Raining Day.

What better to do on a rainy day but visit the Bilbliotheek, which for all you Americans is the public library. Here the way business are open is very strange. Yesterday the library was open from 10-12, 2-4, 6-8. If you have ever been to Europe I think this is a common practice among business owners. I wanted to make sure I could get a book or two so I made the first window and went for the books written in English. They were noted with a british flag on the binding and the selection was quite sparce. I managed to find two books. The first was written by Malachy McCourt (Frank's younger brother), A Monk Swimming and the other was a classic by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. I have already read the latter but I thought for the selection that I had to choose from, that this was a good choice.

Every Wednesday down the street from my home there is a market set up for about two blocks that sells everything from candy, meat, fish, clothing, fruit & flowers. I had not yet been and it closes at 1 p.m. so I thought that I would check it out. I walked around and it was getting close to one and was starting to rain again so most of the vendors were closing up shop. I was only a light sprinkle so I grabbed a hamburger from one stand and continued just browsing. The most prevelant smell that ran through the market was the smell of fresh fish. After about being there for 20 or so minutes I decided to go home. Below are some pictures I took.

My host brothers girlfriend was at the house and she had to go downtown to get birthday presents for some extended family of my host. She doesn't like going downtown by herself so she asked if I would come. I had nothing to do so I went along for the tram ride. We went to an awesome chocolate store and then to the mall. I felt like I was back in America... All malls are the exact same. I brought my camera and took some pictures of the cathedral down in the Groenplaats, which is basically the center of the city where lots of restuarants and cafes are located. Enjoy...

Finally, I recently downloaded and put some money on a Skype account, so I was able to talk to people back home. Mostly just my family because I know their numbers, but it was really cool to be on the other side of the world and call their cellphones from a computer with little or no problems. The only issue when talking real time is the 6-9 hour time difference that we have with the U.S. depending on where people live. Skype rocks and I was happy to hear familiar voices and do some quick catching up.

I am headed to watch the National Team open up the European Qualifier tonight.