Monday was Steve's 1st day for training at the Mechelen plant. It's about a 20 minute walk from our apartment so Steve was up and the door by 7am. I woke up enough to say bye to him, but I didn't really wake up until noon (16 hours of sleep, yikes I was tired!).
Since I woke up so late, I didn't have too long to have to entertain myself. My day was filled Olympic coverabg (BBC shows it in English!), random television, crossword puzzles, journaling, and surfing the internet. It's so bizarre watching Belgian television. Some channels play in English with Felmmish subtitles (MTV, Discovery, Nat Geo), while others are hit or miss on the English. Lots of shows are dubbed over (like all cartoons, Big Bang Theory, movies, nikelodeon). The Olympics have been a blessing - I can laways count on those channels! It's also neat to watch the events live, but bizarro to see the games through the Brit's eyes & athletes. But I'm learning cool phrases like "He's a whisker away" (with British accent, of course).
I had to go all day without contact form Steve, which is really hard for me. I'm quite the worrier & like knowing what's og on with him at all times. This experience should be a good learning time for me -- ha! He showed up around 5:30. He told me parts of his day and relaxed a little before we geared up to go exploring. We needed to hit up the supermarket and were also going to go see the Cathedral in the heart of Mechelen, but we only got as far as the market.
We were afraid the supermarket was going to close, so we went there first. We were only going to get a couple things, but it was more Americanized than we had predicted and ended up getting too much to tote around to the church. The store was laid out in the same manner as a small grocery in the States and the prices were comparable (after you convert the Euros). The only downside was that not alot was in English (unless it was an English brand like "Old El Paso"). Luckily, I remembered some basic food names with some trial & error (I kept getting turkey and chicken confused byt finally figured it out).
With our haul, we headed back to the apartment. We bought: 6 pack coke, 6 pack coke-light (which is not equivalent in taste to diet coke :-/), 10 pk bread rolls, strawberries, yogurt, sliced turkey, 2 chicken breasts, tortillas, shredded cheese, fajita mix, & 2 packages of various Belgian cookies -- all for 35 euros.
When we got home, I sliced & fried up the cihcken to make fajitas. Even though the packet was Old El Paso mild fajita mix (that I've bought before back home), the mix tasted like BBQ seasoning. With the cheese & the tortiallas, it wasn't too bad. Although, Steve couldn't get over the BBQ seasoning and chose just to eat the chicken.
After dinner, we watched more Olympics while I did more crossword puzzles and Steve worked on homework. Halfway through, Steve said, "This is a throwback to college -- me working & you goofing off." Thanks Steve.
We went to bed around 11. Steve fell asleep quickly, but it took me awhile. I blame the 2 cups of cappuccino I made in the afternoon while Steve blames the 16 hours of sleep I got the night before. Tomaato, Tomatoo.
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