Initial Reactions
Better Late than Never
12.05.2011 - 13.05.2011
Flying out
Delta's Boeing 767 was being compacted and piled with luggage, people and the French who all were headed towards Brussels. An American man, no more than 25-years-old, was going around and asking people for their passports even though we had already boarded the flight. After heckling the man with quotes such as "is there a problem-a" (with her annoying accent), she finally showed the American her passport just before rolling her eyes at him. My first few experiences of the French-American interactions would have a very prevalent influence on my views of them the duration of the trip.
Six hours of sleep later and 1 movie later, we landed in Brussels, Belgium. After patiently waiting over an hour to get through customs, we saw our professor who immediately pointed us off to the nearest airport pub to join our fellow students already several brews deep. My first legal purchase of alcohol certainly was a tad bit lackluster in comparison to the efforts of buying a beer in an American bar, yet there is not enough time to divulge into that. The first beer with the group began the melting pot that would continue for the next six weeks.
As if 10+ hours of travel wasn't enough, we were now boarding a bus for a 3 hour ride that in America, would probably only take an hour and a half. The whips and turns that is European roads is highly inefficient yet, a mainstay of a continent built long before our own. Highways looked different, all the cars were diesel, and I simply could not read ANYTHING. We reached the château where we would be taking class for the next three weeks and then slowly began to get picked up. 
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Host families are known to vary, some get good food, others get minimal food, some live far, others close, some speak English, some couldn't decipher an English word. I began to people watch some of the host families pick up my classmates. Most notably, Emily got picked up by two larger individuals, however, they were on time, but very clearly did not speak English. Lexi and Bree, two other girls in our group got picked up by a host mom who also had a son around 25 years old. He could not have been more happy to see who his host sisters would be. Time continued to pass and still no host for Curtis, John and myself. Curtis had heard rumors that our host, named Oliver, did not have a license, nor cooked us any food, nor really gave a sh*t. After being over an hour late, Oliver, weighing around 220lb, began walking up to the château with no car. All the rumors were true. Fortunately, our walk was under five minutes away, 2nd best location only behind Emily's whom we passed on our way back to the house. (5 houses away)
The houses were different, not really houses but more condos that were 3 stories tall, all stuck together at the walls like a sandwich with some peanut butter in the middle. Just before setting our for exploration of Differdange, Oliver showed the three of us to our rooms. The beds were half as thick as any American bed and only 2/3 the size. There was also no television in the house. It didn't matter in my case, as I would only be there for 3 weeks, just something I noticed.
Our first few hours of Differdange was filled with kebabs, gelato, and more beer. Oliver brought us to the infamous Das Boot where Miami exchange students frequented the most. Oliver led the pace that would be the first of many interesting nights in Europe.
Posted by nate_miamiohio 24.05.2011 00:57 Archived in Belgium Comments (0)
