Parlez-Vous Français?

Oui, Je parle le français un petit peu.

Yes I just answered my own question and my answer is very true. I speak a little French. I also need to get into the groove of studying and speaking it more. I find myself being afraid to speak most of the time. I can understand things quite well if someone else is speaking, but then it comes to the part where I have to answer back and that is where I freeze up. I don't understand why I am so afraid of speaking. I guess I feel like I will be judged on my horrible pronunciation or bad grammar. I took 2 very intense semesters of French just for moving to Belgium so I should feel more confidant in my abilities to speak the language, but I don't. It can be annoying because my in-laws keep badgering me to speak more French and they don't understand that I have an actual odd fear. Most days I really do want to speak, but I clam up. Another thing is if someone is talking to me I have to form an answer in my mind and by the time I can form that answer it seemingly would be too late to even speak, therefore I don't. I brought my textbook over with me and I also have a whole series of books that  my husband bought me that I should really crack open and do some studying from.
I was proud of myself this weekend. My husband and I were in Brico which is the Belgian equivalent to a Home Depot or Lowes and we were looking for the mail boxes. I decided I would be the one to ask a store employee where they were. I walked over to the employee and I said, "Bonjour, Ou sont les boîtes aux lettres?" and he promptly showed us where the mailboxes were. I felt very empowered and proud of myself. I know I need to work harder at it, but it will take some time.

So I have been vlogging away and I plan to do a video each week. I have already posted my 2nd full vlog today. Check out my Youtube page to keep up with my vlogs.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanCocoa/featured

A Vlog!

I am starting a vlog on top of my blog here. I want to primarily post videos on Monday's and it will be called Chocolate Monday's. I made a short introduction video that can be found below and my youtube page is http://www.youtube.com/AmericanCocoa

(Well 3) Holidays down and a move…an update!

Sorry it has been so long since the last time I blogged, but a lot has been going on. We of course had 2 (technically 3) holidays pass and then there was a major move involved and there was really no time that I could seriously sit with my thoughts and write until now.

HOLIDAY #1: Thanksgiving

Obviously Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Europe at all, but I haven’t ever gone without celebrating so I decided to bring the trimmings to Belgium. We invited over the in-laws who have never celebrated Thanksgiving ever (husband came to the US last year to celebrate with my family). I bought a small turkey from base which I made along with green beans, cornbread dressing served with cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, ham, and yams. My in-laws were very intrigued, but they really enjoyed the food especially the ham. I split the meal into courses and we also served a cheesecake for dessert. I found a great video on the history channel website which explained Thanksgiving to them and overall it was a great day. I will post pictures on my American Chocolate facebook page.

HOLIDAY #2: St. Nicholas Day

In Belgium and a few other countries on the 6^th of December St. Nicholas Day is celebrated.  We went over to my in-laws for a small meal and exchanged small gifts. Here is a link to a page to tell you all about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

A CHANGE IN SCENERY

So on the 17^th of December we were set to move from our apartment to our new house across town. Everything was going to plan until Wednesday the 14^th. My mother-in-law came over to help get some things ready for that Saturday and she received a call from the moving company that they would be unable to move us on Saturday due to they were attending a funeral, but they couldn’t move us on Friday and Thursday THE NEXT DAY was the only day they could do so. At this moment we went into panic mode and started just throwing things into boxes. My husband and I worked late into the night to get things packed and brought over to the new house.  The next day was crazy and we moved 2 days ahead of schedule which worked out quite well because it ended up snowing that weekend. We are very happy with our new house and it is nice to have a lot more room.

HOLIDAY #3: Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in our new house. My husband’s family does Christmas Eve dinner and so we went next door to his parent’s house for Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents at midnight. We received some great things which are very helpful to have in the new house. I bought my husband the full bluray collection of Star Wars and he has started turning me into a Star Wars nerd.  Pictures from Christmas will be on the facebook page soon.

Overall things are very good and the new year is upon us.

I also received some sad news from home. My neighbors who live next door to my mom back home in California lost their youngest son the Wednesday before Christmas. Keep them in your prayers.

Hallow”NOT”ween and Dog Sandwiches!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. A lot of things have happened and this post has been planned, but I never got around to it. Things have been moving along with us getting ready to move and therefore we have been just a tad busy. I am super excited about the move especially after I went by the new house yesterday and I saw how beautiful it looks. My in-laws definitely put a lot of time and money into this house. There are only a few things left to be done on the house and next month we are moving in. We have gotten quite a few boxes of things out of here and they are in waiting at my in-laws house since they do live right next door to the new house.

One thing I got to experience was my first Halloween in Belgium and I experienced it in two very different ways. First, I went to work on the base and therefore it was “Halloweened” out because it is an American base. Normally I don’t work on Mondays and in fact the food court is normally closed, but due to it being Halloween and there was an event going on in the evening we were open for business. The base had what is called a “Trunk or Treat” instead of the traditional Trick or Treat. What they did was have a street filled with parked cars which had their trunks all decorated and they handed out candy from each trunk to the kids. There were also carnival rides and games. Because EVERYONE with access to the base seemed to be there work was the busiest I have ever experienced it. I remember I was so excited when 6:30 rolled around and it was time for me to go. I hightailed it out of there as quickly as possible and made my way back home. On the drive home I experienced Halloween in Belgium…EMPTY STREETS! Well while driving through Attre I did see a group of maybe 4 kids in costume. Also back in our town I swear I saw a girl in costume as we made our way to the grocery store. Other than those occurrences the street was beyond empty.  I did learn that during the weekend Belgian kids will Trick or Treat in a large group with their school if they do anything. Belgium was a glow with the spirit though during the month of October. We went to restaurants that had cute little decorations and my in-laws even had a few along with a pumpkin they grew sitting at their front door (not carved though). There was also a man selling pumpkins every day in the town of Ghislenghien, I would see him setting up on the way to work all the time.

DOG SANDWICH is the name of a sandwich shop I discovered on the way home from work one day. It is located in the town of Ghislenghien on the same street as the guy who was selling the pumpkins. I was driving one day and I swore I saw a banner that said “Dog Sandwich”. I figured that I must be mistaken, but a few days later I decided to look a little harder and there it was as clear as day. I knew most likely they were not making sandwiches with dogs. Every day I would look to get a little more information and I saw on the window that they sold sandwiches, fries, and other snacks. I think it is a sandwich/fry shop (which in French a Sandwich shop is a sandwicherie)…Belgians LOVE their fry shops and I do too! I wonder if they sell hot dogs and that is what the whole Dog Sandwich thing is all about. I will definitely have to attempt to try it out one day.

One day I did have a little fun taking some pictures of what fall looks like here in Belgium. There is a little park and lake near where Oli's grandma lives so I took my camera when we went for a visit and this is the result...

This is my favorite of the pictures. The rest can be found if you "LIKE" my American Chocolate facebook page.

Fall is in the air

Well it is obviously fall as most of you can feel with the new chill in the air and the new colors coming to the trees. It was weird how fast the change happened here in Belgium. One day it was hot and humid to where we were sleeping with the fan on and the next it was windy, raining, and bone chilling cold. I have spent summers and winters here in Belgium, but never the fall. During the move I threw out a lot of clothes and I guess I was in a summer frame of mind because I realized the other day that nearly all of my clothes are summer clothes, but when I really thought about it the clothes I have are the types of things that I wear all year long.

 I am a girl from the California Bay Area and fall/winter for us is our normal weather with an added chill, some extra wind, and rain. I normally wore jeans or tights with a shirt or dress and when it was fall or winter I wore the same exact thing with a hoodie. In the past few years it has been my Simpson University hoodie that I bought during my year attending the school. I did have one big winter coat that normally I only wore that one day a year when we would drive to Tahoe and play in the snow for a day. That coat did come in handy last winter when I visited Belgium, but that was only after my first winter in Belgium from December 2009 to March 2010. I arrived with my adorable wool peacoat thinking I would be perfectly warm…I was very wrong and I froze my butt off. I also had my $1 gloves from Target which when I actually wore gloves at home they worked perfectly…wrong. I ended up being taken to the store by my now husband’s parents so they could buy be a proper winter coat. During the winter I still wore my Target gloves, but two pair at one time.

This winter I felt like I was going to be prepared I had left a few sweaters here, but I knew I needed more. I think I maybe own one long sleeve shirt that isn’t a PJ shirt which is my 2^nd one.  I think in the moving process I got rid of too many clothes. Many of them I could have worn this fall and winter. After my 2^nd paycheck from work which was way better than my first I decided some internet shopping was needed and I recently purchased many more long sleeved shirts. I am now a resident of Europe and in this season I need to start dressing like one I suppose and try to not freeze my butt off.

During the whole wardrobe issues I have been working very hard at my job on the Air Force base. I have nearly mastered the cash register and so on the busiest day I was assigned to cash register all day. By the end of the day I felt like my mouth was tired of talking. I am working hard to be the “bread buyer” in that my income is that to buy the groceries for our little household.  We are on a “eating more healthier” kick and we have been doing pretty good especially with that I am mixing American foods and Belgian foods into our week’s menus.  Yesterday we had homemade Philly Cheesesteaks while today we are having salad with grey shrimps and shrimp coquettes. The healthy eating kick is part of my journey to lose weight. I want to lose the weight mainly for my health because truthfully I find nothing wrong with the way I look. I feel beautiful in my own body, but losing weight would help reduce health complications such as high blood pressure which I am currently on medication for.  I am also on this journey because my husband and I would want to have a baby someday and it would be best for my health and the health of our future fetus that I lose weight. It would be great to be off the blood pressure pills by the time I have conceived. I know that overweight women can get pregnant and have successful pregnancies, but there are more life-threatening risks with being overweight such as gestational diabetes. I just want to check all my Ps and Qs before we attempt to bring a life into the world.

NOTE: Please pray for an extended family member of mine Javonna who is in the hospital in pretty serious condition. We pray that she recovers and gets well soon.

A Disclaimer of Sorts

I just wanted to make a quick clarification about something I said in yesterday’s blog titled:  Have it Your Way, I made a comment about one of my supervisors stating, “the one supervisor chick scares me a little. She is nice and all, but she just has a really strict demeanor about her.” I want to make a clarification due to in today’s world people are losing their jobs over blog, twitter, and facebook posts and sometimes they are what they feel in their heart or it just might be that it came out in the wrong way, therefore I am making a clarification so it comes out in the right way. I stated that she is nice and she really is a nice lady and has been nothing, but nice to me. I said that she scares me, but not in a negative way. Her strict demeanor is a positive attribute and I applaud her for being in a setting where she most likely has made friends, but she keeps it strictly professional and makes sure that everything is done the way it is supposed to be done. It is easy to be in charge on a job as a woman and be strict on your employees and be given the title of “bitch”, but she has been able to be strict without over exaggerating her position and she is nice. She is a bit scary in that when she is around even though she is nice you know that she means business and your work should be done the way it is to be done. I personally really do like her and it made me smile today when she mentioned how hard I have been working in only my 3 days. I had a previous jobs a few years ago and one supervisor girl was scary in the sense in that she truthfully earned the “bitch” title in that she was strict and to a way where it seemed like she went beyond out of her way to be so overbearing.

In conclusion I wanted to say that a woman can be stern and strict without being a “bitch” if she does not go beyond out of her way to just be overbearing on people and is just strict the way it needs to be and still be kind. I just wanted to clarify that I really do like my supervisor and even though I said she was a little scary I think that if she wasn’t that way maybe I wouldn’t work as hard as I have been working and I appreciate her stern manner and I appreciate that she is also quite nice.

...I kind of feel like I rambled on a bit towards the end, but I think I got my point across that I like the supervisor lady and I just wanted to be clear on my thoughts and not have my previous statement taken the wrong way. 

Have it Your Way...

Yesterday was my first day at my new job. I am working at a Burger King on the Air Force Base. It obviously isn’t a glamorous job at all. I can’t say I love it, but at the same time I can’t exactly say I hate it. This job is purely for the $$$ and I am doing dollar signs because I am making that dollars not euros since it is an American base.  On base they use US Dollars and some places like the Burger King will accept Euro, but they give the change back in dollars. Everyone at work seems pretty nice; the one supervisor chick scares me a little. She is nice and all, but she just has a really strict demeanor about her. A couple of my co-workers are like me; they met a Belgian person online and ended up coming to Belgium to be with them. Overall the job really is just okay. I of course started at the bottom and therefore I get to be the person to get the trays, clean the trays, and take out the trash…that kind of stuff. Driving to work is okay, it only takes me 25 minutes to get to work and there is never really traffic on the road I take.

            I also took time after work to check out one of my favorite benefits and that is shopping at the commissary which is AMAZING! After being in Belgium so long you nearly forget the wonders of an American grocery store. I walked into the commissary and there everything was, the things I love from back home. I of course had to buy things like a 2 liter bottle of Root Beer (which is not sold in Europe because Europeans don’t like the taste. They think it taste like medicine.), crystal light, peanut freaking butter (Jif of course) with Smuckers jam (which Oli calls Smugglers), and a few other things that I felt like I just had to buy. The prices are also GREAT!

           

            The job also really pushed me to work towards being healthier, working out, and trying to drop some more weight. I had to buy a shirt in the store because I couldn’t fit any of the uniform shirts that they had on site and they are ordering more in a larger size so I could have an official shirt. Kind of lame :(. I also had to hem my pants because they were actually too long on me and yesterday I was stepping on them. I am happy that I am working the max number of hours next week so that means more $$$ in my pocket, but I work a lot and I don’t get a day off until Monday which means I won’t get much time with Oli over the weekend. Oh well we are both benefiting from my long hours so we must endure it.

            Off to bed for me…I have work in the morning…at Burger King, "Have it Your Way!"