Lightning Storms are Sweet!

We just had a pretty good sized one. Lots of down poring rain. Now the suns coming back. :)

That's pretty much all I had to say. Glad I wasn't outside.

Home alone...and enjoying it?

So Kristoffer is off in Stockholm this week. I didn't feel like I could afford another trip to Stockholm since we're going to Turkey next week. Plus I needed to be studying. And while staying in a hotel for free is a nice prospect, it's not so conducive to studying.

Speaking of studying, for those who are keeping tabs...I've decided to move my two CPA exams I was going to take at the end of May to the beginning of July (you can't test in June, for those of you wondering). I don't feel like I am prepared or can become prepared by the end of May, so I've pushed it back as far as I can. Better to pass these two and wait to retake the other two sometime after I start working.

So other than that, it's been pretty quite around here. This weekend we spent a lovely Friday night out. We were trying to go to a nice restaurant that was featured in my guidebooks, but everywhere we went the menus were ridiculous (ie. ~$75 for just a main dish). So we tried to find a more moderately priced place, and ended up at the most touristy restaurant imaginable. It was recommended in my top 10 guidebook, but it must have changed since they wrote it. It wasn't that great. Kristoffer ordered a "seafood platter," and that's pretty much exactly what he got. :) A huge tray filled with ice and oisters, clams, mussels, prawns, and crayfish displayed on top. He was expecting some kind of potatoes or bread or something to go along with it, but nope! Just a bunch of seafood. I had a much safer (and cheaper) dish that was pretty good. It's called Flemish Carbonnades (pictured right), and it's just basically a really good stew. So anyway, the dinner was interesting, but just way to touristy a place.

After that we had hot chocolate in the Grand Place which is really beautiful at night, all lit up (pictured left). Plus the weather here has gotten gorgeous, so it's pleasantly warm during the days and stays warm far into the evening. It was a beautiful night.

Something to note about Belgian hot chocolate is that it is literally chocolate melted in hot milk. Sometimes they melt it for you, but sometimes they bring you hot milk and hunk of chocolate or a bowl of chocolate pieces to put in the milk yourself. It's REALLY good, and oh so rich. Yummm....

Saturday we did some errands that we'd been needing to do, like buying light bulbs for all the burnt out lights in the apartment. :) And that night we went out with Kristoffer's friend Aron and a bunch of Swedish friends to celebrate Aron's birthday. We went out to a Latin club called Havana, which played some really great music, and we got our dance on! It was lots of fun, but we left early (and by early I mean 2am) because we had to get K ready for his trip Sunday. (Most clubs are open and populated until 5-6am, so everyone else was still dancing away when we left.)

After K left on Sunday, I've just been doing my thing: studying, relaxing, watching West Wing, avoiding the dishes... I think I have also solidified the fact that I want my own place when I get back. It's fun having a home to yourself. :)

Another day...

Study study study...

Another day of studying in the parliament. It's the last day, though, that I get to use the nice desks. The parliamentarians come back tomorrow. Nothing much exciting going on, except a fun email! Apparently, I get a free computer bag when I start work this August, to go along with the company computer I will be assigned. I could choose between 4 designs and I picked the rolling bag (that retails for $100!!! Wow). I figured my feet, shoulders, and mom will thank me for not trying to carry around my work on my back anymore. All of the bags were super sweet, but I think this was the most "professional" looking, if maybe not the coolest. Plus, I think it will be much easier to carry around a purse and pull a rolling bag, than trying to carry both bag and purse on shoulders (in heels, as well). :)

And Happy Birthday Grandma! Love you lots and lots!

New pictures have been uploaded!

Today I have infiltrated the European Parliament building and am using their fantastic internet to upload my pictures from this last week. I am also getting to use a great big wonderful desk to study on and a big comfy chair to sit on. Since the parliament is in session in Strausburg, France this week, everyone is gone and I was able to get a three day pass to bum around the parliament! Sweet. There is nothing like having connections. :) I can't wait till I have a desk like this!

So a new slide show is now being featured of our trip to Paris. Click on the slide show to get to my albums to see the Paris and Brussels pics from this last week, as well as my other pictures from past trips. Some of them are mine and some of them are Katie's. If you have any problems accessing the pictures let me know.

Back into the swing of things...kinda...

Cassy and Katie are now home safe and sound back in the US. And I am left with nothing but studying to do. :(

Well, that's not entirely true. I have the Istanbul trip to look forward to, but that is little consolation when I see how much of my books I need to get through before then. AHHH!!!! So much to do....yet here I am procrastinating... Oh well. You all wanted an update anyway, I'm sure!

This last week was an absolute blast. Cassy, Katie, and I had so much fun exploring Brussels and Paris that we practically walked our feet off. We saw all of the typical touristy things. In Brussels, the Manakin Pis, Grand Place, the cathedral, the Royal Palace. The first day was our grand tour, where we walked the city from bottom to top. Hitting all the major places, plus the musical instrument museum where we got a free concert. The soprano who sang was fantastic. This skinny, pretty little thing, and out came this huge gorgeous operatic voice. WOW! We had great timing since we didn't even know about the concert, but got there about 15 minutes before it started.

Before that, however, we saw a huge "to do" happening in front of the Royal Palace. We stood around for about half an hour watching the soldiers all lined up in front as well as a military band playing songs. The street was all blocked off and it was obvious that someone important was coming. Turns out the President of Hungary was arriving just then and we got to see the royal welcome. Would have been a great experience except that the Brussels weather did her thing and decided to pour rain just during the 45 minutes/hour we were standing there. Ah well, good introduction to the weather for C & K.

The second day we managed to get ourselves kicked out of a museum. Well ok, not really, but we got in trouble twice. Once for drinking water, and once for sitting outside on a terrace that apparently wasn't supposed to be open for the public. No signs. Door unlocked. But I guess you're supposed to know that, somehow? So we were pissed and kicked ourselves out. Stupid country.

WARNING, Rant ensuing: So, I have two more complaints against this country! Case Number One. Apparently they have city wide breakdowns of the few places that will accept credit cards (reference my earlier blogs on my issues with cards in this country), namely the train station and museums. Grr... We went to buy our Paris tickets, me fulling planning to put it on my credit card since its a bit of money. We get through booking all the tickets, we go to pay, and "Oh, you will need to pay with cash because our card system is down." WHAT?! You couldn't mention that before we booked? Good thing between the three of us we managed to have enough cash to get the tickets bought. Nothing works in this country when you need it. The failed credit card machines followed us the next few days.

Case Number Two. I get on the internet on Monday to check to see if C & K's flight is on time and to check bus schedules. THE INTERNET IS NOT WORKING! Now we've had problems with it working badly, but never it just fully not working. So I think, ok, its probably just a temporary thing. NO. It's down for THE WHOLE WEEK! Such a pain, considering we needed it to confirm bookings and reservations and such. Of course it would pick the one week my friends came and the internet was actually a necessity for communication.

Oh, OH! Case Number Three! So I'm on my way to get to the airport to meet C & K, and guess what... That's right! The bus I need to get to the airport on time BREAKS DOWN! This was not such a big deal, but I ended up having to take a later bus and getting there well after C & K got out. Annoying, and just one more issue I have with the reliability of things in this country.

Ok, rant done. Just needed to get that off my chest. :) Things aren't so bad really. But when you go to Paris and things work so smoothly, you realize that Belgium really is a little backwards.

And on that note... PARIS! Our trip to Paris, was really great. We got there, ended up at a pretty nice (and cheap!) hostel, and road that subway system to every touristy thing in the city! Thanks mom and dad for the Paris map you gave me! It had the subway system on the back, which was FANTASTIC! Luckily, I new pretty much how to get to everywhere already, but with the map it made it super easy. So below is an outline of pretty much what we did. Keep in mind that Paris is HUGE and that we rode the subway between just about everything.

Day 1:
-Catch the high speed train to Paris at 8am
-Check in at hostel and drop off bags
-Climb the Eiffel tower (top level was closed for wind. Two tries and two strikes for me on that) one.)
-Lunch: sandwich and over-priced drinks at a touristy cafe
-Notre Dame (Brave Kathryn hiked the stairs to the bell towers all by herself!)
-Back to hostel and a three course meal/long night out at a fantastic restaurant. Bravo to C & K for their first try at escargot!

Day 2:
-Up at 7am to get to the Louvre Museum before it opens (to get to the Mona Lisa before the lines start)
-In the Louvre, saw the Mona Lisa (still underwhelming), Venus de Milo, and many other fantastic works of art
-Walked to the Opera House
-Opera House tour
-sandwich lunch in a park at the foot of the Champs Elysees.
-Saw the Arc De Triumph
-Saw the stained glass windows at Saint Chappel
-Hiked the massive hill of stairs to the Sacre Couer for the best view of Paris
-Had ourselves a Crepe
-Snapped a picture of the Moulin Rouge (in the daytime. No sketchy redlight district at night this time.)
-Back to the hostel to pick up bags
-Dinner near the train station
-Back on the train and pulling into Brussels around 11:30pm.

Then, I met up with Kristoffer at a house warming party. C & K went back to the apartment because they were tired (NO KIDDING!). And I pretty much was falling asleep on my feet. Got home around 3am and SLEPT IN!

Saturday was a lazy day. Had some coffee, bought some chocolates, and watched some House. That night we went to a jazz restaurant, where they serve Italian food and play live jazz, blues, and funk. It was so fun! Great way to end their stay, and over all a really fun week.

I'll get some pictures loaded sometime this week, but I've got to sort through them first. Anyway, quite the adventure. There were some iffy moments, but for the most part everything went really smoothly in Paris. Quite a "Tour de Force" if I do say so myself! :)

TP and Bruges

I’d better get an update written today before my friends come; otherwise it’s probably going to be another week before you hear from me!

Cassy and Katie are coming in today (woo hoo!) at 4:40pm, and I’m really excited! It will be great to get to show them around to all the fun places I’ve already seen and see some new things myself.

But, anyway…This last weekend!

On Friday, as you know, was the infamous Swedish Trivial Pursuit game at K’s boss’s house. It turned out to be quite the get together since 9 people showed up, so including Paula (pronounced Pow-la, yes pow, like POW! in the batman shows—the hostess) and her husband Peter (pronounced Pee-et-er) there were 11 of us to play. This was great, because it meant we could play on teams, and I would just be a third wheel.

Dinner was fantastic. Very Swedish. It was a stew with beef and onions and really great spices, with sides of boiled potatoes, salad, 3 different cheeses, baguette, and Swedish “crisp-bread.”

Afterwards, I was given the honor to draw names, and I happened to draw them perfectly so that all the teams of two were people who were already sitting next to each other at the dinner table. Then we thought that, to make it fair, I wouldn’t be on K’s team automatically, but instead I would draw a name and that’s whose team would get me. Luckily, I drew Peter, who was K’s partner anyway. I had the magic hands that night!

So Swedish Trivial Pursuit IS in Swedish and many of the questions are very Swedish/Scandinavian based (hence the reason I got to be a third wheel). I did manage to answer a question about the Casini Space craft (which planet was it sent to collect data about? Saturn.) and who was the first black actress to win an Academy Award? Halli Bari. So I didn’t feel totally useless, but it is frustrating when for the most part you have NO chance of knowing the answer. Our team didn’t win, but it was a fun night anyway, and a great chance to get to know the people K work’s with at the Parliament better.

Saturday was a late start since we didn’t get back till 3am. We managed to crawl out of bed around 11am and took the train to Bruges.

Bruges is a small, medieval, VERY touristy little town towards the north shore of Belgium. They have huge old gothic buildings everywhere and are very famous for their handmade lace industry. We got there around 2:30, started wandering around the town, which is full of horse drawn carriages, canals with swans and ducks, and these really ancient, beautiful buildings. It’s all very “European,” and with the sunny day it was quite romantic. When the cars and mopeds weren’t driving by you almost felt like you were back in the 1800s.

We visited a small convent and the great cathedral in town, and had ourselves a funny surprise. In the Cathedral there was a choir singing, so we sat down to listen for a while and suddenly K leans over and whispers, “They’re Swedish!” And sure enough, they were a mixed choir from a town about 70 kilometers outside of Stockholm; this was their first trip to Belgium. They sang all sorts of Swedish folk and traditional religious songs. They were very good. I have some video of the performance I will try and post. K had a chat with the director afterward, who said they had just gotten done with a tour around Brussels. It was a fun coincidence to go all the way to Bruges and end up hearing a Swedish Choir! You just can’t get away from those Swedes!

The rest of the day we wandered some more, saw the two main town squares and headed out to see the old windmills before dinner. It was quite a walk, but worth it. They are on little hills that provide a great view of the city. Afterwards, we walked back to a restaurant that my guide book suggested for a traditional Belgian dinner of Waterzooi (a fish stew, this one was made with 5 kinds of fish!). We finished off the night with a quiet walk back to the train station, now that all the other tourists were gone or eating dinner.

Sunday was spent grocery shopping, studying, and doing laundry, which turned out to be a fiasco. We use a laundry facility that is around the block from our place and it’s usually not to busy and pretty clean. We threw our clothes into the washing machines, put in our wash tokens, and NOTHING HAPPENED. The machines didn’t start, the light didn’t come on, the doors didn’t lock, and we could not get our coins back. Considering that each wash token costs 2.90 Euros (about $4.50) and we had just lost 2 of them, we were upset. Some other girls were there who said that they had a similar problem and had called the service man. Long story short, it took them 30 minutes to come fix the machines (seemed like a breaker had flipped) and another 20 to get our coins refunded (because of course he didn’t speak English). So the whole process took twice as long as it usually does. What a pain. But at least we didn’t loose our money.

Other than the laundry thing, it was a very nice weekend. My studying is coming along pretty well, though it could always go faster.

A slide show from Bruges will be up soon, as well as those videos of the choir.

Bye bye for now!

Tip of the day...

...Don't leave your wallet at home.

I'm walking out the door to go study at my cafe. Keys? Check. Books? Check. Pen and highlighter? Check. Cell phone? Check. Have a nice two hour study session. Go to pay for coffee and a bottle of wine for this evening...NO WALLET!!! Luckily, this is my favorite cafe, so I've only been in there just about every other day. So, they know me. Plus we've bought bread and stuff from them before. I ask if I can leave my camera (yes, I had my CAMERA in my purse, but NOT my wallet, oye) while explaining that I live just around the corner. He says, no problem, waving away my proffered camera. I race home, I'm sure beet red, and there's my wallet sitting on the table. Right where I knew I'd left it. Race back. Pay.

It's nice to be a regular.