83!

hello world. again i apologize for yesterdays less-than-grateful blog, it was a very selfish thing for me to say and i'm starting to slightly regret it. i would go into more details but i will spare you the lecture and just move on to my day. today started out like yesterday, extremely tired, sad, and frustrated. but when i got to dutch class things got a little better. oh i must mention that the heater at language school somehow broke during the break, thus causing the once sauna-like heat of the classroom to now resemble more of an igloo. so i kid you not when i say that i wore my gloves the entire time. or better yet theyare mittens, im not sure..they are the cool kind where you can cover your fingers or have your fingers uncovered..so therefore creating mitten-gloves! i still have the same teacher and only a few different classmates. we even got a diploma for level 1 and i got a 90% on my exam! haha i'm so special. then i met only a couple of my class mates for lunch and had some hot chocolate, i honestly think that was what mainly made me feel better. then we had two hours of english..which was randomly turned into english drama class. personally i thought it was a lot more entertaining than just sitting there listening to grammar and vocabulary stuff, but i really didn't enjoy it either. i mean, come on..."list how many animals you can think of..in english" -what does that teach these guys? cat, dog, rabbit, penguin, bird..all extremely useful information. there i go again being too hard on people. then i spent an hour in the library and an hour in music class..but i couldn't tell the difference becauseall i did was read my book. speaking of which, i'm almost finished..so i'm extremely excited for my birthday package to come in the mail from the USA! (more books!). after a freezing cold bike ride home i downloaded desperate housewives and then went to the doctor! i got a flu shot and asked him about my non-stop headaches. first of all, let me tell you about the flu shot. host mom picked it up at the pharmacy a few days a go then it sat in the fridge until we took it to the doctor today..weird. secondly, belgium has a crazy socialized healthcare thing going on so it was like going to the doctor at someones house! they're all private doctors/dentists/therapists and stuff which is a whole new concept to me. so the guy walks in to the "waiting room"..and we walk in the little office. it was kind of ghetto but nothing more than the brookings clinic (clearly i haven't been to sanford) with their old carpet and 1980s themed check up rooms. yet again, my blog is being served with a big side of sarcasm and negativity...sorry about that! but the doctor said that my headaches are all tension headaches, caused by stress, anxiety, all that fun stuff. i'm just trying way too hard to understand and be comfortable that its working against me. i brought a 100 pill bottle of ibuprofin with me, and there are only 10 left now..thats an average of 1 per day, which is too many. i will eventually have stomach problems and he even asked if i was addicted to the medicine! sometimes taking too much of it can actually start to CAUSE headaches. he suggested yoga (hahaha, me...yoga...let me think about that one) and "prescribed" relaxation therapy. can anyone tell me what relaxation therapy is? i think my mom and i call that THE SIOUX EMPIRE MALL. but its like massages and exercises that will magically make me feel better. he also said i need to be warm a lot which is ironic because i am almost always cold here in belgium. but along with my attitude i also hope to start managing my stress level and hopefully not be so hard on myself..because it just ends up making me feel physically sick and that's just ridiculous. those of you that know me know that i tend to overreact and try to make everything too perfect..relaxationis NOT my strong point! but when faced with such a culture shock i should probably cut myself some slack. so after the doctor we came home, had some mushroom risotto, i watched desperate on my laptop with a heat pad on my neck, and ate an ice cream bar. sounds relaxing enough to me! so that was my day. hope yours was great too!

last but not least- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD! and my grandma mckinney too! miss you very very much father..love you!