I am sooo lucky!

I would like to start off this posting with just mentioning how hard it is to come up with a title for each posting. I want each one to be cute, witty, and unique, but I am finding that to be more and more difficult each time I do one of these, as of now this post is untitled.

So the party! It was a crazy, busy, stressful, frustrating, amusing, and enjoyable time. From what I could tell there were no real plans for the day of the party other then that there was a party. There were things that needed to be done but nothing that we were told in advance must get done. So the day of I worked on getting tablecloths and tables are set up for the party, and little last minute things here and there. The staff that were running the party seemed nice and pretty organized, they were three recent graduates from school, I think in the field of cooking, party arranging, and things like that. The party started on time and had a good crowd right from the start, but then the frustrating part happened. One of the servers running the party came up to me and my roommate and asked us to start serving drinks. I was confused, I had not been asked or warned that I would be doing this and I didn't really understand what he meant, it ended up being that he meant for us to walk around and as people if they wanted drinks other than the champagne that was at the door. I do not want to sound off as mean or anything here but I was pretty annoyed. I had not expected to be a server or etc during the party, but instead a guest, it just started the day off badly. The rest of the day was spent doing little party tasks, we still got to be part of the party, but people began to think I was the nanny or that we were the staff, instead of students living here. Now this does not mean we didn't have fun, because we did. The guests were very nice and I was able to converse without a problem with them, I even received some compliments for my french which made me smile :-) The last part of the party was a dance party, but by that time I was pretty tired and just wanted to relax so I came back to my room, skyped my parents to figure out plans for the skype family date on Sunday, and listened to the awesome music they had played at the dance.
Sunday rolled around and it felt like the house was hungover! The house was sooo quite and no one really moved until after noon, well Evelyne and Alice left pretty early for church, but everyone that I knew was there was all asleep and quite most of the day. Most of the day was spent reading for my class on Monday and slowly cleaning up, I helped when asked but I really didn't have the spare time to help to much. Later that night I skyped a bunch of family who were at my grandma's house for my uncle's birthday. It was really nice to see so many people and have a real conversation with them through the computer.
So the rest of the week, I have had class, they all have gone well except every time I wake up at 6:30 for class I ask myself why I did that haha, but it's good because I get up and out to the world early in the day! I went to my internship yesterday. It was pretty cool! I watched a debate of the European Parliament through their website and took notes for a person in the office and then worked on updating the website and ginormous contact list that I think I will continually be working on for the rest of the semester. I am done with classes for the week so tomorrow and Friday I have my internship :-) Tomorrow I am probably going to head over to the library to get some books for my presentation for my art class next week in Antwerp over the Jesuits and the Arts. This Saturday we are going to Bruge with the art class, I'm excited to slowly start my travels! Friday I think Eddie and I are going to go down to the Grand Place and sight see a bit and find a delicious waffle or two!

So I feel like I need to write a little more about this experience overall. I am really enjoying being here but it is such a different experience than my time in France last summer. I feel like last summer was truly the most carefree and relaxed I have ever been. Classes were not very important and the whole time was spent enjoying the most innocent of moments and traveling everywhere we wanted. This time is different. School is important takes time, nothing is wrong with that, it's just something I need to be prepared for, and luckily I really do like each of my classes. I'm not living with 40 other Americans, but instead I am living with a family! It is so cool to actually see what a "normal" Belgian life is, but it is something that has taken some adjustment time. In France it was so easy to see people and spend time together, now its harder. I really enjoy being around the family because even the most innocent nights are moments where I learn a lot and better my french. The social scene is different but just something that has also taken time to adjust. Travel wise it is taking a lot longer to plan things out. Financially I am in a different place so I have to stay very in control of my funds and patient this time around.

I really am enjoying Belgium. It has taken the last three weeks for me to realize these and many more little reasoning for my reactions lately, but now I think I have a handle of the situation. I am truly living my dream right now of working and living in on3 of the international politics capitals of the world and I cannot describe how thankful I am to be here. Brussels is an exciting city to be in, everywhere you go you interact with people from around the world!

I am having an amazing time and have been each day I have been here, I can't wait to see what is next to come on this amazing adventure!

Tchao!

In the end this post title wasn't hard to figure out :-)