Brussels

As I was reminded by my mother yesterday, I am behind on this blog.
"Aren't you every going to talk about Thanksgiving?" she asked.

Well, since I am now finished with finals and everything (except shopping, packing, and sleeping) I am here to fill the void in all of your lives that is my lack of prompt posting.

The whole reason I was in Amsterdam was because my program was visiting Brussels a few days later. Our program adviser told us that, since a Brussels-Amsterdam ticket was pretty cheap and our Paris-Brussels were already paid for, we should take the opportunity.

Getting to Brussels was pretty uneventful. I fell asleep on the train, and that was about it. Once I got there, I waited on the platform to meet up with all the people who hadn't gone to Amsterdam.

First stop was the European Commission. The Commission is kind of like congress, except that it is not elected. It creates all European legislation and makes directives and stuff. They pretty much run the EU. We weren't there just to take a tour...we had lectures. Three of them. It was okay though--there was a load of SWAG (free stuff) to make up for it.

In fact, we got a break from lectures while they took us to a four-star hotel for a free lunch! The Hotel Leopold was very nice. At first I got excited because I thought we were all staying there that night (Ha! As if.)

My heart sank when I saw that the entree was fish. It was really good fish, but still. I have had enough. I am pretty pumped to shift my meat consumption back to land animals (chicken!!!) when I get back.

The dessert, on the other hand, was heavenly. Flan with butterscotch sauce and fres
We returned back to the Commission for a lecture on Turkey, but were then released to get to our hotel. Our hotel looked pretty nice. I was staying in a room with my friend Diana. Unfortunately, we were put in a smoking room. My PJs smelled like cigarettes afterward.

A large group of us met up to go get some dinner. The specialties of Brussels (and Belgium in general) are as follows: mussels, fries, chocolate, waffles. We wanted all of these things. We found a cheap restaurant that wooed us with promises of free drinks and dessert, called "Le Bourgeois"

It was pretty fun sitting outside, under the heat lamps, and talking. Mathilde (the blurry one) is one of my new French friends.

The waiter brought out our mussels and gave us each a dog bowl to put our shells in. That meant that our conversation was punctuated by a loud "clang!" about once every ten seconds.

These mussels were not great. They didn't make me sick or anything, but they were not the promised delicious mussels of Brussels (rhyme!)

It was okay though. An experience is an experience.


We walked around more and mostly window shopped. There were tons of chocolate Christmas displays!


Stephanie and I decided to climb on a random sculpture of a cat riding a bike.

Chocolate houses!



I was looking at too much chocolate and not eating any of it, so I was happy when we got to the architectural part of our wanderings. I loved the main square.



A few blocks from the square was the famous statue that translates to "The Pisser". It's a little boy peeing. What "art"!

We went back to the hotel soon after and I fell into a smoky sleep.

The next morning, after drinking about 5 glasses of orange juice at the continental breakfast at 7:30, we set off on our visit to NATO. This involved walking for ten minutes to a bus stop. On the way, there was this cool building that was covered in Chinese lanterns.

The bus ride to NATO took about 45 minutes. It is pretty far out of the city.

Once I got there, there was very little time to take photos. I had to surrender my camera and all electronic equipment at the entrance.


What I can say about NATO is that it looks like a Cold-War era complex, which it is. There are tons of nondescript buildings randomly arranged. We entered one, and it was surprisingly nice on the inside.

We sat through a few more lectures, hearing all about what NATO does, having them try to recruit us to the State Department, all that jazz.

It was different than what I was expecting, because, to be honest, I was picturing something like the opening scene of Austin Powers II where the guy turns on the Jerry Springer show while he is supposed to be looking at the Balkans.

We left and took another long bus ride. We were let out in front of a big fancy church.


My mind could not be distracted though. I was HUNGRY. (As my mom says "you're always hungry!") We found a good looking restaurant. It was the best thing I had eaten in a long time! I got a croque madame (ham and cheese melt with a fried egg on top) and Mathilde shared some of her mashed potatoes with me.

I took a picture of the carnage our group of seven left:

I had very little time to get my final wish: a waffle. We headed back to that square, knowing that there would be something around there.


There was a store dedicated to the other thing that Belgium is famous for:

My favorite place was a chocolate shop that sold chocolates in the shape of the peeing boy. Gross! I actually ended up buying some regular old Belgian chocolates here. It had good deals!

Finally, I got my waffle! Chocolate and strawberries.


Man was it hard to walk and eat that. I didn't let it get me down though.

We went back to the hotel, where I took 15 minutes to register for my winter classes at Northwestern:
-French Literature
-Statistics in Political Science
-The role of political parties
-The American Revolution to the Constitution (history)

We walked to the train station, hopped on our train, and sped back to Paris. I spent the ride doing homework (boo.)

Next up: Dublin again!