Days off

I don't know why but I have a hard time letting my brain turn off.  It's always been a problem.  Perhaps not so much a problem(it's probably why I've always done so well in school and in sports), maybe more of a nuisance.  It's like that piece of skin your tongue finds on the inside of your mouth and you just can't stop biting at it until the whole of your cheek is messed up.  I am that way with just about every thought that comes into my head.  I play it out in every scenario possible, seeing every angle, every possible combination of results.
It's one of the reasons why when there is a school holiday i try to get away.  It seems to be the best way for me to turn my mind from work related things to others.
Well as I said in my previous post I was just too tired to head out even for a few days this holiday so I am staying put.  Starting tomorrow I will be staying with 4 boys while their parents go back to the states.  They are great kids but I am gonna be honest and say it's probably going to get a little crazy over at the Lane house soon:)  so I wanted to enjoy my 2 days here in Brussels where I did not have to do anything work related.
My normal work schedule is a little crazy so it doesn't always mesh up with many of my friends schedules.  As a matter of fact seeing my friends sometimes involves putting it on the calendar a good month in advance!  I know it's crazy!  So yesterday I took advantage of my freed up schedule and spent a few quality hours with Jenna and baby Olivia(who is now 1 and not so much a baby).  It was so fun seeing Jenna and getting lots of cuddles from Olivia-she often looks at me like I am crazy but she is willing to give me hugs and those pats on the back that toddlers do best!!
Today I had no plans and the weather was alternating between raining and being sunny.  So i decided to go to a cafe that a friend had told me about.  They have free wifi(not as much of a given as in the states) and lots of food, drinks and comfy chairs. I took the tram there so I wouldn't have to find parking and I arrived amidst an influx of people.  I looked around a bit discouraged that all of the comfy seats were taken and I might have to sit on one of the not so comfy wooden chairs.  But i plowed on and ordered my fresh mint tea(yummy) and walked over to 2 men who were sitting with 2 empty comfy chairs.  And as you do in Belgium I asked if I could sit in one of the empty chairs(I may have even been a little too excited and asked in English instead of french but lucky for me A-they understood what I was asking and B-they weren't even speaking french!)
I proceeded to spend the next 2 or so hours oscillating between reading/doing my Bible study and people watching.  Brussels is such a mixture of culture and language.  It is always fun to sit in a public place and listen to the many different language(today I heard english, french, polish(i think), german and swedish)
It was a great day and a reminder of some of the many reasons I love this city

breaks and exhaustion

Breaks . . .
For all of my life (that I can remember) my year has followed that of a school calendar.  First as a student, then as a teacher and now as someone who works with students.  Those school calendars have months of intensity which lead up to a week or two of break.  Today marks the first day of Fall break here in Brussels.  For a brief moment I thought of going on an adventure to visit some friends in Luxembourg and then Germany but I have decided that both my mind and my body need a little break from running and so I will be spending the next week in Brussels while most of my friends and the kids I work with have headed out all over the world for their first real break of the school year.
exhaustion . . .
Thursday night at about 6pm I started to wonder if it was too early to go to bed.  I didn't want to eat or even watch tv.  I just wanted to sleep.  But I knew that if I went to bed at 6pm I would probably wake up at 2am and be wide awake.  So I made it until about 9pm and off it went to bed.  This semester has been amazing and I am just coming off a 10 day visit from my parents which meant lots of new adventures and exploring!  All of that, however, has led me to be really tired.
So this week I am looking forward to sleeping in, cooking good food, catching up with friends I haven't gotten to spend quality time with, and just re-booting!