Liège And Bruges

First of all, turns out I've been spelling "Bruges" the Flemish way all this time (Brugge). "Bruges" is the French way, so I should switch over to that, though I will continue to tag it as "Brugge".

Yesterday, I started my day by going to the TEC office, which is the bus company. My host mom went with me to get my first bus pass for this month since I'll need the bus more often in my next host family. That went pretty easily and I walked out of there with it in my hand. I then went, as usual, to the gym. There are some very interesting people there. Like the guy who comes in and works out in his jeans. Or the woman who wears her scarf and nice shoes. Of course, you have your typical beef monster who's ALWAYS there and looks like he could crush your head like a walnut if you told him something he didn't want to hear. Regardless, Talia hasn't been going with my lately because her family was here, so I've been hanging out and doing my stuff by myself for the past few times. It's weirdly relaxing... Shouldn't it be the opposite?

Then, I decided last minute to meet up with Hadley and Oakley in Liège and stay over at Hadley's house last night. We did some shopping in the Médiacité, but I didn't buy anything except a scoop of lemon sorbet from the Haagen Daas. Yum. Then we walked back to the station and caught a train to Welkenraedt and a bus to Hadley's house where I was able to use my brand new shiny bus pass! We went to her house and helped her host family make dinner. I made the fries! I learned all about how to use a deep fryer and make real Belgian frites. Did you know they fry them twice? That's apparently what makes them Belgian... We had those with these really delicious meatballs and a sauce. And salad. It was a really good dinner. Then we went up to Hadley's room and just talked and such, ate way too much chocolate and homemade biscotti. I was sleeping by midnight, but apparently Hadley and Oakley stayed up a while longer. But I was glad I went to sleep because we had to get up bright and early at 6am the following day to catch a 6:40 bus to catch a 7:20 train to Guillemans because there was a Rotary trip to Bruges today.

We didn't have to meet at the station until 8:45am. We got there at 7:55am. So we took that time to get some real breakfast. I had a latte and a croissant. Slowly, the exchange students trickled into the station and we eventually took over, like we always do and it was the invasion of the exchange students. We caught a 9am train to Bruges. It took two hours to get there. So we just spent it talking and exchanging stories. We met up with Brittany and Alexanne also. Once we got there, we lost Rotary because we had decided to follow other exchange students, expecting they knew where they were going. Well, they didn't. So we went back into the station, but couldn't find anyone, so we ended up just going into Bruges just us five. I was the only one in the group who had been there before, and thankfully I kind of knew my around, ish. We got Chinese food, did some touristy things, some shopping, got a waffle, and eventually met back up with everyone at the station around 5:30pm after an unfortunate encounter with a crabby waiter.

We road the two hour train back to Liège, talking, taking pictures,and me falling asleep because I was dead tired. I also wasn't feeling so hot, though I'm ok now, and I'm still dealing with quite a bit of stress and homesickness. I still am. I caught another train to Waremme and talked with Gaby on the way. I'm tired now, I haven't eaten much, and I'm waiting to Skype with my family. Tomorrow, I switch families. Woot! Goodnight all.

A Wonderful Weekend With Mlle Burnside!!!

Well it is Monday. Thursday, Courtney came, from France, to visit me!!! And let me tell you, we had an absolute blast!

The fun started Thursday afternoon, when I met Courtney at the airport around 3pm. As soon as we saw each other, we ran up to each other and, disregarding European tradition, gave each other a huge hug. But one wasn't enough. We had TWO giant hugs! Which, I have to say, I've been needing for a while now. It was just so wonderful to see someone that I've known for more than two and a half months. No offense, friends of Belgium, but I really needed someone from home. I think my host mom thought I was nuts. But I introduced them and everything and then we were off, back to my house.

On the hour long car ride back home, Courtney and I talked about school and life and just everything in general. We spoke some French and some English and discovered that we're at about the same level of French speaking, which we were both pretty relieved about. Once we got home, Courtney and I headed up to my room to drop off her bag, and my host mom left for a bit to go do... something which escapes my mind. Regardless, we made up her bed and I showed her around and then I realized that I never ate lunch. Of course, it's four o'clock already, but I really needed to eat. So we headed down to kitchen and I made myself eggs in a nest with cheese and Courtney and I sat the kitchen table and just talked each others' ears off for the next couple hours. We talked about our families, news from back home, deep stuff, the usual.

Eventually my host mom got back and drove Courtney and I into Hannut for dinner and some Belgian culture. We ate at the good old Mister Patate, and we ordered the giant, artery clogging "Baguette au Mister Patate". Which is that same sandwich from a couple posts earlier. I'm sure you all remember. The baguette with two hamburgers cut in half and stuffed in there with lettuce, french fried onions, and cocktail sauce. We also got two small fries and I had a water. Which was tiny and cost me an outrageous amount of money, but that's ok. We soon found that we really should have ordered one fry, because a small is not a small. But we split the sandwich and ate our fries and all was good. I felt bad throwing away so many fries, but it was really just too much fattening food. Again, I wouldn't say that sandwich is particularly amazing, but it was a fantastic way to show her real, true Belgian culture! :)

After our meal, we headed over to the Copain, as is normal, and sat ourselves down on the super comfy couches. It just so happened that a few of my friends from school happened to be there too. And of course, they were the crazy ones. So Courtney got to meet my truly insane friends, who kinda hit on her, but that's ok! It was a super fun time. I ordered her one of my favorites, and we just sat around and spoke French with our (new for her) friends. Eventually, Talia came to meet us, and then slowly but surely, the Belgians began trickling in. Around ten, they all left to go to a Discoteque, and Courtney and I took the opportunity to walk around the town a bit. I showed her my school, the places we hang out, and where we sat in the middle of the town, sipping champagne out of plastic cups for Aymeric's birthday. We got back to the Copain right on time for my host mom to pick us up, and headed back to my house for a good night's sleep to be ready for the rest of our wonderful weekend!

The next morning, we woke up decently early, got ready, ate breakfast, and caught a train out of Waremme to spend the day in Liège! We spent the 30 minutes train ride doing what we do best, talking. Upon arrival in Liège, we caught a bus to the center of town, and then began our crazy shopping adventures! Because we are both poor, we did not focus too much on shopping just to buy whatever we saw. We had a couple missions, a present for her boyfriend and a dress for her, but mostly, we just wanted to have fun. So we quickly came up with the brilliant idea to copy outfits on mannequins exactly and have our own little fashion show in the dressing rooms, complete with sneakily taking pictures of our insane outfits, and mocking European fashion a bit... And yes, I confess, this was all with the intention of creating a bomb scrapbook spread when we got back to the States... Crazy, aren't we?

Soon our plan to copy mannequins became just dressing weirdly and creating a montage of this furry vest trend that has hit Europe by storm. We ignored the weird looks we got from people as we took our crazy picks into the dressing rooms, complete with shoes and accessories. We stealthily took pictures of our outfits, sometimes waiting ten or fifteen minutes for people to leave. Yes, we are that committed to scrapbooking.

Eventually, we decided that food was a necessity, and paused our adventure for some serious refueling. Since I don't know the food of Liège very well, we just stopped at a corner bakery and got some pieces of chicken pizza with veggies. Cheap and delicious :) But we couldn't stop there, because regardless of whether or not I know the food, I do know the waffles, and it was imperative that Courtney tasted the best waffles in Liège. So we stopped at my favorite waffle place and each got that waffle that I talk about all the time. You know, the one stuffed with chocolate? And needless to say, she really did find it to be the best thing she had ever eaten. Mission accomplished! Well... one of them at least. We then continued on our shopping antics, and we did end up finding the perfect present for her boyfriend. Which I will not reveal, in case he for some reason stumbles upon my blog and reads this :P We even stopped in a SuperDry, which is probably the most American store I have seen in Europe so far. But it's ridiculously expensive. So what did we do? We put together the most American outfits that we could, and added up the prices.

My outfit added up to be 443 Euros. Not joking. Here's the breakdown: Tank top, 39. Jeans, 95. Sweater, 95. Sweater over, 99. Coat, 115. Ridiculous. But I'm not going to lie, I really liked that sweater...

After we were shopped out, we decided to check out the "Foire" that was taking place in the heart of Liège. Basically, it was a street fair. We walked through it once, surveying what we had. There were tons of stands selling food, fries, waffles, crepes, candy apples, chocolates, etc. Then there were some rides and some games and a fun house or two. We paid attention to what we saw, deciding what we wanted to do and spend our money on, because things were not cheap.

But before we did that, we headed over to the GB grocery store quickly to grab Courtney some chocolate covered waffles to take home with her, since that is the closest you can get to a true Belgian waffle without buying one from a street stand. We also bought some pears and a couple drinks since we were parched and it was cheaper than buying anything from a restaurant. Of course, we thought we were absolute geniuses for coming up with this plan. But, this is Europe. And you know what? Europeans like using glass bottles with lids that do not twist off. So we had a dilemma. There we are, sitting on a bus stop bench, eating our pears, unable to open our bottles. We tried everything! Keys, rings, everything. Eventually, we had to go back to the store and buy a bottle opener. But no, we couldn't buy just one, we ended up buying a pack of three, because it was cheaper. So now, we each have a bottle opener and we have an extra, if anyone is interested.

After that little adventure, we went back to Foire to commence our decisions on activities. We decided to ride the carousel with the young children. Yes, we are little kids and heart :) After that, we decided to leave the Foire for a little while and get some dinner. So, we headed over to one of my favorite pizza restaurants and got a Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and ham, which we split. We then went BACK to the Foire to get our desserts before heading to the train station. Courtney had tasted one, and couldn't resist. She got a waffle. But not just any waffle. She got the king of waffles. A huge Brussels-style waffle, covered in chocolate, and topped with three dollops of chocolate whipped cream, and three of vanilla. Then more chocolate. And then strawberries. And they wrapped it up in, get this, a little blue box. Direct quote from Courtney: "It's like the Tiffany's of waffles!!"

I searched all over that Foire for the Speculoos crepes that I had seen a sign for. But I didn't see them anywhere. So I ended up getting a candy apple since I've never had one, and they don't seem to know what caramel apples are here. Which is a shame. But they call them "pomme d'amour", which I think it lovely :) It means "apple of love".

So we headed back to the train station, and sat and ate our treats. I tried that waffle of Courtney's and oh baby. We'll never be able to eat Eggos again. Oh and my candy apple was pretty good too. We caught the train home, my host mom picked us up, and we went home and hit the sack to be ready, because the weekend was only halfway over.

Saturday was our Brugge day. We got up nice and early to catch and 8:30 train out of Waremme. We met up with Talia and got on the train, and at Landen, Aymeric joined us, and we all rode that train for about two and a half hours to get to Brugge. But it went fairly quickly as we were talking and joking and just enjoying each others' company. Once we got there, we relied on Aymeric to get us into the heart of the city, as he was the one who spoke French and Dutch. Turns out, he had only been there once before, like me, and didn't know where he was going. So he stopped a few people on the street, who were very nice and pointed us in the right direction. It took us about twenty minutes to get into town, and right away, what do we decide to do? Eat.

We stopped at a frites stand and got some fries with sauce and just sat on benches in the Grand Place and ate our food. Courtney loves Belgian frites. But then again, who doesn't?

We then started walking again, and since I was never able to get the Speculoos crepe, we stopped in at a little bakery and I made Courtney get a little gingerbread man, who was actually not gingerbread, but Speculoos. Belgium strikes again! She loved it! Plus one more point for Belgium.

We continued walking a bit and then Courtney and I decided that we should be touristy and do some sight-seeing. So we took the opportunity to take a boat tour. We paid about seven euros each, and climbed in a little boat with a bunch of other people and our guide took us along all the canals that run through Brugge. It was absolutely gorgeous.

The thing about Brugge is that it's a very touristy area. So everyone that works there speaks a million languages. Our boat driver said everything in English, then French, then Dutch, then German. So luckily for us, we were able to understand. But we spoke English the majority of the day, though I seemed to be unable to say "thank you" and always said "merci".

By this time, it was time to find a restroom. Which is practically impossible. We ended up wandering into a random building, and when we went in, a man handed us a couple of flyers about a food show and told us that if we paid for one, we got the second free and we could taste everything. We didn't really listen, but took the flyer anyway and found the bathroom for Courtney. But by the time she came out, we had decided to look into this thing. So we talked to the woman at the desk, and we found out that for five euros, we could go in and sample all the food. So we figured, why not? So we paid our five euros (2.50 each) and entered into the show. What it ended up being was a bunch of stands with people selling their food and offering free samples. So we went around and tried some different meats and cheeses. One woman was sampling soup broths, some were sampling chocolates, one had mustards, and one man had crepes. Everyone immediately spoke Dutch to us, but we always politely asked them to switch to English. Which they did seamlessly. I was jealous. We had some conversations with some of them, which was fun. We were slightly disappointed at the end, because there was not much, and it only took us maybe ten minutes to go around the whole thing.

But then on the way out, a woman stopped us and asked us if we had gone up to the second floor already. We both just stopped and said, second floor? Turns out there was a whole other room and whole other floor that we had missed! So we turned ourselves around and that's where the real fun started. We had conversations with the vendors, both in French and English, and sampled some really fantastic stuff, including champagne, crepes, full size waffles, more cheese and soup, breads, butters, candies, etc. One man who offered us soup right away asked us, "Are you here by accident?" And he said in that way and we knew that he knew that we were not there to buy things, just to get some (almost) free food. But he laughed and joked with us and told us that by the end of it, we wouldn't be hungry and we would be drunk. Which was hysterical. And when we went to another stand, the man was offering little samples of cocktails and when we came up to the stand, he just looked at us and said, "You're drinking soup?", with that kind of "really..." look on his face. And he shook his head, and then let us choose which cocktail we wanted to sample. At one stand, we tried Turkish delight also. Which was good, but I have to say, after watching Edmund betray his family for it in the Chronicles of Narnia, I expected it to be better. By the end of that, we were stuffed full of delicious food, and very satisfied with our 2.50 meal. All because Courtney had to pee...

After the food show, we walked around the town, going into souvenir shops, buying postcards, and meeting a bunch of Americans. It was like a radar. When I heard American English, everything had to stop and we had to go over and talk to them. And I bought Courtney some of my favorite Belgian chocolate. We walked through a pretty path by the water for a while, and eventually ended up back in the center of town where we went to work looking for a dress for Courtney. We did find a stunning pick for her, which again, I will not disclose in case Chris is reading this ;) And I found THE cutest pair of shoes ever. They were 85 euros. And I would have bought them too. Thank God they didn't have my size...

Around six, Courtney and I and Talia and Aymeric decided it was dinner time. So we went to a little Italian place and they split a pizza and Courtney and I split pasta. It was quite delicious. After dinner, we, of course, stopped at a waffle stand and the girls got Brugge style waffles. Because let's face it, they're different, and the ones at the food show were Liège style! I actually prefer Brugge waffles. And yes, they were totally delicious. So Courtney ate four waffles in two days. And she only had a few of the prepackaged ones to get her through the rest of her life... I don't know what she's going to do! We're addicted.

We caught an 8:30 train back home, and I ended up sleeping on the train. But from what I heard, some interesting stuff went down with some Scottish people...

Benoit picked up me and Courtney and Talia at Waremme. Aymeric had gotten off at Landen. We dropped Talia off and her house, and Courtney and I went back to mine. We headed right upstairs and stayed up until 2am talking, swapping pictures, and sharing YouTube videos, cause that's what we do. Then Sunday morning came around and we were absolutely exhausted. We got up around 7am, got ready quickly, ate breakfast and got out the door for the hour long car ride to the airport so Courtney could go back to France. We saw her off with huge hugs, and my host mom and I went back home. I proceeded to sleep for a few hours, trying to ignore the huge car race that was happening around our house, eat lunch, sleep some more, and then work on my novel. Then the internet went all funky and I spiratically (sp?) Skyped with my family.

This weekend was an amazing huge success! Courtney and I had the time of our lives, and it was absolutely wonderful to see someone from back home. It was a blast, and it took me a good hour to write about it! It's probably the longest blog post yet, but it was totally that awesome! Wonderful, wonderful weekend with Mlle Burnside!!

Yes, More Waffles

Today was quite an interesting day... I got up after having a dream that I finished my year and went home and nothing had changed and everyone that loved me was there and that I loved was there and it was a dream of love and family and friends and wonderful ness :) And then I woke up. And realized that I was not in my own bed, not in my own house, not in my city or state or country. And I'm sure it's needless to say, it made for a bad start to my day. I did not cry, but I definitely felt down.

But I started to feel better when I opened my bedroom door and was greeted by a nice big box with my name on it, clearly from my family back home :) I immediately brought it into my room and tore it open like a little kid at Christmas! Except that I was a little bit less enthusiastic after realizing that my sister got kind of tape happy and I could not tear it. So my excitement was interrupted by the need to get scissors and by the time I got it out of the wrapping, my vigor was a little dampened... Until I opened the shoe box that contained: 1. A nice big jar of Skippy creamy peanut butter (though I prefer JIF) 2. A pack of JIF To Go peanut butter 3. A bible (Which I asked for) 4. A letter from my sister and a note from my parents and another from my Grandma 5. A PopTart that was surprisingly not a bag of crumbs 6. An old iPod to put my music on for my sister. I was so very very excited to get this package, so my sadness was melting quickly, even though I missed the people that lovingly sent it to me, although it returned as I ate breakfast and prepared for my day...

That feeling did abandon me for a couple of wonderful hours as I met up with my good friend Talia (who is from Minnesota) at the train station in Wareme and took a 20-minute ride to Liège to meet up with some other exchange students.

I'm going to side-track here for a second to talk about how much I really adore the public train system. It is ingenious and convenient and easy and I don't understand why we don't make use of it in the States! Well, yes I do, but I still think we should. Not only is it fast, but it's inexpensive and well-maintained and actually enjoyable to ride. Bottom line: I really like the train :)

Ok back to today. The majority of the exchange students wanted to chill at a local bar but Talia and Brittany and I decided to do a little shopping. My mission today was to find myself a hair straightener. But we were hungry, so we stopped in at the supermarket and grabbed some croissants, BabyBell cheese (how Belgian of us, right?) and a few pears and ate while we walked. We walked forever before we finally found some shops. Let me tell you, Liège is not an easy city to navigate through if you don't know where you're going. We never really got lost, but we did a lot of walking. Finally we found an H&M (no straighteners there) and we did some window shopping and trying on and such. I ended up buying a really nice khaki-colored coat that has a wonderful Audrey Hepburn feel to it. It was almost fifty euros, but I really needed something to keep me warm, so I decided that it was worth it. The plus side? No sales tax in Belgium! And my debit card worked! So it was a successful buy. Then we walked around some more and found a very small mall in the middle of all the plazas so we ventured inside in pursuit of a straightener. We didn't find any stores that carried them, but we did find a sort of convenience store where I stocked up on gum and got some mousse so that my hair would be at least manageable until I found a straightener. (They did carry a few, but they were poor quality)

By this time it was getting close to 4pm so we decided to start making our way back to the bar to meet the other kids cause we had to catch our train back at 5:08. On the way, we probably passed up twenty hair salons, but no place to buy anything for hair. So that was disappointing. But what was not disappointing was finding a nice little bakery tucked away in one of the strips that had fruit-stuffed waffles. I got one with apple filling. It was to die for. Belgian waffles are absolutely fantastic.

So we hooked up with the other exchange students just as they were leaving and we all headed off to a different place to chill for a little while. There, there were tons of other students just hanging out and having a good time. Talia and I stayed for about a half hour before we had to leave to catch our train, and then we headed off to the station.

While I was on the train home, those feelings of sadness started to creep back up on me. It wasn't so much of a homesickness as a feeling of being ready to go home. I just really miss my parents and my friends and family. And daddy hugs. I really miss daddy hugs. Sometimes I just wonder if this was all worth it. I'm only two weeks in and this is a 10-11 month program... I know that it is the experience of a lifetime and that I won't regret it, but sometimes, in the moment, it's awful and I just want to go home. Those feelings followed me for the rest of the day and made me very very tired, not to mention the fact that I decided to go for a run after getting back, so I'm going to turn in for the night, a bit earlier than usual. But, I have a reason. I start school tomorrow, so I must get up early!

Is everyone out there enjoying my antics so far? Hehe :) Bonne nuit.

Ahhh What A Day...

Today was quite... interesting... I woke up sobbing today. It was the first day since I got here that I really feel like I miss everyone back home. Today was a day of thoughts like, "What am I doing here??" and "Why in the world did I decide to do this???" It's very tiring.

But the interesting things that I wanted to write about... We continued the zucchini theme today with lunch (hehe) and had stuffed zucchini, this time with chicken (poulet) and rice with onion, tomato and tuna! It was surprisingly delicious. We also had shredded carrot with it, yes I mean there was a giant bowl of shredded carrot on the table and we ate it like salad, and sliced seasoned tomatoes. I don't even like tomatoes. It's amazing how much better they taste in Europe! But the real kicker here, stuffed zucchini flower!!!! Yes folks, the flower of the zucchini plant stuffed with spiced chicken. Which is actually really really good. Actually I don't think I've eaten anything here yet that I didn't like.

By the way, Belgian people recycle EVERYTHING! It's awesome! There is garbage can for paper, plastic, glass, anything organic, and then the rest. Which is really cool, I think. And the other really interesting thing that I learned today is that men here say "ma biche". Now say that out loud. And think about what it sounds like in English. You'd think it's an insult right?? Psych!! Literally translated, it means, "my doe" so it's the equivalent of "my dear" to a woman. And it's quite endearing actually. It made me smile inside :)

So today my host family took me to Brugge, which is a big city about two hours from Fumal. It's really cool there. There aren't a lot of cars, but tons of bikes and people walking and, I kid you not, horse-drawn carriages. It was lovely :) And to the American it may seem hokey and touristy and just too darn cute, but the thing is, it's totally not with that intent! Belgians are just adorable!! And they make lace, which is really cool and this old lady was sitting outside a shop doing it and it is probably the most complicated thing I've ever seen. And it's done so fast it's crazy!! But awesome.

Also, just a side note, SO MUCH BEER.

My host parents were so excited to take me to this city. And they spoiled me. Two words: Belgian waffles. And two more words: Belgian chocolate. OH MY GOSH BELGIAN WAFFLES!!! It's like the equivalent to funnel cakes in America. There are just stands everywhere with vendors selling waffles with different toppings. I had mine with powdered sugar. And it was amazing. And the scent when you walked past one of these stands... Ohhhh how I wish I could take a camera-like device and capture that smell and post it on the internet for the whole world to enjoy... And that Belgian chocolate? Ok so believe it or not, chocolate can be very explicit!! Today I saw chocolates in the shapes of certain... uhhh male appendages... complete with a certain... uhh substance... coming out of the top in white chocolate... No, I am not kidding. And this was in a display window!!! For young children to see and point at and say, "What's that mommy?" Oye... Of course this is not where it ends. We had Italian food for dinner and I got a wonderful calzone stuffed with all kinds of veggies (légumes) and amazingly gooey cheese (fromage). But of course, I can't go without dessert! So I had tiramisu gelato. Yummmmmmm

Well I'm doing ok this evening, better than this morning and I have to get up for church in the morning (in French gah!) so goodnight all :)