What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I love lists. If you know me, you know this. I’ve made plenty on this blog and I’ll make plenty more. But I made a particular list a few months ago, a kind of To-do list while I’m here. Given that I’ve left Belgium and essentially finished my summer, I think it’s time we check in to see the progress I’ve made with this list.

1. Learn a language. Yes and no. I am not bilingual. But my French has improved drastically in the four months I’ve spent in Belgium. I think I now know French well enough that I can “get by”: I can go to the market/store, read a menu or order at a restaurant, ask for directions, give directions (I actually did that once), or read signs; I don’t think I can carry on a conversation for too long but I can understand a good part of simple conversations. So I’m happy with my progress here. Proof that thirteen years of core French wasn’t a total waste. In the post, I said didn’t expect fluency, simply proficiency and I think I’ve got that. Or close to that. Sadly, no progress was made on the Portuguese front. But who knows what three weeks in Portugal with my parents will do?
   
2. Travel to at least two new cities/countries. Done and done. Of the list provided I have been to Antwerp, Amsterdam and Madrid. Added to the list are the following: Lille (France), Cologne, Bonn and Trier in Germany, Luxembourg and Bruges, Waterloo and Ghent in Belgium. By the time you read this, I'll also have visited Lisbon in Portugal before heading to the south. I’m proud to say that I did most of the traveling cheaply. I can say that I’ve explored the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and the surrounding areas. I’m going to put off the bigger cities—Paris, Berlin, Vienna—until I’m at school. That way I can capitalize on cheap-non-summer-airfare and I’ll have more time to explore.
   
3. Earn a wage/Euros/not go bankrupt. Well, I’m not bankrupt yet but I didn’t do the first two. But my time of working for free is (hopefully) over.
4. Take a ride on the English Chunnel. Done and it was everything I’d hoped for. In case you missed it, you can read about it here.
   
5. Spend a night in a hostel. Check. I’ve actually done this many times over. We stayed in a hostel for two nights in Amsterdam and one night in Cologne, in dorm-style rooms with six people. I’ve stayed three nights in a hostel in Madrid, alone and so far so good. In Amsterdam the room was cramped but fine. Cologne will always stick out in my memory, not because of the hostel but the people in it. The one time I forgot my earplugs we get stuck with the loudest snorer this side of the Atlantic (that’s saying something coming from my family—Mom and Dad I’m talking to you).
   
6. Freelance a story. Nope, never happened. I’m too lazy to do the work required. Also, I’m not at all in the journalism frame of mind.
   
7. Visit the diamond exchange. Done. In retrospect, I don’t know if it was worth being on the list, but I’m glad I did it.
   
8. Learn to cook. I don’t even think I can say I made progress here. OK, maybe I did because now I can cook bacon and chicken in a pan instead of a microwave and George Foreman grill respectively. I’ve also added Tortellini to my repertoire. Not from scratch but frozen with a ready-made four cheese sauce. I would have like to learn, but I just got too lazy and then Cassandra, my guru, my teacher, left and I lost the will.
9. Develop some kind of collection. This one I got down. It’s an idea I stole from Tara, a friend of ours from the Canadian Mission. Before she left for Canada, she had us over to her house. Her and her husband have been in Brussels for the last three years and have done a lot of traveling during that time. While I was in their kitchen I walked past the fridge and saw their collection of magnets. And then it hit me! Magnets, what a brilliant idea! Useful, small, cheap and space enough for a design so you know where it’s from. And it’s not like you’re going to run out of room on your fridge. So now I have one for every city and country (except Germany and France) I’ve been to. Except Bonn—to my everlasting regret—because it was a Sunday and most stores were closed. I’m also collecting the maps I get when I travel. I have a map for Bonn, so that’s something. It’s a good insurance policy in case the map doesn’t pan out.
10. Ride on a European tram/streetcar. For this one I went over and above the requirements. I’ve taken many forms of travel in many different cities. Here in Brussels I’ve taken subways, trams and buses. In Lille I took their subway; in Amsterdam we took buses, trams and taxis. In Cologne we took the tram (sometimes even for free!) and in Ghent I took a ride on their tram. European public transportation is pretty reliable and smooth. They’re also much quieter than the systems in North America. Nowhere will you find the squeak of the Scarborough RT or the TTC streetcars.