First Days

Well, I got here at about 9am and met other people from the program- we went back to the hotel and checked in. My roommate wasn't there yet, so I went to get some breakfast with some other people in a small cafe down the street. I got toast and coffee (lame, but it was really good) and then took an awesome nap until we had to go down for orientation. After a couple of hours where our director told us a bunch of information, we went to dinner and had quiche (mmmmmm!) and veal ( which wasn't so good, and also kinda went against my morals) and some amazing ice cream. Then most of us went to a bar, but we didn't stay that long since we were all exhausted. I was in bed by eleven!

The next day, we had orientation at 9:45 after a delicious breakfast where I had waaay too much brie. By the time our housing coordiantor finished telling us what to expect from homestays, it was time for lunch- a goat cheese sandwich from this natur place that was delicious (this lunch was paid for by the program, as was last night's dinner, which made it even tastier!) Then we met individually with the housing coordinator where she gave us the names of our homestays and some information on them- turns out the mother in mine is from Argentina and that she knows Spanish better than English! Guess I won't be losing my spanish here!
Then we went to tour the Grand Place, which I loved because it had so many statues and decorations, and each of them meant something- either representing Rey Carlos V (I think) imprisoning Muslims (same idea, less degrading than another statue I know...), crazy Belgian stories, or something else. We also saw the Mannekin Pis, who gets dressed up all the time- cute and weird! After Grand Place, we went back to the hotel to get picked up by out homestays- Mine has the mother and three kids, Catalina, Jeronimo, and Sara. Catalina's my age and speaks Spanish and is trying to improve her English- Sara is 12 or 13 and doesn't speak English or Spanish. I went back to their house- in the outskirts of the city, but still relatively close (30 mins on Metro) to the center since Brussels is very small. We had dinner (spaghetti with tons of cheese- it seems like my diet is going to consist heavily or carbs and cheese) and then watched The Bucket List, but I didn't finish it because I was falling asleep, and went to bed at 9:45pm.

I woke up at 12:30 today although I went to bed so early- since I don't have a cell phone until tomorrow I don't ever really know what time it is. We had lunch, and then I took a shower. This house is really nice, but it is so cold!!! It's fine normally because I'll just put on a sweater or dress warmly, but when I went to take a shower I almost cried! I don't know how I'm gonna stand it tomorrow morning. After my frigid shower, we went to see the battlefield of Waterloo and climbed 12347147981324 stairs to get to the top- it was really cool. They also had a panorama in another building which depicted life-size the battle from the eyes of someone standing at the top of the hill. Carmen, you would like that because it's one the only remaining panorama of the battle, and also it's terrific artwork. They put it all around you and have sounds of gunshots and the battle around you so you feel like you're there. After that, we went to the Cathedral where the king and queen had their "Boda Real"; we went during Mass so we couldn't walk around, but stayed a little to hear the singing, where the singers would repeat the short songs in about 8 different languages, maybe more. After that, we went to see the Palace and then walked around the park in the palace. Then we went home, and here I am!
Tomorrow I have to go to the university, and Cataline showed me where I need to go (a bus and the metro, relatively simple). I am super tired now, but I do love this city!
Even though I'm freezing.

Picture explanation:
1) the panarama (well, part of it) at Waterloo
2) the hill at Waterloo with a lion statue on top of it where some British guy got wounded
3) Mannekin Pis dressed up
4) My homestay sisters in front of the Palace
5) The statue of imprisoned Muslims
6) An old dilapidated church that was next to our hotel