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My first few days in Belgium are going great! It was a loooong first day here. After our 9 hour plane ride we jumped right into it with touring the city and seeing campus. We got a chance to check out our apartments (which aren't so bad after all :) ) but my roommates and I were too scared to lay down in fear we wouldn't wake up for the rest of our day. Then we did some more walking around the city and our group went to this fun Italian place for dinner. By the time we got back to our apartment we all looked like zombies and I think all sound asleep by 9pm (2pm central time) I was sending John an email right before I went to sleep thinking to myself.. I'm going to bed, and you are still in school! So weird...
After a good 11 hours of sleep I woke up to start day 2 in Belgium. We walked to the Angora (kinda like a student union) to have breakfast. Milk comes unrefrigerated and whole, no thanks. The rest of our breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, pastries, yogurt, bread, meat and cheese. Kinda different having a sandwich at 8am. After breakfast we had an orientation meeting followed by lunch (where I put ketchup on my salad thinking it was salad dressing, so embarrassing) and then another class. I keep forgetting I'm here for school... Then our professor took us to local supermarkets. While we stay in Belgium, we have to cook some of our own meals. For all of you who don't like grocery shopping in the first place, try doing it when everything is written in Dutch (of Flemish, I'm not exactly sure what it is) It was hard trying to figure out what butter was!
After our first, stressful trip to the supermarket we split up into groups to walk around the city. We split up our group of 21 into 5 or so to TRY make it less obvious we are a group of American tourists. Between our attire and loud voices, that's pretty hard. We had dinner at a place that seems to be like a European McDonalds where most of the guys got beer as their beverage. It is amazing all the places a person can drink beer here. Beer actually costs less than ordering water at some places. I should have trained myself to be a beer drinker before I left because it costs as much as a small meal does to order a rum and coke :/ Then we spent the rest of the evening walking around campus, checking out the pubs where all the college students hang out. Maybe by week 6 the locals will quit looking at us weird and maybe talk to us…
Today is my 3rd day in Belgium. It is about 6:00pm right now. We spent the day in class and taking a retail tour around Antwerp. Our professor took us on the tram to a place that is a lot like Walmart. We all enjoyed this because we didn't have to sit in the classroom. I'm not the only one here to forgets we came here for school haha. One of our in classroom lectures today led by a professor from Belgium and we started learning about the European Union. I think it's going to be a pretty interesting class. Once we finished our classes for the day, a few of us walked around Antwerp and checked out different shopping and eating areas. I got to have my first taste of Belgium chocolate today… and it was amazing. Freshly dipped chocolate covered strawberries….Mmmm. Now my roommates and I are trying to figure out how to use our oven and stove and cook what we think are chicken kabobs and potatoes. This should be interesting. At 19:15 (7:15pm, I forgot to mention that they use 24 hr time over here. This gets your heart rate going when your alarm goes off in the morning and you have NO idea what time it is) a few of my classmates and I are going to walk down to the movie theater to see the new Pirates movie. Hopefully in English…
As much as I've seen and done already, it hasn't really set in yet that I am half way across the world from home. It just seems like I am in a big city with a lot of people that wear skinny jeans and scarves (both men and women, ps) However, every time I hear the siren of an ambulance, I am reminded I'm in Europe. There are a lot of things that are very different, starting off with transportation. We walk EVERYWHERE! Busses, cars, bikers…they all do not care if you are in their way. I hope we all make it 6 weeks without getting hit by something. Also, I'm pretty sure the 21 students from NDSU are the only people in this entire country that don't smoke. Coming from a place where you can hardly smoke anywhere, this gets a little annoying. Also, you have to pay to use public restrooms, people eat fries with mayo, everyone but us talks much, much quieter, and personal space is unheard of. I'm having such a great time and can't wait to travel outside of Belgium to see the rest of Europe!
- comments
Therese I love the fact that you've decided to start a blog :) It's so much fun reading about your experiences, and you know... I've had all of them as well. It's hard coming to a culture where so many things are different, but you learn a lot and you appreciate small things after a while. Our 24 hr time though is waaaayyyy better than yours though, so much easier ;) I hope you will continue having a lot of new and fun experiences. I'm looking forward to reading about them anyway :) Have a nice evening! Therese
Stephanie So exciting Lindsey!! I wish I could have gotten a chance to do something like this. You will have such great memories. I am excited to keep reading about your adventures.
John COOL! hey me and mom are soooo jealous and we want those chocolate covered strawberries! (LUCKY DUCKY!!)
Kris Sounds like a great time already!! Keep blogging! I feel like I'm on vacation!!!
Tracy Sounds Amazing! Can't wait to hear more!
Cally love the blog. i already know everything thats going on that you dont even have to message me back. cant wait to hear more:)