There could never be a more beautiful you: Antwerpen, Belgiumness

Door to a Chocolate Factory

Hoi everyone! It's day 4 of this fabulous adventure! Finally over the whole time difference and tummy aches that not getting the right amount of sleep was giving me, it probably doesn't help that our pillows are only 1 inch thick talk about a back ache! For yesterdays class, we all assumed we would be stuck in the classroom for 3 hours taking notes, but Dr. Wright surprised us all with a field trip to 4 different chocolate shops!!! It was called a chocolate crawl going from one shop to the next taste testing an array of choccies. This is not your average chocolate either. Here, in Belgium, the stores are cooled and chocolates kept refrigerated to the right temp to keep them from melting, there is absolutely zero fake wax added to them whatsoever. They were very yummy, but after one my tummy was satisfied-too rich for me. I still tried them all though, who can resist? My last one was filled with banana which was not the greatest Ali had to spit half of it out woops! Still loving the bread! The worker in the bread shop almost knows us by name, he always say to us as we leave "see you tomorrow" he knows its our fave! After the chocolate crawl we went on a cultural tour of Antwerp with our very own Antwerpen tour guide, she filled us with lots of Belgian fun facts and showed us some pretty neat places around town. Our feet and mostly shins are sore as can be, but boots have been the comfiest shoe for us even though we were told by the locals that boots scream foreigner, still don't believe that one! Today we toured the Port of Antwerp and had our very own backstage passes and again an Antwerpen guide. Hard hats and bright yellow construction vest were a must as we were in on the loading and unloading action from ships all over the world-Saudi Arabia to Tanzania to China to the beautiful USA. We saw the Chiquita banana port and coffee bean headquarters and a couple others, but those were the coolest. Saw millions of bananas in the warehouse just waiting to be shipped on out. It's so fascinating to see the puzzle pieces of the world that can sometimes be so broken be placed perfectly together. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the warehouses it is that top secret soo the pictures i have are just of the whole port and some ships, but let me tell you there were docks everywhere and ships coming in and heading out to all different directions. Oh and we also had class earlier today from an Antwerpen professor, it was a long 3 hours but well worth our time! Tonight we went out to a billiards pub and I found my new favorite and only favorite beer... Framboise for only 2 euro 20 euro cents! If you know me you know that I am not a beer girl so this was big for Ali! We had a fun and very safe time, making the boys of the group walk us home thanks guys. Tomorrow we have class for 6 hours yuck! But can't really complain when next monday is our last day of classes for the whole 5 weeks yippeee! I am adjusting to the whole not smiling thing slowly but surely but i will still leave you with smile :) A