An interesting sort of week

This week has been two sided. Ups and downs, seeing both sides of Brussels, the good and the bad. We'll start with the good to cheer everybody up.

It's been beautiful outside! Literally all week the weather has been stunning- warm with sunshine and blue skies, sprinkled with a few puffy clouds. I love waking up in the morning to sunlight beaming through my wooden blinds. This means we've constantly been outside, enjoying the weather in Jardin Botanique right next to us, Parc Cinquantnaire, or even outside on the picnic table in the courtyard connecting the Erasmus student houses. This courtyard is also, unfortuantely, an extra parking lot (we still have no idea who for, maybe the hospital next door). So when we're out reading and eating on the picnic table, we also get a lot of strange looks, or "Bonjour!"s from complete strangers.

This past Friday night, I had the chance to attend a free concert! Last week, I picked up a flyer from MIM about "Nocturnes," a series of free concerts being put on throught March by the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. This week was my first change to actually go now that I knew it existed, and I was pretty excited. It was classical music, not everybody's cup of tea, but as I've been in an orchestra for most of my life and have now played violin for some twelve years, I can say that I definitely appreciate it! I went alone, since the other Erasmus students were either busy or not interested, running out of my last class of the day (which ends at 7pm on a Friday. ick.) to catch the pre-metro. I had already looked at the way and written down directions, but the easiest way to find the Conservatoire- find the Manneken Pis! This incredibly, weirdly famous statue of a small boy peeing is really not that impressive, but tourists flock to it all the time, and it serves as a good landmark. I found the building the concert was supposed to be in...and couldn't get in. Miraculously somebody inside buzzed me in, so I was able to open the door and sneak in the back of the auditorium as the show had already started.

It was fantastic. Mostly comprised of young people, the concert that night was exclusively Mozart. Three long pieces, one including two solo violins and one with a solo piano, were the entirety of the concert and the place was packed. I was really lucky just to get a chair. Plus we had a surprise visit by Mozart himself which was pretty hilarious. It's beautiful though, the French language, especially hear in a monologue performance. Now I want to go see a show in French! The evening was a great reminder of how many things there are to do in Bruxelles if you just keep an eye out.

So the concert was really fun, beautifully played and now I want my violin again. But onto the second fun thing of this week- I got to go see a movie! I may be one of the millions of people that have read The Hunger Games...and yes, I was pretty excited to see the movie. In Bruxelles, right next to the Atomium, is a massive cinema called Kinepolis which has every movie realised around that time, in every version. Thus, being in Belgium, you can see the movie in Flemish, French, or in the original version with subtitles. I'm a fan of originals myself, so that's what we went for, getting pretty decent tickets that only cost about $9 with a student pass. The theater was massive. Absolutely massive, and there weren't even that many people- probably because it was the original, English version of the film. Despite being the original version of the film, there were both Dutch and French subtitles the entire time. Usually I have a thing against subtitles, but since the screen was so huge, these were subtle and easy to ignore. Another strange thing about going to the movies in Brussels, there was an intermission! I was totally confused. I was all caught up in the movie, wondering what would happen next and suddenly... a ten minute intermission. Odd. I enjoyed the movie, plus, on the way out we all got a free Coke zero, and I'm definitely a fan of free stuff!

This however, unfortunately lead to the bad part of my week. First of all my laptop is still in the shop, so this week has been an interesting combination of using the schools computers and borrowing my wonderful friends' computers! Second, despite my being exceedingly careful, my wallet and phone was stole out of my purse on the way home from the movies. Put a bit of a damper on my evening, and the life lesson is always have your bag or purse in front of you. Unfortunately, quite a few people here have had things stolen- purses, phones, coats and now me with my wallet- all in different situations. Luckily I managed to get in contact with my family and through them my bank to cancel my debit card, so that's all taken care of. A hassel, but luckily nothing too important was in there than can't be replaced.

To end on a positive note- spring break is here! And tomorrow, or this evening depending on how you look at it, I leave for Italy! I can't wait to visit some new, beautiful cities, as well as meet up with some old friends from Glasgow. After Italy, I'm heading out to the Loire Valley in France, a beautiful stretch of the Loire River known for its beautiful châteaux. So there you have it: a topsy-turvey sort of week, but with the promise of Spring Break!