47!

BEAUTIFUL day 47 in Belgium!! the weather was perfect..almost 75 degrees! it was actually a busy day today..saw a lot of historic sights around town, but before i tell you about that i must talk about breakfast. after waking up sometime around 10 i went downstairs expecting the usual sunday croissant and roll brunch like usual..but today was a special day, of sorts. we got to make "americanbreakfast" whichwas a very nice gesture. we made scrambled eggs with cheese and baconchunks mixed in..and i must say it was delicious! i haven't had anything except special k, yogurt, andsometimes a banana or some bread for breakfast. this morning we also had some of the raisin bread from the market yesterday and to top things off we even got out the toaster! normally there is a special bread here that they use for toast but at home we toast just about anything so thats what we did here! it was cool. as for differences- eggswere definitely better. clearlyfresh, farm eggs that would probably have to be illegally purchased in the USA.bacon- i guess each country has its own version of "bacon"; meaning that the part of the pig itcomes from is different depending on where you're at on the globe. the bacon we had thismorning i would just call fatty pork, but it was still good. but enough about breakfast!! i also forgot to mention that i walked to the bakery down the street (the one we usually avoid, becausetheir bread is spongey or something..seriously on the way to the bakery we usually go to get bread you pass maybe 4 others in about a 5 block bike ride..crazy bread lovers herei tell you!)...but yes..i walked to the bakery and got 12 sandwich rolls for my host brotherand my lunch tomorrow. monday is always soft roll ("sandwich") day, it is nice. after all of that though i went to the city of Turnhout with my host mother to see what there is to see in this town.

first stop was the "city hall" or basically, the castle. its a really pretty castle building surrounded by water that is actually the town's city hall...cool huh?

second stop was the Beguinage which is really hard for me to explain! It is a place where "religious women" would flee to in the early 18th century when they "wanted to live an independent but committed life outside the recognized orders with their vows of fidelity and poverty. They organized themselves in self-supported 'cities of peace'..." and etc etc. (i copied that from the information sign at the entrance..so take itas you will! It was a small gated community type place that old people now live in. it seemed like the Turnhout version of Sunnyview, haha! only with a creepy church and a bunch of other religious statues and stuff..

oh and we walked past my language school, so in case youwanted to know..this is where i attend language class from 9-noon every monday-thursday! like the colored pencil fence? classy.

third stop was a walk by the Turnhout prison. weird!

fourth stop was the shopping street! "winkelstraat" if you will. this weekend it was "fashion weekend" so all the stores were open on sunday with some having special promotions and stuff. there was a band playing on the street and some random food vendors and stuff, plus it was a beautiful day so the whole town was a hoppin place! i walked by a guy selling fried hamburgers and i just had to get one...but seriously, nicks hamburgers wins. HANDS DOWN. i'm not even sure if this was a real burger...(rubber?).

fifth stop was a walk by the train station. isn't it cute? you can go anywhere!

last stop was a little pub. my host mom takes music lessons from this lady who sings in a trio..and they were playing tonight at a cafe so we went to watch. they were really good and sang songs like "beer barrel polka" and whatnot. the drummer was really good as well but his kit was set up BACKWARDS! apparently if you're left handed it is actually NORMAL to just switch everything around rather than learn the right handed way. in america its pretty frowned upon to play backwards, but like i said, he was really good. i must mention that i had a cherry beer while listening to them, and i have decided that i am really fond of cherry beer! its like cranberry juice on steroids or something, that is all i can compare it to.

after that we finally went to a typical belgian dinner place. this is my second time in that restaurant and although i had something really good the first time i tried something different! i don't know how to spell it in dutch but it sounds like the "stouffers" brand of frozen dinners at home. it was really just stewed meat and a gravy-like sauce. it was good! of course there were also french fries with mayo at the table too so i really can't complain. now i am home and am really tired, long week of school and whatnot ahead of me. thanks for reading and have a good day/night/whatever!