Merry Christmas!!!

At the moment I am in our hotel in Amsterdam where I have been basically for the last 18 hours. I didn't go sightseeing because umm I might have overeaten and then gotten sick and then slept all day yesterday...hahh yeah but we did go out to eat some korean food! I really wanted to order kimchi fried rice in those stone pots but then realized I wasn't ready to eat so much yet.

IT'S A WHITE CHRISTMASS! For Christmas, the Xue family was delivered (at 1:40 am) a salami pizza, half of which was eaten by Dalton. Wanna know why? My parents never got around to feeding him lunch. Poor baby!!!

I'm going to miss Belgium sooooo muuuuuuch.

Someone recognizes my stretchy belly skills

This totally made my day.

Breakfast: ate 3 thin pancakes, a cookie, couscous, green beans, 4 chocolate santas
Lunch: a "Giant" quick burger (this thing actually looked tiny, although it did have two patties), sack of fries with a packet of mayonnaise, bottle of orange juice
Snack: 2 thin pancakes, a cookie
Dinner: two VERY (freshly) fried chicken croquettes (large nuggets), two huge mashed potato scoops, mayonnaise based peppery pink sauce, peas, orange
Snack: Coconut cookie

At 9PM swim practice:
Me "Ughhh I ate too much :("
Karolien *looks me up and down* "Yeah I can tell, your stomach looks like a balloon"

HAHAHHA.

After swim practice, I had a clementine and a bunch of letter crackers (a cross between alphabet soup and animal crackers).

It's now 4 AM. I'm still full.

I can't wait to wake up and be hungry so that I can eat again...

I'm in the library

studying for the first time all semester! (Or I will be once I finish this post :D) Not that I normally study in the library anyway but....just wanted to point this out and also, there is an awesome clock that I had never before noticed in the corner it's like huge and it's SO funny when the minute hand changes because first it wobbles for a bit. Hehe.

Everyone in here looks like they're working really hard. Which means I should be working really hard tooooo.

I saw Harry Potter yesterday! It was quite good but with movies like this, I always feel like there's too many moments that are dragged out too long. There was an intermission during the movie! SO COOOL!!! The seats at the movie theatre don't go up and down either. They just stay down. And it was snowing last night; it was so glittery...I don't remember snow having so many sparkles so maybe it's just the Belgian snow? It was so beautifulll.

So I found out that since I didn't reload my phone on time, I've been paying for every single one of my sms's this month as opposed to getting 5000 free ones...wow. Wow. Like I'm in shock!! I don't know if I should reload for the last month or just not. I think I just won't because if you want to reload, you have to do at least 15E at a time; I don't think I'll need it. I still have 8 euros left...but I could have sent so many more if I had just reloaded on time >.< Good news: Euro is almost 10 cents cheaper than last month! Bad news: I'm only here for 3 more weeks.

(Sad) QQ

Also I wanted to say that I've been speaking in modified English for quite a while now. I think I'm trying to sound less American so that I'll fit in more but I also do enjoy it because I feel like there is less expected of me if my English isn't perfect. Right?? :D Plus I think it's fun and cute ^.^

Why it's good to eat noir.noir chocolate paste for dinner

1. It's delicious.
2. It's delicious.
3. Dark chocolate is healthy.
4. Minimal dishwashing aka just a spoon/fork/spork!! (/chopsticks?/knife?)
5. Chocolate makes you happy.
6. It's smooth.
7. It's super delicious!!!!

So happy/sad I want to cry

I just found a Dutch to English dictionary site. It is the best online dictionary I have ever encountered for any language. It's so good. I love it after looking up like 2 words. I can't believe I just found it, and there is only one more day of class left. Our time together is going to be so brief, mijnwoordenboek. Let me clarify, I had never before been able to find any online Dutch/English dictionaries because I had only been searching for them in English and the idea never occurred to me that I should search for it in Dutch. Duh!!! All things good are not necessarily in English >.<

In other news, today as a warm-up for the Bicky Burgers I have eaten 1.5 100g chocolate bars as my mid-afternoon snack, one of the Japanese biscuit type and another of the pistachio chunk type (that's pushing 900 calories yall. no wonder my pants are about to stop fitting!).

[Oh my god! There's even a "Zojuist vertaald" section!!! I can look up popular words that other people just looked up..this is the best thing EVER]

Creepers in Belgium

This Sunday I was accosted by not one but two freaky people. It was my friend's birthday and we were at the Irish Pub. I went up to the bar to order a drink for birthday boy and as I was heading back over I saw a short strange man with a round face (think of Sam from the classic Guess Who-but not as benign looking) trotting towards me and before I knew it he had stopped abruptly before me. He said: "Hello you have such a beautiful face, I hope that we'll see each other again" to which I, bewildered, was like ah ok yeah thanks uhh bye..and thankfully my friend saw this weirdo come up to me and had sent someone to save me so I had a good reason to get away, phew!

A few hours later after a stop at Ali Baba which is a gyro/fries/fried stuff place where we saw some random dudes run away with a chair which was shortly brought back, I decided it was time to head back. My dorm is less than 5 minutes away from this place and Leuven is extremely safe, so I wasn't alarmed when I saw a station wagon pull up next to me. There was a dude inside who wanted to know where some place was:

lost Dude: Do you know where blablastrangename is?
Me: No, sorry! Bye! (but he just kept talking)
stupid Dude: Well can you take me there?
Me: Uh no I can't I don't know where it is
inquisitive Dude: Where are you going?
Me: Home.
helpful Dude: I'll take you there
Me: It's okay like really it's right there, ok byeee..

At this point I decided it was useless to try to convince him to stop trying to convince me to get into his stupid station wagon so I just started walking and he just kept talking to me but thankfully he didn't start backing up or something oh my goddd longest 100 m ever! Never have I been so happy for all the locks in our dorm haha.

In other news, every single class of mine (except Dutch) has been canceled once in the past two weeks..and they only meet once a week anyway (except Dutch). So...yay!

And Dutch is ending this week. :) 12 hours a week is too much! Here's a demonstration of how much Dutch I've learned. Tonight for dinner I'm going to eat a Bicky Burger:

Here's a description in Dutch: (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicky_Burger)

De Bicky Burger is een hamburger die verkocht wordt in vrijwel alle Belgische snackbars, in een aantal Nederlandse en in sommigehorecagelegenheden. Ze wordt geproduceerd door Beckers, en bestaat in verschillende variëteiten.

De Bicky Burger wordt opgediend tussen een broodje (al dan niet opgewarmd of gegrild), besprenkeld met sesamzaad. Aan de gefrituurde gehaktschijf wordt een gele saus, rode saus en bruine saus toegevoegd, alsook komkommer en gefrituurde of verse ui. Het geheel wordt in een speciaal zakje of doosje verpakt.

And my translation for you in English:

The Bicky Burger is a hamburger that is sold in virtually all Belgian snack bars, in a number of Dutch ones, and in someotherthingidkthis. The are produced by Beckers, and they exist a few varieties.
The Bicky Burger is served between bread that is neither warmed nor grilled that is sprinkled with sesame seeds. On the burger you get some yellow, red and brown sauce, and cucumber and fried or fresh pickle. It is then placed in a special box type thing.

Cool huh??!

Sharing is caring!

The thing I really like about here is..people are very sharing with food. Like just grab a spoon, take a bite. And I don't mean the actual sharing of food because I'm perfectly happy with my own food too, but as in, nope they don't mind about the germs! Not that I have anything against people who are very careful about this, (love youuu) but it's so easy this way!!! I absolutely cannot think of any person Belgian or other international who has ever been like uhh here why don't we separate this, please or anything like that. So exciting! Maybe it just hasn't occurred to them haha. Yay :)

YAY!!!

Thats going to be me!!! ^_^

Passengers enjoy free Wi-Fi for the holidays
November 20, 2010 through January 2, 2011

This holiday season, Google Chrome has teamed up with AirTran Airways, Delta, and Virgin America to offer free Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi on every domestic flight from November 20, 2010 through January 2, 2011. These participating airlines have outfitted their entire domestic fleet with Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi, and we expect more connected passengers this holiday season than ever before!

Just bring a Wi-Fi enabled laptop or mobile device and stay connected to family and friends while you travel.

If you haven’t tried Chrome yet, you can download Chrome before you take to the skies.

Happy Holidays!

I still don't know

I'm supposed to pick classes by Sunday and I'm not sure exactly what I want to do for my major!

Everyone here with a backpack has an Eastpak backpack.

Travel Insights

Through traveling, I've learned a lot and thrown away a lot of money. But here are a few insights:

1. The train does not run all night. If you get back after 10 and live 2 hrs from the airport, you will not get home without utilizing a cab.
2. Always always always double check, triple check, the date of your bookings. Look at the mini pop-up calendar, look at the numbers, look at the days of the week.
3. Write down your internet access code number because you will lose the little card that tells you what it is (and find it when you get home).
4. If taking public transport: leave at least one cycle before the last time that you want to get there because if you don't, every single step of the way, the train/bus/shuttle/whatever will be delayed.
5. Bring snacks!! :D Okay I knew that already. Duh that's important for anything you do.

How to save money

In Sweden
At the tourist center:
A 3 day metro pass is 200 CHF (~<20 euro)...unless you are 19 or under, and then it's only 120 CHF.
"Oh darn we're 20!!! but we're Asian we look young so no one would care hmm what should we do."
*much discussion about which metro plan to do*
Finally:
"Would you sell us the 19yr old pass?"
"Yeah."

At random train station candy store:
"Wow this chocolate covered marshmallow thing is 3 SEK less than at the real candy store!!!"

In Switzerland at a MAMCO:
"How much to get in?"
"8 SEK (~>8 USD)"
"Is there a student discount?"
"That depends...what do you study"
"Ummm art. . .of course!"
"Ok it's free then!"
("Do you think he knew I was kidding?" "It's hard to tell! He actually checked our IDs!")

Peanut Butter

First jar in Europe.. (they don't eat it here! it's very American apparently! IT'S SO YUMMY, IT SHOULD BE GLOBAL when I grow up I'm going to work for a pb company and globalize it =P but then it won't be as American...anyway)

4 days
2303 calories
shared maybe 300 of them?
2000 calories = a day's worth of calories

That's like me eating nothing but peanut butter for one day and "normal" food all the others.

XP gg

Cycling

I really like biking around now!!!! When I'm not biking, I feel that walking is just so slow, like my legs are SO SHORT and why are they just plodding along when I could just be spinning down this hill. My bike also makes lots of noises, so it's good company ya know haha. Andd, I love the way the headlight works! There's this little thingy and you press it against the wheel and when your tires spin, it generates energy and switches on your headlight! SO COOL, I KNOW. It also makes a nice whirring sound, more friendly noises haha.

In Belgium, or at least here in Leuven, they're very strict about traffic rules, and you HAVE to have a bell (ding!) and a headlight/backlight. But, no one wears a helmet, ever!! Not even the profesh bikers! In Sweden I don't know the rules, but the majority of the bikers had helmets. I wonder why...and I wonder why Swedes like black licorice so much while everyone else hates it.

In other news, I think I have finally closed the window properly after weeks and weeks of cold draft in the room. Except my roommate is still always like...why are you blasting the heat? *glare* She just needs to adjust to the tropical temperature in here!! It's faster to adapt to warmer weather than colder weather which is why she should change her habits and not me. hahaha. :D

Sweden!

It's my last night in Sweden and I'm using a super ghetto computer to type this, although the one next to me is more ghetto. It's REALLY cold here!! And it's only the middle of October!!! And I forgot my scarf lol.

There's candy bins here at every single grocery store and random street. And then there's also flavored cashews aka sour cream and onion aka the best flavor ever!!! So needless to say I've been eating waaaay too much. We went to this ice bar last night and you had to present your receipt to get your drink (mine was a non-alcoholic apple cinnamon juice, it was yummy and you get to drink it out of a square-y ice glass!), and I could not for the life of me find my receipt because I just pulled out one after the other of all the little tiny treats I had bought myself in Sweden so far lol.

Okay people are waiting to use the computer sooo, more later on Sweden! (The subway system here is my favorite everr!)

Vroom vroom

Hiiii guys! My lovely compelled readership of 4 :) The half-marathon was splendidly disastrous haha I felt like a Titanic survivor afterwards!! They wrapped these foil things around everyone, so that's like the blankets ya know, and then they gave us water and these [gross] honey cakes (doesn't that sound so good though?? I was super excited!until I bit into it >.<) aka provisions, and thennn, everyone, or at least >I< felt like I had gone through a traumatizing experience. I was so tired the whole way! I wanted to stop!! Except for the couple kilometers when I was eating a banana that came before km12 I think. :D (most people only got like a 4th but I was able to snatch an entire one ^___^). Ya so..no warmup (I waited too long in line to use the porter potty, aka toi toi here, lol.at least there was toilet paper!) + I am not a morning runner = SLOWWW! Finished in barely under 10min/mi which is rather shameful buttt, I finished yaaay!!!!!!

Today I ate at least 10 mini-plates of pasta from a "career brunch" event, along with at least one of each of these little assorted trays of cookies/chocolate-covered biscuit type thing you know what I'm talking about, where there's either 3 or 4 each and there's form-fitting cubbies for each type. I also talked to representatives from ABinBev (beer company), L'Oreal, ING, and Ernst&Young. They were all nice! It was really nice because I have nothing to lose from this like if I had spilled pasta all over someone then it would have been fine eventually right? I also got a free coffee mug which you can write on with chalk (orange chalk included), a tiny vial of perfume, a 5-color hi-lighter, and a bottle opener with a built-in...USB drive! (didn't see that coming, didja) Now can you match each item to the respective company? (It's very easy if you know anything at all about each...)

Also really exciting, I bought olive oil today! And, Melange de France! Which is a mix of herbs! Which means by default there's gotta be a lot of healthy little bits in there right? Yeeeah.

Hm lots of parenthesis in this post. I guess today is just a side-note kinda night. :) In the past few days I have killed 2 blood-filled mosquitos! Bahaha my poor roomie has a bite on her nose! But I think she accidentally left the window open at some point so it's prob her fault? =P She left to spend the night with her mama 2 days ago and that's when I was bitten. T-T Otherwise, she is very good insect repellent! :D (from my point of view at least hehe)

Tonight I biked to swim practice, even though I left my bike at one of my classes, and I borrowed a bike from this redhead on my hall without noticing that she is more than several inches taller than me so it was rather hard but I managed!

What else, please note: making tiramisu does not require use of an oven! I've made it 3 times (or participated in the making of it) and still, I forgot this the other day lol. Okay well that is all, byeee!

Chocolate Class!!!

Hey guess what! I took a chocolate class with 7 other people today for only 12 euro :D

And ate waaaay too much ie had it for dinner .. basically all I could eat (which is a lot..I actually continued eating after everyone else was starting to be like wow didn't know this was possible but I think I've reached my chocolate limit. In fact I would probably still be eating it now if it weren't for my iron will. hah not.) Then later I had cheese with crackers (need some saltiness to balance it out!). Today is a very healthy day.

I found out these tiny waffles I've been eating are actually 250 cals each lol I was guessing like 100 >.< Ohhh well 8 more left to go XD

SO, chocolate making: first you must melt it at 45 degrees C, then stir in chocolate chips until it's at 32 degrees C. Then you make a little carrot thing that you squeeze chocolate out and make little circles :D

And then the other thing the creme is 150 g heavy cream mixed with 300 g chocolate. Alright well that's all I need to remember.

By the way, today I took a Korean class in Dutch. It was very confusing to say the least.

Do you ever feel like...

You've been let down by everything you counted on happening? As in none of it worked out like you wanted it to somehow? You know which outcomes you wanted but real life refused to follow the script. What are you supposed to do? Curl up in your bed with some chocolate. Or just keep going and just keep hoping, and possibly keep getting disappointed.

Today was another beautiful day outside, until now - the weather here is like a little kid: okay I've been good all day, time for some rain! XD

Not even my hair will cooperate with me.

//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!

Awww

Yesterday Lyle and I went to Frankie’s Fun Park and played a few games. Only a few cause they’re really freaking expensive!

(We also played mini-golf, 2 for the price of 1: I was buying my pass. Lyle: ehh I don’t really feel like playing. So we only get one ball, but we grab two clubs anyway cause they were outside [did you know anyways isn’t a word??] yaaay. And then I threw golf ball into the freakishly blue pond)

We won a total of 105 tickets, and then found 3 more for a total of 108. But still the prize guy let us get a watergun (100) AND a tattoo (10). WOW!

Then Lyle took me to Cheesecake Factory and we were sitting near the bar and the waitress brought us our water in beer mugs with handles and later I was like I really like the handles so my hands don’t get cold and she was like yeah it’s romantic! Inside I’m thinking huh? Then I realized she thought I was talking about the candle.

Duhhe artist o

Yesterday, Lyle and I were driving towards Wilmington and there was a song whose artist I didn't know so I opened the app on my phone to SHAZAM! so that my phone could process it. After pressing "Tag it," I hold my phone up to the front center of the car with the screen where all the buttons and dials are so that it can hear.

Lyle: "I love how you still hold the phone up to the dashboard even though the speakers are on the side."

Suddenly I flash back to last week when we had this conversation.

Went shopping last week for tax-free weekend. Only bought 3 things and 2 of them were work pants even though I don't even have a job anymore. Free day yesterday!! Made guacamole and ate lots of snacks.

Favourite type of humor:

Platitudes applied in inappropriate situations.

Irrational fear? I think not.

After about a week of nearly uninterrupted inactivity, I decided to ask my mom to let me off at the swimming pool - we had to go to the further one because the other one is vacated every Tuesday and Thursday by two groups of endearing swimmers. 3 minutes before we arrived, I found myself becoming extremely drowsy and began napping. Once we got there, I suggested that my mom and I could perhaps both nap together just for a bit in the parking lot. She just looked at me and I was about to get out when I realized I was still wearing my [old, disgusting, smelly] black flats with no sandals to be found in the immediate vicinity!!!

I relayed this alarming message to my mother who was not in the least moved by my outburst. Remembering an unpleasant wart incident freshman year from using public gym showers while unshod plus Lyell's disgusting foot story PLUS this bit I read in Ripley's Believe It or Not book about this boy who come down with some sort of syndrome where his body is unable to fight off warts and he subsequently grows warts like trees and they have to be removed and they end up weight pounds and pounds...yeah. But I grudgingly step out despite all this because I also remember that my mom has been kind enough to drive me over here so I better get out or face a long car ride home of silent treatment peppered with annoyed sighs and loaded comments.

While walking towards the locker room, I try to come up with some sort of plan that will allow me to shower after I swim without my feet making contact with the shower floor. I remember that there are bins and bins of flippers which brightens me up. Plus all the lifeguards are boys so no one of "authority" could really step into the locker room after me to recover the borrowed flippers, if they even noticed. With this bright notion, I willed myself to walk all the way through the locker room out onto the pool deck WITHOUT SHOES... (the pool deck is considered *safe* in my head because it is watered down daily and people don't shower on the pool deck, which is not to say it is potentially just as gross as the locker room area) I cringe as my feet touch the locker room floor which is some kind of weird plastic-y material with tiny raised circle bits. I console myself that the bad germs probably fall through the circle bits so my feet are touching a somewhat clean surface. I make it through with only one tiny whimper, which is masked from others by people showering.

Once out on the pool deck, I immediately head for the flipper bins to get my size flippers. I ruffle through but they all seem too big. It does not occur to me (until right now) that it doesn't matter if the flippers would be able to stay on while I kick because I do not intend to utilize them in that particular manner.

THEN, I remember the lost and found box and excitedly stride purposefully over. It is quite full which fills me with hope. The chance that one pair of shoes will be contaminated with contagious filth is way smaller than the chance that there is some lying about on the ground. The first footwear item I come across is a high-heeled shoe. I momentarily contemplate this for a moment, picture myself wearing it in the shower, and wish very hard that there is something else. Then - - - is that a flip-flop??! YES! YES! A thong sandal! My toes fit through! A little more digging reveals that it is in fact one of two! SUCCESS!!!!! No matter that they are about a size 4 and I normally wear 7 1/2s, they mean that my feet don't touch the ground as I amble around!

Although smaller than my feet, they are quite comfortable and I pondered whether I would take them if they were my size. However, they are dirty and if I took them home, what would I use next time I forgot my sandals?

((Yes, I did realize that I could forgo the shower but mi madre was coming in an hr-ish and I didn't intend to swim THAT long and sitting around stewing in a wet bathing suit is unappealing as well. Plus I had brought along such a very clean towel and did not want to soak it up in some chloriney water))

Walking through the locker room with no shoes really gave me the chills. Thinking back on it is discomforting.

Cruising

What a great word, in any situation.

school - all A's!!

driving - you're carefree and don't have to worry because you don't drive like an Asian

sports - effortlessly pulverizing the other team into submission

gay men - term used in some locales to indicate that you're a gay men looking although heterosexual guys used to use it too in the US ("cruising for chicks"); anyway if you're out on the town cruising you're probably dressed well, feeling pretty good right? [alarming side note, while I was researching this I came across the term glory hole ew ew ew it's when there's a hole in a place like a bathroom or an adult store the guy can stick their finger through to gauge interest and if the offer is accepted you stick your penis through the hole...whaaat! REALLY anonymous sex!]

But best of all is cruise ship cruising.

You can go on a cruise for pretty cheap. There are 4-night cruises for like $160 (plus other fees im sure - and that's only if you go in November).. but that's still pretty good. If it all added up to $200, that's like $50 a night which is about how much you could pay for a hotel room. Except the cruise ship provides a tooon of food, entertainment, and you're supposed to be lazy ^_^ ALSO it takes you places and you get to be a tourist meaning eating delicious exotic food, taking lots of pictures, interacting with locals, and buying souvenirs!! You can do whatever you like.

On Friday I saw Inception. Melanie thought the ending was ambiguous but I did not. Sometimes I am really obnoxious inside of movie theatres. On Saturday we played Bananagrams with Jean which is a really awesome game.

Yesterday Lyle tried to buy beer but got the license taken because he didn't know how old he was. The gas station owner flipped out and was like I was fined $500 and wasted 3 days of my life; WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME!!! [[angry menacing face]]

Also yesterday I saw an old friend when I was with Lyle at this random [really nice] restaurant that I have never been to, and I was really really confused to see her. She started introducing me to everyone and I kind of freaked out for some reason not like OMG WHAT DO I DO kind of freaking but it was like I'd been drugged my brain sort of shut off I was just like cooing instead of enunciating clearly - I wouldn't be surprised if my eyes had been glazed over too. And then at the end I realized Lyle was standing right there and I should probably introduce him so I did but I didn't do a very good job of it. It was really hard because a) I was temporarily non-functional so it was hard for me to do anything b) not only did I have to introduce Lyle to Erin, but then I realized I had to introduce Erin to Lyle also..what?? c) and then afterwards I was like oh no am I supposed to introduce him to her boyfriend and his parents too?? I didn't absorb any of their names! It was very strange I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to leave.

Erin was really tan and dressed up while I was wearing leggings and a tank top and I guess it was just taking me a second to process what was going on, seeing her all the way out in Durham even though we're both in Chapel Hill? Also her skin used to be really smooth but I was taking in her forehead and really just sort of gawking at her in general. It was also extremely perplexing for me because Erin is really tall and skinny and half-Asian/half-white and her boyfriend is completely Caucasian, but the two people she introduced as his parents were this short squat (but cute) Asian lady and this white man, neither of whom looked anything like her boyfriend.

Lyle reports that I sounded confused also and that I was speaking quite slowly even for me. He thought I might have been trying to be funny, but I think he was mostly just embarrassed to be with me.

Mwhuat djoou sfhay?

My brother arrived home safely from China yesterday at around midnight (yay!); with him, he brought back two huge suitcases of loot, including some clothes which are too small for me, some awesome 0.3 mm pens (but only in black =/ still stoked!!! love them already), some silverwear (as in jewelry), and a s-ton of FOOD FOOD and MORE FOOD. Okay a lot of it was tea. But there were also a few bags of candiiiies mmm and one of them included were caramalised haw balls, which are extremely delicious and super, super, suuuper sticky/chewy. Even worse than the MaryJane candies people used to give out for Halloween (I guess as society we have become wiser in the sense that now everyone knows that those orange and black MJs are disgusting and also they get everywhere and stay if the paper experiences any wear/tear, ew). But YUM!

Of course I brought some of them to work today to keep me satisfied in-between meals. So here I am, perusing through some resumes when I decide to stuff the second ball in my mouth (they come in packs of 2, (how prescient of the makers, to know that one wouldn't be enough) and of course this is when my boss chooses this moment to walk over and tell me about something silly like the bulk e-mail I just sent out to 8000 people says "first name, last name" instead of the actual names. Don't worry it wasn't true and the e-mails actually go out pretty slowly it's like a minute for 100 names. No more haw balls today.

Wet N' W*i%L~d and NAKED

Okay guys I know what you're all thinking - were there any animals at the waterpark?? Well I hate to disappoint but there were no giraffes, no stingrays, no macaws, nothing!! ....except for one solitary gorilla who bore a striking resemblance to a fat man with hirsute back.

But we didn't let this ruin our day.

For those out there who don't know, Wet N' Wild is a water park somewhere near Greensboro. It's got a lot of fun stuff to do and some pretty creative rides. It's definitely worth a trip if you've never been, but there are some things that you need to remember...

*Remember to bring sunscreen with high SPF. Those UV rays get really intense.
*Remember to either wear comfortable sandals or to have enough alcohol in your system to help you forget about the fungus forest underfoot.
*Remember to forget to bring your goggles. The less you realize what is floating in the water you are swimming in, the better.

But our main destination of course was Exit 141, which, as I am sure you are well aware, is laden with all kinds of greasy restaurants. With the noticeable exception of Bojangles, there was just about every fast food and buffet you can think of. Though tempted by the lesser chains, we managed to keep our eyes on the prize and made a beeline for Cookout. As usual, I ordered one double cheeseburger with tomato and a milkshake.

Whilst we were at Emerald Point, there was one other intriguing thing that we saw. Or should I say, a pair. (Ominous pause) So on the cusp of our very first ride, I was standing innocently in line when Lyle bent over to whisper something in my ear. I naively thought he was going to say something really sweet for once (one day, one day), but what I heard was "Dude turn around and look at the chick behind us- she's got ENORMOUS jugs!" True story, all of it. They were on their way to becoming Busty Heart sized. Lyle noted how he could bash a Turk's brains out with just the left breast in a medieval battle. Because he's been in many battles and knows this stuff, of course.

Oh my god something traumatizing just happened. I was displaying these weird spots I've been sporting since I got my back sloughed on Daredevil's Drop waterslide when this horrrrible, indescribably malodorous smell assaulted my nose. I wrinkled it and inquired of Lyell: "Did you just fart??" With a resolute face, he puts on his hat and announces, "It's pootin' time."

Okay time to go but, props to our guest co-writer, T LyelL McmerTy!!!

Wait wait I forgot the naked part!!! Lyell decided to take off all his clothes and he stut ALL THE WAY from his car to his apartment door, a stunning 8.9 meter distance, not to mention exposing himself to truckers for quite some time before that. Ok toodles for real!

I only mentioned food in half of the paragraphs today

My parents went to South Carolina this weekend and during that time I had an extremely unhealthy diet of which the main constituents included cereal (both sugary and Grape Nuts), Milano cookies, Cadbury Magic Fingers, Macaroni and Cheese, Mexican takeout, Italian ice with rum, gummies soaked in vodka, and cheese.

July 4th - did not participate in any patriotic activities.

I met two of Lyle's friends: an Asian named Tony and an Italian named Carlo. It was really confusing for me though because Carlo looked like this guy I knew at NCSSM named Tony ...who I used to call Gabriel. It was also greatly amusing to me that they were both mildly scared of Lyle's roommate Neal who is a short benign looking Indian kid.

Yesterday I walked out of Harris Teeter after picking up some cheesecake ingredients wearing this figure fitting but stretchy strapless jean dress (yep that sounds weird, and it is, but I'd never worn it before and felt bad for it so decided that yesterday was the day!). Oh my god wow I just realized that I forgot to put the mini M&Ms into my cheesecake that I bought from CVS!!! Nooooo =( Okay anyways. So I walk outside to get to the tables between CVS and Elmo's Diner, and on my way I make note of random aimless-looking white dude sitting on the bench. My first instinct is to sit as far away as possible, but then I felt really rude in my mind so I just sat at the middle table. There I am, just waiting for Lyell and sure enough after a few minutes the dude walked over and started talking to me and I was like omg why is he talking to me but I guess it's normal to talk to strangers sometimes? I mean I will talk to strangers especially if I'm bored, but anyhow I made sure to mention the phrase MY BOYFRIEND several times. He turned out to be pretty nice; he went to the same high school as me (the one I went to for freshman and sophomore year), but as he was mildly indescript I don't recall ever seeing him there. Plus that was a long time ago. He did throw out "I think I've seen you around before" and I was tempted to say oh reaaaally...but I didn't.

I also got some Ice Breakers from CVS and as I was alone, I opened the side labeled "not to share" and to my surprise, the whole half of the pack opened. I've never encounted breathmint mislabeling before.

PS - isn't it annoying when someone is about to tell you something significant but then decides that it is more important atm to poo? Hmph.

PPS - I totally just had to e-mail this to myself because you can't copy stuff you type in Citrix (the server we use here) to normal windows.

What I was going to post yesterday

But forgot. I now know the name of my favorite fruit!!! Before I didn't know the Chinese name, the English name, and I barely remember what it tastes like except for really delicious. Well it's called the mangosteen and here's a picture!

So beautiful.

Yesterday my mom bought this huge thing of Cadbury magic chocolate fingers..? When I say huge I don't mean like a big box, I mean this ginormous box about a meter long. I tried to find a picture online but I guess it's so dangerous to buy that many chocolate biscuits at once that they only have the pictures of normal sized boxes. While I was on the Kraft website, although I found no pictures there either, I did find a picture of a new Oreo product: fun sticks! Looks kinda like those swirly sticks you can get at an Asian market.

Phew

Today we were having a weekly meeting where all the important people say what they are doing. After the meeting, everyone disbanded. My desk is right near where the big meeting board is, and I had my glass of water on my desk because...I don't know where my water bottle has gotten off to. Anyway I was walking back towards my desk when I see my boss grabbing my glass of water and making off with it! I'm on the verge of saying something but then two things happen - I can't think of what I should say and I am overcome with silent laughter, so I let it go. He came back a minute later with the glass of water anyway.

Yesterday there was an arrival of some sample coffee Keurig flavors, including black tiger (super dark!) and revv pulse (gives you an energy boost!). There was also a flavor called iced french vanilla coffee which I'm sure is the same as french vanilla coffee but with ice but I was like wow this looks awesome!!! So I decided to make it.

Note: I practically never make coffee or drink it.

First I put the ice into this adequate looking cup and then put the Keurig cup inside the machine and pressed the little cup button. However, because of all the ice, the coffee reached all the way up to the rim of the cup and of course started overflowing as soon as I started adding stuff and stirring it in. I added a full packet of Splenda which gave it a really weird sweet flavor, and as if that wasn't gross enough, I then added some non-dairy creamer (it's all we've got at the office!).. which did not dissolve, again due to that hard cold culprit - ice. Basically I drank enough so that I could carry it around without anything falling out and once it was at my desk I ignored it for the rest of the day. So much for awesome!!! iced french vanilla coffee.

Then at my mom's company's cookout there was this WATER SLIDE but I didn't bring a swimsuit. Also the oldest kid on it was like 12, except for this one dad. But Lyle brought his trunks so I was like whatever I'll just go down in my clothes. The shorts I was wearing are these ones that are slightly big on me, and when they got wet they just expanded!! So then I walked around for the rest of the time holding them up. I briefly contemplated sporting a sag, but decided it wasn't the right look for me.

My goal for this weekend: Catch up on my Economist subscription!! I've gotten 3 so far, one that I've read like 1/3 of (the good third too), one that I've read maybe 2 or 3 articles out of, and one that is coming today and is probably already in my mailbox which is laying peacefully in the grass with the ants.

3 Disgusting Blotches

I HATE BUG BITES! Two that I got were especially itchy and they didn't just evolve into pink lumps, but took the next step of turning bright red. Not sure if it is a particular bug or if I am just picking up my mom's unfortunate habit of being extra allergic to bug bites.

There's one on my stomach, so there's an ugly blemish at the one place you are usually guaranteed to have clear skin. There's also one on my leg crease where it meets my torso - covered if I'm wearing a bikini bottom, not so if I'm wearing an athletic swimsuit. I'm sure scores of people saw it when I finally made it to the community swim center this week (first time all summer!). I hope they don't think I have an STD like genital warts or something. :( :(

The third one is this tiny baby blackhead near my lip that erupted into a postule. Okay to be honest, that makes it sound a lot worse than it is but I am really critical of it because it still looks really gross and I hate ittt. Should I pop it? I really would like to. But that's like bad for your skin or something. Meh.

This morning on the way to work, we were driving along mind our own business. Okay Lyle was driving and I was really doing nothing objectionable, when this motorcycle speeds near us and so I look at it cas it's so loud and the guy on it is wearing this gray shirt which is not tucked in so it's just flapping around there in the wind, and his back is all showing, which wasn't hanging out over his jeans or anything, but I was totally judging him in my head and being like gosh he should really take care of that. Ok I know it was prob tucked in to start with, but he could have tucked it in better so that it wouldn't make people like me cringe inside.

THEN after he passes us, he must have heard my thoughts because he turns around in his seat and POINTS at us. I mean there is really no other explanation!!!! Why else would he target us like that?!?

I'm so sorry, Lyle, for putting us in danger from motorcycle gray shirt man.

Speaking of random, there's a guy in SC who did absolutely no campaigning and won the Democratic primary for the US Senate. CRAZY! No one even knows who he is...he seems fairly unorganized, and has felony charges for trying to get a college freshman to his apartment by showing her porn --> wrong on many levels, but amusing.

That's the man himself! Alvin Greene. HERE is a decent summation article about it (erops to Lyle).

In other news, congrats to SK for making it to the next round, and I'm crossing my fingers that the NK soccer players don't get fed to lions or something. Their 7-0 loss to Portugal is like the first thing that's been aired live in NK - here's more about it. Hey maybe they'll be left in South Africa without any resources! Prob a step up.

CYBIOM - Can you believe it's only Monday?!?

This weekend was glorious! Lyle and I went to Wilmington. Everyone was asleep when we arrived at about 11, but we were greeted by a few of his animals. When we walked in the door I heard these adorable boin boin boin noises – I thought it was some kind of device that made those noises on purpose to put on a relaxing atmospheric setting but it was in fact a guinea pig! There was also a sweet but smelly spotty doggy anddd two kitties! One was sleek and fat and totally hogged the food bowl, while the other one had a lot of physical features in common with Lyle. No curly hair though. Then we played some Pokemon, yeaaah! ^__^

Saturday we were going to go to Pleasant Oaks, where they used to live. Soon after leaving, a torrent of rain came over us but we slogged through it until hitting some traffic, which we took as a sign that we weren’t meant to go just yet. Later the weather was perfect of course, and we went boating! The water was incredibly flat. At night we did some biking. The bike I used had a seat which was not Louisa-adjusted and was not super comfy but I haven’t biked in forever! Despite the investment of a $20 bike lock, my bike at Penn has pretty much been abandoned after the tire ran out of breath. In fact even though it was the right size, it was way less comfortable to ride than the big bike. Hmph.

On Sunday we finally made it to Pleasant Oaks where we rode around and around and around and around in an ATV which upon closer inspection, I noticed was only supposed to be used by one person at a time. There were lots of wild animals! We saw some adorable teeny weeny fiddler crabs waving around their claw trying to get some ladies back into their holes. There were a few deer. Lots of birds including ospreys, quail, an owl, and even a hawk that tried to drop some carrion on top of us. AND there was a baby alligator that Lyle’s mum had shot because it was threatening the afore mentioned smelly doggy. Apparently there were a lot of alligators which it is against the law to kill except in self-defence. =/

Now I’m back at work, eating my way through the long, long, long work day. For breakfast I had two types of cereal, an Apple Cinnamon Rice Krispies bar, a chocolate toffee thing (rip off from southern season, looked mildly fancy, tastes just like a Heath Bar), and a banana. Then for lunch I had some stuffs my mum packed me and some milk. Then in the kitchen room I found a delicious peach and grapes that had been put out! And I ate my raspberry yogurt. Then I had a frozen banana. Yep done for now. Still hungry.

Haaaahahhaha sorry yesterday when I said NK won I meant...they scored a goal -_- lol@Anna - "Are you living in NK??" That took me a minute. Speaking of Korea and soccer, SK was slaughtered by Argentina yesterday! And Korea took down Greece which means...they should probably just go home before they play Argentina. Ha just kidding! I guess sports don't always work like that. Kind of like Pokemon. Water beats grass which beats fire which...is also beaten by water. WAIT jk I just looked it up grass beats water so it works out yay!

It seems like a bigger issue has arisen though. Wouldn't water beat grass because if you water too much than you would drown your plants? Sometimes if it's down a mountain and there's soil erosion, the water can wash away the vegetation altogether.

Today my brother went off the the motherland. He was very morose last night because we wouldn't let him take his laptop to China. I would be very concerned if he did because he'd probably come back shorter from lugging that around all the time. I'm going to miss him! Who am I gonna use as an excuse to play Wii? Who is going to distract my parents from paying attention to me?? WHO'S GOING TO TAKE OUT THE RECYCLING??? Pressing issues at hand here. Hm maybe Lyle will do it.

I keep telling myself that I should get up at least every half hour so I'm not sitting 8 hrs a day but there's really just not enough excuses for me to be up and about all the time. Help!!!

Remember me?

I’m being super sneaky right now. I’m typing this blog entry as an outlook e-mail at work so it looks like I’m being productive! :D I actually legitimately have nothing to do right now though. Yes, I’m just that good. This is the first time I’ve used Microsoft Outlook without it being attached to a web browser. It’s pretty much the same except it doesn’t have the web browser part at the top. I’ve always thought Microsoft Outlook was really annoying though because whenever I feel the urge to click the “e-mail this” buttons on various webpages, the Outlook configurations starts up and I have to shut it all down. No! I’m not ready to learn how this works yet!

Ugh I’m soo sleepy!! Whenever I stay over at Lyle’s, I usually become half-zombie the next day. Usually it’s because we spontaneously wake up and have sex in the middle of the night, but there has been an occasion where I was just.. ahem, subconsciously begin “attacking” him while we’re both asleep?? I swear I do not remember this. I was asleep throughout but he seems to remember it quite vividly. Well, as vividly as a groggy person can manage.

The most consistently focused version that I see of Lyle is when we wake up in the morning from the second he gets out of bed to when we arrive in the parking lot at work. We both work for his dad’s recruiting/headhunting firm. I had never heard of these until Lyle started working here, but apparently they are all over the place and even my mom gets a bunch of e-mails from them. In case you haven’t heard of them either, basically companies hire them to find really good candidates to jobs because sometimes the people who apply are really not that great. Sometimes when people are actually looking for a job, there is a reason why they are not at one or why they want to leave their current one, so recruiting firms will often look for people who are happily working at a job and then BAM, do you want a new one?

I seem to wear a lot of inappropriate clothing to work, including:

• A shirt that didn’t come down far enough paired with pants that didn’t come up high enough; in short, the two items didn’t quite meet most of the time

• A white fleece jacket with a hood (it gets cold in there!! Must buy work-friendly jacket x_x)

• Today I wore these beige corduroy pants, for the 3rd time, and NOW Lyle tells me, “Yeah those pants aren’t great either. And my dad likes belts.” Thanks.

• Last week I wore a dress that I thought plunged too much because I forgot to bring something to Lyell’s to wear underneath, but Lyle didn’t think so.

Did anyone see the Brazil-NK game yesterday? I’m so happy that NK won! I’m really outraged at all those people on the FIFA boards who are like omg! NK is so cowardly, defense the whole time! What the hell, that’s just their strategy, it’s what they’re good at and that’s how they play. I don’t see how that’s “cowardly.” Also, I think it’s dumb that people were like, geez why didn’t Brazil score more on a team that’s ranked 105. WELL, there are a lot of factors that contribute to them being “105,” and one thing that probably contributes to that number is that NK is a recluse country and they prob just don’t get out as much as other teams.

Anyway, time to get back to work. I’m going to blog more from now on!