My Arrival

Upon arriving, I waited in line for about 30 minutes at Belgium Customs. When I got the front, I was asked one question. That is, "Where are you staying?". Really, I waited that long with my luggage floating around beyond my reach for you to ask me that?!? They didn't even check my bags to see if I was a crack addict or anything. I mean, I know I'm not but they don't know that.

Anyways, the train station was a big issue. Not only was it really hard to get the right ticket, but they don't say which train you board on the ticket. Instead it gives you a time and you go look at a board or the projector to see what to do. It's not very self explanatory at first, but eventually you figure out what to do. In my case, I had a nice older Flemish man help me. He spoke English very well because he lived in the States for a short time. Anyways, what nobody tells you is that you not only have to be able to roll your suitcases for a few blocks you have to be able to lift them. Well me with my heavy checked bag, carry-on, and tote did not know that. So, when the train arrived I realized there was a good foot and half between the boarding station and the train. Then there were stairs going up so it's not like you could kinda toss your luggage. The nice Belgian army gentlemen helped me with this and with me and my luggage safely into the next train as well. Rule of thumb here: Never pack more than you can physically pick up.

Next Anne (another study abroad student) and I went to the grocery store. English is her second language and French is her primary. Thus, shopping at a Dutch store proved to be especially difficult. No one knew what a hair dryer was and they don't have any orange cheeses aside from Cheddar. For some reason these people love Muenster cheese because they had a whole half and isle dedicated to it. Also their water bottles are huge! Think of the size of our smart water, then times it by two. Everything is especially deceiving because you feel like you are spending less than you really are. My bill for the grocery store was 27 euros. Not bad right? Well when you convert it, that's about $40.00. Youch, if you considered what all I got!

My room is also not bad! It is definitely old, but so is everything else here. For being so old, it is definitely well maintained. Filthy, but maintained. I have cleaned my room twice already. I also use the shower here. Although, after looking at floor outside the shower I am reconsidering. I think a sponge bath from the deep sink in my room would be more sanitary! We definitely have different standards.

In fact, it's funny because here there is no R.A. Strangely enough, someone left a chair in my room from the year before and the door to our community kitchen room was propped open with a wooden crate of empty glass beer bottles. I'm posting some pictures of my dorm room below if you want to check it out:

This is my dorm! I have it to myself.

This is the view of campus from my room.

Community Lounge and Outdoor Smoking Area

Community Kitchen (They also give us cooking supplies)

The Kitchen and our Personal Storage Lockers for Food!

As you can see, a lot of the buildings are old. In fact, almost every building here is old on the outside. On the inside however, many have been refinished. For example, the pictures below are all in our Student Building. The last one is also located there. However, it's one of the few on-campus restaurants/cafe's we have.

On a separate note, I also walked through the town today. It is very cute! The buildings are so old. Some are even from the late 1300's. They have all been refinished on the inside and now serve as shops and businesses. I'll post better pictures of these later but here's what I got today:

This is the Hasselt City Hall!

Some of the town's "newer" shops.