nonnie goes to belgium!

last days in brussels

2008-12-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-06T02:19:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-12-03T02:28:00.000-08:00

christmas markets in germany

2008-12-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-29T22:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

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!

my two new favorite things

2008-11-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

yesterday i learned two new things that i am really excited about!!!

the first is that starting this friday, there will be a huge harry potter themed snow and ice sculpture exhibit in bruges. the artists are coming in this week to build huge snow and ice sculptures and you can walk through them and this year it's all based on harry potter....I AM SO EXCITED!!! i will post pictures when we go.

second, i was bummed to be missing a few cd releases at home, but yesterday i discovered that the new britney spears cd is actually coming out 5 days EARLIER in europe!!! and the new james bond movie came out early too!!

what's going on

2008-11-10T08:10:00.001-08:00

i've mostly just been hanging out for the past week since we got back from greece, but i learned some funny things last week that i wanted to share. you've probably heard me say that belgium is inefficient because of the tension between the north and the south--well, last week we learned in my belgian experience class about something called the "waffle iron policy," where, for all the money that was spent in the more productive, more industrialized north (flanders), a proportional amount of money had to be spent in the south (wallonia). but because the south was less industrialized and didn't really need the same structure and technology as the north in order to function, the money was often put towards pretty useless projects, including...get this....BRIDGES TO NOWHERE. literally. we saw pictures in class. just bridges in fields with tunnels running through them that didn't connect to anything on either side. now THAT is inefficient. but funny.
in one of my communications classes last week, some kids were complaining that the libraries aren't very helpful, with which i have to agree. but my professor explained why: the VUB (the dutch-speaking university) and the ULB (the french-speaking university) used to be one, and when they split, all the books in the library were simply divided by even and odd call numbers. there was no attention paid to the fact that maybe sets should stay together, or maybe one university emphasized a particular subject more than the other, they just split the books by even and odd. so, our professor agreed, the library is often pretty useless.

i've made friends with some of the girls from school, which is really cool, and on thursday night we went to a movie and out to dinner. this weekend colleen and i got lunch and did a little shopping on avenue louise, one of the big, fancy shopping streets in brussels, and i think that when they start decorating for christmas it's going to be so cool! other than that, i am just working on all the assignments i have due this week, but we don't have class tomorrow because it's a public holiday so i have a very long weekend...oh, the joys of study abroad.

things i am looking forward to: the kanye west and santogold concert next friday, my family coming in less than two weeks, a visit to paris, and a visit to the christmas markets in germany! it should be a busy and fun last few weeks.

greece!

2008-11-05T02:58:00.001-08:00

colleen and i just got back from an AMAZING trip to greece! we ate tons of greek food, saw all the sights, enjoyed beautiful weather, and bought some greek fashions....it was the perfect break.

we left early on wednesday morning. we had a long layover in milan and were planning to go into the city, but it cost 30 euro round trip and it was pouring, so we decided not to go. after a long day of traveling, we finally arrived in athens around 10 pm. we met a creep on the train who kept telling us that athens was dirty and "a good place to visit, but never to live." we were tired of getting negative feedback about greece from everyone, we knew it was going to be fun! somehow, even though the street signs are all in greek, we navigated our way to our hostel, got some saganaki and greek salads, and went to bed.

the next day, we wandered around the acropolis and the ancient agora all morning. here are some pictures:

then, we had lunch in one of the funky, sort of grungy neighborhoods, monastiraki (we were staying in plaka, which is a little nicer, but more touristy)....a huge gyro platter and we ate the whole thing. then we wandered back to plaka and into the store of a greek designer from athens, where i bought a dress and a tank top and colleen bought a sweater and a tank top, all very cool, obviously greek, and not too expensive. the man working at the store lectured us for about an hour about how greek isn't that different from english, so we really do know greek, and he drew the letters and explained how they changed from english to greek...i still don't understand greek, and i was trying really hard not to laugh because it reminded me so much of "my big fat greek wedding." he was very nice though.
then we decided to go do some shopping that we've been planning on for months....there is a store in athens where a famous greek poet, stavros mellisimos, makes pretty inexpensive leather sandals that are really beautiful, and we wanted to get a few pairs for ourselves and a few for presents. we tracked the store down, and it was awesome and full of stuff and smelled like leather, and we tried on a bunch of sandals....together we bought eight pairs, and we talked to the poet's son while he put the nails in all of our sandals. it was great.
then, we sat down to a feast of bread, wine, garlic sauce, greek salad and fish for half of what it would have cost us in brussels....it was amazing, i love greek food, and it was the perfect finish to a full day of sightseeing and shopping!

the next day, we got up, went to starbucks (!!!) and went to the national gardens, the temple of zeus, hadrian's arch, and the roman baths....they are all very close to each other. here is a picture of us at the temple of zeus:

it was definitely my favorite thing we saw. it took 700 years to build and there were originally 104 columns, but there are only 15 now....12 together, which we are standing with, and 3 by themselves. one of those three was blown down in a gale in the 1800s, and it fell and broke into chunks that are all the same size...it is very weird, and so cool.
then we flew to santorini. since it was halloween, we set out to try and find the haunted house and oia, but our walk turned into a death march, the island was deserted and we had no idea where we were going, and we had to turn back because it was starting to get dark....we decided we need to be old and rich to go back to santorini, so we can hire a car and a tour guide, because it was way bigger than we thought and we had no idea what we were doing. we did manage to find a bar with a halloween party, but we were pretty much the only ones there. our hotel was also infested with mosquitos and we have mosquito bites all over us....gross. but, it was still worth the trip, because the next morning we slept in, got a gyro for two euro (!!!) and took the bus to the volcanic beach, where we sat all day in the 80 degree weather. it was awesome. then we flew back to athens in our bathing suits, feeling like such jetsetters. for dinner, we went back to the restaurant where we got the feast before, and the same waiters were there and laughed at us while we ordered another feast.

the next day, we got up and went to the national archaeological museum, which is supposed to be "the museum" to see if you are visiting one museum in athens. their claim to fame is agamemnon's gold death mask, but we had fun seeing everything else...we were sort of museum-ed out at this point, and we laughed at the funny greek-english translations that made very little sense, and amused ourselves by speculating what the pottery was actually used for. we probably should have paid more attention, but i did a lot of museum visiting in one week. oh well, we saw the death mask.
then, we had lunch, wandered through the flea market and the roman agora, hung around in plaka for a little while, and went to the national gardens to hang out and do some reading....we were really tired and mostly just wanted to relax. that night, we had the only bad meal the entire time, because the food was not fresh and they overcharged us and then were mean to us....but we went and had some greek beer, we were not going to let one bad meal ruin our awesome trip.

the next day (monday) we came back to brussels, very content with ourselves for such a great fall break trip....traveling by ourselves was a little stressful, but we returned with no injuries, no illnesses, nothing lost or stolen...just some mosquito bites. it was so fun, i loved greece and i can't wait to go back.

i am only here for another few weeks, and i don't have any more trips planned, except for a field trip to the christmas markets and to wherever my parents want to take me when they come (hopefully paris!)...but a few interesting things will still happen, probably....some trips to the theater, etc., so i will keep posting! i really missed madison halloween and election day in the states, but i am having so much fun and i am so happy and appreciative to be able to have this experience, my fall break was so great and i am learning and seeing so much!

YEAHHH OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!! :)

madrid!

2008-10-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

i just got back from madrid, and i am very proud of myself because i figured out my way around the city and covered a lot of territory!
i arrived at the airport on friday afternoon and mariel was there waiting for me, and i was very excited because she was the first familiar face i had seen since eric came to brussels in september....that feels like so long ago. we checked into my hostel, where we discovered that a very strange man appeared to be living there, and then we had lunch in a thai restaurant. then we got a starbucks (!!!!!), sat outside at the thyssen museum, and then went to the prado for a while, where we saw my favorite painting, the garden of earthly delights!!! i was so excited, i was looking forward to it all semester and it was amazing. we saw a lot of other paintings too...the prado gives out a sheet with all the masterpieces and i think i managed to find about three quarters of them over the course of my trip...but on friday we just saw some highlights....bosch, brueghel, and goya and velazquez, the prado's mains claims to fame. it was awesome. then, we had dinner at an indian restaurant and i met some of mariel's friends from the program, lina and davida. they were very nice....it is a program requirement for them to speak spanish all the time, even when they are just hanging out, so they are all very good at spanish which is very cool. after dinner, we went to populart, a jazz club where we saw the canal street jazz band and i had a cerveza with lemonade!

on saturday, mariel and i went to the thyssen museum for a loooong time...they told us at the entrance that it would take 2 1/2 hours to see the whole collection, but we tried to see everything but failed and still spent about four hours in the museum. it was amazing, though....most of what we saw was modern art and pop art, expressionism and impressionism. i really liked kirchner which i didn't know before, and there was a special exhibit called "1914, the avant-garde and the great war" that showed how the 1914 war influenced avant-garde art and the development of art before and after the war...it was very cool, and very moving, but i think our attention span was running out a little bit. we went shopping for a little while, had falafel for dinner, and went to the movies....a successful day.

on sunday, we got up to go to el rastro, the biggest flea market in europe. it is called the rastro, which means "the stain," because it used to be a meat market and it is on a hill and the blood would run down the hill....but it is HUGE and there was all kinds of cool stuff to buy. i got a crazy patterned bag, a tapestry for my room in madison, and some crazy patterned leggings for some of my dance-party loving friends....nothing was expensive, and it was all fun to look at. then we went to have churros and chocolate, a typical madrid breakfast, outside at a famous cafe...i think we sat in the prime picturesque spot because a lot of people stopped to take pictures of us...it was awkward, but i think it was just because we had the best seat. then we hung out in starbucks (!!!!) for a while, but mariel had to go home and do homework, so i went back to the prado to say hi to my bosch painting again and check out some of the art that we missed on friday...i kept getting distracted by different rooms i hadn't noticed before, there was so much to see! and at least a hundred paintings by goya...it made me wish i understand spanish so i could understand the descriptions. i also checked out the ancient greek art in honor of my trip tomorrow! on sunday night, i went back to the hostel where they were having a sangria party. i wasn't planning on going, because i felt awkward by myself, but this french guy who was staying in my room came in with an american guy he had met at the party wanting me to translate because they had gotten themselves into a political debate but they didn't speak each other's language. so that was pretty funny/interesting, and gave me a chance to practice my french and talk to some people. nice and STRANGE people stay in hostels...the man who we thought may or not be living there was DEFINITELY living there. he never left the hostel, never changed his clothes, and had tons of food and trash and dirty tissues all around his bed. he asked me a lot of questions, i tried to respond vaguely. he also acted like he had never seen me before each time i came back to the room...maybe it was because i changed my clothes? when i asked him why he was in madrid, he said he was "sick." he asked me why i was in madrid, and i said "my friend is here, and i like museums and shopping." he said, "oh yes, me too, museums and shopping." but he never left the room. the french and the american guy were nice, though...but it was a very weird experience. hostels are weird; they are always interesting, but i'm not sure i will ever stay in on again after this semester if i can help it.

on monday i was on my own and i had a full day planned....i went to the reina sofia in the morning, mostly to see picasso's guernica, and it was amazing. they also had all the rooms around the guernica set up to give the painting context, which is a symbol of outrage at the way innocent people were affected by war....there were also many other works by picasso, and dali and miro which i liked as well. my attention span was slipping again when i walked through the top floor, but then i realized that there were sculptures you could walk through, so i did! i think i saw just about everything in the museum....the architecture was really cool, too, and the elevators were clear glass and gave you an amazing view of the city. the museums in madrid are so cool, i can't decide which one was my favorite....the prado is the biggest but i'm not sure it's the best, each has their own special vibe, you have to visit all three! i could spend a week in the prado and not get bored, though. (well, maybe a little bored, since i can't read the descriptions in spanish.) then, i walked through the botanical gardens, sat outside for a while, did a little shopping, went to the royal palace, the plaza del oriente and the sabatini gardens, and then it was time to go to dinner at mariel's home stay. her host family does not speak any english at all, and they didn't eat with us, they just served us and then left us on our own. maria, mariel's senora, made us vegetable paella, salad with pomegranate seeds and yogurt sauce, a sort of potato and egg pie, and bread with fruit in it. they were a very nice couple, but their house was so packed with stuff that you could hardly move in it, and it was very tiny. apparently maria always wants mariel and lina, her housemate, to tell her gossip.

it turns out that i can understand basic spanish enough to communicate and get around. i can say "estudiante" at museums so i can get a discount. i can order my starbucks: "con leche desnatada, para llevar." i even asked directions in spanish today on my way to the airport. i just went to get a sandwich for dinner with colleen and i almost said "gracias." unfortunately, i DEFINITELY cannot speak greek. eek.

i really, really like spain. madrid has such a cool atmosphere....everyone is always outside, hanging out in the sun, eating and drinking. it is really fun, and the pace of life is so different....maybe i should be glad i am not studying abroad there, i would be very upset to go back to madison where i spend my days bundled up in a coastie parka or studying in the library. but all in all, my trip was very fun, and i was very successful in planning my days, getting myself around, figuring out public transportation....it turns out i am a pretty good traveler, maybe there is hope for me yet with public transportation in brussels!

off to greece in the morning!

pictures from normandy

2008-10-20T13:39:00.001-07:00

here are a few pictures that colleen took in normandy, i will put up more later! she is a good photographer...i will try to be better at taking pictures in spain and greece next week!

at omaha beach

at mont saint-michel
the american cemetery

weekend in normandy

2008-10-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

we just got back from a weekend excursion in normandy. it was really a lot of time on a bus, but it was a great experience and i'm so glad i got to go. we really powered through the weekend but i will try to remember some of the highlights.
on friday, we got on the bus at about 7 am and arrived at mont saint-michel early in the afternoon. it is a rocky island that used to be accessible only during low tide, but now there is a causeway that keeps the water from getting too close and so there are silt deposits everywhere. we wandered around the small town, mostly full of tourist shops, for about an hour and then we had a two-hour guided tour in french of the town and the cathedral. the view from the top is really beautiful. one of my favorite things was that this year is the 1300 year anniversary of mont saint-michel, and a famous photographer took pictures of mountains all over the world (india, australia, ethiopia...) to celebrate and they are blown up really big and you can see them all around the buildings...it was very cool.
then, we got back on the bus and headed to bayeux where we were staying. the hostel was bedbug-free, but the bathroom was very moldy and the shower was scalding hot, so hot that it hurt...i guess that's better than freezing cold? anyway, we noticed that we must be getting used to the leisurely pace of dinners in belgium, because at dinner we were rushed through bread, soup, salad, chicken & rice, and dessert in about 20 minutes and we were NOT happy about it. the servers went so far as to snap their fingers at us to pile our plates up, and hover over us so that they could snatch our soup bowls as soon as we were finished. after dinner, we went to a pulp fiction-themed bar (weird) and took over basically the entire bar.
saturday we visited the d-day beaches on a bus tour. the first stop was la pointe du hoc, where the germans were stationed. there are still bunkers everywhere. it was beautiful, but very eerie...the area is on a cliff on the beach, and at first it seems like the terrain is just really rugged, but then you realize that the holes are bomb craters and now grass has grown over them.
then we went to omaha beach, the most murderous beach, according to our guide, of the d-day beaches...again, it was very, very beautiful, and scary to think that such a horrible thing happened there. we were all standing at these sites in awe of what the soldiers went through to fight. it was very moving.
then, we went to the american cemetery, which was probably my favorite part of the day. nine thousand soldiers are buried there. when you walk in, there is a statue of a man reaching up, which is supposed to symbolize the american spirit. behind him are two olive trees meant to symbolize peace. there are two big, colorful maps describing the battles, and a reflecting pool across from it all...and then 9,000 graves, all oriented west. i walked through the graves for a little while, and saw the grave of one woman (only four are buried in the whole cemetery), a reporter, and many others...i was on the lookout for soldiers from maryland and wisconsin. jewish soldiers have a star of david on their graves, which i never knew, and the average age of the people buried there is 23...but their dates of birth are not on their graves, so that visitors would not be more sad about someone who was 19 then someone who was 30...they were all equally great losses. then i walked behind the monument to see the wall of the missing, which lists all of the soldiers whose bodies were never found. the whole experience made me very sad that such horrible things happen in the world and that so many young people were lost and families were affected...i just wish that we could find some way today to solve problems other than by fighting, and i wish that we could end this unnecessary war before the entire world hates americans, and before we lose so many young people again...it was a pretty emotional experience for me.
then, we had some free time to eat in arromanches, another town on the water, where we visited a d-day museum and learned about the construction of the operation. i started to lose focus soon after this point, but then we went to a 360 degree cinema where we saw a film about d-day that including images from the battle (really violent ones, like a man who got shot in the face getting stitched up) and serene images from normandy today...it was a little disturbing, but cool because every way we turned we could see something different.
then, we went back to bayeux to have an audio tour of the bayeux tapestry, which is 70 meters long and almost a thousand years old. it was made with eight different colors of yarn and tells the story of william the conqueror (and how he became "the conqueror" instead of "the bastard). what really surprised me about the tapestry was that it was very violent, and in the battle scenes the bottom of the tapestry was embroidered with decapitated bodies and heads and severed limbs...kind of gross, kind of cool that all this gore is embroidered into a tapestry.
then, we walked around the bayeux cathedral, but i can honestly say that i have no idea and really can't even remember what i saw because i am not capable of processing that much information and emotion on a saturday, unfortunately.
after a short nap, we had another rushed dinner, and went back to the pulp fiction bar. this morning, we got up and got back on the bus for another full day on a bus, basically, except that we stopped in amiens. we ate at a cafe on the water and then went to the cathedral, which actually was really amazing;the front was extremely intricate, with hundreds of different saints carved into the stone, and inside there was a labyrinth on the floor, as well as john the baptist's head! apparently, there are several churches in france who say that they have the real head, but amiens is one of the most legitimate ones. the unfortunate thing about today was that we scoured the city in search of a soda or a water to no avail; of course, it was sunday, everything was closed, i guess they are not into hydration in europe. our bus had to stop and invade a gas station, we all bought about 5 drinks. we also watched a very weird belgian movie called toto the hero on the way back, which apparently is the film that put belgian cinema on the map...but it was very weird. all in all, a very interesting weekend. i am so glad i got to see the d-day beaches and the cemetery, it was something so important that i will remember forever and i probably never would have gotten to do otherwise.
this week, we have a field trip to the brussels fine art museum, and then i am off to madrid on friday! colleen and i are busy figuring out what to do in athens!

vive la belgique!

2008-10-16T20:37:00.001-07:00

we are off to normandy this morning but i wanted to post quickly because it has been a very eventful week. our fridge was finally fixed monday night. on tuesday, during my contemporary political debates, we heard some screaming in the street and saw a bunch of kids dressed up like pirates drinking beer. my professor said, "they are in a party mood, i will protect you!" but he wasn't fast enough because they all pulled down their pants and mooned our class. the dutch speaking university has been hazing it's fraternity members for the past few weeks, so it was probably part of that. oh, belgium. then we had two cartoon artists come speak to our belgian experience class about what they do. on tuesday night we went to tess's house to eat chinese food and watch harry potter, because she has a TV, and it was very fun...her host family has recently decided to become art dealers, and they just had their first art show last weekend so their house is full of art, and behind the couch there is a painting of a car crash that costs 22500 euro. after painting it, the artist died in a car crash. her host mom gave us special macaroons from paris.
on wednesday, we went to a belgium vs. spain soccer game. it was very fun, and even though belgium is ranked 51st, they managed to keep spain from winning until the last three minutes of the game. suddenly, we all had belgian pride and it was very funny. some of the boys painted their faces and stuff, too.
yesterday i had class all day so it wasn't very fun...i am starting to get midterms and papers back, and they are not as good as my real school, but fine i suppose...i guess study abroad grades don't really matter all that much.
well, we are off to normandy! it is an 8 hour bus ride, but hopefully i can sleep, do some home work, and plan my trip to greece with colleen! we are visiting mont-saint-michel today, and then staying in bayeux and visiting the d-day beaches tomorrow. sunday is another day on a bus all day. oh well, it should be interesting!

smurf for all, all for smurf!

2008-10-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

yesterday, colleen, becca and i went to the comic strip museum to see the smurf exhibit!! the smurfs are 50 years old this year. it was so fun, i learned so much about the smurfs and peyo, and we got to watch smurf cartoons...i am also writing a paper on the smurfs for my class about belgium, because they are actually very political, and my professor said i could use the exhibit as a "source." the museum itself is also cool because it is an old victor horta building that used to be a factory. i think i am going to love smurfs forever after this trip, partly because my professor brings me smurf stuff to every single class...we think he is a closet smurf addict. i bought myself a calendar and the book (in french) about "reporter smurf." we also had fun wandering around the city, found some cool vintage boutiques, and i got my first belgian waffle! it was gooey and warm with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. all in all, a very successful day. friday night we went to a bar that used to be a bank, and last night our landlords were gone, so, obviously, we threw a party. beer pong is pretty funny with belgian beer.
here are some pictures from the comic strip museum:

observations about belgium/ vesalius college midterms

2008-10-10T02:37:00.000-07:00

this week has been very weird. my dreams of getting a 4.0 gpa have been crushed, but everyone keeps telling me that study abroad grades don't matter, so i will try not to worry. i know in the end i will manage pretty good grades anyway. but our school here is just so weird. anyway, i will start from the beginning:

on monday, there was a planned transportation strike. everyone knew about two weeks ago that there was going to be no public transportation on monday. so, they had a chance to get everything in order so that the transportation strike wouldn't affect them very much---doesn't this defeat the purpose of a strike? some teachers cancelled classes and moved midterms that were on monday. my friend tess had to sleep at our house because her teacher did not cancel class, and it would have been about a two hour walk for her. later, my roommate patrick came home from oktoberfest, and told us that he had used a bus and the metro to get home, and we were very confused. apparently there were select lines running despite the strike. anyway, the point is that apparently the workers strike when they want a day off, but they have to inform everyone or they will get fired.
since i have no class on monday, the only way the strike affected me was that the grocery store was closed, which seems stupid because the people who work and shop at that grocery store probably don't need public transportation to get there anyway. oh, belgium.

also, our fridge has been broken for several days now. we noticed at the beginning of the week that all the ice melted and there were icicles all over the freezer. also, our food was getting moldy after only about five days, but because belgium is so weird, we just assumed that our landlords were turning the fridge down because that's how they roll in belgium. but on wednesday we realized that the fridge was just broken. (after we had gone to the grocery store on tuesday after it was closed on monday and stocked up because it was midterm week and we wanted fresh vegetables and chicken---oh, belgium). anyway, we told our landlords and they called the repairman, but in the meantime they had to cook every single thing that they had in the freezer. the repairman came last night (thursday) at about 9 pm, but he said the fridge needs to defrost and he can't really fix it until monday. couldn't he have told us to leave the doors open 2 days ago when we called? oh, belgium.

and...this week was midterms week. obviously, i didn't study last weekend because i was at oktoberfest, but i probably wouldn't have studied anyway, because last week i had papers due every single day. i was expecting midterms to be easy, and some of them were fine, but i really don't understand how they can expect anyone to do well when you have 2 tests and a paper due in one day. i'm sure i did well/fine on three of my tests, but the other two were absolutely awful because i literally had zero time to study. i have never not studied for a test in my life. the only things that will probably save my grades is that a) our final papers and tests are a lot more spread out, so i will actually have time to prepare and do well, and b) my classes are small so my teachers know me, so they will know that i work hard and hopefully that will improve my grades. i like it here, i like traveling around and i love the people in my program, but i think it's safe to say that i hate this school. it's boring and i'm not really getting anything out of the work that i'm doing, but it's still going to lower my gpa. i know at the end of the semester i will leave with some combination of As, ABs, and Bs, but right now i really hate it.

that is all for my rant. tonight one of the groups who lives together is having a house party, and tomorrow colleen and i are going to the comic strip museum to see the smurf exhibit! since i am writing one of my final papers on the smurfs, i am allowed to use my visit as a "source." we might go shopping a little bit also.
the leaves are turning pretty colors and i really want a pumpkin...all they have here are gourds! if anyone could (legally) ship a baby pumpkin to belgium, i would really appreciate it! (just kidding. sort of.)

oktoberfest pictures

2008-10-10T02:22:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures from oktoberfest! the first is of me eating the roast chicken inside the paulaner tent. everyone talks about the sausages in germany, but the chicken was amazing and all weekend waiters were walking around with plates of 20 chickens. my roommate managed to take several pictures of me with food over the course of the weekend which is why i look kind of annoyed, but it was funny. the second picture is our group sitting outside (freezing) at hofbrau, and the last two are of the paulaner tent.

i am procrastinating

2008-10-06T04:56:00.000-07:00

some funny pictures from delft.

oktoberfest!!

2008-10-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

this weekend we went to oktoberfest in munich and it was probably the most fun i've had since i've been here! everyone and everything was so happy and colorful, the food was great, the germans were so friendly....it was amazing.
we flew out on friday morning around 11:00 so we got into munich around 12:30 and figured out public transportation to get to our campsite where we were staying. we met up with the rest of our group and headed to oktoberfest!!! since you have to get there early to get inside a beer tent, we couldn't get into one, so we got sausages for dinner and then sat outside at a beer garden. as soon as we sat down, a beer frau appeared with seven huge beers...after a long day of flying and figuring out german public transportation, it was great. i went to bed pretty early though, because we had to get up the next day to get into a beer tent.
on saturday, we got to the festival grounds at about 915 and rushed to the paulaner tent. we managed to get a table all the way in the back but we were in a very rowdy section and the police kept coming. we met people who had come from all over the world, but very few americans. figuring out what language to speak with people was always funny, because they would offer us several options--"portugese? italian? german?" and i would have to reply, "english? french?" and then we could sort of communicate, sometimes. the germans would never speak english to us, though, and everything was in german...they would just continue to speak german even if we were giving them dazed and confused looks indicating that we clearly had no idea what we were saying. it was funny.
inside the tent, it was decorated with ribbons hanging from the ceiling and greens and animal heads on the walls, and there was a big band in the middle that played good music all day. we ordered roast chicken and potato salad and it was AWESOME. we stayed in the tent for about six hours, and then we sat outside at hofbrau for a few hours. people were starting to get really sloppy, and one girl right in front us of passed out and was taken away in a stretcher, so that was kind of scary. it was getting to be really freezing cold, so we decided to get some food and head back to the campsite to hang out in the warm beer tent there. before we left though, we stopped for a while to get coffees and this strange dessert that was a lump of dough with sauce and cinnamon on top.
yesterday we went back for a few hours, to get our last taste of the food and a few last beers...i didn't drink because we were flying, but we sat outside and the weather was beautiful...suddenly it went from cold and rainy to sunny and 70 degrees. we all discussed how much fun the weekend was, and then we headed to the airport, where i got coffee!!! we finally arrived back in brussels at about 8:00 and i immediately got in the shower, and it was great. according to our landlords, we are only supposed to take five minute showers...i think it was closer to ten though. oh well.
the only thing i didn't like about the weekend was that i stayed in a tent for the entire weekend and didn't get to shower and saturday night was the coldest night of the year so far...it got to zero degrees celsius. i think i am never doing that again, but it was quite an experience, and it was cheap. we smelled very bad on the way back to brussels...but then i realized that it had only really been 2 days since i showered, so i wonder how people did it in the middle ages when they only bathed a few times a year.
i will post more pictures soon, but my computer is very slow right now. i have midterms this week and i'm not traveling anywhere this weekend, but i think we might do some sight-seeing around brussels and relax, because this weekend and this week will have been very intense.

happy october!

2008-10-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures from waterloo and bruges that i just found---it takes us forever to upload pictures.
oktoberfest was SO FUN! i will post about it soon.
AND i got 2 starbucks and some ground coffee to make in the mornings!

wednesday

2008-09-30T23:56:00.001-07:00

it is pouring here. i don't even want to go outside. i hope it's not raining in munich.

on the bright side, our program director brought six smurf comic books in french to class yesterday for me. smurf in french is "schtroumpf."

luxembourg

2008-09-30T02:01:00.001-07:00

yesterday we went to luxembourg. we had to meet the group at 7 a.m., so it was another day of waking up before 6...i am glad to have a break from these day trips for a little while.
first, we visited the european investment bank, where we were shown a powerpoint presentation and then we had coffee. honestly, i can't say i understood how the european investment bank works, the only thing i really got out of it was that they buy a lot of modern art as some of their investments, and it helps the artists too. maybe for business majors the presentation made sense? i don't know. i tried to pay attention, but it was hard.
then we had a guided tour of luxembourg city, which i chose to do in french. it was really beautiful; it is a very small city but seems very wealthy, there were a lot of fancy stores, and you can walk around what remains of the city walls and there are plants everywhere, which our tour guide said reflect the plants that can grow in luxembourg and it is a sort of showcase. there is also red ivy on a lot of the buildings which was really pretty. we also visited a church, and while it sometimes is difficult to keep all the churches straight, this one was really different and our tour guide said it was because of the spanish influence.
after the tour, we got back on the bus for a few hours and went to veves castle in the belgian province of namur, where we had another tour. i chose to do the tour in french again, because i like to get the language stuck in my brain even if i don't understand every word. the count and countess still visit the castle and stay there, even though a lot of it was built in the 14th and 15th century. i would not want to stay there, it was freezing.
then we went to dinner in what is considered a 'typical belgian restaurant' in ardennes. one of the options was boar which is apparently a specialty, but fish was also an option, so of course i chose fish. the food was very good, but the restaurant was tiny and there were flies everywhere...hmmmm. it was an interesting day...we get to see a lot on these field trips, but sometimes it is so much in one day that it's hard to take it all in.
i have a ton of schoolwork this week, but this weekend is oktoberfest in munich!!! we are sleeping in a tent, so that should be interesting...but it is only two nights, it will be fine. i am so excited, everyone on our trip who has already gone said it was the best weekend they've had yet! i will be happy to see all the colors and excitement in munich, brussels is not a very pretty city...and there is a starbucks in the airport. :)

food.

2008-09-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

one of the things i miss about home that is food. but, at the same time, there is really awesome food here too. these pictures are of two of the belgian specialties that i have tried: frites, and waterzooi, which is kind of like chicken pot pie except it's a soup. i have also tried mussels, but i didn't love them, and i haven't had a waffle yet but i'm sure i will soon. there are tons of different sauces for the frites, and i like to try different ones. beer is obviously a big deal here...i have tried several kinds, they were mostly all good but i know nothing about beer. any suggestions would be appreciated. i know i don't like dark beer, but i really like all the (girly) fruit beers...because of the taste and because the alcohol content is lower.

here are some other observations about things we have discovered in the grocery store:

chips- the chip flavors here are very strange. there are "sweet mexican pepper" chips and "barbecue ham" chips...but nothing like salt and vinegar or anything like that....there are, however, paprika flavored chips that taste like barbecue and they are really good. but it makes me wonder-why are chip flavors different in different countries? did someone do a survey and figure out that americans like sour cream and onion chips but europeans like pickle chips? i am very curious.

meat- apparently belgians do not eat turkey. instead, they eat chicken and ham. (and, instead of the prepackaged cheddar and swiss that i'm used to, there is prepackaged gouda. no complaints there.) perhaps the most repulsive thing, though, is something in the lunch meat aisle called "pressed head," which consists of pork head, pork tongue, pork bone, onions, tomatoes and peppers all pressed together into something that vaguely resembles salami....except not. also, "burgers" are sausage patties, and ground beef is called "filet americain." ha, ha.

luckily, fruit and vegetables are the same, except you have to weigh them BEFORE you pay, which caused some confusion the first time we went to the grocery store.

my favorite thing about food here, though, is that brussels is a very international city, so there are all different kinds of restaurants everywhere....chinese, japanese, thai, vietnamese, spanish, italian, indian...and if you know me, you probably know that i could eat chinese food or sushi every single day and be perfectly content. so that is very cool. there are a few american chains around, but we tried pizza hut once and it was super expensive and not very good, and the pizzas from small restaurants up the street are better and cheaper.

and speaking of american food, tonight one of my roommates is making us spam nachos!! all the way to belgium to eat spam? interesting....it can't be worse than pressed head.

we stayed up last night watching the presidential debates, and tonight the kids from our school (vesalius college) are having a party and most of us are going, to try to give study abroad kids a better reputation....monday we are off to luxembourg!!

the hague, ICTY, delft

2008-09-25T01:58:00.000-07:00

yesterday we had a field trip to The Hague in The Netherlands to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. We had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to meet our group at 6:20 for the three hour bus ride; fortunately, our program directors brought pain au chocolats and croissants on the bus.
when we arrived at the ICTY, we had to go through security and then we had a briefing (that lasted an hour and a half, but was very interesting) about the ICTY and what it does and what happened in the former Yugoslavia in the '90s, none of which i knew before. the speaker was a woman from texas named April Carter, and she was very smart and had a lot to tell us, but because we got up so early some people were falling asleep, and we were warned that if we fell asleep in the courtroom it would be considered contempt of the court and we would get in a lot of trouble. so at the ICTY, they have people on trial who committed war crimes (a lot of genocide, but april carter told us that it is hard to prove intent of genocide) in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia in 1994 and 1995. so they have people on trial for things that happened 13 years ago, but much of the intent of the ICTY is to give the victims a voice and let their stories be heard, whether or not anything comes of it. we were allowed to sit behind a glass wall in the courtroom so we could see everything. we saw the testimonies from two witnesses (video-cast from Belgrade, i think), and it was all very complicated because everyone has to have a translator and there seemed to be some misunderstandings because of the language differences. it was getting very tense and it seemed like the prosecutor was about to find one of the guys guilty (because it seemed as if he knew there were prisoners being held and tortured in a certain area but didn't do anything about it), but we were only allowed to stay for half an hour so we had to leave. it is very hard to think about...while you know some people did horrible things, it would be hard to be found guilty for them 13 years later. but then at the same time, people who have been carrying around so much pain with them because of something that happened 13 years ago are finally able to let it go. i didn't understand everything, but it was very interesting.
after lunch, we went to the maurithuis museum in delft, which holds vermeer's painting, "the girl with the pearl earring." there were also several other paintings by vermeer, a room of paintings by rembrandt (including "the anatomy lesson," which apparently became his calling card after he completed it), and a collaboration between brueghel and rubens that i really liked. we had a tour from a lady who was very nice and she was so excited she seemed like she could have talked all day. then we had some free time in delft, but we chose to go to the two churches, the new church and the old church, which actually looked a lot alike. then we got back on the bus to go back to the hague for a traditional indonesian dinner, which was very good. we watched the girl with the pearl earring on our way back to brussels. we didn't arrive at our house until about 11:30, and since we had left at 6:00 a.m., it seemed like the longest day ever. i learned so much but i am kind of glad it's over!
i got a package from daddy two days ago with some things i was really missing about home, so that is awesome. i am probably not doing anything exciting this weekend because i am not feeling very well, i have about seven papers due next week, AND i want to save my euros for oktoberfest next weekend! so i will post again as soon as something exciting happens, but it might not be right away.

snoop dogg + eric

2008-09-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

i did not have a very eventful weekend, but i did get to see one of my best friends from high school, eric, who is studying in antwerp with a program from james madison university. this is a picture of us with some of his friends from the program standing in the grand place in brussels.
the weather on saturday was very nice, so my friend tess and i hung around downtown for a while, and then we got some peach beer and laid out on my roof. eric and his friends came around 5:00. unfortunately, it was laundry day for our landlords, and there was black lacy underwear hanging all over our kitchen while we were all eating pizza. then we headed to the concert, which was very fun. we went to delirium afterwards--the bar that holds the guinness world record for the most kinds of beer commercially available (over 2,000).
they left early the next day, and i basically did homework the whole day. our landlords were having a party, though, so we were not allowed in our living area. i went for a long walk and sat by a lake and it was very nice because sunday was "brussels without cars," so there were no cars anywhere, all public transportation was free, and there were food stands and music all over the city. some of my roommates went to a renaissance festival.
last night, we made burgers and potatoes because it was my roommate patrick's 21st birthday. our landlord came down to give him a bottle of wine; we think that he might be their favorite renter.
tomorrow we are headed to the Hague in the Netherlands to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. i'm not sure what we are going to do there, but i'm sure it will be interesting. we have to get up at 5:00 am though, so tonight will be an early night. right now i have to run because there is a package waiting at the post office for me and i am excited to see what it is!!!

(late) pictures!

2008-09-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures from bruges and the coast that my friend jerrimi just put up!!!

amsterdam!

2008-09-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

this past weekend we went to amsterdam. we took a bus and had a great experience with an insane bus driver! we knew he was a strange one when he was talking to himself and twitching while driving...but then, all of a sudden, we pulled over at a rest stop and he yelled, "everyone off the bus! 25 minutes! doors are locking!" so we took a break, and then we got back on the bus and all got seated, and this strange man got on the bus and walked up and down the aisles touching all of our luggage. and the bus driver was yelling at him in dutch, and the man either didn't understand or was pretending not to understand, because he didn't leave until he had touched everything. so then we were off, again, and traffic was very bad, but our bus driver decided that instead of sitting in traffic, he was going to pull over and read the newspaper. his reasoning was that we weren't going to get there anyway, so we might as well stop. this lasted for about 45 minutes until the traffic patrol pulled up behind the bus and argued with our driver until he moved. he then proceeded to get off at every exit before amsterdam in an attempt to avoid the traffic, but basically we just swerved all over the place until we arrived--3 hours late.
after a stressful few hours of trying to find everyone a hostel, six of us sat down to eat at an amazing indonesian restaurant. it was awesome.
the next day, colleen and i toured the city. we were on a budget and we have all been craving a real hamburger, because "hamburgers" here are just sausage patties, so we went to mcdonald's for lunch. then, we walked through the red light district, which was pretty funny during the day. then we went to the van gogh museum, which holds the largest collection of his works in the world. some of the famous ones we saw were the irises, the sunflowers, the bedroom, still life with bible, and a lot of self portraits. i really enjoyed it. then, we sat outside at a cafe for a while because the weather was so nice. we met up with everyone else in our program later to go out at night, but made the mistake of thinking that we could brave the red light district...which was creepy, and pretty upsetting. during the day, it is just ridiculous, but our experience at night was very intense.
the next morning, colleen and i went to the rijkmuseum, which was also really cool. it holds rembrandt's most famous work, the night watch, and art by a lot of other famous dutch artists. there was also delft blue pottery and stuff like that...it was as much history as it was art. this trip made me remember how much i love museums, and i can't wait to go to the prado when i visit mariel. in the afternoon we window shopped, got chinese food, and sat in a park and saw two homeless guys get in a fight. our bus ride home was uneventful, and we were on time. all in all, it was a pretty good trip...we've had our amsterdam crash course, and now we know to a) book hostels in advance, and b) not go to the red light district at night. colleen and i are planning on going back right after our birthdays in december to shop for shoes and christmas presents.
i have had a lot of tests and presentations for school this week, so i have been very busy with schoolwork. last night i went to a hip hop dance class in french and i really liked it; i think i am going to go every week for the exercise and the french!
this weekend, my friend eric epstein from mcdonogh is coming to brussels and we are going to a snoop dogg concert! he is studying in antwerp for the semester, so it's a pretty easy trip, and i think we are going to do some touristy things on saturday before the concert. i am really excited.
my fall break plans are pretty much set, so here they are: i will be in madrid visiting mariel from october 24-28. i hope to hang around museums all day and then sit outside drinking sangria. i fly back to brussels on the 28th, and then colleen and i are going to GREECE for the rest of our break!!!!! we fly to athens on the 29th, and we have a long layover in milan so we are going to try to go to a museum or two. from october 31-november we are going to be in santorini!!!!!! we are camping in tents with beds there, we will be staying for one night and two days. then we go back to athens, and come back to brussels on november 3. i am VERY, VERY excited for this trip. i will take lots of pictures!
big hugs to everyone! thanks for keeping up with my adventures!

field trips!

2008-09-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

hello from brussels!
we have had two interesting field trips this week. yesterday morning we got up early and went to NATO. we didn't have a tour or anything, but we had 2 information sessions. the first was from a guy from the NATO public diplomacy division who was an information officer for denmark, norway, and the US. he talked about what NATO is and what they do, how it is different from the EU, and sort of what role NATO plays in current events, like what is going on in georgia. then a political officer from the US talked to us about his experience in the foreign service. then we crashed their cafeteria for lunch (which was very good) and went back to class. last night was "girl's night," again, and it was my turn to cook, so i made salsa for an appetizer, and then a salad with cucumbers and red peppers and either chicken or little shrimp on top, and green beans, but i think the hit was roasted potatoes with old bay---i made two whole pans and they were all gone, and this morning the boys in my house were asking for more. my roommate colleen got really good chocolate cracker bars for dessert.
this afternoon we went to the belgian parliament, which was also pretty cool. belgium is a constitutional monarchy and the parliament consists of a house and a senate. we went in the room where the house meets and the room where the senate meets and sat in their chairs. there were also paintings and tapestries of the kings of belgium everywhere, and a reading room with newspapers from around the world. belgium only became a country in 1831, so it is even younger than the US. another interesting thing is that the king is really called the "king of the belgians," so he is technically king of the people, but not the territory.
i like school here so far, but it is very different. i think they expect a lot less from students and i can't figure out why. yesterday my french professor said that american students who come to her class don't usually know how to write structured essays. i must have made an awful face without realizing it, because she looked at me and said "carolyn, you disagree?" and i told her yes, i disagree, i've been writing structured essays since fifth grade, and she said, "well, okay, maybe there are exceptions." this (very annoying) discourse leads me to wonder HOW IN THE WORLD she gets study abroad students who don't know how to write essays---you have to have a 3.0 at college to apply to study abroad, and you have to write essays to get into college. on the plus side, it seems that if i at least structure my essay correctly, i will exceed her expectations. also, my poli sci professor uses the word "indeed" constantly...yesterday we kept track, and he said "indeed" 109 times in a 75 minute lecture. how many times do you say "indeed" in a day? (never?) all my other professors are pretty cool though, and i love my communications classes. it is a strange country in which to attend university.
if you would like to send me mail---you really don't need to, because it is very, very, expensive. i would really like it, but i know that it's not as easy as mailing a package to wisconsin. but if you want to send something, mark it is "used clothes" (no matter what it is) for tax purposes, because for some reason the cheapest taxes are on used clothes. also, the best way to send me a package is to send it to my program office, because there has to be someone there to receive it. so that address is: Carolyn Vidmar, CIEE Brussels, Boulevard Louis Schmidt 10, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. if you want to send a letter, you can send it to my house: Carolyn Vidmar, Rue Emile Banning 118, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium.
i have classes tomorrow and then we are off to amsterdam, so i will let everyone know how it is!

the weekend

2008-09-08T05:28:00.001-07:00

here is a picture of my roommates and me. from the left: colleen, me, patrick, maggie and chris.
we had a pretty relaxed weekend, with no traveling and not very much homework yet. we did not go to the beer festival because a random celebration popped up in our neighborhood, ixelles. it was called a braderie, and there were rides (for little kids), yard sales, some shopping, fireworks, and lots of food-thai, vietnamese, indian, etc. apparently there is a different celebration like this every weekend in a different neighborhood in belgium. we checked out some of the bars in our neighborhood, too, and we are happy because the prices are good and the crowd is mostly kids (because we live close to the universities) and not touristy. on friday i went to my friend tess's house, which is very cool because she is living in the former embassy of dubai. her host family is going to have an art gallery in their living room (they just moved in so it is not set up yet). we got chinese food in her neighborhood. on saturday my roommates and i had people over to our house and we just hung out. we have had no run-ins with the landlords lately, they were nice this weekend. right now i am studying for a french test that i have tomorrow. tomorrow morning our group is going on a field trip to NATO, and wednesday we are visiting the Belgian Parliament. tomorrow night i am cooking dinner for our weekly "girls night." i will try to keep everyone posted on everything else! mariel and i have a weekend in madrid in the works. please give big hugs to jack, ellie, gracie, allie, linz, mo, shan, katie, and meggie.

the house

2008-09-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures of our house, taken by my roommate patrick.

pictures! etc.

2008-09-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

here are a few pictures from our first week of touring brussels, and one from bruges. the first is the flower carpet in the grand place, and the second is the atomium.
nothing much is going on. tuesday night is girl's night apparently, so last night we all went to katy and rebecca's apartment and had dinner. then colleen and i watched gossip girl online, which was so nice since we don't have tv. right now i am preparing a presentation for class about an article called, "what, if anything, is a belgian?" tomorrow night our group is going to see a french movie, and this weekend is the brussels beer festival. next weekend i am going to amsterdam. i have a ton of homework, but it's all pretty interesting. i am looking forward to scheduling visits with mariel, who is in madrid. that's all for now!

back from bruges

2008-08-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

my first week of classes is over, and i just got back from a weekend in bruges and oostende (the beach). it was great to get out of the house, and the weather was amazing.
my classes are pretty good. on wednesday i had my comm arts class about the internet and communication, i think it's going to be awesome and the professor is really nice. on thursday i had intercultural communications, where my professor told us that good is not really bad and bad is not really good and there is no such thing as up and down because if you look at earth from space up and down don't exist-- ?!?!?!. and it was in this class that i had my first run-in with vesalius college administration...SOOO INEFFICIENT!!! i'm having culture shock!
thursday night my roommate colleen and i went to get frites, and then we went to the grocery store to buy...A COFFEE POT! since i had had a yucky day of dealing with stupid registration and she was having culture shock as well, we were whining together about how stupid it was that we don't have a coffee pot...our landlords have been hosting students since 1989 and one of those students must have been a coffee drinker...but, we left the grocery store with a coffee pot, two pounds of coffee and filters for 20 euro. yay!!! and also a ridiculously priced pint of ben and jerry's. because we needed it, obviously.
we went out on thursday night and got miserably lost and wandered all around brussels for about an hour when we realized that we were not going to find what we were looking for (a bar with a TV!!!!!) and public transportation had stopped running so we might as well stop and hang out because we were going to have to pay for a cab anyway. we ended up at a bar across the street from the european commission. when we walked in, i was the only girl and all the old creepy men turned and stared at me like i was the first girl they had seen in 10 years. it was very weird, apparently that is acceptable in europe but it creeps me out. we sat outside though though, so it was okay. it turned out to be a fun night,
friday i didn't have classes, so colleen and i decided to brave the laundromat. we had heard bad things, but it wasn't that bad. it costs about a million dollars, but they have huge industrial strength dryers so you can dry everything at once. then we had dinner with our landlords and the directors of our program. it was actually pretty fun. the landlady (carola) made chili con carne and rice and a salad because she said that students have told her that they miss mexican food. we learned a little more about our program directors, too, which was cool. dinner in europe lasts forever so it was 11:45 by the time we were finished so i just went to bed. on of our program directors, daniel, said that the kids who have the worst culture shock end up liking the semester the most because they have to go through so much to get there that they really appreciate it. so that's good.
then we got up bright and early on saturday morning to take the train to bruges, which was awesome. we took a walking tour in the morning, and it was hard for me to pay attention because i was so happy to be out of the house and it was so nice outside AND i finally had a morning cup of coffee. i do remember that in the cathedral we visited, there are little tiny chairs on the bottom of the pews when you fold them up, because the monks were supposed to stand and chant or whatever for hours and hours but they didn't want to so they had secret benches built in so that they could hide the fact that they were sitting under their robes. very clever. then in the afternoon we went on a biking tour of the countryside (we biked about 20 miles!) and that was very fun, we ended up relatively unscathed except for my friend tess broke her flip flop so she had to go to the beach today in boots. and we saw windmills, that was cool. we stopped in a tiny town called damme. and we also saw a man mowing his lawn in a speedo! (belgium is weird). then we went back to bruges and had a traditional belgian dinner on the CIEE tab, which meant that we were allowed to order whatever drinks we wanted! for dinner i had fish waterzooi and for dessert i had a dame blanche. after a few drinks, my friends decided it was a good idea to harass our resident director michelangelo about his girlfriend. he didn't care because he is very easygoing, but he doesn't understand our slang either so a few things were lost in translation when we asked him if he and daniel were "bffs" and if they liked to "rage" on the weekends. (daniel and michaelangelo are the program directors from CIEE, they are sort of in charge of us, but mostly just to make sure that we don't die.) then we went out to a few bars in bruges, but called it a night pretty early because this morning we got up and went to the belgian coast! we had some trouble finding our way but once we finally got there it was so nice to put our feet in the north sea and sit on the beach for a while. oostende was a weird little place and sort of reminded me of the ocean city boardwalk (you know it's a little gross but it's also really great so everyone just goes there anyways). it was me and seven girls- colleen, tess from boulder, jerrimi from seattle, katy from asu, rebecca from williams, sara jerving from wisconsin, and sarah glick from brown. i miss home a lot but it was a good weekend! unfortunately, now i have to go read about belgium and how it became a country...i will put up pictures soon!

getting settled in brussels!

2008-08-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

hello from brussels! so i had my first day of classes today. i am taking currents events in french, contemporary political debates, two communication arts classes and a class called the belgian experience, which is required for our program. one of my professors only have seven fingers. i am going to write one of my term papers on the smurfs, because we can write about anything belgian.

i am living in a house with four other kids- colleen from wisconsin, maggie from wisconsin, patrick from minnesota and chris from penn state. we all live on a different floor though because the house is very tall. there is a family who lives here too, but they sort of have their own apartment within the house so we don't see them often but we are supposed to be quiet all the time because they have a baby. we think that the man is a belgian spy. the woman is bolivian and wears very strange and revealing outfits. they seem nice, but they have a lot of rules. they also had a napkin dispenser, and we had been using it, and when we woke up this morning all the napkins were gone, so apparently we weren't supposed to be using their napkins. but we have been having fun making dinner together and stuff. the neighborhood is full of thai and vietnamese restaurants, and there is a fruit stand and this really cool store called hema that is sort of a cross between target and a dollar store and they have awesome school supplies. i like the house a lot, but i hope the weird family lightens up a little bit.
during our orientation we toured around everything, and the grand place in the center of brussels was covered with flowers. it's called the flower carpet and it only happens once every two years for three days. we also went to a brewery and took a tour and then tasted this beer which i thought was totally gross but apparently it's the champagne of beers, or something. we were staying in a hostel, and i'm really glad we're not anymore. we've also been going to the bars at night. they are really fun and they never close and they have strawberry, mango, and peach beer- which also has a lower alcohol content than the rest of the belgian beer so it won't put you on the floor.
we had about 800 meetings during orientation about culture shock, and it got really old and repetitive. now whenever one of us complains about something weird in belgium, someone else yells "culture shock!" and we decided to make a list of the things that make us feel culture shocked and turn it into a rap and call it "the culture shock rock." the only problem i am having is that coffees are only three inches tall, and they don't have sleeves so they burn your hand. i would do just about anything right now for a starbucks, but the belgians seem to have escaped starbucks--there isn't a store anywhere in the entire country. and there is no coffee maker in the house. i am suffering. culture shock! belgium is a very different country. some things don't really seem to make sense. for example, they do tons of cool things to save energy (like escalators turn off when they're not being used), but only drink bottled water.
we are headed to bruges this weekend so i will post again after that! i miss everyone!