Eat like an American, Drink like a Belgian, and try to communicate with everyone

I can't believe I was in Belgium just 2 days ago. Monday was such a crazy whirlwind of events it seemed a lot longer than it actually was. But I'll begin with the amazing start of the weekend, Thanksgiving dinner.

Our amazing Thanksgiving dinner!

HC girls (our advisor Vicki on the far right)

Our advisor in Cork, Vicki, e-mailed us the week before inviting us to dinner on Thanksgiving. We were all a little confused, unsure whether she was inviting us to an authentic Thanksgiving feast, or if she was simply bringing us out to dinner at a restaurant because she knew it was an American holiday. A bunch of us were planning to cook a Thanksgiving meal that night, so we were going to be disappointed if we ended up having a typical dinner. We met at the Cork Opera House downtown where Vicki walked us back to her house where she had an absolutely breathtaking table set up with all the Thanksgiving fixings - turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, the works. And the desserts were amazing too! We couldn't believe it! She had cooked this amazing dinner for us. We were so incredibly touched, and if I had to be away from home on Thanksgiving, that was the perfect way to spend it.

We left for the Cork airport Friday afternoon for our flight to Dublin, where we then flew to Brussels. There is something about plane rides that always makes me fall asleep. We were flying in the early evening/night time, so I wasn't even that tired, and somehow I still fell asleep! We got to the Brussels-Charleroi airport around 11:00 Friday night, so Kristin, Tracie, and I were very glad we had decided to sleep at a nearby airport hotel so that we wouldn't have to get into the city super late at night and try to find our hostel, all the while falling over from exhaustion. Saturday morning we took a bus and train up to Brugge. My Dad spent some time in Brugge on his JYA (Junior Year Abroad) experience, and he said it was definitely worth a visit. I couldn't agree more! As we made our way there on the train, we saw our first signs of snow! Ireland hadn't gotten any snow yet so we were all very excited, and it reminded us of typical northeastern weather.

Speaking of typical northeast weather, I thought I was getting a break from frigid winds and cold for a while! I cannot express just how cold it was last weekend. I swear I was numb for a solid 48 hours while we were in Belgium (I'm sure my Mom is reading this thinking about the next illness I am currently developing). Good thing I decided to pack my gloves. When we arrived in Brugge, our first objective was to find waffles. We admired everything we saw, but we had our blinders on - all we wanted was waffles! We found a restaurant that served some of the most delicious waffles topped with fruit and whipped cream. Sorry there are no pictures of waffles, but they were so delicious that every time we had them, taking photos went right out of my head and I immediately dug in.

Brugge was a pretty mellow day for us. It's definitely not a huge metropolitan area, so we just enjoyed everything we saw, walked through the park, and took lots of tea breaks. Everything was already decorated for the holidays, and there was even an ice skating rink in one of the town squares. Kristin and Tracie enjoyed hearing about the winter my Dad tried to freeze over our basketball court to make an ice skating rink. That was a success . . .

Brugge was the ultimate winter wonderland. It was absolutely beautiful and I was so happy we chose to make Belgium our last trip of the semester during Christmas time. We took the train down to Brussels after dinner that night (dessert = chocolate waffles on a stick - unreal). It was still early when we arrived, but I half-expected us to stay in the hostel and turn in early since it had already been a long day. SO glad we went out! Maeve, one of the women I work with in the Alumni Office, told me about Roi d'Espagne ("King of Spain"), a bar in one of the busiest, vibrant parts of Brussels called the Grand Place, and that we should go there to enjoy a hot wine. We headed over to the Grand Place, and as we turned the corner to where Roi d'Espagne is located came face-to-face with the most beautiful and quite possibly life-changing Christmas light shows I could have ever imagined. Lucky for you guys, I recorded most of it for you to enjoy - yayyy technology!!



After the lights, decorations, and snow we had seen already, I didn't think it was possible for me to be put in more of a Christmas spirit, but I guess it was. We headed into Roi d'Espagne to try some hot wine. I had never had it before, so this was going to be another study abroad first. It was a little different than I had imagined, and I really wasn't the biggest fan of it. But it was nice drinking something warm!

Saturday was a day full of more great sites, more great food, and unfortunately, more cold weather. Kristin, our history buff, really wanted to see a few World War I museums and sites located a little outside the city, so while she did her thing for the day, Tracie and I saw a little history of our own. We went to the Belgian Army Museum which is situated in the beautiful Cinquantenaire Park, checked out the EU Parliament Building, and found a cool film museum. Whenever visiting a new city, it can be sort of frustrating because you spend such a large chunk of time just trying to find stuff. It seems like the majority of your day is dedicated to looking at maps and asking people who look like natives where things are. The cold weather didn't help. It took us most of the day to only see about 4 or 5 sites, while along the way stopping for waffles and hot chocolate, of course (can you tell I really liked the waffles?).

That night we met up with Kristin and had pizza for dinner before getting on the shuttle bus back to the airport area. We booked an airport hotel again because our flight was at 6:50 the next morning. I feel like it's always the traveling plans that you feel are going to be super complicated and stressful that end up working out fine, and the ones that seem super easy and organized sometimes fall apart. We thought there were airport shuttles up until 11:45 PM. Turns out they ended at 8:30 PM, and we didn't figure this out until way after the last shuttle left. Problem #1. Okay, Plan B - take a train to the nearby airport train station, and then a cab to the airport hotel. We saw there was a train leaving at 10:30PM. It was around 9:30PM so, no big deal, we'll hang out for an hour and then take the train. 10:30PM came and went without a train. Problem #2. The next train wasn't until 11:30PM, and it was getting even colder, if possible, and pretty empty in the train station. Kristin, Tracie, and I ended up sitting in the Brussels train station playing the Name Game and 6 Degrees of Separation for about an hour until the train finally came, in hysterics about the most ridiculous things just to keep our spirits up after our few mishaps. We finally got to the hotel at 1:10 AM, with about 3 1/2 hours of sleep to look forward to before we had to wake up for our morning flight. Oh, joy. I took a long and deserved 3 hour nap Monday afternoon back in Cork.

One thought that kept entering my mind all weekend was the modes of communication between people, especially in a country like Belgium. Belgium doesn't have one language that the majority of the citizens speak. There was a large mix of French, German, and Dutch. Lucky for me, I speak none of these! As I became more and more frustrated while trying to communicate with various people, I found myself thinking, "Why don't they speak English?!" as if they were inconveniencing me because they didn't speak the language I was accustomed to. Or when we were in Brugge, we were reading a menu at a restaurant and I said to Kristin and Tracie "This is so annoying, I can't understand a word of this." But really, it was the exact opposite. I was in their country and I was inconveniencing them because I spoke a foreign language. I imagined working at a restaurant back home where 3 French guys came in, only speaking French, and were annoyed because I couldn't speak the language they were comfortable with. By the end of the trip, I learned the valuable lesson that you need to respect the culture and people of the land you are in, and adapt as best you can.

Even though Brussels was such an amazing trip, we are all in agreement that for the next month or so it will be nice to have a break from the regular routine of airport security and hostel mattresses. There are so many advantages to traveling (I think my photos can attest to that), but it is definitely exhausting. Our final trip of the semester is to Galway this weekend for our friend Mary's 21st birthday, and we are all grateful we will be taking the bus, and not flying, and staying with her, and not in a hostel.

Slan!