California Dreamin'

Not gonna lie, now that I've been here for 2 months, the weather's getting a little gloomy, combined with the fact I've had some down time, and trying to avoid studying for midterms, I find myself missing a few things from home!

• FOOTBALL. No, not soccer, I get enough of that here, and I could care less (except some of the players are beautiful so I don't mind watching them prance around the field for a while). With the start of NFL regular season & college football, I'm going absolutely insane not being able to plop on a couch for Sunday football, or venturing to SJSU south campus for tailgating shenanigans an some sub-par Spartan football. With SJSU's homecoming football game this past weekend and missing out on what sounds like one of the most epic tailgates in a while, I find myself missing my SJ family SO much. But I always keep it in the back of my mind that I'll be back in a matter of months to wreak havoc with my SJ loves again :)
• DRYERS. Doing laundry here sucks, as I've stated before, even more so when it takes even longer for clothes to dry in the winter, making it exponentially more sucky. 
• FOOD. mainly BAGELS: There's an entire section for Philadelphia cream cheese in the super market, but no bagels, ANYWHERE. I have never missed Goldsteins or House of Bagels more than I do now. However, Mary, Casey, & Jules have discovered a bagel shop owned by American expats, which I am determined to find. BURRITOS: Both the regular & breakfast varieties. I crave them constantly. I've failed miserably in my attempt to recreate them in my own kitchen here. What do I have to do to get some Lucky Boy or La Vics up in here? IN-N-OUT: I don't know how you out of staters do it, but I miss it, OH SO much. There's also other various food items, none of which I can recall at the moment, but obviously local food establishments like Imports, Franks Famous, Lucky Boy, Kogi truck, Dish ect. ect.
• SWEAT PANTS. There are some days I wish it was socially acceptable to wear a pair of yoga pants to class, or in public in general.  Wore a pair the other day just to run into VeCo to print some homework out, and people definitely judged me. Damn you Europe and your affinity for always looking put together! My new favorite thing is wearing my sweats on the metro in the midst of rush hour on my way to yoga. Take THAT fashonistas!
• INDIAN SUMMERS. I know you all have been complaining about the 100+ degree days you've been having in California, but I am letting you know how unbelievably jealous I am. All I can think of at the moment is the fact that I'll be on a beach in the Canary Islands in 10 days soaking up the 75+ degree sunshine in my now ill fitting bikini. 
• FRIENDS/FAMILY. I cannot tell you how weird it is not seeing my friends and family on a regular basis. Skyping makes it easier, but it's weird that I can only see them via internet and they're half way across the world! Don't get me wrong, I have made some AMAZING friends here in Brussels, but I miss my besties, and the shenanigans we get into in SJ and LA. And my family, well as much as I hate to admit it, I kinda like them, and I do miss them. Especially my puppy dog Margieee! The cat, well, I don't really care one way or the other, he's kind of obnoxious and I don't think he likes me either. My hamster, is adorable, and makes me smile, so I miss her too! 

I think that's enough whining for now. I know I'm in BELGIUM, traveling all over EUROPE and I'm complaining about things I miss about America in my blog. Anyway. Now for some Brussels updates! I didn't do any traveling this weekend, being moderately responsible because midterms are this week, but it didn't stop me from enjoying myself! Every year, the City of Brussels puts on a music and arts festival called Nuit Blanche. It's an all night festival that goes till 5 a.m.  & originated in Paris. Translated exactly it means white night but I guess it's a French phrase that means "sleepless night" so their marketing campaign is "you won't have to count any sheep tonight" and there are sheep all over their advertisements.


Earlier that night I had gone over to Casey's house for her host mom Maria's birthday dinner, which was homemade Paella, and I was in heaven. We finally left there at 11, and hit the streets of St. Catharine in downtown Bruxelles, for some all night shenanigans! There were art displays, some really creepy ones, street performers, interactive art, DJs, bands, and it was AMAZING.

Brendan on the stilts that were some sort of exhibit. Lots of fun, but not a stellar idea with the level of inebriation of the festivals participants!

Some of the artwork. Bicycless!

Everyone was drunk, and beer cans littered the streets. I have NEVER seen so many empty beer cans in my LIFE.

Beer.

We found a super sick DJ and listened and danced and drank for almost 2 hours! Mary, Will, Brendan, Laura and I stayed out all night till 5:30 in the morning when the metros started back up again. The man next to me on the metro who asked if I was from England cracked open another tall can of Juplier on the Metro on his way home. Definition rage train. It was an awesomely fun night, and another one of the million reasons I love Brussles.

This man was our hero. Richard Simmons-esque dance moves that could not be rivaled by anyone in the crowd!

The super sick DJ.

Last Mango in Paris.

This past weekend I went on a trip to Paris with my friend Mary. If you weren't already aware, my parents had bought me tickets to see Jimmy Buffett in concert at a venue in Paris for my birthday this pat July.  Also, if you ANYthing about my family and myself, you know we're a little Buffett crazy, and along with our family friends the Sieplers, a special connection with the song "He Went to Paris" by Mr. Jimmy Buffett, so it was only fitting for myself to see the legend himself in Pa-ree. My parents were gracious enough to send me with an extra ticket so I could bring a friend, (the ever so amazing Mary). Mary had been to Paris several times before, and a HUGE help when it came to navigating the French Metro System and the city in general.  She was my Sacajawea of Paris :)

So our journey began Friday afternoon with the highspeed train ride into Paris Nord station. Because of the French transit strike, the train after ours had been canceled due to lack of staff, and the shoved all of those people onto our train. Lucky for Mary and I we had seats, but were 3 cars away from each other, and seated next to very...interesting French people. We then headed to our hostel, which was the first time both Mary and I had ever stayed in one (we're spoiled, we know!) The Montclaire Montmarte turned out to be a really cool place, despite being under construction during our stay. Breakfast was even included, and it was about a block away from the metro which was awesomely convenient. This was my skepticism of the establishment when we first arrived, which quickly faded as we discovered how awesome this place was!

After we had checked in, it was time to head to the concert! We decided to walk to the concert (google said it was only a 30 minute walk) which turned into us getting lost in traffic circles, and an adventure in itself, but about 50 minutes later, we arrived at our destination, The Olympia for one of the best concerts I have ever attended!

I wish I was able to record the entire concert and upload it for you all, but that is just not feasible, so I'll put up a few clips and pictures for your enjoyment:

Cheeseburger in Paradise:

Fins:

Margaritaville:

He Went to Paris:

Check his outfit, stud muffin.

Cheeseburger hat for Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Now, in my usual fashion, I'll make a few observations in regards to the concert:

• The average age of people in attendance was about 40. 
• The lower level of the concert was standing room only, so for the first few songs Mary and I were near the back, but managed to work our way up to within about 20 feet of the stage!
• The pit at a Jimmy Buffett concert filled with 40-50 year olds is no where as intense as say, the pit for Rise Against at Warped tour, meaning people weren't packed together making it easy for us to make our way to the front of the crowd.
• Most of the old people were wasted, and it was awesome. Double fisting pints of beer, because as sacrilegious as it sounds, there were no Margaritas at a Jimmy Buffett concert. Thanks a lot France.
• I love parrot heads and their strange get ups.Even foreign parrotheads get it.

• I'm trying to find a setlist for the show, because it had a ton of classic Buffett songs including Fruitcakes, Brown Eyed Girl, Volcano, Tin Cup Chalice, Fins, Come Monday, Changes in Lattitude Changes in Attitude, I Would Play for Gumbo, Southern Cross, One Particular Harbor, Last Mango in Paris, and the list goes on!
• Jimmy rocked the performance, he's still got it and is still lookin damn good, you go sir.
• People kept throwing hats up to him on stage an he would wear them, it was awesome, some lady threw her bra onstage too, Jimmy's still got it!
• Mary and I wanted to be the two women background singers, they had super cool coreographed moves.
• Jimmy's guitarist was super hot for an older guy.
• Mac Mackinaley was a G as always.
• Some crazy French performer named Antoine came onstage and did some songs with Jimmy, and it was pretty bad ass.
• There were mostly Americans there, (we met some really redneck/drunk/freaking weird couple from Georgia and a very nice man in a Saints jersey that works for NATO who let us stand in front of them near the front) and a noticeable number of Brits.
• It was easily one of the best concerts I've ever been to, and I'm so greatful my parents gave me this amazing opportunity to see one of my favorite musicians since I was a wee one!

After the concert Mary and I went on a quest to find a bar to get some drinks (because believe it or not, we were sober the entire concert thanks to a HUGE line at the venue's bar), but were unsuccessful, and ended up just heading back to the hostel around midnight. The next Morning, we set out around ten to see the sights of Paris. I don't think Mary or I had ever walked as much as we did that day, but it was amazingly beautiful and SO worth it. We started off by going up to Sacre Cour, which is a beautiful church on a hill that overlooks Paris. It was an awesome way to start off the day, from there, we went to the Arc du Triomphe, and then walked from there to the Eiffel Tower, which by the way, is way farther away than it looks! By this point, my memory card was full of videos from the concert from the night before, and was useless.  An unfortunate lense error on Mary's camera had put her camera out of commission as well. Thank the heavens above that we have the same model of Cannon camera, so with her memory card in my camera, we had ONE functioning camera between the two of us. Clearly we make an amazing team! Here are a few pictures from our Parisian sight seeing extraviganza!

Me near Sacre Cour overlooking Paris & the Eiffel Tower

Mary and I at the Arc du Triomphe, my favorite of all the Parisian monuments.

Mary and I at Notre Dame

Later that afternoon, Mary and I met up with my good Friend A.J. (who I have mentioned in my previous posts, who had come to visit me a few weeks ago) and he showed us around some of the sights of the city including Notre Dame. He's super knowledgeable and told us some amazing info about Paris and it's history.  (He even lives down the street from Ernest Hemingway's flat!) I'm so glad to have such gracious friends who will take time out of their hectic lives to be my own personal tour guide! We even met up with some of his friends that evening and drank some wine (in my case beer) on the grass leading up to the Eiffel Tower (until it was unbearably cold and we left to find the baby bottle bar, which didn't end up working out :( )

We went out for some drinks and crepes, then back to the hostel around 12:30 that night. The next day we did some more sight seeing, including the Louvre, and Moulin Rouge. The Louvre was an absolutely incredible experience, and being able to see works of art like the Mona Lisa and the mass amounts of Asian tour groups was breath taking. We spent the morning there and met up with A.J. for lunch at the Louvre food court, which was kind of expensive, but considering we managed to get into the museum for free with our European visas, I think a plate full of Moroccan food, a drink and dessert for 15 euro was moderately justified...kind of. Paris was a ridiculously expensive city...and I thought Brussels was bad! I had a good time none the less (although my parents bank account may not agree)

Sunday was a loooong day. A lot of things were closed, it was raining, and really cold.  Our train didn't leave until 10:25 and we were done sight seeing around 6, so we killed some time at the hostel, then headed to the train station at 8, where we witnessed quite a few of Paris's surplus population of crazies, and tried not to freeze our butts off.


In short, going to Paris , I had no idea what to expect.  The city is a uniquely beautiful and busy one, filled with so much history.  I think Parisians get a bad rap, seeing as I had no problem with anyone I came across, minus the crazy man on the metro ranting and raving (in French mind you) about people coming to France who are not French and telling people that if you do not speak French, do not come to his country or eat in their restaurants. Okay guy. Paris was amazing, and I will for sure be back in the future!

Want to learn more about Belgium?




^^Click the link, and giggle a bit at the expense of the Belgian Gov't. LOVE.

If there's something strange in your neighborhood, Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters?


I'm not sure how other metro and subway stations are in other cities around the world, but in Brussels, they like to play music. A fabulous and extremely random assortment of songs, which makes the metro even more entertaining than it already is. I cannot tell you how many times I've been standing by myself at a metro stop and must fight the urge to sing along, or break out some of my awesomely Caucasian dance moves.  Now, for your enjoyment, I will compile a list of some of the songs I've recently heard at various metro stops throughout the city, so you too can appreciate the randomness of it all:

• Come on Eileen- by Dexy's Midnight Runners
• Money - by Pink Floyd
• Baby Come on Over - Samantha Mumba
• Crazy - Gnarles Barkley
• Don't Bring Me Down - E.L.O.

And my personal favorite, the GHOSTBUSTERS theme song. Not gonna lie, there's something  pretty badass about jammin' to that song waiting for the metro standing amongst a bunch of old people, and of course, A.J. Rawls who was lucky enough to experience this soundtrack on his first ever metro ride in Brussels.

 There will be more metro playlist updates throughout my stay, so please, stay tuned.



So back to A.J. he is currently studying abroad for the year in Paris, France so he hopped on the train to come see me, (of all people) this weekend. Not going to lie, it was freaking awesome. We did some exploring around the city, discovered a super sweet parade and a super cool playground, that probably wasn't for grown ups, but let's be real, I'm no grown up.

On Saturday, Mary A.J. & I ventured to the Atomium! Woooo. It was a super cool building, and we paid 8 euro to go inside of it. The view was super sweet, but I really wasn't sure what the point of the exhibits inside were. Slash I'm kinda sad we didn't make it to the Atomium in August, because they have it set up so you can zipline off of the top!!

Anyway, it was super fun. Then I got to take A.J. out on both Friday & Saturday night to experience some Brussels night life :) Including Frites, Waffles, and of course Sultans of Kebap. (No, that's not a typo) Although the sign in the picture below may be, or just lost in translation...

We went to a karaoke bar, and let's just say, Casey rocked it :)

Well, That's all for now, I'm off to Amsterdam with some friends from VeCo as well as a few from SJSU this weekend. Updates shortly thereafter.

Belgians & Their Beer: It's a Beautiful Thing.

Goodness it's been a while hasn't it? Well, hope you're ready for this weekly update, cause it's a doosie. 

• Let me begin with our failed attempt at Pub Quiz night. We suck. Definitely placed last, but we will be back tonight with a vengeance!
• So there's this fashion trend that's sweeping the great city of Brussels: Aladdin/parachute pants. I don't know why women wear these things. You neither live in Agraba, or have the name of MC Hammer, you look like an idiot. I will try to snap a pic of these illusive creatures soon.
• Mary and I discovered the Belgian equivilant of Boy Scouts, the Sea Scouts. We shared a train car with them on the way back from Ostend. It's boys and girls ranging from ages like 9-16. Needless to say I wanted to punch them, but most of them were busy punching each other, so they took care of it themselves.
• I don't know what it is about the butter here, but it's delicious.
• Also, I am obsessed with the super markets here. You can buy Mickey Mouse shaped lunch meat. Ever trip to this magical land of food and produce is an adventure in itself.
• Fruit beer is freaking weird.
• Doing your laundry here is a pain in my butt. My washer is in the basement, I live on the 3rd floor.  
• I'm pretty sure they don't believe in dryers here. I have to line dry my clothes like the good ol days. Laundry is like a 3 day process. 
• They have been updating the facade of my apartment building for the past 2 weeks... it was supposed to take 5 days. I'm tired of being woken up by construction at 8 am. Lets get the job done construction guys. 
• Friday was another student gov sponsored event, this time: The Draft Bar then some club.
• The bar was SICK. The bartender juggled and lit the ground on fire!

• The club was kinda cool too! But it was some random place in Brussels so when it came time for us to go home, we luckily figured it out.

Now let me move on to the greatest event in Brussels. BELGIAN BEER FESTIVAL

• Pictures above is how you purchase the beer. The yellow tokens are your deposit for the glass (because every beer has it's own type of glass) You take the yellow token and anywhere from 2-4 bottle caps and get a beer.
• The more caps the beer costs, the stronger/ better the beer is.
• Once you finish your beer, return the glass to the brewer you got the beer from, and they give you your yellow token back, and move onto your next beer. Repeat till you can't stand, or run out of bottle caps.
• One cap is one euro, one yellow token is 2 euro(which you get back when you return the token at the end of the day, unless you manage to break a glass, in that case, you're out 2 euro)
• These guys had a bagpipe leading them into the festival, and a possee. ->

• This is Corey & Dan, along with Will, we went both Saturday, & Sunday, starting around 11 AM and leaving around 5 or 6 each night.
• Please note our festive gnome hats. We got the fo free from the La Chouffe brewery who's logo is a little gnome. There beer was also delicious, and we got free key chains. It was like a gnometastic Christmas hat, complete with bell.
• We wore the hats the rest of the day.

• This banner is awesome, made me feel less fat.  
• I heard more English spoken in these 2 days at the festival than I have my entire month here so far. The amount of Americans there was unreal.
• There were also may families there with their small children with them.  I like their style. "Now mommy and daddy are doing to have some special juice, so run around and collect coasters and throw hopps at people why we have our drinks"
• We met a very nice family from Michigan who have lived in Brussels for 3 years and there 3 boys, who were a riot. New faves.
• Also met another person from Palo Alto. WTF?!

• Above is the highlight of my weekend.
• No not the crazy Spanish man there for his bachelor party, but the glasses of golden goodness in our hands.
• Behold: Westvleteren. Possibly the rarest Trappist beer in the world.
• We waited for 45 min the first day, and 25 the second day. They got a shipment of 28 cases once in the morning, once at 2 in the afternoon. They're gone in less than 5 minutes each time. Unreal.
• Needless to say, it was freaking delicious, and it's an aspiration in life now to consume the other 2 beers brewed by them, that are harder to get your hands on.

• After the beer fest on Sunday, Casey and I went out with some friends to Delirium, again.
• On our way home, we made friends with a fraternity from Amsterdam. They were all matching, even had the same kind of shaggy surfer boy hairdo goin on. 
• They were doing some scavenger hunt of something, sooo Casey and I sang some song with them in Dutch that was probably extremely inappropriate, but hey, it was fun.

Needless to say it was an eventful weekend, and I love Belgium more and more with each passing day!

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