sea side

yesterday gregory, roxy and i joined our friends in a trip to the coast. it was cloudy, foggy, a little misty and fairly cold. perfect day for a winter beach trip. it was roxy's first time on the beach and she loved it! she had a great time digging in the sand, chasing the ocean as it pulled back in (she doesn't like actually getting wet) and chasing around her new doggy pal, babs, the dog of our friends. she behaved very well in town with all the very many other visitors and other dogs as well. and slept like a rock on the way home! just the way we like it! gregory and roxy enjoying the sea air. in the background is our friends pieter-jan and thomas and, though its hard to see, babs is in the sea ready to go for a swim!

the rolling waves.

new addition

The newest member of our little family



Roxy. she's 6 months old and comes from the pound. she was from a breeder and her and her brother didnt sell from that litter. she's a bit skittish and has seperation anxiety. the pound people said on several occasions that she probably wasnt socialzed and i think they were trying to warn us. she's super sweet and loving, she just cant handle people leaving right now. i've been working really hard on trying to get her to just relax and deal with it but its really hard! she has to sleep in our room right now because otherwise she'd howl and bark all night long and i think she's going to get used to sleeping upstairs with us which is NOT what i wanted.

its been less than a week but i'm already going crazy with her crying! i cant leave the room without her crying for me to come back!! not.good. though i do have to say there has been improvement. so thats one thing i guess. its slooooooow going. i just hope she can overcome this.



UPDATE

we went to the pet store this afternoon to buy a proper pet gate (we were using a laundry drying rack before) and i also bought her a kong to hopefully keep her occupied. since we dont have any peanutbutter in the house (and before you all gasp and go all "sacrelig" on my ass please know that i DID have to full jars of jiff but i ate them and never had mumsie send more or buy more on visits and though peanutbutter recently exhists here in belgium, i am brand loyal and only like jiff) anyway, i filled it with banana bits of her dog food and broken up chunks of 1 treat and she had a blast! i had 10 full minutes of her playing with it while i was up here, she began to get whiney so i began doing my desensitization exercises with her again. this is where i just open the door to the upstairs, wait 1 second and return then go longer and shorter mixing up the seconds i'm away to show her theres nothing to worry about and that i will always return. during the exercise she fell asleep and i kept at it bringing the time away to 1 full minute then 2 and every time i returned she was still sleeping and not even waking up when i opened or closed the door! since then its been 15 full minutes without 1 peep from her. the kong tuckered her out. of course she fell asleep right in front of the gate but heck! who cares where she's sleeping just as long as she is sleeping.

oops spoke too soon. a howl is heard. well anyway, its an improvement!

Roller Rant

Ok, I have a problem with Belgium.

once upon a time there was a guy who was Belgian and decided to invent the rollerskate. Great invention Belgian dude! May many years go by and somehow rollerskating is a very teeeeeny tiny sport in Belgium.
Ok fine. I can sort of live with that even though I would totally be joining a roller derby team right now if I lived in the states still. So I cant be a derby girl, I can at least go to a roller rink and skate around, recapturing my youth, right? WRONG! I've done search upon search with the yellow pages, white pages, regular google web pages and NOTHING. There is one inline skating club but who cares about inline skates! Those are stupid, ugly and ghetto and where do they practice? Where does one go if they are Belgian and interested in roller skating????? How does this country function?!

I'm irritated.

Auntie Em!

(north of france, yesterday)
For the past week or so we've had high winds. Yesterday was at its worst with hurricane-like winds blowing tiles off of roofs, trees down, and though I didn't see any fallen powerlines, they were sure blowing like crazy like they were about to snap at any second. Lots of fire trucks driving around everywhere.

I heard this area for Belgium was the worst. The north of France got hit the most, and being only a couple towns away from the north of France, we too got hit pretty bad.
but the worst is over now. Yesterday; dark, grey, cold, and unwelcoming tornado weather has passed to a beautiful sunny day. The sky is blue, the rain is drying and there's not a whistle of wind to be heard.

all is right in the world again.

bleh

i just feel like doing a retarded survey thing because i'm bored. it happens.

When was the last time you shaved?
2 days ago.
What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.?
trying to wake up. got up at 8.30
.What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
trolling the internet thinking "i really should be doing something else but i'm not so whatever"
Are you any good at math?
i'm shit at it. its amazing i'm even here.
Your prom night?
i went to 3. they were all pretty good. i think my senior prom was the best.
Do you have any famous ancestors?
not that i know of
Have you ever taken out a loan to pay for school?
have i EVER?!
Last thing received in the mail?
some survey from the VDAB asking how i feel their service is to me and how i thought the recent class i was enrolled in went. i "joked" that i was going to write 'VDAB SUCKS' across the page and send it back
How many different beverages have you drunk today?
a mixed berry juice with alovera puree and fiber in it, for my over all health, well-being, and keeping my healthy intestinal flora, well, healthy. and also a tropical juice from minute maide
Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machine
yeah
Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
no!
What's the most painful dental procedure you've had?
umm...i once had a cavity as a kid and had it filled with no novicane. it hurt alot. but um, that tooth fell out and i currently have no caveties so i'm doing pretty good in the dental hygene department.
What is out your back door?
patio, table, a fallen over christmas tree waiting to be carried off with all the other trees on the 24th to a horrible death. better than blowing around the back patio i guess. theres also a shed, some shrubs, a clothes line and a trash bag full of rotted pumpkin that gregory refuses to take away.
Any plans for Friday night?today is friday. no offical plans. we were gonna go bowling but our friends are busy, i think. maybe do something with dimitri.
.Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?most of the time, sometimes it just gets too snarled and nasty, but mostly i love the wind blown, salt roughned kind of free feeling it gives me.
Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different kinds of popcorn for Christmas?
you bet! i only like the salt and the cheese, caramel can go to hell.
Have you ever been to a planetarium?
sadly, no.
Do you re-use towels after you shower?
of course.
Some things you are excited about?
starting a new work out routine with my friend janne
What is your favorite flavor of JELLO?
strawberry and orange.
Are any of your great-grandparents still alive?
no.
Where do you keep your change?
pocket, bottom of my bag, little jar on kitchen table, 2 change purses that i have.
When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?
in college, i think. i hate speaking in front of people i dont know very well. hence why waitresses can never hear my order!
What kind of winter coat do you have?
i have 6 winter coats! i only rotate 3 right now though. 1 is a beautiful coat my parent's bought for my birthday. its long, and has polka dot looking design on it, and a fur collar- it looks alot like an old ladie's coat. another is a camel colored pea coat with a peter-pan collar and another is a red coat that my parents bought for me last christmas. its kinda parka-ish.
What was the weather like on your graduation day?
i think it rained because we had to graduate in the gym.
Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed?
open
8 lasts --
8.] last kiss: this afternoon, saying goodbye to gregory.
7.] last beverage: juice
6.] last movie watched: 40 year old virgin
.5.] last phone call: dimitri asking if we're doing something tonight
4.] last cd played: ummmmm i dont remember
3.] last "i love you": this afternoon
2.] last time you cried: 2 nights ago because i was home alone alllllllll day and was very lonely and i cried. but then i got better
1.] last alcoholic drink: mojito last night

.6 have you evers --
6.] have you ever dated someone twice: yeah
5.] have you ever been cheated on: yeah..
.4.] have you ever kissed someone: uhhh yeah!.
3.] have you ever kissed someone you regret: no
.2.] have you ever been depressed: definitely.
1.] have you ever been drunk and thrown up: yep but not in a while, thankfully

6 things you've done today
1.] woke up
2.] picked up house
3.] began knitting gregory's hat
4.] signed up for a gym membership with janne
5.] this
6.] bought new workout pants that make my butt look big but whatever they were only 7 euros

3 favorite colors --
1.] red
2.] emerald green
3.] midnight blue

2 things you want to do before you die --
1.] learn to yodel
2.] learn to swing dance

Do you usually remember your dreams?
most often i do and boy do i have weird dreams! just ask gregory. i tell him everyday the sagas of my unconsious mind and every day he leaves for work more frightened than the last day.

Home schooling

The trouble with teaching yourself stuff is that there's no one around, who knows what they're doing, to tell you that you're doing it wrong.

I've been knitting lately. With the sales that are going on ( Belgium only has sales twice a year, far different from sale!sale!sale! America) I bought some new yarn, a couple new needles so I can branch out from knitting things only in 4mm and a knitting magazine (even though I didn't buy enough yarn to complete anything in the magazine, I'm just trying to stock up on supplies) Gregory checked out one of the colors of yarn I picked and exclaimed he wanted a hat. suuuure, no problem! Seeing as how the only thing I ever completed was a ribbed scarf.
last year when I had just taught myself how to cast on stitches and do the boring ole garter stitch I decided I was going to try to knit Gregory a hat. Pretty bold of me, I know. Things seemed to be going pretty good with it but after a enough rows where I could kinda try it on, I noticed it was HUGE as it didn't even go on my head at all but rather fell straight to my neck. Needless to say I gave up on the ginormous hat. So today I began trying again. I have some round needles already from my first failed attempt and I bought a smaller size today just to have around.

so I'm knitting and I casted on all 132 stitches and I knitted myself up the first row till the end and then I couldn't remember. Do I turn the needles around or just keep on going! So I checked out my stitch n bitch reference guide to see if it said anything about knitting in the round. It did. It says you cant use needles with a diameter larger than circumference of the garment you're knitting. OHHHHHHH.....So that means last year (before I owned the book) when I was trying to knit a 60 cm hat onto 80cm needled that's the reason why it was ginormous?????!! Ok, thanks.
but of course I didn't read that before I had bought more round needles and though they are smaller I'm still unsure if it'll work. The garment will be 60cm and the needles are also 60cm does that mean the hat will still be too huge? Do I throw in the towel now or try it to find out?

where's grandma when you need her??????????

Blood, sweat and tears

While living in America I was a fairly regular blood donor. I like giving blood. I don't mind needles. I think its fun to watch myself fill up a bag. I feel good knowing that I've helped someone, I feel good knowing that my blood can help anyone, being a universal donor and all. I liked the stickers they gave you "Be Nice to Me, I Gave Blood Today!" and I enjoyed the cookies and juice at the end of it all.

lately, I've been missing the feeling of goodness and after a couple of times of seeing a sign come and go for a blood donation day I felt it time to make a point of going. And last night I went and donated blood. I figured I might try to take over the world, one blood donation at a time throughout the entire world mwahaha. No seriously, I just like to help.
Gregory drove me and I told him to stay near just in case I needed help with all that blood, aids, "have you been to the jungles of Africa and contracted some crazy disease in the last 6 months" jargon-type questions. So when it was time for me to fill out my questionnaire he in fact was helping me and we got scolded for it. I was suppose to fill it out by myself in secret. But back in Massachusetts ( perhaps every red cross volunteer center has their own way of doing things) we just filled out the questionnaire while in the waiting seat, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the potential donors, so I figured that part didn't need to be in secret, just the secret baled with the question "yes or no--do YOU think your blood is safe to use? Be honest now, it doesn't really matter what you say because we're gonna test you blood anyway but why don't you just safe us the trouble and let us know if you're skanky straight up" anyway, I got a special English card to finish off my questions.
now here's where things get a little different, in MA they give you a finger prick and test your blood to see if you have enough iron to donate. One of the hoops I was anticipating so I was sure to eat my spinach last night. They never tested me. I instead, they gave me iron pills to take after donating! How weird. I think I prefer knowing that my iron level are good instead of taking pills that could potentially block me up, as the doctor stated. And since I have a pretty sensitive system I don't really want to take anything that I know beforehand will block me up. I took one right afterwards but I have no intentions of taking anymore. My iron level have always been great even when I was vegan.

the volunteer redcross phlebotomist was excellent with her needle! It didn't hurt even the slightest! However, she was a bit stupid because my blood "just stopped" and she couldn't figure out why, and the other volunteer who manned the bags of blood was all "umm, yeah that's because you have the dial on locked and when she opened it WHOOSH blood came rushing out of the broken dam. It all went well. Filled up my bag AND instead of cookies and juice they give you a ticket to get a free drink at the bar and also some little bar code sticker that gets you a free small gift. I got shower gel. It went really well and I think I'll do it again in the near future.

***************************************************************

on a different note, last night in the mail we got this:

here's my super translated version:

it's a promotional ad for a new ironing service. They come to your house to iron for you. (sound familiar mom?) mom had once suggested I make up flyers and send them to neighbors saying "yo! I'll do your ironing and shit like that for you because your country doesn't want to give me money or give me a job-whatd'ya say????" and I told her yeah I iron but I don't think I'm particularly good at it that I would iron other peoples clothes for money. Well some bitch stole my mother's brilliant idea! Only took it a step further and turned it into a professional business. If that bitch is reading now: I hope you drop an iron on your foot!

it's time

i've been growing my hair out and i dont think its doing me any justice anymore. i think my best look has always been when my hair was chin length but i love love love cutting my hair short for some reason. here are two looks i'm thinking of:








i really love the first one. and the second, i like the shape but would probably have it a bit shorter. which do you think i should go for?

december 30th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREGORY!


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also, i think i'm going to try my hand at this project: project 365

you take 1 picture a day for an entire year. cool, huh. i think i'll start on january 1. we'll see how long i keep it up for!

Christmas ramblings

I don't really have anything definitive to say. The only big news I had has already been said in e-mail form. Here are some scatter-brained rambles:

1. I got engaged over the holiday! wheeeeee! yay! love! Hoopla!
2. I had a birthday. I'm 24 now
3. gregory's birthday is the 30th. He'll be 26!
4. Every night Gregory lights the Christmas tree for me.
5. Every night Gregory fills my new hot water pack for me to wrap my feet around at night under the covers. It's lovely.
6. My washer was broken for an afternoon yesterday but Gregory fixed it for me!
7. I peddled uphill into the neighboring town today to go to a store which carries the thing Gregory wants for his birthday.
8. They were all out!
9. Peddled all the way back home.
10. I'll have to take the bus into town tomorrow.
11. We have a party to attend on Sunday.
12. We'll be waaay drunk for sure.
13. We plan on purchasing many things in the new year.
14. We want a new TV, new bed and mattress, new couches and a puppy!
15. I've been knitting a lot lately and getting good at my stitches
16. I'm currently working on a ribbed scarf
17. I want to try my hand at crocheting again.
18. I have a feeling that you can do more with crocheting
19. For instance, I saw in a Belgian magazine a hair clip that was crocheted cherries and I want to make them. I also want to make snowflakes for next Christmas.
20. I want a million snowflakes hanging everywhere like in the movie "elf" only mine will be way prettier because they wont be made out of paper.
21. I went to an interim office on Tuesday to speak to a man who got my name and resume from gregory's boss. He said my Dutch was very good and that made me proud.
22. I'm excited about gathering ideas for a wedding (even though we're unsure which country it'll even be in yet!) I still want the luxury of gathering tons of pictures on dresses, flowers, papers and all things lovely.
23. Does anyone feel like buying me a bridal subscription?
Martha Stewart weddings
brides
modern bride

any of these would make me very happy

Moonshine!

I got a cold starting the second week I was in America. I still have the cold. Though, it's moved, shifted and changed a little, I have still not recovered. Its been about 3 weeks. Right now my cold is at the stage where, every so often, I still have a nose full of snot which makes me cough. When my nose isn't full, I'm coughing regardless because I have something settled deep in my chest and it gives me a lovely barking cough and I'm pretty sure I've burst a few veins in my head from having a hacking fit.
I've already seen a doctor. I already finished a bottle of cough syrup and a small pack of cough drops. Nothing has helped. So last night, after watching "house, M.D."onTV and seeing a woman who went in for a persistent cough and ended up being terminal, Gregory, the ever so paranoid one, was convinced I was dying and needed to see a doctor right away. i told him I was fine. But never-the-less, he felt something needed to be done as the cough syrup, decongestant, and nose spray was doing nothing for the persistent chest coughwhich I told his incompetent doctor (that's another story altogether) that i had and yet he perscribed me nothing for it. Gregory dialed his mom and got her to go next door to the pharmacy and pick me up some vick's vapor rub and cough syrup for a prickling in the back of the throat and a tight chest; the symptoms i described.
when i received my cough syrup I looked at it and noticed it was in a glass bottle with a white tag that you might find on your grandmother's preserves and hand written directions on it. I said "there's no brand on here. It looks home made." Gregory nodded delightfully.

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow "you mean to tell me the pharmacist went out back and whipped this up herself?" and Gregory nodded delightfully.

"you're giving me MOONSHINE?! "

and Gregory said "yeah, its how they did it in the olden days so when the pharmacist heard your symptoms she knew of a great old remedy that works really great."

me: "this is moonshine. Is this even legal?"

Gregory: "its what they used to do!"

so I took my moonshine with a good rubbing of vicks on my chest and it was the first time I slept in 3 days. I didn't wake up with any hacking fits at all. I took it twice today and though I'm still coughing, I'm not fitting like I was. Last night's sleep wasn't great, as it was more of a pass-out than a good nights sleep, so I cant wait till tonight where I can snuggle up and sleep in and NOT hack a lung all night long.
I'm a true believer in the Belgian pharmacist's moonshine!

island of lights and a christmas tree

in the center of kortrijk every year they do an "island of lights". all the street light bulbs are replaced with black lights, they have a huge disco ball and other large, white, abstract sculptures that capture the black light really well. the other night they had lit a million candles ( or what seemed like a million) and they also had fire jugglers and fire breathers and the sort performing for passer byers. it was beautiful!
i think on new years eve they have a party there and you can dance under the giant disco ball and count down to the new year with a bunch of other crunk party-goers.

this weekend we also bought our christmas tree. its a bit skinny but it appears that you can either get a small fat tree, or a large skinny tree here in belgium. i have seen both large and fat. but its ours and we love it.

we strung lights and hung the decorations sunday evening. it was great.
here are some pictures:
my friend janne posing for a picture
our christmas tree. it looks crooked but its just the tree. me posing with our tree.

fun, huh?

Travels n things

My travels home from America were LOOONG.
first stop: Washington d.c. we had a couple hours lay over which wasn't so bad considering the international area of the airport is located in no-man's land and they make you walk there. At least in Brussels they give you the floor escalator to zoom you along. Once we made it to the general area of where we needed to be we grabbed a sandwich at a place called potbelly's. Wow. They have some excellent sandwiches there! They're all warm and you can put any sauce and veggies on the sandwich you like. It was really good. Then after a small wait at our terminal we boarded for Brussels. As Gregory and I were sitting in our seats waiting for the rest of the passengers to sit down so we could go already, I looked around and said to Gregory "I have a feeling this is going to be a bad flight." I said this because there were many loud people around us. There were also many toddlers. In my flying experience its not the baby's you have to worry about, its the toddlers.

sure enough we were late getting out of there. The lights were off which annoyed me immensely as I was trying to read a book that was lent to me (thanks maryann, I just finished it today and oh boy was it awesome!!!) then the lights came on; shut off; came on; shut off. The flight attendants came over the loud speaker "sorry, the lights and video for our economy passengers aren't working properly. We had maintainence come and look at it and were assured it was working but we can't seem to get it to work. SOOORRRRYYYY........." Sorry? SORRY?! That's all they have to say? I believe that when I purchased my ticket the price included my in flight meal, PROPER LIGHTING and a movie!!!

this wasn't even the end of it. The entire flight there was a toddler crying to the right of us, a toddler in front of me that kept peering over his seat and wailing every time his parents made him sit down. Which let me tell you, they only did that after the father would peer at me through the seat cracks each time throughout this 8 hour hell ride and give a look like "is it all right that my ugly child with snot dripping out of his nose is watching you?" and I'd shoot him some death rays that said "if you don't get that snot-nosed child out of my face right now I'm going to throw him out the window!"

the lighting began to work properly sometime after dinner. And the video began working an hour before landing. I tried watching TV but it put me to sleep....Finally. So I had an hour's rest on the plane.

I think Gregory and I are pretty much back on track with the time; we're both sick so that's making us a bit sleepy.
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in other news our roof in there veranda has began leaking. Well, it leaked since the day we got it but just a few drops here and there, now we have a puddle. We also have staining on the wall by a gutter, that Gregory says isn't draining properly. Our land lady has order us to call a guy to install a brand new gutter and a new roof for us! Which is good because our veranda roof right now is plastic! So it gets waaay too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. We're going to get a normal roof.

*********************************

this weekend we plan on getting our first REAL Christmas tree. Gregory got word of a place in France where you can get large ones for relatively cheap, compared to the belgian prices. I cant wait!

**************************************

we have coupons cut out from the local paper for a new bed and new couch. Hopefully we can go look at those soon too!

******************************************

I saw on an classified website for Belgium a new litter of French bulldogs! Just what I want!!! But I think I hit Gregory too fast with that one because he didn't seem too responsive to it. I guess it can wait a little bit till we at least get our ever important new furniture.

Feeling like an old lady

I take the bus pretty regularly these days and see all kinds of different people. I see the students; the people with only half of a full set of teeth, carrying 20 plastic bags and mumbling to themselves; the people that think they're a celebrity with their designer clothes and bling, and you really just want to point and laugh and say "you're riding in a BUS not a Cadillac!"; the seemly normal people; and of course, the old ladies.

the old ladies seem to only ride the bus for a few stops at a time. It always made me laugh because they're only on the bus for a minute before their pressing the button to get off. It makes me wonder why they just don't get themselves a rascal scooter and rascal themselves to the next bus stop, if that's only as far as their gonna go. Today I felt like one of the old ladies, without the scooter. (however, if I DID have a scooter I would have used it. In fact, I'd love a rascal. But I think I need to wait until I'm at least 50 before getting one so I can justify it and not just look like a lazy lardass.)

I had some business to attend to in the next village over. Normally I could have rode my bike as its not THAT far. But today its cold, raining, windy and I just plain didn't feel like getting a cold 2 days before I leave on vacation. So I waited at the bus stop for the bus to take me a total of 4 stops away.

the bus driver sounded very surprised when I told him where I was going, which was really only right over the hill and around a corner. A 5 minute drive. Which I don't see why because I've seen old people board the bus only to get off at the NEXT stop. When he told me it was 1.50 euro I was outraged!! It costs me 1.50 euro to go the city. The last stop from my house! Why in the name of peanutbutter was he charging me the same price to go to a dinky little town that everyone else was trying to get out of. But I paid the man, boarded the bus, and 5 minutes later got off. Did my business and waited at the bus stop to go back home. This time I was only going 3 stops away. And I got charged 1.50 AGAIN!! Which I would like to add here that when I ride from kortrijk to rollegem it only costs me 1.20. so why, WHY???? When I was almost in rollegem I had to pay more than what I normally do from coming further away????

I don't know, but anyway, those old ladies have a lot of time on their hands. What would normally be 15-20 errand with a car it took an hour with the bus. And now I know why all those old people have bus passes, because if they didn't they'd be eating cat food for the next month until their social security funds come in next.

me

this was me bakingfor my halloween party at a friends house.

cute, right? ;)

Attack of the killer rooster

Yes, you read that right--rooster. For those that might be unaware I have a deep seeded fear of roosters dating to my childhood. Why you ask? Because my FATHER let one attack me. Ok, ok that's a very slight exaggeration. The real, abridged story actually goes as this,

once upon a time my parents thought it would be cool to have chickens and have fresh eggs n all that jazz. With the chickens came a very nasty rooster. Because my parents were big on chores, my brother and I had to feed and collect the eggs everyday. And everyday the rooster would be ready and waiting at the door, swooping at us with its talons out! My big brother thought up creative ways to ward off the evil rooster (though PETA would not want to hear about it) and we survived. Until one day while the rooster was on prowl of our backyard (as we had let it out of the coop at this point so a fox would eat it. Let nature take its course..With a little nudge) and I being all cute n swinging on my swing, the rooster stalked me from across the yard, ran up to me and would jump to peck me to death every time the swing went by. I was STANDING on the swing, crying, SCREAMING for someone to help me. Little did I know my father was inside looking on from a window LAUGHING at my demise!

so now I fear roosters. (you could saved me dad!) anyway, all this DOES have a point.
2 weeks ago, 2 roosters escaped from their fenced in yard of a house that is en route to where my class is. I walk by the house every day and hear the roosters crowing, which doesn't bother me. As long as their fenced in I can deal with it. Well last week the got out and they stared me down. It may surprise you to know I haven't actually come face to face with a rooster outside a fence since my childhood. I stopped dead in my tracks. I could feel prickly sweat begin to form, I was hear ventilating and near tears. I slowly crept forward trying not to alarm them. All the while saying "ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod" and when I made it past I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure they weren't chasing me.

after class was over I made sure to walk causiously and the roosters were gone so I figured the owner caught them and brought them back in.

so this morning I'm walking to class, already putting the attack horrors from 2 weeks ago behind me, I became startled by a rooster in the bushes!!!!!! I was inches away from it and it was scuffing its feet like a bull ready to charge. I swerved my body away, falling off the sidewalk slipping on leaves and had that "eeeeek" look on my face that crazy people get when there's a bee near them. Some guy saw my freak out.
the rooster didn't get me. And he crowed at me on the way back. I think I'm going to have to take the longer way around tomorrow because I can't take this stress!

I swear it looks at me.

BORAT!

last night Gregory, me, Thomas, janne, her sister and her sister's friend, and some other dude friend of janne's all went to go see Borat the movie.

"Borat"( http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Borat)is a kazakhstanian television reporter. He goes to America to learn lessons in which he can bring back to Kazakakhstan to make the country better. The movie is a "mockumentary" aka--its not real.

Borat is very politically incorrect and offensive. Anyone that takes high offense to political incorrectness should NOT see this movie. He make comments on the Jewish community, women, homosexuals, mentally handicapped, and makes lewd comments about sex.

it was hilarious. The theater was uproarious! Seriously, the whole theater was just howling with laughter, and at some particularly outrageous "I cant believe he actually said that" parts everyone was all "WHHOOOOOAAAAAAAA "

the people I went to see the movie with didn't think it would play in America because it offends American culture so much. I thought they were stupid Europeans. We're not that tight assed.
anyway, anyone that can laugh at themselves, and can take a joke, should watch the movie.

halloween

I survived. Barely. The preparations for my Halloween party this past Saturday. All day Saturday I cooked and cleaned and we just barely had everything ready; our costumes, the decorations, the food put out, the mess picked up by the time the party started. It was a race to the finish but somehow we pulled it off.

on the Halloween menu was rice krispie treats, cupcakes, cake, veggies and dip and chips and dip along with 3 cases of beer, 1 bottle of vodka, 2 bottles of rum and a million bottles of soda. All the food was a huge hit. Everyone loved the rice krispie treats which is a total foreign concept to them. One girl described it as "eating cloud" which I thought was a really neat way of putting it. But the food is where the total success ended.

from the 30 people on our guest list only about 16-20 showed up. Everyone did dress in costume (except for maybe 2 people) but they took em off shortly after arriving. Also, we had two very different "clicks" the west Flanders crowd and the gent ( east Flanders) crowd. Which did not blend at all. The last person was out by 1.30am.

I decided that I'm not going to do a Halloween party in Belgium again. No one really was into it. Too much effort for the outcome I received. Gregory didn't even try to get into it. We were suppose to be beetlejuice and Lydia for Halloween but he backed out of it at the last minute. The depressing thing about that is, I had given a friend in America my whole list of ideas and told her what Gregory and I were going to be, I see today she too was Lydia and her boyfriend beetljuice and their costumes were amazing. We put together a zombie bride and groom but Gregory was barely willing to but makeup on his face.


so I have a few photos of the night but not a lot because I was too busy getting my drink on and trying to ignore the weird dynamics of the people in the room. The only picture of Gregory and I didn't even come out. But here are some photos anyway:












pumpkin Thomas and janne carved Friday night with us. It was their first time carving. Its a stencil carving but still great.




pumpkin I carved. Its an owl, you cant see it too well in the photo. Its also stenciled. I forgot to take a photo of gregorys pumpkin but it weighed like 20 lbs! Its HUGE and he carved a scary traditional face into it. Everyone loved his the best, I think.

scary mantel. Pumpkin lights, ghosts, cobwebs, skull and of course glow sticks.
he crawled all this way and didn't make it to the beer. my front window. I think my neighbors hate me. Crazy American heathen painting blasphemed things on her window. Gregory thinks the ghosts look like sperm. I hate ghosts with arms.
bat cave entrance. Thomas as flash Gordon pieter-jan as ozzy Osborn Vanessa in yellow and janne in red as 2 50's girls. janne never had cranberry juice before, hence her crazy face. Sigh...Europeans.
colin the rat and "pit" tin foil face? heh. yeah last minute, huh. matt and his new girlfriend Tina guns (that's her real name, how cool is that??!) I like her better than all his other girlfriends at first meeting her so she's ok in my book. There's a mummy in the background.
me and matt. I totally had peeling skin for my zombie costume which everyone loved, and thought was gross. ps--I'm wasted here.
me. The day after. hung over. Freshly showered and freshly peeled of the couch to go use gregory's parent's phone to make a free (for me) phone call to my parents.

why i keep him around

" wow, janne must think i'm some kind of domestic goddess. first i say i'm baking for our party and then i say i'm making our costumes. "

"so?.."

"so, i bet she thinks i'm betty crocker or something. if only she saw my house..."

"yeah, betty CROCK"

Work for a week

Last week I pounded some pavement and went to a few interim offices, Belgian's version of a temp agency. Monday rolled around and my phone was ringing off the hook from 2 out of the 3 I inscribed with. Through one of the interim offices I got a job for only this week. I'm working at the kortrijk expo-center, which is exactly what it sounds like. A giant building where they hold exhibitions, and sometimes concerts aswell. I'm working in the kitchen, making sandwiches.

this morning was my first day on the job. Had to start at 7am so we got up at 6. I had packed a whole bunch of goodies the night before for me to eat at work. Stuff for the morning, stuff for lunch, even a little after lunch snack. A soda for lunch and a sports bottle of water for me to sip on throughout the day. Little did I realize I wasn't going to need all that today...

I had a map of the place given to me by the interim office pointing to where I needed to go. I was instructed to go through the "meeting center" door, go up the elevator and go directly to fabiene (which is a girl by the way) so at 6.45am I'm at the door where I was instructed to go and I cant get in!!! Its security locked 24/7! There's a door bell there and it reads: ring here. Ok, so I ring. Twice. And no one comes. I've walked around the building one way but all signs are pointing to the 24/7 locked door I just came from for the "meeting center". At this point I call Gregory in a panic saying I cant get in, what am I suppose to do, and all that other eeeeeeek! Type stuff. Then a car pulls up and luckily the woman inside is going exactly where I need to be so she shows me the way, which, by the way, the "door" I was suppose to enter through was actually a loading dock. And this fabiene chick I was suppose to go see directly, didn't get in till 8.30.

but anyway, despite the early morning drama, I made it in and was sent directly to work making sandwiches. We worked in teams of 2 and knocked out a bazillion sandwiches all morning long. The ones I mostly worked on were the 4.00 euro, high priced sandwiches of 1. Brown bread, lettuce, mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomato and herbs; 2. Brown bread, lettuce, salmon, cucumber and tomato; 3. Brown bread, lettuce, cream cheese, radishes and herbs; 4. Brown bread, lettuce, bacon, mozzarella cheese and sun dried tomato and 4. Mini sandwiches with a variety of spreads and lettuce.
towards the end of the day I worked on other types of sandwiches but those are the ones I did until about 1pm.

by mid morning break time started. A standard 15 minute break which is the same in Massachusetts. But that's as far as that goes! 15 minute break at 11.30 for me. I figured this was just a sit down break, or have breakfast if you wish. No. This was it. I didn't eat at 11.30 because I thought my lunch was coming up soon. But it wasn't. If you want to eat, you better damn be sure its done on your 15 minute break because that's all your eating. I mean, you're allowed to pick at the sandwich fillings. As one woman said "you don't have to just look at the food, you can have some too" but you cant make yourself a whole sandwich! And I didn't really want to pick at the food I was handling to shove into sandwiches because I felt funny. I did have a piece of apple tart though. So from 6-3pm all I had to eat was a fun sized box of honey pop cereal, a slice of apple tart, a couple of slices of egg and a piece of cheese. Hello!! I was dead by 3!How was I to know that they were going to slave drive me and not let me have a lunch break while I break my back making sandwich after sandwich after sandwich that never ended.
I'll be better prepared tomorrow.
I just want to sleep now, though.

oh and ps--the "chefs" in that kitchen are all French and they're all assholes too!