these posts are going to be long

i am afraid that these brussels blog posts are going to be long ones. this is pretty much the only place i am documenting what we do each day so be prepared....

sunday
yesterday we got up bright and early and walked to church {45 minutes}. we wanted to explore the city, but i think i would recommend not walking that long in church shoes. anyways got to church and it was fabulous. everyone was so nice and helpful. one lady said everything i hoped the people would say to me like "i will have you come over and show you where to shop" and " i am glad your here i need babysitters". all of my worries were washed away :) the services were so fun. in relief society the sister conducting would switch from english to french...i loved it. they do have english classes so thats good. in my relief society class there were 8 sisters. it was so different than utah...and i loved it. sacrament was so fun, there is a huge mix of people in the ward, africans, russians, belgians, americans, asians. i love it, again so so different from utah. and the meeting kept switching from french to english...plus we got out 20 minutes early! i love the ward and am so excited to be a part of it for the next 3 months.

monday {today}
we still are having sleeping issues...so we got off to a late start. but we decided to just walk around and explore....on our exploration walk we found this:

it was one of the most amazing things i have ever seen. it was so beautiful and just HUGE! i couldn't imagine how anyone could've built that, let alone built it in the 1400's. it is so amazing to me. it is saint michaels cathedral {i believe...everything is in french and dutch}..

after the cathedral our walk led us to my most favorite part of town, Grand Place....

{remember this picture from the blog i posted announcing we were going to brussels..well i actually took this one}

we went and saw the very famous Manneken Pis.....{max had to for school}...well lets just say it wasn't that great but gave us an idea of the belgian culture

{the statue really is doing what you think its doing}

next we continued our walk...wandering through many different streets and always being astonished at what was around the corner

we explored a fun shopping area near our church...ate at a mcdonald's {sounds lame i know...but max wanted to show me how different they are from american mcdonals}

then we stumbled upon this
i call it my castle, it's right across from church, it really isn't a castle...it's the remenant of the wall that surrounded brussels a long time ago. after it was part of the wall it was a prison...and now it is a museum...

tonight we went to fhe at the church. we love it there. it feels like home. the members are so kind, we have a family home away from home.

today's firsts and learned new things:
i had my first bowl of cereal with lait {milk} and it is going to take SOO long to get used to their milk
i made my first purchase...it only cost a euro...but i was so proud of myself for doing it.
max made a purchase without using any english..he was pretty proud {he did only have to say bonjour and merci...but still...he is improving}
we rode the metro and discovered {awkwardly} that the escalators are activated when you step on them
and i discovered that my straightener is useless here...so needless to say for the next 3 months my hair will be in a ponytail...sad i know...

and as a side note Max is watching lost. we were flipping through channels and found lost...and it's in english, one of the only channels..life couldn't get better.