There's still a lot of cities close by where I live that I haven't been to yet so I'm doing my best to take advantage of every free day I have left. On Saturday June 8, I got together with some exchange student friends Will, Evan, Madeleine, & Chris and we took the train to Maastricht for the day.
Maastricht is the second city I've been to in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a cool city and it was worth the visit, but I didn't fall in love with it like some people do. Au contraire, while I wasn't expecting much out of Maastricht, I found it to be stunning, at least one of the prettiest cities in this region of Europe.
When we got to Maastricht, we passed through a bunch of streets with all the shopping to get to the main square. Madeleine, Chris and I got a nice brunch at main square while all the lame people went to Burger King (and payed the same amount).
Brunch w/ Madeleine & Chris
It was hot too! It was so hot that we found a park and just laid down for about 4 hours. I was dying of heat. I took off my shirt and probably bought about ten bottles of water throughout the day. Generally I adore hot weather, but I've never had to tolerate it without Lake Michigan near by;)
Me, Evan, Chris, Will
Evan, Chris, Will, Madeleine
When I was in quatrième (sophomore year) before I changed classes after Christmas, I took all my exams. This time I only did English, French, Spanish, and History. That's partially cause the classes are a lot harder in rhéto (senior year), and the teachers are just a lot less strict too. Some of them wouldn't even hand me the work. That's anyways fine because I didn't have the energy that I had in December to study my brains out for a school year that doesn't count for a thing.
For my writing test in English, I just wrote it in French. I actually sat with my English teacher and helped him with almost every oral exam. It was just like a conversation with him, the student, and myself. For my oral exam in French class, we did something different. My French teacher and English teacher are the only ones that I've been with all year (before and after changing classes), so we just sat down and had a conversation about my stay in Beglium, why I chose to do it, challenges, etc. It was cool for my French teacher because she was there when I could barely even introduce to her, and my English teacher and I had never even really spoken in French before.
Since I wasn't really obligated to be at school during exams, I took last Tuesday off to go Brussels with my host dad. He's a delivery man for a meat company so he generally drives around Belgium making stops at various butcher shops. In the beginning of the day, we went out for coffee. After that, he dropped me off at a well-known basilica, Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The old gothic atmosphere is incredible and there was almost no one there. Walking around the huge sanctuary practically alone made me really dizzy, but I thought it was amazing. I paid to go upstairs where I felt ten times more alone. I took a staircase up which eventually turned back, probably meaning I wasn't supposed to be there, but I used my cell phone to help guide the way. I was 100% alone at that point wandering around an old, creepy cathedral. There was another staircase going even higher, but my host dad called and was waiting for me outside in his car so I had to rush out. Afterwards, he made a few more stops and then he treated me to lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. I still had to play tennis at night and I was served more wine than I needed which literally makes me fall asleep, but I took a nap when we got home so everything was fine. Great day!
For anyone who doesn't already know, my family hosted a Dutch exchange student named Giovanni (no, he's not Italian) from 2010-2011. He took off from Michigan in June 2011 and now we finally saw each other after two long years! On Friday, Giovanni drove down from his house near Amsterdam to spend the weekend with me at my host family's house. Friday night we went to Marche-en-Famenne so I could show him my school, where I hang out, etc. We went to say hi to my old host family, and he was able to communicate with them because my old host mom speaks Dutch. After that we just went to the bars in Marche that I usually go to with friends after school on Fridays. We didn't see anyone I know other than one or two people because everyone was still studying for exams.
Saturday Gio drove us to Namur where we spent the day. I climbed the citadelle again so I could do it with Giovanni. Here's the picture I showed you last time I climbed it.
After climbing the citadelle, we hit the stores. We went around shopping until Jonas (German exchange student in our neighborhood at the same time as Gio) arrived at the train station. We met up with him, went to the new Starbucks there, and climbed the citadelle once more with Jonas (they were about ready to kill me because of the heat). Eventually we drove back to my house and played cards in the dining room until we FaceTimed with a few people and went to bed.
Sunday was one of the best days I've had in a long time! My friend Kayla from home is taking a Euro-trip with her family right now through various parts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium so we met up with them while they were in Bruges. Gio, Jonas and I woke up early, picked up my friend Will from the train station, and made our way.
Kayla and her family were staying in a bed & breakfast just near the heart of Bruges. Gio, Jonas, Will and I got there a little early so we went into town to get some food and then walked to her bed & breakfast after when she arrived. Kayla took us inside to show us the room and it was an extremely nice place! After that, we went into town and grabbed another small bite to eat with Kayla's family.
Kayla came to Europe along with her mom, dad, grandma, and sister and we spent about the first half of the day with them. One of the first things on their to-do list was go to a really highly rated cholatier called Dumon. Didn't buy anything, but they had some darn good free samples. The building is also kinda unique in comparison to other builds in the area.
Next Kayla's family decided to take a boat tour through the canals in Bruges. We Gio, Jonas, Will, and I had to talk about whether we were all willing to pay for it or not, and then because Kayla's grandma is so nice, she surprised us by buying us all a ticket. The tour guide was really funny and we got an incredible view of the city.
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