75!

hey there world! day 75..wow! today my friend and i woke up what seemed like pretty early..due to the fact that it was ALREADY daylight savings time here in belgium last night! so we "fell back" an hour here, while the USA doesn't do it for another week. my narrow-minded-non-cultured self just assumed the whole world did the daylight savings time all at once, but no sir..only certain countries choose to do it and allat different times too. so right now south dakota is only 6 hours behind me instead of the usual 7..but only for this week..complicated!! anyways, we woke up, hadbreakfast, then took her to the train station to go home. on the way home from the train station my host mom took me to see a graveyard.sounds random and creepy but there was logic to it. the first of november is belgium's version of "memorial day" and everyone goes to put flowers and stuff on the graves, so it was kind of nice to see. we didn't visit anyone in particular but just walked around the cemetery in Turnhout and Oud-Turnhout. it was pretty interesting to see, but definitely a weird feeling. you feel bad that they're dead, happy that people are visiting them, but also kind of strange that they were all european people that have been through wars and stuff..i don't know, just an overall somewhat eerie thing. (all my belgian friends are probably now looking up the word "eerie" in the dictionary..)

so after that we came home for a little bit and then went to Kasterlee like..20 minutes drive? to a pumpkin festival thing! it was..charming, to say the least. there were cute little booths selling pumpkins, pancakes, and everything in between. someone my family knew asked me the common are you gaining weight question, and i didn't know how to answer it. i guess my clothes fit fine, my legs feel stronger (damn bike..weird), but i really don't know for sure. so i thought about it seriously for a few minutes then decided to eat a giant fluffy pancake from the cool guy with the oven pictured below. although in all seriousness i couldgain or lose 20 pounds and be completely oblivious to it..i'm really not that observant, i have better things to worry about. can you tell weight is not on my priority list? hah! when in belgium folks, when in belgium..besides that, its not my fault this country runs on carbohydrates. i even got to see THE LARGEST PUMPKIN IN EUROPE! gee, theres something i'll never forget..maybe.

the best part about today was not the greek place we went for dinner, although that was kind of amusing in itself. nor was the best part about today the hour i played monopoly with my host family, although that was actually really fun. the best part about today was what is pictured below. hollowed out giant pumpkins, used as a little boat..in a race. just grow the pumpkin, carve it, and use and oar to push yourself around the water. funniest concept i've ever heard of! sadly the actual race is in a week or so, so we didn't see it. we only saw an example pumpkin and i picked up a brochure. seriously though, how clever is this!??! pumpkin boat races? HAHA!

anyways, i hope your day was as nice as mine. as always, thanks for reading and goodnight!!

PS: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!