To Leuven and back (Part 4)
Part 1|2|3|4
The last session of the conference was on Saturday (June 11) lasting until lunchtime. After that, a great lunch (I mean, all the meals had been great) and most of the participants parted ways. Some have to catch early trains back to Leiden or somewhere in Germany, others (from elsewhere) took the opportunity to tour more of Europe. I stayed in Leuven to see more of the city and to do some mandatory shopping.
As mentioned before, Friday is Fish and Flowers, Saturday is general market day. Sure enough, the stalls were out early:
One of the graduate students from K.U.Leuven showed me the local toy shop. Unfortunately, most of the interesting stuff were made in Thailand or somewhere like that. The books were in Dutch. I did eventually find something. Yes, the cat "squeaks", in German too. (The Haba website)
It didn't take me long to realise that most of the interesting stuff around here will not be suitable for a trans-Atlantic flight, especially considering that my suitcase is not all that large. Clothes are not cheap (though I've been assured that they are much more expensive elsewhere, say, in Brussels or Leiden)--in any case, hardly specifically Leuven. In the end, it was down to chocalates, boxes of it. This is Godiva country after all, though I stayed away from that particular brand. As one of the participants (he's Japanese teaching in Taiwan) said to his wife (Taiwanese), if we buy this stuff, people might think that we picked it up at the Taipei airport. Good point. So I went for some other brands--Leonidas and Neuhaus, both come with a bit of history too (some of the chocolates I bought above).
Jean Neuhaus, founder of Neuhaus Chocolates, originally from Switzerland, first set up shop in Brussels in 1857. It was his grandson--also a Jean Neuhaus--who invented the "praline"--a bite sized filled chocolate.
Leonidas, on the other hand, was first started in the early 1900s by Léonidas Kestekides, an American of Greek descent. He went to Brussels for the world fair as a member of the Greek delegation from the United States and was awarded the bronze medal (1910) and the gold medal (1913) for his chocolate confectionery and patisserie. As the website puts it: having also fallen in love with a beautiful young girl from Brussels, whom he later marries, Léonidas decides to settle permanently in Belgium. I especially like their "Belgium in a box" set.
It was late in the afternoon by the time I was done shopping, and taking more photos of the city (pictures above). Just as I was about to look for a cafe or something of that nature, I ran into one of the participants, a Harvard Prof. We ended up wandering more of the city together. Turns out there is a much more mundane side to Leuven--nondescript (even bland) housing, warehouses, etc--I guess not everyone can live in the fabulous city center. Some where near the city limits, I chanced upon this cat shyly looking at us:
We had a long chat about our research interests too, which was nice because he didn't really speak much during the conference discussions. But I guess he prefers less crowded situations. The discussion was mostly about the methodological issues in the study of ancient philosophy, so I shall not bore you with the details. Enough said that I learned quite a bit from the conversation we had. One of the participants rather cheekily said during the last session of the conference that the organisers did a great job bringing together both good and nice scholars. But as I see it, the discussions--both during and beyond the sessions--were so valuable precisely because people were nice. Not in the sense that everyone was only concerned about pleasing each other, but in the sense that even the disagreements (and there were many) were carried out without rancor and in good cheer. It is possible that the very academic nature of the topic does help (though that has never been a good guarantee).
Sunday morning, I caught the morning train to Brussels airport together with the Japanese participant and his wife, parting ways there--myself to Frankfurt for the flight back to Toronto, the two of them to Amsterdam for a flight to Taibei. Following a fairly uneventful flight across the Atlantic Ocean, I found myself back in the warmth of my home.
(end)
The last session of the conference was on Saturday (June 11) lasting until lunchtime. After that, a great lunch (I mean, all the meals had been great) and most of the participants parted ways. Some have to catch early trains back to Leiden or somewhere in Germany, others (from elsewhere) took the opportunity to tour more of Europe. I stayed in Leuven to see more of the city and to do some mandatory shopping.
As mentioned before, Friday is Fish and Flowers, Saturday is general market day. Sure enough, the stalls were out early:
One of the graduate students from K.U.Leuven showed me the local toy shop. Unfortunately, most of the interesting stuff were made in Thailand or somewhere like that. The books were in Dutch. I did eventually find something. Yes, the cat "squeaks", in German too. (The Haba website)
It didn't take me long to realise that most of the interesting stuff around here will not be suitable for a trans-Atlantic flight, especially considering that my suitcase is not all that large. Clothes are not cheap (though I've been assured that they are much more expensive elsewhere, say, in Brussels or Leiden)--in any case, hardly specifically Leuven. In the end, it was down to chocalates, boxes of it. This is Godiva country after all, though I stayed away from that particular brand. As one of the participants (he's Japanese teaching in Taiwan) said to his wife (Taiwanese), if we buy this stuff, people might think that we picked it up at the Taipei airport. Good point. So I went for some other brands--Leonidas and Neuhaus, both come with a bit of history too (some of the chocolates I bought above).
Jean Neuhaus, founder of Neuhaus Chocolates, originally from Switzerland, first set up shop in Brussels in 1857. It was his grandson--also a Jean Neuhaus--who invented the "praline"--a bite sized filled chocolate.
Leonidas, on the other hand, was first started in the early 1900s by Léonidas Kestekides, an American of Greek descent. He went to Brussels for the world fair as a member of the Greek delegation from the United States and was awarded the bronze medal (1910) and the gold medal (1913) for his chocolate confectionery and patisserie. As the website puts it: having also fallen in love with a beautiful young girl from Brussels, whom he later marries, Léonidas decides to settle permanently in Belgium. I especially like their "Belgium in a box" set.
It was late in the afternoon by the time I was done shopping, and taking more photos of the city (pictures above). Just as I was about to look for a cafe or something of that nature, I ran into one of the participants, a Harvard Prof. We ended up wandering more of the city together. Turns out there is a much more mundane side to Leuven--nondescript (even bland) housing, warehouses, etc--I guess not everyone can live in the fabulous city center. Some where near the city limits, I chanced upon this cat shyly looking at us:
We had a long chat about our research interests too, which was nice because he didn't really speak much during the conference discussions. But I guess he prefers less crowded situations. The discussion was mostly about the methodological issues in the study of ancient philosophy, so I shall not bore you with the details. Enough said that I learned quite a bit from the conversation we had. One of the participants rather cheekily said during the last session of the conference that the organisers did a great job bringing together both good and nice scholars. But as I see it, the discussions--both during and beyond the sessions--were so valuable precisely because people were nice. Not in the sense that everyone was only concerned about pleasing each other, but in the sense that even the disagreements (and there were many) were carried out without rancor and in good cheer. It is possible that the very academic nature of the topic does help (though that has never been a good guarantee).
Sunday morning, I caught the morning train to Brussels airport together with the Japanese participant and his wife, parting ways there--myself to Frankfurt for the flight back to Toronto, the two of them to Amsterdam for a flight to Taibei. Following a fairly uneventful flight across the Atlantic Ocean, I found myself back in the warmth of my home.
(end)
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