Thursday, September 9, 2010

Words, Frisbees, and Amazing Things in Jars


What I learned at school today: how to say gun, how to say machine gun, and how to say kill. (Hooray, world peace!) And that the word for machine gun is also a type of sandwich with fries. Just about everything is connected to food here. I also learned that while there is not a French word for Alaska, there is a French word for Alaskan: Alaskien(ne). Go figure.
I got out of school at noon today because it is the first week of school (normally Thursdays are spent on actual work with actual people as we learn to be social workers), so I enjoyed sandwiches at home with Marianne, Gilles, and Marie. After that I took Touchtou out to the back ‘garden’ (it’s more like a pasture) to play frisbee. He really loves to run and play, and we play frisbee almost every day. Today my frisbee skills (meaning a lack thereof) were a bit problematic, as I underestimated the distance of my throw and sent the frisbee sailing over the fence into the veritable wilderness of the ditch. Hence, I did some fence-hopping, discovered a new variety of European Nettle, squelched through the mud, and found the frisbee with some help from Touchtou. So that was my wild foray for today.
This afternoon Gilles took me to a shopping area (sort of a gathering of stores) for school supplies. I needed a lot of things, among them a ‘cutter’---basically a retractable razor blade. And it is totally legal and normal for me to carry it through school. So now I can not only drink alcohol, but carry a knife in a school. Hoo hoo hoo. We strolled around the store and made a stop for peanut butter and jam. It turns out that Gilles’ favorite American food is peanut butter (he practically lived on it while he was in Wisconsin). And of course, it is also my most favorite food in the world! We also bought some Speculoos, a uniquely Belgian food, for me to try. Speculoos(Spekyoolohse) is a type of Belgian cookie, but recently they have invented a spread. It looks like creamy peanut butter,  and it’s sticky like peanut butter, but it tastes like cookies! It blew my mind. Cookies in a jar. Spread on bread like peanut butter. And it tastes super good. The marvels of modern innovation. 

1 comment:

  1. That sounds awesome! I want Speculoos! What TYPE of cookie does it taste like? cause that is important. - Keane

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