Busy Busy Busy

Last night after I wrote my blog, I washed a load of my clothes and Brad's clothes. I used the washer and dryer here at the student house. It costs 2 euros for the washer and 50 cent euros for the dryer. They are nice, but the screens that show the programming option are all in Flemish. I figured out how to change the washer to English and washed our clothes on a delicate cycle at 30 degrees C. That was the coldest temperature offered. The washer only took 33 minutes. Then I came up to my room and started researching the castles, Dachau, and beer gartens in Munich, Germany. I went down and put our clothes in the dryer, but I could not read the options so I just picked the second one. It took an hour and 30 minutes to dry our clothes! I wrote down lots of information about Munich and looked up train schedules for our day trip to Oostende tomorrow. Then a big group of students went to a local soccer field to play a soccer game. Dr. Munster, our professor, met them there and played. I stayed here since my clothes was still washing. But there were a few students still here hanging out in the garden (back yard). So, I went down there and hung out with them for a while.

This morning I rode to school on my bike with Brad. He stopped at a brand new gas station to pick me up a Sprite and a croissant for breakfast. We had 2 shortened lectures and then our second seminar speaker. His name was Erik Bomans and he works for Ibeve Environment Department. It is a non-profit institute dealing with occupational health, safety, and the environment. He talked about the implementation of the nitrate directive in Flanders after World War II. After I finish this blog, I plan to write my 1-2 page seminar report. I stayed at school during lunch and ate a pre-made ham and cheese sandwich that I bought at the grocery store yesterday. I also had a peach. I went to the student lounge and graded Homework 4 for Dr. Engler's class. It was the homework that we did yesterday. Everyone made good grades on it. Then I went to the computer lab and sent my mom a facebook message. She got it an hour later when she woke up (there is a 7 hour time difference). Brad and the boys went to Alma 3 today for lunch. They had chicken stew.... Then I started working on Dr. Munster's homework assignment with Liz and Ann. It was a problem from a water treatment facility that we had to do on Excel. It took quite a while. When we finished, we waited for Dr. Engler to show up with his homework assignment. It was super short and we finished it in 30 minutes. We left school at 3:55 or 15:55 (they use military time here, by the way). I was sort of upset because the Student Book Store or gift shop is only open from 10-12 and 2-4. I wanted to stop there and get a K.U. Leuven t-shirt or pen or coffee mug or something. Oh well, maybe another day we will get lucky and get out of class early enough to go. I rode back here to the house with Ann and then grabbed one of my MINIATURE coke light cans from the fridge. I decided to wash my sheets on my bed. I am beginning to think that some of the beds have bed bugs because a lot of us keep waking up with red bites all over us in the mornings...... So I am washing my sheets on a cotton cycle at 60 degrees C. Then I recorded homework 4 grades and put away my clothes that I washed yesterday.

At 6:45 PM tonight we are leaving the student house as a group to go to dinner at Dynasty Wok. It is the "Welcome to Leuven" dinner. There will be all of us students, the professors, the secretaries from K.U. Leuven, the department head at K.U. Leuven, and the two students who joined our class that are from Belgium. It is supposed to be all-you-can-eat and a really good restaurant. I picture it being like Genghis Grill where you fill up your bowl with meat and vegetables and then you pick a sauce and they fry it up with rice. I went there once in Dallas with Kayla and my parents. We will see. It should be a good time. I would like to talk to my parents on Skype tonight because I didn't get to talk to them yesterday. I also want to finish my seminar report before tomorrow. So I may be up late tonight. Tomorrow is the Belgium National Holiday - it is similar to the 4th of July in America. Everything is going to be closed. Some restaurants may be open though. I am going with Ann, Liz, Brad, and Jake to the Belgium beach in Oostende for the day. We are leaving Leuven on a train at 7:35 AM and we will get to the beach at 9:17 AM. There are trains that go back and forth every hour or so. We are planning on leaving at 18:35 from Oostende and getting back here at Leuven tomorrow night at 20:20. Or, we may leave earlier if we get bored, cold, or rained on. Haha. A few students are going to Luxembourg tomorrow for the day, but it is a 3 hour train ride. Other students are going to Ghent, Belgium tomorrow for a festival. Anyways, that's what I have been up to here lately. Thursday we are leaving on a bus at 7:30 AM (we have to ride our bikes to the bus stop 20 minutes away) for our second field trip. It has truly been a very busy week. We are leaving on Friday morning for Munich and returning on Monday. We have a mid-term exam in Dr. Munster's class on Tuesday and a mid-term in Dr. Engler's class on Wednesday. Things are starting to get hectic. I'm glad the weather is nice and cool here now. It is sunny and warm during the days but not nearly as hot as it was the first week. To everyone back home - take care and stay cool. I miss you and love you!!!