School has been really rough on me lately, only because I have had to tackle certain obstacles in terms of school work. I mean, you know, well, anyone who knows me knows, I usually keep on top of things, and I am really good about doing things. But now, Paris has made me like sleep a little more (cave-like symptoms), and I just like to not want to sit and do my homework. Which is reasonable, right? Just keep in mind that it's not all fun and games studying abroad. You know...it's just a rough ride.
It's already difficult enough for me to continue in my journal. I know, that's really pathetic -- a journal is supposed to be an escape from reality. I'm trying. I have two I work on simultaneously (for reasons no one may understand), and they, like my sketchbook, have had to take a slight backseat in my life. Two days out of the 4-day school week I'm a little obligated to stay in school until 7:15pm, and it's just too long of a day sometimes for me to handle.
However, this past weekend I did go to Brussels (Bruxelles). What do you think of when you think of Brussels?
...What just went through your head is exactly what I saw/did/ate.
There were these amazing frites and gaufres (waffles) and moules (mussels). All the food was superb, right down to the plethora of chocolate stores found in the vicinity. It was all tasty and we (Angela and I) found a lot of reasonable prices.
All in all, though, I'd like to say my trip was anti-climactic. Yes, it had its really nice parts (the comic book museum, the fact that they still had sales going on....), but then it seemed like the whole city could be captured in a minimal amount of time. Well, oh well, it's just how it seemed to be. Maybe I'm being bitter because the city is not ugly (for instance, "Europe's ugliest square" was not so ugly at all, but rather just different), nor is it pretty. I mean, there's nice-looking, and there's pretty (like Paris). Brussels was just not. But still an interesting city to visit, nonetheless.
I have started community service in Paris. Every Tuesday I go to a very, very large pediatric hospital in Paris and play with sick kids for about 4 hours. It's really, really wonderful because I miss the kids in Chinatown, and these kids are really so nice. Yes, I do have to speak all French to them. But they're super nice. And today (get this!) one of the older kids told me that my French is not bad! Not bad!
So, let's move on to one of the greatest things I saw in Brussels:
Translation: Your fridge is more replenished than your life.
Ouch! I guess that sometimes we need a good Maytag appliance with us...little do we ever know that our lives would be labeled so swiftly and readily as an appliance that everyone seems to overlook...
[ I was going to stretch this into a metaphor that involved adding things into your fridge, choosing wisely, and not having things rot...but that may be taking it too far. Basically, I think that it's really great that I stumbled across this in front of a church. ]