Life is beautiful

Well this week has been pretty uneventful, which was nice.  It was a very relaxing week that was not too busy. During the week I was able to spend some night just skyping with people I don't talk with often and reading some of my book. I am trying to read Eat, Pray, Love before I go home so I can see it soon in theaters. It is a great book and really makes me think a lot. Just the other day the book inspired my sister, my mother and me to make a list of ways to indulge. I am realizing the importance of me time taking time to do things like read, take a walk, take a bath and just enjoying little things. My favorite quote from the book so far that I really love is "You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight." Now that I have settled into life here I am really trying to work on this. I think I already know life is beautiful and am able to find joy in the little things, but I can still work on finding everyday simple beauties and pleasures. One things she is working on is alone time in the book. There could not be a better time in my life for me to work on this and to learn to enjoy being alone.

This is our cone sushi we started with

On Friday night my roommates and I were too tired to do much so we decided to stay in and make sushi while we watched some Sex in the City! It was the perfect girls night in. Making sushi was super easy and very yummy! We all needed to just relax and catch up on some sleep.



my master piece, and wonderful photograph taken by Ashley



Today I went to one of my favorite places, the market at Midi station! It is such a large market full of all different kinds of things and so chaotic, I love it! I got all my fruits and veggies for the week and prepared some meals when I got home. After the market I went to a restaurant with my roommate Ashlee to study French. We are trying to make this a habit so we will study and see new restaurants. During the week we went out for a glass of wine and some amazing gelato around the corner. Today we just got coffee and probably the best hot cocoa (chocolate chaud) I have ever had! It is so nice we can just go sit for hours in a restaurant and they won't rush us out, we can just sit and drink and study. It was a wonderful day. Now I am going to read a little more. This coming week should be pretty busy, we have our Halloween party for all of ISB faculty at our apartment on Saturday! I will be sure to post about then next weekend :).  

Have a good week love and miss you all at home, but see you soon!

I have so much to be thankful for...



All of the happy people with our feast

Well this Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving and since my roommate is Canadian we hosted Thanksgiving on Sunday! It was so wonderful, everyone brought a dish or two and we had the place all clean and rearrnaged. We had ten people, six Canadians and four Americans. The food was delicious and the company was great. It really felt like Thanksgiving, however we could not get any football on t.v. but it was a great day. Then after everyone left my roommates and I cleaned up. I went to bed with a full belly, a lunch for Monday, a clean house and a big smile on my face.



My decorations of leave from the ground and a candle :)
Again photo by our personal photographer Ash





My contribution was this amazing salad with goat cheese,
apples, dried cranberries and walnuts. yum!









I have also been trying to explore Brussels more and walk around as a tourist. I discovered the EU the other day, the European Parliment and some great parks. I love just getting out and walking around here, there is always something new and amazing. The weather is already starting to get cold though so that will be difficult. I already bought a new winter coat to prepare.



As for school things are great. I am technically supposed to be co-teaching in my room so I have been trying to work my way to that with my teacher. I am making progress and started doing some of the morning meetings during the week! They have been going very well and I have lots of ideas for us. I also plan to do activities in the hall with small groups to do more activities. While I love my little two year olds I am enjoying the older grades that I work with in the afternoons as well. They are so much fun! The other day I went in during a math lesson and the kids weren't quite getting it. I was able to explain it a new way and they began to understand. I felt so helpful and really think I see myself with a little older kids in the future.



I also have been able to talk to Maddy, my neice, a lot lately which has been amazing. We talked about letters the other day becuase she is really into writing. When we were naming things that started with C she said "come to me". It was so cute but broke my heart because I cannot go to her. We had some good converstaions though and the other day she wrote me an e-mail! It was too cute, she was naming all of the things she wants to do when I visit and told me I was still her best friend. I am really starting to look forward to my next visit home. Things are great here but it will be nice to see everyone.

I will add pictures of Thanksgiving and adventures soon!



Wow it has been a while since I have posted, things have been getting very busy! First I must say thank you for the comments! I am a little slow and just realized I had comments, it made me so happy! I am glad people are reading and enjoying :).

I also have to share very exciting news that I am now an auntie x4!!!! Little Ryan Daniel Arnold was born on the 16th and I can't wait to meet him!

As for life here, things are going well. The first weekend in September was Beer Fest in Brussels. There were a bunch of tents set up in the grand place where the flower carpet was. We tried many beers I think my favorite was the mango beer. Very different but very good!



Mango beer!







My french classes have started and they are going tres bien! hehe. I am taking them with my roommate Ashlee and while it is making our schedule crazy, we really like it. We have a small class with a great teacher. Our first homework assignment was to go to a bakery and order a croissant, pretty great class to me!The teacher makes it fun and I am not worried if I make a fool of myself. Hopefully I will learn a lot so I can start talking to people here! Many people do speak English so I could get by but I would like to be able to not be the dumb American. We actually already had to miss a class for our open house at school. Our teacher was very understanding and Ashlee and I studied in the park Saturday to catch up.

Open house was really great! I was nervous because I presented half of a power point my co-teacher uses every year. I have never had to do anything like this in front of parents so I was scared. It was great though! Many parents have students in other grades too, so we had a small crowd which helped. The presentation went very well and I am happy to have my first open house over with! I feel like I will be much better prepared when I have my own room now.

In addition to French classes and open house our after school activities started this past week. I do two activities a week to earn a little extra money. They were fun and very simple. I do after school supervision for the children who have staff parents one day. Then Wednesday I am working with the drama teacher to have a rhythm and dance class with little kids. That one will be a lot of fun! I even have some of the kids in my classroom in this program. Busy but fun schedule!



Last weekend my roommates and I went to Amsterdam for the day. It was a beautiful city with lots of canals. We did a tour of the Heineken brewery while we were there too. It was quite the experience! This is my third brewery now and it was quite different. They had a simulation ride where you were turned into beer and brewed. It was very interesting, but good. At the end they gave us two free beers too! We didn't stay in Amsterdam because it was too expensive so we hopped a train at night to Rotterdam about 30 minutes away and stayed in a hostel there. We spent most of Sunday in Rotterdam and it was nice to see yet another city.



I think that is all that is new with me. I am really enjoying exploring Brussels more everyday and getting lost on runs regularly. I don't know when I will have this place figured out...it is just so big. I am really enjoying it though and looking forward to showing it to all my visitors! :)

Blood, sweat and tears

Oh yes the children have started at my school! The blood has been minimal, but very traumatic none the less. The sweat has also been minimal since it is Belgium where the sun hates to shine. There have been lots of tears however!

I am fully oriented and it is time to start working now. The way that the school brings the children into
 the school at the young age is very helpful. They started last Wednesday with 15 minute individual meet the teacher blocks for parents and kids. Then Thursday and Friday were two small sessions for one hour. This week is all of the children but only for a half a day. It has been an interesting week, but lots of fun! Many of the children do not speak a word of English and some of them have been having trouble leaving mom and dad. The other day I had a conversation with a little boy without understanding a word he was saying. We carried on as if we understood though, I presume we were both talking about how the ball was rolling. It is great to see the children interact with just gestures and usually just staring at each other. They are too cute for words!

Last weekend I went with a group of friends to Ostend, which is on the coast. The weather was great for Belgium standards! No rain and even some sun. Not quite beach weather but it was great to go see the water. The water was actually pretty warm so I enjoyed playing in it with my pants rolled up. It was a great wonderful day trip and pretty cheap!

This past week I got my first big kid pay check! It was very exciting and I made a great trip to the Sunday market with my earnings. I bought lots of fruits and veggies! The market is near school on Sunday's so after shopping we stopped at school for the welcome back BBQ! They really go all out for this thing it was very impressive. They had a DJ and a bunch of bounce house things. The playground was barely used because of the other fun things.

The other day I also signed up for french class! I am starting next Thursday. :) I get reimbursed by school so I figured why not try it. My days will be very busy though. Monday and Wednesday I will not get home til around 6 or 7. Tuesday and Thursday I will be getting out of school doing my after school activities, working out at school then going to french. I will not get home until after 9! It will be worth it though. I sure am keeping busy. More people keep making plans to come visit as well which is very exciting and will keep me busy! :)

Miss you all back home. Talk soon!

Exploring Belgium!

This past weekend was very busy but lots of fun. Friday ISB took us to Brugge for the day! We had a guided walking tour of the city followed by lunch and then a boat tour on the canals. The city was very beautiful with small streets, lots of churches and cute buildings. The lunch that work got us was very impressive. We had the whole top floor to ourselves with a three course meal. We ate at a brewery and tried the beer they made there. It was delicious! After the tours we all stayed and walked around the city some more enjoying more beers and french fries. I tried my first true Belgian fries...they are served with Mayo! It was actually quite good. I also tested my British accent out on co-workers of mine from England. They said that it was good and believable! :) That may have been the highlight of my day hehe. Then we headed back and had an early night because we were all pretty beat after that long day!

The next day I got up early and explored the city on a run with Ashlee. It was great to get up and be productive early! After that my roommates and I met up with people from work to see more of the city. The flower carpet festival was happening in the city so we went to see that. In last weeks post I had a picture of Grand Place marked off, this week that area was all full of flowers! They lay flowers and grass to look like a carpet it was beautiful. They even had a fountain in the middle.

Next we walked over to the park to sit for a bit since it was the first warm day in a while. It was nice to sit and enjoy the sun. We were sitting next to the palace so we decided to go take a tour inside. This is no longer where the king lives but where he works. The line outside was very long but there were free Ben&Jerry's samples while we waited! This is not standard at the king's work it was because of the festival, but what a great day to wait in line! Also that day they were setting up for the Brussels summer festival and doing band sounds checks. The band we heard while waiting in line was so good we decided to buy tickets. We now are attending a concert every night for this ten day music festival.

We went to our first concert last night. The bands were really good. My roommate and I listened to the bands online all day today. Tonight we went again and stood through the cold rain. It was not quite as enjoyable because of the weather but it was still good.

It was a very busy and fun weekend here. There has been a lot going on at home too, babies being born and kids growing up! Thank goodness for Skype :). Jackson started to crawl and said no the other day! I sure do miss the kiddos. I am very excited to start and meet my little ones here! This is our last full week of orientation before school starts. This week we have workshops with all of the teachers so I get to meet the teacher I will be working with. It should be an interesting week. :)

This is starting to feel real...

Last Saturday ISB took us on a tour of the city. The first part was bus then we walked and ended at Grand Place. It was great to figure out where things were and know what we were looking at. In the Grand Place we had a beer tasting! Work bought us six drinks. I think I have tasted them all now. :) The rest of the weekend we spent resting and getting to know the city. My roommate and I went for a 2 hour run/walk. We went all over the city and discovered what we were near! It was really exciting.
We are still having meetings for orientation and the most exciting one was yesterday morning with the head of ISB. It was a professional development and for the first time I was officially on the staff! It was so exciting, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be. Thanks Lesley!! I was able to contribute and be right on the same page as everyone. The school's philosophy and way of doing things seems so amazing and ideal! I am so excited to be a part of this school and I am not sure how I will ever work for another school. :)
Today school took us to IKEA for some things we needed for our place. It was a fabulous trip and now I feel like this is a cozy home. I have a blanket, real pillows, slippers and a rug. :)

Despite the rainy days and distance from all of those I love I am really enjoying it here! I miss you all and hope to talk with you soon. :) Bye for now!

Le Grand Place
The middle is blocked off because of a festival next weekend.

My new and improved bedroom!

Getting settled :)

Well sorry for the delay but I am back and still very happy here! Today the interns and I went to meet with our department head. She showed us important things in the school and on our new computers. She also gave us our first tasks. We have to start with some typical intern jobs like taking photos and making boards. After our meeting she took the four of us out to lunch near school! We went to a place I had actually wanted to go to because it looks so cute. They had a delicious, and expensive, buffet then I got creme brulee! I was sooo good...

After such a great day and a great nap I felt very motivated to clean and make the place look nice. I finished unpacking the little stuff that was still in bags then vacuumed and mopped my room, bathroom and living room! The places looks so great I love it.

Here are a few pictures of the place that I call work...

This is the chateau, which means castle. This is where all the offices are

Rock climbing wall!

Well I should really get to bed now, but just wanted to show some photos. More to come later!  :)