i'm in belgium! feat. presley :)

10.22.22- 10.26.22

hey! I'm in Belgium this week staying at Mar's family home near la Roche en Femme in Belgium. It is so pretty! Look at the pics I took on our walks.

The past few days have been so fun! The highlight was getting to see Presley, who is doing her exchange in Belgium right now! Turns out, her current house is an hour drive away from Mar's home.

I picked her up at the train station. I honestly wasn't expecting to be emotional when I saw her, but the second I saw tears in her eyes, I was like oh, no, I'm going to start crying too. Mar took Presley and I to a pizza place in Durbuy. Presley's French is already so good! She's made me motivated to study Dutch more. Also! When I got a croissant the day before, the waitress presented it by saying voila! I almost laughed because I was so surprised. I'd only heard someone say voila when presenting something in a Barbie movie I'm pretty sure. I didn't know people who speak French actually say that. Anyway, pizza was really good.

After, we went home. Presley and I made shortbread. We wanted to make something fancier and more American, but there were limited ingredients at home and the stores close so early in Belgium. I miss that about the US. I love making night trips to the supermarket. Like if I want to bake chocolate chip cookies at 8, I can go to Randall's really quick. But, not in the Netherlands and I guess not in Belgium either. So, we made shortbread which ended up being really yummy. We also made custard from powder mix that was at home, but that ended up yucky.

The next day, Mar took us to Dinant. We went to a chocolate shop and she bought us yummy chocolate. I was pretty sure there were nuts in it and I'm allergic to nuts. It said there were pralines in it, and me and Presley were like aren't pralines nuts? But Mar was very sure there were no nuts in the chocolate, so I just ate it. There were definitely nuts in it, so my throat itched, but it's fine. I keep accidentally eating nuts, but it makes me stronger. I've overcome milk and peanuts and kind of dogs, so now I'm going to try to overcome tree nuts.

Then, we walked around, went to a saxophone museum, and then we took a lift up to this prison and war museum. There was a really great view of Dinant. Also, there were important people that were there, because there were like 8 bodyguards that were scanning the premise and always near the important people. I think it was a couple. I think that they are like political figures or something cuz they were a little old and boring looking. Pres and I tried to take a pic of them.. if you know who they are, let me know!

** the woman in gray and the man in black. the guy in sunglasses and other guys in suits were security people!

** view of Dinant from above!

Also look what Presley and I found! A Rotary sign thing!

That was pretty much the day in Dinant with Presley. Other things I have done in Belgium:

- i crochet a lot. I've already made like 3 headbands.

- I tried archery with Mar and got it on the target a few times!

- lots of walks in the woods and different trails. There are orange, red, and yellow leaves that remind me of the "All Too Well" music video. The woods remind me of Folklore. Can you tell Taylor Swift has been on my mind a lot?!

- Also, watched Taylor Swift's new "Bejeweled" music video and guess who's in it?? The Haim sisters and Jack Antonoff!! If you know me, you know how big of a deal this is for me. My most favorite people all in one video.

- once when we were walking, there was a plot of land with a bunch of cows and they started charging at us and this may have been dramatic but I had this thought like what if I die from a cow, like how embarrassing would that be. But they were friendly, just curious.

- Presley gave me a Chokotoff which was so yummy. Presley described it as a fancy Tootsie Roll which is so accurate. Also, Presley said the Twix here tastes better, like with real chocolate!

- Belgian people are shorter than Dutch people

- At the grocery store, I saw a huge babybel cheese. like remember the mini babybel we always got packed for lunch with the red wax cover? the one I saw at the store was like 5 times bigger.

Fun times. Talk soon!

-Amelia