Dave presents the departing STUDS president mug to Ed
We had a wonderful evening for five of our members who are repatriating back to their home countries. Rather bittersweet as I didn't get the feeling that any of them were truly excited about leaving as they had acclimated to Belgium well and developed some good friendships. I will be sad to see all of them go as they are a truly great bunch of guys.
Chalks Coriette hosted a dinner for us at Espace 53 in the Cinquantinaire, a venue I am sure we will be taking advantage of again in the future. Dave Hutcheson did all the planning and preperation.....kudos for the great evening.
Warren wasn't as bored with us as he looks, and although he was here only a short time, and actually did do a rather unstudly deed of getting a "real" job, they are going back to Toronto.
Cathal was here a real short time, but was really getting into the hang of it, as far as living the STUD life.....if that means learning how to drink with Kjeld. Actually I don't think anyone has to teach an Irishman to drink, but I know he's not real eager to go back to Dublin.
Ray's wife looks on in horror as Ray passes the 1 hour mark of his going away speech. Ray's tour got cut short also, and I will have to say that I have never seen anyone jump into Belgian culture and people the way Ray has. He did his best to learn both languages and showed up at STUDS with many native Belgians, and really immersed himself in the experience. They are going back to Philadelphia.
Ed, our departing president is headed back to Memphis and has been here for about 5 years I believe. He was one of our more active members over the years, and I'm sure this was a very emotional experience for him as he has developed some good friendships with a lot of us and really feels like he is leaving family. Thanks for all the work and participation you've done with STUDS over the years Ed, you'll be missed.
Mehul is another one who got very active with STUDS, and the International School and probably put more effort into those things than most people do with a real job. They are going back to London, but we actually hope to still see more of him in the future as it's not far away. He was president material too......damn!
Ed turns over the presidency to Andy....our first Aussie pres!
Andy made the mistake of getting up to go the restroom, and while he was away....we elected him president. Better hold it next time.
Ed, John, and Kjeld at the Zythos Beer Festival
Thanks to Kevin here for sending me some pictures. Surprisingly Kjeld said all the pictures he took on his cameraphone were too blurry to publish. I wonder if that had anything to do with the 16 tokens he shelled out for beer. Ya think?
Joe Stange, our beer guru, has now left for greener pastures in Costa Rica, but Mireille toasts a drink with his co-author Yvan de Baets, a local brewer, who was at the show. Their book, Around Brussels in 80 beers is available here, I'm sure he'll send you a signed copy. Joe also has a blog called the Thirsty Pilgrim if you want to know more about Belgian Beer.
Kjeld looking like he's probably at token number 14 of 16
This dude had the coolest beer holder of the day.... actually saw more than a few of these. He said he came all the way from Jersey for this.
I found amusing.....one of my biggest pet peeves here in Belgium. Having to pay to use the damn bathroom. You'd think at a beer festival they would eliminate that, but hell no. There are probably Belgians fighting over that concession. At .30 cents a pop for two straight days, they probably made more money than the guy with the 'fried beer' concession at the Texas State Fair.
