Study Trip

So Instead of sending out another mass email, I decided I would just write a post, and those who want to read it can.

So much has happened since my last post... where to start?

Study trip:

We went to Belgium and Lille on our study tour, and it was amazing. We all met at the train station, and believe it or not- Everyone made it!! When we arrived we took the metro to our hotel. The metro in Belgium is nuts- they're as small as buses, but it seems as thought they go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! haha :)

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and headed out for the main square in Belgium. It was freezing, but we spent a lot of time outside anyways. We went to the square where all of the buildings were constructed at different times, which is evident by the architecture of each one. They were beautiful, and we took a lot of pictures. We also viewed a museum of the history of Belgium, but I won't bore you with (what are actually very interesting) details.

We split up for lunch, and I must say that this is the first time I've ever been heckled to come into a resaurant! The people line the street, and practically grab you and pull you in! All of us were told how beautiful we were, and evidently lots of restaurant workers fall in love instantly when a potential customer walks by... Perhaps we should impliment this at Blue Ridge... Anyways, we finally picked a place, and it was really funny to see the guy standing outside our restaurant smirk at all the other people in the street- he was actually proud that he got customers!!

The rest of the day consisted of going to the European Commission to listen to a lively German man speak to us about the EU. At one point he got on some tangent and stood up, raising his voice, and asked us how we would finalize a contract for buying a car (still not quite sure what it had to do with anything...) After we suggested such ideas as "Go to an office;" "Sign the contract;' "Get a witness;" "Go to a bank;" he finally said: "No!! You go to Starbucks!!"

.....WHAT?!?!?! Yeah- we didn't get it either... something about going to a public place to sign a contract... Evidently the EU has it all wrong, and the reason the constitution didn't pass is because they weren't meeting at Starbucks... at least that's what I got out of it...

We had the afternoon off, and believe me we all went for some Belgian Waffles in Belgium!! And yes... they're amazing!

That night was dinner at the hotel, followed by all of us being lame and staying in for the night.

The next day we went on a tour of "Undergroud Belgium." The palace burned down hundreds of years ago, and they ended up just building on top of the ruins.

Me, Jilian and KG feeling like we're in Willy Wonky in "Underground Belgium."

This was probably the best tour I've ever had... Our tour guide was absolutely amazing. As in, I'm pretty sure he could make the instructions in a manuel to put a desk together sound as exciting as The Da Vinci Code. Of course it was a bit over the top, and many of us made sure to take video!! The best part was probably his use of a massive flashlight instead of a laser pointer... He seemed pretty proud of it too :)

We saw some Ruben paintings in the museum there, and ate another waffle before heading onto the bus to Lille, France.

On our way to Lille we stopped to visit what used to be a coal mining village... Above is our tour guide on the right with the most amazing mullet I had seen up to this point in Europe!

---Here's where the trip gets interesting....

When we got to the hotel, Abbie and I decided to have a drink downstairs at the bar while waiting to meet up with her friend who lives in Lille. There was one wall separating the bar from the main entrance, and the concierge managed both. He tended to give us attitude, but I think it's just because he had been working all day. We all had dinner at the hotel, and then met back downstairs later for a drink before going out... I went to pay the concierge at the front desk, and heard Lifehouse coming from his laptop. We started talking American bands, and he got my email address asking me to keep him up to date on good music (yeah.... me... hahahaha- since I'm so up on my music). He was about to get off work, so we invited him to meet us out... Well, long story short, by the end of the night he was professing his love to me... Which was helpful when our cab never came because 8 of us piled into his car to get back to the hotel!!

The next day we were fortunate enough to have our bus not come when it was supposed to, which gave us ample time to sleep in the hotel lobby!! Then when the bus finally came, we took it to Lens, where the future statlite of the Louvre Museum will be. It was really neat to stand on the ground where masterpeice paintings will one day hang (such a romantic, right?)

Abbie and me standing where the future Louvre will be!

On the bus ride back we realized we might not make our train!! When we stopped a light beside the train station, we all jumped off the bus, grabbed our bags, and ran to the train. We jumped on the first train car and all made it on just before the doors closed. Although we were happy to make it, we were all a little stressed when we realized our seats were on the OPPOSITE side!! We walked more than 20 cars to our seats carrying our luggage!!! Needless to say, I was a little sore the next day hahaha

Above is a picture of our bus driver NOT watching the road... yeah- he did it enough that I had time to notice, take out my camera, and get this good shot... we felt safe.

That's about it for the study trip... not to much drama, and everyone made it back. All in all I would say it was a great trip! If you're wondering, French guy has emailed me some, but upon my request he now leaves out any more professions of love or references to a future together....