Welcome to Liege!

So that past couple of days have varied so much (like a menopausal woman), I can hardly keep track but here I go.

After I last posted, I had a couple of days where I did not feel quite whole. Some are welcome to say that it was self pity that made me sick or that I am not adjusted to the variety of food, but whatever the cause I just did not feel well. So on comes Wednesday afternoon, the group decides to skip the second half of French class to study by ourselves (insert nap time in between). However, things did not go according to plan for Eleah and me. After dragging my tired butt over the bridges and to the grocery store, we debate about what food we should get and what milk we should try. Fact: The milk is not in the refrigerator like the USA, it is on the

shelves at room temperature. Interested??? Yay, I was too. Anyways after hauling our loot back to the apartment, unpacking and putting on the fat pants (really large comfortable pants) we finally sat. What time was left for napping was nonexistent for this kid; instead I study French and German. Upon making the decision not to go out that night with the girls and after we all "studied," the girls leave for some more shanagans while I enjoy a nice bed and German. Come that morning and still feeling like some lovely puppy presents, I snooze the alarm and roll back to sleep. Thursday was wonderful even though I could not focus at all, it was nice to watch some

American show and just relax. During my "me time,” Eleah rushes home declaring she is going to Mastrick, Holland for the day to help a friend move his belonging to Liege. Fact: Mastrick is only a 20-30 minute train ride from Liege and they have SUN!!! (Sorry, I am in desperate need of vitamin D.) And again I go back to enjoying being lazy.

Friday

Friday, yes I was planning on going to the last session of the French class till my appointment with Liege's Exchange Student Coordinator ran later than 30 minutes past the hour. So what is a

girl to do in Liege in the morning???? I don't know, eat breakfast!!! I go to Eleah's and mine breakfast join - Delifrance. The first of many memorable moments to come, the power goes out while I am trying to pay at Delifrance. Since I did not have exact change thus needing to break a bigger bill, I waited till the power turned on. All of 10 minutes later, the power turns on again till I get upstairs and it turns back off. One would wonder why the power kept getting switched off, until one looked outside to see City of Liege van parked outside. Apparently they need to work on that side of the streets power, however they could not see that Princes Bekah was hungry and requested a quite time. Hmmm....I guess not. My diligent secretary must have forgotten to send that. Oh well, life goes on and it leads you one amazing clothing sales block away from breakfast. So I will not complain, because I found I good sale, got an amazing waffle and a good jump start with espresso.

Getting tired of clothe shopping (about 15 minutes in and because I knew I should not be buying anything), I start to shuffle my feet towards the University. Once I found the room where the Erasmus Welcome Day would be held, I finally meet Kaite H (here on called Heiny) for the first time. (I am going to lightly touch on all of this section because A LOT of information was given to us in French and I was not paying attention and you do not really care what is was.) So Heiny

and I are gabbing away waiting for the other girls to get there, the show to start and when to get out. After a lot of French and one headache later, we all leave for a "Traditional" lunch and waffles. At this point, Heiny is disgusted at the food; Katie, Eleah and I are just cautioned. Knowing that we will be going on a walking tour of the city, I eat enough to fill the stomach (and not be to sick from the food). Number Two of interesting points, my French teacher comes to our French group and starts asking for me. Okay that was weird, however it is weirder that when you go to stand up he is there looking at you. A little creeped out, I ask him what he needs. Apparently, he sought me out to help him learn English and in return he would help me with French. Sounds great, right?!?! Yeah I thought so too, however I made sure he know it would have to include my friends or it was not going to happen. What college girl in her right mind would agree to meet up with a teacher (who actively sought you out) to study with him on a weekend (evening), think about it...not many. Moving on, the massive collage of students got broken up into different groups for the tour. The English speaking people got into my group and off we went with our camera happy

photographer. Point Three, I now have a camera happy photographer who stalked my steps on the tour....literally. Every time I turned around, he was there snappy

another photo. It got to the point where I would purposely stand behind everyone and would not move till the group had disbanded. (I have to ask...WHY ME!!!) Why do old men feel the need to attach themselves to me in a slightly inappropriate manner? I just do not understand. I know Katie D. mention she get a lot of "Creepers" back at her home university; did she pass off the disease? Because if that is the case, Katie D. is more than welcome to have it back!

Anyways, on the tour we see a lot of the sights Eleah, Katie D. and I already know about, except

for a few. Point and Case, the famous Belgian Stairs (Mountain of Bueren).

I made it up in about 15 minutes with my knees about to give out. Personally I thought I did well, all things considered. After completing the hike (literally) we sit, breathe and take in the sight. From the top, you can see almost all of Liege. Beautiful!! It is well worth it but I would probably not do it in a St. Louis summer though - OUCH! Even though it was beautiful, we all did not want to go back down the steps because all of the steps are slanted down, are not even (or broken), and we just did not want to. Begrudgingly the tour guides inform us that we are going down a different way. This was nice even though the steps were just as bad, it was nice to see a different section of the city.

Finishing out the tour, our group head to the rendezvous point for free drinks before the movie. (All this time we are about 45 minutes ahead of schedule.) So we just sit and talk for a while till we can drink for free. Upon deciding what to drink Zsuzsanna (new friend from Hungry) and I both get a cappuccino and Peket (which is a shot). Enjoying the good cappuccino and a shot of Peket, the group settles in and we begin to chat. Feeling antzy and ready to leave, I join Zsuzsanna outside while the girls chat it up with our new Greek friends. Again, enjoying new friends (from Italy, Germany, and Romania) we stand around and chat about ourselves and our families. It is starting to become a known fact that my parents are envied after parents. (I like having this Ace in the Whole...just in case I need brownie points withe the parents.) After years, centuries even, the girls are finally ready to leave. The Gang with Zsuzsanna travel to get 3Euro subs and beer for later tonight. Munching on a Curry Chicken baguette sandwich, we go pick up our pre-game items. Finally I start thinking; I can finally get in a shower! From hiking those stairs to being around smoke for a while, a girl just needs a shower.

Once dispersing from our location, Eleah and I start our trek back. Taking a few touristy pictures (Eleah) while I stand on alert for strange people (it is late, dark and we are walking in an unlit section along the river). We get back to the apartment. Cracking open the computers for some business emails and talks with friends and family, Eleah and I get ready. Question, what kind of hair style does a girl do when she is in a time crunch???? Of course, wavy curls!! I braided the hair and spray the crap out of it with curling spray, only to complete the first round by blowing dry the braid. Intermission was doing the bangs. And finishing out with round two, I undid the braid to blow and scrunch the hair into curls. And what did I get one big wavy/curly hair that had some volume to it. It works, right?!?! Well it had to at this point because we were already late and we still have to find the landlord to pay rent. Upon completion of apply our respective goop to our faces, we set off to find our landlady. Who would have thought, that two girls could not find the landlady when there is only so many rooms in the entire building - hint she was not there. Hmmmmm?!?!?! Seriously! So tramping back up the stairs to replace the money, Eleah and I dash off to City Living. Booze walking there, yes I know. I probably broke a couple of laws, but it was all for the sake of having a good time. Point about the beer (few many enjoy), it was 12% alcohol! Seriously??? You ask, yes and it taste nasty (label states "XXX-strong blonde beer.") It was under 2euros, how could I go wrong??? By mixing a very strong red wine that our resident Italian brought (yes the wine as wonderful!!).

Realizing that we are all late to our party (Erasmus party for the exchange students), we leave City Living for the bar. Enjoying the crowds of people (or the mass horde of dance college students), we nudge our way to the back of the bar. This is where our group spent out time for the night. After a while of dancing and drinking, some of us decided we should stand on the chairs so we could have more room to dance. (Chairs were similar to a wooden box.) Again after a while of dancing on unsteady ground, my body ate major bar floor. And like any other professional clutz, I jumped right back up and continued to dance my heart away. Hours later (of having fun), I start to realized the Katie D. and Eleah were no longer at the bar. This was confirmed when I realized my pants were vibrating - from my phone. Stumbling out of the bar, I set off to find the girls at another bar a bit away. But thanks to my dad for making me studying roads and land marks to make sure I do not get lost, I made it there safe and sound (well minus my old sweater I wore over my shirt - I remembered that the next morning). Gathering the girls or vice versa, we get off to get food. The girls went to this pita bar (it is a sandwich bar) and a road side vender for frites (locally loved - fries). Graciously accepting one of the frites, we head off to City Living so Eleah and I can deposit Katie D. (Heiny was walked home earlier by a new German friend). Depositing Katie D. Eleah and I clumsily make our way to our side of town, only to drop (literally) into bed for the night. (I am being evasive with the night because I know some people do not want to know and to keep myself in check.)

Fact: It is now a game to write down (during the semester) how many things Bekah will lose when drinking.

Saturday

After waking up early to crusty contact eyes, I wash my face and am relieved that we are not late for the HEC Welcome day. In fact I had woken up before my usually alarm. Finally I am starting to adjust - with the aid of late night wake up juice). Checking my emails to confirm the time for the HEC day, Eleah and I go back to sleep (or just Eleah). I do not know why I could not go back to sleep, instead I just enjoyed my cozy cave under my comforter (sucking down water as I go). When I could not stay the agitated feeling any more, I got up and took a shower. I had so much "crap" in my hair from the night before (curl spray, sweat, probably beer, sweaty bodies, and just generally bar crud). Needless to say a shower was needed and a few shampoos to the head.

Feeling refreshed, I congratulated myself on standing by my roots and dressed very American...big college shirt, jeans, and comfy shoes. I know I suck out like a sore thumb, but I have been dressing the European part for a while, and I just need some American college grunge dress for a while. Revisiting the mirror for a lighter layer of our goop, Eleah and I run out the door for HEC (we were already late). Getting to the HEC campus later then I would have wanted, we wait for the massive decent of information to begin. Did you know that I am currently not registered for classes? Yeah, it freaks me out to...AND I can only (currently) find HEC classes. Ummm not all of my classes are through HEC. For a control freak or a girl with such tendencies, I started to flip out about orientation and the fact of how little I know of this school. Fact: HEC is a hard business school, their building designer was on crack when building the structure of the building, and in the cafeteria there is a bar. I personally do not understand how European college students can handle this much partying and drinking and still maintain their grades....HOW?!?!?!?!

Anyways, about half way through the information session, tour, and lunch, I start discovering aches and pains in my rear, knees, and shins. What do you think that is from...falling off of the chairs last night? OOO yeah, I have a running tally of two on each leg and a very sore rear and lower back.

City of Liege = 2 points Bekah = -5 points

Back to the point, after the presenters finished their song and dance and feed the wild pack of hungry college students, we opted for going home and meeting late to buy Heiny a straightening iron (she blew out her chi last night....lol). Once home, I attack my computer with vengeance to figure out what classes I need and how it will transfer back. And wonders of wonders find new classes and hope they will transfer back to my hopefully selected class. (We will see about those ones in a year..uggg.) Sorry off track, while Eleah and I are doing this, Eleah is perpetually distracted. And being the task master that I am, I yell at her to focus on her stuff so she can get the right classes and get into them. I do not believe I have ever roomed with a more ADD person, but I give her points for putting up with me and my task master personality about homework and school. She lets me yell at her to focus, that is roomy love right there! :)

So here we are picking classes, skype calling parents, waiting for the girls to show up to shop. While I waited and waited for the little dears to show up, dad skyped called me while I was sending out emails back home. Blah Blah Blah, family talked, I jested (made dad pissed and wish he could come get me and lock me away :), the girls show up. Talking and skyping a bit more...we finally leave to buy a straightener and window shop. While at the mall FOREVER!! Heiny and I decide dinner was in order - noodles in a Styrofoam cup. Katie D. got Haagen Dazs ice cream and Eleah an espresso from there also. Munching/sipping on our respective items, we chat some more - go figure. Finally complaining too much we go back home, the Katies to City Living and Eleah and I to our apartment. After lounging around, Eleah starts to get ready for her "date" with her sexy Canadian friend. Sneakily asking me about safety tips (because I was not going out with her..ice the knees), I crawl out of bed to show her some very basic self-defense move that I was taught late last month. Enjoying the light come into Eleah's eyes, knowing that she could now "kind of" defend herself if need be (or at least scare them), Eleah proclaims that she wants to take Ju Jitzu with me. Excited to have a buddy to practice on, I start describing some other moves that I could show her later. Describing some of the flood moves, I saw Eleah become a little be more apprehensive as I go. I started to think, "Well crap, there just went my grappling partner...crap!" But I swiftly changed her mind, by telling her I would attempt rock climbing with her. We will see how that goes..mmmmmmm.

So now here I sit, writing this massive blog to my friends, family, and readers for a couple of hours now. And I do hate to say it, but my delicate, little fingers are tired and my eyes are crying for some "good" sleep. So I wish you all a good night!

See You all Later!