Brussels & Brugge, Belgium

Fries, and beer, and waffles, and chocolate, oh my!

Unfortunately I didn't write anything down during my trip to Belgium two weekends ago, but I'll try to adequately inform everyone on just how spectacular this place is.

Tastes like apples!

I went there with 7 of my friends - which makes mostly all of API Grenoble's year students - plus our friend Stephanie's boyfriend from the Netherlands, Alex, who joined us later. We did this thing called couch surfing, which allows travelers to stay with residents of a city for free. As a large group we stayed with a nice guy named Mathijas, and then later we split into two smaller groups, and my group stayed with an amazingly nice, generous, intelligent guy about our age named Lennert, while the other group stayed with this pretentious, arrogant, Frenchman named Dimitri.

During our time in Brussels we ate the fries, waffles, and chocolate that are so raved about, and drank the beer that is usually exalted. Yes, Aunt Cathy, I tried the cherry beer! It was good, but I have a notion that you liked it better than I! We pretty much survived on these foods the whole trip, or very nearly. I could do without eating fries for a while.

Also, Brussels, as a bilingual city, is a very interesting concept. People speak French and Dutch, and a lot speak English as well. Lennert told me that outside of Brussels, in the predominantly Dutch speaking areas of Belgium, French isn't second, but third following English! Dutch is just between German and English when looking at linguistic lineage. Belgians are very nice, too. Much less hostile (read - more welcoming) than the French. Though, surely, the French are welcoming too (just watch out for those Parisians)!

We drank beers in a park, and one day went and visited the Atomium which was good to see, but we just goofed around. Sometimes while in Europe, you actually forget that people take vacations here - living out dreams. We actually live here, and the idea is just bizarre. One night, while in our separate groups, we took ourselves (couch surfing host included) to the other group's place, as their host was having a party. We got there at 11, and the party was dead - not to mention that Dimitri was rude to Shawn when she asked where our friends were. Oh well, we had fun sitting in our corner making fun of his apartment.

One day we took a train to Brugge, which is said to be the Venice of Northern Europe. It's full of canals and cute houses. That's another thing - I really did love the architecture in Belgium (from what I saw). Lots of brickwork that reminded me of what I imagine America's big colonial cities to have. Once we got of the train we bought things for a picnic, and after a stop for fries, we walked a ways and found a nice grassy patch to sit on. Then, after walking around a bit, we found an open air market.

This isn't even everyone! Atomium.

Still not everyone. Big group, one room.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and a very lovely city. I would definitely go back, and I even read that 23% of Brussels' population is foreign, so you never know. I could stay!

Grottes de Choranche

In mid-March we went to see the caves of Choranche. Everything was lovely! Though, I don't have any pictures of the actual insides, but let me assure you that there were stalagmites and stalactites aplenty! Here's one from Wikipedia: click!

Pictures from Spain

Reading by the fire in the farmhouse.

Orange picking.

My room in the farmhouse.

Part of the million buildings of Al Alhambra.

On our hike.

Hike continued.

Twenty candles!

View from the farmhouse.

Spring Break in Spain

Well, dearest. Nearly a month's gone by my last post. I don't blame any of you if you've left the edge of your seat to get a mug of coffee in anticipation of my next endeavor and decided that there's no point and that you shan't ever return. Really, though, I'm about to flood this whole blog with posts because I now have a sufficient amount of time.

So, starting February 24th and going until March 6th, I was in Granada, Spain. I went with two friends - Allison and Emma - and we stayed with an eccentric family friend of Emma's named Paul, or to his Spanish friends, Pablo.

For starters, we took a bus to the south of Spain. It took more than a day to get there from Grenoble. No, really. Literally more than 24 hours. And actually it took two busses to get there - one full of people going to Portugal, and the second full of Spaniards. The countryside was absolutely beautiful, though. We had fantastic views of miles of olive groves. Turns out we were going through Jaén, Spain, which is apparently the largest olive producing province in the world.

We met Pablo at the bus station. He was a very nice, very hospitable person. Over dinner we shared stories, and he asked us to help him with things around the house if we could, especially electronics, saying "I don't know how electricity isn't just leaking out of the walls." One thing I wrote down that I noticed about Spain/Granada: it's a lot like California aesthetically.

The next day we had a nice pastry breakfast and then bussed into town. We toured Granada, eating tapas, going to St. Nicolas Square, meeting Pablo's friend, looking at all the gorgeous buildings and markets. We then had a nice view of Al Alhambra from our table in the Sacramente neighborhood. It was very warm that day.

We woke up the next day and bought more pastries from the bakery and then went for a hike. It lasted about three and a half hours and was full of picturesque natural beauty. I found the perfect rock for Heather too! We then went back to Paul's for dinner and then went to his jam session. He plays many instruments, but most notably he can play the saxophone and clarinet at the same time. The same time!


The next day, the 28th of February, we did another tour of the city, and were pretty tired when we got back. We ended up watching an American tv show on the Disney channel over there and it was actually pretty funny.

On March 1st we went to Granada to tour the Al Alhambra. Afterward we went into town and did some shopping, including groceries we would need for Pablo's farm house which was further south yet!

On the 2nd, we loaded the car and drove to Ambra which was where I saw my first coastline of the Mediterranean. The farm house was really charming, if a little primitive. We picked oranges right from the tree, through, and no orange has ever tasted as good! I spent the day reading, mostly, which was quite enjoyable.

The next day, the 3rd, was my birthday and the girls made pancakes. Pablo, working in the yard, told us that there was some honey in the cupboard. We took everything out to the table and noticed that the honey was quite old, but when Pablo came in and started applying it to his pancake Emma tried to stop him but he replied (nearly scoffing) "How old is salt? How old is sugar, huh? Details." Ok, Pablo. Details. The glory, or one of the glories, of this day was the hammock I got to lay in. There's almost nothing more than a hammock that I love. I spent this day reading too. That night we had cake and really good champagne, and I touched a lizard!

The 4th was yet another day spent reading, this time by the fire. Pablo went out for a while and eventually we left to go back to Granada, and it was late when we got home.

The last day we were up and at the bus station in no time and eventually on the long bus ride back to Grenoble. At one point I was sitting next to a grandmother and her screaming grandchild. "¡ABUELA!" is all I can really remember.

Hunky Dory in Dijon

Well, dear readers. It's been far too long since you were last updated! As Spring is starting to swing here in Grenoble, I figured that I too must add some fresh new leaves to the mangled tree that is my blog. Starting with our excursion to Dijon and Beaune that happened a month ago.

We watched Lord of the Rings as we bussed to Dijon, and let me tell you, that movie is nothing if not in English and on a bigger screen than that in the bus. However, I'll let that pass. This time. We rolled into Dijon and weren't too impressed. It was nice, except for the way that it looked dirty and boring. We drove to the hotel where we had to put our things in this side room because our rooms weren't clean yet. We had heard that they eat slow in the Burgundy region, but apparently they do everything else slow too! We were allowed an hour to explore before our tour was to start. We left the hotel, passing the Hunky Dory nightclub on the way. Pfff. Hunky Dory.

We spent our hour eating lunch and looking inside a mustard shop. They had a million different flavors for sale, including chocolate, but I bought nothing because at the time I was convinced that a mustard tour was in our Dijon itinerary. But it wasn't. So disappointed and empty handed I was! Our tour was led by this man with a voice uncannily like a woman's (I was skeptical). We saw the town, but didn't really... go anywhere. We entered one small building, and frankly, I'm unsure as to why. After the tour, we went back to the hotel, got our rooms, and all took naps. We then went out for dinner and this lovely little restaurant, and most of us ate Boeuf Bourguinon, which is typical of this area. And delicious.

Carrie and I in Hunky Dory

We then went back to the hotel to see Emma's gigantic room, and have a night in. However, as I was getting into my pajamas I got an urgent call from Allison saying that Stephanie and Brady were going to sing karaoke together at the Hunky Dory. So we all rushed across the street to see the spectacle. After being forced to order a drink in order to stay (it was disgusting), and bothered by the waiter, and an old man offering us "magic" (while rubbing his fingers together), we finally saw them sing "What is Love?" which was great. Others in our group picked songs to sing, but it was taking almost an hour to get to them so we left. It was ridiculous, but that's what we get for going to a place called Hunky Dory.

Hannah and I

The next day we went to Beaune which is a much prettier place than Dijon. We had a wine tasting and tour of a winery, and then had lunch and pastries. We then met and went into this old hospital with a funny colored roof. It was interesting, and our guide was great.

Next up: Spring Break in Spain!

Le Fromage Est Battu

A

Shivers

Where to start, where to start? Winter Break at home was very, very nice. Surprising everyone was a great treat that I'll never, ever forget. It was so nice to see everyone I could... If I missed you, I apologize endlessly. There's just not enough time in a month!

I got back to Grenoble (no airport debacles this time) January 16th, and had to jump right into things. Seeing people, settling into my new host family's house, starting school, avoiding posting on my blog for no good reason. The more I waited, the more I forgot so really, I have no idea what this blog will be about. I just feel the need to tune everyone back in.

First and foremost, it's so very uncomfortably cold. Yes, it's now February, and yes, it's the Alps, but we're all sick of it. Well... I speak for myself and the other year students. We have about a million new Spring Semester students and I don't know how they feel about it. To boot, all of us are at different periods in our physical sickness. I'm just getting over a cold that started Thursday, others are just getting sick, and some have been sick for a while. Simply put, we're waiting for Spring. If I see one flake of snow - no, this goes for most of us - I'm going to throw a tantrum. Talking with a friend while walking to class today, we decided how weird it was that we had done the same walk many a time, just in clothing suited for much warmer weather. "What's a t-shirt?" "What do you mean you had to unpack your coat? Shouldn't it be like skin here? Aren't people always wearing them?" It's ridiculous. Also, the bus stop near my house is close to a bank that has this large sign alternately displaying the time, some random numbers I've yet to figure out (131? 1 31? 13 1? I don't know.), and the temperature. Usually this temperature says 0°, or sometimes it's in the negatives, and rarely +3°, the latter of which I don't really take seriously (denial sets in). But by golly, when that early morning comes when it has a higher degree than 0... Oh, happy day! That'll be the biggest news to report to everyone I talk to that day. Also, let's not forget that this is celsius, people. Worst news: my new host family doesn't turn the heating on... so... yeah...

What's next... Classes are going well. My level this semester is B2.4 (originally B2.2 but everything got crazy with the levels) which just means that... I'm at the top of the advanced? So... yeah, if B1 is intermediate? See?! Do you see how confusing this is? None of the levels are the same as last semester, but there's still a B1 - B2 distinction. Anyway, what matters is that I really like my teacher - she's much more organized and much less belittling than my teacher from last semester. Who! By the way! Is teaching the B2 vocab class now, and people are switching into the translation class instead because they don't like her. Makes me wanna stick my tongue out at her... although, she's a nice person - just not the best teacher. For electives I have Contemporary Literature with the best teacher at the school (everybody thinks so) and I'm currently reading a great book for that class called Voyage de Noces by Patrick Modiano; I'm also taking Translation which was supposed to be with this nutter, but she's not so bad; World Affairs which is pretty interesting - taught by a very nice lady; and finally Francophone Literature which so far is incredibly boring and taught by a lady who doesn't know when class begins, so naturally she starts early (before everyone is there) at which point she gives out all the pertinent information like how class will be going an extra half an hour that day so when the usual end time rolls around, half the class in beyond confused as to why she hasn't stopped talking which eventually sparks Stephanie to raise her hand and tell her that time is up (we all nod our heads in encouraging agreement) but gets told this nonsense of an extra thirty minutes that she had talked about at the "beginning" of class. GOD!

My new host family is rather lovely. Besides the house being cold, I like it a lot. So far no crazy bugs! Just a dog that needs a bath (but seems quite happy), and a very talkative cat who meows "help" instead of "meow," but I'm the only one that hears it as they're not so accustomed to English words. Though, I've been told they speak English - we just haven't used it. For a while I was convinced that someone was in danger.

Outside of school... not much has gone on so far. The first weekend we went out one night to a bar to welcome all of the new kids. Last week we played Laser Tag and I placed 5th both times (last semester it was 4th and then 11th... ha!). Saturday is Shawn's birthday so we're having a crêpe party. Hmm... I'm sure once the sun comes out we'll speed things up. You guys! I just really want things to get warm. Ugh. We're planning trips as we have two Spring breaks! For the first one, Emma and I would like to go to Spain and Ireland, which means, if all goes according to plan, that I'll have an Irish birthday this year! The second one I think I'm going to Prague, Vienna, and Berlin with Allison and maybe some others. Also, for a long weekend at the end of March, eight (give or take) of us are going to Brussels! Yes, Aunt Cathy, I'll be sure to try that cherry beer.