Eurofolies!

Eurofolies is a big outdoor music festival for families that we went to on Sunday. The music sounded like Dutch Disney songs. There were lots of tents and stands with people selling food and kids playing games.  Dior's team had an area decorated in Leuven Bears jerseys. We bought some nachos and to our surprise they taste just like the ones at home!  This was probably the first day our Smart Car didn't help us out, the team met at the practice gym then we all followed each other to get to the concert. We ended up being the last car, the manager was in front of us but he didn't realize we were behind him probably because our car is so mini. He went through a yellow light and we got stuck at the red light. Once you lose the train of cars your pretty much lost. we had to pull over and call someone to come back for us. So mad at the little car until we found a tiny parking spot that we fit in which made us happy.

On Saturday we went to the movies to see The Expendables. They play American movies at there cinemas and just add Dutch subtitles. Someone told us they dont like changing the spoken word because it always ends up changing the story. Woo Hoo! American movies !!

I've been really homesick so Dior decided to take me to a Mexican restaurant named Casa VeraCruz. Yes Mexican restaurant in Belgium even though I haven't seen any Mexicans. Everyone recommended this place to us so we thought how bad could it be? WELL Dior ordered a burrito. that's all the menu said Burrito no choice of chicken, steak or veggies just burrito. His burrito was a tortilla with a can of chilli (the kind you put on your hot dog) then smothered in some funky red sauce. It was terrible. I ordered a chile con pollo dish.... why were there almonds on my chile con pollo? The only thing that walked by our table that actually looked and smelled good were the fajitas. we will have to wait a couple months before we go back  to as Dior calls it "Casa Very Nasty."

The Leuven Bears had the first preseason game in a city about 2 hrs away. Lindsey (she is married to dior's teammate Jared) and I got a ride with Erwin, Kathy and their daughter Sofi. Erwin is on the Board for Dior's team and their family has been extremely helpful and nice. The team lost by 8pts. but we looked good so i think they will do great this season.

Me, Lindsey and Sofi at the first game.

Leuven has been great but I do have one major issue with this country, city or area not sure how it works everywhere but in Leuven they only pick up your garbage every other Sunday. That means you have to keep your garbage in your home until that particular Sunday. You can hide it in a cupboard, closet, balcony (we don't have one) or garden if you have one. Our backyard is used for parking so we cant put it there. The apt. building has closets in the cellar that you can I guess rent so the team got us one they are called "lockers." This is where we put the garbage for two weeks. GROSS. In some places this can cause a maggot problem! YUUUCK. I'm used to my garbage being picked up once or twice a week.

Here is a picture of that little walkway we drove the Smart Car through. In person two people walking side by side are the width.

America in Belgium

We were supposed to wake up early on Sunday and go to Brussels for the first time then come back and meet Dior's team for a city tour of Leuven at 3 p.m. Instead I slept in guess I might getting back to normal :) We met the team and took a tour of Leuven we started with the Main University Library. I was proud of myself because I had read a lot of about the library before coming to Belgium. This library was destroyed during World War I so after the war American schools donated money to rebuild it. I read somewhere that they wanted to make it a massive library to symbolize their alliance and victory. If you walk through the library the names of the American schools who helped build it are engraved in different areas of the library. Sadly, USF was not one of them. I think only two California schools helped I cant remember which ones… maybe Pomona was one? So here is a little bit of America in Belgium.

Then we walked to the Old Town Hall. This is probably the most photographed building in Leuven. Its covered with hundreds of statutes of important political and Catholic figures in Leuven when the building was made. I am going to try to find a book on who the people are. A funny story the guide told us was that in front of the building there is a tree because Brussels and Leuven were in competition to be the “main” capital city of Belgium. Both cities were building their town hall at the same time so they planted this tree to see whose would be the first to grow. Silly old timers. If you are in Leuven they will say their tree was first if you are in Brussels they will say the opposite. I wonder which one is prettier Leuven’s is decorated with ribbons.

This is a St. Peters church very nice. They have a nativity scene up all year. They also have signs up for Father Damien he was recently named a saint and he was from Leuven.

These are some of Dior’s teammates.. The guy in the first picture on the far right is from San Francisco, he plays on Dior’s summer league team too.

Holy Water

Last night Dior and I decided to go out for dinner. We haven't been out for dinner since we got here and I figured its time to try out their food. We drove to the city center and parked near "Oude Markt" which I think means old square or old market. This is a large square with restaurants lined up on all four sides. outside each restaurant are a million patio tables. The inside of the restaurants are small so everyone sits outside on the tables not matter the weather. Not only was last night a Saturday night it was also very hot. Every patio table was full of people laughing, talking, singing (some areas had music on). We walked through the square and around the corner to the quieter Grote Markt which i think means grand square or grand market. There was a restaurant we wanted to try but when we walked in the waiter said the kitchen was closed at 10 p.m. (we got there at 10:15p.m.). We asked him if he recommended a restaurant in either square. He said no all the restaurant kitchens are closed all the people you see are just having drinks. The only restaurants he could think of that was still open was "AcquaSanta" obviously i think that means Holy Water so it has to be good right. Completely right the food was holy water... I ordered... well I cant tell you what it was called but I asked the waitress what she likes to have and that’s what i got :) It was kind of like a fettuccini alfredo with salmon. YUM! Dior ordered a filet from the beef section of the menu. Then the waitress asked what sauce would you like? At this restaurant they bring your steak covered in one of their four sauces. Although Dior wanted to A1 sauce he chose mushroom pepper sauce. It was also super good! As we walked back to the car we went through the Oude Markt again and looked at the hundreds of people sitting outside enjoying their beers, margarita looking things and cocktails. There were people of all ages and since the weather was still hot they were all lounging in their shorts. Inside the restaurants I could see they were starting to turn on their disco lights I am guessing the square turns in to one big club at night.

Do Belgian Waffles Exist?

Before I came to Belgium I thought that throughout the streets of Belgium there would be waffle stands. I even thought there would be waffle "mesitas" like in Mexico where people just have a little table of food for sale. This is not the case in Belgium well at least in Leuven. Dior's teammate Jared's wife Lindsey and I went on a sightseeing day through Leuven yesterday on a mission to find a waffle. We first had a plain waffle that we found at an ice cream shop. They warmed (burned!) the waffle for us and it tasted horrible. Next we saw an Ice cream stand with a people coming and going from it. My best advice when traveling is go where all the regular people are going not the tourist. The ice cream was amazing!! It was almost as good as gelato in Italy. We wandered through the city some more and then found a restaurant where people were having waffles. We decided to give it one more shot. Thank goodness we did, the waffle here was delicious. They covered it with all types of fruit, then whip cream and powdered sugar! The waffles were much much better than the first place. I am starting to get excited for the tour on Sunday. :)

Hema = Mini Target

Today was Dior's first day of practice. While he was in practice I went to the Leuven University to ask about registering for classes while I am here. Since most of the classes are taught bilingually English/Dutch I will first have to take "Dutch as a Second Language" first semester then next semester I can sign up for more classes. My class will be six hours a week (two hours Monday, Wednesday & Friday) then a conversation group with other students about two hours a week. I register the first week of September and class starts the end of September. After all those times of teasing my friends for having to take Spanish in college (I tested out of the language requirement) I now have to start from scratch with a new language!


I was really proud of myself for walking everywhere but now that I have figured out the bus schedule I may just ride the bus. Once I have registered for school my student ID card can be used for the bus or I can pay to rent a bike. Most of the students in Leuven ride bikes because a lot of the streets are too small for the bus to go through. Yesterday Dior and I decided to get dinner from McDonalds :) Yes with all the delicious Belgian food around us we wanted a cheeseburger. We drove through a side street that we thought was a shortcut but it turned out to be a small walkway for pedestrians. Our little smart car BARELY made it through there I think we may have even hit the side mirror on the last turn. I wish I had a camera to show how tiny the street was. When Dior finally drove through the street he kept saying I LOVE MY SMART CAR! :)

The McDonalds burger tasted just like home but the "freites" (your not supposed to call them French fries here) not so much I still love American fries. I found a store called Hema today that has a bunch of random things like kitchenware, clothes, bathroom stuff, gift wrapping, etcs... it reminded me of a smaller version of Target. Hema will be my new favorite place. Then as I walked through the main square I found a street named "Diestsestraat" with a whole stripe of clothing stores (even H&M), makeup shops, electronics, basically everything you would find in a mall :) loved it!

P.s. I will add pics on Monday because Sunday we are going on a city tour with the basketball team and I'd rather add pictures when I am sure what they are of :)

Got Milk?

(This is our apartment/house building and then a photo of Dior with his Smart Car) Dior and I went grocery shopping and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. We shopped by looking at the pictures on the boxes and guessing the directions. The first day we made an easy frozen pizza. Then the second day Dior had waffles with nutella... he loves nutella now. We have been unable to find "milk" all of the milk here is in a box and its not in the fridge until you open it. very odd. At first I thought they were half and half but apparently the box is all there is. For lunch we made salami sandwiches that were delicious, the cheese is yummy here! Then on our walk we found a farmers market about a mile or less from our apartment that’s only on Sundays. We bought fruits that look like cantaloupe but tastes like honeydew and they are from Spain. They were 3 for 2.50 euros, very cheap. We also bought rotisserie chicken and steamed potatoes. I loved the rotisserie chicken pretty sure I will be having that for dinner every Sunday.

(this is a photo of Oude Market they were having a festival there. the last photo is of a "church" near our apartment we still aren’t sure if that’s what it is) Everyone in Belgium speaks English! It is incredible the people here speak Dutch, French and English! i asked them how they learn in English and most of them say from movies and TV. The movie theaters play American movies in "OV" which means Original Version in English. They don't like to translate the movies because the feel it loses its storyline. Dior and I are excited to see a movie here :) We visited the Oude Market which is considered the center of Leuven. There are tons of shops, bars, McDonalds, Subways and restaurants around the market.

Goede morgen (good morning) from Belgium!

Most people get on their flight, land, get their baggage and call it a day. Dior and I on the other hand had to do things the hard way. Our flight from SF to New Jersey was delayed therefore we missed the connecting direct flight to Brussels. Then there were no other flights to Brussels until the follow night so the airline gave us a flight to Madrid that would then connect to Brussels. Then our flight to Madrid was delayed causing us to miss the connection to Brussels! We spent five hours in the Madrid airport.. thank goodness I speak Spanish because there was no way Dior would have ever found his gate or even the ticket stand without me :) Also Dior and I agree that Spanish people are gorgeous, everyone was very pretty but snobbish there. I should have taken a longer look at the Spanish because since we have arrived in Belgium I have not seen any Mexicans or Spanish. I think me opening a taco stand would be a great idea.


Our apartment is so cute! It is two bedrooms with a nice bathroom and nice but small kitchen. We saw some big apartment complexes on our drive from the airport but luckily ours isn’t like that. Our apartment building looks like a big house once you walk in there are two floors of apartments. We are in a very pleasant area, best words to describe it are CLEAN and pretty. Mom you will be very very happy to know that on the first floor of our home there is a doctor!! I highly doubt we will ever need a doctor but its nice to know we have one downstairs. We woke up very early and went for a walk to find me coffee. They enjoy their coffee a lot stronger than Starbucks. I couldn’t believe there were a couple people in the restaurant drinking beer early in the morning. We also found a bakery near our apartment there were a lot of people going in so we figured it would be a yummy place to start the trip with. People were buying fresh loaves of bread and after they chose their loaf the baker would run it through a machine that sliced it. I had a croissant and loooved it!


Later day we are going grocery shopping for the first time. :)

Thank God It's Friday!

Just writing my first blog, blurb, post or whatever these are called to test it out :) Today is my last Friday in the U.S. and I am spending it with the gorgeous baby sofia, mokang and gabe.  After that I am heading home to have a bowl of caldo de albondigas...I will miss my mom’s food terribly.