Hello again friends,

This past week was possibly the longest yet. It had it's ups and downs like every other week, only on a more extreme level. It all started with my ride back from Leuven after my wonderful weekend in Amsterdam.

As I briefly mentioned in my previous entry, there was a tragedy in Belgium earlier this week. On Monday morning a train traveling from Leuven collided with a train traveling towards Leige. The accident took the lives of at least 17 passengers and one of the drivers. I left Leuven at 11 o'clock that morning, the accident occurred at around 8. This is the worst tragedy involving the railroad in Belgian history, and it's all over the news here. The disaster has caused commuters to be inconvenienced in more ways than simply delaying trains on that particular line. Following the incident, several Belgian train drivers went on strike in hopes of being promised better working conditions in terms of updated brake systems and safety measures. I experienced the repercussions from this first hand, but I'll get to that in a moment. A week after the accident the wreckage has yet to be removed from the crash site and the investigation is moving at a stagnating pace. Trains seem to be running on schedule for the most part so I can only assume most of the drivers have returned to work.

So really quick I gotta flash back to before my trip to Amsterdam, my friend Courtney mentioned that there was this big carnival for Mardi Gras here in Belgium. It takes place in the city of Binche (pronounced "Banch") and is supposed to be one of the top 10 events to attend in the country. I would have to miss my Tuesday French class but I figured it would be worth it, so when the day came I decided to go! I asked some people how much the trip would cost and how long it would take, and I was informed that it was about 10 euro round-trip and it would take just over an hour to get there. This was of course, too good to be true.

Courtney and I met in the Brussels-Midi train station and found ourselves lost trying to find where we could buy our tickets and catch our train. None of the listings on digital screens that list all the outgoing trains and times involved a train to Binche. Eventually someone pointed us in the right direction to buy our "Go Pass" (50 euro for 10 rides at 5 euro each to anywhere in Belgium). We bought our pass and asked where we could catch a ride to the carnival city. We were about to experience the frustration caused by the recent accident, and we had no idea what we were in for. The gentleman that sold us our tickets informed us that we would need to catch a train to Charleroi station and transfer from there onto another train to Binche. Simple enough, in theory. We met up with the third member of our party, Tori, waited for our train, hopped on it and met some other students from VeCo who came to Brussels together with a group through a program (I came through ISEP, these guys came through some other one). They have a director that plans trips like these for them and accompanies them, so we figured it would be a good idea to stick together. We thought wrong.

When we finally arrived at Charleroi, one hour later, we followed the group and their director to catch another train, only not one to Binche, but to another station where we would supposedly finally be able to transfer onto a direct train to the city. We would learn later in the evening that this "director" had no idea which direction she was leading us in. Evidently there were easier ways of getting to Binche that day. After waiting about forty minutes for this train to come, we boarded and patiently waited to arrive at our destination. This ride was shorter but still took about another half hour. Once we reached this station, we hopped off the train and were greeted by a man who in no way appeared to represent the train company, but told us that if we were trying to get to Binche, the only way to get there was to wait for the next bus to come and take us in 50 minutes. Our patience was thinning, but we had come too far to give up. After all, the bus ride would only take a half hour according to this mystery man, so in less than 2 hours we would be there.

Eventually our chariot arrived to take us to the promised land! But what would such a glorious moment in our rotten misadventure be without a catch? The bus driver would not accept our train tickets as passage to the city. Why should he?! Before Courtney could jump on the bus and physically beat the driver's head into the steering wheel, the director of the group we were tagging along with paid for herself and her group, which we cleverly blended in with as we boarded the vehicle. We were on our way! In on short half hour we would be in party city, enjoying the parade, having oranges thrown at us, and drinking that famous Belgian beer! One hour later, we were just getting off the bus and people were walking away from the city center, oranges in hand.

We had arrived at Midi station earlier in the day at 1:30 p.m. to catch a 2:00 p.m. train that would put us in Binche by 3:00 p.m. It was now 6:45 p.m. and it appeared we had missed the entire festival. We walked towards the center of the city against the flow of traffic to gaze at the remnants of the festivities and see if there was anything else to do before the fireworks. To our delight, we hadn't missed all of the parade! We were lucky enough to catch a few smaller groups of Binche natives marching in the street with their extravagant costumes and baskets full of blood oranges (little oranges the size of clementines with a crimson tint on the skin). Tori, who thoroughly enjoys partying (a little too much in this case), decided it was high time she "get her drink on" since we had finally arrived. Courtney and I were a little more hesitant since we still had no idea how we were getting home so we decided to wait until we knew for sure that we wouldn't be spending the night in Binche.

The three of us eventually ran into some VeCo kids from yet ANOTHER program who had been in Binche all day. They had chartered a bus to get them there and back, and we asked if there was anyway we could hitch a ride home as we had no idea how we would make it back otherwise. They made a quick phone call to their much more competent director and told us it was no problem at all. The night was looking up, and with a ride home we felt safe enough to have a few brewskis and enjoy the rest of the carnival. Unfortunately for Courtney and myself, Tori was well ahead of us in the drinking department and had no intentions of slowing down once we joined in.

To make an even longer story shorter, the three of us ended up getting split up, finding each other again, but separated from the group we were supposed to get home with. This sounds highly irresponsible on our part, and in retrospect it's easy to say that it was, however Binche on Tuesday night, February 16, the biggest and most celebrated night of a four day carnival was extremely difficult to navigate around. The streets were stuffed with drunk people like sardines in a crushed tin box (thanks for the analogy Radiohead), people are dressed up and hard to recognize, and it's almost impossible to stand still for even a minute. At this point it was getting late and Courtney and I were panicking, trying frantically to locate and reunite with our buddies and only ride home. It was during this time period that my phone magically disappeared from my pocket, and Tori magically disappeared from our sight.

In the first case, I believe I was finally a victim of the pickpocketing I had been warned about so many times. My phone was in my front pocket but it was big enough that it could be plucked from within it and small enough that I wouldn't feel it right away if it was. In Tori's case, I'm pretty sure she didn't want to come home that night. She was not concerned with finding our ride back at all and was drinking far past her limit. Courtney received a cryptic text message from one of her friends in the group we were riding home with that contained only a street name and instructions to meet at a gas station on said street. We roamed around the area showing people the message and asking them if they could point us to the street and eventually we found it! We got to the gas station and called Tori numerous times trying to get her to come meet us, we texted her the street name, and continued to call her until she stopped answering. Tori was spending the night in Binche.

Finally kids from the group started to show up at the gas station. We bought some frites at a fritterie right next door, sat on the curb and watched the fire works while we waited for the bus to arrive. I was filled with a strange feeling of relief and discontent as I watched the beautiful exploding rockets blossom in the night sky over the city of Binche. My gut wrenched as my eyes widened during the spectacular finale. We all boarded the bus when it arrived and I tried to come to terms with the fact that my phone was gone and our friend was on her own in an unfamiliar city. I was frustrated with myself, with Tori and with people in general, but I was happy to be on my way home.

We all made it back in one piece, and in the morning we heard from Tori who had eventually made her way back to her apartment and met up with Courtney there. I can't say the night was a total loss, I did enjoy the carnival when we were able to leisurely watch the parade, and the fireworks were great. Luckily, my week was about to turn around!

On Thursday evening there was a bonfire on the French part of my campus hosted by members of Couchsurfing.org. For those of you unfamiliar with the idea of couch surfing, people offer their couches/guest beds to travelers around the world who are registered with the website. It all works on a vouching system, in which other account holders will vouch for you with some kind (or not so kind) remarks, making you a more credible candidate to "surf" with. The people who attended the event were very friendly and very laid back, and since it was so close to my house I could stay as late as I wanted! I met some cool Dutch kids who I talked with for a long time about my experience abroad and American culture and such. It was a really relaxing and enjoyable experience.

At one point in the night, one of the girls at the bonfire interrupted our conversation to inform us, rather enthusiastically, that there was a "dubstep" concert going on at KKs right next door. Entry was only 4 euro and I was told that I should definitely attend if I'd never even heard of the genre before. I did and it was totally worth it. The music was incredible and the people in the bar were awesome. I did lots of dancing and got a few free drinks from various members of the bonfire event. When I was too tired to continue bouncing about, I made my way home and passed out. The night was a great success and I felt 100% better after the nightmare in Binche.

Friday Toni came to visit me in Brussels, we met in the city center and found this free map store we've been wanting to see for a while. We got some free maps made by local youngsters for a few different cities including Brussels. After the map store we walked around trying to decide what we wanted to do next and stumbled across a tattoo and piercing shop Toni had researched online. She has been thinking about piercing her nose for a while and when we found the place we decided to go in and check out the prices. The shop was so affordable that Toni decided (maybe with a little peer pressure from me) to go through with it right then and there! I held her hand as I watched this very pierced woman stick a long metal rod through her nose, it was brutal and awesome! Toni was a trooper and she didn't even cry or yelp. She may have squeezed my hand a little and teared up a bit, but other than that she was super brave, way more than I would have been. The piercing looks awesome, you can see it in some of the pictures for this entry.

After Toni had her nostril punctured, we decided to check out the Musical Instruments Museum, which was also affordable and fun! They give you headphones so you can walk from station to station listening to the various instruments, it's pretty cool. I took lots of pictures of all the instruments and took my time enjoying each station's tunes. After the museum we used our new Brussels map to find some tasty food to eat, we ended up finding a street with a whole strip of Kebab shops and ate at one of them. I got this wrap thing filled with beef, lettuce, onions, sauce and my favorite... FRIIIIITS!!! Freakin' delicious.

At night the VSG hosted a Beer Pong competition to promote the release of the Vesalius Student Vernacular which is published and edited by two of my friends here at VeCo. I've been asked to write an article for the next issue which I'm very excited about and I'll have more details on later. The competition was a lot of fun but the Europeans really have NO idea how the game is played. They kept changing rules throughout the night, and we weren't even playing with regulation "Solo" cups, they were Mickey Mouse and Winny the Poo cups, which were the closest thing they could find to the real thing. None of this stopped me from winning the only round I participated in for my team (I'm so BA). Another successful day and night made my nightmare earlier in the week seem all too distant. 

I spent the rest of the weekend in Leuven relaxing and enjoying the oddly nice weather with Toni. It was a well needed rejuvenation period before getting back to the grind. This week is going to be long and filled with lots of schoolwork as I have papers to write and midterms coming up next week. That should give you some time to read this giant entry though... I'm really sorry they're always so long but I wanna document these things. 

Anyways, the homesickness is kicking in! I miss everyone terribly as always... your postcards are coming soon!

Until next time everyone

P.S.

Check out this article to understand just how awesome Belgian frits are: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-02-22-belgium-fries_N.htm   It was on my google news feed this morning haha

P.P.S.

I'm with Coco