Lists

List #1- United States, you should do as the Belgians do:

1) Going green.

Most stores in Brussels charge you for a plastic bag if you don't bring your own reusable bag. Everyone carries shopping bags and rolling carts with them to the stores/market. On another eco-friendly note, all the lights are motion censored and turn off automatically after about 10 seconds if you don't move around the room enough. Way to go Europe for actually following through with being environmentally cautious!

2) Public transportation.

It is phenomenal here. There is a tram spot a few steps from my front door that takes me directly to school. The metro, trams, and buses all continuously run during most days. Cars are not even necessary here, and those who do own cars do not understand how to drive them because of a severe lack of driver's ed training (we've been told that the test consists solely of turning a car on and driving it in a straight line).

3) Relaxation.

Most every store here closes at 6 PM on the dot every day. Almost nothing is open on Sunday. Restaurant meals have multiple courses and last for hours and hours. Belgians fully understand the concept of taking time off, relaxing and living a slow-paced lifestyle. (United States, take note of this one in particular!)



Just wanted to share this photo... I like to call it "the beauty of getting lost." I took the wrong tram one night and ended up at this beautiful cathedral. Turns out, I was close to my house but just in an area I was unfamiliar with.



List #2- Brussels, really!?

1) THERE ARE NO COFFEE SHOPS HERE.

This has been a very tough adjustment for a caffeine-addicted college student. In the US, you can't walk more than 20 feet without stumbling across a Starbucks or some other coffee-producing establishment. On the contrary, Belgians haven't grasped this concept yet! We have found a small café near our school that gives out Dixie-cup sized "coffee to-go" for the equivalent of about $3.

2) Meteorological conditions.

The weather here can never make up its mind! It's always gloomy and usually misting rain. Yesterday, Mother Nature decided to dump a couple inches of snow on us. Today, that snow is gone because of an unusually sunny day. Now don't get me wrong, the rain doesn't stop me from going out and exploring the city but it would be a hell of a lot better if it wasn't somber and dreary outside all the time...

3) "Gourmet" food.

At home, cheese curds and french fries are two food groups we're told to avoid because of the grease factor and fat content. However, in Brussels, they serve massive cheese curds at restaurants as an appetizer, arrange it nicely on the plate and slap the name "cheese croquettte" on it. Gourmet fail #1. Also, french fries are considered a prime delicacy here. I want to make it very clear that I am NOT complaining about the fact that I receive a side of "frites" with almost every nice meal I eat out at a restaurant here, but rather reiterating the fact that french fries are such a strong cultural symbol for Belgians.




That's it for my lists. This past week in Brussels, I scrambled around the city to find my textbooks (still haven't found them all) and tackled a laundromat for the first time. On Wednesday, my program hosted a dinner for some french speaking students joining our group. The condition to attend the free 4-course meal + unlimited wine: No speaking English. Let's just say the unlimited amounts of wine helped my broken french flow throughout the evening. Yesterday, our group went on an excursion to several World War II memorials, including an American cemetery in Luxembourg honoring soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. We also saw various German tanks, a German cemetery, and visited a forest where several fox holes were still in place from the war. It was a powerful reminder of how many people sacrificed their lives for their country and for future generations.

Here are some photos from that excursion:

View of the city of Bastogne- The snow seems to follow me everywhere

Memorial honoring all 50 states.

American cemetery in Luxembourg




C'est tout pour maintenant! (That's all for now!)
Bonsoir!

Beginning to be Belgian

Today marks my 2-week anniversary of living in Brussels. And in such a short amount of time, I can already say that Belgium has become my home. My sense of direction has dramatically improved as I no longer have to pull out my giant metro map at every stop to figure out which direction I need to go next. I was even able to direct a lost tourist to their correct metro stop! Being mistaken for a Belgian is probably the best compliment I've received since being here. I've also been pleasantly surprised with how much my French has improved in so little time. Just seeing signs in French and hearing everyone speak it on the metro and on the street encourages me to practice as much as possible. This paid off when I was in line at the grocery store, and I held a conversation with a woman about the convenient product placement of gum and magazines near the check out line... all in French! While it may not seem like much, it's been several years since I've taken any sort of French class. Goes to show how crucial it is to be immersed in a culture/language to really learn it. However, the defining moment of my Belgian-ism occurred at my school-sponsored beer chugging contest. Before the contest began, one of my fellow Belgian students found out I was American and began telling me various bars to go to and landmarks to visit. He was astonished to find out that I had already been to most of the sites he was suggesting! I even rattled off the name of a bar that our program director had told us to visit, and my classmate had never even heard of it. Knowing more about Belgium than a native Belgian in week 2? I'll take it! (Side note for everyone wondering: I lost in the first round of the beer chugging contest...)

As promised, here are photos of the the house I rent a room out of:



My room---so much space, so few things to fill it with!












In other news, reality struck in Brussels this past week with the beginning of spring semester classes. I will be taking classes at Vesalius College, a tiny, 300 person English-speaking college. Here is "campus":


Our school takes up solely the first floor of this building. Classes are extremely small and can last up to 3 hours. This is quite an adjustment from 300 person lectures in Madison where the professors wouldn't even have the slightest idea you exist unless you make the effort. At Vesalius, everyone knows everyone and everyone is accounted for, as attendance is taken in every class.

My schedule is as follows:
International Journalism
U.S. Foreign Policy since 1898
Intermediate French II
Belgium Culture Course

The best part: No class Monday or Friday! This means I'll be free to travel on the weekends easily. This also allows me to have more time to work at my internship! I have been hired as an intern at a non-profit organization here in Brussels called Close the Gap. This organization collects computers from corporations and other donors and sends them to third world countries for educational purposes. I will be helping with the marketing and PR for Close the Gap this semester and receive credit for it.

This past weekend, some friends and I took the train to explore a town about 45 minutes north of Brussels, called Antwerp. Antwerp's claim to fame is that it has a booming diamond industry and exports 80% of the world's diamonds. It is also home to 50,000 Orthodox Jews. We happened to be visiting on Shabbat, so very few places near our hostel were open on the day of rest. Regardless, it was great to wander around a new city, even it was for just 1 day.


This is the train station in Antwerp. It has been voted 4th best in the world, giving this quirky city yet another claim to fame.

One of the highlights of our stay in Antwerp was the discovery of a Mexican restaurant. This was especially monumental because on day 1 of orientation, our program directors told us Belgians don't know how to make Mexican food and there was no way we would ever find anything close to decent Mexican food in Belgium. This was heartbreaking as I am a frequent Chipotle customer and nacho lover. It felt so good to prove them wrong! While this restaurant was extremely overpriced (15 euros for 1 burrito-equal to about $20), we managed to haggle the owner for cheaper food if we all got the same enchilada. He agreed and even threw in free chips. Next mission: Finding a decent Mexican restaurant in the city I actually live in.


Overpriced but delicious Mexican food... Olé!





































Another 3-day stretch of class ahead before another weekend and the beginning of my internship. This weekend we'll be taking a trip to the Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg with the CIEE program... Stay Tuned!

À Bientôt!

Je suis en Bruxelles!

It seems like ages ago I was saying goodbye to family and friends in snowy Minnesota and making my way across the Atlantic for the semester in rainy Belgium. However, it was only one week ago that my plane landed in Amsterdam, for me to find out the connecting plane to Brussels was cancelled due to "expected heavy snow." To make matters worse, the Brussels airport decided it would be a good idea prepare for the snowstorm by shutting down for a few hours. Diversion #1 had arrived! Solution: Train. Needless to say, it was quite stressful attempting to get my 70 pounds of luggage on to the 2-ft high train platform before the door closed on me. The final lap of my cross-continental journey was complete when I arrived in Brussels that afternoon. And yes, it was snowing. It was only fitting that the terrible weather followed me from the Midwest.

After catching up on some sleep, the unofficial beginning to our orientation week started. It was nothing to complain about as our program directors took us out for traditional Belgian beers at a pub in the heart of downtown. Beer is a way of life in Belgium. To quote one of our program directors, "It doesn't count as alcohol here." It is a beer drinking culture, but not in any way like UW-Madison is. In Belgium, it is customary to go to a pub and talk with friends over quality and locally-brewed beers whereas at school, the quality of beer is not important but rather how fast it can be consumed. After giving light, dark, and even many fruit beers a chance this first night, we were well on our way to becoming beer connoisseurs! Orientation began the next day.

Several days of planned group excursions and meetings followed... After getting to see the city and meet some of the people here I have devised a list of my initial impressions of life in Belgium:

1) If it's not snowing, it's raining.
2) Nothing is open past 6 PM.
3) Whole milk is the only milk available. AND it's kept at room temp... Ew.
4) Late=on time.
5) The waffles are without a doubt the best in the world.

My first Belgian waffle:


Barrels of beer at the Cantillon Brewery, where Lambic beer has been brewing since 1900:


Beautiful park in the City Center of Brussels, by night:



I will soon post a photo of my apartment. It is not as independent as my housing in Madison, but rather a room rented out of a family house. Lucky for me, the house is enormous! A couple (my landlords) lives on the first floor, while the 10 rooms on the second and third floor are rented out to students from Poland, France, and the Netherlands. And ME. The only downside is that I have a long commute to school and the downtown area. Good thing the public transportation system is extremely efficient!

It's hard to believe that it's been a week in Belgium already, but tomorrow is the first day of class! I know what you're all thinking... "Isn't that Martin Luther King Jr. Day?" ...Yet another difference between life in US and life in Belgium.

Until next time... Au Revoir!