45!

hoorah, day forty five! happy junk food friday again! tonight we had pizza. they called in the order then picked it up and brought it home. i must admit it was no pizza king, but it still seemed pretty tasty. mine had slice tomatoes, ham, salami, and mushrooms on it. "lekker" as they say here..(tasty). anyways i could not finish it all due to the fact that it was about a foot in diameter..so leftovers for lunch tomorrow i'm guessing. today i went to real school all day. it was pretty boring. i didn't do anything for the morning classes...went to the library for german, did some dutch homework in science, and took a nice nap in math. back home i NEVER sleep in class..i'm one of those kids that will put my head down for ten minutes trying to sleep like everyone else but just can't. but no no, not here! i find the sound of my math teachers monotonous voice especially pleasing to put me right to sleep. plus the fact that he doesn't mind is rather discouraging me to pay attention, so thus i sleep sleep sleep. a 30 minute cat nap never did any harm, right? then it was time for lunch. i walked around with a boy from my class while i atemy peanut butter and jelly sandwich. it was a rather nice day here, some sun, not too many clouds, and a little wind..although at the moment i believe it is pouring rain outside..go figure!!! so i walked with him and he bought a "sandwich" and then i had to go discuss my schedule with this crazy lady that is "here to help me if i need her". anyways, i basically told her that i am still unable to follow the lessons in all of my classes except english. of course that is to be expected after taking only one month of dutch lessons..but for some reason she doesn't understand that. i am sitting there thinking "LADY! of course i don't understand science..its not in english! i might as well be in chinese class for all i know" and this lady just responds with "well what are some alternative classes you would like to take..would you like to take drawing?"...no lady, i don't want to take drawing, i don't want change my direction of study, and i don't want to be having this conversation. i think she was just trying to help but the benefit of having graduated at home is that i can focus on the language and not have to worry about always translating my homework. hell, mostof the time the teachers just ignore me. haha, i don't even have BOOKS! (you have to buy your books here, or rent them, like college..weird..i am not going to rent a book i won't understand for 6 more months yet, sorry). then after that counterproductive discussion i went to gym class. let's just say it was not as bad as i was expecting. then i went to geography, where we watched a movie in dutch that included multiple graphic scenes such as: birth of a piglet, slaughtering of chickens, etc etc. i'm not sure what the teacher is trying to prove in that class. i thought it was geography but its more like "why i think the world is a terrible place" class. she's always complaining about how wasteful and bad for the environment everything is, which i agree, the world is getting pretty damn dirty, but go out and do something about it then..don't just lecture us! but i must admit i do enjoy the class because she definitely has a point to her madness, i suppose. after school i went with my music friends to the irish pub where i had hot chocolate. i must mention that the cookie that came with my hot chocolate is something i KNOW you can't find in the USA. here there is a special thing called "speculoos" that comes as a paste or a cookie. as a paste you put it on bread and stuff but the cookies you can eat plain all day. when i first tried it my taste buds were nothing more than overwhelmed and downright confused. at first it tastes like a graham cracker...but then it tastes like a ginger snap...then its like cinnamon...wait maybe peanut butter...no...honey...hmm. the actual ingredients are flour, butter, brown sugar, and a mix of spices that include cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, powdered ginger, cardamom, and white pepper. you can see why my taste buds were so confused! so here are some pictures i found online:

..I also found out (on the usa-belgian embassy's website) that the producers of these wonderful cookies just opened a coffee shop in san francisco that of course gives a cookie with every warm drink...something they are trying to make popular stateside! small world right? if i ever have enough ambition i will definitely open a coffee shop that gives out cookies. hands down! anyways i should probably get to bed now, too much pizza tonight..and early morning at the market tomorrow! look for pictures in tomorrows blog..much love and thanks for reading!