A Very Belgian Thanksgiving

One of the hardest things that I have had to adjust to since coming abroad, besides the lack of Mountain Dew, was realizing that some of the major holidays that I celebrate at home, aren't even recognized here. This includes, Halloween, Fourth of July, and the Belgian’s even have a different Santa Claus named Sinterklaas. These are some big time holidays, so it was kind of weird when people weren't counting down the days until one of my all time favorites: Thanksgiving.



As you, and every other American know the story about the Indians helping the pilgrims  and the pilgrims reciprocating the action by inviting the Indians to a big feast that we now recognize as Thanksgiving. If you want a deeper and more historical explanation of the holiday click here.

Highly inappropriate, but it's funny and kind of true.

I feel like I've heard this story so many times that I could repeat it in my sleep, but to my surprise, many of the internationals had no clue why we stuff ourselves silly on this particular day. I had thought they would at least know the history, but nope, they were lost on the topic. Had they not seen A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving??!?!?!?

A classic.

 Thankfully DH provided a "brief" background on the holiday between courses. Speaking of courses, let's talk about the starring event: The FOOD.

DH rockin' the head dress. He was a party pooper and immediately took it off saying it was politically incorrect or something. BOO

DH rockin' the head dress. He was a party pooper and immediately took it off saying it was politically incorrect or something. BOO

When I think about Thanksgiving I envision : turkey, Stove Top stuffing, my mother’s made from scratch macaroni and cheese, the canned shaped Ocean Spray cranberry sauce( yes, I like it that way), roasted vegetables and homemade pumpkin pie .

I MISS YOU

The rings from the can are a nice touch, don't you think?

Harris Thanskgiving 2010...righttttt

Apparently that’s the type of thanksgiving that the Loyola program in Belgium used to provide, but then they realized something. Nothing could EVER compare to the students traditional Thanksgiving that they are accustomed to at home. First off, they don't even have Stove Top stuffing or canned Ocean Spray cranberry sauce here in Europe, so I knew I was in for a bit of culture shock either way.

The program directors caught on to the," Oh this is good, but just not as good as my grandmas," feeling, so they decided to go in a different direction. We have Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, so the directors gave the chefs a list of food items typically served in an American Thanksgiving ( I guess I really don't need to say American, seeing that its only recognized in America) and told them to put a Belgian spin on the traditional dishes.

Our Thanksgiving headquaters

The Belgians did one heck of a job.Just take a look at what they served up:

Pumpkin Soup

***

Fillet of turkey stuffed with mushrooms and bacon, croquettes,

green beans and mushroom sauce

or

Fillet of turkey with apple, nuts and raisins, mashed potatoes

apples with cranberries and Calvados sauce

***

American Pie (baked by your students)

Vanilla Ice Cream

Cream Chantilly

***

Coffee

Pumpkin soup

The main event

This was probably the fanciest Thanksgiving dinner I've ever had! The meal was a far cry from the boxed stuffing I’m used to, but the apple, nuts and raisins stuffing had my name written all over it. Not only was the food different, but the presentation was too.


At home, we do things family style and basically pounce on the food as soon as it hit the table, every man for themselves. At the restaurant, they served us a platted meal, so we had to act like civilized people and wait. It was rough 20 seconds of my life, but I sucked it up to be polite. Everything was beautiful and it all tasted great, but it didn’t end there. What’s Thanksgiving without the deserts!

We all pitched in!

Banana Bread made by yours truly

Demolished in about 5 minutes

I would be lying if I didn't wish Thanksgiving was once a week, but I don’t know if the internationals could handle it. Some of them had a hard time keeping up. I can't judge too hard because unlike me, they haven't had years of practice. Eating Thanksgiving dinner is a true art, and I am proud to say that its hails from the great U.S of A.

I hope you and your family had a great holiday!
 I'm already ready for Christmas( not that I haven't already been listening to Christmas music since October or anything).


Tot Ziens,

Shayne

P.S.
24 days till I come home! Crazy how fast time flies!

What Do Wiz Khalifa and Anne Frank Have In Common?

This might sound crazy, but over the past two and a half weeks I've been to Amsterdam, not once, not twice, but three times. Amsterdam isn't even a place that I’ve been dying to go, but somehow I keep ending up there .The first visit was just me being homesick and wanting to see my girlfriends. My  second trip, I had a very important destination: The Wiz Khalifa Concert.

Since August, my friend and I have been trying to see Wiz on his European tour, but the dates just weren't working out. We wanted to see him in Ireland, it sold out. He was playing in Brussels, but we were already booked for a school trip in Amsterdam that day. He was playing in Amsterdam,but just two days before we were going there for our Loyola trip. It's safe to say that I was DEVASTATED.

What sheer devastation looks like.

 A couple of weeks ago, Meaghan and I thought it would be incredibly stupid and irresponsible of us to go to Amsterdam for a concert on Wednesday, have to come back to Leuven for Dutch class on Thursday, only to board a bus back to Amsterdam on Friday morning.



But, as the date slowly approached we decided that the stupid and irresponsible route was for us, so we YOLOed .We bought our tickets and booked our bus for a 17 hour stint in Amsterdam. Sometimes you just have to be young, wild and free ya know.

My fellow yolo-ers

Somebody needs a manicure....

 The concert waas so good! I was kind of worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations, but I can happily say it was worth it.

My third and final excursion to the Netherlands was for educational purposes. For the past two trips I had basically only seen the city at night, so it was kind of like a whole new place in the daytime- making me feel a little bit less nuts for going three times.

Pretty Houses(Huis's?)

The first day we just walked around and DH showed us some sights, then let us loose into the wild. And when I say I wild, I basically mean we walked around the city for about 25 minutes, hit up H&M(THEY HAVE A HUGE 4 STORY STORE) then we splurged on 3 euro salads from the grocery store . We ended our evening with the Disney channel.

So beautiful!And the canal's not too bad looking either.

I'd love to!

Very important and historical spot.

Sinterklaas and his black friend.

AHHH Christmas.

I'm reckless and out of control. Somebody stop me.

Our second day started out with a quick walk to the Rijks Museum. I had no idea how art centric the city of Amsterdam is. I'm not going to lie, before this trip when I heard anything about Amsterdam, Van Gogh and Rembrandt weren’t really the first things to come to mind if you get what I mean. Now, I see that Amsterdam has way more to offer then 2 euro peep shows and coffee shops on every corner, it has culture!

The Museum itself is under some intense construction, so a lot of the work wasn't on display. I still was able to see some pretty famous works such as The Kitchen Maid. There was even a piece of Andy Warhol's work on display. I'm from Pittsburgh, so I was siked to see him make an appearence.

The Kitchen Maid

Queen Beatrix Of The Netherlands

The rest of the day was composed of walking to a Beijnhof, visiting the mini "I amsterdam" sign and then a scenic boat ride through the canals. I know that I may come from the city of bridges, but I’m pretty sure that Amsterdam may be the clear winner with 1,281.

Bridges everywhere

Classic

Shes on a boatttt

One of the 165 canals in Amsterdam

We were all pretty exhausted at this point; since we had an 8:30 wake up call. Anytime before the 10 o’clock hour is basically non-existent to most of my fellow travelers.

Sucking it up !

Sunday started early as well, but for good reason. We had to be first in the que at Anne Frank’s Huis! I honestly can’t believe some of the stuff I get to see.Two months ago if you would have asked me where she resided, I would have easily responded, " Germany, duh," but once again Amsterdam is gaining major historical points. Seeing the physical pages of her journal was unreal. She had so many dreams and aspirations, at such a young age. It really makes me appreciate that I have the opportunity to make my goals a reality. Definitely one of the highs of the trip.

 Anne Frank is a hard act to follow, but I guess the Van Gogh Museum put up a tough fight. I feel like the dumbest person in the world, because I had no idea Van Gogh museum was here either. I need to hit the books ASAP. Hopefully after these multiple trips here, Amsterdam’s culture rubbed off a little bit on me.

 We also took an obligatory "group" picture in front of the big" I amsterdam sign". I use the word group very loosely here, as our director accidently cut out two members who were chilling on the "I."

Just pretend that Steve and Maeda are there

It’s safe to that I AM exhausted and I can't wait to just lay in my bed and be lazy for the next couple of days. All this traveling has been fun, but visiting 3 countries in a matter of 1 week is plenty for me.



Tot Ziens,

Shayne

P.S.  I didn't fail my Dutch test!

When I go to Spain...Oh Wait, I Did

I've made it back alive!



My three day vacation in Spain went by way too fast and  sadly my reunion is already over :(

Hola Madrid!

We decided to have our big meet up in Alcala, Spain,  where two of my friends are studying for the semester. I couldn't wait to go to Spain! I've taken Spanish all my life , so I was excited to finally try out my skills. Sadly, my dreams of  a seamless Spanish conversation quickly came crashing down when I immediately became a flustered hot mess and could barely muster up an "Hola" to the desk clerk at the hostal . But other than that, I think things went pretty smoothly.

Reunited at Last!

After having a tear-filled reunion at the train station, which could have easily been a scene in a Lifetime movie, we made moves and got ready for a traditional tapas dinner. I have to admit, although I was incredibly excited to see my friends, I may have been equally excited for the food. I'm not even kidding, but for the past month Meaghan and I have been dreaming of guacamole, enchiladas, margaritas, chips and salsa.

What I would'nt do for some homemade guac....

 Sounds yummy, right? Too bad we had been dreaming of MEXICAN food, not Spanish food. Thank God Spanish food was delcious, so we were in no way disappointed( but I still could go for a burrito bowl from Chipotle).  At this particular restaurant, when you ordered a drink, you also received tapas of your choice. Essentially I was paying 2.50 euro for a drink and food. I didn't hate it obviously.

el restaurante

I know this may come as a shock to you, but for my drinks I went with Sangria and Coke Light. Surprise, surprise. The sangria was delicious, unlike any Sangria I've previously had, but in good way! For my tapas I rolled with an egg and salsa for dish  numero uno and a jamon and tomato sammie for dish numero dos. Both were tasty, but the company was obviously the best part.

Sipping on Sangria. Tatse like juice!

Huevos con salsa.

After dinner, we hit the town. After a 40 minute bus ride and taking two metros, we made it into Madrid!!! It was pretty dark, but was still gorgeous. I saved playing tourists for the next two days of my trip, so I didn’t see too much. One place of mention  that I did  go to was PACHA. I had never even heard of it before, but according to a few reliable sources, it’s a pretty well known club that had locations in Ibiza and NYC. It definitely lived up to the talk!

Crappy picture of Pacha, but I didn't want it too seem to obvious I didnt fit in, so I tried to be stealth.

The next morning we took in the sights of Alcala and had a leisurely  3 hour lunch.

Carolyn and I in Alcala

Pretty building. Wish I knew the name

The sun. Belgium seems to have misplaced you.

I feel like in America, waiters basically shove you out the door before you can ask for a menu, but in Europe, they have a huge emphasis on taking yor time and actually enjoying your food. No one ever pressures you to hurry. This can be a great experience, but bad if you’re a group of 11 hungry girls. Overall the experience was  quite nice, but the best part of lunch was desert. After a three month hiatus, I was reunited with one of the true loves of my life, Fro-Yo.

She does  it BIG!

 Belgium needs to jump on the fro-yo train, because I’m pretty sure they have the waffle and frites covered. Did I mention that you don’t have to pay to use the bathroom in Spain either? Spain 2 Belgium 0, not like I'm keeping score or anything....



Surprisingly the next activity involved food. Dinner was another traditional affair and  and my first  first whiff of Paella.

Is that sangria I spy?!

The next morning we ventured into Madrid. After an almost pick pocketing incident, me, my passport, my euros and all of my friends made it to El Rastro Market(with our hands firmly glued to our purses). El Rastro is a huge outdoor  market with anything and everything Spain. There was food, jewlery,clothing, shoes, performances. I wanted to buy everything in sight, but I limited myself to just a few things. I even got my sister a Christmas present.

El Rastro

Group picture at Rastro. Look how vulnerable our purses look!

I’ll let you guess what we did next.....

EVERYBODY eat, eat, eat, eat, eat

EAT! and this time I got the Paella. It was just as delicious as it smelled the night before. Next time , instead of chicken paella, I would have got the vegetable dish, but other than that, I have no complaints!

Pollo

Sadly, this was our version of the last supper, as most of the girls had to leave afterwards. BOO!

905 saying their goodbyes.

My mother would have LOVED this

The remaining crew did a little more sightseeing, and then ended the evening buying snacks to keep us busy for the evening activities.

Mercado de San Miguel aka Foodie Heaven

Plaza Mayor

Sol! We actually took the train to Sol the night before. Get it, "Sol Train". Anyone?

Lolli, lolli, lolli......

After checking into our amazing sleeping accommodation, i.e. the Ryan Air Terminal, me and the other Belgian ladies set up camp. Camp basically involved an excess of snacks: wasa with jelly and cheese, Oreos, some fruit, 2 day old unrefrigerated yogurt, chocolate, and there may have been a 2 liter of soda thrown into the mix, but whose counting.

Sleeping in the airport is almost second nature to us these days, and after a plane, bus, 2 trains and an eventful bike ride, we all arrived safely back at the Huis.



All in all this was a fantastic trip and I miss my friends already! After all this traveling I can’t wait to have some down time. Too bad I have the Wiz Khalifa concert tomorrow and a  weekend trip to Amsterdam , but I guess ill just have to suck it up ;)

Couldn't have said it better myself(but knowing my spanish skills it probably wouldn't have sounded as nice)

ADIOS,

Shayne