New Hair, New Hat, New Tram, New Taste

In other news, I finally ate the infamous mussels in Brussels! My friend, Janie, and I were exploring Brussels and had both never had mussels before so we decided to share a bucket. They were weird looking, but pretty good. That same day I had my first Manneken Pis and Janneken Pis sightings. For some reason Belgians like statues of peeing children. There is also a peeing dog somewhere, Zenneken Pis. I’ll have to find him before I leave.

Mechthild, my host mom, knit me a lovely blue hat! I love it! And it goes well with my new hair cut I think. Yes, I got a Belgian haircut. I had been debating for a long time whether to do it or not. I was like I’ll just get a trim, but instead a got a whole new do! It’s much shorter, much less hair, much less tangliness, much less conditioner used, much less time spent brushing it (it only takes like 4 seconds as opposed to the previous 10 minutes). I think I like it.

Spring has arrived here. Over the last few days warmth has come and flowers have bloomed. I know it’s only going to get better! Also, throughout our time here, along the tram 44 line workers have been putting in a new tramline. Since the beginning of the poject we’ve had glimpses of the progress as we drive by to and from the city, work and class. It’s been interesting and, at times, frustrating because the tram would be slower in that area. But it’s exciting to see the finished product!

The tram today, however is not very exciting. There is what the call “heavy disturbances” because massive amount of people from all over Belgium met in the streets early this morning for a demonstation because the government (oh wait, we don't have one) wants to cut costs or something. Due to the people in the streets, pretty much all the buses weren’t working (which doesn’t really affect me) and many of the trams were much slower (this does affect me). So it took me a while longer to get to class but because I’m just SO dedicated I didn’t skip (and I didn't know it would be that bad. But mostly because I'm a good student).

It seems that at some point every night the two cats, Blair and Jerry, decide to get in a catfight. They growl and attack each other. Blair, always feeling the need to be superior, jumps on top of counters, chairs, anything he can find, so that he can be taller than Jerry and thus appear to have more power. There is never really a winner because before they can get too into it Mechthild shoos one of them into another room or outside. They get along at all other times of the day, though.

One of my classes has about 15 people in it. Of these 15 people, there are about 7 or 8 different nationalities, including German, French, American and Dutch, among others. It’s a class about language use, so it’s interesting to get perspectives from so many backgrounds.

I would also like to say that I am not the least punctual person in the household, believe it or not.