Back from Belgium

After a blissful two weeks in Belgium, I arrived back in Hamburg yesterday afternoon loaded with chocolate and wondering how I'll survive without Tom's mom's cooking...sigh!

Any way, there was no time for idling as my fridge was totally empty and there were other administrative things that needed to be taken care of before class this afternoon. For the first time I'd been less than enchanted with my life in Hamburg. In my local (discount) supermarket I became quite annoyed with the fact that I couldn't find everything (and my needs are quite modest: bread, cheese, milk and yoghurt) I needed in one place. After I had made peace with the fact that I would have to go to the supermarket further down the road to get longlife low fat milk, I had to learn to my chargrin that they didn't have what I was looking for either. I ended up going to a total of four supermarkets to get everything I needed on my shopping list. There is a shop which stocks all the brands I want, but it's such a schlepp to get to this supermarket, that I hardly ever go there unless absolutely necessary. My altered attitude towards Hamburg could also be explained by the fact that I'm slightly more homesick after spending time with Tom:-(

Food was the main theme during my stay in Belgium, if that hasn't become clear from my previous posts. Tom and I didn't do much other than lounge around reading or watching TV or watching some of the stuff he'd downloaded. Tom would exercise regularly, but the only exercise I got was the two times (in two weeks) I ventured out on a bike. The first time I went alone, so I took it easy, the second time Tom joined me and it was a struggle for me to keep up with him...I guess it's a foretaste of what things will be like when I get back and start climbing mountains with him again.

Our New Year's Eve was spent having fondue (not the cheesy kind) with his parents and their friends - an older crowd, but we still managed to amused ourselves sufficiently. At 12am we went outside (where it was unusually warm - it normally snows at New Year) to watch the local fireworks display. The village Tom's parents live in were outdone by its neighbouring villages, where the fireworks were a lot more impressive and numerous and with all the fireworks being set off, it sounded as if Belgium was being bombed/invaded again. On Saturday I accompanied Tom's brother's girlfriend to a volleyball game, which was preceeded by (you guessed it) a four course meal. The food (and wine, which another thing I had lots of in Belgium) was lovely and more than compensated for the fact that the home team lost. I am about 2 kg heavier than I was when I arrived in Belgium, but confident that I'll shed it again since today alone I probably walked around more than I did in the whole of last week;-)

Otherwise I'm looking forward to a hectic couple of weeks since I've got quite a couple of big assignments to hand in at the end of the month and my parents are coming to visit in two weeks' time. So I'll be posting interesting photos and experiences again in the time that they are here. I'm planning for us to check out Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, renew my acquaintance with the city I'm living in and checking out some of the places just outside of Hamburg. However, I promise to post if something interesting crops up in the mean time.

I've posted the pictures below just to remind myself of the lovely time I had whilst in Belgium.

Ciao

P.S. Will those in SA please let me know when you get my Christmas cards since they were sent out more than 3 weeks ago and should really have reached you.