It's the mall. Wijnegm Shopping Center is to Antwerp what the Battlefield Mall is to Springfield, Missouri. Though I am no fan of digressing from the downtown scene, as malls have always been the death, the absolute DEATH of downtown America, WSC was a nice change. It had everything the Meir has to offer only it's all on under one building including a permanent every-mall fixture, Sbarro's pizza.

As I've previously mentioned, Beligium is in the midst of their summer sales. Eva and I had intended on purchasing new pants for our trip but we ended up going crazy in Hema and I got a new notebook for my journal entries of the handwritten variety while in Italy. Eva scored by getting a new pair of work pants and though I tried on a couple of pants, most I simply held up to my waistline and said, "Uh uhhh." (No.) We've decided that after we get back I'm going on an Eva diet. Not that she's ever gone on one in her entire life, but she's going to give it a shot with me as her guinea pig. I imagine it will entail cutting out my camembert moldy cheese and my favorite salt and pepper chips, but the result will be rewarding. Already, since living here for 8 months, my cheekbones are at least visible. :) Now if only I can lose that thigh-rubbing business! Certainly the pasta, gelato, wine and bread won't help the case while we are running around Italy. It will only be offset slightly by the amount of walking around old cities and even older old city ruins.

So in preperation for our leaving tomorrow we decided to sort our dirty clothes into two piles, the "dirty and we don't care and we're not taking them" pile and the "got to love clean underwear and can't live in Italy without them" pile. We headed up the street around 9 (the usual closing time for laundrymats) and found our destination closed. Just up the street we found another one that closed at 10. We were in the green. Good to go.

After enjoying the pleasant sounding whir, click, spin, water washing bit (we always stare for minutes on end at our clothes flopping around in brown water at high speeds) we put them into the dryer. 10 minutes later, much to our alarm (which is a totaly well-deserved pun) the lights go dim, the dryers stop and an alarm sounds. Most laundrymats here close here at 9, but if you are still inside of the place doing laundry, you can finish up your business and then let yourself out, letting the door lock behind you. Not here.

Our trip-precious clothes were still damp. Though it was quite a disappointment to me, I found it sort of funny. Every 3 minutes, for 2 minutes, an ear piercing shrill alarm sounded. Not a car-alarm sound, but a shrill get-the-hell-out-of-our-laundrymat sound. Much like the shoplifting alarms that sound off when you exit a store and the ink-filled security tag hasn't been removed...only this one was non stop. Eva was quite peeved. We hurridly jammed our damp clothes into our bags and exited the place.

One thing I am learning about Eva is the down-time required for her to regain her composure. :) It's all of 10 minutes, but for these 10 minutes I didn't want to bring up the fact that it was sort of funny that we were headed home with slightly misted clean clothing. I was over it as soon as it began. One of my two wearable bras had been eaten by the dryer (the underwire stuck between the metal round-and-round part and the door) and the alarm was hysterical. It's a laundrymat, not a got-to-protect money-bagged casino. :)

So now it's late and what was our cute little house/big room last night has now been reduced to a clothesline. Jeans are hanging in the open windows, the stair to our loft is filled with socks and underwear, shirts are on every radiator and hanging beneath the loft on hangers...it's worse than a mess, it's like any Wijnegem mall clothes rack. Small jeans and Large ones. Nothing for the average size left for as far as the eye can see...underwear marked 40 percent off and tossed around in a big bin.

So yes, we'll get up early in the morning and pack up the hopefully dry clothes in a rush and get to the station just in time. Eva will be stressed out and I'll think it's all slightly funny...and 10 minutes later, after we have safely made it onto the train and we are going full steam in the direction of Charleroi she'll think it's all funny too.

Though I doubt there will be a new entry for at least 2 weeks, I promise to keep it up in long-hand to be transferred on our arrival back in Belgium. Slowly but surely. And evey more surely and more slowly, pictures will follow.

In the meantime go out and rent Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and think of us sitting out there on the Spanish steps...and sometime next week rent the Sound of Music and think of us out on the grand tour of Salzburg.

IN THE NEWS:
The euro has hit equality against the U.S. dollar for the first time since February 2000 as demand for U.S. assets falters. The euro bought 1.0041 dollars in Monday mid-afternoon trading.