kaas & belgian beer

I demanded to sleep on the stage I was sitting on at the university, but Jennifer jerked me upright and told me it was not appropriate. Several times. I demanded to go outside and sleep in the grass. And that is what I did. Jennifer and I went outside while Allison waited for her conference buddy from the U.S. I slept in the grass and regained 30 minutes of my life.

Later that night, we met up with Tom on the canal waterfront cobblestone lounging area place where there are a ton of cafes and bars and tables with chairs and in the sunshine people sit and drink and smoke and talk and students sit near the edge of the canal and drink beers and talk intimately with one another. They all look kind of serious, all of the time.

a: Tom says that Belgian people are all "sunshine & rainbows"...he was kidding, but they all seemed pretty happy to me, biking around on cobblestone streets with their little baby seats in front.

The beer in Belgium is great. Most of it is very strong, and it tastes really good. We had beers with Tom and his Canadian friend who has been living in Gent for 13 years and Courtney joined later. At this point I think I was the most alert I had been since leaving Portland. The beer was just enough of a lubricant that I could not tell the difference between the buzz and the fatigue.

After spending some time at a table in front of a café outdoors, we went to a bar I can’t recall the name of. We walked down a dark alley to get to it, and it was dimly lit inside and full of whispering Belgians. We talked with Tom, Gab and Courtney extensively about Belgium and the people there. Allison said she was hungry and wanted food, and we discovered she could get bread and cheese. Tom and Dab told her how to order bread and cheese in Dutch, and she deliriously went to order from the bartender.

a: "kaas, alstublieft" (there was more, but i don't remember now...p.s. she was very nice, too)

And, she got the food. She was spoken back to in Dutch, and this was shocking to the group because often when Americans speak to the Belgians in Dutch, they are spoken back to in English, like a funny little language game.

A stack of cheese, bread with tomato sauce (or something) poured over it. This is what she got, no one had ever seen it before, and it was GOOD.

Delirium tremens, my favorite beer I drank in Belgium. Thanks, Tom-o.