Saturday, November 12th, 2011
Today we celebrated Eddy's birthday at his parents' house. We headed over for lunch. Idon't know why, but I suppose I was a bit nervous for a day full of French and such. And, I don't know, maybe just meeting my host grandparents and worrying about whether they would like me or not. But once I got into the adorable, cute, little, welcoming house I knew it would all turn out ok.
We spent the first bit just eating the normal appetizers and doing the normal small talk thing. Then, Eddy's really good friend from work arrived, Carine (once again, my guessing at the spelling of French names is not the best...). Grandma De Decker (never learned her real name, so I shall just call her this! Haha, feels strange considering I barely know her...) was just the sweetest little thing ever. She kept on getting up and offering more and more appetizers, and was constantly passing around the chips and such to make sure everyone had enough. I feel like it is just a grandparent thing, they are always so hospitable. I mean, she even went otu of her way and bought sparkling cider for me so I wouldn't feel left out when the majority of the adults were drinking champange.
After a while, we sat down to dinner. It was kind of weird, because Grandma De Decker was like "Morgan, come here you can help me," and I thought she meant for us to go into the kitchen and bring out whatever food she had prepared. But then she ushered me upstairs... Turns out that Pascale had bought seafood platters ahead of time and stashed them in the spare room. There was a VERY full tray per two people, because Eddy's parents had chicken (apparently the seafood wasn't good for their digestion or something...). I was quite shocked when I learned that the majority of the seafood still had their entire bodies intact. And they were cold. Which made me think that they had yet to be cooked... Oh goodness. Literally the only thing that I could bring myself to eat was the already cleaned up shrimp, and that was after soaking it in this delicious cocktail sauce they had also bought. Kinda survived that meal by eating bread.
When it came time for dessert, I was quite excited to get to try the fancy cake Pascale had bought the day before. I wasn't sure if it was going to feed all of us, considering I knew that she had bought the smaller version, but I figured she just knew that some people weren't going to partake in the dessert part of the meal. I was a bit confused when Eddy's mother came out with crepes. Don't get me wrong, they were definitely VERY good. Probably the best I have had since I have been in Europe. Actually, the best ever. And it was just a simple one with some powdered sugar, whipped cream, and ice cream. But sooooo good. But the mystery still remains of the fancy cake... I have no idea where the cake disappeared to, and what it was used for. I mean, when we were at the store Pascale even asked me "You don't really like chocolate all that much, do you?" and I replied "More or less... It depends," and she even got a not completely chocolate cake. I feel like here, things like this happen all of the time. Just simply the mysteries of Belgium and the language barrier.
After the lunch, we just hung out for a bit and talked. And Eddy's dad showed me his painting room. OH MY GOSH he was a FANTASTIC painter! Seriously, his nature paintings, I could have just looked at them forever. It was after seeing them that I also realized that all of the ohter painting hung around the house must be his too. He had so many of them, and I was just amazed by them. I felt a bit stupid, because i really couldn't think of anything else to say other than "Wow! These are great!" everytime he asked me what I thought, but I tried to just let my face express how good they were. Then, he whips out this one painting of a motehr holding her daugther, actually way different than the rest of his paintings, and was like "Do you like this one?" Of course, this was amazing too, and so I said yes. Then he handed it over to me and said "Well, then it is for you." Such a sweet family. And the painting will go perfect in my room at home. Somehow in the conversation, it came up that we were planning on going to Strasbourg the weekend of the 10th. But what wasn't made completely clear is that we were going for me to visit my sister, so Eddy's mother thought that Pascale meant that it was just a get-away weekend for them, and she immediately got all exicted and was like "Morgan, you can stay here with us!!!" I felt so bad telling them that the whole trip was for me... She was just so sweet about everything.
It was around 4 that everyone left. A day that I was semi dreading turned into a really good one, and I was really happy to be able to finally meet Eddy's parents. I hope that I get to see them before I change families. But who knows... Unfortunately, for dinner we had the rest of the platters. I more of just played the "Oh, I am still full from the huge lunch," thing... Food that isn't A) de-faced and cleaned up and B) appears raw just isn't my preferance. But I came to Belgium to experience new things, and well, there is definitely an abundance of that! But really, it's amazing. J'adore Belgique! Sometimes I just wish that my parents and siblings could be here on exchange with me... :(
No comments:
Post a Comment