Laying Low

So, the past couple weekends, I've just been staying around Louvain-la-Neuve. I had a little sticker shock when in London and decided not to do too much traveling for a bit. However, that's because there are plans in the making. I have 2 1/2 weeks off for Easter vacation, beginning on Wednesday evening the 19, and then I'll have class again on April 7. As of right now, I'm looking at 3 or 4 days in Budapest, Hungary. I have a few friends there who promised to show me the town, so that's essential. From there, I think I'll either fly to Frankfurt, Germany or Venice, Italy for a day or two on my way to meet some friends in Barcelona, Spain. From there, I may travel somewhere else with a friend or two, but I'm not sure. I'll still have 6 days left before school starts up again, and it seems like a shame to let it go to waste! Anyway, it's all tentative because I don't think I'll be buying my tickets until tonight or tomorrow. For those who are curious, other potential future plans include long weekends in Krakow, Prague, and probably a trip back to somewhere in France. Beyond that, who knows. :)

So what have I been doing if I haven't been traveling? Well, I know it may be a shock to some, but I have classes here! Mostly I've been catching up on school, and getting together with the friends I've made here. I won't "bore" you with too many details about the get-togethers. ;) Although, we started one night rather calmly at the creperie in town. I tried a "crepe a la cassonade" which has a homemade dark caramel filling. Soo good, but so rich that I couldn't eat dinner.

Yesterday I finally ventured off to find a church for Palm Sunday. I took the train to Brussels. From there, I got on the metro going in the wrong direction, switched directions and made it to the right station. There was a sketchy shuttle van waiting at the bus stop outside to bring people to church from the stop. My friend and I got in, along with 10 other people in a van for 8, hoping this wouldn't be the end of us (only kidding!) and made it to church - in ENGLISH! It was really good, reminded me of home, and someone invited us back to their house for lunch afterwards. We agreeed, and found out it was their tradition for young adults. This meant we met a ton of people in their 20s from all over the world, and got to eat some amazing homemade Korean food!

We stayed there for a while getting to know some people before heading back to the train station. We had intended to visit a different part of Brussels to get a waffle from this really good shop, but the timing wasn't going to work out for the trains. Instead, we wandered around the area we were in, and came across a little festival - or so we thought. It was more of an anti-American, peace rally. They were giving out propaganda products, having concerts, and whatnot. Good think I spoke enough French that they apparently couldn't tell I was American. Yikes!

We didn't spend too much time there once we figured out what was going on, but instead got some ice cream from a little shop and wandered around the Park Cinquantenaire near the train station. This is a pretty urban area, and always seems to have cranes doing work there, so the park is kind of out of place, but it's nice. There's also a pretty interesting monument there.

History lesson: because of its location near the center of Brussels, near Parliament, etc. this area used to be the military exercising grounds. However, for the world exhibition in 1880, and to celebrate 50 years of autonomy, they began to build the arch that you can see. It's a triumphant arch (like the arc de triomphe in Paris), but it's construction wasn't supported by Parliament (they thought it was too expensive) and had to be funded privately. Later, they added the rows of columns on each side. Ehh.. there's more boring info I could tell you about it, but I don't feel like it! ;)

Oh yeah, later that night I met up with some of the guys to watch a Finnish movie - the man without a past. While I love getting to see bits of different cultures, I'd just like to point out that Finnish movies are definitely a bit strange. It was fun all the same.