Nothing Comes Close to the Belgian Coast.

Seeing as the majority of our group of friends wandered off to Croatia for the weekend, Mary and I decided to have some adventures of our own!


Friday night, VeCo student government held a beer chugging competition at the KK. A few observations about this event:

• Chugging Juplier is a bit more difficult that chugging Coors or Bud Light.
• There was a girls contest, and a boys.
• Each round had four people in it, and the first 2 to finish moved on to the next round.
• Round 1, 1 beer, round 2, 2 beers, round 3, 4 beers, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the final round was 10 beers. 
• A majority of the people competing could not chug to save their lives, I was embarassed for them.
• I was knocked out in the first round, by the girls who ended up winning, and placing second. I was super embarrassed.
• I let this gathering early with a group of friends and headed off to Delerium, yet again, where we were scolded by the bartenders for singing happy birthday to our friend Jane at midnight. WTF.
• Eventually made it home, only to wake up at 8 to catch a train to Ostend the next morning:)

So Saturday, Mary, Ellie and I took a trip to the coastal town of Ostend for the day :) It was only a 70 minute train ride, and the weather was supposed to be nice for once, so it all worked out quite nicely! And now for some observations about Ostend:

• The seafood in this town was absolutely to die for. I don't even like seafood all that much and I was in heaven. 
• It was a very dog friendly town, all of the dogs made me smile.
• For the second time, I saw someone with their cat on a leash in public. SO strange.
• The sun was out all day, the sky was the bluest I've seen in a long time, and the clouds were so fluffy and perfect!
• The beach was beautiful, & I could have easily gone swimming right then and there.
• Having the sand between my toes was refreshing & much needed.
• There were so many older couples just sitting together on benches, or at cafes enjoying a drink and the views, but most of all each others company. It really made me believe in love again seeing how easily it was to see how much these couples were still in love, after so many years.
• Mary and I sat at a cafe across from the beach for what seemed like forever soaking up the sun and enjoying a drink (see above picture :])
• The city had the most beautiful park, that reminded us of the Secret Garden with fun benches and sculptures.

Mary and I have decided that the best way to experience Belgium is just to wander around and see what you can find. You never know what you'll stumble across, it might just be life changing.

So my advice to you today is to explore. Just wander, there's an entire world just waiting to be discovered!

First Week of Classes...

Is almost over! And with that said, I will revert to my original style of blog posts, OBSERVATIONS!

• My stats class will be the death of me. Kthanks.
• My History of post war Europe class will be bomb diggity, My professor seems to have missed her calling as a model, as she looks like an Ecuadorian Barbie doll, & is gorgeous. Yet she's writing her PHD work on the history of prostitution. Badass? I think so.
• My Finance professor is a crazy German man with the last name of Rambow. "not like the crazy guy in the movies, but I have my inflatable muscles in the car if needed." He also told us how to spot a German tourist, and we learned a bit about finance too. 
• Finance will be the best class ever.
• Casey's host mom Maria is finally back from Spain, & she is amazing. She only speaks Spanish and French, so I went over to diner last night to help translate for Casey :) 
• Maria is a phenom, and we spent the night talking about Spain, and drinking this delicious alcohol made from walnuts, but looks like seriously filthy water.

And now for some more observations about Brussels in General:

• People trip over cobble stones daily. They're all uneven, stupid little shits sneak up on you, or disappear all together when you're walking, I swear. Forget wearing heels of any kind in this city.
• There is dog shit everywhere. When you're not avoiding uneven or missing cobble stones, you're side stepping massive piles of soggy dog shit. GROSS.
• The metro system here is freaking amazing. I'm obsessed.
• Text books here are cheap, and are all in paperback,  and the editions aren't updated like every semester, so you can get them used. THANK THE LORD.
• I have never seen so many H&Ms in a 4 block radius. It's like Starbucks in NYC, one on every block.
• I CANNOT WAIT FOR SPAIN AND PORTUGAL FOR FALL BREAK!
• Running around my neighborhood and park near my house is phenomenally beautiful. 
• Take THAT waffles and beer and chocolate that's been making me fat!
• Mary has finally moved into her host family's house! Well, kind of a host family, more like a crazy hilarious Greek man named Alex who I cannot WAIT to meet!

ANYway. Mary and I are adventuring to the coast this weekend while it's still kinda warm. I will try my hardest to go swimming. 

Hope all my friends at home are enjoying the ridiculous heatwave :)
Until next time

The Tribe Has Spoken!

WOW. The past few days have been a whirlwind of excitement and shenanigans! I guess we will start with the school sponsored bar crawl on Friday night! We of course pregamed this fine event at Casey's lovely house, which is conveniently like 6 blocks from my apartment, and another 5 minute walk to school! around 9 we headed to the KuulturKafe or the KK as we like to call it, which is the on campus bar, and met up with a group of seriously like 50 other VeCo kids, walked to the metro, and mobbed on down to the infamous Delirium Cafe to start out the night.  Had a few beers there, then went next door to the tequila bar, which had over 500 types of tequila.  Goodness gracious. But heaven forbid we get tequila at a tequila bar.  Laura, Brendan, Mary and I split what I like to call the "fishbowl mojito."

Please note my empty mojito glass next to the fishbowl as well. Needless to say, it was freaking delicious, and was pretty much game over for all of us... We then got separated from the group, and ended up sitting on the ground of the Grand Place for like 30 minutes waiting for the others to find us.  Then I could not tell you where we went next, but the streets were blocked off and there was grass where streets and sidewalks should be.  I'm pretty sure we danced at some sort of salsa bar. Then Karl and I navigated the bus, We had to take the 08 Wiener. (I kid you not, Wiener, I giggled about it for a while) bus which got us pretty close to home.

Needless to say I did NOT wake up for the 10 am tour of Brussels the next day.

But today was phenomenal, as I adventured through Brussels with, as Casey has so lovingly named us, The Tribe. Starting with a flea market, which was an experience to say the least! we then navigated the metro to the King's palace that is open as a museum for only 2 months during the summer, which was awesome, and grand, and beautiful! Thennn we went to the gorgeous park across the street and grabbed some drinks and food at this precious cafe! We decided to explore more of the city center next, but stumbled across some annual Urban BBQ, and got some free chips and FREE BEER!!! WOOOO! We're seriously stumbling across some of the greatest things in Brussels, which I absolutely adore.  After, we explored the Grand Place area more, Saw the pissing boy AND girl statues, got some more waffles, then headed over to where Juliann and Will live, which is conveniently by The Old Oak pub, which will be our weekly meeting place for Monday night Pub Quiz!


This city just keeps getting better and better.
Classes start tomorrow, but seeing as I don't have any Monday classes, I will spend my day grocery shopping, finding my classroooms, and a trip to Mobistar.


WOOOO BRUSSELS!

Orientation!

So yesterday was orientation!!!! Oh my goodness, I thought I was excited before, NOW I'm excited! I met so many new and fabulous people from all over the country, and even a few more people from California :)  The actual orientation was pretty boring, all information we'd heard over and over again.  Went on a campus tour, which was... interesting to say the least.  Then to lunch which was also...interesting. I had frites for lunch. Yes please. AND you can get wine and beer with your lunch in the campus cafeteria, which is awesome.

But by far my favorite part of orientation is the fact that the student government held a get together at the campus bar, and is also sponsoring a bar crawl tomorrow night, and a chugging contest and beer pong night next week.  My school promotes binge drinking. Oh Belgium, you're incredible.

I rounded out my night by going to the infamous Delirium bar, which has the largest collection of beer in the entire world. Needless to say it was the greatest bar ever.  I went with a group of people from VeCo that I had met that day and they are freaking amazing.  Everyone I've met so far has been so wonderful, and fun, and I'm so excited for this fabulous semester.

On a side note, went to a McDonalds last night, they serve beer. The McFlurrys are AWESOME.  Not only do you pick your mix in like m&ms or oreos, you also get to pick like, a sauce for it, like chocolate or strawberry.  AND they have funny names for all of they're sandwiches and burgers which makes me giggle.  And as per usual, the people watching was phenom

More updates to come this weekend I'm sure!

New Friends!

So this afternoon I met up with some other students from Vesalius, and it was absolutely fabulous! We me up around noon-ish (communicating and meeting with people without cell phones is an adventure!) then we went to get some phones for three of the girls who had just gotten there, and thennnnn hung at a bar for a little for some drinks! after that we ventured to Carly's casa, which conveniently is SUPER close to my flat, then to the metro to get our metro passes, then Carly, Mary, Brendan and I went to go check out the Grand Palace and grab some more beers :) Then Brendan and I navigated public transportation home (he conveniently is staying on the same street my family is staying on!)


All in all, it was fabulous, all the people I have met so far are absolutely amazing, and I am SUPER stoked for orientation tomorrow!!! Words cannot describe!! Belgium is going to be AMAZING!!!

Amsterdam.

So, I just got back from a phenomenal overnight trip to Amsterdam.  Pretty much, I'm in LOVE with this city! When we first arrived in the train station and walked outside, I was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of bicycles.  Honestly, you cannot even begin to imagine.  The people watching was also phenomenal.  I was amazed to find that the locals speak excellent English and were super friendly, which only enhanced the experience!
Now, I shall begin my lists of observations:

• The trains smell horrible, but what else is new.
• The street performers were legit, a man with a didgeridoo and a synthesizer, another man with a cello playing pop songs.  
• While in the red light district, I noticed that some of the hookers were kinda fat.  Not to be mean or anything, but that wasn't really what I was expecting...
• THE BEER IS AMAZING. SO much of it!
• SO. MUCH. WEED.  obviously.
• Lots of dogs. Especially beagles, random.
• CATS EVERYWHERE! We went to this one bar for dinner, and this cat just strolled through, hopped up onto the bar and the bartender (who was damn fine btw) gave him some water.  Freaking legittt.  A lot of the stores also had store cats.  So precious.  Especially the cats strolling through the red light district along with all the people.
• Bought some books in a bok store, and the cashier was from Palo Alto.  RANDOM. But amazing. 
• Stumbled upon a beautiful wedding for a gay couple, which made me so unbelievably happy that more and more people are finally getting to experience the beauty of marriage that they too deserve.  
• The shopping was phenom. Shopping in Europe will be the death of me.

Welp, Amsterdam was absolutely amazing, & I will for sure be making multiple trips there this semester.  I'm in love. 

A Few More Observations...

A few more observations I've made today...

• If I see one more Euro wearing a Yankee hat or shirt, I'm going to shoot myself.  WHAT on earth is the appeal of the Yankees? I bet you don't even know what baseball is.
• Do not, I repeat, DO NOT eat the Mexican food.
• MULLETS. There are tons of them.  & they are awesome.  (note above photo)
• Almost every other woman is pregnant, or has a stroller with a baby or small child in it.
• A lot of older women wearing lace bras that you can CLEARLY see through the shirts they are wearing.
• The beer is delicious. So is lemon Fanta.

That's my updated "Did you know that..... Now you KNOW!"
Thanks Bill Nye.

Off to learn some French.
Thanks Rosetta Stone.

A Few Observations..

Okay so having been here for a few days now, I'm starting to notice somethings about Belgian/European culture that I find fascinating.

• There are an overwhelming number of men wearing pink shirts. Polos, t-shirts, hot pink, light pink, magenta.
• Not so many fanny packs, but plenty of socks with sandals.
• Almost everyone smokes. I knew it was big here, but the public works guys have giant outdoor vacuums to keep up on all of the cigarette butts everywhere.
• Speaking of public works, they all wear ridiculous jumpsuits, & it's awesome.
• My brother got some cereal that is essentially Captain Crunch filled with Nutella.
• THERE ARE REAL LIFE GYPSIES!
• Brussels is a fabulous place to play "your team"
• The men here are gorgeous, I can get used to that.
• Orange Fanta here is pretty much carbonated orange juice. Orangina if you will.
• It's weird seeing european people decked out in Hollister or Abercrombie.
• French radio stations that play all American music.
• RIDICULOUS rollerblade party mobs cruising through town with a DJ in a truck.

Pretty much, Belgium is awesome. That's all... for now.

First Full Day!

So my wonderful adventure began yesterday! I flew out of LAX at 5:30 yesterday, then connected to another flight at London Heathrow to Brussels! I definitely did not sleep on either flight, but I did get a few movies in! (Clash of the Titans, How to Train Your Dragon, Valentines Day, She's Out of Your League, & Toy Story) Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED when We finally crammed 4 people & 7 suitcases into a station wagon taxi that took us to our SWEET apartment. My parents & brother ventured out to grab something to eat, but I was pretty dang tired so I hit the sack, hard. Hahah

After a much needed, fabulous night of sleep, I woke up this morning ready to explore the amazing city that is Brussels. We walked across the city to where Vesalius College is, and explored a little! Then after some wandering, getting lost, and having a very nice little Belgian man save us with directions, we ventured to the city center and the Grand Place. Did a little shopping, got my cell phone all squared away (pretty sweet if I do say so myself!) and had an awesome lunch at a precious cafe that my mother compared to "The Belgian version of a Dennys" Wow mom, needless to say it was nothing like a Dennys. As soon as we had ducked into the cafe for lunch, it started to rain, pretty hard, and continued pretty much every time we attempted to walk anywhere. So we bought a few umbrellas and stopped into another cafe for a beer when the rains became torrential. Then we started to make our way back to our apartment once the rain let up a bit. Then stopped by a mini market of sorts and my brother and I scoped out some of the rather, interesting foods. (pickle, Ketchup, and barbecue ham flavored potato chips, & other various european things)

So needless to say, I'm a huge fan of this city, and CANNOT WAIT to start school in a few weeks! Not speaking the language had been a little frustrating, yet has motivated me further to learn, and immerse myself further into this incredible culture.

Every day is a new adventure, take full advantage.