Frequent Flying

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Intermission.

I came home on Sunday, July 31^st, and had to leave again on Friday, August 5^th, meaning that I was in the country for a whopping five days. Originally I was just supposed to stay in Europe for five days and wander around, but somehow things didn’t quite work out that way. But this ended up being a good thing, as I was able to take a quick road trip (Wednesday to Thursday) to the Israeli Consulate in Chicago. When I was at the Consulate, which, based on the amount of security I went through, is probably the most secure place in the city, I met two nice Israeli women as I was waiting for my visa. I told them I was studying in Jerusalem for a semester, and the younger of the two (I think it was a woman and her mother), told me this: “If not for the Muslims, Jerusalem would be the most beautiful city in the world.” It was sobering to hear, and a reminder that my education in Jerusalem certainly won’t be limited to the classroom.

I left Friday afternoon for Frankfurt, Germany, where the second part of my international tour will begin. From August 5^th to the 19^th, I’ll be staying with a German host family, the Faßbinders, through something called the TANNER program, sponsored generously by Freudenberg, the company that my stepdad works for. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, as my contact for the program seems to have an aversion to responding to my emails. We’ll see what happens!

Finale: Belgium

My last week in Brussels was taken up by studying for our exam on Thursday. We had no site visits left, so our days consisted almost solely of going to class, catching up on and reviewing our readings, and preparing for Thursday. After the exam on Thursday, we had a class dinner to celebrate the end of the program, where we had Waterzooi, a traditional Belgian stew-like dish with chicken and vegetables in a creamy broth.

As a final cap to my experience in Belgium, I joined a small group of students, as well as our professor from MSU, on a day trip to Namur on Saturday. The train tickets were extremely cheap, something like 8 euro for a round trip ticket, and we had a blast exploring the old town and its citadel. Underneath the citadel there was a network of catacombs, some hundreds of years old, and we were able to go on a tour of these, which was awesome.

Cool building in Namur.

Cool sign.

Another old Namur building. Probably served some important purpose.

Interesting graffiti.

A crest or something that I saw on the side of this building.

The citadel of Namur.

We saw Segway tours in almost every city we visited. I kind of regret not doing one.

View from the top of the Citadel.

Layout of the Citadel.

Descending into the tunnels beneath the Citadel.

Going deeper...

...and deeper.

The tunnels had rooms, like this one, that were overly creepy.

Stalactites (I had to look that up).

Still going deeper. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and I was absolutely freezing.

Original door from the oldest section of the catacombs, hundreds of years old.

Cool roots.

Outside of the Citadel.

One of the four or five chimneys that provided ventilation for the catacombs.

We got back to Brussels by 10pm, and I should have gone to bed immediately, seeing as how I was leaving for the airport at 5am the next morning. But I, in my infinite wisdom, attempted to stay up all night, reasoning that it would then be easier to sleep on the plane, which would in turn make it easier to stay up all day once I arrived back in the US. Naturally, I fell asleep around midnight, and woke up at 5:20 to my cheap European cell phone buzzing on the floor as my taxi tried calling me for the fourth time. To make matters worse, I had hardly packed at all (I had all night, I figured, so what was the rush?). I hastily packed and rushed outside, to find not one, but two taxis waiting for me, which was a problem. I had emailed Gus a couple of days before, asking to order me a taxi, but, as I had gotten no response, I figured he hadn’t received the email, and ordered one myself. But apparently he had ordered a taxi after all, and the driver was not happy when I told him that his services would not be needed, especially after he waited around 20 minutes for me to finally appear. He drove off quite mad, but on the bright side, I made it to the airport and through security with plenty of time to spare! After that, my journey home was without incident.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Paris

Paris was the last weekend trip I had planned and, just as I could see the end of my month in Belgium approaching, so too could I see the bottom of my bank account looming. I was desperate to find any and all possible ways to save money (flying Ryanair excluded, of course), which led me to accept an offer of transportation from one of our program coordinators, Gus. After hearing that a group of us was heading to Paris, he decided to go himself, and offered to drive me there. He said it would take five hours, tops, and that it would cost only 20 euro each way. Naturally, I jumped at this opportunity, as it seemed to be a great way to save about 50 euro. To make a long story short, by the end of our long, hot, five hour car ride (shared with four other people), I was about ready to pay just about anything just to get out of that car. True I saved 50 euro, but at what cost?

Anyway, once in Paris, I met up with my friends Michael and Brandon, who had flown in from London, where they were participating in a different MSU study abroad program. We met up with Brandon’s brother’s fiancé’s sister (it took me a little while to figure that out too), who lived in France, and was able to take us around the city and translate things for us (like menus). We saw the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe, and much more. Paris was a great city to experience, and the perfect way to wind down my study abroad trip.

Da Vinci Code.

Art.

This was beautiful.

Underneath an archway near the Louvre? To be honest, I don't exactly remember.

Arch near the Louvre. Also source of the above picture.

Statue.

Looking out of the Louvre's glass pyramid.

Inside the Louvre. You could spend a full week here and still not see all there is to see in this massive museum. Fun fact: I visited the Louvre with Michael on Saturday, and randomly saw almost everyone from the Brussels program who had also come to Paris. There were three separate groups of students who came from Brussels (not counting myself) and they all, independent of each other, decided to visit the Louvre at the same time on Saturday. Weird.

Trajan.

This is famous.

Seeking out the Mona Lisa.

I think I remember seeing this painting before in Mrs. Norris' AP European history class.

Now I can cross this off my bucket list. If the picture seems bad/blurry, its because I had to struggle with the population of a small country to get this close.

I wish the ceilings in my house were more like this.

The Coronation of Napoleon.

Reminds me of Les Mis.

Arc de Triomphe. Michael and I looked for a way to cross over for about ten minutes before we discovered that we had to go underground.

Underbelly of the Arc.

Beautiful.

Climbing up the inside of the Arc!

Fine, maybe 'Hangover' didn't translate very well, but then shouldn't this be in French? One of life's many mysteries.

A bust inside the Arc.

Here's a layout of the Arc. There's an entire museum inside that I had no idea existed.

On top of the Arc.

The river Seine.

The doors to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame.

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Emerald avenues.

Inside Notre Dame.

I love stained glass windows.

More stained glass.

Inside Notre Dame.

The rear of Notre Dame.

Side of Notre Dame.

This was a great bookstore we stumbled upon right across the river from Notre Dame! The walls were covered floor to ceiling with books. I could have spent a day in here alone.