Last night in Luven .. getting some much needed down time after an amazinly fun and busy vacation.
Started the day by giving a tlak for all of the KU Electronics grad students.. I think there were abotu 150 folks there.. I gave a technical(-ish) talk about IBM’s smarter planet stuff.. then I gave a version of my ‘lessons from the colony’ talk. Both talks went ok-sh.. though I know I talked way too long. Folks were kind engoug to stick with me to the end though..
We ended with one last picture of the wonderful SBC staff….
Then Georges and Wim. (both really great KU profs) and I went and grabbed lunch..
I’ve known Geroges for more than 20 years.. and he’s always been trying to get me to visit Leuven.. I’m SO glad I finally did. Meeting Wim was really good too.. he’s a much loved prof here in digital design.. on top of his teaching, he’s developed some really cool outreach activities around lego. It’s the best intro to logic hands on activity I’ve ever seen. Kids build up fun ways to control a lego train using very visible and intuitive logi primitives.. I’d like to find a way to get it used in the sttes (any one iut there interested in learning more ? )
On the way to lunch.. we passed the ‘castle’.. a partially 15th and partially 20th century building at the heart of KU’s Haverlee campus..
Lunch came with the obligatory beer(s).. The beer is so good that I don’t think I could keep my boyish figure if I lived here year round
After lunch we wandered back to campus and I met wth a few students. (Valentijn and Dimitri a.k.a. Dimi) The students are truly amazing. I
got to hear some presentations on their research and I am most
impressed. They are experts in some of my favorite fields (Analog
design. cad, RF, low power).. so it was a real treat getting to catch
up on their work…
Next time I looked up it was after 6:30 .. everyone was tired after the SBC conference so the halls were empty.. it was time for me to go home and pack.. Friend Dimi gave me a ride.. he’s aan amazing guy.. his research is really promising..it’s goign to fun to see where it goes.. right now he and his girlfreind are headed to costa rica ,,,
I went to my room. changed my clothes and went out for a few mile run.. I checked out soem of the back streets.. there is cool art and architecture at every turn here..
The place is a maze of narrow twisting paths..
I intentially ran my way to Groot Begijnhof a Begijnhof (i read in Wikipedia is:
a courtyard surrounded by small
dwellings. It is often encircled by a wall and secluded from the town
proper by one or two gates. Poor and elderly beguines .. .. which were religious single womenn.. often widows.. were housed here
by some benefactor
It was a beautiful collection of very old building and cobblestone streets.. Luck college kids and professors get to live there.. It was really magical.. llike steppign back many hunderd years..
Methinks that mirth be not alowed !
I had a little trouble leaving the Begijnhof.. but I turned towards home and ran back to city center.
The sun was just setting as the clock rang 9PM.. I forget how far north this is..
I baught myself a very good falafel from a turkish place and wandered around the square.. a band was setting up to play..
That’s when I discovered that tonight was the Meyboom celebration. The Meyboom is a very late May pole.. Thefrom what I gather.. every Aug 9th for the last 700+ (!!!) years, a group of burly men have coem to this spot and planted a Meyboom tree on this spot (well..
this spot evidnetly was chosendn in the 1970s’.. but it’s always been nearby) .. The history is hazy.. but is somehow commemorates a fight between the wedding party from some dude in Brussles and some ne’erdowells from Leuven. I guess the Brussels guys beat the @#$% out of the Leuvin guys. but still they celebrate.. .. And all this happend in the 12 hundereds…
here’s a blurb found on it:
An unseasonably late maypole (or ‘Meyboom’) is raised in Brussels, on
the anniversary of a wedding which took place in 1213. A posse of
costumed giants accompanies the pole on its journey from the Sablon to
the Grand Place.
According to legend, a wedding party was ambushed by a gang of youths
from Leuven. When the unwanted youths were finally dispatched, the
happy couple were entitled to honour their saviour, Saint Laurence, by
planting a may tree on his saint’s day every year.
BTW., in one account.. the ‘happy couple’ was comprised of an old count and a teen aged girl.. … ugh.
I stuck aorund and blissed out to the music for awhile.. I managed to catch the little clock guy banging 9:30.. look at the color of the sky ! It was still light at 10 when I walkde back to the hotel
OK.. that’s it for today.. Tomorrow I’m spending all day on a plane flying home.. THis has been a great visit.. I think I did some good by being here.. and I met soem really fantastic people ! After tomorrow.. it’s back to ‘normal’.. whatever that may be..
gnite all.. good nite Sam
-me
