well this is going to be short cuz im wiped out. hopefully it'll be legible. :) yesterday we did this Brussels Exercise where we were given this assignment and bascially had to go out and answer a BILLION questions about belgium and culture and all this stuff. it was lots of fun and we learned SO much! i could say a lot more about it but i just don't have the time now....Today, my service team (Liz (our mentor) Vitaliy, Marissa, Shannon, Abbey, and Jenni) went and worshipped at the Korean church we are working with. It was a great experience! Everything was in Korean but we had translations for everything except the singing. Most of the songs we didn't know but we did sing "My Jesus i love thee" and it was really cool cuz we had the english words which we sang while they sand in Korean. After that, they had croissants and pastries and boiled eggs and we meet some of the people there. Funny story: they had coffee and tea and so i got some coffee. Well they had a little container with sugar cubes in it and then a bowl with what looked like sugar. So, i tried to get some sugar cubes out but was having a hard time doing that with a spoon so i thought, oh i'll just get some of the loose regular kind! by the time i was putting the second spoon in I realized "oh you know what? this quite possibly be salt! oh no!" so I cautiously took a sip and well...let's just say it was NASTY! yeah. it was most definitely salt. gross. anyway, after a little snack me and shannon went up to the youth room and meet the some of the high schoolers and just hung out and talked and asked them all about themselves and belgium and such stuff. after that we all went out for lunch to this Thai food place. i got a delicious fried noodles and beef dish! it was so yummy! especially considering the facts that 1: it was 3:30 and 2: all i had eaten was some croissants and an egg. Then some of us decided to walk around Brussels a little and pop into a few shops. i treated myself to some gelato. :) yummm. i still have yet to get myself a waffle but i did take a bite of someone's and it was amazing! but anyway, i wanted to share a few things i've learned mostly just about belgians and the culture. (these are mostly from observing people and talking to people) let's make it fun and have a list..
1: belgium is most strongly racially divided in the french population and flemish (or dutch) population. there's SO much history behind the reasons for that but basically you are french or dutch (if you're a true belgian) and you hate the other side.
2: brussels is also hugely inhabited by internationals!
3: a huge attraction is a 2ish feet tall statue of a little boy peeing. no joke.
4: chocolate. yum. there are AT LEAST 2 chocolate shop on every block!
5. they have a pub, Delirium, that held the record in 2004 for the biggest selection of beer at one place. around 2500 different kinds!!
6: dogs aren't on leashes very much here (which means they are very well trained) and tons of people have them!
7: the political situation is so screwed up and ridiculous that most people just stopped caring.
8: most people here speak at least 2 languages... french or flemish (dutch) and then english and sometimes german and other languages!
9: the public transportation is a NIGTHMARE to figure out but i think after you get it figured out it would be ok.
10. the legal age to drink is 16 which means that kids my age regularly go to the bars and pubs and have a beer. and even kids who are like 13 go too! it's crazy.
ok i think i'll stop at 10. that's a good number. hopefully i didn't bore you out of your mind! thanks for reading! check out my facebook pics for stuff i talked about in the blog :) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4778924&l=f69a7032f3&id=642339687
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