Spring Break!!

So for Spring Break I was joined by the lovely ladies, Carmen and Maia. I was so happy that they came to see me! It was a great week, and it was also really good to have people from the states, and to see my sister!!
They got here on Saturday morning, and after some meeting place confusion we went back to my homestay, where I showed them around, prepared their bed, and then we all took a long nap! Poor little jet-lagged girls. Afterwards, we went to Museum Night Fever, where for 7 euros we gained entrance into tons of museums, where they had tons of fun things going on. In Bozar, there was a lyre player and renaissance-era breakdancers- we also got the PLEASURE of visiting the "museum" of "fantastic" "art", which basically just had tons of strange things (like a was figure of a guy with a shrunken head and a cow's udder) in this building. Weird.
But the other museums were real and were great! We made it home on the Metro and then went to sleep to prepare for our early morning excursion to Cologne.
We got up very early for the train because Carmen has an immense fear of not catching trains- good thing we did too, because we had a mini-crisis where all of our important papers were left at the homestay. We made the train and upon arrival in Cologne we went to find our hostel. we dropped off our things and then went to eat ice cream at this faaaancy cafe- after that, we went to the former Gestapo headquarters of the city which was one of the only buildings in Cologne that was not completely demolished in the heavy World War 2 bombings. They turned it into a museum which was sad but also very interesting- it was a really good find! After that we went to the Cathedral and looked around there.
Then we went to the hostel to.... nap!! love these girls because they appreciate a good nap as much as me!
After the nap, we went to where the Animal Collective concert we were going to attend was and ate some German food at a Kebap place? It was good, though. Then we made our way to the concert- the opening act was a little creepy and just spent 837492478293 hours on his synthesizer (not my cup of tea- sorry Farley), but then Animal Collective went on and they were really good! It was a totally fun concert, too. We rocked out, and then went home to rest for AMSTERDAM!

The next morning, we boarded an extremely efficient and awesome German train to go to Amsterdam- we got off on the train station and made our way to OUR HOUSEBOAT, THE BEAGLE!!! Seriously, this boat rocked: two stories, two computers with free internet, a kitchen, a bathroom, so many plants, and to top it all off the guy who owns it, AJ, was such a BABE. We marveled in the loveliness of our houseboat and then went off to explore the city. We saw the red light district and walked along the canals, then went to the Sex Museum- very strange- and then we went to the grocery store to buy goodies to eat for dinner. After that, we were pretty tired so we went back to the houseboat to eat dinner and hang out before going to bed.
The next day, we decided to walk to the other side of Amsterdam and stroll through the park (where there were SO many puppies romping!) and then we tried to enter the Van Gogh Museum (which we didn't enter because it was 15 euro each and they wouldn't give Carmen a MoMa discount), so we went to the other museum and saw more classic paintings- it was a very good museum.
After this, we went to meet Carmen's friend Lotte, who lives in Amsterdam and has an awesome bike- and eat some delicious but expensive Thai food. We hung out with Lotte for a while, and then made it back to the Beagle.
The next morning we had to take a train at noon for Brussels (sad!) so we got some breakfast, and then got on the train very reluctantly.

Amsterdam was great- I'm off to make mini pizzas and antipasti for Italian night, so the rest of Spring Break will come later! I love you!

Hey, Strangers!

So onto the next leg of my adventures: London!

London was really great- I really felt like I needed at least a week in order to do everything I wanted, but seeing as we're complete pros we managed to see a ton of things in the short time while we were there.
The first thing we really did, after sleeping a night in our pretty disgusting hostel while sharing our room with an Australian hairdresser who had been living in that room for six months, was take a free tour of the city. The girl leading the tour was a little overenthusiastic, but it was still a good way to get to know the city! We also saw something we really had never seen in Brussels: the sun.
You know you're living in a weather-beaten city when you go to LONDON for the good weather!
After that, we went to the National Gallery, which takes forever to get through- we were there for more than two hours and I only got through five or six rooms! The audio guide is very thorough.
After that we went to get dinner and walked around Trafalgar Square, which has some beautiful lights of the Picasso exhibit shining on the National Gallery. We were very tired from that long walking tour, and so we went to bed.
The next morning we went to the Portabello Market, which was beautiful even though I couldn't afford anything. Then we went to the British Museum, where I lost track of the time and made us late for getting into Westminster Abbey for the choral services- we ran all the way there, Trent nearly knocking over a baby carriage, but we managed to make it! They didn't let us walk around, though, so we couldn't see the graves, but it was still very beautiful.
The next day, we did the "Milennium Mile" walk that my guidebook told us to do- we saw Towere Bridge, The Tate Modern (which was for the most part pretty cool), the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament- we got some pretty awesome night pictures as well.
After that, it was time to drop our things off at King's Cross and wait there- for 8 hours. Kings' Cross doesn't like to close their doors, and it was freezing- we spent almost all of our time in this coffeeshop buying tea and coffee with the little amount of money we had left, waiting for the terminal to open. But hey, we did go to Platform 9 and 3/4!
The train finally came, and then all we had to do was go to the Committee of the Regions dressed properly to hear a guest lecturer and then sit through an entire day of classes with max 3 hours' sleep under our belt!!

Besos- next I will explain the most wonderful spring break ever!

Family Visit Part one: Mom and Dad!

Okay so on to the week of visiting from my lovely parents!! This is gonna be a short post because a) it was so long ago the details won't be as clear, and b) mom and dad, you were there! so you guys know what happened.
After Luxembourg and Germany, my parents came to visit me!! (after a romantic weekend in Paris!)- we met up on Monday and I stayed with them for two nights at this gorgeous hotel called Hotel Bloom- on Tuesday I had a half day at work so we took a walking tour of the Grand Place, the Palais Royale, and the Palais de Justice- Mom and Dad really got the Belgian tour because it rained the entire time! Mom did buy this awesome Euro umbrella, though. So after that we went to dinner for some moules and frites at a fancy restaurant, which was pretty delicious, but also nothiing special for the prices they were charging.
The next day I had to go SLAVING AWAY at work while Mom and Dad spent their time lounging about Amsterdam! From what I heard, they loved it. We met up on Friday in Bruges, where we spent a night there and did some more copious amounts of walking (Bruges is small, and also gorgeous, so it was fine). We ate at this delicious restaurant where I had escargot for the first time (so good!) and Dad had some delicious mussels he swore was from Galicia. We stayed in a small but pretty hotel room on the outskirts of Bruges (aka a ten minute walk from the center of the city).
The next day we stayed in Bruges for a couple of hours and then did some more Brussels touring- we had waffles (which weren't as good as the waffles from the stand, very sad) and then ate at Stokkel! After that, I had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad since they were going back to the hotel and were leaving super early in the morning. It was sad to say goodbye, but we had tons of fun and it was so super awesome to see them!
The next day, a few of us from the program went to Binche for the carnival- we didn't stay too long, but we got to see some ridiculous costumes, bought some crazy hats for ourselves (mine's a hat with a ram on it!) and threw tons of confetti. Fun times for all!
That's about it for Mom and Dad visit- up next, London!!

replendent lights

Oh God I haven't updated this in forever!

So, it's been a while. I blame this on being so incredibly busy at every second of the day, but I'm having tons of fun so it's all okay!
I guess I should talk about Luxembourg, Trier, and the Battle of the Bulge- bear with me, this happened like weeks ago so I may not remember everything.
So directly after work on Wednesday we all boarded this bus and made our way to Luxembourg- since our day was super hectic and we got to the hotel relatively late, we didn't do anything when we got back and just went to sleep (after me and Catherine, my roommate, watched this insane movie with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman being in the New World in French).
The next day we went to the Court of Justice, which was very interesting- we saw a court case, which really wasn't that interesting. The problem with the case was that the lawyers were very technical and kept on referring to articles and decisions that made no sense to us, so I spent my time flipping through the different interpretations and analyzing languages. After the Court of Justice we went to I beleive the European Investment Bank, and then Jerry took us on a tour of Luxembourg, which was so beautiful. After that we all had dinner and then started a loong preparation time for going on. Once we finally got out the door though, Rinske fell and twisted her ankle! oh no! and so Liz and I took her back to her room and then, tired, I decided to just go to bed.
The next day we left Luxembourg in order to go to Trier, a German town that still has many remnants from the Roman days. Rinske was a trooper and although she was in a wheelchair, followed us on a walking tour of Trier, up into towers and down into bathhouses. Trier was very beautiful and after the tour we went back in order to have some dinner- me and a few other people went to this German restuarant where Sara acted as the translator and made sure that we all had delicious food. After dinner, we went out (strangely, the best place to go out was in the old Jewish ghetto) and then collapsed into bed.
The next day we followed the tracks of the Battle of the Bulge in our bus- we spent a good amount of time on the bus, but the best part was going out and seeing the physical battlefield. It was beautiful and also haunting, since we knew that so many people had died there and Jerry kept warning us not to stray from the path because we might fall into a foxhole. After that we went back to the hotel and a few of us went out to a hookah bar, but it was an early night as we were so tired.
The next day we saw a graveyard where American soldiers who died in World War 2 were buried and got a tour- we also saw the site of a massacre of American POWs by German soldiers, and a site where four black US soldiers were tortured and killed- no monument had been made to them until 2002. After this, we went to a World War 2 museum which was run entirely by this man whose town had been liberated from German occupation by American soldiers and his wife. They've dedicated their lives to keeping the memory of World War 2 alive, and it was really great to see all of their things, which were mainly very personal things about soldiers that they had kept over the years.
After this, we got back on the bus and made our way to Brussels.
Peace out! Next time, my parents come to visit!!!

Pictures: Luxembourg and the Battle of the Bulge

Note: Never go to Belgium in the Winter if you ever want to be warm again (Ghent and Antwerp)

On to more visits to Dutch towns! Just a warning, this post is going to be incredibly short on account of me having one of my busiest weeks here- and seriously, that's saying a lot.
But anyway, the day after Leuven we went to Antwerp. I loved it a lot- the city is known for its port and its diamond trade done traditionally and still mainly carried out by the Hasidic Jews who will sell you tens of thousands of dollars on a handshake. Seriously, this is how all business transactions should be carried out- it's no much more civilized and trusting.
After seeing the daimond section we toured a beautiful cathedral which got us out of the cold for a bit, then had lunch. After lunch we did some more touring and saw some crazy statues and a view of the river. We walked a good but of Antwerp, and the Jerry left us to our own devices. Antwerp is known for many things, one of which is their fashion, so even though we missed the big sales by about 5 days Christina, Shiza and I went shopping. This is where I discovered that while delicious, I should probably be eating less of my homestay family's food. In true "me" fashion however, five minutes after making a diet pledge I ate my first Belgian waffle! It was super delicious. We went shopping for a while and I bought a Zara cardigan for 6 Euros, so everything was good.
After this we were completely exhausted so we had half-dinner at this place that smelled delicious yet had cold soup and then went home, where I got 8 hours of sleep!!
Rested from my sleep MARATHON, the next morning we made our way to Ghent, where all of my energy left me the second we got there. We did manage to tour a castle which had this ridiculous video tour which taught you nothing of the actual castle but weaved this intricate drama of a Jewish merchant falling in love with the Duke's almost-queen Portuguese wife andbeing friends with this old writer he kept calling "pen-pusher". It was strange.
After that we did another tour where we saw some beautiful buildings, and we ended up in the cathedral that houses the van Eyck brothers' "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"- aside from spending an hour with the painting listening to the audio guide, I also took a walk around the gorgeous cathedral. After this I met up with Catherine, where we made our way home.
Rinske and I decided to try out a cafe on our campus before going home, but we didn't stay long on account of how EXTREMELY exhausted we were and the 974918749817349134 hours of class waiting for us tomorrow.
And tonight I write to you after many hours of class and internship- my internship is getting mroe interesting- I attended a meeting today on Child Protection with representatives from Human Rights Watch and Save the Children, and started writing up Executive Summaries on the EU's Human Rights Guidelines. I have a computer now, but no harddrive. Poco a Poco.
Tomorrow I have my internship, then am off to Luxembourg!
Besitos!

My life post-Barcelona

I was hoping that this week I could recover from Barcelona, but no dice!
This week we had hella-class plus internships plus our first EXAM plus leuven, antwerp, and tomorrow ghent, so I am still working on minimal sleep, but also extremely happy.
Monday was, if I recall, not very exciting and was largely taken up with classes, but on Tuesday I had my first day at my internship! Which was... interesting?
I don't think they were very ready for an intern, due to the fact that I had no desk, had no computer, and no work to do. Apparently one of the full-time staff just got back from maternity leave and the other from Iraq and didn't have time to brief. Also there was another full-time intern who was starting on Wednesday (she got a desk AND work to do) so I guess they were pretty swamped, but it wasn't the msot encouraging of welcomes. They gave me about 300 pages of filler reading to do each day, and when I was done they sent me home. I was home by 2 pm both days.
The lack of enthusiasm was a bit disconcerting, but I do love the organization and find their work extremely interesting, so I will give it some time.
Tuesday and Wednesday were basically internship days, and Thursday was filled with class and mega test studying. I went to Trent's house to cook dinner and study with him, Ben, and Rinske after class, and we were there until eleven.
The day of the test, I thought it was an hour earlier than it actually was so I got there at 9:30, but whatever cause it was an extra hour of studying. And for a 50 question multiple choice, the test was extremely hard- I'm a little nervous about the results. Jerry said he'd curve, but since I'm pretty sure Trent got a hundred, there goes the curve! haha.
After the test we went to Leuven (after me and Rinske had a lunch of leftover plain pasta with lemon juice- we paid two euros to cook dinner Thursday night and got a lunch out of it too!) which was very nice, but probably my least favorite of the places we've gone. It just really didn't have much to offer besides a delicious kebab place with a dirt-cheap student menu. The town is a college town and has been for hundreds of years, so it was definiftely interesting, but compared to Bruges and Antwerp didn't really offer much.
After Leuven some people were talking about going out, but I decided that me almost falling asleep in the metro was a sign that I should go home.
I was so excited to get nine hours of sleep!!