Update!

I thought I had better give a little update.  Monday we started back to school.  We had IS in the morning and the afternoon off.  I really can't even remember what the class was about- is that bad?  I think it was something about different types of communication?  Tuesday I had Psychology all day long.  Dr. Fred (our professor that works in Brussels) took us to Louve a Na Nouve which is a large University north of us.  It took us about 45 minutes on a train to get there.  We sat in a classroom and listened to a Swiss professor talk about a Heroine Addiction study they were working on.  They think it would be a good idea to legalize heroine.  (Legalize as in you have to have a prescription to obtain it from a doctor, not just walk into a gas station and pick some up like with cigarettes).  Now most people thought this wasn't a good idea, but the findings they found were pretty interesting.  All the people they studied were heroine addicts.  Although they were still heroine addicts at the end of the study, they had noticed that crime rates had dropped, homocide and suicide numbers had dropped as well.  He also said something about people wouldn't buy it off the street anymore because if it was legalized, anyone could get it.  (There are lots of technical things we can talk about later if you want to discuss this...I just don't want to give a huge explanation on what we learned because I may leave out something!).  We broke for lunch and ate in the university cafeteria.  That is one similar thing between Brussels and America- the cafeteria food in both countries is really bad:)  After lunch we met again and heard a lecture on Fundamentalism.  Well...we tried to listen.  It was warm in the room and we had just eaten, and let's face it, fundamentalism isn't the most interesting topic in the world.  Many people were dozing and some of us just pretended to listen.  After class was over Prof. Fred took us to one of his favorite Irish pubs.  We hung out for a while, which was nice, and then some of us left to come home.  We didn't get back to Brussels until about 6:30!  It was a long day but it was cool to go to a different school.

Today we had a field trip to Antwerp- where all the diamonds come from!  Except, wouldn't you know, that the day they decided to take us to Antwerp is the day of the week that the diamond museum is closed?!  The first thing we saw when we got out of the train station is a REALLY nice car stopped down what looks like a ramp that leads to a garage tunnel and a bunch of policemen.  We quickly figure out it is not a ramp, but a set of stares that leads to the train station!  All of us americans pulled out our cameras and took pictures:)  The day ended up being pretty unproductive.  The tour wasn't planned very well I don't think.  Our tour was 3 hours long and most of it was spent walking to our destination- except we only saw 3.  We saw the tallest high-rise building in Europe (well it was the tallest in 1928), a cathedral that didn't have a name, and Rubens (the painter!) house.  The house was really cool.  It had a lot of his paintings in it and a booklet that told about each painting!  I enjoyed this the best because I had studied him in art history!  It was neat knowing that he once walked in the same room I was walking in!  Afterwards, a bunch of us left to come back to the hotel.  It is a dreary day and started raining just as we got to the metro station.  I suppose this is what the weather is usually like here, but we've been pretty lucky and had fairly good weather most of the time.  Tonight a bunch of the girls are going to see the Sex and the City movie because it just came out today!  

It turns out that I won't be traveling anywhere this weekend.  The group I was going to go with split up at the last minute.  One guy is going to Switzerland by himself, The people who are dating are going to Italy by themselves, and another group is going to Germany but have already booked their rooms.  I know I have enough traveling knowledge that I'm sure I could go somewhere and be okay, but I'd rather not be alone!  I was a little bummed at first, but I'm okay now because a LOT of people are staying this weekend.  We are going to go all over Brussels seeing all of the things we haven't seen yet.   A lot of museums, the Atomium, things of that nature.  I'm really excited because I would hate to have been in Brussels for 5 weeks and seen nothing that makes it famous!  It will also give me time to get my projects done because next week is the last week and they will be due!  I've taken a few pictures, but not very many.  I added them anyway!  Love you!