C'est la vie

After a week of observing Belgians (and a lot of Europeans for that matter), I have come to one conclusion: NO ONE is fat. No one. It's a bit eerie and I just don't understand it. Apparently all the doctors in America have been getting it wrong; it seems chocolate, waffles, frites, bread, cigarettes, beer, and pastries is the key to a healthy body. It just baffles me! I will see a tiny woman walking around the streets with not an ounce of fat on her eating a big ole waffle. Something's not adding up. I think Europeans are just born with special fat-burner genes that us Americans left behind when we crossed over the Atlantic. Yeah they do all that biking and walking, but it still doesn't add up in my mind. My goal is to learn their secret ways while I'm here-guess I'll have to start by getting my diet to be like theirs. How torturous!

On a different note, I had an interesting conversation with my coworker Veronika today; we share a desk and she sits in front of me to the left so we're quite close now. She's from Bulgaria and speaks about 4 languages just like everyone else here (I'm such a slacker) and is really really nice. We started talking about English/American people and I said we normally get a bad rap for being really loud and obnoxious. She told me that, not to overgeneralize, but English/Americans are just sometimes over the top. She said she has a roommate that's British, and every time the girl sees her she makes a big scene and says how good it is to see her and gives her a huge hug. Veronika said in her little Bulgarian accent: "I just vant to tell her, you know, ve're really not dat close, you don't have to make dis big deal every time I see you." So funny and it's so true! She said Europeans, Eastern Europeans in particular, are very friendly and nice too, they just show it in different ways. This must be why I always think Europeans look so grumpy-they just show emotions in different ways than we do. I could still use a smile every once in a while...She did defend us though and say that English is a language that you have to open your mouth a lot wider for to speak and enunciate more than other languages so it kind of forces us to be louder (must be why I can never understand her when she mumbles things to me in English about this or that and I just have to casually laugh and nod my head and hope that was the right response).

So I'm learning new things every day and absolutely loving being in Europe! Running a bit low on clean underwear and socks though and haven't had a towel for the past two days (I have to shake off like a dog in the shower and use toilet paper to dry myself-that's class right there), so may have to take care of those soon but c'est la vie! Day trip to Antwerp, Belgium tomorrow and then Amsterdam and Brussels Saturday and Sunday! Yay! Bonne nuit!