The Last Supper (No, that meal is called Dinner!) #HogsAbroad in Belgium

Friday was the last day of the program. Isn’t that insane? Everything I’ve written about happened in less than two weeks, and it was a life changing two weeks at that. Comparatively, the last day of the program was very relaxed. There were no morning lectures, so Thursday had been our last day on the University of Ghent’s campus. That’s kind of sentimental if you think really think about it. I won’t; it makes me kind of sad. And this post is about the happy tears!

But the learning hadn’t quite ended yet, so to the morning excursion! Now let me tell you something, I don’t make it a habit of mine to, well, throw up often. However, the smell of a power plant that runs on the biofuel of animal by-products powerfully tempted the possibility the moment I walked onto the property. While I am very interested in the idea of a biofuel based power plant, I would not have been very upset if we had learned about it from something with a more…neutral smell.
Friday morning, we all loaded up in a bus and took a short drive back to Ostend to Biosteam & Biopower Ostend. An odd aspect of the power plant is the way that most of the interior surface area of the machine rooms were coated in a layer of slippery animal fat byproduct from the machinery. That is a little inconvenient when interior surface area includes the stairs…and the hand rails. However, there is no denying that the facility and process is interesting. There are new scientific methods being developed here for the specific purpose of breaking down provided animal byproducts for energy. Regardless of smell, that’s pretty awesome.

An interesting point of the tour was that not all of the plant was running at the time due to the fact that the price of oil is currently low. It’s not cheap to produce fuel from animal fats, and when oil is inexpensive, there is less motivation to pay more money for a sustainable alternative. The economic aspect of sustainability is quite frustrating; the sustainable option is almost always more expensive because the masses don’t invest in it because it’s expensive. The short term sights on the price almost always outweigh the long term benefits, encouraging the disastrous cycle. On a completely different note, there was one building in the facility that has a high amount of ammonia in the air, and none of the staff knows why or where it comes from. A scientific mystery. Cue ghostly noises.

 

And when the Biosteam & Biopower tour ended, that was the last of the academic material of the program. It was surreal. I felt like I had been in a dead sprint for two weeks, and then, poof, it was done. We decelerated a bit starting with lunch. Admittedly, I think all 14 students were more than a little skeptical of the lunch location. As soon as we walk in the doors, to our left appeared to be a room full of senior citizens playing bingo. Seriously. I started wondering if I was going to be stuck choosing between Ensure or Pepto Bismal for my beverage. However, the 4 table all-you-can-eat dessert bar and juicy, medium rare steaks pleasantly surprised me. I’ve always heard that your stomach gets the message that you’re full 20 minutes after you actually start being full. I didn’t know if that was true, but I didn’t take any chances. I ate as fast as I could for 20 minutes so I could eat everything I possibly could before feeling full. It didn’t really help; I still had to be rolled out of the building.

We all attempted to work our way out going into a group food coma by taking a beachside walk where we saw remnants of World War II bunkers and artillery. History lessons are much more interesting when you’re standing in the place you might otherwise just see a picture of in a textbook. It also makes me so thankful that at my age, I have been able to focus on my own life and education rather than a World War. Europe and its population and geographic location has not always been so fortunate.

Because we are all total goofballs, no one got a picture of all of us together at the farewell dinner which is extremely unfortunate since it was probably the only time we all looked presentable all at once. It was a wonderful meal where we were all able to talk to each other about the program and how much we were going to miss Ghent. I was doing so well keeping all of my feels contained even though the air was thick with sentimental emotions, and then Dr. Rom gave his little speech at the end of dinner. Feels no longer contained. I had a little ugly cry capable of rivaling Kim Kardashian herself. It was an early night for most of us after that since we had to be packed and getting on the bus at some ungodly hour the next morning. It was the next morning that we all went our separate ways, many of us continuing our travels around Europe and some returning home.

After returning to Ghent, my afternoon until the farewell dinner was the utmost of relaxation. The guys’ room had a fantastic view of the canal and bridge next to the hostel. It was the ultimate people-watching perch. I spent a good 2 hours sitting in their window watching passersby while putting on my makeup, and since it was a beautiful afternoon, there were some good crowds sitting by the canal. Soon, it was time for our final meal together. The Last Supper. Except it was The Last Dinner because the last meal of the day is “dinner”, not “supper”. Sorry, pet peeve aside.

I have one more post in the making that will conclude my sustainability experience abroad in Ghent, an overall reflection of my newfound knowledge and understanding of all things learned over the past two weeks.

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Read more from Kaylee at https://letsghentlost.wordpress.com/blog/

To find out more about the U of A Faculty-Led: European Agriculture-Food Chain Sustainability program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/SUSTEurozone/