cobblestones and places unknown: 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!!