The past few days we've spent most of our time in class. I now see why we're getting so many credits on this trip. With the past few days combined we've been in class for 14 hours and we've had five papers due already. Fortunately, this will only last for two more days then we'll start traveling. Our classes consist of an international business cases class, religious studies and a Flemish art and art markets class. In our business class we've completed cases over Heineken, Stella Artois and LVMH which consists of over 50 brands including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, De Beers and others. It's all been really interesting and our analysis of their marketing strategies has been my favorite part. We will be visiting Stella Artois during our time here so it's been beneficial to have some background knowledge on the company.
Because we've been in class so much we haven't had a lot of time to go exploring so most of these photos come from our classroom buildings and walks to and from our Hotel.
This one of the buildings of the university. Because we're in class so much, we have 30 minute breaks built into our schedule so this is one of the places we've been taking our breaks.
After classes ended for the day a few of us needed to run to the grocery store to grab a few things. The hotel doesn't have wash cloths, so that was the only thing on my grocery list. All that they had was a microfiber car window cloth, so that's what I'm washing my face with right now… In general their grocery store is very similar to ours except for the fact that everything is in Dutch.
I tried to take a photo of the signs. Once again, a lot of stares.
They had an entire aisle full of packaged waffles. Much better than eggo.
They also had a much larger bread section than we do in the US as well as cheese. I ended up walking out with a baguette as well.
This is the building that the grocery store is in. I meant to get a picture of the stone entrance but I'll be back there soon so I'll make sure to snap one. The building is absolutely gorgeous and there are three levels within it. It is on the commercial street that is probably a mile of shops. The grocery store is in the lower level of this building.
After the grocery we started to look for something to eat.
Above is the street across from the market that is across the street from our hotel. That's pretty confusing. Essentially, our hotel is on a sharp corner that faces an intersection. The block in front of the hotel is very open because it is their market place so we can see the above street if we look out of the window. There are a lot of restaurants along streets around the market and they are generally pretty cheap. Usually about 10 to 15 euros.
We decided on a pita restaurant and it was absolutely amazing. The above is the Coke can in dutch. They also are a tad bit smaller. Everyone here calls it "Coca".
I ordered the pita gyro and it was so good. We fell in love with one of the sauces on the table. It tasted a lot different than anything I've ever had but none of us could figure out what it was.
Day 3
Day three we were in classes again for seven hours again so not many great photos. The photo below is of the steps that we go down to get outside of the building. The university is spread across several blocks and each of the buildings have their own courtyard. This is the courtyard we go through to get back to the building (pictures above) and then from there we can get out to the street.
Courtyard
Back in the lobby area to get out to the street.
This is taken from the archway heading out towards the street.
Once again we were searching for someplace to eat dinner so these next photos are from our journey to find a fairly cheap restaurant.
This was one of the churches along the streets. We almost missed how beautiful it was. It's kind of like the Ferris Bueller quote, "If you don't' stop and look around every once in a while you might miss it". There is so much amazing architecture here and when you're walking down the street with all of the quick traffic and pedestrians it's easy to miss some pretty impressive buildings.
Antwerp is a very fashion-oriented city. There is approximately a 10 block radius completely filled with stores. This is the block that is all high-end stores. The stores include Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel and others.
Still looking for dinner. The restaurants along this square were pretty expensive. About 18 euros for pasta. We've been checking menus before we go into these restaurants. This photo was taken while Haley was going in to see the menu.
Still walking…
This is one of the restaurants on the street across form the market but we ended up deciding on a restaurant on the other corner. Finally food!
I ordered an "American hamburger" and it definitely hit the spot. It tasted a little different than a burger in the US. It wasn't greasy at all and the meat tasted richer. Also beer here is the same price as water about 1.5 euros, so the decision was obvious.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and finished up homework. This was the first night that I went to bed before 12:00. I was watching Monsters University by 11:00 in bed! Yay for a good night of sleep. More classes tomorrow and we have our first two site visits!
Better pictures to come,
Emily
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