46!

quickly approaching the big "50" here folks! today was a dreary-yet-not-freezing sort of saturday. i did not go out last night because i wanted to wake up early and go to the market with my host mother! so i woke up, threw on some clothes, and ate a quick bowl of cereal with yogurt! then we headed out to the lovely market. it was so neat! a few "city blocks" of vendors of all sorts...clothing, fruit, meat, vegetables, flowers, candy, baked goods, etc. i really enjoyed it! it's sort of a social thing as well as a place to purchase items. it is the brooking's farmers market on super-steroids, basically. we bought the small carrots pictured here and had them for dinner! we also bought some of the raisin bread pictured below as well..it was SO good! better than the cinnamon raisin toast from the bread lady in brookings, i am sorry to say! here are some of my favorite pictures from this morning:

after the market i decided to go to music class with my host mother. i thought i would just watch as they rehearsed their little ensemble but turns out BOTH drummers were gone..so it was my lucky day, right? we played a funky version of "Girl from Ipanema" (which i always thought was spelt Epanima?? am i crazy?). anyways..i was expecting a simple bossa nova beat but nono..this little ensemble with two pianos, two guitars, trumpet, violin, singer (host mom), and bass (director too) decided they want a more hip version of the classic song..so thus it was more of a rock beat than anything! it was actually kind of fun although we only played maybe 20 minutes total due to the fact that the director dude LOVES to talk. nonetheless it is always nice to try something new.

after music class we came home and i just hung out for a while. i feel like i am doing a lot of "just hanging out" but that is perfectly fine with me. its not like i am just sitting around the house 24/7, no..but its nice to just relax after school or on the weekends sometimes. a lot of people and exchange students in particular like to be really busy the whole year..but i am more than okay with just hanging out. hell, i am just hanging out..IN BELGIUM. so no matter what i do it is way cooler than being at home, even if i am just sitting here. whenever i start to miss brookings, my parents, my dogs, american food, or anything like that..i just think "what is the coolest thing i've ever done?" and the answer is always.."i'm doing it right now!"..just being here will be a very worthwhile experience whether i'm always busy or i'm sitting in my room creeping facebook. whatever! so after a little bit of just hanging out my host mom and i went to the grocery store. she gets a little kick out of the fact that i LOVE going to the grocery store with her. i guess she had to beg her real daughter to go with her..which is funny because sometimes i think my real mom gets annoyed of me at the grocery store because i always throw about 100 more things in the cart than we actually need! mom we need poptarts...no jamie we have some at home..okay well i want to try these..then we buy them, and i don't eat them of course, then a couple years later we thrown them out when we clean out the pantry! but not here...every random thing that goes in the cart will get eaten at one point or another. its funny, last night we had pizza..and my host parents didn't really like it, but yet they still ate almost all of it..its just proves how wasteful americans are i guess! i mean it wasn't disgusting pizza but if i didn't like a pizza at home i would just throw it out and make something else, haha! but anyways, we went to the grocery store and bought some of those cookies i was blogging about yesterday! we also got PEANUT BUTTER because i don't really like the stuff my mom mailed from america, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? after a whole jar of the natural stuff the "jiff" or "skippy" from home has no flavor at all. i think i am adjusting!! okay so here is the next issue..at the store i decided to be brave and ask for some salami and cheddar cheese...so i could stop eating just peanut butter and jelly on my bread for lunch. what do you think, americans? would i get sick if i made a salami and cheddar sandwich for lunch..kept it in my un-chilled lunch box for 3 hours and then ate it? no mayonnaise of course..but maybe some butter? people do it here all the time..and everyone thinks i'm crazy for doubting the lack of refrigeration. but seriously i am scared to eat some warm meat and cheese! haha! but anyways..after the store we went to the hair salon because i am in need of some advice from a professional about my little hair situation i have going on here. ever since i arrived my hair has been falling out more than it ever has before..and sometimes it just breaks off in the middle too! the hard water definitely doesn't help my fine blonde hair but falling out is just too much to handle. so we asked the hair dresser of my host mom and he said it's probably because i am lacking some vitamins from the food i normally eat. i can totally believe it because there is no bacon-egg-english muffin with some mandarin oranges for breakfast like at home..and no cafeteria all-food-groups-included lunch here either! too many carbohydrates and not enough protein, i know that for sure. so i need to find some good vitamins till i get situated. but i did make an appointment for a trim and a moisturizing treatment? next wednesday, so maybe that will help too. after that we came home and eventually had dinner. on saturdays my host dad usually does the cooking. he cooked the cute little carrots from the market with some peas, then made a kind of pork-roast thing..and then some potatoes. it's cool how they make potatoes here..first boil them (without the skin), then slice them, and fry them in a pan with some butter till they sort of caramelize. pretty tasty i'd say! anyways, thank you so much for reading this sentence because that means you got to the end of today!!! congratulations, i bet your eyes hurt! so i am sorry about that..i can usually write and write for days!! time to go see if i can sneak one of those cookies we bought earlier..thanks again for reading!