This week we visit Arts & Sciences junior Lauren Rusch, who’s studying in Brussels.
As anyone who’s ever tried to study abroad at Creighton will say – it’s not easy. One has to attend a meeting, decide where to go, apply at Creighton, apply to the program, apply for a passport and visa, find plane tickets and more. But of course, despite the stress, it’s worth it.
My study abroad journey began last March with the general meeting that every Creighton student who is interested in studying abroad has to attend. After that, deciding where to go with which program was a difficult task. I eventually decided on Brussels, Belgium with ISA.
Some study abroad programs seem to plop the students in the middle of a foreign country with almost no guidance. I preferred ISA’s approach – airport pickup, cultural excursions throughout Brussels and Belgium and a very involved resident director, all for about the same price as I pay for a semester at Creighton.
More people seem to be interested about the choice of Brussels. I think that is mostly because nobody knows anything about Brussels. It is the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, it is an officially bilingual city, not to mention the chocolate, waffles, fries, mussels and beer. Belgium is also centrally located in Western Europe, less than two hours away from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
I find something new here every day, but the city is actually quite small. It is a marriage between old and new with the Grand Place alongside skyscrapers.
The Grand Place is my favorite place in Brussels. It is a large square in the middle of downtown lined with a multitude of beautiful old buildings. Some of the buildings were originally built in the 1400s, some are gilded. Karl Marx used to hold meetings in one of the buildings.
The Atomium is one of my favorite landmarks. Built for the 1958 World’s Fair, it is a model of an iron molecule magnified 165 billion times set on its corner. It is so unique and sets Brussels apart from other European cities.
Interspersed throughout the city are ruins from the 1200s. I’ll be walking along and suddenly come across a tower from the old wall that used to enclose the city or a glass roof a little taller than me that reveals ruins 20 feet below. Brussels has been growing and changing since the 13th century and there is evidence of that everywhere.
The Manneken Pis sets my love of Brussels in stone. It is a statue of a small child peeing into a basin. The story goes that before battle, soldiers put their infant king in a basket up in a tree for good luck and during the combat he started peeing on the enemies. It has become a symbol of Belgium.
I cannot forget the food either, chocolate, gaufres (waffles), frites (fries, not actually French but Belgian) and of course beer. I have been here for nearly three weeks and I still have more to see just in Brussels – Mini Europe, which is exactly what it sounds like, miniatures of famous European landmarks, like Waterloo, the site of the battle where Napolean was finally defeated and a number of museums, including the comic strip museum. Then again, large comic strip murals are painted on the sides of many buildings – just another reason why I love Brussels.