Natalie and Jane's Visit

This past weekend, my cousin Natalie and her friend Jane came through Belgium on their 2 week tour of Europe. I was so excited to get out of the house and have someone my own age to spend some time with, and I definitely enjoyed their visit.

After arriving late Friday night, our first trip was to Brugge on Saturday. The day was chilly and rainy, but we were still able to enjoy our delicious waffles with nutella and strawberries:


After lunch we decided to burn off those extra calories by climbing the 366 stairs in the Belfry:


It was a tough climb with very narrow stairs and a lot of people trying to come up and down at the same time, but the view from the top was great!


All summer I've been going to Gent on Sunday evenings for church, so we decided to go around lunch time for some sightseeing before going to church. It started a little rainy, but by the time we finished lunch it was beautiful outside - perfect for walking around town all day. We were able to see a lot of beautiful churches, a couple of castles, canals and of course, climbed the Belfry.


Monday and Tuesday afternoons were spent in Brussels where we met up with Natalie's boyfriend Andy and his friend Aaron. Monday began with a nice breakfast of waffles, nutella and strawberries and hot chocolate. It was very delicious, and the sugar gave us the energy needed to walk around town until lunchtime. The museums were all closed, so we just spent the morning looking around town at all the old churches and government buildings.


For lunch we went to a local grocery store and bought sandwiches and took it to the Grand Platz where we spent the rest of the day. Following lunch we looked at a nearby church before shopping for some Belgian chocolates. From there we found a local cafe where we ate our chocolates and coffee,


and then made our way to a brewery just off the Grand Platz. When Andy and Aaron had had enough beer, we found a restaurant serving mussels and frits (an authentic Belgian meal) for our dinner. Basically all the calories burned walking around for the previous 2 days were consumed with our day of eating and drinking, but it was a fun and relaxing day.

Tuesday we made our way back to Brussels to visit the Museum of Musical Instruments. Andy and Aaron are band directors, and I think they were in heaven for those two hours that we were in the museum!

We were able to go into a couple of the churches we had found while walking around on Monday and walk through a beautiful park before it was time for the four of them to head off to Amsterdam.


Their visit was the most activity I've had in the past two months and it wore me out, but I definitely enjoyed having them here!

Not much to say

I realize my initial goal for this blog was to update regularly so everyone could see how my summer is going. However, I have failed this goal due to the fact that there is pretty much nothing to tell anyone about. I know I'm in Europe for a whole summer and should be having the time of my life, but honestly right now it's pretty boring.

We've been to the beach again since my last post, but were only able to spend one day outside due to rain.

I've gone to the Church of Christ in Gent twice, and really like it there. It's a small group of people who meet in the home of the minister, Luk Brazle. Everyone is very friendly and the whole service is translated for me and a few others who are English speakers. Going to church gives me something to look forward to; a chance to get out of the house and do my own thing. The process of going to the train station, taking the train to Gent, getting on the bus, going to church and then doing it all in reverse takes about 4 1/2-5 hours. It's nice to have conversations with young adults (not that I don't love hanging out with two little boys all the time...) and to experience church away from home.

Right now I have plans to go to Amsterdam for a day this weekend. I'm very excited to do a bit of traveling, even though it's not far and not long! Next month there will be a group from Ohio and a group from Oklahoma visiting the Antwerp Church of Christ, and I have been invited to their 4th of July cookout. We're supposed to go to the beach that weekend as well, so hopefully I'll be able to make it to both. Then in mid-July, my cousin Natalie and her friend will be visiting for a week and I'm hoping to be able to actually sight see in Gent and make a trip to Brugge.

My big trip is planned for July 17th. The whole family is flying to Dublin to visit one of Jan's friends, so we'll spend the weekend there. On Monday, July 20th, I've signed up for a 6-day tour of Ireland - a new city every day. I'm a bit nervous traveling with a big group of people that I've never met, but I feel safer traveling that way rather than on my own for 2 weeks. I'll have someone making sure I'm alive and well every morning when we leave the hostel and every night when we get to our new hostel. On Sunday, July 26 I will fly to Edinburgh, Scotland where I'll spend 2 full days and wrap up with a day-trip to St. Andrew's.

I'm so thankful for all the travel opportunities I've been blessed with. Now that I've started, though, I'm not sure I can stop!

I Made It!

So, I finally made it! It was a long, frustrating trip and I thought I might not make it all the way here, but I am now in Grembergen, Belgium. It's been a week, and I'm slowly feeling more comfortable here, but it'll take some more getting used to.

When I got here last week, Jan (my mom's cousin, and the wife/mother of the family I'm living with) was on her way back from London. Yvo (pronounced Eevo; the husband/father) picked me up from the Brussels train station, and brought me back here, pointing out sights of interest the whole way back. Jan's mother (my mom's aunt) Wilma was here with the boys, so she made the transition a little smoother for me.

Thankfully I was able to sleep in the first couple of days to get over my jet lag. On Friday of last week, Wilma took me into Brussels for the afternoon where we did some shopping, ate a nice lunch, and took pictures in the Grand Platz. It was all very cool, and I enjoyed her company a lot!



Sunday I was able to attend a Church of Christ in Antwerp (about a 30 minute drive from here), and the whole family joined me. Because of a youth weekend they were having, as well as Good News! from Harding, there were quite a few visitors who only spoke English. The service was done in both English and Dutch so that everyone could benefit from the lesson, however, it lasted 3 hours and we were all starving by the end! Next week I'm hoping to attend a small church in Ghent, located in the minister's house. The minister of the church in Ghent is actually the nephew of the minister at the church in Antwerp and the brother of Karina Brazle. Funny how even in another country the Church of Christ connects people!

Monday started my nannying job. I'm the au pair for two young boys, Nicholas and Christophe, 6 and 8 respectively. Until the end of June they are in school, so my job has been fairly simple thus far. I get them up and ready for school around 7:30, and walk them to the corner at 8:05. Around 4:30 I have to ride my bike over to their "Oma" (grandma) and "Opa" (grandpa)'s house where they go to do homework after school. Yvo usually cooks dinner (a great cook, I might add!) and I get them ready for bed around 7:45. The majority of my day is spent sleeping, working out, watching tv, reading and relaxing. Not bad for free room and board, as well as a nice paycheck every week!

This week there is a holiday on Friday, so the boys are out of school today through the rest of the week. Hopefully this is not a sign of the way July and August will work when they're out of school! Nicholas was quite a load of work this morning. Hopefully things will get better though.

Because of the holiday, we will be going to their apartment at the beach later this week. It's been chilly everyday, so I'm not sure how much swimming we'll be doing, but the boys like to play in the sand, and there are shops nearby. Hopefully it'll be an enjoyable weekend before they go back to school.

Here are some pictures of the house I was able to take:

This is the front of the house. My room is the window at the top.



This is the back of the house. The round part is the dinning room and is all glass so we can look at the beautiful backyard!





This is a picture of my room. Behind me is also a little sink and cabinet so that I can get ready in the mornings in my room instead of sharing the bathroom.

Belgium

As many of you know, I will be spending three months (May 12-August 12) nannying in Dendermonde, Belgium. As I understand it, this is just outside Brussels, the capitol city.

I will be living with and working for my mom's cousin, watching her two sons and helping out with some housework and errands. Though I've never spent a significant amount of time with this family, I have met them once before, and the boys, 3rd and 5th grade I believe, seemed very friendly and well-behaved.

I'm very excited to return to Europe, however I am a bit nervous to see how this summer works out. I won't have any friends (with the exception of two other friends who will be in Europe around the same time and might come visit), and will have very few ways of actually making friends. I'm hoping to begin attending a church where the Brazles (many of you are familiar with this family) are missionaries. Hopefully this will provide me the opportunity to not only meet some new people, but to also plant a seed with the boys I will be watching who currently do not attend a church.

This blog will serve as a way to keep in touch with those of you who are interested in knowing how my summer is going. My hopes are that I will be able to be online often so that I can keep in touch with everyone that I will miss, and of course those who will miss me :)