i made it!

FINALLY! Ladies and gentlemen, after only another 30 minutes of being lost, I have located my internship. I set out this morning determined to find it, even if it took all day. I feel the biggest problem is that in Europe (or Belgium at least), their streets aren't clearly marked. The street signs are often on the sides of buildings, or sometimes just aren't there at all. Anyway, after getting off the bus (the right stop this time), I only made one wrong turn that took me about 30 minutes out of the way and then finally arrived! The neighborhood where my internship is really beautiful (pictures to come soon). There is this really old cathedral near the street where my internship is, and it just reminds me that I am in fact in Europe. I checked in briefly with my office where I got a list of tasks I would be responsible for while I work there. I'm really excited about my job. It is a human rights NGO and the work is definitely right up my alley. All the people seem so nice and knowledgable. I have my first day tomorrow so I'm super excited. The rest of the day was just really chill. I took a long walk and listened to my iPod and it put me in a really relaxed mood, which has been a rarity since I've been here. I'm really ready to just settle into a routine and begin living my life. Another plus was getting to skype with two of my best friends, Layla and Hillary, last night. It reminded me of how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends but it also made me miss them a whole lot. They are trying to plan a trip with a couple of my other friends (who have already booked tickets) to come to London during Furman's fall break. We are going to meet up with them there. Also, I leave for Dublin in just two short days! I CAN'T WAIT. Love to you all!

new classes

Today was my first day of classes at Vesalius. My feet were still sore from yesterday's little excursion, so I managed to hobble to the bus stop (the right one, thankfully) and rode the bus to school. Normally Vesalius is about a 40 minute walk and 20 minute bus ride, so I got there pretty quickly. I thought that my first class of the day started at 10:30, but it actually didn't start until 11:30 so I went and got some reading done to pass the time. My first class was French 101. Even though I took French in high school, I was nervous to do anything but the introductory level. My professor was this young French lady, and if you've ever read the Harry Potter books, she was literally had the same personality/ was the spitting image of Umbridge. She even said the little "hem, hem" after every comment she made. She had this really high pitched voice and was pretty strict. One person even walked out of our class! But basically she told us that if we had even had any French experience at all we needed to move into the next French level. I took a short assessment after which she promptly sent me to next level of French. After French I had Introduction to Mass Communications, a three hour class that I found really interesting. I'm still getting used to the fact that most buildings don't have air conditioning in Brussels. The classrooms at Vesalius are really warm, which tends to make me really drowsy (and we all know I don't need any incentive to sleep in class). The weather has been nice and cool, which is really nice for when I took a little walk outside today. I also finally got some grocery shopping done- bought tomato soup, frozen pizza, and apples. I guess that's typical college student on a budget fare? Also, Russell, Anna, Sey and I just booked a flight for 40 Euro to Barcelona for a weekend in October- so excited!! Travel here is so cheap and easy. Also, going to Dublin this weekend! Literally can't wait!

lost in brussels

I have just returned from one of the most hilariously frustrating days ever. Today I was supposed to go and meet with my internship supervisor just to go over some details before I start work. Luckily (or so I thought) our trip coordinator Keira had printed out directions for how to get to ENAR. It appeared to be just about a 30 minute bus ride away. So around 3 PM today I boarded the bus, and rode out to where I thought I could find my internship. Keira had already warned me that my internship wasn't in the same type of neighborhood that I was probably used to in Brussels, but I was so excited nonetheless. Upon getting off of the bus (where I'd just spent my last 2 euro for a ticket, more on that later) I found myself in a pretty isolated neighborhood with a train station. I was determined not to get lost, so I headed off in what I thought was the right direction, according to the directions Keira had printed for me. After walking for about 10 minutes and not seeing anything, I realized that I was probably going the wrong way. I had somehow managed to walk into a very rough part of town with very few streets. It was near a set of train tracks, if that gives you a visual. I figured I'd probably gone too far and started heading back the way I came. I stopped several times to ask for directions, but unfortunately no one in that neighborhood appeared to speak English. The one person who did had no idea where the street that I was asking for was. This didn't seem like a good sign to me. I was so frustrated that I was literally talking out loud to myself and I'm sure people thought I was truly crazy. I wandered around the main square for about another 30 minutes then finally decided to throw in the towel and call ENAR and hopefully get some directions from them. Georgina, who I spoke to on the phone, was so nice and sweet and helpful. She told me that I was pretty much in the completely wrong area, and told me which bus to catch to hopefully head in the right direction. By this point, I ought to mention that I'd worn my brand new flats, and my feet were screaming in pain. I began looking around for the bus stop she'd mentioned, when I realized I didn't have any cash on me and so no money to pay a bus fare. My goal quickly shifted to finding an ING (the local bank). By this point one of my feet had begun bleeding, so I was forced to take off one of my shoes. I hope you have a good mental image of me, one bare bleeding foot, shoe in hand, crumpled map, looking close to tears and hopelessly American.  I was asked several times whether I was "mal" (sick) or crazy, and some people just straight up laughed at the sight of me (one baby with her mom just pointed). Throughout the whole ordeal I promised myself I wouldn't cry, and so with that in mind I attempted to soldier on. I began asking around for an "ee-en-gee" (which is basically how I could gather you say ING in French) and after about 30 minutes of conflicting directions finally seemed to be headed the right direction. By this point, however, both my feet were bleeding, so I was completely shoeless and wandering aimlessly. I almost cried in joy when I finally spotted an ING. I went inside and tried to use my cards, but just my luck, neither card was accepted there. I had pretty much reconciled myself to the fact that I would probably remain lost in Brussels for the rest of my short, pitiful life, when I spotted another bank. Hoping against hope that this one would accept my card, I tried it, and was able to take out a 50 Euro note. I had already called my internship by this point and told them that I didn't think I would be able to make it in time, but would see them on Wednesday. With money finally in hand, I traipsed a mile back to where the bus station was and waited for my bus. When it finally arrived, I boarded and attempted to pay with my 50 Euro note for a ticket. The bus driver informed me that he wouldn't accept such a large bill, and basically told me to get off the bus, and then I really did begin to cry. By the grace of God, some young father with his daughter in a stroller behind me offered to pay my fare, and I was honestly too grateful for words. I guess when bad things happen, sometimes the good Lord sends you a type of angel to help see you through. I don't know who that man was, but I will honestly never forget his help. I rode for about 30 minutes back to my neighborhood, and finally arrived, exhausted, 3 hours later at my apartment. I guess lesson learned from this crazy experience is a) never leave home without 2 sets of directions b) NEVER go out in Brussels without cash and c) always, always appreciate the kindness of strangers. When I look back on this experience I'm sure I'll laugh, but for now I think I'll just head to bed.

initial experiences

It's almost official- I have spent an entire week living in Europe. My travel experience thus far has been both challenging and entertaining, enlightening and full of surprises. I began my journey last Monday, flying into Belgium finally by Tuesday morning. When I arrived Tuesday morning, I apparently arrived during the worst storm that Brussels has seen in years. There was intense flooding on the roads and a general grayness (is that a word?) surrounding the city. I hope this is not indicative of what is to come on my Brussels adventure! My group soon met our wonderful trip coordinator, Keira Holland, who reminded Anna and I of a grown up, more spastic version of our dear friend Meagan Beyers. For those of you who know Meagan, this should give you a wonderful idea of what Keira is like! We soon moved into our apartment, which is beautiful and luckily the largest of all the Furman ones (score!) although the bunk beds definitely remind me of my Gwynn Valley summer days. The next day we attended orientation for Vesalius College, the place where we will be taking two classes a week. That was a long day of paperwork and quite exhausting. It was funny when the first place our tour guide (who was supposed to be showing us around campus) took us was the campus pub where we were apparently supposed to pop in for a beer at 11 AM! 11 AM is a little early for me, so needless to say I did not partake in my first opportunity for Belgian beer. It was funny to see the contrast with Furman, however. The next day we went and visited Parliament and the downtown Brussels area. It really is such a beautiful city. I am slowly but surely learning how to navigate (had a little bus mishap that morning but whatever). I'm just nervous about the commute to work as I haven't done it yet. I'll be interning with the European Network Against Racism, a human rights group, and I am so excited. You can find more information about it here: http://www.enar-eu.org/.  As of now I have my schedule set to work all day on Monday and Wednesday and class all day Tuesday. It will be a combo of both on Thursday and then hopefully traveling on Friday through the weekend. It makes me feel pretty grownup like traveling on the metro and such by myself (dumb I know) but I feel like some cliche movie scene or something (young 20something woman sits on the metro wearing euro chic clothing, reading her kindle, and generally just looking pensive). We had the student government organized "pub crawl" on Friday night(like I said, we aren't at Furman anymore!) and then a tour of Brussels the next morning. We also had our first exam for our Furman class (basically just on the readings we've already done) on Saturday afternoon. The food here is crazy- I don't know how they all aren't obese because they eat bread LIKE EVERY 5 SECONDS. I'm not a huge coffee drinker so I went down to the local "SAMS club" aka something called Colruyt and bought myself a 24 pack of "coca light". Colruyt is like a minute walk away which is super nice. Everything here is in French so that's kind of hard to navigate as far as buying groceries is concerned but some of it is coming back to me and I'm retaking French over here so hopefully it will get easier. Last night after the exam everyone went out for a nice dinner and then went and experienced downtown Brussels. I got to experience the real Belgian beer then, and I must say, it is pretty good! It's surprisingly fruity, which is nice because I typically don't like beer. Today was just a nice lazy Sunday. We slept in and I think we are slowly overcoming the inital jetlag. We have booked flights to Dublin next weekend and London in mid October to see some friends and I'm getting super excited to experience more European cities. That's about all for the first week! I still feel so blessed to be able to have this experience, and though I miss my family and friends and even Furman, I think I'm making memories here that will last a lifetime.