One of the joys of being a study abroad student is the ability to travel. We can country hop over the weekend and be back at school by Monday. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of that opportunity? I haven't left France as much as some of the others in my program, but the handful of times that I did have been totally worth it. The first weekend trip I took was to the sweet little country of Belgium. We actually hit up three different cities in Belgium; Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent. Each of these places had their different personalities and charm.

Brussels, being the capital, was the city that we decided to call our home base. It was a very exciting, big city with lots of history and things to explore. We saw the city square, some local hotspots, and an awesome museum that was built for the world's fair. I think we all had a great time going out and enjoying the country's most famous goodies like waffles, fries, beer, and chocolate.

Moving a bit more north, we spent a few hours in the city of Ghent. Ghent is an interesting little place. It's a big city, but still a bit more quiet and residential feeling. It's actually known to be a college town. Being in Ghent made me think about how much of the world I haven't seen just because I didn't know it existed. Wandering the streets of Ghent gave me a sense of wanderlust unlike what you get from looking at travel photos, but to see more of places people simply live in.