Brevities, drunken pigeons, and Freya incarnate

Tis Megan again! I am disrupting the "Kyle, Megan, Kyle, Megan" blog post authoring sequence because Kyle has been too busy lately and I feel like writing something. 

So, we three Canadese (The Dutchies refer to us as such) have happily settled into our apartment. We are only a five-minute walk from the city centre and around 15 minutes from the Faculteit Letteren (College of Arts building) where all of my classes and most of Kyle's and Brendan's are located. I am not going to talk much about Kyle's academic experience so far, since he will probably want to do that in a post of his own, but both he and Brendan are very busy with weekly assignments and keep talking in sciencey, computerey related terms. 

My academic experience thus far has presented both the expected and unexpected. I expected my schedule and my workload to be a bit lighter than what I was used to at the UofS. This has indeed been the case so far, but I suppose it could very well change in the coming months. During the week I only have one or two classes a day. They are two to three hour lectures so that means I only have that specific class once a week, instead of multiple times a week, which leaves me plenty of time to do my required readings etc. Anyways, so far I haven't felt the stress or pressure that has been a familiar stimulus for the last four years. I suppose this is a blessing in itself since it has left me with more time to deal with the unexpected.dehgo - Radagast typed this when he ran across my keyboard just now, apparently he had something to say. 
The unexpected stumped me the other day when I was exploring the British national archives website looking for the records I was planning on using for my master's thesis. I discovered, to my dismay, that the archive that houses my court rolls is being moved to the University of Leeds and won't be open to researchers until 2016. 

For the past few days I feel like I have been swirling around in the Charybdis that is the list of extant English manor court rolls documented in the national archives, trying to find some primary sources suitable for the research I am hoping to conduct. mirabile dictu, I believe I have found a promising candidate in the records of the Manor of Manydown, Hampshire.  The task before me is daunting, but I am excited by the prospect of taking the train to England for the weekend to go hunting in the library archives of Winchester Cathedral.

 Being an English historian in the locus of Flemish nationalism has its challenges, which of course, I was expecting. When I met with my potential supervisor yesterday morning he posed the question I had been dreading all summer when he said, "So, why are you here if you study medieval England?" I looked at my hands and mumbled some feeble reply about tuition fees in the U.K. and the fact my husband was doing his M.Sc. here in Digital Humanities. He was understanding and helped me as best he could with where I should look for secondary sources, but primary sources were another matter, since I can't and have no desire to read legal documents in Middle Dutch. Suddenly I felt quite cast out of the nest and on my own in a position where I had hitherto enjoyed plenty of guidance. But I have decided (after a small pity-party and crying on Kyle's shoulder for awhile) to be inspired by the motto, depressa resurgit, and that by wandering through, searching for, and delving into heaps of dusty vellum and discarded parchment, I shall find myself well on my way to becoming a true historian, Κλειώ-inspired. If you didn't mind my rant perhaps I will divulge further on the subject as it progresses. 

Here are some pictures, although considerably fewer than there were in the last posts...and most of them of Radagast: 

We live in Belgim. So there are a lot of places to get bread and chocolate. In Leuven, there is this special shop called Antoine's where the only two things you can buy are bread and truffles. The bread is heavenly! I haven't tried the truffles because they aren't dairy-free... but that's okay because he also sells these: Peruvian cacao beans covered in 70% dark chocolate. We have been eating a lot of bread and chocolate to say the least. 

Me and Rabby lazin' around on the floor-bed like wanna-be bohemians. You can also see my vines I bought at the market! Everyday the direction they are sprouting in changes as they try to reach up to the sun. It is so cute. I need to name them... any suggestions?!

Our room. Minimalist and tranquil. It is a perfect place for morning yoga. The etching above our bed is of the Abbey de Fontfroide, from our honeymoon. 

Local mushrooms. Shitake on the left, Chantarelles on the right. I LOVE CHANTARELLE MUSHROOMS. They are perfect golden bundles of earthy tastiness. 

Our kitchen! I love the way the light shines through the windows at about 4:00pm. Stew is abrew on the stove.

Honey beer bread! We actually haven't been buying bread for the past two weeks because I have been making this recipe over and over again. Highly highly recommended and easy to tweak. So far we've tried traditional, and a herb and garlic version... I am thinking apple cinnamon would be delightful too: http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/honey-beer-bread/

The day we finally got some furniture! You can kind of see our dining room and living room. Big windows = perfect sun baths

Brendan grabbing his beloved raspberry jam for an optimal honey beer bread experience. 

Kyle in mid laugh. He is so happy about dat bread. Brendan, the raspberry jam boy pictured above, strikes a thuggish pose. 

So... I thought this sort of thing only happened in cartoons but on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning, a very dirty and perhaps inebriated pigeon crashed into our living-room window. All we heard was a loud BANG and all we saw was this avian imprint. Thankfully there was no corpse... the poor wretch must have flapped drunkenly home. 

Radagast and I doing some research, reading articles etc. He likes to sit next to me while I work and I like to pet him while I read. If the petting ceases for some reason however, he gets quite mad and starts pulling on or digging into my sweater. We bought him a little dog toy rope in hopes of redirecting his destructive urges/nibbling frenzies. He is a weird little creature. We love him. Yes, we do. 

Can you spy the lazy bunny?

okay okay okay. So there are a bunch of stray cats that roam our neighborhood who all seem to worship this little old lady that lives in the apartment complex adjacent to ours. Every morning and every evening the felines congregate around the entrance to the apartment and wait.  

Sure enough, the little old lady (or perhaps Freya in disguise?) emerges with a bag of cat food and they all cross the street into park where they all sing "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" together in perfect four-part harmony she must feed them. It is rather heart-warming. 

The men of the house making supper! 

Beautiful sweet potato, avocado, cucumber rolls that really hit the spot. This was the second time in one week I was treated to these. Compliments to chef Brendaroo and sou-chef KyleChan. 

Thanks for reading!

-M