Rivers & Roads

Friday marked my first month here in Gent! I cannot believe I have already been here a month, it feels like yesterday I was saying goodbye to all of friends and family back in the US. But this first month has been really amazing. I am slowly but surely figuring out my way around town, starting to recognize street signs, not having to stop every block and check my GPS to make sure I am going the correct direction. I am starting to get more used to the fact that I don't speak Dutch and that it is alright to ask people questions in English. For some reason for me it feels strange really living in a city where you don't speak their language. For example when I visited France or Germany last semester, I knew I was just visiting and I would never see these people again so I didn't feel as bad asking questions in English, but now that I am living in Gent I feel bad not being able to speak to people in Dutch. It is also tough not being able to understand Simon and his friends when they are in a large group, but I am getting more used to it and everyone here speaks a good amount of English so it is really not that bad. Also I think once I am done with my online courses I will start taking some Dutch lessons. Simon has a friend who does Dutch tutoring, so I am hoping she can help me. I feel even if I an just understand a bit of Dutch and maybe speak a little bit it will help me meet more people and help me on the job front. 

Other than that the weather has been really great this past week, and the city is celebrating Gents spring, or Gentse Lente! So there has been free concerts, awesome markets, and graffiti competitions all around town this past week which has been fun. Also my bike is fixed (the back tire would not stay blown up) so I have found a very nice park about 15 minutes away to ride my bike to and go for a nice run. Another exciting event that happened today actually is that Simon and I made a deal that if I tried Escargot he would try peanut butter! (Yes you read that correctly....he has never tried peanut butter). Personally I felt the deal was not quite fair seeing as peanut butter is delicious and snails are terrifying and disgusting. But I kept up my end of the deal and ate two snails! With the sauce and everything they really were not that bad, but the texture and the way they look is a bit too much for me to get over. Below you will find a picture of a large snail Simon ate, along with other photos from around town this past week including a small flower bed we planted outside our window that has little plants popping up! Very exciting!

Also I realize that my photos have been acting strange and some are not allowing you to click on and make them larger. I am trying to figure out the problem but in the mean time I can always email people photos if they would like to see them larger, just let me know!