America in Belgium

We were supposed to wake up early on Sunday and go to Brussels for the first time then come back and meet Dior's team for a city tour of Leuven at 3 p.m. Instead I slept in guess I might getting back to normal :) We met the team and took a tour of Leuven we started with the Main University Library. I was proud of myself because I had read a lot of about the library before coming to Belgium. This library was destroyed during World War I so after the war American schools donated money to rebuild it. I read somewhere that they wanted to make it a massive library to symbolize their alliance and victory. If you walk through the library the names of the American schools who helped build it are engraved in different areas of the library. Sadly, USF was not one of them. I think only two California schools helped I cant remember which ones… maybe Pomona was one? So here is a little bit of America in Belgium.

Then we walked to the Old Town Hall. This is probably the most photographed building in Leuven. Its covered with hundreds of statutes of important political and Catholic figures in Leuven when the building was made. I am going to try to find a book on who the people are. A funny story the guide told us was that in front of the building there is a tree because Brussels and Leuven were in competition to be the “main” capital city of Belgium. Both cities were building their town hall at the same time so they planted this tree to see whose would be the first to grow. Silly old timers. If you are in Leuven they will say their tree was first if you are in Brussels they will say the opposite. I wonder which one is prettier Leuven’s is decorated with ribbons.

This is a St. Peters church very nice. They have a nativity scene up all year. They also have signs up for Father Damien he was recently named a saint and he was from Leuven.

These are some of Dior’s teammates.. The guy in the first picture on the far right is from San Francisco, he plays on Dior’s summer league team too.