So last weekend I spent a little time in the lovely nation that is a Belgium. I was a little nervous, as this was only my second time outside of France, but everything went so well. I only have good memories about this trip.
I woke up early on Thursday to do my hair before I left. I wanted to make a good impression. 20 minutes into it, I already knew it was a stupid idea, but I eventually finished the daunting task and headed off to the train station. May 1st is a national holiday in much of Europe. No buses were running. I made it to the station in about 40 minutes and got set for the ride.
All together including switching stations and riding the metro in Paris, the whole trip was about 4 hours. Not bad considering it takes 10 hours to even get out of Texas if you're traveling on the ground.
My family met me at the station. It was a happy reunion. I hadn't seen Lisette since I lived in Arizona. She is the daughter of the cousin of my father... I think that's how we're related. In any case, we're cousins to make things easy. Lisette, my aunt Georgette, and niece Tyana took me back to the house. The family lives in Waterloo, a city just a short train/bus/tram ride away from Brussels. During my time there I mostly hung out with Lisette and Pamela. Pamela is finishing her last year of college right now. As I was helping her with an English paper Saturday night, I realized how much I really suck at English now aiaiai. The oldest sister, Blondine, has two kids, Tyana (3) and Cain (1 and a half). It took me about 3 and a half days for the babies to start liking me. Tyana didn't talk to me the first day, and she didn't talk to me happily until Sunday. Cain didn't let me hold him until about Friday night I think. And even as I left the house he seemed a bit méfiant.
Lisette took me around to see so a lot of stuff in Brussels. We went to Grand Place and an African neighborhood the first day. I made many unexpected hair product purchases. The next day went to see the Automium and mini Europe. Look them both up on wikipedia. On my last day I went to the actual waterloo battlefield with Lisette. There was a hill, there was a lion, Napoleon was involved. That was all I understood about what had happened until I read this. And even then...
Saturday night I met up with other students at Mary Kate Mannix's house. She's a student who lives in the city. We found out my family and hers actually live about 20 minutes from each other. After filling us with Belgian booze and barbecued goodness the family let us off for the hostel. A few of us stayed up late comparing views on life and such.
Monday morning we set out for the European Union in Bruxelles. It was not quite what I imagined before the visit. As we were walking towards the building James and I saw a sign leading us to a dinosaur museum. I am happy to say it was a better decision to go to the EU, by the time I got to take it all in anyway.
I sat in on parliament. On the agenda today, the Millennium Development goals and Europe’s obligation. Oh yeah, special guest speaker: Jeffrey Sachs. I can’t even say how much of an eye-opening experience the EU was. I talked to Francis quite a bit about an internship position. Conditions look favorable and he seemed very interested in having an intern who was interested in the Philanthropy of the EU.
The day ended with Lisa and I meeting Jeffrey Sachs outside the EU and me forgetting to retrieve my pocket knife from the ashtray I hid it in before the metal detectors. I’ll have to check on it next time.
So last weekend I spent a little time in the lovely nation that is a Belgium. I was a little nervous, as this was only my second time outside of France, but everything went so well. I only have good memories about this trip.
I woke up early on Thursday to do my hair before I left. I wanted to make a good impression. 20 minutes into it, I already knew it was a stupid idea, but I eventually finished the daunting task and headed off to the train station. May 1st is a national holiday in much of Europe. No buses were running. I made it to the station in about 40 minutes and got set for the ride.
All together including switching stations and riding the metro in Paris, the whole trip was about 4 hours. Not bad considering it takes 10 hours to even get out of Texas if you're traveling on the ground.
My family met me at the station. It was a happy reunion. I hadn't seen Lisette since I lived in Arizona. She is the daughter of the cousin of my father... I think that's how we're related. In any case, we're cousins to make things easy. Lisette, my aunt Georgette, and niece Tyana took me back to the house. The family lives in Waterloo, a city just a short train/bus/tram ride away from Brussels. During my time there I mostly hung out with Lisette and Pamela. Pamela is finishing her last year of college right now. As I was helping her with an English paper Saturday night, I realized how much I really suck at English now aiaiai. The oldest sister, Blondine, has two kids, Tyana (3) and Cain (1 and a half). It took me about 3 and a half days for the babies to start liking me. Tyana didn't talk to me the first day, and she didn't talk to me happily until Sunday. Cain didn't let me hold him until about Friday night I think. And even as I left the house he seemed a bit méfiant.
Lisette took me around to see so a lot of stuff in Brussels. We went to Grand Place and an African neighborhood the first day. I made many unexpected hair product purchases. The next day went to see the Automium and mini Europe. Look them both up on wikipedia. On my last day I went to the actual waterloo battlefield with Lisette. There was a hill, there was a lion, Napoleon was involved. That was all I understood about what had happened until I read this. And even then...
Saturday night I met up with other students at Mary Kate Mannix's house. She's a student who lives in the city. We found out my family and hers actually live about 20 minutes from each other. After filling us with Belgian booze and barbecued goodness the family let us off for the hostel. A few of us stayed up late comparing views on life and such.
Monday morning we set out for the European Union in Bruxelles. It was not quite what I imagined before the visit. As we were walking towards the building James and I saw a sign leading us to a dinosaur museum. I am happy to say it was a better decision to go to the EU, by the time I got to take it all in anyway.
I sat in on parliament. On the agenda today, the Millennium Development goals and Europe’s obligation. Oh yeah, special guest speaker: Jeffrey Sachs. I can’t even say how much of an eye-opening experience the EU was. I talked to Francis quite a bit about an internship position. Conditions look favorable and he seemed very interested in having an intern who was interested in the Philanthropy of the EU.
The day ended with Lisa and I meeting Jeffrey Sachs outside the EU and me forgetting to retrieve my pocket knife from the ashtray I hid it in before the metal detectors. I’ll have to check on it next time.
