I love the US Postal Service

This post is dedicated to Min and Papa, my lovely grandparents who sent me the biggest package known to man today! It was such a great surprise and it must have cost more to ship than to fill with goodies, so know that it is very very very very highly appreciated! It was full of sooooo many perfect things! I have been searching for a cute, sturdy, colorful umbrella for the past few weeks now to deal with these rainy Belgian days and I opened my package today and Voila, there was the perfect umbrella! I am beyond excited! I also came across more candy than I have seen since the last Halloween I went trick-or-treating. WARNING: many of these items contain nuts! Which is a good thing! Because I have not had a payday in about a year. My word, I ate one right away I am not ashamed to say. It was perfection in packaged-food form. Then I split some of my peanut M&Ms with Angelica and Rita and contemplated ways to spend my iTunes gift card. Every item in the box was a total surprise and each one was exactly what I needed! Everyone in my residence is super jealous because I have gotten like three packages since arriving (thanks to the fam!). But I just tell them to start a blog and start asking their readers to send them things. Hahahaha! But seriously, Min and Papa, you guys are the best. You rock; you are awesome; I love you! (For more than just packages I promise).

The package was very much needed today. I had 8.5 hours of lecture which began at 9:30 this morning and went until 10:00 tonight. Humans are not born with an attention span to deal with such things. Even after 20 years of formal school and hundreds of hours honing my attention skills, I was unable to cope. My notebook pages are sporting some stars, calligraphy, and other various doodles in addition to information on European Union financial market regulation standards. Oops, oh well. So it was a good thing today is Thursday and the student bar was open! I went and had a couple of drinks with my very best Italian, Portuguese, Colombian . . . everything friends, and then came back here to write about my day.

This weekend holds the promise of a paper-writing extravaganza, but I am hoping to have some fun as well. I need to go shopping. My boots, my beautiful brown leather riding boots from Paris, finally died yesterday when the sole separated from the rest of the shoe completely. These cobbled streets are not conducive to maintaining quality footwear. Alas, I guess this just means that I HAVE to get a new pair of boots. Gee, I am so disappointed (please note sarcasm). I would rather not spend the money . . . but then again, yes I would. So when I have them you will see them!

Well, I suppose that is enough information for one evening. I must be up early tomorrow for more enthralling lectures on EU Competition Policy.

Peace, love, and PACKAGES!!!

Ali