Belgium

This past weekend I took my first excursion outside of the Netherlands! Along with four fellow SPICE students, we traveled to Belgium. We arrived in Brussels at about 9 pm, and as it was our first traveling experience, there was sure to be some miscommunications. We were supposed to contact the man leasing his apartment to us for the night when we got there, but couldn't get his number to go through on our track phone. Instead, we took a taxi and hoped he'd be at the apartment since we told him to expect us around 9 pm. When arrived to our apartment, no one was waiting. After ringing the doorbell of several of the neighbors, one man let us into the apartment building and offered us his WiFi so we could get ahold of the apartment owner. Within 10 minutes we were in our apartment and so relieved. Looking back now, I see how naive we were in our planning, thankfully it worked out!

The next morning we took the tram to the city center on a mission to find the famous Belgium Waffles for breakfast! The whole city smelled like these waffles (I'm being completely serious) and there were street vendors and cafes lining the streets selling them. They were delicious and definitely deserve their reputation!

We were walking through narrow streets lined with cafes and souvenir shops when suddenly we turned a corner and I saw an extravagant, towering building with intricate sculpting and gold enhancements right in front of me. My eyes traced the building from the ground upwards, while chills begin to spread through my body. Once my eyes reached the lining between the building and the sky my eyes scanned to the right where even more majestic buildings stood and a feeling of awe took my breath away. This is appropriately called the Great Place, and although I took several pictures none could do it justice! It's so very beautiful, especially at night! We spent the rest of the day walking through Brussels, visiting the impressive St. Michael's Cathedral, and sampling delicious chocolate. We ended the night eating out and getting one last glimpse of The Grand Place!

These photos are from the "Grand Place"...they don't begin to reveal the splendor of the architecture 

St. Michael's Cathedral 

The famous Manneken Pis

Beautiful hallway of tourist shops and chocolateiers

The Grand Place at Night

Chocolate Model of the Grand Place

The next morning we set off for Brugge, Belgium. This city is nicknamed, the Venice of Belgium and an outdoor museum, both of which are true. There are several canals going through the city as well as several courtyards, with sculptures and beautiful architecture from monasteries and cathedrals during the medieval time period. We walked through the whole town and could sense the fairy-tale feeling others had described.

Finding Starbucks at the train station made this day a success from the start! 

The canals in Brugge made the scenery even more beautiful 

Brugge had several medieval monasteries and courtyards we walked through (above and below)

On the train ride back to Zwolle, (trains are the way to go, btw: no delays, normally free WiFi, more comfortable than a plane ride, and we all can sit across from each other and talk and play games during the ride!) anyway on this ride back, I was reflecting on my trip and wanted so much to sit by our kitchen counter at home and tell my mom and sisters every detail! I'm so happy to be here, but wish I could share these moments and experiences with family and close friends. This blog and Skype will suffice :) 

I saw so many beautiful, interesting things this weekend in Belgium; it just makes me want to see and know more about Europe and it's history. Since being back I've researched a little about the history of the buildings and cities and hope to prepare background info for my next travels!

This week I have three excursions to different cities in The Netherlands and thankfully a more normal college class schedule of only two or three hours of class a day outside the of day trips! Hopefully I'll be posting about those trips at the end of the week!

Exploring Zwolle!

I've learned so much this first week in Zwolle! It's been very interesting to explore the city on runs and bike rides. It's been beautiful weather, around 45 F, perfect for running and biking outside like the other Hollanders...and snapping pictures like a tourist.

A nearby neighborhood, an area with buildings 750 years old.

The downtown of this historic city, and....our first windmill tour! 

The new apartments near my house....the majority of people here live in apartment style housing. 

Canals, bridges...Water! everywhere. 

I've noticed a couple different, new things:

First off, I realized I love bike riding! We have about a 25 minute commute to school, but it's relatively flat and takes us through the city center of Zwolle, which is beautiful. I have yet to perfect coffee drinking and bike riding, so my normal routine of breakfast on the way to class has been changed to quickly chugging a cup of coffee before I leave and anxiously waiting for the daily coffee time break at 10 am when I can have another caffeine pick-me-up. While I really enjoy the biking, figuring out directions has been a little more challenging...thankfully I have fellow students to guide me, although I still managed to get lost for over a half hour the first two mornings of class and sent them on wild goose chases to find me ..oops! This afternoon, I biked, by myself, from my house to the city for church and back without taking one wrong turn...hopefully that means I've overcome my directional challenges.

Where I bike everyday.....in a lane right next to traffic

Secondly, nothing is free here. In the States, I never think twice about asking for whip cream on a latte or for dipping sauce like ketchup. After getting charged .60 euros for whip cream on my coffee, I've been more careful about responding "sure" to extras.

Classes this week have been pretty long, I'm not used to being at school from 9am to 5pm everyday without going back to my room between class, it reminds me of high school. My host family is still wonderful, I'm learning some Dutch words in my orientation classes, so now I can have small conversations with Marat and Amber and am not just smiling and waving when I see them like the first couple days :) This coming week a couple of my regular classes start, and next week we'll start excursions around The Netherlands.

Spending time with the SPICE group this week has been great, we've been getting to know each other much better and spend most nights at each other's host family houses at nights or in the city. We've begun trip planning and are taking our first weekend trip to Belgium this weekend!!!!!

 An entire snow village made of chocolate...the coffee, chocolate, and wine (some of my favorite things) here are very good!  The first beer I've ever liked; it tasted like a fruity punch. 

Library I found... New Study Spot!

Just a few of the sites I drive by on my way to school...more to come :)