three weeks in belgium today! seems longer, seems shorter. today was a wednesday, which is a happy little hump day here in belgium. school gets out at noon, and after a while it starts feeling like a sunday or something. being wednesday, i only had dutch class today. i'm starting to enjoy the class more and more but its still not the most exciting thing in the world. after that i came home and we ate lunch. turns out my host mom bought peanut butter after hearing me talk about it for the past 3 weeks, and i had a peanut butter and banana sandwich! it was amazing! the peanut butter you buy in stores here is just like the "natural peanut butter" you buy at the stores at home for like double the price of skippy or jiff. so as we were sitting at the table after lunch the doorbell rang. of course i immediately thought it was my package from home but sadly it was just someone trying to sell some stupid product. so i gave up hope on my package from home and decided to get my host mother to help me with my language homework. a little while later the doorbell rang again and we had to pay the mail man 10 euro to get MY PACKAGE FROM HOME! it was worth it though. my mom sent me tee shirts, toiletries, and snacks! mac and cheese which is unheard of in belgium, peanut butter (the american kind, yay!), chicken noodle soup in case i get sick, applesauce (my favorite), granola bars (great for packing in my lunch), a cookie cutter, sprinkles, and some other things to help adjust to belgian life. getting things from home was nice. being in belgium seems like one giant dream, an illusion, and its like your real life and reality are left behind in south dakota. so basically getting a box from home made belgium seem a little more like reality. anyways! i got to cook dinner tonight! we went to the store and bought ingredients for white chili! (hodges family if you're reading this i tried to use your recipe but it was definitely modified due to weird belgian ingredients..) i got the idea for making this dish because of an odd conversation at lunch. as we were eating pumpkin soup (yes pumpkin soup) my host dad asked if i wanted any coriander. of course i immediately was like..umm no i don't want little seeds in my soup but then i saw that it was a parsley-looking herb and was confused. after some chatting with my mom and some google-ing i found out that coriander LEAVES are the same thing as cilantro. duh jamie! yet another international culinary realization. did i tell you i had chicory the other night? also called a belgian endive, its some root that is really famous here. personally i thought chicory was some kind of wood or a flower for tea or something! apparently it is both? anyways, the white chili was good and i surely enjoyed it. tomorrow is another normal day. since this is my third week in belgium i feel like i should show off some of my dutch skills. so i will end with this; a paper i am turning in tomorrow for language class:
Beste, (dear..somebody)
Mijn naam is Jamie. (my name is jamie..duh)
Ik woon in Oud-Turnhout. (i live in oud-turnhout)
Ik kom uit de Verenigde Staten van Amerika. (im from the usa)
Ik ben niet getrouwd. (i am not married)
Ik heb geen kinderen. (i dont have kids)
Ik woon 3 weken in België. (ive been in belgium for 3 weeks)
Ik spreek Engels, Spaans, en een beetje Nederlands. (i speak english, spanish, and a little dutch..which is a lie because my spanish is terrible, but still better than my dutch)
Groetjes, Jamie McKinney (greetings???idk, jamie m)
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