Paris Part 2!

     Pardon the somewhat long post but a lot has gone on this past week or so!  Starting with our program trip to a chocolate factory where we got to literally play with chocolate!  It was so much fun!!  Two of us got to go behind the scenes and learn how to correctly fill the bonbons, we were even offered jobs.  Then the whole group got to make our own chocolate creations including our names or just plain pieces with fruit in them!
     This weekend, my friend Jen and I went to Paris!  I was glad I got to be with her when she experienced Paris for the first time.  Seeing the monuments again was just as awesome the second time around.  It will never get old!  And Jen loves the tv show Gossip Girl just as much as I do so we tried to go everywhere they filmed during the Paris episodes….I have never felt so special shopping when you would walk into these fancy stores and there is a door attendant. She and I both dislike museums but we felt obligated to see the Mona Lisa so we went and took selfless with her.  Paris was an exhausting city and I am definitely glad to be back in Brussels getting back to my routine.  There are fewer tourist here, which is fantastic.  I strongly dislike the attention tourist attract in places like Paris.  There were lots of "gipsy girls" around paris walking up asking if you speak english and wanting you to sign a petition for things such as helping the deaf.  It is just a ploy to distract people to try to pickpocket them.  all you learn to do is ignore them and keep walking.  what they are doing is highly illegal!  same as all the men walking around trying to seek you eiffel towers for cheap but all they do is distract you.  Its something to watch for future travels! We knew to just stay away from anyone walking up to talk to us and just keep on our merry way.
     Classes are starting to pick up pace and I've got three presentations to do in the next 3 weeks and several paper proposals to begin writing!  I am not a fan of having class one day a week for three hours but not much I can do about that except bring lots of snacks to hold me over!!
     I am loving my internship at the British School of Brussels! The people I am working with are just fantastic! They have welcomed me to their team with open arms!  And to be honest, I love spending time with the British, I am still learning english apparently! They have funny names for some things and we all get a kick out of the different words for things such as "fanny" and "hair bubble" (ponytail holder).  I am starting my own dictionary in my notebook to remember all these words.  They are not quite as weird as the French/Dutch names for metro stops tho, the french version is so beautiful such as Cimetiere d'ixelles and the dutch version is jus weird..begraafplaats van Elsene.  Not even close!!!  It brings a smile to my face every day when i pass all of these stops.  
     I can't believe i have been here for 4 weeks already!  So far, this has been my best study abroad trip. I have managed to make it over three weeks without getting food poisoning from random sushi, which is a step in the right direction!  I am surprised how normal Brussels feels to me now, but i still miss everything about home!  Next trip on my list is Ghent with the ISA program this saturday! It should me nice and low-key!