Our alarm didn't go off this morning. Thankfully Meagan still woke up. Breakfast was a little bit different from the first hostel, but still more or less the same. I tried some milk/cream, but I don't think I'll have that again. Yay for hot chocolate!!
We headed out, to Belguim! But first our but broke down. M. Malenfant fixed it for us!! Yay!! [I'm very suspicious that he just kicked something] M. Porkka was mean and told us there was a 10E fee for crossing the border. I'll never trust him again.
The first stop of the day was to see William Arthur Bower's grave site, who also happens to be Murray's great grandfather. He gave a speech about Bower, and I took his pictures for him. It was another one of those peaceful resting places. Murray's middle name is Arthur, after his grandfather after William Arthur Bower. I thought that that was so cool. He also replaced the plaque that was on his grave, because it was faded after two years already. I almost cried on the bus afterward, because Murray was directly across from me, and he looked ready to cry. And that affects me. But we held up and didn't cry.
The next place we visited was Ypres, spelled there Ipers. There we saw a cool museum that was in this really impressive church. Shannon and I tried to climb the belltower, but apparently we weren't allowed up there. I got claustrophobic there. The museum was interesting. We bought postcards, then left. We went to the Menin Gate, but on the way we passed a dozen or so chocolate shops, and hey, we were in Belgium. So we bought chocolate, a box each. We were pretty responsible about it, considering how many people spent 20E or so on chocolate. Phh. 3.50E. Yep. Then we travelled on down to the Menin Gate, with the list of all the people without a grave or a found body who fought in the battle of Ypres. We looked for Desmond St.-Clair George's name. We were told eye line, so we looked a little bit higher above our heads. We looked for 20 minutes, but couldn't find his name. We were leaving when Mr. Porkka and M. Malenfant and Mr. Johnson came along and decided to help us. It was at eyesight.. for a terrier. Apparently they replace the big stones of names every now and then. Wonder if that's because they find the bodies or just because they crack? We got pictures of his name, then left.
Lunch was chicken kabobs, salad, and fries. Soon we were back on the bus, leaving the church with it's ever cool chiming.
We went to see the second place winners of the Vimy Ridge Memorial contest, it was called the St. Juliaan Memorial. We got group pictures done there, then were done.
We travelled to Flanders Field [which is the region, but the place he wrote the poem was on Essox farm] where the memorial is for John Mcrae for writing his poem there. There was another cemetary there. We had another ceremony, where Laurel recited In Flanders Field, both french and english.
We then drove over to another cemetary, with the red deer student we were honoring this trip. His name isn't on the plaque at school. His name is Colin Broughton, and he was 25 when he died. Megan gave the speech. It was good. Shannnon and I rubbed his name. Alex tried to seduce a cow in the next field. He actually mooed at it. Shannon and I rubbed a couple of ages from other stones as well [we found one 17 year old].
We headed out of Belgium and back to the hostel. Shannon Lisa and I tried to shop, but nothing was open. Is anything here ever open? We wandered around the fair instead. We tried the bank machines again, and they worked. Yay! We wandered until a little after 7, when the restaurant we ate at yesterday opened. We all tried something we had no idea what would be like, like I had tortellini napoleon, and it turnedout to be awesome.
We got back to the hostel relatively early, so Shannon and I decided to take showers before the rush came back. I was in the middle of showering when the fire alarm went off! I didn't even hurry. I guess I'm just used to them at school, but it didn't make me rush. I got out of the shower, got dressed, and headed out of the door. I saw someone walk by, and asked him if I should go downstairs, but he said no, it was a false alarm. I think he was the owner or something. I just stayed upstairs and waited for everyone to return. Turns out that Steve Scott was using his spray deoderant in his room, where the alarms are super sensitive, and it set it off. Then Steve Altiva had left the tap on in the washroom sink running and our bathroom flooded! It was an interesting evening all around. Shannon and I and practically everyone else on our floor just talked until bedtime. What a productive day.
