Palais de Justice and Ball Pictures

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=121a73ha.ckmuwfa&x=0&y=p5tjao

I took a little adventure on my own one day and was a tourist through the Palais de Justice. This is one gigantic building in Brussels and is really beautiful. There were not any tours going on at the time, so I don't know too many facts on it, but I do know it was amazing.

The other pictures are of the Capitalist Ball we went to. I was a little embarrassed telling people the name, but we had a great time. I felt beautiful in my dress and Kyle looked great in his tux. Champagne was from 7-8pm and then dinner was from 8-10pm and then dancing was from 10-2am. That is one thing about Brussels--they are not afraid to stay up late! It even said on the program that the dancing would last until 2am, so they actually planned it to last that long (and with a free/open bar too!)

Another Belgian thing is to have many different types of drinks. We had champagne for our 'apertif' (before dinner drink) and then white wine with the smoked quail and salad and then red wine for the lemon sorbet and dinner of veal and then coffee with our chocolate dessert. By being the 'Capitalist Ball' they were into anything that is not politically correct, which I guess is why they had meat for both courses, and then chocolate for dessert on a Friday in Lent in a country of 80% Catholics (not that they all practice...) They also had a cigarette girl come around who looked straight out of the 1920s with a tight black dress selling cigarettes and cigars to everyone.

The band was incredible and the dancing was great. Another thing about Belgians is that they are not afraid to wear the same thing twice. I learned this after going to the ball and then looking at the pictures from last years ball. Now keep in mind that this is basically the same group of people as the year before, and yet, 4 women wore the exact same dress as last year!!! I was in shock, but an American woman who is married to a Belgian said that they really don't think that is a big deal. She said her husband will try and wear the exact same outfit to work that he did the day before until she stops him. Kyle tried to convince me that now I can just wear this same black dress to everything (so he doesn't have to keep paying for new outfits), but I said, "I am still an American, and I will wear a new outfit to any ball I go to!" To which he responded, "Well, then I hope you enjoyed that one!"