September 14, 2006

After months of planning I am finally here in Brussels, Belgium. Naturally, I left the U.S. after a whirlwind of visits and partying in Harlingen, New York, and DC. I have to thank everyone for the warm wishes and the cozy send-off I received…although I was excited to leave and enter into a new world of Belgian beer and graduate study, I have to admit I knew I was going to miss my American lifestyle and close friends. Specifically, I have to thank my Harlingen peeps to keep me down-to-earth and humble, my New York peeps for their never-ending adventures, and the DC peeps for always helping me hold my fort down in a country so engrossed in radical conservatism. I’ll miss u.

I arrived in Belgium yesterday after a direct flight from DC which surprisingly went smooth. If anyone knows me, they know that I have the unusual luck for the worst traveling drama. With my three huge suitcases and two carry-ons containing my whole life I waved down a taxi and went straight to the flat I’ll be living in for the next year. I had no idea which number it was, but I went blindly and ended up waiting at the footsteps for about ½ hr until I heard a couple of girls conversing. I immediately called their names and sure enough they were the two of the four people with whom I’ll be sharing the flat.

I first met Panteha who is of Iranian ethnicity but backgrounds in Switzerland and the U.S. She is a very kind yet hard-lined person in the sense that you can always rely on her to be on top of her game. She will definitely be the house madame. Then I met Mari who is from Kobe, Japan, but went to university in Essex, England. She is the sweetest and warm spirited girl whom I know everyone will get along easily. One other roommates arrived and his name is Will. He is from London and, of course, has that thick British accent. He’s a good guy. He’ll be teaching English and going to school part-time. The other fellow will arrive tomorrow and he is Canadian. He seems pretty cool online but I’ll find out tomorrow.

Our house is pretty nice. The picture above is the view from my bedroom window. 5 bedrooms, large kitchen and dining room area, big living room space and another space that we will probably use as another dining area. Our bathroom situation is weird. We have two bathrooms with only toilets in them and another bathroom with only showers…two showers. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that one of the bedrooms (which is the only on the first floor-the other four are on the second) has a shower in it…it’s now what you think. It seriously only has the shower randomly in the corner of the room with only clear, plastic walls separating it to the bed…Brett ought to enjoy it. Aside from the inevitable shower scheduling problems that we are bound to face, everything is nice. We have a whole bunch of minor problems, but nothing serious. I made it to Ikea yesterday and bought a desk and luckily that should be the only piece of furniture that I’ll need to buy.

So, when I landed yesterday and met some of the roommates (and one of their dads that won’t leave until I think Saturday…hopefully) I went straight to the grocery store and Ikea barely giving me a chance to see the flat we’re living in. I was non-stop all day long with only having 2 hrs of sleep in two days…last night I slept a much needed 6 hrs. So, I don’t know anything about Brussels yet but hopefully that will change as the weekend approaches. My roommates haven’t been too thrilled about going out, but you know I am. There are some other people that I met beforehand that I’ll meeting tonight so that ought to be fun…I will be break the party-seal here in Brussels. I figure I might as well since I’m sure I won’t be as much when classes begin.

On other thing is that I am definitely at a loss not knowing French. I am having some trouble communicating with others and ordering/understanding everything I need/do, but hopefully that will chance. In addition to my English, my Spanish is really helping out here.

Well, I am off to buy some adaptors for my American appliances so keep an eye out for any new blogs. Hopefully I will submit one every week or two…or at least when something interesting happens. Ciao.