Mid-Term Break in Belgium

Hello from the continent!

These past three days were spent in Belgium and I have so much to share.

FIRST: I’ve been listening to Broken Bells’ Control non-stop. The chorus always gets me going. My friends like to give me funny looks while I jaunt along to the song during paper-writing. I also love Leave It Alone, but that one’s a bit more moody.

But let’s start from the beginning

I concluded my EU class on Tuesday in Edinburgh, Scotland. The evening was spent eating take-out noodles, packing up our townhouse and angsting about our final paper for the class. We have a 10-12 pg paper on sophisticated EU political theory this Monday, and it’s half our grade for the class. We’ll be writing on planes and trains as we move from Scotland to Belgium to our research sites (in my case, France).

Some of my favorite graffiti outside our apartment

One final 11pm trip for bubble tea…

I managed to get away from the house with Alice for a late night bubble tea run. The café is open until 11:00pm, which is seriously abnormal for Edinburgh, where everything seems to close at 5.

We took a nice night walk along the canal and I got to say one last goodbye to the city that was our home.

Then we all piled on a flight to Brussels

“Wait , why Belgium? Is that relevant to your coursework?” Not really, and I have no clue. I think it was supposed to be a little break in between our different classes on the program. Anyways, I’m DEFINITELY NOT complaining.

We arrived on Wednesday at the lovely Novetel, in a bustling tourist square. There were waffle stands, chocolate shops, street performers, and towering buildings.

We were only a block away from the Grand Place (pronounced “grand plaz”).

A brief note on Belgian waffles: what makes them so delicious is the bursts of brown sugar mixed into different parts of the waffle. People walk around with towers of whipped cream, but I don’t think you really need it. The waffle is what it’s all about.

Thursday visit to Bruges…

We took a train to Bruges for the afternoon, but first I must emphasize the wonders of a Belgian continental breakfast. There were baguettes, croissants, waffles, lattes, Nutella, salami, brie, and RASPBERRY JUICE. No words only feelings.

Bruges had great chocolate and city life, but I think the nature is what made it special. There are so many wonderful parks and canals. 

Official business- a trip to the EU Commission

Friday we visited a couple offices at the EU Commission buildings in Brussels. Fun fact: there are SEVENTY EU Commission buildings in Brussels alone. For those who don’t know, the Commission is one of the three facets of the EU, functioning as something similar to the executive branch.

Much paper writing

Lots of students spent the majority of Friday in the hotel working on their papers. I got a little work done, but I got out for the evening and walked around a bit. I also visited this enormous bar, Delirium. I heard a lot about the bar from other students and knew it was supposed to be a pretty cool place.

I planned to go and meet up with some friends from the program, but didn’t end up seeing them when I got there. I did, however, bump into Dev (our program director + professor) along with Molly (the program assistant)! I stuck around and talked with them for a couple hours. We talked about childhood books, social movements, and what Dev terms the “sugar hierarchy.” There was also some discussion of Parks and Rec and 30 Rock.

I have a deep admiration for Dev, so getting to spend some time with her was really nice.

But I’m on a train through France right now…

It’s too beautiful y’all. I can’t write and look at a computer one more minute.