Today we went to Bruges, Belgium. We had to wake up early, so I quickly got ready and had some peanut butter on bread with a glass of orange juice. Then I gathered my airpods, a book, and put on a jacket. When I got into the car and we began to depart, everyone began to settle and do their own stuff, so I put on my headphones so that I could listen to Matt Maltese, and looked out the window for a while to get to know Lille better.
It was about an hour drive to Bruges. By the time we arrived it was raining and I was starving. After we paid for parking, we walked for about 20 minutes through the neighborhoods, eventually getting to the main city area. My host parents told me about Bruges’ bizarre language, and I’m pretty sure they were referring to Dutch, but at least they understood how much I was struggling to entirely comprehend French.
Anyways, for lunch we settled at what I’m pretty sure was an Italian restaurant. But, they also had burgers and fries and stuff like that. I ordered spaghetti and we all drank Pepsi. The parents ordered Belgium beer and had me try some so that my parents could see photos of me trying “real beer”. I actually thought it was really interesting, and in many ways, I understand the crave. The plate of pasta I got was actually huge and took me forever to eat, but after we were all finished, we each ordered some creme brulees. I’ve noticed that French people eat dessert so normally. At my house, my parents don’t let me have very many sweets and typically no dessert unless it's spontaneous. But in Lille, each night they offer me a sweet–which don’t get me wrong, is great! Just different.
After lunch, we walked around the city a little more. We finally came across an office offering canal tours throughout the town. We decided that that would be a great opportunity to learn about the city, so all of us climbed aboard a little boat with about 15 other people. The tour guide spoke multiple languages, so I got to hear about the sights in both English and French, which was nice. He talked a lot about the history of the city, which dates back hundreds of years. A lot of the stuff I learned built off of some of the things I was taught in my AP European history class! I even got to see some swans super up close, which was exciting!
Later on, we again, walked through the city some more. Towards the end of our trip, we went to some Belgium waffles with nutella and powdered sugar (yummmm). After finishing our snack my friend and I were very thirsty, so we went to the store to get some water. Somehow, they had no regular water, but red flavored water (I think it was peach?) which I quite liked. Then it was time to leave, so we made the walk back to the car and finally began the ride home.
At this point, I was so exhausted from all the walking and was very happy to sit down for a while. The girls and I fell asleep for most of the trip home and even when we arrived home, we were still pretty sleepy. We settled on the couch for some time that night and my host mom and I watched Twilight together. Because it had been raining much of the week, Twilight was the perfect movie to watch, especially because I hadn’t seen it in a long time. So that was nice and once I started getting tired, I went to get ready for bed. After a big day, it was nice to relax for a while.