"Tell your friends they can get the train back to Brussels, we're leaving without them"

First off, apologies for lack of blogging, I just didn't have the motivation to do it on Friday after our trip and didn't really get the chance to do it yesterday so here comes a bumper edition lol.

Friday, up at 6am to be at ISTI to leave at 7h50...I knew from then on that it was going to be a long day, but I'm not complaining, it was a totally free day trip and I got the chance to see parts of Belgium that I hadn't had the chance to go to yet.  We started at the furthest of our three destinations, but bearing in mind this is Belgium it still wasn't that far away, at Ostende. In my personal opinion Ostende seems to be the Belgian equivilant of Southend/Great Yarmouth without the arcade (a.k.a there isn't really much there other than the beach! -please don't be too offended Katy!)  Whilst we were there we went to a Modern Art Museum and saw works such as this:

Modern art really isn't my thing...

After our very enthusiastic guide had finally accepted that we were bored and no we did not want to see just one more small piece and released us we had a little bit of free time to explore.  When we came out of the museum Nikki and I decided that it was a good idea to stick with the grroup (Remember this...)because then if we got lost we'd be in a huge group and they couldn't possibly leave without all of us.  We presumed that everyone was heading to the beach as that seemed the most obvious place to be going but sooner or later it became apparent that they were just leading us in one big loop so we decided to split from the group and go our own way to find the beach.  That went fine, found it without an issue and got the essential photos:

Then we realised that we'd gone against our own advice and quite possibly had no idea where we were or quite where we were meant to be heading back to and the map they'd given us was hardly precise.  So, in fear that we'd be late and be left in Oestende to find our own way back we decided we'd best start heading back towards the coach.  We'd been told to head towards a huge boat called the Mercador and that the coach would be parked just down the road, unfortunately Nikki must've had both her eyes and ears shut at this point and I just don't have a mind for navigation, just ask the girls about when we went to Spain...  Turns out in the end that we were there significantly before everyone else and ended up waiting for 30 mins for a group of Chinese students to get back.  The woman in charge was not happy and told us that next time we would be leaving whether we had everyone or not which I thought was probably an empty threat because you'd never see that happen at home.  In Bruges we didn't really get a chance to see anything because the staff lead us round like a flock of sheep, clearly worried they were going to loose people again.  It seems like a nice place though and I'll have to go back at some point.  In Gent we had a chance to visit the Chateau des Comptes and enjoy some of the views, once you've climed all the stairs that is.

This time we had a bit more time to explore Gent and have a look at the numerous churches that you can see in the photos above.  We still hadn't learnt about navigation though and someone trusted me with the map, soon Jenny and Nikki learnt that lesson and Jenny did most of the navigation to get us back.  Once we were on the coach one of the Spanish girls got a phone call from a couple of the other Spanish students that weren't on the coach, presumably they were lost somewhere in Gent.  About ten minutes later over the speakers came words to this effect "to the girl that was just on the phone, please tell your friends that they can get the train back to Brussels as we are leaving without them" and off we went! We were shocked, they really did mean it!

Once we got back to Brussels I did the really lazy thing and went to Pizza Hut on my way home, it would've been just as quick for me to cook for myself though and it was expensive so that will serve me right really!

Saturday morning held an exciting trip, I went to what must be the biggest Carrefour known to man!  I needed to get a few bits and pieces and it seemed like a good way of using the time.  I know now that I can't keep going there though, I'll end up spending a small fortune on things I don't need!  I did manage to get a travel mug though which means I can take my good old british cup of tea made with PG tips bags to ISTI with me.  I also invested in a couple of little grammar books that I need, there were a whole range and if I was made of money I'd have got them all, but seeing as I'm not a Grammar book and a Conjugation book will have to do.  Annoyingly I have some at home but didn't pack anything so useful to bring out here...

I've got the flat to myself this weekend so I invited Jenny and Nikki round last night for dinner and to watch a film.  As far as I know I didn't poison either of them so I count it as a successful evening!  Despite the fact that the film we watched was a bit odd and pretty much in Franglais which was a bit annoying.

I'll apologise now for any of you that are following both Lucy and I as this last bit could be a little similar to what she wrote as you may have been able to guess seeing as she was speaking about a conversation I had with her!  2 weeks in it finally begins to sink in that this isn't just for a few weeks, I'm not going to come back and start Michaelmas term at Lancaster in 2011 and everyone else is.  It's a very strange feeling and I think has bothered me more than I had expected.  As I said to Lucy it's a shame that we are spending our time here wishing away the days until we get to go back and see everyone again but as she quite rightly said it doesn't mean we're getting any less out of this great experience.  I'm thinking of popping back to Lancaster mid-term, just not sure if seeing everyone settled in will make things worse for me or if seeing them all is just what I'll be needing by then.

I should think that is enough blog for today, apologies that it's been quite a long one!