Rivers & Roads

I would say it is officially fall here in Belgium. The days are brisk, the nights are chilly, and the leaves are falling! But fall is by far my favorite season, so I am not complaining. It has been an uneventful week here in Gent, Simon has been working extra hours because one of his coworkers just had a baby and I have been studying and going to lots of yoga! Next week is my last week of class for level one, then we have a week off, and then our final test will be the week of November 3rd! If I pass, I will move onto level two which start the following week, no rest for the weary! I am feeling pretty good about my dutch, it has been improving slowly but surely and now that I have a lot of the basics down from level one I think I will start to feel more confident in level two trying to use my Dutch a bit out in the real world!
This past weekend we went back to Simon's parents house, where we took a very nice walk with Pluche along the river where Simon likes to go fishing. The trees and all the old houses along the water are really beautiful. Also in the photos below you will see a few shots from my latest museum visit to SMAK. The current exhibition is about an exhibition the late Jan Hoet put together in 1980 about art in Europe after 1968. Jan Hoet was the founder of SMAK and died earlier this year, so most of their recent exhibitions have been tributes to his work.
Also I have included a few new videos for you all! An old one of Siena in front of the flatirons playing with bubbles, and then a small clip of our train ride from Simon's home town back to Gent! For some reason blogger cannot find this video when I look at my youtube account, so I just included the link.

We have a few exciting upcoming events! In two weeks Simon and I are going to Amsterdam! Then the week after that my friend Taylor is coming to visit, so lots of things to look forward to!

Visa update: We have gotten word that the police officer will be coming by our apartment this Sunday afternoon, so hopefully we will have good things to report after that!

Dutch phrase of the day: Ik wil een kopje koffie, alstublieft! = I want a cup of coffee, please!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bliug5s0HI