Un Jour Sans Zucchini!

Ok can we just talk for a minute about how environmentally conscious the Belgians are?? It makes me so happy! Everywhere I look I see giant white rotating blades. You know what those are? Windmills! To generate electricity. Which is awesome. And as I mentioned before, they recycle eeeeeverything. All of their cars are smaller and have better mileage to keep down air pollution. Plus, in the cities, people make use of electric cars. Forget about having a big Hummer to show off in. They would rather that people recognize their eco-friendliness :) AND if you decide that you want to take advantage of the wonders of solar power, the government will give you money to assist in the installment of solar panels on your house. They are basically paying you to use alternative fuel sources and help our great Earth :) It's very encouraging to see that some people actually care about this planet over their materialistic ego. Ok that's a little harsh, but you know what I mean.

Today, my host brother had to go to the university to take the first of many exams that he and my other host brother will have to take over the next two weeks. So I went with him and my host mom and we picked up my host brother's cousin and while Damien (host brother) was taking his test, Karine, Francois (cousin), and I walked around the campus, ate some good food (of course!) and had a great time! The college campus here is similar to in the States, but also really different. In the States, there is campus among the city, but it is primarily Cleveland or New York or Chicago or wherever the college is. Here, it is like there is city among the campus. There are shops and a mall and such, but it doesn't look like it is there for anyone except the college kids. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it was kind of weird to me. But it is definitely a nice place to be! It was absolutely monstrous. But there are no roads and you absolutely have to walk everywhere. Which doesn't bother me, but I didn't get much sleep last night, so I was pretty tired. But overall, I really enjoyed seeing it! According to Damien, during the year, it's party town all the time! Which I believe. There were bars all over the place! And it's completely acceptable. Which is definitely another difference. But that's just part of the Belgian culture. Like I said before, there is beer EVERYWHERE.

After our adventure on campus, we dropped Francois back off at his house and went home where I proceeded to begin filling out the Common Application for colleges, specifically New York University. This whole college thing is going to drive me bonkers. Yes, I just said "bonkers". But I need to do it, so meh. But then my host mom saved me when she asked me to go to the grocery story with her. And guess what I saw there! Mr. Clean! Except here it's called "Mr. Propre" and I laughed because it's the same tough bald guy, but when you say, "Monsieur Propre" it really does not sound tough at all, which I found quite funny.

Food for today! You know I can't go without it :) Good news: No zucchini! Bad news: There isn't any. Breakfast was good old bread and Nutella, but then Francois insisted that I get a croissant on campus so I had that a little bit after. Mmm flaky buttery delicious ness. Then lunch was... interesting... We went to a sandwich shop on campus but they had all these different kinds of sandwiches with really fancy stuff that you can't really get at the typical Subway. My host brother got beef tartar! I got smoked salmon with pearl onions and some herb that I don't know the name of. It also had tomatoes and a sauce of some type... Again, I don't like tomatoes. I don't really like onions either. But this was some good stuff. Of course, this also isn't your typical 6-inch sub. It was pretty big, and I can only handle so much semi-raw fish so I didn't finish it. But it was tasty. And dinner was a quiche with salmon, fennel, and probably some other stuff too but I'm not sure what was in it... But it was mmm-mmm-good! We had an average salad with it. But dessert was verrrry interesting! It looked like ice cream and strawberry sorbet, but then my host brother asked me what I thought the pink one tasted like. I said raspberries and he said no, it's roses. From the garden. And it was! With a strawberry sauce. It was really fantastic. And we had fresh honeydew with it. The food today was excellent! :)

I'm very tired. Off to bed with me! Bonne nuit :)

P.S. Photo creds today go to eltxupinazo.free.fr and jackmaryetc.com