115!

gone to brussels with exchange students today-will update this day on saturday! thanks for checking in :)

oh hello! its now saturday night, and i am back from brussels! yesterday my host mom woke me up around 9 because she thought i slept in or was sick for school..but no, i actually didn't have any school since theres no language class on friday and everyone else is taking exams, haha! but it was okay because i had to get up anyways. i even cleaned my room a little..you can actually see the floor again!! after a shower and abowl of cereal i packed up the backpack (speaking of which, who wants to buy me a north face hiking backpack for christmas?) and caught the bus to the station. i had about 45 minutes to kill before the train left to brussels, so i got some lunch. lunch was some apple pie and hot chocolate..just living the life i guess (have i mentioned the diet starts on monday?)! so i caught the train and met my three exchange student friends at the north station. let me tell you a little about brussels north, this is easily the most ghetto part of belgium i've ever seen. i say this because when you first come in on the train, there are literally like 5 city blocks full of prostitutes in the windows..and its like a bad car accident or something, you cant help but look! so im always a little scared at that station. there were lots of beggers and some even chased after us asking for money in french but we figured it out. after a little confusion finding the hostel due to my hand-drawn map..we finally found it! it was a pretty cute little place actually..a lot better than my first hostel experience! its really fun just hopping on a train and going somewhere for a day or two, especially when that somewhere is in belgium..that helps a lot! after checking in at the hostel, we walked around the shopping street a bit and saw an american indian band..so random! i wonder if they are lakota sioux? doubtful! but it felt like listening to brule at the arts festival in brookings, haha.

next stop was the grand palace, or big square of brussels. i've been here my first week in belgium with all the other exchange students but never on my own. thus, we didn't know how to get there but we followed the lights on top of the streets (for christmas, like downtowns in the usa) and followed the flow of people and made it! it was decorated for christmas and it was really cool! a giant christmas tree, beautiful lights and loud christmas music! sights like that just put things in a whole new perspective.

after that we walked some more and i eventually got a little fruit tart, because i can. i seriously don't think i've walked that much in my entire life! we kept circling all the back and side streets looking for anything interesting. with the beautiful lights, 40 degree weather and completely charming atmosphere i bet we walked 10 miles and didn't even notice.

after more walking, more random (maybe?) christmas markets (still not sure if it was the real one but it was definitely christmas-looking) we went to a pretty popular bar/pub/whatever "delirium" ..its gotta be the biggest bar i've ever seen! but with that being said, it's also easy to make nice friends that will buy you cherry beers and talk about how much they respect exchange students. (yes, we did watch him buy them. no, there were no drugs added or i wouldn't be here to tell the tale)

so after the pub we went back to the hostel and then decided we were hungry. so we went and got some spaghetti at midnight!! how silly is that? but it was so fun, and yet again i find myself being HAPPY and CONTENT with where i am and what i'm doing. living is a lot easier when you keep your eyes open!!!