But back to Thursday. On Thursday after the room inspections, I decided to go out to the shopping street with Katie. We stopped to buy post cards and some last minute Leuven souvenirs. Then we had ice cream and did a little bit of clothes shopping. I ended up buying a dress, a leopard sweater from H&M, and a soft black skirt. Fun, Fun. When I got home I took a warm shower (thank God the cold water episode ended) and then dressed up for my last evening in Leuven. Then I went with Ann and Liz to a small Italian restaurant for dinner where I had a Margharita pizza. Leuven's big annual festival and celebration will be held Friday night through Sunday. So we left town right before the huge parties with 9 stages of concerts. But while we were eating dinner under umbrellas and the rain, two members of one of the performing bands came to eat there. It was pretty cool. After dinner, Ann and Liz stopped to get ice cream. Then we went to Louvain Louvain and I had one of the famous raspberry mojitos. It was incredible and tasted just like candy. When I got back to the house the boys were playing poker (see below). Brad lost first and ran out of chips but then bought back in. He ended up winning the pot of 40 euros. During the game, our RA Vincent surprised us with homemade Belgian waffles (also see below). They were amazing. In Belgium, waffles are made with a thick batter that is shaped like a ball and then placed on the griddle. It's not runny like here in America. The boys enjoyed the chocolate dipped waffles with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Then I went with Derek and Liz to Louvain Louvain to get more mojitos. I used all of my change to buy a raspberry mojito and then a strawberry one. Austin and Val also met us there. When I got back to the house I told Katie bye since she was leaving for Ireland very early in the morning and then I tried to get some sleep.
I woke up around 7 AM on Friday. Jake, Jaime, Molly, Brad, Kirstin, and I had two taxis pick us up from the house and take us to the train station in Leuven. It cost us about 10 euros for each taxi (total, not each). We rode the 8:27 AM train to the Brussels National Airport. After lots of security, customs, etc., we boarded the plane and left Brussels at 11 AM which was 3:00 AM in Texas. We arrived in Chicago at 1:00 PM. We thought it was cool that it only took us 2 hours to get there....haha, ya right. It was an 8 and a half hour flight that was long and miserable, as always. We had a long layover in Chicago. We passed through a long line of customs in Chicago and then grabbed our luggage and had to turn it in again to be checked for our connecting flight to San Antonio. Then we rode the tram to the complete other end of the airport where our next flight left from. When we got there, we had to go through security again. I had to go through one of those special X-ray machines. It was crazy. Then we found our gate and went to sit down at Chilis in the airport. We each had sweet tea and munched on some chips and salsa. We waited for a few more hours and then left Chicago around 6:40 PM. We made it back to San Antonio shortly before 9:00 PM. When we went down to the baggage claim area our parents were waiting for us (except Kirstins). She got picked up outside. I hugged and kissed my parents immediately. It was great to see them. Dr. Kenney, my AP biology teacher during my senior year of high school, was also there waiting to pick up her husband and children. Very random but awesome to see her. Brad's grandma Kathy also met us at the airport. We told Jake and Kirstin bye, loaded up our luggage, and then drove to La Hacienda in San Antonio to eat Mexican food. It was near Brad's grandma's house and her husband Melvin was there waiting for us with a table. I had a cheese enchilada with rice and beans and a giant margarita. MMMMM. It was so great. When I made it home, I unpacked my souvenir suitcase and presented my parents with their gifts from me. Everything in my suitcase was fine except for the chocolate. Most of it had melted...........ugh! Oh well. I was only able to sleep for a few hours and have up and at it already this morning. I saw both of my grandparents and have already been busy catching up on lots of tasks. We are going to my cousin's Julie's daughter Brooklyn's birthday party today at 5:00 PM. I will probably be very tired again tonight from staying up a total of 24 hours yesterday! It may take me a couple of days to get back on track again. I have totalled up the money that I spent on my trip but will have to wait for my August debit card statement to come in the mail to end up with a final amount to report. But, it will be in the range of approximately $7,000. However, I received $3,500 for scholarships and student working. So this summer ended up costing me around $3,500. Not too bad for a wonderful summer in which I earned 13 hours of credit towards my degree (Summer I and II) and made a ton of amazing memories.
I am not sure if I plan to keep writing on this blog, but I do know that I will take a break from it for a while. I may start updating again once school starts back in two weeks. It has been pretty fun to journal and keep up with my days. It has also been great getting feedback from my family in that they can keep in touch with me through the blog. Looking back, I am really glad that Dr. Munster volunteered/required me to do the blog for promotional and recruitment materials. It was a great experience.
To conclude, I just want to say that I had a completely awesome, out-of-this-world amazing time in Europe. I am SOOOO glad that I went! I would definitely recommend this study abroad program to anyone. Love from Marion, Texas!
Sabrina Louise Luensmann
Brad and I on our last night in Leuven eating waffles.
The waffles made by our RA, Vincent!
An intense poker game!
No comments:
Post a Comment