Out and about in Brussels

Although the rest of my week may seem somewhat uneventful after the Binche experience, I actually did some pretty cool things in Brussels. Friday was a free concert, the Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra, which was quite something. They blended a gypsy sound with just about everything you could think of: ska, reggae, hip hop, punk, funk, and just about as many languages. Many of the songs were in English, but I was also told they sang in the gypsy language (maybe it's called Roma? I'm not sure). Either way, sometimes I understood, sometimes I didn't. The lead singer spoke to the crowd in what a friend told me was probably Dutch, and at other times he spoke a mix of French and English in the same sentence. Overall it was a great show, really lively, and as long as I didn't try too hard to understand I got the general idea of what was going on.

Saturday day I visited the Coudenberg museum with the exchange group. It's an archaeology site of the basement rooms/foundation of the old royal palace and cathedral that burnt down when they were making candy for a party. Oops. Not having enough money to rebuild it as it was, they built the new palace on top in a completely different architectural style. The museum was kind of neat because we got to go underground through all of the rooms that remained and had just been buried for awhile.

That night I went to see a film at an anime festival. I thought it was curious that I saw my first Japanese anime film in Brussels, but I guess that's the way things turn out sometimes! It was a compilation of five different short films, all by different artists and directors, and most of which didn't make sense. It was a great experience, and I saw some really cool animation, but I left really puzzled about what had just happened, since the last film especially had no sort of connecting chain of events or plot line to follow.

As for today, my friend Angie and I visited a weekend market where I bought some dried kiwi (never heard of it before, but they're actually really good), and then Angie, Gabrielle, and I started planning our Easter break adventures... it's looking like Oslo, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. Exciting!

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to write next, as it took me a couple of days to get around to writing this post, but I'm wishing all the best to everyone at home and I miss you all and the Vancouver mountains and ocean so much!

Carnaval et "Mouvement Social"

After a rather tame weekend of going to a movie (suprisingly difficult to do if you're not familiar with the fact that this particular theatre is in two different buildings, one where you pay cash and one with credit) and the comic book museum, I spent today celebrating Carnaval. We had a school holiday today, specially for Carnaval, so we went to the (somewhat) nearby town of Binche for the festivities.


It started off with a bit of a journey, as trains were detoured because of yesterday's head-on collision between two trains a little outside of Brussels, and the regularly one hour trip became two and a half hours. That was well enough, we arrived with plenty of time to join in the various tiny parades around town where men in costumes and clogs marched around with a drummer and dropped off some of their likewise costumed friends at their houses (we guessed so they could have some lunch). We then lined up along the streets to wait for the bigger parade, where they all returned with large feathery hats and baskets of oranges. There was confetti everywhere, children with silly string, and a few interesting hats and costumes scattered through the crowd.



At first the paraders lightly tossed oranges to the crowd as they passed, but after awhile they full on chucked them into the air. All the houses lining the streets had cages over them just for this event, because, as a couple of my friends found out, oranges are rock hard when they hit you.

So the parade part was pretty neat, and I'm glad I got to experience a bit of Mardi Gras celebration, but the real adventure started on our way home.

At about 3:30 we decided to go back and catch a train home. We were prepared for it to be complicated and involve a couple of transfers at different stations, but that was fine. Of course we arrive at the station and there's absolutely no one there, just a sign saying that, due to the "mouvement social," there will be no more trains today. Great, strike.


Luckily we were with Bertrand, the main organizer for our exchange activities, and he had a plan B: take the bus to the next town. But first we went back to the parade area to alert other exchange students so they could come with us if they wanted. We managed to find about 50 of the 100 of us that had come. So we had a giant group waiting for the bus which, after an hour or so of waiting, just never came. No explanation, the schedule said it should be there.


Ok, plan C: flag down one of the shuttle busses which had been driving by almost empty. That didn't work, all the drivers just honked at us and kept going.


By this point many people left to hitchhike their way home, or at least to Charleroi, the nearest city with a likely connection to Brussels. So with a group of 30 or 40 we moved to plan D: call for some taxis. They said no.


Then we tried a more desperate plan E: walk the hour or so it takes to get to Charleroi. We only got about 10 minutes in and some people found busses which may or may not have gone to Charleroi. The rest of us, now closer to 20, tried calling taxis again. This time they said they'd come get us in 15-20 minutes! But after probably half an hour of waiting, none came. Now crowds of people were coming from the direction of Binche, presumably after discovering there were no trains, and we were getting worried they'd take our taxis.


Finally, Bertrand got a number for a private shuttle company that could send us 8-seater vans to take us directly to Brussels for 20 euro each. Not too bad for getting us to a main station in Brussels. After that the trip home from Gare Midi by metro and tram seemed short and simple, and I arrived home at the lovely hour of 9 pm. Only 5 and a half hours after we'd initially tried to leave Binche!


So today I learned I can't rely on any sort of transportation here, and I got an orange.

Adventures of my second week of classes

My big adventures this week included trying all different kinds of Belgian beer (most of which are delicious!) and wandering all over the city to get to know my way better. I think I have a pretty good map in my head now!

Of course I did also spend a ton of time trying to sort out classes and textbooks, but that's much less exciting. As far as I can tell, most of my professors haven't printed their coursepacks yet, or there's no coursepack or textbook at all. However, I tried to find textbooks I knew about for one class, and the lady at the campus bookstore told me they were out and not ordering any more in! Wouldn't the campus bookstore make more money if they sold the books professors assign to their classes? I could by a travel guide to just about anywhere in the world, and all kinds of books about Brussels, but nothing for my classes. Bizarre. But one thing I'm beginning to notice about Belgium, or at least Brussels, is that making money is much less important than having a two hour lunch break, or better, the whole afternoon off. As my friend Gabrielle noted in her blog, if you wan't to get something done here, do it before noon, and definately not on Sunday.

For this coming weekend I'm deciding between going to Ghent or Leuven. I'll keep you posted how that turns out.

Saturday in Bruges

Express, the international exchange student welcome group here at ULB, organized an extraordinarily cheap trip to Bruges for us today. It only took a one hour train ride to get there, but that was enough distance for the weather to rapidly change from sunny to dense fog. No matter, the farm fields passing by in the train windows and Bruges itself seemed much more mysterious that way.

Bruges is a lovely little medieval town, with canals and buildings in all kinds of styles from gothic to gilded renaissance buildings. I'm no expert in architecture, but it's pretty interesting to see when they're all lined up together.

We did a bike tour that took us to a very nearby town called Damme, which is a bit closer to the coast (I still haven't actually seen the Belgian coast yet though). It was really weird riding a bike on cobblestone! Especially while trying to fit down a narrow street that's croweded with a strange mix of cars, pedestrians, cyclists, horse-drawn carriages, and motorbikes. I didn't hit anyone though, and no one hit me! It seems drivers in Bruges are a bit more willing to wait for pedestrians and cyclists than those in Brussels.

On our bikes we passed windmills and farm fields with furry clydesdale-like horses, although I didn't take pictures because we were busy zooming by. Next time I visit Flanders or the Netherlands I will get my windmill pictures!

A few of us decided to end the trip with some Belgian fries, and an assortment of sauces from curry mayo to a tomato-based provençale sauce. Next time I might try the samurai sauce; I'm guessing wasabi mayo. I didn't know what language to order in, since Bruges is in Flanders (the Flemish part of Belgium) and I'd heard French isn't appreciated too much there. Not speaking a word of Flemish, I opted for English which usually makes me feel like an ignorant tourist. But when I asked the guy at the fry place he said he can serve you in about six different languages, as can most other tourist places, because very few tourists speak Flemish.

So now that I'm back in my room in Brussels, I'm sore and tired from so much biking, but looking forward to my next trip, although I don't know just yet where to.

Monday I start my French course, and I have a few other classes to try out in this coming week as well. I'll see how that goes, and I'll update you next time I've got a good story!

All the best to everyone at home!