last days in brussels

i leave brussels tomorrow morning (well, really the middle of the night tonight) so here's what i have been up to for the past few days!

i finished exams on thursday, and i'm pretty sure they went well. my last exam was french, and i went out for a celebratory cherry beer with some of the kids from my french class afterwards. it was around that time that we all started realizing that our trip was really ending, and that we would all have to say goodbye in just a few days. so, thursday night was our last night at the downtown (touristy) bars in brussels.
friday was our farewell dinner with CIEE. we rented out the cellar of a greek restaurant, and they put out an amazing spread of food. we discussed the highlights and lowlights of our trip, and our program directors gave speeches--i made it into one of them, because of how much i have learned about the smurfs. it was very fun, but kind of sad. afterwards, we danced around for a while, and then our entire group headed to a karaoke bar. it was small and very random, but we had fun. i helped to sing psice girls and britney spears song, and one of our program directors sang "time of your life" by green day, which made us all very sentimental. we stayed until the bar closed, but people were leaving throughout the night because a lot of them had flights to catch in the morning. it was weird saying goodbye without know when or if you are ever going to see your friends again. i think i will keep in touch with a lot of people, though. tess slept over that night and when she left in the morning i was really sad.
on saturday we went downtown to see grand place and the mannequin pis one last time, and see all the christmas decorations and light show. i also got some christmas shopping done.
on sunday, we went to the victor horta museum, which was a cool house but a pretty disappointing museum without a tour. there is no brochure and no labels on anything so we just sort of walked around but didn't know what we were seeing. still, it was an interesting house, with some really weird decorations, and the staircase was definitely the best part. it was good to see it because art nouveau is just so brussels, even if we didn't know what we were doing. then, we went to the comic strip museum to say goodbye, and out to dinner for thai food. it was the last night that all of our housemates were together, so we went to a bar in our neighborhood (tavernier, one of our favorites) and discussed (again) highlights and lowlights and how we hoped we were all be together again. it was really fun.
today was my very last day, so i had to do cleaning and packing and getting everything ready, but i also went downtown to buy some lace for a certain aunt who has been asking for it! :) since a lot of the lace sold in the tourist areas is not made in belgium, we had to look up one of the stores where the lace is actually handmade in belgium. i am not a lace expert, but it was a small store in one of the fancy covered shopping galleries (gallerie de la reine) and i had to tell the man what i wanted because it was behind the counter, and it was not inexpensive, so i'm hoping it's the right thing! i was going to go to two different stores but when i asked for edging the man working at the store pulled out a big box full of all different types and colors, so i got a selection. i don't know what to look for in lace but i got the prettiest ones! then we did laundry (yuck) and went out to dinner (thai food...again). now i am just kind of waiting to leave...it's a weird feeling. i have seen so much and learned so much this semester, and there is so much i have missed about the united states, i feel conflicted. i feel like i need more time here, but i really want to come home. i guess i am just anxious to get back to my normal life and stop just waiting around. but i had so much fun, i really couldn't have asked for a better study abroad experience, better directors, better friends, better trips, better housemates...it was the best.

almost finals week

i only have a few days left here, and unfortunately most of them will be so busy with finals that i won't get to enjoy them. i have a 12-page paper about the smurfs due sunday, and a 20-page paper about news and information on the internet due monday, so i am struggling to finish both on time, and i won't get to study for my exams until right before. oh well, that's the way it goes i guess.
i did get to have fun on thursday night, when we were invited to an art show at tess's house, the former embassy of dubai. it was a ukrainian artist, though, and the ukrainian government was sponsoring the event, so we drank champagne courtesy of the ukrainian government. the weirdest, coolest things like that have happened this semester...i think that's what i'm going to miss most when i go home. last night we went out to a long dinner at a nice restaurant for colleen's birthday, and that was really fun, too. but now it's time to get moving on my papers...i really hope i can finish them on time!

pictures!

christmas markets in germany

on sunday we went to the christmas markets in montjoie and aachen. compared to all our other group excursions, we had almost all free time and only one tour where we had to learn things, so it was very relaxing. my mom and dad and ellie came on the bus with us, and they got a lot of shopping done and collected the cool mugs that the spiced wine is served in.
first we went to montjoie, which was a tiny town with a river running through it that seemed basically just like a christmas town. we had to take a bus there because there was no parking. we got some of the local specialty, printen, to take home-it's sort of a spicy gingerbread. we also had a sausage, obviously-back in germany, need to have german food. it started snowing really hard as we drove to the next christmas market. perfect weather for the day!
next, we went to aachen, a much bigger town with a much bigger christmas market, and a starbucks! i went with my parents and ellie first and we walked around, then we split up so we could shop for secret presents. i hung out with my friends for a while, because it was our last trip together! then we met up with everyone for a tour of the cathedral in aachen. our tour guide wasn't all that great, but it was pretty cool to see the relics in the treasury, and charlemagne's remains and throne. most of the cathedral was new because it was bombed in WWII, and there is also a legend that the doors were shut by the devil himself, and there is a crack in the doors that is supposedly from the devil. (only one tour the whole day, that's why i remember so much!) then we all went and had spiced wine and hot chocolate, and CIEE paid for us to keep the christmas market mugs as a souvenir, and we drove back to brussels. it was really fun, and i am sad that it was our last group excursion, but happy that my parents and ellie got to come! i think they had a really fun trip, and our day trips to antwerp, bruges, and the christmas markets were the most fun, i think.

celebrating the season in bruges

on saturday, we went to bruges to see the harry potter themed ice and snow sculptures! my mom wasn't feeling well, so she didn't walk around with us, but she did see the ice show too, so that was good. the tents were set up right outside the train station, so it was the first thing we did when we got there, and it was just as cool as i was hoping! everything was lit up pink and blue, and there were a lot of harry potter sculptures, like the sorting hat and sculptures of harry playing quidditch, but also a lot of random wizards and witches and princesses. the whole thing looked like hogwarts. we went down the slide made of ice (i sort of scooted, actually) but after a while we had to go because it was freezing....but it was so fun!!!
then, we went to the groeninge museum which holds some famous paintings, and the cathedral in bruges. then we went on a carriage ride all over the city...it was sort of a tour, but we couldn't really hear the driver, so we just enjoyed the scenery. everything was decorated for christmas, and the christmas markets were set up in all the different squares and it was very crowded and very christmas-y! we had a great day! and colleen saved the day by knowing where everything was because she has been there twice, once with our program and once with a class, so she was like our tour guide. yay colleen!

i will put up more pictures soon, our internet is being difficult right now.

thanksgiving + antwerp

i had a french test on thanskgiving. ew. it's hard to know that all your friends at home are sitting in their comfy houses eating turkey with their families and watching the parade and not having to worry about school, and i was at school, studying.

we did have a really cool thanksgiving celebration, though. my program supplied us with three turkeys, four pumpkin pies, and drinks, and they rented tables and plates and everything and set them up in my friend tess's living room (the one who lives in a former embassy) for 55 people, and we had thanksgiving. everyone brought something--i brought "pennies from heaven." and since my parents are here, they brought stuffing and gravy, which no kids had thought of and everyone really appreciated. my mom also helped my roommate, chris, to make applesauce, and it was one of the best things at the dinner. (he made it himself, but she peeled the apples really, really fast.) she helped a lot. tess's parents were there, too, and it was cool that my parents could see what i have been doing for the past three and a half months and see everyone i've been hanging out with. we had to go around and say what we are thankful for, and i have a lot to be thankful for right now...but luckily everyone sort of tried to say funny and clever things, or we really would have taken forever. it was a fun dinner and the party lasted until about 1 a.m. my mom said that our thanksgiving dinner gave her hope for the world, because we all tried really hard to make good dishes to share with each other.

on friday, we went to antwerp, and i loved it and i really wish i could spend more time there. first, we went to "de kathedral," the biggest in belgium, and this funny old man came right over to us and started giving us a tour and he knew EVERYTHING! he told us stories about antwerp and stories about the cathedral and he knew exactly why everything was built the way it was...he told us about the three rubens paintings in the church, and about how there was a fire that ruined all but two of the stained glass windows, and the stories behind the altarpieces and so much stuff, i can't even remember. then he ran away really fast and hid so we couldn't tip him.
then we went to what used to be the meat market and is now a music museum. the music museum was pretty lame compared to the awesome one in brussels, but the building was built to look like bacon, and it really does. weird. then we walked down by the water and went to find some lunch. after lunch, we went to rubens's house, which was also really cool. i didn't realize that he was so rich and worked to collect art and support his fellow artists, and the audio tour that we had told stories about his marriages and stuff too so it was really intesting...i could have stayed LONGER, that rarely happens with my parents. :)
when we came back to brussels, ellie and i went with colleen and tess to see the new twilight movie and get dinner, and ellie slept in my top bunkbed! it was a really good day. i am having such a fun week.
antwerp is really interesting because some parts of it are very modern and some are very old, because it was an important city in europe hundreds of years before belgium was even a country.

the family arrives in brussels, and paris!

ellie and i on top of notre dame in paris

on saturday, my family came to brussels! that day we just really went out to dinner, but on sunday we toured around the city a little...first, we went to a flea market that was a must-see according to the book my dad has, but it was really nothing special. then we wandered around on some really cool streets, found a christmas store, poked our heads inside of a church, went to see the mannequin pis and grand place, went in a lot of chocolate stores, got a waffle, and finally settled down in a restaurant so they could have the traditional belgian dishes of moules-frites and waterzooi.
after lunch, we went to a musical instrument museum that was really cool...you were supposed to wear headphones and stand in front of each case and you could hear what the instrument sounded like. first, there were instruments from all over the world, then you could see what kind of instruments were used in entire pieces of music, then strings and keyboards. it was really interesting, and they managed to avoid the issue of the language divide entirely. when we got out of the museum it was snowing really hard, which it has never done here before, so that was kind of a problem because buses weren't running because all the cars were stuck---it was bad.

the next day, we got up early and left for paris! when we got there, we first got a red cup at starbucks and then climbed to the top of notre dame, which ellie really wanted to do. she was leading us and kept leading us all the way up even though my dad said he was finished...and there was a little kid behind us screaming to his parents, "do you want me to die!?!" because there are 400 stairs. it was fun though. then we walked around, had lunch in the latin quarter, did some shopping, and then had a tour of the louvre. it was a little too long, but i did learn a lot of things that i never knew before, like that the mona lisa was pregnant. we also learned about the building itself, which was cool because the louvre has been used for a lot of different things other than a museum. we had dinner in a restaurant near the eiffel tower, which is lit up blue, and we went outside at 9:00 exactly when it twinkled.

on tuesday, we got up and rode the ferris wheel at place de la concorde, so we could see the arc de triomphe and the tuileries and the eiffel tower from there, and that was really cool. then we walked through the christmas market on the champs-elysees. we met the smiths for lunch and saw their apartment, which is very small but really nice and in a really cool area...i'm not sure i ever want to live in europe permanently, but having an apartment there would be awesome. :) we finished the day with a little shopping and hanging out and took the train back to brussels. it's great traveling with your parents, i got fish for every meal!