Chicken Tuesday

I’m sitting here tonight watching some NCIS (it’s in English!) with my host mom eating chocolate mousse. Yum! Tonight for dinner we enjoyed some curry chicken with rice and broccoli. Mechthild is a great cook! She has cooked many delicious meals including lamb, shepherds pie, meatloaf, soup and other things. She also bakes us homemade bread!

Tuesdays our looked forward to a lot in this household because Tuesday is chicken night! This may not sound very exciting at first read, but let me explain exactly what chicken night means. First, we take the tram 44 a few stops down. There is a stand that has rows and rows of whole chickens and ribs slowly cooking. The juiciness is visibly flowing out of them. There are potatoes sitting in the bottom of it all soaking in the juiciness of the meat. We usually get a couple ribs, a chicken and some potatoes and bring them home and then chow down! The most recent Tuesday Ryan set a house record of 18 ribs in one sitting. We’ll see if I can top that next week…

Since a lot of things are packaged differently than in the U.S. here I often use the "it looks like, it smells like, it must be..." strategy when trying to make myself a snack. Along with being a great cook, my host mom is also a very talented knitter. The first few days I was in Belgium she was appalled that I would walk around on the bare, cold floors without socks on and so she decided to knit me some wool sock/slippers. They’re wonderfully warm! One is a little bit bigger than the other because she just got a little bit carried away I suppose, but it’s not noticeable.

Another fun fact about Mechthild: she served two terms as a Member of Parliament in the European Union. This is impressive to think about considering the time period in which she served. It was during the time that it was quite unusual for women to be in that high of a government position. She was one of few women in that high of power not only in Europe, but also throughout the world.

Update on the weather: it’s still grey 95% of the time. One thing I love about the people here is that they have no shame in running for the metro. At Iowa State whenever I run after a bus to try and catch it before it pulls away I’m embarrassed and feel like everyone is entertained and laughing to them self (at least that’s what I do when I see people running after buses). Here, everyone runs up and down stairs and escalators and through hallways to catch their metro. I appreciate this and don’t feel embarrassed at all when I have to run for a tram or metro. 

Lately, I’ve been wondering how families with more than three kids get around. I think I’ve seen two vans the entire time I’ve been here. So there’s either two families with more than three kids, they have to take two cars in order to carry the entire family on trips, they squish together, the smaller kids go into the trunk (this is a benefit of being an older sibling) or they have a secret way of carrying around a family for six or more that I’m not aware of.

I finally have all of my books for my classes! I have a lot of reading to catch up on from the first week but it should be fine. In my classes I don’t necessarily have a lot of small homework assignments but instead a huge paper, a midterm and a final. I haven’t decided if I like this style or not yet. So far in my classes I’ve learned that:

1.     Language is arbitrary.

2.     The U.S. government has pretty much lied to us about every major war or decision. I decided to not believe the news anymore. I mean, I was reluctant before, but now they’re really going to have to come up with some amazing evidence to get my approval.

3.     We have worse memories than people in the past due to the fact that we don’t have to utilize our memory as much as they did in the olden days. We have written copies of everything. In the past they had to memorize books if they wanted to remember them. We can copy and paste information and even store phone numbers in our cell so we don’t have to remember them. I have an awful memory. I wonder if there’s a way I can utilize my memory more so it improves…

4.     In two of my three classes we’ve discussed if animals share a language in which they can communicate with the other animals, which I thought was intriguing. It seems the general consensus is that they have ways they communicate but they don’t necessarily have a language.

Saturday morning Ryan, Sam and I are heading to Cologne, Germany until Sunday evening. Should be fun! Tomorrow I start my internship with Accessible Art Fair. Wish me luck!

Edward (Mechthild's son), Ryan, Sam and Mechthild ready to eat our ribs and chicken!

He was the champion; 18 ribs. Household record.

We kinda ate a lot of meat...

My new cute little slippers.

The view of the backyard from my bathroom window.

Amsterdam

After exiting the train, my first impression of Amsterdam was that they have a lot of bikes! When we first arrived we saw masses of bikes chained up everywhere and masses of people riding bikes. When you’re walking the streets you have to look every direction to make sure you won’t get hit by a car, tram, bike or person. It’s chaos! But a chaos that is familiar to everyone living there. People rode their bikes either by themselves or with a child or three strapped onto their bike. They have a seat in front of their seat as well as in back of their seat. It was amazing. Those Amsterdamians must have some powerful legs.

Like Belgium, the weather was grey the majority of the time we were there. This weather, I’ve realized, doesn’t make for good photos. There are also waterways throughout the entire city, which was lovely! I suppose if you wanted to you could get to most places by boat.

Our hotel was a couple miles from the center of town where we spent most of our time so we did quite a bit of walking. We estimated about 15 miles. Perhaps we’ll invest in a pedometer for our next travel. Luckily, tram 2’s tracks took us pretty much from our hotel directly into town and beyond so we were easily able to find our way around!

We enjoyed a Turkish pizza for 2 Euro for lunch on the first day there. It was an accidental find, but a good one! When walking around that afternoon a guy came up to us and told us about a special event where you pay a one-time fee and are allowed to get into certain bars and clubs throughout the night and have a free drink at each place. We decided to do that on Friday night and had a lot of fun and met people from all over the world! In many of the bars and restaurants in Amsterdam you had to pay 50 cent Euro to use the bathroom, which I thought was ridiculous but had to give into a couple times anyways.

We slept in on Saturday and then ate at a pancake café, which was delicious. There were many museums in Amsterdam and we decided we should go to a few. Unfortunately, they were all too expensive for what we wanted so we decided on the cheapest one- the Torture Museum! It was pretty interesting and there was at one time many awful means of torturing, mostly for witches or people who spoke badly of the king it seemed. After that we did a lot more walking and had a low-key night. 

I had been feeling ill all day long but kept thinking it would pass. Saturday night I got an intense shiver attack for about an hour and then threw up once, began feeling a little better and thought that would be it. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop but I continued to throw up about every 20 minutes for the rest of the night, shivering uncontrollably in between. Of course after about the second time it was mostly dry heaving, which, is almost more uncomfortable. I probably ended up having about 20-30 puking instances. I felt bad that Ryan and Sam had to hear it almost every time. Ryan did say that I puked gracefully though. That was nice. I guess if you're going to puke it might as well be graceful! We aren't quite sure what the cause of the puke was but our best guess is food poisoning. I was glad we stayed in a hotel verses a hostel because hostels have community bathrooms. I think that would have made the experience much worse. Sunday night after I arrived home my host mom made me some soup, got some extra blankets, pillows, a puke bowl, some chamomile tea and tucked me into bed early. I slept for nearly 12 hours and thus, am feeling much better today!

Throughout our stay in Amsterdam it was normal to have the smell of weed wafting in the air, as it is legal to smoke there. They have “coffee shops” all over the place where you can buy your weed and either smoke it there or as you walk along the street. This was so unusual. They also had an H&M on it seemed about every other block. They also had a ton of boots! However, Sam and Ryan aren’t too into shopping and I didn’t want to drag them along into multiple stores searching for the perfect pair of boots. I’ll find some soon, I hope.

Apparently yesterday there was a march titled the Shame Protest throughout Brussels. We saw people with their face painted and flags tied around their necks on the tram ride home. Belgium hasn’t had a government for over 200 days now and so this march was protesting the lack of government and kind of telling the politicians to get their act together. I guess time will tell if the protest has made a difference.

The hotel room with three beds squished together

Enjoying the Turkish pizza

This looked very Dutch to me

An example of a bike with three seats

The I amsterdam sign

This guy was just sitting there so I decided he wanted his picture taken, too

An outdoor toilet, or water closet (hence the WC) as they call it

An outdoor urinal

There were a lot of fresh fruit markets along our walk

Dutch clogs lined the walls and ceiling

Our first ice cube sighting!

Gettin' their groove on at a club

There were a lot of people there

Yummy cappuccino!

This is how they serve their water

My peach pancake

A torture device

Boots!

I got an internship! It’s with a company called Accessible Art. It seems like a fun company to work for. Having an internship means I get to drop a class, which means……… I only have class Tuesdays and Thursdays! I wish every semester was like this one. I have class from 8:30 – 11:30 on Tuesday and Thursday and then again on Thursdays from 1:30 – 4:30.

Before I came to study at Vesalius College I was unaware that the college is actually only two buildings! Students oftentimes have classes in rooms at University of Brussels which is just accoss the street. I saw a map of campus before I left America and thought that all of the buildings were Vesalius buildings, but I was quite mistaken. Nevertheless, I have class in rooms so that’s all that matters.

Yesterday Mechthild and I went shopping at the mall. I bought a scarf and that was all. I was slightly disappointed in myself, but also proud that I didn’t go crazy just because I was in Europe! As I was walking around I noticed that nearly every woman was wearing tall leather boots (not Uggs). Old women, young women, even 7-year old girls! Short women, tall women, women wearing jeans, women wearing stockings, women wearing dresses and skirts. I was wearing my usual flats and feeling quite out of place. I decided I’d start perusing the boot section. There were so many different colors and styles and heel sizes I couldn’t decide what I liked and what I didn’t. I found that most were all over 100 euro! I did decide that that was not the price I wanted to pay. I have hope that I can find a pair I like for much cheaper. If you have any boot stores you like I’m open for suggestions!

I taught Ryan and Sam a favorite family card game, “nerts.” They have caught on quickly and I think they have enjoyed playing. After playing a few rounds last night, Ryan and I spent about 20 minutes trying to teach Sam how to shuffle cards (including the bridge)! He was just so tense when he tried to shuffle! It was pretty amusing. He’s improving with every shuffle though!

On long tram rides to and from school I’ve been able to observe Belgians more. When Belgians greet each other they kiss one another on the cheek/air are type thing. This greeting seems as natural and comfortable as our “Hey, how’s it goin’?” The very few times I’ve been involved in this greeting I have been uncertain of everything about it. Which way do I go? How close do I get? Is there a hug thing involved too? For now, I still am not quite sure. I’m sure I’ll learn. I actually don’t experience the kiss hello often because I am mostly around Americans.

A couple of other things I’ve noticed while in Belgium are that for one, there are no drinking fountains. I have yet to see one. Also, when you go into a restaurant that's similar to a Starbucks or Subway, you don’t pay before you eat, but instead afterwards. This, I think, is very trusting of them. It would be very easy to eat and simply walk out as the workers are often in the back room and not present while you’re eating. This is just the way it is done, I suppose.

Sam, Ryan and I are headed to Amsterdam for the weekend! We’re excited for our first traveling outside of Belgium!

One of the cats, Blair, on one of his favorite seats in the house

Look at the intensity in that shuffle!

Ryan showing us how to shuffle with "swagga" 

Sunshine on Sunday

Before I came to Belgium, I knew that Europeans all dressed very nicely when in public and never wore sweat pants around in public or anything like that. I wondered if they went running outside because if so, they would most likely wear sports clothes. To anyone else who is wondering the same thing as I, I have an answer! They do go running outside in public and they do wear sports clothes. But it is only for this occasion. Also, the sports clothes are very nice, cute, matchy outfits. They aren’t some old sweats with paint on them and a baggie worn out shirt.

I just watched some German TV with my host mom (no subtitles, by the way)! I’ve heard that many people have learned English by watching TV that’s in English. I don’t think I would be able to do it! It must take some time. Perhaps by the end of the semester…

Yesterday was sunny! Cloudless! Blue skies! I’ve haven’t ever seen anything like it before (in the last 6 days at least)! It was lovely. And everyone else in Belgium agreed. Every park was filled with people walking around. Sam, Ryan and I went to a near by field/lake/woody area and threw the Frisbee around. We also found a palace! Apparently King Leopold II of Belgium owned the Congo (yes, just he, not Belgium) back in the day and he forced the people to collect ivory and rubber and diamonds and whatever else was valuable in the Congo. He became quite rich, as you might imagine, and the Congo became quite poor. So he built a palace/museum building in honor of the Congo and we happen to live right by it. We didn’t walk through it, but perhaps another day.

We also enjoyed a wonderful lunch of Belgian frites, or “French” fries and kabobs with Mechthild’s son, Edward/Ed/Eddy (I haven’t decided what to call him yet. He said any of those would do). They have like 15 sauces to choose from to dip your frites in. America isn't very creative. We have ketchup. That's it! We should get more sauces to put with our fries! They eat fries mostly with mayonnaise. Weird, right? It's actually pretty good! Anyways, Eddyward is a little older than us and very informed of the “in” places to go to in Brussels, which will be very helpful! It was an enjoyable afternoon, quite relaxing. Mechthild made lamb for dinner, which was delicious!  Today started school at Vesalius, but not for me! No classes on Mondays! I did have an interview, however. Went fine, I think. Now I wait to hear back!


Today on my tram ride a guy started asking me something about the tram! You know what that means! I look like a regular and like I know what's going on! I didn't really understand what he was asking because it was in French... but that's not the point. I told him I only spoke English, so he asked me again in English and I still didn't have an answer for him. But that's not the point either. The point is I look Belgian! Woop!


We heard this song playing the other day. Junior high flashback! Way to be up on cool songs, Belgium!

The frite eating process:

Unwrap

Stick your little fork into a frite

Dip frite in your sauce of choice

Enjoy!