Ik hou van Belgïe

After my very short arrival in Paris, and lovely dinner with Paul and Nicole, I quickly sped off to Belgium - my home away from home. I went to Belgium for two very important reasons, one, to see my amazing cousin/aunt Janice and two, to go to PUKKELPOP.

Seeing Janice was so wonderful. Now, this was my second time meeting her, but I can honestly say that I really feel like I have known her my whole life. I am so glad that we met each other and have started to build this really great relationship. Long story short- Janice is cousins with my Grandma, and I found out that she and her husband (Hendrik) lived in Belgium and instantly wanted to meet her.

Being with her and Hendrik was really relaxing and wonderful. We went to the lake, I watched Janice make beads from glass (really cool) and we ate yummmmmmmmyyyy home-made moule-frites - Hendrik's specialty. Now you might be wondering, what is this Pukkelpop thing I mentioned above. WELL. Pukkelpop is one of the best music festivals in the entire world (160,000 attendees)- and it just happens to take place less than 2km from where Janice and Hendrik live =)

Pukkelpop was such an amazing experiencing. I went with Dorus (my 2nd exchange student) and his friend Ben. We did it big, really big. It was all of our first time at the festival so I think we were really happy to be there. We camped with about,oh, what felt like 20,000 other people and it was seriously nuts - but in a good way. The festival lasted for 3 days and I have not had that much fun since Rock Werchter in 2006. I found lots of new DJs to become obsessed with and met some really amazing and interesting people.

But after 3 days of intense Belgian partying (multiply American party standards by 3),no sleep, and eating frites (french fries, but I will never call them that)- I was spent. I had to wake up very early on the last day of the festival and catch the train back to Paris so I could make it back to Paris in time for an orientation and meet all of the other CSU students at the hostel.

All in all, Belgium was fantastic - without going into too much detail, and I can not wait to go back!