Day 9

Belgium, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

22.1 Kilometers.
I crossed the border today into Belgium, the land of waffles, beer and fries...all the best things in a runner's diet. The run was short, but had the very eventful moment of my crossing the border into another country. It reminded me very much of the first time I ran from Manhattan across the river to New Jersey...it was my first two hour run, and I was pretty excited to have run to another state (not quite as easy in Olympia, Washington). This experience was very similar, except...well...I'm not in NEW JERSEY.
I ran into Kalmthout during a three day street fair/music festival that I didn't know about until I arrived. I think I heard some Green Day covers. I had a look about, and headed over to the home of my hosts here, Simonne and Joost. Joost is a French professor, so he has been helping me realize how terrible I am at speaking the language. Basically, I have nothing. Things will definitely get interesting as I get further away from the English speaking parts of Europe. Also, they use "AZERTY" keyboards here instead of "QWERTY"...
Anyways, had a great meal, and got a new Belgian SIM card, and helped with transferring some vinyl music to CD. Waking up early in the morning...so I'm going to bed now.