Weekend of exploring in Brussels

[January 14-16]
After finishing our classes on Thursday we had our first weekend free and decided to spend it in Brussels to get to know the area better, which ended up being a great decision! On Friday afternoon we had a guided tour of Brussels that lasted about three hours and was amazing! An adorable old man took the group of Clemson students through all of the different parts of Brussels and for the first time we started to learn about the place where we would be living for the next four months. He had so much knowledge about the history and architecture of the buildings/areas and also had many entertaining stories! Below are a few pictures from the tour to hopefully give you a taste of my surroundings:

King's Palace

 The running park

 More pretty buildings

 Aerial view of Brussels

After our productive Friday tour Laura, Tricia, and I decided to walk around ourselves during the day on Saturday and take in the sights. In addition all of the stores in Belgium are only allowed to have sales in January and July, so during our wandering of Brussels we ended up venturing towards the stores as well. There was a covered market with different stands of local goodies and we all made our first purchases. I bought a headband (my favorite :P ) along with Tricia and Laura bought a new scarf! We also realized that Saturday is a very happening day because all of the streets were packed with people and it was entertaining to see everyone out and about. On one street we stumbled upon this old man that was playing guitar and singing Rolling Stones! It was such a hoot because he was so animated and had a huge crowd surrounding and watching him. Then we walked past this statue and almost jumped out of our skin because it was actually a person! It was the craziest thing ever and so naturally we had to pose for a picture with this creature.

 Yes, he is real

Our wonderful Saturday ended on the perfect note because we went to a local Chocolate store called "Chocopolis". When we first walked in we had the nicest woman take care of us and she let us all sample one piece. I chose a coffee flavored dark chocolate, and it was more than amazing! They make all of their own chocolate right in the store and have over 50 delicious flavors to pick from. After being able to have a free sample we all thought that we needed to buy at least one piece (and I didn't take much convincing at that) so my second and final piece of heaven was a tiramisu because the woman helping us recommended it. None of us wanted to eat anything after our chocolate because it was so delicious.

 Belgian Chocolate really is the best

After having a such fabulous weekend the roommates and I woke up Sunday in high spirits and had a great run in the park. It was a beyond beautiful day and we wanted to soak up as much sun as possible!! The only possibly bad thing about Brussels is that it is consistently gray and rainy most of the time so it was rare to be able to see the blue skies. The running park is three metro stops away, however we decided to walk back to our hotel to spend a little more time in the sun! We already had so many stories to reminisce on so the walk was more than enjoyable. 

We have classes this week until Thursday and then will  have our first weekend excursion to Amsterdam! There are about ten of us going and we will be taking a round trip bus from Friday to Sunday. We are all very anxious for our first travel trip and have no doubt that it will be exciting =)

Many firsts...

It is Day 5 in Belgium and we have had many firsts thus far..

1- On Saturday my two roommates and I made our first trip to the Delhaze (Belgian Food Lion).  It was quite an adventure to say the least. The hardest challenge was being able to decipher what all of the different types of food were because it was all in French/Dutch. In addition, as with everything in Europe, the aisle and the shopping carts were all very small so trying to navigate around provided to be much more difficult than expected. However putting our three brains together, and with the help of a couple local grocery shoppers, we were able to find pretty much everything we needed...only taking us more than an hour. We felt so accomplished once we finished our grocery shopping.
2- Our first trip to the grocery store then turned into our first home cooked meal at our hotel! Our mamas all taught us well because we have been eating very healthy and saving money by cooking our meals at home. Our first meal was pasta night and we were more than ecstatic to be able to use our kitchen. We had chef Laura working the stove with the pasta and sauce, Chopper Tricia cutting up the heads of lettuce and carrots for our salad, and DJ Danielle putting some background music on and setting the table. (Yeah I got the easy roll...) Our meal was not only delicious, but we were so happy that we had bought, prepared, and cooked it for ourselves! We even feel the need to take pictures of our table when it is set) Our second home cooked meal might have been even better though because we had chicken, baked potatoes, corn, and a starter salad. So needless to say we are getting better as the nights go on =)

First Pasta Night

 Chicken with Baked Potato Night

3- On Sunday a group of about ten of us decided to take the metro to the "Park" and take our first run! We suited up for the cold with our running shoes and were off. The Park is a nice square area that has trails all around it which form about a 0.87 mile loop.  We are happy to have found a nice place to exercise and look forward to when it gets nicer outside and the wind is not as brutal!
4- After our first run the group of us went to get our first Belgian Waffle! It was absolutely delicious to say the least. No other words to really describe other than this picture...

Yum.

5- As described on my travel day post we caught the metro for the first time on Friday, however as of now we have our metro cards for the next four months and we have got the system down. It is a lot different than the DC Metro because it does not have sensors on its doors and if it is shutting, you will get left on the metro! In addition it is all the honor code, so while everyone has a metro card there is only one or two stops that actually make you scan your card before going on which makes everything move faster.
6 - We have had many firsts at the local bars because we have been trying to go to different ones each night to get a better feel of the area! One interesting fact about the clubs here is that they all play American music, we love it because we are all able to sing along! The only down side is that everyone smokes cigarettes so it is very smoky all of the time.
7- On Monday we had our first classes here at the Clemson University Brussels Center. I am taking Macroeconomics, Accounting, Marketing, Management, and Law. However our four months here is split up into two sessions of two months each. Therefore this first session I have Econ and Accounting on Mon/Wed and Marketing on Tues/Thurs for 2 hours and 45 minutes each day. Management is online for the full four months so the second session I only have Law which will be Monday and Wednesday afternoon! All of the professors seem really great and understand that we are also here to travel. However it is going to be a lot of work to finish an entire semester in just two months.
8 - We also booked our first flight for a weekend excursion! A large group of us will be in Dublin, Ireland for Saint Patrick's Day and we could not be more excited! We definitely will have weekend trips before that adventure in March but the flights were booking up so fast that we wanted to get it out of the way before the cheaper flights sell out. Never been to Ireland, and can't think of a better time to go!
9- Our last first that I can think of right now was finding an American bar to watch football! Last night, or actually early this morning, a group of us went to the bar "Fat Boys" (Oh the American image) to watch the College National Championship game! While it was very early in the morning for us with the time difference it was fun to be able to watch football again.

The group walking to the American Bar

 We are a package deal =)

The Travel Day!

Well where to begin! Right now I am sitting in my room after almost sleeping 13 hours straight from jetlag or perhaps because our first day here was filled with much excitement and no sleeping at all! So let's go back to Thursday the 6th...

My mom and dad drove me to the airport to help me get checked in and situated.  All seemed to be going well after waiting in the forever long United International line we finally checked in and I had my boarding pass. We then were on our way over to the drop my suitcases (and yes I was able to fit everything into a carry on and a large suitcase!) on the belt when chaos happened! Everyone started walking away from the belt with their suitcases so we turned around to see what was wrong and there was a very large security man with a machine gun right behind us telling us to MOVE! So we of course did exactly what he said....we moved! Everyone was evacuated out of the United check in area and had to wait while they investigated a "suspicious bag".  Needless to say it was quite an intense moment! Thankfully I was already checked in, so after waiting with my parents for some time they were nice enough to wait with my bags and let me continue through security so that I wouldn't miss my flight. As hard as it was to say goodbye to my parents, I walked down the escalators to the security with my spirits high and as ready as ever for my flight! There were about ten Clemson people on my flight so we all talked and introduced ourselves during the delay which was very convenient. After a two hour delay because of the security breach, my parents were finally able to drop off my bags and we started boarding our flight! The plane was huge and I had an aisle seat with lots of leg room :) The plane ride was uneventful and consisted of watching "Social Network", sleeping, reading my Kindle, and eating both dinner and breakfast! We landed in Brussels about nine in the morning and our first day began on a great note because when picking up our baggage we ran into ten of our other Clemson friends from two different flights!

Our advisor had told us we could either take a taxi (50 euros) or the train to the metro (about 5 euros) to our hotel...and us being cheap college kids can you guess which one we picked? So with my two rolling suitcases, a large backpack, and a huge smile on my face we went to the lower level of the airport to catch our train! It was quite the challenge to carry all of our suitcases up and down all of the stairs and quickly into the train and metro before the doors shut on us! After an hour of travel and sore arms we finally made it to our metro stop...still with big smiles on our faces! When we walked up to the ground level from our metro stop we were all filled with pure excitement! It is beyond beautiful and our hotel is in an amazing location!! 

After checking in and getting our room keys my two roommates, Laura and Tricia, and I opened our room for the first time and we were in love! While most of the other students have described it as small, we think cozy is a much better word! We have a nice bathroom with a bath, a living area with the world's smallest TV, a kitchen (with a dishwasher) and a bedroom! Our room was all situated and organized after an hour or so and it felt even cozier!

The rest of our day consisted of having orientation with all 36 students in the program, taking the metro to our school to know how to get to it, going out to dinner for our "Welcome Dinner", and all trying out the local bars! It was more than a successful first night and day! We have definitely been getting along well with the other students in the program and everyone seems really fun and nice! I look forward to getting to know everyone even better and for all the more adventures to come :) Here are some pictures.. 

 All the travel girls when we finally made it to the hotel!

 Our scarf closet..

Our living area..

The Kitchen..

 The potty...

 The bedroom..

 The closet space..

 The bathroom..

 Full length mirror and entry way..

 The square where our hotel is ..

 The roommates all smiles!

48 hours and counting..

Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to finally be on my way to Belgium on Thursday night! I can't wait for all of my European adventures and now I can share them all with you :)
I hope Belgium is ready for the Bird! Let the blog begin...