I think that is a very nice idea…that’s why I spent some days in Rome...

...where I enjoyed the company of Francesco and Carla.

I had a great time there with them… Special thanks to Carla for the company…for the good suggestions…for the great dinners…for the bars…and for the guided trips…specially our Rome by night…was great!!! Hope to come back soon!

Martin's email of November 16

L.S.,

@Michael: Master's Thesis? Weren't you already doing that when we were in BXL? It seems a lot like my story. I haven't turned in my final version either, and I've been "working" on it since September last year.
@Zeni: How did I get stuck with the reputation as the universal spell check? I'll try to live up to it and write this email flawless. (I already wrote September without the capital letter just now, but I noticed that in time.) Anyway, I'm glad you're now making the big bucks...
@Franzi: Say hi to Violaine for me. As far as I know, she's in Chambéry, the next prefecture to yours. And don't feel too bad, I've been to Annecy and it's a very beautiful place. You could be stuck in Brest, remember...
@Filipe: Feel free to punch Luca whenever you feel the urge. He did that mugger thing to me once, too, at 1 in the morning, at a not particularly well lit piece of street. (Near Arts/Loi, I think.) He almost gave me a heart attack... Anyway, I'm glad to see you've decided to offer some humanitarian aid to your country's upcoming presidency. Do they have a new deputy reper yet? As far as I remember, the guy that was there when I was in BXL was only a temp, and usually these guys get parachuted in at least a year or so before the presidency. Oh, and would you be working with Joana's husband by any chance. I think he's in CFSP, and with your background I'd expect you to run into each other.

As for me, I'm still reading everything with letters. It's really cool to be reading the originals of all these great thinkers, without having to care about the fact that I'm technically supposed to be an economist. So I'm not only reading the great economists like Schumpeter, Robbins and Knight, but also stuff like Weber, Rawls, Dworkin, etc. I still can't believe they're actually paying me for this. Unfortunately, it also means that at some point I'll have to figure out what exactly I will be contributing to the existing knowledge of mankind. The goal is to have a detailed research proposal by March next year. (I already had a basic proposal, which was written before I was even hired in order to obtain the research grant from the government, but that needs to be rewritten, extended, etc, in order to make it something that is really interesting, worth while and possible.)

Apart from my work, my social life is eminently boring, just the way I like it. Upcoming weekend I'll have some festivities, but it'll be the first time in ages. (And no, it's not even my birthday party.) Oh, and by the way, I notice that Skee-Lo song struck a nerve with our esteemed goddess of blog. Thank you, sweetie...

Martin

P.S. I just took the liberty of sticking the emails of yesterday and today on the blog, just for the people who didn't get them. Given that they were sent to a large number of people, I figured they were essentially meant to be public. Obviously, if the author objects, any post can be deleted at the press of a button...

Michael's email on November 16

Dear all,
reading your mails today really made me think about the nice but also difficult times in Brussels. It is not so long ago but nevertheless it seems like forever. I am glad that you are doing well and that your careers are progressing in an impressive manner. I am currently writing my master thesis and I hope I will be able to hand it in before X-mas. I had a great summer, spent a lot of time with my family in Germany, Poland and Ireland. I really enjoyed it, after a busy start of the summer. Life here in good ol’ Germany is being good to me. Besides the thesis, I am very successful in organizing my social life and do not miss out to remember what life is also about. So there are plenty of nice moments and times with friends and family. Maybe we’ll be able to meet and chat in Brussels in the beginning of the next year. I wish you all the best and hope to be able to see you guys very soon.

Spread love,
Michi.

Zeni's email on November 15

Hi!

It is really god to hear from u again. I am lucky for being answering so fast, because I have a busy and NO- FREE- TIME life.
How are u doing??What about ur lifes in ur countries(or in other countries, I guess...)?
U knew I was travelling as a crazy girl aroung Europe, and I was to Italy this summer. Then I came back to Spain, I made some visit in Brussels, and I had to start with a month course in Alicante, for my enterprise.
My life in Seville,
I work in a big iberic lawyer firm,from 9 to 14, and from 16 to 21(normally I have to stay later). I am in the corporate law department, so I deal with commercial contracts(agency, international tradde....and so on), I write certifications of corporate decisions, legal researches...even from time to time I am given some stufs in fench or english. I work 10 or 11 hours per day, but on friday, only and at 15 we usually are out. However, sincerely, I didnt enjoy so much my life in Seville yet, because of diferent reasons.The exploit me, but they made me and indefinite contract sonce the first day.
I go to my home town more often I thought, and i spend nice moments with my mother. In the firm u can be taught english and french,so i make profit of that.
These days I was sick, I got a serious kdneys infection, so I had to take it easy. The weather in Seville, is good. Cold is coming, but u know....15 degrees, maybe the coldest I will see...8 degrees.

I live with a doctor ( a 28 years girl), she is oncologist. And a guy, 28, who inish a theis in philosophy of law, and teachs in the University. He is totally crazy, and I love it , when I arrive at 22 pm from the office, I start to speak to him, and see how he behaves in strange ways and he plays guitar, jejjee.
My level of life, since I left Brussels...I can tell u it has increased a bit: I have a garage for my car (an old crazy red car inherited ffrom my mother). The flat where I live is really nice, btw the center and the financial zone of the city, 4 rooms, sights towards La Giralda, La Isla de la Cartuja..., and very good price!(the same as Molenstraat eh?. We have even a woman, form Bolivia who cleans for us once per week!!!THIS IS SPAIN.
Anyway , I miss u , and moreover these days, with fever, at home...I was thinking in the good moments I spent with u. I really miss u , and I never forget u .
APART FROM my nice life here, I dont feel totally satisfied. I would like to go back to Brussels, but in one or 2 years, after this experience as a lawyer.

I dont speak more, ....jejje. I only say, I am not the same,jeje, I have a very serious life now..and some people u always think they will be with u...they are not so close to u even being in the same country. U are diferent, I really feel u are good people .Good luck and millions of kisses from this warm Sevilla

PD: IF U WANT TO COME, MY GUESS ROOM IS WAITING FOR U EH???
MUAK

P.S. sorry for my faults in english...MARTIN!!!U WIL KILL ME , JEJE.
Anyway, I wanted to tell u GUESTS ROOM, NOT GUESS(MMMMM)

Franziska's email on November 15

Hi there too!

Great to hear from you Filipe! I will jump at the chance to give you all some news from my side. Don't wonder if my English is kind of strange, I have been in a completely French context here for months!

I still study at the ENA in Srasbourg, but at the moment I do a 5-month internship in a French "prefecture" in Annecy. Annecy is a really nice town in the French Alps, not far from Geneva, with a beautiful lake, postcard-like mountains and a lot of brown cows with white spots:-)

The work I do here is quite concrete, like creating an e-newsletter and organising an information day on the "service civil volontaire" (French volontary civil service). The SCV is a new youth (employment) programme, probably intended to manage the suburban riots...

What I get to know here is local politics, VERY different from EU-politics in Brussels! I miss the international atmosphere... Nonetheless this intership teaches me modesty: How immensely difficult must it be to find compromises on a European level when there are already so many different opinions+jealousies on a village level... (= for exemple between two mayors who are only 5 km from each other) !!!

I will stop my sociological reflections here. Hope you are well! I would be really glad to hear from you, so: bisous et ŕ bientôt!

Franzi

Filipe email on November 15

Hello there!

Long time no hear from a lot of you! Mostly my fault, I am terrible at keeping in touch=( How are you doing?

I am currently in Brussels which is where I intend to stay for the foreseable future. Currently working as a trainee at the Portuguese PermRep. Previously was back at the Council organising seminar. It was a good experience. Not sure what the future holds, but I will be here in Brussels.

What else... Ricardo, Luca and Tatiana are still around. The other night I was surprised by strange hooded guy who came up to say hi to me... turned out to be Luca=) Almost punched him though, thinking he was some kind of weirdo.... don't think Luca realised it. Also bumped into Fiammetta the other day. She was looking surprisingly well humoured and happy.

Hope you are well! Hope your studies/work/south america is going well. Apologies for this general email, but not having that much time available, I still wanted to say hi and hopefully hear from you.

All the best! Take care,
Filipe

Martin, make a wish for your birthday!

DJ Martinee-Lo:
L.S.,
OK!
I wish I was little bit smaller,
I wish I was a (foot) baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a batand a '64 Impala

Hey, I wish I had my way
'Cause everyday would be a Friday
You could even speed on the highway
I would play ghetto games
Name my kids ghetto names
Little Mookie, big Al, Lorraine
Yo you know that's on the real
So if you're down on your luck
Then you should know just how I feel
Cause if you don't want me around
See I go simple, I go easy, I go greyhound
Hey, you, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down
Ahhhh, yes, ain't that fresh?
Everybody wants to get down like that

I wish I was little bit smaller,I wish I was a (foot) baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her

I wish that on the Services Directive

EP had stayed silent…

http://www.blogmusik.net/search,skee-lo.html

Winter is back...

Winter, snow, slopes, snow-women/men, snowballfights, skiing, snowboarding, ice-hockey, cross-country skiing, ski-jumping, tobogganing...


I have to admit, I am feeling like "Rudi" now ;-)

Martin, I will meet you skiing in Austria / Tirol, jipppiiiiiiiii!!!

Schifoan, schifoan, schifoan...

The lunch in Simone's home

The lunch in Simone's home (Torvaianica - Rome)

1 picture: Simone is cooking a particular pork sausage.

mailed by:

Francesco Licciardo

Life after the Council: Missing

20th Century Cinsilium Fox

presents:

Life after the Council

episode 5

Part I

Missing!!!

To

be

continued...