Bruges: Where all of us now want to go for our MAs

So yesterday we went to...BRUGES!
It was so amazing; apparently the city was once one of the biggest in London, but then the river dried up making the port useless, and the city lost its wealth. Because of this, nobody built new structures in Bruges, meaning that now it is almost exactly like how it was hundreds of years ago. So great!
We took a walking tour of Bruges (the city is extremely small it wasn't too strenous) with the always amazingly knowledgeable Jerry and saw so many amazing things. First we saw a beginuale house, which is where women whose husbands had gone off on the Crusades came so as not be alone and to pray. This is is now a convent, but they had a museum that was set up how a beginuale would have been and we were allowed to take pictures- so great.
Bruges is also very known for its lacemaking, which seems to have the same technique as in Galicia- it's amazing to me how many things remind me of Spain, but are also different in some crucial ways.
After the beginuale houses, we walked around, Jerry telling us stories of different houses (we saw the projects of ancient Bruges) and then went into a church to see the only Michelangelo in the North, Madonna and child. The churh where it is has so many amazing structures and sculptures, it was extremely beautiful. After that we went to the center of the city, seeing a few more things, and then the tour ended and we were left to do what we wanted. Some of us went to eat at this tea house, where I had the babiest croque monsieur ever and some Earl Grey Tea, which amazingly filled me up for a while. Then we split and I went with Aiko and Marissa to see the relic of Jesus' blood in a tiny church in the city- it is only open for veneration for an hour and on specific days, so we were very lucky that we could see it. Then we went to the Groeninge Museum, which has samples from every major Northern Renaissance artist who had done work in Bruges, and which is about to close for renovation (sorry anybody coming to visit!!). It was amazing and so beautiful, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures. After that we went to the famous brewery where we met up with almost everyone, and then took the train back home.
When we got home, Rinske, Trent, Ben and I decided to, after a failed attempt of finding a house to cook in, take the Metro and get off at a random stop for dinner. We tried three of four stops before finding ourselves in the center of the city where we were going to meet some of the others later on, and ending up eating in a Kenbap place. After that we met up with Shiza, Christina, and Katie and went to a new bar called Delirium, but it was expensive and after a drink we ended up back in Celtica. Since the Metro even on weekends closes at midnight (so lame!), me and Rinske went back early and then I went to bed, exahusted from my entirely crazy first week.

Today will be spent on me attempting to give myself a budget and preparing for my internship interview tomorrow! I am extremely nervous because I really want the IRC one, so we'll see what happens!

Besitos,
Lucia


Pictures: 1) Michelangelo's Madonna and Child
2) Christina, me, Katie, and Shiza at Delirium
3) one of the first views of Bruges, with swans which they take immense care of.

Really? Deep-frying a cheeseburger?

Ok so back on to my first full week in Brussels! Part 2!

Thursday morning I went to my first round of classes- they seem like they will be very interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about 2 hour long lectures. We got one from Jerry our program coordinator at 10am, then went to lunch (some crazy omelette sandwich from an Asian place on campus) and then had a guest lecture come talk about the History of Belgium. He was completely insane, but very funny and extremely knowledgeable. After class, I went out to dinner at this amazing cafe that was cheap but also delicious, then we went to Celtica again- me and a couple people went back pretty early, though, because we had another round of classes today.
Today, we had basically the same format of classes as yesterday (except for a chicken pita for lunch), and then Shiza, Christina, Katie, Trent, Ben, and I spent about two hours in the computer lab figuring out where we wanted to go next weekend when we have a free Friday. Since this Friday kind of crept up on us, it was hard because although traveling is still extremely cheap, it gets more expensive closer to the date. After quite a long time, we chose.... BARCELONA!
Yes, Barcelona! The lovely, sunny region of Spain that I know I visited when I was young but can't remember any of it so this'll be like visiting for the first time! It'll also be nice to go to a country where I know the language, and the tickets didn't get cheaper later on, so we decided to go there now. It'll be great because the weather forecast for next weekend is high fifties and SUNNY!! Here in Brussels I don't think we've had even one completely sunny day, so we're all pretty excited about that. We got the tickets and plan to spend two nights in Barcelona and one in Girona (that's where the airport is, and as we're leaving early morning Sunday we figured it'd be best to spend Saturday night there).
After choosing that, we all went home and chilled for a bit, and then I went to dinner.
So with the homestay arrangement we get three dinners at the home, (they give us a 400 euro stipend for the rest) and as I have already taken mine earlier in the week I decided to explore the lovely area of Stokkel to see if there was soemplace I could eat by myself without looking weird. Every place was either expensive or closed, and the only place I could get food at was this fries place near the bus stop I take. I ordered fries and a cheeseburger because everything else looked extremely strange (like gigantic sausages and what I assumed was a form of fried cheese that did not look nearly as appetizing as mozarella sticks)- but then when the guy cooked the not-beef-but-i-guess-some-sort-of-meat patty, he deep fried it! ugh! It was so gross, but as I had already paid for it I took it. Then I saw Trent at the beginning of the line- I guess he had the same trouble looking for a spot- and so we went back to his homestay to eat the burger. Needless to say, it was pretty gross. I still feel so enormous and pumped with cholesterol! But it was a learning experience, and now I know to stay away from that weird fries stand!

Now I am back and am going to get some much needed rest before I am off to Bruges tomorrow! I love it!!!

Picture uploader not working! sorry!

What do the Jersey Devils have in common with the European Parliament? Read on to find out!

Okay, so it's been a very long time since I've updated this, but to be honest I haven't really had that much time to do so!!
So on Monday I got myself to school with minimal confusion (yay!) Where we had more orientation and a talk about our internship interview which we would get information on on Wednesday. We then had a tour of our campus and then had lunch at this amazing falafel place that is on campus, and relatively cheap!
After that I went back to my house and then I decided to walk to Stokkel (the metro closest to my house, about a tewnty minute walk) to get shampoo and notebooks, things that I needed. On the walk home though, it started POURING and although I was wearing my (baller) rainboots and had my umbrella that morning when the sun was shining, had decided to leave it at home this time!
Rule number one of living in Brussels: ALWAYS bring raingear.
So I walked back and got thoroughly soaked, then had a super delicious dinner cooked by my homestay mother (a sort of chiken and rice dish that looked thoroughly healthy AND yummy) and then I went with Shiza, Christina, and Katie to a bar that was not the best- the waiters were rude and we were like the only girls there so it was awkward.
The next day, apparently the bus drivers decided to go on an illegal strike, yet I had no way of knowing this, so ended up waiting for the bus in -8273498734 degree weather for an hour and it never came! I finally went back to my house to change my socks and go (extremely late) to class and ran into my homestay mother who gave me a ride. So my second day I was 45 minutes late, but since it was not my fault I didn't get in trouble. I do hate buses, though.
After that we had more orientation and then had a tour of Brussels on a bus, and then walked around where the palace was. It was really awesome- we got to learn a lot about the city and see all of the museums (Carmen!) and the courthouse which was ENORMOUS. After our walk though, we went back to the bus and I feel asleep! It was sad, but it did give me energy for INAUGURATION!
Which is what I did after the bus ride- half of the group went straight to a bar called Fat Boys- and American bar where the inauguration was going to be played on big screen- but I had to change and get money so I went home and met up with Trent at the Stokkel metro stop. We got so lost though and got off on three different metro stops- at the third we asked some German guy who was extremely nice where the Parliament was and he showed us. The bar is right across from European Parliament, and we managed to get there right as Biden was being sworn in.
OF COURSE I am SUPER bummed about not being in DC for the inauguration, but I have to admit it was nice to be inside and on a chair watching it, instead of with 67 million other people outside in the cold. After the inauguration we went to Celtica, a bar with 1 Euro beer and therefore friendly to budgets, then we went to a karaoke bar (no, I didn't sing!) but the crew that lives by Stokkel had to go back relatively early because the metro closes at midnight and we didn't want to catch the last one. This is also when I found out that Rinske, another girl from the program, lives about a block from me and so that we could walk back together! (which is what we had to do because the bus drivers were STILL on strike- don't worry, the neighborhood is super nice and there were three of us because we met this Belgian girl who lived next to us and is our age.) The walk is also really nice, too, everything is calm and you're basically walking in the suburbs. I've taken to walking half the time to Stokkel in the morning because the walk is amazing and I am desperately trying to fight off the inevitable weight gain I'm gonna have from all of this delicious food (although we do have a gym we can use for free- mom and dad I need you to bring my gym shoes!)
So the next day was my lowkey day! I had a meeting with my internship coordinator at noon, where I found out that I have five interview for internships- two are for members of European Parliament; one of the guys is (Adel will love this) Peter Statsny, one of the best hockey players for Slovenia and who once played for the JERSEY DEVILS!, one is for a guy who needs an intern to actually sit in on the Parliament sessions and take notes (really awesome!), and one is for a company called ICE VISTA which is half business and half dedicated to the conservation of polar bears? But the one I really want is with the International Rescue Committee, an organization that works all around the world on various issues including Rape in the Congo, immigration and refugees, and the crisis in the Sudan. I really hope I get that one! But the others sound extremely interesting so I'd be happy with either.
After getting my internship I went to get my abonnement which gives me ULIMITED rides on metro bus or tram for only 28 euros!! and then I had a delicious dinner with my homestay family (steak and these awesome mashed potato things- they treat me right!) and then I basically did nothing and really enjoyed resting a bit. This included many episodes of House.


Right now, I am hungry and need to go searching for food- so more on Thursday and Friday in an hour or so!

I love you all and miss you!

Pictures: 1) Jennie, Christine, Shiza, Katie, Christina, and Ben in Celtica
2) Beautiful park with the statue of Egmont and Horn
3) OBAMA!!! look how close I was!!

First Days

Well, I got here at about 9am and met other people from the program- we went back to the hotel and checked in. My roommate wasn't there yet, so I went to get some breakfast with some other people in a small cafe down the street. I got toast and coffee (lame, but it was really good) and then took an awesome nap until we had to go down for orientation. After a couple of hours where our director told us a bunch of information, we went to dinner and had quiche (mmmmmm!) and veal ( which wasn't so good, and also kinda went against my morals) and some amazing ice cream. Then most of us went to a bar, but we didn't stay that long since we were all exhausted. I was in bed by eleven!

The next day, we had orientation at 9:45 after a delicious breakfast where I had waaay too much brie. By the time our housing coordiantor finished telling us what to expect from homestays, it was time for lunch- a goat cheese sandwich from this natur place that was delicious (this lunch was paid for by the program, as was last night's dinner, which made it even tastier!) Then we met individually with the housing coordinator where she gave us the names of our homestays and some information on them- turns out the mother in mine is from Argentina and that she knows Spanish better than English! Guess I won't be losing my spanish here!
Then we went to tour the Grand Place, which I loved because it had so many statues and decorations, and each of them meant something- either representing Rey Carlos V (I think) imprisoning Muslims (same idea, less degrading than another statue I know...), crazy Belgian stories, or something else. We also saw the Mannekin Pis, who gets dressed up all the time- cute and weird! After Grand Place, we went back to the hotel to get picked up by out homestays- Mine has the mother and three kids, Catalina, Jeronimo, and Sara. Catalina's my age and speaks Spanish and is trying to improve her English- Sara is 12 or 13 and doesn't speak English or Spanish. I went back to their house- in the outskirts of the city, but still relatively close (30 mins on Metro) to the center since Brussels is very small. We had dinner (spaghetti with tons of cheese- it seems like my diet is going to consist heavily or carbs and cheese) and then watched The Bucket List, but I didn't finish it because I was falling asleep, and went to bed at 9:45pm.

I woke up at 12:30 today although I went to bed so early- since I don't have a cell phone until tomorrow I don't ever really know what time it is. We had lunch, and then I took a shower. This house is really nice, but it is so cold!!! It's fine normally because I'll just put on a sweater or dress warmly, but when I went to take a shower I almost cried! I don't know how I'm gonna stand it tomorrow morning. After my frigid shower, we went to see the battlefield of Waterloo and climbed 12347147981324 stairs to get to the top- it was really cool. They also had a panorama in another building which depicted life-size the battle from the eyes of someone standing at the top of the hill. Carmen, you would like that because it's one the only remaining panorama of the battle, and also it's terrific artwork. They put it all around you and have sounds of gunshots and the battle around you so you feel like you're there. After that, we went to the Cathedral where the king and queen had their "Boda Real"; we went during Mass so we couldn't walk around, but stayed a little to hear the singing, where the singers would repeat the short songs in about 8 different languages, maybe more. After that, we went to see the Palace and then walked around the park in the palace. Then we went home, and here I am!
Tomorrow I have to go to the university, and Cataline showed me where I need to go (a bus and the metro, relatively simple). I am super tired now, but I do love this city!
Even though I'm freezing.

Picture explanation:
1) the panarama (well, part of it) at Waterloo
2) the hill at Waterloo with a lion statue on top of it where some British guy got wounded
3) Mannekin Pis dressed up
4) My homestay sisters in front of the Palace
5) The statue of imprisoned Muslims
6) An old dilapidated church that was next to our hotel