Back in Belgium and I already saw what?!

Well, I must admit that 2011 is starting off well so far! After a not so fun time at the airport trying to get my ticket figured out, a long 8+ hour flight back to Brussels with Ms. Megan Meyer (so awesome we ended up on the same plane, that totally helps) I made it back to my apartment with a heavy suitcase in need of a nice warm shower to try and wake myself up a bit. Thankfully when I got back it was already 3:30pm Brussels time so I didn't have to try and stay awake ALL day (like when I originally moved here). After I spent some time showering, unpacking, and grabbing a few groceries down the street I made myself a PB & Jelly sandwich with a side of apple and tried not to fall asleep. I was actually pretty successful until about 8:30 when my eyes got so heavy it just wasn't worth fighting it anymore. Oddly (for me at least) I slept from about 8:30pm to almost 10:30am, which felt amazing! I never can sleep that much in one night, but I guess my body just needed the rest and since I didn't have to wake up early the next day I was fine letting myself sleep in. I spent the majority of Tuesday meeting up with friends and hearing about all of their Christmas break stories before it was back to work on Wednesday. Thankfully I haven't really had much jet lag this trip back and have felt really pretty awake during the day. I'm hoping to be able to catch up on a few more zzz's this weekend and should be 100% back on schedule by Monday. If the weather is nice enough tomorrow a few of us might be going to the Belgian Coast to see this outdoor hockey-like tournament put on by Red Bull. We'll have to see what it's like out when we get up but that could be fun! Jess V and I had to change our trip to Venice to next weekend now because she has a workshop at school the first weekend in February. It will be nice to get out of town for the weekend and see a new place! 

Alright well I'm sure you're all guessing what my post title is about. I don't know what it is about Europe but I feel like you sure see some funny things here. At least I seem to see random things that I feel like I never see at home (and only hear about on the news) here all the time. Like the time when some teenager threw a firework onto the metro and then had the undercover cop that was working on the metro go running off after him as he stuck his tongue out at everyone on the metro (yea, this really happened). Or the time some girl rolled out of a moving car and then just got up and walked around the corner. Oh, and there was a police car sitting right on the street where she did this! Anyways, today as I was on my way home from school I was almost to the end of my bus' route, which is also where I get off for the metro, and much to my dismay I saw what looked like smoke coming from the top of the hill where we're supposed to stop. I thought that maybe I was just tired and seeing things but as we began to circle around and park in a different place it became clear that it really was smoke that I was seeing. Not only was there smoke, but there was a lot of it and it was coming out of both sides and the bottom of one of the number 17 buses that I ride to/from school each day! After getting off the current bus I was on (thankfully not the smoking one!) I could see the police officers trying to get the fire under control with their puny fire extinguisher (which was not helping at all). Within a few minutes and a lot more smoke the firemen finally arrived and began putting out the fire with their ridiculously high powered water hoses. After about 10 minutes when I left the fire was close to being out, but definitely not totally gone. I couldn't even believe my eyes. It was totally something that you would see out of a movie or on the news! I mean I know automobile fires can happen pretty easily when they get overheated but I had never seen one before so it was kind of fascinating. Thankfully since the bus was at a stop everyone had gotten out safely. Let's just hope this isn't a common problem with these buses since I have to ride one again Monday morning...

Here are a few photos I took of it all (glad I always have a camera around!):