Productivity

Huh.  Today lasted forever, and yet I don't think I did that much.  Woke up 730/8ish.  Was still dark outside.0.o

Anyways, did all my research apps (about seven) and I may or may not have more, but it was all-in-all a pretty productive morning.  Then I researched flights and bought tickets to Venice, Stockholm, and Dublin/Glasgow. (Flying into Dublin, flying out of Glasgow several days later.) The only places I haven't planned so far are "day" trips to Amsterdam, Paris, and Germany.  I would like to go to Dusseldorf, I think, but we'll see.  Those are all train trips that are a fair bit pricier...

Oh, yeah, did I mention that the tickets to Madrid, Venice, Stockholm, Dublin and Glasgow (four trips) were a whopping 266USD? It came out to something like 47 euros a trip. You definitely can't do that in the states. 

Anyways, we looked at each other schedules, and it seems like I'm flying solo (no pun intended) unless some people decide last minute to join me.  Sarah has a whole bunch of things planned, too, and they're mostly going with her.

After that, I did some homework, looked outside and saw the pouring rain, and decided that staying in was a perfectly good option for tonite.  So more homework, and hopefully, maybe, it will be sunny tomorrow. 

Sorry for the short post.  Goodnight world.

Registration and Long Metro Rides

Good evening!  Today was interesting.

We woke up early (well, early for my roommates) so we could register.  We walked a good long ways to the commune hall, about 30 minutes, and then when we got there, Kristin and Jackie (who came with us because Frederique said they were supposed to) got sent somewhere else.  Then the guy photocopied our passports, had us write our birth cities and told us a cop would be by in the next two weeks to check about our residence.  And then we would get letters in the mail so we could set up an appointment for a personal interview and to bring 20 euros and 4 passport photos when we did.  Needless to say, we are not happy, and Frederique will be getting many emails and having many conversations on Monday with people - some people have to get bank statements and 5 passport photos and all this stuff.

After our group trip, I went to Grand Central Station to look at trains.  Round trip to Dusseldorf was 85 euro for tomorrow, but I've decided to stay home this weekend, or travel on Sunday because of research applications and homework.  But the guy told me how to look up timetables and get information, so that's what I'll be doing.  It's pretty cheap to most places, and the guys in the train station are pretty helpful to let you know where you can go for a day.  Now I know, and now I can plan.  A couple of people are taking an exclusive trip next week to London.  Of course I wasn't invited.  Both Sam and Kristen are going.  Definitely going somewhere that weekend.  Anyways, going to make a list of places to go and work on getting there.  Name suggestions in comments for me?

On the way back, I stopped and got food in the metro station.  A hamburger, to be exact.  Much different than anything I'd consider a typical hamburger, it was two patties cut in half served on a baguette with lettuce, tomato and ketchup.  It was very good.

We then hung out and did stuff in the apartment before meeting a whole bunch of people in the metro station around 2.  There were 13 of us, and we took three different metro lines and at least thirty minutes to go to the Atomium.  Which is a really cool structure that represents an elementary iron crystal enlarged 165 billion (thousand million) times.  They had info about the 1958 world's fair and all this science stuff.  James and I ended up being the only ones interested and stayed to actually read and look at all the exhibits. 

Everyone left us there but told us where they were going to get off the metro to go to dinner; St. Catrine (where we've been multiple times), and wait for us.  We finished looking at everything and caught the metro back, noticing the cool stations and how each one is different.  The one with the Atomium had sciency stuff and giant fingerprints and a mix of academic things.  The next notable one had these statues of people, some with kids, some as couples, some as huge groups.  Followed by one with penguins and global warming information and one that had really pretty close-ups of flowers.  Each station is different.  Each has different seating, different design, different personalities, so to speak.  It's really interesting.

Anyways, they didn't wait for us, but we called and they told us the name of the restaurant.  We got lucky with an American who was working in a restaurant and she knew where it was.  We got there less than 5 minutes after they had been seated, but they hadn't left us any room so we got a table near by.  The soup of the day was "vegetable" but looked, tasted, and had the consistency of split-pea.  It was very good, and went surprisingly well with the strawberry beer we had (which was also good).  Half the group was staying to go to some bar, and the rest were going home, including one of my roomies.  We were going to go with them, but we were once again left because they didn't tell us they were leaving... They pretty much disappeared.  Anyways, James and I found our way back to the metro, and happened to notice a chocolate sale.  Adorable snowmen and Christmas-themed chocolates for a euro each.  We both got some and then grabbed the metro, headed to our respective apartments.  Kristen decided to go back out. Not sure where; wasn't invited. I here for the night. Going to relax, maybe do homework.  Trying to find an English channel on tv out of our 7.

Goodnight world.

Shopping malls and French classes

It was sunny today! And warm... well, warmer than it has been, so about 4 Celsius... It was really pretty with the grass sticking out from patches of snow and big fat (and I mean FAT) mourning doves poking around in the ground.  We ended up spending most of the day inside, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Today was our first French class. Our teacher was... interesting. And I think it would generally be agreed that we can say certain words, but we don't know what they mean, and we can count up to a hundred.  He was reasonably nice; gave us big thick workbooks and corrected our Spanish to sound like French.  (I think every person took Spanish because not one knows French.)  Then we returned, had lunch, had some people over, and returned to CUBC for our marketing class. 

Oh, and during our lunch break, we booked tickets to Madrid for a week in February.  My roommates, another girl and I are going together - 55euros each. And we're staying with friends there, so we're super excited.

After class, we came back and decided we would "explore" - i.e. take the metro and explore wherever it stopped.  Sam got a quarter pizza that looked amazing, Kristen got a ham sandwich on a foot long baguette, and Kristen got a croissant, so I said I would get something random from the vending machine.  I chose chestnuts that looked sugared.  They weren't chestnuts. They were little balls of salami. They tasted better than the sliced stuff I had gotten, but were still not very good. But now I know.  I think it gets on Sam's nerves that I'm always experimenting with food, be it candy or vending machines or unidentified things on the menu.

Anyways, we ended up meeting another girl in the station, and we all went to the mall.  There are a lot of lingerie stores, I've noticed, both in the mall today and walking around Bruxelles Centre.  Anyways, everyone was having sales and three went and shopped in a nice store, and Kristen and I wandered around.  We ended up getting gelato; she got delicious strawberry and cappucino, and I got even better white chocolate and ferrero rocher. It was delicious.

We got back 7ish, I had tomato soup and goldfish, and then logged on and haven't been productive since.  Sam and some others went out, but I feel more like sleeping.  We're going out tomorrow night, exploring some more during the day, and maybe going somewhere on Saturday. (Antwerp, Paris, Dusseldorf, Lille, Amsterdam, or somewhere else? Leave your vote in the comments.)  I think what's going to happen is that I'm going to go to the train station tomorrow, look at the timetables, and pick the shortest, earliest train out of the city to explore for the diay.

Watch out for adventures! Pictures to be posted tomorrow. Hopefully.

Goodnight, all.

Outline

I will finish this post tomorrow, but it is 1AM here and I have two more pages of marketing to outline and then I'm going to bed.

Today, I woke up at 10, did some homework, had breakfast (chocolate croissant), and was bored.  Roomies woke up around 12.  Kristen had class, but Sam and I went to the comic museum after eating a bit for lunch.  We saw lots of cool things, but they were all in French.  The notable artists/cartoons were Tintin, Marc Sleen (he had his own museum), Peyo (SMURFS!), and some others.  It was really cool.  The detail in the originals was astounding, as well as learning a little bit about how comics are created. It was really busy, but if you want cartoon-related paraphernalia, DO NOT get it from the museum. Ridiculously over priced.

Then we walked around Grand Place and ended up going to get waffles.  Sam's first!  She had hers with strawberries and I had mine with nutella and raspberries.  Oh, my, was it good. 

We caught the metro back and then headed out with both Kristens and Jackie.  Kristen and Jackie live really close to us; just around the corner.  We took the metro to somewhere none of us have been before and wandered all over looking for a grocery store. 

For those of you who live in Charleston, SC, you know of a place called Food Lion.  Well, the grocery store we found here has the same symbol, but has no correlation.  Except for maybe having a confusing layout sometimes.  But the one here was... Wait for it... TRIANGULAR. Yes. Like, you could stand in the center and there were 4/5 aisles away from you, but they weren't parallel to each other. I swear I walked down the same aisle five times from at least 3 different directions.  The shelves were straight; the layout, not.  Anyways.  We all got food and came back to our apartment.  Jackie and Kristen went home, then Kristen came back because they don't have internet.  We feasted on some more strange candies, and did some homework together.

I guess my "outline" idea didn't come through.  Maybe I'll add more in the comments if you have questions or if I think of anything else. 

Goodnight, world.  At least after I finish this chapter.

Beer

So because you guys are special (and you're special because you read my blog), you get another update, sooner than usual.

We went out tonite.

To Delirium.

For those of you who don't know, it was in the Guinness Book of World Records 2004 because it had the most beers on tap and on hand.  Anyways, there was a group of us, at least eight or ten, and we each got something to drink.  Most were different, but there were some repeats.

Now, in the US, there are a lot of beers, and I haven't tasted, let alone had, very many. As in tasted. A teaspoon. When I was eight or something. Anywhoo. They have sweet beers here.  Which, in my opinion, are much better.  I'm not sure if they're really available in the states.  A lot of people got Chimay or Duval, which are the local beers.  Not my style. I started off with a mango beer, which wasn't quite as sweet as the apple beer, but still very good.  Then I had a chocolate beer.  Sounds interesting, and it is.  Meredith didn't like it, but most other people did. 

The most interesting thing, I think, about the beer here is that it's typically 9% alcohol.  Which is higher than in the states.  But the fruit beers are 3.2% or something. Anyways. Different tastes, and different alcohols.  They have "blondes" which typically are 6 and under, and then "royal" which is 9 and higher.  (Don't ask me what happened to 7 and 8%...)

It was a fun night. No class tomorrow. Maybe a museum. Most likely work.

Goodnight world.

Introduced

Good evening all.  We're all getting together tonite and going to Delirium - apparently it's one of the best bars in Brussels - so I'm writing this now so you can get a post before tomorrow.

Today I had my first marketing class. Mr. Gaubert was lots of fun and we did some fun icebreakers and stuff.  He asked interesting questions, so I thought I'd answer some for you here.

- What do you regret not bringing?
More sweaters and sweatshirts and warm clothes.

- What is the most interesting thing you've seen here?
How many drunks there are on the streets at all times.

- What was the worst part of your flight?
The crying babies and not sleeping.

- What do you want to take home?
Knowing the French language, chocolate, and awesome stories.

- What do you miss most about Clemson?
Not having to cook and recognizing what food is in the grocery store.

- Where do you want to travel?
London, Madrid, Barcelona, Zurich, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Paris, and probably others.

Anyways, class was fun and then we came back for lunch.  We had a tour at one. 

What I want to know is why we always take walking tours in the freezing cold.  Anyways, we met and we went down to St. Catherine square. Saw the fish shops, the old wall, the church, and then we went to Grand Place, learned a bit about the square, walked over to a gothic church and then split up.  If you want more information, go read a guide book. It will only be boring if I list it all out. Pretty much their idea of "new buildings" here means it was built after 1800 or so and the whole 'lower country' used to be under water with canals and stuff like Venice.  Anything else was not interesting enough to note here.

After the tour, I went with Meredith and some other people to see Mannikin Piss for a second time. Then most got waffles and we walked around the square some more.  Before heading to our separate homes, we stopped and got french fries... the real stuff.  Apparently calling them "French" is incorrect.  They actually originated in Brussels.  They were called french only because of the language.  Can you say amazing? Even though they were huge portions, we each finished ours.  We took the metro home and that's been about it for today.

I miss everyone lots and it's starting to get into a normal routine.  Hopefully I'll go to the comic museum tomorrow, so we'll see how that is.  Depends on the weather. Goodnight all.

Boring day

Today, I woke up at 10 and did absolutely nothing... 

Other than watch bad tv, write emails, and stay warm in bed today. It was snowy and I have class at 9:30 tomorrow morning.  The heat isn't working in the apartment, so we're all freezing. It's good to have a relaxing day.  I think I'm going to make prosciutto ravioli for dinner and go to bed early.  I was craving pizza earlier, which was weird because I typically am not a huge fan. Anyways, I'm sure I'm going to get fat here between the chocolate and the croissants and the amazing food.

Sorry for the boring post. Hopefully they will be more entertaining in the future.

Goodnight all. Miss everyone lots <3

PS. Big hug and shout-out to Mr Fabio - Happy Birthday!

Meanderings

So today, I woke up at 12:30, had a wonderful breakfast of cereal, chamomile tea and a clementine.  I fiddled around with my computer, talked to my parents, and got dressed.  This time I took the subway to the right stop, but only after getting a chocolate bar with whole hazelnuts out of the chocolate vending machine.... Yes, all it had was chocolate. =]

Went to Marion's hotel, helped her pack, then went out to the grocery store, where I got kinder eggs with smurfs, and some necessities.  Then we walked around, seeing all the little stores.  I found an adorable skirt, and then we went and saw Manniken Piss... Which is the famous statue of the little boy peeing. It's literally a foot and a half tall, if that.  On all the surrounding streets are little shops, tourist traps, and chocolate stores....  With every possible combination of chocolate and fillings and fruits you could ever imagine. Plus lots and lots of chocolate sculptures, mostly of Manniken Piss.

We went to a delightful restaurant across the street from the fountain, where I had a wonderful bowl of broccoli soup and an apple beer. I know, you wouldn't really think of it as being really good, and it wasn't a cider, but it was fantastic.  I had laughed when there was cherry on the menu, but at this restaurant, there was apple and peach and pear and a whole bunch I couldn't translate. 

The really cool thing about restaurants here is that it's a conglomeration of two-person tables all smushed together, so you're basically sitting at a huge table with a whole bunch of people.  And this isn't just the small places, it's everywhere.  So we came, and we sat between two couples, both wrapped up in their own lives.  Then they left, not at the same time, but one couple sat down to my left and then a bit later two guys sat down to my right... speaking English. They spoke to us.  Turns out they're from the Netherlands, work in computer technology, lived in the states and Israel and all over, and want to take all us Clemson students to tour and show us around.  One of them was a member of Chabad, or the orthodox temple, and offered to take me to services. Basically it was really cool. 

Sitting in this cramped little restaurant in downtown Brussels, I heard English with many different accents, French (of course), Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Finnish, Chinese, and some others I couldn't identify. I was astounded. In the shops, Marion and I were speaking in Spanish to discuss what we wanted, and the shop owners started talking to us in Spanish. It was intense. Everyone here knows at least 4 or 5 languages. 0.o

So after dinner, we shared a waffle with bananas and heaping globs of nutella. Oy, vey was it amazingly good.  We walked back and went to get hot chocolate after a bit, and met a friend of Marion's whom she met at Toastmasters, and for whom I'll be babysitting for in the next 4 months (hopefully).  We took Marion to the bus station, and I grabbed a bus back to my apartment.

All in all, I saw a lot of downtown Brussels and learned my way around Gran Central and St. Catrine (Catherine) areas.  A lot of walking, a lot of wandering, and getting a little bit of a grip on how things work here.

My apartment is fantastic, but the heat sucks. Majorly. There's a thermometer on my clock... the highest it's read the entire time I've been here has been 56.2... Right now it's reading 49.5. And that's with the heat constantly on as high as it will go and the door shut. Brrr. Anyhoo, time for bed; I'm snuggled up in a down comforter and two wool blankets. Goodnight.