Life in Brussels.: Aching For More of Aachen.

We have a crazy schedule here in Brussels. From Monday to Thursday I fit in 20+ hours at my internship, sit through two Vesalius classes, go to Dr. Nelsen's "meetings", and do all the work required for those (which pretty much means none for VeCo and lots for BFN). And of course there is the commute to work and class, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. It's a busy life. But it's a good one. There is a great feeling of independence during the week as we are all on our own schedules -- which then makes it fun to catch up with the group when we meet up for lunch at parliament, walk to class together, or are sitting around the apartments late at night.
Goal for this week is to start exploring Brussels more, but it's hard to make yourself venture out to cafes etc when you are just so tired from a long day of work. Last week we did journey to the other side of Brussels for the USA vs. Belgium soccer game... make that football match! We walked into the stadium to the sound of our national anthem and that kicked off a good old time supporting our Furman alum Dempsy, enjoying frites and beer, and cheering loud! Sadly the US lost but I think seeing the exuberance of the Belgian fans after their victory only added to the European sports experience.
Also and I forgot to mention one of the most stressful tasks of the week, planning weekend trips. Why do so many problems always ensue? Hopefully we'll get it down to a science soon. Still while this is a tedious task, it leads to the most fun part of this trip... weekend travels! Ahhh our three days of carefree joy to explore this wonderful continent. Bruges is set for this weekend with talks of Dublin, London, Barcelona, and more to come!
Luckily this past weekend we didn't have to plan much. We took our first group travel trip to Aachen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium. At first I was a bit skeptical about the Aachen part of the trip; did we really need to travel to Germany for the soul purpose of seeing Charlemagne's cathedral? Yes, we did. The cathedral and treasury were impressive and full of interesting relics and we had a really fantastic guide who provided a wealth of information. But I also just loved Aachen. It was a much smaller city, the weather was perfect, and the food was so good and so cheap! Loved it.
From our authentic German dinner the first night (I've never seen Russell so excited about a meal) to the jaunt through a playground Sara Beth, Cameron, Allie and I found, to our lovely lunch and gelato in the park, it was truly a perfect experience.
Antwerp on the other hand did not quite meet expectations. The tour was a bit of a drag and included an unsettling walk through the red light district - not ideal for a Sunday morning. I think the bad weather also affected my opinion of the city. Still I wouldn't trade the experience, so many laughs! I am beginning to fall in love with this cast of characters we have on our trip. So many ridiculous stories and comments. "Mmmm whatcha SEY..."