Bruxelles, Anvers, Bruges (Brussels, Antwerp, Brugge)

So I just got back from a long weekend in Belgium, and I thought I'd write this before I forget everything. I left Saturday morning from Paris at 725am with Sandra, Li Jun, and Robin and, after a small metro mix-up in Brussels, we arrived at our hostel around 1015am to discover that it was beautiful, complete with a balcony, leather couch and television, and full kitchen (at 30E a night). This was not necessarily a good thing, because we were so exausted and so comfortable in the room that it was hard to leave.

But we went out and explored a bit of Brussels. The metro is fantastic there, because they never check your ticket, so you just buy one and never stamp it and you can ride the metro indefinitely. We walked around the downtown area a bit and bought some waffles and went to the music museum, which was definitely the best museum I've been to so far. You walk around with magical headphones and when you stand in front of an exhibit of musical instruments, you can hear them being played. The building was beautiful on the outside and magnificently laid out on the inside. Sadly, my camera battery died, so if you look at the pictures of Belgium, they stop there.

Saturday night we went to what we thought was Delirium, a famous pub that boasts more than 300 different beers on tap. We were, however, disappointed at the seemingly small size and boring crowd. It turns out that there is more than one Delirium in Brussels, and we had gone to the small pub version. Li Jun and I wandered around Sunday night and accidentally discovered the real Delirium tap room, which was packed with people and did indeed have an absurd amount of beer on tap. Across the street was an absinthe bar (about 100 different types of absinthe) which was part of the same company, so we went there and tried a couple types of absinthe too. If you didn't already know, absinthe doesn't really do anything different from normal hard liquor except make your throat feel really really really warm.

Sunday during the day we went to Anvers, which didn't have anything particularly notable, except that every building was really beautiful in a middle age-y kind of way. We went to the printing museum there and saw some illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages and 2 of the oldest printing presses in the world.

This morning we took a train to Bruges, which is famous for it's middle ages architecture and beautiful canals. Bruges also hosts a chocolate museum, which was inevitably disappointing. I say inevitable because I was expecting greatness, but it was basically a giant advertisement for one of the biggest Belgian chocolate companies, Belcolade. And the history of chocolate is really depressing (i.e. a large aspect was the slave trade-- when cocoa beans were used as currency, people were traded for beans, then were used to harvest beans that would then be traded for people...)

Aside from that disappointment, it was a very fun weekend filled with waffles, fries, chocolate, and the biggest meringue i've ever seen, and eaten.

Also, this is what Flemish is like: Uw biljet is alleen geldig in de trein waarvoor u heeft gereserveerd (This ticket is only valid in the train where you have a reservation).

Les Cours et Le Coeur

The biggest change that's happened since I last wrote is that I've finally started classes. My schedule's really weird-- I'm taking 3 courses right now, but one of them is pharmacochemistry, which meets from 130-445 on Tuesday and 9am-445 on Wednesday. In fact, it's really the only course that is meeting regularly, as it is at Paris 6: UPMC (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), where professors are "en grève," but still working. I'm also taking a French Literature course on Freud-- yes, Freud was German (I think) but the author we're reading wrote novels that have something to do with Freudian psychoanalysis-- I don't really know yet because I haven't had class.

At Paris 8: Université St. Denis, which is in the banlieue (suburbs), the professors are very much following the grève, though they were in class to welcome us and explain the reasons for it. Basically, the government wants to split research and teaching such that professors can really only do one at a time, in addition to reducing payed internships for graduate students and promoting financial independence of the universities. I'm actually quite glad the grève is happening, because the professor of my History of Gender course (the last of the three) asked us what we wanted to study that was relevant to the current French political situation, so we're going to discuss the basis of democracy and why it is so important for people to be active. There are manifestations (protests) every day, and a lot of educational programs like movies and debates themed around the grève. I never realized how much work it was to go on strike (Alex... I don't even know what to say... I'll send you a postcard?).

As for the coeur half of the title, I went and visited the Sacre-Coeur, in addition to Chartres and some other fantastic adventurous places. I've posted as many photos as possible on facebook, because they tend to take a long time to load on to this thing, and I'm really bad with computers...

Upcoming stuff: I'm going to Brussels next weekend! I've booked my tickets and made hostel reservations!

I spoke to someone on the phone today about tutoring English to a 9-year-old, but the job is 10 hours a week, which would mean a lot of money but a lot of time. We'll see.

Oh, and if you didn't already know, if you write to me, I will write you back.

My address:
Max Mathias
Brown Program in France
27 Rue Mayet
Paris, IDF 75006
France

This has a really corny ending.

1. I discovered today that the bookshelf above my bed has some books that are nearly 300 years old on it. Among them are a 1st edition Jules Verne (not quite as old) and some other French authors. I plan on inspecting more carefully when I have the time.

2. I can cook! I learned how to make pasta (i.e. boil water, put pasta in boiling water), so I had my first non-cereal, non-sandwich meal in about a week last night. Tonight, Sara and Tanya (two kids in the Brown program) came over and I made the same dish (pasta, with deli chicken, tomato sauce, and bell peppers). They brought wine and fondue supplies. We had a fantastic dinner and a very fun stain-fighting adventure with Clara's tablecloth afterwards.

3. I've been talking more with Clara, though one time I was interrupted by the deputy mayor of the 9th arrondissement, who I guess is a good friend. She also told me today that she dated Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a French politician who might one day run for president (read here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Strauss-Kahn). Clara, being the kind-hearted caring person she is, had told him to get surgery on his face because "let's be honest, politics is about looks too." We had a pretty intense discussion about religion-- the French are all about secularness (laïcité), though she seems to have a thing for Jews-- she told me they're smarter than everyone else.

4. I just returned from a night out at Queen, a famous club that's gay on Sunday nights only. It's on the Champs-Elysées, which means it was a 15E cover and then 5E for coat check, but I've been dying to go out to an all-night club and it was definitely worth the pay. I met up with a friend I met through Chris named Isain, who's here from California, and two of his friends (girls). I met a couple of nice frenchies at the club, but I was determined to find my way home alone, on the Noctilien (the night bus, or the knight bus, if you're a big nerd), which is the only means of transportation after 1am.


So it was that I found myself alone, walking down the Champs-Elysées at 4am, looking back at the Arc de Triomphe through the lightly falling snow, wishing I could share the moment with all of you.