Une Promenade Dans Le Bois

One thing that I really miss about Pennsylvania is the forest. Here in Belgium, there are forests, but I don't get to visit them on a regular basis because I live close to the city. Fortunately, the weather on Sunday was great, so my host family and I went on a little outdoors adventure. However, it was also a day for the hunters, which we didn't know about, so we had to stay on the road and we couldn't go into the woods. It was no big deal, because it was still beautiful. Since it is Autumn, the trees are bright and vivid with color. It was a perfect day to spend outside! After our little hike, we went to a restaurant that served their dishes in cast-iron pans. I ordered an "omelette aux champignons" (omelette with mushrooms). Afterwards, we went to Bastogne, which is where American and German armies fought each other in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. My host parents told me that "all of the Americans go to Bastogne", so I guess it was just part of my duty as an American citizen. Overall, it was a really fun day, and I'm thankful to have such a great host family!

I saw more forest mushrooms in one day than I have in my entire life.

(October 21, 2012)

My host sister Christelle with some fall leaves.

(October 21, 2012)

Nature is awesome.

(October 21, 2012)

This picture is a terrible representation of what I was actually seeing.

(October 21, 2012)

Welcome to Belgium, where everything is written in at least two languages.

(October 21, 2012)

Mushrooms, encore.

(October 21, 2012)

Just look at those colors.

(October 21, 2012)

If you come to Belgium, you will eat like royalty. This was some sort of delicious pastry with apricot. I'm not really sure what it was called because I have learned to not ask questions when it comes to food. 

(October 21, 2012)

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My host dad took these pictures. (Behind the scenes!)

I never thought my host sister was that tall until I saw this picture. (Or else my host mom and I are really short).

"When in Belgium, don't eat waffles", said no one ever. 

Representing the mother land.

Doing the tourist thing. 

Sunday in Antwerp

This past Saturday night at the AFS welcome party, my friend Karla from Guatemala randomly invited me to go to Antwerp with her the next day. As an exchange student, you learn to live by the motto "pourquoi pas/why not?" So, I invited some other friends along and we all took the train the next morning from Namur to Brussels to Antwerp. I must admit, I loved Antwerp. While it's much bigger and a bit more modern-looking than Namur, I loved how vast and open it was. Also, bikes were everywhere! One thing I miss about the United States is riding a bike. Where I live, my host family doesn't even own a bike, so that is a big change for me.

In Antwerp, we visited an art house/garden called "Rubens House". It was really great to look at the art, but honestly, I am not the biggest fan of art from the romantic period. (I'm more of a fan of the surrealism style) Nevertheless, it was still really cool, and the garden was awesome! It had tons of cool plants and statues.

After the art house, we went to the pier. One thing that I really like about Belgium is that there is graffiti everywhere! It was no different there. There was a man playing accordion, the weather was beautiful, and the pier had tons of awesome graffiti...what more could one want? Overall, Antwerp was really spectacular. Because Belgium is so small, it is easy to travel to cities in just an hour or two. I am excited to visit even more places as the year continues!

It could be the Fountain of Youth. Who knows.

(October 7, 2012)

My friend Caleb hanging out with some creeping plants.

(October 7, 2012)

My friend Anita looking down from the balcony of a Turkish restaurant.

(October 7, 2012)

Shadow People

(October 7, 2012)

Grote Markt 

(October 7, 2012)

Grote Markt

(October 7, 2012)

Port of Antwerp

(October 7, 2012)

Antwerp train station. (I was obliged to do the tourist thing and take a picture)

(October 7, 2012)