Mussels in ... not Brussels but Leuven

Today I went to the square to have coffee with Francis and Gaston at 12pm and... left at 12:30 am after one coffee at cafe 1, lunch at cafe 2, coffee/soda at cafe 3 and dinner at cafe 4! We were chasing the sun aroung the plazas and talking, talking talking about politics, bidets, movies....
Francis is eating kangaroo in that pic! I tried it and it is pretty good, although it made me feel jumpy!

Back due to popular demand...

Hi all,
Sorry I havent written (jeez, rough crowd). I have been busy with class, orientation etc! Orientation was fun (relatively), I visited a lot of libraries (I dont think my classmates are very familiar with the dewey system, judging by the painSTAIkingly slow and precise manner in which it was explained in EACH of the 4 or 5 libraries that we visited. Yesterday I had a first meet and greet with the Professors, organizers and students... It was pretty formal and we were in the Holy Spirit College, surrounded by pictures of Jesus Christ. Pretty different than my days at CU! I made friends with the main prof from the Netherlands. Nice guy! But, seriously I guess I am really used to the american "this is my personal space" phenomenon. They all stand really close to me (you know, Alice, ala Hilary Cohn). Then we had lunch and I went out with my flemish buddy to (another) lunch. She is cool, Leisbeth, but also dorky. Not sure what is up with that. Then at night my classmates and I went out for frittes and beer to the square. Nationalities present: USA, philippines, argentina, macedonia, ethiopia, nigeria, china and palestine (bethlehem!) Today we had our first class. It was really interesting. I now know the diff between morals and ethics. The prof (Borry) already knows my name- for better or for worst- and apologized if his lecture seemed anti-American. Ha! No problem, I said. OBAMA, OBAMA. Then to the gym (unifit) for a quick run and back home to discuss garbage and cleaning duties with my roomates (seriously, garbage is HUGE here). So I sat down with Esther, Eva (Flemish, 5th year Med student, 22 years old) and Adrian (Flemish, 4th Year Med Student, 20 years old) and ... discussed Sarah Palin. These "kids" are so well versed in american politics, and really anything else. They are so mature and well-mannered and awesome! Adrian has the french-ish pout (you know what i mean? "bah...") and is so cute. He asked me about my day and my classes and asked if I knew where the grocery store etc was (when i said "Yes" he still thought he should draw me a map:) ) and Eva has already invited me to spend the weekend in Ghent at her parents. She then came to knock on my door to ask me when i eat dinner cause she wants to eat with me. My social calender is almost too full! I havent yet cracked my "reader" (textbook)... And tomorrow there is (another) student welcome in the Grote Markt (great market, see dutch is EASY) with concerts etc. which I just KNOW my philipino doctor friend is going to want to go to see if he can "pick a babe"... Keep you posted. Pics are (obviously) of a skyppes conversation gone mad (if you look closely at the pic with p and his camara you can see my reflection with my camara).
Kisses, XO
PS: this is p's response to my story: "I couldn't believe you called a 20 year old a kid..."

Bruges

I went to Bruges yesterday, in the northwest of the country... the "venice" of belgium. we first had a tour of the city; everything is either from the 15 or 16th century. Apparently some german really liked the city and decided not to bomb it during the 2nd world war. The city is beeaatufil, very medieval and well preserved. I will post many pictures when I am done writing, so you can see. We then had the afternoon free to do as we pleased. I escaped the group as I wanted to be by myself and do as I pleased. I went to see the (really, really old) church where they have a vial of Jesus Christ's blood. It was actually weird as I put my hands on the vial and said a prayer my eyes welled up, it was intense! Then I went to another church where there is a Michaelangelo statue, of Madonna and Child (see pic). I lit a candle for my family. Then I walked all around the town, accidentally stopping in Zara and Mango and buying a tablet of chocolate and a "take-away" coffee. Then I bought my mom a silk (Typical Bruges) tablecloth, threw a cent into the Lake of Love and paid 30 cents to pee (tried to squeeze something else to make the most of the 30c) and then the bus back where I promptly feel asleep until Leuven. Sorry this is short, I am feeling uninspired today. Hope you like the pics!
XO
PS, I should say that my fav pic is the chocolate boobs! I bet yours too. OK, moms might be the Madonna with Child, but her second fav will be the chocolate boobs!

meeting my fellow students...

But before i delve into that... a quick disclaimer: a concerned (regular) reader of mine told me that she was under the impression that i am "making up" the dutch words that i have mentioned here. the only one that was fictional was the "easy as kjhadsksslakjhf" one. the others are real!
Yesterday, I met up with Francis, a philipino doctor that is in my program. we then went to the international party, which was like a bad middle school dance but with beer and techno intead of "killing me softly with his words, killing me sooooooftly, with his song...". There I met Gaston (argentinian lawyer), Angela (chinese doctor), TanTan (philipino seminary drop-out), Nida (palestine teacher)and Francis. They are all really nice (maybe a leeetle nerdy). Tonight we are all going to a Flemish film 'Daens' and dinner before.
I am getting scared about the academic part though... it is graded from 1-20 with anything above 10 being passing. apparently, only 5 20/20 have been achieved on exams in 15 years!!
Going on a run and then to the movie/dinner!

tweeenveertigduizend achthonderdvierennegentig

in dutch means 42894!
sorry for not updating in a few days. my rabid fans were upset, naturally, but i thought that talking to you (see pic) for 8 hours a day would suffice. i understand, i am loved. very loved.
ok... yesterday i went to the bank to open up an account. i have a device that looks like a calculator with a slot that in order to look at my bank account online i must 1. log in, 2. get the 8 digit number that pops up (different every time), 3. put my bank card into the calculator-looking device's slot, 4. this will give me an 8 digit number that i then 5. put into the computer and VOILA i am in my account. easy as pie. or as the dutch would say: easy as hddbehdtfnfhfkshdhsjhskdhshgedgwety.
btw, i am living in a building that is a UNESCO (united nations educational, ecientific and cultural org) world heritage site. imagine, that is where i shit! high class. apparently i am verrry verrry lucky to have gotten a room here. also, another tidbit is that my school was founded in 1425!
today i went to a dutch class. wat is je naam? mijn naam is emily. ik kom uit colorado. i am now going to go on a run and then i have a party! yes, a party! i am going with my friend (stranger) francis from the phillipines. i havent met him yet, but he is in my class and lives in the same place i do. i am looking forward to it. in fact, i am kinda starting to like it here, minus the somniac problems that i am having...
the foreigners in the street are gaining confidence, you can see it. They (ok, we) are not clutching the maps to our chest 24/7 with white knuckles anymore. you can go more than 2 meters (ha!) without seeing a well-worn map of leuven. mine is tucked in my purse ready for emergency moments: "wait! is this brusselsestraat or could it be bondgenotenlaan?" i am even starting to talk funny, slowly and with no slang so all the non native english speakers can follow me. you would be so proud mom, i use "riiiight" as a segue to jump from sentence to sentence and the other day i actually thought the word "chap". as in ooo, is that chap going to go down mechelsestraat? jajaja! today i met an irish girl, guy from upper state NY and a guy from albania. yesterday i was hanging out with someone from iceland, a brazilian and a dutch girl from holland. very international. there are a lot of spaniards, it seems and i know because they are dressed with lots of piercings (ala 1995), a mullet and are busy protesting everything "joder tia q no entiendo nada, joder tia"
i think that covers all the updates...
regarding the two pics above: 1. is my mom on im messenger. i post under the treat of her not talking to me any more on it. i had to crop myra out of the background why, myra, why? the other pic reminded me of paul, dont know why...xoxo

still haven't found zara...

Today was another late rising... ayayay. But had a really nice "half-day". I made myself a instant cappuccino, thanks to maemi and then went on a long run (ok, walk-run). Leave it to me to waste the first few days when running at this altitude would have been really easy in bed covered with tears. I went on my run nude, it is a flemish tradition. See picture number 1. The other pictures are of my kitchen, me in a red scarf (just showing you that my joie de vivre is slowly returning), a few of the town and the famous chinese mooncake! Then I took a shower and went on a walk. I promptly got really lost but after an hour (an hour!) found my way back home. On the way I saw a pigeon who was swimming down the canal, wings flapping. It had no doubt injured itself and would eventually drown as the canal does not have banks, just walls surrounding it. The pigeon was batting its wings really quickly but took advantage of its situation by eating quickly any insects stuck to the algae on the walls. I feel like this must for sure be a metaphor of some state or other of mind, but cant really come up with it right now. I felt really bad for the bird, but happy that it was enjoying some small pleasures along the way.
As you can see I have almost completely metamorphised into a dark and contemplative northern european-sort.
What else? I just had dinner with Esther who gave me MORE mooncake. I think she thinks I must really like it since my face also looks like mooncake. Just what I need, another person really preocupied with me over-eating daily. What I was compelled to do, as to not seem rude, is drink STEAMING hot water. Aha, mom, you would be so proud. Apparently this is what she drinks as to not upset her stomach. She also said that perhaps tomorrow we could go shopping (Zara??), I dont know for what. She told me that she thinks that the classes will be really easy for me and that, in fact, I will only have to study one hour a day. I was like " yeaaa" and then she said that clearly I was a really good student back home to have been selected for Erasmus and I was like "ooooooooh". So we will see which it is. But I feel bad because I think she is not very well off and did not go see her parents this month because she had the opportunity to teach Chinese part time... She teaches 2 hours way by train! And used to go all the way to Holland to teach! Poor thing... I let her think that my parents were supporting me as to not tell her that this is free for me.
I think that is about all. Tomorrow I will (cross-my-fingers) go see my faculty to get my bank account etc in order. Kisses!

archery season begins... again

Hi there!
Today, I got up early (jeje: 1pm) and helped Esther move from her old room. Which turns out is an old convent. Her old room was where they kept the "nuns who had done bad things, like for example mixed sexual activities" and was therefore equipped with nun-restraining bars and a really low door. She said that as soon as she found out she looked for another place. It was really small and she had it decorated with child-life decor (cartoon bedsheet, childish calendar etc). Never really got that style myself, post 1984. I started studying garbage in that dorm, since it is really a science and there was an explanatory poster. You must divide your garbage into 6 different bags, all of which cost 2 euro. So you are really interested in keeping your garbage to a minimum. The categories are such as glass, "dangerous items" (paint, batteries), paper, organic materials, cans and I can remember what else. Each category has a corresponding bag color. They then urge you to donate anything that may be fixed and re-used such as electronics. Pretty green, no? Boulder dims in comparison! So I then came home and took a shower, read some and talked to P who leaves today on his 10 day hunt. Then Esther told me to come down when I heard noise to celebrate the autumn feast. But when the guests started arriving (three in all), I realized that they were all Chinese and speaking in Chinese... so I stayed up here not wanting to make them speak in English just for me. So then, she comes up and tells me to eat until I am full please. OK. And she made me too! She kept grabing my chopsticks and adding more and more food. She was really pleased to see me eat hot foods! She had also set out a fork for me but the Roman Catholic "pastor" beside me- (apparently per him 0.001 percent of the Chinese population is Catholic and this is a population that is growing, but somewhat underground...) anyway- he urged me to use the chopsticks and I complied. He was duly impressed and said that I must go to a lot of Chinese restaurants in America, but that I use 4 fingers instead of 3 and that is funny. But one of the women, the professor, did not speak English so they would speak in Chinese and I would mimic them laughing etc (feeling like a moron). It was nice to have such a good meal though (although I am not sold on the fish balls) and sit down to eat with them. Then P called again and Esther let me go with a huge heap of icecream and some mooncake (a typical 'cake' for this day which tastes like marzapan). So there you have it, my first Belgian social interaction, a typical Chinese meal! Oh, and the man had long pinkie nails which Google theorizes could be to pick nose or ears. I need to grow me one of those! (Although I do manage just fine with my average nails and the occasional toothpick or cotton ball).
I was then going to go on a run after the big meal but fell asleep thinking that I had greatly improved my standard of living by adding to my bedding the airport pillow and mask.
Now I only have Monday and Tuesday to do errands and then start orientation on Wednesday. Tomorrow I have to go talk to my faculty and then investigate the international club.
Sorry no pictures, I wish I had spent more time outside, since it was a nice day...
The only other things is that Bjorn emailed me telling me that he is busy the next few months but then wants me to go visit up there... Also I signed up to study Dutch for three months:)
Vaarwel (apparently "fairwell"), emily

skyppes with myra

omygosh, skyppes is hilarious. this is how i see myra (when i am not seeing "other" things that she shows me!) i loved our hour and a half session and feel loads better today since i feel so close to all of you! and we dont have to fight since i am so far away!!! the funniest thing was that myra was wearing my shirt! which couldn't even set off a fight since we miss each other so much.
my roomate, esther, and i talked a lot more today and i am invited to a chinese party tomorrow celebrating the "mid-autumn" festival that she is having here. so konnichiha! (just KIDDING). she is really sweet (and 36 years old). she was worried that i dont have hot food and also told me that she used to want to convert everyone to christianity until her mind was oppened by education (but still invited me to a mass with her tomorrow) :) On monday i think that I will go check out PANGEA, the international club... Now I am animated from talking (for two hours) with my mom who reminded me that i am not brave and am just being a wimp! jeje.
alright, hopefully tomorrow i will tell you that i got up relatively early and also went on a run (i look fatty mac fat fat on skyppes!)
Laters, love me

have i really only been here 4 days?

I am still on the "bit of a weird schedule" like alice says. Meaning I am on the Colorado schedule... Cant fall asleep before 4 am (at least), cant get up in the morning. I might take 1/2 an ambien today at around 11 in hope that this regularizes me. Today I set out with my camera and my tennis to find the gym and take pics along the way. On the way across a big road i decided to follow suit and jaywalk in the middle like i saw everyone else doing. Well, I got stuck in the middle with little bitty cars whipping around both sides of me. Suddenly, another guy gets to the middle islet and says something gutteral. "I am sorry, I dont speak Dutch..." again he says something to me in dutch. "English?" I say with my best-est dutch accent. AHA he says. Are you trying to get across? "Yes..." OK, three, two, one, GO. And with this he darts across dodging minis. Okie-doke. That is how you do that. Yes, mom, on the way back I went to the very near-by cross-walk. Turns out the gym (I mean sports centre) was closed for renovation? I wonder when it will open... On the way there I saw some ducks so so so fat I at first thought them to be a different species... See below. (Paul: reason number two to come and see me!)
What else? Weather is now what you would think typical of this region, grey and gloomy. It doesn't really bother me though, I feel as though it is being sympathetic to my plight. The roomate- havent really seen her much. Just that first day. She seems a little older maybe mid-30s or so. She was really nice, but I think she has her Chinese friends and prefers to speak in Chinese with them. She asked me if I had any friends and I said no in a tiny voice. She said "dont worry, you will find some". Thankssss. I think she thinks that I would prefer to hang out with Americans because she referred me to the university website to see if there were any american groups. :). Last night I IM'd Katherine for three hours- she had just gotten back from TGI Fridays (there is one in Madrid!) apparently it is where all the americans hang out. Go figure. I wonder if there is one here! But she was telling me about her friend Ana (age 23 or so) who is in NYC all by herself for a year. She already has a friend though (English) but has been there for 3 weeks. Anyway, I feel like a coward since I am 1. older and 2. in a teeny town. But, to each its own, I guess.
I went into the church today that is right by my house (see pics, it is really nice and there are these bells in the ceiling that toll every hour a little flemish (religious) song.
Let me download the pics so you can see. And FYI, paul is going hunting from the 14th to the 23rd. You should all email me a lot, cause I am going to be so sad!
Love, me-em.
PS, Obama is going to be in Golden tomorrow and you can get free tickets! Go to the dailycamera.com for more info.