It's gonna be a GREAT DAY!!

The sun finally arrived. It is a perfectly sunny warm day here in Leuven. I never would have guessed it from last night's weather, though. As my friend Johan and I sat at the bus stop waiting for a bus to take us back to my place so we can have some red bean buns for dessert (my first time attempting to make them), I took my mind off of the possible culinary disaster by watching cyclists - or rather two-wheeled commuters roll by.

It reminded me of my first time sitting at this same bus stop three years ago. I was living in Grote Markt (Leuven center) above what used to be Confrateur Cafe (my friend owned the bar - pictured in photo next to cathedral) and needed to visit a friend outside of town. It must have been no warmer than 0 degrees C but you couldn't tell by how the bike riders were dressed. For twenty minutes while i froze my ass off waiting for a bus, I spotted not one pair of gloves and only one hat. That is when i realized that Belgians are crazy! How could they ride without gloves? What i also vividly remember from that evening is that quite a few of them were holding a cigarette in one hand while steering with the other. Even though I am fully aware that they are using the bike as a means of transportation, it still threw me off to see someone on a bike holding a cigarette as if it were perfectly normal to mix cycling with smoking!

Today I am meeting up with Adri my neighbor to visit the bike shop where Peter's collector's item came from. I will try to remember the camera just in case there are more treasures to document.

By the way, the red bean buns were fabulous - not quite traditional taiwanese style but tasty nonetheless. After johan left, i took the rest of the buns out into the hallway of my apartment building and shared them with my neighbors. Next time i will make them with different stuffings. For stuffings, I'm thinking: spinach and pureed garlic, tofu and scallions, banana and maple syrup, and chocolate (belgian of course) and pecans. YUMMY!!!!!