Week 4: 1/2 way there!! (but sung like Bon Jovi)

So as some may know, last week I posted early because I was going on a weekend trip with the other interns to Brussels! It was a lovely weekend and we made a new friend! He's from Scotland and got stood up by his friend from Germany who was supposed to meet him there. So we hung out with him over the weekend.

Here's a picture of all of us (Left to Right) Jakob, James Aspden, Amanda, Kevin, Haley

 We quite by accident ended up in Leuven for our Airbnb which we thought was in Brussels, however it was 1/2 an hour away by train, like how I stayed in Paris last time but was actually in Croissy-sur-Seine. Still Paris, just not actually Paris. Anywho, we ended up liking Leuven so much more than Brussels. It was gorgeous!!

View from the Gelato Shop we went to the first

Banana+White Chocolate Biscoff Gelato= Absolute Heaven

The Atomonium: A giant Atom that reminded me of the Space Needle

Flowers!

Museum of the Extreme East

Museum of the Extreme East

Hanging out in the Gardens

The train back 

Le Pain Quotidien for Breakfast

Voilà, the dish... le pain quotidien

The closed Cathedral

The Library of Leuven destoryed during both world wars and rebuilt with the help of the US and European countries

Views from the top of the Library

Staircase up to the Clock/Bell tower

The road we traveled

After the holiday on Monday, it was back to work. This week's work was furiously finishing all of the bulletins (Progress Reborts) so that they could be sent out to the students' parents. Which I actually found to be quite interesting because in the US at a university level parents aren't "allowed" to know their student's grades. Meaning that due to privacy laws grades are between the university and the student. The student can choose to share their grades with whomever they like but the university isn't supposed to without the permission of the student. Doing the progress reports reminded alot of High School. Where the school would send out them out by mail or email to the parents. Anyways after finishing up mailing all of the bulletins, I put all of the students reports in their student file. I also met with 2 students to help them with their English. It was an interesting experience, and one I hope to get better at, it gave me insight into how my french must sound to actual french speakers when I'm talking about abstract ideas. Usually very intelligible but with just enough grammatical errors and times where it makes absolutely no sense to show that I'm not fluent. I also participated in the filming of a video for the new students for License 1 International Economics. So that was entertaining.

We got invited to visit Tournai, Belgium by the Dean, Didier Van Peteghem. We went with him and his extended family to Tournai for a small visit and went to a bar and got drinks with them. I had a lovely apple/cherry soda and Jakob had Fritz Kola. Amanda got sick suddenly so Kevin and her weren't able to make it. Then we went back to his house and had strawberries with chocolate pear cake. It was very good and we of course didn't make it back to the apartments til midnight, since everything happens so late here.

Our Group

I also went to IKEA which is even more legit here than it is back in the states.

Then today, I had the opportunity to eat at a member's house. Her kids were so adorable! We played all sorts of games together and little kids who speak french are just soooo cute. It was a good exercise for me because sometimes its hard to understand kids, but even more so when they're speaking your second language. It was still so adorable! Today was also Fête des mères (Mother's Day) so I got a lovely flower from the ward.

Anywho, the week was "bien passé" and I'm excited to see what the next half brings for me:) À Plus!