After staying up most of last night visiting, today we woke up at a fairly decent hour and busied ourselves with the day. Somehow Eva's got it set in her mind that we've got to go to her mother's house nearly every weekend. We always have the most splendid time, it's just that I can't figure out if she's; going to try to make up for all the times she wanted to go but didn't, going because it's an effort to thank her mother for the car, or going because we have a car and why shouldn't we go? I am hoping for the latter.

Now regarding cultural differences, as I have mentioned before, people here in Belgium always arrive at a house with something. It's always some token of "thanks for letting me come into your house" or something. I usually say that I prefer the arrive-empty-handed, but currently I'm out on the issue. I would actually prefer that people did both. I certainly don't want people not dropping by because they didn't have a chance to buy a bottle of wine or a cake or some sort of offering. (I hope this makes sense)

Anyway, before we left Eva's brothers ended up now going as well including the Spanish friend of Joris. So the 6 of us crammed into the Debbie and headed to Broechem. Consequently, as Eva and her brother's have never really had to pay much attention to directions before (as they are non-drivers and will probably still be non-drivers for awhile) no one really knows how to get to their house outside of the sneaky gas-station drive-through exit which I know for a fact that they cut off access to several months before. (I'm exaggerating a bit about the not-knowing how to get home) This leads us on a wild chase through half of Flanders' down dirt roads and through don't-enter road construction. By the time we get to their house, the car is making all sorts of new noises which alarm Eva and I more than anyone. Of course the more we think about it, the more we realize that if two elderly people had this car, they most likely never had 6 people in it. I mean, what 2 much-older people would cram 3 of their best friends in the back and sit 2 on each other's laps in the front. (it's the shocks. They're noisy now, but simply overworked for the day.)

Eva's mother left to find cakes, and we ate ourselves silly on sweets and coffee/tea. Afterwords, Eva, Jessica, Jasper, and I headed to the football field to kick the ball around. 2 hours later Jessica was resting her liquid-legs (her words) and I was playing keeper for Jasper and Eva. Then Eva rested as well (everyone not playing had to chase lost balls) and Joris and Jasper both took their fill of kicking the ball at me. I daresay that tomorrow I'll have a few bruises. But talk about fun! I can somehow see this happening more and more in the future, both more fun and more outdoor activities. Ah Belgium in the summertime!

We also re-looked around the house dreaming about what it'd be like to live in the garage and in Eva's old room. We're going to make an office for me in her old room so I have a place to get some stuff done in these last few weeks before I'm out of school. What a brilliant idea. Too bad we got the car only a couple of weeks ago and only thought of the office idea just last week!

We came home and all of us rested from our very strenuous workout with the brothers. Jessica and I spent most of our Sunday night preparing for our trip to Berlin on Tuesday. We checked the forecasts and decided that Tuesday was best time to travel. We first landed on gaybed.de but decided that we should do a bit more research. The rooms were cheap and the place looked spotless--everything perfect. We just wanted to see if we could find a better deal.

3 hours later, after Eva had already gone to bed, we were still at it. It wasn't until later that I realized how loud I have been for the past two years clicking away on the computer. Jessica was coughing a bit and I was laying in bed. I suppose a simple IKEA cheapest-cloth curtain can't possibly cut out that much noice...well it doesn't. Now I know. We really do live in one room. And if someone is whispering in the corner of the kitchen, it's the same as whispering into Eva's ear while laying in Bed. If you drop a fork in the living-room it's the same as dropping a fork next to the bookcase.

Sorry Eva, for all of those late-night journal entries that I wrote on my very-loud ergonomic keyboard (in comparison to my Macintosh laptop) plucking away making those terrible keyboard noises. I should have recalled several late-night sessions at Southwest Baptist University in Memorial Hall room 324 when Kathleen was writing a last-minute paper. I suppose my one-room wasn't much bigger and my Macintosh Performa 476's keyboard not much different.

IN THE NEWS:
Singapore authorities stepped up efforts to contain SARS, the deadly new virus, Saturday, including issuing electronic wrist tags to keep track of those under quarantine.