"I can smell the calories" - My Adventures in Belguim (and the week before)

Sorry this post is super delayed but I am officially the busiest person in the world. I think I am about 2 weeks behind so I will try to cover everything, at least briefly. Last week (October 9-16) my family came to London! It was so much fun even though it did make me more homesick. But the week was awesome, it consisted of toursity attractions and the most delicious food I have had in awhile. While they were here we went to the Tower of London. Here's us outside the tour across from the bridge.

 

The day they left (Saturday morning) I headed out on my second IES sponsored weekend trip, this one to Iepers Belgium.  We left much to early in the morning and spent way to many hours on a coach bus and then on a ferry the size of your average cruise ship. The ferry had multiple restaurants and coach buses were parked on the bottom level. But around 3 in the afternoon we finally got to Ieper. It was beautiful town full of really cute architecture. All of the buildings looked like these ones.

We got there and spent the afternoon in a really interesting museum about World War I. We went to the Menin Gate that evening and attended a poignant memorial ceremony that occurs every night there. I definitely learned more about the war than I ever knew. Poppy's are an important symbol of remembrance and these beautiful wreaths were all over the town and the gate.

 

After all the tours and depressing (but interesting) history lessons we went to a bar.This bar is famous for its political incorrectness. It is called the 12 Apostles and features religious symbols in a tacky and ridiculous way. But this is where I had my first taste of Belgian beer (and probably my last, much too strong for me, I couldn't even finish it.

Rachel and I with our beers

After beer we made at mad dash for waffles after finding out the entire town closes on Sunday morning and none of the waffle places would be open until after we left for the day. We weren't going to leave Belgium without waffles so we ran to a restaurant at around 930 at night and made it minutes before they closed. The waffles were totally worth the running, they are covered with powdered sugar and smothered in chocolate.

The girls and our waffles

We also managed to find some time to buy entirely too much Belgian chocolate. I am obsessed with this picture of me and all of chocolate.

 

The next morning the girls and I explored the town before embarking on more depressing tours. All of the buildings looked like this, in fact this amazing building housed a simple museum. 

We spent the day touring cemeteries and war sights (trenches etc.) I know beautiful is a strange world to describe a cemetery but that is exactly what they are. It was a bright sunny day and there was something incredible about all these gravesites that were covered in flowers (like the one below). 

Our cheerful stop of the day, between the cemeteries and the executioners pole was the Talbot house. It was a place were men went for relation and fun during the war. I loved the signs/rules of the house...this was one of my favorite signs.

All in all the trip was a success, full of friends, delicious food and some actual learning. I was unsure about the trip at first, Belgium wasn't exactly on my travel list but I am very, very glad I went. 
This week (post-Belgium) has been extremely chaotic. I went to 3 shows this week, a real forum theatre performance at a homeless shelter. For Beloit people, it was essentially real theatre of the oppressed and it definitely reinforced my interest in pursuing that type of theatre. I also saw a new musical (done by theatre students about my age) called Parade and I am not usually a musical person but I was truly moved by this show.  And finally I saw Hamlet at the National Theatre, 4 hours of Hamlet is a bit much for me but it was definitely a well done production. I also went to Stratford yesterday (Shakespeare's home) and was extremely disappointed. First of all it felt like an amusement park/tourist trap and it proved that no one has any real knowledge of Shakespeare's life. We were shown many corny videos and told everything was possibly Shakespeare's. But as part of my theatre education I am glad I went anyway.
And next week is midterms so this blog entry was essentially a study break. After midterms we leave for our midterm break trip to Scotland on Thurs.
The adventures continue!