For some time now, as in over a year, I've been planning to study in Brussels. I'm a French major at McDaniel College in the States, and really wanted the opportunity to go somewhere and improve my French skills! Since McDaniel has an exchange program with FUSL (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis), Brussels seemed to be the place to go! That, and my professor made me sign my life away to the program (seriously. I'm sure she still has the paper).
After a mad packing frenzy on Wednesday, I flew out from Dulles airport in Washington D.C. on a six and a half hour flight to Bruxelles! Wednesday night I couldn't sleep since all I was thinking about was leaving, and Thursday night was spent on the airplane, also barely sleeping. So by the time I arrived in Belgium at 7am, met one of the lovely Erasmus helpers at the train station and got to my flat, I was exhausted. As in standing up was difficult. I went ahead and met with the wonderful Mme. Paulus, the Erasmus coordinator (Erasmus is the European version of study abroad, so even though I'm American, I'm an "Erasmus student") and got to see the University. FUSL is a very urban school, so its three buildings all kind of melt into the surrounding stores and shops down the street Jardin du Botanique.
It's smaller than I expected, but the buildings also go up like skyscrapers instead of McDaniel's spread out, two or three story buildings. After a short French conversation with the library guy, I got myself in even though I don't have my student ID yet to use the internet, and discovered...different keyboards?? I had totally forgotten that. Last year when I studied in the UK, I visited Italy and used their funky keyboards, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that Belgium would be like that, "Where is the 'a'?? Do these people even use question marks?" were some of the thoughts running through my sleep-deprived brain.
In other Belgian news, finding sheets for your bed is pretty much le grand défis/quest extraordinaire. Who knew that stores just don't sell sheets? Or those that do are few and far between. But there, on my way to le shopping mall (yes, it's actually called that. Just pronounce it with a French accent, and you're good), the scent came to me on the wind...
Inexplicably delicious, sweet and hot... WAFFLES! In French, the word is gaufre, which, let me tell you, I'll be using a lot. Today a whole bunch of us Erasmus students went grocery shopping, and started to count waffle shops, after getting to 6 or so, we knew it was time to buy a waffle. They were freshly made, warm and slightly crispy, and ours had chocolate drizzled on top; it was delicious. It tastes exactly as it smells, a scent instantly recognizable and almost impossible to describe. The other kinds of waffles you could buy were either plain or with crème fraîche, which is kind of like heavy whipped cream.
I love living with a bunch of international students- everywhere from Ecuador and Chile to Tajikistan, Italy to England and Quebec. Then there's me, the sole American. It's fantastic! Everybody in my building is really good about trying to speak French, especially since we have three Quebecois girls here who already know French! I've been doing pretty well so far with my French, minus the cell phone salesman. I really only understood half of what he was saying, and then he found out I'm American (a fact I usually try to keep hidden abroad) and I felt like I was fulfilling the dumb American who can't speak another language stereotype. So here's to a semester of learning French! Classes start on Monday technically, but there's a planned national strike, so all we have is a French exam to asses our level.
PS. The chocolate is delicious- I happen to be eating some as I write!
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