As someone who believes food exemplifies the titular sentiment, the food of Belgium was no exception. During our short but eventful study-abroad in the Belgian region closest to the North Sea, our group relied primarily on local restaurants and the occasional fast-food joint to meet our dietary needs. While eating out proved more costly, these restaurants revealed to us an array of either hearty or aquatic cuisine.
Arriving in the Flanders region of Belgium, I had expected culture shock, having never truly immersed myself in a foreign culture before. Now returned from Belgium, I recall a culture that was in no means shocking. If anything, their culture of preservation and the personal transportation that resulted from preservation are both inviting and intriguing. Over those ten days of May, our group of nineteen travelled to Leuven, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, and a variety of smaller vistas, each of which had no shortage of architecture wonders from the 11th to the 18th century.