New Hair, New Hat, New Tram, New Taste

In other news, I finally ate the infamous mussels in Brussels! My friend, Janie, and I were exploring Brussels and had both never had mussels before so we decided to share a bucket. They were weird looking, but pretty good. That same day I had my first Manneken Pis and Janneken Pis sightings. For some reason Belgians like statues of peeing children. There is also a peeing dog somewhere, Zenneken Pis. I’ll have to find him before I leave.

Mechthild, my host mom, knit me a lovely blue hat! I love it! And it goes well with my new hair cut I think. Yes, I got a Belgian haircut. I had been debating for a long time whether to do it or not. I was like I’ll just get a trim, but instead a got a whole new do! It’s much shorter, much less hair, much less tangliness, much less conditioner used, much less time spent brushing it (it only takes like 4 seconds as opposed to the previous 10 minutes). I think I like it.

Spring has arrived here. Over the last few days warmth has come and flowers have bloomed. I know it’s only going to get better! Also, throughout our time here, along the tram 44 line workers have been putting in a new tramline. Since the beginning of the poject we’ve had glimpses of the progress as we drive by to and from the city, work and class. It’s been interesting and, at times, frustrating because the tram would be slower in that area. But it’s exciting to see the finished product!

The tram today, however is not very exciting. There is what the call “heavy disturbances” because massive amount of people from all over Belgium met in the streets early this morning for a demonstation because the government (oh wait, we don't have one) wants to cut costs or something. Due to the people in the streets, pretty much all the buses weren’t working (which doesn’t really affect me) and many of the trams were much slower (this does affect me). So it took me a while longer to get to class but because I’m just SO dedicated I didn’t skip (and I didn't know it would be that bad. But mostly because I'm a good student).

It seems that at some point every night the two cats, Blair and Jerry, decide to get in a catfight. They growl and attack each other. Blair, always feeling the need to be superior, jumps on top of counters, chairs, anything he can find, so that he can be taller than Jerry and thus appear to have more power. There is never really a winner because before they can get too into it Mechthild shoos one of them into another room or outside. They get along at all other times of the day, though.

One of my classes has about 15 people in it. Of these 15 people, there are about 7 or 8 different nationalities, including German, French, American and Dutch, among others. It’s a class about language use, so it’s interesting to get perspectives from so many backgrounds.

I would also like to say that I am not the least punctual person in the household, believe it or not.

Paris, France

This song was stuck in my head a lot throughout the weekend because I think it’s the only song I know that’s about Paris…

Paris was amazing and cliché and just what I expected, yet so much more. Pretty much wherever you go you’ll find a tourist, people walk around with giant baguettes all the time, there’s plenty of people watching taking place, wine is their favorite and most popular drink, the Eiffel Tower is beautiful.

My friend, Kelly, and I ventured off by bus to Paris with high expectations! This city was definitely the most surreal of all my travels thus far. When we finally exited the metro and got our first glance at one of Paris’s masterpieces–the Arc de Triomphe, it hit us; we were in Paris! It was big a beautiful and I loved it right away. We took lots of pictures at the Arc, as we did with nearly everything we saw, and then realized we weren’t really sure why the Arc was built. I had brought along a handy book about Paris that my host mom had. We opened it up and read a paragraph about the Arc de Triomphe, felt much more knowledgeable, and decided we were now prepared to climb the steps to the top.

The climb was long and we were out of breath due to the drastic change in sea level (at least that’s what we blamed it on), but the view was worth it. This is where we had our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower.

When we got back down we decided to walk down the infamous Champs Elysees. Unfortunately, we realized that it would be more difficult than we thought. The Arc de Triomphe is located in the middle of this giant turn about where traffic never ceases and crosswalks don’t exist. We had followed a group of people through the traffic on the way over but going back across the road we were on our own. We ended up playing a little frogger and made it without being smashed.

We enjoyed a delicious sandwich at a random café and people watched for a little bit. We then set off in the direction the Eiffel Tower! Or so we thought… We decided that of all the things to find in Paris, the Eiffel Tower (ET) would be the easiest, for obvious reasons. This was our one chance to not look like a tourist with our maps out and our mouths open trying to figure out where we were and where we should go. We started walking and walking and walking and then after we had walked for quite some time without seeing the ET we decided it was time to stop trying to be someone we weren’t, embrace our true tourist self, and whip out a map. So we did, we had two, in fact. We assumed we were somewhere near the ET so we started looking for street signs somewhere along there. No luck. We then looked in another area where we were sure we had actually, accidentally wandered off to. No luck. After about a half hour of this confusion, I asked a man with a massive mustache, “Where are we?” (In French of course) and he pointed to the far north of the map- just the opposite place we needed to be. Fail. We couldn’t even find the ET on our own! From then on, the map became our best friend.

We took a metro to the ET and when we finally came upon it we were in awe. It was so big and so wonderful. The only thing we didn’t expect was that it was painted a flat brown color and we both had remembered the ET having a much nicer, brozeish color to it. But we weren’t complaining. We spent a good chunk of time in the area taking lots of pictures of each other and for other people because everyone wants an ET picture! We were pro photographers by the end of it all; we knew all the good angles. For some reason, some people just don’t understand that when we ask them to take a picture of us that we don’t mean just us. We mean mostly get that giant tower in the background and then get us in the bottom corner. But no, some people thought our shoes were the most important part of the picture. Luckily, not everyone thought this way.

Everywhere around the ET there were guys selling mini ET, flying things that light up, and little toy puppy dogs that walk around and bark. Typical ET souvenirs, of course. There were hoards of them, though! They were set up right next to each other, so I don’t really understand their logic. But oh well. The people trying to sell us stuff go rather annoying throughout our stay in Paris because they were at every tourist attraction, and so were we, and so we saw them a lot.

We then walked along the Seine River for a bit, were able to get pictures of the ET from another angle, and went to a contemporary art museum called Musee de Tokyo. It was very… interesting… We tried to interpret it all but I think we just didn’t fully understand it. We walked by the Grand Palace on our way to the metro to Kelly’s friend’s apartment where we stayed for the weekend.

I thought the apartment would be small. But small would’ve been much better than the size of this apartment. You walk in the door and there’s a little bathroom to your right. You go down this tiny hallway, oh, and the tiny hallways is also the kitchen with a sink, a stove top, two cupboards and a mini fridge. It's like 1/3 the size of my kitchen last semester. Then you enter the bedroom that has a single bed for her and her husband. The room is also the dining room, the office, the living room and whatever else. I was amazed. The location wasn’t even near anything touristy and yet it was still so tiny for the whopping price of 850 euro a month! Ridiculous! Kelly and I were curious as to where we would sleep, but they pulled out two mattresses from underneath the bed when the time came. So we all slept right in a row and nearly filled up the room.

Before bedtime though, Kelly and I went to the St. Michael area and ate dinner. There was a giant fountain in the area that was pretty. We had had our backpacks with us up to this point and it felt nice to not have the extra weight. We walked down a restaurant-filled street and a waiter offered us a free cocktail if we ate at his place, so we agreed and sat down. We ate cheese fondue (three kinds of cheese) and potatoes and played the guessing game, “Who’s the Tourist?” It was a fun and pretty easy game and the food was great. We walked around there for a bit longer and headed home for some rest, as we were getting up early to get to the Louvre right when it opened so we didn’t have to wait in line.

We were a little late because sleep was nice and we grabbed a couple baked goods along the way, but we still didn’t have to wait in line. We headed straight for the Mona Lisa, once we bought our ticket! She was nice. Small, protected by bulletproof glass, but nice. We didn’t really know what else we wanted to see and so we went to the starred items on our Louvre map and saw lots of things along the way. Lots of paintings, sculptures, items from long ago. I think things in museums seem to blend together after a while. But it was still a sweet museum! And massive, too! One of the cooler things was the Napoleon Apartments. It was set up like his house (was or was guessed to be) and it was beautiful and luxurious. The colors were rich, the decorations were refined, the wallpaper was cloth and the chandeliers were the biggest I’ve ever seen.

We spent nearly two hours in there and found that the hardest part was trying to get out of the Louvre! We walked around it and saw the glass pyramid and it felt surreal all over again. The pyramid has been in so many movies and it made me feel like I was, too. We then headed towards the Notre Dame via St. Germain Boulevard, which is supposed to be known for it’s cafés and people watching. It’s also supposedly the best place to spot a celebrity (that’s what my book said at least). We didn’t find one though. We stopped at a café and enjoyed our first croque madame, which is the Parisian way of doing a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s meat and cheese in the middle with melted cheese on top and a fried egg on top of that. I loved every bite. I made one for myself a couple days after I got home, too. Another thing I really liked about Paris was that they gave us a giant pitcher of water with every meal we had – for free! I’ve missed free water.

We left the café and headed for the Notre Dame. We followed our usual patter of lots of pictures and then sit in awe for a bit. The Notre Dame was cool, but I felt like the church in saw in Cologne, Germany was much more amazing. The only unique thing about the inside was the intricate and extensive stained glass throughout the cathedral. Otherwise it was just like any other European cathedral, which is still great. We got in line to head to the top to be with the gargoyles. There was a crepe stand nearby (how convenient) and so we got a hot crepe with Nutella on the inside. So delicious! My purse was feeling left out at first, but after a dollop of Nutella fell into it, it was much happier.

It started to get overcast and sprinkle and so we decided that it wouldn’t be the best day for a view from the top of something. Aside from the little bit of rain, we had pretty good weather. It wasn’t always sunny skies, but it was a good temperature and not too overcast. We stopped at a café for some hot chocolate, went home for a couple hours rest, grabbed a cheap bottle of wine and were off to visit the ET at nighttime!

The ET was great during the day, but it was amazing at night! It’s lit up with a golden glow and sparkles every hour on the hour. We thought we had taken a lot of pictures of attractions up to this point, but we went crazy here! We tried every setting on our camera and every angle we could think of. We saw it sparkle twice. I loved it.

After enjoying the radiance of the ET and the wine, we went to the Bastille area. We found a nice looking bar, grabbed a beer and sat down. We were there for a while watching this foursome interact and coming up with dialogue for them. Our version was probably more amusing than what they were actually talking about. We went home relatively early again in preparation for our final day in Paris.

Our first destination of the day was the Catacombs. They are these underground tunnels all throughout Paris. One section is closed off for this tour. Apparently, back in the day the cemetery in Paris filled up and they didn’t know what to do with the bodies. So naturally they took the bones and lined the walls of these underground tunnels with them. It was crazy and creepy but quite interesting. There were so many bones! It was unreal.

After that we went to an outdoor market with Kelly’s friend and husband. They had scarves (I bought one), fresh food, shoes, jewelry, art, random nick-knacks and lots of other things. We decided to buy three kinds of fresh cheese- goat, brei and something else, and a fresh baguette and head for Montmartre. We got there, and ate our delicious cheese and bread and then hung out there for a couple hours. There was a guy who was doing crazy juggling for like an hour! He was so amazing! After he finished Kelly and I went and told him he was really, really good. We chatted for a bit and he gave us his card. You should watch him by either Googleing him or going to his website: http://www.iya.fr/en/iya_traore.php

There was also a guy who was playing guitar and singing and so we sat, along with over 200 other people, and enjoyed his show for a while. Because there were so many people there, some guys decided to buy a couple 6-packs of Heineken and sell them to the crowd! So funny! We then saw the inside of the church briefly and walked down this street that had a bunch of artists working on and selling their art. It was so cute.

We took the metro back home (we became quite familiar with Paris’s metro system in the short time we were there) to grab our stuff and then went to the bus stop to head home. The weekend was wonderful but I was quickly forced back into reality when I got home as I had a test and a 3,000-word paper due along with many hours at the internship. All is peaceful for the moment as I’m outside enjoying the warmth of the sunshine and I head for Dublin tomorrow!

Incomparable

Tonight we had Chinese food from the place across the street. Let's just say it was no Chuong... 

Seeing the Sights

This past week was the dreaded mid-term week. It’s especially awful here because most of the classes consist of a mid-term, a large paper and a final exam. So you pretty much have to do well in everything. Hopefully the tests went well!

Mechthild and I took the afternoon on Friday to go to Leuven, the next town over, and walk around, eat crepes (mine had ice cream and chocolate sauce on it!) and get lost in the city (this part wasn’t planned into our day). The trams were on strike and so I wasn’t able to go into my internship. This time the metro announced that they were going to be on strike so we could be prepared. I think the fact that they announce when they will strike is kind of an oxymoron. The point of a strike is to kind of say that the workers have the power to be in control if they don’t change what the workers want. I think it’s meant to be unexpected and be a nuisance so they have no choice but to agree to your demands. The metro not running is a nuisance, but the fact that they alerted us prior to the strike makes it far less a nuisance because there is time to plan ahead. Also, they are allowed to strike, but only for one day. This, too, coincides with the whole oxymoronness of it all.

I finally made it to the Atomium! It’s one of Brussels main tourist sights. It is an impressive and unique structure. It’s way far away from anything else in Brussels and it’s pretty much the only thing out there worth seeing. My friend, Kelly and I went, took pictures, sat in the warmth of the restaurant and left. We can now check it off the list though.

We then went to the Museum of Music, which was really cool. You get headphones and when you step in front of an instrument in the museum then the music that it makes plays through the headphones. There were so many different kinds of instruments- most of which I have never seen before. They usually resembled something that I was familiar with, such as a guitar or a trumpet but there were so many different variations from different people groups and time periods. I was amazed at some of the instrumental creations! I don’t know how people came up with some of them! I realized how limited my knowledge of instruments is. When I think of instruments I usually think of the basics- the ones I’m familiar with, but there are so many other things that make music! All shapes and sizes and sounds. After my eyes were opened to the various types of instruments that I never knew existed I was briefly inspired to create a unique instrument of my own. That inspiration has faded now...

Mechthild is in Berlin for the week visiting a friend. We’re on our own! She cooked and froze a bunch of food so I think we’ll survive! 

Verbier, Switzerland

I skied in the Swiss Alps!!!! …In jeans… It was so amazing though! I’m really glad I was able to take that trip.  We flew into Geneva, Switzerland last Friday night and rented a car. Sam drove (in a manual car), Ryan worked the GPS (it was in German) and I sat in the back (with all the coats and such). We drove through the mountains and tunnels and were always in awe when we would unexpectedly come across a city’s lights in the valley.

We reached our hostel, which was an old bomb shelter in the early hours. There was nobody else there when we arrived so we were alone in the hostel for the first night, which was a bit creepy. There was also a distinct smell about the hostel that wasn’t exactly pleasing. But it was a bed to sleep in and we all wanted sleep! Sam unfortunately realized when we got there that he forgot to pack his sleeping bag. We found some sheets, hoped they were clean and fell asleep.

The next morning Ryan realized he forgot his gloves. I was feeling good about not forgetting anything too important at that point. We rented boots and skis (with Franks- the Switzerland currency) and walked a couple minutes down the rode to where a there was a gondola lift that took us to the top of the mountain! As we were putting boots/hats/gloves/etc. before getting on the gondola I realized that my gloves had fallen out of my boots at some point. So I ended up being in the same boat as Ryan- no gloves.

At the bottom when we looked up at the mountain we couldn’t see the top, partway through the ride up we were in fog, and once at the top we could see many mountain peaks, a line of clouds and the valley below. It was a beautiful sight! Unfortunately my camera died halfway through the first day, but I still got a lot of great pictures, as did Sam and Ryan.

Sam and Ryan are both great skiers! Before Verbier I hadn’t skied in a couple of years. My family and I have been to Montana and Colorado before on ski trips and so I figured that after a couple times down the mountain then I would be used to skiing again and be able to keep up with the guys. I was mistaken. The slopes seemed steeper and icier than what I remembered past slopes being like. I think that in places in America the slopes are groomed so that they’re mostly flat and even. In Verbier there was powder right next to a patch of icy snow right next to a bump of snow and so it was difficult for me to find a good rhythm of skiing. Sam and Ryan were doing great and I didn’t want to slow them down so I told them to go wherever they wanted to go and we picked a place to meet up later on.

The rest of that day I’m pretty sure I fell at least once every time I went down a slope. Fortunately none of my falls were painful nor did a break anything- bone or ski. I would usually just slide for a really long time until I stopped and then people would look at me and think, “Oh, she’s in jeans. That explains everything.” And they would help me get my skis back on and stand up and such. More people than I expected spoke English, which was good! Thanks to the amazingly nice weather I was never cold! Even though I fell multiple times and didn’t have gloves the sun and adrenaline kept me warm!

We were all exhausted after day one. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant in Verbier, which was tasty and went to bed fairly early and were up again the next morning for some more skiing. I stayed with the guys throughout day two. I was slower than them, and as the runs were all quite lengthy with many forks in the road, they had to wait for me at different points but it was fine I think. Many of the trails we were on were wide enough for twoish skiers and then it would just drop off on the side. I was always extra cautious on these trails for obvious reasons. There was one gondola lift that we took which held over 100 people! It was a little scary.

Our flight left for home at 6am on Sunday. We drove back to the airport Saturday night and attempted (and kind of succeeded) to sleep in our car for a few hours. We then hung out in the airport for a while longer and came home extremely exhausted, but it was well worth the exhaustion.