Un Jour A Bruxelles

Today, I spoke English. A lot of English. And do you know why? Of course you don't, but I'm about to tell you. Because I spent the day with all of the other Rotary Exchange students in Belgium :) I, and 3 others from my part of town, caught a train from Huy to Liège to meet more Rotary students. From there we all piled onto a double decker bus and drove the next hour to meet the rest of the Exchange students in Brussels. During the ride, we all introduced ourselves, exchanged pins, and received navy blue scarves to wear... Interesting...

In Brussels, we spent the day being complete tourists, walking up and down the roads of Brussels to the different administrative buildings that run the country of Belgium. We started out at Le Palais Royal, which is the Royal Palace, where they made up drop of all of our cameras at the door and then searched us before they let us in. High security... We walked through it and it was absolutely gorgeous. Crystal chandeliers in every room and a lot of gold, totally royal. One of the rooms had a green and blue covered ceiling and chandelier in it, and when you looked closely, you realized that that was because said ceiling and chandelier were covered in the shells of beetles! All the girls though it was pretty gross. I thought it was pretty cool :)

After Le Palais, we visited l'Hôtel de Ville, which is basically the city hall. But because it's Brussels, of course everything is huge and ornate and gorgeous. Here, we had a ceremony where the students from each district were called up to present their banners from their sponsoring Rotary Clubs and greet the chairman of our Club here in Belgium. There were a lot of students... We then proceeded to eat, my favorite part of my days :) Lunch was given to us at a local restaurant and we ate delicious bread, meatballs in a tomato sauce, and les frites. It was absolutely delicious, just like everything else I have had here.

Following lunch, we walked some more through the lovely park and visited le Parlement and le Sénat. More big, beautiful, important buildings. Of course, this one we got a guided tour by an English-speaking guide, thank the Lord! We ended the tour in the room where the House meets and had another ceremony where each country presented their banners to the President. Now I'm not going to lie, I'm not entirely sure what he was the president of, because everyone was speaking French... But after that ceremony, we all went our separate ways, either piling back on the bus or meeting our host parents. I, along with my friend Brittany, took the bus back to Liège where my host mom picked me up and took me home. Then I ate dinner (heat 'n serve lasagna) and now I'm here, typing out this blog :)

The weird part was that after a day of speaking entirely English with the other exchange students, I spoke such better French with my host family afterwards! I was understanding everything and responding without having to concentrate too hard and naturally speaking. It was very exciting for me, even though it didn't last long because I am extremely tired. It is difficult to walk around a city like Brussels because 1. it was raining all day 2. I was wearing really cute (aka high) heels and 3. there are hills and cobblestones. I have blisters on my feet now. Dang it.

Tomorrow will be a chill day, but I am going to a concert with my host parents in the evening. Which means another dress and more heels. Yay! For now, bonne nuit :)