Waffle Country

Today we had school from 8:30 AM till 5:00 PM, although most of us ended up staying at school until almost 6:00 PM. We had Dr. Munster's class from 8:30 to 10:00 then Dr. Engler's class from 10:30 to 12:00. I woke up this morning around 7:30 AM and then went down to the basement to the kitchen to make a sandwich for lunch. After our two lectures, Brad and I ate our sandwiches in the Student Lounge at school. Most of the other students either went to the cafeteria or came back here to the house to eat lunch. At 1:30 we began homework for Dr. Munster's class. It wasn't too bad and we finished about 10 minutes early. His problem session ends at 3:00 PM. Dr. Engler's homework session started at 3:30 PM. His homework was very hard and long. But, I worked with Ann and we ended up finishing shortly after 5:00 PM. After I ate my lunch in the student lounge, Brad and I went to the computer lab. I needed to check my email. I found out the strangest thing! The keyboards in Europe are MUCH different than the keyboards in America. Some of the letters are re-arranged and it took us a long time to navigate the websites we were looking for. I also tried to research Munich, Germany but all of the words were in Flemish or Netherlands.

After Ann and I finally finished our homework and I got the papers to grade from Dr. Engler, we rode our bikes to the Student Sports Bar. We each had a ham, mozarella, pesto, and tomato panini with a small side salad (on the plate). We also had a Stella Artois to drink because it is only 1,40 euros, and it's the cheapest thing on the menu to drink. The paninis were only 3 euros! And they were super good! We had a nice chat. Then we rode back towards our student house and stopped at an ATM machine. We had trouble finding it, so I asked a girl walking by where the ATM machine was. She just looked at me funny. So, I said you put card in and get euro out. She knew exactly where to direct us so we could get more cash. When I got back here to the house, I graded Dr. Engler's homework 1 from Friday. It was interesting grading papers and very challenging. I hope my peers don't hold grudges against me, even though I am following Dr. Engler's orders about how to grade. Then I went down to the garden and had a couple glasses of wine with the other students. Many of the students went on a jog or run tonight. I decided to blog instead of running.

Our plans for this weekend were to head to Munich, Germany and see lots of awesome sites. However, the hostel that my friend from A&M recommended (Wombat) is booked for this weekend. So, Ann decided to pay the down payment on the reservation for Wombat for next weekend. We have a 4 day weekend next weekend so we will stay Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The 6 bed room that we reserved is 27 euros per person per night. I think it's a good deal considering all of the features that it offers. The train ride to Munich is about 6 hours from here. So, at this point we do not know exactly where we are heading this weekend on Friday morning. We are considering Paris, France and possibly Luxembourg and possibly even the coast of Belgium.

The temperature here has cooled off significantly. Today was the first day that I actually got goose bumps and didn't feel completely sweaty after riding my bike home from school. Tomorrow we have our first of four seminar speeches. So, tomorrow evening we each have to write a 1-2 page report about the seminar speaker. We have to email the report to Dr. Munster by Thursday morning. Then Thursday we are going on our first class field trip. In the morning we are going to EcoWerf which is a waste collection, recycling, and composting facility near Leuven. Then we are all going to eat together for lunch which is covered by our department. In the afternoon we are touring the Stella brewery. They are even providing safety footwear for us. We will travel to all of our destinations on bike. The rest of our field trips will all be on bus. We will have a 5-6 page paper due on Monday over the field trip and covering the main topics related to hydrology and water technology presented in the field trip. So, we will have to be back on Sunday early enough to write our reports. A few of the girls went out tonight to find Belgium waffles. They found some at the ice cream shops, but they are definitely much different than what they seem to Americans. Most of them are small, only a few inches by a few inches. They are also filled with sugar and are baked. They are not served with syrup but you can pay extra for chocolate or carmel syrup to drizzle on them. Like I said, MUCH different from what they seem in America!!! But, the beer is good here and usually cold unlike what I thought it would be :)

I miss my family and friends. I look forward to talking to my mom everyday but have not been able to talk to my dad much. It makes me sad. The days are flying by, and I am enjoying every minute that I am here, even school! Please check out all of my pictures on facebook. And send me a message if you have any suggestions for our weekend travel. There will be about 5 or 6 of us since Jake and Brad are going to Hanover, Germany to stay with Joseph this weekend. He is a friend of Jake's dad that participated in an exchange program to America years ago. He now lives on a farm, and the boys are going to stay with him this weekend and learn about farming in Germany. Hugs and kisses from Belgium!