First Day in Leuven

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Day 2
Technically could be the Day 1 as it is the first full day we have spent in Leuven. Wow. Started off quite slow. Abigail was the first awake around 9am but she cuddled in bed with us for a while. I got up and got her some breakfast. Every meal is a little new and different, which luckily in these two short days they have found to be quite fun. This morning it was waffles (just prepackaged ones that are more like donuts and thus don’t require syrup) and granola. Yum. Eliza woke around 10 and we had to wake Emma at 10:30. I went out for my first run and found the local playground Jonathan had scoped out. Then I ran down towards KU Leuven and past the entrance to our local castle (more like a palace but I think it will do). Still very tired and my legs were like lead but it was good to get back into the groove.

Got back and Jonathan made me a cup of tea while I checked my email. Dressed the girls, took a shower and packed a little lunch while Jonathan went to the bike shop. The university has a great deal where for 30e Jonathan can rent a bike for himself for the whole time we are here. Cool. He came back and showed us his beater and said he could get ones for all of us at the same price. We are still trying to convince Emma that she should be on a two wheeler. She said that her Swiper (her imaginary friend, who is not a fox like on Dora but an 8 year old boy with a mom, dad, two brothers and a dog) might fly over on Saturday to bring her some biking legs.

Jonathan took off for work after a yoghurt and bread for lunch as he had a teleconference with his students at home this afternoon. The girls and I walked five minutes to the local playground. Not the biggest but it does have two swings and a good sized climbing structure with a slide and another smaller club house type structure. It is shady and grassy too. On the way we passed by this duck which I thought during my run this morning was just a statue, but on our way past we saw that it was actually a drinking fountain. You step on a circle and it squirts out. The girls thought that this was the coolest thing they had seen in a while.

They made a friend at the playground. A 9 year old named Maria (apparently school lets out early on Wednesdays) who it turns out is from the Republic of Georgia. Small world. Her mother came by at the end of the afternoon and we were able to chat about Tbilisi and Georgian food. They all played really well, and Maria taught us some Dutch (how to count to three and how to say ‘we have flowers’). We had a nice lunch of yoghurt, carrot sticks, apples, nuts and water. Eliza did take a big fall from about 5 feet up off the structure, but luckily came up fairly unscathed. And for the first time in her life I was able to just put her in the stroller, sing her a song and she went to sleep. I should have brought a magazine. At about 3 we left with Eliza still sleeping and we found a footpath that shorten the walk home even more. But before going home we went to the grocery store.

It is amazing how different grocery shopping can be. I find that even when I am just in a different part of the US. Here things are in different spots, they don’t have the same things and, oh yeah, everything is in Dutch. Since we don’t have an oven in the apartment (though hopefully we will in the house when we move in August) I thought we might have a stir fry for dinner. I couldn’t find the spices but did get chicken, snow peas, mushrooms and garlic (Jonathan had onions and rice). I also picked up some soy sauce and rice vinegar, so hopefully that will be a success.

The girls are busy playing Barbies and drawing and Jonathan said he would be home by 5:30.

Everyone enjoyed the stir fry for dinner and then we took a walk to the Botanical Gardens. We got a little lost but once there everyone was inspired. It was really cool and the girls started calling it the secret garden. They especially loved all of the little paths they could hide in. Bedtime was late again but then Jonathan and I worked on our Dutch. We now know more Dutch than Eliza knows (says) English!

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