Tonight is the last night I will be staying in the Hostel. Tomorrow I will (finally) move into the apartment where I will stay for the rest of my time in Brussels. So far I have loved my time here! It's a very busy city except for sundays--where I have learned that nothing at all is open. I've also learned that for the busyness of the weekdays and Saturdays, all the shops and stores really shut down after 6ish which is going to take time getting used to. I've never not been around a grocery store or a CVS or a restaurant that doesn't stay open until midnight or for full 24-hours. Since I arrived on Saturday morning, I've had fun meeting many different people studying all over the US and tomorrow we all head to Vesalius College to hopefully meet more.
It's been a lot of fun so I'll just recap some of the fun things that I have seen and done for the past couple days. So on Saturday after arriving a group of girls took a cab to the hostel. We then went out for lunch at a burger restaurant followed by walking around in the mall that is about a block from the hostel. We ended our night first with dinner at an Italian sub shop and then onto drinks at Poechenellekelder, the puppet bar followed by the more tourist-y club/bar Delirium. Sunday, the real first day, everyone who hadn't arrived yet came and joined us at the hostel. We then jumped straight into CIEE orientation about the program and went through a few sessions on what to expect and then headed out for dinner. A few friends and I went down to the Drug Opera to have pizza. After dinner, we headed to the Big Game bar to watch the Packer game and then returned to Delirium, meeting up with almost our entire group of 50! Today, Monday we continued with CIEE orientation with a quick walk around the city followed by a crash-course section of French. This afternoon we headed to Cantillon Brewery where the brewing process has stayed the same since 1900. It is the last brewery of its kind in Belgium--there used to be over 3,000 before WWI. Cantillion uses brewing technique known as spontaneous fermentation and still uses all the same equipment that was bought second-hand in 1900 to start the brewery. The beer is very sour and lacks fizz because of the fermentation process it undergoes, so it was very interesting to try the old beer taste comparative to today's beers. Lastly tonight, the girls in my room (there are 6 of us) went out for Gyro at a Halal restaurant downtown and I had a chicken gyro with fries--very good! Tonight, after dinner, my roommates and I stayed in for tomorrow is a long day starting at 8am so it is now time for bed!
