123!

day 1-2-3, giggle giggle. today i woke up not very late, watched an episode of survivor, had a bowl of cereal, then went to my HAIR APPOINTMENT! i'm blonde(r) now, it's great! i was very pleased with the salon, the color, the hairstylist, the massage chair, and really the entire experience. i chose this place because they use the same product (Aveda) that my hair is used to at home and i think it was a nice choice! i mean, who doesn't like getting their hair done? it was a little different because they didn't use foils in my hair like at home, so i decided to take a picture..anyone who saw me probably thought i was really weird for taking a picture of myself.

afterwards i thought i would just take the bus to town and finally finish my christmas shopping..but no! i walked out of the salon maybe 30 seconds too late so the bus was not an option. at that point i had three options. 1) go home, get the bike, and bike to town. 2) wait 30 minutes for the next bus. or 3) walk. well, you know me..always in the mood for a good walk! ROOKIE MISTAKE! clearly i forgot that the sunny slushy midday of belgium very quickly turns into an icy, frigid, lonesome walk home. good news is i'm done buying presents. bad news is that my hands stopped moving about half way home, and i've spent way too much money this month. when in belgium, right? good news is that it's just so quaint..here's a choir singing by the nativity scene outside the church in turnhout. gotta love that!

tonight we had "chinese fondue" as a trial-run before we have it on christmas too. its basically a pot of boiling broth that you throw random meat and vegetables into, then fish them out and eat them with noodles or something. it was definitely fun and tasty, but the entire time i kept thinking about how it reminded me of my "indoor s'mores maker" i have at home because there was a blue flame just like the canned flames the smore maker uses. so after dinner i awkwardly and half jokingly suggested that we make smores for dessert. after explaining what the heck a "smore" even is my host brother and i actually made them! i had marshmellows and graham crackers mailed to me and of course there was chocolate here. they liked it so much we might even do it again for christmas with the rest of the family, haha! god bless america.

after dinner i tried another time to make a red velvet cake. WAY more successful this time!! added more cocoa powder and also red gel food coloring i found in town today. (imported from america..same as i use at home!) so the cake had a great red color, deeper taste, and also a better texture from a combination of self-rising flour and the "classic" vinegar-baking soda mixture you put in red velvet cakes. i also made a new frosting tonight just to try it because we didn't have enough cream cheese left and also because yesterdays cream cheese frosting turned yellow overnight..so its a pink cake with yellow frosting, gross! todays frosting was a way too classic buttercream..egg whites, butter, sugar, vanilla. okay..i've learned one thing. hand mixer + 15 minutes of whipping this butter first into a chunky lard mess then into an okay creamy texture = i'd rather have yellow cream cheese frosting. but here's a picture of the new cake with the old one sitting in the background..hmm.

well i'd say thats about it for today! thank you so much for reading, and also thanks for the comments, i really enjoy reading them. goodnight world!