I Like Wigs

I am so tired from yoga this morning. I just want to blob around all day, but alas, le ecole (school) always gets in my way. But I'm seeing shoulder muscles!! Well, hints of them, at least. yessssss

There's been a lack of posts because I haven't been doing anything particularly exciting in my life these days. When I first got here, I said, "I WANT TO TRAVEL EVERY OTHER WEEKEND. NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS." But I don't think I quite realized what an impact that would be on my bank account. And that school exists. Le sigh! Midterms are coming up the week after next, so that's going to be fun... or not. I'm not used to having to take exams! I wish I was writing a paper. Oh, how I miss being an English major.

So I'm not traveling until the 22nd of October to Paris, so there will be a dearth of posts. There might be some lame ones like this one.

Yesterday, Brussels started "Nocturnes," which is this three month period where different museums on different nights stay open until midnight and have special little things going on. I met up with Hedviges, a girl from Portugal whom I met at ballroom, and David, a Belgian-born British guy whom I met at salsa. Cool, huh? I feel like I'm really starting to integrate myself into the Belgian community instead of staying within the Americans-in-Belgium community.

Anyhoo, we went to the Palace of Charles de Lorraine and took Renaissance dance lessons! It was really fun because we got to wear super super cool wigs and masks.

The clothes may be a little mismatched though! :p

It was really cute seeing groups of wigged people in this beautiful building. It's also the Belgian Royal Library.

And then we went to the Museum of Musical Instruments. It was BEAUTIFUL! The building was designed during the Art Nouveau period, so it was really spider-y and witchy but beautiful.

I don't know if you can see it very well, but the elevator was beautiful and decorated in the same way.

You were given headphones, and then as you walked around and looked at the antique instruments, pieces would play, and as you moved on to another exhibit, it would change! It was super super cool. And I really missed my band days! Listening to a saxophone quintet made me very nostalgic.

And since that's all I have to give about the last two weeks, here are some more things I notice about Belgium/Europe:

- Men hang out with each other in large groups. In America, men usually try avoiding "sausage fests," but I don't think they really mind them here. And there are a lot of men here.

- There's this lady from Turkey in my CMM class, and she is a big fan of TMI. First she told us about her abusive brother who was divorced twice--and she blames this on his diet that contains a lot of steaks. Then she told us about a time her neighbors complained when she was having loud sex with her boyfriend. This leads me to conclude that all Turkish people are big fans of sharing lots of personal information.

- People talk REALLY CLOSE TO YOUR FACE. Personal space is much smaller here.

- Men don't have this "machissmo" this going on. They are not afraid to eat salads, do yoga, and enjoy chocolate.

- People keep asking if I'm Japanese. NO.

- Someone asked if I read "diagonally." Apparently in the UK this means "skimming." hahahaha I didn't realize that and said, "Well, if I tilt my head, then yes..." whoops.

I found my future home!

It's 1:30 am, and I finally got home 2 hours later than expected. le sigh. but it's okay because I had an awesome time in Amsterdam today!

Jules and I took the train at around 8:30 am to get to Amsterdam by 11:30 am, and we immediately headed for the (in)famous Redlight District. It consists of two canals surrounded by lots of stores related to sex and marijuana. It was a little shocking at first to see so many large signs advertising live sex shows and large, full length windows with scantily clad women behind them. And it smelled like marijuana everywhere! I don't think I'm a prude really, but I was a little taken aback by all the dildos, boobies, penises, sex toys seriously EVERYWHERE. And the the prostitutes in the windows weren't all very hot either. Some were large and talking on the phone while slouching on a stool. I'm guessing she wasn't really in the mood for work today. There was even a lady wearing just a thin strip of black to cover her nirples and a thong. Eeps. Doesn't leave much to the imagination.

There would be ladies standing where the curtains are, and I wanted to take pictures of some but we weren't allowed to and I didn't want to get yelled at by a prostitute.

And there was a sign that advertised live porno that listed the options of "girl and girl," "girl and boy," (no "boy and boy" though, so I'm guessing they're not quite ready to include the gay scenarios), and "banana show." I have no idea what the last part meant and not quite sure if I want to know.

I wonder how the Dutch regard sex then--I imagine they must be really kinky since they are so open with sex that they must be bored with the regular versions. Good thing they have strap-ons and whips so readily accessible to the public!

There were also marijuana products everywhere--hemp cookies, hemp biscuits, marijuana lollipops, hemp chocolate (of both milk and dark varieties), even mushroom tea. I think I saw e too. I bought myself a pack of hemp chocolate! It tasted the same as regular chocolate, pretty much. I don't think it had much of an effect on me mentally though.

After the initial shock of seeing prostitutes so close (not going to lie--I was a little scared, but I'm not sure why), I saw how pretty Amsterdam was outside of that. There are canals on every other street, and EVERYONE rides a bike. It makes me really want to bring a bike to school when I get to Rutgers again. And Amsterdamers dress so well! They look so put together all the time. The houses are really cute, but I think the fact that almost all of them are along the water (of the canals) makes them ten times nicer.

We then ventured over to see the Anne Frank house, and the museum just made me so so sad. I can't imagine how her father must've felt when he came back to find that he was the only surviver of his entire family. We almost decided not to go to the museum because the line was so long, but I'm really glad we decided to stick it through even though I was really depressed by it. We got to see her actual diary and the actual photos she stuck on her wall to brighten her room up as she was hiding. But I was just so sad by the entire thing. How terrible it must be to live a life without purpose as she did while she was hiding and in camp. I guess you could say the purpose was to survive, but that would soon disintegrate once one realizes t hat survival is useless without something for which to survive... and then that purpose becomes a moot point.

But my depression was cut off quickly--as soon as we stepped outside, we w ere greeted by a 20 piece orchestra that was performing in the streets! It was so entertaining and uplifting, and they looked like they were having so much fun dancing and playing.

It reminded me of my good ol' band days, and that was the point at which Jules and I decided that we were going to live in the Netherlands. The place is so cool! The bikes, the canals, the Dutch style... it's all so intoxicating. It's hard to explain why they're so cool. They just have such cool things, like this store of super cool stuff that we discovered:

We probably spent like 45 minutes in there just staring at things. The Dutch designs are just so eccentric but cool at the same time.

They also had this other cool band that we found earlier performing on the streets. A group of percussionists were standing in a circle in shiny sequined blazers and bell-bottoms, and ladies were in big feather costumes dancing around them.

I think it was all just for kicks too!

We then went on the mission to find the "I AMsterdam" sign, and it took ages. Good thing this super cute, tall boy at the Apple store gave me directions heeheehe. And good thing I w as able to basically hear what he was saying as I stared into his beautiful hazel eyes. HAHA oh how pretty people distract me. Oh that's another reason why I want to live in the Netherlands--Dutchies are so pretty! Their level of attractiveness as a whole race is just outrageous compared to Americans.

So then our last mission was to go smoke. I never smoke, but how could I pass up the opportunity if I was in Amsterdam? I feel like I just had to since I was there so I could say, "Why yes, I smoked in Amsterdam!" So a hunt was deemed necessary to find a bar in the Redlight District, and there was a nice touristy one called "The Bulldog."

I got a pre-rolled joint for 3 euro and smoked one as I had a delicious cappucino/hot chocolate. It burned my throat, and then my head started to feel drunk-y and then my reactions got a lot slower. All I wanted to do was sit there and zone out! It was really odd. My friend kept laughing at me and saying that she never saw anyone move as slowly as I did haha but I felt like I was just... existing. I didn't have any marvelous thoughts or feel music running through my body or anything crazy like that. I just felt... there. I still don't get why people do it--if I were to take any drug, I'd want one that would make me excited and happy, not like I'm just a body. That's weird.

And after that, we hopped on the train to get home, but we got in an hour late, so the metro was closed by the time I got home. Good thing I knew how to take the night bus home!

I am going to live in the Netherlands when I grow up. SERIOUSLY. I will make it there one day!

Danse de Salon

I just got back from my first ballroom lessons in Europe! I loved it. I was a little worried that I'd forgotten how to dance, but it came back to me quickly. What's weird here though is that there seems to be no social dancing in the world of ballroom (salsa is an entirely different story though). Everyone in the class had a set partner so there was no rotating, If you didn't have a partner, c'est la vie! And there aren't any "socials," but there are "entrennements," which are basically open practice spaces for couples to work on the choreography that they learn in class. I don't know how they learn the concept of leading and following then, since they just learn set steps.

Anyhoo, the first lesson was a samba (yayayay!) and it went at the perfect pace--it was pretty fast, but just fast enough so that it kept me right on my toes without me being lost. And the fact that the class was in French really didn't seem to be much of a problem because I could follow pretty much everything just by observing his movements. This elderly gentleman asked me to be his partner before the class even started, so I figured that getting a partner was pretty important. After the class, he hinted at me being his permanent partner, but his not-so-wonderful body odor and breath made me not so willing.

I escaped, and then found a younger looking boy with super super blue eyes to dance with for the second class, which was a waltz. He was really nice and sweet and FRESH SMELLING, so I wanted him to be my partner, but he said he already had four... alas! That's sad. So I'm not sure what to do about this whole partner situation here. Hmm.

BUT EITHER WAY, I was so happy to dance tonight. I was sweating up a storm and looked super grody. Just the way I like to be!
And salsa tomorrow! Yes!

I LOVE MY LIFE

Can I just say once again how I have the most awesome host family in the world?
And how perfect my life is?
Be jealous of me. Be VERY jealous. MUAHAHAAH I love my life!
Do you know why I have the most perfect life in the world? Well first of all, I'm in Belgium. And I love it. I was so mopey about coming when I first left, but damn. I am so glad I came. I get to travel basically every other weekend, I have met the coolest people ever, I have an internship, I still talk to the people I love at home... I'm just so happy because of me and what kind of life I'm leading right now. I'm so happy!

Today was an example of how great everything is. Tonight was my host daddy-o's 40th birthday party, so I went grocery shopping with my dearest host mom (I really do think she's my favorite person in Belgium. She's so bubbly and goofy and wonderful! She makes my host family experience the best it could possibly be. We stay up late chit-chatting and giggling in front of the tv watching silly shows like "Date in the Dark" with the fireplace. I love her!) and her buddy, and then spent the morning making cupcakes and pumping to Black Eyed Peas.

And I made jell-o shots with them HAHA god, my family is so cool. Dang. P.s. jell-o is not sold here except in the "ethnic" aisle in the UK section, and it's not in powdered form but rather concentrated gelatin. This made our jell-o shots a taaad stronger than they shouldve been. Whoops heh but no one complained!

And then the party got started! Barbs, my host mom, asked her friends to come be singing telegrams for Marc, my dad. So three ladies came dressed like the Charlie's Angels trio when they dressed up as the Dutch/Swiss girls who did a singing telegram for the guy from whom they needed a scan of his eye (remember they hid the scanner in the big tuba/sousaphone?), so they were wearing blonde wigs and short shorts and red suspenders hhaahaha it was funny.And my parents started taking salsa lessons in the summer, so they invited their salsa teacher to come, and he brought salsa/merengue/bachata cds, and I SALSA-ED! Who knew the first time I danced in Europe would be in my own living room? It was so fun--I was so so so so happy to be dancing again. And the teacher danced with me a lot, and he was really rather good! Seriously, it felt so good to dance again.
And then one of the singing telegram girls gave me her blonde wig and told me to keep it because I looked so good in it. And then she told me to wear it everywhere and I'd get all the boys hahahaha
My family is so cool... Two months ago, I had no idea I'd be dancing to the Pussycat Dolls with girls dressed as Charlie's Angels in blonde wigs in the middle of my living room in Belgium.
I
love
my
life.

Ghent and Introducing K-Rizz

I had my first waffle in Belgium! It was so so delicious, but really very sweet. April and I split one, which was more than enough sugar for the day. It had chocolate on the inside, so each bite was filled with ooey gooey goodness.

yum

We were trying to cram in all the wonders of Belgium into one day for April since she was leaving so soon, so we went out to get a lunch of frites and beer. So nutritionally balanced, no?

In Belgium, every beer that you order has its coordinating glass with the beer's logo on it, so when you order a Kwak, you get this super cool glass and wooden holder, as seen below.

Cool, huh? The wood part is the handle, so you grab that cylindrical part to drink it. A Kwak is really strong, so after one beer I was a little more giggly than usual. And I may have tripped... but cobblestone is really hard to walk on in heels in general!

Then that night we went to Delirium, the bar with 2000+ beers as a farewell-drinks-get-together and ran away from men. I don't know why, but Brussels has a lot of men! They hang out in hordes too. Gaggles and gaggles of men everywhere!

More kwoks! None for me though. The cider was really good though!

On Thursday, April and Jane went to Ghent for the day. It's a really cute town, but I'm glad I'm not spending a whole weekend there as I had planned. We banged out the essentials in a short day.

There are castles and cathedrals everywhere! I wish people took as much making buildings today as they did before.

This is the inside of one of the cathedrals. Really pretty, right? But nothing compared to the Catedral of Toledo, sorry. That one's only the 3rd biggest one in the world, anyway!

And in my tourbook (I hate being a tourist but oh well) it mentioned these walls that the town of Ghent designated as "Graffiti Wall" and allows people to graffiti as much as they want in this one alleyway. They hoped that it'd keep people from graffiti-ing elsewhere and ruining the adorable little town, and I think it worked? Either way, it was really cool!


SO COOL! I wanted to graffiti too, but I only had a blue ballpoint pen. And I thought that writing "Kristie was here" would be a little lame.

We're TUFF.

And this finally gave me the opportunity to make my rap album cover!!

Introducing K-Rizz and her hit new single, "Thug Life"--coming soon.
(hahahHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA)

LE ATOMIUM

On Tuesday, a group of us took a trip to see the Atomium (oh how nice it is not have class on random days) which was the location and icon of the World Fair in 1958. It was pretty cool, dude.

Look at the difference of the weather conditions between the first and second picture! Belgium weather is crazy.

We made Brendan take a picture of us girls (naturally, boys are always the designated photographer because we are too pretty to BEHIND the camera) with it, but it was super bright so you couldn't see the atomium very well. Lucky for me, I have fantastic Paint skills and corrected that.

Super subtle, no? Can't even tell that I used Paint at all! :p

There were super cool sk8er boys zipping around the Atomium. This one was the gang leader... so cool with his funky hair and his ripped jeans. So hip. I hope my kids are as cool as he is one day!

We took some pictures with the "Welcome" sign and blatantly ignored the sign that explicitly said not to climb the structure heh. We're BAMFs, what can I say?

Can you find me? Took me forever to conquer that giant letter!

April and I cheesing to be in Belgium... plus a random kid who wouldn't move haha

April had to return back to Virginia today, unfortunately. I'm going to miss that girl a lot! She was one of those people with whom I just immediately clicked, and I know we could've been BFF4LYFE if she had stayed. But I made her promise that she'll come to Rutgers for some Grease Trucks and Stuff Yer Face, so I know that we'll still be friends.

Croatia, Day 2

Unfortunately for you but fortunately for me, there were no weird BNBCS incidents on the second day. We woke up bright and early to catch the boat where we hopped the islands of Croatia! The Adriatic is really pretty, but a little foggy and more stone-y than green plants-y.

The clouds were SO fluffy though. I wanted to reach up, grab a chunk, and take a bite of it.

Then we arrived at one of the islands to go swimming in its salt lake that it had in the middle! It was really really salty--I'm pretty sure no one would be able to drown in it.


I didn't take pictures of this, but ALL MEN WEAR SPEEDOS. No joke. I definitely saw more that weekend than I wanted to see ever. Too many men bending over wearing nothing but speedos. ahhhhhfkdjfklsfjsklfsd I mean it's okay if they just don't bend over. Then it's like AH. BEND AT YOUR KNEES, NOT AT YOUR WAIST, PLEASE.

And all women wear bikinis! In America, ladies have a point where they feel like they shouldn't be wearing bikinis whether it be because of age or body shape. These European ladies don't feel any shame with their bodies at all! Kudos for them. I don't think I saw a single one piece bathing suit, and there were ladies of all sizes an shapes. Triangle, diamond, circle, you name it.

There were donkeys on the island too!! There were signs that said not to get near them, but I like living my life on the edge. Muahahaha

When we got onto the boat, we had the fantastic idea to play flip cup with the free wine they gave us... so classy haha It definitely made us noticed as the Loud Americans. Casey found a group of Hungarians and decided that we HAD to drink with them because she's half Hungarian. Oh what silliness comes from alcohol haha.

Cheers!

I had a huge craving for that ice cream all day, so as soon as we got off the boat, we jetted off to the ice cream store. I got Kinder (again) and Mozart (chocolate with pistachiofkldjfkldsjfdskfjdsfklsd). And then we decided two scoops weren't enough (I love how alcohol also makes us forget about waistlines), so we got a third scoop. I got cherry chocolate. SO GOOD. I am never going to forget that ice cream.

Us enjoying our ice cream (Casey especially) after Brendan got sick on those steps ahahahah

Juls, Lauren, April, and I decided to stick around Zadar after the drunkies went home, and I'm so glad I did! I think that evening was my favorite part of the whole trip. We explored, and dusk in Croatia is beautiful.

This was one of the churches. I think Zadar is one of the oldest cities in Croatia.

So so pretty. And they had a water organ that was amazing--basically, there was an organ embedded in the sidewalk of the beach, and every time the waves crashed over different pipes, there would be different tones. It was so beautiful. I'm pretty sure I could have stayed there all night! We almost got lullabied to sleep.

Next to the water organ was a big circle on the group that had lights underneath it that corresponded to the movement of the waves, so lights would sweep on and off underneath our feet.

Cool huh? I like how Zadar was so in tune with nature.

The next morning we left bright and early to get back into Brussels. We had a layover in Oslo, Norway, so we hurried and went outside to take some pictures with the sign that said "Oslo" so we can say that we've been in Norway. Yes!
Roomie and I super happy to be in 40 degree weather after being in the 90s in Croatia. Sigh.

And let me leave you with the happy news that I am in a band. We started in Croatia, and I just have to say that our album cover is pretty sweet. Check it out man!

Stay posted and look for our next album cover with the pyramids in Egypt!