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I have now been in Brussels, Belgium for nine days and only recently did I get a chance to go out and really see the city. On Friday (May 30), Dadou took me to the Grand Place. This is like the iconic Brussels landmark. It is really overwhelming as well. From Tuesday through Saturday, there are flower merchants in the square and every two years they cover the whole square with flowers in a beautiful mosaic. It's too bad that the flower masterpiece is done in August and not in June or July when I could see it. We didn't stay in the Grand Place long because we had to get home and we were starving. We ate at her favorite little sandwich shop near the Grand Place. I am supposed to educate everyone about French fries. They were actually invented in Belgium. Here, they put 'les frites' in the sandwiches and wraps. It does add a great flavor to the sandwiches. I like it. Friday night, we drove to my host mother's son's house for dinner. He is a chef and made some amazing food. We called it Arabian night and all the food and drinks were Arabian. We had
some strange chicken pie thing with cinnamon and sugar on top. It was really good. Then after dinner, he pulled out his liquor stash. For some reason, they thought I needed to try all the regional alcohols of Belgium. They had a homemade plum liquor that was really good, and another liquor infused with violet juice (?) that smelled really good but tasted ok. And of course he had to show off his scotch collection. There were some very delicious scotches in there. They all thought that Jim Beam was made in Scotland. I had to inform them that it is a Kentucky creation. Needless to say, that was a rough drive home for me.
On Saturday, I had my first international exersion. I was told we were going shopping in France. I expected shopping, shopping like boutiques and little unique street shops. Yeah, that's not what happened. We went to the French equivalent of Wal-Mart. They were really excited about taking me there; I wasn't too impressed. I was excited to be in France but other than that. A store is a store. We bought so much food. It was ridiculous. I guess they go there every two/three
weeks to stock up on some items that are sold in bulk (like liters of bottled water and Coke Zero). Crossing the border was uneventful. You can see remnants of check points and such, but now with the EU you just fly past like crossing state lines in the US. That night we went to their favorite restaurant. It was authentic Italian. It was delicious. The food was really good and the atmosphere was vibrant. I hope we go back there.
Sunday morning I decided to get my beauty sleep because every other day was constant movement. I didn't think we were going out, but my host mother told me that we were going to get on the metro in 15 minutes so I better get dressed. I didn't have time to shower so I just threw on any old shirt and jeans and a head band. Little did I know, we were going sightseeing back to the Grand Place. Oh well...that explains the GT yellow t-shirt in the pictures. We walked around the lower part of the city near the Grand Place. There are a bunch of chocolate shops, cafes, lace stores, and tourist shops in the area.
You could definitely point out the tour groups. There were Indian, Chinese, and of course American groups everywhere. And all the Americans had shirts of other places they had also been, like Berlin and Paris. (We noticed this while we were in Yosemite as well with Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone t-shirts.) We went to a great touristy shop where I will probably be buying gifts for people and myself. We finally made our way to the Manneken Piss. This is a fountain of a little boy peeing. It's about 2 feet tall and a huge tourist attraction. They often dress him up in cute outfits which are all on display in the city museum and on zillions of postcards. I thought it was cute and so did all the other Americans.
I decided to go wander a little by myself on Monday after class. I had to go buy my textbook anyway. I stumbled upon the largest park in the city. It was a beautiful day and there were many people out on the lawn. There is also a huge arch that was errected in 1880 for the 50th anniversary of Belgium's independence. It is really cool. I thought
it was interesting that the French inscription was on the back of the arch and the Dutch was on the front. Just another one of my many random and inconsequential observations. I really enjoyed wandering the city by myself. I know the metro system sufficiently enough to get off and get on at other stations. I need to do some more exploring this week.
Today for class we went to the European Commission building. We got to go inside and talk to some lower level bureaucrats about their jobs. It was really interesting to hear some of the inside information about the EU. The two guys are friends of my teacher so they were kind enough to give us a little lecture on the enlargement policy and neighborhood policy of the EU. I really enjoyed it. And just for your information, Turkey is closer to joining than anybody thinks. I mean it's been 40 years since it placed it's bid for membership. 21 other countries have joined before them. Anyway...sorry. After our trip there, some of us decided to get some lunch. One girl in my class is from Brussels so she took us around to some of the
places that we wouldn't normally find just of the metro. It was really fun, but I was wearing my shoes for the first time so my feet hurt pretty bad. This weekend the European Parliament and other EU buildings are open for the public. I need to go see them especially because I forgot to get some pictures while I was there today.
Au revoir!
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theresa
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there is nothing wrong with wearing a bright yellow georgia tech crew t-shirt in brussels! actually i think i love you more for it.