The Good: Belgium is an absolutely beautiful country, and Brussels is its crown jewel. We walk to class everyday through the European Union Quarter and have class in the Residence Palace, a journalistic hub. I find class to be relatively easy because I have already covered most of the material---cross-cultural journalism and history of Europe and the EU. Gareth Harding is a great teacher, though he is not as Euro-centric as some people are. Originally a Brit, Gareth has lived in several places around Europe. He still holds a fair share of skepticism that most Brits have about the EU, kind of seeing it as the "French version of a unified Europe" since it was France who started the whole initiative.
The other great thing I love about Belgium is the abundance of food. And not just Belgian cuisine---I have seen numerous Middle Eastern, Moroccan, and Greek restaurants and shops. The Moroccans are thought to have the best chicken in Belgium. The smell of rotisserie chickens on a rotator outside of the shop is both intoxicating and alluring. I will be having one very soon! The chocolate is also unbelievable, and I haven't even had any of the truffles or candy bars yet! So far in the chocolate department, I have had a Belgian waffle with chocolate syrup (best.syrup.ever.) and a chocolate muffin from a bakery. There is no beating this sweetness. I'm fairly certain every nook and cranny in my luggage will be filled in with chocolate of some kind.
The Bad: Thankfully there is not a lot of bad. As everyone knows, the weather out here is atrocious. It rains off and on all day and night, and there's no predicting whether it will come down as a mist or blazing hail storm. I have already experienced both. The latter is thanks to another irritant out here---roadways could not be more impossible to follow. Signs are hidden in corners and only appear once. Dutch and French order are often switched, and sometimes signs only list it in one language.
The Crazy: I can never ever picture myself driving down Belgian roads. The road rules are not like anything else. Taxis are allowed to drive down tram railways, whether the railways are lifted off the ground from the main road by cobblestone or not. Cars can cut off other cars depending on the direction the cutters are going and whether or not they are on a main road. There are more street signs than one has the time to read while driving past. And all the while, Belgians drive like Italians---they cut each other off, stop in the middle of the road, come inches from hitting pedestrians, and drive as fast as possible.
Maybe this is not as crazy as it is funny, but one day the girls and I went down a street in what seemed to be the embassy area. While we didn't find the American embassy, we did find a car with A MASSACHUSETTS LICENSE PLATE! That meant that someone shipped their car over here to drive! Not only that, but it wasn't even an American model. Of course, there are very few American cars over here. I have seen only a few Ford cars and two Chrysler PT Cruiser. But supposedly Ford is very popular in Britain. I'll research that when I go there in a week's time.
I have enjoyed this country immensely so far.
Twich's Drink of the Day: Kriek
This is an interesting beer that I've been wanting to try since I first read about it in one of my travel books. It's a lambic beer with cherry juice. The cherry juice is gives a nice sweet taste, followed by the punch of taste that a beer always gives. Very low alcohol content--3.4%. Absolutely awful when warm.
Twich's Place of the Day: Arc de Triomphe and the surrounding park
Definitely a landmark of Brussels, just outside of the EU Quarter. The paintings within the outside columns are extraordinary. A must-do for any traveler. Soon we will go back and look at the attached museums.
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