Belgium

The looovely Mademoiselle on the left is from Raph's maternal grandmother who they call Mami and the glorious box of 300 grams of chocolate are from his godmother :)
Raph's family certainly does spoil me!!! But he says Mami spoils everyone anyway ;p

It must be where he learned to spoil me in turn Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Thank you, my love!

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Anyway-- here is the rest of our little vacation: We landed in Belgium around 11 or 12 at night, then had to take the shuttle into Brussels, where we tried to find our way to Mami's house on the subway, but before even getting through the toll, just grabbed a cab instead. Cabbies in Brussles are crazy...or at least ours was. He drove pretty damn fast, especially for the tiny bit of snow they were all going bonkers over! Not too long after getting into this crazy cabbie's car (alliterationnnn!) we pulled up safe and sound in front of Mami's apartment. We got to the top floor and she was still awake and waiting for us. What a sweet woman! She was so full of energy even at that late hour and didn't seem to mind that I didn't speak French hahaha-- she'd turn to me occasionally and keep talking anyway and gesticulate or add any English she knew to help me understand.

The apartment was absolutely wonderful...almost like a museum. Once, because we started talking about her collections of silverware, wineglasses, and plates, she told us all the stories about the rest of the paintings and antiques in her home. She also paints and showed us some of her watercolors (one of Marie-Laure on the beach she gave to Raph to take home) and the abstract oils she's been working on recently. I was actually eyeing a few of them too so I could try my hand at incorporating her style in some of my own pictures. While we were with Mami I also got to meet Cedric, one of Raph's friends. Sadly, we weren't able to spend much time with him, or any of his other friends for that matter, because we came to visit right at exam time :( Here's a picture (albeit a bad one, but a picture nonetheless!!!) from that very enjoyable evening: Having also seen Manneken Pis, who turned out to be muuuuch smaller than I'd imagined him, Cedric also completed our viewing by showing us Jeanneke Pis-- the other half to the pissing pair of children.

We spent time meeting each half of his family-- the Golliers and the Lodewyckx (try saying that out loud). The Golliers are deeeeefinitely a crazy lot. All of them speak "kitchen" English, which is what I guess you'd consider slightly better than a working knowledge of English, and are definitely not afraid to talk, hahahaha. They're great listeners too and have some pretty funny stories. Raph's godfather, Paul, made an awesome dinner. I was particularly fond of the seafood dish he started out with-- one can never get enough of such perfectly cooked shrimp or such flavorful fish...*drool*

The Lodewyckx are also an interesting lot, but not as talkative as the Golliers (I don't think they speak as much English either) and they don't drink nearly as much, hahaha. But Raph's aunt also just had a baby, Maxime, who is so fat and cute with his bright blonde hair and silly giggling. His cousins are of course more than adorable and the little girl, Olivia, is definitely the little princess of the house! After visiting with them for lunch, Caline, Raph's godmother, took us to the chocolate shop where she bought 500 grams for Raph to take home and another 300 grams for me to remember them by :D

Back on the Golliers side, we were staying at Raph's other aunt's house for the last part of our time in Brussels. Her name is Francoise but everyone calls her Fanfan :) Yet again, another gorgeous residence with and equally gorgeous family. The three girls, Julie, Charlotte, and Pauline are all sooooooo lovely-- the first two simply beautiful and the last, absolutely adorable. I also got to meet another cousin, Jerome, who with his solid build and dramatic ways, looks and acts nothing like Raph, hahahaha. Everyone exuded such an air of love and openness! There's no way you couldn't be completely at ease with them :)

Aside from Manneken Pis and his little friend, we also went to see that reclining dude who grants you a wish if you rub his arm (and when I rubbed his arm vigorously Raph told me I wasn't supposed to rub it, but just pass my hand over his arm) and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (which was closed). And with chocolate, diamonds, and drinks checked off the list, what have we left?

WAFFLES!
A little gypsy girl chased me around the corner, opposite the direction she was walking in, when she saw me with this. She shouted something at me repeatedly, which I thought meant she wanted me to give her a strawberry, but which Raph later said meant she was demanding my entire waffle...

and?

FRIES!!!!!
It's too bad I didn't get them in the traditional paper cone, but by the time we passed by a place that did sell them that way, I was too full to want any more ;p

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh <3

Documentation of my first days in Sweden to come...