Snapshots from Belgium

I've mainly been in two places in Belgium: Louvain-la-Neuve (the location of my internship) and Brussels.

Louvain-la-Neuve (LLN) is a planned city, meaning that the purpose of its construction was to house the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). As a result, the design is very much intentional, and LLN has an ever-present "college town" vibe to it. There are plenty of restaurants, shops, university buildings, dorms (known as kots in Belgium), and also a lake and a park. Everything is walkable; I haven't walked more than 15 minutes to get to anything in town. 

Some wood structures made by architecture/civil engineering students at UCL

A family of geese at the lake!

Since starting work, I've realized that it's really difficult for me to just sit and stare at a screen all day. So, as a way to keep myself more engaged, I usually alternate between 3D-modeling on my laptop and sketching in my notebook. Some results:

As for Brussels, it's less than an hour away by train (the train system is great!). I've been a couple times now—with different people, seeing different things:

Mont des Arts

Grand Place

CityTree: a green initiative by Green City Solutions. It is a 13-foot wall of specific moss cultures and apparently has the "same effect as up to 275 urban trees." 

Visited the Atomium and Brosella (jazz festival)

So, even though LLN and Brussels are great places, I think my favorite part of it all is just riding the train and traveling between cities. The entire landscape is green—the trees are overgrown and plenty, sprawling their way onto train stations and over walls. It's pretty amazing.

If you want to see what else I'm up to, you can find me here:

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