The Rotary had arranged a trip for all of the exchange students to Brussels. It would be the first time I would meet up with the rest of the students, and the group was estimated to be 230. Enormous. That was a lot of people to meet and talk with!
Kaela, the student from Hawaii, and I carpooled to the train station in Liège where we met up with our group of students to take a bus to the capital. The students had time to introduce themselves, talk and exchange pins for their blazers. (it's a Rotary thing...)
The first place we were taken to visit was the palace. Belgium has a monarch, their current king, Philippe, came to the throne in early August after his father stepped down. I have heard of the Belgian king described as a moderator of political life, and a symbol of unity for the country. I suppose the monarchs role could be compared possibly to the monarchy of England. The palace in which the monarchs of Belgium lived was beautiful! There were so many beautiful chandeliers and great halls with intricate designs!
See these beetles? Well, their shimmery green wings are used to coat the ceiling and chandelier you see in the picture below.
After leaving the castle we were taken down the streets of Brussels to the Grand Place, the main square of the city. And it was certainly grand. We stopped to eat on a side street of this magnificent square, and then trekked back to visit one last place.
We moved on to another government building; Parliament. The parliament of Belgium consists of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. We were taken to both the rooms these two groups met it. They were large and ornate, and it was quite interesting sitting in the seats where those who governed the course of the country sat.
Now, there's something important to understand about this day. 230 exchange students, and about 100 extra Rotary members add up to a great many number of people to heard about the city streets. We exchange students knew very little of what was happening, we were ordered forward and flags bearing the gear of Rotary led the way from place to place.
Other than that, we had no idea what was going on or where we were going next.
After seeing the rooms in the Parliament building, we were ushered into the main hall where there were some drinks for us. Kaela and I decided to use this time for a restroom break before we headed off to who knows where.
Turned out not to be the best idea... When we came back out, everyone was gone.
We attempted to locate the other exchange students, and after a bit of searching we located an official Rotary member. The day was over, and the students were dispersing to return to their host homes. Kaela and I should have been on the bus heading back to Liège. The Rotary member told us that the students had already headed toward the bus, and we should go to the park where we had first arrived. The park was across the road from the Parliament building, and the drop off area was on the opposite side of the park. We headed there, and found there was no bus.
Great.
From our previous interactions with other exchange students we were able to contact people on the bus and confirm that the bus had indeed left. Without us. We found two other exchange students who were also supposed to be on the bus and together we figured out what we needed to do next.
Find the Central Station, and get to Liège. Of course we were all exchange students who had never been in Brussels before, and certainly never alone, and we had a decisive lack of any true knowledge of French or Dutch. But we needed to find the train station.
I was informally chosen to be our little groups spokeswoman as we chose strangers to ask for directions. I spoke to five people, of whom three spoke English. At first we had only the advice I had managed to receive from a non-English speaker that roughly set us in the general area of the station. From there we had more help (in English) and actually managed to travel down the right streets to find the Central Station. Once there it became a lot easier, and with just a little more help we found the right platform and the right train.
It was then that two previous exchange students who had been helping with the Rotary event found us, totally by accident but they were certainly a godsend! They helped us get on the train and situated out our tickets and it was with their help we finally managed to get back to Liège.
We had made it, tired and hungry as we were, we had managed to figure out our way in Brussels and return safely to our waiting rides back to our homes. I thank God for safely guiding us back without any true reason for panic! It was quite a day, full of walking and sight seeing and then confusion. But it was a fun day, and certainly an adventure!
Glad you were safe! -Your mom told me about this briefly over the weekend. I said I am sure she was glad to hear about it AFTER she knew you were okay. :) What an adventure, indeed!
ReplyDelete