week ONE.

It's hard to believe that I've been out of the US for a week now.... seems like just yesterday I was ranting about a stupid volcano in iceland canceling my flight! But after a week here in Leuven these are just a few of the things I miss: 1) FREE NORMAL water. (you have to pay for it at restaurants and no one seems to drink normal tap water! crazy! definitely missing it) 2) ICE. I like ice. Any one who is around me for just a short while can figure that out. In Europe... you are LUCKY to get a couple small ice cubes in your glass. We really take ice and water for granted in the States. 3) SALAD. You can't really find a normal lettuce salad here.... again something that is a vital component of my life. 4) the ENGLISH language. Yes, most of the people here speak English to some extent... but ughhh! why can't we all just speak a universal language... it would make my life so much easier! We were asking a waiter one night what flavor a particular beer was and asked if it was raspberry. It took us forever to explain what a raspberry actually was! And when a menu is translated into English, the translations are often rather rough and not exactly clear. If only I knew Dutch..... 5) my BELOVED chicago BLACKHAWKS!!!! hello stanley cup finals :) And even though Kenny is going to DVR all of the games for me, it just won't be the same listening to it on the radio. I expect you ALL to watch! LET'S GO HAWKS! and last but not least 6) chieffers. haha just kidding, of course I miss all of YOU. Don't forget to keep me updated on your lives!


Last night we went on a short adventure to an old castle just outside of the city of Leuven. It took about 25 minutes to walk there but it was beautiful and the scenery along the way was great! I even managed to find a house that I'm pretty sure should be my future summer home. Hope you are all ok with that :) But I'll post pictures soon of the castle!


At this point... I should probably tell you about the academic side of my experiences here in Belgium. I'm taking a sociology course through the U of I and we are mainly focusing on family dynamics and comparing Belgium (and Europe) to the United States. It has been pretty interesting and has given me quite a bit to think about! As far as school work goes there aren't too many requirements, but we do have to keep a journal of our experiences and make 8 posts on some sort of discussion (not too time consuming though so that's nice). I can't really complain too much :)


And now...finally... the BIGGEST part of my day.... I got my bike. Yes, the time has finally come. I know we've all been waiting for this moment when I would have to navigate myself around a foreign country on a bike that was probably made in the 70s. I can't even touch the ground from it. And to make things worse I have absolutely NO idea what the road signs mean or the rules of the road. YIKES. I'm not kidding... I was terrified getting on the bike for the first time. All that was going through my mind was my last experience on a wheeled object (aka my skateboard incident my junior year of high school. some of you will remember that night uptown...others will not, but needless to say, I ended up on the ground.) We've all been joking about my future biking experiences in Belgium and how you all want videos. You all are HILARIOUS. And I can't forget Kenny's words of encouragement last night... "Please don't get hurt!". I mean, I really just want to thank you guys for all the support... yah, not so much. haha But in the end my first ride back from the bike shop went smooth and I made it safe and sound. Phew!


I'll try to update again soon! Things are going to get crazy in the next week or so with all of my traveling (I'm heading to Paris this weekend!!! soooo excited!) But I'll stay in touch!


Tootsies! (One of my absolute favorite words I've picked up here!)