Finally Here...

Well I finally made it to Brussels. My flights went fairly well, except for the fact that US Airways tried to deny my ability to bring two carry-on bags, stating that there was "not enough room in the overhead bins." Oh really, I thought to myself, then expressed my anger to the airline agent stating that I had very fragile things that had to be taken on the plane. After pulling a few strings, she ended up checking my carry-on with the first class passengers, which resulted in me getting my bag handed to me when I walked off the plane. Not too much of a hassle but enough to make me doubt the reliability of airlines even more.

The flights went well, Boston-Philly was completely booked, but the flight was only a little under two hours. It seemed as though we took of and landed in one fell swoop. The flight from Philly-Brussels was nice because it was a large, not sold out airplane, so I was able to spread out and take a quick nap. The movies on board were awful, who honestly wants to watch a Nancy Drew film? Not this guy. Not to mention that the so called "penne pasta with tomato cheese sauce" tasted like a mix between plastic and cardboard.

When we got off the plane we met the driver, who quickly took me, matt, and another girl from SLU to our respective homes. We met one of our two housemoms, Iria, when we got to the house. We were also greeted by her three miniature yorkshire terriers, who are more of a cross between a rat and a troll than a dog, but are the cutest things I have ever seen. They are a family of dogs, a mother, father, and daughter, named Shiva, Indiana Jones, and MacBeal. After getting settled into our basement apartment, we ate some delicious bread with Nutella and then took a quick tour of the area of Brussels I am living in, called Jette. Jette is a beautiful place so far, with many old churches and the Basilica of Koeckelberg, which is an absolutely massive Basilica that takes over your views no matter where you look. The town square of Jette is a small little place, with many outdoor cafes, bars, banks, and a friterie. I was skeptical about the friterie, even though I have heard so much about them. Pretty much a friterie is a small stand serving french fries with many different toppings. Being Americans, me and Matt chose the ketchup as our topping, and boy oh boy were those fries fantastic. I picked up a sim card for a phone over here so that I can communicate at least somewhat, and we met our other house mom, Els, for a drink in the Jette Brassiere called Le Miroir. I had the Duvel beer, which was pretty tasty I must say, and we learned about some rules of the house and customs of Brussels.

After a tasty dinner of some sort of pork with some sort of salsa (it was delicious I swear), we gave our family their gifts and then headed out back to the Miroir for one more drink and to relax for the evening. I tried one of the Trappist beers brewed by the monks of Belgium, and lets just say I think I found a favorite. Westmalle Trapist Tripel. Mmm Mmm good.

Tommorow we will venture into the center of Brussels and try to figure out the metro system here. Photos will come soon!