95!

day 95, and my birthday has been done for five minutes already here in beligum..sad! today was what i would call a perfect day. i woke up sometime around noon, took a shower, then had a cupcake and some coffee with Selly (from Taiwan) for breakfast!

Eventually we woke up the other american and the canadian too and we finally set off to go to town. after walking about 45 minutes we finally got some lunch. mmmm perfect belgian lunch, what i would call a grilled cheese with ham and spaghetti sauce..had to take a picture of course!

by that time canada had gone home, so the three of us girls walked back again, had another cupcake, then got a ride to the station with my host mom. have i mentioned the weather was great today? probably about 45 degrees and sunny, although i will admit we got pretty cold without jackets after a while!

tonight my wonderful host family took me out to eat for my birthday. we went to the chinese place on the market, and it was really good! they made us special food and everything (duck and lamb included, and i liked it, real MOM!).

not only were they nice enough to go out to dinner and let me have 3 friends sleep over last night, i got a present too! ever since i got here i've wanted one of these amazing watches..my host mom had one and i've always been so jealous of it, so for my birthday they got me a beautiful blue one! is it not the coolest thing you've ever seen!?

this birthday has definitely been one to remember. i feel like it was a boost in my perspective on everything here. a much needed break from the normal activities or something. it's also nice to see all the notes on facebook from people wishing me a happy birthday, and all the text messages too! just gives me a little reassurance that i'm doing the right thing for me at the moment, that brookings hasn't forgotten about me, and that i am making some good friends here. i feel so special and so incredibly thankful!!!! thank you everybody for keeping up with the blog!!

ps: one more thing, i have this terrible bruise on my hand, it hurts really bad too! i got it at school on friday when i tried to shut a door and failed..and it keeps looking worse and worse! kind of funny, so i thought i'd share. actually i lied, i'm really getting beat up here in belgium, when i'm not being taken out to dinner and given presents. :) just kidding!