Monday, March 9th 2015
Good morning and back to work! I had a very busy day today, starting first with a Robotics meeting. Then my Organization Decision Making and Change course. Then, a meeting for that course. Then a group session with the professor for Economics of Education. After all of this, I went back to my kot and enjoyed a relaxing evening with some of my house mates.
In my Organization Decision Making and Change course, we did an exercise where we were split into groups of three. Each person represented either a florist, a grocery store owner or a bakery owner. We had to debate and work together to set up a small shopping center with each of our own different priorities. You got points for how well your group decided based on what you prefer. I got the highest score in the entire class! Watch out world, next great negotiator here!
In my Organization Decision Making and Change course, we did an exercise where we were split into groups of three. Each person represented either a florist, a grocery store owner or a bakery owner. We had to debate and work together to set up a small shopping center with each of our own different priorities. You got points for how well your group decided based on what you prefer. I got the highest score in the entire class! Watch out world, next great negotiator here!
Tuesday, March 10th 2015
Today I did lots of planning for my Amsterdam trip with Dom. I then went to my placement and got some work done, I had PT and then a class. Finally, I got to play Frisbee! It was gorgeous outside and I was playing in a T-shirt! It was great. I have really been enjoying Frisbee. I meet lots of people, get to run around, and play a sport I love.
I have very much enjoyed being in a house of Belgian students. It gives me the ability to get to know and chat with lots of Belgian students and really experience how they live and not just the exchange student experience. Tonight they were all drinking in the kitchen, so I joined them for awhile just to hang out and chat. Most of the talking is in Dutch, so I often zone out or stop paying attention, but I like being in the environment.
I have very much enjoyed being in a house of Belgian students. It gives me the ability to get to know and chat with lots of Belgian students and really experience how they live and not just the exchange student experience. Tonight they were all drinking in the kitchen, so I joined them for awhile just to hang out and chat. Most of the talking is in Dutch, so I often zone out or stop paying attention, but I like being in the environment.
Wednesday, March 11th 2015
After my Economics of Education course, I jumped onto a train to take me to Mechelen. I am going to meet with the department heads of some of the engineering majors at Thomas Moore. Jan picked me up at the train station and we ate our lunches and caught up. You can read more about the meeting itself in my education blog. After the meeting, Jan took me swimming! We swam laps in a normal pool, but it was great exercise and very enjoyable. I do have to apologize to my parents and say the years of swim lessons didn’t pay off, because I’m a terrible swimmer, but I was able to swim plenty of laps. I decided to walk around Mechelen before heading home. I walked through a park on the way to get there, which was quite nice. There was a little river running through it, and lots of bridges to walk over. It is quite a pretty city, with another very nice Grote Mrkt and cute streets. |
The day was beautiful, so I walked around and kept being tempted by the gelato. I resisted, but ended up finding another little carnival. I had seen escargot many places in Belgium, but never tried it. After a lot of debate, I decided to go for it. They came in a really delicious broath, and not in the shell. While waiting for the train I tried them, and they were actually very good. Who would have guessed?
Thursday, March 12th 2015
Today, I’m going to the oldest city in Belgium, Tongeren. It has Roman roots. I went with Suze and a bunch of her friends. We got there and walked around the Grote Mrkt area before heading out of the city to look for the old Roman Walls. We found them after asking some nice people and spent a long time walking around them. We found some very nice construction workers who took our pictures for us. The walls were a little anti-climatic. They were stone walls with cement, but they were old! As we walked down the walls more they got much higher and maybe slightly more impressive. We then found a Roman temple, or at least where the Roman temple used to be and now there is a little exhibit. It was nice, and we goofed off, taking modeling pictures against the white wall.
We made our way back to the center and went to the museum. There was a special exhibit on Vikings that was pretty cool. I met up with Dom and Duncan (her boyfriend) in the exhibit. We played an old Viking game, which was actually really fun. I would totally play it again. We then saw the Roman exhibit. The coolest part was a video that showed how they make the pottery. It reminded me of my pottery experiences and made me miss it a little. After a break in a café in the Grote Markt, we wandered around the begijnhof (the area where the nuns lived). We ended the day in an Italian restaurant. It was a great time to share a bottle of wine with a group of friends and eat some delicious risotto. |
Friday, March 13th 2015
Today I spent most of the day in Geel for CSE. I met with another department head in the morning to discuss the program for the undergraduates. You can read about both in my other blog. After making it back to Leuven, I picked up Alison who had come to visit me! We had a small dinner in my kot before heading to Quetzol and meeting Dom. It is a chocolate store that prepares amazing dishes. We shared a brownie with ice cream and a fondue style dipping chocolate. It was fantastic. They had four different chocolates to dip into and it was amazing! The brownie was absolutely fantastic. We then walked to The Capital to show Alison the large beer selection. She was very impressed by all of my newly acquired beer knowledge since living in Leuven. We tried a few and she was so blown away by the beers. It was a great evening in total.
Saturday, March 14th 2015
Alison and I got up and headed to the train station. We were taking a trip to Brugge! But the best part, is Bettina was coming too! Yes, Bettina, my friend from Hungary visited me in Belgium! When we pulled into Brussels Midi, I watched the people waiting as we went by and spotted Bettina! I went to meet her on the train, but there was a break in the car, so I couldn’t get to where she was. So, at the next stop, Alison and I left the car and got on the next one to search for her. It was a double decker train, so Alison went beneath and I went on top then met at the end of the car. After a few cars I spotted her! We ran to say hi and give kisses. We stood with her for the rest of the ride until arriving in Brugge! The walk from the train station to the center of town was amazing! There were beautiful rivers and pretty buildings. We wandered around the begijnhof. There were some swans just relaxing on the river bed. See the beautiful pictures! Once getting to the center we wandered in and out of lots of shops. There were so many chocolate shops! For some reason chocolate tools are very popular in Brugge. There were also quite a few sexual symbols in chocolate... like chocolate boobs. It was pretty weird to see those in the windows of the fancy chocolate stores. I haven’t seen them anywhere else in Belgium. We wandered into a flea market which had some very unique pieces.
Lunch was in a café near the center. I had to show them the classic dishes, so we got Mussels and Fries along with Stoofvles to share. It came with a ship croquette appetizer and a caramel ice cream dessert. It was all very delicious and a lovely lunch. We spent the rest of the day wandering the city and shopping before ending at a waffles place. We tried the special Liège style waffle. Mine had chocolate and cream on it. It was fantastic. The sugary parts of the waffle were just delicious. Belgians really know how to make their waffles.
That night, we had a little picnic on my floor of cheeses. Deborah (yes, from America) and Maxim came to join us. It was like a little party in my room! I had never had so many guests before! It was great and really weird. We went to the Oude Markt to meet up with Jens. We spent the night chatting in Eclipse (the bar Jens works at) and catching up! We went to a few of the other bars to dance before calling it a night. |
Sunday, March 15th 2015
Today was Girls Day in Brussels! Deborah, Alison, Bettina and I took the train to Brussels Central. We walked through a gorgeous shopping area before taking maybe not the best turn down a restaurant street. It was just like South Beach in Miami. The people of the restaurant wouldn’t even let you walk by without almost begging you to eat at their place. We obviously didn’t eat at any of them and walked through. We made it to the Grand Palace, which was very pretty. This is the only place in Belgium where I have seen gold on the buildings. All of the buildings in the square were very fancy and gorgeous. We then saw the main attraction… the Manneken Pis or Peeing Boy. He was the highlight of our day and well known for Brussels. It is truly just a little fountain of a statue peeing. He was all dressed up when we got there. I ended up getting a souvenir of a beer bottle opener that has a peeing boy on it. How classical Belgian!
For lunch, we went to a café and split four meals four ways. The warm goat cheese salad was fantastic along with the sausage. We also got a spinach cannelloni which was very good. After lunch we went to Planete Chocolate for a chocolate demonstration. The chocolatier showed us how they make their chocolates and pralines. It was quite a good demonstration although slightly difficult to follow because he constantly switched between French and English. We got to taste some chocolates and a hot chocolate. They were very very good. Then he taught us the history of chocolate. He was actually quite interactive with the audience. During a break he joked about spraying the inside of the praline cream into Bettina’s mouth, but instead of send it flying just put the pastry bag into her mouth. After the demonstration I stuck around to ask him some questions. I have just recently done a project in chocolate for my material’s science course last semester, so I knew a lot about what he had taught. It is certainly an interesting material. He ended up gifting me a bag of chocolates. He says they are the best and his favorite. It was very kind of him, and I look forward to trying them! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering into gift shops and poking around the town. We found a great artists market, which of course I had to get a pair of earrings at (the artist markets are by far my favorite). I truly appreciate buying my jewelry from the person who made it.
When we returned to Leuven, I gave Alison and Bettina the true fruitur experience for dinner. Between the five of us (Deborah and Maxim included) we had quite the spread. I got three things, a Bicky Burger, a kipcurry and some meet and roasted onions to share along with two sauces and fries. They truly got the experience of how the Belgians eat their fries. I have to say, after showing Bettina and Alison around I’m very proud of myself. I truly feel like a part of this culture and really understand and enjoy the way they live their lives. I think this has a lot to do with the amount of time I’ve spent with Belgians over other international students. It was a great feeling to know that I have immersed myself.
We went back to Maxim’s house to take naps before going out for the night. But, the naps didn’t really end and instead of going out we ended up chatting before crashing for the night.
Monday, March 16th 2015
| This morning I went to the library! For the first time! Except not to study but to climb the bell tower. First of all, the library is gorgeous. It has beautiful study rooms and the balconies of books. We climbed to the top of the tower, learning about the history of the library on the way. At the top, the bell was so large! No wonder why I can hear it all the way in my kot. There is also the carillon which was cool to see. The view was spectacular. We had a 360 view of all of Leuven and the surrounding areas! After the lovely morning, I ran off to give a presentation to Inge, Jeroen, Chrisje and Maartje. It is an amazing feeling to give a presentation and then have the response be how do we implement what Jamie just proposed. I truly feel like I am making a large impact here and the work that I am doing is making a difference. I then went to class. Walking home from class, I ran into two people I knew on the street! That is when I knew that I felt at home in Leuven. I have become so comfortable here and can actually recognize some people around me. |
I met up with the whole weekend crew in the Oude Markt enjoying a beer. It was a beautiful day out, so I took off my coat and sat down to relax. As the sun was going down, I brought Alison to the train station and gave her a hug goodbye, but only for about four days until we meet again in Amsterdam.
Bettina and I wandered Leuven for a bit before heading back to Maxim’s house to prepare for the cantus. We had a dinner of spaghetti and bolognaise sauce with about 15 of the boys in the house and Deborah. It was such an unorganized but very well practiced production. We then all headed to albatros for the cantus.
I’m going to do my best to describe this cantus to you, but there is really no way to explain it in words. There was a leader, who was quite loud and tough, who commanded which songs to sing and when to drink. There was a group of freshman that had to repeat the page numbers each time and do some funny things (yes this is hazing, but pretty harmless). Even before everyone was drunk, they were singing the songs quite passionately. But that only increased as they drank more. You could challenge a friend to a drink and together you would drink one. But it is more of a sign of respect than really a challenge. There were moves that you did with some of the songs or standing up and sitting down. I was meeting everyone around me, and getting lots of explanations because it was in Dutch. Bettina and I had a grin on for the majority of the event.
It ended a bit abruptly as we all left, but we went with a group of people to continue the party at the Oude Markt. I think this had to be one of my favorite nights out. We were with a bunch of fun people and I had the opportunity to go dancing with Bettina. I could not have asked for a better time.
Tuesday, March 17th 2015
So this morning didn’t really exist, seeing as I believe the sun started to rise when we went to bed. I may have even seen someone leave for work. But in the afternoon we went shopping around Leuven. We found Bettina’s last few gifts. We had lunch in a café in the Oude Markt. Since it was such a nice day, the entire market was packed! On this gorgeous day the town was so lively! It was truly amazing.
Bettina and I mastered riding on the bike with an extra passenger as I took her to the last store to buy her gifts for her family and friends. I went off to class and met her back at my kot. We walked to the train station, only stopping to see the beautiful view of the Grote Markt from the station, my favorite view in the whole city. The sun was setting and it made for a gorgeous sky and sunset over the town hall. We gave our final hugs goodbye and raced onto the train. We promised to meet up again in ten years, because no matter how far apart we are, this is a truly lasting friendship. That night I had Frisbee practice. We split up into an advanced group and beginner group. I was one of the only two girls in the advanced group. It was fantastic. We scrimmaged and the play was at a very high level, there was a lot of experience on the field. I really did play up to it as well, I was scoring points and throwing good passes. I am quite proud of my performance in fact. Overall a great practice with a ton of great energy and play. |
The day still wasn’t over! After showering, I went over to Rik’s house for a few drinks. I met his friend, Tinne, and they were so great to chat with. We went out to Oude Markt for the night. We started at Da Giraffe and had a terrible Chilly Willy shot. To fix it we had another shot that was something like Blue 59 that was on fire and you drank it with a straw. The rest of the night we danced away at a few of the other bars. It was a great night filled with lots of dancing, my favorite!
Wednesday, March 18th 2015
Today I recovered from all of that. Oh but notable news, I officially became a resident! I now have a Belgian residence card. Yay!
Thursday, March 19th 2015
Today I also recovered... until I went out in the evening. I actually got a lot of work done before that though and wrote the entirety of one of my essays! I wanted to meet up with Deborah at her last night to go out in Leuven. I went to boyshuis and there were so many people! I was so excited to see the two girls who were there when I had dinner at Maxim's house. They were clearly also excited to see me! We goofed around in the house, dancing to fun music and drinking a little, before heading to the bars. We first went to one of the Fakbars (if you don't know what they are, I finally figured it out. They are student-group run bars, each from one of the faculties. How cool!) and then went to other bars in the city. The night was filled of dancing with the girls and hanging out. So excited I got to see them again!