John, Ruby, Martha and I in front of the
 Spanish Embassy in Brussels

Blushing Brussels

I am a free woman! My semester has ended, exams are concluded, yet I have not yet been freed of my mother’s charge to share my escapades—part 1 of many…

            

EU Parlament Building

          Rewinding back to March, three other students and I traveled to Brussels, Belgium in March right after midterms week, which for me signified that I had been living off of coffee and late-night/early-morning studying sessions for the past week and entered the plane semi-delirious. Being that we were a group of 2 economics and 2 poli-sci majors, we dubbed the trip “nerdherd,” with our goal of taking a selfie with Angela Merkel during the EU Summit that was to happen during that weekend. Also with significance to 2 members of the group, Beyoncé was to sing in Antwerp as well, so Ruby deemed the trip’s hashtag as “Antwerk” (sorry if you do not understand the cultural reference).

            

First waffle stop of 3...love Ruby's face

          The first night in our hostel was very “special.” Somehow our private 4 person room ended up with a French girl snoring on a bed, which meant that Martha and I would be spending a night in which our friendship would grow very close. After touring the EU and its interactive museum of the European Parliament, the “Parlamentarium,” we stuffed ourselves with waffles and chocolate near the peeing baby statute (it is quite pathetic actually, the boutique chocolate shops captured my attention better). My goal, in which I was successful, was to enter the shops appearing as if I was going to make a purchase and try the free chocolate samples—to be fair, I did buy a fair amount of truffles. After eating my third waffle, one of which was towering with whipped cream and strawberries, I have no desire to eat another for at least four more months.

              

"The Tourists"

            I encountered a brochure for an exposition of “The American Dream,” a set of wax statues by Duane Hansen, which were uncannily realistic. They represented every negative effect of this phenomenon placed in the 1908s (just think of the fashion implications…), all of which were true. My three favorites were: 1) an obese African-American woman named “Queenie,” who was a cleaning lady in a teal suit with a garbage can, 2) an obese white male on a John Deere tractor with a Coca-Cola can in his hand, and 3) a tourist couple in their 60s, yes, that means varicose veins, Birkenstock’s, Hawaiian shirts, and my favorite characteristic: fanny pack and visor. We all felt quite eerie because everything was so real that it should have been moving.

           

            Brussels was the country of surprises for our group, two of which are the most notable. Walking through the city (we had to have walked at least 11 miles each day, without exaggeration), we encountered a herd of bicycles, and being that we attend a university in a very ecological city, it was not a great surprise to us…until we heard music blaring at such a volume that it must have broken at least 3 city codes. We came to find out that a “famous” band called Pang, was filming a music video, and I would assume that we accidently made an appearance.

Martha, John, Ruby and I at the pa

The second surprise happened when we were in the tallest ball of the Atomium (symbol of Brussels, atom-like structure). I saw a crowd of at least 400/500 people packed together with an awesome DJ pumping the music, and I insisted we check it out. Turns out that there was a soccer victory, and to celebrate, everyone was drinking beer and dancing at 3 pm. While asking a guy to take a picture of us, he gives me a condition: picture for a kiss…so he left with a cheek red from my lipstick, and I left with two cheeks red from blushing.