Moving to Belgium

Since peering over history books in elementary school, the ancient towns and ruins of Europe have danced before me alive with stories and an air of intrigue. From Harry Potter to Jane Austen novels to Fitzgerald’s tales the European life continued to draw me in. I’ve dreamed of exploring every corner of the continent for as long as I can remember, so getting the opportunity to live in Europe for four months is mindblowing. I still don’t quite believe it. I’M IN BRUSSELS!

I’ve only been here for five days, but already it feels like a lifetime. I’m constantly learning and surprised at every step and I surprise myself.

I’m surprised I was able to pack all my life for a third of the year into one suitcase and one backpack. I’m surprised jet lag can really make it easy for me to sleep 15 hours. I’m surprised.

When my flight got in on Wednesday morning I was desperate for getting the reality check that I was in Europe. From the shuttle window,  I peer and craned my neck desperately taking it all in. But, the cars were similar, they drove on the right, the people looked the same. Everything was just tighter, narrower, faster, and smaller.

I’m rooming in an apartment with other Mizzou journalism students in the part of the city that is filled with streets of shops. Dominos Pizza and McDonalds are right down the street. The apartment started to show me signs of European life from the circle plugs to light switches outside the rooms. The truth is, though, Belgium is not another world and there are far more similarities at times then differences. But, boy there are differences. I’ve never encountered a language barrier before, but now I go into restaurants and stores and there is a high chance a confused conversation full of pointing, word stumbling, pointing and apologetic looks will be exchanged. I took a few years of french so I can read, write and speak a little, but listening and responding is problematic. Lucky for my-incompetent-self most people in Brussels know English. Signs around town are in French and Dutch, but also English.

The moment it hit me that I was in the Europe depicted in all my history books happened as I was wandering through the city streets. Passing families and couples on the narrow sidewalks I came to a view overlooking the city and there it was. A picture perfect old cathedral surrounded by buildings of varying shapes and heights with perfect old architecture.

Since then, I have wandered more and taken a city tour and have come across more and more gorgeous buildings that led me to question if perhaps I have fallen right into one of the pages of a history textbook.

The architecture takes me out of time and the food sends me to another world; it really is worth all the hype. So far I’ve had: a chocolate drenched street waffle, a cone of fries covered in Brazil sauce from a street vendor at 1 in the morning, rabbit, fries wrapped in a gyro. Even the 2 euro frozen pizza is delightful.

There are small things about moving abroad that trip you up sometimes. Some oddities I’ve run into:

• You are charged for bags at grocery stores even the plastic ones.
• They only give you tiny, tiny glasses in your apartment- no full glasses of water here!
• You are charged for the necessities of water and peeing here- Paying for the restroom can be from 50 cents to 3 euros.
• Some people actually know where and what Missouri is!?
• We have to unlock our apt. door from the inside before opening it ( guess I’ll never leave my key at home again!)
• All music is American but the radio is in French- there is a lot of mixing and back and forth of languages.
• When asked I don’t look American (maybe the city is rubbing off on me already!)
• There’s no tupperware or plastic bags around- how do I pack my lunch?
• The sky can be blue and it still can rain- always keep the umbrella handy.

The people are friendly and full of stories, the food delicious, and the architecture stunning. No complaints so far! I can’t wait to see where the next week brings me. I’m looking forward to learning more about Belgium culture and politics while getting hands-on experience at my journalism internship that starts tomorrow!