More abroad, less study...

So I’ve (almost) officially been in Leuven for a month, if you don’t count my week long rendezvous in France. Jealous, right? Although I’ve technically been studying abroad for a month, I haven’t exactly had much to study. Today was my first day of class this semester, so I’ve basically been on summer vacation(don’t hate me) since May 9^th.  Rough life.

Meet me at the Bench, mom!

Don’t worry though, I’ve been filling my days with very important official business, such as a day trip in Brugge. I know, another trip but someone has to do it ;).

 If it makes you feel any better, Brugge didn’t blow my mind. We  did take an exciting boat ride through the canals.

Not us, but you get the picture.

Did you know that Brugge is known as the Venice of the North?  It only made me more excited to see the real Venice. Only 7 more months till then. But to real, I’m sure  Brugge would have been more exciting if  I was in tip top shape. I literally could not eat single thing without feeling as if my insides had just been tackled by a four hundred pound line backer. Although eating was painful, I obviously couldn’t shy away from these amazing  homemade lollipops . I was only in Brugge once, so I did what my grandfather would have told any true Harris,   "Shake it off.”  I ate the lollipop(s) and it was worth the grueling hour and half train back to Leuven.

Pretending to be happy for the sake of the blog...

So anyways, besides the fact that I now safely eat solid foods, I’ve also been learning my way around Leuven. It’s not that large of a city and is basically encircled by what is known as the Ring Road.

 The road  once was an actual wall used for defensive purposes, but now is one giant concrete circle that only crazy people, such as myself, run for fun. I don’t think I’ve mentioned here on the blog, but I’m an avid runner.  It’s a fun way to get to know places and I’ve found it especially helpful in learning my way around Leuven. Even though running on the streets isn't technically normal here,  my only other option would  be the track and I would rather eat canned Alpo dog food before I would resort to that. I've (successfully) navigated two routes. And when I say navigated,  I literally ran with a piece of paper  with turn by turn  by turn directions written on it. I  must of looked ridiculous, but when I would get  lost I would simply show my scribbled map to a  random person and they would point me the right way.

Thr route I've been running.

When I wasn’t too busy getting lost on my runs, I  discovered a laundry mat, several grocery stores ,a shop that specializes in chicken-just chicken, and a beautiful park. In Baltimore we have the Tulip Garden, but this park makes the Tulip Garden look  like York Road. No offensive or anything, but Abdij Park is gorgeous and I cant wait to drag my friends, I mean take my friends there!

From my trusty friend wikipedia, I've learned that this park,  Abbey of the Park   is actually a  Norbertine abbey.It was founded in 1129 by Godfrey I the Bearded.The buildings are beautiful and after some reseach I found that they are bulit in the  styles of  Romanesque, Gothic , Renaissance  and  Baroque. Its so inetresting to have some much history around me and how buildings bulit hundreds of years ago, are literally a 2 mile jog from my house. I really don't know of many places like this near Pittsburgh.

So pretty!!!

Other than running, shopping, getting lost and eating frites, not much else is new. I did get my Dutch midterm back and I am happy to report that I did quite well. Only 40 more hours of Dutch to go, nothing I can’t handle….

Just a normal day in Dutch class

Im excited for my classes to all begin  because I’ve only had one so far. I’ll be sure to recap them all for you in my next post. Until then though, ill share this little tidbit with you : What do a monk , an Australian man older than my mom(sorry mom-you're not old) and  me have in common? This may or may not describe my 9 A.M. theology class, but ill guess you have to wait until next week to get the deets!



Tot Ziens,
Shayne
           

San Malo, St Michel and Normandy!

After Paris, we set out for San Malo. We made a pit stop at Cheatau, a church. In all honesty was kind of boring and I was not dressed appropriately for the windy weather, but I the town was cute and the bathrooms were free! 

San Malo was gorgeous despite the overcast skies and our room, although not equipped with wifi like our hotel in Paris, was more spacious. It’s pretty funny that before we asked about food or how close we were to the beach all 17 of us inquired about the wifi situations of all of our hotels.

A group of us walked along the beach and I was kind of overwhelmed with how beautiful it all was.

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Later that day we toured St. Michel which is located in Normandy. No joke, it looks like something straight out of Harry Potter. The monastery looks like a spooky castle floating in mid air, but in reality it’s set on a rocky tidal island. It was about a half an hour trek up to the front doors, but the view from the top made it absolutely worth it!

Over the next couple days we made our way to Arromanches, but only after stopping at Omaha beach and the American Cemetery, all of which were very special. It was kind of hard for me to believe, as I looked around at all of these scenic places, that a war had occurred on the very ground I was walking on. It was kind of cool, but very eerie all at the same time. ( I wish i could show you guys pics, but my camera seems to have eaten those ahh)

Whew! I think I covered all the major parts, and I hope I didn’t forget anything to important.

This  past week I had my 5 hour a day, intensive Dutch course! I took my midterm on Monday and celebrated with a trip to Brugge, which ill recap in nexts weeks post.

 

Tot Ziens,

Shayne

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Bonjour from Paris!

I’m back from France! It’s hard to believe that a month ago I was in Pittsburgh, but now, in only a matter of  7 days, I’ve been to places and seen things that people only dream about! I had a fabulous time and I couldn't wait to share my experiences with you!

So after a sitting in a bus for four hours, which I’m convinced, was designed for people under the height of 5’5", we arrived in Paris. We didn’t spot anything too monumental during our drive into the city, but that quickly changed! Within two hours, I had officially spotted the Eiffel Tower! At first I thought it was much smaller than I had envisioned, but as I got closer I realized the massive stature of it . It was incredible!  I’m pretty sure I took about a million photos of it, because could you ever have enough pictures of the Eiffel tower?

After  seeing one of the most  recognizable and iconic structures in the entire world, within the first 120 minutes of my trip, you would think that everything else would be second rate, right? Well I was wrong about that too.The sights and places I saw during the next three days, dare I say, surpassed the Eiffel Tower. Don’t get me wrong , it is still one of the highlights of my trip and of my life, but now my horizons are just a bit wider.

During the next few days we saw numerous spectacular sites including Notre Dame( didn’t spot the hunchback unfortunately), a scenic boat tour on the Seine, the Catacombs, mastered the metro, toured Napoleons tomb, walked through the Champ-de-Mars, hung out with some of Van Goah’s masterpieces in Musee de Orsay and climbed about a million stairs to the top of Arc de Triomphe. Wow, that was a mouthful and we saw most of that in the first day!

Notre Dame

Katie and I at Napoleons' Tomb

Arc de Triomphe

View from the top of Arc de Triomphe

View of the Eiffel Tower from our Boat Crusie along the Seine.

Meaghan and I made sure to fit in some shopping along  Champs Elysées . I didnt go too crazy with my plastic, so dont worry Mom, but I bought a few things.

Aren't we cute haha!

Casual shopping trip  ...

But one of my most favorite and most memorable experience of Paris was actually a place I had even heard about. Sainte Chapelle.

It is one of the most striking pieces of gothic architecture that I have ever been witness to. I know, I know, I’m only 20 years old and I have many years ahead of me, but I’m not too sure I will ever see anything comparable to the stain glass windows of Saint Chapelle ever again. I don’t want to sound corny or cliché, but as soon as I stepped inside, I seriously got goose bumps! We had already toured Notre Dame and in my mind, you’ve seen one church, you’ve seen them all, but Sainte Chapelle blew this theory out of the water. This stunning chapel was built in a matter of 33 months to house Louis XI relics and now stands to be the only surviving building of the  Capetia royal palace . I would highly recommend, and urge that if you ever have the opportunity to visit Paris, GO SEE THIS!!!

Going to Paris and not visiting the Louvre is like going to Pittsburgh for the first time and not going to Priminati’s. It’s something you have to do. So not to upset the balance,  I set out to the Louvre!

There were lots and lots of amazing pieces of artwork housed in the gigantic building. I’m not even exaggerating about the size, but  apparently if you spent 3 seconds on each piece in the Louvre, it would take your three months-day and night- to get through the entire museum.

 Vénus de Milo

There were a lot of interesting things to see, but let’s be serious; we came for the starring attraction-The Mona Lisa. I had been warned that it may not live up to all my hopes, dreams, and expectations, but no worries it did!She was just as beatiful as I had envsioned. She had the face of a  creamy, antique porcelian doll.  Trying to make my way to her  was harder than getting front row tickets to a Justin Beiber concert, but I threw some elbows and fought fight my way through a sea of Japanese tourists to get to the bullet proof frame.  

Me and Mona!

We spent our last evening in Paris, right where we began, at the Eiffel tower. We consumed twice our weight in baguettes and cheese while watching the the Eiffel Tower "sparkle." It was a great way to end the first half of our tour of France, but there is still way more to come, so stay tuned!

I think I covered all the major parts, and I hope I didn’t forget anything  important. Tomorrow I start my Dutch course, so hopefully by next week I will be able to share some new vocabulary along with my recap of Normandy, San Malo and St. Michel.

Au revoir  ,
Shayne

Is this Real Life?

                                                                So I've finally made it!

     Since July before my freshman year of college I have been dead set on going to Belgium, a country I’ll admit I had really no knowledge of until my freshman year of college.But I’m here, and ready to learn it all! I still don't think it’s set in a 100% that for the next ten months of my life, I'll spend in the city of Leuven. I’m from a small town with no joke ,three stoplights, so coming to a town that has over 95,000 people  that all speak  Dutch and ride bikes might take a little bit of adjusting to. Going abroad has been a dream ever since Santa bestowed, the now very worn out, Passport to Paris VHS tape, underneath my Christmas tree ten years ago. I mean who wouldn’t want to come to Europe after watching Mary Kate and Ashley as they were whisked away via mopeds by two very attractive Parisian boys, right? Well I no longer have to dream  or live vicariously though the Olsen twins  because not even Hurricane Irene, a 7 hour plane ride or 36 hours of sleep deprivation could stop me. 

City Hall

Although I've only been a Leuvenite for three days, Dr. Hughes, his wonderful wife and our program director, Christel have thrown us right into the mix of life here. Oh yeah, did I mention that they kept us up for 36 hours so we could adjust to jetlag?Let me tell you,  it was struggle keeping a bunch of 20 year old students, fresh off of the summer vacation clock awake, but I’m happy to report that all 17 students are going strong. I'm really excited to get into a routine and start making friends with our fellow international roommates that live in the Loyola Nachbahr Huis. The living arrangements are pretty fantastic nice here, and I have one of the biggest rooms #winning!( if only we had wifi the place would be FANTASTIC – the rough life I live with all my first world problems haha ).

Me and some friends in front of the Huis

I lucked out and am living with a close friend from school, Meaghan and Pavla, my new Slovakian buddy. She seems like a sweetheart and I can't wait to get to know her as the semester goes on. Pavla is also taking in a Dutch class that I will be starting in a few weeks so I hope she can give me and meg a few pointers.

I think that’s all for now, but I’ll be sure to be back with some interesting stories from FRANCE and hopefully I’ll get my hands on my first official Belgium waffle!

ps- I forgot to mention how beautiful it is here and (most importantly) my straightner works!