Just an update on literally the randomest things:
It's been sunny and like 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit (12-15 degrees Celsius) the past week and I am LOVING IT!!! It's rained or been super cloudy and cold since day one, so it's a nice change to have some sun and not freeze every time I walk outside. And thank god for the good weather, because I had to walk 40 minutes to school last week. There was some strike going on, but alllll the public transportation was down. And so were the grocery stores. It was a weird day. But my mood instantly feels better with the sun out, and I'm always more motivated to do stuff or get stuff done.
Also, who would've thought that talking about the weather would actually be so hard??!!! Everyone here uses Celsius, so I never know what they mean when "17 degrees is so nice" because 17 degrees Fahrenheit is freeeeezing. Luckily, I am kiiiinda getting the hang of it, but still I just never thought talking about something as simple as the weather would be hard haha. And don't even get me started if we talk about height or money or kilometers vs. miles or any other measurements. Even time is a bit of a struggle, although I have changed my phone to "military time" to force myself to learn it. But I am learning it, and slowly slowly slowly figuring it out.
On Valentine's day, my friend, Marion, and I got dinner together at Le Bistro for a typical Belgium meal - mussels and fries. The food was SO good and the waiters were, uh, super friendly. After our dinner date, we went to Brussels Bright, a light festival all around the city. Some of the exhibits were most interesting than others (as usual), but it was so much fun walking around the city and seeing it all!!
Classes are...going. To be honest, sometimes I forget that I'm like here for classes. Like aren't I just here to travel??? (just kidding). Four out of the 5 classes I'm taking are exchange-students only, so we've all been spending a lottttt of time together (not a bad thing or anything, just commenting on it!!). But this also makes it a bit harder to make other, local, friends. But besides that, the 2 classes I'm most excited about are Photography and Civic Engagement, where we have to volunteer 30 hours with organizations that work with immigrants or the homeless. I'm also taking French, which has been fun to learn the language I hear the most while here.
I have soooo much free time since I've been here. It's kinda nice being able to have slow mornings or a relaxing afternoon. It's definitely a change from having days back at school that sometimes last 16+ hours with classes, meetings, work, homework, more meetings, volunteering, etc. Like seriously, it's crazy how filled my agenda was last semester compared to this semester. In all this free time, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on myself and what it is I want to do after college (I usually try to just block it out that I'm graduating in less than 3 semesters) (yikes), along with doing more writing and reading in my free time (haven't had time for that during school in literally years!!!) and my photography.
Feeling very thankful for the friends I have made while here. I think we're all kinda in silent agreement that this semester is suppose to be about us and having fun and using all our free time to our advantage because it might literally never happen again for a loooong time. Also thankful to have found some friends that love traveling as much as I do because that was one of the whole reasons I came to Europe - was to travel and see as much as possible. Plus it's been so much fun learning about other countries/cultures - Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, Russia, Peru, etc. And it's also been fun to help people improve their English, or at least their confidence level with speaking English (honestly I think that you're already pretty confident trying to learn/speak another language, but it's been fun to see people begin to "have a personality in English" as I've been told).
The other day, I was asked what it was like to grow up learning the number one language (English) and be able to travel anywhere and almost always not have to really worry about a language barrier because it's so easy to find someone that speaks English. It was such an odd question/comment, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about that.
My roommate, Mackenzie, and I made our first dinner the other day!! Just spaghetti, chicken, and pesto. It's literally the smallest and dumbest thing, but back at school, I didn't live in a dorm with a kitchen and relied on a meal plan. So. Here we are cooking for myself for the first time in a foreign country. No biggie. It's all cool.
Speaking of making dinner and becoming an #adult...grocery shopping the first few times was so overwhelming. So lame but so true. But like all the brands from back home are pretty non-existent here, so I had noooo idea how to go about getting what I wanted. Also everything is in French and Dutch so I couldn't even read the ingredients. But I've kinda figured it out by now, so it's all good. Only took me like 4 weeks.
I've been planning out some trips for the next few weekends and spring break and I'm SO EXCITED!!! Still slightly in awe of how cheap flights or train or bus tickets are here like what the heck!? Also find it kinda amusing how people here aren't willing to travel for 8+ hours because that's the norm back home (at least in my family haha). But ya, super excited about some trips coming up!
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