There's been a lack of posts because I haven't been doing anything particularly exciting in my life these days. When I first got here, I said, "I WANT TO TRAVEL EVERY OTHER WEEKEND. NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS." But I don't think I quite realized what an impact that would be on my bank account. And that school exists. Le sigh! Midterms are coming up the week after next, so that's going to be fun... or not. I'm not used to having to take exams! I wish I was writing a paper. Oh, how I miss being an English major.
So I'm not traveling until the 22nd of October to Paris, so there will be a dearth of posts. There might be some lame ones like this one.
Yesterday, Brussels started "Nocturnes," which is this three month period where different museums on different nights stay open until midnight and have special little things going on. I met up with Hedviges, a girl from Portugal whom I met at ballroom, and David, a Belgian-born British guy whom I met at salsa. Cool, huh? I feel like I'm really starting to integrate myself into the Belgian community instead of staying within the Americans-in-Belgium community.
Anyhoo, we went to the Palace of Charles de Lorraine and took Renaissance dance lessons! It was really fun because we got to wear super super cool wigs and masks.
The clothes may be a little mismatched though! :p
It was really cute seeing groups of wigged people in this beautiful building. It's also the Belgian Royal Library.And then we went to the Museum of Musical Instruments. It was BEAUTIFUL! The building was designed during the Art Nouveau period, so it was really spider-y and witchy but beautiful.
I don't know if you can see it very well, but the elevator was beautiful and decorated in the same way.You were given headphones, and then as you walked around and looked at the antique instruments, pieces would play, and as you moved on to another exhibit, it would change! It was super super cool. And I really missed my band days! Listening to a saxophone quintet made me very nostalgic.
And since that's all I have to give about the last two weeks, here are some more things I notice about Belgium/Europe:
- Men hang out with each other in large groups. In America, men usually try avoiding "sausage fests," but I don't think they really mind them here. And there are a lot of men here.
- There's this lady from Turkey in my CMM class, and she is a big fan of TMI. First she told us about her abusive brother who was divorced twice--and she blames this on his diet that contains a lot of steaks. Then she told us about a time her neighbors complained when she was having loud sex with her boyfriend. This leads me to conclude that all Turkish people are big fans of sharing lots of personal information.
- People talk REALLY CLOSE TO YOUR FACE. Personal space is much smaller here.
- Men don't have this "machissmo" this going on. They are not afraid to eat salads, do yoga, and enjoy chocolate.
- People keep asking if I'm Japanese. NO.
- Someone asked if I read "diagonally." Apparently in the UK this means "skimming." hahahaha I didn't realize that and said, "Well, if I tilt my head, then yes..." whoops.
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