Brandon showed me a website with TV episodes on it and I’ve been catching up on Scrubs. During the time that takes to download, I’ve been watching the DVDs of Grey’s Anatomy Season 1 that another assistant leant me. (It’s like CANDY.) It’s weird, both really remind me of watching TV with my college friends, one freshman year, one senior year. =( The crowning moment might have been when Scrubs made a reference to Grey’s Anatomy. My two fake worlds collided.

I successfully found ear plugs today at Leclerc, which I was slightly worried about since I don’t know what they are in French. Interestingly, I still don’t know, and I have the box right in front of me.

(Laurel: This post demonstrates correct use of my categories. Apologies for the confusion.)

So, most of you know I eat Chewy granola bars (peanut butter chocolate chunk) constantly, and I’ve been doing it since I was six. Well, I’ve found the French equivalent… breakfast cookies. I have the feeling though that they’re meant to be eaten WITH a breakfast, not as a breakfast. But then the box suggests eating them with a banana and a bowl of milk, so maybe I don’t quite understand.

Am so sleepy. Thank God it’s Wednesday. Or, Tuesday afternoon.

Am so excited about going to London again. I’ve been so absorbed in finding a hostel that I forgot that I will actually be there for the New Year.

I feel that I may have titled one of my posts “omg” before. Am possibly regressing.

I made myself a fake myspace profile for a class on Tuesday, so if anyone would like to be my fake (or real) friend, please feel free to add me. My name is ittyfitz.

Huzzah, it’s Thanksgiving. Absolutely nothing Thanksgiving-like is going on here, and no one really knows it’s happening but the English teachers, which is kind of nice. Hearing Happy Thanksgiving here is more personal, like someone remembering your birthday or something.

Right now someone is out in the technical closet doing completely mysterious maintenance work. In fact, all of the maintenance work here is mysterious. And noisy.

Yesterday I bought my train ticket to London. Xmas plans are still kind of confusing but starting to take some shape.

Also, I got my carte de sejour today, and it’s all pretty and laminated.

My dad is sending me shoes and boots! I’m so glad. I wore my Danskos on the 10-minute walk to the movie theater tonight and by the time I got there my toe was already stiff and sore. I don’t understand at all. And these new shoes I bought are actually starting to show some wear on the heel. Bah. The high-quality shoes hurt and the comfy shoes are going to fall apart. This is like a reversal of everything I’ve been taught about shoes. And that’s a lot.

I believe I have found a travel buddy for England and Scotland over Christmas. Yay! I’m excited about going back to London, although of course it won’t be the same without Jessica, who I remember sometimes wrote lovely letters to our bed and breakfast hosts.

R and I went to see Le Dahlia Noir tonight. I’m not sure if it was the dubbed French or not, but it was really confusing. Can anyone confirm if it was confusing in English?

First:

Does anyone know anything about hecklerspray.com? I found an article there that I want to use in one of my classes but I’d rather have a clue about the website before I do that. But it’s actually kinda hard to find anything cohesive that criticizes U2, and that’s what I need.

Second:

The Castle Gravensteen, as promised. These are, finally, the last of my vacation pictures.

Some of the best pictures were impossible because of the wooden trap door things all along the top of the castle. But I liked this one anyway.

Look, it’s Ghent.

And more of it. Isn’t it nice? Except, maybe, for that huge crane.

Excuse the larger picture. I hope it fits in my template. I thought it was worth the risk since it’s much more imposing when it’s bigger. It reminded me really strongly of Hank Morgan, as medieval castles tend to do, though this one not quite as much as this one did. (I still kind of resent the clever performer who used his forest seduction joke on me there, I have to admit, so that now I associate not only Hank Morgan with the place, but also this conversation: CP in front of crowd: Have your parents warned you about forests? Me: We don’t have forests where I’m from. CP: Well all right then, let’s go. … We had to wonder if he might have actually wanted to depart from his script and ask me what on earth kind of place I was from.)

Today R#2 and I went with a history teacher to Verdun, only about 45 minutes from here, but hard to get to without a car. We went to the cathedral, and the old bishop’s palace where the bishop no longer lives (but which had a political cartoon exhibit that was interesting), and the WWI fort, and the WWI French cemetery, and a town called Fleury that was destroyed, and possibly something else I’ve forgotten about. Oh yeah, the memorial museum. There’s an American cemetery too, but we didn’t have time to go today. I hope it doesn’t sound crass when I say that I prefer the marble look of the American cemeteries. But I did like this one too.

I took some pictures with my phone.

The Muslim graves are set in their own square so that they can all be turned toward Mecca.

Looking out from that tower in the second picture. You can’t tell, but that’s the French flag in the middle.

There’s a Muslim monument and a Jewish monument, and apparently Hitler made them cover up the Jewish monument during the occupation.

Not really, but the CDC did interview me. A bit odd to be on the other side for once, but fun. I hope I didn’t say anything obnoxious.

Mala sent me an excellent CD and an article from Texas Monthly which you can read a very small part of here. It made me smile.

I know, I’m not great with titles right now. Anyway, here’s the last of Bruges.

In the main square

The Basilica of the Holy Blood. The Holy Blood was on display because it was All Saint’s Day, but I didn’t go up for a closer look because all of these serious religious people were doing that and I didn’t feel like imposing. There were a lot of noisy tourists in the building, a different feeling from most cathedrals.

We spent so much time in the city center that we began to wonder where the canals were, but when we finally went to the museums we found several, as well as several doors of questionable use.

the Michalangelo in the Church of Our Lady

closer up. I liked her a lot.

Outside the Gruuthuse museum, Emily wonders where I’ve gone and what I’m doing.

Next up: the castle in Ghent!