59!

day fifty nine here, crazy! lets think..what happened today. well, i woke up an hour earlier than usual and went to real school all day (like i do every friday..). the first class was french where is sat there confused and then we went to take a pictureof the whole class which was kind of cool! then i had dutch where i sat there again, followed by german where i went to the library. the last class was just a guy presenting this slideshow to us about university but i did not pay attention since i am not staying here forever. but i did learn that it only takes you THREE years for a bachelors degree in belgium..what the heck, most americans are taking 5 nowadays..crazy. on our way to the 4th class (the one before lunch..the presentation today) we realized the kid from argentina was missing. they thought he went to the library with me but he didn't, he went home from school..AGAIN. so tuesday he left afterlunch, wednesday he was gone, thursday he was gone, and then only 3 classes on friday? fine with me because i think he's really annoying but seriously i don't know what his problem is..nor does the rest of the class. its hard to include someone who goes home from school and skips school because they are "tired"..hell, we are ALL tired. not my problem though!! anyways then it was lunch time and i was excited because today i bought a SMOS! now bloggers if there is one thing i absolutely love about belgium its the concept of the smos..french bread, mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrots, hard boiled egg slices, and ham or cheese. so good...the perfect lunch. of course i was really depressed that i had gym after lunch so i also bought an appelflap which is an apple turnover in english! of course that was amazing as well. so lunch was nice, haha! then we went to gym class where we had to run more than 5km but i decided i would try but then i quit about halfway through and the teacher really didn't care since everyone quits a lot of the time plus i don't get real grades anyways. then we played some mini-tennis and it was time for geography. in geography the teacher likes to talk about how wasteful the world is, it's pretty much global climate change class or something. the good news is that she shows a lot of movies that are usually in english (with dutch subtitles) so its easy for me to understand. lately i find myself being much more observant when people speak and when watching videos and i think thats whats been causing my headaches lately. i've had a headache almost every night this week. i honestly believe i'm thinking too hard and constantly trying to translate. sometimes i'm just too hard on myself. anyways. after school we all went to the irish publike usual and yep you guessed it..cherry beer time! then i biked home (it was raining at this point..lovely) and hung around for a while. then my host brother and i went to the FRITUUR because it is junk food friday and guess what?..i actually brought my camera today! so now you can see what a frituur is!

honestly i think they are one of my favorite things about belgium..because it's just so unique. you walk in, order a ton of french fries and then pick some random meat to be fried too. it's awesome! look at all the stuff in the case that you can fry..crazy!

so i got a (small!?) french fry and i let my host brother pick a random meat thing and it is a "vlees croquet" which is almost impossible to describe. its like a cheeseball only..instead of gooey cheese it was gooey meat inside. no doubt it was lekker (tasty!!).

so that was my day. and now i should go to sleep because i'm pretty sure i have a big day ahead of me tomorrow. i think i am going to try to go to the market in the morning, then head to antwerp and meet a friend for a movie and maybe some dinner..then catch the train home and go out with a couple school friends at night..ambitious goals. we'll see how that plays out. until then! thanks for reading :)

58!

day 58! nothing special today. went to language class, got a lot of homework there..which i then proceeded to do during my afternoon classes so that was nice! in dutch class i am learning about body parts, going to the doctor, saying when something hurts, and stuff like that. actually we moved on to a new chapter today that was about food! so you know me..i'm enjoying that. but tomorrow i have real school all day, so i have to wake up an hour earlier..great right? i feel like i spoke a LOT of dutch at school today, or i tried to..i think it is because i have an exam in like 2-3 weeks for language class and i want to make sure i pass!! of course the order of my sentences was wrong a lot and my pronunciation is always iffy but i definitely got an A for effort. after school i decided to go tanning again (sorry to say it...i know its bad for me but i cant help it!!!) since it was absolutely freezing biking to school this morning! i even wore gloves and i was still cold, but it will be okay. today was about 55 degrees fahrenheit and it will continue to get colder..great fun on a bike i'm telling you. i just miss the comfort of my mom starting my car in the mornings and then driving to school in my heated car with my pre-made breakfast, going to my heated one leveled school and stuff like that. here its like..bike in the cold, make your own breakfast, walk up thousands of stairs in a freezing school and stuff. just a different culture, thats all! soon enough it will feel normal, i guess. or at least i hope it will start to feel normal sometime, because at the moment everything just feels sort of "temporary", maybe. but i think i'm doing okay, especially after tanning again..waste of money right? the only other thing i did today was buy more credit for my phone. for some weird reason it ran out in like 2 weeks and i didn't even text out of the country more than like twice? really weird! anyways i don't have anything exciting to share with you about today but here is a picture of what is above my headboard thing right now. i have decided to put up whatever i get mailed just because it reminds me of good ol home...maybe some other people besides my aunt and hartz should mail some pictures? just a thought!

so anyways i am sorry i'm so boring today, i really don't intend to be. i just can't think of anything in particular to mention today. i'm sure i will think of something to share tomorrow. such as how miserable i will be in gym class! running like 6km or something..while its freezing outside..complete nonsense. thanks for reading!

57..

hello all. today was a little bit less than amusing. biked in the freezing morning air to language class, where i pretty much stared at the wall all morning because i was bored and tired. then i came home and had lunch with the host family, which was nice, but luckily at this point i was still in a really good mood due to my tanning yesterday. something about getting a little sun (albeit fake, unhealthy, cancer-causing sun) made me feel good for the first half of today. luckily for you, the reader, i took some pictures on my bike ride home from language class. i'm not sure if you know this or not but biking while simultaneously taking pictures is extremely difficult, so consider yourself lucky.

unfortunately the second half of the day was not as pleasant. it started out nicely, sitting at the coffee shop down the street with my host mom, waiting to bike to the hairdresser. it was nice.

then i got my hair done, or, attempted to. the hairdresser spent about 3/4 of the time on the phone, and the rest of the time telling stories. i think he used the scissors on my hair for maybe 5 minutes. i wanted a real HAIRCUT you know..chop those ends off like 2 inches..but it was more like half a centimeter. then he proceeded to blow dry the hell out of it and break a lots more hair off and tell stupid stories. damn. really pathetic, especially considering it cost about 60 us dollars. live and learn i guess. then i came home and ate dinner. truthfully i didn't really like it but it could be due to the fact that i'm not in the best mood right now. hopefully tomorrow will be better. thanks for reading and sorry if i sound selfish!

56!

hello all! day 56 here in belgium...8 WEEKS! crazy right? i'm here maybe 48 weeks total..so 40 more at the most, weird! anyways..it is definitely autumn over here! i wish i could tell you what it feels like to be over here while the seasons are changing but its hard to describe. all i can tell you is that it is some crazy crisp air in the mornings on the bike! burr burr...so i probably looked like a wimp while wearing a hat and some gloves this morning but i don't care, i was not freezing so it was okay. my favorite thing about biking is that although i feel i am improving at it, old ladies and men STILL pass me ALL the time..small children too! these people are freaks on bikes, i'm telling you. sometimes i see an old person that you would think would be in a wheelchair but nope they have a bike! those are the type of people that pass me in the mornings. its ridiculous. i will also mention that i do not like tuesdays because i always have to bike by the smelly garbage truck and that is not fun at all! but when you bike by the bakeries it smells really good so it makes up for it..anyways enough about that. we got our tests back inlanguage class today and i got an 8.5/10! yay for me! that is a pretty good score especially compared to others in the class. nothing exciting for lunch today..just stayed in a classroom and atesome salami and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches haha! then we had two hours of music class and an hour of math..i did nothing for three hours, great! the only weird thing about school was that the boy from argentina went home after lunch because hewas "tired". we all think he went home because he was not the center of attention, but theres nothing we can do about that. being an exchange student is all about being involved, outgoing, appreciative, and open to new experiences. nobody can MAKE you do those things and have a good attitude, it'sall about what you make it and how you want to look at things. sure its hard being the new kid but thats why you don't sit in thecorner by the piano while we are all eating lunch in a circle, you come over with the rest of us and have a conversation, or at least smile and nod! anyways i didn't have to put up with him today so all is well. after school my friend from class helped me go to the tanning place! i have really been missing the sun here in belgium and i decided to splurge and go tanning just so my makeup would still match. its weird, even in the fall in south dakota the sun can give you a little color. here its like living under a blanket or something! anyways it was almost 1 us dollar a minute so i will not be doing that very often! once a month maybe. then i stopped at a home store that is like pier 1 in sioux falls only european version and i bought an awesome little basket to hold my makeup, lotion, etc. isn't it cool? its made out of recycled paper thats rolled up and glued on..neato.

then i came home and took a shower or something because i smelled like tanning. then we went to get my identity card from the city hall place in oud-turnhout. i took a picture of it because i think its cool but i blurred out most of the important things i think! it has a cool microchip on the back that has all your personal information on it. really high tech!

then we had dinner which was something italian..specific i know. we talked about how americans waste a lot of food, or waste a lot of everything actually. for example, i bought apples at a weird store like 3 weeks ago. i didn't know it was not so good till i checked out and saw the cashier. then i came home, and my host mom told me it was a store that is kind of iffy. so i decided not to eat the apples and they have sat in the fridge ever since. now knowing me you would just assume i threw them away after a week or so but not in this family! they are still in the fridge and they want to make a pie/cake with them..ahhh!!! three week old apples to begin with sound gross let alone creepy druggish grocery store ones! but its just because that is the american perspective and i need to start living a little less..high maintenance, i guess. everybody in the united states does though! it's definitely not JUST me. anyways. after dinner my host brother and father started putting their beer in bottles! did i tell you they were making their own beer? well they are..so here are a couple pictures of that!

now i need to go to bed. only language class tomorrow. then i have a hair appointment! wish me luck. goodnight and thanks for reading!

55!

hello all! day fifty five here in belgium land. nothing too special going on today...just went to language class, lunch, then real school. same as usual! we had a test in language class and i think it went pretty well, but we will find out tomorrow or something, i'm not quite sure because my normal teacher is gone this week because she is getting surgery on her leg? yeah weird! anyways, then we went to the tearoom for lunch where i bought a hot chocolate. have i told you that hot chocolate is "warme chocolademelk"or something! it is a very important phrase for me because i have it almost every time we go to thetearoom for lunch..which is usually a couple times a week! i really like the guy that is always working (i assume he owns the place) because he gave me the two books to read (same book...one in english and one in dutch) and i think that is very nice! today he also gave me my hot chocolate last and said "the best for last" in dutch..haha what a nice guy. i think i also have an incredible amount of respect for him due to the extremely delicious pancakes, real hot chocolate, warm bread, homemade soup, 200 kinds of tea, and last but not least the little chocolates and mini muffins with your warm drink. anyways enough about that! we had english in school today for two hours and it was kind of difficult! we got back our tests from last week and i of course got the surname question wrong along with spelling some simple word wrong, embarrassing! but its really hard to be perfect at both languages i guess, and i am hearing more dutch than english in the day so you really cant blame me. then i did nothing for two more hours and biked home. on my way home i stopped at the fruit shop and bought some apples and a couple oranges. its very common to take an apple for a snack during the 10 minute breaks at school so i like to do it as well! plus its fun to stop at the fruit shop in general, super cute and not like america! so i came home and had a pear and an orange and talked to the host brother and mother for a while. then i cleaned up a few things in my room and had dinner. dinner was little fried potatoes, cauliflower with cheese, and sausages. typical i think! other than that there is not much going on today. here are a couple pictures i thought you might find interesting! i came home from school and you can clearly tell the cleaning lady was here..even my undies are folded!

then this is the start of my collection. about a week ago i decided i wanted to collect the cheap coasters you can find at bars, cafe's, pubs or whatever..so here is what i have so far! its actually a really easy, cheap (free hahah you just steal them..can't really be a crime, everyone does it), and unique collection.

anyways now i am going to go grab a speculaas cookie or maybe 10 then watch desperate housewives on itunes! thanks for reading once again!