Interview Exhaustion

Since my post on Sunday, I have been completely swept away by the internship interview process. Monday was a combination of class lectures and then interviews in the evening, and then both Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to interviews. At the end of it all, I'm still standing, but I certainly have a few battle scars - blisters from my high heels, slightly less cash from having to pay for a taxi after get lost (twice), and emotional exhaustion from having my CV ripped apart by every interviewer. For anyone that has ever watched America's Next Top Model, this whole process is very similar to the go-see episode that they have every year...unfortunately, my version did not feature haute couture fashion at any of the interviews. Most of my interviews were with lobbying groups that deal with the European Union, so I will most likely be working for the private sector to monitor and deal with the EU (rather than work for the EU directly). The internships are assigned tomorrow, so I let you all know as soon as I found out where I will be working for the semester. Well, that pretty much updates you on the  first half of this week, and the next update won't be until Sunday night. We have a free Friday this week, so a bunch of us are heading to Amsterdam for the weekend. I leave tomorrow (Thursday) evening and get back Sunday afternoon. The bags are packed and the camera is charged, so I will tell you all about it when I return. And in anticipation of my Dutch weekend, tot ziens!

Week 1: From Brussels to Bruges

Well, after only a week in Belgium, it appears that I have already failed on my posting promise of every two days! This first week was a hectic mish-mash of different orientations, tours, and get-to-know-you sessions that completely threw off any routine that could have been established. Fortunately, because of the daily changes in schedules, Rita, Alex and I have actually begun to figure out the public transportation system and use it as efficiently as possible. Since it has been almost a week since my last post, I am going to just do a quick overview of the week (fortunately, it was not that exciting) and then go into depth about my trip to Bruges yesterday - we'll save the best part of the blog post for last. Alright, here is the week in review:

Monday, September 6th =
The entire day was devoted to an orientation to the American University Brussels Center (AUBC) and the academic part of the program. We got a tour of our school, which is one of the campuses of the Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL). It is a fairly small campus, because it is mainly for medical students - the main campus is actually south of Brussels in the Wallonia region of Belgium. The campus is pretty and the food is pretty cheap, so I'm happy with the place. All in all, Monday was not a very interesting day.

Tuesday, September 7th =
This was internship day. At 9:30 in the morning, we all met at the AUBC to have the internship orientation with our director, and then, throughout the day, each of us had a scheduled appointment with the internship coordinator to learn about which internships we were interviewing for in the next week. Since a lot of us didn't have interviews until late in the afternoon, a group of students decided that we would go buy the abonnement (Brussels monthly metro pass) that Jerry had recommended that we buy to save on transportation. Naturally, our anticipated 30-minute excursion turned into an almost two hour ordeal by the time all of us had gotten our abonnements. As painful as getting the card was, it has already almost paid for itself. When I get back to DC, I'm going to recommend that the SmartTrip card system be converted to the abonnement system. All you have to do is pay 35 euro per month for unlimited metro train/tram/bus service throughout Brussels, and simply pay the flat refill fee every month. The simplicity and ease of this system astounded all of us. After lunch, I returned to school for my interview session and learned about my interviews. Fortunately, I'm excited about all of my interviews and would be happy to get any of the internships that are on my list.

Wednesday, September 8th =

After a safety orientation with a Brussels police officer, we went on a walking tour of Brussels. Of course, my camera would chose to die ten minutes into our tour...but I wasn't too worried since I will be visiting most of the sites again.

In front of the European Parliament in Parc de Bruxelles (right before my camera died)

Jerry left us downtown at the end of the walking tour, and some of the other girls and I went to go try our first Belgian waffles. I had seen them the other day, but hadn't gotten a chance to try them yet! My first waffle had nutella and powdered sugar on it, and it was DELICIOUS. We ate them while sitting in the Grand-Place, and then walked through part of the shopping district.

Thursday, September 9th =
Thursday was the first official day of "school" since it was our first set of lectures, but the lectures are still background material for all of the classes. We don't actually start going to specific classes until next week, after we have our internships decided and all of the other housekeeping/orientation tasks settled. The lectures were interesting overall, but because of my extreme obsession with European history, I already knew most of the material. Therefore, I started to lose focus after a couple of hours (the day was divided into a 2.5 hour lecture before lunch and a 2.5 hour lecture after lunch). The overview lectures covered the basic structure of Belgian government.

Friday, September 10th =
Lectures, lectures, and more lectures. Friday was really just a repeat of Thursday, except that the subject of the lectures was the history of Belgium rather than the governmental structure.

Saturday, September 11th =
This was the day that I had been waiting for all week...our program trip to Bruges! We all met at the Gare Central station in downtown Brussels for the 11:00 am train and rode for an hour to Bruges. On the way, I read my handy Rick Steves Travel Guide to figure out what I wanted to see. Upon arrival in Bruges, Jerry took us on a two-hour walking tour of the city (which is much smaller than I imagined it to be) and pointed out many of the sights that we would want to go visit during our free time. It was a gorgeous day - sunny and in the low 70s - and our walking tour was filled with beautiful architecture, blue skies, and flowers on every porch and in every window. One interesting fact that I learned is that Bruges is known as the "Venice of North Europe" because of its extensive canal system. Here are a few of the many, many pictures that I took just during the walking tour:

On the bridge over the first canal on our walking tour

The group walking through Bruges

2 of the things that Belgium is famous for: Frites (Fries) and Moules (Mussels)

Another Bruges canal shot

In front of a mansion from the 15th century

The "postcard" shot of Bruges, overlooking the main canal with the Bell Tower in the background

Beautiful Bruges

The Bell Tower of Bruges

After the two-hour walking tour with Jerry ended in the main square of Bruges, the groups divided up and started touring the city. I spent the day with Valentina and T, and we already had our route planned out from the train ride. Right after the tour stopped, we climbed up the Bell Tower (all 366 steps!). Because of the clear day, the view from the top was amazing - we could see all the way to the North Sea. The climb and the 5 euro were definitely worth it. Check out the view:

Gorgeous view from the top of the Bell Tower

Naturally, 366 steps up and down works up an appetite, so we hit up the frites stand in the main square and ate/people-watched from the steps of a statue in the middle of the square. Belgian frites really are delicious!

Frites :)

The chocolate museum was the next stop on our route, and it was quite interesting. The museum told the story of how chocolate was discovered, the evolution of chocolate from a drink to a candy, and how it grew in popularity all over the world. The final part of the museum is a demonstration and an exhibit of chocolate statues...with free samples that were to die for. Fortunately for me, the Belgians are most famous for their dark chocolate - my absolute favorite! From the chocolate museum, we walked through a the local flea market to see the only Michelangelo statue that is north of the Alps. It is a Madonna and Child piece and it is housed in the Church of Our Lady. The statue was very beautiful, and the church itself had a wonderful Gothic feel.

Michelangelo's Madonna and Child

Church of Our Lady, Bruges

After the somber church visit, we decided to liven things up with a canal boat tour. And thanks to my Rick Steves guidebook, we got a euro discount on our boat tickets! The boat tour was a half-hour long, and it was really enjoyable to just cruise around the canals and listen to the stories that our tour guide told us. If possible, Bruges might be even prettier from the canals - I went a little photo-crazy while we were on the boat because I loved every minute of it!

Going down to the canal boat

On the boat in Bruges

Approaching the oldest bridge in Bruges

My favorite part of the day!

Even though we were starting to get hungry, we wanted to get as many sights in as possible before they all closed for the day so we ran to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. After Napoleon and his troops burned it down, it was reconstructed in the Napoleonic style. It houses a reliquary that is said to have a piece of cloth with Christ's blood on it from the age of the Crusades. The Basilica was stunning, and the reliquary was very interesting - it is amazing how huge and prominent the part of religion is in Europe, even in a day and age where most Europeans are not practicing.

Basilica of the Holy Blood

Reliquary in the Basilica of the Holy Blood (the vial is in the silver chest in the center)

Most tourist sites and stores start closing at 6:00 pm, so we decided that it was high time to eat some food. We went back to the main square and went menu-surfing, and eventually decided on the Restaurant Central. It was absolutely delicious, and we sat outside and were able to people-watch in the square while we ate. It was all very relaxing and satisfying. After dinner, we walked through the oldest pub in Bruges, which has been operating since 1515, and then went to the Bruges BeerFest. We arrived at about 9:00 pm, and it was packed. We caught up with some of the other students, and we spent the last hour and a half of our day enjoying each other's company, meeting new people, and trying small samples of the famous Belgian beer. All in all, the day in Bruges was a complete success - a brilliant combination of art, food, boats, sunshine, and chocolate...what more could you ask for?

One of the other popular pictures of Bruges (restaurants on the main square)

Our restaurant - Restaurant Central or "Central" Brasserie

Dinnertime on the square

We left Bruges on the last train back to Brussels (which left the station at 10:30 pm), so I got home about 12:30 am feeling exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time. And today, I simply tried to catch up with my life (reading for school, cleaning my room, and of course, blogging!). My interviews begin tomorrow, so wish me luck! I will know which internship I am doing by Thursday, and in the meantime, I'll keep you updated on the process. For now, au revoir!

Meet the Parents

I am writing this late on Sunday night (September 5). The last few days have been hectic and without WiFi access, so this is really the first chance that I have had to update. So, I put up two posts, with each covering two days – the 2^nd/3^rd and the 4^th/5^th. I have tried to keep as many details as possible, but since I was rushing around so much, they are not as detailed as I would like. I will try to do better in the future…my blogging skills are definitely a work in progress!

Saturday was the early morning wake-up for everyone (so I was really glad that I wasn’t as tired as everyone else!). I woke up at 7:15 am, got ready and ate breakfast with my roommate T and her friend Valentina, and then had all my bags packed and in the lobby by 9:45 am. Jerry (our director) had us put all of the luggage in two of the hotel rooms, and the rest of us checked out. Then, we went on a walking tour of the Grand-Place, and even though I was just there the day before, it was enjoyable to have Jerry to actually explain what each building was and the history behind it. On the Grand-Place, we discovered that the Manneken Pis was having a costume change that day, so there was a fun parade. The Manneken Pis is a little statue of a boy peeing that is located about two blocks off of the Grand-Place, and the people of Brussels have embraced it almost like a mascot. Apparently, different groups can apply to put a costume on the statue, and this time is was a guild. So we got to watch the costume change and listen to the live band along with everyone that happened to be in the Grand-Place. After that, we had an hour to get lunch, so Valentina, T, Sara and I went back to the Grand-Place and sat down at one of the cafés right in the middle of the action. This was my first successful attempt at ordering my meal in French, and I had the “croque Argenteuil” – a hot sandwich that has egg, cheese, ham and white asparagus on it. It was absolutely delicious, but I could only finish half and so I wrapped the other half for later.

At 12:30 pm, everyone returned to the hotel and a van showed up to pick up all of our luggage and take it to the school.  We students, however, were going to take the metro and learn how to use it with Jerry. The Brussels metro is much nicer and cleaner than any of the American ones that I have been on, and it was very easy to use. I found out that I need to buy a monthly student pass for 28 euro and then I can ride it as much as I want (the system is very similar to the SmartTrip cards in DC). At the Alma stop, we got off and walked right into our building, which was very convenient. American University Brussels Center only actually rents half of the top floor of this building, so we unloaded all of our luggage and went up. There is one classroom and two offices – and that’s all we would see until our campus tour on Monday. We then went through the homestay orientation with Mdme. Benedicte Debray, our housing coordinator. It was intimidating, and by the end of the orientation session, I think every single student was having a slight panic attack. At that point, Mdme. Debray took each of the students in to tell them about their individual family. When it came to me, I found out that I was living with another American University student named Rita. Fortunately, we knew each before Belgium and get along well together. At approximately 6:30 pm, our host parents came to pick us up and take us home. As we walked out to the cars, we quickly realized that while our luggage would fit in their car, Rita and I would not. Therefore, our host mother called her thirty-year-old son, Benoit, to come and help. We drove out from the city a ways, and then into a quaint little area called Oppem. At the house we met their other son (who is recently married and lives out of the house as well), and found out that they also have two adult daughters. The other two people who were at the house were Hughes (who is Benoit’s best mate) and Alex, who is the American University student that Hughes is hosting. Hughes only lives 2 minutes away (walking time) and therefore, Alex is our closest neighbor! Unfortunately, Hughes had a previous engagement, so Alex ended up eating dinner with us – a delicious meal of chicken, potatoes and salad with apple streusel for dessert. After dinner, us students walked around the little village for a few minutes to explore. Since it was very late already, we said goodnight and retired to our rooms. I had a little bit of energy left, so I used it to unpack all of my things so I would feel more at home when I woke up in the morning.

Well, my strategy worked because I was very happy when I woke up the next morning. Rita and I had breakfast with our host parents and then, while they went to mass, we got ready for the day. At one o’clock we had a delicious French lunch that included a platter of meat, cheese and bread, salad, spanakopita, and a goat cheese/onion/asparagus quiche (of which I had two slices), and chocolate pudding. Promptly at 2:15 pm, the host parents, Rita, Alex, and I went to meet some other host parents and their students (9 students in all) and we all drove for about 45 minutes out into the Belgian countryside to visit the Chateau Fort – an old castle that was built in the 12^th century. It was very pretty, and since one of the host mothers is related to the owner, we got to have a private tour…very exciting! Part of the private tour was to go out into the old gardens, which are only used by the owner and his family now, and they were absolutely gorgeous! And even better, all of the host parents surprised us with a pastry picnic in the garden at the end of the tour. Everything was homemade, which meant it tasted wonderful, and we had homemade apple cider to go along with it. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, and it really made all of us students feel welcomed. After we drove back into the city, Hughes had returned and took Alex, Rita and I on a driving tour of Brussels, which was incredibly fun especially since we won’t be driving in cars for most of the time that we are here! Our driving tour lasted about an hour, and then he dropped Rita and I off in time for dinner with our host parents and their daughter and son-in-law. The son-in-law speaks excellent English and works for the Belgian Foreign Affairs department, so I really enjoyed getting to know him. Dinner was beef, potatoes, salad, and cherry pie. My biggest impression so far is that the Belgians certainly eat well! I’m going to have to start walking everywhere to balance out my food intake.

And now that I am all caught up, I can tell you about my home and my host parents. I live with Jacques and Annik Ghysens, a francophone couple in their early seventies that live in the Brussels suburb of Oppem. Obviously, I am not in downtown Brussels like I originally wished, but I am growing to love it here too. I have to admit, I did almost have a heart attack when we first drove out however, because they are essentially at the edge of the countryside, and their village has the laid-back country feel to it. It is very small, and right behind their house is a huge field! Now, I jokingly refer to my home as “the farm,” because this is the closest that I have ever lived to farm fields and sheep (which their neighbors two doors down have). Anyways, my host parents hosted a boy from American University last year, and enjoyed it so much that they chose to host again…hopefully, Rita and I will live up to their expectations! Besides the four of us, the only other inhabitant of the house is Frostes (which I am not spelling correctly) – the two-year-old golden retriever. Although I am not a huge dog fan, I think that she and I will get on very well, because she is very friendly and calm. As part of my lessons in French, I have already learned how to say “paw” and “jump” in French to make the dog do tricks for me! So, I love my host parents, but there is one problem…my host mother, Annik, really doesn’t speak English at all, and Jacques barely speaks it. Apparently, this is one of the reasons that Rita and I are in the same house (despite my request to be solo) – she is officially serving as my translator. At first, I was really annoyed with the housing coordinator, but now I am just using it as inspiration to learn French even faster. The annoyance with the housing coordinator is still there, but hopefully it will fade with time. Consequently, it is a real struggle for me to communicate with them at all, and I am very jealous that Rita can have full conversations with them. So, my goal is by the end of the semester is that I won’t have to be silent at the dinner table!

Other than the enormous language barrier, I am very happy with my new home. My room is very cute, with a very comfortable bed, a desk, closet, set of drawers, bookshelf, a skylight that I can open and even a balcony for me to sit out on! Rita said she didn’t care which bedroom she had (we had a choice between upstairs and down), and everyone knows that I always care. My room is on the second floor so it stays a little bit warmer at night, and the hardwood floors insulate better than the tile that is downstairs. Most of the bedrooms are on the front of the house, but mine is slightly isolated and looks out over the very pretty backyard. Also, the ceiling is gabled, which gives the room a more loft-like appearance. All in all, I am very much in love with my room! I included numerous pictures of the whole house for you all to try and get a sense of the place that I am living in. They have a pool in the backyard, and if it stays fairly warm for the next few days, Rita and I are going to take a swim or two in it! On that note, it is very late and I am exhausted from my day at the castle and trying to relay four days worth of adventures to you. So, bonne nuit, and I plan on updating tomorrow with more pictures after I take my tour of the campus!

P.S. Obviously, I wrote this Sunday night and I’m posting Tuesday…unfortunately, this is because it takes an incredibly long time to upload the pictures on the blog. That’s the main reason that there are so few pictures here. So, I was going to put up two posts the other night but couldn’t remain awake! Also, I cannot get the pictures to go in between text at the moment, so apologies that all of the pictures are at the bottom of the blog this time. I will improve!

Guild Halls at the Grand-Place

Manneken Pis

BELGIAN WAFFLES (sold everywhere at walk-up cafes)

Lunch on the Grand-Place (with Valentina)

My loft room, looking from the door out through to the balcony

Standing at the balcony door looking back

View out my skylight window of the Belgian countryside - the village of "Wezembeek Oppem"

View off my balcony into the backyard with pool, field, and patio right below the balcony

Front of the house as you walk up the driveway

Turning around, down the private driveway (very long!)

Le chien, Frostes!!

Courtyard of Chateau Fort

Rita and I at the gate of Chateau Fort

Beautiful gardens at Chateau Fort

More gardens at Chateau Fort

The AU students that went to Chateau Fort (in the background)

Let the Semester Begin!

So, once I got to the hotel, I experienced first-hand many of the “differences” between the United States and Belgium. Even though I was expecting these differences, having them hit me right off of a horrible travel experience was not how I wanted to start my semester in Europe. When I checked in to my hotel, I simply asked for my key (room 306) and got on the elevator. Naturally, I pressed the third floor and walked all the way down to…room 406? Thoroughly annoyed, I got back on the elevator and remembered that in Europe, they have “Floor 0” – otherwise known as the ground floor. For me, this makes no sense, seeing as zero doesn’t actually exist so any floor called named “zero” would not exist either. Anyway, despite my insistence that there is no Floor 0, the Europeans think so and consequently, room 306 is actually on the 2^nd floor. Go figure.

Thon Hotel, Brussels Airport (my first hotel)

Once I got to my room, I threw my stuff down and started exploring. The room was fine, but oddly enough, there was no towel in the bathroom besides the hand towel. I went down to the front desk to ask, and they informed me that it would cost 1 euro to get a regular-sized towel. When I asked if there was WiFi available, they said “of course…for 9,95 euro.” Unfortunately, I then found out that my hotel was located about 15 miles from the nearest restaurants and grocery stores, and the only food available was the full dinner service from the hotel restaurant for 30-something euro. Even though I was starving, I needed my cash for the taxi ride to the new hotel in the morning, so I passed on dinner. To entertain myself for the rest of the day, I wrote my previous blog post, read all of my email, went on Facebook, and watched some TV on the internet. Thank goodness for the World Wide Web.

Finally, it was late enough on West Coast United States time to call the family, but then I realized my phone was off the hook. I went back downstairs, where they told me that they could give me phone access for another 2,25 euro. At this point, I was too exhausted to care and paid for the phone hook-up. Naturally, after all the hassle, my calling card didn’t work with the hotel extension number. Ultimately, I was able to talk with my family briefly on Skype (the best invention EVER). The latest I could force myself to stay up was 8:00 pm….my eyes simply wouldn’t stay open any longer. Fortunately, I only woke up once at 4:30 am, and was able to fall back asleep by 5:00 am after a couple of Sudoku puzzles. I was up at 9:00 am and ready to go by 11:00 am, and I took a taxi into downtown Brussels to my next hotel – the Hotel Ibis, St. Catherine.

As it turns out, the taxi ride was one of the most entertaining parts of my day. My driver’s name was Ghakran, and he was a very loud and entertaining Turkish man. I thought it was hysterical, because my “taxi” was a brand new Mercedes-Benz, and my “driver” was a huge (I would guess 6’5”ish and maybe 240 lbs) Turkish guy in a grey Armani suit with flashy silver accents. And with the blacked out windows on the car, I felt pretty important as I sped through the city. When I said that he was entertaining, I meant it! He talked the entire way (which ended up costing me about 48 euro). I learned all about his taxi cab business, his enormous Turkish family, and his crazy ex-girlfriend. I saw pictures of his two nephews and his niece, which he pulled up on his Blackberry as we drove at 140 km/h. Also, he said I was very nice, and that if only I was Turkish, he would ask me to have drinks with him sometime. I laughed, and quickly assured him that I had absolutely no Turkish blood in me whatsoever. He gave me his number anyways, for “just in case.” A nice gesture, but I don’t think I’ll ever take him up on it. Well, that whole experience made me laugh pretty hard afterwards!

After I got dropped off at the hotel, I found out that check-in wasn’t until 2 pm. Since it was only 11:30 am, I left my all of my luggage besides my backpack and started walking. The first thing that I saw as I walked around the corner of the hotel was the beautiful Cathedral St. Catherine.

Cathedral St. Catherine

I got to walk inside and take some pictures – and then my stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten for almost 2 days. Thankfully, I remembered that there was a McDonald’s and a promising-looking bakery on the drive over. Thanks to my memory and directional sense, I found them and ended up choosing the bakery. Of course, the bakery was delicious and I had a sandwich and tea. The McDonald’s was really interesting to look in though, because it was very different than what I had been expecting (and I didn’t really like anything on their menu!). I have officially fallen in love with the old-Europe feel, the architecture, the little side streets, and the general hustle and bustle of Brussels. After the bakery, I kept walking and found myself at Grand-Place. It was spectacular, and even more so because it was unexpected. Funny enough, the Belgian Beer Weekend is happening right now, so the square was packed. Also, the Deutschland vs. Spain football game was today, and each nationality definitely showed their support. However, there were a significantly larger number of German fans than Spanish. Here are just a couple of the tons of pictures that I took of the Belgian architecture and the Grand-Place:

One of the streets leading into Grand-Place

Brussels Town Hall in Grand-Place

Guild Halls in Grand-Place

As I was walking back to the hotel, I ran into Josey and Rita from my program – they had just arrived and were about to go explore. Since I didn’t want to just sit in the hotel all by myself, I decided to go with them. We went back to the bakery I had eaten at, and I ordered some delicious tea. It was fun to catch up, and not be completely alone. After walking around for a while longer, we returned to the hotel for orientation. The orientation went smoothly – it appears that there are 24 of us total (a rather large group according to the director, because this program is going more popularity). Dr. Jerome Sheridan is our director and our professor for the majority of the classes that we are taking (the only exceptions being the defense class and French). He has lived in Belgium for almost 20 years, and certainly knows his stuff. After the orientation, we had a few minutes to get ready and then we went out to eat at Le Grand Café. While it was fun, I did run in to a spot of trouble when I found out that the director had already preordered the same thing for everyone. The first course was an interesting cheese/spinach/beef biscuit, which was beautifully plated and tasted delicious. However, the second course was veal – a meat that I absolutely will not eat. So, I had the noodles and gravy, but missed out on the majority of the second course because there was no alternative. Finally, the dessert was a fresh fruit cup with a slightly minty ice cream scoop on top. As our dinner was ending, the Germany vs. Spain football game finished and the mass of German fans and their flags went on a victory march done the middle of the main street of Brussels. At probably two hundred strong, they easily stopped traffic in downtown Brussels! Since everyone was so tired and it was starting to get crazy outside, we all headed back to the hotel relatively early. Some other girls and I played cards and talked in one of the hotel rooms before going to bed, but finally just called it a night. 

The Trials of Travel

This blog post is going to be the summary of my travel to Brussels, as recorded in my notebook throughout my very long and tiring day. September 1^st began at 3:00 am with my last American shower, which I was told to enjoy...so I did. So, I took a nice long thirty minute shower, got ready to go, and the entire family was out the door by 4:30 am. Everything went smoothly in the Seattle airport, and I boarded the plane brimming with optimistic enthusiasm. And then, I reached my seat. Unfortunately, one of the trials of air travel is the extreme space constraints – something that is becoming an increasing issue with the growing population of obese Americans. One such lady was sitting in the aisle of my row, so as I politely asked her to let me squeeze by into the center seat, I was cringing at the uncomfortable situations that loomed ahead for the next few hours. Sure enough, I was sandwiched between this lady who could not stay in her seat and a lady who was barely restrained by the armrest in her window seat. Fortunately, United Airlines provides complimentary in-flight entertainment on flights longer than 3 hours, so I was able to spend most of my time engrossed in the film. On that note, however, I do not recommend “The Back-Up Plan” as your next movie rental – it wasn’t bad, but I think any praise I could give it is only a result of it serving as my main amusement during my previously described confinement.

On our descent into Dulles, the flight attendant cheerily got on the PA system to announce our connections. She rattled off a number of different connection gates (Brussels, C19), and then said “unfortunately, although we have all of your connection gate information, we still don’t have our arrival gate. But if you take a look at the magazine in the seat pocket in front of you, there is a map of Washington Dulles airport – at least you can figure out where you’re supposed to get to!” Not exactly helpful if you don’t know which gate to start from. We ended up landing somewhere around D28 I believe, and I started off towards the C concourse. My power walk with my duffel and backpack soon became a mere brisk pace, which eventually slowed to a leisurely ramble and bag-drag past 40-odd gates of the Dulles airport. However, along the way, I got to see the people-movers that the airport uses, and I have to say that they resemble something out of the Star Wars movies – the Death Walkers perhaps? Anyway, sitting in the Dulles airport was the first time it hit me full force that I am actually going to Belgium for a whole 4 months…and then again, before I even recovered, they called out Flight 8802 departing for Brussels, Belgium and I went crazy all over again.

I was thrilled to see that in our larger airplane I had scored an aisle seat. For me, the opportunity to stretch out more and have the freedom to get up uninhibited has always been more appealing than the view a window seat accords. With a chance to freshen up and buy a Starbucks, I had regained my optimistic enthusiasm. We smoothly got underway, and once again, I turned to the in-flight entertainment. This time I had my own personal screen and different channels to choose from – and they were playing Mary Poppins. I love Mary Poppins, and was perfectly content to sit back, relax, and enjoy Julie Andrews’ singing and Dick van Dyke dancing with penguins. Nothing beats the classics!

Everything was going swimmingly until approximately 3.5 hours into our flight (which means the plane was somewhere between Northern Canada and the United Kingdom). My practically perfect Mary Poppins had been paused so that I could listen to the captain’s announcement, which went something like this:

“Good evening everyone, this is your captain speaking. Well, I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we have an issue with our water supply….it appears we have none. We seem to have lost it somewhere over Canada. So, unfortunately, we have to turn around and divert back to Boston. We’ll keep you updated, and so sorry for any delays that this might cause.”

WHAT?! Remember how in my last post I predicted that I would freak out somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean? Well, that definitely happened. We were exactly halfway through our flight, so none of us could figure out why we would divert back to Boston rather than simply continue on to Brussels. But back to Boston we went, and after back-tracking for an hour and a half, we careened down onto the tarmac in the worst landing I have ever sat through (or tried to sit through, since I was struggling to remain in my seat). After that bone-jarring shock, we taxied up to the waiting mechanics and they got to work. Our flight attendant got on the PA system at that point, and kindly told us that since we had already cleared US customs, we had international status. Consequently, we could not leave the plane under any circumstances, and we were to “please remain in your seats until we can identify the problem with the aircraft and let you know the plan.” In other words, sit tight and don’t move.

 Fortunately, I was not on a strict schedule for my arrival in Brussels. Granted, I wanted to have nice relaxing day before heading over to my program, but it would still be manageable. The poor nice lady sitting next to me was not so lucky. She had a connection in Brussels that was supposed to take her to Madrid to attend a friend’s orchestral performance, and then she was flying out the next morning for Sweden to see her boyfriend and finish some visa paperwork (because she is moving there in 3 months). She was understandably upset by the delay. And apparently, there was a group of about twelve people behind me that were supposed to catch a flight to Kazakhstan that only leaves out of Brussels every 4 or 5 days. Oops. After just over an hour and a half of sitting on the tarmac in Boston, the captain got on the intercom to say that the water valve problem had been fixed and we would be back in the air shortly. “Shortly” ended up meaning another twenty minutes, but finally we were back on our way! We were informed that we had 6.5 hours left to our flight, and we would arrive about 4.5 hours behind schedule to Brussels. Lovely. By this time, even I was visibly upset and annoyed. Part of me felt like walking up to the cheery flight attendant and kindly telling her that no matter what language she spoke to me in (English, French, and German on this flight), I would still be annoyed with her and very grumpy. Quite frankly, the only positive thing that I can say about our Boston detour was that the view flying in was very pretty. Other than that, the experience made me want to simultaneously curl up in the fetal position and scream at someone.

The only two people on the plane that seemed completely unaffected appeared to be a couple that was sitting across the aisle from me. They wholeheartedly represented the saying “Keep Portland Weird.” They were lifelong residents of Portland, Oregon, and were representing the International Dark Sky Association. Apparently, they are traveling to Brussels to make the European Union aware of the “Belgian Window.” This window, I learned, is a gross example of human light pollution, because astronauts use Belgium as a reference point due to the huge mass of light that it produces (all those European tax dollars at work!). Obviously, they were very enthusiastic about the subject and consequently, I heard more than I ever wanted to on the subject. Listening to them affirmed my decision to avoid all classes and internships that deal with global environmental policy – it is definitely not for me.

The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. I actually managed to get a few hours of sleep, and I didn’t feel too sick until about 5 hours in. The only downside was that I didn’t ration my food very well, so after the Boston detour, I was running dangerously low. They did serve a dinner and light breakfast, but one thing that I have learned is to never rely on the in-flight meals for anything remotely related to taste, sustenance, or happiness. I ordered the vegetarian meal, because I figured it would be less stressful to chew rubbery pasta than to play “name that mystery meat!” I’m pretty sure that it was supposed to be chicken, but you can never be quite sure.  I had brought my own zucchini bread muffins (courtesy of my wonderful sister) and cinnamon Life cereal, so I didn’t even get the breakfast. From watching the lady next to me, it consisted of a mini yogurt cup and a triangular piece of banana bread. Yeah, I’ll take my zucchini muffins any day.

FINALLY, after hours and hours and hours of being stuck in that stupid tube breathing recycled air with a couple hundred of my best friends, we landed in Brussels. I passed through customs after being questioned by a very grim-faced Belgian border patrol agent, and got some Euros and my checked luggage. The absolute worst part of the travel experience for me is always waiting at the carousel for your luggage to appear. You wait and wait, and the carousel spins around and around, and your brain automatically assumes the worst – all your luggage is gone, someone else walked off with it, etc. They were a little slow in unloading the bags on this flight, so that gave me lots of extra time to freak out. After collecting myself and my stuff, I passed through security and then tried to find my hotel shuttle. After going down two floors to the hotel shuttle lane and talking to two different drivers, I discovered that none of them have ever actually seen a shuttle from my hotel. I had no energy to try and figure out if a shuttle really existed – I just wanted to put my bags down. So I went back up a floor and hopped in a taxi. Five minutes and 13 euros later, I was outside my hotel. Naturally, I went to check-in and the lady told me that check-in wasn’t until 2:00 pm (and it had just turned 1:00 pm). Well, I must have looked pretty pathetic, because she called housekeeping and told them to do my room first so that I could drop my stuff. Twenty minutes later, I rode an elevator smaller than my closet to the second floor (where rooms 300-320 are located) and collapsed into room 306.

At present, I am sitting at the desk trying to get all of my thoughts recorded before I take a shower and freshen up. I didn’t really see anything close by on my taxi ride here, but I think that I’ll go downstairs and ask anyway. Regardless, I have to get away from this bed – I won’t be able to resist it for very long! Well, there is my travel story – I always seem to have something happen to make it interesting. I am so excited that I am finally in Belgium that I’m bursting. My very first image of Belgium was a quaint little town that we flew over on our descent in to Brussels National Airport. It had the rolling green farmlands, little houses, and a church with a steeple that towered over everything else. It made me smile. So au revoir for now, and I will update again when I have done a little bit of exploring and recovered from my travels!