Il y a deux mois...

Guess what day it is? Guess. What. Day. It. Is. Spoiler alert: it's not Hump Day, but it is my two month Belgian anniversary!!!! Let's have a party! Not really. Anyway, in honor of this momentous occasion, I am going to write a blog post to tell you some inside stories of some of my more memorable adventures. Funnily enough, several of these stories come from events in the past few days, so I'll just get started then.

The time I graffitied:

Cuz sushi

I'm a pro... jk I suck at grafitti.

One Wednesday afternoon, my friends and I went to Louvain-la-Neuve, which is a really cool college town (and also the home of my third host family) for sushi. Not only was the sushi a welcome change from my patterns of bread and cheese, but there was some sort of street art festival thingy majig going on. This included some really bad break dancers and some also not very good singers. However, the graffiti artists were quite good, and even better, there were some "canvases" (sheets on poles) set up for passers-by to use, which my friends and I did. I am not very good at graffiti, but I left my mark nonetheless.

The time I drank beer that came out of a statue:

Manneken Pis has got a
costume on... and he's
peeing beer...

Grand Place at night

On my friend's birthday, we went to Brussels. At one point, my other friend and I decided to wander around to find the Manneken Pis, the famous statue of a little boy peeing. So fascinating. Anyway, we found it eventually, and on the way there I made eye contact this guy in a tux across the street. He rushed over to me, gesturing at me and speaking Dutch. He had a crumpled piece of paper and he grabbed my hand and put it there. Speaking more Dutch, he had me make a fist, and then he made magician-esque motions, opened my hand, saw the paper was still there, groaned in disappointment, and left. Once we got to the statue, we found a plethora of guys in tuxes. A couple of them took selfies with us, and then another came around with a tray of beer and offered us some. At first we were very confused, and tried to refuse, but he insisted, saying, "No gratuit, free!" Later, it was explained to us that on one day of every year, the Manneken Pis pees beer for half an hour, and we just happened to be there for it. That was pretty cool, I have to say. I also got to see the Grand Place at night, which is absolutely beautiful.

The time I took a selfie with a giraffe:
This past weekend, I went to the zoo. Did you know, zoos are pretty much the same wherever you go? You've got the monkeys, with their ropes to climb on, the building of birds, with its one door open at a time rule, elephants, the reptile house, and all that jazz. This one did come with a few surprises, however. First of all, it was built in an old abbey, and so it had a crypt. Which is where the bat exhibit was located. I used to think I liked bats. I always felt so content watching them swoop and soar over Spirit Lake as I watched from the dock. That is something entirely different than walking through a pitch dark room full of them as they fly right over your head and in front of your face. My host brother got a kick out of my whispered, "Oh my god" 's and little shivers of terror. I was not so amused. Another cool difference was how close you could get to some of the animals. I was able to pet a lemur, pet and feed some giraffes, and take pictures with a giraffe that was actually right next to my shoulder. In case you ever doubted the stories, giraffe tongues are, in fact, purple, and ridiculously long.

This apple crate was at the zoo. It
says Wenatchee! Woohoo!

Besides all that, nothing has changed much since my last blog post, seeing as it's only been a few days. The mark of two months is kind of surprising. One month ago, I was thinking, that one-tenth of my exchange was already over, but at least there were still nine more to go. Now, using my exceptional math skills, I can reduce the two-tenths that have passed, into one-fifth. That is a much more significant, and simultaneously daunting fraction of my time here that has gone by. Luckily, I'm still making the most of it, and I plan to continue doing so! I'm a little fearful of the approaching holiday season, because I'm worried that they will bring with them a fresh bout of homesickness, but I am also excited to experience the differences and similarities between the way people celebrate throughout the world. I hope to continue updating you all as much as possible. As always, I love and miss all of you back home, and I am so thankful for all of my new friends here. A bientôt!