A few random observations...

While I don't, at present, have time to write a full post, I wanted to jot down some observations and funny things that have happened since I've been in Brussels. Here they go, in no particular order...

While running today I had a guy flash his van headlights at me. Kinda of like someone would honk at you, but with lights. Strange.

Walking beside the canal I noticed a bunch of glass near the curb. My naive mind thinks, well that stinks... what if you wanted to park your car there! But then I notices this glass was appearing pretty frequently but at irregular intervals. The mystery was solved when I saw, to my shock, a car whose window had been broken into. So that means all those patches of glass I saw were previous break-ins! This also explains a sign I saw posted in one car farther down the road that read, "Please do not break into this car. There are no valuables inside. Thank you." It's worth a try I suppose. I think a better option would be to find a different place to park.

The public transport system here works on the honor system with random checks by the "control". I bought a month pass because I knew I would be using the metro and buses a lot. Some people take their chances. If I ever felt foolish about spending the 30 Euros to legally ride, I was vindicated yesterday. As the bus I was on pulled up to a main stop, I noticed all these uniformed guys standing around. It felt like something out of a movie, but the bus stopped, the doors opened, and these guys boarded the bus and asked to see everyone's tickets. One rider across from me got up and tried to get off saying, "Oh, I forgot my wallet, I'll get off..." No mercy. Thankfully I had my pass and the guy who checked it seemed quite pleasant. The funny thing is that the picture I had to use to get the pass was really a bad picture. Incredibly unbecoming. I also happened to be very sharply dressed that day so the contrast was pretty noticeable. The guy looks at my pass, looks at me, is about to hand it back but decides to look at it again and then says, in French, something along the lines of that pictures does not portray you well, you look much nicer in person. I just smiled.

While we are on the topic of public transportation I would like to note that the Metro stations play play music on the platforms. Not only does this make the time go by faster it makes you feel like you are living in a musical. Especially when you get off the train and the musical selection just happens to perfectly suit your mood. The first time it happened to me I half expected people to break out in dance!

One unpleasant thing about this city is that you frequently gets whiffs of nasty pee smells while walking down the street; especially passing corners or even some metro entrances. Naturally this grosses me out completely. However, I had a revelation the other day regarding this disgusting habit people seem to have here. The explanation relates to a very famous statue you may be familiar with called Manneken Pis. Basically it's a statue of a little boy peeing. It all of the sudden didn't surprise me that in a city where the most famous statue is urinating in public, that the general population would think that it was an okay thing to do.

Belgium is famous for chocolate, fries (not called French fries, but simply fries), and waffles topped with anything from sugar to creme to bananas to chocolate. All things at are basically incompatible with eating healthy. Why can't someplace be famous for its smoothies or something?!

I've had more beer in Brussels in the last two weeks than I've had in the last 3 months. (That's actually not saying much.) Why? Because in addition to the treats I mentioned above, Belgium beers are also world-renowned. Sitting down with friends and having a drink is like the national past-time here. And, I would like to add that they have fruit flavored beers! A cherry beer is called a Kriek. Highly recommended drink you should try... but they also have raspberry, peach, honey, ect. It's amazing!

Good night ;)