March 18, 2003 : all over antwerp
Today we went shopping. Tourists love to go shopping. We basically covered everything between the Meir and the river with our last stop being a second-hand store. I used my Dutch in every available situation and was pleased with the results.
As I'm not really used to trekking all over Antwerp for 6+ hours at a time, and since I was not on a vacation-induced high, I was exhausted by the time they were trying on the various gold-mine-finds at the second-hand-store.
Over the course of the day, Jennifer discovered the wonders of the worsten-broodje Nichole discovered a brown second-hand retro shirt. What did I discover? I realized again that I love it here. Jennifer remarked, "man, Andrea, I realize why you like it here so much. It's beautiful, accessible, and really nice!"
Of course she's not seeing the gray-sky winter-mooded people that sometimes occupy the bodies of these friendly Antwerpenaars (myself included) but she's right. I've landed myself in a great place with a great girl. (just though I'd throw that in!)
By the time we got home, it was nearly time for Eva to get home. An hour later and we still couldn't figure out what we were hungry for or where we wanted to eat. We finally decided on the 20 Euro China-meal, but when Eva called, she found out that they're closed on Tuesday nights. Step 2.
I stepped up and said I'd cook. I had all of the ingredients for a feast with fake-chicken breasts including a side salad! When Jennifer and Eva went to rent a DVD, Nichole and I bustled around trying to romantic-up the place. I kept up with the cooking and she cleared off the table, readied the plates and glasses, and with 5 minutes of prep-work remaining, they got home.
We made them stay in the library/bedroom (the other side of the curtain) while we finished up setting out the meal.
Finally, all was well enough for them to take their seats and for us to start eating. Preparing food for 4 may be hard work (not as hard as Tom's efforts!) but it was well worth it. Since I've previously gone on and on about the quaint little Parisian restaurant up our street, well I'll make up a side-note that tonight's dinner was a quaint-little-vegetarian-friendly restaurant in the middle of our living-room/dining-room/kitchen. Two romantic candle-lit tables for two stuck together.
After dinner we watched About A Boy, and that's a gem of a movie to come across. For some reason the trailer made it out to be a decent movie, but not as great as it seemed to be. The four of us crowded around the old Sony Vaio laptop and laughed and nearly cried several times.
In an effort to not be sexist, I'll say that it was a movie for "sensitive souls" therefore not labeling it a "chick flick" but opening it up for anyone. :) This must be a good week, eh? A car, good friends, good food, and a very old DVD playing-computer. Somehow we're living in blessed times, as long as one doesn't define luxury or blessed as a dollar amount.
Memo to self: When living life with more money, remember living life with less money and how wonderful it all seemed to be and then save the money I would be spending if I started living a life where my spending habits grew and grew to match my means. I know, we all said that in college over varying chicken, beef, and pork ramen noodles. :)
IN THE NEWS:
Today the French ambassador to the United States said that the French military could help the United States if Iraq uses biological or chemical weapons against U.S.-led invaders.
Just a side-note to myself, I think this is a good concept, because it's simply saying, "we wanted more time for inspections but didn't get it. In the event that Iraq has the weapons that the inspectors would eventually found if they were given more time, we'll help you out." It may seem sort of after-the-thought, but I think it's a nice step to returning Freedom fries to their name.
