So as I'm sure you can tell, I broke my diet and ate a couple cookies along with some wonderful breakfast pastry. And some cheese on a roll. And then my host mom made me tea. I was set for the day.
By the way, my host dad wore his red pants today.
We left soon after that and were off to Brussels by car. I sat in the back and read a book on my iPod as we went. I got through almost 50 pages on the way there. I was pretty content, and it's a wonderful book (Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging. Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louis Rennison). We parked the car and ventured out into the rainy Belgian city. It warmed up a little today, so the majority of the snow was gone and it was raining instead of snowing. I have to say, I prefer the snow. I hate carrying around an umbrella.
My host mom and I separated from my host dad for a while, and we walked through the city, going into a few shops here and there and looking at all the great window displays. There were chocolate shops everywhere, all with speculoos in the windows, molded into the shapes of Saint Nicholas. Everything was so warm and wonderful and they all smelled amazing. She took me into the Grande Place and I saw the decorations for Christmas there, which featured a huge Christmas tree in the center, all lit up and sparkling. I imagine that it's ridiculously beautiful at night, all lit up and glowing. But alas, it was rainy day, so as beautiful as it was, it was still a little bit sad looking. Hopefully I'll get to go back.
We met back up with my host dad in an art gallery. Ok I'm going to diverge a little bit here. What is with the Belgians and this ridiculous level of comfort with sex and nudity??? I just don't understand! Everywhere you go, there are paintings of naked women or people just going at it or just things like that. They're everywhere! Like yesterday at the Village de Noël, there was a stand where you could buy a license plate and have it engraved. There was one that had a cartoon guy giving the viewer the middle finger while in the process of certain activity that requires a female partner. And there are things like this all over the place. And I'm so not used to it. And what was worse in this case, they were all pictures of the painter's wife. That poor woman... But I suppose that's culture, so whatever. I just find it a little discomforting with my naive American mindset. walked through another shop that specialized in kitchen and bathroom design, and marveled at all the different furnitures and such. Don't laugh at me. I enjoyed it! I like stuff like that. And when I told them that the typical American oven is about three times the size of the typical Belgian oven, they were amazed. But it's true! Belgian appliances are so tiny. I can only do one batch of 9 cookies at a time in the oven here, when in the States I could make two dozen at a time. It's a little annoying...
Anyways, we then went to this wonderful Italian restaurant for lunch. Wow! We started off with a sort of appetizer, where they brought us a big plate that had a bunch of little quantities of vegetables all around the edge and a little pile of beans in the center, all drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Some of them were stuffed with cheese, others were spiced, and some were buttery. But they were all delicious. We all just went at it with our forks and it was gone before we could blink twice. Then we made like true Europeans and sopped up all the vinegar with the bread that they brought us. That was delicious. Apparently that is very Italian. For my entrée, I decided on one of the specialties, the gnocchi with a tomato basil sauce. My host mom got a ravioli in a white marscapone sauce and my host dad got pasta that was really spiced and served with mushrooms and a sauce also. They brought us our plates and I thought it was a pretty small pile of gnocchi. Until I started eating it. It was really, really wonderful. Flavorful and authentic, but definitely heavier than I remember in the States. Although now that I think about it, it did fill me up pretty quickly there too. I also tried some of each of my host parents' meals, and they were rich and wonderful as well. I somehow managed to eat all on my plate, and I was completely stuffed. But that wasn't the end of the meal, no. My host dad insisted on getting dessert. Although he didn't have any... But my host mom and I both got the panne cotta (sp?). It was served with strawberries and a strawberry syrup to pour over it and my God... It was so delicious. Creamy and light and flavorful and just really wonderful. I don't know how I managed it, but I ate the rest of that and I was so full.
Our day did not end there. We went to buy some speculoos from the best shop in Brussels, and then we went to the best chocolate shop in Belgium. This place was nuts. You'd think you walked into a fine art gallery. This was not just chocolate, this was true art. There were two floors. And it was just... Exclusive and luxurious looking. And delicious. And my host dad insisted on buying one of the biggest boxes of chocolates you can get. All different pralines and truffles. He spent 37 euros on one box of chocolates today. Not joking. But man, they are really amazingly tasty. I tried one that was infused with Earl Grey tea. Wow. New favorite chocolate. This might be a problem when it comes to my bank account...
We then attempted to go see an art exhibition but it had ended already for the day and we were too late. So we resigned to going to the car to come home. I ended up falling asleep for the majority of the ride. And now I'm sitting in my room, really cold even though my heat is up all the way, waiting to be called down for a dinner that I'm really not hungry for. But that is ok! I had a good day, and a good week, and I'm pretty happy. Plus one! :)
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