The Underground World of Belgium

Last night we had a Texas style barbeque at the student house. Vincent (our RA), Jaime, and Chris went to the grocery store to buy all the supplies while the majority of the students and the professors were at the movies watching Inception last night. The professors gave them 150 euros from our program to buy supplies for the barbecue. For meat, we had: pork hamburgers, beef steaks, beef shish-kabobs, bratwursts, sausages, and chicken pieces. We also had mushrooms filled with garlic butter (which you can see on the top of the grill picture). For the vegetarians they bought bell peppers, onions, and tortillas. We also had hamburger buns, sausage buns, mayonaise, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, lots of chips, and 4 types of dips (although the "hot" sauce didn't quite taste right). They also made a bucket of sangria wine with fruit in it and Fanta. So, we essentially got lots of food for about 140 euros, not too bad. The food was pretty good. I had a pork hamburger, and I split a bratwurst on a bun with Ann. I also had 2 of my miniature Cola Lights but lots of other students had the Sangria or bottles of Stella Artois beer. I think they finished two cases last night. I was also glad that Dr. Engler and Dr. Munster could come and join in the fun. Some of the students started playing soccer, some played badmitten, and Ann and Kelsey had a hand-stand contest. I decided to show off by doing a roundoff backhandspring. I have been doing it since I was in 5th grade, but it has probably been 3 years or so since I did it last. Needless to say, I landed on my head and tweeked my neck. I felt like I had a horrible crick in my neck. So around 10 PM I came upstairs, took a shower, and then went to sleep. I'm not sure how late others stayed up.

This morning Katie and I woke up at 6 AM to write our Seminar #3 Reports. I finished mine in about 30 minutes and then emailed it to Dr. Munster. Later, I realized that I should have proofread it before sending it. Oh well........ I ate a banana and a Minute Maid orange juice box for breakfast at 6 AM. I also took more Tylenol for my neck. Then I laid back down in bed. About 10 minutes until 8 AM (we were supposed to leave at 8), Brad came and woke me up, thank goodness. I put on some clothes and headed out the door on my bike. However, both of my bike tires are pretty much flat. So it took me forever to make it to the bus stop. The bus left around 8:30 AM this morning. We first went to the Flanders Water Distribution office. We saw a bunch of computer screens and met our tour guide for the morning, Simon. Then we got back on the bus and drove 30 minutes till we got to a water gallery. The water gallery is pretty much were they capture 250 m3/hr of drinking water that is groundwater. It is only slightly treated with chlorine and then passes through a sand filter. It is groundwater that flows by gravity down a mountain into the gallery. The gallery is 600 meters long. It was really awesome. I enjoyed seeing the water that came out of the mountains; it was beautiful. Then we got back on the bus and went to a man-made chalk or phosphate cave that Flanders also pumps drinking water out of. It is a cave that was mined in the middle ages that is all chalk. This phosphate was used for agriculture and for writing. It is now used as the Chalk Aquifer and supplies a lot of the drinking water in Flanders. It was super fun, but most of us got really dirty climbing down about 5 ladders into the cave. We were able to see the water table when we got down in the cave. Then we loaded back on the bus and drove back to our school campus where we had lunch at the sandwich shop. I ate their the past 2 days also, so I am getting tired of it. Today I had a Panini Italiano with ham, cheese, tomato, and pesto with a Cola Light. I didn't like the ham though so I took it off. After they brought out more soup, I also ate a cup of soup because I knew it was going to be a long day. It was a vegetable soup with noodles and a tomato base. It wasn't too bad. Then we got back on the bus and drove a couple hours. I'm not sure how long we drove because everyone was sleeping. We picked up our tour guide for the second half of the field trips, Jan. He is a geology professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium. We stopped the bus along the side of a highway and everyone got off. Then we walked down this narrow path between two barbed wire electrical fences about a quarter of a mile. The path was full of really tall weeds and some people who weren't wearing pants ran into weeds with thorns and such. Then we got to a cliff essentially. He made us go down it until we got to a sink hole where a river found limestone and fell into a sink hole. Now water flows down the river and then directly into the groundwater supply in the area. It was pretty interesting but everyone got SUPER muddy. Some girls were wearing shorts and some were even wearing flip flops. A couple people slipped and fell down the mountain. It was pretty disastrous. My $80 tennis shoes are kind of ruined. I will have to wash them in the washing machine when I get back to Texas. Then we stopped again on some random side of the road and saw the other side of the river that has also turned into a sink hole. It wasn't quite as bad this time though because we knew what to expect. Finally, we got back onto the bus and drove into Liege where we went into caves that are actually tour-led. They were very similar to the Natural Bridge Caverns except they allowed people to touch the stalagtites and stalagmites and other formations in the cave. We had to go down lots of steps but then when we got to the end of the cave, we got into a boat and our tour guide from the cave rowed us back up to the front of the cave. It was an awesome boat ride through the water table in the cave. After the boat ride he asked for a tip but he wasn't too bad looking so I was fine with it. Especially since we didn't tip over like a group of people did 3 years ago. Then we all used the restroom and several people bought some souvenirs. Jaime, Jake, and Brad ran across the road to get some fries with ketchup or samari sauce. Stephanie and I went a couple buildings down to an ice cream shop. We were in the French speaking region of Belgium so it was difficult to communicate with the people in the stores. Then we had a long bus ride back home. We got back to the bus stop around 6:40 which was 40 minutes later than planned.

Then I rode my bike home slowly and cooked some cheese tortellini with tomato sauce and cheese for Brad and me. It was good. Then I uploaded my pictures from last night and today. After I finish this blog I will probably take a nap and then try to start on my 4-6 page field trip report. The group of students that are going to Rome this weekend leave on a plane at 6:45 AM from the Brussels airport. However, the first train to Brussels doesn't leave Leuven until 6:00 AM in the morning. So they are going to have to spend the night in the Brussels airport or get a taxis to pick them up very early in the morning. My plans are to go to the Leuven market tomorrow morning with Brad, Ann, and Liz. Then I need to take my bike to Velo to get the tires aired up so I can actually ride somewhere. I would also like to go to the K.U. Leuven bookstore tomorrow which is only open Monday-Friday from 10-12 and 2-4. I would also like to go to the M Museum which is the new museum in Leuven. Ann wants to do some shopping in town also because all the sales end on Saturday. Stores here are only allowed to have sales in January and July, so once August hits there will be no more sales. Tomorrow evening there will be 5 or 6 stages set up around the town of Leuven with live concerts again. I am not sure what the theme is but I am sure we will try to be around to watch them. Brad wants to go to the post office tomorrow to get stamps for his post cards. I mailed mine this morning because Ann let me buy enough stamps from her. She had a few extra. On Saturday, I think we will go on a day trip to Brussels. It is the capital of Belgium and a much bigger tourist town than Leuven. I am hoping to get some "Belgium" post cards and souvenirs. If the weather is nice, we will go to Oostende to the Belgium beach on Sunday since all the shopping will be closed everywhere anyways. I am not sure what we will do Monday, but if we have time I would like to take a day trip to Luxembourg. Another group of students is planning to go to Normandy, France for the weekend. Next weekend is our overnight field trip and then our final exams are the following Tuesday. So this weekend is pretty much our last 4 day or full weekend to travel anywhere. All of us are exhausted right now and most people are ready to get caught up on their sleep. I am excited that we only have 4 more days of school in our classroom and only 1 more field trip (even though it is an overnight field trip). That means not too many more homeworks and reports until we are done with these classes. Only about 2 more weeks until Texas!!! Whoop!

I just want to say that I miss everyone and I am enjoying myself. My neck is fine but it does feel like I have a horrible crick in it. I have not decided if I will ever attempt a backhandspring again in my lifetime. Although if I do, I will be sure to have a spotter just in case I fall. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. And I hope the weather here clears up and doesn't rain this weekend. It has rained everyday for the last week or so. I like the cool temperatures but I am ready for the rain to stop. Peace and love to everyone from Belgium :)

<3 Sabrina (this <3 is a heart!)