sister's sweet sixteen

I'm dedicating this post to my beautiful little sister, Hayley, who turns sweet 16 today!

I miss you so much sissy!

16 things I love about Hayley:

1) She is always, always herself. Whether she is rocking her latest edgy outfit or bouncing those beautiful blonde curls, Hayley is not afraid to be who she is. Not many people can say that, and it is a trait to be admired.

2) She's multi-talented: she is a swimmer, a runner, a beautiful pianist, a leader in her school, and smart. Whether she's been doing it for years (swimming) or just started (running), I love that she is so involved.

3) She has the best style. Hayley has an ingrained sense of style and the personality and confidence to pull off almost anything. 

4) She has a big heart. Hayley loves God, her family, and her friends with a passion and loyalty that makes me proud.

5) She understands me. We can sit in my car for hours, just driving around- sometimes talking, sometimes not, sometimes just listening to music. She listens to me and she gives me her wisdom- and she is usually right!

6) She has excellent taste in men (here's looking at you, Sam). She brought wonderful Boo Boo into our family and our lives, and we couldn't be more grateful!

7) She isn't afraid to try new things. She ran for student government and was in Miss Mayo, just to name a few things. She is always willing to put herself out there.

8) She is kind. Hayley is the type of friend and sister you want in your corner. She embraces people with her whole heart and always tries to see the best in others.

9) She is a makeup artist extraordinaire. Seriously, the girl has a talent! Can you come to Brussels and just make me look good all day?

10) She isn't afraid to laugh at herself. Hayley doesn't care how she looks to others- she'll laugh that deep belly laugh and just do whatever she wants!

11) She's smart. Hayley can help me figure out basically any problem in my life, and for a 16 year old, she's pretty wise. She has good grades and has a different type intelligence and way of thinking that I would kill for.

12) She's an otter. Kind of an inside family joke, but Hayley is way less high strung than Madison or myself, and so much more carefree! I envy her that, always.

13) She's beautiful. Seriously, do you know anyone with curlier, more beautiful blonde hair? Or a cuter little 5'1ish blue eyed fashionista? Whole package!!

14) She encourages me. I've always been blessed to be so close to my sisters, but I can't tell you how wonderful it is on a bad day to call your sister, and have her tell you everything is going to be alright. She's my biggest fan, and always there for me.

15) She'll sit up at night with me watching TV and eating brownies straight out of the pan. And we love it!

16) She puts up with me. Whether I'm being whiny or mean or just downright grouchy, Hayley takes my moods with a grain of salt and loves me despite it all. I know that even if one day we're having a knock down dragout fight and pulling each other's hair (which hasn't happened in oh, you know, a few months or so. Yes, we're 16 and 20.) I always know she'll forgive me. She's my sister and she loves me unconditionally.

There are so many more things I could say, but I just want you all to know how lucky and blessed I feel to have Hayley as my sister. I miss her more than words can say over in Belgium, and I am literally counting down the days/hours/minutes/seconds until we are reunited. Life just isn't the same without her.

So Hayley, have a wonderful, beautiful birthday. I'm so sorry I can't be there- but know that I'll be thinking about you all day! I hope you have a fantastic day, you deserve nothing less!!

picnic and ieper

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was SO nice. On friday since we didn't have school or work, Sey, Anna, and I decided to go have personal day. We bought some delicious salads and soup at a local store, then headed to Park Cinquantenaire for a picnic. It was sunny but not too hot, just the perfect picnic weather. Cinquantenaire is one of the few places in such a big city with such nice greenery, so it was nice to sit and hang out with a beautiful view that wasn't all cement! About midway through our picnic, some young Belgian boys came over and started talking with us. I use the term talking lightly, as they could barely speak English. There were about 5 of them and they looked to be about 16, so I think they were trying to be cool by talking to older foreign girls. Their English phrases included "what is your mother's name" and "where is lamp". It is amazing to me that despite this, we were still about to talk for about 20 minutes. After living in a foreign country for a while, I've come to find out that gestures, tone of voice, and body language are sometimes all you need to have a conversation. Between my passable French and their little English, we talked about their view of US politics, their musical taste, and where they were from. It was a fun little experience. After our picnic, we headed down to Grand Place for a quick visit to the Chocolate Museum. This was pretty disappointing- it was only a single house with a few informational posters. After the museum, we decided on a little retail therapy. We hit up H&M, which is a really popular store over here and really reasonably priced. I ended up buying quite a few things and left for home happy. The next day we got up early to meet the bus to go on a Furman group tour of Ieper, a Belgian city that has a lot of World War 1 memorials. It is in the Flemish province of West Flanders. While there, we checked out several cathedrals and many cemetaries. Iepers occupied a strategic position during World War 1 because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north. The cemetaries we visited were beautiful, but it was sad to think about the amount of lives lost. World War 1 truly was such a devastating war, and all those gravestones just really drove the point home. We also got to visit the "In Flanders Fields" museum, which was quite enlightening. All in all, it was a beautiful and reflective day. Tomorrow I'm heading to the church I've been attending, called St. Andrews. It is affliated with the Church of Scotland and reminds me of St. Luke at home, just with a Scottish pastor! Hopefully I'll also get to check out the marketplace. It's something that happens in Place Flagey (a square near where I live) every Sunday and is full of vendors selling delicious foods and other items. Here's to a restful Sunday!

our delicious picnic!

the view in the park 

"in Flanders Fields the poppies blow,

between the crosses, row on row"

Belgian countryside

german babies and castles

Today I got a really unique opportunity to do something different while in Belgium. Let me explain. Another girl in my program, Lindsay, recently posted in our group forum about a babysitting opportunity through her work. She explained that her office was having a leadership retreat, and that they needed someone to watch the children while the adults were in sessions. The retreat just happened to be at a German castle, owned by the Prince of Merode, a personal friend of one of the people who worked at Lindsay's internship. It sounded fun, and I knew that I would otherwise just be having a lazy Saturday in Brussels, so I agreed to do it. I got up early this morning and headed to Gare du Midi, the main train station in Brussels, to meet my ride. Of course, because this is me we're talking about, I made it to the station but subsequently got lost. I was supposed to be meeting my ride at 9 AM at one of the stations, but when it got to be around 9:10 and no one had showed up, I got a little suspicious. I called the trip coordinator, who tried to put me in touch with Tobias, who was my ride. It turns out that I'd been sitting at the opposite end of the station from where I was supposed to be, so I had to somehow navigate through the massive train station to find Tobias. I finally managed to do that, and we got underway around 9:45. I soon found out after meeting Tobias that Lindsay's internship was with a massive church organization called The Well. It is something like Newspring, for those of you who know what that is. You can find out more information here: http://www.thewell.be/ Anyway, there were two other girls riding in the car as well- Annaleah, who is a Canadian working as an au pair, and Yvette, who is from Peru and is also working as an au pair. They both attend The Well and were going to the leadership retreat as well. When we finally arrived, I was truly stunned. It was a real German castle, moat and all! I soon got to meet the precious children I would be taking care of- Rachel, an 11 year old American girl who lived with her family in Brussels (and is originally from Irmo, SC- small world!), Maximo, a precious 3 year old, and Jonathan, a 13 month old baby. Clearly Rachel didn't need much supervision, and Jonathan's dad was also there, so I just began playing with Max. He was truly too cute. We played in one of the rooms in the castle until lunch, which was a delicious array of sandwiches. Afterwards, the Prince of Merode gave us a personal tour of the castle. It was so gorgeous! I can't imagine having actually grown up in a place like that. After the tour, I decided to take the children outside to play. We found a small play place on the grounds, complete with a trampoline, a sandbox, and swings. Max bounced around on the trampoline for a while. In retrospect this probably wasn't a great idea because he'd just eaten, because he bounced so much that he promptly threw up. Throw up is not my speciality, but thankfully 3 year olds can only produce so much. Afterwards he smiled, took a short break, and went straight back to bouncing. We then built sandcastles and played soccer, and I really enjoyed just getting to act like a kid for a little. We played for a while longer then took a walk around the castle grounds. Some of the adults told Max that there was a dragon who lived in the castle, so I had to spend most of my time convincing him that the dragon was a friendly dragon and wouldn't come and hurt him. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside and then loaded up the cars and headed for a restuarant. By then all of the children were ready to go home, so I said goodbye to Max, my wonderful friend for the day. I had a lovely dinner with all of the people from The Well, and found out that some of them had studied at the Christian University in Columbia! It really IS a small world. After that, Tobias dropped us back off at Gare du Midi, and I headed home by metro just in time for it to start pouring. I had a lovely 15 minute walk in the pouring rain back to my apartment, but it was definitely worth it. I'm so glad I got to try something different and meet some cool new people. It's truly what I think the study abroad experience is all about! Unfortunately, tomorrow I'll have to spend all day writing a paper. I'm planning on trying a new church here in the morning though, and then heading for another run in Cinquantenaire Park, which is totally beautiful! Until next time...


Pictures!!

gorgeous view of the entrance to the castle and moat

picture of the castle from Max's and my walking tour

Max and baby Jonathan

precious baby Jonathan

Max was giving me kisses- what a cutie

the cutie himself

aachen and antwerp

This weekend we visited Aachen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium. We boarded a bus on Friday night around 6 to head to Aachen, Germany with the whole group (all of the kids on the Furman trip and our professor and his wife). We ended up getting there and checking into our hotel around 8 PM and got a delicious dinner. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed to Charlemagne's Cathedral. We went through the museum first, where the bones of Charlemagne and a fragment of the crucifixion cross are housed. It was really crazy and impressive to see the relics and I really enjoyed the museum. Afterwards we toured the cathedral, which was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures I have simply don't do it justice. Soon after we got to have some free time in Aachen, so we walked to a nearby park and got a kebob and some gelato and just enjoyed Aachen. It was a really nice town and not too tourist-y. We then loaded the bus and headed for Antwerp. In Antwerp we again settled into our hotel and walked to the big city center for dinner. We had delicious pizza and beer and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning we were up early for a 3 hour walking tour of Antwerp. Not my favorite thing since my feet are still in pretty bad shape, but it was still interesting. We got to see the river and the huge tunnel that runs under it (there are no bridges connecting the two sides!) and the red light district, which was honestly quite shocking. I'll spare you the imagery but needless to say I've never seen anything like that in the US nor do I care to see anything like it again. After the 3 hour (!!!!!) walking tour we had free time in the afternoon. A group of girls and I decided to go to the Diamond Museum in Antwerp. Antwerp is famous for its diamonds and diamond shops and dealers were everywhere so I was really excited. The museum was fabulous. I learned all these crazy things about diamonds (including that the mold for the glass Coke can is carved by industrial diamonds) and got to see a lot of beautiful replicas. The food in Antwerp was delicious as well. We tried chocolate, my first Belgian waffle, and these DELICIOUS homemade cupcakes. I honestly cannot tell you how all Europeans aren't fat. The food here is just so...tempting. We headed home from Antwerp on the bus, and on the way back got a glimpse of an old concentration camp. It was a pretty sobering experience, especially considering that today is the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. There isn't as much memorial coverage over here as I'm sure there is in the states, but the connection of those two horrific time periods just really struck a chord with me and made me think. Again, I feel just so blessed to be able to be having all of these truly wonderful, learning, and life-changing experiences. I'm lucky enough that I have a family to support me and a military that keeps me safe, and I'm lucky to be an American. Today of all days, this is especially clear to me. I also got to talk to my sister Madison tonight, which is so wonderful because I miss her so much (Hayley, if you're reading this, SKYPE ME!). Being able to keep in touch with my family and friends has been great. I got to call my grandfather on his and my grandmother's 60th wedding anniversary earlier this week, and once again I was just humbled by the love and unconditional support I have. To all of you reading this- thank you so much for being you and loving me enough to keep up with me! I miss you all terribly. All for now- the workweek starts early again tomorrow morning!


Some pictures:

the bust of Charlemagne (with bones inside!)

in the cathedral

the group in front of the cathedral

the Antwerp river

the most delicious cupcake EVER!

soccer game and grocery shopping

Last night, I was lucky enough to go with some of my group to the USA-Belgium soccer game. I was really looking forward to a fun evening after a long day of classes. Unfortunately, right when we started the hour long commute to the stadium, it started to pour. I'm talking like a monsoon- huge winds and lots of rain. We had paid good money for those tickets, however, so we kept right on going! In case you didn't know, one of the star players on the US soccer team is Clint Dempsey, a Furman alum. Once we got to the stadium, it was fun to get caught up in the USA spirit. We were a tiny fan section, and the Belgium fans were pretty wild. Most had their bodies painted/were wearing Belgian flags. The game itself was fun, even though it was pouring and we were freezing. We did get some nice hot frites (fries) to warm us up though! Unfortunately, the US lost 1-0. It was a fun experience to have for sure in any case. I've included some pictures:

all rained on!

the stadium as the national anthem was being sung

The only other thing exciting that has been happening besides work is that I finally, FINALLY found a user-friendly, good grocery store. Today I actually bought hummus! For those of you who know me, you know I don't really eat meat, so I have been seriously lacking in the protein department. The weird thing about Europeans when it comes to shopping for groceries though is that they don't use grocery bags. The stores don't provide them, so most people bring their own. Well there is no way I'm going to go out and buy a huge grocery cart, so I've literally been carrying my groceries in my hands. This didn't go so well today with two juice cartons, a bag of chips, two containers of hummus, and two containers of soup. Needless to say, typical Leah made an idiot of herself in Brussels (yet again I might add) by having my groceries drop and roll all into the street. I think I need my own TV show. Anyway, this weekend we are heading to Antwerp with the Furman group and Dr. Nelsen, so I'll have many stories afterwards!

pictures from first week

visiting parliament

Brussels Grand Place

parliament

with my friend Mattson in Grand Place! so beautiful

our apartment

terrace outside our apt

a few dublin pictures

cliffs of Howth

hanging out on the cliffs

Dublin!

Howth

seal!

loving life

irish breakfast

dublin!

Just got back from the most fantastic trip to Dublin. Sey, Anna, Connie and I got up super early (3:30 AM) to catch our cheap flight at 6:50 on Ryannair on Friday. We didn't realize that the airport was about an hour away, but we still made it in plenty of time. After about a two hour flight, we landed in Ireland! I can't tell you how surreal it has been to travel to all of these beautiful places. Our first point of order was to find ourselves a traditional Irish breakfast. We went to this awesome place called Bewleys where we got just that! It was so good- as soon as I figure out how to post pictures of it I will! After Bewleys we decided to explore Dublin. We went to the historical Dublin Post Office and then caught a bus to the Guinness Factory. Learning about how beer is made is actually really interesting. It's a lot more scientific than I thought! We got to taste a free Guinness with our tour and I have to say that stuff is just not for me. I couldn't even finish the complimentary small glass. It's very bitter but I guess I can see how some people like it. The actual Guinness factory itself is in the shape of a glass of beer, with a huge panoramic view of Dublin at the top. We sat up there for about an hour just enjoying the beauty of it. After the Guinness factory, we ate at the most delicious little cafe. They are obsessed with goat cheese here, which makes me super happy so I got a goat cheese, pesto, and red pepper sandwich and it was SO good. After eating we toured the Dublin Castle and a few pretty churches. It was honestly such a relief to be in a country where people spoke English simply for the fact that we had an easier time asking for directions. I was actually surprised to find out that people in Ireland still speak Gaelic. It was printed on many of their signs and was really cool to see. For dinner, we headed to a traditional Irish pub, which was also delicious. Dublin definitely has quite the pub scene, and we were lucky enough to get to hang out in the one where they filmed PS I Love You (with Gerard Butler and Hillary Swank). We were looking to go to a pub that wasn't very tourist-y and this one fit the bill perfectly. After the pub, we headed back to our hostel. This was my first experience staying in a hostel, and I have to say that I was really impressed. The people were really friendly, and there was always some added amenities for guests. One night they made free sangria for everyone, and then on Saturday they offered a completely free guided tour of the seaside city of Howth (more on that later). There was also free wi-fi and internet for only 1 euro. It was overall a really clean, friendly, and helpful experience. On Saturday we woke up and went on the guided tour of Howth. We had considered taking a relatively expensive bus tour to Galway or the Cliffs of Moher, but it would have cost us the entire day and around 50 Euro. This trip we took simply for 4.40 Euro (the train fare) and it was worth that 100 times over. The city of Howth is this beautiful Irish seaside city. When we arrived, we got to see all of these seals that hang out in the harbor, which was breathtaking and really cool. The seals will stare right at you! After hanging out with the seals and doing a tour of the harbor, we started a walking trip to the cliffs. It was about a 30 minute hike, but once we saw the view, it was completely worth it. The cliffs were some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. They overlooked the ocean and were just these gigantic structures with beautiful grass and wildflowers growing everywhere. The houses on the way up were also beautiful- one even belonged to the poet Yeats and one point! I'm really trying to figure out how to post pictures because I just can't even express how beautiful this experience was. Anna, Sey, Connie and I just sat up on the cliffs for about 2-3 hours just staring at the sea and reading Irish folklore. It was such a calming, wonderful experience. Once we started to get a little too cold, we started the long hike down. By the time we got back to the main part of Howth, we were famished. We ate at this wonderful seafood restuarant right on the pier and it was seriously the best food I've had since I've been here. I got this delicious seafood chowder and salad with crostini, goat cheese, and raspberries. We sat in the restuarant for a good 2 hours just talking, resting, and warming up. I think that has definitely been my most favorite day abroad so far. Around 5 we took the train back into Dublin (I promptly fell asleep). We were going to meet up with some of our friends who are on the British Isles study abroad trip who are staying at Trinity College and one who is studying in Limerick, Ireland. They ended up arriving around 8 PM so while we waited we ate a quick dinner. It was so so good to see some familiar faces from home and just catch up. We stayed at Trinity College that night with them, and got up super early for our flight back to Brussels. Overall, Dublin was such a wonderful experience and I can only hope that each weekend travel will be as easy and fun as that!

job

I had a wonderful day today. I went to my new french class, the second level, and it turned out to be perfect. I remember a lot more than I initially thought I did so I think this class will be more my speed. The professor is really nice. She's this older French lady, and kind of zany, which I love because she reminds me of two of my most favorite people ever, Mrs. James and Mrs. Martineau. After class I grabbed a quick sandwich (goat cheese, apples, and honey- seriously SO good) and then started my long commute to work. All in all with the buses it took about 45-50 minutes. When I finally arrived, with no wrong turns this time, I got straight to work. Basically today I just had to familiarize myself with ENAR and its policies. I'm going to be in charge of writing their weekly newsletter and keeping up with their social media (primarily Facebook and Twitter) so I have to know what kinds of interesting articles to post. There are so many sources that I have to browse to compile all of that information, so I spent a lot of today just researching. Since it was only a half day I didn't actually begin writing yet. Then I headed back and went out to dinner with some of the girls in my group for Adair's 21st birthday, which is this weekend. Since our flight to Dublin leaves tomorrow morning at 6:50 I'm going to try to head to bed early. I'm so excited to go and experience all Dublin has to offer!