Waterloo and Villers Abbey

Waterloo is most famous for it's battle site and because this is the town where Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated in his world conquest by the English. Every two years there is a small reinactment of the battle; and every four years there is a full scale reinactment of the battle that took place. The shots can be heard all over town, however unfortunately I was never able to attend this reinactment. Waterloo is a fairly small town compared to Brussels or Gent, but is full of life. Waterloo is home to one of the two main international schools in Belgium, St. John's International School. I didn't go to school here, however, I did live only three blocks away from the school. They were a private, catholic school which didn't have American football, and hence one of the reasons why I didn't want to attend school there. Waterloo to me meant a place where friends could meet up, get a few drinks and decide whether or not we wanted to go to the clubs in Brussels or stay in Waterloo. There were several places that we would go to for a fun night out. Snookers was a great pool hall where you could pay per hour and enjoy a fun environment of pool, beer drinking and peanuts. While I was over in Europe, the European Cup (football/soccer) was taking place. This happens every four years, in between the World Cup which will happen every four years as well but in two year intervals with the European Cup. Soccer to the Europeans is life, and so my friends and I would head to Snooker's during a big match have a few beers, play some pool and watch the games on the big screens. To me being at Snooker's was one of my fondest memories of my time in Belgium. Literally right next door was more of a club type setting called The New Messena. Although it wasn't the biggest club, my friends and I would take our corner and have a blast drinking all night long. When we got hungry, we'd walk a block to one of my favorite restaurants in Belgium. I can't remember the name but it was a little pita place who's pita's were literally quite amazing, especially after having a few drinks in ya! Another great thing about partying in Waterloo was that for me, I could walk to any of these places within 20 minutes or so. So after a long night of drinking, my friends and I would walk back to my house to crash. My address in Belgium was Clos Pegase 1 Waterloo, Belgium. I lived in probably one of the coolest houses I've ever seen. In each of our rooms, my sister and I each had our own showers and sinks. As well, we each had our own lofts. When walking into our room there would be a normal downstairs portion to the room, but each of us had stairs to go up into another equally large loft room. My sister was even lucky enough to get a third room which was doored off from her loft. Not too far from Waterloo is a really cool historical site called Villers Abbey. This Abbey was founded in 1146 by monks. Among other things, a big part of their lives consisted around the brewing of beer. Once a year for about a week, visiters can purchase a similar blend of either white or dark beer.