America! and Other Good Things

Internet's been down in my place for the week, so I haven't been on skype much. Rectifying that problem. Sitting in the only place in this giant building that has wifi - the VIP guests suites in one of the abandoned wings. The plaque on the door says "Bishop's Room" Let me tell you, these bishops were living well. Great views of the gardens, a bathtub, queen size bed, small living room. Then again, you got to make up for the celibacy some how. 

  

That being said, this week has been good. I found a workout room and a SAUNA in American College. This place just keeps on giving. Especially connsidering how damn cold it is right now. Days have been in the 40s and that's not likely to change. But a sauna? Really? I mean, I pay next to nothing to live here. I am really wallowing in smugness. My friends are ready to kill me. Except if they did, they wouldn't be able to use my kitchen. Or the gardens, study/game rooms, gardens, and definitely not the sauna.

 

I made a gumbo this weekend, partly to soothe my home sickness and partly because the other people in the community have been feeding me and we don't want to be ungrateful. It went fairly well considering I had no andouille, duck or game, seasonings I wanted, ect. Later found some sort of a smoked sausage, okra, and cayenne pepper. Still no Tony's [ahem, ahem]. Also, it turns out that the Belgians have figured out a good way to deal with their urban pidgeon problem: they eat them.

 

 

Not only does this take care of the pidgeon problem, it put retirees back to work.
You think he's harmless? Think again.

 

In honor of that (and this is the only time I've ever seen a Belgian take decisive action on anything since I've been here) I  bought a few and ate them. It went over well.

 



The man in the middle is a Czech Andre the Giant.
To his left is the Indian Vizzini.



I live next to a check guy named Josef, who is HUGE. Andre the Giant with a Eastern European accent. (The man to his left is an Indian Vizzini) He has been trying to make the point that all the soups people eat here are not fit for men (mostly joking?) and that men should eat more red meat. But, he had some gumbo that was leftover in the fridge and the next day I had a note on my door that said, "Alex the soop was very man soup! It was pretty good. - Josef" And I appreciate that. It is. Manly as hell.



 

Great guy. Luckily, or else he'd just kill us all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spice problem has been amended somewhat because I met a woman from Alabama in one of my classes who immediatly identified me as South Louisiana/Cajun (she's Cajun, too). Turns out her husband is in the military here, so she managed to requisition me every different type of Tabasco from the base store and gave it to me today in a bag, complete with bow. God bless the USA.

Defending Freedom, Feeding ExPats

 

Also enjoying my Innovation Management class for the sole reason that the Europpean Prfessor keeps telling the European class how much more productive we are in the US, better at wealth creation, better and leading technology innovation, and so on and so on. Really, I go to class just to preen and smirk at my classmates every time he points out one of their percieved inadaquacies as compared to the US. Every line graph akes you stand a little taller.

 

To cap it off, today I went to go get the invoice for my tuition, estimated by me at 1150 Euro ($1600) for a masters and a bachelors. We pay per course credit, and it turns out that hours after the normal 60 hours are discounted 60%. With my two programs, I'm taking 120, which means that I'm paying, for my entire masters degree, a grand total of.........$250. 650 Euro ($900) total, for two degrees. Bitchin.

 

And God bless the Belgian taxpayer.

 

Yeah you right.