Le Diner Exotique

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Today was a day that I was quite looking forward to: the exotic lunch with all of the other Rotary exchange students. The purpose of the day was to allow the host parents and other students experience dishes that are unique to your country. And I swear, I live in the hardest country for that. Because, despite the stereotypes, most American families actually CAN'T be found eating 2 out of 3 meals a day at McDonald's. And there was also not supposed to be any way to heat things up, and we couldn't bring desserts. So really, what does one make for an exotic dinner when we really just eat food that every other country created? Italian, Mexican, sure. But never really food that one would point out and be, "That is TOTALLY American." But, thanks to my trip to the American Food Store with Eddy and Pascale the previous week, I had the ingredients to make PB&Js. I just bought three loaves of bread and two jars of jelly, someone brought knives, someone brought napkins, and voila! An American meal!

We had to leave pretty early, considering the train ride to Brussels is about an hour and a half, and we were supposed to get there by 11 to set up. Gettine there was actually a bit confusing, considering the fact that the salle that the lunch was being hosted at was no really within walking distant of the train station. i was quite confused by all of the details, but luckily people had copies of the instructions on their iPods or something like that, and we got really lucky and literally walked out of the station as our correct bus pulled up. Once we got to the correct stop, about 25 minutes later, there were supposed to be signs posted everywhere to lead us to the salle. Which is French for, well, bascially hall. But alas, we got there and there were no signs. WE walked a little ways towards this builing that looked like it had potential, but then all of the doors were locked. So there just like 50 exchange students, standing around wondering where exactly to go. But then someone came out of the salle, and lead us to it. It was in that one building we thought it was in, but on the other side and the only wya you got to the other side was through this driveway that was blocked by a barrier, like a parking barrier. Maybe it should have been obvious for us to check the other side, but of course, it wasn't.

After waiting about another 20 minutes in the cold (apparently they weren't "ready" for us... Even though there were a couple of students already inside. I feel like they just wanted us to suffer), we finally got inside and everyone starting setting up. My group pulled a typical American move. After spreading out our flag on the table for some decoration, we decided it might be good to actually make the sandwiches, so with our group of 5 and with the help of others, we kind of carelessly slapped together some PB&J's. We had people doing jelly, people doing peanut butter, and people cutting the sandwiches in half. We made about 60 halves in like 5 minutes or less. The best part was that after the quick making of the sandwiches, the flag was completely covered in sticky jelly and peanut butter. Whoops, guess we should have thought before we started making snadwiches on top of it! After they were made, someone came up with the brilliant idea to put them in the shape of "USA", just to make them look a bit better. And with that, as well as conveniently placing the napkins over the worst parts of spilt jelly, it didn't look half bad!

The PB&J construction line! :)

Just someone's artistic view of the American section.

Our classy sandwiches!

All in all, even with most students' lack of cusine skills, the last minute-ness of everything, and the fact that tons of people brought dishes that needed to be warmed up when there was one small oven, the display ended up being really cool. Each country was represented with their own food and decorations. Really, some people went all out. All of the Mexicans had traditional Mexican clothing on, the Chileans made a hanging sign with their country's name on it, and the Aussies had all of these tacky, but cute, Australian crowns and a huge blow-up kangaroo. I actually realized that other than bringing flags and the food, the Americans were woefully unpatriotic. Some Canadian brought a whole bunch of temporary tattoos with Canadian flags and maple leaves and such, and actually a lot of us put those on. Mine was justified, being Canadian and coming from an international rotary district, but the others just thought they were cute. Let me tell you, I think that we confused a whole bunch of people when we replied that no, we were American.

On the left: Katie and Lauren
On the right: Me, Emmaline, and Chealsea sporting the Canadian flags, even though we are all American! :)

Even though technically the whole eating part was supposed to start at 12, the set up didn't probably finish until 1, and of course everyone had to go around once to look at the food, (the tables were in a big U), and then all of the parents and host siblings got to serve themselves first. Bascially, the whole time that was happening, I was walking around inside of the U looking at people's food and sneaking servings whenever a Rotex (rebounds who plan fun activites for us...) wasn't looking. And boy, was the food delicious! Out of everyone, I was most excited for the Mexicans' dishes. And it did not disappoint. The guacamole and salsa and beans and homemade chips, num num. I also ate this really good Finnish wrap thing, tons of mini slices of grilled cheese (it's funny the things you miss on exchange...), some empanada from a South American country, this delicious rice the girl from Hawaii made, and a caramel chocolate brownie thing that one of my Australian friends made. I am so glad she "broke" the rules and brought a dessert, because I literally died and went ot heaven after eating it, it was so good. I throughly stuffed myself, and by the time it was actually our turn to go and get food, I was full. A lot of people seemed very hesitant by our PB&J's, but by the end of the day they were all gone. I half suspect that it was really all of the exchange students who ate them, but at least we could bring joy into someone's life :) Probably the biggest hit among the the host families was the Aussie food, and among the students the Mexican food, the PB&Js, the MacNCheese, and the grilled cheese. Of course, this just mainly due to the Americans who oddly miss the horrible, but-so-good-tasting-that-it-doesn't-matter food, and are constantly craving Mexican food and something that has a little bit of spice to it (really, Belgians like things bland...).

And just for those of you that are interested, the American dishes people came up with include, but are not limited to: PB&J's, Thanksgiving dinner leftovers, Hawaiian rice, grilled cheese and tomato soup, pumpkin soup, lots of MacNCheese, Southwest Salad (just basically a salad with ranch, which they do NOT have here...), Cowboy Caviar (whatever that is...), and hot dogs. Interesting variety, no?

I got back from Brussels around 7, and after stuffing myself and lunch and throughly enjoying a Starbucks before leaving, I wasn't even hungry enough to eat dinner. A successful day, I must say!

Thanksgiving: Belgianized

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

So today was the big day for me. The day that I had literally been preparing all month for! Luckily, my lovely mum sent me a complete time schedule to try and make the dinner go as smoothly as planned. I had made the fudge and the stuffing previously, on Thursday. But regardless, I still had to wake up at 8 (early for me on a weekend...) and I literally cooked / was running errands all day.

My first order of business was to make my mum's delicious rolls. Pascale had done the rest of the shopping for Thanksgiving the day before, and although almost everything worked out, there was a mix up between baking powder and yeast. I needed yeast to make the rolls, but Pascale bought baking powder. I realized that, at least in French, yeast and baking powder have the exact same translation. And since Pascale seemed convinced that they were the exact same thing, I decided not ot push it. So I made the rolls, and then we headed out to do some last minute shopping (I needed to get the rest of the supplies for PB&J's for the exotic dinner tommorrow and I forgot to add a couple of ingredients onto the list... Whoops.) We also went to Katie's house to pick up the supplies that I had bought and given to her to make me a pumpkin pie. The Lancaster Family isn't exactly known for their pies... In fact, we go with the Costco pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving. But for whatever reason, she didn't have the time or something to make the pie. My back-up plan was to make pumpkin pie dip and serve it with some kind of cookie similiar to ginger snaps, but that didn't end up happening either... Oh well! Ended up having tons of food anyhow...

WE got back from the shopping trip at about 12. And  literally good straight through, all by myelf, until like 4:30, at the least. My plan was to have dinner at 3, but I ended up being about 30 minutes behind, and there were some unfortunate happenings with my friends. Emmaline and Becky were supposed to come early to help me cook. Becky couldn't end up coming early, because she had to cook herself for the exotic dinner the next day. Emmaline was coming back from spending the night at a friend's house, so I expected for her ot be a bit late. But then time just kept on running on and on, and still no news from Emmaline. i was literally so busy cooking that I didn't have time to check up on. Turns out, she had a bit of difficulties with her host dad, and she thought she had a ride but actually didn't. She also thought that Thanksgiving dinner was actually AT dinnertime, not at 3 (Even though  I am pretty darn sure I told her... But oh well.) Meanwhile, while I had no idea how the heck Emmaline was going to get here, my Aussie friends Maddy and Bel had taken the bus going the opposite direction of my house... And that one was actually my fault, in the confusion of trying to get all of that darn food cooked I wasn't really even paying attention to what the heck I was saying. Luckily, the bus driver was turning the bus around and just coming back the other way, so they made it. But then, once they actually got to the stop, they starting walking up the wrong hill (I had told them to call me once they got there, guess they forgot...). But when they realized they had no idea where they were going, they called me and Eddy drove down to the end of the road to go pick them up. So, three out of my four friends had arrived by 3:30 and all of the food was prepared.

Meanwhile, Emmaline was trying to take a bus that didn't even arrive until probably like 5. When Pascale asked me where Emmaline was, I told her the situation and that we were just going to have to eat without her. But then Pascale was all like "Why didn't you tell me before? I'll just take the other ladies and go and pic her up." So I called her and told her to go to the center of an easily acessible town, Battice. Turns out that what we thought was the center wasn't the center, just another main little shopping district.  So Pascale ended up driving to 2 different places (at least they were close together...) And, as you can imagine, at this point I was completely freaking out. I had already spent the entire day cooking this huge meal with no help, when I had planned on at least 2 people pitching in, everyone was getting lost and not getting here on time, and now I had to worry about the food getting cold. But once Emmaline arrived with Pascale, I just breathed a sigh of relief, took everything out of the oven or microwave or wherever I could find to keep the food warm, and started to eat. I thought I was going to be ravenous after not really eating anything all day (too busy cooking...), but I actually didn't end up having much of an appetite.

In the end, I made a turkey (which was cool for the Belgians because they have never had a turkey big like that), rolls (which indeed didn't rise... yay for baby sized rolls!), a green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (fresh out of the can ;) ), mashed potatoes and gravy (somehow the gravy ended up being sweet???), sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (yuck...), a fruit salad, my favorite: my grandma's apple sausage stuffing, and fudge and cinnamon rolls for dessert (which were also baby sized..). Everyone absolutely loved it. For me, it was ok. I couldn't help but notice all of the mistakes, or how it didn't taste exactly like Thanksgiving back home. And for whatever reason, I wasn't even all that hungry!

Me & My Dinner!

The Turkey! (which had its skin ripped off by the turkey bag and got cooked with the giblets still in it,, whoops!)

Fruit Salad!! (which I didn't even get to eat :/)

STUFFING!

Overall, a good day. And the Belgians freaked out about the fudge. Too bad that Belgium doesn't have marshmallow fluff... And they also thought the fruit salad was a dessert, and it was down at their end of the table, so it was forgotten until I was already too stuffed to manage another bite.

The five of us hung out for a bit after the dinner, and then Becky, Maddy, and Bel had to go and catch the bus into town to catch their connecting buses. Maddy and Bel even still had to do some shopping and cooking for their Aussie dish! (Now, granted, it was only like 7:30, but still...). Emmaline and I had made previous plans for her to spend the night and then go together to the exotic dinner the next day. It was a fun night, because I hadn't seen her in a while and we got to catch up. She was also nice and helped me clean up the mess I had left in the kitchen, which suprisingly wasn't bad at all because I had tried to clean up as I went along! But the dishwasher was completely full, so we ended up having to handwash a lot of dishes, and the table still needed to be cleared too. But after that, we had the whole night just to relax and have the wonderful "I am in a complete Thanksgiving food coma" feeling.

This Thanksgiving, although it definitely hasn't been my favorite, will be one I remember forever. And I hope, with all of my heart, that I will not be cooking a Thanksgiving meal by myself for a VERY long time (if ever... I plan on using my mum's tactic of making everyone take responsibility for a dish! Or maybe I will just always go home...). And, after 2 long posts, I would say that I am done for the day! :) Merry Eve before Christmas Eve everyone!

An All-American Weekend

Saturday & Sunday, November 19th-20th, 2011

Well, I figured that I should probably finish up on November before January rolls around... So here goes nothing!

Quite some time ago, Pascale and Eddy had asked me to make a Thanksgiving dinner for them, to experience one of my favorite holidays of the year. Although I was definitely hesitant to prepare such a HUGE meal all by myself, especially when I don't really enjoy cooking, but I wanted to do something to let them know how grateful I am for everything that they do. So, I got my mum to send ahead the Lancaster Family Recipes, spent about three hours translating the ingredients and converting the measurements (now THAT was the real doozy), and then gave the shopping list to Pascale. I knew first off that there were going ot be some foods that we would just simply not find here. The plan was to get my parents to send that stuff over to me, if it wasn't too big and an imperative ingredient for a dish. But the Pascale brought up that she knew someone that works on an American military base over here, and has access to a store stocked full of American goodies. But it turns out, he doesn't have access because he is Belge and just kinda helping out or something... At that point i had a mini freak-out due to the fact that it was too late for my mum to send over ingredients, and there definitely were a few key ones missing. But then, I discovered just possibly my new favorite place in Belgium: The American Food Store!

So anyhow, we made plans to go there on Saturday. I also invited along my friend Katie, from Texas, because she was also planning on making a Thanksgiving dinner and she needed to buy ingredients too. I was literally sooooooo excited to go to the American Food Store, to have a chance to buy some delicious, fully processed, so good that you don't care how bad they are for you, American food. When we finally got there, about an hour later, I freaked out. The actualy store was A LOT smaller than I thought it was going to be. Like by quite a bit. But it still had really good products... I probably walked around the store at least 10 times, just to take everything in. I found everything I needed for Thanksgiving (pumpkin, a turkey, marshmallows, cranberry sauce, a turkey bag, etc.), as well as some ingredients to make a couple of Mexican meals (crazy Belgians, don't know how they can live without good salsa, green peppers, or refried beans!). Despite my insistence that this was my meal and that I wanted to do EVERYTHING for it, including buying hte ingredients, Pascale and Eddy wouldn't have it. So that gave me the chance to go a bit crazy and buy some fun things for myself. After much debate, I bought a box of poptarts, Reeses, Kraft Mac & Cheese, and ingredients to make s'mores. Oh, and of course, PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought extra of that, but not for me. I volunteered to buy the ingredients for my exotic dinner night. I was in a group with 6 other Americans, and the goal being to make some main dish that is unique and common to your country, we decided to make PB&Js. But alas, that is another day...

Although it was extremely overpriced, going ot the American Food Store just absolutely made my day. And even though it's about a 2 1/2 train ride to get there, which actually involves making a couple of changes, I know I will most likely pay that store a visit again. Seriously, the man who came up with the idea and opened that store, kudos to you. I bet he is rolling in the dough. Because, although it is probably expensive to ship things over to Belgium from the U.S., when we went in the store was jam packed with Americans who are living over seas, and the occasional curious native. And when people go there, they don't tend to go for just one or two items. The go for the motherload, filling an entire shopping cart and then ending up paying like 200 euros or something crazy like that.

Katie and I were SO excited to get home. For lunch, we had a box of Mac&Cheese and spoonfuls of peanut butter. I swear, it was so good that I could have cried. I miss "normal" food and normal meals, even if what I bought isn't necessarily my favorite foods in the world. In fact, other than peanut butter, I really don't even eat the other things that much. Like at home, Mac&Cheese is a last resort. But here, it's like gold.

For the rest of the day, Katie and I just hung out like any other normal teenager would. It feels so weird ot be so... well, normal. Just hanging in my room, talking, listening to music, and having fun. We even took a walk around my street, just to do something while we talked. Back home, I wouldn't think twice about just hanging out with my friends and speaking English. But now, here, it's just weird. Like, it feels like such a rare moment, to just slow down my life enough to do something like that. Every other second, I feel like it's "let's see how many things we can jam into Morgan's life!" time. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE it when my life is like that. I am always more happy when I am super busy. But time here is moving so bloody fast, having a weekend like this, just hanging out and not trying to go somewhere or see something, it's nice. A nice little break from my otherwise very busy life.

On the walk with Katie.. Adorable little path through the farmland.

Feeding cows!

It had the longest tongue I have ever seen...

Exploring Verviers

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Two posts in one day.... Say what? This truly shows how bored I am getting of just sitting at home, doing nothing. Now, it might just be possible that I understand and semi-appreciate going to school... Crazy, right? Never thought I would see the day where I was actually missing school. Well, not missing it, per say, but missing having something to do.

So this, for once, is going to be a short post. Because I don't actually remember the day or what happened. But I do know that every Tuesday, I have an etude right after lunch, which means that I bascially have 2 hours for lunch. Most of the time, I go into the city and meet up with Eliza and riley for lunch, because considering it takes about 15 minutes to walk there it isn't worth it to go there for only an hour. But for whatever reason, this day I didn't meet up with them. Instead, I had some errands I needed to run (don't actually remember what...), and then the rest of the time I just wandered around Verviers. Really, even though I know my tiny little city pretty darn well, I have never even gone down some of the streets. And I have always felt like taking pictures would totally point out the fact that am not Belge, but this day I was just like "Who cares???" and voila! The result:

Christmas is coming to Verviers!

Some cool old building & statue!

And another.... Yep, there ARE snowflake lights in the windows!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas! :)

Mmk, not much else to say!!! :) Finally, a short post.

Birthdays in Belgium, Take 2

Saturday, November 12th, 2011

Today we celebrated Eddy's birthday at his parents' house. We headed over for lunch.  Idon't know why, but I suppose I was a bit nervous for a day full of French and such. And, I don't know, maybe just meeting my host grandparents and worrying about whether they would like me or not. But once I got into the adorable, cute, little, welcoming house I knew it would all turn out ok.

We spent the first bit just eating the normal appetizers and doing the normal small talk thing. Then, Eddy's really good friend from work arrived, Carine (once again, my guessing at the spelling of French names is not the best...). Grandma De Decker (never learned her real name, so I shall just call her this! Haha, feels strange considering I barely know her...) was just the sweetest little thing ever. She kept on getting up and offering more and more appetizers, and was constantly passing around the chips and such to make sure everyone had enough. I feel like it is just a grandparent thing, they are always so hospitable. I mean, she even went otu of her way and bought sparkling cider for me so I wouldn't feel left out when the majority of the adults were drinking champange.

After a while, we sat down to dinner. It was kind of weird, because Grandma De Decker was like "Morgan, come here you can help me," and I thought she meant for us to go into the kitchen and bring out whatever food she had prepared. But then she ushered me upstairs... Turns out that Pascale had bought seafood platters ahead of time and stashed them in the spare room. There was a VERY full tray per two people, because Eddy's parents had chicken (apparently the seafood wasn't good for their digestion or something...). I was quite shocked when I learned that the majority of the seafood still had their entire bodies intact. And they were cold. Which made me think that they had yet to be cooked... Oh goodness. Literally the only thing that I could bring myself to eat was the already cleaned up shrimp, and that was after soaking it in this delicious cocktail sauce they had also bought. Kinda survived that meal by eating bread.

When it came time for dessert, I was quite excited to get to try the fancy cake Pascale had bought the day before. I wasn't sure if it was going to feed all of us, considering I knew that she had bought the smaller version, but I figured she just knew that some people weren't going to partake in the dessert part of the meal. I was a bit confused when Eddy's mother came out with crepes. Don't get me wrong, they were definitely VERY good. Probably the best I have had since I have been in Europe. Actually, the best ever. And it was just a simple one with some powdered sugar, whipped cream, and ice cream. But sooooo good. But the mystery still remains of the fancy cake... I have no idea where the cake disappeared to, and what it was used for. I mean, when we were at the store Pascale even asked me "You don't really like chocolate all that much, do you?" and I replied "More or less... It depends," and she even got a not completely chocolate cake. I feel like here, things like this happen all of the time. Just simply the mysteries of Belgium and the language barrier.

After the lunch, we just hung out for a bit and talked. And Eddy's dad showed me his painting room. OH MY GOSH he was a FANTASTIC painter! Seriously, his nature paintings, I could have just looked at them forever. It was after seeing them that I also realized that all of the ohter painting hung around the house must be his too. He had so many of them, and I was just amazed by them. I felt a bit stupid, because i really couldn't think of anything else to say other than "Wow! These are great!" everytime he asked me what I thought, but I tried to just let my face express how good they were. Then, he whips out this one painting of a motehr holding her daugther, actually way different than the rest of his paintings, and was like "Do you like this one?" Of course, this was amazing too, and so I said yes. Then he handed it over to me and said "Well, then it is for you." Such a sweet family. And the painting will go perfect in my room at home. Somehow in the conversation, it came up that we were planning on going to Strasbourg the weekend of the 10th. But what wasn't made completely clear is that we were going for me to visit my sister, so Eddy's mother thought that Pascale meant that it was just a get-away weekend for them, and she immediately got all exicted and was like "Morgan, you can stay here with us!!!" I felt so bad telling them that the whole trip was for me... She was just so sweet about everything.

It was around 4 that everyone left. A day that I was semi dreading turned into a really good one, and I was really happy to be able to finally meet Eddy's parents. I hope that I get to see them before I change families. But who knows...  Unfortunately, for dinner we had the rest of the platters. I more of just played the "Oh, I am still full from the huge lunch," thing... Food that isn't A) de-faced and cleaned up and B) appears raw  just isn't my preferance. But I came to Belgium to experience new things, and well, there is definitely an abundance of that! But really, it's amazing. J'adore Belgique! Sometimes I just wish that my parents and siblings could be here on exchange with me... :(

Luxembourg!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Still a whole month behind... -__-  And it is for this reason that I am sticking to writing only about the most important things, the things that I have pictures for. Besides, it isn't as if I can really remember things all that well from a month ago... Too much has happened since then!

Just like the US, Belgium has Veterans' Day. Well, except for the fact that it is called Armstice Day and if I said Veterans' Day people would look at me like I was slightly crazed, confusing them a lot. The day off was much welcomed. Even if it was immediately following a week off, plus a Monday off because of a teacher work day, plus a half day on Wednesday because that's how it always is. Geez... I really feel like I never go to school. Yay Belgian school system!

Since both Pascale and I had the day off, we planned to go to Luxembourg for the day to allow me to discover it. One of her friends also came along, Evelynn (pardon my spelling, it's based off of an educated guess of the French language...). The drive down wasn't long, only about an hour and a half if I remember correctly. And then I was inside one of the smallest countries in all of Europe. Actually, I am pretty sure that it is one of the smallest countries in the whole world. Hardly anyone would probably be able to point it out on a map, much less even know thta it is a currently existing country. But, well, I know! It's famous for being included as part of Belgium, having REALLY high end shops in the center, some good bikers, having a flag that very closely resembles France's (Seriously, what is up with europe and its non-creative flag making? Luxembourg is a sideways France, Belgium is a turned up Germany, and Ireland is the exact same as Italy, just different tints of the colors red and green...), and the BEST hot chocolate I have ever tasted. (Well, at least, it's known by me as that..).

When we first got there, we drove around for a bit and, at least to me, it seemed like Pascale had no idea where the heck we were going. She drove around the same spot for 5 minutes or more..... Turns out that she was looking for a parking spot so we could go to into this huge bakery called...Umm, well I forgot but I think it started with a W. It was a pretty huge bakery, and there were AMAZING looking cakes. I mean, I am not even a fan of cake unless it's ice cream, but I honestly would have eaten like almost all of them. Pascale, after much debate, finally chose a cake and we left. I thought that the cake was for tommorrow, when we would be going to Eddy's parents' house to celebrate Eddy's birthday. I was excited to eat it...

The next stop we made was a little garden-y, hardware-ish store. They already had an entire section of the store just for beautiful Christmas ornaments and cute trinkets. We were probably there for a good 45 minutes, but I didn't mind because I actually liked looking at the Christmas things because it got me into the Christmas spirit. Plus I found a Christmas present for one of the members of my family (can't say who, can't say what, not yet... :) ).

Then, after the garden shop, we went into the town a bit. I was excited to finally get into the center of Luxembourg, even if it was more of the center of the shopping district, and see what Luxembourg city had to give. We walked around for a bit, unknowingly to me looking for this specific bakery, and I decided that pretty much every city in this area of Europe is adorable with its little shops and cobblestone streets and such. And in Luxembourg, it was really cool because by each main bus stop there was also a ton of bike racks with bikes that you could rent out for however long you wanted. I mean, how convenient is that. I don't feel like walking, so I am just going to hop onto this bike and ride it to whatever bus stop or destination I need, and chances are I can just leave it there at another specialized bike rack. Eco-friendly too. We found the bakery and Pascale bought the hugest loaf of bread I have ever seen. She said that bread and bakeries like this are very traditional in Luxembourg, and have been here since forever. I am going ot mention this here, because I don't remember what day I tasted it, or if I will write about that day, or if I will evven remember to mention it. Anyhow, that bread that Pascale bought was literally the BEST bread I have tasted since I have been here. Maybe, just maybe, even outting the French baguette. *GASP* And generally, it is not my preferance to eat bread that isn't white, but I would seriously take this bread over any kind of white bread, any day.

After picking up the bread, it was like 1 and Pascale drove us to the Chinese restuarant where she had made reservations. I was quite excited by the fact that we were going to a Chinese restuarant, hoping that it would be like one of those retuarants back home that whips up your specialized meal for you right in front of you on the grill attached to your table. Alas, it was more of a buffet style, but it was GOOD. I mean, not the best Chinese food I have ever tasted, and the chow mein was just upright nasty, but it definitely satisfied my very hungry stomach.

After lunch, we finally went to start being tourists. We drove back to the center of the city (the restuarant was a bit out of the way...), and Pascale parked in an area that I feel is very much the tourist center. The plan was to ride this tourist train that went all around the city and then back, with a tour in whatever language you wanted. But it turns out, the train has temporarily been closed down for renovations. And the bus, the one that does practically the exact same thing as the train, it only runs on the weekends. And definitely not on holidays. And once I saw Pascale's face after learning that news, I realized that she didn't exactly have any plans other than that...

I don't know what I did to this picture to make it pink... But it is still pretty! :)

Luxembourg Cathedral

So I guess in Luxembourg, they make them yellow!

Luxembourg Flag... Non-creative Europeans!

But actually, it didn't really end up mattering. We decided to just walk around the city, look at the big and important buildings, and do a bit of window shopping. We walked through the center square, passing the Hotel de Ville and such. Then we went into this church, because Pascale knows that I really do LOVE old European churches. Even though, after nearly 4 1/2 months, they are starting to blend together a bit, every church has a little something amazing to make it different than the other. After the church, we just walked around looking at more cool buildings, and then after that we walked around and looked in the shop windows. Just a girls' day out. It was actually quite nice, and Pascale's friend (I won't even try and butcher her name again, because I just have the feeling that I am not at all spelling it right...), even though she didn't speak a lick of English, was super nice and I had a fun time talking to her. Yes, me, holding conversation in French. Woohoo!

Church! And Pascale's friend....

Oh the intricate detail!

Always the beautiful, long stained glass windows

Really clear picture... So glad my camera finally decided for once to be good.

I have a feeling that if I could play this, I could play any instrument known to man...

random Lady and Luxembourg Flags :)

Palace where the royal family used to live??? (Je pense...)

The day was a pretty cold one, even with my heavy jacket and scarf. A nice little suggestion at the end of the day was made by Pascale's friend, to go and get hot chocolate at this cool and busy looking chocolate place we had passed while we were walking (If it's busy, you KNOW it's good...). The people that opened up the restuarant must have been English or American, because the menu was half in French, half in English, and it had a lot of English type things. I was slightly confused when, after ordering a Speculoos (this Belgian cookie that is kinda like a ginger snap, kinda like a graham cracker, but better and can bemade into a spread much like peanut butter) hot chocolate, I recieved a mug filled with hot milk and a chocolate square with a wooden stick sticking out of it. But then I realized that the stick was actually a spoon, and that you stuck the chocolate in the milk and with stirring, it made your hot chocolate. It was literally the BEEEEEESSSSSSTTTTT hot chocolate I have ever had. I tried Pascale's caramel chocolate thing, and her friend's orange cappuccino and they were both to die for. But I liked mine the best, thankfully.

You put the chocolate in the hot milk until it melts... and voila! The best hot chocolate known to man!

Chocolate House = Favortie Chocolate Store in Europe???

After the hot chocolate, it was time to go on back to Belgium. We went to visit Eddy in his office, who had a bit more work to wrap up and then was going to head on back as well, and then we drove home. Overall, a great day. I actually really want to go back to Luxembourg, to look in all of the cool high end shops they haveand experience the Marche de Noel in Luxembourg, because I heard they were pretty amazing.

Now just one final piece, actually more referring to today. I came to Belgium thinking that come December, I would be living in a winter wonderland and that the snow wouldn't disappear until like March. So far, still no snow. I mean, it has snowed the tiniest bit, but it melted very quickly. Nope, it's just mostly gray and rainy and gross. I seriously think I brought the Seattle weather with me... Today it was slightly sunny, but still freezing. There has also been several random, but short downpours, lots of wind, a thunderstorm, and I think I saw a bit of hail. Really?  If I wanted this weather I could have easily stayed home. Although for the longest time I was really grateful that the snow was holding off because I walk everywhere and am one of the biggest cold whimps around, now I just want the snow to come. I WANT A QHITE CHRISTMAS! So if the weather gods could please kindly look my way and grant me my wish, that would be muchly appreciated. Even if muchly isn't a word... Oh well. Until nect time that I cna convince myself to take ages writing a post... Bisous!

Brugge!

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Well, I officially suck at blogs in the month of November. Considering that I wrote like absolutely nothing from the month of December... So, sorry to those of you who is trying to follow my life on here. If anybody is other than my parents... And, well, I did have to wait about 2 weeks to get pictures from Brugge, because about halfway through the day my camera died, and since Brugge is like THE prettiest city in Belgium, there is no way you make a blog post about Brugge without photos. So, it wasn't completely just me procrastinating. :)

Well, considering that this happened forever ago, there is the chance that I might not be the best at recalling the details. But then again, maybe once I start to think about everything it will all come flooding back. You never know... So I had made plans at the beginning of the week to go to Brugge with Katie, and some other random Belgian exchange students on our little Exchange Students in Belgium Facebook group. Even though I didn't really know the other kids going, in general exchange kids are just pretty amazing, and I had heard that Brugge was absolutely beautiful so I hopped on the chance of going. Then, the night before, Katie texts me saying she had had some troubles or something with her host mom agreeing to let her go, and I was left going with just 3 other people that I didn't even really know. I debated on whether I really wanted to go or not, considering that I didn't really know the others, but I decided that I was just going to make new friends because I had had something like this happen to me when a whole bunch of people were planning on meeting up in Brusssels, but I didn't really know any of them, so I didn't go and I definitely regretted it. I left early in the morning, don't remember exactly what time, but I knew that I was exhausted by the time I got on the train. I was by myself for a while, but once the train passed the main Liege stop, I decided to get up and look around and I recognized some exchange students. The seat next to them was full, so I had to just chill in my own seat and listen to my iPod for a bit, but then a few stops later the man got off and I got to talk with them.

I hadn't ever really talked to the three people before, but at least I recognized them! About halfway through the train ride (it was something ridiculous like 2 1/2 to 3 hours or something...), a random dude came up to us and started talking to us in English. Don't know why, but whenever someone does this I always become surpised. Even though I know that TONS of Europeans can speak very good English, I never expect people to stop and talk with me. Turns out he was an exchange student quite sometime ago, or something like that. He stood there and talked to us for forever, and at first was really nice, but it was kinda awkward towards the end because our conversation with him had clearly ended and he still stood there by us and listened to our conversations and tried putting in his two sense. He was just being a little bit too annoyingly nice. And he told us that we shouldn't go to Brugge, because it is boring and a dead, old city, but instead go to Ghent because that is where all of the good things were. Umm, ok?

When we first got there, we walked out of the train station happy to be in Brugge after such a long train ride, and then we realized that we had no idea where we were going. We didn't even really plan anything to do, we just all hopped on the train and went. Luckily, there was a book store right next to the train station so we popped into there, looked at a book about Brugge that was in English, and found a decent map that we looked at for a bit. But then, after a little bit of walking we realized we hadn't really looked at the map good enough. So we just followed the large masses of people, and decided that we would use the large cathedral that could be easily seen as our destination, figuring that it would be in or near the center of the city. We definitely took the long, round about way, but eventually we got there! I found this quote recently, and I decided that it pretty much sums up an exchange student's life, because we just go with as little planning as possible.

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

First real look at Brugge... And it's already breathtaking <3

Michela and I

"Let's just get to the cathedral, I am sure it's near the center!"

Another church! Not actually really sure which one we decided wasin the center... Ha

Brugge = Dutch speakers. Luckily almost everyone spoke excellent English!

After a little while of wandering, we found our way to the center of Brugge. And I discovered that, at the least the main place of Brugge, just looked a lot like Grand Place in Brussels. But still different, and definitely beautiful. By the time we had taken the long train, and wandered around looking for the actual center, most of us were very hungry and we decided to stop for lunch. Of course, us being cheap exchange students, the only good option was a friterie, so I had some frites for lunch. The other 2 girls I was with were smart enough to bring there own lunch... Now me, I would do that, if I wasn't such a bad morning person who can barely even get ready on time!

Centre de Bruges! Corey kept getting in my way... -__-

Main Transportation for the Dutch = Bikes

After lunch, we decided we would try and find the canels that Brugge is famous for. This time, we didn't even have to wander too far and we found them quite easily! They were just gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking. And with all of the different colored fall leaves, stunning. After we got after the intial shock of the canels, we noticed that you could take a little boat ride through them for not too much money. So we decided to go on that, but first we had to go back to the main area not more than a 5 minute walk away and get some money out... Because nobody but Corey had money on them. Once we got back we had about 20 minutes to kill until the next boat left. We just walked around right by the boat place, looked at the tiny little market they had going on (which, unfortunately, wasn't all that exciting...), and I hopped into one of the little chocolate shops and bought myself a little treat. I got this thing that was basically a rice krispie, but covered in chocolate. But even better. I had seen people walking around with them, and since I hadn't seen them in my part of Belgium, I figured it was either a Brugge or Dutch thing and I wanted to try it out. and boy, was it delicious. Unfortunately, right before we got onto the boats, my camera's batteries died and I didn't have any more. But then Corey said that I could use his camera to take any pictures I wanted, and I was grateful for that.

Another random but cool building on the way to the canels!

<3

So, we hopped onto the boat and started our tour. And, not even 5 minutes in, Corey's camera dies and we are left to rely only on Michela. The boat ride was pretty cool, because we got to see the prettiest parts of Brugge in a unique and different way, and from a different view than you could get from the streets. Plus, it was a lot faster. Like we covered the same ground that would probably take a couple of hours in about 45 minutes. Seriously, everything was just so beautiful there. And it reminded me again why exactly fall is my favorite season. We had a tour guide, who was actually doing the tour in like 3 or 4 different languages, but since he had to say things over and over in all of the languages for everyone to understand (Brugge is a pretty tourist-y city), there wasn't much he actually had to say. But it's ok, because the beauty made up for the lack of actual information. The absolutely crazy thing that happened was that towards the end of the tour, when we had luckily taken the pictures we wanted, Michela's camera flashed a low battery warning sign. Seriously, Brugge must have something against cameras, because my batteries were fairly new, and both Michela and Corey said that they had charged theirs the day before.

See what I mean? Fall = Best Season EVER!

Some of the buildings literally went right down next to the water like this!

Favorite picture of the day! I made Micheal take several pictures of this :)

Where we got on the boat at... Our boat was doubling back and going the other way.

Love the vines!

Swans!

If I could be like those girls, just casually sitting there and eating lunch everyday, I would.

After the boat ride, it was about 3:30, and I knew that I had to leave on the train at 5. Considering that we got there around 12 to 1-ish, we really didn't have that much time there. But I was leaving on an earlier train than everyone else, becasue I had told Eddy and Pascale that I would be home by 8. The others, although they were very nice and all, didn't exactly want to do the same kinds of things that I wanted to do, and I wanted to spend the last bit looking through the tourist shops and the lace shops (Brugge is known for its lace!), and I didn't want to drag them along with me if that wasn't what they wanted to do, so I split from the group. I did some speed shopping, and went into tons of shops. I actually had a really fun time, because I love just loooking at things and finding out what makes a city that city. And I love looking for things that I could bring home as a gift for somebody, and I am always on the lookout for something nice. Plus, I had seen something in a shop that I knew I HAD to get for someone, so I found my way back to that shop too. Before I knew it, it was 15 minutes to 5 and I knew I had to make my way back to the train station.

Got my camera to work to take a picture of this piece of heaven... :)

And this gorgeous scene!

I had thought that I was all along making my way closer to the train station, but because we took a completely abnormal way to the middle of the city, I didn't really have the slightest idea how to make it back to the train station. I thought it would be at the end of the road, but the farther I went the more it seemed like I was making my way towards nowhere. So I stopped into a little book store, and asked someone directions. At this point, I had like 10 minutes left to make it to the train. Even though I am pretty darn sure I still didn;t even take the way the lady told me, I didn't really have time to turn around and ask someone else so I just kept going. Running, actually. I ran through this beautiful park, saw a bridge that I thought looked familiar (definitely wasn't), went across it, and ended up at this major bus station instead. So I kept running/walking, and ran into a main road. I almost turned around, giving up and deciding to take the train in another hour, when I realized I was just at the opposite side of the way we went to the city. So I ran the rest of the way, got onto the train, and literally after that the doors closed and it pulled away. So glad I caught that train, but also feeling very gross and actually sweating a bit considering I had run about half a mile in very warm winter clothing, which is definitely not needed when you are sprinting trying to get to the train station. I can only imagine what the people that saw me must have thought of me running through the city... and thus ends the adventures of Brugge. And it looks as if I have a pretty good memory after all, considering the massive length of this blog post. Until next time that I can convince myself to not be lazy and type for 30 minutes or more... :)