Half Done in Brussels!

It's very hard to beleive that my time in Brussels is already half over! Although I'm starting to feel very at home here, I still feel, in some ways, like i just got here! Im glad I still have 2 weeks to travel after my course is done, but I will definitely be sad to leave.

I'm not sure why it took us so long to come to this decision, but we finally decided last night to follow the advice we received a LONG time ago to buy a cheap pot and make out own meals. Anne-Marie and I went halfers on 2 pots (for 2.50€ each!), some pasta and LOTS of vegetables and we're both SO glad that we did! We have had real meals twice now and they were delicious (I was getting pretty sick of sandwiches). The best part - I got at LEAST a weeks worth of food for only 22€! Oh the small joys in life :) I will never take vegetables for granted again!

Today is a pretty relaxing day. I had 2 classes this morning, and this afternoon there was a tour of Modern Architecture in Bruxelles - something that didn't interest me much. I opted to take a long shower, straighten my hair (a huge source of joy for me at the moment, haha) and to try and upload a few more pics to Facebook. I'm beginning to get VERY frustrated by the slowness of the computers - it takes a good half hour to upload 5 pics!

I'm off now to save my 600 pics that Ive already taken on a disk (dont't wanna risk losing them) and to buy some train tickets for Germeny (Thursday) and Paris (Friday-Sunday)! Tongiht we're going to walk around and try to see some more of Brussels. We just relized that there's SO much we want to do and not much time. Still on my to-do list: Le Basillic du Sacré-Coeur, The Chocolate Museum, The Museum of Belgian Brewers, the Royal Museum of Central Africa and eat a bowl of mussels.

Antwerp and AMSTERDAM!

Well, it's been a little while since I posted a blog and there is SO much to say. The BEST neas however: I FINALLY FOUND BIRKENSTOCKS! And I bought 2 pairs (fairly cheap). My feet can finally take a break from the torture :)

Antwerpen / Antwerp / Anvers:

Last Thursday we had our first day-excursion to Anvers (which is Antwerp in English, but Antwerpen in Flemmish, which is what they speak there). It was pretty fun taking the bus all together and I got to have a great chat with some students from Latvia and Lithuania. When we arrived though, it was POURING rain! Our tour got rushed along as we sought refuge in an Art Museum, whch was alright (not really the type of art I like). The city was nice though, besides the rain, and we found some really great places for shopping. There was an international market that was VERY cool where we all bought a few beautiful scarves for VERY cheap - highlight of our day for sure. We stopped at a park on the way home with many statues / sculptures which was pretty neat. It wasn't my favorite European City (relly it was a lot like Brussels but smaller) but it was nice - and very fun trying to communicate with mixtures of engish, french, spanish and even some italian! On the way home I decided what I will do on my free day this Thursday - GERMANY! There's a small city thats supposedly very nice about 2 hours from here.

Thursday night I went to a Cuban bar near by with 4 other Canadians, which was my first attempt at drinking / dancing / socialiwing in French. It wasn't too hard. What WAS hard was getting up at 7am for class the next morning, but it was totally worth it :)

Amsterdam:

Class went by VERY slowly on Friday, but eventually 6:30 came and I boarded the train the Amsterdam with 8 other Canadians and a guy from Ireland. I was sooooo excited!!!! I didnt sleep one bit of the 2 and a half hour train ride, and as soon as we arrived i just started snapping pictures everywhere. Throughout the weekend I exclaimed randomly many MANY time " IM IN AMSTERDAM!" - Very surreal!

Our hostel was very VERY impressive for a last minute find. It was right on one of the main streets, very close to the train station. The first night we we lucky to have a room wtih 5 beds, a bathroom and shower all to ourselves (we had split into 2 groups of 5). We planned to meet up with the other 5 but because of some confusion we couldn't find them. We stopped at a pub for our a meal and all had a Dutch Beer (Heinekin and Amstel) and some food. After wandering around the streets for a bit we bought another beer from a convenience store and continied walking - you can drink on the streets here! We ended up finding a cute little Brittish Pub and spent a few hours there. Then we moved on - to a salsa club! The bouncer got the DJ to chnage to lusic from Reggaeton to Salsa jyust got us and I taught to other 4 to salsa. One of the guys I was with already knew a litle bit so we danced - very fun! After that we continued on walking around until about 4am! Its hard to pay attention to the time in Amsterdam.

Saturday we got up fairly early and had to move to another room (this time not private - boo!) We were sharing with 3 guys from Spain so I acted as translater, which was pretty fun. We met up with the others, ate breakfast and did some shopping. In the afternoon, in the sunshine, we went of a boat tour of Amsterdam, which was VERY nice! I had no idea Amsterdam had so many canals everywhere! (Fun fact: an average one one car per week drives into a canal in Amsterdam). After that we walked an hour to the Van Gogh museum to find out it cost 12.50€ each and that most people didnt want to pay that much. I went in with 3 other but got seperated from them somewhere inside. I didn't panic since I had planned to meet everyone else outsdie in the park. I LOVED the museum, although i dont usually like art all that much, and figured Id find the group eventually. Well, I left the museum at 5:30 thnking I was the last one out since the other girls were ahead of me. I searched the park for 45 minutes and couldnt find anyone. Hungry, tired, thursty and determined NOT to miss out on the Anne Frank Luseum I left on my own, presuming they were already there. I kind of had fun exploring on my own (and taking a tram since i hadnt sat down ALL day - although I didnt get a seat anyway). I foudn the museum, but not my friends. After I had been through the museum and was meaving I ran into the group just heading in the door - almost 3 hours later! What luck :) I znrt through again. As for the Anne Frank Museum - it was beyond words. I started reading the Diary of Ann Frank a couple weeks ago to prepare and Im so glad I did. I was so overwhelmed that I almost cried, more than once! If you EVER have a chance to go to Amsterdam, this is a MUST SEE! Otherwise; I still highly recommend the book. EXTREMELY inspirational!

By the time we left the Anne Frank House it was getting late. We grabbed a sandwich, dropped off our days purchases and headed back out on the town. We returned to the same pub because one of the girls in our group had a crush ont he bartender. We stayed there for a few hours, then headed out dancing at a bar called "The Outback". It was packed and VERY fun! There was a Salsa club that we had tried to find all weekend but it was too far away. We were out until 4am again, walking, eating fries and just having fun. Again; time FLIES in Amsterdam. For the 3rd ngiht in a row I got about 4 hours of sleep.

On Sunday morning I got up first to go to mass. I had found a Catholic Chruch the day before that was close engouh to walk to. To my surprise (and pleasure) it was run by Jesuits and was a Latin Mass (except the readings etc, of course). So i understood SOME of it. It was very long, mostly all chanting, which an all-male choir doing Gregorian Chant. It was just lovely! The building itself was astounding as well. I walked away from that mass floating :)

Sunday only got better as, after breakfast, I finally found my long sought-after Birkenstocks!!!! MY FEET ARE PAIN-FREE AT LAST! They had many styles and colors to choose from, and we like half the price they are in NB, so I bought two ;) The rest of the day we pretty much just walked around and took some nice pics. We also ate some dutch food, finally! The herring stand we found was closed to we went for pancakes instead - very yummy.

When we left I was still SO excited about Amsterdam that I didnt sleep on the train; or evern ladt ngiht until 11! Today i think I fell asleep sitting up in class. I LITERALLY couldnt keep my eyes open! But it was all WELL worth it :) Amsterdam is a BEAUTIFUL city - full of canals, trees, bikes (like millions of them), dozens of museums and smiling people. If you stay out of one particularly bad neighborhood, and the coffee shops, it's a very very good city to see - I highly recommend it!

Today Anne-Marie and I are trying to plan next weekeneds trip - PARIS! Also, Im going to Germany on Thursday for the day, to a small tozn called "Aixle-Chapelle" in Frnech (Eupen I German maybe??) Im psyched! Especialy now that my feet FINALLY dont hurt. The one thing bullung me out right now, however, - I left my FAVORITE (and only) Jeans in the hosel in Amsterdam. I guess I'm going shopping again! :)

Let the Classes Begin

Ok, so I KIND of forgot about the whole going-to-class thing. I didnt even bring a pen or pencil! I must admit, its not always fun to be sitting in a classroom when there's a whole continent out there to be discovered... but then again, there's auite a bit to be discovered IN class too! So far I have had classmates from: Italy, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Russia, Peru, Spain, Japan, Canada, Poland, Ukraine, Greece, Israel, Palestine and Turkey!!! It's very cool to see how similar yet very different we all are. I'm really enjoying talking about out families, out schools, how we learned French (or the other multitude of languages some of these people speak) or just looking and what everyone is wearing. Side note: Canadians have the worst shoes, for sure.

Speaking of classes, on the first day I was placed in level 1. Well, after spending the morning reviewing how to introduce myself, and how to conjugate the verbs "avoir", "etre", "faire" and "mettre" I got switched to level 2 (qlong with 3 others). And I am SOOO glad that I did!!! This is more my level (excpet the literature pqrt, ahich I hate). I LOVE my other classes though - Grammaire, Rédaction, Orthophonie and Pratique Orale :) Our teachers are all very nice too.

Apart from classes I've been seeing a LOT more of the City, and eating many more fattening delicasies which I determined was probably ok, since we walk at LEAST 4 hours every day)! Monday we had our guided tour of the Center of Bruxelles. It was three hours long and I had bruises on my feet by the end of it. Although we had already discovered most of the things that they showed us, it was nice to hear what they were and a bit of their historical signifigance. One thing we DID see ont he tour that we hadn't found on our own was a tiny statue of a naked boy peeing, called "Mannequin-Pis". This boy is EVERYWHERE in this city - very weird.

As soon as it was over we went for another local food - des frites (yes, that means fries. Apparently they were first created in Belgium). Anyzqy, they were DELISH, and served in a cone with like 20 choices of sauces. I chose the traditional mayonaise - yummmmm! Many people get their fries IN their hamburgers of sandwiches. Its honestly one of the weirdest things Ive EVER seen! After that we each had our first real belgian chocolate - from Godiva - in La Grand Place. 2 chocolates and 1 truffle was 2.50€ (thats almost 5 CAD)! VERY yummy though :)

Tuesday was the National Holiday here (akin to Canada Day). IT WAS HUUUGE!!! We still had classes even though the rest of the Uni was closed to the day, so Anne-Marie and I headed downtown as soon as class was over (4:00) and stuck around until the fireaorks at 11:00. Imagine Canada Day in Ottawa - then imagine Ottawa had more than 4 million pêople living there! It was INSANE! SOOOOOOO much fun though! Many of the streets were closed and there were vendors and entertainers everywhere. Every half hour or so, a marching band would come right down the middle of a street FILLED with people! Everyone would just sorta move aside and let them pass. Or, if pêople weren't moving or paying attention, the band would stop playing and just wait for them to move. There were also multiple stages with concerts all day and the most amazing fireworks EVER to finish off the day!!!

One of the coolest things, though, was seeing the King and Queen. There were a bunch of tents lined up that someone of royalty had pre-selected, and the king and queen came to sample. (You should've seen the meticulous preparations by the vendors, and the mediq!!!) We got right up to the gate some how and I got some pretty close pics of the Queen. Whenever they would pass by (or drive by as they did for the fireworks later that day), people would yell "Vive La Riene! Vive le Roi!". It was very neat :) Oh, there was also a HUGE flag covereing the side of an entire building that had a composite of people from all social classes in Belgium that made up a huge photo oh the King and Queen.

At the end of the night there were people EVERYWHERE! We ended up meeting a very nice young man who not only helped us find the right bus, but also offered to DRIVE us to Amsterdam! hahaha, it's ok mom, we OBVIOUSLY said no - still taking the train ;)

Tomorrow is a day off, and I'm off to Anvers for a day-excursion. Where is Anvers you ask? I dont know, but Im PRETTY sure it's in Belgium ;) Friday we have classes again then we're off of the 6:30 trqin to Amsterdam - YAY!

The only negative thing I can say is that my feet are KILLING me! They're not only blistered, uyt they're bruised now too. I tried to find some sandals today but appqrently all the stores close at 6:30 and we were a bit late...but the pain is ABSOLUTLY worth it! I am loving being here more and more with every day :)

Internet Café is closing noz - so much to say to little time. Goodbye from Brussels for now! Love and miss you all :)


PS this pic will give you a small idea of the amount of people out Celebrating the Holiday - and this is just one street of many!

Downtown Bruxelles

I finally got a chance to sleep a lot (and I found some coffee "à emporter" - note the look at joy as I drank my first coffee yesterday!) so Im feeling quite a bit better now!

Yesterday morning we had orientation and a placement test. We got a bit of a preview of all the fabulous "excursions" we will be taking and to how the course will work in general. I was placed in group 1 (the lowest, which upset me a little at first but now Im glad because Im WAAYY less stressed about being the least-frech-speaking-person here!) In my class there are people from Toronto, Italy, Lithuaniq, Russiq, Slovakia, Spain and many more. The are students here from 20 countries!! More than 10 from canada - 2 from Toronto and at least 8 from NB.

In the afternoon / evening Anne-Marie, Monica and I all went into downtown Bruxelles in search of La Grand Place (and supper). I also wanted to find a Church and check out mass times for this morning. We found the Bassilica no problem (its MASSIVE) and as i went to check mass times i discovered mass was JUST beginning, so I went then. VERY convenient - Thanks God!

After mass we had a fabulous time exploring Bruxelles, with its many alleys, cafes, pubs, shops and MAGNIFICENT achitecture! There are also tons of random cartoon figures everywhere (not sure why, but ill figure it out Im sure). At the bar called "A La Mort Subite" (aka sudden death) we had Belgian beer and some snacks. Although the waitress tried to warn us, Anne-Marie and I got cubes of meat mixed with "vegetables". Looked like Spam to me! We also ordered "chips": Lays! Anyway, the Belgian Waffles with cream and chocolate MORE than made up for THAT meal.

Today nothing was planned so I went to the Museum of Musical Instruments with Anne-Marie. It is the largest of its kind in the world and it was GREAT! After that we simply picked a direction and walked (after waiting out a small and sudden rain strom, which turned back to sun in no time). We are having a great time exploring :)

Tomorrow classes start - I cant WAIT! Im looking foeward to getting to know some more people. There are two downsides tho - the only coffee on or near campus comes from a machine, and I blew up my straightner ALREADY so Iùve gotta go curly for the re,ainder of the 5 weeks! Oh well, its a small price. All in all Im VERY happy to be here :)

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Rough start - Let The Adventure Begin

WOW!! Finally I have arrived in Brussels! These keyboards are causing me a bit of trouble as the letters are all mixed up so I guess Ill be keeping this short.

I got off to an adventurous start when; upon checking in, I left my passport and boarding passes at the desk. Then, once I had my backpack checked at sat down to relax and noticed that my carry-on suitcase had a hole in it!!! Dad frantically drive hone to get me a new one, meanwhile my huge flight of 6 people was ready to leave early. My friend Jason (aka Grape) came to the rescue and lent me his - he literally had to throw in it Dads car, haha. After running for the plane I made to to Halifax and met my travel buddies, Anne-Marie and Monica. Our flights passed quickly and by 2pm locql time we had finally qrrived in Brussels.

I am finding the French a bit difficult but it,s getting easier with time. We finally had supper (Thai Food) andafter a long search found this internet cafe. We are heading back to sleep now (yes, its only 730).

Tomorrow is orientation - Im VERY excited to meet everyone else!

Aurevoir pour maintenqnt

Packing Packing Packing

Well, I've finally figured out how to create a Blog! You can check in here throughout my trip for updates and photos, I will try and update it as much as possible. Right now I'm crazy busy with getting last minutes details taken care of, and trying to plan 5 weeks of my life (and fit that into one backpack!) Good thing I'm always up for a challenge! 

More to come soon - stay posted :)