Namur

One of our profs here, Philippe, is from this town in the southern half of Belgium called Namur. Namur's about 2 train stops from Ottignies, the "big" gare (train station) 6 minutes from Louvain-la-Neuve. Pretty much if you want to go anywhere from Louvain-la-Neuve, you hop a train to Ottignies (it's probably a 6 minute ride) and switch at the station there. It's slightly smaller than North Charleston, and has a river and a citadel. As a treat, Philippe took us to his hometown and showed us around, because he's such an awesome guy! Prepare yourself for a bajillion pictures.

This is a part of the Citadel. I have no idea which part exactly it is, but it's part of it, hahaha. We had to climb a bajillion steps up a mountain to get there, so by the time we arrived at the top I was way too out of breath to pay attention to those kinds of things.


The city of Namur, as seen from on the Citadel. Chouette, isn't it? (that's French for "cool")

We also visited the citadel perfumerie. Why is there a perfumerie in a citadel, you ask? I'll tell you. The guy who started the perfumerie needed a place to keep his fragrances cold while they were in production. It gets really expensive to rent out industrial freezers, so why not just buy a space in the side of a mountain that's pretty much the equivalent of a wine cellar? Smart guy. That's Mike and Eliana, by the way. It looks like a warm, gorgeous day outside, but it was actually a freezing gorgeous day.

Nick, Karen and I had lunch at a little café in the town square while everyone else was lame and went to Pizza Hut. This is Karen here with her orvalette, a traditional Belgian dish. Orvalette is pretty much the same thing as tartiflette (a traditional French dish with potatoes and cheesy sauce), only they also put in BEER GRAVY. Needless to say, I ended up eating half of Karen's plate.

This is St. Aubin's Cathedral, a giant baroque church that WE DIDN'T GET TO GO IN. Do you know how sad my heart was? Y'all know how I love churches.

And here is Nick, sitting in the King of Fools' throne. Karen explained to us the deal about the king of fools: they crown a new one every year at some festival, and that's his throne. On the back of the seat of the king of fools is a statue of this guy Nicolas Bosret. Coincidence? I think not.

Namur is cool. It's quiet, it's cozy, it's got good food. What's not to love?

Back to Deutschland!

When we came back from Greece, we flew in again to Germany, which meant more time spent invading Nick's house. This time we mixed it up a bit and brought Karen along. We only stayed a day, but oh what a marvelous day it was. Actual showers and actual beds and POPEYE'S. Yeah. Nick's dad brought us Popeye's from base. I had never had Popeye's before and I was skeptical (as I am about every chicken joint that is not Bojangle's) but it was good. Oms noms noms.

We had a bit of an adventure at Nick's. There's an adorable baby goat that lives next door named Bobo that takes it upon himself to come frolic on the patio and play with the dog and eat Miss Lisa's flowers. He also likes to get in the house.







Yes, that was just an excuse to spam you with baby goat pictures.

We also went to the eiscafé down the road before getting on the train back home! Eiscafé = German for "ice cream parlor". Lots of fun ice cream was had: I had amaretto ice cream, Annie had curaçao ice cream, Karen had a banana split, and Nick had SPAGHETTI ICE CREAM MOST AWESOME THING EVER. No, it is not spaghetti flavored ice cream; that would be gross. They serve the ice cream in a way that makes it look like spaghetti noodles, and then they put strawberries or some other variety of red fruit on top to make it look like there's tomato sauce on top. It was super cute and we should import this to America.

All of us at the eiscafé!

And then Nick dropped us off at the station and we came back to Louvain-la-Neuve. Wee!

Yes, pretty much this post was an excuse to post pictures of baby goats.

Next up, Namur!

En Grèce!

Hey guys! I am made of fail, I know, but here's part 2 of the Spring Break series, entitled "En Grèce" (which means "In Greece" in French)!

We flew out of Frankfurt, Germany to Volos, Greece, and from Volos hopped a bus to Athens. The group parted ways there: Anna, Megan, Nick and Grace went to Skiathos, and Annie, Karen, and I went to Santorini!

It's a 7 hour ferry ride from Athens to the port at Santorini. When I say "ferry" I mean "big freaking cruise ship". I have never been on a boat before and promptly freaked out on the inside. Y'all saw Titanic; don't play games/look at me like I'm crazy. Pretty much if your method of transportation is not a car, I don't trust it.

That's the island of Naxos, as seen from the deck of our boat. Naxos is still a good 2 hours from Santorini, so we had a while to go after this.

On the island we stayed in the touristy town of Perissa at Anny Studios, a really cool/pretty hostel run by an American guy from California.

That's our hostel! There were marble steps in front of our room. It rained one morning. I wore flip flops. Do you know how disastrous that was? I couldn't sit down comfortably for 2 days. It was sad but hilarious (in hindsight).

Fun thing about Perissa: BLACK SAND BEACH. By sand I actually mean "pebble", but WHATEVER.
Welcome to paradise, right? That first day, we got to the hostel, ran to our room, changed into our swimsuits, and promptly fell asleep on the beach for like 4 hours. Words cannot express how black I was when we woke up. Yikes.

A lot of the places on the island were closed because we weren't there during tourist season, but all the restaurants were still up and running. Let me just say: Greece = CHEAP FOOD. I was so happy. A plate that would have cost me €12-14 in Louvain-la-Neuve cost me €7 in Perissa. Thank you, terrible Greek economy! You saved my pocketbook from certain death. Below is a picture of Karen with one such plate.



On the day before we left the island, we went up to Oia and Fira, the two main tourist cities. They're the ones where all the buildings are white with blue circle roofs! SO PRETTY. I'm not even going to talk about it; I'm just going to post pictures.

Fira



Fira is also forever endeared to my heart because I found €20 on the ground there.

The view at Oia







If you can be unhappy in Oia and/or Fira and/or on the general island of Santorini, then you just need to go on ahead and end it. I'm a pretty grouchy person, and even I was like, "SO PRETTY WANT TO STAY FOREVER." Pretty much all the place was missing was a herd of unicorns.

We left the island (sadly) and went back to spend a day on the mainland in Athens! Again, I won't talk: I'll just post pictures.



FUN FACT ABOUT GREECE/ATHENS IN GENERAL: there are random orange/lemon trees EVERYWHERE. They're just on the side of the road, chillin', growing fruit. Don't believe me? I have proof.

See the oranges?

The Acropolis!

The Parthenon! There was a little kid behind me; his dad was trying to explain to him that the Parthenon was very very old, and the kid goes, "...why hasn't it broke yet?" Bahahahahahaha

And here's a picture of the Alps from our plane back to Germany!


Greece is a blast in a glass. I like it!

Updates are going to start picking up. I only have 12 more days left here in Belgium, and there's a lot I want to cover. Check back soon/often for more junk!

Spring Break part 1

I'm late. I know. But I'm always late so y'all should have expected as much.

The first stop on our Spring Break Tour was Börnsborg, Germany, where Nick's family lives. It's in a quiet little corner of Germany; to get there we took the train from Louvain-la-Neuve to Luxembourg, got on a bus at Luxembourg,and his mom picked us up at the station in Saarbrücken, Germany. There's all kinds of rolling hills and greenery around their place; it's really gorgeous and when we got there we took a walk.



Pretty, isn't it? We chilled out that night (travelling sucks, btw), and ate a lot and watched tv in English. Not even gonna lie, it was kind of nice.

Nick's family went on vacation to Spain shortly thereafter, so for the most part we had the house to ourselves. One day we sat in the house literally all day in our pajamas. Another morning, Nick got up, fired up the grill, and made us Bavarian breakfast (i.e., sausage and beer) which we ate out on the patio.



I want to say that particular beer was cristal weissen (I'm pants at spelling German). It was the noms, and it took me until we left that afternoon to finish it. We drove out to the Japanese garden! The Japanese Garden had just opened and not everything was blooming yet, but it was still gorgeous. The gift shop had tea cups that said 茶 on them which I found funny/snarky because 茶 reads "cha" which means "tea".





The next day was Homburg for shopping and castle ruin exploring!






After having my camera for the better part of 7 years I've finally learned how to work it to take awesome shots like that last one. Win!





It was pretty cool. There was also a tower that Annie and I tried to climb up, but we got to the top of the stairs and it was roped off. Thanks, Germany. Thanks.

After that, it was on to the airport to get to Athens!

I like Germany. I pick on a select few of my friends all the time because they're OBSESSED with the place (I'm looking at you; Patty), but having gone there myself I now am forced to take back SOME of my teasing. Not all of it. Not even half of it. More like 1/5 of it. But I'm still taking some of it back. Take what you can get.

Next time, it's Greece!

Χριστός Ανέστη !

The title of this post says "Christós Anésti", which is "Christ is risen" in Greek. Our Greek bros that we met on the ferry/cruise back to Athens taught us that that's how they greet each other during Easter times.

That being said, Happy Easter! Hope all y'all had a great day; I know I sure did! I did jack diddly squat, literally. I woke up, went to the grocery store, and spent the day watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Side note: that was my favorite movie as a kid, and now I'm watching it (at 21, mind you) and it's TERRIFYING. Seriously, SCARY.

We had Easter dinner round mine tonight, which was fun! I made (i.e., bought) crepes and ham, but I also made (as in, from scratch, by hand, etc.) béchamel sauce, which, if I say so myself, was delicious. I didn't have nutmeg (it was super expensive at the store), so I substituted cinnamon and it was just as good, if not better. Who's a culinary boss? I am.


Easter dinner! Eliana brought the vegetables, rice, and made the deviled eggs. Mike brought the wine and the Coke (and dessert, which is not pictured here), and Karen brought the beer. We will talk about the beer in a moment. See my sauce in the pot? Yayaaa.

Belgium has a lot of hang ups about beer. For example, you can only buy beer from one of the trappist abbeys once every 6 months, and it's illegal, literally against the law, to pour a beer into a glass that's not the brand's glass for that particular beer. You can't pour Chimay into a Rochefort glass, or Leffe into Guillotine. That being said, they also like to have fun with their beer, by which I mean there are beers for certain holidays. Every brand of Belgian beer I've run across has a Christmas beer (available obviously at Christmas time), and apparently there's Easter beers too! Karen was awesome enough to bring us the Leffe Easter beer for Easter dinner, and it was delicious. I'm a little biased though; I like Leffe best of all.

Aw yeah holiday beer yeah! That's Karen in the back :]

All in all, today was a good day.

What? Tease!

Hey guys! I'm back from my bajillion day long vacation, feelin' all refreshed and lookin' all tan (read as, "darker than I've ever been in my life") and what not. I've been travelling for 2 weeks none stop, pretty much, and, needless to say, I've got a lot to talk about and even more pictures to show. I'm pretty sure I have upwards of 300 pictures from Greece and Germany, and since I definitely can't do all of those in one post here's what the plan's gonna be:

1. Easter post tomorrow
2. Germany post Monday or Tuesday
3. Greece post Wednesday or Friday

Here's a little teaser so you know what you're in for:


The Japanese Garden at Homburg


Oia, Santorini, Greece

Be jealous :p

I made it!

I've made it to Greece! I'm currently fending off Mosquitos in the port café we're passing the night in before we catch the ferry to Santorini in the morning, but whatever: I'm here in one piece.

So Greece. The countryside is beautiful. The water's really beautiful. Athens? Sketchy. Sketchy looking and dirty. We think we may have found the nicer part of town on the train, but there was no time to investigate.

The ferry tomorrow is out at 7:55 in the morning, and it's SEVEN HOURS LONG. I will try not to cry. Y'all know I don't do water. After that, though, it's 4 days of beach and sun and wonderfulness. I'm excited.

Things I've Learned:
1: Greek food is cheap
2: Greek food is delicious
3: Greek food is filling
4: Greece is diverse. I've seen more different types of people here in 7 hours than I have in 4 months in Belgium

Deutschland Deutschland

Hey guys! How's it hanging?

Spring Break has officially begun! This week, Nick, Annie, Grace and I are in Germany staying at Nick's house. I'm not quite sure where it is, and he's gone on a run so I can't ask him, but the googling weather says I'm in Steinach am Glan. Either way, I'm close to Trier, which is where Clemson chemical engineering majors go to study abroad.

The weather. Here. Is. PERFECT. It's presently 19° C, which is close to 70° F. I FEEL LIKE I'M BACK IN SOUTH CAROLINA OH MY GOODNESS. Yesterday, we took a walk through the woods and sat out by a lake forever and played with Nick's dog. It was a good day. We even got to go to Ramstein, AND THERE WAS HAIR CARE PRODUCT I FLIPPED OUT ALL OVER THE PLACE. Seriously, I've never been so excited over hair grease. Ever.

Germany is so pretty I can't even stand it. It's all rolling hills and pastures and farm animals and deer and giant bunny rabbits and perfectly placed trees. Unfortunately, I can't put up pictures right now (not that I've taken many thus far) because I don't have my laptop on me, but they're coming. Oh they're coming.

Later this week, we're touring castles. A lot. Because it's Germany, and what is there to do? Tomorrow, we're going to Mannheim (I think)!

Check back soon for castle rants :D

Things I've learned:
1. Germany is gorgeous
2. Germany has perfect weather
3. Yes. They really do drive 80 bajillion mph--excuse me, km/h.

Napping on castles because I'm a boss

Last Saturday, Nick, Annie, Grace and I went on a day trip to Gand! Gand, of course, is the French name for Ghent. The Flemish name is Gent. Oh Belgium, you confuse me so with you interlingual politics.

Anyway, Ghent was great! It's got canals and awesome churches (y'all know how I love churches) and castles and parks and oh my giddy goodness! I can show you better than I can tell you.

This is Gand. Gent. Ghent. Whatever. It pretty much looks like a Disney movie threw up all over it, except for the lamp posts with Michael the Archangel slaying dragons on top of them. I love Disney movies, so I'm cool with that.

CASTLE. I love castles! This is the Gravensteen which is literally just sort of hanging in the city center. It was built in 1180, and was falling apart until the 1880s when the people of Ghent started reconstructing it. Now it's a museum with lots of castle-y weapons (spears, maces, GIANT SWORDS WITH 5 FOOT BLADES; y'know, the usual) and pretty rifles. Seriously, the rifles had ivory-looking panoramas carved into them. Ridiculous.

And this is me. Laying out on the lawn on top of the Gravensteen. I definitely fell asleep there. That's right. I napped on a castle. Be jealous.

There are a couple of interesting churches in Gand. One of them is Sint-Jacobskerk, which we passed by but didn't go in (it has purple window shutters!), and then there's Sint-Niklaaskerk (which is a MONSTER oh my goodness it looks like a castle but it's a CHURCH), and, my favorite, Sint-Baafskathedraal. This is Sint-Baafs:

Impressed already, aren't you? I know. I know.

Y'all know how I love big old impressive/imposing churches. We walked up to it and my mouth was open. It was really undignified. It got worse when we went inside. Pictures aren't allowed inside Saint Bavo's (the English way of saying Sint-Baafs) but I love it so much I found some on the internet to show you. Seriously, this is my favorite church in Europe thus far and I must share it with you folks back home.

That is the altar. Just the altar. There's a big walk around the altar that you and it's got all these little side cubbies with shrines (I use the term loosely, and only because I have NO IDEA what to call these little rooms that are everywhere in Europe) with impressive sculptures and paintings of Jesus and one of them had a narrative painting of the crucifixion and oh my.

I love Saint Bavo's. Everything is black and white. More specifically, everything is black and marble. You heard me. Marble. Think the altar was something? That's not even the best part. This is:

THAT IS THE PULPIT. THAT IS THE PULPIT. THAT IS THE PULPIT. DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW EXCITING THAT IS? IT IS OAK AND MARBLE AND THE SERPENT IS A DRAGON AND THE APPLES ARE GOLDEN AND THERE'S A DOVE ABOVE WHERE THE PREACHER'S HEAD GOES DO YOU SEE THIS.

I wanted to curl up in a ball and live in it. I still do, actually (just in case you couldn't tell).

We ended the day by sitting in a park near the train station. If you didn't notice, it was a gorgeous day. It was 75° and perfect, and lying on top of the Gravensteen was the most peaceful moment I've had in the last 8 or so months--heck, let's make that in the last year. Someone build me a castle at home so I can nap on the roof when the going gets tough (or when I otherwise feel like it).

Easter Break starts this weekend and goes through the 22nd! Friday I leave for Germany for a week, and then I'm on to Greece (Santorini, specifically) to lay on a beach and drink fruity drinks all day. Updates will be few and far between (or nonexistent) until I get back because I'm not taking my computer. I will, however, take lots and lots of pictures and post a good percentage of them here so you guys can see :]

Things I've learned:
1. Ghent is the city of French Bulldogs, epic mustaches, pregnant women, and people who speak really really good English.
2. It does get warmer than 55° in Belgium
3. 70° F is 20° C
4. Canals are cool
5. Castles are good places for naps

Poetry, etc.

Hey guys! Not much going on in the world of me, sadly. It's been sort of a dead week.

It's spring. That means trees are blooming, things are sprouting, and pollen is everywhere in the air. It's by no means as bad as South Carolina here in Belgium, but it's all newfangled European pollen and what not that my poor, southern body has never had to inhale before. Said body is therefore flipping out. I missed 2 days of class this week because breathing outside my bedroom is difficult. Oy.

Yesterday (Friday) I had a poetry reading of sorts at a school sponsored event. Truth be told, I got suckered into it by my Japanese teacher--if I had actually been paying attention I would have NEVER agreed to do it. It was simple: just recite 2 haikus in Japanese at the shindig and be done, but I was super nervous about it. It's sort of nerve-wrecking to perform in your third language in front of a room full of people who speak your second language as their first language, you know? I didn't choke, though, surprisingly enough, and it turned out well! The program's supposed to be put on youtube; when Mariken gets me the link I'll post it so you guys can see!

Exchange rate is still bonkers. This is breaking my poor, cheap heart.

There's something else I'm supposed to tell you all, but I definitely can't think of what it is!

I think I speak better French when there aren't any Americans around. Actually, I know that for a fact., I say that because I know me. I'm lazy. The Americans speak English, so I don't put my best effort into speaking French because I know I can fall back on English with them. When they're not around, I don't have a crutch, so I have to step my game up.

Greece in 2 weeks! :D Get excited.

La Mouche, et autres histoires

Hey guys! Just a quickie update while I'm sitting here listening to one of my flatmates play guitar. They have Lundi de la Guitare here (Guitar Monday), which is pretty much where people get together and have drinks while students/local folks play guitar. I've never been, but apparently he plays it sometimes.

So the exchange rate has gone bonkers. I have stopped checking it, because I had a miniature heart attack Sunday when I looked online and it was $1.42 to €1. Make it stop please dear God I beseech you.

Last weekend I went back to Leuven! RANDOM FACTS: Belgium has 3 official languages--French, Dutch, and German. The German speaking people pretty much live in a corner of the country and are in no way/shape/form important because there's like 5 of them, and everyone knows that the French and the Dutch hate each other. As a result, every city in Belgium has 2 names: the Dutch name, and the French name. Leuven is the Dutch name for Louvain (not to be confused with Louvain-la-Neuve, because they are different). I think Leuven sounds better, but when I come home from the weekend and say, "I was in Leuven," people look at me like I'm crazy because they have no idea where I'm talking about. It's kind of funny.

Anyway, we wanted to eat Mexican food, but apparently you have to have reservations to get in ANYWHERE in Leuven on the weekends so we ended up at (you guessed it) PIZZA HUT.

Now, I can't stand Pizza Hut. Y'all know I don't like it. The crust is soggy and the pizza sauce tastes like metal (at least to me). THIS WAS HONESTLY THE MOST DELICIOUS THING I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE. I wanted to curl up in a ball under the table and just live there for the rest of my life. Euro Pizza Hut > American Pizza Hut. I kid you not.

I've had a hard week. I came out of one funk to be literally, physically, and metaphorically thrown into another one. But it's a beautiful day in Louvain-la-Neuve, and I will rejoice and be glad in it. (srsly, it's like 60° and beautiful I'd be a fool not to)

That was depressing. To lighten the mood, I'll show you what I call "La Mouche".


It is giant. It is a fly (la mouche = the fly). It is a statue. Yayaaaa.

Bright sunshiny days!

Hellooooo lovelies! I've had a super busy week; sorry for the lack of updating! It's midterm time, so I've got lots of studying to do. I learned to make stewed potatoes too! I COOKED! AND IT WAS EDIBLE!

I'm going to Germany and Greece for spring break! How exciting is that? I KNOW. We're going to wander around Bavaria and then head off to Thessaloniki. It's gonna be awesome.

Don't get all bent out of shape over this, but lately I've been in a funk. That happens to me sometimes. Most days I'm pretty apathetic, and then one day I'll be ridiculously happy--euphoric, even, and then I crash by 8 o'clock and go back to being apathetic because being that happy, and then randomly (literally, for no apparent reason) I'll get sad and stay that way for a few days, intermittently having spurts of intense anger, and then I'll go back to not really caring. I've been kind of in the dumps since Thursday, complete with angry spells, but today. TODAY. Today I woke up and the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the weatherman said 62°. I've been floating on a cloud since like 7 AM. Not kidding.

To celebrate my newfound non-depression, I took a few (literally, 3) pictures of my neighborhood.







LOOK AT THAT SKY. LOOK AT IT. THE SKY NEVER LOOKS LIKE THAT HERE!

The best part? IT'S SUPPOSED TO STAY LIKE THIS ALL WEEK. YESSSSSSSSS.

Clearly this is a sign from God that everything's going to be alright.

Side note: happy birthday to my dearest darling friend Kevin! He's a big boy now :]
Don't let that face fool you. He does actually like me. I've even gotten him to admit it before.

Day trippin' : Leuven

Hey guys! Long time no post, I know, but I've been sickish lately (yayyyyy sinuses!) and therefore hiding in my room, not doing anything exciting (like taking over Europe). Gear up though, because this might be a long one.

Yesterday, I was supposed to go to Brussels with Grace but we didn't so I ended up on a train to Leuven with Nick and Annie instead. Leuven's about 50 minutes from Louvain-la-Neuve if you catch the fast train, and it's the site of the original UCL (the university I'm studying at). The only problem is that Leuven, and, consequently, the university, are in Flemish country, and the Flemish and the Walloons (French speaking Belgians) hate each other, so they kicked the French students out of the university. I'm not joking. I couldn't make this stuff up. We wandered around Leuven for about 5 hours, getting into mischief, chasing ducks, and meeting funny Irishmen in restaurant/pubs named after Nostradomus.

Random river/large creek that ran through the city

Saint Michael's church

The canal!

Saint Gertrude's Cathedral at twilight

Leuven's pretty great. It's slightly smaller than Greenville, area-wise. It's about the size of two Mauldins. There is Mexican food there, which has endeared it to my heart forever, and cool old buildings, and it's got a cozier feel than Brussels. There's some huge mansion/castle/thing on top of a hill that we didn't make it to before dark, so we're going to see that next time! I count this day trip a success.

Next week, we're going to Waterloo, where Napoleon had his last stand. I like Napoleon. He was tiny and powerful and didn't take anyone's crap. Like me!

Now I'm gonna go off on a tangent!

So, I love French hip hop. It's AWESOME. Kayna Samet, Soprano, Sinik; they're all great. When we go out, however, they play house music (i.e., techno) and not hip hop, so I'm all pouty and going through francophone rap withdrawals. I was having lunch with Nick yesterday before we jetted off to Leuven, and he played me a song by this group Sexion d'Assaut called "Désolé" ("Sorry"). It's got your bread and butter of rap songs (I had to go find myself in the streets, etc.) but some parts of it are also really political. One of the guys (Adams; how random is his name) calls Paris ALCATRAZ, and talks about war and how he wants to be with his people in Senegal.

Here's a link to the lyrics in French and in English so you can follow along!
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/desole-sorry.html


SO. MUCH. AWESOME. IN. ONE. SONG. When Nick played it I was sort of "Buhh" about it until the guy who does the chorus started singing. LISTEN TO HIM. I LOVE HIM.

I am now on a quest to find more French rap, preferably of the Belgian variety because I think these guys are based out of Paris. Wish me luck!