Sunday, June 24, 2012

Catching up - Days 15-20

Bonding time.  That's one thing we have plenty of here in Brussels.  But we're interesting people in a city filled with interesting things, so it's okay that we spend every waking moment together.


It turns out that Andrew does origami.  He even did a little story for us that involved lots of paper hats.


And we pulled out the cherub to do some pictures to send to my boss again.  The cherub and Andrew in front of the Mannekin Pis!




Food in front of the Mannekin Pis!  Apparently the little gummy version of the statue didn't taste very good (but the waffle was good).


 Asian tourists in front of the Mannekin Pis!


Andrew and a giant, chocolate-colored replica of the Mannekin Pis!

Personally, I think I'd be mildly embarrassed to  have the symbol of my city be an immortalized image of a urinating minor.  But, to each his own.


We all posed for pictures with the beer museum sign, but we didn't go in.  I mean, seriously, would five BYU students even appreciate anything about the history of beer?  I think not.



We took pictures in Grande Place.


I found this awesome old cash register in the Godiva store in Grande Place.  They also gave chocolate samples... mmm...



Some of the crazy merchandise we found.  Crazy platform boots and wire sculptures!  I actually wanted that lizard sculpture.  His tail was all springy.


Probably the most interesting mall I've ever seen.  The entire ceiling is latticed glass.



The guys and I walked around for a bit while Kira and Lindsey wandered off to look at something.  I can't even remember what they were looking at...



Friday evening we went for our first glimpse of the outside of the Atomium.  It's huge.


 We also got a picture of the cherub and Andrew's dinosaur, Carl, in front of the Atomium.




And then we played around on the subway on the way home.


This crazy-shapes shot was taken as I rode the escalator up from the metro station stop on the way home.  The colors were just too delightful to pass up.


It's great when you can answer this question by saying, "FIVE MINUTES AGO!"

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Rest of them are HERE! Day 14 (yes, I know I'm behind)

For the first two weeks, it was just Marisa and I setting up.  Now, there are four others besides myself here to participate in the research project.  So far we do everything together.

Everything.



 Like eating together.  This is the breakfast I made for everyone the first morning.  Omelets with gouda cheese, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, prosciutto, and spices.




That night (Sunday) we made crepes.  The first one stuck because we used butter instead of oil in the pan.  Zach insisted it wasn't his fault.  And it wasn't really.  He made beautiful crepes.






We all pitched in to work on it.





And Andrew cut up tons of fruit to put on top.

...And we wander together!  Around the streets, through the park.  We find some of the most interesting things, like the man-in-the-bowler-hat mirror at the modern art museum.  I kind of want that mirror.


















Kira plays oboe, and I got to watch her make reeds.  My old roommate (who plays bassoon) used to do this, too.






In addition to all of time we spend together in the apartment and around town, we are also together working on the research project every day.  One week later, we're still enjoying each other's company.  We'll see how long we can go before we start needed personal space :)




And a few more shots of the tower - including one with a DOUBLE RAINBOW!