My what-could-have-been : Leuven

Goedendag! Dutch or English? Upon entry to whatever establishment, I found myself being asked with this question. If I’m lucky, I get three options: Dutch, English or French? Ah, Belgium, the plurilingual haven!

I, together with the insistent bagets, went to visit Leuven, and my friend T, who just moved in two weeks ago. She warmly welcomed us to her cozy loft in the quiet area of Penitentienenstraat, north of Leuven. The night we came in, T introduced us to this meatball restaurant. The meatball was enormous! Plus, as you wait for your order, you get to enjoy unlimited pears. Yup, pears. Peras. Poires.

The following day, day two, T went to school the whole day so for bagets and I, it meant roaming the streets of Leuven on our own. We planned on spending half of the day in nearby Brussels, the capital of Belgium, since he has not been there yet. Guess what, we ended up staying in Leuven the whole day, meeting T for her two hour break, seeing a free art exhibition called Up in the Air, eating waffles (of course) in the city center and picking T up from school : my what-could-have-been school.

In 2014, I was accepted in the Cultural Studies program in KU Leuven. I was excited to go to this school. Only one problem: I have no means to finance my studies. So now, I’m just here to visit, to see what it might have been like have the circumstances been different.

Bagets and I, as well as T, were tired from a whole day packed with activities. That night, we ordered pizza and bought six cans of beer (but, of course!) to enjoy while watching a French film back at T’s place.

And with that we called it a day. It was set: day three will be a tri-city visit to Brugge, Gent and Brussels. Or so we thought.