It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

The Christmas lights have been put up around the streets in our town.

We're singing Christmas carols in choir.

And I'm writing this while listening to "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey.

Now I just need some snow and to watch Love Actually, perhaps while drinking hot chocolate and being kept warm by a fire. I wonder if they sell mistletoe in Belgium?

Walmart's sales have fallen this month for the first time in a decade. Hooray!

(Sorry, Mom)

Familiarity

I've stumbled across something quite dangerous.

I have found not one, but TWO, English bookstores in downtown Brussels. I've already spent pretty much a paycheck's worth of money at these shops and it's just the first weekend I've been introduced to them. Indeed...any bookstore in which I can find books written in English is quite dangerous. It doesn't help that I have a new favorite author, Bill Bryson, for whom I can seek out specifically when searching for new books.
This weekend, in fact, has been a weekend of language familiarity. Besides the bookshops, I have also attended a church service in English and saw the movie "Babel." It was almost, almost, like I was back in the states. I enjoyed the church service, primarily for my reacquaintance with traditional church music. We sang one of the hymns to the tune of "My God How Wonderful Thou Art," the song with which I auditioned for choir each year at Luther and I was brought back to the music hall at Luther, standing at the piano while Weston Noble accompanied me. I also enjoyed flipping through the music booklet and singing to myself all of the tunes that were at one point so familiar to me. I had forgotten how much I miss hearing those. I really don't attend church services often enough here.
The movie, as far as I could tell, was quite good, though I would have appreciated it more had I understood more of it. You see, the characters in the movie communicated with 5 different languages (English, Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, and sign language) and for each language there were only subtitles in French and Dutch. This left me, an English speaker, pretty lost for about 70 percent of the movie. There were some scenes that were easy to decipher, but it was a bit frustrating when the whole audience would start laughing and my friends and I were left looking at each other helplessly. I would feel a boost of confidence when I could translate some of the words in the subtitle, like "cake" and "the American" but found that my overall comprehension left much to be desired. I suppose I need to start being more careful about which movies I see in a French-speaking city.

Giving Thanks

Yep...I think I'm going to be super cheesy and make my Thanksgiving list. I'm just in that sort of mood.
I am thankful for...

-Belgian chocolate
-Orville Redenbacher's Tenderwhite popcorn
-going to a job where I get to laugh and smile every day
-being able to see my family in one month
-an apartment that I know will be warm when I come from the coldness outside
-slippers
-finding a Christmas radio station online (that I started listening to 3 days ago)
-getting an opportunity to travel across Europe
-being introduced to Bill Bryson, who I think will soon become my favorite author
-finding a choir in Brussels (our Christmas concert is in 3 weeks!)
-Caitlin's mom sending her Gray's Anatomy for us all to watch
-sweatpants
-Google, Facebook, MySpace, MyFamily, and any other search engine that makes life easier
-friends who send me things that make me laugh and make me miss them even more
-living in a country that serves great coffee

There's lots more I'm sure. But it's late (we didn't start eating our 22 pound turkey until 11 pm this evening) and my bed (another thing I am thankful for) awaits.

Oh, and I went to Amsterdam last weekend. To sum up: lots of canals, lots of bikes, lots of red, and lots of coffeeshops. Next time I'll go when it's warmer. :)

Bon nuit.

So what exactly...do you do?

Since I've begun my internship at the International School of Brussels, I have been asked several times what, exactly, I do. Being an "intern" doesn't really lend itself to a self-description sort of job.

So...
Are you a teacher? Well, no.
Are you an assistant? Um, not exactly.
So what exactly...do you do there?

Well, I...
-work with four different first grade teachers
-am first in line if any of those teachers needs a sub
-lead morning meetings
-play guitar
-transport kids around the school/campus
-lead reading groups
-bask in the greatness of my weekly duties (morning and recess)
-resolve conflicts (*see above)
-differentiate between attention seeking/genuine bone breaking injuries (already one broken arm this year)
-manage six year olds who have behavioral disorders and don't speak English
-cut, paste, copy, print...and any other tedious labor with which the teachers need assistance
-organize and create bulletin boards
-take photos
-clean
-lead a book club
-manage the student/class guinea pig interactions
-babysit
-help lead for a sports program that meets once a month
-communicate between parent and teacher/parent and child/child and teacher
-dictate students' writing when they still aren't able to hold a pencil properly
-assist during computer times
-familiarize students with terms and phrases like "community" and "habitat" and "wash your hands after going to the bathroom"

So you can see that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what I do, or at least enough to give myself a proper title. Teacher/counselor/transporter/laborer/photographer/manager/leader/assistant/communicator estraordinaire has a nice ring to it. TCTLPMLACE for short, of course.

And all of this happens just during the day. Nevermind the netball league I'm playing in, the French classes I'm taking, the two girls that I tutor, the book club I've joined, and the choir rehearsals I attend in the evening. And the weekends? I save those for traveling around the world. Or just Europe. Whichever sounds most appealing to me at the time. I'll be checking out Amsterdam this weekend. I'll fill you in on how adventurous that turns out to be in my next blog.

Until then,
Bonsoir.

Fall Break

A cafe-hopping, bridge-crossing, castle-searching, mountain-climbing, snow-falling, Mozart-rockin' good time...

For my fall break last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the cities/regions of Salzburg, Bavaria, Prague, Vienna, and Graz. The following are the statistics of my trip:

Days traveled: 10

Countries visited: 3

Cities visited: 5

Items lost, stolen, forgotten, or otherwise left behind: 0!!! (That I know of...)

Trains missed: 2

Cafe stops: 14. Yeah...I know.

Postcards purchased: 27. Eek. Surprised myself with that statistic.

Weinerschintzels eaten: 3

Number of times the purchase of a ticket came down to the last cent: 2 (Once on my bus ride to the airport...a little too close for comfort...and the second time after I had walked (yes walked)up to the fortress in Salzburg to find out they only accepted cash for the entrance fee)

Number of times kicked out of a bar for having a dog: 1

Apple strudels savored: 2

Items purchased to protect self from cold: 3 (2 hats and gloves)

Languages attempted to be spoken: 3 (French, German, Czech)

Number of times followed by a homeless man from Vienna to Salzburg: 1 (which was enough...not quite sure how he managed to do that)


I had an amazing time. I had wonderful company, sampled lots of yummy, traditional cuisine, drank lots of coffee, did lots of walking, and saw some of the most beautiful sights Europe has to offer. I will do my best to summarize each of my destinations in sequential order so that this blog doesn't become too unbearably long.

1. Salzburg: mountains, "narrow crooked little streets in contrast to the great spacious squares", shops, cafes, Sound of Music, Mozart, mint-green river water, the Yoho Hostel, Shamrock Pub, weinerschnitzel, beautiful trails, fall leaves, Mirabell Gardens, young people in their traditional Austrian costume called "tracht", Hohensazburg Fortress, baroque churches, markets, Steigl beer, fountains, and magnificent cathedrals.

2. Bavaria (in Germany...I didn't realize I was going to be in Germany until our bus driver told us that we were entering the country, and that we could hold our passports up to the window as we drove through): Konigssee (King's Lake), apple strudel, hills in the shape of a witch lying down, gorgeous fall leaves and Hitler's headquarters, the Eagle's Nest.

3. Prague: Charles Bridge, fun tour guides/hosts named Jan (pronounced Yawn), walking, Astronomical Clock, art nouveau, buildings from different eras all built around each other, Prague Castle, environmental photo displays, Jewish Quarter, Old Town Bridge Tower, walking, Old Town Square, pig's knuckle, St. Nicholas Cathedral, orange rooftops, dumplings, the Dancing House, crystal, Cathedral of Our Lady before Tyn, cheap beer, cute houses, and more walking.

4. Vienna: cafes, snow/cold cold cold, St. Stephen's Cathedral, old ferris wheels, walking past sites but not into them like the State Opera, City Hall, and various theaters/churches/museums (unless seeking shelter from the cold), cafes, weinerschnitzel, Sky Bar, composers immortalized, The Hofburg, beautiful gardens, The Graben, and more cafes.

5. Graz. Ah, Graz. The following is my journal entry written soon after our visit there:
I will never forget this day. It seems like a dream beginning to fade from memory. It started simple enough with breakfast, missing a train, and eventually catching a train over to Graz (Austria). We fell in love with the city right away with its town square, beautiful architecture, and apple strudel. We were just beginning to feel content when we stumbled upon Schlossbergplatz (a huge hill with a trail you could hike to the top). We excitedly began to climb to the top of this steep, tall hill, taking in the breathtaking view of Graz at sunset for most of the climb. It wasn't until we reached the top that we realized the remains of a castle were located there. Then it began to snow. And it was beautiful. And then we heard a group of people singing "Hallelujah" (Rufus Wainwright). And then we followed the singing to the top of a deep well located near the castle. And then we stood around the well with a group of about 8 twentysomething German-speakers. And then we sang. Or rather they sang and we listened. And then we sang "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." And then they sang a German canon while we listened. And I had to pinch myself. And then they sang the Dona Nobis Pacem canon. And I could sing with them because I sang it in high school. And it was beautiful. And we were singing into a well and the snow was falling and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever done. And then we walked to a cafe and had a discussion about American politics (go figure) but it was productive and I was sipping espresso and talking politics with a bunch of Europeans in an Austrian bar. And we came outside to find enormous snowflakes falling from the sky. I can't believe how amazing that was and Jen and I are feeling high like we have fallen in love (with Graz) and the memory is already starting to fade. Did it actually happen? Did we miss our train so we could sing and have a political debate with a random group of European actors? It's like I lived my European fantasy and now I can hardly think clearly.

So, it was amazing. I think I'm going to need the next 7 weeks until Christmas break just to recover from this last one.