Au Revoir, Bruxelles!

It´s been a while since I last updated my blog. In the past week or so (April 24th, to be exact), I ended my program in Belgium. The 24th was a Thursday, and my coworkers at The Bulletin got a cake for the end of the day to celebrate my time there (hopefully not to celebrate the fact that I was leaving...). It was the perfect departure, and I couldn´t have asked for more.

That night, Gareth threw a dinner party for all of us Brussels kids. It was nice wrap-up for the program. He made us a huge Morrocan style meal, with sausages, couscous, delicious food dips, etc. It was GREAT. It was also really nice for all of us kids to get together one last time before we all started jet setting around Europe, or back to America. I thought there was a large chance I was going to cry. I didn´t. Way to go, me!

The next morning, I woke up around nine-thirty to start packing. I had to make sure everything in my room was a least starting to get organized before I met up with my Mom and sister, Martha, when they came in. I was so excited, I buzzed around my room in a frenzy trying to get everything packed. It didn´t work too well, but I at least got a start on it.

Once Mom and Marth were in, checking into their hotel, and a little bit settled, I headed over to their hotel (where I was staying as well). They stayed at Le Dixseptieme Hotel right near Gare Centrale and the Grand Place. I would recommend it to anyone heading to Brussels! It was absolutely beautiful. That day, we stuck around Brussels, doing the Atomium and Mini Europe. It was really fun, and I couldn´t have been happier to do it with Mom and Marth. It felt nice to have family, once again. I also took them to Mamma Roma, my favorite pizza place in Brussels. It was so very satisfying, but sad to part with it for the last time. Oh Mamma Roma, if only you had branches in the States! For dinner, we headed to St. Gery and had some Thai food. YUM.

Over their stay in Brussels, we went to Bruges and Antwerp. Luckily for us, on the day we went to Bruges, the weather was beautiful and we were able to catch a canal cruise, definitely one of my personal Bruges favorites. It was so nice to see everything that I hadn´t before, and to learn a little bit more about the city itself. For lunch, I had moules soupe (my last taste of mussels)...it was bitter sweet. That evening, we met up with family friends, the Browns, who were in Brussels picking Sara up. We went to an Italian restaurant called Bocconi. It was SO good. I haven´t had a meal like that in a while!

When we were in Antwerp, we were no so lucky on the weather (it rained), but we were there on Heritage Day, so all the museums were free. We were also there on a day of a huge marathon...that was... interesting, as well.

The last day of their visit, the three of us headed to the Grand Place in the morning to meet up with our bike tour tour guide. After a few minutes, we headed out on our bikes and, let me tell you, it´s not as easy as I remember. That phrase, get back on the bike...yeah, I´m coming up with a new one. The bike tour was great, we went all over Brussels, through the EU areas, Louise, Les Marolles, and we stopped for lunch at Maison Antoine. Frites and beer don´t exactly sound like what you´d ordinarily eat on a bike tour...but it works.

For my last dinner in Brussels, I had made a reservation at Belga Queen. The atmosphere was very cool and the food was, once again, very, very good. I had salmon and vegetables, and I wish I could eat it everyday, it was THAT good.

It was sad to leave the next day, though I had to to start my next adventure. Mom and I were able to get up and get breakfast, which was the best breakfast I´ll probably have during the remainder of my time here in Europe. Oh well, I´m a college student traveling, how bad can it be, right? Anyways, at 8 am I parted from the two of them and headed to Charleroi to catch my plane to Italy! And so...the adventure begins!

Stress Free in Stresa

Easter weekends is one of the biggest holiday/travel seasons in Europe. So, as to follow along with European culture, it was absolutely necessary (ha) that I travelled this past weekend. I'm not sure how the decision was made, but I ended up in Stresa, Italy on Lago Maggiore. It was absolutely fabulous.

The weekend started, well, really, early Friday morning. Patty and I were travelling together (she had never been to Italy and thought it was the one place she wouldn't make it to. Since I was going...I offered her the chance to come with). We called a cab company to send a taxi to good ole' Boulevard du Triomphe at, get this, 4:00 a.m. (Don't worry, Mom, I went to sleep around 11, so I got a full 5 hours). A mere two and a half hours later, we were en route to Bergamo.

Upon arrival in Italy, Bridgette (my roommate from Mizzou) met us at the airport. We were shuffled around to the train station, then caught an express to Milan where we were to meet Rachael (my other Mizzou roommate) and her roommate in Perguia, Callan. However, when we got to Milan, Patty, Bridgette and I had about 2 hours to spare before the other girls arrived. We decided it was lunch time, and grabbed a couple of absolutely delicious pizzas. Soon after, we spent some time in a park. The weather was beautiful and we didn't feel like wandering around too much.

Around 4 p.m., we arrived in Stresa. It was beautiful. The quant little town was just what I needed that weekend. It was a coastal town on Lago Maggiore, which offered views of both palm trees and the Alps. I was, for lack of better word, in awe. The greenery was a contrast to what we have in Belgium.

Friday evening was spent exploring the town. We stumled upon a little square, and decided it was the perfect place to grab dinner. I got gnocchi to eat. It was everything I remembered it to be :).

Saturday we opted to head to Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori. These two islands are about 10-15 minutes off shore from Stresa, so we hoped on a boat to get there. It was worth it. These islands were really pretty. We kind of just ventured through the islands until mid afternoon, when we headed back to the mainland. A few hours later we were off to dinner at a delicious pizzeria. We then headed to one of the "hopping" pubs, called Loco Beach. We were the only ones there. Well, us and the jazz band. They did play a couple of songs for us though, which was fun.

Sunday, we decided to sleep in until about 10:30. Then, we headed to lunch on the square. After eating, we did some shopping. I bought myself a pair of square post earrings. They are very cool, and definitely something I'll use to remember this particular trip.

When we were finally spent, both in money and energy, we headed to a gellato stand to get a little energy boost. Afterwards, we went down to the beach to sit and eat. It was a perfect way to spend Easter Sunday (that is, if not at home!).

Sunday evening we headed to Arona, a town about 10 miles away. It was a fun, but small little city. The food and nightlife there were supposed to be more geared towards younger people. However, after dinner, we were all worn out and decided to head back to our hotel, yes hotel, not hostel. It was great...I used the shower!

Monday morning, Rachael and Callan left around 8 a.m. Patty, Bridgette and I slept in until 10. We then spent a couple of hours walking along the coast. It was about 72 degrees and sunny, so there were no complaints made about the weather! We then made our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head out, back to Bergamo.

Around 3 in the afternoon, we officially set foot on Bergamo land. It was a sunny afternoon, so after dropping our bags off at Bridgette's apartment, we made our way up to Citto Alta, which means "high city" or "tall city" in Italian. This part of town was the older, ancient part. We went to dinner and got the local specialty, which is a mixed meat ravioli. It was delicious. I could probably eat it every day. After dinner, it was once again gellato time. Then, we sat on a bench overlooking the lower part of the city for a couple of minutes before seeing lightning over the mountains. It was beautiful, but we decided that it would be a good idea to start heading down the mountain and back to Bridgette's. Luckily, we made it to her place just in time, and B and I sat out on her (covered) balcony watching the rain.

Over all, it was a fantastic weekend. And I think, it was the perfect trip to end my semester with. This coming weekend, I'll be in Brussels (it's the last official weekend of my program!). Time flies...

I'll Miss...Traveling

Two weeks from today, I will by waiting patiently to go to Gareth's house for our last class/send off dinner. I am not ok with this because, if you missed out on that first part, it's in TWO WEEKS. That's 14 days. That equals out to 5 days at the Bulletin. If you aren't getting my drift, that's REALLY SOON.


I'm not quite ready for this program to be over. In the mean time, I'm going to mention one more thing that I will miss when I return to the States: traveling.


Over the course of the past four months, I have been to Spain, France, Ireland, the UK (twice), Holland, and, of course, Belgium. During the remainder of my time, I'll head to Italy (twice), Croatia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany. How is it possible that my life is so great? I'm so incredibly happy that I've been and will be able to see all of these places. I love having the ability to catch a train to just about anywhere in Europe. I love finding round trip flights for €60. I love seeing knew places. This isn't to say, though, that I'm not going to road trip to XYZ in America, I'm just saying...it's different. Still, it's a little different to go to Paris for the weekend than it is to go to Indiana.


As for now, I've got to pack for Italy. I'm going to meet my two roommates from school for a weekend...

An Afternoon at the park, and a (boring) visit to NATO

(preface...I stole these pictures from Marissa, they, sigh, are not mine.)

Feeling a little downtrodden about losing my camera, we decided that Sunday afternoon would be best spent at the Parc Cinquantinaire in Brussels. It was a beautiful afternoon and I had recieved a frisbee from my Mom for Easter. Two of my friends, Maria and Patty, and I decided we wanted to go to the park. Maria and I had been earlier that weekend (Friday afternoon), and found it to be very enjoyable. After deciding, we called up the rest of our friends, asking them to join.


Sun + Friends + Frisbee = perfect day at the park.


A couple hours after we got there, the group had grown from just the three of us to include Marissa, her friend Lexi (visiting from Montpelier, France), Lindsay, her boyfriend Tyler (who had just flown over from the States), Brian, and Jon and Monica (Jon's girlfriend visiting from Lyon, France). A couple minutes later, we were joined by 4 of our British friends, who happened to be out in the park as well. It was quite the group and quite the afternoon. I felt better about the day before, after all, it was better to lose a camera, than say...Peter's nose or something else valuable. After the sun went down, it got a little chillier. Rather than heading back to the slums (as we ladies fondly call our housing), we bought frozen pizzas and headed to the boys to make dinner.

The boys live in what we call "The Palace". They have a koi pond...

After making pizza, a group of us sat and ate our pizza outside by the Koi Pond. Doni, one of the Mizzou boys studying here, got out his guitar and we just hung out for a little bit. Until it got dark. Soon after, we headed home, satisfied with our day.


Yesterday, I woke up around 11 a.m. ready to start my day. We, as a class, we're heading to NATO with Gareth. I was excited. I had been incredibly impressed with every visit to the EU that I had had thus far, and hoped that NATO would be just as impressive.


In short, it wasn't. When we first arrived, we went through security. It didn't take long and it wasn't tedious. In fact, it was probably the most eventful part of the day. Everyone had to leave their cell phones behind (omg!). We then entered into the NATO complex. It is a very institutional looking building, with basicaly nothing but walls and fences. Upon entering the actual building, it got nicer. There was a press shop, a cafeteria and some decent decorations/pictures on the walls. We then headed into the press conference room.


I'm not sure whether it was the fact that the speakers were clearly not used to talking to students or that I was hoping for a tour of the complex (not just the cafeteria and the press conference room), but the visit was boring. It dragged on until 5:30 p.m. Dragged on, in fact, might be an understatement.


As soon as the speakers were done, we headed out for another evening in the park. For dinner, we stopped at a Delhaize express to buy baguettes, ham and cheese, and made ourselves a picnic dinner. Though the day itself was pretty boring, the feast at the end made up for it. I love the beautiful, warm weather.

Lost, Never Forgotten

It was a year ago this past Christmas Eve that the best camera I have ever owned came into my life. It was a pink, Sony Cybershot. Everyday I learned new things about this camera, such as which setting to use for X and how to make it focus on Y. It was a beautiful little piece of technology. I enjoyed most of the pictures it took, though sometimes I got a little annoyed with the double flash feature (I hope that little pink guy only remembers the good moments).



Then, one day some heartless, heartless individual decided to take it from me. No camera can ever replace it.





This past Saturday night, a group of 9 of us headed to Bulex, which in Brussels language is basically the place to be on the first Saturday night of every month. Bulex showcases the top DJs from around the greater Brussels area. It is held in an abandoned school house. Each room is filled with a different theme and a different DJ. We decided on the big, outdoor area (it's in the 60's here in Belgium), where the DJ was playing old school American music (such as Shout! (we were the only 9 people to crouch to the floor during the "a little bit softer now" part...), Celebrate, Grease, etc.). We were dancing and having a good time. It was great night. Or so I thought.



Then, I realize that something is missing from my pocket. I had kept my coat on and had my camera and cell phone in each pocket. My camera was missing. Hoping for the best, I began searching the ground around us. Maybe it just fell out of my incredibly deep pocket (incredibly deep meaning exactly that...) while I was dancing. Knowing this was pretty impossible, I began to look around, look at people that perhaps I had seen earlier that night.



Then I saw it. Little Pinky. There it was in the hands of a stranger. Immediately, I ran over and yelled 'THAT'S MY CAMERA!' My friends came to my defense, and the theifs friend was able to throw a punch at my friend, Peter (from Mizzou, but studying in Brussels), before the theif ran off. Peter's nose started bleeding. The scene escalated. Though I desperately wanted to go after my camera, I decided that the better decision would be to stay with Peter and the rest of my friends. It would be stupid to run off after a piece of technology when my friend was bleeding from my nose, and a couple of the other guys were getting into fights with friends of the sketchball theif. We stuck a tampon up Peter's nose (the joys of hanging out with 6 girls...), and decided it was time to leave.



Outside of this incident, the night was unbelievably fun. I would have loved every minute of it, but alas, a dark, dark shadow hangs over Saturday, April 4th.



On a side note, if you see a man running around Brussels, wearing a black sweate with white stripes, carrying around a camera that looks like this, let me know. I miss my camera. And, yes, this picture is downloaded off the internet. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my camera.

I'll Miss...Tri Pi

I've decided that one month is officially not enough time. I need more time in Brussels. Could someone please call up Father Time and tell him to press pause for a little bit?

Regardless, I'm going to have to leave eventually (whether I like it or not). So, I've started noting all of the things that I'm going to miss desperately as I return to the States. The first, and probably most important of these is Tri Pi.

In the first couple of weeks, I quickly established a solid group of girlfriends here in Brussels. Five other girls from my program and I got on flawlessly. We immediately began hanging out together and bonded over small stuff, like inside jokes. All six of us, as it turns are, are members of sororities back at Mizzou (some of us in the same ones, others not). So, we decided it would be fun and funny to establish one for the six of us here in Belgium. We called our fake sorority Tri Pi. It has a meaning behind it, but if I gave that away, I’d be betraying our rituals ;). These girls are my best friends here, and I’ve even started missing them on weekends when we don’t all travel together. I know that I’m going to miss all of them terribly when I return to the States. Luckily, we all go to Mizzou, so we’ll see each other; it’s just not going to be the same as spending every day with them. I really do love each one of these girls and I’m so glad I got the chance to experience this semester with them.

I added pictures of either all of us, or some of us, in different locations. That first one is all six of us in Barcelona. We went to a bar called "Chupitos," where they had a shot called Tri Pi. Though none of us are really shot girls, we had to do it. It had the same name as our fake sorority!

Here are some other ones: Us at dinner in Barcelona, at Albert Dock in Liverpool, on the steps of the Sacre Couer in Paris, and, of course, grabbing a couple of bottles of wine while sitting along the Seine River.

I can't imagine my time here without them. They really made my Brussels experience what it has been.

Just Touched Down in LondonTown

Ah, back to London for a weekend and how great it felt! I've been anticipating this past weekend for a couple of months now (ever since we confirmed the syllabus for our course, actually!). The Missouri-Brussels program traditionally takes one major trip away from Brussels as a class. This semester, we were lucky enough to go to London. I was extremely excited, as I have a handful of friends studying there, family, and a liking for the city.

For our class, we had to be in town by 10:15 Friday morning. The cheapest tickets were for a 7 a.m. train, so we left our apartments at 6 a.m. How wonderful... We arrived very at 8 a.m., we gained an hour with the difference in time zones. First things first, the 7 of us that were on this train headed to South Kensington to drop our bags off at the flats of the Missouri students studying in London. Then, we hoped back on the tube and headed to The Economist, were we were meeting our classmates and coordinator, Gareth.

Our visit to The Economist was incredible. I never thought I would be one interested in reading the magazine, but I actually really enjoyed the time we spent there, learning about it, understanding it, etc. In fact, I wouldn't mind reading it regularly (I know...big gasp). We met with several different people, from those working on the .com site, to multimedia planners and advertising and branding representatives. It was great, to say the least.

Afterwards, we had a couple of hours to wander before our next scheduled meeting. We headed towards Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye and Westminster Abbey. These were all spots I'd seen before, but they somehow seemed different than the last time I was in London. Perhaps, it was the fact that it wasn't the hottest day recorded in all of London's history...I'm not sure though. That's just a theory.

Right after this, we headed to meet with a couple of guys that worked for political think tank, the Center for European Reform. I'm not sure I have ever been more impressed with any two people in my life. The two men, Hugo Brady and Tomas Valasek talked to us about their jobs, daily activities, etc. They asked us more questions than we could answer, which, instead of making me feel dumb, inspired me to learn more about foreign policy and international relations. We were there for a good hour before heading out to meander through more of London.


Afterwards, it was arranged for us to meet up with the Missouri School of Journalism students on the London program. We headed to a pub called O'Neils near the Earl's Court tube stop (close to where they live) and enjoyed a couple of drinks and some food. It was the perfect ending to the day. Just afterwards, We parted ways with Gareth, and all the students headed back to the flats to get ready for a night on the town.

The next day, my best friend from Mizzou, Peter, and I headed to Portobello Market. Since I had been to Camden Market the first time around, I wanted to go somewhere a little different. Portobello was only slightly different, in that it was more of one large street and sold more antiques than Camden. It was really fun to hedge our way through the streets and shop around. I bough a new purse, which I love. I've been carrying it around ever since. We also grabbed lunch at the market. They have all sorts of different ethnic foods. We both opted for brats, though. I was a little wary of trying Indian food at the Portobello Market, seeing as I've never had it anywhere else, either!

We spent most of our afternoon here, then headed back to meet up with the other kids and see what the plans were for that night. After dinner, we all gathered in Pete's apartment (there were at least a dozen of us...tight space!) to watch the Mizzou game streamed through the internet. Oh, how lucky we are to have the technology we do! Unfortunately, the Tigers lost. They still had an amazing season! After the game, we headed to a bar called "Crazy Larry's" for my friend Marissa's 21st Birthday.

The next morning, I headed to a late brunch/early breakfast with cousins Scott and Becky. Once again, we were in the same city. It was great to see them one last time, catch up, and get a great meal. We went to a little cafe called "The Troubador." It was delicious and the cafe itself was really cute. Afterwards, I headed back to the Earl's Court flats. Because there was just a little over an hour and a half before I had to leave for the train station, Peter, his roommate (and my friend from reporting last semester) Adam, and I headed to Abbey Road. I had wanted to see this ever since my trip to Liverpool. It was also one of the many things in London I hadn't done before. I decided to check it off of my list of to-do's.

We signed the wall, leaving our names there for at least a couple of days (they must repaint it at least once a week)! I, obviously, took a picture. I had to have proof of my signature there!

We didn't get to take a Beatle-y picture crossing the street, but it was very cool to do anyways. Finally, Pete and I took a picture in front of one of the few Abbey Road signs, so I would have that as proof too! Soon after, I had to head back to the flats to grab my bag and meet up with the other Brussels girls so that I could head home.

Overall, I'd say it was a successful weekend. Oh, and did I mention, they sell Dr. Pepper in London. I grabbed 4 to stuff in my purse for my return to Brussels :). All's well that end's well!