190!

hello world! happy wednesday, or whatever day it is that you're (hopefully) reading this. ten more days and i hit the 200 mark, thats a wee bit odd.. but, it was a busy day today! first, i went to dutch class for about 3/4 of the class, then i came home to drop my heavy book off and bike to the station since i didn't feel like walking home in the dark later..(sounds confusing, but its not..i got the bike so i could come more quickly home tonight). then i grabbed a sandwich and got on the train with manuella to brussels. i went to brussels south station for the first time today! north station is the creepy one, with the prostitutes in the windows and homeless people..central is nothing special, just takes you to the middle..and south must be the international one, because there were trains going all over from there like paris and stuff. i was half tempted to get on one and say whoops wrong train, guess we're going to paris tonight! but i didn't. when we got there we met the other inbound exchange students from our small district and went to tour a brewery! it was this small family brewery that makes all natural (and completely bitter, no added sugar) beer! i attempted to make a video because one girl couldn't make it, but i walked way too fast and so its just a few blurry scenes with music but if you're interested here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLyNd-DIQkU ...and here are a couple pictures of me there, the last one being the completely full glass of super sour cherry beer the rotary guy bought for me.

how ironic is that though? touring a brewery with the rotary, then getting drinks at the end..from the same people who created the "no drinking" rule. culture, eh!! haha we didn't go overboard, trust me..no added sugar is nothing attractive for people our age. in fact, the lady mentioned that most beer in belgium is (pardon me, but direct quote) "shit in bottles" because of all the added sugar, and that belgium can thank american influences for making everything so unnatural, hahaha. after that we literally sprinted our way back to the station so we could head uptown and get out of the ghetto south area...have you ever tried sprinting in the sleet? hurts your eyes. or biking in the sleet on my way home from the station tonight...hurts even more! but nonetheless, even after the cold few blocks outside we still couldn't resist some haagen dazs ice cream..caramel cappuccino, mind you.

then we caught a random train and rode about 5 minutes to the middle station. we got off there and went to the celtic pub where lots of exchange students go every wednesday. it's sort of annoying there, because everybody likes to drink and party and enjoy their time away from mommy and daddy back home..but i actually enjoyed myself today, which was cool. then manuella and i ran super super fast to catch our train back to turnhout and almost missed it. running in the rainy, cold, dark, cobblestone streets of belgium can be quite charming at times..but after ice cream and beer it was a little difficult. so now i'm home, super tired and going to bed now. thanks for reading, and enjoy the pictures and video if you want. i'm starting to get a little sad because nobody comments anymore.....tear :( goodnight!