Belgium is Random

Bonsoir mes amis ! This weekend I went to Belgium and have I got some good stories for you. I was in Brussels for the most part, although I did spend a night in Hasselt (more on that later....)

Bonjour Bruxelles ! 

Brussels is so cool! It's very small, and has a much chiller vibe than Paris (my host brother is trying to read over my shoulder and I just had to try to explain "chill" in French. I said a mix between "cold" and "cool.") If I had to pick one word to describe the city I'd say "eclectic," because there's definitely a lot of interesting things brought together in one place. For example, they play music in their metro stations. I was waiting for a train at 8 am on a Sunday morning, and I was listening to Britney Spears. (Side note: there's nothing to check your ticket for the metro, you just buy it and then go in the open door. At least that's how it seemed to us.) Another interesting thing is that they have two official languages, French and Dutch, and everything--I mean everything--is in both. Even the names of the streets! Which is quite confusing if you're an unsuspecting tourist trying to find Rue du Moulin and you're lost on Molenstraat (why? because it's the same street!). For a small place there are a lot of great things to do.

Despite all that, we actually went to Belgium for a concert. But not just any concert, my friends, for Sensation WHITE (thus named because everyone that goes has to wear white). It's a concert that takes place in different locations around Europe a few times a year, and it brings together Europe's biggest House music DJs for one night of pure madness.

You know how I said Belgium is really random? Well it's also not very organized, and the train schedule was not so clear, which meant that Diana and I arrived a the station at 10:50, approximately 20 minutes after the last train had left for Hasselt. It's about an hour drive from Brussels, and with no trains we were pretty much out of luck. Fortunately for us, there are always people willing to help out (read: prey upon) poor stranded girls in a foreign country, so a guy offered us a taxi for the low price of 50 euros a person. He brought us over to three other girls who had also missed the last train, and I asked them if they were going to take the taxi. They looked at me with panic in their eyes and said "engleesh?"

And that, mes amis, is how I found myself hurtling through the Belgian countryside with a Venezuelan girl on my lap. Two of the girls were visiting the third, who is studying abroad in London, and they were in Brussels for Sensation. They didn't speak any French, and our taxi driver, Farid, didn't speak any English, so it was an interesting ride to say the least. We finally made it to the concert and danced four sparkly, bass-filled hours away with 10,000 other people dressed in white. I didn't bring my camera, but I googled imaged it so you could get an idea--

More ridiculous adventures ensued trying to get back to the train station, but we finally made it and took the 6 am train to Brussels, along with a few thousand others. We must have been quite the scene--kids in all sorts of crazy white get-ups sleeping on the floor of the train, strewn across the seats and plastered against the windows. Needless to say we slept most of the day away, but we did manage to get out and see the sights the next evening. We made it to the Musée des Beaux Arts, Musée de Belvue (a museum of the history of Belgium), Neuhaus (chocolatier), and Delerium (one of the most famous beer places in Belgium). The chocolate was some of the best I've ever had, and although I'm not the world's biggest beer fan I have to say that the beer was pretty good itself. 

Grand Place

Musée des Beaux Arts

Musée Belvue

Yummmmmm

Monday morning we headed to the Atomium, which was built for the World Expo '58, which was hosted by Belgium. In fitting with the rest of Belgium, it's really random, but also really cool--

The Atomium 

View from the inside

Can you find us?

We checked out the expositions in the different orbs and the view of Brussels from the top, which was pretty cool. The rest of the day we wandered around, stumbling upon a few cool things and ending up at the Koekelberg Basilica, the 11th largest church in the world. 

Koekelberg Basilique

Don't forget you can click on these pictures to make them bigger : )

And that pretty much does it for Belgium! Minus the taxi part it was a great success, and even that was actually pretty fun. Now I'm back in Paris, and this weekend I am going on a private midnight tour of the forbidden sections of the catacombs! Don't worry, I'll tell you guys everything. Hope you're taking care and enjoying the little things. À la prochaine fois, mes amis !

Snapshots

Salut ! I know I've been MIA, but for une bonne raison--I had to give an exposé (oral presentation) yesterday. In French. In front of a class of French people. On a 5 page (1.5 spaced really wide margins) paper that I had to write on a book that I had to read. In French. Soooo that took up most of the time the last week.

But actually I can't complain, because it was "facultatif"--optional. You may think I'm folle (crazy) for doing that, but I thought it would be a good experience. Only 5 people out of my class of 25 did it, so the professor was really nice and encouraging, and it actually went pretty well. I presented for 10 whole minutes, and man I was nervous--I wore a charcoal gray romper and a blue and black checkered flannel shirt to offset the glowing crimson of my skin. Ended up not being the best choice ever--charcoal gray really shows sweat!! But anyways, c'est fini and I did it, so phew!

So many fantastique and fun things have been happening. J'ai pas le temps to tell you guys all of them, so I'm just going to do a few snapshots of my life to give you une idée. Here we go--

I'm at a huge protest with my Mexican friend, Flavia. We're at the Eiffel tower, surrounded by groups carrying signs and instruments and pamphlets. March 8th is Le Jour des Femmes (a day celebrating women) and we're here showing solidarity for the struggle for women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa. We lose ourselves in the crowd, chanting in Arabic and yelling in French. Flavia and I dance to a marching band, photograph women wearing colorful headscarves, converse in French. We arrive at the Egyptian Embassy and the speeches begin.

I'm sitting in le Jardin de Luxembourg on a beautiful sunny day. We were going to go to a café but it was too nice out to stay inside, so we got tea and brought it in to the garden. Next to me is Joanna, a Catalan from Barcelona, and across from me is Gabor, a Hungarian exchange student. The conversation flows from French to Spanish, Spanish to Catalan, Catalan to Hungarian, Hungarian to English as we teach each other words and phrases. We agree to meet at the Louvre the next day.

I'm squeezed at a tiny table with 8 other people, in a crowded reggae bar in the 19th arrondissement. Diane, a 24 year-old from my music class, has invited me to go out with her and her friends, and we're all laughing and talking over the sound of the reggae band playing on stage. They're all older than me and speaking very fast, so it's a little intimidating, but they're all super nice and after a few minutes my nervousness disappears and I'm talking and laughing with everyone else. Diane and I get up to go dance.

There are a billion more moments, but that's all I have time for right now. I'll leave you with an extremely flattering picture of me before I saw a spectacle de danse at Trocadéro the other night--

Well that's about that pour maintenant. Oh, I'm going to Belgium tomorrow! I'll be in Brussels for 2 days and Bruges for a day, so I'll try to keep you guys posted about that. Hope you're all well and enjoying everything you're doing. À la prochaine fois, mes amis !