Belgium and old and new friends

Christine and her daughter Emma picked me up at the train station. I was so excited to see both of them. Christine lived with us as an AFS exchange student during the 1997-1998 school year. She came back the following year to visit. I saw her once more when I was in Paris on a school trip in July 2006. At that time, Emma was only a few months old and she didn't come with Christine. As far as I'm concerned, I'm an Aunt! It was my goal to get Emma to call me Aunt Jane. It worked for the most part. Most of the time she called me Aunt Jean. It was close enough for me. Christine has a son Bastian as well. Both of them are too cute.


Emma


Christine, Emma, and Bastian


Bastian and Me


The city where Christine studied to be a preschool teacher.

Another highlight of Belgium is Sam lives there. Sam was in Mexico with me. He lived in the same city as Torben (about 6 hours from Sabinas). We ate dinner at his mom's house and I got to meet his two little brothers (both are very cute) and then we went to his apartment in Brussels.
Sam had to take an exam in Dutch the next morning. He hadn't done very well in the class all semester and he knew he was going to fail, but he had to show up for the exam anyway. He attempted the exam while I walked around the tourist area. He came out and told me that he would have had to get an 11/10 on the exam to pass the class. Needless to say, he will be taking the class again.
That same day, his Mexican cousins from Tampico (the same city in which Kathi lived) were visiting. We went to Bruge right after they arrived. Bruge is a magical, fairy tale-like city. I had never seen architecture like that before. I can see why it's Europe's "most romantic city" (one of my travel books said that); however, it's very touristy.












Sam and Me


Lots and lots of bikes at the train station.

The next day we spent the day in Brussels looking around. We met up with a girl who was an exchange student in Mexico this past year who stayed with this Mexican family for a few months. We all went on a bus tour around Brussels. It was a really nice way to get an overview of the city. It's so old and has all the government buildings for the European Union. It was so interesting. I'd really like to go back to the city and spend more time in the museums and touring.


I had no idea he was so small!







**Jorge (the son of the Mexican family) spent the year in France as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. He was a friend of Josh Erb, from Lena, Illinois. I spent one day in Lyon, France with Josh and his family in early June. It’s a pretty cool connection if you ask me.**

I spent one more day with Sam after his Mexican cousins left Belgium. He took me to Waterloo to see where the Battle of Waterloo took place. It was interesting and I got my exercise going up the stairs to see the big lion!







Later that night, he took me back to Christine's house.


Christine, Bastian, Emma, and Me


Sam and Bastian

That night Christine took me south in Belgium to her parents' other house. It's close to where Linda (an AFS exchange student who lived with my grandparents over 20 years ago) where my Aunt Ruthie and cousin Luke were visiting. Luke came up to the house (he left Ruthie at Linda's) and we went out to dinner. The next day, Christine went back to her house near Brussels and I went with Luke in their tiny rented car from the UK (steering wheel on the other side of the car) to Linda's house. I hadn't seen Linda in 5 years (the last time she visited Galena). I got to meet her daughter Avril. Linda adopted Avril from China last year and she had to wait a long time to get her. We were all very happy to know that Linda finally has her!
We celebrated Ruthie's birthday with lunch and then in the afternoon went to a brewery/monostary and walked around. It was a rainy day, yet warm. It made the ruins look very lush and green and pretty. It was especially fun because the road to get there took us into France and then back to Belgium.






Why hello there.


Luke, Avril, Linda, and Me (Avril had just woken up, she was a happy camper.)

The next day Luke, Ruthie, and I drove to Brussels to meet up with Christine and Emma. I actually caught a train to Paris, so I only got to say hello and then goodbye.

Luke, Me, and Ruthie