Well hi y’all!!!

It’s been too long since I updated, and I apologize for that!

I’ve been very busy (papers, moving into the dorms, settling, …).

This is a summary about the last 3 days:

On Sunday (January 11th) we went out to the campus to eat dinner with the people from the local Chinese Bible church.

They made authentic Chinese food! It was really good, made some new friends. After that we went back to Joe’s to sleep our last night!

Monday morning Sam brought us to the school at 8 a.m., to move into the dorms. We went to the LLC, and had to wait about an hour before getting our key. We went for a cup of coffee, filled out some papers, and moved in.

The dorms were arranged to sleep with 2 people in 1 room, and 2 rooms connected to 1 bathroom (toilet + shower) and 2 sinks (without privacy). Horrible. So we went complaining that we filled out forms for a single room. But there were some problems with that. No problem, they arranged us a room in the Washburn village, so that we both have our private room, shared bathroom, shared living room (with small kitchen and fridge!!!).

In the evening Yorick and I went out to the Walmart to buy some stuff for our dorms (pillows, blankets, … the basic stuff). Thanks to Sam (Joe’s brother) for the transportation!!!

When we got back, we chatted and emailed a bit and got to bed.

First: We went to a basketball game today! A lot of noise. But that’s not interesting.

In the evening we decided to go out to the movies. Joe, Yorick, Me, Patrick and Doug (a cop).

We wanted to go watch ‘The Unborn’ but it was sold out, so we went back to the house.

Over there Joe told us that Doug had a permit for concealed carrying.

He carried this gun on his ankle (loaded!).

With hollow point bullets!

Anybody over here can get a license to carry a gun hidden like that.

American people think like this: ‘Criminals will always get there guns, legal or illegal, so we (the good guys) might as well be prepared (good thinking)).

So yesterday Joe (our host) took us out for dinner to the Texas Road House over here in Topeka.

It’s totally different over here in a restaurant. First you get a round piece of plastic that vibrates when your table is ready.

So it vibrates and a waitress took us to our table, we ordered a drink each, and ordered our meals.

First the drinks where there, we talked a bit, finished our first drink, and the waitress just gave us a new one, it’s all refill over here. God I love it!

Then the steaks came…

I’ve never seen that much meat.

(It’s NOT my plate, I had the half of this…)

And there where French fries with cheese on them, weird!!!

Today I went out to the store to buy some corn-flakes (Yorick ate the last box (not the box itself, thou I think he wouldn’t mind)).

I walked next to the Pharmacy shelf, and there was 2 meter (left to right) and 1.5 meter (top to bottom) filed up with anti-stomach-acid drugs. Thinking back about the portions the people eat in the steak house over here, I can imagine that it is necessary.

At last I ate 2 salads, one yesterday, and one today, so I’ve got my vegetables .

That’s about it for today, I’ll keep you updated!

Ok, this is the post you’ve all been waiting for.

Well so we left our home at 0530 a.m. local time, to the airport because it was SO snowy, we couldn’t drive more than 80km / hour!

So when we arrived (in time) I looked for Yorick and went to the check in. We could board the plane at about 1000 a.m., which was good, but because of the snow we only took off at 1200 p.m. They had to defrost the plane, and the trucks which do that were very busy. But after all, no problems, we took off.

When we were crossing over Ireland the pilot asked if there was a doctor on board (trouble!), after flew out of Ireland, and continued for about 30 minutes, we had to turn back because the situation was that bad.

Because the plane was filled up to the top with kerosine we landed too hard, so they had to check the landing gear (time is really adding up now!)

After that we took off again, and continued our flight to Newark. Since the plain couldn’t fly at full speed over New York we could watch the cars from up high.

It was really like GTA in real life.

After we landed we had to go through border control (easy) with our passports, we had to took another flight because we missed our connection.

Fortunately it was free, we flew to Kansas City for about 4 hours, and we landed at 1200 a.m. (which is midnight). So that is where Joe Forman picked us up with his brother’s Pontiac Grand Prix 3.8 V6 Supercharged (!!!!). (Thanks Joe!). What a car!!

We had to drove about 1 hour and 20 minutes to his home and the roads are HUGE here, so are the trucks.

He was driving about 75 miles an hour (maximum on the highway here is 70 miles), and since there are no road lights, you can’t see who’s driving in front. So were driving in lane 2, and on lane 1 there was a police car (we didn’t notice it until very close).

Joe had to drive slower, because of the cops. Fortunately I saw it, otherwise he would be fined! (Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut, than I would have seen a pull-over ).

So we arrived at his home at 0140 a.m. (add 7 hours for Belgium time). We went to sleep at 0400 a.m.

We woke up at 1000 p.m., then Joe prepared some eggs for us.

Then we took off to the driving licence office, to get some info, and after that he guided us around in the university.

In the afternoon we went to Walmart (we held a gun!) and Best Buy!

In Walmart we looked like small kids in a toy store. You can’t imagine how big everything is. The shampoo cans are HUGE.

So this is it for today, I’ll keep you up to date!!

My visa for the USA

Takeoff January 5th, at 0950 a.m. (yes I am writing it like this, because I have to write the date like that in the states!).

So nervous…

University map [zoom=13]

I am still going

This is a current list of my spendings (and I’m still here in Belgium )

• 100$ for the Maggelan Program
• 200$ for Homeland Security
• 15€ to make an appointment for my Visa
• 100€ to get my Visa
• 5.45€ to make them send my Visa
• 80€ on my passport
• 640€ for my flight ticket!

Yorick and I booked our tickets yesterday, and we are leaving January 5th 2009, from Zaventem (BRU) to New York Newark Airport (EWR), and from there an interstate flight to Kansas International Airport (MCI).

I will go get my Visa on December 15th at 0830, just in the rush hour. Luckily I have my driving license

As most of you know: Yorick and me will be leaving for the states in January, to Washburn University.

Yesterday I got an email from my stage mentor that the papers were faxed, and now me (and Yorick) have to wait for the letter of Admission from the university.

With that we can go to the American Embassy, for our visum

I got accepted to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas! Super!

I’ll keep you posted.