Rivers & Roads

Lots of fun things have been happening in Gent this week! Saturday was the beginning of the Odegand Festival, which means an Ode to Gent, and is the beginning of the cultural period here. So many museums and monuments are open for free to the public and there are many concerts and other cultural events happening throughout the city. On Saturday night they had put a big stage on top of the water in the canal in the middle of the city, so there was a big concert, lights, and fireworks! We only went for the last part (aka the fireworks) but it was really impressive!

Also this weekend as we were taking the train back from Simon's parents house, I remembered all these photos I had taken from the first time I came to Gent but were lost on the camera that fell into the canal. So I tried to reenact a few of them at the train station, showing all the bikes at the station, and then a few from a very nice park near by. In one of the photos you can see this strange feature the park has, it almost looks like a grave yard covered in tomb stones, but then all of the stones have names of museums from all over the world. Very strange. In this park you can also rent dogs to take on walks! There is a shelter for lost or abandoned dogs, and you can pay to take them on a walk for an hour or two, which seems like a nice concept. 

We have been attempting to make our apartment look a little nicer this past week, so I have included some photos of the stencils we have not put on our new dresser. They came out a little foggy so we need to put some final touches on the outlines but I think they look really nice! (Rosy I hope you enjoy the bee stencil, thought of you while I was making it) Also we bought two tall chairs to place in front of our window in the living room so we can pretend we have a balcony. It is now a pretty nice spot to eat breakfast at!

Visa Update: I go to Brussels on Friday to visit the US Embassy and get a paper signed that I have never been married. Will know more after that, hopefully.

Dutch Word of the Day: 24 = veerentwintig. 4 = vier 20 = twintig. They say their numbers backwards, instead of twenty four, they say four and twenty....very confusing.