Hey hey once again,
Europe’s definitely an interesting place. I find it amazing that back in Toronto and London, it’s difficult enough to take the bus down the street to go visit a friend, whereas here, I’m hopping on planes to visit someone I’ve known for a few hours.
I know that might sound a bit crazy, but when someone you meet in passing invites you to their home country across the continent, sometimes, you say why not?
And so, that’s how I ended up in Belgium this past weekend.
With low expectations and no idea what I was in for, I bought my $100 (return!!) ticket and flew to the land of waffles, beer, and putting mayonnaise on French fries. Over the course of the weekend, I traversed through Bruges, Liege and Brussels.
Drinking Trappist beers (they’re brewed by monks – all are over 9% and delicious), visiting my dream bachelor pad (see photo) and watching my friends hand roll and smoke more cigarettes than I thought possible, the entire trip was an adventure. Although the country is at a terrorist threat level of 3 (out of 4), which I found out 20 minutes after booking my flight, thankfully I made it back alive.
It might have had something to do with the bazooka carrying, camo-dressed police walking around, but I like to think the terrorists were intimidated by the 5’6’’ Jewish-Canadian kid taking photos of his waffles.
When I’m not fighting off terrorists, I’ve always been an advocate of trying new things. Being in Portugal, of course that means surfing. With my Spanish friend Tim, and his Australian friend Tim, we loaded up a couple of surfboards into the car and headed over to Carcavelos. While waves were bashing me from side to side, throwing salt water into my face and nearly drowning me with undertow, Tim & Tim seemed to be enjoying themselves much more.
After an hour and a half of misery, dehydration, and having the 10 year old girl beside me laugh as I fell trying to sit on my board, I figured I deserved a little break. However, soon after, and with some angry Portuguese encouragement from a woman who was upset I stopped trying, I decided to get back out there.
Continuing my battle with the water and just as I’m about to lose hope, I finally catch my wave. Surprisingly, the past hours of torment were all worth it. I rode that H2O all the way in, with cheerleaders Tim & Tim giving me a big thumbs up. I can understand how people get addicted to the sport; the few moments you’re up are extraordinarily satisfying to say the least. After a few more waves, I started to get the hang of it, even giving my fellow surfers the ‘gnarly’ hand sign (thumb and pinky out). As fun as it was getting up a few times, after 3 hours of eating enough salt to start my own ocean, I’d decided I’d had enough and packed it in. If you get the chance, give surfing a go!
School has been a lot of fun. It’s an interesting dynamic that the students and professors have with Canadians. As native English speakers, we’re at a huge advantage. The corporate finance course I’m taking sounds like gibberish to me – I can’t imagine what my ESL friends are going through. Especially the ones who are marketing majors in the class.
On a similar note, professors really enjoy calling on me when no one’s hand is up, and people have approached me for projects because they hear that Canadians are smart (little do they know I’m pass / fail). With exams coming up, unfortunately I’ll soon need to actually open up a book.
Hopefully I’ll continue to have some more stories to tell. Until then, there’s a ton of fado to hear, and Portuguese chicken to eat. On that note, catch you later!
Love,
Zev
