Week 13 - Maastricht, Brussels

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19/4/2012

Today, as usual we have French course so as usual, we wandered around Verviers until 5:30 rolled around, and we went to French class. Last French class I was telling people about how awesome it was having my birthday in Madrid, but that one let-down was I didn’t get a cake. Well Lydia and Nicola took it upon themselves to go out of their way and make me a cake, complete with candels in the shape of the number ‘19’. I seriously was just so happy that they went to the effort to get me a caker, even though my birthday had long passed. So after hearing from a woman from Southern Italy, and eating some traditional food from her country, we ate my cake, which was amazing. So yeah, next Monday I have to do my presentation on New Zealand, all in French. Hope I can find some time this weekend to try do it…

20/4/2012

Today I bargained in French with my host family, and won the ability to miss half the school day, so I could go celebrate Alden’s birthday (an exchange student from New York), in Maastricht with heaps of other exchangers. It was my first time in Maastricht, and the canal was so pretty. Everyone speaks English here, so that part was easy, but we spent all day walking around and trying local food, and checking out the Village. It was a pretty long day and by the time I was catching my train home, it was already around 10. Meaning I got home at around 12. But I just loved the simplicity of getting there. Just an hour on a train from Liege, and you’re in a completely different country. But a great way to spend a Friday afternoon, despite the very erratic weather patterns we had.

21/4/2012

I decided to head off to Brussels today, to spend a day chilling and having some drinks with the exchange students. Jack and I arrived in Brussels, and found a place to get lunch that served Durams (Turkish kebabs) with fries in them. Oh my gosh. I love the fusion of these foods now. But after this we managed to find Celtica, which is basically the exchange student bar. This is because during happy hour (1pm – 1am), beers are 1 euro. It’s the most economical place for us to be. So we met up with most of the people who went on the Spain trip, after which we went to a different bar called “Delirium”, which actually has the Guinness world record for having the biggest range of beers of any bar in the world. I think it has 300 or so different types of beer…. From the stock-standard Jupiler to a cookie flavoured variety. I would have tried this, but 4 euro was a little steep, so I think I’ll save it for a better occasion. But again got home on the train, with zero energy left.

22/4/2102

It was looking to be a pretty bleak day today, but instead last night, Alain invited me to go with him and Sonia, and their friends to help their friends open up a chocolate shop. The wife had apparently started a chocolate course as a hobby, but now wants to A/B it with her Lawyer job. So we helped her husband take apart a gorgeous marble counter that they’re moving into a new house and shop that they’ll run their chocolate business out of. I really admired the leap of faith they took, kinda realised, why the hell not ?. Just do it. So after which we had a really huge lunch. Now I’d thought I’d mastered the art of eating in Belgium. Obviously not. What she brought out was a plate of stir-fry, a dessert-looking thing, and some soup. Having eaten that with a few pieces of bread, I was done. However, to my sex-appeals dismay, that was only the entrée. Oh god. Next course was a gigantic plate of meatballs and rice. After this I was felling the bulge. Thinking it was over here, again I was proved wrong. Out come a monstrous piece of pie, and two balls of ice-cream. It was so so good though, really could not go to waste. Surely here, we were finished. No, next came dessert wine. After which came coffee, and finally the homemade chocolates. By this time I’d changed definition from human to inanimate, unmovable object. Then when everyone went to check out the shop, I stayed and hung-out with the three cute as little Belge kids. There was a 3 year old boy, a 7 year old girl, and a 9 year old boy. I ended up spending the afternoon taking to the little girl in French, discussing why The princess in Aladin is better than Barbie. That, and how much we like chocolate. Then, just as ‘A fairy tale wedding’ was about to start, they returned and we had to go, much to my dismay. She was making me a friendship bracelet to add to my ever-growing collection of bracelets, which she didn’t end up finishing. So she said next time I’d get it, of which I replied I didn’t know if I was coming back…. Hopefully I will though, they were so much fun .

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