A TRIP TO BELGIUM AND BACK

I just had to include a small snapshot of my birthday bash which occurred the night before I left for Belgium.  I had friends and family around me and it was all good.  I ate too much so I didn't drink very much at all.  What is so special about being 21?  Haha!  Just kidding.

 SATURDAY, MARCH 12TH
Dad drives Grannie Pat and I, with Mom and Brandt in tow, to the airport.  Getting to the gate went really fast since hardly anyone was in the airport.
Our plane departed around 2:30pm on a "Go Jet," I believe was it's classification, to arrive in Chicago around 5:00 so we could be rushed to our next gate.  Lucky c-19 was at the way other end of the airport so grannie had a lovely genuine Mexican hombre guapo wheel her so that I would briskly follow them around 'til we got to the gate JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME. 
The 9-hour flight didn't seem too long even though I hardly did anything.  We sat in the front row of regular seats so we had a straight shot to the bathroom if we needed it.  I didn't sleep at all, maybe drifted off once but nothing substantial.  We got pretzels, then dinner (chicken/potatoes, salad, and granola) and then before we landed we got breakfast (banana bread and yummy blueberry yogurt which was very hard to stop eating even knowing what the consequences might be...haha!)  We arrived at around 9:30 AM to Brussels making it ...

A bearded man has a jolly good time feeding that ginormous swans some bread crumbs at the Chateau de La Hulpe (the "a" of "Chateau" has a open bottom triangle over it, just so ya know) where behind me was some young boys making their way down a steep hillside on...wait for it...unicycles.  What?!  I would totally want to be their friends if I lived here, even being 21 and them being around 12.  Haha!

SUNDAY, MARCH 13TH
and in great time to visit the bathroom, grab our luggage, and head out the door with our schofers Audrey and Malinda leading the way. When we got to the house we unpacked the loot brought over from the good ol' USA then I took a shower, had a whole wheat blueberry muffin (I share the same aversion to wholewheat muffins that I do to wholewheat pasta) and hot tea...then I napped 'til lunch which was a nice chicken-walnut-grape-strawberries-salad with homemade ranch (the best homemade stuff I've ever had). We then took a walk around the above stated photo.  We got back and Audrey and I drew and painted.  She informed me that she just likes to start drawing and see where it takes her...oh that budding Abstract Expressionista!  I wrote an email, walked around the house with the girls, and waited for dinner:  Duck with jam, garlic potatoes, green beans, and salad...Plus a glass of champagne, and B-day cake and ice cream with an Egyptian style happy birthday song.  The rest is history...not sure what that's supposed to mean but I wrote it here in my journal.


A picture of Villers Abbey from onto of an exposed roof area...which probably used to have a ceiling...but didn't now.

MONDAY, MARCH 14TH
Waking up that morning was apparently not difficult at all...or should I say getting up wasn't bad...the whole waking up part was difficult since standing up is fine until you realize that a little more sleep would be great.  This lovely morning Malinda fixed me up an omelet with just cheese- which I decided to give up...which didn't happen really.  The girls had left for school before I had even woken up.  Afterwards, I had my shower and then we made our way to Villers Abbey which was, I believe, a monk habitat...yeah.  I have a pamphlet for it but do I have it with me now...no.  We walked around it's ruins and then midway we had a small lunch of clementines and turkey wraps...or chicken...sliced something!  Leaving there we tried to go a less dizzying path by finding the highway.  You see, Linda (the GPS) liked taking us through the country which had roads that led to nowhere.  So, we made our way to the coffee shop that Malinda visits once a week to have coffee with her good friend Julie.  Apparently she has to take chairs from old people's dogs...like the old people bring their little yappy dogs with them and have a chair just for them and it gets really crowded so Malinda just starts to take the chair as the person reaches for their dog...go Malinda!  Granny likes having her coffee shop experience...which I think is a waste of money.  Eh...whatevs.  I had a bland waffle, sorry but IHOP winds (they serve syrup with their waffles...not a wimpy thing of chocolate sauce).  Next GP had to go to Blokkers which was compared to a small target without the clothes or food...so what is that really?  A mini Bed, Bath & Beyond?  We hit up the grocery store for a few items.

Later I decided to entertain myself by throwing balls to Brandi, even though she was good at refusing giving them back.  She was even trying to carry 2 in her mouth at once...it worked for a small bit but when I gave her a 3rd ball to contemplate she tried really hard to find a way to get all of them in her mouth.  It didn't work but the thought of her trying still makes me chuckle.  Then Audrey came home so she joined me.  At some point it actually looked like Brandi was washing off her ball in the pond but maybe she just really wanted an extremely gushy ball...or shes was resting the ball in the water while she took a drink.  All I know is that I was glad to have one of those plastic ball throwers. NEXT we prepped for dinner teasingly too early because I wanted those chicken tacos way before when Adele got home.  But before she did I had some chips and salsa then Audrey and I killed more time by playing 2 Square with a volleyball.  Finally we had dinner, I read, sent an email, and a few facebook comments then I headed up to bed.  "The end."
TUESDAY, MARCH 15
This morning I woke up around the time the girls left for their half-day of school.  I took a shower, good hygiene practices, and after breakfast Malinda took the car to exchange it for the van and then took Brandi to their landlord (who lives quite a ways away...not like across the street but down the street and around the corner).  Next we packed up the car so that GP, Malinda, and I could go to the African Art Museum and then after that we could go straight to the girls school to pick them up and leave for Germany.  Apparently Belgium is to Africa as is Europeans were to Native Americans...ya know, "taming" people that didn't need to be tamed.  Lunch was in their cafe, I had a tuna sandwich and shared some shrimp and curry stuff with Malinda.  We then made our way to the International School of Brussels to pick the girls up.  We stopped twice to potty and Malinda failed to trust dear Linda the GPS so we did one big turnaround unlike when we visited the Abbey.  Getting into the "small" towns was nauseating because Malinda says the Germans don't care about making people woozy but with her driving I would say that she doesn't care either.

(I'll have to finish this later...I've lost my journal! Ah!)