Brussels Orientation Day 1

This morning I woke up with 20 minutes to get ready and I rushed out without having anything to eat or drink. I was the last one out of the four Luxembourg Fulbrighters to arrive at the meeting point because of my train arriving late, but we got to our train just in time!

Julia, another ETA, was kind enough to grab me

a coffee too and I couldn't have been more grateful. I was also able to grab a paper to read on the train and did all of the puzzles as well. I only finished one because I kept messing up. One day I'll finally complete the Wordoku successfully.

We arrived at the train station and headed over to our hotel. By this point, it was around 1 pm and I was absolutely starving. The walk from the station to our hotel was beautiful and I couldn't help myself with taking pictures on my phone. I was a bit afraid to get my camera out because the other three were on the move and I also didn't want to let go of my suitcase in such a populated area. Here are the quick pics I managed to get!

After settling in the gorgeous hotel, I unpacked my stuff, and then three of us headed out to get a waffle, which was very exciting.

We found a small van that was kind of like a food truck that sold waffles and ice cream, so we decided to stop. I got Nutella on mine and a canned Lipton peach tea. These both really hit the spot.

Afterward, we headed to the Fulbright office at the Royal Library to meet everyone else. I was really excited to meet other people! I was also shocked that the people sitting down already were Fulbrighters too because they all looked much older than us. I ended up sitting next to someone who goes to graduate school at Northwestern and reminds me a lot of my friend Hannah, from Temple. Funnily enough, her name is Anna! The orientation kicked off with introductions, then we heard from people who worked at the U.S. Embassies for Brussels, the EU, and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Then, we had some time to mingle. I talked to a lot of different people and was getting a little bit socially drained.

The intern, Narmin, and I had a really cool conversation though! She is working in curriculum design, so it was amazing to get to learn about her experience in Vietnam and in Brussels. After this time, we had trivia, which I was quite excited about. There was even a question that was targeted towards me because it was about Edward Steichen! I was very relieved that I did in fact know the answer. My team actually came out on top in the end too, which I felt I contributed a lot to. There were surprisingly lots of Luxembourg questions, so I could pull from the walking tour and U.S. Embassy visits too.

Finally, we headed to the Wolf food market, which was absolutely gorgeous.

We got there before the stalls opened though, so we had to wait for some time. I got to know so many more people through the Fulbrighter bingo, which was pretty fun. Everyone is so cool!

The bathrooms for both genders said "self-identified," which was pretty cool, but you could literally walk right into the men's half because the stalls were split and then you could just see the urinals head-on. I also happened to go into the one stall that had no toilet paper, and no one answered me when I asked if someone could pass some along :')

Anyway, I got Ethiopian food, which I was quite happy about because most of the other options were Asian food or Italian. It was not the best Ethiopian food I've ever had, but it was very filling and I was happy with it. I really want to try more classic dishes, but they're quite difficult to find. I assume they aren't "trendy."

I loved chatting with everyone and we had a lot of very fun and interesting conversations together. I really wish we could spend more time with everyone all together. Our itinerary is pretty tight and I'm sad we won't have more free time to hang out with other people or see sights, but I'm already planning on where I should go whenever I have the time to return.

The walk home was also so pretty and the general vibe of the city differed a lot from the daytime.

My night almost ended very badly because my hotel room door was mysteriously open just a crack, but thankfully, nothing was stolen. I am so incredibly lucky this time. The concierge wasn't very helpful though when I told him that it was open and asked whether there was any cleaning service. I suppose it's very European to tell me that there wasn't without showing any sympathy. When I tried closing the door again, I noticed that the door lock that you're supposed to turn was sticking out, which was preventing me from closing the door. Now, coming from Philly and Chicago, I ALWAYS check my doors before leaving. I have been doing this every day leaving my dorm too, so I'm pretty sure I would have noticed it wasn't closed. Julia helped me check all around for cameras as well as fiddling with the door to see what could have happened, and then the lock went back in. When we tried to get it to come out again, it wouldn't. I told the front desk about this since I was quite worried and felt unsafe, but he simply said all the lock latches were loose and I didn't feel like going back and forth. Julia came to my rescue again by offering to let me stay in her room, which I eventually accepted. Better safe than sorry!