The Face of Shame

La Dee Da...

So...I think I used to do well at life.  Lately I really haven't been doing much aside from class, work, and either homework and/or wasting my time.  Time management has never been my strong suit, and trying to fix my weaknesses is also not a strength of mine.  

I'm a little disturbed today because I recently got ahold of some pictures with me in them from Alex's house a couple weekends back.  I was thinking awhile ago that I should invest in a scale, and now, I'm pretty certain that I should.  While laughing, my appearance could only be described as jolly. This is definitely not one of my favorite adjectives when used to describe my appearance.  Damn you, College of St. Catherine cafeteria, damn you.     

Mom is coming today, which I have been looking forward to for the last...week.  However, I guess my School of the Americas Trip is this Friday will be pretty exciting.  I think it will be fun, however I'm a little nervous at the idea of being, if only for one weekend,in the deep south.  I'm sure there are plenty of delightful encounters awaiting me in southern Georgia. I've decided that I'm really going to shoot for "not going to jail".  Which I guess doesn't really set this particular weekend apart from many others, as that is usually something I aspire to, but this time my chances of going there are a bit higher.  I will just try to be nice to the military police.  Maybe bring them some mixed nuts.  However, I've heard that a few of our resident nuns have been arrested at SOA, and any officer who would arrest a nun probably won't be swayed by nuts.  Wish me luck.

I'm in College.

    So college and independence is good, but it's a lot of work.  I wonder where the fun part comes in.  I was promised fun.

I had fun my first weekend...Alex's birthday.

So that was a good time...but I'm waiting to make some friends and do more things, I guess.  I'm going home this weekend, and honestly I'm pretty excited to see everyone and get a break.  Homework has been crazy and all I've been doing this week is studying.  Hm.  Oh well.

So it's now Friday, one week left.  I just finished my morning Duo Penotti, and I'm going to smuggle some back home when I leave.  It's raining here - again.  Its been raining for the past few days, on and off.  And pretty cold, like 50 degrees all the time.  I only brought two sweaters because I forgot that the climate when we got here was considered a huge heat wave.  Oh well.

Lets see...we went to Superman Returns last night, and during the day we went to the American Cemetery outside of Maastricht, and then we had lunch in a tiny little town in Belgium.  I took a couple pictures, it was sooo beautiful.  And there were chickens.  And they were running around underneath the tables.

Wednesday was bike races, the 'Tour de Maastricht', and before that we went to Rotary, and it was very fancy and a little intimidating.  So I was glad that I didn't have to give a very long talk.  And a funny side note - I thought maybe the people at my table would ask me difficult questions - We talked about Friends, and The Bold and the Beautiful. 

The bike racing was fun, a Dutch guy won so that was good.  We went out to a couple of places after that, also fun.

Today we might help Marithe get ready for her party, which is Saturday. 

Tomorrow we are going to a party at Suzanne's grandpa's house, and then to Marithe's party.  Sunday is another party thrown by Suzanne's old boss. 

I can't believe 2 weeks are already over.  But I think it will feel nice to come home again, too.

So we went to Antwerp the day before yesterday.  We went with Marithe's parents, who are both extremely nice people, and her little sister Lenta (sp?), who is adorable.  We went to the zoo, which is really old and very beautiful, the statues and the buidings were all gorgeous, but I was reminded of why I dislike zoos, the cages were really small and it made me feel bad for the animals. 

We also went to a very old square, which was nice, and had dinner at a fancy restaurant where I had the most awesome vegetable lasagna ever.

At night we went to a really popular club in Belgium, Club Royale, or something, and it was kind of crazy.  Three levels all open to the middle and packed.  We left at 2 a.m. and there was a huge line outside to get in.  Crazy Belgians. 

Yesterday was not so busy, I woke up kind of late, and mostly bummed around the house.  We went out and had a little bit of wine on a terrace, and it's kind of weird but I get the most homesick for my friends when we're sitting around with Suzanne's friends, because they are speaking dutch, so I only get the basic jist of what they're talking about, and I can't really join in the conversation as much as I'd like to.  And they joke around and laugh and I miss doing that.  It's just a feeling like I wish they were there with me. After that we met Hans and Christa for coffee at a little bar.  I was so tired when we biked home that I managed to catch my bare foot between the pedal and the ground, and I got a little frustrated with that.  But all in all, no harm, no foul. 

Today...it's actually kind of cold, and we might visit some caves. who knows.