My last exciting weekend abroad was this past weekend when I went to Belgium. I had never been to Belgium before, and I was excited to see some old friends from MSU. I met Zou and Louise when they came to study abroad at MSU, and they are both from the area around Liège in Belgium. I also met Max when he came to study at MSU, but as you may remember, he's from Germany. Finally, Brent is a friend from MSU, though he's American, and he's spending the summer studying in London. Belgium was the center point, so we decided to meet there.
Last Thursday was my last day of classes and also my last day of exams, as well as the day that Clare left. Between my class and my exam, I met up with Matt and Clare to get some delicious french fries and say goodbye to Clare. As expected, it was sad to say goodbye to Clare. It's weird to think about how some people are only in your life for such a short amount of time, and that's ok. It's just sad to let go and move on. After my last exam, I rushed home to finish packing and caught my first of three trains to Belgium. The first train ended up being delayed 10 minutes, so I ended up missing my second train and therefore my third train. I ended up in Aachen, Germany, with no more trains leaving for Liège that night. Luckily, Aachen is only about 45 minutes by car from Liège, and my friends were able to come pick me up. It was a bit touch and go for a little while, but it all ended up working out. We got back to Louise'e apartment in Liège around 1am, and we sat and chatted a little before we went to bed.
Friday was perhaps the most eventful day of the weekend. We got up and headed to Bruxelles in the morning, not coming back until 5pm. We ate lunch and walked around sight seeing. I love being able to walk around a big city and see so many interesting and historical sites. I got to eat my first Belgian waffle, which was pretty good. Belgian waffles are essentially coated with a sugar glaze, making them sweet without anything else added to them, but there's always something else added to them. I got chocolate sauce on mine. It was delicious. We took the train back to Liège, got changed, collected our things, and then headed out to Durbuy, the village where Louise is from. Louise's Dad owns several restaurants and hotels in the village, as well as a spa. When we arrived, we had drinks and appetizers at one of his restaurants, headed to a different hotel to drop off our bags, then went to eat at the restaurant connected to the hotel. Everything was absolutely delicious. I'm actually getting hungry just thinking about it as I type. After dinner, we headed to a bar where we met Louise's friends. We had a few drinks, a couple of shots that were on fire, then headed to the next village where a massive tent party was taking place. We danced and had a good time for a few hours. By the end of the night, condensated water had formed on the ceiling of the tent and was dripping on us. We headed back to the village where we went to an after party. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 5am. It was a fantastic day.
As you can imagine, we had a slow start on Saturday morning. Once we finally got moving, we headed to a smaller village, Warre, next to Durbuy where Louise's family has their house. Afterwards, we headed back to Durbuy, did some sight seeing, then had lunch at another one of Louise's Dad's restaurants. It was also delicious. We had to head back to Liège so that Max could catch his train back to Germany. After a little nap, the rest of us headed out to do some sight-seeing around Liege. For dinner, we went to a local burger place, which was more delicious than many burger places in the US. We went out for drinks and got peket, a specialty from Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. It was also delicious, as everything else I ate and drank while I was in Belgium. Speaking of which, Belgium has some awesome beer that I like. They have a LOT of fruit beers, and I liked every single one that I tried (the first time in my life that I wanted to drink beer!). While we were walking around Liège after dinner, we got stopped by two American guys in the Air Force. One of them grabbed my arm to stop us and asked, "Are you from the US?!" He was so excited to have met "real" Americans speaking "real" English. We chatted with them for a little. While we were chatting, I noticed a homeless man who was chasing a pigeon. The pigeon was clearly hurt and was incapable of flying away. Once the man caught the pigeon, he put it in a plastic bag and killed it. Once he had done that, another man came over and took the pigeon away. It was once of the strangest and disturbing sites that I have seen while I was here.
Sunday morning we got up early to walk around the market in Liège. It was like the markets I've been to in Germany, and I wish we had markets like these in the US outside of big cities. You can find most anything you want to buy. I caught the first of two trains back to Mainz around lunchtime. Despite train delays, I made it back to Mainz in the afternoon. In the late afternoon, I met up with Matt, Marcella, Frank, Daniel, Judith, and Judith's sister for some ice cream. It was the last time that I was going to see Matt, and probably Daniel and Judith as well. Just like the last time I hung out with Clare, it was a bittersweet moment. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with all of them.
I will post some pictures of the weekend later!
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