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.
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.
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