Thinking Home for the Holidays

Bruges Grote Markt at night

The full football crew

Pre shaving No Shave November

Post shaving on shave December

Bruges at night

Gabe, Liam, Tim, Matt, Matt, Stack, in Bruges

Matt, Stack, Gabe, Liam by the ice skating ring in the Grote Markt (Bruges)

Brussels Grote Markt lit up in lights

A cheers at Delerium for the Rome Crew's visit

Brussels at night under Christmas lights

Tim, Stack, Matt, Me, Liam, Gabe, Matt outside the Grote Markt

Bruges at night

Bruges Grote Markt lit up in lights

Gabrield (in from Rome) and I playing with our pipes

My table at Thanksgiving dinner

Me, Francesco, Matt, Endy, Nick, Matt, Thibaut, Liam, Tim

The National Anthem started here...

...then carried here...

...and ended here.

(Fake) cheering on our team


The aroma of a turkey basting, or mashed potatoes cooking, or apple pie baking is quiet possibly what makes Thanksgiving the greatest of the purely American holidays – rivaled only by the loud bangs and bright flashes of the fireworks on the Fourth of July. One of the largest testaments to its allure is that the day before Thanksgiving is the largest travel day in all of America – and the day after is the greatest shopping day. However, what truly makes that November Thursday so special for everyone – especially college students – is that it brings together families in a selfless atmosphere with no other intention but to spend time with one another. Perhaps this is also why it was one of the largest homesickness causes in the Loyola Nachbahrhuis. It seemed as if in the week building up to Thanksgiving, every American in the house had a family story to tell, or a recipe to describe, or a tradition to explain – it’s just that type of sentimental holiday that strikes everyone deep down inside.

So for those among us, myself included, whose minds were drawn across the Atlantic this Thanksgiving, we took special care to try and bring the American celebration here to Leuven. The festivities began with the arrival of 23 former Nachbahrhuis residents in Leuven. The “ole’ timers” were celebrating their 5 year reunion since having left Loyola. Apparently, the rule for people returning to Leuven after 5 years goes something like this: current Loyola students can’t pay for a drink. That’s right we welkommen’ed the alumni who proceeded to keep the drinks coming on the first night we ran in to them.

The next morning, Thanksgiving, the friendly affections of the night before were erased, as the current Loyola students took on the former in the only game that should be played on Thanksgiving – football. Shaking off some of the headaches caused by the night before, the two groups battled for half a game, ultimately ending in a 21-21 tie, when we decided to end the game amiably. One of the main highlights was the spontaneous, and humorous, belting of the National Anthem. It was in the middle of a play, that those of us on the sidelines realized that we hadn’t paid our country homage before the game. The song started as a joke, and a murmur, but eventually grew to a loud screaming as we all placed our hands over our hearts and shared in America’s favorite song. However, the humor arose, when the players on the field, in the middle of a play, were spurred by our patriotism, and almost in unison, stopped playing, turned toward us and placed their hands on their hearts and sang along. I supposed that could be the first, and last, spontaneous national anthem that began midway through a game. Though that would not be the last time we saw the alumni, it was one of our most prized memories with them. We were thankful for their visit and even more so for their generosity. I suppose it will be up to us one day to “pay it forward” and shower Loyola students with a couple of free drinks, and a free football.

After the game with the Alumni ended, the current Americans, and Europeans, started up a second game, where we prized ourselves in showing the Europeans how to throw and catch an American football. I think by the end of our second round of play most of the girls and the Europeans felt pretty involved – a sign that I had at least tried to spread the wealth around as quarterback.

Despite our now long beards courtesy of No Shave November (in which we also had a Shave December – design contest on November 30 into December 1 to see who could shave the best thing into their beards) the gentlemen in the group still managed to dress up class for Thanksgiving dinner. Later that night, the Loyola Nachbahrhuis gathered for a second time to celebrate the staple of the Thanksgiving tradition – a meal together. There were about 74 of us, including Professor Forni and her family, as well as Christel and her husband, that gathered for dinner at a local restaurant within walking distance (though what in Leuven isn’t) from our huis.

Matt and I did our part to explain the significance of Thanksgiving to the Europeans, as we put on a performance at the beginning of dinner, practicing our improv comedy: one…word…at…a…time. Matt began, and I followed, each of us only allowed to us one word to try and describe the story and the other forced to play off of the formers word choice. We also had Liam and Nick, act out what we were saying – forced to do the bidding of whatever randomly came out of our mouths. By the end of the performance we had quite a few chuckles and received a nice ovation – perhaps that’s a sign of our skill, or just European hospitality – and afterwards a number of people asked us how long we had to rehearse to learn our lines. To which we impressed a number of them when we replied, “No, we just didn’t it right on the spot, we didn’t practice that” – hopefully that means our comedic futures are bright.

Though the meal wasn’t quite a Thanksgiving celebration in the traditional sense, our dinner did include some turkey and some mashed potatoes, followed by homemade desserts which various members of the huis put together – with everything from speculous tiramisu, to homemade apple pie. The meal was filling to say the least, and a nice way to celebrate a Belgian Thanksgiving.

We had hardly recovered from our food coma from Thanksgiving, when the Nachbahrhuis played host to the largest amount of people this semester. Rome invaded Belgium for the first time since the Roman Empire, as 15 Loyola students studying abroad in Rome (and 1 from Ireland), came to visit the capital of the EU. The huis was literally overflowing with students, as we had to utilize all the pillows from our couch, and the couch itself, to accommodate the large number.

With the large group of Romans used to wearing t-shirts and jeans, winter arrived in full fledge in Belgium. What had been 60 degrees the week before was now at its warmest 40. Not to mention, for the three days that we hosted visitors, it rained freezing rain for two. The Belgian winter is a nasty thing: full of cold rain, dark skies, early sunsets, and biting winds. Unfortunately it arrived as we were trying to show off our homeland to our friends.

However, with the arrival of the Belgian winter, also came a special treat – the arrival of Belgian Christmas decorations. Slowly the cities of Belgium have begun to be engulfed in the red and green lights of the Christmas season; turning what are typically stone cities into bright and beautiful winter wonder lands.

The Christmas celebration became most evident with our travels throughout Belgium. We took the Rome students to Bruges on their first full day here. The small circular city is what every visitor to Belgium should walk away with as a visual in their mind. I didn’t think that Bruges could get any more magnificent until I saw it lit up in the colorful lights of Christmas. As we approached the Grote Markt in the center of the city, we could already hear the chatter and rustling of the Christmas market. As horse drawn carriages – sporting Christmas wreaths and on rare occasions Christmas lights – clicked and clacked their way around the cobblestone streets, we wandered into the Belgian Christmas festival. With an ice skating rink in the middle and a slew of tents surrounding it, the Christmas celebration was a welcomed addition to our typical Bruges experiences.

While Tim took the Rome students up the Belfry for a look from the city from above, Liam and I scouted out the Church of the Holy Blood. Though we had missed it in past endeavours, we were lucky enough to find that during advent, the relic of the Holy Blood has different hours, and we happened upon the church when the Relic was on display. Liam and I both viewed holy relic that is believed to be a vile of Christ’s blood that is now crystallized. Then we quickly called the others to get them there before the church closed.

Having finished at the church, we ran into the other half of the Rome group and then spent the next hour and a half just enjoying the bright lighted scenery as the sun went down and darkness descended on my favorite of Belgian cities. In our remaining time, we toured some of the Belgian back roads, stopped in a couple of chocolate and beer shops, and caught a couple of beautiful glimpses of the city lit up at night. With that, we grabbed a Belgian waffle in the train station and headed back an hour and a half to Leuven.

The next morning, after grabbing breakfast at Nosh, a local bagel place, we headed in to see most of the Italian group off. They were flying out early Monday morning, but wouldn’t be able to get to the airport in time if they stayed with us, so they were going to sleep in the airport overnight (apparently a common theme among cheap college students). Needless to say, we didn’t waste their last day and night in Belgium we took them in to see the capital of Belgium, and Europe for that matter – Brussels.

Brussels was magnificently lit up in Christmas lights. Following the advice and guidance of Tim, we traveled up from the train station to catch a couple of views of the city from above. The bright lights emanating from Grote Markt in the center of the city cast shadows on the clouds above which were blocking out the moonlight. After taking in our fair share of panoramic views of the city lights, we headed into the center of town to see the Grote Markt up close and personal.

Blue and red were the theme colors of the lights that decorated Brussels’ Stadhuis. We arrived just in time to catch a spectacular light show that the city had sponsored and put on. There was also a full sized nativity in the town square accompanied by a variety of different artist’s tents and souvenir shops. We then took the Romans down to be disappointed by the undersized Manneken Pis, though he was decorated in Christmas Garb.

After getting scammed at a relatively cheap tourist dinner place, we ended their trip in town as we end many trips with students that want to see Belgium, at Delerium Café, home to 2004 beers. Most of the guys there enjoyed their time with the vast selection of beers, and even I tried a new one: Delerium Christmas.

Yes, if there was one common theme on everybody’s mind over the past week, it’s been the idea of our eventual trip home for Christmas. The holiday season has brought everyone’s minds back to their own individual homes. Though I consider my little room here in Leuven, where I sit tapping away on my laptop, to be my current home, there will be nothing more satisfying than wrapping myself up in a blanket on the green and white striped couch in our living room, with snow falling outside (hopefully), and the aroma of Douglas Fir complementing my father’s Christmas CD’s playing softly in the background, back in ole’ Rutherford – home for the holidays.

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In these next couple of lines I’d like to fulfill my own family Thanksgiving tradition of naming some things I have found myself thankful for over these past couple of months:
For my loving family (extended and immediate) who continue to support me (and pretend that they’re interested in my stories) throughout my first semester abroad.
Especially for my parents, who have supported me in my trips, shown real interest in what I’m going through and have made this year (emotionally and financially) possible for me to try and find myself while traveling the world.
For my siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma who continue to keep in touch and bring a smile to my face with their updates and e-mails, Facebook messages and Skype calls, and packages, especially the packages ; ).
For my wonderful girlfriend, Monique, who has done more to support my decisions and help me over the past year than I could have ever asked for and who continues to support me even though I drive her crazy and I’m so far away.
For the Nachbahrhuis, with all of its residents, those staying and those leaving us after this semester, it surely has been an interesting adventure starting our time here abroad, but one that I wouldn’t want to take with a different group of people.
And finally, for my readers, my family, friends, loved ones, strangers, who pay attention to my adventures humoring me and pretending as if my life is more important than it actually is.

To everyone:
Thank you. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving and have a Happy Holidays!