Belgium Wrap Up

Well since I was in Belgium about 2 weeks ago now, I need to finish up telling you about my trip. I was flying out Monday at noon back to London, so Sunday was our last full day to hang out. We spent the day Sunday exploring Louvain la Nueve. As typical with many European cities, most of the shops and things were closed on Sunday (and Mondays too sometimes). But we didn't mind, it was a fairly nice day outside, and we just walked around. We first went to the Sports Center on campus where Charlie's team has some indoor practices. I found it rather interesting when the most popular sport there was hitting the bar. Yep, they have a full-sized, huge sitting area bar in the sports center, with windows where you can look down into the rec area. Already it was bumping at noon from people who just finished a mean round of badminton and had to wash it down with some Leffe lager.

We then walked through campus a bit more and into the little city center and scoped out the area. Mainly shops, movie theater, restaurants, bars, etc. Very nice and cozy actually.
Then we walked south of the center towards the Phoenix baseball complex. We spent a nice amount of time there, as one of the other coaches was also there and was showing the storage area to Charlie. Then Wesley and his girls showed up to throw the ball around, so we chatted with them too. Took some fun pics of Charlie on the field and in the dugout.

At six, Charlie's host father Yves, (pronounced Eves) picked us up from the hotel and took us back to their house, where Charlie has been temporarily staying. We met up with the mom Corrine, and their two kids, son Arnaud (he's 17 and plays on the Juniors team) and Se Se, who is 11. They were so kind to take us out for dinner at a very posh Chinese restaurant in Belgium. Have to admit it was the best Chinese I ever had. I think the two best parts of the dinner were 1) my dessert and 2) after dinner sake. Dessert because it was a beignet (basically a sugar-covered donut in a ball shape) with ice cream in the middle. It was served with sake poured on top and lit on fire. Yum! Lastly, we all were given a shot of sake, and before you drank it, if you looked down to the bottom of the little shot glass, you'd see a naked lady! Corrine teased Yves about the restaurant being a popular place he takes his visiting American business partners!



Anyway, they are absolutely wonderfully nice people and enjoy having Charlie stay with them. They all speak some English (except Se Se) and have fun practicing with Charlie. But they are also great about teaching him French as well. I took some pics of Charlie with the family dog and the nice third-floor room he's been staying in.

Corrine and Charlie drove me to the airport Monday late morning after a tasty Belgium breakfast of pain au chocolat (croissant with chocolate inside) and a latte.

I was definitely bummed to say goodbye to the bro, but I also knew he was in good hands with his host family, Carlos and the entire organization. And I also knew I was only a plane ride away (actually living closer to him now, than I have in the last 7 years in the states)!

The end. Tra la la!