Another weekend that practically defies explanation: 3/24-25.

Saturday we went to CERIA, a trade school (and yet so much more) that was having an open house. I wasn't sure if it was more for people considering enrolling or everyone, but there were all kinds of tempting items in the announcement, so we had to check it out. Plus I had been intrigued by it since I first came across it (as described here). What was it? Why did it look abandoned yet under renovation? It was time to find out.

Disciplines covered at some level that we saw or were mentioned:
- chocolate, candy, pastry, bread, other food making
- chemistry, including beer making, odors, and paint
- microbiology
- hotel school
- phys ed
- floral arts
- photography
- decorative food arts: swans out of vegetables, inedible sugar sculptures, full-size landscapes of fruit
- and so on.

There were young people in black suits and red ties passing out brochures at the front gate, looking like they were straight out of an MTV video from the 80s. We followed the flow of traffic into a building containing a room filled with chocolate sculptures, including this full-size depiction of Einstein in a classroom of chocolate (the theme of the open house was "Alimentary, my dear Einstein!" ["Alimentaire, mon cher Einstein!"]). Then we went up the stairs and saw some chocolate making, and were offered the meltiest chocolate ever--your fingers just oozed right on in. Very sloppy eating. After some soft-serve ice cream, marshmallows and caramels, the latter of which we bought after sampling (after all, we are not total mooches), we went on and saw some bread making. They put the dough in a machine called a roller to make...rolls. It was pretty cool: the guy pus a loaf-sized piece of dough on a plate in there and pulls down the outsized handle (like one for an olde-tyme water pump) to close it. The thing vibrates around wildly for a few seconds, and the plate comes out with a bunch of perfectly formed spheres. Rad.

There was a room where a woman was making delicate sugar hearts as if they were blown glass. There was a corridor full of breads made into crustaceans. There was a waffle stand. Jack bought a waffle and we lumbered off to the building across the street. I'm not sure how the skills taught in this one differed from the first, except that they were making more complicated foods there: quiches and cakes and tarts and such. I had a bite of tuna served on a spoon, like an amuse bouche in a fancy restaurant.

Then we wandered off the beaten path and visited the chemistry/biochemistry building. Whereas the other parts were full of people of all ages buying delicious treats, this one seemed to contain only prospective students. We went up to one lab where they offered us a bite of whipped cream mixed with coconut, and then dipped into liquid nitrogen for an instant freeze. That's lab safety for you. That particular room was dedicated to odors, and they claimed to have solved a problem that Chimay was having with off aromas in their beer. We went into the microbiology lab and the guy went through his spiel in French, which was okay since many of the techniques were familiar. Then...the Paint Lab. Man, could that kid talk. It's not that his discussion (in English) of the vagaries of paint adherence and color matching wasn't interesting, but. There. Was. No. Food.

Downstairs was the beer lab, where another talk in French netted us a glass of pilsner. Since most of the group was leaving as we were arriving, we got singled out for some extra attention with an explanation of the beer ingredients, not too difficult to understand since we knew what everything was. At the end, in French, the woman asked if we had any questions. We said no, she seemed to think this was inadequate, so I added "C'est bon," and she said "C'est bon? Bleh, bleh, bleh". I don't know what. But at least she left us alone then.

After that, we mainly wandered around and saw the rest of the campus, and saw people swimming in the pool, checked out a photo exhibit and some other decorative arts, mostly trying to avoid being talked to or at. Many of the exhibits were shutting down at this point, as it was towards the end of the day. On the way out there were two giant bins of apples, and as a parting gift, the school offered one per person. I took my one while the woman next to me filled her shopping bag.

We wandered around the southern part of Anderlecht, the commune where I've increasingly come to conclude that everything interesting takes place, and then caught the metro home. As perhaps mentioned, all the metro stops have different art in them. This one had a colorful flying craft.

Sunday: even weirder?