Wait... she's studying?

April 20: Well, I've gotten quite a few questions about whether or not I'm actually going to school in Belgium. I assure you that I do in fact have class. I just think most people aren't too interested in what I'm studying, but I'll give you a little rundown just so that you believe me. :)

-International Business: working on a case study of corporate international expansion methods.

-International Financial Management: currently managing an online worldwide steel company learning to hedge foreign exchange risk and currency exposure. My teacher is president of Indosuez bank of Luxembourg and is on the board of directors for many other large banks in Europe. Patrick Zurstrassen: Look him up. He's pretty cool.

-Corporate Social Responsibility: We have lots of speakers from the corporate sector presenting different aspects of CSR, and I'm working on a case study about the (un)ethical practices of Gap, Inc. in relation to (Product)Red.

-International Accounting Standards: I'm studying under the president of the Brussels Stock Exchange. Basically I'm just learning about the differences between GAAP and IFRS, and doing a case study/paper on the International treatment of Goodwill. (Exciting, right? :-p)

-European Public Affairs: We have alot of conferences in Brussels at different parts of the European Commission with members of the WTO, lobby associations, etc. I'm working on a case study of a recent nutrition regulation passed by Parliament, and researching lobby activity.

Ok, so after reading that, you probably have a decent idea of why I haven't talked too much about the school side. It's just not as interesting as Barcelona and Budapest. Classes finish the second week of May, and then exams start in June. This means the stress is finally starting to kick in. Anyway, the pictures are just some generals of my trips to the European Commission: the signs and flags of the european union, the Berlaymont building, and part of my European Public Affairs class and our teacher.

Oh yes, and yesterday, I went to Les Serres Royales: the royal greenhouses. They're the queen's gardens at the royal palace(upper left) in Brussels. They're open for about 3 weeks per year and they are absolutely beautiful. We spent a few hours there, and then walked around the city over to the Atomium. It's the magnified structure of an iron crystal built in 1958 for the world's fair. The first idea was to build the eiffel tower upside down, but that was nixed. It was only supposed to be around for less than a year, but is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a 109 meter tall iron crystal this year. Crazy Belgians.

Oh and of course.. waffles. Seriously. There's something about these things. This one is a little fancy with the strawberries and whipped cream. Usually, they eat them plain.

Next week: the Ardennes!

Barcelona Day 3: Adios!

April 1: I made it to the walking tour this morning! It explained the history of the neighborhood I was staying in, particularly the life of the Jews in Barcelona. Just like everywhere else, they had it pretty sucky. They weren't allowed to live in the city, so instead they had their own walled area in the gothic quarter, where they were self-sufficient. Other times in history, Jews would go outside the city center to live on Montjuic ("Hill of the Jews"). Other interesting things about Barcelona's history: they speak Catalan, not Spanish. However, under the rule of Franco, Catalan was forbidden to be taught, spoken, etc. When his reign ended, the culture kind of exploded, replacing all of the Spanish signs with Catalan, showing extreme Catalan pride, etc.

After the tour, I decided to just wander down to the port. I was walking around Barcelona for probably an hour and a half before making it down to the harbor, where I stopped for lunch and watched some small ships come in. Then, it was off to the beach. Seriously, we're missing out in MN. Anyways, I just layed down in the sun and took a siesta for about an hour or so, before I had to head off to meet my friend Maria. She's from Barcelona and we had planned on meeting up, but as it turned out, we had some other friends who were also in the city, so the 5 of us just ended up shopping the big streets for a while.

Here's another story that will probably make you question my sanity. When I made it back to the hostel, I looked up the night bus schedule, because my hostel runner recommended that I not walk to the bus station alone at 3 am. Well, that was all well and good, until I found out they don't announce the names of bus stops on the night buses. So, I sat there, hoping I would recognize something. Well, I didn't, and finally the bus was empty except for me. Oops. I went and talked to the driver, and he was really nice about it and insisted on dropping me off at the station. My own personal taxi! Seriously, I never knew those few words in spanish would be so useful!

I was still about 45 minutes early for the bus back to the airport, and the inside of the bus station was closed for the evening. There were alot of people around, so I wasn't too worried, and I found myself a nice bench to camp out on until my bus arrived. While I was waiting, this guy named Philip came and sat down next to me. He was from Ghana, and got the opportunity to come to Europe a month earlier. Now, he was headed to Norway to find work as a sailor. He never finished school, and was really interested in hearing about how to go to college. Anywho, the bus came right on time, brought me to the airport, I flew home, and took the train back to LLN where my spring break adventure came to an end!

Barcelona Day 2: Tour de Gaudi

March 31: So I missed the tour of the Gothic Quarter waiting for my friend to shower. Oh well. We decided to visit Park Guell instead. It was designed by Gaudi as a high class housing district because it was away from dirty factories, and had great views of Barcelona. The intention was to have something like 50 or 60 glamorous houses designed by Gaudi for the rich. There's a gorgeous courtyard, community buildings, etc. but the plan flopped. I think they said they only sold something like 2 of the plots of land and Gaudi bought one of them. Later, it was bought by the city and turned into a public park. Despite it's failure of a history, it is beautiful.

The walk to the top first leads you to the point of 3 crosses. It's quite a hike up there, but worth it. It's incredibly calm and peaceful, again with a great view of the city. From there, you hike down to the planned residential area, which looks a bit like Dr. Seuss invaded.

After spending some time walking around Park Guell, we walked the mile or so back down to the metro, and went to see the Pedrera. It was again, a house designed by Gaudi, but it had been turned into a museum. I got to tour an apartment that highlighted his architectural design style and some of his ergonomic furniture designs. The tour continued through the attic where there were lots of exhibits about his style, discoveries, and the history. Finally, we got to go up to the terrace. This was amazing. I mean, I think he might have been on something, but it was the coolest roof I have ever seen. Oh, and you can see the effects of the Barcelona sun in that I could NOT open my eyes. :-)

From there, it was a couple mile walk down to Santa Maria de la Mar. It was a beautiful church down in the southern part of the city. We just sat and enjoyed the ambience. There is something undescribably peaceful about the inside of an old church. From there, it was just a little ways back to the hostle, so Joy and I went back and met up with our friend Staci for dinner.... or so we thought.

Joy had one of those Lonely Planet tour guide books with restaurant suggestions. After wandering around for probably a half hour without coming up with anything on our own, we decided to heed the advice of the book. It was a ways away and we were excited because we were finally coming up on the building. We got there, and there was a guy on a ladder screwing a new sign into the front of the building. Bad sign. He asked us what we were looking for, and politely informed us that it had closed about 5 years earlier. Greeaaaat. However, he directed us to another place down a side street. It was a cute little place with probably 5 tables besides the bar. When we got in, we realized that everyone else was a local, the menu was all in spanish, and I would have to use what I knew. I was surprised at how much I could understand from just speaking French, but anyways, the three of us split empanadas, spanish tortilla (which is like an egg and potato quiche with no crust), and some fresh cheese and bread... along with some yummy wine! Not bad for 5 bucks each. It was getting pretty late, and the girls were leaving in the morning, so we headed back for some sleep.

First day in Barcelona

March 30: Well, my friend Joy, her friend Natasha, and I didn't really have any specific plans for the day, so we thought we would just wander and see what we found. We walked around La Rambla for a while, the Barri Gottica (Gothic Quarter), and finally decided that we needed to pick something to see. Why not start with Gaudi's houses? Sidenote: That's Gaudi in the portrait. I'm pretty sure he designed half of Barcelona. His buildings are amazing though, so I'm okay with it.

From the houses, we walked to la Sagrada Familia. It's this amazing church that was designed and started by Gaudi in 1882, and is still nowhere near finished. His quote to explain the time is that "my client is not in a hurry". By design, it can't be funded by the government at all. Gaudi said that if it wasn't built by donations and sacrifices of the people, it would defeat the purpose of a place of worship for the people. To give you an idea of how much still has to be done, there are supposed to be 18 towers in all. They get taller in importance representing the 12 apostles, 4 evangelists, Mary, and Jesus. The tallest will be 170 meters, which is one meter less than the natural highest point in Barcelona because he felt that "his work should not surpass the works of God". This guy was interesting. Anywho, we paid the 2 euros to take the elevator to the top of one of the towers, and fully enjoyed the view of the city.

When we left, we met another friend who was studying in Barcelona. Collin took us up to Tibidabo. It's like a mountain with a themepark and supposedly the ugliest church in barcelona on top. I'll just say they have some high standards, because it was still beautiful. We heard some music, and wandered through the parcs up there until we found it. It was some goofy guys in like a boxcar, dancing and playing live. Oh, and if I thought the view from la Sagrada Familia was amazing, this put it to shame. You could see Barcelona AND the next two cities over from up there(right and below).

Well, it was starting to get cold, so we decided to search out a place for dinner. This was going to be our night to splurge, but we ended up only spending 15 euro. Now, I know that's still quite a bit, but we were eating at a place right off the beach, and we got our Sangria, water, bread, fried mini fish (first course), Paella (second course), and Creme Catalana for dessert. Seriously, I could barely move, but it was so good. Oh yes, and I do enjoy acting like a 5 year old. Those guys in the picture were a couple of the shrimp in our Paella.

From there, we wandered along the beach and stopped at this really nice bar. It was cute with a good atmosphere, but with the equivalent of 15 dollar rum and cokes, I was glad I was so full I couldn't even drink water. We accidentally missed the last metro home (by about 30 seconds) and ended up taking a taxi back to the hostel.

"Hola Guappa!" or "Welcome to Barcelona"

March 29: So in all honesty, my mind was just exhausted from seeing/learning so much in the past week. That meant I spent most of my morning in Rome wandering around aimlessly, just relaxing and enjoying the nice weather.

Around noon, I hopped the metro to catch a bus to the airport. I heard some people speaking French, so I started talking to them. We ended up talking for about an hour waiting for the bus, and an hour and a half or so on the bus, and then while waiting for the flight. It was amazing to finally be talking to people speaking in a language I could understand! Turns out they were from the south of France, had kids my age, and invited me to stay with them if I ever make it to that area.

Well, when I got to the airport in Barcelona, there was no security check-in. That was my first tipoff that Spain was going to be pretty laidback. From the airport, I again had to take a bus into the city, but it was okay because there was a beautiful view of the sunset over the mountains.

Then, I got my first cue that my hair was going to get me in trouble here. I was leaving the bus station, and this guy comes straight across the parking lot, gets in my face and real creepily says "hola guappa". Aww.. what a nice greeting from Spain. :-( After talking to my friend who lived there, I found out that it's pretty much the blond hair in a dark-haired country that would have creepy guys following me the whole trip. No worries though... I'm hardcore. ;)

Well, after some confusion between the train and metro stations, I finally made it to my hostel right off of La Rambla (the main street going to the Mediterranean in the city). I met a couple nice German people, Bika and Hauke, who happened to know of the city our family originally came from in Germany. And then FINALLY, I wasn't travelling alone. My friend had arrived from Paris, and I had someone I knew with me.

Spring Break Continues: Italy

March 28: Next thing I know, I'm waking up on a runway in Rome - well at the airport about 20 minutes outside the city. It was about 7:00 in the morning, and I headed off to buy a bus ticket from the tobacco shop. Unfortunately, the bus I needed wasn't running that day. Figures, right? I figured what the heck, I didn't have any plans, and hopped the next bus that said it eventually met up with the metro lines. Well, it was the slow route I guess, but that meant I got to take a 2 hour tour of the Italian country side, seeing a side that I didn't get to on my last trip there. After the bus ride, I took the metro into the city center and searched out my hostel. Lucky for me, it was only about 2 minutes walking from the central station!

Unlucky for me, I couldn't check in for another 4 hours. I dropped my bag off in luggage storage, and started talking to some Italian guy who was currently living in London about - you guessed it- American politics! I decided to see at least a couple of the sights even though I had just been there a couple months earlier. I hit up the big market, practiced the few words I know in Italian, and managed to get the making of a nice picnic lunch. I enjoyed it under the fountain at Repubblica (top) while people/traffic watching. First lesson in Italy: traffic is as insane as it looks. Crosswalks do not matter. If you want to cross the street, you walk into the middle of oncoming traffic and hope you don't get hit. I'm not exaggerating. It's the only way to get anywhere. It's really a hard concept to get used to the first time.

From there, I wandered down to the Trevi fountain to toss in a coin. There's a legend that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, you'll make it back to Rome. I thought it was cheesy the first time I did it, but I was back, so I did it again. :)

Since I had already been to nearly all of the big tourist sites last time I was in Rome, I just wandered the outskirts, enjoying the things that were a little different. One of the more interesting things I saw was someone actually making the paintings that are sold on the streets. I always thought they were just copies and whatnot, but this guy was just working away. They were incredible.

I walked by the Roman Forum, and the Collosseum since everyone says they look different based on the seasons. Either someone lied, or the seasons haven't changed yet. Anyways, I was walking around the plaza at the Collosseum, and in his defense I may have been walking a bit close. "He" was a horse, and he was either trying to bite me, or beat the crap out of my shoulder with his face. It caught me completely off guard and hurt like the dickens. Oh, and while walking in the plaza, I saw the same goofy guy performing that I had seen when I was here last time. It was amusing because my friend had found him particularly interesting when we were here, and this time there were a couple of guys who got up to dance with him while waiting in line for the Collosseum.

Well, it had been really hot all day, and I was still dressed in a wool sweater and jacket from Budapest, so I headed back to the hostel for a shower, free pasta dinner, and sleep by 8:30!

Budapest Day 4: Whoa! Sunshine?

March 27: So, I think I saw the sun today for the first time since arriving in Belgium. I decided to take advantage of it and head off to Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube. The first thing I saw was this huge open clearing(left), so of course I decided to lie down right in the middle and take a nap for a little bit. Wouldn't you? Well, once I got up, I walked around the island. I came across the ruins of a couple of buildings, including a Franciscan monestary from the 13th century and a 12th century Dominican convent(right).

After spending a couple hours on the island, I of course headed back to the market for some cheap lunch. However, this time, I decided to use the bus system, but had no idea which bus went there. I just hopped on one, got off when it seemed to turn in the wrong direction, got on another, hopped off, etc. until I made it nearly there. I ended up directly across the river from the market, which meant I was just along Gellert (Gerard) Hill. It's named after St. Gerard who was killed by the Pagans in a revolt in 1046. They put him in a barrel and rolled him down the hill into the river, where he died. Anyways, there's a statue of him(left) above the remains of a castle built into the hill(right).

To get to the market, the Danube had to be crossed. I thought this would be kind of enjoyable as it was nice and sunny, but the liberty bridge(left) was under construction. All that was open was a footpath consisting of wobbly planks with open water on the other side of a piece of netting. NOT fun as I have a slight fear of heights, but I eventually got safely to the other side. After lunch, it was off to the Terror House(right). It sounds a bit like some sort of theme park, but it documents the most difficult years in Hungarian history. Imagine Nazi Germany plus Communists at the same time. The museum is actually housed in the old residence of the secret police, and has original prison cells, torture methods, etc. on display. It was intense. The closest thing I can relate it to is the Holocaust museum in D.C., but it was still very different - mostly because I had never heard anything about this happening in Hungary. It was like someone took the veil off of a part of history.

From there, I went and had a picnic dinner in a park behind Hero's Square, where I accidentally stumbled across Vajdahunyad castle. It was originally built from cardboard and wood for the world exhibition and Millenium anniversary of Hungary in 1896, but was so popular that they reconstructed it from brick. Anyways, I just sat along the pond and kind of reflected on everything I'd seen so far in the city. When I was finished, I decided to quick grab some fruit from the market since I wouldn't get into Rome until later the next afternoon. They were closing, but I snuck in through a side door and found a vendor that was still open. When I tried to grab an orange, I almost toppled the entire pile. Seriously, sometimes I think I'm living in a movie. My life is ridiculous.

Back to the hostel, where Denes and Mura -2 Hungarians that I had met earlier- were just hanging out. They were going to a pub they had found and invited me along. Of course I agreed since I had nothing else to do that evening. I tend to stay in at night in cities I don't know... unless I have someone with me. Well Denes treated, and we stayed just chatting for a couple of hours about everything from education and history to traveling and culture differences.

When I got back to the hostel, I realized the train station closed in about 20 minutes and I hadn't bought a ticket to the airport yet. I hurried down the street and realized that I couldn't find the ticket window. I tried asking a guy that was standing around, but he didn't speak any english. I was getting worried as it was getting closer to closing time, when this pudgy little Austrian guy came up and (in English!) asked me if I needed any help. It turns out that the ticket window was on the far end of the station, and you had to weave through a labrynth of rooms and hallways to get there. I got my ticket about 2 minutes before they closed, and headed back to the hostel, since my train didn't leave until 3am. Since the train was late, not everything at the station was still working... including the schedule screens. I had to try to ask the conductor where my platform was, but he didn't understand so I just ended up writing the platform number on a piece of paper and he directed me again... to the far side of the station. I got on the train towards the airport, promptly fell asleep (accidentally), and luckily woke up just as we were pulling into the station. So long Budapest!

Budapest Day 3: Bathtime

March 26: This morning, I woke up and started talking politics over breakfast. Europeans really seem to enjoy it. I think I've been asked by just about everyone I've met who I'm going to vote for, what I think about the war, and how I feel about Bush. Anyways, this time, it wasn't American politics. The news was on, and Jorde was in the mood to vent about Hungarian government. Apparently the general concensus is that everyone hates the Prime Minister. He admits to collecting money, not doing anything, and lying to the people, and somehow was elected... despite riots and protests. I guess I was just shocked to hear that stuff like that was still going on, but I would find out a lot more the next day.

Anyway, from that point, I decided I was determined to at least check the prices for the Szechenvi baths. I got there, saw that it wasn't too expensive, and decided that I really wanted to go. Lucky for me, there was a sketchy swimsuit vendor outside selling everything from suits and towels to snorkels. I decided what the heck, bought a swimsuit for like 10 bucks and headed on in. It was definitely worth it. There were amazing fountains and sculptures surrounding them, a whirlpool that whips you around in circles in one pool, and old men playing chess in another. I realized how much I missed swimming and ended up doing laps for about an hour and a half in the cooler pool before realizing that I was going to be pretty exhausted. Oh yes, and while swimming in the open-air thermal baths, it was snowing. Crazy feeling.

Back to the market around 2 to get another cheap lunch. This time it was Langos, ("lawn-gohsh"), which is a traditional fried potato bread sprinkled with garlic water. Delicious, and the highlight? Lunch for 50 cents. While I was there, I ran into the family that I had been talking to at the airport. I guess the little kid recognized me as they were walking by, so they stopped and recapped their trip so far. Very nice people.

From there, I went to the Hungarian National Museum. It basically gives an overview of all of Hungarian history, from when it was about 5 times the size, to entering WW1, losing land, the Trianon treaty, WW2, Communist and Nazi reign, etc. It covered government situations, as well as day-to-day life. Clothes, lifestyles, coins, and other things like that. I won't go into all of the details, but you should definitely read up on their history if it interests you at all. I had never heard about any of it and was kind of overwhelmed with information. I stayed pretty much until the museum closed, and headed back to the hostel again to relax, have dinner, etc.