August 3- Going to Interlaken, Switzerland

This past week has been pretty stressful.  We had both our hydrology and wastewater system design midterms this week.  I studied a lot, and Dr. Musnter’s test was easy and I did really well.  We haven’t gotten our grades back from Dr. Engler yet, but I feel pretty good about it too.  We had 4 assignments due Thursday morning, so Walter, Jonathon, and I literally worked on homework from 3pm-12:30 am Wednesday.   

Yesterday (Thursday) we went on an awesome field trip.  We first visited a surface water treatment facility.  Our guide was great because he explained all the treatment processes really well.  In the afternoon, we went to Delta Works in the Netherlands.  In the 1970’s, the Netherlands built 65 levies along the shoreline of the North Sea to protect against flooding.  Now they have a large tourist exhibition there.  We had beautiful weather and a really fun day walking around the area along the ocean.  Walter made us breakfast burritos for dinner, then a big group of us (18/22 people) went out to the Oude Market for drinks last night.  

I am now writing on the train to Interlaken, Switzerland.  We left Leuven this morning on a train at 6:25.  We are supposed to get to Interlaken around 3:00 this afternoon.  Me, Cherish, Rob, Ashley, Sean, and Andrew are all on this trip.   

July 29-Study day

Last night's Sing-Along concert in the Oude Market was so much fun.  There were about 3,000 of us crowded in to the square, singing at the top of our lungs!  The sing-along concert series travels throughout Flanders.  They handed out small newspapers with the words to the songs.  We sang Deliah, Hey Baby, Hey Jude, La Bamba, and a few Dutch and French songs, just to name a few!  Sounds kind of lame but we had a great time.

Today I slept in until about 9:30 then studied for a few hours around the house.  This afternoon, me, Jonathon, Walter, Dr. Muster, and Dr. Engler went for a bike ride around Leuven.  There are miles and miles of nice, well marked trails around the forest outside the city of Leuven.  We visited a chapel and a military graveyard, etc.  After about 2 hours of biking, Dr. Munster invited us over to his apartment for drinks.

We dropped off our bikes back at the student house then went to find somewhere to eat dinner.  We ended up walking for about an hour because nothing was open and/or it was Italian, which we're tired of!  We ended up near the train station and then it started raining.  We ran in the rain to a fast-food type place, called Quick.  I had a really good salad there and we waited out the storm.

I skyped with Mom tonight and got caught up on everything that's been happening at home.  It's after midnight now so I'm going to bed soon.  

July 28- Gent and Brussels

I decided to stay around Belgium this weekend, since we have our two midterms coming up next week.  This morning, six of us went took the train from Leuven to Gent.  It was raining when we left our dorm and the forecast predicted rain all day.  Luckily, we had beautiful weather.

When we got to Gent, we took a taxi from the train station to St. Nicholas Church.  There are about 250 stairs up to the top of the tower.  We had an awesome view of the city and it was neat seeing how the bells chimed.  We took an elevator down from the tower, and almost overloaded it with a Japanese tour group who couldn't speak English at all...  After the tower, we walked over to the river and took an hour long boat cruise.  We all had to go to the bathroom really bad, so we ate lunch at the Mcdonalds near the river.

After eating, we went to Gravensteen Castle.  Really awesome medieval castle and they had a guillotine and torture devices, so that was neat.  Going off advice from the taxi driver, we had drinks at the "Beer House" on the canal front.  I had a banana beer and it was delicious.

Since it was still early in the day and we had seen everything we wanted to see in Gent, we took the train to Brussels.  We found the famous Mannequin Piz statue (little boy using the bathroom in to a fountain), then had more beer at the Delirium, a famous place with over 20,000 beer selections.  Cherish got a little too tipsy!... 

There is a sing along festival tonight in Leuven, so we decided to come back early for that.  It's now about 7:30 and we're about to go out again.  I have to write my field trip report and study for two exams, so tomorrow and Monday are dedicated to that entirely!        

July 26-Field trip to Bruges, Belgium

I really should have been keeping up with my blog the past few days..  I've done a lot!  Tuesday night I went to see the Dark Knight Rises.  It was opening day in Belgium.  The theater was really different from American theaters.  We sat in assigned seats, and instead of a concession stand, they had this large convenience store.  They sold (somewhat stale) popcorn, candy, and beer.  About 15 of us went and a few of them were diehard Batman fans.  I don't know the story too well, but I enjoyed the movie.  A lot of it was filmed at Wallaton Hall, the place Cooper and I visited in Nottingham.

Today was the first day of our overnight field trip to Bruge, Belgium.  The field trip is funded by a USDA grant, so everything is free for us, which is awesome.  We just got to our hotel in Brugge and have been traveling in a tour bus all day.  We first toured a facility that ferments manure and biomass to generate electricity.  They gave us coffee and cake when we got there, so that was a nice surprise.  We ate lunch at this really neat restaurant, although I had no idea what city it was in.  After lunch, we visited a manure processing facility in Antwerp.  It was one of the most disgusting, worst smelling places I had ever been.  Some people couldn't go on the tour because the smell of the ammonia was too strong.  I thought it was kind of interesting...  (Manure processing is actually a super important thing here in Belgium, and it's something America doesn't even have to worry about, but that's too much to get in to now..)

We took showers as soon as we got to Hotel Ibis in Brugges.  We all smelled like shit, literally.  We have the night to go out and explore Brugge.  The weather has been really hot and sunny, which I love.  Tomorrow we are going on a walking tour of Brugge and visiting a constructed wetland before heading back to Leuven.  We have our two midterms next week, so I am planning to study a lot this weekend.  We are just making a day trip to Ghent or Brussels, then spending the rest of the weekend working on stuff in Leuven.  

July 22-23: Cologne and back to Leuven

Yesterday (Sunday) Cherish and I took a train from Strasbourg to Cologne.  We left Strasbourg around 10 am and went directly to our hotel in Cologne, which was close to the train station.  Ashley, Rob, Andrew, and Sean weren't there yet and our room wasn't ready.  Cherish and I used the Wifi in the lobby and about 10 minutes later, the TN group came in!  To my surprise, Dorina, a Ukrainian girl who lives in our dorm, was with them.  She goes back to Ukraine today but she just wanted to see Cologne (and hang out with Sean..)  Their room was ready so we put all luggage in there and started to walk around.

First we walked to the famous Dom, near the train station.  Largest cathedral I had ever been to!  We walked around and took pictures but couldn't stay too long because it closed at 5 for mass.  After that, we went down to the Rhine riverfront and had a few drinks.  Dorina invited her friend from Cologne to join us, and he was really sarcastic and funny.  We ate dinner at a restaurant on the riverfront.  My schnitzel was delicious!  We went back to the hotel and situated everything in our rooms.  Andrew and Sean were planning to go out with Dorina that night.  Around 9, Rob, Ashley, and I walked back to the Dom to see it at night and get gelato.  Beautiful weather and totally nice riverfront.  We really had fun.

We got up early this morning and had breakfast at the hotel.  We boarded a 9:15 train to Leuven and got back around 12:30.  Rob and I took our bikes back to Velo and I exchanged mine.  (Not sure if I included this, but my bike broke on Thursday!  The light fell off, then got caught in my spokes and I fell off!  Horrible.  And it was making a funny sound because some screws fell out.)  My new bike is 1000 times more comfortable!  Now I have to finish writing my field trip report and finish my Excel file and go to the grocery store and do laundry...  Yay.

       

July 21- Europa Park!

Today we met my Swiss roommate Marina, her brother Fabio, and his girlfriend at Europa Park!  Cherish and I ate a delicious French breakfast at our hotel in Strasbourg then took a taxi to the Baggerrsee tram station.  (After difficulty finding our Holiday Inn Express last night, we didn't want to go through that again so we called a cab!)  The driver charged us 23 Euro though, because he charged for his trip to our hotel...  ridiculous!  But whatever.  We were able to get on the (only) bus going to Europa Park!  We left Strasbourg around 8:10 am.

We arrived at Europa Park just after opening, and it was crowded.  We didn't see Marina anywhere and she didn't answer when I called her cell.  Cherish and I started walking around and riding rides.  I texted Marina and told her to meet us at 11 at a EuropaMur in the Russia section.  We met up with her and Fabio and Sabrina and spent the whole day together!  Europa Park is like Disney, only newer, cleaner, and better.  They have their own version of Epcot, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, etc.  There are different areas in the park dedicated to countries in Europe, so it was really neat seeing all the country's displays.  

We had lunch at the Food Loop.  The food was brought to our table on a "rollercoaster" coming down from the ceiling.  Marina recommended a traditional Swiss dish, zurigschnatzlets.  Basically, veal in wine sauce.  So delicious!

It rained on us periodically, but the rides stayed open.  We left the park around closing and caught the last (and only) bus back to Strasbourg.  We have become experts at buying tickets at train stations, so we got everything taken care of for tomorrow.  I am so disappointed Marina isn't coming back to UT next year!  She is going to Florida International University.  I LOVE EUROPA PARK!

July 20- Strasbourg, France

This weekend we're going to Europa Park in Rust, Germany.  We're staying at the Holiday Inn Express just across the French border tonight and tomorrow night.  We left Leuven this morning around 9 am, and rode the train all day.  At least I was able to finish writing my field trip report.

We got to Strasbourg around 5 pm.  This city is extremely difficult to get around!!!  They had maps on kiosks outside, but everything was in French and they were not good maps.  We eventually found our way to Le Petite France, the area I wanted to see.  It was really neat -- old buildings lining the canals, etc.  It was getting close to 7 pm, so we decided it was time to find our hotel.  The hotel emailed me directions on how to get there via the tram, and then bus.  (So, not exactly in Strasbourg...)  It took us a long time to actually find a bus stop... 

We followed the bus instructions carefully, however we missed the stop "Elise" that we were supposed to get off on.  Apparently you had to punch a button for the tram to stop.  Thankfully I saw it as we passed, then ran up to the bus driver.  He graciously stopped in the middle of the road and let us off on the spot.  We walked back to the Elise bus stop.  There was nothing in the area except a few car dealerships, and they were closed.  There is a nice bike path and cars at the intersection, but nobody else around.  Definitely did not look like a Holiday Inn Express area...  Our directions said to walk 500 m up from the bus stop to the hotel.  But, we had no idea which direction to go.  We started walking along a bike path, found some sort of school, then saw this guy and his wife and kids going in to their apartment building.  We decided to ask him.  He spoke very broken English and didn't know the area well, but he was helpful.  His wife had to call her father who told us where our hotel was.  We had to continue walking about 0.25 miles, and then we'd see it. 

Sure enough, around 8:30 now, we see the Holiday Inn Express sign!  So happy.  The hotel is super nice.  I got this delicious bruscetta dinner from the restaurant downstairs.  To get to Europa Park tomorrow, we're calling a taxi!