This was last weekend (So, Oct. 20th-21st). I'm sorry I havn't updated you in a while, but quite busy with the boys. This week I have to babysit them ALL DAY LONG because they are on school break and we don't leave for Majorca until this Thursday (YES, we are going on vacation to that lovely island off Spain! Can't wait to be on the beach:))
Well, now let me tell you about my quite full weekend. (You can kind of get a glimpse of it from the picture above...I have no idea who that girl is kissing me).
SATURDAY
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| Rue de Neuve (the biggest commercial shopping street in Brussels) on a Saturday. Basically, don't go shopping on Saturday here.. |
Saturday afternoon I met up with a new au pair who
just arrived in Brussels last week from Leeds, England. Her name is Abi and is
very nice! We went shopping together on the big shopping street (Rue de Neuve)
which has like every store you can think of plus other random ones and about 5
H&Ms.. I found this new store here that seems to be quite popular with the
young people called Pull & Bear. It’s apparently Spanish and has a very
urban style that I like a lot. I’m surprised it hasn’t found its way over to
the US already… I’m betting it will soon though!
Pull & Bear
Fashion Days
After shopping we hopped on the metro to go to
Fashion Days—the first big Fashion festival in Brussels. There was a big
fashion show taking place, as well as some exhibitions of clothing made by
Belgian designers, most of them right from Brussels. It was my first real fashion
show, and honestly I was really surprised! I had never seen such skinny models
in my life, and some of the clothing they wore was just out of this world, while
others I could see myself wearing. It was a very strange mix. At one point they
had men walking down the runway wearing only a tiny cloth cover-up and a giant
black mask with netting sticking out all over it. What I also found quite
surprising was how unhappy they all looked when they walked down the runway… I
wonder if they are told they can’t smile. I’m thinking maybe it is because if
they smile it will distract people from looking at their clothes.. But that’s just
a guess.
Sorry the pictures are so blurry, the models walk so fast!!!
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| They started out with more normal outfits... |
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| Sorry this is so blurry (they are literally speed walking down the catwalk) but this model literally looked like a man but she had boobs... It was definitely a girl but had a chiseled face and broad shoulders like a man! |
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| At the end they all came out together. The cool thing I saw was that they had models of all different races..Caucasian, Asian, African American, Middle Eastern... |
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| Room outside the fashion show, lots of fashionably dressed people and a big screen with half naked ladies dancing on it (what is with Europe and videos of half-naked women being shown as entertainment??). You could get your hair and makeup done by professionals (lines were huge tho) |
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| Real model getting photos taken! They had castings going on there as well! |
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| Just the beginning of some crazy designs... This outfit is a cross between going out in the Russian tundra and going on the moon |
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| Hmmm when would I wear this? Perhaps for my next Star Wars theme costume party? |
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| A bathing suit? If not, then I have no idea when I would wear that, unless I worked in a strip club |
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| Upside-down skirt! (second in from the right) |
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| Snake necklace... |
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| This dress, if you loo very carefully, actually is showing the internal organs (made with lots of colorful beads..) |
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| The bottom jaw of this skull is the pendant of a giant silver necklace. |
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| Scary but intriguing photograph on the wall |
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| Talk about shoulder pads... |
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| Now we're REALLY talkin' bout shoulder pads! |
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| I think I found my wedding dress!! |
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| Dress on the right is made entirely out of can tabs. |
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| Skirt made of film strips |
Mirano Continental
Saturday night I went to a new club called
Mirano Continental. It’s one of the more fancy/expensive ones in Brussels (I guess this
past weekend was just kind of my “indulge” weekend, going to all the fancy
clubs and such) You have to pay 15 euros to get in (which is probably the
steepest price you’ll find for a club here in Brussels), but after that you get
a membership card and then its only 10 euros the next times. Inside the club it
has really high ceiling over a giant dance floor with round pedestals in the
middle were you can get up on and dance above everyone. They were crowed with
girls in tight short skirts and high heels dancing like crazy. Up in front of
the dance floor there is a raised stage with a giant bar and the DJ above it. When
the famous Kid Cudi party song “Pursuit of Happiness” came on, the bar suddenly
lit on fire (literally, like it was flaming around the whole thing) and
everyone went crazyyy it was, well, awesome. Oh, and did I mention that I danced practically the whole night with the owner of Jeux d'Hiver's (the most exclusive clubs in Brussels) son?? Well, I did:) I also hung out with two managers from Abercrombie, who Antonia invited. They offered me a job at the store, but unfortunately I had to turn it down because I have practically no free time here during the week:(
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| It was "Girls Gone Wild" night, with free drinks for "girls" until 1 am. Definitely not the greatest plan if you ask me. |
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| My blonde girlfriends from left to right: Mandi (au pair from Finland, Sofia (Antonia's friend visiting from Sweden), me, and Antonia (my close friend and party-partner, direct from Stockholm) |
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| Apparently setting your bottles of alcohol on fire is a "thing" here.... |
On the sides are two staircases going up to the
second floor, which has a full, semi-circle balcony looking down over the dance
floor. The second floor is mostly just full of big, white plush couches and a
smoking area. Almost every club and bar I’ve been to
here in Belgium has a smoking room. I try as hard as possible not to be dragged
into them, but sometimes I am forced to when the people I am with smoke (of
which many of my friends here actually do). I hate going in because I can barely
breathe and then my clothes and hair smell badly of smoke. It’s so weird how
popular smoking is here, especially with the young people. Whenever I pass the
high school in St. Gilles (the commune where I live) at the end of the school
day to pick up the boys, all the students stand in front of the school and pull
out there pack of cigarettes and start smoking. Literally everyone I pass is
smoking, some looking as young as 16. I just can’t believe it. I think the
health message isn’t as strongly conveyed here as in the States.
Sunday
UN Day, Grande Place
On Sunday I woke up at 2pm and then headed
straight to the Grande Place (which is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site)
for UN Day! It marked the 20th anniversary of the UN, which has one
of its main offices based in Brussels. There were many tents set up, providing
information on the three pillars
of the UN – Peace and Security, Human Rights and Development, as well as
showing the living conditions of a
refugee family, and even providing sample World Food Program emergency food
rations (surprisingly delicious). The food was made in a big stove called an Okra, that is "hybrid" because it can use
both wood fuel and these special "briquettes" that they make from
chopped up garbage when they can't get enough wood. They also had a
bongo drum circle where kids could play. It was really a nice scene, with
everyone speaking different languages and learning about the great things the
UN does. It made me really consider working there one day. I talked to a lady
at one of the booths about interning, and unfortunately I can’t until I’ve
graduated from UBC, but then she said I should definitely apply to intern. She
also said that knowing my three languages will also give me a step up in
getting an internship, which is apparently quite difficult because so many
people apply.
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| The "Peace Dove" over the Grande Place |
They also had a
suggestion box. The website about the success of UN Day said this:
And from the suggestion box came requests to sort out everything
from the situation in the Middle East to all the waste and pollution we create
worldwide.
Questions were asked on how to become a
Secretary-General and how to change the structure of the Security Council.
But most of all we received messages on how
important the work of the UN is and how without it there would be so much more
suffering, war and hunger.
I think it’s
great that they got so many suggestions and concerning so many different
topics!
It was a peaceful ending to a quite crazy weekend:)
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