Louvain-la-Neuve!

LONG TIME NO BLOG, GUYS.

First things first, I fixed the comments section so that you guys could leave comments without having to sign in. Just make sure you put your name SOMEWHERE so I know who's talking to me, k? Awesome!

I'm keeping a normal journal to chronicle adventures, so I can catch you guys up! We spent Sunday-Tuesday night in Brussels, and it was full of frites and moules and cool dinners and loooooots of bars. Y'all know I don't drink, but it was fun to go along! We got to Louvain-la-Neuve (Loo-vanh la nuvv) Wednesday morning after a really sketchy van ride. The distance between the two places is most comparable to Greenville/Spartanburg, and by train it's more like Greenville/Simpsonville. We have free train passes, so we'll definitely be going back soon! As a matter of fact, a few girls went back this weekend.

That's the view from my window in Brussels! That great big spire is part of the Grand Place. SO MANY IMPRESSIVE BUILDINGS IN ONE PLACE I SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN ARCHITECT.

We've done A LOT of administrative work. We had to send off for student cards, and apply for residency in the city so we can make use of the open borders. I'm searching in vain for somewhere to get my hair done (one day I'm just gonna ask someone), and even though y'all know how much I hate the "ETHNIC HAIR CARE" signs I would welcome one right about now because my little jar of olive oil is half empty.

Right now, the students at l'Université Catholique de Louvain (henceforth to be known as UCL) are in the middle of exams, and apparently Euro exams are INTENSE so the city is a ghost town and I never see my roommates. 5 other people share this apartment with me, which is CRAZY to me. It's a bit intimidating that there are so many!

UCL is split up into a lot of buildings across town, kind of like SCAD. The student housing is split into 5 quartiers (kar-tee-ay), which are like boroughs. There's Quartier de Lauzelle (lo-zell), Quartier de la Baraque (like the president), Quartier de Biéreau (bee-ay-ro), Quartier des Bruyères (brew-yehr), and Quartier de l'Hocaille (o-kye-yuh). We're split up pretty evenly between the quartiers, but Hocaille is up this HUMONGOUS mountain-like hill that we have nicknamed Mount Doom (like in Lord of the Rings) because dear goodness getting there will put a hurting on you so we never go there. I live in Bruyères, along with Nick, Anna, Megan, and Janine. Right now my room is bland and ugly, so I will put up pictures when I decorate. Megan and Anna are in the building next door to me, and Nick's building is in front of me. Bruyères is very close to the center of town (though not as close as Biéreau, which practically IS the middle of town), so I don't have far to walk to class or food or shopping. Did I mention the mall? There's a mall on campus, complete with an H&M, Pimkie, Zara, and 2 new places I've fallen in love with called Bershka and Pull & Bear. Love it. I'm going to be so fashionable when I come back you won't even recognize me at the airport. Watch.

There are LOTS of fun, magical-looking places around here! There's a lake behind my apartment, and a giant white globe thing that looks like a dragon egg (we call it Norbert; if you read Harry Potter you understand what I'm talking about), and a tower that's the first thing you see when you take the long way to l'Hocaille that we have nicknamed Isengard (also a reference to Lord of the Rings) because it looks EXACTLY LIKE IT. The tower is apparently part of a church though, and that's intriguing. It's a Catholic university, so there are 4 Catholic churches in LLN as well as several organizations for Catholic students, but there's also a United Protestant Church, a Baptist church, a Orthodox church, and a mosque. If I ever figure out how to get to these places in a timely manner, I'll most likely go to the Catholic churches.

I realize I haven't put up any pictures of Louvain-la-Neuve. Truthfully, I haven't taken any. It's been raining nonstop since we got here, and cloudy/overcast/drizzle is NOT the ideal weather combination for taking pictures. If the weather ever clears up, I'll run around Louvain like a proper tourist/obnoxious American and snap pictures EVERYWHERE.

Food around here is surprisingly pretty cheap. You can get a foot long-ish sandwich for 2-4€ at most sandwicheries (sandwich shops) and BIG cone of frites for 2€ at the friterie, which is ALWAYS open. There's an Aldi across the street from Nick's place, apparently, so tomorrow I think he and I are going to go grocery shopping because it's much cheaper than Delhaize, the other grocery store, which I think is owned by the same people who own Food Lion because they have the same lion emblem. Apparently, Nick is a really good cook, so one day we're going to have an Italian night, and I promised to make legitimate American burgers and tartiflette.

While the legitimite UCL students are taking their exams, we loud Americans (seriously we're so loud everywhere we go) are taking a crash course in speaking/grammar. It's 5 hours a day, everyday, from 9-12 and then 2-4. It's torture for me having to sit in one room for so long/so early; I haven't done that since elementary school! Luckily, there's a boulangerie (boo-lon-jerr-rie, a pasty shop) on my way to school where I can get coffee and/or breakfast, if I so desire. I got a pain chocolate (chocolate bread) this morning for 0,85€! That's another thing about French: where we put periods, they put commas.

There's a week long break starting this Friday (goodness I love Europe), so the gang's all splitting up and going different places. Most of the people I'm with on a usual basis are going to Germany, where Nick's, one of 2 guys in our group, parents live and Kim (one of the girls) has a friend studying, but Karen G. and I are going to go do our own thing somewhere else. We may very well end up in Spain with Megan, Kate, and Chelsea, but that trip is sounding a bit more expensive than either of us care for, so we'll see!

I'm going take another minute here and talk about the food. It is ALL delicious. I think I've had maybe one thing I didn't like. It's called estragon (ess-strah-gohn), and I tried it at Caprice, a sandwicherie/tea room in the Grand Place (city square) after I gave up yelling at Nick across the restaurant. He had had it before, and I couldn't remember if he liked it or not. IT WAS PRACTICALLY CHICKEN SALAD. Do you know how much I hate mayonnaise?! I couldn't chew it and I couldn't swallow it and I couldn't spit it out so I just kind of held it there in my mouth and nodded at the lady even though it was coating my teeth and just ugggghhhhh. Later, he said to me, "I thought you were saying escargot! Yeah, that stuff is nasty; I didn't like it." Thanks, homie. Thanks.

Instead of the chicken salad disguised as estragon, I got a sandwich japonais, which was smoked salmon, cucumbers (conconbres in French! I learned a word!), something else I don't remember, and wasabi sauce. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS EVEN WITH WASABI GOING UP MY NOSE OH MY GOSH. Everything is so good! Seriously, I'm having a spaz attack over a COLD CUT SANDWICH, so you know it's good. Also, there is curry EVERYWHERE and I love it. There's this great noodle restaurant called Woké that generally costs around 6€, but I generally have leftovers when we go so it's totally worth it (last time I was super hungry though). How am I going to go back to American food after this?! I suppose I better learn to cook/wok/make bread.


I HAVE PRINCE COOKIES. REJOICE WITH ME. Seriously, Prince cookies are the best things since sliced bread. I've been flipping out so much about how good they are that everyone else decided they had to try them just to see if I was a complete nutter, and between 4 of us we ate a container and a half while watching Bollywood movies at Nick's last night. Baow.

This is Nick and Karen G. having fondue at Blackfriar's, the Irish pub that is literally next door to me and Nick.

This was my dinner that night: sausage, cheese, and peach beer, hahahaha. Seriously, though, that was the best sausage I've ever had in my life. I've come to appreciate the occasional brew in the week I've been here. I even impressed one of my suitemates, Pierre. He asked me if I knew about abbey beers (beers brewed by monks; I think the concept is unique to Brussels) and I gave him a specific example (Rochefort). I was proud of myself, hahaha.

THINGS I'VE LEARNED IN BELGIUM:
1. Europeans let their kids run RAMPANT all over the place. It drives me nuts.
2. It is impossible to keep a hairdo here. Freakin' humidity.
3. Americans are loud and obnoxious. Seriously wherever we go we're the loudest bunch.
4. All European malls have grocery stores inside of them. It is a fact of life.
5. Cobblestones are horrible to walk on.

FOR COMMUNICATION PURPOSES
* My skype username is lyssalouu. It's free to talk on, unlike my phone, so long as you have a computer and/or smartphone.
* My address is Rue des Bruyères, 28/208 1348 LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
Y'know. Just in case you want to write me letters or send me prezzies.

You'll hear from me again soon!