Weekend in Bruxelles!

Hello there, my people! I am happy to inform you that I have just had a wonderful week followed by an even more wonderful weekend, and now on this sunny Monday morning, I am proud to have the honor of telling you allllll about it!

The last time I blogged was right after my mom and Molly left to go back to the States, so I will begin with last weekend. Last weekend surprised me by actually being pretty nice. I was a bit down because my family had just left, but Cecile filled the house with friends and family for most of the weekend and, to say the least, I was not forced to the pass the weekend in a lonely atmosphere. We hosted two dinner parties and a lunch party, and while I did not do much talking, it was cool seeing how much more French I understand at parties now! It is hard when it is loud and there are lots of people, but I am starting to really get by! 

The only other thing I did last weekend was go out to get a coffee with Jess on Sunday morning, and that was also a very pleasant experience. I hadn’t seen her in weeks and it was fun to talk again and tell each other about our vacations and just catch up in general. She’s a good little friend, that Jess. :D

 

 

This past school/work week was a bit of a rollercoaster ride. There was some drama that I don’t feel like getting into about my plane ticket home and when I should leave France which made me feel very uncomfortable and worried enough to have an anxiety attack while trying to make an important decision and that certainly wasn’t the greatest thing I have ever gone through. Going home is a bit of a touchy subject for me, since I have missed home a lot this year and then I was stressed about money and then I realized that life is hard and adults are constantly stressed about money and I felt trapped and it was too much for my poor 19 year old self at the time. I say rollercoaster ride, because having such a terrible moment like the one I had earlier this week really shook me up for a couple of days, but that wasn’t because I was just sad, it was because of all the love I recieved when having a difficult time because that made me feel so joyful even though I still felt sadish hahah. I felt a lot of support from Cecile and my parents and even little Prune could sense something wasn’t going super well for me and decided to act like a little angel all week long. Because of all the amazing people in my life, day by day I just felt happier and happier, and everything became okay again! 

During the week, Prune and I made some banana bread (which Cecile really liked! Yay!) and then had a bunch of normal days where we just played a lot. It was a good week with my little Prune-Prune! Also we did a face-swap and it was impressive. Also, Prune did her own hair for the first time!

 

Scaaaaary!

BRAVO PRUNETTE!

 

Two other things I would like to show you from this week before talking about my trip to Belgium are the bike I am in love with and the little flowers I have growing in my room. Now I realize that there is not much to say abou them… There is this yellow bike I pass on my way to work everyday and seeing it has always made me smile, and this week I finally got around to taking a picture of it! As for the flowers, well, I have never grown anything, but now I have a baby flower pot and my little flowers are just beginning to grow! :)

 

 

So, BELGIUM! Ugh, it was such a perfect little trip! I got to explore the beautiful and intersting city of Bruxelles and also see a pretty awesome exchange student friend named Michael! Michael and I met through Juliana (it’s her birthday today btw so HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVELY!) when they met on a Rotary trip because he was an exchange student in Santa Cruz the year Juliana lived in Ukiah. During the summer before Juliana left, we met up with Michael in Santa Cruz for an afternoon on the beach, and that was actually the only time I had ever hung out with Michael before visiting him in Bruxelles! It didn’t occur to me until I was on the bus to Belgium that it might be kind of weird spending an entire weekend with a friend I knew as little as Michael, but I felt safe so I just spent part of the ride hoping we would find stuff to talk about and it wouldn’t be weird. About three minutes after arriving in Bruxelles, I realized I had nothing to worry about. Michael was the same super kind and super smiley person I had met almost three years before, and he seemed very happy to recieve me in his country! He had planned out my entire trip so I could experience his version of his culture, and to my pleasant surprise, most of that enjoyed walking through pretty parks, drinking lots of coffee, and eating really yummy food! 

So that might already sound like a great idea for a weekend, but the places he took me weren’t even the best part of the trip. It sounds silly, maybe, but hanging out with Michael and just talking to him was such a fun thing to do. Not only is he kind and happy, but he knows a lot about a lot of things and when I talk to him I feel like I am learning things and that is one of the things I appreciate most in a friend. The more we talked, the more we realized that the way we think is very similar, and it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that that was only the second time I had ever met him. You see, I have come to the conclusion that Michael and I were meant to be friends, because our conversations really worked out and I very much enjoyed his company, and because of that, I plan on knowing him for a very long time now. Part way through the trip, I remembered that the reason Juliana wanted me to meet Michael so badly was because she said that we were so alike. I don’t remember everything she said, but I know it had to do with smiling a lot, strong opinions and a need to be right most of the time, light colored and wavy hair, and thinking a lot about different things. I told Michael this during the trip, and he laughed because it was so Juliana to point that out, especially the detail about how our hair is even a tiny bit similar hahah. I would like to be more like Michael. I would like to know as many things and languages as he does and one day be as succesful as I think he will be hahah. But I feel cool just being able to have been is friend! And the idea that I have things in common with him?! Well, I take that as a huge compliment. 

Now, I am not going to give you a step-by-step explanatin of what the entire weekend was like (because that takes time and I have places to go and people to meet!) but I did take some pictures and I will explain them as best as I can with captions. Most of the weekend, as I mentioned earlier, was spent walking, getting coffee, and then walking more before getting more coffee or food. As we walked around, Michael explained what everything was and gave me many mini history lessons which was great but the thing is I have forgotten most of what he said because he said soooo much hahah. 

The first thing we did when I arrived was get breakfast for lunch! I was starving after the long bus ride and Michael likes food. This was the first time I have ever used an egg cup!!!

There is a huge street in Bruxelles where cars are not allowed and I decided that was worth taking a picture of!

I don’t think this was a very significant place (as far as Michael’s explanations went) but it captures how pretty random buildings are in that city.

I don’t remember… :/

That was important, and I don’t remember what it is called. 

That is where the EU meets up so THAT’S COOL!

First indoor something in Europe hahah.

 

Michael and his little Michael smile!

We drank lots of coffee. Michael is a coffee expert.

We walked around at an antique market for awhile. There was some very pretty stuff and some very strange stuff hahah.

Lots of parks with trees! I really liked that.

We went to the cafe at the top of this building to have a drink and enjoy the view. It is the music museum and I think Caleb would have LOVED it. :D

That little boy peeing is famous, apparently.

Aaaand here is another spectacular building. It was in the center square, I think. It reminds me of a skeleton. 

 

Now that I am blogging, I realize I could have taken more pictures. Sorry! I will next time. The good thing is now you know I was having too much fun that I was distracted from my picture-taking. 

One other great thing about this weekend was that I got to see Jacqui, an exchange student from my district in California living in Belgium, for a little bit! We hadn’t planned on meeting up until about an hour before we did, so I didn’t get to see her long. Michael had a very detailed plan for our day and Jacqui had plans with some other friends, but it was still really nice to see her. She seems to be doing very well in Belgium! She said the sunshine was making her very happy hahah and you could tell! Her smile was bright, her clothes were very Europeanish, and her French was fantastic! 

 

 

So that was my little trip to Belgium! I had such a good time. I feel like I made a good friend haha and I got to explore a place I had never been to before, which is almost always a wonderful thing to be lucky enough to do. I hope you all had a great week. Until next Sunday!