Leuven is a beautiful, interesting city about a half hour from Brussels. This is the site of this year’s European Conference on Social Work Research. It has a stunningly intricate city hall building with more statues affixed to the exterior than you can count. It has cobblestone winding streets (cause for me to get lost countless times on the way between my hotel and Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven (KU), the conference venue) and it has food and drink!
As far as I can tell, Belgium is know for three food products: beer, chocolate, and waffles. Let me tell you, although Stella Artois is brewed right here in Leuven, the streets don’t smell like beer or yeast.
They smell like waffles. Delicious, wafting odors of baked vanilla sweetness trailing you all over the city. There is no escaping it and you must simply oblige. Frequently. For 2 Euros, a freshly baked waffle. Why no waffle pic? Because that’s already featured in my Brussels post. So instead you get Belgium chocolates, which by the way, are always filled.
This conference has been fantastic. I love hearing perspectives and research findings from studies done all over Europe, and on so many topics that are closely related to my research – outcomes for what we call “care leavers” – young people leaving foster care or institutions, relationship tensions between biological parents and social workers, youth participation in decisions made about their lives while in care, enhancing social connections for these youth… and on and on. I’ve connected with people from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Scotland, England, Finland, Poland, Australia, Israel, and even the U.S. (all 3 of us who were here). I’m sure I forgot some countries.
But here’s the irony. First day, first conversation is with an Israeli woman. Who got her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and lived in my neighborhood. Then the second person I spoke with, a Czech woman who is a professor at the University of Ostrava! And the man next to her, also from USO. How crazy is that? Then the person at the hotel reception desk, he had a job for 3 months in Bloomington, MN which is 15 minutes from my home.
I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Leuven museum, which I highly recommend – truly unique and creative exhibits, to the city hall and the KU library – in addition to countless talks and keynote speakers. The city hall building is remarkable. Originally built in 1439, they planned for it to be covered in statues, but didn’t have the funds so they build little niches for 236 statues, but these were not filled in for another 400 years.
The University Bibliotheque is also interesting because it was burned down by the Germans in 1914 during WWI and the whole world was appalled that a library would be burned. So countries all over contributed books to restock the library. But as they said over and over, “the Americans stole the show by offering to rebuild a new library.” Of course that meant everything would be in American style, right down to the bell in the tower called the Liberty Bell.
And a big ol’ bust of Hoover sits in the grand staircase (not featured here because, why?). There were countless spiral stairs to get to the clock tower, though all thoroughly worth it.
It has been refreshing to eat some food that isn’t fried cheese, pasta (tho I did have some of this) or pizza as I’ve been eating for the past 7 months – and I have the greatly expanded waistline to show for it. I had a gourmet sauerkraut hot dog that was to die for yesterday. I had the most amazing vegetarian sushi today at Samourai Sushi & Asian Fusion. It included dessert sushi! With some sort of sweet drizzle, a delicate crispy “rind” and a banana slice in the middle. In short, it was heaven.
A couple words about bicycles. I’m thrilled that so many people bike in Leuven. They leave their bikes randomly anywhere, locking them with these cool very small rings attached to their back tires. And…they are maniacs that will come at you from every direction, from young men to old ladies to dads or moms carting three kids in a giant wooden basket attached to the front, to women in long dresses. Just beware because you will be run over, my friend!
Sunset from my window on the top floor my last night here could not be beat. Some sort of hoity-toity party going on in the fancy building across from me. I might have sneaked a peek or two for my own personal entertainment.
I need to return to Belgium. I’ve not gotten enough.
Adventures in the Czech Republic 
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