Samedi à Ghent

This Saturday, the lovely Sabine took our group on an excursion to Ghent, Belgium. It was only about a 30 minute train ride from Gare Centrale (the main train station in downtown Brussels). Ghent is located in the Flemish region of Belgium and is a remarkable city. These pictures below are, unfortunately, ones that I had to steal off of my friend's cameras since mid-photo #2 my battery decided to die. It was perfect timing. I had just arrived and I had no way of documenting all of these breathtaking sites.

The first stop on the itinerary was "Gravensteen," Castle of the Counts (pictured right). It was built in 1180 during the Middle Ages. From the top of the castle we had an excellent overview of the city, which was really a little preview of the sights that we would soon see throughout the day.

After standing outside in the freezing cold for a couple of hours, Sabine treated us to a drink at a local restaurant. I had a freshly brewed mint tea that was out of this world....see for yourself (pictured left).



Then we had a free hour to go off on our own and grab some lunch. My friends and I chose "FoodMakers" (I know, how original) where I got a healthy salmon salad sandwich on a fresh multi-grain baguette. Next in line, came the two hour walking tour of Ghent with a fabulously animated tour guide. He led the way to the Belfry Tower, where we got to climb up hundreds of steps to the top (similar to the Cathedral in Cologne). But, this time around, I was prepared for the tiny spiral staircases. Next we went into the St. Nicholas Church, walked through an alley of awesome graffiti, and saw a few other sites along the way. My favorite sight was the one pictured below. There's a river that runs throughout the city and with the sun shining, it was really a sight to see.

After the long, but informative walking tour we visited the "Het Huis van Alijn" museum, which was meant to show us what life was like in Flanders in the 19th century. The museum had formerly been a children's hospital and was situated in a nice quarter. After that we sat down for a drink, again! This time it was in a small French restaurant called "Le Chat Noir." Most of us ordered their specialty hot chocolate, which was out of this world and not-to-mention my first Belgian hot chocolate. Since it was such a large order, the waiter served it all on a platter. We were each given a mug filled with steaming hot milk, which was accompanied by a stick of "special" dark chocolate (that was in the shape of an animal) and a little cookie. The chocolate was meant to be dipped into the mug of milk and swirled around until it dissolved. This was REAL hot chocolate, my friends. You really don't know what you're missing over there in America. We spent about an hour in the restaurant to get nice and toasty.

By 6:00 we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the light show on our way back to the station. The tour guide had been telling us about it and trying to convince us to stay every time we passed an advertisement in town. It was so unbelievable that the majority of the group wanted to stay to see the rest of the show...and so we did! We walked back over to the Bell Tower, which looked as though it had caught on fire, but it was really the lights that had given the building the effect of ablaze. It was the first time that the city decided to do this. Thousands of people roamed the streets gazing at the lights and listening to the music. Here's a link to one of the shows, which were all a part of the Lichtfestival (The Festival of Lights). All over the city, buildings, waterways, and monuments displayed the work of talented artists. Take a look...

We finally arrived back at Gare Central around 9:30. At this point, we were starved and literally went to the first restaurant that we could find. The food was decent, but the company was even better. All in all, it was a long, productive, and yet atypical Saturday.

À bientôt.
Arielle

À Köln, Allemagne

This has been a very interesting weekend, with a lot of firsts. And since I promised to share both the good and the bad with you (in my introductory post), I'll stick to my word.

The beginning of the weekend started off great. I traveled with a bunch of friends to Köln (or Cologne), Germany. Not realizing that it is a fairly small city with very few tourist attractions, we had to come up with a plan for each day to keep us busy. But as soon as we walked out of the train station, my jaw just dropped. There was a gigantic Cathedral standing directly before us. However, this picture (to the right) does not do it justice. Nonetheless, I realized just how American we actually are when all of my peers HAD to make a quick pit stop at the one and only, irresistible Starbucks chain for some good old American coffee, chai tea latté, and a frappuccino. Apparently, Starbucks does not exist in Brussels and, let's face it, the Church wouldn't be going anywhere in the next 10 minutes.

After everyone got refueled, we finally stepped into the Cathedral. It was monstrous and intriguing.

We then dropped our backpacks off in the Pathpoint Cologne Hostel, which was, surprisingly, in a great location, clean, and offered plenty of amenities. Next, we explored the city (since we headed in the wrong direction) and finally made our way over to the Rhine River, which was followed by dinner in an authentic German restaurant.

The night came to an end after meeting up with a few of our other ISA friends and meeting a group of Austrian architecture students who had also come for the weekend to explore the city.

The next day we did quite a bit of hiking, but not in the way that you might expect. We climbed 533 steps to get to the top of the Gothic Cathedral. It took forever and it was a spiral staircase, so we got dizzy going up and even dizzier going down! (This, below, is a picture from the top of the Cathedral).

After working up a sweat, we headed over to Schokoladenmuseum (chocolate museum). We got to see the process of making Lindt chocolate bars and truffles, learned a little bit of chocolate history, and even walked through a mini rainforest inside the building. Let's just say it was well worth the trip & 5 euro entrance fee (the chocolate was DELICIOUS)!

Next came lunch, which was followed by an afternoon of window shopping. Little did we know, there was a major strip of upscale shops, filled with people. The day was coming to an end, so we went back to the hostel to cook dinner with the other group of ISA students that we had been separated from for the last day and a half. We hung out until about 10pm, and then we set out on a different type of excursion...

The final day in Köln seemed to go on forever. We walked across the Hohenzollern Bridge, which was adorned with thousands of padlocks. They're referred to as "love locks" and couples inscribe their names on a lock and attach it to a fence that runs along the length of the bridge.


By this point we had seen just about everything there was to see in the city, except for a couple of art museums. We checked out one of them, the Roman Germanic Museum, which boasted a beautiful exhibition of Roman jewelry, ceramics, and prehistoric finds.

After hanging out at the hostel for a couple of hours, it was time to take the train home. Unfortunately, this is where the weekend takes a turn for the worst. The train took a little bit longer than expected because another train's engine stopped working in front of us, and thus, we were forced to take another route home that was about 40-50 minutes longer. Once off the train, my friend Megan and I tried to find our way home. It was late on a Sunday night and we weren't sure of the schedules for the various types of transportation (metro, tram, bus) that we would need to get home. To make a long story short, while waiting for the tram (which seemed to take forever to come) we got mugged :( I knew we should have taken a cab, but we simply made a really bad decision to go by foot. The police, somehow, got to us just as the two men had taken off and were able to catch them, after a bit of a chase (going against traffic on a main road!). We spent about an hour and a half at the police station giving our statements, but we were very lucky. We were able to get all of our money back and albeit a little (or maybe a lot) of emotional wreckage, we remain physically unharmed. So, lesson learned. NEVER EVER, EVER take public transportation on a Sunday night without a large group of people and ALWAYS go with your gut. Well, as I said in the beginning, here's my version of the good, the bad, and, aboveall, the drastically unexpected.

Au revoir.

La Première Semaine (The First Week)

I can't believe that it's only been one week since I arrived in Brussels. I have met a lot of new people and been on tours galore. I did not realize how much there was to do and see here until my three hour bus tour on Saturday. We passed by the Royal Palace, Atomium (built for the 1958 World's Fair), and numerous other marked attractions. It was very relaxing and a much needed day of rest after a long week. 


Let me backtrack a little....last Tuesday I settled into my new home and took off for my first day of the ISA orientation. The 14 students, who are on my program, all met at the ISA office, which is conveniently located right next to Vesalius College. There is a program director, Sabine, as well as her assistant, Christophe, who work to plan our various excursions and other activities. There are computers and a flat screen TV with couches and free tea/coffee. Sabine and Christophe are both Belgian, but their primary language is Dutch. (Note: Belgians who speak Dutch do NOT like it when people call them Dutch, which apparently happens quite often). We hung out in the office for about an hour, then walked over to the college to discuss what to expect while in Brussels, and concluded the morning with a delicious lunch at a local cafe called Time Square (it almost felt like I was back home in Manhattan!). I got "poulet curry" (curry chicken with crudité--lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.). It was delicious and came in a foot-long baguette. Next, we took the metro to see the Grand Place and had a short tour of the heart of Brussels. Around 5pm we sat down at a café/bar that seemed to be an exhibition of art as well and I had a fresh mint tea with real leaves just seeping in the boiling hot water. Finally, I traveled home with a few of the boys that live close by and had a homemade dinner of cannelloni. 


Wednesday was the first day of orientation for the college. We had a bunch of lectures from the dean and advisors who all spoke in English, which was a nice break since I only converse in French with my host family. I was put in a group with a "buddy" who is a student on the student government and is there to offer advice throughout my stay. She gave the group a little tour of campus. Vesalius College is associated and located right across from University of Brussels, which is a Ducth-speaking university. We are allowed to use all of the major university's facilities. At the end of the tour, we sat down for a (free) lunch at the cafeteria on campus where I had filet of sole with julienne vegetables and potatoes. That evening we had a meet and greet on the bar (which, yes, was on campus). I didn't make it home in time for dinner, so I went out with a few friends for an extremely late meal (of cheese fondue--which unexpectedly was more like fried cheese) at a local restaurant near my house. 


Thursday and Friday are beginning to blend together, but I had a French written and oral placement exam on Thursday morning. Apparently, I placed into the advanced course, which I hope to be able to handle. Then I met up with some friends downtown for lunch and again walked around. I tried a belgian waffle with fresh strawberries and chocolate! (Note: there's 2 types of waffles served in Belgium--one from Brussels and another from a different region. I tried the one from Brussels, which is square shaped). On Friday, I registered for classes and then took the metro to "de Bruckère" and had lunch at EXKi (a chain organic restaurant). I did some window shopping, since January is the month of sales (this only happens twice per year in January and July. After that, everything becomes really expensive). For dinner, my host mother made salmon tartare with potatoes. Everything's so fresh and delicious here! Around 9pm I headed out to a bar hop put on by the student government. Everyone met at the bar on campus and then travelled downtown together where we split up and went to a bunch of different bars. It was great to finally meet everyone from the different programs and I can already see that this is going to be a great semester. 


I have already gone on and on, so I think I'll stop here. But, today is my first day of classes. 
Oh, and I also booked a trip to Cologne, Germany for next weekend...so stay tuned for more!

Ma Nouvelle Maison (My New Home)

       I have officially arrived! It was a fairly easy journey...the flight was on time and we landed without a hitch. I just wish I got a little bit of sleep because I had no idea that I would have such a busy day ahead of me.
       Let me start off by saying that I, admittedly, brought way too much luggage. My room is huge, so that's not the problem, but I had to carry everything up 5 flights of steep stairs. It was NOT fun. However, I was greeted at the door by my host mother–Inès–who is as sweet as can be. I was particularly worried about how well I'd be able to communicate, but after she made a pot of fresh Jasmine tea in her beautiful kitchen to help calm me down after the big hike up the stairs, we talked for about 45 min in French! C'était superbe (it was great).
       The kitchen and dining room area is quite modern. They have all of the accessories that I would expect a kitchen in the US to have and is connected to what reminds me of a little outdoor patio. Some of it is enclosed by windows, which allow the sun to shine through and Boy o Boy did it shine through today! It was a perfect day without barely a cloud in the sky.
       Next, we set off for an hour long walk towards the university where I'll be taking classes. There's everything one could need within just a few blocks--a boulangerie, pâtisserie, supermarket, and plenty of pharmacies (which I'm hoping I won't need). It took about a half hour by foot each way. Then we went home where I had a light lunch of yogurt, müesli, and a mandarin orange while sitting in front of the TV with Inès's daughter, Milena. We watched a French game show.
       After scarfing down the food, we headed over to another town house where 3 boys were awaiting my arrival. Two of them are also on the ISA program and the third is one of the host family's sons. It was nice to have a break and just speak plain, simple English! We planned to go to the same destination, but, at first, we went a different route. We passed by an école maternelle (pre-school), where kids were playing out on the fields. Then we proceeded to take a bus, followed by a tram, and finally walked the rest of the way by foot to get to the school. What did I learn from all of this trekking? It takes just about the same time to get to the school by foot as it does with public transportation (25-30 min). Not quite what I was expecting, but the scenery made it all worth it. It is a quaint little town that is made up of hundreds of town houses, much like the one I'm living in now.
       The temperature is similar to that of NY &, fortunately, the only things that I have left to do today is unpack, enjoy a homemade meal with the family, and go to sleep. I hope to put up some pics within the next couple of days.


Arielle


Interesting Fact: The host parents of the other 2 ISA students taught me that you kiss whomever you are greeting only once on the cheek when meeting, unlike in France where the custom is to kiss two times.