October 30th--Ieper, Belgium

   I got up at 6am and met down at the ResHall lobby at 6:45am to leave for Ieper, Belgium. I slept on the coach bus until 9:30am when we arrived at the Dover Ferry Dock. Our Ferry didn’t leave until 10:30am, so we were allowed off the bus for a bathroom break and to grab a bite to eat if we wanted. I just went inside for a little while to use the WC then I hopped back on the bus. Our coach drove right on to the ferry and then we got off to go upstairs before the ferry left the dock. Upstairs, there were 3 levels of restaurants, shops, and sitting areas. We eventually found how to get out onto the upper deck outside to take pictures of the White Cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle.

   We arrived at the Calais Dock in France around 12 and took the coach bus to a small town for a 25-minute lunch break. We could not find a place to eat that was open, so we just grabbed a sub sandwich at a shop called Pano for 3 Euros. We drove another hour or so to Ieper where we got situated in our hostel. The only people staying in our hostel were IES, which was nice. It looked somewhat like a tree house too, but it was neat. We left for a war museum that my History of London professor spent 4 years researching for. After that we got a Belgium Waffle! I got mine with Belgium chocolate ice cream. After eating our delicious waffles, we all went to get Belgium chocolate. We went to the first place and I got food for my family, then we went in to look at another place for fun and they were doing a deal- for 10 Euro you get 4 chocolate bars, vanilla fudge, a box of chocolate and you get to choose anything the wall…so I got this with chocolate pralines as my choice. More chocolate…yeah!

   We went back to the hostel and chilled for about 30 minutes until it was time for dinner. The good thing about this trip was that dinner was included in the trip cost. We went to a local restaurant where we got served chicken in gravy, fries, and John (our program director) added on a glass of Belgium beer. A lot of people didn’t like the chicken and gravy, but it reminded me of my mom’s chicken and dumplings, which I love! I thought it was pretty good. The beer was nasty. I drank a little to say that I had Belgium beer, but I hate the taste of alcohol. I gave the rest to my friends sitting at my table. The IES staff that we were with then took us to the Menin Gate to learn about the memorial and watch a memorial service that occurs every night. There were bugle players and then selected citizens laid poppy wreaths on a plaque for the fallen soldiers.

   After the memorial service, we walked around for 10-minutes or so until we found a bar. Jenny and I shared a cherry beer, which was actually pretty good. Since Jenny is allergic to alcohol (I need to use this excuse) she couldn’t even drink half of it. We meet 2 Belgium boys, which the girls that I was with loved. Haha. All the girls and I stayed at the bar until around 1am. When we returned to the hostel I took a shower and then went to bed at 2am after talking to Sarah, Caitlin and my roommate Valerie who were in my room at the hostel.