Desde ayer los estudiantes conocimos los resultados de los exámenes finales del año académico. Yo puedo estar orgulloso. Tomando en cuenta todos los trabajos afuera de estudiar que necesito hacer para ganar dinero, mis resultados son más o menos una maravilla.

En Bélgica, el resultado más bueno es el 20. Aquí está mi lista del segundo semestre:

• Chino Clásico: 17
• China Moderno: 16
• Investigación científica (que era escribir una biografía sobre un chino, usando fuentes chinos múltiples): 17
• Sociedad y Actualidad china: 16
• Filosofías asiáticas occidentales: 8

Bueno, el 8 no es un buen resultado pero en este momento tuve circunstancias que no me permitían estudiar bien. Entonces en septiembre puedo retomar este examen, junto con mis exámenes malos del primero semestre (letras asiáticas occidentales y dos exámenes del idioma sueco).

Entonces tengo razones de estar orgulloso y contento. Pero la verdad es que no estoy tan feliz. Creo que es por mi novia (que en este blog será conocida como La Princesa), la chica más buena y tierna del mundo. Ella también está muy contenta con los resultados de los exámenes, solo tiene que retomar dos exámenes, y ayer, llamando por teléfono, me dije con alivio profundo: “Mi cariño, después de regresar de Australia voy a estudiar como loca para que obtendré resultados superbuenos!”

Mi Princesa se va Australia por cinco semanas para asistir a los Jornada Mundial de la Juventud (World Youth Days). Como yo no soy creyente, no voy con ella. Entonces serán cinco semanas sin ella. Cinco semanas frías y aburridas. Y ahora ella me dice que, cuando haya regresado, yo puedo aburrirme un ratito más porque ella sólo quiere estudiar…

Pero ya lo sé: no será así. Cuando nos veremos, vamos a estar superfeliz, ella va a contarme todas sus aventuras experiencias, voy a decirle que, pese a trabajar y estudiar todo el tiempo, yo también me pasé bien, y luego vamos a besarnos y hacer el amor por horas.

Y voy a olvidar que escribí todo esto de no estar feliz.

Unfortunately, Belgium’s national football team did not make it to the European Championship 2008. And the Belgians hate that.

Belgian ultra right wing politician De Winter, a while back, decided to use the national discomfort about the Red Devils lack of success to his advantage. He pleaded for a ‘national’ (Dutch speaking) Flandrian team, as opposed to a ‘national’ (French speaking) Wallonian équipe. A ridiculous proposal, ofcourse.

But now the champion of ‘politicizing football’ gets his way. Well, at least partly he does. Today the Flemish part of the country gets its own ‘national’ football organization. It will focus on building a couple of new football stadiums and new incentives to Flanders football education system, and is supported with some 5.5 million euros.

It is emphasized that "the national Belgian football organization will NOT cease to exist, nor will there be a national Flemish football team."

On the tv news, after this statement, they left a subtle silence that was just enough for me to add a thoughtfull: ‘…at least for now’.

In the Olympic Games issue it is often stated that sports should not have anything to do with politics. But in reality I tend to think that apparently they do.

In the Netherlands they sometimes say: "Football is war." And, regarding Belgium, I can only hope this is and will always be true.

(And I hope the Germans will beat Spain tonight, although I expect Spain to be new European Champion.)

In Belgium, a student who rents a room is not really a tenant. A student who lives in a room in his town of study, is not really a resident of that town. And that keeps smacking me in the face.

When my tongxue (同学 class mates) rent a room, they officially keep on living in their parents’ houses, as far as Belgian bureaucracy is concerned. They receive their official snailmail at their parents’ home, and they vote there (so even though they live in their town of study 10 months a year, they have no say at all in the local government). Their rented student rooms are ‘second homes’. Normal tenants have legal rights, student tenants have almost no rights and are exposed to whatever impulses the house owner may have.

In my case, the owner’s impulse was more of an expulse. He doesn’t rent to people anymore who have officially put up their student rooms as primary home. Ofcourse, being the only foreigner in the house, this only concerns me. The problem is, I can’t just officially be domiciled at my parents house because I would lose my Residential Permit and with that, certain advantages that come with Belgian residentiality.

And so, this Tuesday I will move house room. This summer, I will live in my Princess’s family’s house until September. After we come back from China, I will occupy the student room of someone who is going to study in Canada for one semester. But that does only solve the practical part of my housing problem, not the administrative one. My Resident Permit expires in October, when I am in China. When I come back and want to renew my permit, I will have to show a contract that states my new address. Ofcourse, scince I will rent the other student’s room unofficially, I will have no contract.

In short: I will be off the streets but legally homeless.