Although Hurricane Irene gave us quite the scare, our flight left as planned out of Newark Airport on Monday evening at 6:15 PM. Belgium runs on military time, so I am trying to get used to reading a clock that says 18:15 instead. The 7 hour flight was not bad at all, the plane was full, and all the Loyola students took up the last few rows. It was pretty clear who the Americans were, as we soon would learn, we seem to be a bit louder than the Europeans. From the excitement of heading out and the anticipation of what to come, there was not much that could calm us down. As the flight continued, it became clear that we should try and get as much shut-eye as we could, being that it would be around 7 AM when we landed in Brussels.
The more I tried to sleep, the more difficult it became, as there was a snack, than dinner, and than breakfast, there was so much action up and down the aisles of the Boeing 747. As I continuously checked the map monitoring our location on the TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me, I realized it was going to be a VERY long day. Regardless, I knew I had to be ready to take every moment in because as many of you know, YOLO! (for those of you unfamiliar with my favorite acronym, "you only live once," i'm sure you will realize how important it is to me!)
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| All 17 of us ready to start the adventure of our lives |
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| Here is a picture of the bus that came to pick us up from the airport, and the truck that came to pick up our luggage. (Remember, we were packing for a year!) |
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| Katie and I with all of our bags outside the airport in Brussels. |
Dr. Hughes greeted us at the airport to welcome us and provide us with some insight on the day. On the bus ride to Leuven, which was only about a half an hour, we learned that we would be dropped off down the block from the Loyola International Nachbahr Huis, our new home, as the bus could not make it all the way down the cobblestone streets. Driving through the city I realized how lucky I was to be in such a beautiful place.
Once we brought all of our bags to our rooms we headed down to register for KU Leuven, the university we are going to be studying at this year. Christel, our on-site director of the Huis we are living in, accompanied us to show us the ropes. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some bits and pieces that could last us until our trip to France on Saturday. The experience in the grocery store was very interesting. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to go shopping simply because EVERYTHING was in Dutch. In about 2 weeks we will be taking a comprehensive Dutch course, but until than we have to rely on the friendly Leuvenites who are bilingual.
Something else that is completely different about most of the stores in Europe is that you have to pay for almost everything. Plastic bags at the grocery store are 20 cents, so pretty much everyone brings reusable bags. Recycling is really important here in our kitchen we have about 5 different garbage bags separating our trash. (It is quite complex, but I hope to get the hang of it soon!)You also have to pay a deposit of 1 or 2 euros to use a shopping cart to make sure you return it to the correct place when you are done.
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| Leuven City Hall (Debatably the most beautiful in Europe!) |
After a brief walking tour of the town we returned to the Huis for an orientation. Christel and Dr. Hughes provided us with a great deal of insight about what to expect this year in Belgium, and in the evening we had a pizza dinner at Dr. Hughes’ house. All of us received a small welcome package from our directors, it included Belgian chocolates, candy, and of course a waffle! When Shayne and I returned to our room we met our Slovakian roommate Pavla for the first time. She had moved in 2 days earlier but she had been out all day at class so this was our first time meeting in person. She is very nice and speaks English very well. It was fascinating to be around so many people who can switch from one language to another with such ease. Finally, after a very long day we were finally able to hit the hay after approximately 30 waking hours.
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| Our first piece of Belgian chocolate! |
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