//edit - the Georgia font makes the list form look really blah. should I change it? I'll add more space.

I don't like having to come up with a title for posts that are singular in their non-unity.

Thoughts:

- I need to stop getting on my computer to do random stuffs whenever I have a free moment!! School has started! I must LEARN!!

- Never buy speculoos paste again - no nutritional value, and not even as satisfying as peanut butter (pindakaas!! - literally, this means peanut cheese haha). at least a) my roommate has been helping me eat it and b) I am no longer keeping it behind my desk where I can reach over at any time and have a scoop >.<

- must study!!! for Dutch placement exam. I no longer have any hope of placing into level 3 despite an entire year and 48 hrs of study because there is just too much random background noise that is impossible to figure out on your own (and of course we didn't learn any that practical last year lol) So I better place into level 2!!!

- Unsure of what to do about chocolate. Yes it is bad to eat so many random pieces everyday, but it's riiiiight there!

- Amazed at my sleeping skills last night..my roommate came back at 4 and although I was half-asleep I had enough awareness to immediately reach over and stick in my earplugs and promptly return to slumbering. With that kind of fast action response, I should really rethink my video game career!

- Must buy stamps! I'm not looking forward to this because there are long lines everywhere and even the Post Office in the US sucks so it's prob x10 here haha. By the way, it is 1.1E to mail a postcard back =~$1.50? Even more if the Euro keeps skyrocketing like it has been. Why didn't I change my money in May/June!? Shoulda coulda woulda. No I think it's coulda shoulda woulda? Or coulda woulda shoulda??

- Can't wait to finish my ravioli today for lunch or dinner. I should eat it for lunch because it's a "heavy" food so I'll have to rest of day to get rid of it..but it's so delicious so it should be the last thing I eat today, you know a good grand finale haha. Okay eating, especially food order, is not that important XP

- Read about the EU...it's actually pretty interesting, the first 3 paragraphs that I've read...okay but here's what happens: I get distracted by the fact that I should be studying for Dutch, which is really boring so then I end up doing something else soooo the moral is, I should just read about the EU except, I REALLY need to study!!!! gah.

- Should I skip class Tuesday to go to this special singing thing that is not very often and apparently a tradition here ? Ya sounds weird right but also cool!! Sooo I really really really don't want to skip class. The first one was pretty interesting...and I don't want to miss any of my Belgian education! Butttt, I've kind of agreed to go, I really really really want to see what this thing is all about. Concerns: What if I go to class and it's just dumb that day..or the professor doesn't make it (he comes by train every Tuesday to teach that one class, because he's a civil servant for the EU). What if I go to the singing thing and...I just don't get it (I'm sure they're not singing in English). Both of these has a very slim chance of happening. If only I had a time turner lol.

- I swam for barely a lap yesterday when my arms started protesting and wanting to fall off. But everyone else was swimming really slow so I had to keep swimming to keep passing them haha. And then this fast girl showed up and I was like phew I don't have to work so hard anymore. The pool, like everything else, is really crowded and there are only a couple designated hours per day to swim.

- I hate it when you are looking at the floor and it's like wet cause it's a shower type place or it's just dirty and you're like ew I'm glad I'm wearing shoes...and then right after you drop something that you need to use/wear and it's like AUGGHH NO FML!!!! WHY?!??!?!? When that happens I just pick it up as fast as possible, shake it around, brush it off violently, and the try to forget it happened. Which obviously did not happen. This has happened to me like 3 times in the past week. *shiver* (I know Eileen will be seriously grossed out if she reads this, but hopefully not scarred)

- BIG NEWS: The international dorms have scales! I weighed myself! If the scale is correct, I am roughly the same weight as when I left. Pheeew. But, as per mentioned above, this is not an invitation to eat all the chocolate I want! I want to go shopping!

- After eating 3 huge slices of bread slathered with speculoos an hour or 2 ago, I am now hungry again. Or I am feeling hunger sensations; two very different things which my stomach has trouble differentiating. Oooo my roommate may or may not have just double-dipped into my speculoos. Is this grounds to stop eating it? I think it might be. Time to buy peanut butter :D OR, should I buy nutella rip-off? OR...both?? And eat them together?!

- I have taken the trash out of our room 3 times, and my roommate, none. I refuse to do it again! I will not be the unofficial designated trash-taker-outer!

Okay time to stop procrastinating. Byeeez!

Chocolate Factory & Luxembourg

The most significant things I've done since last weekend (outside of eating) were to visit a CHOCOLATE factory and travel to Luxembourg!!

The chocolate factory was so cute!

Here's all the chocolate bars traveling around and getting packaged.

I don't know if you can see it but in this pic, the cute lil choocolate boxes are going up a steep hill!

Factory shop, most things are for a pretty low price:

So I bought 25.50E worth.

Here it is more spread out:

The big white and milk chocolate bags are both kilo sized, both 3E!!! Everyone was like wow you bought a lot of stuff. I had to take advantage of the good prices! Since then, I've only bought 1 chocolate bar and 2 marzipan bars (only .75 E each in Luxembourg!)

No pics of Luxembourg yet, I haven't uploaded them. Btw, my camera is super crappy! It's one I borrowed from my parents but to take a picture of anything I have to scoot back VERY far to get it all in, way farther than Stephanie's camera. And hers has a beautifying feature that gets rid of pimples lol.

Part 1 of Luxembourg - Getting there

When we arrive at the train station, I am asked for the confirmation code to retrieve our tickets. Uhhh I was supposed to actually read that confirmation e-mail?! Oops. We frantically run around trying to find WiFi for Steph's phone. Eventually we find out it only works right outside the station, not inside, not in the nearby panini chain shop. This is after I have asked numerous people inside said shop if they have smartphones. [Ed. note: from what I've seen, people in Europe generally do not. For such a sophisticated society their use of available technology does not seem properly utilised to the max. I don't know why this is. Maybe because everyone likes the old school ways?] One random lady said something to me when I asked someone else and so I went over to pester her but then realised she looked kinda crazy and poor and definitely did NOT have internet on her phone. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't have a mobile period.

Part 2 - The hostel

After walking down a beast hill, we arrive at the hostel. Later I find out this is probably the best hostel in Europe that you can get for 20E a night. There are ping-pong tables outside and lots of comfy chairs. Everything looks super modern. Sheets are GORGEOUS compared to my dorm, and more comfortable as well. 6 people per room, all girls, everyone in our room was quiet and kind.

You can get all you can eat of 2 types of soup and bread for 2E, and for 3 more the salad bar is included as well. Breakfast is included, there is an assortment of bread, 2 types of meat cold cuts, cheese, butter, yogurt and granola with chocolate bits, jelly, applesauce, nutella on Saturday, corn flakes and milk, and hot chocolate.

Lots of cutie little kids running around. Very little first night, rather older the second (middle school?) including this one couple where the guy was up to the girls shoulder maybe? I was very flabbergasted to see them making out in a bed in the morning when I was walking to the bathroom.

Met a girl at breakfast from Hendricks who was all alone so we adopted her for a day. Met an out-of-work Italian banker and a disgruntled American soldier, a gorgeous Canadian who is taking half a year off to backpack in Europe to rethink her major, and a girl who lives 20 mins from the hospital I was in this February.

Part 3 - What we saw

Luxembourg is so beautiful! Visited some museums. An old man tried to talk Stephanie to death at a photo gallery, he was sooo bored. Oh yeah, lots of little galleries around Luxembourg, everywhere. Went to Sat morning market, gorged myself on cheese samples. Bought plum tart and other unnecessary food.

There was a park in one of the valleys, saw the business district where there were many skateboarders but no one else (it was Saturday). There was a cute smallish palace type place with a soldier outside.

One place had ice cream for only 1E!!! Cheapest I've seen so far. I want ice cream spaghetti!!! They run the ice cream through a noodle making machine and then put strawberry sauce and then white chocolate bits so it looks like a pasta dish! Sounds SO MAGICAL.

Part 4

Other food. Bought some spreadable cheese that is supposed to be a Luxembourgish thing. You're supposed to eat it spread with mustard on country bread so I got some mustard too (for the first time in my life) but it's not THAT good...maybe if it were country bread it would be automatically better? Bought these adorable strawberries, little, perfect looking and sweet. Bought this ripoff crepe that was tiny!! But it was at the fair. Oh yeah the fair!! Talked to the nutrition stand man for at least half an hour, asking all my nutritional questions. I think I need to do a minor in nutrition.

Part 5 - The way back

Me and Stephanie talked, a lot. And I ate too. (chocolate, chocolate covered marzipan, salad, sandwich) =P Then we are 1 stop away from Leuven when the train stops moving because of some random accident emergency. All in all, we are delayed 1hr16.

Get home and eat. :) Alles goed! (it's all good)

Other:

My roommate is back with her stolen Oktoberfest mug, no more single :( The heat finally came on! But now the hall seems like it is FREEZING! Saw a huuuuge rainbow today and then right after it became a double rainbow.

School starts on Tuesday. There's like 9 classes that I want to check out, only 3 or 4 of which I can take. =O Who will win??

Proof that I'm a sweetie :D

He's learning to rationalize nicely like me! Today Lyell said: there was this super skinny nerdy looking Indian dude - but his dorky sandals were just so cute!

This is just as you would do so in my school of thought! Big round of applause for Mr. T. Lyell McMerty! :)

Belgian Chocolate from Leonidas

I bought a box of 14 chocolates on Friday for 5E! They're now about half gone.

The first one is a little bunny one (I accidentally bit off the ear before remembering to take a picture)! When I ate it there was, to my surprise, a fizzling reaction occurring in my mouth. Apparently they decided to incorporate pop rocks into chocolate.

This next one is actually strawberry marzipan.

It was pretty good but not as tasty as that special marzipan brand that comes in the red wrapper...Niederegger! mmm so good.

I wish I knew the names for these but I don't. The Leonidas shop I got

This one had some crunch going on inside.

This one has been my favorite so far:

Inside was this realllllly tasty coffee creamy stuff. And there was a random walnut or something on top as well. Mmmm.

There was this other one that I didn't really like, it was cherry inside but it had too much of an alcoholic taste and was super drippy too.

Then I gave my roommate one. She said it was good and it had a slight cherry taste?

Earplugs

I bought these bright orange earplugs today. They smell like paint, they're cylindrical with no tapering toward the ear insertion side, and they were 3 pairs for 1.95E. The "good" brand was like- 8ish pairs for 8E? I probably should have bought those..even if that's ridiculously expensive just for some earplugs. These smell absolutely vile. If they manage to block out any sound, I'll probably be kept up from the smell.

Well I have them in right now and I'm not hearing that much sooo yay! I don't feel that tired though...tomorrow I'm going to try and eat a lot of turkey so I will hopefully be more sleepy.

Today there was a fair in Leuven so there were a ton of booths. I saw these pastries that resembled large mooncakes and so I went up to the girl as to inquire what they were made of exactly. The girl couldn't tell me so she gave me a sample...a quarter of a cake precisely, huge!! I'm not sure if it was her intention to guilt me into buying one but it worked...I got one lol. It is good I guess, albeit filled with sugar and butter I'm sure. Good for the soul right?

Ugh what bothers me about earplugs is how you can hear the veins in your ears beating. Or maybe it's just cause these are crappy?

Ew

Today I made myself a sandwich and tried this other unidentified leafy green vegetable (the labeling says korte versla - short salad...very unhelpful) that I had bought. It was both wrapped in plastic and contained in a plastic carton. In my experience, this means that it has been washed and I don't have to worry about it.

So there I am, munching on my sandwich when I first notice a subtle crunching noise. I ignore it, unwilling to face reality. Soon the crunching becomes more gritty and I am unable to ignore it any longer so I look and the greens have quite a substantial amount of dirt on them! And it had infected my turkey and cheese as well :(

I was so sad and disgusted.

Exploring Leuven

Here is a cloud picture I took out the plane...it really struck me because they reminded me of turds.

This morning I got out of bed bright and early at 10:30. I went for a quick jog but mostly was walking around distracted for the farmer's market outside. There were LOTS OF SAMPLES of cheese on bread crackers and fruit samples! But they're not like Harris Teeter samples - I think they expect you not to take one unless you have a serious intention to buy something.

Then around 1:00 me and some girls downstairs from Hong Kong went to walk around Leuven. First we tried a few samples, including this one at the cheese stand:

I think the red stuff is turmeric? Here are some more of the cheeses:

Apparently it's the same cheese except with different coatings?

Then we walked around some more, there were a billion shops and shop people just bring their stuff outside on weekends to attract people's attention? I finally bought an umbrella and a folder. I don't think they use folders over here because this is the only one I've seen in Leuven at all despite looking really hard! And it was the only kind available even though it was a bookstore (I also haven't seen any office supplies type stores). Finally stopped into a few chocolate stores. The chocolate looked sooo delicious! This is what the town hall looks like:

Later we went to this random botanical garden that I had come across. This place is a good size but not huge, yet it is jam-packed with a billion different plants one after another. There's a fruit orchard and even a bee house. There is also a room where they keep pigeons and what looked like bunnies. And here is my new favorite flower. It's so beautiful and intricate!

Here is a cute little teddy bear shrub and a couple more pretty flowers that I really liked.

And this is me, just worshiping some sunflowers :D Note the sad dead one on the right. Awww.

I'm in Belgium!

Before I came here, I thought I should probably lose some weight so that I could eat extra while I was here. Never did I think that it might be possible to actually lose weight while in Europe. I don't know if I'm losing weight or not, but my stomach at least seems smaller and I feel like I'm eating a lot less.

Reasons that it is hard to eat in Europe:
1. There isn't that much food in my room. Well that has changed a bit since I bought a loaf of bread today. (Which was quite exciting - it was only 1.09E=~$1.40? And it was not prepackaged or sliced, but there's a slicing machine there!! All you do is stick the loaf in the machine, press a button, and it comes out sliced!!)
2. I have to walk like 6 minutes to get to a sandwich place, and 10 minutes to get to the grocery store. Between my room and outside there are many doors, all with their own separate locks.
3. For the most part, I would say food is more expensive! Plus I am using my own money versus my parents' credit card cause credit cards have a lot of extra fees over here. Plus who knows where they take credit cards and where they don't??
4. I haven't been as hungry as usual, maybe I'm still jetlagged or too distracted by everything to pay enough attention to actually eating. Don't worry I'm sure I'll be my ravenous self by next week!

The food is reallllly good though of course and also I feel like it's higher quality! I had a Belgian waffle today. It was sweeet and yummy. And cheap! 3 little ones for 1.50E=~$1.95

I took a few pictures today and will post them soon. Tot ziens!