Official photo

In our second day of conferences, in Flagey, we took this picture with (most of) the trainees from the Spring 2013 EC traineeship!

Develop Your Own Career workshop

I recently got in contact with OrientaEuro because of my website and discovered a very talented consultancy firm led by professionals with managerial experience in top companies and educational institutions around the world. They count with an interdisciplinary and international team of psychologists, career coaches, communication experts, career advisors, designers and web programmers.

In 2008, they started operations in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as Desarrollarme, now the #1 referent in Latin America for professional career development and coaching. More than 1 million people have been helped by them with their careers so far, and still counting. In 2011, they widened our scope developing the most popular iPhone app for career development and studies election: Jobs and Career Test. And in 2012 they extended their operations to Europe, through their branch OrientaEuro, delivering their services already in Spanish, English, French and Dutch.

So right now they are in Brussels, ready to serve you with their advises and will have a workshop specifically directed to the trainees who want to pursue a career and get a real job once their traineeship ends (which would be the majority of us, I believe).

This workshop is called Develop Your Own Career and it'll take a full-day in Brussels (Saturday 27th April 2013, 9am – 6pm, in Aloft Schuman). They summarize its contents this way:

What will you take from the workshop specifically?

• Certainty in your personal and professional goals, values and priorities
• Self-knowledge: your strengths, weaknesses, skills and preferences
• Tools for analyzing jobs and alternatives for your own best interests
• Conscious development and improvement of your online and offline networking skills
• Improvement of your effectiveness in recruitment processes: Curriculum Vitae, motivation/cover letters and interviews

Answers - We will work to answer the following key questions in a productive way:

• Who am I? Who do I want to be? Where do I want to go?
• What am I good at? What do I really like to do? What should I avoid?
• What does the market value? Has it something to do with me?
• What’s the role of money in my life? What are my priorities and values and in which order?
• How could I “sell myself” better?
• With a little help from my friends? (networking tips and tricks)
• Would it be better to be my own boss? If so, under what circumstances and how?

You can find all information on it and be able to register here.

I have decided to become affiliated with this initiative because I can see how the Brussels employment market is competitive (stories from former trainees are enough to make you scared of it... which you don't have to, if you know what you can expect from it and gain the necessary tools to face it, which is exactly what this workshop is meant to). I think that you can hear a lot of stories and get feedback from several people, but in the end all of those will be personal experiences only (like mine that I share here with you) and not professional advice like this firm can give to you, as that is what they have been doing professionally for years and know what will suit you - as an individual different from all others - best. I also saw their concern in meeting with a current trainee - me! - to ask some questions and to try to get a better understanding of what is going on in a trainee's mind.

So, given this partnership we have established, if you insert the code atib1304 when paying for your registration, you will get 10% off the final price!

If you sign up with a friend until April 14th you can benefit from this reduction and still add to it the 10% discount I mention above by inserting the code.

If you are currently a trainee and want to find a job after (either in Brussels or anywhere else, as this knowledge is helpful everywhere), start thinking about it now, take this opportunity to help your career and register for the workshop!

KoKoB

KoKoB is an Ethiopian restaurant located in the heart of Brussels. There you can try the food from this African country in a very peculiar way: by eating with your own hands! Indeed, Mr. José Manuel Barroso and his team could not resist of going there and trying it for themselves... among many other delegations and groups from important institutions and companies.

What we were served as a starter: kinche (bulgur salad with lemon) and a  strawberry flavored apéritif

The space and the ambiance are quite nice, all decorated with African related objects and with a warm light illuminating the whole restaurant.

The wine that we drank

All dishes there are served with injera (a pancake made ​​with teff, a cereal similar to millet) or rice, you choose. According to the Ethiopian customs, the meal is served on a large common plate where everyone tries the various dishes with a piece of injera. However, on request, meals can be served on individual plates (but don't do that, go for the fun of eating with your hands instead!).

This is what there was in our plate:

• Key Wot (pieces of beef cooked in a spicy and berbere sauce)
• Doro Tibs Be Timatim (fried cubed chicken marinated with herbs, tomatoes and onions)
• Attir Kik alicha (lentils cooked in a mild pea sauce)
• Tikle gomen (white cabbage, potatoes and carrot cooked in a special sauce)
• Timatim, Gomen Ena Engudai Wot (tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms with a touch of ginger and garlic)
• Mixed salads
• Ayeb (white cheese)

It is also an Ethiopian custom that the first piece of food that you take is not for yourself, but for a person dining with you, so you should serve it to them in the mouth. It is really funny because the staff is quite friendly and in each step of the meal they explain you these facts and actually serve the first piece of food to you... in the way explained above! In the end you can also eat the injera that was covering the big plate and that got filled with the food that you put on top.

Ethiopian coffee that we drank for dessert

Before the coffee came, the staff also appeared with some of its toasted grains for us to smell them and gave us an explanation on how it is produced. Also, here's an explanation on how you're supposed to eat there with the injera:

The shared plates are served for groups of a minimum of 2 people and you have several menu formulas to choose from. So it is a good idea to come in a big group and order different menus, so everyone can try the different specialties. They are often full, so contact them for a booking beforehand!

KoKoB

Rue des Grands Carmes, 10 - 1000 Bruxelles.

Tel : 02 511 19 50

E-mail : info@kokob.be

www.kokob.be

Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

BIFFF is a cinema festival that takes place every year in Brussels and gathers all sorts of fans of fantastic films (whether it's horror, zombies, fantasy, supernatural or sci-fi).

People really dress up for it, so we had no trouble in finding our way from the metro exit to the place

We went yesterday to see the movie The Between

This was the room called Cine 1, which is the biggest one, but there are also two more rooms with screenings. The price of the tickets varies according to the rooms and students have discounts in all of them

There was a make up atelier going on where you could have your body painted with fake scars or blood

There was also a whole body painting atelier going on

You can buy related merchandising and goodies (including insects covered in chocolate, eww!)

I really enjoyed going there because I had never been to a festival of this sort and the atmosphere is really singular. I think most of the audience was people who are really into this kind of movies and who took the effort of dressing up and knew stuff about the films that were being screened. In the beginning of ours there was a host who presented the director and his wife and asked them some questions. Then, during the whole movie, the audience was always making jokes about it (like clapping in some parts, shouting comments in some parts, singing along with the songs, putting light effects in their cellphones). It was really funny because then everyone would laugh at it and the whole movie watching experience became a big funny joke (even if we couldn't understand some of the remarks, as they were being shouted in French). So if you plan on attending a movie, bear in mind this is a really particular festival and that the audience doesn't go there so much for the movies themselves, but also for all the things going on in between. But I think it is a fun experience in the end and you can enjoy it until April 13 in Bozar.

Traveling by taxi

First reaction: Noooo! Indeed, traveling by taxi in Brussels, with the one exception that I mention below, is simply a no-no. Because it is just too expensive. I only have one taxi experience so far, which was to return from the airport at 1 a.m. to my house (near Schuman), with no traffic at all and a trip that took like 10 minutes and it costed me 37€. Ouch! And I have talked to other people with taxi experiences in Brussels and all of them were sure to declare it was an one time only thing, given the price they ended up paying.

As for a fact, public transportation in Brussels works really fine and you have a lot to choose from: metro, buses and trams. During the day I believe it is possible to reach almost any place you want with these 3 options. However, during the night they don't work, so you sometimes may feel tempted to take a taxi. On one hand, you have some night buses, and I think it's preferable to walk all Avenue Louise in the middle of night with 0º to take a Noctis bus in Port de Namur (been there, done that!) in order to avoid paying the price of two nice dinners to a taxi driver.

However, there's one taxi service that won't make you have to eat pasta for a week to compensate that late return from a party with friends. It is called Collecto and it is a service of collective taxis that can be used all days from 23h to 7h in Brussels. This service has more than 200 places of departure, usually located where there are STIB stops. You take the taxi in one of these stops and it will take you to any address in Brussels for a fixed price of just 6€ (in case you have a STIB pass, it is only 5€) per person. Here you can read on how to reserve these taxis. The only disadvantage is that you need to set up a time for them to pick you up and when you're in a party or a dinner you can't exactly calculate when you're going to leave... but you can request the service 20min before wanting to use it, so even if you request it when you feel like leaving, you'll only have to wait 20min until the taxi arrives, which is not much considering you will still have to walk until the stop. I haven't used this service so far, as I have been able to get around with the buses only, but if I ever need a taxi again at night I will definitely go for it!

Quiche and apple crumble

Those of you following me on Facebook already know that this is is what I have made for lunch today... and, as promised, here are the recipes!

Quiche

Ingredients

- Tart base

- Ham

- Mushrooms

- Cheese

- A cup of milk

- 4 eggs

- Pepper and oregans

How to make it?

• Take the tart base from the fridge 15min before using it and then spread it on an overware, making little holes in it with a fork
• Put some ham, cheese and mushrooms on top of it (if the mushrooms are fresh and not canned, you should cook them a bit first in the cook)
• In a bowl, mix the eggs, the milk and the spices and pour them on top of the tart
• Put it in the oven for about half an hour

Apple crumble

Ingredients

- 5 apples
- Raspberry jam (or frozen raspberries)
- 200g of flour
- 200g of sugar
- 150g of butter
- Cinnamon

How to make it?

• Take an ovenware and grease it with butter
• Cut the apples in little pieces and put them in the ovenware
• Add cinnamon (or sugar or both) to the apples
• Put a little layer of raspberry jelly on the apples
• Put the sugar, flour and butter (in little pieces) in a bowl and mix it with your hands until it has a crumbled structure
• Put the crumble over the apples
• Put the apple crumble in the oven for about half an hour

Traveling by train

The best way to travel trough Belgium (and surrounding countries) is undoubtedly by train. Brussels has great railway connections, as it not only has several train stations spread around the city, as it has trains leaving to everywhere in every hour. Try to do the exercise of going to Gare Central, for example, and checking the departures' screens. You will see three screens full of information on trains leaving to all over Belgium and even abroad in the period of just 1h. So it is really convenient, cheap and fast to travel by train here.

As for prices, the best option for trainees and young people in general (under 26 years old) is to buy the Go Pass 10, which is valid for one year and allows you to travel ten times from and to anywhere in Belgium for just 50€ (so each trip will have the value of 5€). If you're over 26, you have the same kind of ticket, but it is called Rail Pass and it costs 76€ for 10 trips as well (so each trip will have the value of 7,60€). Both these passes can be used by more than one person, so if you're traveling with a group of friends you can buy only one pass and just fill it with two journeys. It is also great that you can enter the train directly and don't have to lose time on queues to buy tickets each time you're traveling (which could be a hassle, as there are many tourists in Belgium and usually the queues are big).

The Belgian rail website is available in English and is quite informative. You can simulate the journey you want to make and they show you the schedules, train changes and even the platform from where your train leaves and where it will arrive. So it's really easy to plan your journeys and do some daytrips from Brussels on weekends and holidays.

La Quincaillerie

La Quincaillerie is a restaurant which you will not be able to forget. Where once upon a time there was an ironmonger's shop, for 25 years now this iconic restaurant has taken its place. Indeed, there is no chance of not being amazed by the decoration of the place, with its marvelous vintage clock shining its light on the rooms, the old wooden drawers spreading through the walls and the busy movement of the black dressed staff carrying around all sorts of delightful treats.

We were in the first floor, with a privileged view over this scenario and got the opportunity of experiencing an unique meal in this special restaurant, where characters like Nirvana and David Bowie have made a stop. This is what we have chosen to eat:

Bisque de homard, cappuccino de curry and Principale - bière maison à triple fermentation 

Canette de Challans laquée au miel et citron vert, poireaux étuvés, pommes dauphines and jambonneau rôti au four, sauce à la graine de moutarde à l’ancienne de Meaux  fricassée de légumes

La tarte au citron meringuée

The food is very tasteful, which shall in part result from the fact that is made with some products from their own farm and from small producers, with environmental concerns always in their minds. The seafood also looked delightful. The service is of outstanding quality and, even though the restaurant was full the whole night (make sure you book a table first!), the staff was always fast and caring on finding out if we were enjoying our meal.

This restaurant is one of the pioneers in the Châtelain neighbourhood and, for all reasons, be sure to pay them a visit:

La Quincaillerie

Rue du Page 45

B-1050 Bruxelles

Belgique

T +32 (0)2 533 98 33

F +32 (0)2 539 40 95

info@quincaillerie.be

Museum Magritte

Yesterday I took advantage of the free entrance that many museums in Brussels allow to their visitors in the afternoon of the first Wednesday of each month and went to visit the Magritte Museum (located in Place Royal, right in front of the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition).

The Happy Donor, 1966

It is a nice museum and you can see plenty of artwork from this famous Belgian surrealist artist. However, there were two turndowns for me there: the museum is very dark (the rooms where the artwork is almost only have the light that illuminates it) and several of René Magritte's most famous paintings are not there (if you go to the museum's shop, for instance, you will see lots of posters and postcards with artwork that is not displayed in the exhibition). These were my two favorite paintings that I saw there.

The Empire of Light, 1950-1954

Overall, I would suggest a visit in one of these free days, or, if you're under 25, you can get in for just 2€ and take a person with you for free.

Delirium Café

Delirium Café is known for being the biggest beer bar in Brussels. And it is not only big in terms of size (two large floors, one of which underground, that can fit hundreds of people), but also when it comes to the offer of beers (they entered the Guinness book in 2004 for having more than 2.000 different types of beers). Indeed, they have a book that you can look into in the bar or buy for 5€ with a list and a small description of all the beers they have available (not only Belgian beers, but also a huge selection of beers from all over the world). In the most crowded nights, you may just want to stick to the upper floor and try some of the beers they have on tap (and it's nice to see live how they "cut" the beer's foam coming out of the glass). However, in less crowded days (usually during the day it's fine and they are open in the afternoon), you can give your try on going downstairs and trying some of the bottled ones (where you can find all the classics and also some strange ones like the Cookie Beer - which I have tried! - or a coconut one, for example).

The bar is all decorated with beer related motives and is located in the heart of the city (in a dead-end street suggestively called Impasse de la Fidélité). Everyone (beer lovers and not-so-convinces-ones-yet) should pass by there to pay them a visit... even if just for the great beer-overdoses atmosphere!