We've Got Sunshine In a Cloudy Place

This weekend had been beautiful! The past two weeks have been rainy, and in the 60s (*F), but we've had sunshine and 70+ for this weekend - perfect weather for exploring! Saturday us study abroad kids went on a walking tour (of which I regrettably have no pictures) of the area down by the Palace of Justice. This excursion included a walk through of a traditional Belgian brewery. I had heard rumors before coming that Belgians were particular about their beer, but I didn't quite know the truth of it until I arrived. I tasted some "sour beer" called Gueuze. It is not carbonated at all - flat beer. Very sour. Pretty good, actually. There was also some Kriek available for sampling - fruit beer made with cherries. That stuff tasted like war-heads, and I wasn't overly fond.

Today, I got up and went to a church here called the Christian Center. It's located outside of Brussels in the direction of Waterloo. Non-denominational place with a heavy focus on the international, and I really liked it. The sermon is done in English to a group of international folks from literally all over the world - the Congo, South Africa, India, Italy, Germany -- a lot of the Middle East and Africa, actually.

After service, I came back to Brussels with the intention of returning to the Royal Palace for some pictures of the exterior (more on this later - I'm going to make one more visit), but got side tracked when I saw the Porte de Hal. It's a 600 year old remnant of the wall that used to surround Belgium (a gate, I believe) -- the only one still around. When the wall was demolished in the 18th century, Porte de Hal was preserved because it was being used as a prison. It's been recently renovated, and is really worth a visit!




Looks like a castle, no?


And...well...here's me in front of the massive tower.
Some weapons (thought of you, Emily! Too bad they were behind glass and I couldn't get one for you!). The sword on the bottom is easliy as tall as I am - same with the pike and the ax.
Whee - cross bows.
Entrance.
And of course Norbert came along and was ready to valiantly defend the city from this cozy little nook on the 4th story.

The spiral staircase.


C'est moi.


I like the architecture here - how it makes a building more art than space.



Creepy.


This guy reminds me of the black knight in Monty Python, Holy Grail.
None shall pass.
But I did. I didn't even have to hack off his limbs.

Statue.

Arrow windows (there's probably a technical name).

Poking around in places I shouldn't be.

I found a way out!
Norbert bravely teetering on the ledge about 100' off the ground. Dizzing.
A view of the city. :)

Norbert likes it, too.



And that was my day! :) Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Funny Occurances and First Experiences

Recall my last post with pictures. All the while I was taking the shots of where I'm living, I kept thinking of the song from My Fair Lady that goes "...I'm on the street where you live". Kid you not - on Sunday, the church bells that were ringing were playing that tune.

So, on Saturday I went on a school-organized bus tour of Brussels. Neat, right? Well, anything that could go wrong went wrong. All things considered, it got me better oriented with the lay out of the city.

• The "sound system" for the tour part of it consisted of a kiddie-toy recorder thing.
  
• Random streets were shut down for construction. Apparently, Belgium also has a construction season.
  
• Due to the fact that random streets were shut down, the huge charter bus we were on ended up having to take a side road. Ironically, this was immediately after the guide shouted that the back streets weren't designed in the Roman fashion, but rather followed the way that cows would wander. It was a tense trip.

And, finally, today one of my host moms nephew is here to visit. The little guy is 6 years old and doesn't speak English beyond counting to 10 and saying hello. I asked him through his aunt if he wanted to walk to the park, and he did. He was taught how to say "I want to go home", and off we went with one of the yorkshire terriers. We walk a grand total of two blocks - didn't even get to the park - and he said " I want to go home". so we ran home. It was funny.




Anyway, I went to the Sunday market a few days ago. That was pretty neat - fruit stands, cheese booths, meat trailers, bread stands, clothing booths, toy stands...there was everything. I hear that the one downtown is the largest market in the world...but I'm not sure about that.

I've taken some classes already (the inconvenient part of studying abroad...kidding), and they're shaping up to be pretty good. I'm enrolled in History of Modern Europe, United States Foreign Policy 1898-Present, French 102 (= 112), and Intercultural Communication. I was actually surprised at how much I was able to understand in French today. Of course, it was very basic.

Other than that, things are pretty dandy over here!
My love to all of you at home!

Sarah

Time for Some Visuals!

Yay internet!

Anyway, picture time. Get used to this :)

Mom and dad took me to the Detroit Airport. Norbert was also out as part of the family.


Here's Norbert on the plane in my seat on top of my diaper-sized pillow.


Norbert on my knee in the London airport.

Hello England!
I'll be back soon, hopefully!

Brussels is actually made up of 19 parts (communes, I guess they're called), of which I live in Jette on Avenue de la Constitution.
It's beautiful! Here's the neighborhood I live in. A very quiet, pleasant place to stay.

home away from Home:)
Norbert's pretty comfortable. And suddenly I'm feeling pretty stupid, as though I have an imaginary friend. Oh well. Norbert likes me. ;)
...plants...
Wall for the garden...with plants.
The nearby park...with super-sized plants.
Norbert on a park bench...surrounded by plants.

The Basilica of Koekelberg.






I felt so small and insignificant when standing in front of the building, which might be the point of the size.
And, just in case you're hungry after service, check out the restaurant. Right.

Still Lacking Pictures...alas.

This week has been a flurry of activity! But an update is in order!

Brussels is beautiful! Even though it rains like crazy with little notice. I learned my lesson today about umbrellas - bring them. I'm very excited to get to know this city slowly and gently, finding out its quirks and charms.

I have never wanted to write more than I did when I was in the center of the city today. The atmosphere would easily fuel poetic observances and thoughtful prose. And I'm crazy excited to really learn French now that I hear people all around me speaking it. A few remnants of my 111 class in the spring have started to surface as I've been here, and I'm starting to gather some basic sentences, but I know that learning here will help immensely.

I'm not sure how crazy I am about the night scene, though. I went out tonight to downtown with my roommates, and I was not really all that comfortable with the bars and crowds and atmosphere. I think that a comfortable going out would be a local place, taking in a drink, and just being out. Nothing fancy. I was just too anxious about the whole thing to enjoy it properly - mostly about the whole getting back in one piece bit.

That's about it - my love to everybody!

Sarah

I Woke Up This Morning and I was in a Different Country

I'm here safely!

So, Monday - saying goodbye to my mom and dad was really hard. :( I had done pretty good about not crying until that point.

Detroit Airport is pretty neat-o - got to hold my first iPhone. Then we got on board! It's scary to enter an aircraft, knowing that if something goes wrong, it's completely out of your control to fix it. Out of my hands. Thank God for...God.

The flight to London was long, but not bad. I'll have to do a post in the near future about the people you meet on airplanes. We flew over Canada, up by Greenland and Iceland, over Ireland, and into London. It was a pretty cool set-up - each seat had its own individual screen and I opted to play Solitaire, watch Kung Fu Panda, and track the flights progress. I didn't sleep much - I was too anxious about the fact that I was 40000 feet above the ground.

As my dad asked, I hummed the little British Royalty tune upon landing. I even got to go outside and touch English soil. I really want to go back - it was so neat to be surrounded by people with real British, Scottish, and Irish accents!

Other than that, all I've seen of London is the airport. And what an airport it is - I had to go to several different terminals before I was at the right one (weird, but I had to go to one terminal for my boarding pass and another to check my bags). I had quite the lay over, so I was able to catch up on sleep in the shape of little cat-naps.

Then, finally, I was able to board, and we flew over the Black Sea. I saw the shoreline! :) We landed in Brussels - the airport is crazy nice, just to throw that out there! I took a taxi, arrived, unpacked, and went to sleep.

This morning, we had a nice breakfast of bread, cheese, and yogurt, then it was off to day 1 of orientation. Not too much to report there, but I did get to see a bit of the city. I am soooo in love already!

I'll definitely post more on the city and will put up pictures, but I'm having a bit of trouble with my internet right now, so I'll have to be back!

But thank you all for your prayers and love and support and more!

Sarah

Twenty-Twenty-Twenty Four Hours to Go (I wanna be Sedated)

Hi.

I leave tomorrow.


This is my "last night at home and I'm going to miss everybody" face.



Anyway, Norbert is ready to go.


I don't know if you know him - he's my trusty travel companion. He's been with me to Virginia and Jamaica, as well as with Jennifer to Tennessee and the New Life Youth Group to New Berlin, New York.

It's time for his biggest journey yet - Europe!

Next time I post, I'll be in another country! Aaah!

Flight Info

I was asked to let somebody know what kind of airplane I was taking...so I'll just throw out all of the flight info!

I go Detroit to London on an Airbus A330.


Yup, one of those.

I stay the day in London, then go on an Airbus A320 to Brussels.



On December 13th, I fly a Boeing 777 from Brussels to Washington D.C. ,




and then probably a little plane from Washington D.C. to Detroit.

I'll be home for Christmas! And my birthday! And Billy's birthday! Although I'll probably sleep for a week once I get home. ;)

I leave in just over a week -- wow! I can hardly believe it! I can't believe I'm doing this (in all senses of the phrase)!