I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas…..

It has been years since Belgium has experienced this much snow so early in the winter. November is usually not the month for snow, but lucky for Dior and I we are able to enjoy it before we get ready to head back to California! We really wanted to visit a Christmas market in Germany but with the snow, rain and ice it was too dangerous to drive. I tried looking up trains to Germany but most of the trains were either sold out or canceled due to weather. Hopefully we will try to go this week.  We did however visit a Christmas market in Brussels! Christmas markets are very popular in Europe, they are made up of tons of stands selling an assortment of things like hats, watches, candles, lamps, Russian dolls, candy, dried fruit (even apricots!) etc… What we loved most about the market were the BEST waffles… covered in melted chocolate! Yum!  Now to update you on Dior's basketball team: The Bears have won the last four games! This Saturday they play an undefeated team named Charleroi... I'm hoping for a huge upset!  Go Bears!

My snow angel!

Our "sidewalk" covered in snow!

Christmast Market at Place Saint Catherine. Brussels, Belgium.

In front of the ice skating rink.

Whole apricots dried!

The biggest ferris wheel we've ever seen.

Top 5 waffle in Belgium.

Waiting in line at one of the little house stands.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First Thanksgiving away from home! I cooked a special meal for just Dior and I on Thanksgiving. I baked a whole chicken.. my version of a mini turkey :) We had mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, sweet potatoes and creme brulee for desert! Very simple but lovely evening.

Then on Sunday we had a big Thanksgiving dinner with Dior’s teammates and the other girls here.  Malu, Monica, Marine and I divided the cooking tasks… Monica was the brave one who baked our turkey. She kept telling Malu and I how easy cooking a turkey is but I was afraid to ruin it so I steered clear of that job.   The food came out amazing!



John Tofi led us in prayer before our meal then we went around one by one saying what we are thankful for (just like we do at home).  For some reason I got really choked up when it was my turn, I didn’t cry but I definitely was on the verge of tears. I know traveling Europe is what many people dream of doing but on days like that I just wish I was home in Hollister.  Thank goodness we are surrounded by such wonderful people here in Belgium.


Finally, one of Dior’s teammates named Cass entertained us with the best magic card tricks! I’m still trying to figure out how he pulled them off!


　

Bonjour de Paris!

I've always wanted to travel to Paris and last week I was finally able to do so :-)
We thought about taking the high speed train to Paris but then decided to drive. The drive from Belgium to Paris was three hours but we stopped halfway to eat so the time flew by. We saw the high speed trains go past the highway and WOW were they FAST. The train gets to Paris in one and half    hours! When we plan our trip to London we will most likely be taking the speed train.                                   The very first place on my itinerary.... yes I made another itinerary. My schedules may be nerdy but hey we were able to see almost all of the main sights in two days. The first place was the Eiffel Tower! The tower is even more gorgeous than I expected. We wanted to go up to the top but the line was a two hour wait so we figured we'd do that on another visit when it wasn’t FREEZING outside. The cutest part of being there was seeing a stranger propose to his girlfriend!  
                                                                                

We had dinner at Hard Rock Café Paris and the food tasted just like America. I can’t believe with all the yummy French food around us, we went to get American food. We must be missing home.  The best part of my meal was the REAL sour cream !!! First time I ate sour cream in months!!



    

We were planning on staying with Caleb’s friend Zoe but she didn’t have internet at her apartment and we really wanted to watch the first USF basketball game online that night. We decided to go to a hotel which was awesome! We stayed very close to the Arc de Triomphe… this is a monument that I believe was built to honor soldiers who fought in the French Revolution.



                                           



The next morning we visited the Louvre museum. This museum is HUGE, so huge that there is a mall underneath it! The Louvre Pyramid was very nice and  I couldn’t help but remember the DaVinici Code ;-) When we were taking pictures outside the Louvre three soldiers got out of a tinted window unmarked car. These soldiers seriously had the biggest guns I’d ever seen…. Bigger than the soldiers in Mexico. They just started walking towards all the people, we felt really uncomfortable. That’s the first time all the talk of “terrorism” kind of spooked us.










We went shopping near all the designer shops and walking down that street I truly felt like I was in Paris. I thought all of Paris would be a perfect clean “designer” city but in actuality Paris is just like any other city with the dirty aspect. Some of the neighborhoods were really bad and we even saw a boy steal a woman’s purse!

                                                      So happy to find Starbucks to wake me up in the morning :)                    

The "Venice of the North" Brugge, Belgium

We visited Brugge, Belgium with the Tofi family a couple weeks ago. Brugge was only an hour away and is very close to the coast of Belgium. I love Brugge! It is now one of our favorite cities. There our chocolate shops on every corner and even though it was raining it felt like a very "warm" place to be. It was the first time Dior felt like he was really experiencing Europe. Brugge is also known as the "Venice of the North" because canals run along the city. I brought along my travel guides and made sure we stuck to the itinerary. I can't wait to go back to Brugge !                                                   

                                

Time to Catch You Up...

I apologize for the delay in my writing. I have been keeping myself busy and getting in to more of a routine with my day. Now let me tell you about what I have been up to.....

First, I am very sad to say Jared and Lindsey Quayle returned to Utah.  I loved going to Holland with Lindsey and seeing her beloved windmills, almost running over bicycles in Amsterdam, yelling at Stewie in the tiny Smart, waffles in Knokke and most importantly going to get milk! Jared, if you read this, please know Lindsey is a fantastic driver ;) Also please be on her team once in a while when you mini golf, bowl, play board games, etc… even if she sucks. I hope Lindsey bakes you all the cookies and cake you can eat with gallons of milk to drink. Lindsey helped me get through the big transition of moving to Belgium and I am very thankful! I still want to go fishing in Utah for littly fishys… which apparently have guts.

Next, Dior's team has been struggling a bit in their regular season games. They are 0-4. Not so great but I am confident its going to turn around very soon. In between regular season games they also play games against teams in their league for the "Belgian Cup." They won both games in the first round knocking the other team out of the Cup and now we move to the second round!! The Belgian Cup games are all season so we wont know who wins the Cup until May (unless of course we are knocked out, which we wont be).

I've found a couple new restaurants that I LOVE. The funny thing is neither are Belgian :) The first one is in Antwerp, Belgium and its called Amadeus. Their house special is ribs!! They are delicious and are not made with BBQ sauce but are instead covered with a sweet sauce. I guess the sweet sauce can be considered a Belgian meal. The second restaurant is Wok Dynasty, this is an Asian restaurant where you pick up all the raw foods from a table and then a chef cooks it in front of you. This place reminds us of Benihanas in San Francisco. Another restaurant we found (not my favorite) is La Cucaracha. I met a girl in the city who recommended it to us.... The food was "Mexican" but as you can see from the picture of the nachos it was not MY kind of Mexican. Guess I will have to wait till I get home to have real Mexican food.

I have grown confident in my driving here and am now venturing to other cities during the day. I go to the American grocery store in Everberg and the TINY two way road to get there is the definition of Belgian driving.  Here is a picture of the road to the store and the other two pictures are what surround the road a little river and gorgeous field of purple flowers.



If a car is coming from the other direction you have to make room by driving on the curb.



I've been visiting Brussels and taking lots of pictures but the problem I am finding now is that by the time I upload the photos I forget what the pictures are of. I need to start uploading my pictures daily and naming them so I don't forget.

A church in Brussels.

Last but not least its almost THANKSGIVING!! The other girls and I have divided the cooking for the Thanksgiving day meal. We will be having a big dinner with all of Dior's teammates. One of the dishes I will be making is "camotes."  Thats one of my favorite things my mom makes so I decided to do a practice run today. I wanted to make sure I could actually make edible sweet potatoes. I started making them in the morning which meant my mom was sleeping I did my best to remember how she makes it.  When I was finally able to get her recipe I realized I made it a completely different way!  I wasnt too upset since mine were delicious!! I am going to do another practice run before Thanksgiving with my mom's recipe.

I am glad we are planning a Thanksgiving meal, since its an American holiday no one else will be celebrating here. I was really bummed to learn that Halloween is also not celebrated here... Thank goodness Christmas is a Catholic holiday that is celebrated!! But hopefully I wont be here for Christmas!!

Dior would like to add to my blog..... "By the way shout out to the San Francisco Giants for winning the World Series!!!! YEEEAAAHHH! Hope you all had a Happy Halloween! Love Ya'll!"

Birthdays, Games and Chicken.

While shopping at a basketball shoe store the owner told us that next door there was a "chicken restaurant" that every year the American basketball players always ate at. After practice Lindsey and I decided we should all go to try the "chicken restaurant" for dinner.  This restaurant is literally only a CHICKEN restaurant your menu options are whole rotisserie chicken or half rotisserie chicken with slices of bread. We sat down and all ordered "half chicken." The server was an interesting man to the say the least.... but the chicken was DELICIOUS! Next time i think I will get it to go so I can have a side of veggies or something with it at home.



Lindsey and Jared



The Tofi's youngest son Ernie turned 1 a week ago so they had a birthday party for him at this jungle gym in the teams arena. It was nice to see the team hanging out and Tofi's parents were visiting from America so they brought us a bunch of American candy. We are all so funny when it comes to anything from home... we act like its the BEST candy we've ever tasted.



Malu, Ernie and John Tofi.



Tommy and Ioane (the bday boy's brothers)

Finally, Dior's team had their first regular season game against Oostende (the second place team from last year) and we lost. We played a good game and I'm confident we're going to win our first away game in Ghent.


Dior going for the jumpball!



Hot Off the Press ;)

The Leuven Bears had their first "press conference" it seemed more like a night for the sponsors and their guests to meet the team. Lindsey, Malu (Dior's teammate John's wife-they are from San Francisco too!) and Tofi's sons were with me. I have become absolutely obsessed with the Tofi babies.



The boys from left to right are Ioane 3yrs old , Tommy 2yrs old and Ernie 1 yr old. So many people think the boys are older than they are because they are so tall!



Don't they all look so excited ?! The man in the front middle is Dior's new coach.

Dior in his new jersey no more Green and Gold and a new number.

Lindsey, Me and Malu :)

The speeches were all in Dutch so we didn't understand a word hahaha the introduction of each player was in English though. When Luis the manager was introducing Jared he said Jared was an avid reader... Lindsey looked at me and said "Jared doesn't like to read!" Then when Dior was introduced Luis said something about Dior "sometimes" playing defense. Third (this was the best) he said Benson another player was here with his girlfriend Lisa. I thought YESSS Benson lives around the block that must mean there is a Lisa around the block from me!! YAY a new friend who lives right by me... I spent the rest of the press conference looking for "Lisa." Only to have Luis tell me oooo no those intros were all lies I just made them up because all the lines rhymed and they sounded funny!! hahahahaha so there is no Lisa :( 



Luis and his wife :)