It was quite an ordeal trying to find our train in time. We had to ask for directions repeatedly, some sources better than others. We went through UK customs and then we were probably the last ones to board the train by the time we finally found it and found a group of seats that were near each other. The train made one stop before taking us to London and apparently people had assigned seats because one of our guys got displaced. However, some of our group went with him to another train car. No one else was displaced. The train moved so swiftly through tunnels that my ears kept popping.
          Once we arrived at the train station in London, we had to figure out how to get to our hotel. It turned out that the hotel was 30 km out from the center of the city, which would create for some rather expensive train passes to take us back and forth everyday. We did a little bit of searching for hostels and went to a hotel office in the train station and eventually came up with a rather nice solution. We cancelled our reservation at the distant hotel, which was about 120 GBP/person for the 3 nights. We had to pay a cancellation fee, but split between us, it ended up being 33 Eu/person. The hotel office arranged for us to stay at a 5-star hotel a block away from the Tower of London for 90 GBP/person for the 3 nights. We stayed at the Grange City Hotel with a gorgeous lobby with chandeliers, a doorman, several restaurants and bars, a gym, pool, hot tub, and 3 sauna rooms. The 11 of us split between two rooms; 6 guys and 5 girls, 2 full size beds each with mountains of useless pillows. 
               After we checked in, we walked around the outside of the Tower of London, had fish and chips, and met up with one girl's cousins at a really nice pub. As we went in, some of us got carded, but I didn't recognize that there was a line on the staircase so I just slipped past. Most of us were tired so we headed back to the hotel early. A few gained a second wind and went out on the town again for a little while.

            After practicing several times on Skype with Jared last night, I was ready to give my speech first this morning. Before that, though, I met Lindsey in the lobby at 8am and she went with me to do laundry at the next street over. The hotel has laundry facilities, but I hear they are slow and more expensive. While the washing machine at the laundromat took an hour, the dryer took less than 20 minutes even with jeans and collared shirts in the mix.
          I fixed a nice brunch of scrambled egg sandwich and packed, and now I'm just waiting for it to be time to go to the train station. Our train leaves at 3 pm but we have to check in by 2:25 pm. Since I'm not taking my computer with me, I probably won't be posting anything until Sunday night.
         Random notes: I hope that our bus from London to Brussels goes by ferry over the English Channel instead of  through the tunnel. It would be nice to see what's going on. Also, there's a guy in our London group who has amazing handwriting. It's so awesome to watch him write in his journal because it looks like he could write a passing copy of the Constitution. I'd like to get a calligraphy pen.

               Our bus to Brussels was to leave the station at 1:30pm, so we needed to leave the hotel around 11:15am to get some breakfast and navigate the metro system. I ended up eating an Asian lunch at the food court in the Louvre. I thought was getting lettuce and shrimp in a shrink-wrapped roll so I got a place of rice with it…come to find out the roll was in rice paper and also included chicken and noodles on the inside. I was pleasantly surprised. Rushing through the metro, we had to wait a long time for a large crowd of people slowly shuffling off the train so we could board…so long of a time that my backpack got stuck in the train’s doors, one girl’s foot almost got stuck in the outer doors, and the train ended up leaving the girl behind because the doors wouldn’t open. I managed to get my backpack out of the doors before we started moving, but half of our group waited at the next transfer for the girl’s train to catch up. The others went ahead to help us check in at the bus station faster. Once we were reunited, we went up and luckily caught up with the others.
          We rushed to the bus station, which is connected to one of the metro stations, waited in line, and then waited for a while at an abandoned bus with about five other passengers since they told us to go to port 17. We heard an announcement that mentioned 17 and 9, so we hurried halfway across the station to bus port 9 where we boarded to Brussels.
           A little over 4 hours later, we arrived back in Brussels. We changed clothes and went out to dinner for Erin’s birthday at the pizza place on the corner. I got some pasta this time with lasagna noodles, spinach, and ham and it tasted much better to me than the pizza. Afterwards we went to the mojito bar since it was half-price night, then to get waffles, and to the Grand Plaza since Erin had never seen it at night. A few of them went to some bar called Celtica but most of us went back to the hotel. Along the way, some drunk man joined in our pictures. Another man wanted to take pictures of all of us together, but I was not going to give the camera (actually someone’s phone) to him for fear that he would run off with it. As we were walking back, a stranger came up behind us and encouraged us to sing the Happy Birthday song in French…we don’t know how in the world he knew it was her birthday so we ran off. A safe distance away from him and fairly close to the hotel, one girl announced to everyone we came across that it was Erin’s birthday. Luckily they just wished her a happy birthday and went on with their business as we hurried back to the hotel.

             On Friday, we went up through a seemingly endless spiral staircase to the top of the Arch de Triumph and found a gorgeous view of Paris. Then we went to the Louvre and a friendly, English-speaking gay couple showed us where to go to find tickets and the museum. The Frenchman thought I looked a bit like Cameron Diaz, but it must just be because I am blonde. I think another girl in our group looks more like Diaz than I do.

 Anyway, we went through some of the Louvre, looking at the grand halls, antique glassware, some statues, and paintings. We found the Mona Lisa and the portrait was a decent size, contrary to rumors I heard about it being disappointingly small. It was by itself on a large wall, though, and protected by about 4 inches of glass. We only stayed at the Louvre for about an hour because the halls of masterpieces began to feel repetitive. I wish I had known about Napoleon’s apartment being on one wing of the Louvre so I could have seen the lavish way that royalty and leaders lived. I didn’t find out about that until later. 

I’d like to mention that I wanted to join the other group with the professors for Friday’s tours, since I was worried that my group would spend the day looking in expensive shops again, but some miscommunication caused that to fall through. Much to our surprise, we ran into that group several times on Friday. Apparently we saved 4 Eu on tickets to enter the Louvre museum buy purchasing them at the door, but maybe the other group got access to something else. We met up with them at the Mona Lisa and they lingered a lot longer in the Louvre than we did, but I wanted to see more sights.

After the Louvre, we went to the Notre Dame, which was a free self-guided tour. As we looped around towards the front of the cathedral after looking at some exhibits in the back, we heard an Acapella choir beginning their concert. I was able to capture some of it on video, but my hands were not very steady. It gave us a chance to really appreciate the Notre Dame as a very old cathedral. 

               We bought barrettes even though the French don’t wear them anymore and then we had time to go back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out again. We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and weaved through peddlers and magicians who would lure in tourists to be pick-pocketed.  We met up with Fat Tire Bike Tours at the South leg of the Eiffel Tower to go on our night bike tour. For 28 Eu, they took us on 4 hour tour that included a stop at an ice cream shop and an hour boat ride with free wine. Fat Tire Bike Tours is a company started by people at Texas A&M and they have tours in several cities across Europe as well as in Texas. Our tour guide, Max, was a French university student who spoke English like a Brit and could even do an American accent. He showed us all of the major sites and had us ride the bikes in circles around the fountains in the Louvre until we were dizzy. He described the purpose of the mini-Arch de Triumph: Napoleon promised his troops that if they won a certain battle they would walk under an Arch. It was taking so long to build the large Arch de Triumph that he had a smaller one built quickly, and in my opinion more beautifully with pink marble columns, so he could keep his promise. We went over one of several lock bridges, where lovers place locks to show their eternal love, and found a Clemson lock. A boat passed under with a woman in fur singing opera to a couple who were either just engaged or on their honeymoon. We boarded a massive boat and sat on the top deck to enjoy the views of Paris at night. Even though it was cold, we made friends with some Delta flight attendants on their layover and some guys from Texas A&M. We got some good shots of Eiffel Tower from the water and on the way back to the bike shop.

               From the bike shop, we walked to a restaurant and had crepes with the Texas A&M guys. They said that both of their dads are in oil and so the single ladies were really upset when they realized they didn’t get the guys’ numbers or even share last names to find them on Facebook. Still craving food, they went across the street to McDonalds, which was utterly crowded, and a few minutes later the other group came in too. I wasn’t hungry but I was ready to call it a night. It was around midnight. So I went back to the hotel with the professors and one other guy.

           This morning I went with Eddie and Nolan when they went to do their laundry on the next street over. It's cheaper and quicker than  the laundry at the hotel. We grabbed breakfast and I entertained a baby while we were waiting. The mother, a Muslim, seemed not to trust me, so I only gave the baby smiles and funny faces while she wasn't watching. 
           We all went to Brugge this afternoon, pronounced "Brooje", at least those of us who were still in town. About half of our group went to Barcelona, but 19 is still a good bit. We took the train, which cost each of us 10 Eu roundtrip. On the way there, I sat next to an administrator from a secondary school in Brugge. She spoke English to us, telling us where to go. Her sister married a man from Bangladesh and now they live in Houston, Texas. The rest of the train ride I talked with some people from our group and I initiated a game of "Would You Rather...?" to keep us occupied for a while. 
           In Brugge, the city was a lot more modern than I expected. However, there were a good many historical sites with old cathedrals and towers. We had lunch at a place Eddie recommended, but I was extremely disappointed in the price. My meal cost 21 Eu, and I actually got a deal compared to other people. :(  A water was 4.50 Eu! The only beverage I could find that was cheaper was a small 4 Eu glass of wine. Annoyed with most of the girls at the time, I explored the city with two genuinely nice guys from our group. We got some cool pictures, went through a few stores, and got a little lost. I went into a hotel to ask for directions and they helped us find a boat tour. We got on the last boat of the day for that company so it was very nice. About 15 kilometers from the northern coast of Belgium, Brugge is the "Venice of the North." While we were waiting, I stuck up a conversation with a group of people also from the US. One couple was from Florida, another lady was from Minnesota, and her father was from the Netherlands. We bonded as fellow English speakers and then enjoyed taking pictures on from the canals.
          The bus for Paris is leaving at 8am tomorrow, so we have to meet in the lobby at 6:30. I am not bringing my laptop with me, so don't expect any updates until Sunday.

      Classes today seemed rather brief because everyone was concerned with making  plans to travel  outside of Belgium this weekend. We have done a lot of waiting these past few days, being patient with our professors as they try to figure things out. But there comes a point when we want decisions. Our travel plans depend on prices and the prices depend on how soon we book our trips. About half of the group made reservations to go to Barcelona for a long weekend and half wanted to stay with the professors, where-ever they decided to travel. Initially, that was London, but that turned out to be too expensive to book at the last minute. Our cheaper option was Paris, a 2.5 hour bus ride or 1 hour train ride. Since the train was nearly 70 Eu more than the bus, roundtrip, we decided to take the bus to Paris. We spent a couple of hours looking for hotels because our professors refused to stay in hostels no matter how nice they were, even though we could have gotten a room of bunk beds reserved solely for our group. We were lucky that one of the girls in our group spend almost a year in Paris and so she could tell us which neighborhoods were okay and which to avoid. Just before we had to leave for the day’s outing, Eddie contacted a member of the Citadines ApartHotel chain in Paris and was able to get us a reasonable group rate.
      When we returned from our outing (see below), we finalized plans for Paris. We leave on Thursday and come back Sunday. It was 46.78 Eu for roundtrip bus ticket and 60.40 Eu for the hotel for 3 nights (price per person for my unique situation). We booked 4 rooms: 2 for girls, 2 for guys, for a group of 17 students plus the two teachers. The hotel rooms are actually apartments like what we are in now with either 4 twin beds or 2 twins and a double. Some of us can easily share a twin a bed, so we can cut down on cost. I think the price for one room for 3 nights is about 475+ Eu. There are 12 girls going so most of us planned on splitting the rooms to 6 girls in each. However, most of the girls in one room were not feeling well, so it would be better not to crowd in and spread sicknesses. I ended up moving into the other room so we are now split into 5 and 7. We are paying significantly less per person for our room. It went down 10 Eu, so that’s 2+ meals for me.
         Now for the fun part! We went to a Chocolate Factory this afternoon. Expecting to see Oompa-loompas and a chocolate river, we were a little disappointed that it was a fairly small warehouse. The chocolatier kept emphasizing that they don’t make chocolate; they work with it. Basically, they purchase their own specific flavor of cocoa powder from a supplier, who must mix the cocoa beans from plantations around the world to achieve the chocolatier’s perfect flavor. A team of 3 chocolatiers then mix the cocoa powder with cocoa butter, milk powder, and sugar to create their 3 blends of chocolate: dark, milk, and white. The white chocolate is made with cocoa butter, milk, and sugar, but no cocoa powder. While we sampled each blend, he showed us how they use molds to make “praline chocolates” which are hallow and filled with various crèmes. A couple of volunteers from our group filled some with a hazelnut crème and then we tasted that kind, too. The chocolatier gave us tips for determining a good quality chocolate. Given a flat piece of chocolate, you should be able to hold it with a thumb and index finger on each side and break it into two. If it breaks into more than two pieces, he says not to bother eating it because it is not real chocolate. This is not to be expected of chocolate shells or chunks, just flat pieces.

           Classes started today. I'm taking COMM 150 at 10 am and COMM 366 at 12 pm. COMM 150 is the Intro to Communications gen-ed course that I need. We will do three speeches: informative, persuasive, and then one about what we have learned from the trip at the end. 
           Since our research abilities are limited here without access to the library across town and slow internet, our informative speech will be mostly based on our own knowledge of a topic. I think I might do mine on teaching practices, although that might require some review of notes that I don't have with me (meaning I'd have to ask my mom to scan them & email them to me), or I might choose to talk about Dominica. Since I studied abroad in Dominica last summer and read a couple of books about it, I could definitely speak about the formation of the island and its history, and then conclude with a few cultural facts if time permits. 
        One of my ideas for the persuasive speech is to talk about poverty in the Clemson area and encouraging students to volunteer and donate items to the non-profits in the community.  
        COMM 366 is a documentary class. It consists of just about everyone on the trip. We were split into 4 groups to focus on topics. My group wanted to look at Europeans' views of Americans and also Americans' culture shock in Europe. However, another group had the same idea of Europeans' view (because our group member who proposed the idea had brainstormed with others before we decided groups), so we will focus on Americans' view of Europeans and our culture shocks here. The two other groups will look at alcohol usage and dining in Europe.
          After the classes, about half of us went to get pictures made for our metro (subway) passes. A few forgot to get pictures from home, but most of us just had pictures that were too big to be used for the metro pass. We had tried yesterday to get pictures at a photo-booth but the machine just took someone's money and wouldn't take a picture. That was partly because no one with us could read French. So we had to give in and pay 13 Eu each for pictures at the mall. On the plus side, we got four copies of our pictures and I really like mine!
        Davide, our guide from CEPA was going to take the pictures and copies of our passports to the metro office, which works about as efficient as the DMV in the states. When he told the lady that he needed 36 or so metro passes, she refused to serve him. In the states, we would have asked for the manager, but I don't guess the customer is ever right here. We trekked across town to the shadier metro office, where the guy agreed to help Davide get the passes. Since it wasn't a nice part of town, he told us to go back to the central square. We waited for a while at O'Reilly's Irish Pub, which has been a friendly meeting spot for us for the past few days, and supposing that it would take a while, I went with my roommates and a girl from upstairs to look at some shops a few blocks away. I found some reasonably priced jewelry, scarves, and purses, but nothing that can't be found in the states. At the hotel, 3 & a half hours later, Davide had our metro passes back for us. There were some complications that caused Davide's boss to meet him at the metro office and assist him. 
         Already at 6pm, going to Bruge (not the correct spelling, I'm sure) for the afternoon was out of the question. Bruge is a medieval town that we will see sometime soon, I hope. Prof. Eddie told us that he received complaints about noise and people coming in too late, people walking around town by themselves at night, and a broken picture near the conference room. The hotel manager blamed it all on us, although none of us even knew there was a picture near the conference room and the reported noise came from a floor that doesn't house any of our students. No curfew has been made but Eddie wants us to come in earlier. I haven't been out at night so far because (1) I need sleep, (2) I don't drink, and (3) I don't want to be out in the city after dark...it's too risky.

          Today we went to the Atomium, a giant model of a molecule. It was built for the 1958 World's Fair to symbolize scientific progress and encourage the use of atomic energy. We took an elevator to the top and took pictures of the city, then took a series of escalators and staircases to visit a few other bubbles. The other bubbles were like a museum, but uninterested in taking the time to read (I'm not even sure if it was in English) or watch the videos, I skipped through and took pictures of some really cool stuff. They had a chair made of extension cords, another of something that looked like auto-parts, and one that looked like a shopping cart. They also had some blobs made of batteries and shot-gun shells. I took pictures of some neat architectural designs for my Architecture major buddies back home to get some inspiration. 
        We took the subway to and from the Atomium and every station was totally different. Some were really nice and others were kind-of dingy with graffiti on the walls; several had beautiful pictures on the walls, inspirational words, and encouraging quotes. We took the wrong train for a little while, but it was not detrimental because they move very quickly from station to station. Cultural note: there are alot of Muslims in Brussels, although I haven't seen any veils, just women with the scarves over their head and wrapped around.
        Once we got back to our part of town, a group of us went to get lunch at the Sultans of Kebap restaurant; they are everywhere and fairly cheap. They mainly have wraps and pitas. I got a falafel because it was only 3.5 Euros and I ended up taking half of it back with me for supper. I don't think it had any meat in it, but they put something that seemed like hushpuppies in it. Whatever it was, it didn't taste bad at all. I suppose that as long as it's cheaper, I don't mind being vegetarian for a month. We also went to Quick, which is like a Belgian McDonalds to meet up with some friends there. They got a meal for 3.5 Euro, too, but I think I prefer paying for two meals for the price of one at the kebap place.
         Afterwards, we went to the grocery store which has the same symbol as Food Lion. It was really a bit difficult to find what I wanted, but I got enough to suffice for a few days. I think the bread is actually cheaper at the mini-mart down the street, so I just got some off-brand Nutella to spread over bread for breakfasts. My total bill at the Food Lion (not it's actual name) was about 10 Euros. Culture shock: you bag your own groceries here. Also, chivalry is quite possibly dead here. No one gets up so a lady can sit on the subway and the ladies gave strange looks to guys from our group who held doors open.
         Once back at the hotel, we took a nap...I slept for 3 hours! Later my roommates and I went upstairs, I sipped some cheap wine (I definitely don't want that kind anymore, it was rather off-putting), and played a card game guessing famous mustaches.

5/9/13 Flights
               After a couple days of laundry and packing, I was ready to go this morning. Much to my dismay, I received an automated call around 11 this morning informing me that my flight from Greenville to Dulles Airport in Washington, DC was going to be delayed by two hours. It wouldn’t be too bad, except I only had an hour of a layover in DC, so I would miss my flight to Brussels. After calling the airline to no prevail, we decided to go on to GSP and get some help when I checked in. It took nearly an hour, but I was able to work with the airline agent to arrange for all five of us who were leaving from GSP to arrive in Brussels just a few hours later than we normally would. We got a connecting flight from GSP to Dulles to London to Brussels. I am so ready for this trip to start, but I’m really looking forward to the long flight over the Atlantic so I can get some sleep.
        The layover in DC was quick, but I led our group through the airport. I don't know why they think it's such a big deal that I was paying attention...all I did was read the signs and walk fast. As we were walking through, they decided they needed to exchange currency as if they wouldn't have the chance at other airports where we would have longer wait times. I was getting really antsy and wanted to head on. We were lucky that we arrived at the gate when we did because they were boarding the last groups.
       After landing in London, we had a couple of hours of layover, so we sat at a restaurant and they drank. I didn't get anything but I did taste some salmon. I'm pretty sure it was raw but it was really good!
      We took a taxi from Brussels airport to the hotel and found a large group of other students from our group waiting on us in the lobby. We were unable to check in because the rooms weren't clean yet. I didn't get into my room until 4pm. There were some issues with the rooming assignments because one girl wanted to be with my roommates since they got to know each other on their flight. I had no problem with that, except that I wanted to switch into a room with a friend I met before the trip. I won't go into details here, but feel free to send me a message on http://www.facebook.com/IzzyWard for the rest.
      We had a quick orientation meeting where we got some mass-transit passes and then we went out to dinner for traditional Belgian cuisine. We had some sort of fried cheese square for an appetizer (it may have had crab meet in it; I'll never know), large chunks of roast beef in gravy (the taste was less than spectacular), thick fries, and something that resembled clover sprigs for our entree. Dessert was amazing! It was a frozen chocolate mousse with chocolate powder and some egg-based sauce (it tasted about like flan).
        About of our group went out to bars afterward, but I was extremely in need of some R&R.