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So I thought I would run this morning, and put my alarm on for 6:30. I woke up and said not happening. I thought I would sleep just for another half hour or so…and then I woke up at 8:45. My German exam started at 8:30. Shiza! Honestly though, I needed the sleep and I’m glad that I slept well. My German teacher ended up not minding at all, and I stayed just a bit later than everyone else to finish.

I had to rush breakfast a bit, which I hate, but tant pis:

Swiss oats with fromage blanc (plain), multi grain oats, chopped medjool dates (love the chew they add) and milk with raspberries, blueberries, and 1/3 a banana.

The exam was alright. I wish I learned more German this year, but it’s hard to learn a foreign language in French, and also I only had it two hours a week. How can you learn a language as complicated as German with only two hours a week?

I had another stupid moment today. I signed up for Google Reader and added blogs to it, because apparently it’s what all the cool kids do. But I didn’t see how it was helpful because I couldn’t see when new posts were added with numbers everywhere. Then I realized there’s a tout marquer comme lu boutton (mark everything as read) and voilà! I can actually see new posts now! This really shouldn’t have taken me this long to realize.

I threw together random things from the fridge for lunch, and it ended up being quite tasty. I made a tofu scramble with bell peppers, firm tofu, some roasted veggie tomato sauce, cury powder, and caramelized onions at the end. I need to keep caramelized onions on hand at all times, it’s wonderful. The sweet onions and the spicy curry went really well together. I stuffed the scramble in half a toasted whole wheat pita and had a fruit medly on the side featuring my love:

fresh pineapple!

The medley also had cherries, honeydew, and straberries.

Le diner all together. In France, breakfast is petit dejeuner, lunch is dejeuner, and dinner is diner. But in Belgium breakfast is dejeuner, lunch is diner, and dinner is souper. I get really confused when I just read a French book or watched a TV show in French and we start talking about meals with all the dejeuner and diner inversions.

Anyway! Today it was gorgeous outside.

And when the weather is this nice, you have to profiter (take advantage). Which I did by going on a 5-6 mile walk while reading the 7th Harry Potter.

I love Caitlin’s Operation Beautiful idea, and while looking in the mirror today I laughed a bit at my ringlets.

Sometimes I hate on my curls (especially in humidity, ya know what I’m sayin?), but really, so many people pay a lot of money for what my hair just does by itself. And I have to love it, because it’s what defines me.

Not the best picture of me after a 6 mile walk, but whatevs. Then it was time for a green monster, because it’s been a while:

Of course, made in my ghetto fashion. I don’t have much to talk about in between this monster and dinner. Today was just a lounge around day, which is TOTALLY fine with me, considering I have two back to back trips this week and won’t be home until next Thursday.

So for dinner we had salmon, risotto with some dying spinach wilted in, and a chicon salad. Chicons are what we call Belgian endives. In France they call chicons endives, but Belgians insist that is not the right word. I read once that the biggest dispute amongst Wikipedia users to date was whether the proper word for a Belgian endive is endive or chicon. Some people have intense pride for their national veggies. I never really liked Belgian endives raw (they’re very bitter) but I got used to the taste here and now really enjoy them in a salad. Belgians often eat them cooked in the oven with ham wrapped around it, bechémal sauce, and grated cheese on top. I take mine sans ham, bien sur.

There isn’t a picture of my plate, because I dined with host mama MC, and she probably would have found it a bit strange to take a picture of my dinner (she finds green monsters strange enough as it is). What do you bloggers do? Do you tell people about your blogs? Or just snap pictures and not really explain?

Because today was boring, I thought I would explain more about Belgium, because it’s a funny country. But I think I’ll do that another time, this homegirl is tired and needs more beauty rest because I have a German oral exam tomorrow. I barely know how to write in German! German sounds are fairly similar to the sounds made in French, so my classmates don’t have a problem. But I can’t distinguish between ooou and ooooouu (that’s my attempt at spelling out sounds that are imossible to explain without hearing it). So once again: shiza!

So instead, I leave you with this song. It’s played a lot here (maybe in the U.S. too? I have no idea anymore.) It’s called Walking on a Dream, and the video is kind of strange, but it’s a great song! I’ll probably post songs a lot, because I can barely go a day without looking for new songs.

A toute à l’heure!

Maya