It was not five days

It was not five days

This blog has experienced quite a few changes since I created it. There were periods which I would post quite often. There were years that I barely posted anything. There were times of being more personal, and telling something about me. There were times of expressing my vision and opinions on a certain subject. And, in its current "season",  this blog has become quite "poetic" and probably hard to grasp what I really mean with my texts. But, in all the different periods, this blog has been a good channel to organize my ideas and to write them down. This has also been a channel to express some feelings. Sometimes to remember them. Sometimes to forget them.

As a friend once told me, my texts reflect me, what interests me, what captures my eyes. And if this blog has faced many changes, it is also because I have changed a lot throughout the years I have been writing it. 

Changes.... It is impossible to think about changes and not think about the past five years and all the adventures, experiences, challenges, difficulties and surprises that came together with them. Being far from my home country, family, old friends, culture and language for such a long time has given me the opportunity to learn a lot. And this process would not have been the same if it was not for the people I met during this period. People who helped to fill my years in Belgium with joy and meaning. And it is out of gratitude for those people that I am writing this text.

There is a piece of a poem that I like a lot. It says:

Vroeger was er alleen maar nu. Nu is er ook toen.

Er is meer om van te houden.

Er zijn meer manieren om dat te doen.

~Herman de Coninck

I am afraid I won't be able to translate it properly. But I will try anyway.

In former times there was only now. Now there is also "at that time"

There is more to love

There are more ways to do that

(Free translation)

It sounds nicer and more poetic in Dutch, but it really expresses what I feel right now. 

It will be hard to leave Belgium behind and all what this country means to me. After all, five years are not five days. I will really miss it here. I will miss going everywhere by bike. I will miss the chips (frietjes). I will miss the language.  I will miss the nice running routes in Heverlee. I will miss the international environment. I will miss the feeling that you get when you have a sunny day after many raining and dark days. I will miss the people I have met here. Most of all, I will miss those who have become close friends and good companions. 

But for everything there is a time. And now it is time to close a cycle and begin a new one. I am looking forward to all the new challenges and adventures that the new cycle will bring.  And it makes me happy to realize that I will start this new cycle with the certainty that there is now more to love and that there are now different ways of doing that.  

Bedankt allemaal!

Thank you all!

Leuven, 11 July 2013

Eduardo