Holidays in the Huis: Sinterklaas & Christmas

        December has been quite a busy month at the huis! There has been a lot of homework, traveling, and luckily...holiday parties! Lets start off with Sinterklaas...

         Sinterklaas is a holiday celebrated on December 6th in Belgium. Sinterklaas is a saint that comes from Spain to deliver goodies to all of the good little girls and boys. The concept is very similar to Santa Claus in the U.S. (Santa Claus doesn't exist to the children of Belgium, just Sinterklaas). Another thing that Sinterklaas does is "rat you out," for all that you have done throughout the year. He has his helpers, the Zwarte Piet, who are black with ashes from the chimney. This is the case because the Zwarte Piet climb down the chimney and than open the front door for Sinterklaas to come in. On the night of December 5th everyone in the huis left out one of their shoes, a carrot and sugar cube for the horse, a beer for the Zwarte Piet, and a letter for Sinterklaas. We awoke on the 6th with treats in our shoes and everything else gone!

         The Belgians organized a Sinterklaas party for the other internationals so we could fully embrace their tradition. There were games, snacks, and a few special visitors!

Sinterklaas arriving with the Zwarte Piet!

I got called up to play "Sho Sho Slagroom." In this game you had to put a dollop of whipped cream (a.k.a. slagroom) on your palm and than hit your forearm to fling the cream into your mouth...not messy at all... 

Shayne and I were called up so Sinterklaas could criticize our cooking skillz.
There is nothing wrong with cooking in a microwave! #AWK.

     Sinterklaas was a lot of fun and there was a lot of candy! It was great to share this Belgian tradition with out new friends. I learned a lot and enjoyed all the games. Now, onto Christmas!

       Due to the unfortunate timing of our Dutch final, we had our Christmas party the same day. It was a great way to relax after the final was over, but it put a damper on the planning. Even with a Dutch final to study for, we managed to gather up our favorite Christmas traditions and throw a really fun party.
   
         In the huis, we did a Secret Santa among everyone. We received our Secret Santa at Thanksgiving Dinner, and from that date on, everyone left little treats and notes for that person. It was really fun to sneak around and try not to get caught!

A gift supposedly left for me by my Secret Santa..what is it? Beats me! Little did I know, two of my "oh so funny," unit members tried to throw me off by pretending to be my Secret Santa! (Stipe and Mayank....I should've known!)

                                      At the Christmas party, everyone's Secret Santa was revealed!

Our Christmas tree with all of the presents!

Astrid and I coloring our "Frosty the Snowman."

Here is everyone anxiously waiting to find who there Secret Santa is!

      There was Hot Chocoalte, Gluvhein, and plenty of Christmas Music (supplied by yours truly).

One happy, yet dysfunctional family!

       For our final Unit 3 activity, we decided to have a going away dinner for Shayne. Mayank made us a delicious and authentic Indian meal for dinner. Clara made a delicious apple pie as well..YUM! After our meal we all ventured to the Leuven Christmas Market to get into the holiday spirit.

The beautiful Leuven Christmas Market!

Some of the best people you could ever meet!

        After an amazing first semester, it was time to head back to the states to celebrate Christmas with my family! So many memories, but lucky for me, there are so many more to come! See you next year Leuven, its been real!

                                              Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Edinburgh & Newcastle Upon Tyne!

       I decided to take a little trip to the UK...nbd. So I headed off to Edinburgh, Scotland with Maeda for 2 nights. We made the trek to Charleoi Airport...off the beaten path in Belgium to snag a cheap seat on a Ryanair flight. We arrived in Edinburgh around 10pm to be greeted by my cousin Conor. He has lived in Edinburgh for a good few years now and it was really great to see him after such a long time. He drove us around the city for a while to give us a mini tour before dropping us off at our hostel.

Me and Conor in Edinburgh.

       We stayed at the Caledonian Backpackers just off Princes Street. It was a really cool eclectic place, and it had WIFI! #winning! Its the little victories that make every day better...we were able to stay in touch with reality while we were there! Anyways, we shared a room with 8 beds in an all female dorm with some people from Australia and New Zealand. Its amazing to think about all of the people we have met from all over the world. 

This was the common room/breakfast room in our hostel.
It has such a cool vibe and I loved all the color!

I almost forgot to mention I tried Vegemite! It was a breakfast option to spread on toast...lets just say I wouldn't recommend it. Its a favorite "Down Under," but lets just assume our taste buds are VERY different...I thought it was pretty gross...sorry to disappoint. 

     Around 11AM we headed out to explore Edinburgh. We didn't have much of a plan, but that is half the fun! We made sure to hit up the Edinburgh Castle, the Christmas Markets, and obviously stop in a few "touristy" shops. We truly walked ALL over the city, it is quite adorable. We walked the Royal Mile, and struggled a bit to find one of J.K. Rowling's inspirations for her depiction of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Who knew she wrote some of the books right there in Edinburgh?!?). We ended up finding it...after about 2 hours of walking and asking about a half dozen people for directions...but it was awesome to see! It was such a beautiful public school...our public schools back home don't exactly look like Hogwarts...

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Christmas Market.
These markets are always so quaint and beautiful..I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!

Casually hanging out with Comet outside the Christmas Market!
'Tis the Season!

The glowing George Henriot School in Edinburgh.

           After a great stay in Edinburgh, we boarded the Megabus to take a little drive to Newcastle Upon Tyne ( I learned it is called "Upon Tyne," because it is just along the Tyne River). We decided on this destination because it is where another Loyola study abroad program is located. Some of my close friends from back home were studying there and we joined them on their last weekend! Unfortunately, they were heading back to the U.S. forgive this week...not lucky to come back in the spring like me.
     

Angelica and I ready for the game!

        Anyways, once we arrived we were greeted at the station by my friends Angelica and Kristyn. They gave us a walking tour of Newcastle before we headed back to their flat. Later on we went into Newcastle to see more of the town they have spent the last semester in. It is great to go to other cities to see how other Loyola students live abroad...I'm still partial to Leuven obviously, but Newcastle was very nice. On Saturday we got tickets to go to the Newcastle United "football," (a.k.a. soccer) game. It was great to go to a real match because soccer is HUGE over here.

We had really great seats, we were just 2 rows behind the goal! It was great, just FREEZING! I was not ready for the cold! It seemed to be a major theme of the weekend.
Note to self: Bundle up, its December.

Angelica, Kristyn and I.

Maeda and I at the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle.
This bridge is one of the best known landmarks in Newcastle.

            After a great trip, we had to get to bed early to catch our 5:30 AM bus...oh the joys of travelling on a budget! We hopped on a 4 hour bus to Manchester, to get another bus to the Manchester Airport. After arriving a bit later than expected, we rushed to our gate to make our plane. Luckily, everything went smoothly. So after a few more buses, trains and bike rides...we arrived back in Leuven around 6PM...so college commuting for 12 + hours to get home...BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!

         
          Its almost Christmas...meaning its almost time to head back to the states for a bit! I have some holiday festivities in Leuven first, stay tuned!

Thanksgiving: A Day for Turkey and American Football

          I have never spent a Thanksgiving away from my family, so this would be my first. I knew it would be weird not being at my Grandma's house with my 30+ relatives to enjoy a meal together. It was bizarre for me to think that all of the people (besides the Americans, of course) surrounding me had never even heard of the holiday. It reminded me that I really was in a "foreign place," but I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to share the great holiday with my new friends and family here in Leuven.
         To prepare for out Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday evening, Shayne and I took the challenge of baking banana bread upon ourselves. Most of the internationals had never even heard of banana bread, let alone tasted it, so we were excited for them to try something new. Banana bread is a favorite of ours, so we were hoping we could open their eyes to another delicious dessert!

Table 5! We were each assigned a seat at one of seven different tables so we could mingle with different people during the meal.
 (Starting with me, going left: Meaghan, Evelien, Dan, Lesley, Emilie, Daniella, Annie, & Dominika)
Our table was representing America, Belgium, Italy, & Poland!

        Thursday rolled around and everyone was very excited for our big meal! We had to attend Dutch class just before the meal, so it was #strugglecity for those two hours. There was going to be a traditional "Thanksgiving basis," with a Belgian spin. I had received a call earlier in the day from Dr. Hughes, in which he asked me to say Grace before dinner, I was a little nervous because there were going to be 70+ people in attendance, but I took on the challenge to make my Grandma proud! It went over well and it was a great way to kick off the start of a delicious meal.

THE FIRST COURSE: PUMPKIN SOUP

I may or may not have gone for seconds...
It was my first time having pumpkin soup, and it shirley won't be my last!

                                                              THE MAIN COURSE

There was so much going on, on this plate:
croquettes, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries...you get the idea!
It was fabulous!

THE FINAL COURSE: DESSERT

Everyone brought something different to the table, literally.
I had some pumpkin pie, cake, brownies, banana bread...

The only downfall was I was the LAST person to get both dinner and dessert...and dessert was at random--How does that happen? But on a lighter note, I did not go hungry, not in the slightest. 

Here is a look at the dessert table:

Here is a look at the dessert table after 70 people made their way through it:

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

        After dinner, we all rolled ourselves home ready to rest. We also had to get our head in the game because the next day was GAME DAY. We were bringing American football to Leuven. 

THE team.

War paint, if you're going to do it-do it right.

Just a casual interception, things got pretty intense on the field!

       Overall, the game was a lot of fun! It was a great way to bond with all of our new friends by teaching them an American favorite. In the end, everyone learned a lot, and we opened up the eyes of many to this great game. 

Bottom line: HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM BELGIUM!

Back to reality, although I am still in a bit of a food coma--BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!

I AMsterdam.

         It has been a very busy week! After an exciting/exhausting weekend in Spain, we had about a day and a half to rest up until our trip to Amsterdam: Part een. (a.k.a. one... #sonederlands!)

        Shayne, Cait, Tissy & I hopped on a bus for three hours to hit up the concert of our beloved Wiz Khalifa. Wiz (we are now on a first name basis, you know how it is), a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, inspired us to be reppin' black and yellow across country lines. 

The Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam

Members of nine west: reunited once again at the concert.

        We headed to the concert at the Heineken Music Hall in the heart of Amsterdam, and we were spending the night with some Loyola students studying there for the semester. It was a lot of fun to experience a concert in a different country with an entire different population. It was a surreal experience...is this really my life?!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lVZQ0FekuU

  Here is a sneak peak of the concert, its not the best footage, but its the thought that counts, right?




         We got up pretty early the next morning to get on the bus back to Brussels. Yes, many may think we were crazy to travel back to Belgium, just to head back to the Netherlands the following day, but when Dutch class calls, you must listen. After an extremely exciting Dutch class (NOT), we packed our bags for Amsterdam: part twee (a.k.a. two, I suppose you got the drift by now).

We couldn't bring cameras inside, so I took this from the bus. Its just here to give you an idea about the type of security around the area.
#LEGIT

         A few of the Loyola students woke up extra early Friday morning to head into Brussels and visit NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). It was a great opportunity because it is such a classified place that we needed to have our passports checked as well as thoroughly checked by security before entering. We had a women speak to us about the organization for a while before we headed back to Leuven to ride back to Amsterdam.

      It was about a 3 1/2 hour ride to Amsterdam, but I was an old pro by that bus ride. We arrived at Hotel Nadia and left our luggage in our rooms so we could get a quick walking tour in before dark. I'm really starting to feel the lack of sunlight...short days are rough!

Our hotel in the heart of Amsterdam

This is the staircase in the Nadia Hotel.
These are what I like to call "the stairs of doom." I was lucky enough not to fall victim to them, but they were SO steep, I probably am one of the few. Since the property taxes in Amsterdam used to be solely based on the width of the front property, everyone just built up!

          After the tour we had a free night to explore, but we had to be aware of our early start on Saturday! We met for breakfast at 8:30 am Saturday morning in the "Breakfast Room," in the hotel (duh!), before walking to the Rijksmuseum. There was a lot of amazing art there and we spent a few hours taking it all in. After that we went to a hidden church, walked through the Red Light District (not with Dr. Hughes of course...), ate some fro-yo (obvi), went on a boat tour, and just took in the sights. We were free for dinner and the night so a few of us met up with the Loyola students studying abroad in Amsterdam (again) for them to show us around.

The boat we took out for a spin!

         Sunday was our last day in Amsterdam and we were ready to see as much as we could. We had a pretty busy day heading to the Anne Frank House first. It was definitely my favorite place in Amsterdam because I had read her diary and it was amazing to stand in the very place she stood. It also gave me a little motivation to study Dutch, because I learned that was the language her diary was written in! Hearing all the details about the "Secret Annex," and everything that went on was mind-blowing. I can't believe that something like that happened not too long ago. It was such a privilege to have the opportunity to go to the house.

This is me in front of the Anne Frank House. 

          After visiting the Anne Frank House we headed to the Van Gogh Museum (nbd). It was a really cool place, the building is set up in such a modern and artsy way (appropriately enough). It was four floors of countless paintings created by famous artists like Van Gogh and Monet. DH gave us an assignment about the paintings we saw in the museums, so I had to take a lot of notes! I believe it is important to mention that there was free wifi at the museum! Its the simple things in life that make it so sweet.... After the museum we hit up the big I AMsterdam sign, it must a must see of course. We had a few extra hours before loading up the bus again and heading home. 

This is the whole group of us with the mini I AMsterdam sign outside the Amsterdam museum.
(Did I mention we went to a few museums?)

Amsterdam is such a beautiful place, I was surprised how much I liked it! I'm going to take a leap and say it was my favorite city so far!

Well I guess its back to Leuven to prepare for our international Thanksgiving dinner! Yum!
                                               
                                                                   Tot ziens!

¡Hola España!

So this past weekend I headed to Spain to meet up with a bunch of my favorite Loyola ladies!  My Nine West peeps, as I like to call them (because we all lived on the 9^th floor of Newman West last year) reunited in Madrid to spend some quality abroad time together! I had been soooo looking forward to seeing everyone because for some of us, we haven’t been together since the last day of school in May.

Reunited and it feels so good!
(not everyone made it in this picture, but you get the idea...) 

People flew in from Italy, England, Denmark, and Belgium (of course), to meet up with the lovely ladies spending the semester in Alcala de Henares, Spain. It was a very long day traveling from Leuven to Alcala on Friday morning. We started our journey biking to the Leuven train station, hopped on 2 trains and a bus to finally arrive at Brussels Charleoi Airport. From there we flew into Madrid International around 6pm, where we proceeded to get on the wrong metro and have to backtrack to the airport (#awkward).  We than hopped onto 2 more metros and than another train line to make it to our final destination. All the hours of tedious traveling were worth it when Gianna and Claire finally met us at the station closest to where they live. We walked through Alcala to head to our hostel where we met everyone else. There were countless hugs to go around, as well as stories about what have been happening in each of our lives the past 2 ½ months.

The Tapas restaurant we went to on Friday night.

This is one of the dishes that came with the sangria, it is salsa,
and egg sunny-side up and some delicious bread.
Eggs were in SO many of the dishes I saw this weekend.

We settled into our rooms and got ready to get some Tapas at a local restaurant. We had sangria and some delicious authentic Spanish dishes. It was one of MANY dishes from the weekend that I thoroughly enjoyed. By the time we were eating it was 9:30pm, so around 11pm we headed into Madrid to check out the nightlife. We took a 40 minute bus ride into the city for 3 euros and spent a few hours there before heading back to Alcala for the night.

Saturday we stayed around Alcala to spend some quality time together. We had a long and relaxing lunch, which lasted about 3 ½ hours….(we’re definitely not in America anymore, the waitress REALLY took her time).  After lunch, we got some fro-yo (frozen yogurt, of course) for dessert, because that is something I am deprived of in Belgium…tough life. After a few hours of walking around and shopping, it was dinnertime! Are you sensing a pattern? There was so much food, and so little time, but lets be real, I didn’t hate it!

Katie, Cait & I after dinner on Saturday.

For dinner we had some more sangria and croquettes with ham, or “jamon.”

I enjoyed exploring the grocery store in Alcala, it is interesting how all the food shops are so different from country to country. The most interesting find was definitely the wine juice boxes…yes, there were juice boxes with wine---Only in Spain! There were also actual legs of lamb hanging all over the place…quite interesting.

I suppose its 5 o'clock somewhere during lunch time in Spain...

There were so many Christmas goodies, and I couldn't have been happier to see them!
¡ Feliz Navidad!

On Sunday we packed everything up early to put our bags in lockers at the Madrid International Airport because we were heading to the El Rastro Market in Madrid. We were warned that there were a lot of pick-pocketers around, so we didn’t want to tempt them with huge backpacks in a crowded market. We also had an encounter on the metro with a pick-pocketor.  My friend Katie (yes, this is the same Katie who solved my pick-pocketing dilemma!) spotted one in action and stopped him before he could take anything from another man on the way to the metro.

So back to the market, it was quite an astounding sight. There were streets and streets packed with people and vendors. There was everything there from food, to scarves, to soccer equipment. I picked up a few souvenirs to remember my fabulous trip to Madrid. I had an chorizo empanada as a snack to hold me over at the market, it was “soooooo Spain,” and so delicious!

El Rastro Market
Madrid, Spain

There I am, enjoying my authentic chorizo empanada at the market!

We went to Plaza de Mayor for lunch/dinner. I had some Paella, it was my first time having it and it was very good. I am not a huge seafood person, but I figured I should embrace the culture and try the authentic dish. That was our “Last Supper,” so to speak because after we ate everyone had to split up, some heading to the airport, some staying in Madrid, and some heading back to Alcala.

Paella with seafood and chicken.

Angelica & I after dinner.
Who would of thought from New Hyde Park Memorial High School, all the way to Madrid, Spain?

Just casually touching down on the actual center of the country
before we headed back to reality. 

The Leuvenites (myself included) headed back to the airport in the evening to spend the night…yet again. It was a lot colder than our last airport stay experience, but we made it alright. 

Roomies for the night!  So comfy, right?
(Yes, I am a poet, and I didn't even know it.)

What a wonderful world!
The breathtaking view of the sunrise over the clouds from the plane.
One of the few perks of a 6:30 am flight...

We ended up back in Leuven around 11:30am for a well needed rest. Overall it was a great weekend, but I was very happy to be back at the huis! "Home Sweet Huis," as I like to say.

                                         Amsterdam is next, adios for now!