Thursday, ISA took us on a free self-guided tour of the Musée Magritte Museum. It opened in 2009 and is located at Place Royal. We each had our own head sets, so we pretty much explored the museum (which had 3 floors of artwork) on our own. However, I did have a chance to listen in on a French guided tour along the way!
Renée Magritte went through various stages of surrealism, impressionism, etc., but he is best known for his surrealist paintings. The museum holds the world's largest collection of Magritte's work (advertisements, paintings, films, letters, photographs, etc.). Pictured right is one of his more famous paintings, and one of my favorites in the museum. Friday night dinner was a little bit more special this week...my host mother and I were invited to have dinner with the other host family that also lives in Watermael-Boitsfort. It was nice to have dinner with a group of 8 instead of just 2 or 3. We spoke French almost the entire time (which made me feel bad for my friend Chris who barely knows any French and sat in silence for the entirety of the meal). Martine, the host mother, cooked lamb, chicken, couscous, and vegetables. A little different from the typical Belgian meal (as she pointed out), but nevertheless, an interesting one. I stayed away from the lamb meat and sausage, but the rest was fairly tasty. We finished off the meal with some homemade crème brulée (which I'm, unfortunately, not a big fan of) and then I headed off to a friend's house in Etterbeck. He invited a bunch of the ISA students over, where we had the chance to listen to some music, play cards, and mingle with the local Belgians. After walking for about an hour, looking for Madame Moustache (a night club), running into some Canadians, and taking pictures under Le Cinquantaire (an huge arch in the Schuman area), our chances of finding the place was looking slim to none. So, Chris and I shared a cab and went home.
Saturday evening was a bit of a treat. Our ISA director, Sabine, took a group of us out to dinner at Chez Léon--a famous restaurant in downtown Brussels. It's located in the middle of seafood row and is famous for its mussels, but I ordered a traditional Belgian dish called "Waterzooi de volaille à la gantoise" (chicken in a creamy broth with some vegetables and potatoes)--but this was apparently the "Ghent-style." Then we were off to the movies to see 127 hours, which had both French and Dutch subtitles. I was amazed at how dissimilar the French subtitles were to what the actors were actually saying throughout the film. In fact, the French version was way more polite! Back to the movie, if you haven't seen it already, I strongly encourage you to. It's a little gruesome, but 100% worth it. I was extremely impressed with the acting skills and kept me on the edge of my seat right until the very end.
Sunday is catch-up day. I have a lot to study before my mid-terms begin this week, so don't expect to hear from me much. But, next Friday I'll be off to Paris for the week. Un jour à Bruxelles et le prochain à Paris. J'adore ma vie.
À bientôt.
-Arielle
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