Photography

I actually like to play that I am an amateur photographer.

I have learned some of these tips before. I agree with almost all of them except empty space isn't necessarily empty. Sometimes being really close is good but sometimes you need "room." But he later addressed that with the rule of thirds.

Also, I kind hate when people think pictures are only meant to be 5 by 7, straight on, people in the center.

Personally I like to shoot at the widest aperture possible. I start with the lowest ISO, and set my aperture at the smallest number and adjust my settings from there. I decide if my shutter speed is okay and will adjust, but I usually want that hole to be really big, I like how those photos turn out. I also kind of hate using flash usually. I don't know why and I'm trying to teach myself to use it more often.

If you click, it links to the full size version:

This is a shot I took at the Festival de la Lumiere here. Unless you're planning a photoshoot you really just have to work with what you have. I angled this image down because they were offered free hot wine and I wanted that to be the subject of my shot. I also edited it to give it the feeling that I had when I was there.


I took about fifty photos of these three kids. The one with the hat was so excited to be there, and I have some really funny shots of him dancing. I guess I really liked the way the fisheye lens framed them.


This is an African drum circle that performed. It was hard to get a good shot because not only were they moving fast but there wasn't a lot of light. It's hard to get a fast shutter speed when it's so dark.


This is to show you can always get a different perspective on things. These are the drummers from the other side of the crowd.


PS These videos really made me miss Clemson, haha. I miss that tiger pride. You don't see that at schools here. It's different because we have one football team for the whole school that everyone gets behind. And we have these colors and this mascot that applies to all the other teams. And here, sports teams are small. Teams at the same school can have different colors. They don't run around yelling "UCL!" Their pride is in their city and their people but it's different.

First Week in Louvain-La-Neuve

The next morning started our first day of classes. Of course, the university was still in exams so they weren't "real" classes. But they were REAL intense :D

We started out with five days of intense French classes which I was dreading. They turned out to be great! They were really enjoyable, fast paced, and full of games. We would listen to songs and she magically figured out what level of French we were at. I am so sure I have the lowest level of French experience but I got along just fine :)

The girls who live by me near Le Centre Sportif have started going to the bakery by us. We haven't really settled into apartment life so we will pick up a pain au chocolat in the mornings. Its sort of similar to a croissant but a little less messy and filled with chocolate. :) The owner is really nice and seems to genuinely be interested in us and where we are from.

Our nights we spent exploring.

On one of the some of us checked out this British pub. They have an English speakers club that meets there. We got some delicious fondue and I got to try the famous Rochefort #8. Rochefort is a Trappist Abbey. Some of the best beer in the world is brewed in abbeys by monks and the Trappist are the best of that kind. There are only SEVEN in the world and SIX of them are in Belgium. At the Rochefort brewery, they don't name their beers, they merely give them a number.



That night the entire group was out together, exploring Louvain-La-Neuve at night. On our way back a group of us were being very loud and rambunctiousness (this is totally normal and okay in LLN where drinking on the street will get you a smile and a "bon soiree" from a police officer) when the guy walking in front of us turned around. Quizzically he asked us if we were American. We were so excited and told him yes. Turns out he was an American too! His name was Sebastien and he introduced us to some of his friends who are Erasmus students. Erasmus is the European program that allows students to travel abroad in other European countries.



One of his friends, Eric turned out to be my voisin, or neighbor. It's funny because when I look out of my window underneath it is a giant painting of the cheshire cat. Turns out he painted it and he lives in the humor kot. Some kots, or apartments, are special Kot-a-projets. Their entire kot works on one project the entire year, and he happens to live in one!



There are a ton of foreigners to meet here!

The Deathly Hallows, or My Journey To Louvain-La-Neuve

Getting to Louvain-La-Neuve was absolutely terrible. It was hard, rough, tiring, and depressing. If I had done it a lone I would have broken down and cried. However, with everything that seemed to go wrong at every turn, I was still having a wonderful time. Take that, culture shock!

So, the morning we are to get on the busses to go to Louvain-La-Neuve is a tough one. I drag myself out of bed and trudge downstairs to the free breakfast to see only two of my companions are already awake. More join us and we wearily try to be witty and funny but eating is just too much effort at this early hour.

Eventually we are all together in the lobby at eight am, and there is no bus here. And all of a sudden, Mike realizes his bag is missing. In our giant pile of bags no where is his laptop case to be found. His laptop case that contains, oh just his laptop and every document we need. It's bad enough that he has to wait for the police, but they don't even get there until after the bus arrives, thirty minutes late. Oh did I say bus? I meant two tiny vans that we could barely cram our 12 passengers with luggage for six months into.

We get on the road. It's rainy; we're tired. And I decide to nap. Soon our twenty minute ride is much longer and I realize we are in Louvain-La-Neuve but DRIVING AROUND IN CIRCLES.

For those of you who don't know, Louvain-La-Neuve, in an attempt to be environmentally friendly, is perched on a concrete slab.

Yes, a slab. There is no pretty way to say it. Everyone we met said "slab" so proudly. Cars do not go in the city except for collections and emergencies. They all drive under the city which is basically just a high speed set of roads and parking garages. Guess who's vans don't fit into the parking garages...

You bet... Ours. So our bus driver pulls over. Seems like a good idea if he wants to call for assistance, right? Wrong! No, he just wants to pull over, right at a turn. We are underground. There are walls. No one can see us around this turn. At this point a bus for Louvain-La-Neuve drives by and stops to see what the problem is.

I should probably mention that our van driver was Flemish. I should also probably mention that Louvain-La-Neuve is French. And maybe also that the country is (basically) divided into two sections... The Flemish and The French who are constantly battling for power and rights and are the main reason there is no government right now.

Well, our driver yells at their driver and their driver takes off. We finally manage to find a "good spot" to pull over into and its like a truck loading area, underground, with pipes dripping. The professors who were intended to welcome us luckily found us there, and promptly sent us back to the vans, where we had just unloaded our luggage.

At this point our drivers, who are clearly tired and irritated they might miss their next appointment, drop us off where? On the side of the road again, by speeding cars, where we can play frogger and try to rush our luggage into the correct parking lot.



Luckily for us, here is where we had a tiny bit of peace. We take an elevator to the International Languages Vivant Building, or our home base, which we call ILV. Our luggage is locked into an empty classroom and we are given an introduction to Louvain-La-Neuve, all in English and with free pie.

Not much longer after that though it is time for us to get started on administrative tasks. In a herd we head down to the logement building which will give us our assignment and housing contract to sign. My assignment goes without a hitch. I am assigned to an apartment in Place des Sports, near a few other group members, and despite being tired, I know that soon I will be able to throw my stuff in my new room and crash on my bed.

Boy, was I wrong! On the last step of the journey, I get to my housing contract... and it won't print. Yep, not even a "your trip is ruined, your visa is all wrong!" Just a plain old simple printing error. That of course no one in the office knows how to fix. Why? Because it's lunch break. So, I am charged with returning in the afternoon.

We all go back to the ILV in order to get our luggage and go to our houses. Not me though, I get to stay and wait. Luckily for me, Mike, who has been in Brussels with the police shows up. He needs to get his contract, so I get a second chance to go back. We take him to all the offices and end up at the lodgement where my contract prints perfectly and I get to sign it.

I was so excited to get to my room at this point but there is only one coordinator with us, so he took Mike to his apartment, while I was meant to wait, alone, in the ILV for Mariken to arrive, who was taking people to Place des Sports. Of course ten minutes turned into an eternity and the next thing I know I'm waking up to a hot flat face that fell on a wooden desk. I could not stay awake!

At this point people are coming back for their second luggage, already moving into their places, and I am still waiting to go to mine. Luckily for everyone who lives near me, I got to pack all of their extra luggage and my only one bag into Mariken's car, and get a lift (underneath a large suitcase) to Place des Sports. She drops me off at the buildings office to check in. At this point I can barely speak English, let alone read a housing contract in French.

After lots of hand gestures I finally get my keys and my "linens" and am allowed to go to my room...

Which is absolutely tiny!

I mean much smaller than Clemson rooms. But at this point, I don't care... I just want to fall on my bed. And then I look at the time. 4:35. I promised to meet two friends at the bottom of the mountain five minutes ago. So guess who has to leave her newfound bed? Moi. And with no Belgian number, I can't call them, so down the mountain I go.

Turns out though, I wasn't going DOWN like I was meant to. I was going up. I got. Completely. Lost.

Now might be a good time to mention that LLN is not actually a city but a rain cloud.

That's right. At every moment it is always misting, slightly raining, or really raining. At this point, it was "actually" raining. I ran into an end of the road sign, turned around and walked until I saw large buildings. When I finally made it to the ILV and climbed all four floors, I just crashed on the floor.

What a long day!