If We Ever Make It Home: Testing out the Waters

Today was a pretty average day. Last night I was able to watch a episode and a half of the Bachelorette before going to sleep. Then today during school I read a summary of last night's episode of the finale of the Bachelorette. I did like Roberto, but I think I liked Chris more. And after reading the summary, it sounds like she didn't even give Chris a chance at the end. Brad finished washing our clothes after I fell asleep last night. He did a great job, even though the whites were still wet. Haha. (He said he couldn't read the dryer settings since they were in Flemish). I woke up about 7:40 this morning and ate a banana and had an orange juice box for breakfast. Then I rode my bike to school all by myself. It has been very cool outside today. Longsleeves and pants weather. In Dr. Munster's class we learned about Open Channel Flow today. Dr. Engler passed back his mid-term exams. I made a 93 and am pleased with my grade. Then we had lunch from 12 to 1:30. I stayed at school and worked on homework. I ate some pretzel sticks and an orange for lunch. Later, I had M&M's (which taste the same as in America) and a Cola Light to make it through the afternoon. During lunch, I finished up Dr. Munster's homework assignment. The Ag Engineers has 3 tough problems. The Ag Systems class only had 1 problem. Then at 1:30 when everyone met back in the classroom, we went out into the field for a lab exercise. You can view the pictures below. We rode our bikes along the Voor River until we got to a monitoring station about 10 minutes away. It is where they measure the flow rate of the river every 15 minutes. The results are posted online. Then we broke up into 5 or 6 groups and took a bunch of measurements on bridges along the river. We performed lots of calculations and then eventually compared our results to those posted online. Our values were slightly higher. The lab exercise took a while, and I ended up finishing it after dinner. We started Dr. Engler's homework around 3:30 PM. It was really long and hard. It was about land application of manure, and everyone had the same 3 problems. Ann, Liz, and I finally finished it around 5:15.

Then I rode my bike to the ATM machine and got some more euros since I ran out yesterday. Then I went to the shopping street to try to find an English novel for the plane ride home and the bus ride to Bruges on Thursday for our field trip. I was looking for a Nicholas Sparks novel. The first store I went to had a small section of English novels but the only Nicholas Sparks book they had was Three Weeks with my Brother, which I just finished reading on the way here. It was a 2nd hand shop that sold used books. No one would help me find anything, and I asked two different people who worked there for help. Finally, I got frustrated and left. The next store I went to had no English novels. So, I gave up. I came home and then went to Metropole on the Oude Market (or the square) for dinner with Brad, Jake, Jaime, Katie, and Kelsey. They are known for their pasta. I had a bowl of Spaghetti Bolognaise (spaghetti with meat sauce) and parmesan cheese. I also had a Stella Artois. It was very good and cost me about 10,40 euros all together. Just after we got to the bar for dinner, it started raining. And luckily, by the time we were done eating it had stopped. Then I finished up the internet portion of the lab exercise when I got back here to the house. I have also been helping other students with Dr. Engler's homework. I have a feeling that it is not going to be a fun homework for me to grade later this week. Tomorrow, we have 2 short lectures and then our last seminar speaker. We probably also have 2 more homework assignments in the afternoon. Tomorrow evening we have to write our last 1-2 page seminar report. On Thursday morning the bus leaves at 7:30 AM for the overnight field trip in Bruges. This is the first time that the program is doing this due to a grant that we received from the USDA. We are touring a manure management site on Thursday and then have free time after 6 PM. We are staying in hotel rooms with our same roommates from the student house. On Friday, we are taking a walking tour of Bruges and then returning to Leuven by about 4 PM. We will have to write our last 4-6 page field trip report this weekend. Finals for our program are a week from tomorrow. I can't believe that it is almost over.

Today, Dr. Munster gave us Use-It maps of Leuven and Bruges that he got from a new hostel in Leuven. They are English maps written by locals that have really interesting information about the towns. They are written for young travelers. That is where I found out about the good pasta at Metropole. Today, I added my cousin Melissa Marsh onto Skype. I am going to try to Skype with her sometime if we are both online at the same time. Also, I got my sister's address to her new apartment today. Maybe I will try to mail her a post card or something from Belgium...... we'll see! I miss not talking to my mom since she is at my sister's old apartment this week helping her pack up and move. She does not have internet service at her apartment so I have no communication with my mom. But, my sister has downloaded Skype on her computer at her new office and we have been able to talk in the evenings while she is at work. Only about 10 more days until Texas. Love to everyone!

The cute baby ducks in the river. We have been watching them grow up for the past 3 weeks!