Week 12: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Well the answer to that is definitely 'working hard'!!! The end is near, and it's so emotional already. On one hand I am beyond excited to get back home and see everyone and just give everyone the biggest hug. My house is being sold at home, another one being built on the lake, my brother is finally back from Iraq, I'm headed to Australia in June....just so many changes are taking place. I feel like many things have changed at home since I left; before I left there was no talk of putting the house on the market, and now when I get home everything will almost be moved out! Wow. I also cannot WAIT to drive a car again. I was fortunate enough to be able to drive a sweet BMW throughout the streets of Paris about a month ago with some Parisian friends that invited me there, and that was SUCH a rush. I forgot how much I truly miss driving. So I cannot wait to grab my 4runner as soon as I get home and go for a spin to my friend's houses :)

On the other hand, it's hard to imagine not living in Beligum anymore. It has become such a huge part of my life, and I'm so used to waking up in a beautiful apartment every morning and being submersed in a completely different culture. I have had many highs here and also a few lows. This week on Tuesday night, I was coming home by myself around 10:30 pm, and made it all the way to my building door (and I live in a very safe, rather high class area). Before I know it, as I'm putting the key into the door, these 2 men grab my purse so tightly off of my shoulder and immediately I go into defensive mode. They almost had it, when I grabbed the straps right as they were taking it away from me. This absolutely monstrous yell came out of me exclaiming 'STOPPPP' and thank you Lord that a car also saw. The car slammed on breaks and honked the horn as loud as possible so that the men would know the driver was watching. I was so shaken up and the men were still standing pretty close to me, and I was desperately trying to get the key in the door but my hands were shaking to bad. The car was asking me in French if I was okay, and I told them to wait until I got inside my building. Finally I was able to make it inside and I ran up my 4 flights of stairs faster than I ever imagined possible. I made it into my apartment and just bawled on my roommates shoulder for a while. She said she heard me scream outside and was wondering what was going on down there. I had never been so terrified in my life. I felt so violated and to imagine if they had actually been successful and if I didn't have the strong grip on my purse that I did; I feel like my life would have been over. I would be passport-less, no camera, no money, no cards, no phone...literally I can't even imagine. That's why I never take my purse out at night anyway, it was just a random reason that I had it on that night. Anyway, thankfully I'm okay and I still have my belongings.

Onto my progress, I was able to get my interview done this week by Professor Megan Mowrey (Law professor at Clemson) about her take on public transportation in Belgium, mainly the metros. For my video about an important issue in Belgium, I'm talking about the importance they place on using public transportation and saving gas. I cannot even tell you how many hundreds of times I've ridden the metro here, and it's going to be strange back in the states not riding it anymore. It's become a part of my everyday life! I think it's great and I'm interested to see how that video turns out.

Stay tuned, CLAMers! Good luck to all this week. Lots of finals approaching and videos to be finished!