If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium...

Jay and I have ARRIVED!

So after the MINOR hiccup of nearly forgetting my passport, the rest of our trip was quite smooth!  We celebrated on Saturday before we left with some dungeness crab that Jay had delivered to the Scubas (Scuba Steve and Nautical Nancy) for taking care of Ginger.  We all greatly appreciated it, if you've never tried this West Coast delicacy, I highly recommend it!

Our flight went really well and arriving was so easy we felt like the Brussels airport had rolled out the red carpet for us!  We got a taxi straight to the temporary living apartment and while we were waiting for it to be ready, we strolled around our new neighborhood.  We "happened upon" a very nice pasttry shop and of course had to try some!

We also were able to see the Brussels Marathon that just happened to be the day we arrived - I kept looking around for all of the partiers and drinkers and was disappointed but not surprised that Boston is the only city where the onlookers get a little tipsy to support the Marathoners. 

We then checked into our temp apt, pretty cool digs, even a little balcony with a sweet view

After a must needed few hours of sleep we took off to explore the city, we are walking distance from "The Center" of Brussels - so we walked through the Sablon neighborhood where we didn't waste any time to try a Belgian waffle, chocolate and beer (my new favorite Leffe Ruby, sweet and tasty!) - and then later by Grand Place we shared some mussels and frites!  It was definitely our day to act like tourists!  Complete with the picture of the Manneken Pis and a ridiculous storefront!

I started work in the Brussels office on Monday, which so far has been great! The office is a 15 min walk away which seems a little familiar and is much appreciated! Everyone at the office has been incredibly welcoming and friendly.  Its nice to see how a smaller office operates and its great to know that by the end of the transfer, I'll get to know everyone in the office!  I also have determined I'm going to learn French no matter what it takes!  Everyone in the office speaks English fluently and it is the official language but they also speak French and what I call "Frelish (French/Flemish) - kind of like the US's version of Spanglish to each other in casual conversation, French is used the most.  So that's my challenge, every day try to pick up some French and some day be able to understand what the teacher in my Taibo class at the gym was trying to yell at me today! (With all that belgian food, it was a MUST to join a gym asap!) French is such a beautiful language and I hope to learn some along the way!

Its bed time for me now, I'm still trying to get used to the time difference, but my body seems to have finally adjusted so....   BONSOIR!