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On Saturday, my diva-licious roommate Lisa, my obnoxious other roommate Melanie, and perfect me traveled 75 minutes northwest by train to Oostend Belgium.
getting there.
The train ride was... interesting. Before I start there is one thing we all must remember: life is about laughing through all the nasty stuff that always seems to happen. So anyway, we sat down in our big seats and clean smelling air....and not 10 minutes later we were getting kicked out of 1st class to sit on the floor of 2nd class. We had no idea there were different classes on a 75 minute train ride... also we did not know that the train station sells more tickets than there were seats so.... that's how we ended up on the floor of 2nd class. The Europeans laughed at the stupid American students sitting on the floor...we laughed at ourselves......it was a good time.
where's the beach.
Once we got off the train we realized ... "Um...where's the beach?" Once we got our "wits" about us we followed the crowd and found the beach.
To answer the questions that I know my nasty-minded cousins are thinking:
No, no one was nude.
Yes, men wore gross speedos.
Thing I learned about Europe: people have a lot less shame. Good for them. I cheer them on.
The North Sea was...like Jersey...pretty but not beautiful. The water was a lot warmer than I was expecting...it was about the same as the Jersey shore in late June.
As soon as I put my towel on the sand, I was fast asleep. No matter where I am in the world, give me some sand, some waves, and I'll be happy.
The boardwalk around the beach was crowed...a lot of kids...a lot of families. One thing I've noticed here is people do not hover over their children. People let their kids run all over over and they never say a word. I guess that's because the adults themselves do not say anything when they bump into someone. No "excuse me" or "pardon me".... they just glare at you like you did something wrong. As John our American advisor would say, "That's Europe."
That day was probably the best day I've had here. It was nice to have something familiar all the while experiencing something different.
update for SWIFT.
Today was the start of my 3rd week at SWIFT. Melanie and I pretty much have the commuting thing down---well except for when we fall asleep on the bus and jump up asking "Are you sure this is our stop?"...
My assignment for the week is to update the wording of the job postings SWIFT puts on websites like Monster.com and Linkedin. The work isn't too hard--- its just a lot of creative writing which takes some time but I'll get it done.
*Pictures of my trip to Oostend are posted on my Facebook.
I loved every second of reading this! Laughed a lot haha oh man the train story is priceless i know 98% of what you were talking bout haha i use to take a 4 hour train from my school to home a lot my first 2 years. My oh myy is it an experience, every single time it was something different lol. But anyways i love hearin about ur adventures! im goin to have my mom read them too when i go home :) Love you. Keep havin that fun, and excitement while learning!
ReplyDeletehi Teresa, i love the way you write! i loved how positive your outlook on living is.its taken me a long road to find my way there , and sometimes still finding my way. you're going to get the most out of this great adventure with that outlook. quoting oprah"success is when preparation meets opportunity" and girl or should i say jersey girl your on your way! loved all the references ,so we can all picture where you are in our heads. love from my heart aunt colleen
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