Monday, May 11th 2015
This morning was spent running lots of errands and doing a final load of laundry so I could make it through to the end of the month. I then biked over to work for one last time. I went out with Chrisje for lunch to celebrate the semester. It was very nice to have her as a mentor throughout the semester and work with her in the office. I really enjoyed our last lunch. It was very cool to have such a relaxed and enjoyable lunch with a colleague. I then made my way to my course, which had a very interesting speaker about healthcare. It was a great way to make a transition into my upcoming job at athenahealth. I then picked up Becky from my apartment and we made our way to enjoy the beautiful day on the Oude Markt. It was beautiful out, so it was wonderful to sit with the big crowd and enjoy our beers. Then, I see them running towards me. Brian and Jessica, my friends from Olin, had come to Europe and now were in Leuven! I jumped up to give both of them big hugs, since I hadn’t seen them the entire semester! We pulled a few tables together because Joachim, Niels and Thibault also came to hang out. It was so fun to tell Jessica and Brian about my experiences this semester and the cool things that I had learned about Belgium. We got some kebab for dinner and ate them on the lawn infront of Joachim’s dorm. After a concert and a few more drinks at the market, we joined Joachim at t’Archief. It was slightly empty when we go there, but as the night went on it got more and more crowded. Joachim was there with the group he went to China with, including the two professors! The dancing was so much fun. Brian went to McDonalds to get a snack… and ran into Rik there! How random! Rik and his friend Vinny also joined us at t’Archief.
One interesting story, is that I was talking to a guy who was on Joachim’s China trip about Belgian culture. Somehow, the topic of racial jokes came up, and he mentioned that they make a lot of Jew jokes. He then wanted to tell me one. Now remember, most people don’t know that I’m Jewish. He told it to me, and I didn’t laugh, actually thought it was quite sad. When I didn’t laugh, he was surprised and wanted to prove to me that it was funny. So he called Joachim over, said that I didn’t think his joke was funny, so he told the joke to Joachim to prove that it was funny. Joachim laughed then looked at me and covered his mouth in shock. He looks at the guy and says, you know she’s Jewish right? He was so embarrassed. I thought the whole situation was funny and wasn’t ever really insulted by the situation, mostly entertained. He felt really bad, though. There really are so few Jews in Belgium that aren’t Hassidic that they don’t even consider the possibility that they are meeting one.
I spent the night dancing away and enjoying the fun party life of Leuven. It is certainly something that is so fun and truly unreplaceable.
Tuesday, May 12th 2015
Most of the day I spent doing work and going to class. I had dinner with Jeroen and his partner for another project before heading off to Frisbee, which was as always fun! I picked up Becky and we met Nico and his friends for a drink in the market. After they left, we happened to run into Maxim, Joachim, Thibault, Jessica and Brian at Dominoes! So, we decided to stay out for a bit longer and dance! I love having Jessica and Brian in town. It is so great to be with my friends from home, and it also makes it so I see those who studied abroad at Olin.
Wednesday, May 13th 2015
Today we went into Brussels. We did all that was important: see the peeing boy, eat some waffles and visit the Grand Palace. We even walked into a church and found a basement where there were ruins.
Just after returning to my kot, Rik brought some food from the fritur for dinner. We had a nice dinner before heading out to the cantus! Since the cantus was a bit far away, I biked there with Becky on the backseat. I don’t have trouble biking with someone on the back when we are going a normal route, but since we had to stop by Rik's place for his codex he took us a very windy and hilly route, which made watching the two of us on the bike quite entertaining. The cantus was a ton of fun! We were singing and banging and yelling and meeting the people around us. There was even a performer, who is supposedly famous in Belgium. He was quite old and changed the words to pop music to some quite ridiculous lyrics. Although I couldn't actually understand it, because it was all in Flemish, the translations that I got were ridiculous. I had a fun time following along and joining the crowd in the motions and movements they all seemed to know. It was a lot of fun. I finally got to see an end of a cantus, which is emotional and went into the next door fakbar to hang out and well drink some water. I found out that Becky and Rik were at the Oude Market so I went there to join them and found Jessica, Brian, Maxim and Joachim, and Tebo! It was so perfect. We spent the night hanging out, dancing and being ridiculous before finally going home and crashing. |
We had to get a good night’s sleep, because we were getting a surprise the next morning!