I'm back from Belgium and after my two days of straight class/work, it is now the weekend for me :) The weather here has drastically changed from the sunshine and warmth we were lucky to have the first few weeks, but I find myself loving London more every day, even with the rain.
Visiting Belgium was such a nice change of pace! I flew RyanAir round trip and was kind of surprised at the airline. Not what I expected at all. I was picturing little cheapo planes with propellers but this was a legit 747 and completely sold out! The way that these cheap airlines work is basically, they fly all day back and forth, and the passengers on the flight are pretty much getting off of the plane as you're getting onto it. They make a lot of their money from putting really strict baggage restrictions on everything and charging for every little thing you want to eat on the flight. They even had a mid-air raffle! The flight was quicker than I anticipated, only about a half hour. On the way there, the pilot landed at a really high speed and the plane kind of just thumped onto the runway. I noticed the wings were kind of rocking as we were coming in but I didn't know the difference because I don't fly enough to know what a "good" landing is, so for that I am happy because if I had recognized how scared some people were when we landed I probably would have freaked out! Thursday ended up being a really long travel day. We had to take the tube to the Baker Street bus stop and then a coach 1.5 hours to Stansted Airport, then the plane, then when we got to Brussels we had to take another coach 45 minutes to the train station, get on the metro and walk from our metro stop to the hostel. It was exhausting! The hostel surprisingly wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but I think that's probably because I was picturing a dirty mattress, water-stained walls, and rodents running around, so anything could be better than that! Realistically, the hostel isn't much more than a place to crash after a long day so it didn't matter too much what it looked like. The place had a bar and lounge area in it, as well as a dining area where they served breakfast each morning. I gave the free breakfast a go the first morning and was feeling like I was in a prison as it was corn flakes, milk that tasted like half and half, 5 slices of plain white bread, watered down orange juice, and a slice of cheese. Very gourmet! Needless to say I passed on the breakfast the next two days. Thank God I was in the land of waffles and chocolate!
The first day in Belgium we explored Brussels, which was nice, but I have to say only good for a day trip. The main attraction is the Place Royale, which is the center square in the town:
place royale, Brussels, Belgium
Hungry Amber!We also took a tour of the chocolate museum, and learned how pralines are made.
chocolatier, Brussels, Belgium. 28 September, 2007.The chocolatier that did the demonstration was really interesting and luckily spoke very good English. That was one thing I noticed while over there. Belgium has three main languages: French, Flemish, and German, but I'd say a good majority of people know at least a little bit of English. All of the maps, directions, menus, and signs were translated into English so it made finding our way around a bit easier.
I also sampled a Belgian beer called Kriek, which is cherry flavored and DELICIOUS. Frites (french fries) are also a specialty all over Belgium, so I had my fair share of those too. The French men working in the fry stand took a particular liking to me, heckling me and winking at me as I was eating, which was kind of funny but as I kept getting looked at the rest of the day it got pretty annoying. I think it must be the blonde hair... If this is any inclination of what it's going to be like in Italy, I'm in for a lonnnnng mid-semester break.
At night, we attempted to soak up the nightlife, but we mainly ended up wandering around. We ended up in this weird bar/lounge place and started a dance party, but it got really hot and smoky after awhile so we left quite early. Brussels is such a touristy area, so it was hard to find a place that didn't just try to suck all of your money from you.
Saturday we took a day trip to Bruges, which was beautiful! It is like a mini Venice. Again, we spent most of the day walking around and eating. Here are my favorite shots from the day:
I also sampled a Belgian beer called Kriek, which is cherry flavored and DELICIOUS. Frites (french fries) are also a specialty all over Belgium, so I had my fair share of those too. The French men working in the fry stand took a particular liking to me, heckling me and winking at me as I was eating, which was kind of funny but as I kept getting looked at the rest of the day it got pretty annoying. I think it must be the blonde hair... If this is any inclination of what it's going to be like in Italy, I'm in for a lonnnnng mid-semester break.
At night, we attempted to soak up the nightlife, but we mainly ended up wandering around. We ended up in this weird bar/lounge place and started a dance party, but it got really hot and smoky after awhile so we left quite early. Brussels is such a touristy area, so it was hard to find a place that didn't just try to suck all of your money from you.
Saturday we took a day trip to Bruges, which was beautiful! It is like a mini Venice. Again, we spent most of the day walking around and eating. Here are my favorite shots from the day:
My favorite thing we did in Bruges was climb the 366 steps to the top of the Belfry tower.
And what I saw when I looked down was magnificent!
And what I saw when I looked down was magnificent!
view from the top of the Belfry Tower, Bruges, Belgium. 29 September, 2007.All-in-all, Belgium was a decent trip. I was travelling with about 5 other people so that made it kind of a hassle at times, because we all didn't want to do the same thing all the time, and we spent a lot of time waiting for each other which wasted a lot of time I think. I'm happy I went, but I probably won't go back, unless I visit Antwerp or Ghent, which I would have liked to see instead, but didn't get the chance. By Saturday night I was just dying to be home, which was when I realized that by "home" I meant London (at least for this point in my life), and it was kind of a cool feeling to realize how comfortable I've become here. I'm not really a city girl at all (more like a wanna-be country girl) so I'm quite amazed at how much I have grown to love living in this crazy, unfriendly, busy, expensive city. Below the hard exterior, London is beautiful, charming and quaint and I appreciate every new thing I'm learning about its history, present and future. I appreciate every little green space or old alleyway or corner cafe I come by. I appreciate how fortunate I am to be here, and I want to take all of it in as much as I possibly can. I'm not travelling again for two weeks, when I head to Italy for my fall break, so I'm excited to continue my London adventures for a bit.
It feels like classes this week flew by. I had two big papers to get through, which I luckily did before I left for Belgium, so once I got back I only had minor editing to do. I asked my history teacher if he could look over my paper and let me know if there was anything I missed and when he gave it back to me, he said he was very "encouraged" by my paper. I'm not sure quite how to take that... I think he meant it as a good thing? He said that he can tell I want to be a writer just by the way my paper was put together and the way I constructed my sentences, but today in class he said to me, "well you managed at least one good sentence out of it!" Sometimes his advice is so confusing! I think he means well, though.
We took a walking tour of the Southbank for my photography class Monday morning. We were rained on, but I found a few gems along our walk that I'm excited to go back to. This weekend I'm going to visit Borough Market, which is a huge food market on the weekends, with all sorts of the best cheese, breads, produce, wines, spices and what have you. I should be able to manage some good photos out of it and do a little shopping as well. I really want to improve my cooking skills (all I've really mastered so far is pasta, green beans, and stir fry and frankly, I'm sick of eating the same things every night...) so I'm on the lookout for some good recipes to try out. If anyone has one they want to send me, I'd love to give it a shot!
My entrepreneurship class was especially entertaining this week. My professor gave us our next term paper assignment and everyone is kind of excited to get started on it. He gave each of us 10 pounds and with that, we have to try to make a profit. Essentially, we have to start a business, and we have two months to do it. Some of my friends and I are teaming up but we have yet to come up with a promising idea. Whatever profit we make, we get to keep and we give my professor back his 10 pounds. Everyone has to present their successes/failures at the end of the semester, so I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. Such a cool assignment! I haven't really had an assignment so far this semester that I was really pained to work on. Everything I've been prompted to do I've really benefitted from completing, which is rare when it comes to test taking and paper writing back in the States. I love British education. The only thing I'm really nervous for is grades, because apparently they're a lot tougher here. We'll see how it goes.
Missing you all more every day. Keep in touch with me!
Cheers!
It feels like classes this week flew by. I had two big papers to get through, which I luckily did before I left for Belgium, so once I got back I only had minor editing to do. I asked my history teacher if he could look over my paper and let me know if there was anything I missed and when he gave it back to me, he said he was very "encouraged" by my paper. I'm not sure quite how to take that... I think he meant it as a good thing? He said that he can tell I want to be a writer just by the way my paper was put together and the way I constructed my sentences, but today in class he said to me, "well you managed at least one good sentence out of it!" Sometimes his advice is so confusing! I think he means well, though.
We took a walking tour of the Southbank for my photography class Monday morning. We were rained on, but I found a few gems along our walk that I'm excited to go back to. This weekend I'm going to visit Borough Market, which is a huge food market on the weekends, with all sorts of the best cheese, breads, produce, wines, spices and what have you. I should be able to manage some good photos out of it and do a little shopping as well. I really want to improve my cooking skills (all I've really mastered so far is pasta, green beans, and stir fry and frankly, I'm sick of eating the same things every night...) so I'm on the lookout for some good recipes to try out. If anyone has one they want to send me, I'd love to give it a shot!
My entrepreneurship class was especially entertaining this week. My professor gave us our next term paper assignment and everyone is kind of excited to get started on it. He gave each of us 10 pounds and with that, we have to try to make a profit. Essentially, we have to start a business, and we have two months to do it. Some of my friends and I are teaming up but we have yet to come up with a promising idea. Whatever profit we make, we get to keep and we give my professor back his 10 pounds. Everyone has to present their successes/failures at the end of the semester, so I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. Such a cool assignment! I haven't really had an assignment so far this semester that I was really pained to work on. Everything I've been prompted to do I've really benefitted from completing, which is rare when it comes to test taking and paper writing back in the States. I love British education. The only thing I'm really nervous for is grades, because apparently they're a lot tougher here. We'll see how it goes.
Missing you all more every day. Keep in touch with me!
Cheers!
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