Not for School But For Life

Life Lessons Learned on My Year of Adventure:
1. Its hard to leave everything you've ever known and go off on your own.
2. Once you do it though, its awesome.
3. It really is a small world, you never know who you will know and you will know you.
4. There are genuinely nice people out there, you just have to look for a while.
5. You need friends.
6. Cockroaches are disgusting.
7. Europe and the south are similar in that they both move slowly.
8. If you have a problem with something, just say it, don't let it get to you, deal with it.
9. Pictures are awesome.
10. The cost of living in enormous.
11. All children, we are forever indebted to our parents for how many sacrifices they make for us to allow us to see the world and have experiences that change the way we look at the world.
12. Doing laundry is no fun.
13. Showers are overrated.
14. Personal hygiene overall is not.
15. You can never stop learning.
16. Be who you are, and be that well.
17. Age 20, is such a young age!
18. A beautiful day can instantly change your mood.
19. Disney is an entertainment business.
20. Disney works you and for no money, yet even when you're gone and think about the time you spent there, you smile.
21. I learned I actually need to do my research before I go places, opposed to just jumping in like I do. Its caused some great confusion and frustration in the past.
22. Life is short.
23. A year without seeing snow is most bizarre.
24. Liquor is always good, but in moderation.
25. Visitation tells you some weird things about life is going to go.
26. Every experience that one has should never be a regret, always think about what you learned from that experience and move on.
27. Similar to cockroaches, mold is digusting.
28. Belgians get away with eating fries, chocolate, and beer everyday! and they call Americans fat.
29. I love America!
30. Despite basically being slave labor, I still love Disney.
31. No matter how rude people are being just smile.
32. If you point with two fingers or a whole hand it makes people feel more comfortable, aka less threatened by you pointing at them with one finger.
33. Belgium at this time doesn't have a government, yet things are still running...
34. Peacocks are beautiful creatures.
35. How politics are created is far beyond me no matter how hard I try to wrap my brain around it.
36. The magic of theatre never ceases to amaze me, even if I know how they accomplished their magic.
37. Never lose sight of what you want out of life.
38. To best fit-in in Europe: wear a pea-coat and scarf. Similarly, if you’re female, wear tights/leggings with a sweater dress. Leather, calf length boots as footwear. Preferably black or tan.
39. People will always surprise you in either how genuine or how fake they end up being.
40. Always make to tell those who you love that you love for you might not know the next time you'll hear from them.
41. Contrary to what most Europeans believe, the US isn't actually all that different!
42. The decision to buy a Mac still has to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.
43. Ohana means family and family means sticking together. And sticking together means the Carvers, we're thick as thieves!
44. If a guy never calls you back he's not worth your time.
45. Hipsters are always taking it to the next level.
46. I am slowly coming to realize that I won't always be in my twenties, but I'll always be awesome.
47. When I'm old I hope to be that kooky old lady full of stories of shenanigans that I did back when I was young!
48. To this day, the Visitation school sweater is the warmest article of clothing I own.
49. I miss being able to drive myself places.
50. Similar to Barney, "WHEN I GET SAD, I JUST GET AWESOME INSTEAD: TRUE STORY!"

To Bruges We Go!

Alright, so last weekend my Art class, which isn't really an art class more of art history/ European studies class went on a day trip to a medieval town in Belgium known as Bruges.

 The day started off with the class meeting up at the train station to realize that half the class was either:
a) simply not showing up
b) hungover or
c) in the hospital

Just from the train station, I knew we were off to a great start!

Anywho, so we took the train and got to Bruges where we saw the Poertoren, ye olde ammunition tower), the boulevard that replaced the 1297 last wall of town, and Minnewater (Lake of Love). By the way, every time we passed by/ talked about Minnewater all I could think of was Minnesota (Land that I Love!).

Look at what a fairy tale type place Bruges is with its swans and such!

Replace water with soda, and you've got where I'm from!

 From there, we went to Our Lady's Church, then to St. Jan's Hospital which is now a museum.

Inside of Our Lady's Church

St. Jan's Hosptial

 Next, we ventured forth to what was supposed to be the Onze Lieve Vrouw, but instead was lunch! NOM NOM NOM. Don't worry, we went back to the Onze Lieve Vrouw later in the day. After lunch though, we went to the Grote Markt and then braved the arduous task of climbing the 365 steps up to the top of the Belfry Tower.

Before the climb!

At the TOP!

That is the Belfry Tower we climbed!

After fulfilling a new life dream, to climb the Belfry Tower, we went to the historic part of town. From there we went the Bruges Vrij (the old government's countryside), the City Hall, St. Basil, and the Holy Blood Chapel. At the Holy Blood Chapel, I got to touch the blood of Jesus. Pretty cool if you ask me!

St. Basil's

Where I touched Jesus's blood!

Subsequently, we returned to the Onze Lieve Vrouw to see Michelangelo's Madonna along with the tombs of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy. 

Michelangelo's Madonna

Finally, after all that excitement it was time to call it a day on Bruges, and we took the train back to Brussels.  
 

So this one time I went to Germany...

So last weekend for my lovely ART class (its really more of a history class, but I digress) we ventured off to Trier, Germany.

We left around 8am, took a sweet bus ride to the American cemetery for the soldiers fallen in the Battle of the Ardennes during World War II in Luxembourg. It was a very solemn experience visiting the place that is home to so many unknown soldiers and General Patton.

General Patton's gravestone

 From there, we got back on the bus, and went to Trier. In Trier, we had quite the busy day. I got stuck in a group with Professor Chew, aka Indiana Jones. He is crazy. He dressed like Indiana Jones, and was just full of so much information we thought he was cool at first. Then, as we got to know more about him, we realized he was not in fact cool, rather he was a creepy 50 year old man whose into young Asian college girls. The trip got real awkward (with him as our guide) real fast.

Indiana Jones

 Anywho, so what we did. First, we went to the hostel and dropped off our stuff, next lunch, then we were off to the central market place of town, Hauptmark. From there we went to the Dom, the very large Romanesque Cathedral, then off to the the Bishop's Museum.

The front side of the Dom

Inside view of the Dom

Lovely ladies and Patrick at the Dom

 After the Bishop's Museum, we visited Karl Marx's house. We had the best tour guide ever, he kept comparing Karl Marx to Harry Potter, in summary he is now the new love of my life!

Going all Columbus on Karl Marx

 From there, we met back up with the other half of the class and visited the Von Nell wine cellar. It was needless to say, a great time. We properly learned how to taste/ appreciate Mosel wine while eating some of the most delicious food I have ever eaten!

First you must smell the wine!

 The next day, we got up and did more touring, as school trips generally like to do, they kept us quite busy. So we went to the Imperial Baths, then the amplitheater, then the Aula Palatina (aka the Basilica).

Forum Baths

How many people can you shove in a forum bath?

Amplitheater

After that, it was lunch, then the Porta Nigra and St. Paulin's church.

Porta Nigra

Porta Nigra

Porta Nigra

 Finally, after all that touring, we got back on the bus, had some cookies, watched Spartacus and returned to Brussels.

Exploring Belgium

Its been a while I see, many adventures to fill everyone in on, so here we go!

Monday:
European Economy and Introduction to European Union classes.

Tuesday:
La classe de francais.

Wednesday:
European Studies class, Introduction to European Union class, and European Economy class.
Visited Palais du Justice:

Me and the city line of Brussels

British War Memorial: in memory of British soldiers who died in World War I

Maisah and I enjoying a sunny day in Brussels

On the steps of the Palais de Justice

The Infantry Memorial: in memory of Belgian foot soldiers

PALAIS DE JUSTICE

Thursday:
No classes, so went shopping with roommates.
Visited le Musee de Cocoa et Chocolat

Fancy hot chocolate makers used for royalty

The pods inside the cocoa bean

Demonstration of how chocolate is made and molded.

Mankee Pis made out of chocolate!

Later that night I saw CIRQUE DU SOLEIL's CORTEO!

Getting all dressed up to go see Cirque!

CORTEO

Sweet backdrop to the show.

Ariana, Jackie, Annie, and I 

Friday:
Again, no class, did homework and went out to a friend's apartment at night. 

Maisah and I going out for a night on the town

Emma, Maisah, and I at Annie's apartment

Trying not to make a scene at the Metro after a man had jumped in and out of the spot where the trains go!

Satuday:
Visited le Musee de BELvue!

Annie and Julie at the Musee de BELvue

a quick glance into the 50s through 70s of Belgium's history

King Baudouin

Liberation!

Suffrage movements commence

Sunday:

Visited LIEGE, Belgium.

Sweet train station in Liege, also the home of the EXPO

At the market they had at least 10 of these chicken cooker stands. NOM NOM NOM

Annie, Ariana, Dainis, and I with our waffles filled with real fruit!

Naked man diving into the Port de Liege