Leaving on a Jet Plane

Happy fourth! Mine was spent in the most un-American fashion, that is, in Europe. I did smell quite a lot of barbecued meat in the neighborhood today, does that count for anything?

Today, my last day in Belgium, was so…ordinary. Host mama MC has been super busy at work (she’s hoping to change jobs and is thus working extra hours to make a good impression) and she thought I was leaving today and not tomorrow. So she organized meetings and such today, and I didn’t see her for most of the day. My friends are busy spending time with their own families, and my Belgian friends are mostly gone on vacation. It felt like any other day, and then I would remember that I’ll be back in the U.S. tomorrow–so strange.

Anyway, today started with chocolate hazelnut Jocalat oats.

which mens rolled oats cooked in coffee and milk with chopped dates, hazelnuts, and sliced banana. Deliciousness.

I did some last errands and finished the last of the packing. My room is almost completely empty, très bizarre. I took a half hour nap, and, as has been the case for most of the week, I had such bizarre dreams. I came back from a run and host mama MC had my maternal grandma’s head and was being all stressed out and yelling at me (even though she’s been super chill this year). Weird. After my nap I went on a long run, about six miles. I’ve run or walked the same path all year, and it was strange to run it one last time. Despite the heat the run felt very refreshing. This was the feature song of today’s run:

It came up on my shuffle and I thought of the beginning of my year in Belgium. A friend from the U.S. told me about this song a few weeks after arriving in Belgium and I was obsessed with it for at least a week.

When I got back I made stewed green beans the way my mama makes them–cooked with onion, garlic, green beans, canned tomatoes, white wine, veggie broth, tomato paste, and 1/2 cup chickpeas. I topped it off with an egg.

Sarah posted recently about eggs and I like mine over dishes like this with the yolk all over it. Because of this:

I chillaxed at the house and then went to the town square to develop photos for host mama MC’s present and buy speculoos spread for my friend who specially requested it (I sent her some at Christmas) and maybe I bought some for myself.

Love that sh!t. Can’t wait to try it with pretzels (which I couldn’t find in Belgium!). I live for sweet+salty combos.

Today’s fruit orgy was eaten properly in a bowl with vanilla gunk. The gunk is good in Swiss oats, but with fruit I can really taste the artificial flavor and the gum thickner crap they use, which is why I really don’t like Light and Fit esque yogurts usually. But it was good to dip my spoon in the yogurt and then scoop fruit.

I went chez les Granville to say goodbye. They thought I was leaving today and were surprised to see me. I wouldn’t have left the country without saying goodbye! But because they thought I was leaving today, they planned on going to a bbq, but at least I got to say au revoir. The following photos are not of the best caliber–Clemence just woke up from a nap and had her crankyface on:

Maybe we could pretend that she’s crying beause I’m leaving?

Then I tried to tell her faut pas pleurer, don’t cry. Hence the finger to my mouth.

Yeah, we’ll say that. She’s sad that I’m leaving.

I’ll remember Clemence with this face, though:

Such a cutie.

Then host mama MC and I went to her parents’ house to say goodbye. Her parents are adorable, we had the traditional Belgian Sunday lunches there, which included potatoes of some kind, meat of some kind, vegetables, and soup. With bière de la table, or beer with low alcohol content. We ate at noon on the dot. Her mom always made me a veggie burger instead of the meat. Belgians are very proud of their potatoes, luckily I was spared this year as host mama MC was happy to try the new things I cooked for her, like quinoa and brown rice. One time I told her I wasn’t a big fan of potatoes, though I will eat them, but I also try and eat starches with more nutrition. She had no idea what I meant, as she believed that potatoes were very nutritious, even without the peel. Can’t say otherwise to a Belgian.

We had a little family photo session with her parents and her brother.

For some reason host grandpa wanted a picture of me with the unripe blackberries. One of the few times I’ve been in front of so much fruit without sampling.

Dinner may sound a bit strange but try and follow here. Host mama MC hates oats, so I had to use up my supply. I thought savory oatmeal, so I blended in laughing cow light and tomatoes with hot sauce. Then I topped it with 1/4 of an avocado because I had to use it up I thought guacomole flavors, right? With the tomato and all?

The avocado didn’t add much to it now, but it is rather photogenic, isn’t it? the savory oatmeal+sweet potato was delicious, though. Belgians aren’t really familiar with sweet potatoes, luckily I was able to find it at one grocery store near my house. If I didn’t have sweet potatoes this year I would have died been un peu triste. To people not familiar to sweet potatoes it was a bizarre concept to explain (well you can prepare it any way you do with a potato…but you could also use it in pies, muffins, waffles, even ice cream…I can see where the confusion comes from).

Host mama MC and I went out for ice cream afterwards. I had a scoop of violet sorbet, mainly because I was intrigued. It was good at first but the flavor got kind of sickening. The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to get to the cone! Glad I tried it though, definitely more of a European flavor that is hard to find in the U.S. We had a good talk about life and the future and such.

So I have to leave the house in four hours for my flight! I need to get up at 3 am, gag me! My next 24 hours will be packed, for sure, and I’m not sure when I can post again. Tuesday at the latest?

Hope you all had a wonderful fourth and have a great weekend!

A toute à l’heure!

Maya