Happy Monday everyone!

Lundi in French means Monday. Today wasn’t particularly loony, but I liked the title idea.

Anyway, I woke up bright and early at 7 am to go for a run. It’s so great now that the sun rises early that I can run in the morning, I like the endorphin rush at the start of my day! I ran about three miles. My shower was positively GLORIOUS, for a long time the water pressure in my host mom’s shower was funky and would go from very hot to frigid to very hot again. I had to turn off the water every couple of minutes and then crouch in strange positions when the cold water blasted again. No more!

Breakfast was overnight Swiss oats. I combined this “fromage frais” or fresh cheese:

Don’t let the cheese name fool you, it’s really more like yogurt with more protein. I used half the container with 35 grams of multi grain oats (which is I guess between 1/3 and 1/2 a cup?) about 1/4 cup of skim milk, mixed it with chopped dates and let that sit overnight in the fridge. In the morning I mixed in a golden kiwi, diced:

 Have you ever seen golden kiwi before? I hadn’t. I also added 1/3 of a banana, diced and some more milk until I was happy with the consistency. Swiss oats bliss, enjoyed with my daily Earl Grey.

Luckily I had the endorphin rush to power me through a math final. Want to know what’s even worse than a math final? Taking a math final when grades don’t even matter for you. As an exchange student, I have to sit all my exams, but I don’t have to pass them. I shouldn’t complain though, there are way worse things to do than take an exam that doesn’t count! I spent about two and a half hours writing random numbers on my test, erasing them, and rewriting them (to make everyone think I was working). Then I played snake on my cell phone and texted my exchange student bff. I wrote my math teacher a note at the end, telling her I’m sorry I didn’t write more and that I enjoyed her class. This isn’t true, as she is allergic to all scented products, even soap and shampoo, and therefore has a body odor like none other I have ever smelled. Even worse, we had class in a room that had no windows, one of the only ones in the school. Good times right there. But I figured writing that note was the least I could do. I’m not a total glandeuse (slacker), I did well on my French and religion exams last week. But the 4.0, perfectionist student in me died a little today. I enjoyed, however, the first and last time in my life when I could really not give a f!ck about exams. When I left early, the kid who sits next to me in most of my classes (he’s 17, so I call him mon petit frère belge, or little Belgian brother) snickered, and I told him ta geuele.

My host mom leaves money in the kitchen drawer if I ever need to buy groceries. There’s two stores in my town, and a Delhaize about a 25 minute walk away. It’s worth going to Delhaize sometimes, because they have veggie burgers/meatless meatballs, hummus, organic products, and a good dried fruit/nut selection. It’s my Trader Joe’s this year. I walked there after my exam and bought some necessities, like yogurt and medjool dates. On the way there, I listened to a podcast of Radiolab on race. I’m an NPR podcast nerd. I learned if you recite all the letters of your DNA, one letter per second, it would take you a century to recite yourself. Crazy. On the way back I listened to Joni Mitchell, because it was that kind of day.

After a 3 mile plus walk, plus a revved up metabolism from my morning run, I was ready to eat my arm when I got home. Luckily I waited, and had a crack sandwich:

Whole wheat bread with a wedge of laughing cow cheese light, hummus, two chopped sun dried tomatoes (the PERFECT touch), paninied. On the side: some not so sweet melon and red currants from my backyard. That sandwich was delicioso, but I’m looking forward to getting Flat-Outs and trying the wrap version.

The afternoon was pretty mundane–I watched the Daily Show (basically my #1 source of American news here. To think I used to be a news junkie addicted to the Washington Post), read blogs, read a book. It was raining today, again. When they say it rains a lot in Belgium they aren’t lying. I needed a sugar/caffeine rush in the afternoon and had coffee with 1 tsp raw sugar and skim milk (I almost never drink coffee). I did Level 2 of the 30 day shred on youtube, a level I particularly like because my arms scream for mercy when I do military extensions and then the V raises. Seriously, sometimes I yell at Jillian. And while I found them annoying at first, I’m kind of digging those plank jacks now. After I made my version of a green monster, same as yesterday.

I wasn’t really feeling dinner yet at 7, but I hadn’t seen my host mom much this weekend and she ate at that time, so I chowed down on:

A baked sweet potato topped with a concotion of black beans, yellow pepper, a bit of tomato sauce, corn, onion, garlic, and cumin. The sauce creeping in the back there is samourai sauce. When you go to a friterie for Belgian fries there is a plethora of sauces to choose from. They go way beyond just ketchup here (plus they have curry ketchup, mmm) and most sauces are mayonnaise based. This one is SUPER spicy, I sometimes use it as a sauce, but often I use it as hot sauce. Just 1/2 a tsp stirred into these beans in the end gave plenty of hot flavor to my dinner.

Then my host mom and I watched Gilmore Girls in French. I watched the whole series in English with my mom in the U.S., and introduced it to my host mom, who has since become accro (hooked). To any of you GG fans out there, remember Michel the concierge of the inn? In the U.S. he’s stereotypically French, but in a French dubbed version where everyone speaks in French, to keep his foreign flair Michel is Italian. My host mom was like wtf you talking about, he ain’t French he’s Italian! and then I explained to her why they had to change it in the French version. Moving on.

After dinner I decided to visit my  “other” Belgian family. I met them halfway through the year and they adopted me, basically. My host mom doesn’t have an kids, so when I want a family ambiance I go down the street to chez les Granvilles. They have a 12 year old son, a 9 year old son, and a 2 year old daughter. The daughter is frickin adorable. The boys like to poke fun at my accent. In French they make this deep r sound, which is very hard for an Anglophone to make. I’m a lot better at this sound than before, but certain words are still hard for me. Clemence, the girl, is too little to properly say her r sounds, and the boys tell me she speaks French like me. I speak French like a 2 year old. Chouette.

I went on a bike ride with the mom, Anne, and Clemence. It was a wonderful ride, but it did kind of blow that in the middle of June I have to wear a coat. I want real summer weather.

Anne is as much of a tea fanatic as me, and after the bike ride we had Moroccan mint tea with turkish delight, a gift from one of her students. It’s kind of like jelly, covered in coconut, with pieces of pistachio inside. It’s super sweet, so a little nibble with my tea sufficed. Anne is so sweet, we had a long conversation after the kids went to bed about the festival in Mons, the lazer hair removal she’s doing tomorrow (expensive as sh!t, 60 euros per session and it can take up to 10 sessions to work, but it might be worth it), and bats (Which, she informed me, translates to vleermuis, or bald mouse, in Dutch. Wtf?)

No exams for me tomorrow! Yippee!

A toute à l’heure!

Maya