Bienvenue à Bruxelles!

Finally! She had said her goodbyes and had landed! After 9 hours of flying, Angeli had stepped foot on European land for the first time! Her trip from Atlanta's new international terminal to Brussels was lengthy, but equally interesting. She met a lady who she would say was deeply in love. So in love, that she told Angeli everything about her wedding to everything she loved about her husband. It was quite adorable but at the same time, Angeli could careless. The flight went by with the help of movies. She watched Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ides of March, and The Notebook. Yes, she made the mistake of watching The Notebook. A mistake it was because she had to hold in all of her tears and could not cry out the lump. But she got over it.

She met up with three other students from the same program after getting off the flight. The next task was to take the train to the Grand Central train station. She got on the train with the others toting her two extremely heavy bags and waited patiently for the train to arrive at its destination. On the way there, they met a boy from America, and this is how the conversation went:
"Hi, are you guys from America?"
"Yes"
"Cool, I'm a sophomore in high school studying in Brussels. I've been here for 6 months now and I'm fluent in French. Oh, and I'm from Philadelphia."
"Wow, we feel like dumbasses now."
"Okay, hope you guys have a good time here and LIVE IT UP."
"Sure!"

Okay, so maybe that wasn't exactly how it went down but it still captures the essence. Right after he left, it struck them, they didn't ask for his name! So Angeli ran down to quickly ask him before he got off. It turns out that his name was Luke. Anyone could have guessed that, eventually. Next, came their stop. They got ready to get off, and got all of their luggage in hand. For a minute, they discussed which exit to take, but as soon as they got to the door and one student got off, the train decided to depart with the other three, including Angeli, still in the train! So that was the story, they missed their stop!

They all finally met up with the rest of the group at the Gare Centrale trying not to look so tourist-ish. It was a failed attempt. For lunch, Angeli had spicy pasta. In Angeli's dictionary, that was not spicy pasta at all. It was what you'd call hint-of-spice pasta. She accepted the fact that food here was just not going to fit her, but that was something she was prepared for. What she was not prepared for was not having euros, an adapter, an umbrella, and a phone. But who said it was going to be easy?

Her host family finally came to pick her up. Two average height Belgians, husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Demaere, helped her with her baggage and took her to their home-- her home for the next three weeks. She fell asleep shortly after and woke up the next day at 11:30 am.

They had four daughters who all welcomed her with a specially cooked, vegetarian brunch. It was something no one had done for her. They all treated her so well, as though she were the most important thing in their life. The oldest daughter had cooked a soy plate with honey barbecue sauce. Later she told Angeli that they used the sauce because it is special and for Americans. They even served salad with ranch. The food was filling and the people were sweet.  The weather was beautiful, as of now, and the day was relaxing. All Angeli was missing was a few things and her family. Things weren't going to be easy, but they will be worthwhile Angeli thought.

And as they say, the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. Well this young American is about read more into the world through her journey in Europe- starting with Brussels, Belgium!




xoxo