Hallo!!!!!!!!

This post is titled Hallo!!!!!!!! not because I'm spelling hello wrong but because hallo is hello in Flemish!
Belgium was tons of fun... but I guess I'll start with the day before I went...
Liz, Lisa, Rosario (Chile) and I went to an elementary school to do an activity that we knew hardly anything about. turned out we were doing activities with some elementary school kids there to help them learn about countries and international things. First we did an activity where we painted apples and grapes in two "country" teams, and then had to cut them out adn put equal numbers in a basket-- like an agreement between countries at an international meeting. The kids were wild and got covered in paint, but it was fun.
Afterwards they had to ask us questions about us--where we were from, our names, what language we speak, our age, typical things from our countries, etc. there was a lot of energy and little question asking, but oh well. they were 7-10 years old... small attention span. overall it was fun--I like working with kids, even when they are a bit out of control. Afterwards we were all quite exhausted... went home and packed.
Wednesday I woke up early and took a taxi to the airport... arrived with plenty of time. My flight was fine, but they didn't give us anything for free. not even water. So after my apple and banana breakfast, I didn't eat anything until dinner. I arrived a bit delayed in Belgium, and met Vreni. It was so great to see her again! A bit strange in the foreign context, but really cool. That afternoon we walked around her town, bought some belgian chocolate, and i kept talking and talking about all the differences I saw. Everything made out of brick! People didn't yell! (that was nice!) We ate dinner at six! Don't use olive oil! And... everything was in Flemish, which was quite cool. I really liked hearing a germanic language--so different from latin languages.
The next day we went to Gent, a really cool old city, with 59 catholic churches! wow. After some confusion in finding a bus, we finally got there, and stopped in a café for lunch--croque monsieurs yum. I also ordered hot chocolate, which was not just a cup of hot chocolate... it was a cup of hot chocolate with chocolate chips, a chocolate egg, a little pot of whipped cream, a thing with cream, and sugar. wow. awesome.
Afterwards we went to see a really cool castle and then took a boat tour on the canal, which was awesome (narrated in english, french, flemish and german). Gent has a cool history!
I bought a postcard and we got some ice cream, then went to see a church and a famous van Eyck painting--the adoration of the lamb. It was pretty cool--we got free headphones that gave us lots of info about every panel. The church was pretty, too.
Friday was a shopping day--went with Vreni and her cousin Lien to Antwerp, where we walked down a long shopping street, stopping in stores when we wanted to. When the stores started repeating themselves, we turned around.... hehe. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun anyways.
Saturday was Brussels day! We took the trian in, as usual, and started off the day with a tour bus ride. But it was cold and the headphones didn't work to well and the bus got stuck in traffic, so we got off. I got a couple good pictures though.
For lunch we went to a Thai restaurant, and I got pad thai, of course. soo good.
After having eaten and gotten warm, we walked around more and went to see the grand place, which was really cool. Basically it's a big square with pretty building around it, including one built by an architect who got it wrong (the door was off center), so he committed suicide. yikes.
Saw an essential site--Mannekin pis--a statue of a little boy peeing. it's quite rediculous. but they put it on all the tourist souvenirs and everything--so funny. They also dress him up in costumes--when we went he was wearing a diving suit!
The streets in Brussels were really pretty--lots of chocolate shops! We saw a mall type place full of chocolate shops that led to another awesome street that I think was called "rue de bouchée," where we saw a lot of touristy restaurants--it was really pretty!
After looking around at a market thing we took the train back and ate dinner... at 6! woo. went to visit vreni's grandparents; it was her grandmother's birthday, so we had champagne, I talked a bit of french with them, and we tried to decipher an italian game show that was on. Afterwards Vreni and I watched shark tale--in english, with flemish subtitles.
Sunday was easter--I had a wonderful chocolaty breakfast, and then we stayed home playing games and cards, which was nice. had tiny little birds for easter lunch, and of course chocolate. After lunch we drove to the airport and I got on a plane full of french-speaking teenagers. Surprisingly, even though I didn't speak much french during my visit to Belgium, I think my french improved while I was there. I came back wanting to speak french! It was cool to see everything in french, though I have to say it was weird not seeing or hearing any portuguese.
Anyways... just one last thing. As the plane was taking off I looked out the window and saw what looked like hundreds of little rabbits jumping around in the grass by the runway! It was an awesome easter present.
Got back to Lisbon, where it was raining.
And well I've got to go to bed now but I'll write more later! and I'll hopefully put up pictures sometime... maybe before next december.... hehe
tchau!