I am back in good ole Mons. I heard that while I was gone the weather was cruddy, but right now it is sunny and about 45°, which is decent for November. I got here yesterday to discover numerous things. First, my bank account was frozen. Second, there is a carnival/fair being set up in the Grand Place. Third, it is noticebly colder than when I left.

I think that I managed to take care of the bank problem. I'm going to double check today. To fix the problem, I had to go to the city hall, get a paper saying that I applied for my resident card (which I couldn't do before without the visa), and then go to the bank so they could copy the paper and my passport. Then the nice fella at the bank had to fax my information to the office in Brussels where it is decided if my file is now complete.

As briefly mentioned above, I do now have a visa. The Belgian Consulate was extremely fast in mailing it to me. The US Postal Service almost screwed me over (I mailed it on Thursday in next day express mail and it wasn't delivered to the Consulate until Monday afternoon at 3pm). Besides that brief moment of anxiety, the trip home was splendid. It turned out to be much busier and much better than I anticipated. Andrew proposed my first night in Eau Claire, to which I said yes, so we did a lot of wedding planning in my brief stay home since the wedding is next August.

That sums up the latest news. I am back in one piece. I am tired. I am engaged.