Here's another little update since it's been a couple of weeks!!
My friend, Johanna, came to visit last weekend! We're both in APO (Jo's actually my big) back home at High Point, and she's studying abroad in Morocco this semester. While on spring break, she went to Paris and then came to Brussels for a couple of nights. I showed her all the hot spots of the city, took her out for a drink, and ate lots of good food. It was so much fun catching up with her, and hearing how her semester in Morocco is going so far!!
Also, last weekend some of the exchange students and I met up for pancakes for dinner and a game night. There was 9 of us - Marion (Norway), Arina and Sasha (Russia), Laura and a friend from home (Finland), Vlad, Alina, Andreia (Moldova), and myself (USA). It was super fun talking with some of the exchange students that I haven't really talked with before!! We had some good conversations comparing the education system in our countries, discussing pancakes and toppings used in our country, and everything in between. Game night was also fun with charades and singing and general knowledge being guessed at.
I feel like I've finally gotten into a routine since getting here. I'm so excited about that (so lame, but whatever). I've started (to sorta kinda) consistently working out (finallyyyyy) either in my bedroom because of the rain (it's been cold and rainy for like 2 weeks straight lol) or going for a run if it's semi-nice out for more than 2 minutes. I've kinda figured out my meals - making breakfast, packing a lunch, and figuring out dinner with either cooking it (still am eating lots of sandwiches for dinner but maybe one day I'll figure out how to consistently cook dinner) and occasionally eating out. I've also kinda figured out just random stuff like when stores close and have gotten a bit better with the tram/metro system and all that. I'm settling in quite nicely in Brussels!
This past Friday, the exchange students organized a potluck dinner. Everyone was to bring a dish from their country. My roommate and I brought mac n cheese...that was a bit undercooked and burnt. Oops. But everyone else's food was SO GOOD! We had about 30 people representing 17 countries: USA, Germany, Denmark, France, Norway, Russia, Moldova, Finland, Peru, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Turkey, Morocco, and Sri Lanka. Shoutout to the Peru girls for hosting!! After everyone ate, we shared popular songs from our countries and danced and taught each other some dances and drinking games. The whole night was so fun and the food was good and the company was great. This was probably one of my favorite nights since being here!
This past Saturday Marion, Amalie, and I volunteered with Serve the City. Serve the City is an organization that does volunteer work all around Brussels - they work with refugees, the homeless, kids, and the elderly. They split us up in groups, and the 3 of us were paired up together, along with 4 other people, to work at an elderly home run by nuns. So...that was interesting. Once we got there, we were put in pairs to do some work around the elderly home before meeting up at 3:15pm for coffee and tea and socializing with the elderly. Amalie, Marion, and I were assigned to clean a dead lady's apartment. So we scrubbed the kitchen cabinets and fridge, bathroom, closet, and floor clean. Then, we went downstairs and socialized with the people. It was a bit of an odd experience because no one spoke English, but they still seemed pretty excited that we were there. Steve (another volunteer), Amalie, and played dominos and bingo with 2 old ladies. Steve is fluent in French, so he was able to call out the numbers for bingo, while Amalie and I got to practice translating the numbers from French. One of the old ladies was super quiet and never spoke, but the other one was pretty talkative and shared the same story at least 5 times about marrying a gymnastics teacher and that's why she's still so fit. Also was found that she's 99 years old and was born in 1920, which was pretty cool!!
On Sunday, I went to the Mima museum with Marion. It wasn't as big or exciting as I had expected, but some of the exhibits were pretty cool to check out!!
Last night, I went out with some friends. It's actually been a little while since I've gone out, so it was so good having a fun night out! I got some drinks during happy hour, talked about healthcare in America vs. France and boys and home and everything in between, sang along to some songs, and played (and lost) in foosball. It was such a good night!!
On one of our many rainy days this past week, I planned out trips up through the end of May. I'm still trying to figure out when I'll be heading home, but if you're wanting to visit me in Brussels (or meet up somewhere else in Europe), please feel free to reach out to me so I can make sure I'll be around!! But with that said, I have plenty of exciting trips coming up. It's been so nice relaxing and getting into a routine these past 3 weeks of not traveling, but I'm excited to get back into it and explore some new places!
Spring break is in 3 weeks, and I'm so excited for it! I've got a few countries I'm going to, PLUS my family is coming to visit for a week!! I'm so excited to see them soon!!
