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!

Delirium Tremens

Today was our last full day of work, yippee! :) I finished both of my posters and got the storyboard/script complete for my sustainability video. After work we toured the Pink Elephant Brewery. This was a really cool way to “end” my time here in Belgium because the pink elephant was the beer I had on my first night in Belgium. My host dad was loving the tour, too, because he loves beer! It was so funny watching him ask all the questions like a giddy schoolgirl. I was really bummed out at the end of the tour because they didn’t take cards and I had no cash. No pink elephant merchandise for me :(

After the brewery tour, we went to our farewell dinner with the host families. Miriam wanted us to have a typical Belgian meal. We had 3 courses. The first course was a delicious lobster bisque! I had seconds! The main course was a different story.

I enjoyed the meats on the back of the plate. The asparagus wrapped in ham was a little weird, and I was not about to eat honeydew melon wrapped in Italian bacon. Lucky I filled up on soup. For dessert we had ice cream with strawberries, YUM! Each of us then had to do a presentation of our time in Belgium. My favorite presentation was Stuart’s because he showed the comparisons between Belgium and America. I’ve come to realize that Belgium does it better, but America does it BIGGER!

Then for entertainment purposes we called the hogs and sang the fight song! Our host families really got a kick out of that!

I think I will sleep good tonight! I can’t believe tomorrow is my last day in Belgium! I’m hoping to get a lot of goodies in Gent. The real challenge will come tomorrow night when I’m having to fit all of my cool finds in my little suitcase. Wish me luck! See you soon, America! :)

Impressions

Tomorrow is our farewell dinner with our host families. We are touring the Pink Elephant Brewery, and then we are going to have an authentic Belgian multi-course meal. Between courses we are each giving a presentation on our impressions of Belgium. To help me brainstorm for that presentation, I thought I'd spend today's entry looking back on these past three weeks. 

Before we came on this trip I was only concerned about two things - beer and chocolate. I knew that they were two big things in Belgium and I wanted to get lots of both. I was right, they were both very popular here. I was never much of a beer drinker, but I tried to like it so that I could try a bunch here. Didn't find many I liked. However, I loved every bit of the chocolate... now I'm FAT! I guarantee you that 90% of the new weight in my luggage is some form of chocolate. My favorite thing was probably the chocolate honey spread that my host family had with breakfast. I'm buying at least two tubs of it Wednesday to take home with me. 

I'll miss the carefree environment that I found in Belgium. Everyone always took their time here. We didn't eat dinner until late and when we had friends over we stayed at the table and talked well into the night. I'll also miss tax-free shopping! It is nice to know that you'll only have to pay what is listed on the price tag. I definitely won't miss euros though. I can't wait to get back to America and have my $1 be in bills instead of coins. 

The most shocking things in Belgium were the driving, refrigerators, and what they chose to put in refrigerators. The first few days of riding in a car here were scary. If someone is in your way, well you just go around them... even if there is a car coming. All the cars are so little here too. I saw one dually while I was here, and I wish I'd gotten a photo... it took up the whole street! I'm ready to get back home and drive on what now seems peaceful roads.

The refrigerators are so tiny too! My host family has a mini fridge in the kitchen, and that's it! I did notice last week that they have a bigger one in the laundry room, but still! They also don't refrigerate hardly anything. What blew my mind the most was the fact that they don't refrigerate milk! They buy it in bulk and keep it on the shelf in the cellar. Drinks are rarely refrigerated too. I look forward to a big Sonic cup full of ice when I get home. 

There were so many things that were nice here, but I look forward to going home in two days. I can't wait to hug my family, sip that Route 44 Sonic drink, and eat me some TACO BELL! 

I saw London, I saw France...

I saw London, I saw France, and everyone saw my underpants! I say this because within the first hour of leaving for London, I ripped my pants… the only pants I had for the entire weekend. Fabulous!

When we first got to London I saw the Olympic rings… AWESOME! This year’s Olympics are going to be held there, in case you didn’t know.

We all hopped on the first bus we found and rode around London for awhile. This was really relaxing and a great way to see the city. The only trouble came when we were ready to find our hostel. The bus system in London is so much more confusing than the metro was in Paris. We would be on a bus, and then all of the sudden it would stop and say that it was terminated. After taking what seemed like a million different buses, we finally made it to the hostel.

The hostel was so much nicer than I had pictured in my head. Just the name hostel sounded bad, so I had pictured a building entirely made of concrete with hard bunk beds in a big, open room. I was WRONG. We had  private rooms with bunk beds and our own shower and toilet. The bed was actually pretty comfortable too. I didn’t get to shower because I didn’t pack a towel, and I was not paying 7 pounds to rent one.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we found the Big Bus Sightseeing Tour to begin our exploration of London. It was an open-top bus and it was FREEZING. Being cold was worth it because we got to see the Tower of London, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben all in one day.

We also got to go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum! It was really neat because it was in an old building that only had two rooms per floor and went up four floors. There wasn’t much to see on the first few floors, but the upper floors had neat replicas of some of the cases they worked.

On top of the upcoming Olympic games, this weekend was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. All of England seemed to be in London sporting their beloved British flag in support of the Queen’s 60 year reign.

The only downside of this celebration was all of the roads being shut down. We had quite the time trying to get around to the train station Sunday. So, the open-top bus was my favorite part of Saturday, but my favorite part of Sunday was sushi at St. Pancras Station!

This sushi place was really awesome! All of the dishes were priced by plate color and running through a conveyor belt. If you saw something you wanted, you simply had to take it off of the belt and dig in! I got about 5 dishes and unlimited water for only 12  pounds. What a great way to end our London excursion!

Overall, I enjoyed London a lot more than Paris. It was cleaner, more safe, and had a better atmosphere. Now it’s going to be crunch time at work this week. Only two full days left and so much to do! Home bound in 3 days!

It's Finally Friday

It's finally Friday, I'm free again, I've got my motor running for a wild weekend--in LONDON! Man, Hank Jr. sure had it right. 

Today was really slow at work. I'm at the point where I have to wait for the approval of people at ILVO to move forward, so I had to wait around a lot for people to reply to my emails. I'm completely done with rabbits... yahoo! Chickens will be done easily as long as they get me some photos PRONTO. The sustainability video is a little slow going. Sophie sent me revisions to the script I wrote up today, so I'll address that Monday. I have a big obstacle to cross with that video, too, because I just found out that all of the stock videos I want to buy are about $80 apiece for just 10 seconds of footage. 

I was the last one there today because almost everyone went to run in a race in a nearby city. Arthur's host dad was picking me up, and I started to get a little scared that maybe he forgot about me. In the end he showed up at 5:00 sharp... woo... if he had forgotten about me I don't know how I would've managed to get home. Take the bus to Gent-St. Pieters and then walked for half an hour I guess... :p lucky for me he didn't forget! 

Tomorrow we are meeting at the train station at 6 AM to travel to LONDON! I'm excited to go in the tunnel under the English Channel, but I betcha I'll be asleep when it happens. It's a 90% chance of rain, but I hope it stays dry because we have an open-top bus tour and river cruise planned for tomorrow. I probably won't post again until Sunday night, but then you'll get to hear all about my adventures in England. I'm really hoping to snap a pic walking on Abbey Road. 

I better go to sleep so I can wake up at 5 AM ;)

Salut! 

Pajama Change! Pt. 2

Tonight is my final pajama change! Woo! Time really has flown this past week. I can’t wait to go home and see my family :)

I worked really hard today and threw some layouts down for my posters. I’m really happy with my landscape poultry poster, but I’m not really pleased with how the portrait rabbit poster is looking. I sent the sustainability researchers my rough video, and right before work was over they sent me an email of massive proportions with suggestions. I just shut my computer… it can wait until tomorrow.

After work we went to a poultry farm! This made me very happy, only we didn’t get to see any real chickens :( Biosecurity really puts a damper on my chicken craze. Once we left the farm, we went to Stuart’s host family’s farm for pizza! It was yummy. I’ve learned something interesting about Belgian culture though… they like to put eggs on everything. Breakfast, salad… even pizzas. I got a slice of pepperoni pizza and it had a big egg smack dab in the middle! Let’s just say Flicka, the dog, was very happy with my generosity. ;)

The day after tomorrow we go to London! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to the location of the upcoming Olympic games just weeks before they begin. I am really hoping I can get my precious nephew, Beckett, something sports-related while we’re there. How cool would that be? To have something from the Olympic games? I think super cool! I’m a little nervous about staying in a hostel though. The name itself just sounds intimidating. We’ll only be there one night, so it should be ok.

Once we get back, only 3 more days!!! It’s so close I can taste it. I have had such a good experience in Europe, but it will be so nice to be back on my home soil. The only downside is a 10 hour plane ride… giddy up!

Eureka!

Eureka! I have found it! After today’s meeting with the small animal group, I have found knowledge! And you know what they say… knowledge is bliss.

After spending 2 hours ironing out the kinks, I am now 100% sure of each of my creative works! I think it really helped that I had a background in poultry because I was able to give my own insight into the discussion between the researchers.

Tomorrow is going to be busy, busy because I will finally be starting the actual layouts for my creative works. I’ve got 2 posters and 1 video that I must complete in basically 4 1/2 days! At least all of this work will keep me busy, and I’ll be home soon.

I think I will be able to complete everything in my area before I leave, and I hope that I can, because I don’t want to leave Arthur and Maggie Jo with so much work to do on their own.

Side note… my right arm is so sore today after our Japanese drumming session. I didn’t think that simply swinging your arms could be so much work, but boy was I wrong!

We just got done having dinner, and it was delicious! It was a baked dish that had a layer of savory hamburger meat, diced carrots, and then a thick layer of mashed potatoes on top. I had like 3 servings and I think I will try to take some in my lunch tomorrow.

During dinner, Elyne shared some really interesting information about college in Europe. I was asking about how much it cost to go to school here in Belgium and she said that she had to pay a one-time fee each year of about 600 euros and then she had to buy her books, which were approximately 60 euros apiece. That means in a year she only has to spend about 1,500 euros!!! She was blown away when I told her that my college cost $20,000 without books. And what’s interesting is that she said that applies to all professional schools as well, so she could become a doctor with the same costs! I told her me and Josh might have to move to Europe for my medical school! ;)

Now it’s time for shower, bed, and another productive day tomorrow!