Neon

SUCCESSFUL DAY AND NIGHT.

Never once did we get lost today and we ran quite a few errands. We went to the school to take care of some paperwork (which we need to complete today), we printed out pictures of friends and family to decorate our bare walls, and we met up with Terese, an international student from Norway. We did a bit of shopping and went out to dinner.

The new find of the day was Cherry Beer. It is delicious. The beer here isn't like the crap we have in the U.S. As Emilee said last night, probably the worst Belgian beer (and there are 2,000 kinds) is better than the best U.S. beer. I would be willing to take that bet as well.

Liz and Miranda, the two UMaine students who were here last semester, left us some names and numbers of people we needed to meet. After facebooking Julie, she invited us to a party at a friend's apartment. This friend is Anssi, an international student from Finland, and also another contact they had left for us. We hung out with international students from all over, but the bulk of them were from Finland. They were SO good to us. They really took us under their wing and immediately accepted us. It was so nice to make new friends. Julie will be here the whole semester because she is from Antwerp, but most of these new friends will be leaving at the end of the month. I think Emilee and I almost started crying when we figured that out.

Single-handedly the most frustrating part about Europe is being STARED at and judged when I pick up my sandwich and eat it with my hands. I thought I was being safe in getting a sandwich. NOPE, they eat those with fork and knife as well. I almost started crying. I was so hungry and I had to sit there and cut it up and then eat it. It was like falling apart because I wasn't doing it right.

It is so difficult, because I feel like people don't understand why we can't eat properly. We can't eat with the fork in the left and knife in the right simply because we do not have that muscle memory. That is not how we were taught when we were toddlers. It is the same thing as learning to write with the less-dominant hand.

Most of the time I can laugh at these things. And I did the first time when we were among friends, but it's just gotten very old, very fast. I'm trying so hard to embrace it and try my best, but when I am hungry and I just want to eat my food, it is difficult to do so, but if I don't people stare.

The other downside to living in Europe and to studying abroad is that it is SO EXPENSIVE. My funds are depleting already. I am hoping that once we getting settled it we won't be eating out quite as much or buying little things for the apartment, because my funds are hurting already. Financial Aid, feel free to come in any time!

Love, love, love Belgium.