Saturday, June 18th, 2011
Today, Erin Hong and I ventured off to Brugges, Belgium. I honestly don't know how this experience in Paris would have been different without Erin. We really didn't know each other that well outside of the few Chemistry and economics classes we've had together, but have definitely become very good friends living in tight quarters together. We pushed our beds basically next to each other as the room we share is so small and we're basically together for 24 hours out of the day with a few exceptions. I'm surprised we haven't gotten into any arguments or anything living together or taking the same class together. I've definitely found I've been successful living with people that I'm not great friends with or even know for that matter prior to living with them. Freshman year, my roommate was completely random. We never really hung out together and kept our relationship as roommates as we seemed to have very different groups of friends but coming from families in which we both have siblings, thus we both know how to be respectful and accommodating to each other, we did not get into arguments and even became best friends by the end of our two years living together. In Italy, I was acquaintances with one of my roommates and didn't know the other two that I was crammed into a hotel room that seemed like it should be rented as a double that they somehow crammed in a few extra cots for a month. We had a blast together. I really enjoy getting to know new people and living with them is a great way to truly get to know them way more intimately than you could other wise.
Anyways back to Brugges. The train ride there was hectic! Our train broke down in a random city on the way there, so all 40 or so of us from USD had to collectively hop on another train that left literally seven minutes from the time the first train got there. It was insane trying to pile that many people extra onto an already very crowded train. The CEA program handled the stressful situation very well. Some USD kids were freaking out, but I've found it is always best to just work the stressful situation as freaking out about it really does not get you anywhere or help the situation whatsoever. This trip has definitely taught me how to be flexible in my travels. For example, just to name a few travel mishaps, the metro strikes, the fact that a cab ride in Normandy is almost 50 percent more on a Sunday, the day we happened to be there, lost train reservations, and the fact out of the seven of us in a group didn't speak English, so we had the wrong tickets on the train and we're required to upgrade on the train. All situations were stressful, but they always work out in the end. It's easier to enjoy life by not letting all of these little dilemmas get the worst of us.
I really enjoyed the group I hung out with in Brugges - Brian, Henry, Yifan, Erin, and Sam. It really does not seem like a lot of us would have become friends without being forced together over meals and in foreign countries together. We really don't have interests that brought us together as school, other than our Paris adventure. We explored the famous Belgium chocalatiers, the canal with a boat tour from a tour guide who spoke three languages, and some yummy Belgium fries and waffles with caramel, chocolate, and whip cream. It didn't really seem like that many Belgian persons actually lived in Brugges as I've definitely heard the most English being spoken in this city than the rest of this trip to Europe and Spain. I was told that in Brugges, both Flemish and French are apparently commonly spoken around, which I really didn't notice as I was filtering all of the foreign languages out do to the overwhelming majority of English spoken. I noticed a man trying to order his waffle in French, but the attendant serving him kept replying to his French with English, even though the man still had accented English and clearly understood the French. I found this very odd.
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