Chocolate, and Mussels, and Fries Oh My!

This past weekend I went with two other friends (Caroline and Cha) to Brussels, Belgium! It was an amazing weekend but also really busy since we were only actually in Brussels for a day and a half! This was the first time any of us had actually been in another country since we had gotten to France so it was really exciting, but it's not really as exciting as it used to be because Belgium has the same currency as France and because of the "Schengen Space," which is the free travel, work, and study space between the different countries of Europe, we didn't even get our passports stamped which was kind of a bummer! In Europe you almost don't even need to travel with a passport anymore, but we always due just in case we need it for something. The start of our journey to Brussels was a bit stressful. We left Dijon at 6pm on a Friday and the train station was packed. At the train station you have to sit around and wait until your track number or letter goes up for where you are supposed to go catch your train. It was about 5:45 and our number still hadn't gone up and we then noticed that there were 2 trains leaving at exactly the same time for Paris and on one of them there was a number for the track but the other that was supposedly our train had no number. Now it could be possible that two trains were leaving for Paris at the same time since trains between Paris and Dijon are very frequent, but I thought it was a little bit strange. So I went to go and try to ask someone but the lines were too long and we only had 10 minutes at this point. We waited around for another 5 minutes and then we decided that we should just go to the other Paris train and see if it was actually the same as ours. So we went to the track, and at this point it was about 5:59 and the train attendants were like "Vas-y, Vas-y" which means go ahead! So we didn't get a chance to ask if it was actually our train and they just messed up the board, but it turned out to be our train and we were lucky enough to catch it after sprinting to our car! About 30 seconds after we boarded the train, the train started moving! Thankfully after that our switch in Paris to our Brussels train was smooth!
So we finally arrived in Brussels at around 10:00pm on Friday night, and we then had to take a tram from the train station to our hostel check-in place. We luckily didn't get lost and found our hostel check-in place before it closed at 11pm!We then got our keys and walked about 10 minutes to where our hostel actually was which was perfectly a half block away from the grand place which is the famous square in Brussels, and you can see a picture of part of it to the right! We unfortunately didn't take any pictures at night but it was so pretty at night since all the buildings were lit up! Our hostel was pretty nice, it was clean and they even gave us complimentary shampoo, body wash and a towel which pretty much never happens! But we were only in the hostel for about 10 minutes before going to explore the city a little bit! That night we got frites (french fries) at the friterie which stay open until 6am every day! They were literally the BEST fries I have ever had in my life, I miss them already, but for my health it's probably good I don't live in Brussels considering their most famous foods are fries, chocolate, and beer and all 3 were amazing! They are also really famous for their mussels, and I had never tried mussels before but I tried one of Cha's at lunch on Saturday and I really liked them! In Europe my taste is much more varied and I will try anything, and even though I don't necessarily like everything I still try it and it turns out I like a lot more things than I thought I would! So Saturday morning we woke up at 9am so we could start sightseeing early. Our first stop was at a restaurant called "Mokafe" which was on our map as one of the best places to get waffles, and you can't go to Belgium without getting Belgian waffles! These waffles definitely lived up to their expectations, they were the best waffles I have ever eaten - I might be saying this about everything because Brussels had the best fries I've ever eaten, the best waffles, and the best chocolate! Basically it's a great city and everyone should go! They also had at this restaurant dessert waffles for later in the day which had ice cream and chocolate on them. One little boy sitting near us was having this for breakfast, but I decided to go with the fresh strawberries and powdered sugar!
After waffles we headed to Mini-Europe which is a park with over 350 monuments from all over the European Union in mini size! It was amazing and it was also right next to the Atomium which is the monument that is at the top of this post. Brussels built the Atomium for the World's Fair in 1958. But back to Mini- Europe, it was so much fun and we took so many pictures, I can only include some in this post because there is not enough room for all of them, but I'll include some of the more famous monuments! So the one just above this is of the Hotel de Ville in Stockholm, Sweden. The best part of this park was that we got a guide book for free with our tickets so we could see what each monument was.We also did a lot of pictures like the one to the right. This one we all took of each of us trying to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa upright! I also have a picture where it looks like I'm touching the top of Big Ben! I liked all of the monuments but I think my favorite one was the small version of Berlin which showed the process of them tearing down the Berlin Wall which you can see further down. After seeing all the monuments we went into this museum which had the history of Europe and also some games to play! There are also other parks around the same area so when you exit there are restaurants of all different European nationalities, there was a Spanish restaurant, a Greek restaurant, a French restaurant etc...We, however did not eat there because it was way overpriced. Instead, we took the metro back into downtown Brussels and had lunch at a restaurant that was much more reasonable.
After lunch we went to this place that had free walking tours. A lot of European cities have free walking tours, and I took one in Edinburgh that was fabulous, but this one in Brussels was not all that great! The tour guide didn't take us to anything famous, he just took us to look at neighborhoods and he would say things like "there's the poor part over there, and then look the rich part is right next to it," and these comments are only so interesting after awhile. Our tour guide was also not a native English speaker and so at one point in our tour he said "We have it tough here in Belgium because we have no government." When he said that, Caroline and Cha and I looked at each other very confused because there is no way Belgium can't have a government. We then tried to figure out what he could have meant, but we really have no idea! I actually looked up the Belgium government when I got home and it's really interesting because like England there is a mix of royalty and commoners in their government but the royalty are mostly figure-heads.
So after not seeing many famous things we decided to do some exploring on our own. We found the famous statue Manneken Pis which is a fountain of a little man peeing. I don't understand why it is quite so famous but it was a cool fountain and pretty funny. The statue is also by all of the chocolate shops so of course we bought some chocolate and of course it was AMAZING! After buying chocolate we went to take pictures of the Grand Place, and then we also found a cathedral and went inside. I don't think it was necessarily a super famous cathedral but one part of it dated back to the 13th century which was pretty incredible.
That was pretty much the end of the sightseeing for that day, and we went and had dinner at a Chinese place! Chinese restaurants in Brussels are like Starbucks in Seattle, there is literally one on every block so we decided we had to try it! It was also a nice change to have food that wasn't French for a change! It was also really good, a lot better than I expected it to be, though I still think the Chinese food is better in the US!
On Sunday morning before catching our train back to Dijon at 1pm, we went to see the European Union Parliament buildings! This was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Brussels because while there are 3 European Union capitals, (Strasbourg; Luxembourg; and Brussels)Brussels is the biggest and holds the majority of the important meetings. Right now a lot of the European representatives are meeting about Libya in Brussels, so it is the place where a lot of the important decisions are made! When we first got there, I was amazed by how huge it was! It was almost impossible to get a good picture because it was so big! The picture just above is only a small part of the Parliament and Commission buildings. I don't know how they had this much land to build on but it was definitely impressive! It was also weird to see a capital building so modern, because when you think of capitals you think of old buildings. But it makes sense that the EU capital is so modern looking since it is a very new institution! I wish we could have gone inside but you have to plan very far in advance to be able to go inside and get a tour and luckily when we go to Strasbourg on our second excursion tomorrow we are going to have a tour of the European Parliament there!
That is pretty much the end of the Brussels adventure! We got to the train station and got on our train to Paris, we then had a delay in Paris of over 1 hour and 30 minutes which was very annoying, but we luckily still got home in time for dinner! When I got back to my house I found out we were having dinner with 4 of my host family's neighbors which made the total for dinner 9 people! It was a bit overwhelming because I was exhausted from traveling all weekend, but dinner turned out to be great, and I was also able to see how much progress I have made in French because I could easily understand the conversation! This is a huge change from the beginning when I would be freaked out having dinner with so many people and I could rarely every follow the conversation! But now I don't even really have to think that hard, now I just want my speaking to catch up to my oral comprehension!
Also a random side note of news from Dijon - a lot of people have emailed me and asked me what it is like being in France with the situation in Libya. First of all it makes me realize how much safer I feel in the US because we are so removed from where a lot of conflict in the world takes place since there is a HUGE ocean between us and Libya. And it's not that I feel unsafe here at all it's just more that I feel much closer to the conflict because it's just across the Mediterranean from France and Qaddafi has even said on the news that he wants to go to war with France in the Mediterranean, so it just feels much closer to home than it probably would in the US. Also we can hear the planes flying from the air base in Dijon to Libya which makes it feel even more close to home! But that being said none of us are nervous, it's just very interesting to experience something like this outside of the US and being closer to what is actually going on instead of being more isolated and being able to ignore what is happening.
Tomorrow we are off to Alsace which is the region of France right next to Germany! WE are going to Strasbourg to the European Parliament and also going to see the town where the movie Chocolat, with Johnny Depp, was filmed!
A bientot!

And then I met Prince Charming...

So this past weekend we visited the Chateaux (castles) in the Loire Valley! We visited four castles - Chaumont-sur-Loire (picture to the left), Chenonceau, Chambord, and Blois - and they were all amazing, and they were also all very different! When I came to France for the first time when I was 14, I visited Chenonceau and Chambord, but at this point my French skills were not very good so at Chenonceau our guide spoke English and at Chambord we didn't have a guide. I found from this visit that guides have such a huge influence on how much you enjoy the castle, because when I was 14 I hated Chambord because it was just an empty castle with nothing very interesting to look at, but visiting this time and having a visite guidée made it one of my favorites. I will explain more about Chambord and our amazing guide later one. Also visiting these castles again with guides in French made me realize how far my French language has come from the time I was 14 and from the time I arrived in France. When I was 14 I obviously would have been completely confused by a guide who only spoke to me in French. But there has even been a difference from the time I arrived because when we had guides in Paris, I had to concentrate to understand what they were saying and by the end of the guide I would have a splitting headache from thinking so much. Now, I can listen to the guide in French and have no problems understanding at all which is so satisfying!
OK but now on to describing these castles. So the first one we visited was Blois which was in the same city that we were staying in, and the city is also named Blois - how handy! It was crazy that we were able to walk 10 minutes from our hotel and end up at a castle! This castle was built by many kings in many different centuries, our guide told us that you can turn in a circle around the courtyard and see 4 different centuries and 4 different architectural styles! It is very rare to have all the different architectural styles preserved, and we only saw this at Blois. The first style of architecture is the Gothic style from the 13th century - the only part left of this style of architecture is one room, but it is the biggest remaining room in the Gothic style in all of France. The second architectural style was the Flamboyant Gothic style which you can see to your left in the part that was constructed by Louis XII from 1498-1503. This is the part of the castle that houses the Museum today, but it used to be the part that held the royal apartments. The third style was the Renaissance, which can be seen in the part constructed by Francois I from 1515-1520. This part is much more decorative and it also has a beautiful outside staircase (shown below) which is very well known. A similar staircase is also at Chambord which makes sense since Chambord was also constructed during the reign of Francois I.The fourth style is the Classical style which you can see up in the first picture of Blois, right above the Flamboyant Gothic example. This was constructed under Gaston d'Orleans from 1635-1638. Gaston was not a king, he was the brother to Louis XIII and was a duke. This part is also very ornate and is the largest wall in the courtyard. This was crazy because all this information was just in the courtyard of the castles, and as we went through the castle we learned even more about the kings who lived there. An assassination took place in the king's bedroom. Henri III, king at the time, was losing power to the Duke of Guise as a result of a religious struggle. Back then I guess the way to maintain your power was just to kill off the opposition, so Henri III invited the duke to dinner to discuss some important matters. He then had him taken into his bedroom where the Duke was cornered by 12 men and killed. However then later on Henri III was killed too, so I guess he didn't maintain his power for too long. We ended the tour in a big room, which is to the left, which held the throne of the kings. Apparently this room has also been used for lots of films, and not just for films of kings and queens, but also in films of the National Assembly because there was enough space to fit long tables. That pretty much sums up Blois, so now on to the next castle, Chambord!
Chambord was probably the best castle we visited because we had the best guide I have ever had in my life. He was funny, dynamic, and so interesting. He turned our tour into a mystery and we discovered the story of Chambord as the tour went on. The reason he did this was because Chambord is a huge mystery; it is the largest castle in the Loire Valley and the most spectacular but all the rooms on the inside were completely empty. Also Francois I, who constructed it, only visited it 4 times for a period of 10 days. It is also unknown why Francois I decided to construct it and there is not proof of who came up with the architectural design. However they do have some really good hypotheses and have also recently discovered some information in the last year or so that helps to prove the hypotheses. Our guide told us first that the overall layout of the castle is almost exactly the same as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. This was because Francois I was trying to assert his power and prove that he was just as important as the Pope. The reason that the guide told us that all the rooms were empty was because every time Francois I visited Chambord, he and his court brought all their belongings with them. They brought the beds, the furniture, the food, and set it all up for each of the 10 day stays. The court of Francois I was also something like 6000-10000 people who all would stay at Chambord while the king was there. This is also the reason why Francois I had to have the double helix staircase built; since there were so many people, one staircase would just not have worked. There was a rumor that he constructed it because he didn't want his mistress and his wife to have to walk on the same staircase, but according to our guide this rumor is not true, and it was just built because of the massive amount of people who needed to get up and down the stairs. Another interesting fact about the staircase is that they are pretty sure Leonardo Da Vinci helped to design it. Even though he died before the staircase was built they later found in his drawings pictures of double helix, triple helix and even octo helix staircases that he was working on designing. This also makes sense because Da Vinci was a close friend of Francois I, and Francois I was the reason why Da Vinci moved to the Loire Valley to work.
Ok so those are the big ideas of Chambord, but we also learned about the symbols in Chambord. First, the Salamander appears EVERYWHERE in this castle which is because this was the animal that represented Francois I. In a lot of the castles there were animals, because in Blois there was the porcupine since that represented Louis XII. The porcupine was also found at Chambord too. There was a lot of different meanings with this salamander throughout the castle. First of all, almost every salamander had a baby salamander. This was because Francois I wanted to have a son so he had someone to pass the throne onto. This was a legitimate worry for Francois I because the reason Francois I was king was because Louis XII didn't have a son and there were no sons to rule until they got to Francois I, the 21st cousin of Louis XII. Francois I believed that if he put symbols around the castle of him having successful heirs - i.e. little baby salamanders - then he would have a son. There are only two other symbols I remember from the tour, one was an F for Francois I with a crown that was not the normal king crown around it. Instead of being the normal crown it was the crown of an emperor. This seems weird since he was the King of France and not an Emperor, but the reason this symbol exists has a lot to do with why Chambord was built. While Francois I was king, the Emperor of the empire that stretched across a large part of Western Europe died. This meant that a new emperor needed to be named, Francois I wanted to be the emperor as did the King of Spain and the Monarch in Germany. So there was a vote but it was tampered with and so it ended up being the Monarch of Germany instead of Francois I. If Francois I had been Emperor then Chambord would have been the capital of the Empire which is also why it was so grand. Francois I also felt that he should have been the Emperor and was cheated out of the position so he put the F with an Emperor Crown around it to show that it didn't matter that he wasn't Emperor since as the King of France he was better and more powerful than the Emperor anyway.
The last symbol we talked about (that I can remember) in Chambord was the reversal of the F at the top of the castle. The reason the F is reversed is because this was the part of the castle where God would be looking down on, and Francois I wanted to make sure that God was able to see the letter representing his name and the Salamander from the sky in the right direction. Our guide told us many more things, but it is far too much to put in here because this post is already getting quite long and I have two more castles to talk about. But if you ever find yourself in France, I would highly recommend visiting this castle!
Because this post is getting so long I'm going to briefly talk about the last two castles! These two last castles are much more interesting on the outside and have less history on the inside. They were amazing though but through Chaumont-sur-Loire we didn't have a guide, so I don't know a lot about it, and through Chenonceau we listened to audio guides instead of having a tour guide. So Chaumont-sur-Loire, which is the castle at the top of this post and to your right is your typical fairytale princess castle, and we also decided it looked a lot like the castles in the Disney Movies. We had all been claiming different castles as our own throughout the weekend, and I claimed this one as my own, especially since it was one of Catherine de Medici's castles, and there was "Catherine's Room." This was probably my favorite castle from the outside because it was just so picturesque, and it also had a very nice garden and stables. It was the smallest castle we visited but it was also nice because we had the castle completely to ourselves. This castle also looks out directly onto the Loire River which was beautiful!
The last castle we visited on our trip was Chenonceau, which was my favorite castle the last time I visited France. I think this castle is a much better castle to visit in the spring because a huge part of the beauty of Chenonceau is the gardens which aren't in bloom this time of year. But even though the gardens weren't in bloom it was still gorgeous from the outside. Also one of the best parts about this castle is all the rooms are set up as if nothing had changed. I love castles like this because it makes it so much easier to imagine what the castle was like back when the kings and queens lived there. We also went through the labyrinth which was fun, and something I didn't get to do last time I visited - and we were extremely lucky with the weather because this is the only castle where it started to rain just a little bit. We literally visited castles on the perfect days at the perfect times because after we left to go back to Dijon, our whole train ride was in the rain.
That pretty much sums up our trip to the Loire Valley, which I don't think I mentioned before but it was an excursion that is included in our program so we go with our whole group from UPS and our director Nathalie. It was an amazing trip and I can't wait for our next excursion in 3 weeks to Alsace! In the meantime, I am traveling to a little town called Besancon this weekend just for a day, and then next weekend I am going to Brussels!!!!
A Bientot!

Lac Kier and the Bolshoi Ballet

Since this past weekend the weather has been BEAUTIFUL! We have had sunshine and temperatures in the 50s! I was hoping that this was a sign that spring was here to say but after watching the weather I found out that the clouds will return and temperatures will probably go back down in the 30s and 40s by the end of this weekend. However, since it was beautiful this weekend we decided to take advantage of it and on Saturday, we went to Lac Kier which is this huge lake with a path around it that people walk, run or bike on!
Getting to the lake is a bit complicated because the main buses don't go right to it. So Emily and I decided to take a bus to Caroline's house and walk from there. From her house it's about a 30 minute walk to the lake, but it's down this beautiful canal that you can see in the first picture up at the top. Then once we finally got to the lake (which is in the picture to your right) we walked around it which is about 4km, and then walked the 30 minutes back.
The lake is probably my new favorite place in Dijon because 1) it's SO beautiful, 2) I can run there without people looking at me funny - because apparently French people do not just run on the streets here, and 3) it reminds me of home because it looks almost exactly like Greenlake in Seattle! We also figured that when it is nice we can go do homework there on the grass and have picnics - so now the weather just needs to hurry up and warm up!
On Sunday, I went with my host mom and two host sisters to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform Don Quixote. The Bolshoi Ballet streams there performances to different cinemas around Europe so that everyone has the chance to see their performances at a reasonable price. It's similar to what the Metropolitan Opera does in the US. It was probably one of the most amazing ballets I have ever seen performed which seems a bit ridiculous since I saw it in a movie theater. But they make you feel like you are part of it with a camera on the lobby, different scenes of Moscow, and then a camera on in the main hall. In some ways it was even better than going to see it live because we got to see the dancers warming up backstage and when they film it they do close-ups on the dancers so you can see their expressions and you can see everything they do so much better! It was an amazing experience and I was so happy I got to see it!
My last bit of news is that I have finally booked everything for our 2 week long spring break! I will be spending the first part with some friends from here in Barcelona, and then the second part with my friend Danielle from Seattle in Athens and Santorini! Needless to say I CAN'T WAIT! All of those places should be warm and Santorini has excellent beaches!
That's about all the news from the other side of the world! A bientot!