AL and LD arrive...Spring Break 2010 :)

What an unbelievable/fun/fast-paced week it has been! Soooo much to update on but I'll just have to start from the beginning with this post :D Last Friday morning (the 12th) I woke up bright and early to the annoying sound of my alarm at 6:30, checked their flight to find out that it was delayed 30 minutes into Brussels International, then officially woke up at 7am and ran out the door. Arrived at Grand Central Station soon after, hopped on the 20 minute train to the airport, and waited for about an hour for them to get their luggage and walk through the gate. During that hour I saw what I thought was one of the internationals that lived near me in the CEC last semester that I became friends with (David from Belgium who is studying abroad in Clemson this entire year) walk through the gate and run up to his dad. I thought, "there is no way that David would have randomly left Clemson to go to Brussels for the weekend (I was totally forgetting it was their Spring Break), so that cannot be him." I found out later from Anna Lauren that he did come to Belgium for the week and I was so upset with myself that I didn't say hey! Oh well, such is life.

When Anna Lauren came through the gate, we ran and jumped on each other like we hadn't seen each other in 5 years!! Actually though, she was the last Clemson friend I saw before coming to Europe.

  

New Years Eve 2010 

She and Peter drove up to Lexington to spend NYE together with us at the Kellis's...such a fun time. After giving her the longest hug ever, I met her friend Laura who would also be staying here too. We quickly became fast friends. First order of business: take them to get their first Belgian waffles. They instantly fell in love...I think they got them every single day they were here. Then I took them back to the apartment, and after being there about an hour, my roommate Samantha's friends arrived too.  She has two friends (Chris and Scott) studying abroad in Spain that flew over for the weekend to stay with us and explore Brussels. We definitely had a packed house last weekend and it was quite chaotic but such a blast...I wouldn't have it any other way. I thought everyone would be jet lagged (especially the girls coming from the US), but they were ready to see the city (Laura on the other hand stayed to nap on the couch :D). We started off in Grand Place....

by far one of the most beautiful squares in Europe

 

(me, Chris, Sam, Scott, and AL)

 

  

mmm Belgian waffles :)

 

frites! (French fries originated in Belgium)

 

relaxing in the apartment

 

In Grand Place we saw chocolate dipped strawberries for a euro each, we decided to be creative and cheap and make our own at home :)

 

 

always on the metro...I feel like I live there now!

 

taking everyone to Delirium, world famous bar for having over 2000 different types of beer

 

and then continuing on to dancing at Celtica !

 

making pancakes for all the lovely children the next morning...

 

starting Saturday out by taking the metro to visit a basilica

 

always getting Belgian waffles...

 

 

outside of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the 6th largest Roman Catholic Church in the world!

  

  

 

full house

Everyone went out Saturday night too, except the hosts haha :D Sam, Michelle, and I decided to stay in because we truly needed to study. Andddd the girls (Laura and AL) and I were leaving for Paris bright and early Sunday morning!!!! I cannot wait to write about Paris...it was one of the most incredible trips. We left Sunday at 11am and returned Tuesday. Many stories to be told about our trip in the next blog update! I'm ready to go back :D

You're late, you're late, for a very important date!

We all decided to kick the weekend off right...by seeing our first movie in a Belgian theatre!!  All I can say is.....what an experience. The Belgian theaters are NOTHING like an American cinema. I can't even explain to you the looks on all of our faces when we walked into our theater room....scratch that....palace. The seats were the definition of luxury, and the walls were so ornate and beautifully detailed. For 7 euros-- I can't wait to go back again. Yesterday (10 March) was the premiere night of the new 'Alice in Wonderland' in Belgium, and to make it even better, it was 3D.

It picks up when Alice is now 19 years old, and Jonny Depp plays the Mad Hatter. I would by far recommend seeing this movie. I wouldn't quite say this one's a kid movie--even though it is Alice in Wonderland. But even all of us were getting quite creeped out by the character's very dark looks. Just look at Jonny in the poster! Having the movie in 3D made it just that much better. All of our previews were in French (did you know there is a Shrek 4 coming out??!) but the movie was in English with French and Dutch subtitles.

the beautiful theatre room! I could get used to this.

  

Elena, Erin and me sporting our rather attractive 3D glasses ;)

 

Since my roomies and I are extremely blessed to have such an incredible and massive apartment, we definitely like to share the wealth and entertain. My roommate Michelle likes to do 'Wednesday Night Dinners', but it's usually just a small group of 7 or so. This time we decided to extend the invite to everyone in our program, which turned out to be quite hectic but very fun. Since so many of us went to see 'Alice' at 5pm, we went straight to my apartment afterwards. And guess what was on the menu? None other than my absolutely favorite, breakfast for dinner :) Whenever mom or dad used to cook breakfast for dinner, I would get beyond excited. There is just something about eggs, bacon, grits, french toast, coffee, breakfast casserole, and any other breakfast food that just makes me want to eat it for any meal (probably a huge reason why Cracker Barrel and IHOP are my two favorite restaurants :D)

We arrived to a very smokey apartment and about 20 people crowding the rooms. We started with fresh fruit salad, then bacon, pancakes, french toast, and eggs. Of course I added coffee :D It was mania and on of the girls even took a jar around collecting money for Michelle since she spent a rather pricey 60 euros on food at our grocery store. I absolutely love having everyone over at our apartment; I'm such a people person. I love the community and letting everyone know they're welcome here to hang out.

the girls digging into the fruit salad

Michelle cooking up a storm

our smokey kitchen...had to keep all the windows open

some of the CUBC fellas

Today we had corporate finance (this class is going to be a killer), then I went to the grocery store to get some things for this weekend since we'll have an apartment of 7 instead of 3. Samantha has 2 guy friends from Clemson who are studying abroad in Spain that are coming to stay with, and I also have 2 girls from Clemson who are flying from the states as we speak and staying here for their spring break. Should be a very fun weekend, especially since the girls are Sam's sorority sisters, so they already know each other too. I have quite an early wake up call tomorrow...get up at 6:30, leave at 7, arrive at Grand Central Station at 7:20, and take the train to the Brussels International Airport to pick up the girls by 7:50 when their plane arrives. Should be quite a morning! I wonder how jet lagged the girls will be.

Also.....we're going to PARIS this weekend!! Couldn't be more excited about how perfect it worked out. I knew I of course had to go to Paris at some point this semester since I'm right beside it, I just wasn't sure if or when it'd work out. Luckily though, Anna Lauren actually has a friend whose dad owns a hotel in Paris, so we get to stay for our 2 night for free! We're taking a bus (4 hours) leaving this Sunday at 10:30 and arrive in Paris at 2:30. Her friend is meeting us and taking us to our hotel, and then I'll guess we'll explore from there. I can't believe I'll see the Eiffel tower this weekend...kind of crazy! We'll leave Paris on Tuesday and then the girls leave next Friday. Ohhh and also I get to tour the European Parliament with my Law class next week! Quite exciting.

Time to get back to reading corporate finance before bed. I can already tell this class and I won't be best friends.

Love you all!

Happy 2 month-a-versary, Belgium!!!

Bonjour, everyone!

First of all, I owe everyone the biggest apology ever. How in the world have I let 9 full weeks pass without posting a single blog? I have no idea. As soon as we arrived in Belgium on a freezing, snowy January 8th, we immediately dived into school work and traveling on the weekends. What an unbelievable past two months it has been! I have so much to update everyone on, but I'll have to start out small. Here are some pictures and explanations of my unbelievably busy, life changing month of January:

 Starting 2010 out right with an awesome celebration at the Kellis's!

 

Anna Lauren, me, and the Aussies

Leaving from Columbia airport on Thursday, January 7th

  

touchdown on European ground

 

our incredibly tiny elevator up to our 'penthouse' that I have come to love...

l

In shock when we found out we get to live in this palace!

 

view out of our window

my roomies- Sam from Charlotte and Michelle from Charleston

Renau, an exchange student from Belgium that was my neighbor in Clemson last semester, took me for a night on the town in Ghent! About an hour away from Brussels in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium.

my first famous Belgian beer! Frambroise...raspberry flavored.

St. Catherine's Cathedral

 

view outside of my bedroom window on quite a cold morning :P

 

I even got to have a reunion with the study abroad students from Clemson that were there  my freshman year! All from Belgium and 2 from Japan.
 

Basically, these pictures do not even scratch the surface of what has been going on in my life. So much has happened in the past two months. I have officially ended the first two classes of the semester, Marketing 301 and Accounting 201. Phew! They completely flew by. The split up our semester into two parts, so I had final exams last week for those two classes. It felt like the beginning of school all over again this week--probably because it was! We started Law 322 (I have an incredible professor so hopefully she'll make law more fun than I think it is... ;D) and also Finance 306. I am incredibly nervous about finance class, mainly because he spoke of the students today who failed it last year, and ALSO...it is a Belgian professor that teaches at a nearby Belgian university. Now I know that doesn't seem like a big deal- but he pretty much dissed the American system today of multiple choice and said 'Welcome to Europe...we're better than that'...so our tests will be quite intense but I'm sure I can handle it. I am also in an online class called Cultural Literacy Across Media (CLAM). It's basically about video editing and sharing our experiences in our study abroad countries through multi-modal compositions. Interesting.

Trips wise....where do I start! Just in the past two months I have been able to visit and/or spend weekends in London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo, Bruges, AND the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. What incredible experiences I've had already. I cannot wait to show pictures--I'll probably have to do a separate blog for each trip. Also my old roomie from last semester, Julia from Austria, came to visit me from February 24-28th! We had suchhh a great time catching up, talking about Clemson, seeing some of Belgium, and just enjoying each others company. I have missed that girl so much! Us 4 (Sany, Christine, Julia and I) had such an incredible semester together in the Cultural Exchange Community last semester. 

 

We were able to have two of the Belgian girls that were at Clemson last semester over for dinner and then go out on the town!

 

On another note, I'm having two more visitors come this Friday and stay for an entire week! So exciting! Anna Lauren, a friend from Clemson, is coming to stay with me in Belgium during Clemson's Spring Break. She's also bringing one of her friends, Laura.

Anyway, time to get back to some studying. I am so glad to finally have written this, and I promise there are many more updates to come. I still have so much to tell from my first two months! Thank you everyoneee for the support and letters and packages over the past two months; those mean more to me than anything and I appreciate it so much! Hearing from friends always makes me feel so much better :) 

I love you all,

Kree :)