Eye on Palin

I don't know if anyone actually reads my blog, but I thought I would post this in case someone does. Seems as though Discovery Communications may be giving Sarah Palin a new reality show about Alaska and the outdoors. There is a petition to stop the show as she has a great track record for destroying the wilderness rather than preserving it. Check it out if you feel so inclined:
http://action.defenders.org/eyeonpalin

One Month

In the last month so much has happened. My parents came for a long visit. We spent a week in Switzerland in the mountains visiting family, which was just amazing since Cat met up with us. And I can't even begin to tell you how great it was to be back in my mountains! The moment we got back to Brussels I moved into my new apartment. Yup that's right, I now have my own place! And it's soooo great.

I've officially been in my apartment for one week! My apartment is on the third and final floor of a maison d'maitre. The owners of the house (who are just the nicest!) occupy the downstairs floors and I have the last floor in the house. Just yesterday I received my compact Ikea furniture boxes so now my apartment is full of furniture waiting to be assembled. My apartment has a bedroom, full bath, little kitchen and a large living room. My windows overlook the city, garden and the nearby church. I don't need a clock in my living room because the church clock tower is within view so I use that. So cool, right?! It's so incredibly shabby chic I can't get over it! Once I start putting the furniture together and decorating a bit, I'll post some pics.

It's located in a great safe sought-after part of town: Etterbeek is the commune. Running I'm five minutes from the Etangs d'Ixelles and 15 minutes from Bois de La Cambre (forest) so I am now starting to run again in the woods, rather than just sidewalks. There is a huge grocery store two blocks away where I do all of my grocery shopping. Public transport is one block away. There's a little bar on the corner that I have yet to go to but it's always busy in the evenings! I'm close to a couple trendy areas too so there are lots of little bars and restos within walking distance. I'm really starting to settle and feel more at home with life in Brussels. Oh and did I mention that I'm within walking distance to the #1 and #2 frites stands in all of Brussels?! Life is good!

Only in Belgium

Always amusing and completely absurd snippets of Belgian news. It's like Belgium's version of the Onion, except everything is sadly true...enjoy.
http://thebulletin.typepad.com/onlyinbelgium/

Slacker!

Sorry for the lag time. I have been really adjusting to life in Brussels and I'm immensely loving it right now. I have a good group of friends and I've been introduced to some really cool areas in town. This is me and the girls at Ralph's, an expat bar in the EU area of town. Clearly we're not having any fun!

I just got back from 8 days in London. I was there for four days of conferences for work but then due to an extremely tragic train crash the rails were closed (and still are) so I had to wait a few days in London before heading back to Brussels. Oh yes, poor me! I just had to stay in London and hang out with Chloe and her friends. It was so awesome. I had never spent so much time in London and I had always been there to do touristy things, but to 'live' there for a week was amazing. I had such a different perspective on the city and now I really love London. We did some very fun things: saw Mama Mia (Chloe surprised me with a ticket), went to Richard Branson's old apartment which was turned into a restaurant and club (so fun - danced and drank the night away!), TopShop (need I say more!) and Whole Foods! I literally started crying when I walked in to Whole Foods. I had one of those 'I miss Boulder' pains. But then I ate my brown rice sushi and remembered that I was living in Europe!

Sunday Morning

Last night I went to a birthday/housewarming party of a new friend. I arrived with a couple of my girl friends and we had a blast. There was a whole different group of people there so I had fun getting to know another social circle. At midnight my friend and I left to head to a dance party in an old theatre downtown. Les Folies Bourgeoises was the name of the party and it was like nothing I have ever been to. We walked in and there were a couple thousand people all dressed up (and don't worry we were too!) and dancing to this really great DJ doing the euro-techno thing. I'm not a club kid, but I could get used to these kinds of parties! Everyone was dancing and just having a great time. I still don't have my euro dance moves down, but I'm working on it. There was a revolving dancefloor so we ended up dancing on the rotating platform above the crowd for most of the night. Seriously, it was one of my most fun nights so far in this town. I wish I had pictures from last night. We danced until the wee hours of the morning. Then I got up a few hours later to do a running race with my uncle. He did 20km, I did 10km - I'm not quite in 20km shape these days. We ran through the forest and to my surprise the course was rather hilly - who knew?! It felt so good to run outside on a challenging course! I needed it. I ran faster than I expected, which was surprising considering I had spent the entire evening on my feet dancing and talking to cute boys!

Crepe Day

February 2nd is some kind of religious holiday. I have no idea, but rituals stem from it like Groundhog Day and crepe making. In Belgium, you make crepes today to predict your luck for the rest of the year. You are supposed to hold the pan in your right hand, flick your wrist and do a flip with the crepe. If you can do a full flip of a crepe and catch it back in the pan then you will have good luck for the year. If you don't catch it, well, your year is doomed. I asked Granny if we were going to flip them (something I loved doing as a kid), but she said no it would be too messy. So instead I ate a couple crepes and wondered if it was going to be a good year or a bad year. 

Experience

Last week was rough for me. It started off with the stomach flu, followed by loads of work and not so sunny weather. I never really understood how much the weather influences your mood, but when you don't have 300 days of sunshine like in Boulder (it's more like 300 days of cloudy here), it gets a little, well, dark.
I went to an expat cocktail party on Thursday night. About 200 people showed up at this loft bar in Place du Chatelain - a cool little square with great shops, bars and restaurants. Everyone there was either a lawyer, a diplomat, a doctor, worked for the EU, Commission or Parliament. Made me wander a girl from Boulder was doing talking to all of the super highly educated people. That's what I'm learning. No one moves to Brussels on their own. Expats always move for a job and usually that job is of high ranking and high compensation, because as so many people have said, "Why would anyone move to Brussels on their own free will?" Normally they have no idea that I am one of the minority who has done just that so I smile and politely say, "For the life experience."