Keys, Cars, Stores, and Bottom-less Pits

Hello, friends! I hope the first part of the week has been good to you.  But think, it's Wednesday! It's all easy from here, right? And then everyone gets a nice long weekend :]

Monday, Tyrel got his car.  I haven't had the chance to take any pictures of it...because...well...I forget.  You'd think my camera would be permanently glued to me over here, but I think it sometimes hops out of my purse and onto the kitchen table.  But the car is a manual VW Golf and it is totally decked out with all the team and sponsor logos! I guess they want people to know who's driving the car.  Tyrel insists I learn how to drive it incase of an emergency, but frankly, the people here scare me with their driving and I don't want to have to battle that! We'll have to go practice later in the day so there isn't anyone out or something. Watch out, Belgium, this could get crazy!

But the nice thing about Tyrel having a car is that we can venture a little farther around the city.  The other day we were walking and walking looking for a place that sells pillows.  The pillows they had here for us were like lumps of cotton balls stuffed into a tiny bag; the ones we bought look like they are just newer versions. haha Where's my nice feather-pillow when I need it? But we found this store (Colruyt) that kind of looked like a Wal-Mart/Sam's sort of deal.  We didn't go in because I didn't know if you needed a membership card, and how are we supposed to ask them?! But Tyrel ended up asking one of his teammates who's from here (Stephane) and he said it should just be a normal grocery store; we loaded up in our car on Monday and made the trip to check it out for some weekly groceries.  It's a tad bit far for me to walk there to get groceries but it's only a couple minute drive.  But when we walked in...I wanted to sing and dance.  I couldn't stop telling Ty how much I loved that store.  It really is probably the closest thing to a Wal-Mart they have over here.  It's big and there's a lot of selection and it's CHEAPER than the GB I've been going to! Probably my favorite part about it.  But they really did have everything! They had a nice butcher area along with meat in the frozen department and in the cooler room.  Instead of having a lot of cooled shelves for fruit, vegetables, lunchmeat, and cheeses they have a big room that you walk into that's completely cold! I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time in there because it was sooo cold.  I feel like this place is the only one-stop-shop we'll really be able to find here that's reasonable.  So we got to check out and we see all these people in line (it's close to 8 and almost time for the store to close) and they are all taking out this card for the cashiers to scan before they check out.  I'm looking at Tyrel and I'm saying stuff along the lines of "shoot, what do we do? Do you have to have a membership? Or is it just like Dillon's?" So we get out of line and stand back and watch a few more people; a younger guy in his 20's got in line and I was watching him.  Thank goodness he did not have a card to scan! We got back in line and I was ever thankful to be able to use this store and get good groceries! The weird thing is that they check you out at this one little station (and it IS like Sam's since you don't get bags or anything; they just switch your groceries from one cart to another) and then they move you forward to a different station to print your receipt and have you pay.  Our cashier was very nice and accommodating to our non-French speaking selves. Next time I go, I'll take pictures to post for you :]

Since Ty didn't have a car for a week, he usually hopped in with some of the other guys for practice.  They actually set up a little carpool group to save gas since they are all going to the same place at the same time!  This usually works out great because we only have one set of keys and the other guys can get him into the building when they come home and I just let him into the apartment.  And we don't have phones to contact each other over here right now and it hasn't really been a problem; he's never gone for more than a couple of hours.  Well, on Monday when he got his car he went by himself and none of the other guys went.  I guess I wasn't expecting him to be back before practice and I was just hanging out looking at recipes and trying to figure out what I wanted to make for supper this week.  I hear a knock on the door and open it up to find Tyrel.  Turns out, he had been waiting outside our apartment complex for over 20 minutes for someone to let him in! (You have to have a key to get into the complex and then into your apartment.)  He even went and stood on the little stairs outside kind of level with one of our windows trying to get my attention...but I didn't see him because I was so deep into looking at food :D haha And usually, our windows are open to let fresh air in, but I had closed them because I was cold that day.  Poor guy.  We now decided I am to keep my skype open at all times;  if he is in an area with WIFI he can get on his iPod touch and skype me or send me a message.  Woops.  I guess you live and you learn.

Tyrel's collection of waffles that he'll probably go
through in 3 days :]

Something I've noticed since we got here is Tyrel's eating.  He didn't have an appetite when we first got here and probably ate as little as me (which really isn't a little...but for him it is!) But don't worry, these past couple days he's definitely been making up for it! I knew this guy could eat, I've been with him for four years, but whoa!  It's like when he comes home it doesn't stop! Yesterday, it seemed like he ate 5 waffles, a bag of chips, 3 handfuls of candy, 3 small sandwiches, a pudding, double helpings of dinner....and so on.... Good thing we found a cheap grocery store!  He would walk out of the room and come back every time with something to eat haha It was kind of comical :] I even tried to feed him a wholesome dinner.

Our wholesome dinner! I'm proud of it because of the green beans.  It's true, bacon makes EVERYTHING better :]

I usually don't post pictures of our dinner, but I felt it necessary to prove to mom that I was trying to get some vitamins in me and feed the boy something good.

Don't judge the dirtiness...I didn't do that!

I'm sure you all are tired of hearing about waffles and our washing machine....but that dang ole washing machine keeps adding drama to my life :] The other day I was doing a load of laundry and noticed this blue thing in the pull-out slot for the detergent.  Well...I investigated and gave it a tug....it's a legend for what all those stinkin' letters mean!!!! It's all in french but easily translated.  While I'm a little annoyed I didn't see it at first, I'm glad it's only been a week and I haven't been doing laundry for 4 months before noticing it! So I got it all figured out and realized I was doing all right with the one I was choosing, but there was a better cycle.  So I've been using the new one and it's turned out great.  EXCEPT....last night.  I'd probably done 3 or 4 washes using the "B" cycle and I was just getting ready to change one out to put in the dryer.  Well this washing machine only lets you open the door when the light comes on for the release button and the cycle has FINISHED.  I saw the light was on and didn't think anything about it...I opened the door and water came RUSHING out!  For some reason, the machine thought it was finished, but never did the spin-cycle.  And guess what, I was washing towels at the time...so we had ONE mangy little towel to sop up all the water with.  It didn't go so well.  But I ended up getting it fixed...I just don't know why that crazy washing machine did that. haha

My friend, Alyssa, over at "Alyssa in Nashville" has been posting pictures of her latest painting adventures and DIY projects.  It's made me REALLY want to paint our apartment! I've never had a place where I could paint the walls; I've only lived in apartment and town home complexes that don't let you stray from the white or tan walls they give you.  I would love to tell the owners of our apartment building that if they supplied the paint, I would happily give it a face lift.  The colors don't really bother me, even though they aren't what I would choose, but the paint job wasn't done very well.  I'd even go buy my own paint and do it if they'd let me.  It'd give me something to do, it'd make me feel very housewife-ish, and it'd make the apartment feel like ours.  Plus, mom would be proud! :D 

On a different note, Ty and I have been looking for a Bible study to do together.  It doesn't necessarily have to be for couples or newlyweds or whatever, but we'd like something we can grow together with.  Does anyone have any suggestions on one or a website that provides some? 

Have a great Wednesday! Lots of love.

Festivals, BBQ's, and Chocolat

Good morning, everyone!  Looks like I have a lot to catch up on today :] I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

This morning, I went for a jog. It was a short one, only 15 minutes, but it was amazing.  It was about 55 degrees out (we have a high of 62 today, yay!) and it felt sooo nice.  My body loves running in Belgium. haha  However, my lungs were burning up a storm and I'm not sure if it was from not having ran in a couple of weeks or from the copious amounts of cigarette smoke I had to run through at 9:30 in the morning.  Everyone here seems to smoke all day long; I thought the KU campus was bad...not compared to Europe!  Anyways, it felt good to move my body and run up hills.  I did get some strange looks from people so I'm guessing not a lot of people just run through the streets for fun here.  I've probably seen one person out and about jogging through town since I got here.  Maybe everyone goes to a gym instead; I'd rather be outside as much as I can while it's so nice.

So this weekend provided a lot of firsts for Tyrel and me!  We gave in and bought some of Belgium's best known products.  Friday we went to the store to get groceries in case we weren't able to go Saturday because of the festival and since it's closed on Sunday.  We asked one of his teammates (Stephane) who is from Belgium what he recommended.  He said Cote d'Or and Milka are good, but Milka was white chocolate and we wanted the "black" kind as he described it, so we picked up a Cote d'Or milk chocolate.

It was REALLY delicious.  It had just a little bit of a difference in the chocolate taste than other milk chocolate I've had.  However, I do feel a little bit cheated.  This chocolate originated in Belgium and was locally made, but it has been bought out by Kraft.  I read this after we bought it and tasted it.  So while it IS a Belgian chocolate, I want to try one from a local confectioner.  Then I'd really feel like I had something completely authentic.  The chocolate's symbol, the elephant, is there because of the special cocoa beans they got from Africa to make the chocolate.

Another little Belgian treat we had this weekend was a vendor waffle.  We've had the ones from the store, as I posted a few days ago, and those are really good...but still not as good as the vendor waffles!

They are flaky and pastry like; so soft and tender on the inside and flaky and sugary on the outside!  They are like little pieces of Belgian Heaven.  Tyrel was wowed and felt like he could have eaten about 5 or 6. haha But for real...mmm...so delicious.  We only got the plain waffle (sucre), but I'm sure we'll test out a few more while we're here.  I discovered that they put "pearl sugar" in the waffle batter, which is like big chunks of sugar; it creates the crunch on the outside and syrupy flavor on the inside.  I found a website that describes a couple different types of waffles you can get here in Belgium and the recipes; it was really interesting (Waffle Site!). And another one that had the measurements in what we're used to (Easy Recipe).  I didn't bring my really awesome waffle maker that Tyrel bought me a while ago, so I can't really try these out until I come home sometime...so you guys should test-drive them and let me know how they are!!! They said pearl sugar is hard to come by outside of Belgium, but you could used broken up sugar cubes.

I also feel that as I've accepted my cooking situation here, my meals have progressively gotten better.  I'd say I'm a decent cook, so Tyrel is pretty happy haha Here's a picture of how I usually have our little baby kitchen set up while I'm making messes :]

It's actually pretty clean at this point! Our sink is tiny so I've learned I have to clean every dish as I go when I'm cooking here.  I make a TON of chicken and pasta, Tyrel's favorites, so he has no room for complaints.  He could eat that every day of the week.

We went to the music festival a lot this weekend.  On Saturday, we had to go down to the team tent and the guys had to sign autographs and talk to some of the fans.  The problem was, most of the fans only speak french...the majority of the guys only speak english! But they made it work; there were these two little boys that were completely star-struck and so cute around the basketball players.  By the way, it looks like Tyrel will be #13 this year!  In high school, he was #12 his sophomore through senior year, and of course you all know he was #14 at KU.  Lets hope he gets used to writing 13 instead of 14 or there will be a lot of confused people out there! Back on to the festival.....we walked around a lot and laughed hearing english songs sung in french or people with french accents singing them in english.  All of the food smelled amazing, but we tried not to waste our money on a lot of junk food.  There was a good amount of people out this weekend and the festival went pretty late; I think until 2 AM or so.  Here's a picture of one of the stages set up that was right outside of our apartment:

Tyrel and I also took this weekend as an opportunity to walk around our town a little more.  There are some really beautiful sights and I'm loving it more and more each day.

All the green makes me so happy!

This is right next to a round-a-bout close to our apartment.

This was kind of on top of a hill and we wanted a decent view of the city.  At the time, I didn't realize those people were waving in the picture!

This is what's on top of the stairs.

The train station in Verviers.

A War Memorial.  It was really cool; Dad and Papa Reed, you guys would probably like this. 

I just thought this building was very european looking and wanted a picture. haha There are advertisements EVERYWHERE and all over buildings so I was excited to get a picture of a building that didn't have any.

This was right inside the gates to a public park we walked through.

A gazebo in the park.  Very pretty :]

It was really a great weekend and we had fun doing kind of whatever we wanted to do.  Yesterday (Sunday), we had a barbecue with the team.  One of the head supporters had all of the guys and me over for lunch; it was so nice of them to open up their house and welcome us all in.  It was funny, because they told us to bring our swimsuits and we're all thinking "Dude, you are crazy, it is 60 degrees out!" But we found out when we got there that they have a heated pool.  Where they live is outside of the town and so gorgeous; I really wanted to take some pictures but it was hard to get good angles from their porch.  Their house was amazing, too.  It was one level but it was pretty big and decorated how you'd think a european house would be decorated.  I don't know how to describe it, but it was charming and sort of shabby-chic; though, everything was really nice in it.  I also got to meet Tyrel's coach's wife; she was really nice and I'm looking forward to getting to know her better.  I feel like if I have any questions about anything, she'd be more than willing to help.  

All in all, we've had a good first week in Belgium.  Today also marks us being married for exactly one month! Woo! It feels like our wedding was so long ago, but still only a week ago.  I couldn't be more blessed with an amazing husband who works his body hard all day to provide for us.  He's not just over here for a 10 month long vacation, he's actually working.  He's in the gym most of the day working hard for me so that we can someday go to KU Med.  Hopefully, I can hold up my end on this whole homemaking thing ;]  

Love you all  Have a great Monday.  The Lord is good!

Waffles...FINALLY!, knock-Nutella, and Laziness

Heeeeey, everyone! Hope you all are gearing up for a great weekend.  I know Tyrel and I are ready!!! Tomorrow he doesn't have conditioning at 8, so he doesn't have to get up as early, and it's only morning practice! YAY!! And he doesn't have to practice on Sundays :] I'm sure he, and his body, are ready for a little break.  We'll also get to enjoy a music festival right outside our door this weekend (http://www.fiestacity.be/2011/) ...hopefully, we get out and about and actually DO enjoy it so I can take some pictures :]

Yesterday, I went across the street and read The Help on a bench next to the little river.  I finished the book...fantastic.  If anyone wants to talk about it with me, feel free to!  I am getting ready to start up on Redeeming Love; it has been highly recommended by so many people and I've been meaning to get it for a long time now.  Lucky me, I have lots of time to read now :] Anyways...I took some pictures outside to give you all a feel of where we are.  Now remember, we aren't in the countryside of Belgium, we're pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the city, Verviers.  Not everything in the city is as pretty and lush as the rest of the country.

Here's walking along the side of what I've been calling the river. Don't mind the 2 people on the left...PDA must be highly-accepted here.

This is looking to the left and back a little.  Kind of looks sketch, but it's not.  The buildings here are just sooo old.  

Here's another picture with the same view from the first...the guys on the right side further down kept cat-calling in french.  Good thing I can't understand anything but "mademoiselle!"  

Gorgeous church just down the road.  This isn't the one we'll go to that speaks english, but it's not far from it! I mapquested it (finally found out what our address was to the apartment) and it's only a couple blocks away. Also, notice the clouds...it rains SOOO much here!

Not sure why I added this...maybe to show you it's not all glamour here haha 

Anyways, I only took a few pictures because I really wanted to finish my book and didn't want to walk around all touristy at the moment.

So the first day here, I was starving and Tyrel was at practice and we didn't have any food except for what the team put in the kitchen (water, milk, nutella, fruit, and waffles).  I've heard sooo much about the waffles so I had to have one.  The waffles here come with the syrup actually inside of them; sort of mixed in with the batter before it bakes I guess.  When Tyrel first saw them, he was like "But everyone is eating them PLAIN!" I had to explain to him the syrup bit (I didn't know that before, except that Stacey Moddie mentioned it, but I didn't know pretty much ALL of them were like that!).  Anyways, the first day, I felt the need to load up on calories since I didn't know when I'd get real food, so I ate half of it with Nutella on it.  The waffles are really good by themselves, since the syrup is mixed into them, but not bad with the Nutella.  It's a little sweet for me (who would have thought!?) to have them together, but Tyrel LOVES it! I mentioned he tried Nutella the other day, and he decided he was going to eat it on his waffle, too.  So last night after dinner, we had waffles and Nutella for dessert.

I haven't had any of the fresh ones from the stands, yet.  I've only had the ones from the store and they are still pretty dang good!  I can't imagine what the fresh ones are like.  It's funny that Tyrel and I haven't even had them! But here are our waffles, real Nutella, and the huge jar of knock-off Nutella we bought.  (By the way Katie S., the store-brand here is carrefour like the store you talked about in Spain! I had it wrong when I told you something else the other day).  The knock-Nutella was a lot cheaper than the real stuff, so Tyrel and I bought that at the grocery store yesterday.  However, we decided that while it's good, it's definitely not as good as the real stuff.  I guess we'll have to splurge!

 Tyrel doesn't like soggy waffles so we toast them in the oven because we don't have a toaster.  Our microwave also seems to nuke waffles really quickly and I always end up burning myself when I eat them.  So here is our ideal method of heating up those little bread-y delights.

And here's my partially eaten waffle. 

Of course, it has to be washed down with funky-tasting boxed milk that can be kept on shelves and not in the fridge if it hasn't been opened! (BLUGH, don't think I'll get used to that taste!)

So there you go, you got lots of pictures you didn't even ask for. haha

A lot of you may know that I have a semi-addiction to food blogs.  If you go to foodgawker.com, it has pictures posted from all sorts of food blogs...this always seems to give me another blog to look up when I'm bored, but it always makes me so hungry! Anyways, today a lady posted something about real, authentic belgian waffles.  She mentioned that real Belgian waffles are made with yeast instead of quick-rising baking powder...very interesting.  But I think someone needs to tell her the syrup goes on the inside and not the outside! :] That makes a real Belgian waffle to me, now.

Speaking of waffles, while I haven't actually eaten a ton of junk food and bad stuff here (I STILL haven't had any Belgian chocolate, but we'll fix that soon and I'll have a review for you) I do need something to keep me active.  My mom is going to send me my old workout videos soon, but I need something to do before those come in.  I'm still not as familiar with the area as I'd like, so I'm not that comfortable running by myself, yet.  Does anyone know of any websites that offer free workout videos online that aren't super cheesy? I've looked a few websites up but didn't know if anyone had any recommendations; let me know if you do! :]

So the other day, when I was trying to figure out my washing machine, I stumbled across a video that just made my day! While the video was actually not helpful or great in the least bit (it was kind of annoying) there was a bit of home placed in it! The video was of a British lady showing you how to use your washing machine (I thought it was going to show me how to use a European washing machine, not how to wash clothes in general!) But 17 seconds into the video, there was a KU sweatshirt!!!!!!! It made me so excited and happy; who would have know that a Jayhawk would have made it into a British laundry guide...here it is for yourself if you're interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiWk-vKLnZI

Well that's enough for today! I've given you pictures and a video, so enjoy :] Have an awesome weekend!!!

Lots of love.

Revelations, Funky Asian, and Towels

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.  I usually like to post at night before bed, but last night I just wanted to hang out with Tyrel and read.  I've been reading the book "The Help".  I was watching a movie in theaters and saw the preview for the movie they created and a friend of mine said how much she loved the actual book.  I'm a little over half-way through right now and it is really great.  It's basically set in the 60's when a lot of civil rights movements were happening; one white lady who has very typical upper-class white friends is fed up with the way African-Americans are treated and wants to write a book from their perspective of working for white people.  It's such an interesting book and I can't wait to watch the movie! Has anyone out there read or watched "The Help"?


The weather here is very beautiful.  It can sometimes rain a lot but it makes everything so green.  I think today it's supposed to be a high of mid-70's.  I'm really sorry for everyone enduring the 100+ degree weather right now.  That's definitely not fun.  However, while it may top out at 80 here, I think it gets even more humid here than in Kansas.  It gets up to at least 80% humidity; when I went to the store the other day it felt like a big, hot, wet blanket was thrown on me even though the temperature wasn't that high.  But I'm definitely not going to complain when you all are having heat advisories.  The nice modern amenity you guys have to combat the heat is air conditioning.  Tyrel and I realized (more like noticed) that there isn't AC ANYWHERE here in Belgium.  They may have it at the grocery store but I'm not sure.  No apartments or buildings have it and Tyrel's gym doesn't have it.  Neither did the Fieldhouse so maybe that got him prepared for this.  No one uses it when they drive around either.  I've also searched for a thermostat in our apartment and haven't found one.  I'm guessing we won't have control over the temperature when they turn the heat on when it starts to get cold here.  Hopefully they don't wait until it's 20 degrees! haha


Yesterday, Tyrel and I went to a store called Wibra.  It's sort of like the discount store here in Belgium.  We had to get random things for the apartment like kitchen sponges (which is something I hate...they gross me out), food storage containers, and towels.  This whole week we've been here we didn't have any towels, we had to use shirts when we showered. haha But anyways, it was really nice to find that store because I found a lot of stuff we will need later that is really a lot cheaper than the grocery store.  I'll probably have to go back later and get some more towels for Tyrel to take to practice since they don't supply them.  


Thanks to some logical reasoning and my friend, Katie, the whole oven ordeal is worked out!  I love to cook Asian cuisine, or what I think is Asian cuisine; my sister-in-law makes the BEST food!  But like I said earlier, they just don't really carry the ingredient selection to make all my favorites.  I couldn't find hoisin sauce, let alone peanut butter! I haven't found that anywhere.  I do love Nutella but you can't exactly use that in savory dishes like you can with peanut butter (speaking of Nutella, Tyrel tried it for the first time yesterday and really liked it! It's sooo good; if you haven't tried it you should.  This means you too, Dad; even if it looks gross).  But I made chicken drums (they're the cheapest chicken pieces here) that I marinated and tried to throw together a stir-fry (but with noodles because Ty likes them better than rice).  Pretty much the only Asian-style sauces I could find at the store were soy and sweet chili so all I could use was soy! I should have known to not even attempt to make something with such few choices, but I was determined.  The chicken was pretty good, but I think next time I'll take the skin off.  I think the Belgians raise chickens with thicker skin, it was kind of gross.  Buts the noodles....eh.  I didn't think they were that good, but Tyrel said they weren't bad.  He is so awesome, whenever I apologize for something I don't think is up to standard or as good as I'd like it to be, he is really sweet.  He'll say, "Don't apologize for making me food" and stuff like that, so it makes me feel better and he's so grateful.  I just love cooking and hate when something fails (I don't like failure, either).  


Ty has really been so positive here in Belgium.  I was down the other day after I went to the grocery store and got frustrated with not finding everything I wanted nor understanding some stuff.  He said it wouldn't be any fun or an adventure if it was easy all the time.  He likes a challenge and likes when things are a little bit rough.  Must be why he chose me ;] haha But it really makes a world of a difference being with someone who takes those challenges in stride and doesn't whine or fuss about them.  It changes my attitude and makes me want to be a little tougher.  


I might try to enjoy such a nice day and go hang out by the little river-thing running through the city across the street from our apartment.  Tonight, I'll probably make Tyrel's favorite dish...chicken alfredo.  I went to the store and took some pictures of the different creams (crème) that I saw so that I could figure out which one was heavy cream.  Crème Entière is heavy cream and Crème Legère is light cream.  I'm sure the market here has really great parmesan so I'm excited to make his favorite dish (even though I've made it a million times).  


I want to thank everyone for all the prayers and words of encouragement! I feel so love (as I'm sure Tyrel does, too) from everyone.  It has really helped me to hear "been praying for you" and "keep your head up, it'll get easier".  So thank you all so much!


Lots of love.

Step at a Time

So we've had our first official full day here in Belgium.  Belgium has already had its ups and downs for me but it'll take a while to get used to it all.

Today,  I tried to tackle the different appliances in our apartment.  I spent many hours online searching for manuals for the washing machine and the oven.  Nothing helped. haha The washing machine is crazy.  Here's a picture of the control panel:

I figured out that the numbers on the left side are for the temperature of the water.  The right side is a little bit more difficult.  So far I guess I've had a little bit of luck with setting it to "D" on the bottom right-hand side.  I'm not sure if that's the actual setting I'm supposed to use, but that's the only one I've kind of figured out! If anyone has a little bit more insight on this craziness be sure to let me know.  I tried looking on the user manuals...not a whole lot of help there!  Today I had it set on something on the upper left-hand side and it started the spin cycle...about an hour and a half later it was STILL doing the same thing.  That was frustrating.  But right now, "D" is going through all the cycles, even though it will stop and not go onto the drain part at the end unless I turn it.

I also don't really know what's going on with the buttons on the left-hand side, but I've just been pressing all of them before I start the wash.  Hopefully, I don't blow something up.  Another thing is that once I start a load it won't let me pause it to open it up and add something else! Wish I could get that one figured out.  It also takes a wicked long time for it to wash.  The spin cycles are really funny.  Usually in America it spins in one direction for a really long time; seems to work to me.  Here, this washer will spin for a little bit in one direction, stop, wait, spin in the other direction, and repeat.  It's also one of the noisiest things for something so small (other than babies...they're pretty tiny and noisy, too).

The other appliance to tackle was the stove and oven.  For one, I think only 3 of the 4 burners work; two, it takes FOREVER for everything to heat up! I'm starting to realize that EVERYTHING is slower over here. Here's a look at the oven dials:

Obviously, the right-hand side is the temperature in celsius.  I've figured out 350 degrees fahrenheit (what I usually cook almost everything at) is about 175 degrees celsius.  The only problem was the left-hand dial.  I've just been turning it to the symbol with a box and lines on both the top and bottom.  That seems to seem logical, right? What is kind of messing me up is that there are pictures (as seen) on the stove panel, and then more symbols on the actual dial.  And the symbols don't even match up together! This place is crazy.  My kitchen utensils are also slim-pickings.  It's going to be tough to make stuff with only 2 small pots and one small, cruddy pan.  There are no measuring spoons or cups, so no baking, yet.  At least I have SOME stuff, though.

Today, one of Tyrel's teammates, Dan, took us to the GB.  This is one of the supermarkets everyone goes to.  It's just a couple blocks away and through the shopping center so I can walk there.  GB is kind of like Aldi in respect that you have to bring your own bags and insert a coin (that you get back) to use the carts.  For the most part, I liked grocery shopping in the U.S.; Dillions was like my toy store.  Here, not so much.  For one, it's all in French (duh).  Looking at the package you can usually tell what things are.  But it gets tough when looking at things like cuts of meat and chicken.  I know what poulet, poisson, and boeuf are...but it got tricky when trying to find what I wanted.  And it doesn't help that meat over here is ridiculously more expensive than in the U.S.  I'm hoping I can ween Tyrel off of the amount of chicken I used to make for him.  Actually, pretty much all the food here is a lot more expensive than food at Dillons or Wal-Mart; but really, who's going to beat Wal-Mart?  So that's going to take some getting used to.  Also, I feel like my cooking will be really limited here.  I can't really go to the GB and get a whole line of ingredients to make an Asian dish.  Looks like I'll have to do some research on French and German food! Another thing, I'm kind of freaked out by the milk and eggs.  It's not refrigerated in the stores!  I know a lot of different countries keep their milk on the shelves, but it's still kind of weird when you actually see it.  The milk is kind of weird tasting, too.  I don't how to describe it, but it's almost goat-y tasking, even though it's cow's milk!  It also threw me for a loop when I was looking for the eggs and found them on a side shelf.  Good thing Tyrel doesn't really eat a whole lot of eggs and I'm not really eating as many, now.  May take me a while to get used to that.  It's hard trying to check-out and pay for things when you can't really even converse with the clerk.  I felt so bad because he was trying to be friendly and talk to me but I couldn't say a whole lot back.  The bad thing is that I'll have to go to the store frequently because we have a dorm-sized fridge.  Maybe being at the store a lot will help me familiarize with different foods/packaging and the language.

Another thing about the stores is that everything closes early here.  I'm used to stores being open 24 hours and they may be open until like 6 or 8 here.  Tyrel and I went to go buy some towels today and they were already closed!  I kind of feel bad for him because the only time he'll really have to go explore different stores is during the afternoon between practices for just a couple of hours; he'll probably want to spend his time resting then, though.

Today, I tried to organize all the clothes we brought.  The tough thing was that we have a small dresser (one of the drawers is broken) and about 20 hangers in our closet with only top shelving.  The closet area is actually good sized, we just don't have anything to really utilize it right now!  So unfortunately, the place is still a mess...I'm trying to fix it up!

I actually got to peak into Tyrel's teammate's (Dan) room today.  I'm a little jealous that his walls are a normal color (a beige-ish grey) while our's are mango orange.  I guess it keeps it from getting too depressing, though!  Our apartment is actually pretty big and that's really nice;  but I don't see us spending a whole lot of time in the living room.  The tv is really small and we don't even have cable.  We could get it but all but about 3 or 4 channels would be in French and I don't think they'd be the ones we want.  It's really nice that just about every tv program is online now so I'm not too worried about the tv situation.  Hopefully, we'll be able to find a website that live-streams KU's basketball games (if anyone knows about one, let us know!) The games will probably be at a pretty inconvenient time for us though because of the time change.

I'm not going to lie, the driving here is INSANE.  People zoom around and take corners so fast and the roads are tiny.  They're so narrow I don't know how two cars can get through at the same time.  The roads are also mad confusing.  Nothing is straight and N/S E/W like they are in Kansas.  I'm hoping walking around will get me used to it and help me with directions; maybe when Tyrel gets his car we can see more of the town.  I don't even know what street our apartment is on let alone our address!  The roads aren't really marked like they are in the States, so I'm still trying to figure some stuff out.

Hopefully, my rambling hasn't bored you too much today.  Let me know if what I talk about is too mundane or stuff you don't want to hear about! Still haven't had a lot of chance to really explore as much as I'd like.  It might be hard to do that with how much Tyrel has to practice.  I'll try to get some pictures of the town soon! I don't really like going out and being distracted when I'm by myself; when I go out with Ty I'll be sure to take a lot more pictures.

Lots of love!

Delays, Croissants, and Customs

We have exciting news, everyone.

WE. MADE. IT.

We finally got to Verviers!  We were supposed to leave Kansas City at 10 on Sunday, but it got pushed back about an hour or so.  I thought we were going to have a repeat of Saturday!  But we finally made it to Newark and had a 2 or 3 hour layover.  I talked to a really nice girl while we were shuttling from one gate to another who is from England and was visiting her dad in Olathe.  Such a small world.  We killed some time in Newark and I had a lovely American meal of Auntie Anne's pretzels and a twisted frozen yogurt cone...healthy eating was obviously a priority while traveling (not).  It was really exciting and nerve-racking when we finally boarded our plane to Belgium.  However, we sat there for over an hour before we could take off (either weather or something with air traffic control...I don't remember).  But the nice thing was that they had tv's in the seat backs and we could watch movies and tv shows the whole flight (Debbie, I watched some Big Bang Theory, of course!).

We finally got moving and it just seemed like I was drifting further and further from reality.  I gave the US one last wave out the window and tried not to hold on too much.  These past few days have been really strange.  While at home, my sister kept saying "this could be the last time you're in this house", "this could be the last time you sleep in your room", and etc.  Thanks, Erin...totally helped ;] haha. I started thinking about all that and how it made me really sad but I wanted to move past it.  I decided to stop thinking about the "lasts" that I'll  have and start thinking about the "firsts".  Now I'm not trying to get all touchy and wise here or whatever, but Tyrel and I are taking on something completely new to us and it's not beneficial to clutch onto those things we can't have forever.

Anyways, enough with that babble.  Here's a nice play of the flight.  I can usually sleep just about anywhere, but neither me nor Ty could get comfortable to sleep very long on the plane.  That made for a long flight.  The announcements made were always made first in English and then again in French.  It got kind of annoying when you were trying to watch a movie because it always stopped it to interrupt.  You'd think Tyrel and I would be completely fluent after all the announcements they made during the flight.  Since the flight was long and overnight, they gave us dinner and breakfast.  It wasn't great, but it was hot food. I'm not sure, though, if I'll be able to just eat croissants for breakfast.  I need a hearty meal to start my day just like any other Kansas girl.  Would have been nice to have some of Mom's biscuits and gravy in my carry-on! haha  And customs wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be.  The guy was super nice and talked to Tyrel a lot about basketball.  I just stood there and did my whole nervous-giggle bit like a silly American.

We finally broke out of the airport.  Belgium is beautiful.  It's so green and has that old charm that the newness of American doesn't really exude.  We met a couple of men that work for Tyrel's basketball team.  They were extremely nice and drove us to the gym where Tyrel has practice and will play.  When we arrived at the gym we went in and the coach and players came a little bit later.  We were expecting just to get acquainted, have Tyrel get his physical, and go to our apartment. But Tyrel was pretty much thrown right into practice!  I was taken to our apartment and shown how to get in and where everything is.  All of the basketball players live in the same apartment building about 10 minutes from the gym.  All I can say is that the apartment is very European...small tv, small washer and dryer, small appliances....We get so used to everything being HUGE in America! I don't think I've seen ONE SUV while here; they're all tiny little cars (mostly VW's, Mercedes, and this weird car with a Lion emblem that starts with a "P").  We also have a very small guest bedroom in case anyone wants to come visit (and I strongly suggest you do!)  I think the guys that helped us thought I was funny because I got really excited when I saw a jar of nutella on our counter that they brought over for us.  They put a little bit of food in our kitchen...a waffle and nutella, water, milk, and some fruit.  I'm ready to go grocery shopping and actually get some food for us!  I was exhausted once I got all settled in so I tried to nap a little bit and then Tyrel came home.  He only had a little bit of a break because right now they have two practices a day.  I don't know how he does it.; he's a lot tougher than I am.  I hope he crashes hard tonight so he can get a little bit a sleep before starting up tomorrow.

I went exploring outside the apartment today to see what I could find around us.  Don't worry, Mom.  I stayed on the main street and usually walked closely behind other women.  Outside our apartment is kind of like a shopping district.  There are lots of shops and restaurants and a tempting waffle and crepe vendor.  I did find a McDonald's right around the corner so I'm sure Tyrel will be happy about that.   It's too bad I packed my suitcases so tightly because there is an H&M right down the street.  I always wished KC had one and they're finally getting one at The Plaza.  It's too bad I don't really need any clothes, either!  Speaking of tightly packed bags, when I opened mine up I noticed a card in it.  Looks like mine got randomly selected for a search; I'm glad they got everything back in it!  Unfortunately, they must have opened my contact solution or something because it leaked out of its plastic bag and onto some of my stuff :(

This all feels so weird and not like reality.  It will definitely take a while for it to sink in.  I'm ready to learn a little more about Belgium, try to understand French, and get into a routine.  I know very rudimentary phrases and words; a lot of them are useless but I might be able to ask for a shoe store if we need one (speaking of which, I saw a footlocker down the road!)  One thing that will be hard is that none of the other players have wives.  I was really hoping to find someone in the same situation.  Hopefully, we'll be able to visit the church Wayne found for us this Sunday and find some people to connect with.  Tyrel said he likes his teammates and I'm excited to see how this year will turn out for us.  It will definitely be a challenge with being newly married and living in a different country.  Jean-Luc (one of the guys who helped us) said a lot of the younger crowd here speaks English.  That will be helpful but I'd really like to try to absorb more French.  I don't want to have to rely on other people's abilities so that I can function here.

Here are some pictures of the apartment.  I figured you didn't care to see the bathroom :D haha

View from our door to the living area. Check out those orange walls!

The kitchen.  

Our room. Practically a tempurpedic ;]

Sorry it's sideways.  But the smallest washer and dryer known to man :]

 Thank you, everyone, for all the prayers that got us here safely.  Please continue to pray for us while we're here!  We would truly appreciate it. Lots of love.

Just Another Day in Paradise

I'm sure you were all expecting the next post to be about our fabulous travels and how awesome the morning air of Belgium is and all that great stuff...but guess what!

We're STILL in the fabulous state of KANSAS! We have been blessed to spend another day in the good ole U.S. of A.  Unfortunately, it was spent in an airport.  

Our flight at 1:15 to Chi-town got delayed because of weather and then there were some sort of mechanical issues with the plane that they couldn't get fixed right away.  While I'm super bummed we didn't get to fly out today and I got to spend fabulous time finishing a book in Gate 12, I feel the Lord was looking over us and all the other disgruntled travelers.  There are reasons we couldn't take that flight and he held us back; I'm thankful we didn't get on the plane and THEN they realize there were mechanical problems.

However, my parents have a different theory (and I feel it may be true! haha).  They think our dear friend, Curt, orchestrated this whole situation just to spend another day with us.  How sweet of you, Curt James!  So here we are right now, watching some soccer on American tv channels.  

The funny thing is that I'm completely exhausted from doing nothing...just sitting in an airport today! At least I had a delicious chocolate chip brownie LaraBar to snack on and give me a small bit of energy. Those things are AMAZING.  I'm not sure how they stack up to Belgian chocolate yet, but any snackbar that tastes that great and has natural, good ingredients in it gets a gold star in my classroom.  

Now we're supposed to fly out tomorrow morning and into New York and have a 4 hour delay and then fly straight to Brussels.  I think we should have been bumped up to first class for tomorrow, but I didn't think of it until after we left the airport.  Too bad Tyrel didn't work any of his charm on the guy helping us switch our flights (he was even from Lawrence!).  All well, I guess I'll settle on being happy we get to live in Belgium :] If we ever make it. 

I'm banking on Curt making us some authentic Belgian waffles to send us off in the morning.  I'm sure they are exactly the same as the ones we'll be eating here shortly.  It's so nice we have a friend here in Kansas City that was able to pick us up and will take us back in the morning.  We probably could have stayed in a hotel or something but that would have been kind of boring.  Plus, we get to see the BFF one last time before we leave! WOO! 

Anyways...hopefully the next time I'm back here we'll be frolicking in Belgium...or something like that.  

Preparing for the Unknown

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

As many of you know, Tyrel and I are leaving for Belgium tomorrow! We are so excited to have this opportunity.  This will pretty much be my first time out of the country (I went to Mexico when I was 13 for my sister's basketball tournament, but that doesn't count!).  We just found out earlier this week (it wasn't really confirmed until Wednesday, I think) that we would be leaving this weekend. Crazy.

I figured I would start a blog to document everything.  For one, we just got married and it'll be fun to go back and see how our first year of marriage went.  Secondly, it'll help keep family and friends (you guys!) updated on what's going on and how Tyrel is doing with basketball.  Thirdly, I may get bored over there and need something to do!  Obviously, I'll spend my days eating chocolate and waffles and counterbalancing all that with walking 5,634 miles a day. But I may also need somewhere to keep track of the pounds of fine Belgian chocolate I'll eat.  Hopefully, this blog doesn't end up lame and that some of you will actually read (REED hehe) and enjoy it!

Anyways, our flight takes off tomorrow (Saturday the 20th) in the afternoon.  We'll have a couple hour layover in Chicago and then a straight-through to Brussels.  I'm hoping the plane isn't really crowded and we'll have room to walk around.  There's a 7 hour time difference between here (Kansas) and Verviers, Belgium.  We should arrive around 9ish in the morning.

The crazy thing about going over to Verviers is that we basically had to pack our lives into two bags!  Luckily, Debbie (Ty's mom) is a packing extraordinaire; along with her and the compression bags we bought, we got all my stuff in my suitcases.  They'll supply us with an apartment (fingers crossed that it's fully furnished) and a car.  Unfortunately, the car is a manual...can you imagine me driving one? I may just have to get a little bike with a bell and a basket to go grocery shopping! haha 

I'll try to take a ton of pictures and post them on here and facebook to keep everyone updated.  Facebook and Skype will be our main vessels of communication with the American world so make sure to add us! My Skype username is: j10menard

Wish us luck and send us lots of prayers!

Au revoir! 

Jess and Ty