homesick

These are the kinds of pictures you take when you're homesick in a foreign country and taking a long walk:

Leuven, Belgium, Fall 2002

finding your place

I went to Leuven as part of a junior-year abroad program hosted by my undergraduate college.  I was one of twenty-five students, along with a faculty advisor and his family.  When we first arrived, the prevailing sense was that we had to know or to experience Leuven wholly and immediately.  Our advisor's wife offered a simpler approach.  Acclimation takes time.  Find one corner of the town and visit it regularly, she suggested, develop one habit and do it regularly.  This might have involved strolling through this park:

Or visiting the botanical gardens:

Or going to a favorite cafe once (or several times) a week.  

Finding these places and developing this routine eventually helped me to feel as if I were a part of Leuven, instead of just passing through.  Most of my time was spent here:

The square, the platz, the piazza, the markt: these spaces are central to cultural life in towns and cities across Europe.  In Leuven, the two biggest are the Grote Markt (above) and the Oude Markt (below).  Here you can sip coffee quietly during the day or meet friends for more rambunctious revelry once the sun goes down.  Here multi-generational families gather for a meal and beers of various strengths after church.  Here you can find both companionship and solitude.  Here is why I went to the continent in the first place.  

She was right.

living in Leuven

I've deliberately avoided divulging personal details throughout this blog.  Why do you need  to know about me, I reasoned.  Just make what you want of the pictures.  But Twenty-something Travels is forcing me to rethink that position. All travel is personal.  Whether undertaken for school or business or pleasure, it ultimately an individual trying to understand this new place that they're a part of.  The following are not just a random collection of buildings and streets; they are places that became a part of my daily life during the year of college I spent living in Leuven.

The main library of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.  I probably should have spent more time on the inside.

Instead, I spent it here:

One of two main shopping streets.  Although the black, thick-heeled, high-top military boots I bought here have long since passed, I still wear the vibrant, multi-colored scarf purchased at the store (winkel) on the left.

And here:

A pedestrian street lined on both sides from beginning to end with restaurants.  Every one I tried was delicious, especially the specialty pizza place, Quo Vadis, and the upscale Troubadour.  It's also the ideal place to take family members if they happen to be visiting on your birthday.  

Saint Michael's Church, the lone example of Baroque architecture in a town full of gothic.  Note the couple at the base of stairs to give you a sense of its immense size.  I have to admit that I never actually went in there, but I passed it everyday on my way to class. 

twenty-something travels

Today begins an extended series called Twenty-something Travels.  This series will chronicle my adventures in Europe from 2000 to roughly 2004, when I was in my early 20s.  Most of these pictures had been in storage until very recently (like, 2 hours ago).  Thanks to my HP Deskjet F2480, my trusty steed of a scanner, they are brought to life once again.  I hope you enjoy.

We begin in Leuven, Belgium (pruim voor de weg, anyone?).

Enjoy a Stella Artois and a croque monsieur in the shadow of the town's gothic city hall (stadhuis) and you'll never want to leave.  Trust me.  

Read the chapter "The Flames of Louvain" from Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and you'll appreciate this place even more.