Progression

From a sleepy countryside village...



To a quaint little town...



Which is traded for something that is more city chic...



And then replaced with something refreshingly modern...



Slowly transforming into uniquely urban...



Followed by lovely potential that is soon to be remodeled....



Quickly becoming a bit neglected...



Or all together forgotten.

So that was my photo assignment for last week. I got way more into this one. The theme was architecture. I'm super excited for this week's theme: Food.

Currently: happy that I talked myself into buying my new scarf

Good Girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls go to Brugge

I went on a sort of spur of the moment trip to Belgium this weekend. I visited Bruge (If you are wondering about the title it was inspired by a tourist t-shirt that I found hilarious for some reason. I guess they were trying to be edgy, lol.) and spent a couple of hours in Brussels.

I went with my friend Megan. We were under the impression that most people in Bruge would speak French, it turns out Bruge (Or Brugge) is actually more German than anything. Although once you are in the town it is obvious that everything is run for tourists and every sign is posted in about 5 different languages.

Megan and I

I loved Bruge. It is the most relaxing, beautiful place. Everywhere we went we saw the coolest buildings, and details. Even the doorknobs were pretty (We started taking pictures of the unique ones). There is a lot to do there as well. We took a boat tour of the city. From the canals you can basically see everything worth seeing in Bruge. Our tour guide was a funny guy. He kept quizzing Megan on her french history and trying to set her up with his son who was a chef at a restaurant along the canal. He also spoke little bits or every language. So he would give the tour in English, french, throw in a couple Japanese phrases for the girls next to us, and then would ask if anyone spoke Spanish.

I also climbed the bell tower (no elevator) and got a gorgeous view of the whole city. Plus the bells rang while we were up there, which was very interesting. One of the most stunning things we saw on our visit was the sculpture of Madonna and Child in the Church of our First Lady. We also visited a church claiming to have a vial of Christ's blood.

Michelangelo's Madonna and Child

The view from the top and the lovely ringing of the bells.

One of my favorite things that we did was rent bikes. This was probably the highlight of my trip. The store closed at 6 so we only had them for a few hours. I wish we had gotten them the second we arrived in the hotel. We saw bicycles everywhere in Bruge. It was a lot more fun to get around this way, and toward the end of the day we found this cool park (Minnewater Park) to ride around in. We even skipped a museum or two just so we could have more time to use our bikes.

Everywhere we went there were lace stores. They sold everything possible in lace form: handkerchiefs, table cloths, aprons, shirts, dresses, silverware holders, Christmas ornaments, coasters, etc. They also kept trying to sell all this tapestry stuff, which seemed kind of strange. The lace was pretty though.

This woman was demonstrating how to make lace by hand.

In Brussels I finally had a Belgian waffle. It was seriously one of the best waffles I have ever had; they are not kidding about how amazing those are! I of course had to buy some Belgian chocolates (In the shape of seashells!) and eat some famous Belgium fries. The place where we got fries gave Megan and I each a huge serving with a sauce of your choice (Megan was adventurous and got the curry). They also give you cute mini plastic forks to eat your fries with.

This weird fry man was the first thing to greet us at the Bruge train station.

In Brussels we didn't have a lot of time so we mainly spent our visit in the Grand Place. However we also found some interesting finds along the way (We somehow managed to get there without a map, which led to a lot of twists and turns).

Standing in front of the famous Manneken Pis Statue

A little bit of the Grande Place

Two random spots we found on the way back to the train station.

That's the end of my Belgium adventure. I had a great time getting to know Bruge and hanging out in Brussels.

Currently: in need of new boots

My! People come and go so quickly here!

My photo assignment for this last week.

Sometimes I wake up and for a moment I’m home. I am Dorothy opening her eyes to find she’s left the strange and wonderful world of Technicolor. The stop and go of the metro was really four lane freeways and traffic jams, the noise of late night traffic drifting in from my apartment window becomes the steady hum of Texas air conditioning in late October, and the river Seine transforms into a stretch of muddy bayou. Then my eyes adjust to the dim morning light; the moment passes and I remember where I really am. But despite any coincidental eerie similarity, often I just can’t shake how utterly different and out of the ordinary it all feels. A tiny corner of my mind rebels and wants to go back to the familiar, everyday land of black and white, where I know Auntie Em and the rest of the gang will be waiting. But just as that little thought creeps into my head, something happens.



I see that trees are still trees, whether they line garden paths or suburban streets,



And sunlight is still sunlight, whether it reflects off a countryside stream or the backyard kiddie pool,



And rain is still rain, whether it comes in handfuls or buckets,




And leaves are still leaves, whether they pile up on scenic hillsides or cement driveways,



And sky is still sky, wherever I am standing.

Eventually I remember that I can always find my way back home… no ruby slippers required.

Well that's it. The theme was a combination of nature and nostalgia. The nature photo thing was hard for me, but I did the best I could. For some reason this week I also had a hard time pairing the photo with text. I think I occasionally get obsessed with one part of the project and need to consider the whole more. Anyways it was fun to try something different with the essay this week. Hopefully I'll find something really amazing for this week's theme: Architecture.

Currently: Excited for my weekend get away!