So it's really the end: I have just three more days, two more nights here in Ghent. I wanted to quickly update you on what's been happening in the last few days, because my recent Paris posts are actually quite dated.

Here we go! After classes ended last week, we celebrated with an International Dinner party. We actually had the first official International Dinner back in May. The whole idea was that people bring food that's typical to their native country's cooking... I have to say that the first dinner was a little bit more of a success food-wise, because people had a little bit more time to prepare their dishes. Here are a few pics from back in May:







This time around, the menu consisted mainly of chips, dips and crackers :) However, my friend stole the show with an ambitious Finish sandwich cake, which she also decorated beautifully. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that night, last Friday, but I will post them as soon as someone is kind enough to forward them to me!

Saturday evening I went to the movies with my friend, Pieter, to see the new Tarantino movie, Death Proof. It just came out here in Ghent, and unfortunately, it was not being shown with Rodriguez's other Grindhouse feature, Planet Terror... but that's ok. Maybe it was enough violence and gore for one night. Here's the trailer for that one:



Sunday, we got up bright and early to visit Luxembourg for the day! Actually, I overslept a little, and unintentionally postponed our trip by one hour... but everyone survived the change of schedule! The train trip lasted about 3.5 hours, so we ate, slept and watched a movie on my friend's laptop to pass the time.





Luxembourg is quite beautiful, very green and clean in comparison to Brussels, for example, and not surprisingly, quite a rich place! In fact, Luxembourgers have the highest GDP of any country in the world. The country has three official languages, French, German and Luxemburgish.

The city of Luxembourg is quite important in terms of military history, and there is lots to see if you're a history buff like my friend! The city used to be surrounded by fortifications (some parts dating back to the 10th century), but they were almost completely destroyed following Luxembourg's ratification of the Treaty of London in 1867, in essence, to confirm its neutrality. Still, parts of the fortifications have survived, including about 2 km of casemates, which we explored with the help of a very nice guide... Casemates are tunnels built into rock, and the term literally translates to "house of slaying/killing."





And we saw and crossed the Adolphe Bridge, which was once the biggest stone bridge in the world. However, since it was renovated with steel reinforcements, it no longer carries that title...





The views around the bridge were so beautiful!

Then we stumbled upon a church festival at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is a beautiful church that dates back to the early 17th century, and houses some amazing stained glass work and an impressive organ gallery. The church was offering bread, water and champagne, so we helped ourselves!



After the Cathedral, we walked towards the city centre, where a children's band was playing Beatles' music in the main square. They were so cute, and I especially fell for this one little boy who was playing the mandolin.



Our final destination in Luxembourg was the American Cemetery and Memorial, located just east of the city. It's the final resting place for over 5,000 American soldiers, including General Patton, who, according to my friend, was an infamous character. To be honest, the trip to the cemetery was a little bit of a trek, and we ended up crossing a forest and a wheat field to get there... but it was worth it.









Then we made our way back to Ghent.

Monday night, I visited a friend in Brussels for dinner and drinks. The drinks part was especially cool, since we enjoyed them in the basement lounge of the Belga Queen, which used to be a bank... now it's a fancy restaurant, and the lounge part is located in the old safe room.

Tuesday, my friends and I decided to enjoy some touristy things in Ghent, so we took a guided boat ride along the canals. It was so nice! After the boat ride, we sat in a cafe along the Graslei and tasted the best beer in the world! Yes, of course it's Belgian. It's called Westvleteren, a trappist beer brewed by monks at the Saint Sixtus monastery in West Flanders, and it set us back about 26 Euros for three pints! Well worth it, though!

Finally, Wednesday night was my friend's last night here in Ghent, so we went all out! That means, we enjoyed some trappist beers, did some late night bowling and ended up dancing in Overpoortstraat. Here are a few pictures:









That's it for now... next time you hear from me, I'll probably be in Warsaw. Two of my Finnish friends are already joining me there on the 29th... so I will survive my post-exchange blues, I think!

Lots of kusjes!