An Exchange Student in Belgium

So In Belgium I have noticed that there is an abundance of churches. There is at least one in every town. There are also these tiny little worshiping buildings that you can go to. All that is inside is usually 3 chairs, a cross, and candles you can light for 25 cents. These buildings are only big enough to fit 3 people at the most. Here is one near my second host families house.

I discovered it with my other exchange student friend, Laura. We continued on our walk when we got to the town’s church. We saw this fence that was open around the back so we walked inside. Before walking in, I knew it was going to be some sort of graveyard but what we found was so unexpected. There were stairs that led up to this small worship area, and stairs that lead down to this beautiful stone archetecture. We took the stairs down and when we reached the bottom, I first noticed the flowers. On November 1st, everyone in Belgium goes to lay flowers on the graves of loved ones and spends the day remembering their lives. So after a second of thinking I realize that the flowers that we were surrounded in had to be laying on graves. So I looked down and I was right. We were standing on people’s graves. Now these were built in to this stone so it was flat and if I had not known, I would have thought we were walking on a stone floor.

So we continued on, looking at all the graves, checking the dates (Oldest one was buried in 1889) and all of these were above ground caskets. The creepy part was that they were falling apart because of their age. After awhile we came upon this other building in the middle of all of this. I thought it would be locked but I tried the door anyway and it opened. We walked in and immediately there were steps leading down to this extremely dark hallway. Of course both of us were scared so we peeked down to see if we could see anythign and all we saw was this single glowing candle. We were very creaped out but I was the first to start walking down. Once we got down there we could see this light at the end of the hallway from a window but where we were we were surrounded by complete darkness. I pulled out my camera and took a flash photo and when the flash went, all we saw were boxes on the wall and lots and lots of flowers. I then pulled out my phone and used it as our flashlight. We then realized we were standing in this crypt type thing. Needless to say we were both freaking out. But we started walking and looking at all the names. We walked to the light at the end of the hallway and saw that there were empty ones for future generations. 

I’m not sure if we were supposed to be in there but it was definitely worth rising it!

So I will be updating this blog every Tuesday and Thursday. If something big happens I’ll update it separately :)

Champagne, France

I took a 2 day trip to Champagne with a man from my Rotary and his family and had the best time. We stayed at his mother’s house that was really an old, traditional farm that had been transformed into a home. She cooked us amazing, homemade, french cuisine and they took me on a driving tour of the area. I got to see an old WW1 bunker, overlook the many vineyards while eating grapes off the vine, and drink some amazing champagne. It was so gorgeous there.

(Source: exchangebucketlist, via myadventuresinitaly)

Some other amazing memories from Paris

The Louvre and Notre Dame

Visiting the Eiffel Tower during the day and night.

Château de Versailles in Paris, France

Friday October 27th through the 29th, I had my first Rotary trip to Paris and it was absolutely amazing! I love Pais so much! I’m going to go more in depth about it later. Then, on October 30th, my host family took me to a circus at the top of the citadel de Namur and I got to pet a baby lion! The next day was my 17th birthday and my family surprised me with a small party including champaign, flowers, cake, and Titanic in french. November 3rd and 4th I was in Champagne France with a member of my Rotary club and his family. We drove 3 1/2 hours and stayed with their grand mother in her traditional farm house. She cooked us traditional french cuisine and I got to go on a tour of the area. I ate grapes straight from the vine and saw a World War I bunker. So I’ve been super busy and I’ll start updating more often!

So I leave for Paris, France in 2 days! It’s the first of my 3 BRESA trips I will be taking.