Since the last time I posted, my sister left to go back to Canada... My best friend Freyja came back to visit Ghent again, before heading on a little adventure in the Scottish highlands with her Mom. And my Finnish friend, the one that had to go back to Helsinki already, she also came back to visit us for a few days. I managed to finish most of my school assignments... It was quite busy, especially a couple of weeks ago, but now I only have one major assignment left! And that's pretty crazy. Our class has started counting down the days of the exchange. Some of us are happy to see the end (I think it's mostly those in long-distance relationships) but most of us are quite sad, or at least have mixed feelings. It's always nice to get school over with... but people will start flying out of here as early as the 14th of this month. And that will be the end of MOCOMA 2007. So sad...
Speaking of school and assignments, here's that little video we made for our Visual Literacy class entitled, Femme Fatale in Ghent. "It's a little gem of a movie," according to my classmate. Some have called it Oscar-worthy, but you will have to see for yourself!
I finally have a million pictures to share with you. My Mom came to visit me last Tuesday. Originally, she was going to come here with her friend, but that fell through. Still, we decided to keep her two-person reservation in the B&B so that I could stay with her. It was glorious... I so enjoyed sleeping in a large bed, in a large room, and taking a nice long hot shower in a clean bathroom, and being served delicious breakfast every morning... croissants, baguettes, toast, eggs, ham and cheese, tomatoes with mozzarella and basil, juice and coffee. Mmmmm. It was everything we could hope for and much, much more. Here are a few pictures of our bedroom and the breakfast room:
My Mom arrived on Tuesday, and I sort of expected her to pass out since she skipped a night of sleep. But nooooo. She was incredibly anxious to go out on the town and meet my friends, so we went out to Vooruit that night, to see Husky Rescue, a cool Finnish band fronted by a beautiful girl (my Finnish friend has a huge crush on her, but he was too shy to go up to her after the show):
And, in case you're interested, here's the video for their song, Summertime Cowboy:
Anyway, back to my Mom's visit. It was just as I expected: my Mom fell in love with Ghent! We walked along the cobblestones and canals, and took in the architecture. And we went in and out of clothing and shoe stores. And we sat on little patios and in bars, drinking coffee and Campari and beer. We even ate Belgian frites with mayonnaise at two o'clock in the morning... and got caught in typical Belgium weather (rain!) and had to run home barefoot. Here are a few pictures from our adventures:
On Thursday, we hopped on a train and took a day trip to Bruges. Although the day started off cloudy, it turned quite beautiful by the afternoon... We walked around and visited a few churches, did a little bit of shopping, and then enjoyed some crepes and coffees on a patio. Here are a few photos:
Friday and Saturday my Mom took me on a trip of a life time... to Paris, the city of lights... the most romantic place in the world. My Dad had just been there with his family, and I was unable to meet him in the end because of school... And I thought it'd be such a waste not to go, since it's so close to Belgium. So, anyway, I got to go! The trip was part of my graduation / children's day gift. What can I say, I'm a lucky girl!
Here we are, arriving on Saturday morning in Parisian traffic (we were giddy as school girls, by the way):
When we arrived, we took the metro and got off near Les Halles... We broke for lunch right away, then went to explore the area, which is surrounded by large glass and metal buildings. According to Wikipedia, these date back to 1850, but I could have sworn they were much more recent... in fact, I kept commenting how futuristic they looked. I guess I'm not a specialist, by any means. Anyway, the true women that we are, we entered the Forum des Halles, a mall that's situated partly underground, and my Mom bought me a pair of real Parisian shoes. Here are a few pics from lunch and Les Halles, and my new shoes:
Next, we walked across Ile de Cite (passed Notre Dame... but we would return there later), and dropped off our things in our room at Hotel St. Pierre, right near Sorbonne in the Quartier Latin. The view from our window:
In the afternoon, we walked along Quai des Grands Augustins, crossed Pont Neuf, and ended up just to the east of the Louvre... We crossed the grounds, paused by the Pyramide du Louvre and the fountains, and then continued past the Arc de Triumphe du Carrousel, through the Jardins des Tuileries and to Place de la Concorde:
Ok, I will end here for now... I think that's enough reading for you guys for one day! I will continue later on this week, because we saw so much more in Paris!
Lots of kusjes... Mamo, juz tesknie za Toba!
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