This past weekend kept me in Brussels but that does not mean that I am not getting up to adventures; every week this city amazes me with what it has to offer. Several weeks into my time in Brussels I could be heard saying that I thought Brussels was sadly lacking in character. Sometimes it is wonderful to be proven wrong and Brussels seems to be doing this to me.

As many of you know I am rather crazy about food in all its forms. To my delight I found out that there is a market to rival my favorite giant market, Midi on Sundays. The Saturday Anderlecht market is run almost entirely by North Africans and in particular Moroccans. I convinced several of the other interns to accompany me on my new market quest and we were not disappointed. The market is not nearly as large as Midi but so much more approachable. Rather than be propelled through the Midi market like cattle and heckled at by various vendors trying to out shout each other it was much more congenial. Everyone is treated like a regular, even the token white girls in a very ethnic market. It may of made all of the difference in the world that one of the interns just happens to speak Arabic. Just imagine moving along the aisles of produce, shoes, domestic products and being heckled at by people predominately speaking Arabic with a little token French thrown in. They are not expecting to get much of a reaction from us but suddenly a blue eyed, blond haired girl turns around and starts bartering with them. At first they just laugh, ask where she learned Arabic and refuse to believe she grew up in Egypt. Then she gets down to business and it is so much fun to watch these mens' faces as she takes them to task over a five euro pair of shoes. We ended up with a plethora of fresh vegetables and some really good deals on shoes. The vegetables turned into dinner before Girls Night with some of the teachers from our school and the shoes are destined for a fun future.

This weekend was uncommonly beautiful and my fellow interns spent as much time out of doors as possible. Sunday, the 21st of September was World Car Free Day and the first experience any of the interns and I could think of that was so well publicized or enforced. The best thing others and I could think to compare it to is Bike to Work Day but the sheer size of this event puts Bike to Work Day to shame. World Car Free Day was established in 2000 as a grassroots movement by the World Car Free Network to coincide with the European Mobility Week. It has grown to involve official and unofficial participants in over 1,000 cities in 40 countries. The city of Brussels takes Car Free Day very seriously; emergency vehicles, taxis, and public transportation are the only allowed vehicles. Tickets are given to those cars caught using the roads and not submitting to Car Free Day. Just because the city was car free in no way means it was dead. Coincidentally Saturday and Sunday were Journees du Patrimoine (Heritage days) in Brussels celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1958 World Fair in Brussels and many monuments and museums were free to the public.

Public transportation was free on Car Free Day and we headed in to the heart of downtown to see what was going on. All of the streets were clogged with bicycles and they followed the traffic signals. It was a kick to see hundreds of bikes waiting for the lights to turn green. After stuffing ourselves full of the largest sausages I have seen outside of Germany we went to the Musical Instrument Museum. The museum displays an astounding collection of musical instruments largely from Europe but from other parts of the world as well. The genius of the museum rests in the oversized headphones all museum goers are instructed to wear. Seeing the instruments up close was a first in my experience but being able to hear them individually or as a group thanks to the headphones makes the museum that much more engaging. You are not just reading about them but getting a real understanding of how they have evolved into the modern instruments we now know. All of the description cards of the instruments are in French and Dutch so the museum is largely an oratory and visual experience. I never really thought of instruments as works of art but seeing the instruments up close with their ornate features, painted details, and unique qualities they deserve to be in a museum.

From the MIM we detoured for a blue raspberry slushy and then proceeded onto AutoWorld Brussels. AutoWorld is a museum dedicated to the history of the automobile from its earliest stages to the present. It turns out that not all museums are free on Patrimony Day but I managed to sweet talk my way into the museum, really the guy just did not want to count my EU pennies to pay for the ticket and let me just walk in. The car museum has some really neat old cars and buggies just begging to go for a spin and bust out of the museum. We did not steal any but looked longingly at the old classic cars and talked about which ones we planned on buying when we become rich and famous teachers. Car Free Day was a huge success and a great party, I look forward to participating in the future in one of the many locations or maybe starting one up back home.

amy