holiday-ing.

Over Thanksgiving break we were able to travel wherever we would like for "holiday." Natalie, Brianna, Caroline, Jordan, Molly, Grace, Devri, and I chose to go to Brussels and Amsterdam. Other girls in our program were in Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic. It was such an amazing trip! We saw so much in those 4 days... and crammed so much into our tiny backpacks! 

Just before we left on our trip!

On the Eurostar to Brussels. We took the ferry to France in September so I was really excited to get to take the chunnel. It is so nice and easy! I'm a fan. 

Brussels Grand Palace Market put on a light show for Christmas, it was sooo cool! The Grand Palace Market is one of my favorite spots in Brussels, the architecture is incredible. 

Of course the first thing we ate, even before dinner, was a Belgian waffle. They are incredible. I don't think I can ever have another waffle again after this trip, they just won't live up to the real deal. I had 4 in the matter of 1 night and 1 day. They are that good. Strawberries with whip cream and sugar is my favorite!

We were in Brussels all day Thursday and started exploring early that morning...

A cathedral we ran into and the European commission building. 

I never would have thought that I would grow to love going into churches, but Dr. Seely has converted us into "sacred space lovers." Even on our vacations away from our professors we hit all the major churches and analyzed the architecture and the way it represents sacred space. nerds. thanks Dr. Seely.

We walked through Brussels' main park and saw their arc. The park was gorgeous and so was the arc. I loved how the Belgium flag was hung in the middle archway. 

We went into the museum at the end of the park and went through the coolest and photography exhibit. It was of the best photographs of world events for 2010 and it was very eye-opening. 

We also went to the Atomium, which is essentially Brussels' Eiffel Tower. It was built for the World Exhibition of 1958. The theme of that exhibition was modernism... we can't get away from our school work here! of course we had to report back to our Great War and Modernism teacher Dr. Tate.

Inside the Atomium

Throwing up the Trekkie sign in the futuristic Atomium.

Brussels was such a blast! It is such a cute little town. One of the things that made it really fun was that my dad served there for 6 months of his mission, I loved picturing my little dad riding his bike around the town in a suit. I went with the best girls and just had an absolute blast. We celebrated Thanksgiving over steak and fries, shared what we were thankful for, and went to a Mozart concert at a cathedral, it was perfect.

And of course, we goofed off a ton!

Just reenacting a wedding scene on the steps of the cathedral and having fun in the metro.

Playing in the park.

Brother Seely, my director, touches everything everywhere he goes... especially if there is a do not touch sign. His reasoning is pretty awesome, "how many people can say they have touched a Roman wall, the grave of King Henry the 7th, or Shakespeare's childhood home?" Well now thanks to Brother Seely, I can answer yes to all of the above and much more. I've taken this touching thing to heart... a worker at Westminster Abbey even asked us what we were doing because he saw us bending down to touch the graves of all of our favorites in Poet's Corner. Well here I'm just giving the booty of this guy a little touch haha.

More to come (Amsterdam tomorrow)!