14 days. Wait, what?

When did THAT happen? Not ready to leave. This is going to be an obscure post. My life has been fairly boring, as I'm in the final weeks of class, and I am studying and not doing anything exciting. Although, fear not, dear readers, as I am travelling to THE NETHERLANDS this weekend (not Amsterdam. I would like to keep what little innocence and naivety I have left).

Things that have made me laugh since I last updated:
1. Drunk Belgians trying to speak English.
2. Drunk Americans trying to speak French (I include myself in this category...I don't want to talk about Clementine's 19th birthday...though it was a bit of fun)
3. This Facebook invite
4. Random woman on the metro. The woman in front of her left her bread on as she exited the train. The woman called out for her, but she didn't answer. As the doors began to close ominously, she chucked the entire loaf, hitting the other woman on the head. Brilliant.

Also, I'm no longer a teenager. That's right, in case you aren't a privileged one with access to my facebook, or haven't seen the 3476459872 posts my mom made (Hey, I'm not complaining, she sent my lottery tickets and told me to go out and party. My mom is cooler than yours), I turned 20 on June 27. It was weird because I was always the kid that never had a birthday during school, and now I did. It's stupid, but it was such a new experience to go to school and have every person wish you a happy birthday. I also tried to use it to get out of class. It didn't work.
What did I do for my birthday in Europe? I went to the grocery store, and I finished Season 2 of Community. I'm wild, I know.

No, for real, I'll be celebrating it Friday night with my friends.

In other news...

Just checked my stats...

Averaging 300 hits a month. 2 followers. Huge accomplishment for me. YES.

Also, most are by macs (I'm onto you, you know who you are! ;] ) and oddly, there's a significant amount of German readers. Strange. I must have charmed them all at Frankfurt.

Have a lovely day, my friends.

:(

Less than three weeks in Belgium. I'm not ready to return. I feel like I've just now transitioned into European society and it feels amazing to actually know what I'm doing.

People are actually responding to me in French when I order in restaurants and I've learned to stave off creepers on the metro.
Yeah, there's things I can't wait to do when I return. Speak English, eat pizza, feel thin amongst fat Americans, etc, etc. I'm not looking forward to reverse culture shock, though, or preservatives in my food. I'm going to miss speaking French (oh, Erin, you hypocrite) and eating amazing things you can't get anywhere else. And being half an hour from almost every major city in Europe. And I'm going to miss my host-family terribly. And chocolate. And when i get back to 90-100 degree weather, I'll probably miss the cold and the damp, too.

I am getting rather sick of my wardrobe, so it'll be nice to wear other things. And I'll be able to wear a tank top in public without getting checked out by creepers on the metro or glared at by old women. Not to mention skirts that go above my knees. And flip-flops. I miss flip-flops so much. Have I mentioned pizza?

Super long post because Erin has been busy/lazy/tired/lazy

Alright, I'll admit it. I've been lazy. I blame the weather. Everybody knows you can't get any sensible work done when it rains.

Also, there's a new show on HBO that I need to attend rehab for. And I have to now wait two more days for the next episode. </obsession>

When it comes to posting pictures of my travels, I'm not going to be posting any on this blog due to laziness. It takes too long to upload them on here, and then arrange them in the correct position. Ugh. But never fear! In my next non-lazy moment of my life, I will be opening up a flickr account for you lovelies who don't have the privilege of being my facebook friend. Because we all know that you can't be a real friend without having access to every photo, video, and status update.

Let's see...

Thursday. Visited the European Commission. Not much to talk about. Went through a security checkpoint (not the fancy ones they have at the American airports. Sorry, Belgian people, there's only one picture of my naked-parts, and that's at the Charlotte Regional Airport. Fucking full-body x-ray goggles security checkpoint.) and then listened to some guy ramble on for two hours about things we learned the previous week. If that's the way most meetings go there, and I worked at the EC, I'd throw myself off the top window.

I think we were also supposed to go to the European Council, but I was starving and my thumbs were worn down to nubs from excessive twiddling, that I just skipped it and got lunch. Yes, very bad student, I know. You would've done the same thing, don't even deny it.


Saturday. Got up at the crack of dawn (Well, figuratively. There's 18 hour days here) and made my way down to Central Station to catch a train to Bruges. Lovely city, if you got rid of all the obnoxious tourists. Ok, I was a tourist too, but I must be integrating into European society because I'm starting to be annoyed by Americans. They talk too loud. Bruges is known for its canals, and is called "The Venice of the North". Minus being pulled into the ocean. That doesn't happen there. Five points to Gryffindor (I'm in a weird mood).

If Belgium was Middle Earth (pardon the terribly nerdy analogy here), then Bruges would be Rohan. There's probably more horses than people living there. The whole places smells like horses, which is a wonderful thing for me, very smelly for everyone else.

I also had the most brilliant hot chocolate in my life. Hot milk, then you put in mouthwatering, delicious, delectable, heavenly (ok, now I'm using a thesaurus) Belgian chocolate and let it melt. You then add on double whipped cream (I stole someone else's whipped cream. Don't worry, they didn't want it!) and experience what I like to call a foodgasm. Fortunately, I'll be returning to Bruges once my family flies to Europe next month, and so I will get to have a double foodgasm. For only three euros, too.

ISA pays for almost everything on an official excursion (foodgasms are typically not included) and so we went on a lovely horse-drawn carriage (see, Rohan, my friends) through the city. Being an ultra horse-geek, I took more photos of horses than of the actual city.


Monday. Whit Monday. Hooray for Catholic countries! Visited Breendock, a concentration camp 20 minutes away from Brussels. Our tour guide was incredible. He acted out a lot of the things that the SS said and did there, and included us as his "prisoners" in order to demonstrate the monstrocities. It was a very intense experience. This was considered the nicest concentration camps, the prisoners got their own bed and even a new pair of underwear every six months. It's difficult to describe the experience, the word that is easiest is, again, intense. We then travelled to Antwerpen. Nice city, but it's mostly for shopping, and all the stores were closed due to the holiday. We took a "ghost tour" which was disappointingly not like Asheville's. It was mostly folk tales and old stories about the city. The guy was funny, and it was a nice break from the depressing morning, but it wasn't a serious tour like I was expecting.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I had class and realized how much work I have to do in just a couple of weeks.

Friday I did some of the work.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Waterloo, to visit the battlefield where Napoleon finally surrendered, just a few minutes outside of Brussels with a couple of my friends.

Sunday, I'll be sleeping since there will be no noisy construction on that day and I can actually sleep in. And buy groceries. I'm out of bread. I'm sure you're interested.

For now, friends...

10 Things I've Learned in 2 Weeks

I've been here for over two weeks and I've been through many amazing experiences...here's a short list of things that I've learned:

1. My French SUCKS. I was very confident with my language skills before I moved to Brussels. I've improved a bit, but when a Belgian starts talking to me in French on the subway, I'm almost always lost. At the post office, someone started speaking rapid French to me, I responded, "Je suis desolee, je ne parle pas francais bien" (I'm sorry, I don't speak French well). The lady walked away, because she couldn't understand my French. Another woman translated my French to actual French. It's really difficult being in a city where 80% of the people speak a language you barely know.

2. Carbs aren't a bad thing here. I eat bread for breakfast. A sandwich for lunch. Usually some sort of bread for dinner. Waffles for a snack. Fries can be a meal by themselves. Most of my meals consist of carbs because most of my meals are bread. Also, I've lost five pounds.

3. The metro is the one place where everyone is equal. Politicians, businessmen, hobos, everyone rides it. This leads to awkward moments. Like, when you're on a train with policy makers and your cell phone goes off, with the Super Mario Bros ringtone on full volume, and you hurriedly try to silence it before they realize what it is. Or you find a huge bag of animal crackers in the grocery store for a euro, get excited, buy two packs, and then realize how stupid you look sitting next to men in power suits. But not only the rich and powerful ride the metro, the crazy people do, the smelly people who don't wear deoderant do, the overweight tourists do, the street performers do, the creepers do. You meet everyone on the metro (but dear god, don't make eye contact and smile, that's a death sentence - unless you're into creepers hitting on you the entire ride) and every time is a brand new, interesting experience.

4. Belgian teenagers are just as obnoxious as American teenagers. Yes, there's some exceptions to both. My host sisters are awesome, despite their teenage status. Some are exceptionally obnoxious, a testament to my theory that children ages 11-18 should all be sent to military school. When I get on the metro 3:30-4:00 pm, and there's not enough room to breathe, and the teenagers are being, well, obnoxious, I start to believe that we should think about gassing all of them, and begin to fantasy about drop kicking them across the city.

5. When in doubt, act like a stupid American. Odds are, people will take mercy on you. THIS DOES NOT APPLY IN PARIS.

6. Don't speak French in Flanders. You might get mugged.

7. Finish all your god-damned food. Even if you don't like it. There's nothing worse than your host mom saying, "You not like my food?" after you know she spent a bloody hour on it. It's obscenely rude to not eat everything (unless you're at a restaurant) on your plate. It's ok to say no to seconds, but eat everything on your plate. You don't like it? Deal with it. Pretend it's a giant slice of chocolate cake. Don't like chocolate cake? Well, you aren't a normal human being. Food is still half-alive? Suck it up and eat it.

8. Megavideo is a gift from god. As are blackout curtains, considering there is 18 hours of sun in Belgium at this time. Oh, and never leave the house without an umbrella. Odds are, it's going to rain sometime in the day.

9. Learn your metro. Remember that if you can get to Montgomery, you can get anywhere. It doesn't matter how far away you are, you have a direct link to Montgomery? You're gold...

10. Before you leave for Belgium, or any other European country, really, learn how to hold your pee for a long time. This will save you a lot of money in the long run. Public bathrooms cost anywhere from .10 to .80. I have learned to hold my urine for several hours until I can either go home or get to the office. I'm extremely proud to say that I have not paid for a bathroom yet. Mwaha.

Erin is a bloody coward

First off, let me say YAY I HAVE A COMPUTER.

Second, I got caught in some GreenPeace protest, which was uncomfortable.

So I had to pick up my computer from the post office, which was a bit of a pain to get to. I had to take a bus about a mile down the road, and then walk to it. Today, being a typical Brussels day, was unpredictably windy and cold and the post office was closed for another half hour. I finally got my package, and hopped on a bus that I thought would take me back to the metro.
Before I go into the events that transpired, I would like to note that I've got a strong fight-or-flight sense and that I usually choose flight. I also have a good sense of humor, and my favorite genre is Erin-humor in which I make fun of myself

I was the only one on this bus, and I settled down and closed my eyes. Two minutes later, the bus' engine turned off. I'm on a secluded road, the only one on the bus with a fairly large male bus driver. My internal monologue went a bit like this:

Oh my god, I'm going to die. I'm going to be murdered and probably raped before hand. I think I might have given a friendly smile, oh Jesus, that's what happened and now this European thinks I'm easy and I'm going to get raped and oh god, it's going to be so expensive to ship my body back to America and I probably won't have a body after this, he'll cut me up and throw me in a river, my body will never be found, my poor mother, my poor brother, my poor family, oh my GOD I'm going to die, but first I'll  be raped, ok, there's an emergency exit over on that window, if the man gets out of his seat, I'm running towards it and jumping out, oh, but he's bigger, he can probably get to me fast, and I'm going to be raped and murdered and chopped up, hey, there's a cute dog, no, Erin, concentrate, ok, if he gets me, I'm going to try to spread as much blood as possible so they can find my DNA, but there's like a million of these buses, are they going to swipe every one to check for a missing girl's DNA, no, they're not, there will be no justice, oh thank God, another woman is getting on, why are we still stopped in the middle of nowhere? Ok, he'll find her more attractive or weaker or whatever, and I'll escape. But I can't just let her stay behind, but I have to get help or we'll both get murdered and raped and chopped up, oh my god, the engine is starting. Oh. He was eating a sandwich. Hey, look, a nun!

 At least I had a plan...

Katy Perry and Tanks

Can I just state that I´m not enjoying this new blogger format?

Bit of a boring day today, and probably will be tomorrow. My Ethnic Conflict class is cancelled for this week, so I have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday off. Due to loud, obnoxious construction on my road (honestly, the sidewalks were fine before you guys came), I was naturally awoken at the crack of dawn on my day off.

I hung out with Sabine and Christophe (my program directors) for a couple of hours and watched funny youtube videos (check out Remi Gaillard). Then my housemate Jamie woke up (at noon, poor dear) and we went exploring.

What is up with the weather here? It´s cold, then it´s hot, then it´s raining, then it´s burning my skin. It´s like a bad Katy Perry song.

We ended up going to the Cinquantenaire Park to see the beautiful arches. I got out my camera to take pictures, but realized that I left the battery charging at home. Oops. The Museum of Military History is located in the Cinquantenaire Park and is free, so we spent about two hours in there. It´s really, really interesting, especially if you like looking at medieval weapons and Nazi uniforms. There´s also aircraft that you can go into and a large collection of tanks. It does take a long time to go through, and all the explanations are in either French or German, but if you´re into things like that, then I recommend going.

Back at the office, as my computer still hasn´t gone through customs. I´m hoping tomorrow...tomorrow...positive thoughts, peeps.

A quick synopsis of the next few days of my life, in case I don´t get to get on facebook or blogger: Thursday, European Commission; Friday, Royal Museum of Natural Sciences; Saturday, trip to Bruges; Sunday, flea market (hey, it´s a big thing here); Monday, national holiday, trip to Antwerp.


(Awesome moment of the week:
We are not fed dinner on weekends at my home-stay, so Kristen and I decided to go scouting for places to eat on Sunday night. We found a little friterie, and walked in. It was a long line, so we figured it was good. The guy in front of me, I swear to god, looked like Hayden Christianson. It got me so confused that I didn´t realize I was staring openly at the person trying to figure out if it was the actor or not. The poor guy looked obviously uncomfortable. Anyways, we got up to the counter and I ordered completely in French [Je voudrais une frites avec sauces d'andolouse, s'il vous plait.] He looked at me and said "You want small or large?" Well, thanks, guy, for making me realize how terrible my American accent is)

Hitting the travel wall.

Culture shock hit me a bit last night and today. I was in a bit of "Ok, this place was cool at first. But I´m tired and I want to go home and cuddle with my cat and play a large amount of video games. It rains too much. I don´t understand half of what is said to me. Things are expensive here. I don´t have a computer [It´s in customs. I hope it goes through quick and is not "suspicious"] and I´m tired."

A bit better now, though I´m even more tired after a four hour lecture on European integration theory, though it was by a British guest speaker who said things like "Constructivism is the hottest thing in IR theory since sliced bread. But only if it´s toasted. And with a bit of jam". It was still ridiculously boring and a lot of review.

I hope I get onto the recovery stage soon.


I also went to Gent over the weekend, which was beautiful, but so very hot. I put on a ridiculous amount of sunscreen and still got burned. It was really cool, though. We went to a Museum of Torture, which was my favorite part, especially since it was located in the Castle of the Counts (again, friends, pics on facebook). The views were pretty and I really enjoyed the castle. Then we went on a walking tour, which was fairly boring. The guide took us into Gent´s cathedral (gorgeous, but I like Brussels´ better) and we saw the Ghent Altarpiece, called "The most coveted painting in the world". It´s been stolen countless times, one panel is still missing, Hitler was obsessed with finding it, you get the point. Everyone was obsessed with some secret meaning in it, but nobody has found anything except symbolism.

We also went on a boat tour through the canals of Gent, which was nice, but too hot. There were some statues and paintings of the Spanish King Charles V, who was born in Gent. He was apparently a casanova/rapist, and sired 37 illegitimate children from all different mothers. Women would literally hide their daughters in the nearby forest when they heard he was visiting. The people of Ghent, obviously, think fairly lowly of the Spanish monarch, and have sculpted sculptures and painted paintings far too...vulgar for me to post. Ok, they´re not bad, but I can´t find an internet picture of them and I didn´t take a picture of them. You can only see one of the paintings if you go on the canal, and it, uh, jumps out at you. 

Well, I must go buy the cheapest loaf of bread possible and take a nap. Think positive thoughts towards customs! :)

First Week of Classes.

(Still have no computer, see my facebook for pictures)

I have to remind myself that I´m not completely on vacation, and that I actually have to go to school. Classes are really boring, mostly because they´re four bloody hours long each. My professors are really cool, though, and speak pretty good English even though one is German and the other is Italian.

I don´t have much homework yet, but I have to do a presentation in both of my classes sometime this summer. Boooo.

I feel pretty confident about the metro now, I don´t know why I had so much problems in the beginning, it´s a very simple system.

The other night, Helene made us a traditional Belgian dish that sounds disgusting, but was actually pretty good: Peaches stuffed with tuna. I hate peaches. I hate tuna. Tuna reminds me of cat food, and tastes like cat food. I tried to tell Helene that I dislike both peaches and tuna, but she said, `Nono, you try, yes?´´ I begrudgingly took one, and it wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be, but its not my favorite meal so far.

On Thursday, I visited the small village of Han-sur-lesse, in the south of Belgium, in the region of Wallonia. Really adorable town. Lots of farm animals, and there was about ten buildings total there. So cute. I visited the caves there, and they were pretty, but there are so many caves that look exactly like it in the area where I live, I was fairly unimpressed.

After eating lunch, I went to the city of Dinant, to explore the citadel there. Four hundred and eight steep stone steps up a cliff, I finally arrived. It was the most grueling physical task I have ever experienced in my young life. Of course, I´m so out of shape that you could, well, anything, really. I´m a fatty. :3

The citadel was really cool, and the views were worth the climb. I could barely understand the tour guide in English, so I just listened to his French. Sadly (or, should it be happily?), I understood more in the French. My favorite part was getting to see all the medieval and World War I weapons that were used in the citadel. There was a large array of crossbows that I squealed over. Honestly, I squealed.

Then there was a World War I "reenactment". You walked through trenches that they set up and there was gunshots playing through the speakers. Not that realistic, but my history-dorkness got the better of me.

The citadel was hit by a bomb in World War II, so the walk at the end was slanted about 40 degrees which gave the sensation of being really, really drunk, or perhaps on acid. Later, I got icecream and took a riverboat tour of the canal in Dinant, then returned back to Brussels. My host mom´s boyfriend (who I´m starting to like - he has sarcasm, which is rare here) was grilling outback and we had grilled chicken, with potatoes, and andolousse sauce (I need to get a recipe since it´s not sold in the US). Other than the sauce, it felt like a dinner back in the States, which was a bit comforting. I felt like I was home for a little bit.

Today, I had no class so I went to the Cathedral of Saint Michael and Gudula which is my new favorite place in Brussels. It´s a beautiful cathedral that took over 300 years to complete, and is used for the royal weddings in Belgium (Belgium is still ruled by a king - King Albert II). It´s one of the most beautiful places I´ve been to in my entire life. The gothic architecture is breathless and there is gorgeous gold statues in it. It had a very..I can´t think of the word..saint-like feeling to it. That´s not the word I´m looking for, but it was so quiet even though it was packed with tourists. You could go downstairs and see the crypt of an arch-bishop or a martyr or someone, but it was two euros, and I´d rather spend that on a sandwich or waffle. You can tell I´m not a religious person, but I might return, just to see the architecture. (By the way, if you are going to Europe, you must read `The Pillars of the Earth`. I reread it on the plane, and I´m glad I did, because it made all the beautiful architecture here have so much more meaning, and a story behind them. It´s also just a fantastic book, so read it anyways, going to Europe or not...).

Tomorrow I´m going to Gent, in Flanders, and I won´t be on the internet until Monday, so au revoir, my friends!