Castles n' Luxembourg Pics

Last week we took a day trip the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. From their we took a cool walking tour of Luxembourg and then ended our day at a Castle. 

Like all European institutions, I am unable to get a job here since I don't have an EU passport. 

Not sure I fully was able to capture how long this building is. It has to be the equivalent of about 3 city blocks.

Dinner. Beef stew with little potato things (no idea what they are called).

Belgian Problems

I love most things about living here. But some things you don't adapt to even after living here for 2 and 1/2 months. No I'm not stressed out from living here, quite the contrary, but I think that highlighting these differences really allows people to better understand what a European lifestyle really is.

Problems with Belgium:

• Drinking Problems
• There is not a water fountain located in this country. If there is I will find it.
• Beer is cheaper than water, about 90% of the time.  
• Asking for tap water is like telling a man with a gun that you slept with his daughter. This is a European thing, and yes the tap water is perfectly safe. I don't get it. It's 2012. 
• Also, Gatorade doesn't exist here. Neither does Powerade. VitaminWater can be found, but about as often as you see an inside-the-park home run in the majors.
• On that note, I think this is part of the reason why you never see Belgians at the Olympics or on any international stage in sports. Hydration is severely lacking for the beer capital of the world. 
• One thing I think the United States has right in education is athletics. I know cuts have been destroying them as of late, but playing a club sport and learning to be on a team is an invaluable asset. Athletics here are all part of clubs and have much more of a snobbish feeling to them. I've met more than my fare share of Belgians who are envious of the academic-athletic relationship in the United States. 
• Visa Problems
• Belgium owns the record for the longest time without a government. The year and a half they went was longer than Iraq was without a government.
• Getting a visa isn't to much of a problem in the U.S. (because it is in the U.S.), but trying to register when you get here is a mess. Also if you are trying to extend your visa, well you should probably just apply to the Los Angeles office since things don't move quickly here.
• There's probably like 10 places in this country that accepts credit cards. 
• Ok maybe it isn't that bad but Visa and MC and AE need to step up their game. Everywhere I've traveled to (6 countries so far) have all been more than willing to accept my credit card, but not Belgium. The HQ of the EU and Nato are here, but not Visa.  
• Time Problems
• I got back and forth on this one a lot. Most of the time I love it, but sometimes I just can't stand just how laid back everyone is here. 
• If you are supposed to meet someone at a certain time then show up 15 minutes after this time. If you do this, then more likely than not you will be early. Classes generally start about 10 minutes after they are supposed to . 
• The metro trains sometimes decide to take long stops at the metro stations for no apparent reason. Sunday when going to the park is a good instance to illustrate this. I ran for the metro, got on at the last second, went one stop (about 2 blocks) to a transfer station where the driver got out and smoked 4 or 5 cigarettes over the 26 minutes we were there. Of course the screen inside the train said we were "departing immediately", and it did so for all the 26 minutes we were there. 
• Nothing is open on Sunday. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants are all closed. It's pretty nice most of the time and really allows Sunday to be a day of rest (or in my case homework). But sometimes you get hungry on Sunday and nothing is open. 

Like most problems in life, they happen and then life continues. My time here continues to be amazing. 

Not Starving

I know that my mother and Darlene (www.hungryboys.net) want to know what I have been eating since I've been here. I've kept them in the dark so I decided I would sum up my food experience in Belgique. For starters the most common food consumed by yours truly is a durum. A durum is a big tortilla with a Belgian mayo (that doesn't taste like mayo) spread inside of which you can get many different flavors. A common sauce is called samurai which is like a chipotle mayo. Then it is filled with onions, salad, tomatoes, and corn. Then throw in a little grilled chicken or lamb (whatever the mystery meat really is) and it is grilled up and done.

My host mom is Italian and was born in Italy and this influence is evident in her cooking. She loves to make everything, but especially Italian dishes. She keeps everything simple and fresh and LOVES olive oil. I'm not sure I can stress how much she LOVES olive oil. I consider it to be the Italian butter. From time to time though my host dad will cook and it will result in the likes of processed chicken cordon bleu or something of the like. Europe isn't that much different from America, you can still get plenty frozen processed dinners that do taste like plastic.

Sunday:

Lunch: Ham w/ Chili Pepper-Mango Chutney, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Salad.

Dinner: Durum

Monday:

Lunch: Brazilian Chicken Sandwich

Dinner: Roast Lamb, Broccoli, Baked Potato

Tuesday: 

Lunch: Lasagneria Club Sandwich, Freshly sliced ham, cheese, pesto mayo, fresh tomatoes, and lettuce

Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese

Wednesday: 

Lunch: Sandwich with ham, cheese, shredded carrots, lettuce

Dinner: Grilled salmon, peppers and cucumbers cooked in olive oil and lots of garlic

Thursday:

Lunch: Durum

Dinner: Seafood lasagna (White sauce, shrimp and salmon)

Friday: 

Lunch: Mitraillette

Dinner: Student potluck, my contribution was Frites

Frites with andalouse sauce

The start of our all you can eat Indonesian adventure. So much food.

These are all different things you can get at a Durum shop. No I'm not sure what a majority of these things are.

Pizza in Bastogne.

French onion soup.

Chicken and red pepper kebabs.

Cream puffs... with more cream.

A cake that the Indonesian restaurant said took 10 days to make. 1 day for each layer. I'm not convinced they didn't buy it at a grocery store, but they convinced most everyone else.

Durum.

Mitraillette

Meat... I think anyways. It tastes like meat.

Oslo, Norway

Any previous thoughts of Switzerland being the most expensive place I have ever been in the world quickly went on the window this weekend when I visited Norway. While it was an inexpensive flight and hostel stay (though we got what we paid for) food, drinks, and activities made us greatly appreciate the prices in the Eurozone (countries that use the Euro). For comparison a cheap mixed drink in Norway was 120 Norwegian kroner. This converts to about 21 U.S. dollars; and that was a cheap drink. Another comparison was the advertised price of 250 kroner at T.G.I. Friday's for a burger, appetizer, and coke. That's going to be 43 dollars please (or 8 trips to Subway in the U.S.). I don't even spend that much on my own birthday. Needless to say we didn't drink and ate only when absolutely necessary on our trip.

However, it wasn't all bad prices. Oslo is a good city for a weekend getaway and we definitely stayed busy the whole time. My overall take is that if I ever go back to Norway, I will go in the summer and rent a car. Driving up and down the coast looks absolutely beautiful and seemed to be the thing to do for vacationers.

Getting into Oslo is quite an adventure with all the airports at least half an hour outside of the city. The one we flew into, Rygge, is an hour outside of the city. Yeah it's in the middle of nowhere. But for a 60 dollar roundtrip flight it looked pretty nice.

The first place we went after checking into our hostel was the Mini Bottle Museum. It doesn't sound that cool, but this was one of the coolest museums I've ever been to. Maybe it wasn't as big as the Louvre, but it had just as much character. They had mini bottles from all over the world most of which were pretty cool. A majority of them were airplane shots but this little collection of over 500,000 mini bottles had any object you could ever imagine.

Chandelier.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

These look like cigars, but they're not.

While this is not a bottle, it may be the coolest urinal I've ever seen.

Smoked salmon pizza.

 Opera house

Ice bar. We stayed for about half an hour, not because it was cold but because you can't afford anything here...

This is part of the Norwegian Folk Museum. It is an interactive museum where you can walk through houses and have people explain how life was in Norway in the 1600s - present. Very interesting.

Holmenkollen is the name of the ski jump in Oslo. They hosted the ski jump championships here this weekend where the winning jump was about 300 feet. The idea of going off this is even more ridiculous in person.

Viking ship museum. It was surprisingly small. There are only 3 remaining viking ships that have been found through excavation. They were used as burial ships for important people.

 Holmenkollen from the top of the jump.

This is Obersten, he was in the first group of dogs to reach the south pole. His nickname was "The Colonel" as he was the lead sled dog. This was at the ski museum which featured the evolution of skiing which originated in 600 a.d.

Looks like fun...