(sorry for the glare, I guess I forgot to turn off flash!)
I’m going to have to blog twice today because there is no
way I can fit the past couple of days into one coherent thought. I haven’t been in Paris since Wednesday,
which is why I’ve been so hard to contact!
It’s been hard not hearing from home, but luckily I really love my
friends here and they have become like family to me. This Wednesday I went to Belgium! And I love
it there!
(this picture is me, loving Belgium)
We visited Bruxelles and Bruges. Bruxelles is where the EU has its
headquarters. We got a tour of the
inside by someone high up (he didn’t exactly tell us but I know he votes on
issues and has a really nice office with a view) who is a friend to BYU. He’s not Mormon though and some of the jokes
he made during the presentation were hysterical and slightly
inappropriate. He is the first “tour
guide” to treat us like adults and not high schoolers (which is probably all my
fault since I’m often mistaken for a 15 year-old). I would love to work at the EU. It’s big and
bright and beautiful with windows everywhere and clean modern lines. BYU has an
internship at the EU in Bruxelles that I want to do more research on. It’s the most diverse place in the world with
people from 27 (they just added Croatia I think or another C named country)
countries speaking all different, beautiful languages. It is so inspiring to hear people who can
speak 3, 4, even 5 or 6 languages. They
are my role models and some day I know it will be me too.
Being in
Paris and especially Bruxelles has taught me that I love living in the
city. Of course I love the country and
that has a totally different vibe, but I can be just as happy walking among
skyscrapers and jam-packed building in cities that never sleep. Rachel and I are talking about studying for a
semester in NY. I’ve heard great things
about that city, apparently its pretty famous.
(those are both pictures of Bruxelles just on the streets. I like how in the second one you can see the skyscrapers in the background contrasting with the old buildings)
Bruges was
completely different than Bruxelles; the contrast is startling. It’s a small quaint town with beautiful
architecture and delicious food.
They
speak Flemish and would prefer that we speak with them in English than
French. Belgium is so politically
divided between the French speakers and the Flemish speakers (Dutch). The political tensions are mind blowing. It’s the first time I’ve ordered food in
English for months and we kept accidently slipping into old habits.
(To me flemish and german look like someone tried to type with their elbows and pushed a whole lot of wrong letters.)
Belgium has
more cobblestone streets than Paris. It’s
more laid back and the people are nicer because the customs are different than the
French. I knew when I was back in Paris
because people gave me stony stares and bumped into me on the metro and cut in
front of me on the street.
Other things
we did in Belgium include a boat ride down the canal in Bruges and a visit to a
Flemish museum in Bruxelles. I loved the museum which also had a surrealism section.
I’m happy to say that surrealism is now one of my favorite kinds of art! Unfortunately
I couldn’t take any pictures in that section. The Flemish
paintings had weird depictions of Hell and so many bizarre things going on at
once. You could stare at the same
painting and see a hundred different things. My favorite thing was a squirrel on a chain
kept as a pet in one of the medieval periods paintings. I’ll get one of those
as a pet for my children.
Of course there were tons of waffles, frites, and chocolate consumed. They’re more known for their filled chocolates than their plain chocolate bars. I accidentally ordered a champagne flavored one. It was shaped like a mushroom!
No comments:
Post a Comment