Bruges!!

Preface: All of the Pictures posted below were taken by the fabulous Lori Mullins, who is both better at photography, and more diligent in her picture uploading. Thanks Lori!!

On Saturday I ventured outside of Brussels for the first time since my arrival. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning (and it actually was sunny and bright out!) and headed to the train station, only to discover that we had chose the right day to go to Bruges: the fare was only 8 Euro!!! We piled excitedly onto the train and headed to Bruges.

The train ride was lovely, and it was very nice to get to see some of the Belgian countryside. The roommates and I have discussed doing several other day trips around Belgium, and I am truly excited to see more of this interesting country.

Bruges is a tiny town to the west of Brussels. It is located in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium (the dutch name of the city is Brugge). The town was a center of trade waaaay back in the day, but when the River Zwin silted up near the end of the 15^th century, the trade pretty much died out. Because of this, the city never really felt the pressure to modernize, and much of the architecture has been preserved; as they say in the recent movie In Bruges, Bruges is just like “a fairytale.”

When we got off the train we started to wander into the city and were amazed by how gorgeous it was. There is a little canal that winds all over the little town, and there are stone bridges galore! The narrow cobblestone streets were sooo beautiful, and the architecture was just gorgeous. We were mesmerized by the city, and immediately started snapping pictures.

After about half an hour of gushing about the beauty of the town, we realized that we were hungry and wandered around in search of food. Initially we were looking for a little coffee shop or something, but the fact that the average price for a cup of coffee was 4 euros combined with a sudden craving for hamburgers led us to look for something more substantial. As we reached the Markt, basically the town square, we saw a sign that read “Hamburgers.” It turned out just to be Quick, which is basically the Belgian McDonald’s, but we dug right in. It was not as good as McDonald’s, but it hit the spot, and we were ready to get out traveling.

The Markt

We embraced our status as tourists, and set out on the walking tour that was suggested in Celeste’s guidebook. The tour took us by some of the most beautiful building I have ever seen, reflecting in the placid water of the canal. We saw the really neat fish market, as well as many little shops selling chocolates and lace (some of Belgium’s specialties).

We continued along the tour, and continued to be amazed by the beauty of Bruges. About halfway through the tour we realized that there was an older couple that seemed to be stopping and looking at the same things that we were. Looking closer we noticed that they had the same guidebook, haha! We laughed hysterically about it for awhile and Celeste appropriately compared it to the awkward feeling you get when you are putt-putt golfing, and have to wait behind the same people at each hole. Excellent comparison, Celeste. Eventually we overcame the hilarious awkwardness and spoke to our tour partners. We worked through the slightly confusing instructions in the guidebook with the older couple, and continued to explore the city.

We headed around the shopping area, and went into several little shops. Then we each invested in the famous Belgian waffle. Since I referenced the waffle in my last post, I will try to keep my waffle musings to a minimum this time however, believe me, it was delicious. We took our waffles over, and sat on a little wall outside of a church, then commenced to try to eat our waffles like polite young women. We failed miserably. We sat outside this church, laughing loudly, snapping pictures of each other with whipped cream and chocolate all over our faces. It was a total blast.

We felt the need to work off the waffles, and decided to climb to the top of the Belfry. Warning: This is not a task for the weak of heart. The climb up the 366 stairs to the top of the Belfry takes considerable time and effort and, true to the claims made in the movies, it’s incredibly narrow. When we got to the top, however, it was well worth the effort. We marveled at the beautiful view, and were even up there as the giant bell began ringing!

We headed down and continued walking around, eventually making it to the Heilig Bloed Basiliek (The Basilica of the Holy Blood) where there is a vial that is said to contain a few drops of Christ’s blood. The vial is kept in a really cool silver tabernacle, and the entire mood of the church is very quiet and reverent. Overall, it was a really neat experience.

Next, we headed over toward the cluster of whitewashed houses where a community of nuns live, and looked around there, which was really cool. Along the way Lori found the swans, which, I think, was a major turning point in her life. Then we walked into a really neat Cathedral and saw Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child, which is apparently the only Michelangelo statue to leave Italy during his lifetime. That was REALLY cool.

By this point we were starving, so we found this really fun restaurant that served North African food, and it was absolutely delicious. Feeling satisfied with the day, we made our way through Bruges, and headed toward the train station, proclaiming it a successful day.

It was a great trip, and I am really looking forward to heading to Antwerp this weekend.

More Shots of Bruges:

Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head...

The weather here has been absolutely brutal! The temperatures are certainly warmer then Rochester, but the cold wind and relentless rain chills you in a way that, after a half hour spent outside, you are freezing for the rest of the day. Today the wind was especially bad, and I thought for sure I was going to get blown away!

This has been an incredibly busy week for me. I began the week with a Monday morning class, and then started work on Tuesday. I am interning for a Member of the European Parliament and IT IS AMAZING. I went into the internship with many warnings: "Don't expect to meet your MEP or have much contact with her," "You probably won't get that much work at first," "You'll probably be in a small office where the staff is just you and an assistant," "Just so you know, Europeans are not as initially friendly, so be patient and don't expect to make friends right away"

So far each of those warning has proven false. I called on Monday to set up an interview, and my supervisor immediately asked me to come in the following day because they were incredibly busy. Tuesday morning I left myself plenty of time to get to the EU, which was lucky because I came out of a different metro exit then I was expecting to, and I spent about a significant amount of time wandering around before my very basic French ("Excuse-Moi, Parlez-vous anglais ?) was met with success, and I was given good directions to Parliament.

I still arrived on time, and met up with my supervisor. She's incredibly friendly, and has been really wonderful about answering all of my questions. She gave me a quick basic tour of the enormous complex, and introduced me to the rest of the staff, and then I was thrown straight into my work.

The work is amazing. I have the pleasure of monitoring the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and the Committee on Fisheries (maybe it sounds lame, but policy surrounding fisheries is a fascinating mixture of agricultural policy, environmental policy, and labour policy, so it actually is really, really cool). The meetings are so cool! The EU has 23 official languages, and most of the time the meetings are translated for me through my headphones. The policy stuff is absolutely fascinating. I love it!

Work has also been a lot of fun. Contrary to what I had heard, the staff is actually fairly large for an MEP. On my first day I was introduced to Olivia, Tristan, and Ruth, the other office interns. They were kind enough to invite me to lunch with them, and have been really patient in explaining how things work around the EU. I am so glad that I get to work with such fine people.

I also met my MEP on my first day there. She is an amazing super-woman who is constantly running around to do everything that needs to be done, but she is also kind and caring, and spend a great deal of time looking after her constituents, and sticking up for their interests.

Overall, work has kept me very busy (whoever says that study abroad was a blow-off clearly didn't work in my office!) but working at the EU has been the highlight of my trip so far.

Today was also interesting. I had class bright and early this meeting (theory and practice of diplomatic negotiations) and it sounds very interesting. Then I went to my history class and my prof gave a lecture on the nature of war and conflict, and weaved in much of the International Security Theory that I had learned in Dolan's class last semester, so that was sweet.

After class, I ran over to the Parliament for a talk that Olivia had set up for the interns about the Ind/Dem political group. It was great and also a nice opportunity to meet other interns. Then Olivia, Tristan, and I headed over to an event at a local church to make sandwiches for the homeless. The sandwiches were already made by the time we got there, so we ducked into a metro station and Tristan and I picked up some delicious, warm waffles, while Olivia cringed at the amount of sugar that we were ingesting.

I feel the need to pause here, and discuss the belgian waffle in depth. I'm not sure that I've had anything in my life that is as delicious as that waffle was! The Belgians put such a fantastic amount of sugar into their waffles that the waffle irons that they use have syrup (from the melted sugar) running down the edges. They come out warm, and sweet, with a coat of sugar on them. It was incredible! I gushed about how delicious the waffle was, and Tristan reminded me that, in many waffle places, its common to drizzle chocolate over them, or to put powdered sugar or fruit on them. I can't imagine how a waffle could get anymore delicious, but I plan to test this out in the near future and let you know.

Pardon my digression. Anyway, we said goodbye to Tristan, and the Olivia and I went back to my house to kill time before, eventually meeting up with a group of parishioners from German-speaking church, to go to serve food to the homeless.

We headed to one of the metro stations, and started setting up and serving the food. I was shy about serving the food, since I am unable to really communicate with non-English speakers, but I went around picking up garbage, and was amazed at how much can be communicated non-verbally.

I also had a great time talking to all the other people that were volunteering. I met people from all over the world, and it was great to just have the opportunity to meet and talk with new people. I am continuously amazed at the way that Brussels seems to attact people from all over the world. I am sure the EU has some hand in that, but its been so amazing to meet people from all over, and most have been very friendly too!!!

I know this was a long post, and not about anything in particular, but the main point is that I had a great week and I really like it here!

Love,

Em

Once Upon a Time...

There lived a girl named Emily who lived in a castle in a far off kingdom called “Brussels”…

Okay, maybe that seems a bit much, but honestly that is how I feel about my house and my study abroad experience thus far. On Friday, after the entire taxi ordeal we arrived at our beautiful home in the commune “Schaerbeek” in Brussels and met our landlords Stephanie, and her two beautiful children Edmund and Olympia.

The house is a beautiful old four story home that has been restored. The family lives on the first two and a half floors, and we leave on the top two. Given how difficult it is to find nice short-term housing in Brussels, I feel so incredibly spoiled. Each of us has our own bedroom, and we share a fairly large kitchen and living room area. The kitchen was fully equipped with many pots and pans, and they even included an iron (so don’t worry Deb!) and a hair dryer. In order to be democratic, we drew room assignments out of a camera case. We moved all of our stuff in, gushed about how nice it was, took about a thousand pictures, and then set out to find dinner.

The House from the outside

We live here! Roomies in front of the house.

The Kitchen

The girls chilling in the Living Room.

Kitchen from another angle

My room before I unpacked

My Room :)

Determined not to spend any more money on eating out, we walked to the nearest food store, which just happened to be the convenience store of a petrol station. We grabbed food, and headed home to make dinner.

We had 7:30 as the time to meet up with our landlords, and I expected that they would use the meeting as an opportunity to tell us the ground rules. When they came upstairs, however, I realized that they would be a lot more laid back then I had expected. They brought up a bottle of champagne, and a few glasses. They went over the laminated list of Emergency contacts, the laminated map of the neighborhood with labeled point of interest for us, and pointed out the fire extinguisher and fire blanket (Their organization rivals even Deb).

Some of you might think that living above a family is awkward, and to a certain extent it is. We do have to worry about our volume late at night, and such. Overall, however, I think we really get an awesome fusion between having host family and having a landlord. We have the independence of living on our own and enjoy the luxury of having our own space, but we also have the resource of close proximity to a local. Our landlords offered up their experience and encouraged us to contact them when we wanted to travel somewhere so that they could give us travel tips.

Saturday morning we went on a historical tour of Belgium. We got incredibly lost on the way there, and ended up meeting up with the group late. Still, it was a wonderful tour and a good way to see some of the sights. Unfortunately my camera batteries died in the middle of the tour, but I intend on going back to see some of the sights.

Memorial to the Great War.

Palais De Justice (Palace of Justice)

Today was my first day of class, and my professor spent the entire time going over the syllabus in a meticulous and painstaking way. Hopefully the class will get more interesting. I also called my intern coordinator today and set up an interview with her for tomorrow at 11 am. I am pretty nervous about that, but I am also optimistic. She said that they were quite busy, so hopefully they’ll have stuff for me to do.

A couple of observations about living here in Brussels.

1. The trams lines are just about the coolest things I have ever seen in my entire life. I live very close to a tram line, and while at first I was disappointed that it wasn’t part of the metro line, it’s actually pretty sweet. They travel above ground, for the most part, so it’s a nice way to see the city. Plus, they just look so pleasant cruising around the city. Yay for trams.
2. Going grocery shopping can be tough. Most things are fairly obvious, and look similar to the product, but we have had some mix-ups with the languages. So far, the roommates and I have mistaken sour cream for cottage cheese, and buttermilk for milk. Some things are really difficult to find. So far I have not been able to find alfredo sauce, pretzels, or tortillas. Additionally, I have had a hard time finding frozen chicken breasts. I contemplated buying fresh ones, but I would have to talk to the butcher, and the language barrier combined with the high cost of meat drove me to pick up a couple cans of beans to get my protein. Additionally, they don’t refrigerate their milk (Weird!) so that was tough to find, and was responsible for the milk/buttermilk confusion.

3. Okay, maybe Americans are just overly concerned with appearance, but I do have a few grievances about the appearance of the city (Maybe my friends who have also traveled abroad can explain this to me.) Brussels is a gorgeous city but there are a few things that are bringing it down, namely the Graffiti and the massive amount of dog poop that litters the sidewalk. Most of the city is beautiful, but there are parts where the Graffiti is way out of control. I have no idea what most of it says, but it is everywhere, even on historical monuments! While trying to enjoy the arch the other day, we were startled to see swastikas spray painted on the back of the concrete slabs supported the gate of the part. And today a classmate and I joked about how walking through the VUB campus felt like we were in Warsaw in 1939. I couldn’t help but wonder how the administration at the U of R would react to Graffiti. It just seems so accepted here that there is not even an attempt to clean it up or scrub it off. I have to admit I really don’t get it. Okay, so now onto the dog poop. Apparently the concept of cleaning up your pet’s feces is a uniquely American idea, because there is dog poop everywhere. Its not really that big a deal, but it does get irritating when you can’t completely soak up the view of a city because you are constantly watching you step.

Au Revoir for now!

Em

Trains, Trams, and Automobiles: A Massive Post in Three Parts

Part I. International City!

We took a tour of the European Parliament building. It was incredibly exciting to actually be in that building. I also felt like I could enjoy it to the fullest because none of my tax dollars were used to build it! It was also great, because the audio tour we took employed the use of about 5 different versions of “Ode to Joy”, the official song of the European Union, including a rap version.

Later, we went out for Lori’s 21^st birthday. It was a total blast! We met people from all over the world, and we managed to find enough diverse people that throughout the night, Lori was sang to in 8 different languages. It was so awesome! It was also funny that people know enough about US law that they understand why such a birthday is a landmark for an American. A group of Irish Men wished her a happy birthday, but joked that they had been the bars since they were 14, and that there livers were screwed. It was a great night.

Part II. And you thought the USA was bureaucratic

While it is not my intention to use this blog as a space to gripe, I cannot accurately document my experience here without discussing all of the red tape one must get through to live here in Belgium. After spending significant valuable time and money on a visa, we have yet another hurdle to cross.

The Belgian government requires all aliens to register at the city hall within eight days of their arrival in Belgium (to be fair, citizens are also required to jump through similar hoops, and register at city hall anytime they move). Thursday, we set out to register for this. We hopped on the metro and took that a few stops, then we had to come above ground and figure out the tram system, a new thing for us.

The Tram ride was gorgeous. It was so fun to see a new area of Brussels, and tram is a great way to travel to see the sights above ground. We got off at the right stop, and walked around looking for the city hall. Eventually we found city hall, and went inside. We waited in line, only to discover that the man at the front did not speak English; due to the information we had received about this process, this came at quite a surprise.

Eventually, we used hand gestures to figure out that we could not register without an appointment. We also were told, that no one at city hall spoke English, and would we need to bring a translator to our appointment.

Apparently, approximately 18 days after we give them out address and information at our appointment, a police officer will visit our house to verify that we live there. After the officer visits, we can go back to city hall and finish the process. It approximately takes until about April for us to be processed and get our ID cards. We leave in May; figure that one out.

Part III. “BIG TAXI.” “Ah, tack-see. Oui, Oui, it is fine”

I have discovered the drawback of going to a place were almost everyone knows some English, is that people often think that they understand you when they don’t. Today we experience such drama with out hotel desk clerk. This drama can be best told in timeline form.

11:00 AM: The clerk dismisses me this morning when I ask him to order us a cab for later. He says that someone from out group has already ordered a cab. I explain to him that we needed a different cab, because we were going to different places. He claims to understand, and begins answering phones and ignoring me. I reluctantly leave to go register for classes.

12:00 PM: We finish registering for classes, and sit down to eat lunch before we activate our computer accounts.

1:10 PM: An angry waitress chases us out of the restaurant yelling in French. We use our pathetic French to try and figure out what is going on. A professor from VeCo comes to translate, and explains that the waitress does not think we paid. We tell her we paid. She leaves us alone.

1:45 PM: We return to the hotel to check and make sure our cab was ordered. We tell the clerk that him we need a big taxi to fit all of our luggage. This man, who we later nicknamed “the hobbit” because…well, he looked like a hobbit, acts like this is news to him. We tell him “ BIG TAXI, at 3:30, 15:30.” He nods and picks up the phone.

1:50 PM With some time to kill, we wander down the street to the arch, which is really a glorious structure. It is so beautiful, and we really enjoy looking at it, reading the inscriptions, and snapping pictures of the intricate carving.

2:45 PM: We return to the hotel to find an irate hobbit and a furious cab driver with a long greasy ponytail. The hobbit wondered why we came back at 2:45 when we ordered a cab for 2:30. The cab driver, who had been waiting for 15 minutes, demanded that we pay him for the time he was waiting. After a confusing argument with both, in broken English we pay the cab driver so he doesn’t call the police. He doesn’t give us change, and walks off with a .50 Euro tip for doing nothing. Jerk. The hobbit calls us another cab, this time for 3:30.

3:00 PM We go next door to a café and curse the hobbit. We mourn the unnecessary loss of our precious 14 Euros.

3:25 PM: Refusing to spend another second in the hobbit’s hotel, we roll our luggage out, and prepare for the cab to come.

3:35 PM: The cab comes. It is tiny. The cab driver takes one look at our luggage and says “you need a bigger taxi!” and drives away

3:36 PM: Judith announces that she is going inside to yell at the hobbit (for failing to call a large cab), even though he can’t understand her.

3:37 PM: Judith yells at the hobbit. We all feel a bit better. The hobbit calls us two taxis to accommodate our luggage.

3:38 PM: It starts to rain. We continue stand outside the hotel with all of our bags.

3:50 PM: The first cab comes. We load in luggage and Lori and Judith go ahead, while Celeste and I wait for the next cab.

3:51 PM: The next cab comes. Out steps the angry cab driver with the greasy ponytail. I begin to feel a bit like I am in a movie or an episode of Seinfeld.

3:59 PM: We arrive at our new house. I calm down, and reason that is was not the cab driver’s fault that the hobbit ordered him early. Despite the sour mood I am in, I tip him anyway.

4:02 PM: The other girls tell me how much their cab ride cost. The man with the greasy ponytail overcharged us. I curse myself for tipping that fiend.

4:03 PM: We enter our beautiful house and meet our wonderful landlord!

I will have to wait until another time to tell you about our wonderful house! It is late, and I need to be up early for a historic tour of Brussels.

Never Trust a Hobbit!

-Em

Je Ne Comprends Pas. Parlez-vouz Anglais?

This is the useful French phrase I learned yesterday. It means “I don’t understand. Do you speak English.” It’s a bit sad, but my knowledge of the French language is so pathetic, that I practically break my arm patting myself on the back every time I respond to a waiter with “Merci” or throw out an “Au Revoir” to the desk clerk as we leave the hotel; so for now, that sad little French phrase is one hundred percent necessary.

It’s been a busy couple of days. Tuesday morning I woke up fairly refreshed from the ten hours of sleep I had. We all got dressed and ready and headed downstairs for the hotel’s free breakfast. Wrong. We were stopped by the desk clerk, who informed us that breakfast would be served in our rooms. Interesting. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, and the maid arrived with a tray with tea, croissants, and cheese.

After breakfast, we prepared for the fine Belgian weather by throwing on raincoats, and grabbing umbrellas, then we set out to see the sights. After pooling out resources (I swear, everyone got a guidebook for the holidays) we successfully maneuvered out way through the metro system, and tried to find our way to the famous Grand-Place, the town square of Brussels.

Along the way, we stumbled upon Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule (St. Micheals and St. Gudula Cathedral). It was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen in my entire life. The inside had these giant panes of stained glass. We were stunned with the amount of work put into every single piece of art.

Then we wandered toward the direction of the Grand-Place, but got distracted along the way by a scenic shopping center called Galleries St. Hubert. We walked around and marveled at the intricate art on the ceilings, while doing a bit of window shopping. Along the way we passed about 15 chocolate shops. It looks delicious but, for fear I’ll turn into an addict, and for the sake of my wallet, I am attempting to hold out for as long as possible.

Then we walked down Rue des Bouchers, a really cute cobble stone street lined with restaurants. Apparently it is very common for chefs to stand outside their restaurant and try to lure in customers, and as they saw us coming down the streets they came out to meet us. Many of the restaurants had chalkboard that boasted great deals, but we had been warned that they deceptively post cheap prices, but the bills are often higher then expected. Still, it was nice to see the many quaint restaurants.

Please Note the Miniature Mannekin Pis nestled in the ice. Silly Belgians.

Finally, we arrived at the Grand-Place. It was absolutely gorgeous! I couldn’t stop taking pictures of everything. After all of the talk I have heard from people, it was anything but overrated. It was so beautiful, and I definitely intend to spend more time there in the upcoming months. Apparently, during August they take thousands of flowers and create a beautiful carpet of flowers in the square in front of the Grand-Place. I am definitely disappointed that I won’t be around for that.

By this point we were incredibly cold and wet, so we ducked into a little restaurant to warm up and grab something to eat. I had a ham sandwich that was very good and also really cheap. We hung out there for a bit, and then asked for directions to the Famous Mannekin Pis. The restaurant owner gave us directions saying “Mannekin Pis is very small, no? I am the BIG Mannekin Pis.” Haha, I guess that was kind of awkward, but in my experience so far Belgians are very friendly.

We came up on Mannekin Pis and I really was surprised to see how small he was. For those of you that don’t know, Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing. He is traditionally naked, but the Belgians love to dress him up, and we narrowing missed the Elvis Costume he was sporting to celebrate the king’s birthday. On special occasions, Mannekin Pis even pees beer. It’s a strange tourist destination, and an even stranger mascot for a city, but there you go!

We finished up the day by going to a splendid little Italian restaurant. The owner was very nice to us, and gave us free drinks and a plate of seasoned olives. The prices were also incredibly reasonable. We will definitely go there again.

Today was orientation at Vesalius College. Vesalius College, or “VeCo” as the administration likes to call it, is an English speaking college that is affiliate with Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a Dutch-Speaking University in Brussels. For those of you that don’t know, Brussels has two official languages, French and Dutch. Today was the first day spent on the Dutch side of town, and it’s definitely confusing to see signs written in Dutch. I guess I’ll adjust.

Orientation was pretty great. It was a mix of speakers, tours, and free meals. They offered free water, so we all drank as many glasses as we can possibly get our hands on because water at restaurants is expensive! They also had a large free lunch and a variety of croissants to snack on; I haven’t had a waffle yet, but if they are anywhere near as delicious as these croissants I have a lot to look forward to!

The Student government at Vesalius loves to host social events and throw parties. And tonight they are hosted a tour of the night life of Brussels. I am grateful for the opportunity to have someone who knows what they are talking about lead me around. The streets here don’t seem to be arranged with any particular organization, and the fact that they are labeled in two languages doesn’t help the lost American find their way.

Au Revior for now!

Emily

Note: This Entry was written earlier, but took some time to post. An inconsistent internet signal, combined with the fact that blogspot (as well as google, and other important sights) has reacted to my travel by automatically switching to Dutch; being that I don't speak Dutch, I have no idea how to change it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. After a prolonged battle with the website, blogspot has decided I need to wait until I have stronger internet signal to post pictures. I promise to post them soon!

I'm Here!

I made it! I have to say, after several months spent applying for the program, obtaining a visa, packing, and worrying, I am so relieved to finally be here!

On January 11 at 4 pm I departed for Amsterdam. They said the flight was full, but they were wrong and I was actually lucky enough to have an open seat next to me. It was also one of those nice planes with the TV in the back of the seat in front of you. I listened to my brand new i-pod, watched Man on Wire (A really interesting documentary about the man that walked a tightrope strung between the two towers of the World Trade Center), and even slept a little bit.

I arrived at Amsterdam at about 5:20 AM in Amsterdam time. Despite all my worries, I made it through immigration and customs without any problems, and made it to my gate by about 6 AM. I killed time reading magazines and studying my Eurojargon before my flight took off at 9:20.

I arrived at Brussels and easily found my way to baggage claim, through customs, and to the taxi stand. I made it to the hotel without any problem, and met up for lunch with the people in program. After lunch, we walked over to a nearby cell phone store and I picked up a new sim card and got my cell phone working!

I was incredibly surprised at how little hand holding there is in my program. My understanding (and that of the others in the program), was that we would arrive and our program director would take us under her wing and show us the ropes. In fact, she arrived, paid for our welcome lunch, handed us a folder, and basically said she would see us Wednesday morning for our first activity. We are alone left to figure out public transportation, bank accounts, food, and figure out the French language. This circumstance makes me feel incredibly vulnerable. At the same time, the 6 others in my program are experiencing the same thing and we are figuring it out together.

After the program director left, I hung out with the girls in the hotel. We decided that we would attempt to stay away for the remainder of the day to adjust to our new home. Then we got changed and hit up the neighborhood to grab some dinner.

As we walked around, I was amazed at how charming Brussels is. Every building is beautiful, pretty lights decorated the streets, and I spent almost the entire night walking on cobblestone. It’s very nice!

The girls and I hunted around until we finally found a tavern within our price range. We went in, and for our first time in Brussels no one spoke a word of English. While it was a little bit intimidating to be so out of our element, it was also nice to know that we had at least found a place that the locals go! We spent some times there talking and getting to know each other. Overall, I feel really good about the group that I am with. I am especially happy that we all seem to put the same emphasis on budgeting, and understand that travel is more important then food.

On the way back we stopped at a grocery store to buy water. After spending 24 hours restricting my liquid intake in order to avoid using the airplane bathrooms, it felt so wonderful to start guzzling the giant bottle of water I bought. It was cheap, too!

We have nothing scheduled for tomorrow, so the plan is to wake up and eat a big breakfast and go see the sights. I am really excited to see the Grand Place, and Mannequin Pis. The girls and I are also determined to teach ourselves some French. Most people that I have encountered so far speak at least a little bit of English, but the French language is so beautiful, and being unable to understand their gorgeous conversations makes me feel a bit like an outsider.

Wednesday is orientation at Vesalius College, Thursday is a visit to Parliament, and Friday we move into our permanent housing, so I have a very busy week ahead of me. Now it is time for sleep.

Au Revoir!

Emily

Trying to Figure Out the Camera

My Mom is lending me her digital camera to take with me. Since I have no idea how to work a camera (or, pretty much, technology in general) I am taking this opportunity to attempt to upload pictures. Most of these are of no consequence, so feel free to ignore this post.

This is the packing station that Mom and I have set up in Abby's room. We normally do this sort of thing in the basement but "Treeville" has taken over the big table we normally use.

There were also some pictures on the camera leftover from Will's Graduation so I thought I would post those just for fun.


These are my grandparents with Will at his graduation. I think Grandma looks pretty snazzy in her suit.

This is me with Will, Abby and Grandma Peg after Will's graduation.

Grandma and Grandpa Hunter with the Graduate.


Here are my parent's with will at the graduation. My dad doesn't normally smoke cigars; it's just a silly St. Mary's tradition.

Okay, this is a good one. I took a picture of all of our stockings hung up by the fireplace (We haven't had a chance to take down the Christmas decorations yet). The blocks above the fireplace actually spell "Merry Christmas," but Will has changed them to make his own creative holiday saying. I think this pretty much captures my family's twisted sense of humor.

It looks like I've figure out how to do that, so I should be able to post some pictures of my trip in the near future. I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm not even close to being ready, so I'd better go pack!

Peace,

Emily

The Inaugural Post

The last few weeks have certainly been busy! I began December by writing several papers and preparing for finals. Before I knew it, finals were over and I was packing up my life at the University of Rochester.

I spent a few days wonderful days in New York City with Adam, looking at store windows and visiting Santa, then I flew out to Chicago to meet my family. After an eventful 24 hours in Chicago, my family and I headed back to Michigan. Christmas was spent with the family, and I recently rang in the New Year in East Lansing with some quality people.

In 10 days I will be heading out to Brussels, Belgium to study abroad. I am incredibly nervous, but I am looking forward to the change. I thought this blog would be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family while I am abroad. I hope to update it fairly often with posts and pictures (if I can figure out how to load pictures from the camera onto my computer) of my life while I am abroad.

Please leave comments here, or reach me through e-mail, facebook, or aim while I am abroad! Also, if I fail to update this please get on my case!

Love,
Em