Sabbaths 1 and 2

Sunday morning dawned bright and early for me (as always) at 7:30am. I had hoped to get pictures of the market in Place Flagey and pick up more bread before everyone else woke up, and since my alarm went off then, what better time?

The market, though it technically opened at 7:00, was still in the process of being set up. European time is much slower than American, I've found. That's true many other places as well. In any case, this is what the market looked like mid-setup on Sunday morning.



Since the bakery carts were not up and running yet, I decided to take a walk around the two lakes--les Étangs d'Ixelles--near Place Flagey. Along the way, I discovered a park tucked away between apartment buildings and the Abbaye at the very end of the second lake. It was a really cloudy day and my camera has issues with minimal light, so some of the pictures where I (being so short) had to point upward didn't turn out as well as I hoped. Maybe I'll go back on a sunny day to correct that.


The rest of Sunday went as follows: sleep, read, sleep, sleep, Facebook, sleep, dinner, sleep. It was by far the laziest day I've had in a while. I guess we needed it after a tiring first week.

Monday is the equivalent of Belgium's "Sabbath." Nothing is open except restaurants and grocery stores. All museums are closed and traveling to another city would be pointless since they have the same rules as Brussels about store hours.

Class today was incredibly interesting. We had a seminar with radio-tv journalist Stijn Aelbers about Belgium. Stijn talked extensively about the divide of Belgium and how Brussels is technically the capital of Flanders (and entirely surrounded by Flemish country) but is itself majority French. He even delved into the history of Belgium and how it has been owned time and time again by nearly every European country at some point. Rather interesting since this not only gives the Belgian people a certain distain for politics but also makes it an ideal seat for any political institution. Belgium, particularly Brussels, is wholly secular and moderate, not prone to political bantering on its own grounds despite a long standing disagreement between the French and Flemish.

This seems incredibly foreign to us Americans, which of course it is, but personally makes this small country more endearing. They're not compromisers, but in their own way, they do it all the time. A little power donation here, a little power acquisition here, just to keep everything in balance so no one is upset. Nothing is in proportion; everything is equal. I feel that in nearly any other country, the imbalance of representation (lack of proportion) would incite dissidence and ultimately uproar from the people. But Belgium? They don't care. I like this lazy country. And what better day to learn about a near apathetic country than on a near apathetic Monday?

After class we rode downtown via metro looking for something to do. We didn't come up with much, but I did find a "rain" coat! It's not exactly rain resistant, but it's thicker than any other jacket I have, cheaper than the one I'd found in Zara before--where my card wouldn't work, and easy to wear around without drawing a lot of attention. I must say, it's quite European. Thank you H&M for changing up your product lines from country to country.

Just as we were about to give up and go back home, mostly because we couldn't find anything to do but partly because of the rain, we spied a movie theatre across the street. Yes. That's right. We went to watch a movie in downtown Brussels.

In fact, we went to see Angels and Demons. I was pretty excited because I'd just finished the book the week before I left and hadn't had time to see the movie yet. Whether this was a lucky break or not, the film was in English with French and Flemish subtitles (yes, both).

The first 5-7 minutes of the movie were language overload. My brain started to hurt after a while of it. Sometimes they were speaking French, sometimes English, sometimes Italian, and all the while with French and Flemish subtitles, that I couldn't tear my eyes off of. To make things more difficult, it was all coming at once and very, very quickly. For those who've seen the movie, it's the opening scene in the laboratory and all the scientists are speaking together in overlap. Eventually that slowed down to just English with Italian every now and then, Latin from time to time, and Swiss German--the last three of which, I had to read the French subtitles to know what was going on. Translating is tiring, and that was so much in so short a time frame.

Now we're working on booking our train tickets and hostel reservations for London this weekend! We're looking at a trip to Bruges after class on Wednesday, and we're going to start planning for Amsterdam next weekend as well. NATO tomorrow and Bellevue museum on Thursday. All together, nonstop fun.