64!

hello hello! day 64 here in belgium land. nothing too exiting going on today. i took a test in dutch class and it was pretty easy i think! i will find out for sure tomorrow. then i came home and we had lunch because it is wednesday! we made this weird "tortilla" thing which was like eggs and potatoes...i think i've mentioned it before. anyways it was good. but before lunch the doorbell rang and it was MY 3RD BOX FROM HOME! yayy!

it was fabulous. it is so cold here in belgium, a different kind of cold than at home. it could be a wetter cold, considering it rains all the time and we are close to the sea. but for some reason even in the mid 50s i am still freezing so my mom sent me (amongst other things) some warm clothes. i love getting things from home, it makes me feel so much better for some reason. then i took a couple hour nap which was really great. then we ate dinner and now i am here. dinner was cabbage and sausage potatoes. i think that is pretty normal here. well i have not much more to say about today, the box and the easy language test was the thrill of my wednesday. really cold out tomorrow so wish me luck with the bike in the morning! burrrr!

63!

this is one of those blogs where i promise to re-do it tomorrow due to the fact that i just got home (after midnight) from a rotary meeting thing and i have a test tomorrow in dutch class. sorry!!!!! slaapwel allemaal!

next day:

yesterday was a simple tuesday. woke up, went to dutch class, went to lunch with my friends, and went to real school. we had two hours of music, an hour of math, and an hour of theatre type class. although i bought a "cola light" (diet coke) at lunch time i could still not stay awake in math class! i felt kind of bad about it

but the teacher doesn't mind..its almost like he knows his voice puts me to sleep..so monotone! anyways, after school i came home and had my daily chat with my host mom, i think. have i mentioned that most days after school we sit in the kitchen and have fruit and talk about the day? usually it is in english but more and more dutch is used around the house i guess. it is really stressful for me to hear dutch ALL THE TIME so the family still uses english mainly but when they speak dutch to me or eachother i can sometimes understand it! but replying is difficult due to my limited vocabulary. anyways. after that i took a shower and got ready for a rotary meeting thing. i got picked up by our exchange chairman lady and then we picked up manuella too. we got there around seven and left around midnight. i wish i could tell you it was fun but nothing is very fun when you don't under

stand what's going on! so the three exchange students just sat and smiled most of the night. i will tell you this much, i was definitely NOT smiling at the salad. in Belgium there are these mini-shrimp looking things that are my absolute worst fear. i've heard some stories about them from other exchange students and last night i finally had to face them myself. honestly i LOVE shrimp but this was like eating..i don't even know..fish poop? worst fishy taste of my life! sorry i am being rude but you just have to try them for yourself. i can choke down fish if i have to, sometimes i even like it, but this was a completely different situation.

needless to say, i really hope i never see them again. anyways the good news is that there was chocolate mousse for dessert, and courtney and i even drank some wine, haha! really funny that they offer us alcohol at rotary meetings here..or at least i think its kind of ironic. so that was yesterday, i hope you enjoyed it!

62!

hello blogger world! hope you're all enjoying your day/night or whatever time it is at your point in the world. today was day 62 in Belgium land and it was a nice normal monday. i was a bit late to language class due to the fact that my lovely host mom made KOFFIE (oh excuse me, i meant to say COFFEE) and i left about 10 minutes later than i normally do, so i walked into class right as they were getting started. it was the end of the world, basically. i got kicked out of class for three weeks..hahah JUST KIDDING! i was one of many many people that came after the teacher came in the room so it really made no difference. anyways enough with the comedy act for tonight. wednesday i have my last ten point quiz in dutch class and then next week is the final exam..scary. one day writing and two days speaking..but i am trying to practice and listen more and i think i am making some significant progress! today my class went to a different place for lunch than usual. it was a restaurant on the market and they all had spaghetti but just ordered a coke and had my sandwiches since i can never pass up sandwich mondays! i believe i have mentioned that before, right? every monday my host brother and i have "sandwiches" to take in our boxes for lunch..and for you americans, a sandwich here is what we call a hot dog bun, basically. only not a crappy wonder bread hotdog bun. sorry if the blog becomes a bit redundant after a while, i do not want any readers to be confused! heaven forbid you don't understand what i ATE, especially considering this is turning into one giant food blog. "Jamie goes to Belgium..eating my way across the country" or something, hahaha. so anyways then we went to school and i really don't remember much so i assume it was boring. i know we had english class for two hours and then two hours of music so a lot of nothing. then i came home and i was looking online at office max stuff because we have a gift card there or something, and you would not believe what happened!! i was reading the list of items they sell such as "books, paper, chairs, electronics, safes, etc" and when i read the word "safes" i pronounced it like i was reading Dutch so in my head i said "sah-fez" and actually had to click on it to see what it was! then pictures of safes popped up and i was like DUHH JAMIE!!! but it was really funny, and a good sign i think. my brain is converting to dutch or something. sometimes i spell really simple things wrong in english, i bet you've noticed that in the blog maybe? oh well! for dinner we had leek which was really different for me! at home all we do with leeks is put them in soup or something! but it was chopped up and put in a frying pan then with some milky sauce on it. it was awesome! and there was also really yummy soup of course..broccoli! hooray for soup! so now i must leave you because i have an important episode of desperate housewives waiting for me on iTunes. but before i go...

on Tuesday a special someone back home has a very special BIRTHDAY! my second mother SUSAN HELSPER of SKH Designs! dearest susan, life just isn't the same without you! i wish you a very happy 60th birthday, you cougar you! and remember..age is just a number..you have 6 decades of wisdom, hahahha. i can picture her saying something like "you aasss" to me right now. anyways happy birthday! nothing but fond memories of my silpada sister suzie q!

just wouldn't be a blog without some pictures..goodnight world!

ps i changed my settings so now anyone can comment i think!!

2 months!

hello all. today marks 2 months in belgium! today i went with my host mom and brother to Lier. its about 45 minutes away i think. we went there last weekend and we went there today too since it was the "winkel" day so the shops were actually open on a sunday! all i got was a scarf but thats okay, kind of a knitted mustard color haha.. i am waiting to see what comes in my box of warm clothes my mom sent me this week. anyways! after being here two months i find myself still missing home a lot. i really like life here but home is still in the back of my mind. i keep wondering what i am missing out on asa freshman in college. don't get my wrong i appreciate life over here but some days (especially tired days) i just get overwhelmed with differences and constantly translating and the homesickness gets to me. i am hoping it will stop soon because i really want belgium to be REALITY instead of this dream-state i feel like i'm living in sometimes. the things i miss the most: family, friends, pokey & frostina, my bed, american food, my car!, hearing english, and just the complexity of the life i had at home. here its pretty simple..the same routine every day. at home i felt the options were endless, its america so you can do whatever you want to do, maybe. here i feel like belgium is belgium and i'm not making enough out of it. but please believe me when is say i like it here, because i do..i'm just being selfish. kids all over the world don'thave food, water, shelter, clothing..and here i am complaining about the differences in food, shelter, clothing..not to mention the fact that i have not one but THREE more families that are welcoming me into their homes during my stay here. i think that puts it in a different perspective now, eh? but moving on now. in lier we walked around the winkelstraat-shopping street and we got a waffle, yay! my first warm belgian waffle..i was so excited! so i will leave you at that, the picture of my beautiful waffle, and i will also mention that i had schnitzel with paprika (red bell pepper) sauce for dinner. thanks for reading, and sorry if said anything stupid!

60!

hooray for day 60, tomorrow it will be 2 months! well as expected today was a pretty busy day. after attempting to wake up and go to the market i fell back asleep and ended up not going..oh well maybe next time! then i got ready and caught a train sometime before noon to Antwerp! in Antwerp i met my friend and fellow exchange student Brendan from Canada and we walked around to some winkels (shops). here are some pictures of my day!

first things first, the BEAUTIFUL Antwerp Central Station..it is amazing!

second stop..STARBUCKS!!!!! youhave no idea how happy i was to have a cappuccino with hazelnut and a lemon poppy seed muffin! it was an incredible way to wait for my friends train to arrive.

next thing you know we are walking down the street and theres a guy playing piano..a REAL piano..that he pulls with his BIKE! so there were big tires on it and a bicycle somehow attached to the front. he was really good too..and he had little egg-shakers on his foot so when he tapped along it was a nice shaker sound. then of course there was a guy playing with those chinese yoyo things or something..typical.

then would you believe it but we found an URBAN OUTFITTERS! (an amazing funky american store that sells things my parents wore growing up only they make it look cool somehow) and it was extremely expensive otherwise i definitely would have bought something. for example, a shirt there (like a normal girls tee shirt with a special design on it) would be like 30 dollars but here it was like 60 euro..honestly who buys that stuff!? but anyways i got a picture with it because it was cool!

next stop was the closet thing i've seen to a MALL so far. it was a really beautiful building for a mall! plus it was heated and we were pretty much freezing the whole day! it was this elaborately decorated building with gold all over, a restaurant in the middle, and a champagne bar too..you can see it on the left/middle of the first picture!..its shaped like a glass!

after that we found a third exchange student and we walked around a bit, i found a giant sandwich (a smos that i always talk about!!) to take a picture with..and then we had MCDONALDS! it was not very good actually, i am getting too used to good food here. but nonetheless i got a kids meal and it came with tropicana orange juice that was really tasty along with a bag of mini carrots. the rest was the same as at home!

so as some of you know Antwerp is like the world center for diamonds...so i would love to tell you that i got a beautiful picture of the diamond street but sadly i did not. i also did not get any good pictures of any buildings with historical value or purpose, but i did get to see the inside of a lot of stores and the mcdonalds which in my mind is just as cool, haha. so we will save the educational stuff for next time.

last but not least i caught the train home..this is what the trains from turnhout look like! there are a few different kinds of trains, i haven't quite figured it out yet...but i know some are nicer and faster than others and this one is not one of the fast and nice double deckered ones..but whatever here is a picture for your pleasure.

soooo after getting home i got ready to go out to "the reflex" with 2 of my music friends. there were not too many people at the club place tonight but we still had fun. it went pretty late though considering i am just finishing this blog and it is almost 5 in the morning..ahhh! time for bed. slaapwel, readers!