Farewell, Belgium!

Today was our last day in Belgium. We worked until noon to package everything for Arthur and Maggie Jo. I finished one of my posters completely and one was only lacking a few images that would be easy to insert. I feel bad about the progress I made with my video. I had big plans for it, but my plans didn’t go through because of budgeting issues. I did what I could with what I had, and I hope that Arthur doesn’t have too hard of a time getting the rest of it done.

After we left work, we went into Ghent for one last day of shopping and sightseeing! The first thing we did was eat pitas for lunch! I had one filled with lamb and fries, it was SO good! Then we went to Gravensteen Castle! It was so beautiful, but the real attraction of it is not the beauty, but its reputation for torture! They had a museum that showed all of the different torture instruments… CREEPY! This is an exact replica of the guillotine they used…

I went shopping after the castle and got some of my favorite chocolate honey spread to take home! I also got some Belgian beer for my dad, my boyfriend, and my boyfriend’s brother. I was having a great time until… I got LOST! My host dad told me to meet him where we went to the bar the first night and I thought I remembered where it was, but I was so wrong. I wandered around for an hour, took random trams, wandered some more… then luckily, I found Maggie Jo and Kelly! They had a phone that I could use to call my host dad again and we got it all worked out.

Once I found him and he took me home, we had our last meal together – beef steak and fries. I have grown to love my host family like they were a real family to me. They took care of me so well while I was here and it’s because of them that I even survived these past 3 weeks. So what better way to end our time together than a family photo session? We had quite a time trying to get a good one haha… first my host dad wasn’t looking and then my host mom’s eyes were closed… after 5 takes we finally got this beautiful masterpiece…

I will miss these guys! So long, Belgium!