Sunday and Monday

I know, I'm getting really boring when it comes to blog titles.

Yesterday I didn't even get out of my pajamas.  I watched Criminal Minds and Harry Potter and had problems with my internet.  Seeing as that just took two sentences, I didn't blog.... Not that I actually could.

I did talk to John for a long time yesterday.  He's a friend that knows computers inside and out.  He diagnosed and nearly fixed my computer problems here in Belgium from the campus of Carnegie Mellon.  Some port was blocked so I couldn't access anything except https:// sites, which was really annoying.  The tech guys here are working on fixing it, last I heard.

Today I woke up, printed my stuff for my trip, did not much then went to the grocery store.  And now it's time to make dinner. I'll finish this later.

Goodnight world.

Saturday

Uhm, well, I've been having problems with my internet recently.  If anyone wants to explain why I can use MSN messenger, Google Talk and Skype, but cannot open any page in Mozilla or Internet Explorer, I'm all ears.  I don't know if it's good or bad because I get to talk to people but I'm left without a way to kill time.

Anyways.  Yesterday I woke up sortof late, did nothing, tried to make brigadieru with evaporated instead of condensed milk (the can said leit condenso) and worked on our group project for marketing - the topic of which is beer.  It's actually an interesting project, and we're doing a taste test when we present.  I think it will be fun.

I've recently started watching season five of Criminal Minds to kill time.  It's really good and, though it doesn't actually have forensics in it, it's helping solidify my new goals of being a criminal investigator and working in forensic science.

I can't tell you how much time I spend doing absolutely nothing.  Week after next I'll have classes Monday through Thursday every afternoon, which I can't say I'm looking forward to, but will kill more time.  I have traveled a lot, and it was good to have a rest, but I'm excited to go to Dublin, Birmingham and London next week. 

I'll write an update for today later tonight; hopefully I'll have internet.

Bruge

Today wasn't bad.  I woke up before my alarm miraculously, took a shower and got ready to go.  We went to Bruge today, and had to be at Central Station by 8:40.  Due to the sheer number of girls staying in our apartment, we didn't leave until 8:30 or so.  We went down into the metro, and only two of us could physically fit on the first metro.  The rest of us waited for the next one, which was nearly as crowded.  I'm not sure what was wrong, but we ended up waiting for the metro to move for nearly 10 minutes. 

We did finally make it and about 20 of us went to Bruge.  It was a wet and windy day, not very warm, and we had another walking tour. We saw some cool buildings and went in some churches.  Our guide was the same from when we toured Brussels.  He's very interested in the architecture and I can now (kindof) distinguish between Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Gothic and "modern".  It was interesting, and we saw a couple of cool churches.  One had tons of statues in it that were all expertly done.  I even saw a Michelangelo. 

Another church we went to was the one that has a vial of Jesus's blood.  We went in during services (the end, actually) and it was an incredible church.  It was gorgeous.  I got a funny feeling, though, and everyone else in my tour group (out of 10, there were 6 or 7 Catholics) was kneeling and crossing themselves and I had to step out.  Had a delicious hot chocolate instead.

I think it's interesting because I've heard multiple times, "There aren't that many Catholics at Clemson." And yet, there seem to be a whole lot of them in our program.  I find it annoying because I was asked the other day if I practice and why don't I wear a Star of David.  She, of course, flaunts her cross necklace and is one of several to preach about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.  I have no problem with others having their own beliefs and following them strongly.  I am very strongly attached to my youth group and temple family, so I completely understand.  But I would like to think that I don't press my religion upon others.

I've found more prejudice and commentary on my religion from the members of the program than I have from the locals I've met.  Of course I don't go around talking to everyone, but I struck up a conversation with the lady in front of me at the grocery store because she was buying matzo.  I see Stars of David in jewelry shops on a regular basis and have either passed or heard of a Jewish community in nearly every city I've been to.  I was terrified when I left the States that I would have to really not make it known that I'm Jewish, but I'm more concerned at Clemson, to be honest.

Anyways, that's off topic.  After the tour, we walked around and went shopping.  We got lunch at this little hamburger and fries place that could be equated to high-quality fast food before going to a chocolate store and hitting all the shops on the main drag.  H&M is popular for everyone, and we seem to stop in one in every city.  We also stopped in some local stores before catching the train back.

I would like to actually explore Bruge a little bit more.  I was swept up in the shopping and stuff, and didn't actually see much of the city.  But it was also bad weather, so I plan on going back when the tulips are blooming.  Next time I also hope to get a pair of wooden shoes.

When we got back, we headed to the grocery store.  I feel like I go every other day.  I got raspberries because they were on sale for a euro each (the little pint containers) and also got the ingredients for brigadeiru.  I'm super excited to be making it, because I know it will remind me of home.  We have four people spending the night here tomorrow, as well as a group project to work on and some other people coming to visit.  It will be a full house.

Then I took a nap, woke up, had a bowl of cereal for dinner (topped with yummy blueberries and raspberries) and wrote this blog.  Now it's time to go back to sleep.

Goodnight, world.

Yesterday

So Thursday was fun.

I woke up, studied a bit and then went to meet my management professor.  She was super nice and we talked a good bit.  I reviewed my test and know how to plan better for the next one.

Then I reread my notes and took my marketing test.  It wasn't bad.  Especially since I knew all the essay questions (he sent out a list of about 35 possible questions - 6 of which were on the test). 

Then we went out.

Sam and I were planning on not doing anything and just chilling.  It was rainy (and still is) and not very warm and we just didn't want to go out.  And then we went and got citrus vodka (Sam did) so we could have drinks at home and watch a movie. 

Kristin and Sarah came over and Elena and Erin were already at our apartment.  We pregamed with a shot of vodka and then went out.  I had a very tasty strawberry beer, as well as a couple others.  We met this group of guys - all Army and one of them from Summerville - and they ended up buying a lot of drinks for all of us.  It was fun.  Sam and I left the bar around 2:15 or so and got back at 2:30.  I wasn't happy about missing the metro, but the cab driver gave us a break and it was fairly cheap.  The rest of the group was out until 5:30 when the metro opened and then came home. It was a fun time, but poor planning because we had to meet at Grand Central at 8:40 to go to Bruge.  Which I'll talk about in my post tonite.

Wednesday, because I feel like being boring.

First, I need to present an apology to my parents.  With the annoyance I felt over our speech professor and other things, I forgot to mention the AWESOME package I got during marketing.  =]  It had mac and cheese, peanut butter, delicious muffins, rubber bands galore and a whole bunch of awesome stuff.  Thank you <3

Ok, so today... I had my speech class.  But before that three of Sam's friends who are studying at UCLA, which is a 30 minute train ride from here, came over.  They all talked for a long time while I did mostly homework.  Then we went to speech class. 

I ended up skipping huge sections of my outline and changing a whole bunch, but I was really confident and passionate about my topic, so I was really comfortable.  I did hit all my key points, just in a different order, and I really hope I did well on it.

Afterwards, I came back to make dinner.  I have a Jewish cook book that I got in Venice, and in it there's a recipe for matza ball soup.  It wasn't bad, just not very fluffy.  I think that has to do with the fact that you were supposed to whip egg whites to stiff peaks, and I had to do it by hand (as in, I gave up after 20 minutes because my hand was hurting).  No one knew any better and said they liked them, which I guess was good.

The real crowd pleaser was my clementine chicken breasts.  It's the second time I've made them, and this time I added a sauce to go with it.  I'll add the recipe after the jump.

After dinner, everyone went to go study.  We have a test tomorrow and finals next week (well, those that have classes other than marketing).

Goodnight, world.

Wow

I was actually productive today...


Got up reasonable time, read the rest of my marketing, had lunch, went to class, talked to some people, and went to dinner at Gaubert's (my marketing professor).


Today was the last lecture for marketing - our test is Thursday and our last class is Tuesday, when we present our group projects.  It's been a fun class and I really enjoyed having Gaubert as a teacher.  And I really liked having the small class.


During the first half of the semester, Mr. Gaubert has had groups of people come over for dinner.  I'd been waiting to go until he made some real cajun food (he's from Louisiana).  So tonight he made red beans and rice - delicious! We also had a fantastic salad and some super spicy shrimp.  It was a lot of fun and I talked with some guys that I hadn't talked to yet.  They're all good friends and travel everywhere constantly.  Kristen went with me, too.  She had gone before, but she came because I was the only girl otherwise.


Then I came back and worked on my speech a little bit.  Last speech the two of us had the "best organization" and "intriguing" ways of presenting our speeches.  As in, he told us we did very well.  So we wanted clarification on our next speech, because we both ABHOR outlines.


I have never successfully written an outline for my own work in my entire life.  You can ask Mr. Wright, my creative writing teacher, with whom I had this argument and proved I was much better at writing the story and then the outline.   Just let me write.  My brain takes care of it. I have trouble stopping it in the middle and writing down the middle steps. It just happens.

Anyways, we have to write an outline for our speech, which is tomorrow afternoon.  I wanted some help, so I emailed it to him.  He sent them back with corrections.... Corrections that read:

Whenever possible use signposting words and terms like this to make your message abundantly clear to the audience.  This tells them that ethnocentrism doesn’t just inform part of your speech, it is central to it. 

where he added, "Today I will be discussing..." 

And: 

It may seem redundant to beat the audience over the head and repeatedly telling them where you are going with the speech, but writing a speech is not like writing a paper.  You have to hold the audience by the hand.

while he added more redundant statements, like: "First, we'll discuss the problem" and "Next, I'm going to talk about solutions."

Would YOU like to hear a speech like that? Please, shoot me now. I'm pretty sure it will be one of my worst speeches just because I'm going to sound like I'm treating the audience like they're all two, which they're not, and it will be boring and annoying and awful.... 

At least it probably would be if I didn't manage to salvage some of it and correlate ethnocentrism to the MonkeySphere. (Click to find out more.)  Should be fun.  Hopefully it will be fun.

Anyways, time for bed.  Have to work on speech some more, go to the grocery store, study for marketing and basically be productive.  Oh, and plan UK trip. Decided that I'm going to Birmingham so I can see Stratford-on-Avon, Tolkien's home, and CADBURY WORLD.... Where I'm going to buy as many eggs as I can afford. =]

Goodnight, world.

Windy, Rainy, and Warm

Today I slept in, still feeling bad, but had energy.

I went in search of a library.  According to the internet, there should have been one near the stop after Arts-Loi (I'm blanking on the name right now), so that's where I went.  I found an awesome thrift store (Gabe and Shreyas would be jealous of the coats) and got a cute skirt.  I also found the African section and some awesome clubs that I will have to take people back to, as well as some delicious looking Kebap stores.  What I didn't find was a library.  I asked, but no one knew. 

It was really windy, slightly rainy, and not a very nice day to be out, but I was fine in a long sleeve tee shirt and no leggings under my jeans.  It was awesome... and only in the low 50's.  What's happening to me? =]

Anyways, then I went to the post office with Kristen.  Her mom sent her package Feb 3 and she just got it today.  The other thing is that she's had to pay 10-20 euro to pick up each of her four packages.  Something about a customer tax or customs or something.  Hopefully I won't have to pay on any of my packages - I haven't so far. 

Then we came back, I made us French toast and had some more fried bologna.  I guess I really haven't talked about lunch, yet, though. 

So, while I was in search of the library, I found a DelHaize (one of the better grocery stores).  I went in to see if they had anything cheap for lunch.  I'm a chicken.  I won't buy deli/lunch meat here.  Mostly because I can't identify it and because the first time I went to the store I got some, and it was bad (past the expiration date). 

Anyways, I was super excited because I got what I thought was sausage, pancake mix, fish sticks and some other stuff.  I came home and decided I would cook all the sausage because it takes a while and then I would only have to microwave it when I wanted it.  I opened it up... and it looked and smelled like bologna.  You have to understand, it came in one of those roll things that the sausage patties come in, or the ground beef you buy in two pound packages from Harris Teeter... Not what you (at least I) would think bologna would come in.  I wasn't sure what it was, so I cooked it to make sure, and it really wasn't bad.  In fact, it was pretty good.

So after dinner, I logged on, did random stuff, and then wrote this.  I feel like I have a lot of time to kill, as represented by the 5+ movies I watched this weekend.  But I'm glad I had a relaxing few days and still have a week before my next big trip.  We are going to Bruge on Friday, the whole group.

Goodnight, world.

Uhm. Saturday, Right?

Today I slept til noon because I went back to sleep at six or so.  Then took a shower and went to the grocery store with Kristen.  I'm super excited because I got strawberry, raspberry and peach milk to eat with my chocolate cereal.  Last time I did that, I was in Chile.  Why don't we have this stuff in the States?

Then I talked to people back home and did some homework.  Ate some really weird and tasteless/bad ramen that wasn't called ramen and cost about seven times as much as the stuff back home.  Then watched the first Harry Potter movie and am now going to bed.

Everyone else is leaving to go out partying (they were pre-gaming here - about ten of them) and I think I just heard the door slam... Or at least it's finally quiet. 

Finishing homework tomorrow. No exceptions. Full week ahead of me.

Goodnight, world.