Day 20: Boogeying in Brussels

Today was a particularly early start, especially after an epic struggle in the bathroom last night! I was trying to take a simple shower, but the shower head was broken off in the stall I usually use. So that was one strike against me. I decided to venture over into the stall just to the left, and all was well until the motion detector decided I wasn’t in there anymore and all the lights went out! In my attempts to flail around to get the motion detector to pick me up and turn the lights back on, I knocked off the glass light covering on the ceiling. Thankfully, though, it didn’t break, but made a loud crashing sound! I finally decided that I had to make a mad dash to the center of the bathroom to get the motion detector to sense me, so I could finish my shower with some light. Definitely made for an interesting experience!

We were all ready to go and in taxis by a ripe 4:30AM… but we were all shockingly energetic! After all the early mornings of Orientation Leader in June, I’ve found that I actually have a large amount of energy in the wee hours of the morning! On the way to the train station to catch our EuroStar train, Jason told either the best or worst joke in the world. It was:

“So the European Union is trying to create an uplifting slogan for the whole EU – what is it?”

….what Jason?

“Eurastar!” (you’re a star)

The taxi driver’s response was, “You do realize that’s how I’m waking up to this morning, right?” I told him I felt sick. Maybe a little extreme ;) I think he got one laugh out of Nadia the entire day of telling that joke!

We caught our EuroStar train at 6:20AM to head to BRUSSELS! Yay! We had croissants and orange juice for breakfast on the train and most of us napped during the trip. We were all excited to go through the Channel Tunnel (or "Chunnel") that travels across the English Channel. We were disappointed to find out that it was simply a black tunnel. Regardless, the Eurostar trains travel at a whopping 186 mph, so it was only a two and a half hour journey to get from London to Brussels! The time difference is one hour, so we arrived in Belgium at 9:45AM.

Our transport to our hotel was literally a huge 45-person charter bus… which seemed really bizarre, but hey, whatever works! When we arrived at our hotel – EU Radisson Blu – we knew we were in for a treat!

The lobby area was very fancy, and once again, we got our own rooms. After a small little mishap of the hotel staff writing “Mr Jamie Weiser” on my room key, we all headed up to check out our rooms!

When I stepped inside, my jaw dropped! These rooms are NICE. With a flat screen TV that greeted us with our own name, to a stocked mini-bar, a balcony, colorful/modern furniture, a shoehorn and shoe shiner (??), a bathroom with a tub AND a shower, and a queen-sized bed all to myself? WOW we are spoiled :) It truly is absolutely beautiful.

(Outside my balcony!)

We dragged ourselves out of our beautiful rooms in order to head out into the Belgium world! We went to the market area outside the Atomium for some lunch! We all chose a Panini-serving restaurant, where Nadia, Segolene, and I had to whip out some French skills to communicate with the wait staff. It has been so much fun to catch up on my French, and refresh myself for French class in the fall!

After lunch, we hung out around the Atomium, which is a monument built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by Andre Waterkeyn, it is 335 feet tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that it forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It symbolizes the democratic will to maintain peace among all the nations, faith in progress, both technical and scientific, and finally, an optimistic vision of the future. Interesting!

While hanging out outside the Atomium, we had some time to kill.... so we took a bunch of fun pictures! Here are the highlights:


After some fun picture taking, we had a serious debate whether the color on the Belgium flag was black or blue... everyone had a specific opinion and definitely held their ground! For the record though, it's black ;)

We got to the metro station to head to Grand Place, the central square of Brussels. However, Emma and I had an epic struggle with the metro! There’s one thing for sure – the metro shows no mercy! We were all boarding, then all of a sudden, the cabin doors closed so forcefully and quickly that Emma and I were left outside the train, while the rest of our group was inside! I will never forget the expression on Dayna’s face, which was pure sadness as she watched out the window that was leaving Emma and I behind… we both laughed until we cried at the ridiculousness of the situation. Thankfully, Emma knew where we were going and which train we were supposed to catch, so we got on the next one and our group was faithfully waiting for us at the next station.

We ALL made it to Grand Place, where we walked around a bit and enjoyed some coffee and hot chocolate at one of the street cafés. The waiter was particularly fun and called all of the girls “belle.” He looked at me first when ordering and was like, “What would you like belle? Whiskey?” It was so random! I was just like “Um! Non merci, coffee please!” He was definitely a lot of fun.

After, we had a chance to wander around for 30-45 minutes to get some souvenirs… can’t leave without Belgian chocolate after all!! We also saw the Manneken Pis, which is one of Brussel’s most famous landmarks. Basically, it is this tiny bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy peeing into the fountain's basin…. Very, very bizarre, but something you must see in Belgium, I suppose!

We headed back to our hotel (thankfully with no more metro mishaps!), and had the opportunity to just relax for a couple of hours in our rooms. It was so lovely to have a little down time. Down time even back in London is a rarity, so it truly feels like we “went on vacation” to Belgium! I got this weird call on my room phone that told me it was “housekeeping” and they needed me to check some number on the outside of my trash can because they were concerned about hazardous waste in my trash… I’m thinking it was a prank, but it was totally weird! Other than that, I watched some BBC and French TV (I got to see The Office dubbed in French!) on my flat screen and just relaxed. Very nice :)

We all got a little bit fancied up and headed to dinner at Volle Gas restaurant. It was really nice! We talked about how sad it will be when it’s time to go because we have all gotten to know each other so well. It’s also going to be really bizarre to know that we might not see each other again, since we all live in such different areas! Sad :( But Kirsten, our UK mommy, reassured us that it’s indeed going to be okay and that it’s life for that to happen!

To round off the evening, we all had a wonderful time at Celtica and O’Reilly’s in Central Brussels, recommendations from one of my friends who studied abroad in Belgium for a year!

At Celtica, Dayna, Emma, and I were standing in the front row watching the musicians play. After one of them heard us speak, he said, "OH! They're American! Let's play Jack Johnson!".... It made me very happy! Not only was it adorable, but Jack Johnson is one of my favorite artists of all time!