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Sarah visits, adventure commences (now with pictures!)

This weekend, my lovely dovely friend Sarah (from Beloit) came to visit me. She's doing an internship in Ireland this semester, and decided to spend the weekend with little ole' me in Brussels.

We had a pretty great time.

Friday, I showed her around the city and all of its main sites. (I do this with everyone who comes to visit.) We got a street waffle and fries, because why not? Sarah reallllly liked the waffles and I'd forgotten how good they can be when they're fresh and hot and caramelized off the toaster. Yum... The Grand Place was beautiful, as always. We spent a bit of time at the big shopping mall and had smoothies and Chinese food while talking. Catching up with friends after a long time not seeing each other is a wonderful experience. For dinner, we were boring and all (Molly, too) had pasta and then we watched Pokémon 2000 the movie. Still pretty solid for a Pokémon movie, we all agreed.

Saturday we visited the neighborhood with all the vintage/antique shops. My awesome friend Caitlin (from Vesalius) came with us and we had such an awesome time. The weather was freezing, but we went to this outdoor antique/vintage market. I got some cute buttons to put on my cat flats I just recently sewed up. Since we were really freezes our asses off at that point, we jumped into a cafe next to the market. Sarah wanted coffee, and she sure got it. Ordering a large "café au lait," she received an entire bowl of coffee. I'm glad I got the small, but she was quite pleased with the bowl.

After the cafe, we traversed the shops in the area. I was so primed to spend a bunch of money since I'd been so good at saving the whole trip, but it was only Sarah who bought anything. She got a beautiful brown and deep red leather jacket and some brown leather boots. However, I did not leave the area without purchasing anything. We stopped in this random store-thing we couldn't quite figure out to discover it was a store/lunch bar. And they had BAGELS. I had one of the best bagel sandwiches ever- smoked salmon and vegetables with cheese and oh lord was it good. After stuffing ourselves, Caitlin had to leave (abandoning us for a movie night with other friends- I suppose an acceptable excuse) and Sarah and I wove our way through neighborhoods to get back home. We took lots of silly pictures and ended up buying expensive fancy Belgian beer and body jewelry at Claire's Boutique. I almost bought €30 shirt that said "Who Cares?" but Sarah said I could just spray paint that onto a cheap shirt from home for the same effect. I agreed.

We picked up durums for dinner. I like to think of them as Turkish burritos because it's been the closest thing to a burrito here I've found. After that, as I promised myself I would do, I made Sarah sit down and watch 'Pacific Rim' with me. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out on life and your life is also a lie. I cried a lot, as always, and it was amazing. As always.

At the right hour of the night (I think it may have actually been morning at that point), we caught the very last tram to downtown and hung out at Delirium, the enormous, overwhelming bar. A beer for each of us, we explored all the many facets of the multiple-building bar and chatted more. When the time was right, we took a cab to a club we'd looked up. (We discovered a mutual love for EDM after Pacific Rim where we discussed popular house music songs in Europe.) The club is called 'Fuse,' and it looked most promising for house style music. We had to wait a bit in line to get in, and it was pricier than other clubs I'd been to, but the atmosphere was cool. And the DJ was a woman, which I also thought was super cool. I didn't particularly groove to her genre of DJing, but I appreciated the presence of a female DJ.

After a few too many incidences of creepy dudes being creepy and trying to get all up on us (mostly Sarah since cutting off all my hair has been an extremely effective dudebro-repellent), we cabbed it up home and passed out in our nice soft beds.

Sunday is Sunday in Belgium. Other than the big touristy area, everything is closed. So, off to the tourist area we went. Sarah had another waffle, and she bought some chocolate for her family. I salivated over the 50000 chocolate shops in the area. (Like hell I'm spending 25 euros on a box of chocolates. I'll salivate from afar, thank you very much. But they still looked amazing.) We also found a market we glanced through. The holiday decorations were up everywhere, so I made Sarah go to where they were setting up the main Christmas market. They had TWO antique carousels with the most sweet-ass things to ride on; steampunk octopi, pterodactyl skeletons, airplanes... I'm going to need to go back and take a bunch of pictures because that was some cool shit.

Being there in the Christmas market set up with the little huts and fake snow and lights all set up made me really excited for the holiday season. I'm a huge sucker, but I just get this big warm fuzzy ball in my chest when I think about the holiday season. I am so excited to visit the market in full blown holiday mode.

I can't listen to Christmas music yet since it's not after Thanksgiving, but I'm gearing up. I pity anyone in my household who doesn't like holiday music. They will be subjected.

It was a good weekend overall, exhausting but exhilarating. I love Brussels the most when I get to show other people my city. It makes it all the more special.

Three weeks and I'll be back home. (And on a side note, it's my sister's 18th birthday today. She's growing up so fast, ugh.)

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So, I'm in my final month, and of course now that the weeks are dwindling and the weather is turning brisk and unforgiving, I feel the urge to explore the city more.

I think Brussels has finally grown on me. Not in a way that makes me want to stay here, but in a way that I'll be sad I haven't seen all of its bits and pieces before I leave. I took one of the trams I've never taken before to the end of its line, 20 stops and 45 minutes total. I saw parts of the city I'd never come across before. It was kind of magical. The sun sets a little after 4 now, leaving the city in a murky state to behold.

The tram went right past the Atomium, which I'd been looking for since our guided tour my first week here. It was kind of stunning against the red-grey sky. I also went through some of the most amazing graffiti walls from one tram stop to the next. I think I'll come back to that tram line again with my camera in the future.

I love cities the most in the nighttime. When the only light comes from lamps aligned in the streets and the glow from inside people's windows. Brussels is quieter at night. (Well, not my neighborhood, really. People here do have a fondness for honking their horns at all hours of the night and for no good reason.)

I haven't visited any new cities during my stay in Brussels except for my weekend in Utrecht with Sara. I'd been to Paris before, been to Amsterdam. There are kids in my program who have been gone every single weekend of this semester. Sometimes I wish I'd planned a bit more and gotten to see a little more of Europe. But, then I realize I don't really feel that badly. What I feel most guilty about is not getting to see more of Brussels.

Every new tram ride I take, neighborhood I explore, new friend's house I visit... I'm amazed by the diversity of each part of this city. New parks, new buildings that are so different from those in my area. I love the sense of being somewhere I've never been before and being able to walk around and see everything as it passes by. And now, being here so long, it's so easy to use the public transportation to go anywhere and be able to find my way back home.

I'm going to try to use these last few weeks to explore. (And visit the amazing Christmas market that will be opening in a week or two downtown.) I don't think I'll ever be coming back to Brussels unless I'm passing through the area, but for this semester, it holds a special place in my heart. It took three months, but I think I can finally call this my city.

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Wow, so I sure haven't posted in a while. My hair was still long in the last post... whoops.

Anywho, if you want to catch up I'm on Facebook and post things there way more regularly than this blog.

But I wanted to talk about my day! Unfortunately (and fortunately for my wallet), I just discovered the best neighborhood in Brussels today. Every other shop is a vintage clothing store and they have a HUGE vintage/antique market in the square nearby every weekend which I walked around a little bit.

I was actually in that neighborhood today with my internship for a "Focus Day." My internship, Serve the City, works with 5 groups in Brussels: Homeless, Disabled, Children in Need, Asylum Seekers, and the Elderly. Each focus day (once a month), a giant group of volunteers gets together and breaks off into 10-15 smaller groups where we go work with specific organizations within the city. I was put in charge of a group called "Little Sisters of the Poor," which is an old folk's home for low-income peoples. I led a group of 8 14-year-old students and their teacher. My job when we arrived was to help clean up the garden in the back, which was lovely. The weather was typically Brussels weather, grey, cold, and fog so thick that when I took the tram home and looked at the street lamps I could see it rolling by.

I had a good time, actually. The people in the group were very agreeable and I got to rake leaves for 2 1/2 hours. It sounds kind of boring, but it was actually very peaceful. A few residents would walk around the garden and I would say hello to them. One woman told me "Bon Courage!" which I think means "Good luck!"

Afterwards, the leaders from the groups met in a bar nearby all the projects from our neighborhood and we debriefed and had beers/coffee/tea/ what have you. I played a game of chess with one the nicest men I've ever met who works with my at the office, lost by one move (he took out my king right before I was going to take out his, not bad for me not playing chess in 5 years) and then I picked up some food at the supermarket for dinner.

(photo credit to one of the other awesome guys who works in my internship.)

I love my internship very very much and I am going to miss it dearly. I've met some the most wonderful people in the world there, and it'll be weird not seeing them all the time when I return back to the States. Either way, it's been a great experience.

(And I'll be taking my friend who is visiting next week to the vintage/antique shop area for sure... goodbye money.)

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Another weekend gone by!

I stayed in much of this weekend and last. I finally found the forest, though! Some of the pictures are posted above, and the full album can be viewed here. (There are many more photos, I just picked a few.)

It's so peaceful in the woods. The trees are stunning, there are little birds and insects everywhere, and for a city, it's very quiet. You can still hear the cars far off, but nothing like living right next to them. I've been back to the woods a few times. It's a nice haven in the midst of chaos. I've even taken some friends back with me. We'll have to have a picnic or something before the weather turns unbearably cold.

The picture of me at the top is with my first box of Belgian chocolates. It's from the professor of my Contemporary Political Debates class, as the first essay I wrote came in third place within the class. So I got chocolates! I'm not complaining at all. They've been delicious so far and I can only expect the rest will follow in more deliciousness.

I have midterms this week! Had my first one about an hour ago and it went alright. I probably didn't study as much as I should have, but that's my entire life. I have three more, and then I am halfway done with the semester so far! It's kind of weird to think I've been here for more than two months now.

This weekend I slept in a a lot, but Sunday, my housemate and I met a friend to go shopping. We were planning on going to the mall, but we realized when we got there that everything in Belgium is closed on Sunday. (A weird inconvenience that is hard to get used to as an American.) Luckily, our friend knew of a vintage market going on somewhere in the downtown area. We searched for a while and accidentally came across it after a half hour of walking.

It ended up being inside, and happens every first Sunday of the month. It was so cool! The building that housed it was so expo-type things, and had a ground floor, an upper surrounding balcony with an open middle, and a basement. There were so many lovely things I wanted to buy, but held off until we finally go to the basement, where I bought what is pictured in the final row above. (I almost bought a beautiful dark green and tan leather backpack for €25, but I resisted.) The smaller skirt was €2, the longer was €3. The boots were the last thing I saw, and I had exhausted the €5 I had frugally brought on the trip. But I saw them in the back of the room and flew over to them, clutching them to my chest and getting overly excited. My housemate lent me the money to pay for them, and I couldn't be happier. How often do you find hot pink vinyl boots?

I had a beer-tasting fundraiser on Saturday night with my internship. I got to cook the chile for the event and serve the beer (I felt so adult- could not have done that in the U.S.) and also got to try a variety of really good Belgian beers. I had a great time and even met some new friends, which is always welcome while being abroad.

I also got to talk to many of my good friends from school this weekend. We were in Wisconsin, Connecticut, Florence, Brussels, and Japan, but we figured out a time to say hello! Seeing everyone's faces and hearing their voices was probably the highlight of my week. I also got to talk to my mom and Louisa last night, which was wonderful! Unfortunately, my dad was driving back from Wisconsin. I will get to talk to him soon, though!

No plans for next weekend, either. I was going to go to Norway, but the two people I was going with were unable to make the trip, and I didn't really want to go alone. I'll probably sleep a lot again, save some money, and eat good food.

Sara and I are planning a trip to Paris for my birthday. It's going to be very romantic. :)

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And here are a few pictures from Sara from Beer Weekend when she visited two weeks ago. :)

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Weekend with Sara - Adventures in Utrecht

SO, this weekend, I went to the Netherlands to visit Sara in Utrecht, where she studies. I left Friday morning for my first independent international train ride. I was terrified of missing my connection train, but that all went smoothly. (I was very careful about counting stops and reading signs.)

When I arrived in Utrecht, Sara met me at the station and we walked around the city center. It was LOVELY. Little canals going through a fairly quiet central area, and Dom Tower standing in the middle of it all. I didn't get any pictures of it, but if you google Dom Tower, you'll get results. I got a huge ass mozzarella/pesto/tomato sandwich that took me about an hour to eat from a "locally famous" food place. Sara then took me around the area. The weather agreed and didn't rain the entire time I was there, pretty much. I was impressed. There wasn't very much sun, either, but it's the Netherlands. (But Brussels isn't any better.)

We had pasta for dinner, and Sara even bought my my own bottle of white wine because she knows I liked it more than red. (Awww.....) Friday night, I saw my first proper horror movie, Cabin in the Woods. It's technically a spoof of a horror movie, but it still counts. I thought it was awesome, and didn't freak out afterwards. I take this as a small victory.

Saturday was lovely weather. The sun even peeked out a little bit during the day. We walked around again, and got some smoothies at Hema. (This amazing "department" esque Dutch-origin store with food, clothes, knick knacks, and other things. It's one of my favorite stores. And everything is cheap.) The people watching in the city center was pretty amazing. Just sitting on some steps and watching people go by for an hour was very entertaining.

Saturday night we opted for premade salads because we're lazy college students. I did get to buy a jar of Calvé peanut butter at the supermarket, though. It's some of the tastiest peanut butter in the world. (And I got to eat Speculoos spread on my crackers for breakfast. Yes. Good.) And then, for the first time, I saw Pitch Perfect. It was definitely hilarious. I'm glad I finally got around to watching it. It also had some impressive singing. I always like impressive singing.

Unfortunately, Sunday comes around. Sara saw me off at the station, but not before helping me realize I had to change trains 3 times to get back to Brussels. Sara, being a total sweetheart, wrote down the exact times and stations I had to get off at for me. I panicked a little, since I have very little experience with public transportation international travel.

Saying goodbye never gets easier, but I had to go. :(

The first two changes went smoothly, and then I had a change that supposedly gave me 4 minutes to switch. My train got in a little late, and the train across from me was supposedly the one I had to get on, and it was pretty much leaving. I followed the masses of transit-goers racing toward the doors. I barely checked the sign, but I figured, "Hey, this is the track I'm supposed to be going on." I hoped as hell it was.

I was a little jumpy on the train because I was so afraid I got on the wrong one. But I listened in on an American couple talking to a young Swedish women across from me. She was going to Brussels! Halfway through the ride, I timidly asked if she knew how to get to Brussels from that train, and Huzzah! I was on the right train.

I followed her through the Antwerp Centraal station. Which is GORGEOUS. I wished I'd had my camera for that. The station itself is about 4 stories of train tracks, but the ceiling and far wall were beautifully intricate metal work and gold plating, etc. I hope to go through there again.

I had a nice conversation with the Swedish-women-living-in-Brussels. She was working there for a Swedish company, and she also missed nature. (She grew up in Northern Sweden.) We had a lovely talk, but I never got her name. But, she was a nice travel companion.

As stated above, it was no car day when I got back. I was exhausted, so not having to avoid cars was nice.

Overall, a very relaxed weekend. I wish travel was cheaper. It's cheap here, but not free! There are so many lovely places to visit... I think next weekend I'll use my public transportation pass to travel around the city and find new and exciting things. Maybe I'll even find a forest to wander in...

:)

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briskcactus replied to your photoset: Little Emma did my hair after dinner.

WHAT EVEN IS THE HELLO KITTY THING? IS THAT CANDY IN YOUR HAIR? I JUST lksjdflks

It's like fake Hello Kitty candy in a hair clip. I'm tempted to steal it but I can't actually steal hair clips from a 4-year-old. :)

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Little Emma did my hair after dinner.

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Public transportation A.K.A. I get why people joke about it now

My first two weeks here I was lucky not to experience any troubles with public transportation. It was always on time, never very crowded, and got me where I've needed to go.

First, school started. The trams in the morning were suddenly bursting with small children and parents.

Secondly, the trams started getting later because it took more time for people to get on.

Now, I've had trams that have been rerouted because of construction, surprise potholes in the middle of the road (today my tram was horrifically crowded and very late on my way back from class. Turns out all the transportation around where I live is messed up because the ground beneath the tracks just caved in. Seriously, I walked by. A gaping hole in the street.), and general not-knowing what's up.

So, the transportation is still cool but you definitely can't rely on it to get you anywhere 100% of the time. And the buses are terrifying and go fast and almost hit people. :)

P.S. My poor, poor host mother is in the hospital for three days with a terrible case of tonsillitis. She's been home the last few, sleeping on the couch and drinking tea, but she thought she was getting better. I hope she's okay by the end up the week! That just sucks a lot. :( :( :(

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Went on an adventure today. My friend Aditya and I just took some trams and metros around the city and got off whenever we felt like it and we found the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (first pictures.) and saw some pretty places.

The last picture is the basilica/church near my house (we used it to walk back when we got kind of lost and the trams were all messed up), but I can't find the name anywhere online. It's super cool, though.

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Thursday:

Sara came to visit last Thursday! She took a train into one of the big train stations in the center of the city. Well, that turned into a disaster.

I gave her the wrong phone number when we were planning the trip. I also forgot to give her my address. And the train station was frighteningly big and they had no listing of arriving trains. Anywhere. (I even asked.) Half an hour past when she was supposed to get in, I was panicking. AND, my phone wouldn't call her number.

I think I ran around the train station about four times, practically having a heart attack. Eventually, thinking I abandoned my girlfriend in the middle of a city she had never been to before, I ran almost the entire mile back to my house to check the computer for messages.

I guess her train had been cancelled and then the train connection was ALSO cancelled because of "fire on the tracks" and then she ended up being 2 1/2 hour late. But she made it.

Atwood was amazing. Poignant, funny, and very good looking for 73. She talked about her old books, new book, and her views on life. I think both Sara and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards, I bought her new book outside the auditorium and we waited in line to get it signed. We ended up chatting with a Finnish woman who was ahead of us. She was very nice, and she told us a bit about Brussels and we talked about books and literary things in general. It took about an hour to get to Atwood, and by then she was very tired. I told her I liked her scarf and she replied, "It's very useful." (P.S.- In Canada, "not bad" means "quite good" and "not bad at all" means amazing. Take note.)

Now my mom and I have matching Margaret Atwood signed books.

I think Sara and I ate some pasta that night after frantically trying to get home before the public transportation stopped. We then proceeded to pass out.

Friday:

We woke up late and explored downtown. I showed her our mall, and we went in a few stores. As we got to the Grand Place, I saw the set up for Brussels Beer Weekend. I think I had convinced her earlier to stay another night. How can you miss Belgian Beer Weekend?

To get into the little festival, you had to buy a bag of "crowns," which were bottle caps with the logo on the top. We each got ten, some beers costing 2 and some costing 3. (2-3 euros for a beer is NOT bad at all.) We also received a token for a glass, to keep us from taking all the pretty glasses out with us. C'est la vie.

The four beers I had were: Cherry beer (I traded with Sara because originally I got a raspberry beer but it was a bit too bitter and she liked it better anyway), and nice white beer, pink grapefruit beer, and coconut beer that actually came in half a coconut. (Can you tell I like fruit beers? Because I do and they're delicious.)

(I'll put up some pictures from the weekend when Sara uploads them.)

We got decadent waffles on the way back. Whipped cream, nutella, fruit, the whole nine yards.

Later, we tried to find the alleged €5 mojito truck my host mom told me about, but it wasn't in the square it usually is supposed to be, so we just got durums instead. Still good.

Saturday:

We slept a lot Saturday. BUT, Saturday was the B.D. Parade and Festival! (Bandes-Dessinées, or comic books. In French. You know, TinTin, Asterix, etc.)

Sara and I went with Molly my housemate and a few of Molly and my friends. There were tents with boots showcasing comics and artists with their work, booths for buying, and booths with information about the comics. They even had a little manga/anime booth and I almost bought a Totoro backpack. Almost.

For the parade, which we ended up not really watching, they had these giant balloon float-things of all the comic book characters, plus Superman, Manneken Pis, and THE HUNGRY CATERPILLAR. (That made me smile a lot.) We got some food and people watched. All very cool.

(photos courtesy of Aditya) (My housemate is the third from the left.)

Saturday night we went to a club downtown called Madam Mustache. It was pretty fun. We danced a lot (It was disco night, which made my weekend) and met some really nice people, including a Russian guy who lives in Texas now. He told us (minus Sara) that we were all very nice Americans and we surprised him. I am going to take that as a high compliment. He had a hops-crown just like one of our friends, that both of them made from the fence around the Beer Weekend tents.

Guys are creepy. Clubs only intensify that. I almost kneed about 10 guys in the groin that night. My self restraint is astounding. I swear, no manners. Christ.

We all managed to walk the mile and half home at 4 in the morning. I made Sara grilled cheese and we all ate stuff and then went to bed.

Sunday:

I did not sleep enough last weekend. Sara left on the 11:37 train. I was very sad to see her go. I know she only planned on staying over Thursday night, but it makes me very happy she stayed three nights instead. <3

I'm planning on visiting her maybe next next weekend? I'd love to see where she goes to school.

Internship:

I have now officially started my internship. I work with Serve the City Brussels, an organization that does outreach to the city through charity events and fundraisers. Their office is about 20 minutes from my school, where I usually come from.

Everyone who works there is so nice. My supervisor is really wonderful. So far, I've helped with some letter/newsletter writing and finances. It's just a really chill, welcoming environment. And they feed me sometimes. The single easiest way to get to my heart is through food.

One of the women who works there went to Beloit. How cool!

And that's about all for this week.

In other news:

Dutch is hard. We don't have those sounds in English.

Everyone is Brussels smokes and I hold my breath when I walk out of my school building to avoid the masses of smokey students.

There are no water fountains in Brussels. I found one tap in the big park about 10 blocks from my house. There are also no public bathrooms that are free. (But I did go to one during Beer Weekend that cost €.50 and was decked out with giant aquariums in the front. Easily the coolest bathroom I've ever been in.)

Gum is harder to find here and the kind I found is the king that's sugar coated stuff where the flavor lasts about 5 minutes.

I waited 1 1/2 hours in a room to get to a window where I told the lady I wanted to register for an identity card and then after she filled out some paperwork she told me a policeman would be coming to my house to verify I live there and ONLY THEN would I get an actual appointment to register. So I waited 1 1/2 hours to be told I had to wait another 1-2 weeks to just get an appointment time. Which will then be who knows how long from the time I went into today.

I need more cats in my life.

Anicka is coming to visit me in October and I am super excited.

That is all. :)

P.S.- It has begun.

(my weather nightmare)

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new blog post tomorrow when some pictures are uploaded by a friend!

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I got really truly lost for the first time today. I was supposed to meet with the people form my internship this afternoon, and I had mapped out my route via google maps, all set and written down. The bus stop to get off at is in an area I'd never really been in before, so I was nervous.

Well thank goodness I bough a phone yesterday. I carefully made sure I was going in the right direction when I got on the bus, looked at the stops, and it was definitely right. And then we rode. And rode. And rode. And none of the stops were mine. And then the last three stops appeared on the screen. None of them mine.

I got off at a stop near the end I was familiar with, actually the place I'm going to see Margaret Atwood tomorrow. Thinking I could backtrack, I realized at this stop, the bus only went in one direction. I frantically called the internship office, and the wonderful amazing woman directed me to the tram I needed to take.

And then I got lost again. I thought I knew where to go from the tram, but I guess not. It was an epic directional fail. Someone from the office volunteered to pick me up at the station. Needless to say, I felt like an idiot. (But that stupid bus and it's stupid messed up route.)

The people in the internship office seem wonderfully kind. The organization is called Serve the City, and it works to create local charity groups and hold events. I'm excited to get started there next week.

IN OTHER NEWS, last weekend my housemate and some of our friends took Saturday and made it our TOURIST DAY. We went to le Palais Royale (which was free) and walked around there a bit.

The inside is gorgeous. (Link to my pictures at the bottom of the page.)

We then went to the Musical Instrument Museum, which holds 1,200 musical instruments inside it, from every era and every location. They give you a little listening device that gets activated when you stand in front of the glass cases and plays some of the sounds from the instruments within. Only €2 to get in for under 26, and I'll say it was the coolest €2 I've ever spent. (To boot, the building is incredible.)

I couldn't pick a favorite instrument display, but I liked this one a lot.

Backtracking, on Friday we had the school-sanctioned bar crawl. I met lots of new people and had an awesome time. We skipped following the group after our school bar and went to this bar called Delirium. It's a bar mostly filled with foreigners, but it's HUGE and AWESOME. Three stories on one side and then on the other side of the alley they have an absinthe bar that's all green and glowy. (Very cool, although I didn't have any absinthe.) In 2004, they held the record for most kinds of beer offered, with 2,004 on the menu. Now, they don't have QUITE that many, but they have a lot. I found a really delicious white cherry beer. I must find it again.

Here's the public link to the album of this blog post. Another blog post coming shortly about my Belgium Beer Weekend and Margaret Atwood viewing!

Facebook Album Click Here

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Oh hey nearly two weeks later and now a post.

So, I've actually been in Brussels for about two weeks and in Europe for a little less than a month. (I really miss the south of France, not going to lie.) Unfortunately, my computer didn't mesh well with my host mom's router and I couldn't begin using the wireless on my internet until last night. Whoops.

But I'm here! I'm staying in my own beautiful room in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, the smallest and most densely populated commune in Brussels. (The density of Mumbai, evidently.) My neighborhood is mostly Turkish, and consists of a lot of families. Brussels is nice because I guess it has a lot of parks compared to lots of European cities. There's a nice park near our house called Botanique. I'll probably spend a lot of time in parks since I don't really like cities and I need my nature fix. (I took a solo picnic on the French campus near my college and found some apple trees and blackberry bushes and there were animals and it was awesome. I do a lot of solo exploring.)

My room overlooks the street. It's a lovely, big, open room, the only downside being I can hear all the street activity, and there's a lot of it.

My host mom is super cool. Her name is Karen, and she is a single mother with a four and six-year-old, Emma and Molly. (Yes, the same names as the two homestay students! We're Big Emma and Big Molly.) She's from Denmark, but moved to Brussels 13 years ago. The kids are adorable. (And already trilingual- Danish, English, French. So jealous!) There's also a live-in nanny, Tessie, who looks after the girls while Karen works. She cooks, as well, and makes delicious food. (We get these amazing endive and tomato salads every night, which is awesome, since I eat a lot of carbs during the day and not much vegetation.) Tessie seems extremely nice and a great nanny for the girls. I can tell they love her.

There are also two cats, Bob and McAdoo. Bob lets you pet her (they're both hers) when she comes up to you, and McAdoo runs away from everyone that comes near her, but she let me touch her once when I was sitting in a chair at midnight downstairs. I consider it a big feat. McAdoo also really likes coming into my room while I'm not here and sleeping on my couch and bed.

I've visited lots of stuff! I'm about a mile from the city center and the Grand-Place, so I walk there often. There's an awesome grocery store there where I plan to do most of my shopping. I've also been on a bus tour with my school to see some of the sights. This Saturday, some friends Molly and I have made are planning to have a "tourist day." Since I haven't taken any pictures and Molly's only taken a few, we're going to spend the day going places and taking pictures and stuff. Plus, we know where a lot of stuff is now, and have our transportation passes that let us use any transport we want without buying new passes. (Fun fact: A yearly pass is regularly 500 euros, but for students it's 125 euros. Which ends up being cheaper than buying four month passes. Huh. Yay student discounts!)

Speaking of school, I'm now a student at Vesalius College! The school is a 25-minute tram ride from my house. It's adjacent for VUB and ULB, the big free French and Flemish universities. We have one building we share with four other companies/schools and about 6 classrooms total. It's a small school. I've met some really nice people! Most of the study abroad students are American and some here with programs. I'm one of the few students where I'm the only one from my school. One school sent 20 kids. It would be weird to be here with 20 Beloiters. I'm kind of glad I'm the only one. (Molly's school sent 9.) There are students from all over the world who go to the school, which is a three-year school with 300 students. (I guess three years is normal here for a degree.) I hope to meet some full time students and maybe male friends with some actual Belgians. *gasp*

I'm taking French, intro Dutch (actually the hardest pronunciation ever for a native English speaker, but I'm trying really hard and Sara you can make fun of me all you want), Intercultural Communications, and Contemporary Political Debates. They all seem interesting and I like all of my professors, especially for IC. I ended up not having any classes on Fridays, which is awesome for two reasons: I can sleep in (I have 8:30 classes 3/4 days of the week, meaning I have to get up at 7:20. I'm pretty sure I vowed never to take early classes again.), and I can travel with an extra day on the weekends! (I haven't planned many trips yet, but I hope to!)

It's kind of cool not being able to understand any of the languages on the public transportation. It gives you some time to reflect and think about stuff. Instead of eavesdropping, it's just basically gibberish, giving me a good twenty-thirty minutes of quiet (well, not so quiet) personal time to just think.

I can understand a bit of French, though, and speak a bit with waiters, etc. I had a mini conversation with the guy and woman at the metro station when I was getting my pass and helping Big Molly get hers. Molly sometimes watches French-language TV to practice and I watch with her occasionally. Hard to understand, but interesting. I would say the majority of people in Brussels speak French, and a lot speak Flemish, and then a million other languages. There are so many kinds of people here. I would say this is probably the most diverse city I've ever been in, hands down, even moreso than New York City. So many languages, clothes, etc. (Although, most people dress super chic. Europeans.)

I think that's all for now. I'll post more in depth later about specific things and put up some pictures when I take them! (Trust me, I'll take many.) Molly also took some pictures of me so when she posts them on Facebook, I'll put some up here. (I asked her first, she said it's cool.)

And there's my big, general overview post. Next week, Sara is coming down and we're seeing Margaret Atwood speak. I am SUPER excited about that.

In my closing remarks, here's a picture of me in my Vesalius shirt.

P.S.- Tomorrow night we have a school-sanctioned bar crawl to four local bars that lasts 5 hours, until 1 in the morning. I find that fascinating. School-sanctioned bar crawl. I plan to stay relatively sober, as I want my tourist Saturday to be hangover-free. However, I must say, Belgian beer is pretty good.

P.P.S.- For my Intercultural Communications class, one of our big projects is a ten-page "journal" of our experiences in Brussels in any form, so long as it has to do with Intercultural Communication-type-things. So I can use some of this blog. Which means I'll regularly update it. Look at that! Awesome sauce.

P.P.P.S.- I'll make this blog pretty soon, when I take actual pictures of Brussels that aren't my room or cats.