I Hate Revising Papers, So There's No Way I'm Revising My Blog

Woke up. Got ready and was going to head to the train station to head to Paris, jokes on me I forgot my shoes in Katie and Ali's room but for whatever reason they are at the train station obnoxiously early so i have to ask walter, the manager of the residence, to open their door only to find out that he had to stop some Russians from coming to our room last night and basically kicking our ass because we were playing Farkle and talking too loud. Anyways, got the shoes and ran to the train station hopped on a speed train that got us to Paris in under 2 hours, I glad;y watched 2.5 episodes of Sons of Anarchy on the train, when we arrived in Paris and got out of the train station it looked a lot like Antwerp. So we walked to our hotel and checked in Mike and I are sharing a room, i'm on the top bunk where its ridiculously hot. Then the group met up and we took the subway, which was super hot and really packed with people, we followed Dr. Newell Wright, aka New aka Newy aka Snoop Doggy New aka Dubya anyways. followed him to Notre Dame, the place was basically amazing and the inside was just as impressive, huge stained glass windows and monuments inside. No hunchback spotting though. After that we hopped onto the subway and found ourselves at the Palace Royal aka the fricken Louvre! I was so jacked, seeing the glass pyramids got me really excited we didnt go inside because we were on a general sightseeing tour but we will be going there tomorrow and looking around. We then walked our way to the Obelisk where Mary Antoinette was killed also an interesting sight. Then we hopped onto of course, more subways and ended up at the most notorious round about in the world, Napoleons own Arc de Triomphe! This too was an amazing sight to see, this is when it felt like all the stuff we see in movies is really real, being there in person felt so unreal. After some photos is was once again time to move on, back to the subway and finally at the Eiffel Tower, kinda. We ended up on a few blocks away from the viewpoint of the Eiffel Tower so we took a bunch of photos. Again it felt weird seeing something you read about and see in movies and books. It was truly breathtaking. Tomorrow we too will go to and on the Eiffel Tower. More subways now, and we ended up on a street that I cant think of off the top of my head but i guess it's one of the most expensive blocks of shops in the world. The only thing i bought off this block was a Sprite from McDonalds because it was so hot  and i was so tired and thirsty that i was willing to pay 2.50 euro for a medium drink. We ate at some little italian resturaunt that served these super flat bread pizza like meals and my goodness it was scrumptious (thank you thesaurus.com delicious was voted most overused word in this blog). There were a bunch of different kinds, cheese, pepperoni, mushroom, potatoe, then for dessert they had banana chocolate and cinnamon apple on the same type of flat pizza. After being super stuffed we walked and subwayed our way to an overpass, turns out it was the one Princess Diana died at, we had no idea this was ganna be on the tour so it was really fascinating to find out where we were. After that we got on a huge tour boat and got a tour of Paris, we sat on top of the boat and got to see the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle and took some really excellent night picture of it. Seeing the Eiffel Tower at night was something i didn't have on my bucketlist but now that Ive seen it I've added it and crossed it off it was spectacular to say the least. After the boat ride we walked ourselves to the hotel because Dr. Wright straight up abandoned us. Since being back I took a shower and the shower head has little LED bulbs to depending on the temp of the water you can take a shower in different colors, it may or may not have blown my mind. But now the whole 10 miles of walking today is telling me to go to bed.

Wake Up In The Morning Feeling Like Nick Nelson

Woke up. Breakfast was a salami sandwich with Gouda cheese and American mayo with a coke, not my first choice but its cheaper to buy things at the grocery store and eat for days than to go out every morning for breakfast and pay 3-5 euro. Then it was time to go to the train station this time our destination was Brussels, only an hours ride. When we go there we went for a walk in our business casual aka the sweater vest made its second appearance on this trip, to the European Union Parliament and got a lesson in how voting here works and new treaties are made then we got to sit in that huge half circle room full of 700+seats, you know that room they always show on CSPAN, I felt pretty legit, not ganna lie. After that we took a subway, my first time ever, to basically the other side of Brussels where we walked a mile or so passing a bunch of restaurants and we were starving when we finally were told where and when we were going to meet up as a group. We were given an hour and 15 minutes to eat and explore so Alyda and I went to a fast food place called Quick, it's basically the McDonalds of Europe and it was delicious, 2 burgers, large fries, large (refillable) pop for 7 euro, seriously a steal here. Then I sat with Katie and Ali eating some Australian ice cream that was also very delicious then we all met up as a group in a plaza that was surrounded by huge buildings that were over 300 years old looked like palaces. We then walked to the famous statue of the little boy peeing, it was a tiny statue we all thought it was going to be a big monument because the mini statues were everywhere but no it was the size of a kids doll. We walked though out Brussels hopping on more subways to help us get from place to place, stopped at a museum because it was free to go to the scenic view from the top but then a bunch of us had to use the restrooms so we went looking for them and in the process basically toured the museum for free, win. Then we went and saw the European Council and European Commission and took another train to the Atomium which is a huge statue/building that looks like atoms it was pretty sweet. We then hopped back onto the subway to get to the train, hopped on the train to get to Antwerp but I sat next to a guy from Antwerp so we started chatting and I guess it was a little too loud because everyone on the train was listening, but he was a legit guy and spoke 6 languages and was learning Chinese for his job, seriously a tank. Once we got back to Antwerp we headed back to the residence and showered and I'm packed up for the 3 day trip to Paris tomorrow. Now its time to feed my latest addiction, Sons of Anarchy.

Look At Those Racks

Woke up. Did some last minute cramming and then went to the final class of the trip aka the test. Got a C so not happy but at the same time i know i can still pull off an A or a B in the class so not too worried. Caitlin Clarke and I walked basically around the town and went through a couple of bakeries while looking for a cake since its Mike Smith, my roommate, 21st birthday. Cam back to the residence and got everyone up to our room and had delicious cherry chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting for mike. After the little party i firgured out how to  get my hands on the entire season of Sons of Anarchy, watched the pilot episode, sick! then took a nap before we headed off to the diamond district, not as cool as i thought it was ganna be. went to a shop that was cool because we saw people actually cutting diamonds and cleaning them too then got to look around at the diamonds and found a pin that costs 34000 euros aka $46000 then we walked down a street that had nothing but diamond shops, diamond exchanges and literally diamond banks were the only thing they do it hold onto peoples diamonds. then we were let free and I went back to the residence to watch the 2nd episode of Sons of Anarchy, yeah addicted already, napped and went with the group to an all you can eat ribs restaurant paid for by NDSU, i had 3 racks of ribs (title of blog) that we dipped in this syrup that tasted kind of like bbq sauce but it was like 5x better, SO GOOD!!! And it came with dessert, i had teremesu, gross. After we all left dinner and went back to get ready for a night out for mikes birthday, we went to what we call "our bar" and had some drinks, i had too many too fast and no longer feel good which is why im back blogging instead of out socializing. Sounds like a good time to brush my teeth and head to bed.

Put This In Your Instant Queue

Day 8.

Woke up. Checked Fantasy football right away and the later game scores, cant wait to beat Damien tonight :) May or may not have made me late to class today, oops. After 2 hours of class we had an hour and a half break i went to Aldi, a local grocery store and bought some 2 things of lunch meat, cheese, 6 pack of pop and the total was less than 4 euro, I wish shopping at home was that cheap! Then had to hurry back to the residence and make my sandwich and dress up in business casual, sweater vest was in full effect today. Basically speed walked to the group picture which turned out to be a whole 12 seconds long. Then class for another 3 hours. After class we went back to the residence and gathered our laundry and went to the laundry mat just down the street, got yelled at for sitting on the washer, oops again. Cost 5 euro to wash and 1.50 euro to dry that's expensive I thought. After that adventure Mike Smith and I went to the grocery store again since we ran out of bread when we came back I ironed some wrinkly clothing. Tomorrow we have our last class, which is a test so I'm ganna continue to study for it soon. Sorry you wasted your time reading this blog, todays events weren't anything like all the traveling I've been doing. Kinda sad when the highlight of my day was waking up and checking fantasy football scores. Tomorrow we're going to the diamond district so that should be interesting, so please come back tomorrow i promise it wont be as bland as todays. Oh yeah this song is always on their version of MTV and it's actually catchy, so watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE-dwpWpscU

Bikes, Trains and Kyle Orton's Pains

Day 6.

Woke up and went to the train station at 930am (230 for you Fargo-ians) to get on train for my first train ride it was pretty cool nothing crazy sweet but it was another new thing for me, arrived in Brugge and had a mini tour of the town it was pretty neat, a ton of bridges and canals and churches. Dr. Wright then rented 16 bikes (14 students him and his wife) and we went on a 18 mile bike tour, as we took off I was yelling "SAMCRO coming through" (yeah I think I'm ganna watch seasons 1 and 2 when I get home, I'm already addicted to sons of anarchy) the whole reason we went on the bike tour was to get to the ocean, we asked for directions along the way and one guy told us it was less than 5 km from where we were so we kept on trucking then we asked a guy with a map and we had another 10km so 2.5 hours into the tour we still had a while to go and since we only rented the bikes for a short amount of time we had to turn around. Day 1 we learned that if we ask someone a question and they didnt know the answer to it they'd lie to us before they said they didn't know....that's what happened today. ouch. well we turned back and rode back to the town, jenacious took a spill on her bike, looked like a faceplant at the time my stomach dropped but now thats hilarious. Once back in Brugge we went to a nice restaurant and had this really good tomatoe based soup, steak and potatoes and chocolate fudge covered ice cream. Best part of the meal was the green tea i drank, the streak was really good its just that this green tea was basically heaven in a cup. (ps Ali WILL marry Lee) After supper we got on the train and headed back to Antwerp to the residence. Well we decided to go to the student bars and I tried the local beer that was only 1.90 euro and the penny pincher inside me got excited so I had a few too many. It was a fun night though and nothing got out of hand so no worries there. I was escorted home by sober Alyda, thanks miss, and hopped on the book of face quick before brushing my teeth and immediately falling asleep.


Day 7.

Woke up and headed to the train station to buy tickets to a local city that has an amusement park, jumped on the train and arrived in the town we jumped on a bis right outside the train station and got bussed to the amusement park. There were a decent amount of rides we went on but there were a few sick ones like the Typhoon, where you start by going 90degress literally perpendicular to the ground then in a split second flip over and head straight towards the ground and then you hit a double helix and basically barrel role it was so fricken intense, there was also a ride that's like the pirate ship ride where it swings back and forth except instead of a pirate ship it was a large circle so you sat around it and faced out and it spun as you swung back and forth, holy crap it was sweet, there was a rollercoaster that was inside a building where we got in and it was pitch black and you do a bunch of circles going up when there's a clock that is timing down that's being projected onto the ceiling and then when we got to the top we rode in and out of the wall still in the pitch black that occasionally had strobe lights and lasers it was cooler than it sounds I swear, they had a rollercoaster that was identical to the mad mouse and thats always its own little adventure, even if the wait was 40 minutes, in the park was a 4D movie so that was kind of cool, shaking seats and mist being blown onto us while watching, then it was time to jump onto the bus and the train and finally we were back to the residence and I've been watching football via stat updates on espn. Orton just lost the game throwing an interception again, shocker. Seriously put in Tebow.

I think I Farkled on myself...

Day 5.
Woke up and went to a place called Olivers for breakfast, had a cold omelet with ham and butter on bread, it was pretty good.  Then picked up a Monster energy drink from a store outside of the college for 1.50 cheap and delicious. Class went 3 hours today however the nice thing about it is we get a 20 minute break in the middle so the teacher can get coffee. Even with the Monster it was rough staying awake for the class. After class Ali, Michelle, Katie and I went to Dominos to grab some pizza cost was 8 euro for half a large mushroom pizza...worth it. Came back and ate it then got a text from Caitlin saying "Watching Greys Now" So i finished my last slice and ran to her room. Greys was solid not ganna lie, just wish they would have had the sinkhole collapse when Hunt was in it. oh and chiefs a tank for taking the fall. But besides the premiere I've decided ill wait til I get home to watch anymore new Greys. Katie Ali and I then took off on the town in search of Michelle when we found her we went to this huge museum where we go 10 floors up and onto the roof to see the city it was one hell of a sight! Making our way back from the museum was a challenge we gladly accepted, even stopped on the way at a grocery store because the ladies were hungry/thirsty. After making it back Michelle and I went to the cheapest grocery store in town, Aldi. They have two workers in the store and all the food is on the crate it came on but it was worth it becuase for a loaf of bread, 8 yogarts, a pop, a 6 pack of tea, ham, salami, cheese and a bag of chips it was less than 8 euro. After walking back I was roasting so I showered and headed down to Ali and Katies room to make some sandwiches and play some Farkle. Four hours later I got my first win after losing to Ali, Katie twice and even the noob Caitlin, wasn't a happy camper for a while there. Also heard some interesting stories regarding "sharting" It was indeed another good night.

And Then I'm In Europe...

Waited in the Fargo airport for an extra 20 minutes then hopped on a tiny plane to Chicago. Once we got to Chicago we found our terminal and watched the last minutes of football I will be seeing in 5 weeks...worth it. Hopped on the plane that went from Chicago to Brussels and ended up sitting next to a guy that was a rocket scientist from the Netherlands, he was totally legit though. Started talking to me about how he's a pro when it comes to drinking because the legal age where he grew up was 16. Watched the clouds some and they had a few movies on the mini TV's that were attached to the seat ahead of us, watched The Beaver with Mel Gibson, not that good and I watched Big Bang Theory because they were showing random TV shows. I finally got comfy enough to take an hour nap before they turned on the lights to feed us a cheesy breakfast, an hour later we landed in Brussels Belgium. After waiting a while for our bags we met up with Dr. Newell Wright, our instructor. We hopped on the coach bus, 14 people 72 seats...yeah we're pretty important. Drove to Antwerp, where we are stationed, and went to the exchange station, changed $200 for 142 euro I felt cheated but that's life. Drove to our residence, it's a pretty nice place to be honest Mike Smith and I are rooming together, 2 beds a couch a TV a patio and a bathroom. Jen Caitlin Mike and I after unpacking went for a little walk and ended up in a tiny bar and found out water was 1.75 while a bottle of beer was only 1.50 so I had my first legal beer while we were over here, still not a fan. We then had to walk a few blocks to the University of Antwerp for lunch and to get our in country phones and a quick orientation. We then walked around Antwerp with Dr. Wright and he bought everyone here a sweatshirt, baller, and then we ate at a restaurant I had pizza it was so so. Then we walked back to the residence and hung out in the only room that gets good WiFi, Jen, Amanda and Caitlin's room until 9 when I came back to my room and was going to watch a movie on my laptop but woke up 30 minutes later realizing I fell asleep and decided bed sounded better than a movie.

Day 2.
Woke up and such, walked to the University and ate breakfast and had another orientation about Europe and was let free around 4 Jen Sara and I went downtown Antwerp and bought some food including fries that had ketchup mayo and onions on them, DELICIOUS! except the ketchup is different here and not in a good way. Then we went to a few tourist vendors and bought some souvenirs and then our legs were exhausted so we went back to the WiFi room and we all hopped onto Facebook and Twitter to upload all our photos, sorry if people are already getting sick of them. Around 830 we got ready and did what any college student does here, we went to the bar. The bartender was super cool and helped us order and I believe 11 of the 14 came I had a dark, very dark beer and a long island ice tea, this lightweight was feeling it. We ventured from sitting as a group by ourselves to chatting with the locals in a large opening and I met a girl from Poland and a girl from Italy and finally a few guys from the United States! Then it was bedtime. So I walked home and went to bed.

Day 3.
Woke up and went to class, class consisted of us walking around the town and eating free chocolate, followed by a tour around Antwerp with a guide so we found out the history of a ton of buildings in town and even visited a castle. We ended the tour in the middle of the town, a part we hadn't yet been to so Caitlin Mike and I went off on our own and found a cupcake store that had this amazing cupcake in some delicious vanilla type frosting topped with a raspberry, worth the 4 euro. We then walked our way around and found a chicken shop and got a chicken sandwich topped with hashbrowns, kill me now it was so good, then headed back to the residence. Day 3 ended up with most of us in the WiFi room, seriously like 10 of us in one room on some shady wireless internet all trying to upload pics to facebook, the connection was basically dead. Around 10 I came back to my room and started watching Hall Pass before falling asleep.

Day Favre.
Today we woke up and actually had a class, 3 hours worth, everyone's still recovering from jetlag so we all kinda dozed off throughout the class. We then got on a coach bus and went to the port of Antwerp and walked around a loading and unloading place, a coffee bean and coco bean warehouse, a banana unpacking dock and a chemical plant. They were pretty cool, once the tour was over Caitlin and I booked it back to the residence in hopes of finding Grey's Anatomy premiere only to be disappointed. Looks like I'll just have to watch it on the DVR when I get home (DON'T DELETE IT CREW HOUSE!) Caitlin Jen Mike and I went to McDonalds and I got a 1955 because I've never heard of it, it was a hamburger with bbq on it, gross. Mike and I also stopped at a waffleshop and had legit Belgian Waffles, mine was dipped in chocolate. Holy crap it was good! We returned to the residence and I finished watching Hall Pass, it was ok. A group of 12 of us went out to a pool hall and us 5 guys ordered a shot each, totaled 40 euro, oops. Went 3-2 in pool tonight so I'm pretty proud of myself. I came home early though because I felt no need to spend more money and I wanted to upload the newest pictures and get this ENORMOUS blog written.

I promise the rest of the entries wont be this long so please continue to read I'll try to update every day so I don't end up with these huge entries.