Short Week 3

Yesterday (Tuesday) we had culture class all day. Don't get me wrong, we all love Marie-Therese but sitting in class for 6 hours in a day is painful. The day turned out to be our favorite class day yet because we convinced her to go enjoy the city instead of having class in the morning. We took the metro to Parc, walked around and saw things being set up for Thursday which is Belgian's Independence Day (it is actually the day they elected a king for the first time), and then headed to the Musical Instrument Museum. It ended up working out great because the museum was redoing their sound system that played all the instruments in the museum on the audio guides so we didn't have to pay to go in for the day! There were lots of really cool instruments and I especially loved the pianos.

The saxophone came from Belgium

I have no idea what this is but it looks cool!

The Musical Instrument Museum was originally the Old England which was a department store. The building is in art nouveau and there is now a restaurant at the top. It had beautiful views of the city. After the museum we wandered around the city for the rest of the morning, enjoyed the Grand Place, and of course got chocolate.

This is Marie-Therese. She wears her heels on the cobblestone. 

The center of Brussels.

In the afternoon, we had culture again. We were suppose to be presenting our photo journals that we did for our culture class, but since most people had similar pictures and we all knew about each others projects we ended up using the photos and having a class discussion which turned out really well. After class we all headed back to the house. I had a relaxing night and watched tv (I found CSI in English!) and finished my midterm. Lots of us also worked on our plans for our various weekend trips. 

Today we had nutrition class in the morning and had some really good discussions about nutrition in Belgium as well as My Plate compared with the Belgian Food Guide Pyramid. After lunch at the CUBC, we met up with the communications program and headed out for our weekly excursion to Cantillon which is a family owned brewery in Brussels. We had a tour and then got to taste several of the different beers they brew.

After class, about half our group left for their weekend trip to Paris and the rest of us had another chill evening and night. I went to go pick up dinner at Made in Salad because I enjoyed it so much last week that I had to go back. My salad was delicious. I had to make another stop on the way home to the Parc du Cinquantenaire because I wrote my weekly reflection on it but I didn't have any good pictures so I stopped to do that. After going back to the CUBC to get my backpack and stopping to skype with my mom and then Katherine, I headed home and got to eat every bite of my yummy salad. Don't worry, I added Neuhaus chocolate for dessert. It's the weekend and I'm in Europe so I can do that. We were all tired and several of us are leaving tomorrow for our weekend trips. Some more are going to Paris and two more are headed back to Amsterdam to watch a rowing competition. We worked on homework, caught up on email and blogging, hung out, and are all going to bed early. Tomorrow is Belgian Independence Day so we don't have class. I am excited for an extra long weekend and to celebrate with the Belgians tomorrow before Beth and I leave for London!