Flight & Day 1 in Belgium

Hello my faithful readers:

I write this from my lovely guesthouse room in Leuven, Belgium. I made it here without too much trouble. I departed JFK airport. My flight was delayed for a couple of hours, but it actually made things easier for me on the back end. I watched Star Trek on the tv screen in the seatback in front of me while waiting so it was a pleasant delay although I was hungry (starving). I didn't sleep nearly as much as I would have liked, but by the time we landed in Brussels it didn't matter so much.

The airport in Brussels was a very easy experience - I breezed through the passport control area (no issues here) and then headed to baggage claim. All of my luggage arrived intact and I was quite relieved (our flight was delayed was because of a HUGE baggage system outtage at JFK). I also was relieved because during check-in the nice woman behind the counter didn't charge me the normal fee of $150 to check my 3rd bag. Instead she checked the bag as a carry-on, but told me if it got lost then the airline wasn't responsible. After loading my luggage onto the FREE baggage cart (take that JFK), I rolled through customs (they didn't stop me at all) and down to the train station. I bought my ticket and was thankful to see that a train was leaving for Leuven in 4 minutes. Thankfully I made the train and the trip to Leuven was very quick. I made it there in roughly 20 minutes.

At the Leuven train station I pulled all of my luggage together as best I could. This was probably the roughest part of the luggage experience because they had no baggage carts on the platform at Leuven and no one offered to help. There weren't all that many people on the platform at Leuven. Once I finally got the luggage straight - I wheeled everything over to the front of the station where there was a row of taxi's waiting. I got in the 1st taxi waiting and he was willing to make two stops which I needed so that I could pick up my keys from the Resident Office at Student Housing. I'm staying in one of the guesthouses offered by the University here and it's a good value for the money. I have my own bathroom and a private room for 25 euros per night. The room is clean and the building is relatively modern looking.

I decided to take a bit of a nap and then shower before getting out and walking around a little bit. Around 14:00 I walked out of my building and headed over to the school because I felt I needed to see the location before searching for places to live. Leuven is a small city, but if I lived too far away I'd need to rent a bike to get around. I still might need to in order to get around anyway, but I'd prefer to live within easy walking distance to our building. The school is in a relatively central part of town so my hope is that I'll find a nice studio not too far away. After seeing the school I was quite surprised to realize that it's really only one building and not too large. Our other building in Gent seemed much larger and more like a college campus.

After viewing the Vlerick Leuven Building, I walked over to the housing office and checked in with them. The Housing Services counseler gave me some advice. One thing I didn't quite fully realize before my arrival here is that most rental contracts don't start until September 1st or September 15th. School begins for me on September 1st so ideally I would like to get situated before then. She mentioned that they have some listings called Summer rentals that I should check out. After speaking to her I went to the computer room that the Housing Office has available. I was able to set up a few viewings yesterday and one guy had 3 spaces that I saw. I liked one of them and I'm considering taking it although it wouldn't be available until September 1st. The price was right and it was located right off Grote Markt which is one of the busier areas in the central part of town. Grote Markt has lots of restaurants and shops.

The one thing that remains on my to-do list is to find a place that sells converter plugs. I finally found a place that sold a Mac travel kit with lots of adapters in it so that I could power up my macbook, but I still need a converter for my blackberry and camera chargers. The one thing that I have to get used to is the lack of convenience that I've become accustomed to by living in NYC. The big stores that sell everything aren't easily found here in Leuven. Most of the little shops and stores here close by 17:00 or 18:00 (even the large grocery stores).

Tonight I am headed out for drinks with some of my new classmates. I have to say that Facebook has been great in making this huge world a lot smaller for me. We connected via our group on Facebook and it's been a huge resource in keeping me sane throughout my move. I can't wait to get back to you with more updates about my adventures here in Leuven.

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach