The waffles are sweet and the gelato is cheap

My yearlong travelog of Belgium, but I make lots of assorted text posts also. Try my other blog (hover on the title for a link), it's more interesting.

[andthenilonawasalllike]

Here’s a fucken idea: maybe don’t be so hard on yourself all the damn time

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sulfur dioxide? (at Boordy Vineyards)

[stunningstasis-deactivated20220]

Yo Groff quit flirting with your bf onstage

[andthenilonawasalllike]

hello ❤ Once you get this you have to say 5 nice things about yourself publicly and then send it to 10 of your favourite followers. Thinking good thoughts about yourself is hard but it will make you feel better so give it a go, for the sake of spreading positivity.

I am a great actor

I have awesome dreams that I am gonna reach

I am really beautiful

I am introspective and interact with others well

I am well-rounded

ANYONE WHO SEES THIS SHOULD DO THIS

[andthenilonawasalllike]

why does anyone even follow this blog anymore when there is blatantly a link on my blog to my currently active one

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[andthenilonawasalllike]

HI IF YOU ARE READING THIS ON MY BLOG

i don't blog here anymore. my sideblog is poutine-putain. i wish i could make it my main blog.

[andthenilonawasalllike]

“can u not” has been my mental response to almost everything that happens these days

[mavve]

please stop

[andthenilonawasalllike]

sozi can't help that it's popular

[andthenilonawasalllike]

“can u not” has been my mental response to almost everything that happens these days

[musiclover1254]

LEGIT i literally will have a customer come right up to my window and in my head i go, no joke, “omg can u not srsly". i hate people.

[andthenilonawasalllike]

sometimes i regret this post

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The waffles are sweet and the gelato is cheap turned 1 today!

aww :') it was one year ago today that i thought i should document my travels online. although i will never stop traveling, my sabbatical year is over, and i wish i could change my "main blog" to one of my side blog now that i will rarely use this one.

[andthenilonawasalllike]

day 288

I

'm not so sure about timezones right now since I'm currently staying with my grandparents in New York, but "yesterday" I boarded two flights and now here I am, back in the States. These (approximately?) 288 days have left me wordless, and I'm so grateful for each one. I'm also grateful that I've gotten to return home, and i have so much to do lying in front of me. It's hard to believe that everything has happened and I'm sorry for my incoherentness as I'm pretty tired and the humidity here is messing with my head (but then, it always has).

[andthenilonawasalllike]

wow it just sunk in this is my last time in belgium omg

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one of the things i have gained from my experience in belgium is the ability to immediately zone out and just stand somewhere for a long period of time and not be bored because i've had to wait for a lot of buses and trains in my time here

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I went through this entire blog and deleted/made private all the things that might embarrass me in the future or are otherwise dumb so this place should be a lot cleaner

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okay but once i'm done with this being a travelog i want my other blog to be my main one

but tumblr doesn't let users switch which blog is the main one

yahoo! please help me do this

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day 283, part 3

Each of us in my class planned a different day (there were 5 of us students and 5 days total) and the last two days were spent in Ostend, also known as Ostende in French and Oostend in Dutch. Sidenote, the "oo" sounds like the "o" in "snow." It's one of the most well-known cities on the Belgian coast. We had more "cultural" activities planned here, like the Atlantic Wall, an open-air museum about the oceanside barricades of World War II, and on the last day (my day), a tour at the modern art museum. I was and still am very proud of myself for leading the whole school there with only a map. We got to have a dinner at a restaurant on the last night, and on the last day, we had to do a reflection activity. I didn't know until a week before the trip that it was my responsibility to make a reflection activity.

I first had everyone walk over to the pier/boardwalk and told them to pick up some piece of beach debris, like a shell or rock, then we threw it into the ocean. This was meant to represent throwing away a fear, insecurity, or overattachment to the school, since many people are leaving. Then we walked onto the sand where we stood in a circle and went around and shared out favorite memory of the trip. As every person spoke, we passed around a ball of yarn and unrolled it a bit so that everyone was holding onto a piece of yarn by the end. Then one of my classmates and I went around cutting a piece of yarn for everyone to wear as a bracelet, as a physical reminder. Sappy perhaps, but no tears were jerked. The sand-filled wind was enough for that.

Then on my last Thursday of school, I had my graduation ceremony. In this school's system I was in the last year of "middle school." Even though I hadn't been to the previous years of this middle school I still was due to receive a certificate and champagne and give a short speech. I wore the same dress from my last middle school graduation for symbolic reasons.

A few days ago I ventured into Brussels with my friend Whaley to See Star Trek. Great movie, even for non-Trekkies like her. Now all my time is devoted to packing and ugggh I am so so so stressed what is my life. I'll try to make a post on my last day here.

[andthenilonawasalllike]

omg omg i want to know what you thought of the anne frank huis

It was amazing seeing the house of a family in hiding. It’s eerie to hear and see these videos of the first-hand accounts of people who knew Anne and her family. At the top of the building where Anne’s father’s video is on loop where he talks about how no parents really know their children, I felt really really uncomfortable ugh.

But the part that made my mom pissed-off (and me also) was that they talked about the Holocaust like it was a matter of discrimination. Discrimination is when two equally-qualified people of different races apply for a job and you chose one race (usually the white guy). But the Holocaust was a genocide of a people who had constantly been a scapegoat ever since they existed. At the end of the museum there was a small video gallery discussing freedom of expression and how it relates to discrimination, and it just didn’t click. Lots of people’s only exposure to the Holocaust is the Anne Frank Huis, and they could be getting the wrong idea. I’m still glad it exists, of course, and I’m glad Anne isn’t extremely glorified; she’s just a regular teenage girl.

My favorite museum/exhibit that I’ve seen on the Holocaust is definitely the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen. It shows the sequence of events leading up to the Holocaust, and with such great analysis. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.