I am writing you from Mechelen, Belgium... which is just outside of Brussels. I am staying with a Belgian family that my parents have known for years from graduate school. There house has 5 stories! yeah, and I'm pretty sure it's older than our country... they are also fluent in Dutch, French, German and English... I feel so unworldly being here... so un...linguistic. But my stay here thus far has been incredibe. They have 3 children close to my age. Everyone has been so very hospitible and kind.
Getting here yesterday is was quite the experience... Scary might be the only word that seems to come to mind when thinking of how I felt while preparing, traveling and figuring out what i need to do. So, what I had to do was hop on the Eurostar and travel under the English channel to Brussels... Easy Right? Nope. Not for Nick here. Not easy at all. Well if you're expecting a dramatic and sweeping adventure tale of me being abducted by Morocan emigrants who had mistaken me for a ritualistic war god... then YOU are mistaken... because that did not happen... and to assume that moroccans worship pagan gods is just utter ignorance!!
So, what happened was purely internal. It was simply me being a naive an unprepared American kid who knows maybe 15 french words... OK, so for starters, the family i sat next to on the train was french. They spoke the entire trip to eachother in french and occassionally asked me questions... forgetting that i knew nothing... so i would painfully reply things like "non non, merci..." and other, basic basic phrases. this continued for the trip's entirety of course. next, was the brussels train station.... i was thrust into a world of unknown languages and customs opposite my own. very scary. even though nothing happened... just being there and being alone and so uninformed was terrifying. i had to find someone who spoke english, ask them what to do... then try and figure out what they were trying to say. very nutso man. very. but i figured it out... it went well. i met a slightly drunk, slighty unintelligent, much-more-than-slightly friendly man on the train named Johan. He told me 4 times in broken English that Belgian beer is indeed zee bestest in zee world. so i made a friend... Whoopie. then i arrived in Mechelen!!! Which happens to be the most stereotypically beautiful little cobble-stoned european town ive seen since oxford, england. That night, the Michiels took a French friend of theirs, their two beautiful daughters and me to an amazing little restaurant in walking distance from their house... it was fantastic. I had a shrimp scampi starter followed by a Scandinavian flat fish called Sole. which was also very very good. I also enjoyed a fantastic Belgian beer called... ahhh .... can't remember, but it was delicious and very very alcoholic! so i had a good time. it was very scary only because it was so new to me. but im better now... thanks.
Then, today was my first day in Belgium. I was woken up in Dutch over the intercom system that they have installed in their "disney's version of 'the secret garden' type" house. in another words... a very terrific way to greet the day. After a Belgian breakfast NOT consisting of waffles - those are eaten as a dessert ... but cereal and tea, which was held outside by the way. they eat almost every meal of the year outside, regardless of climate. just kidding. but it was ouside. But today they tok me into Brussels to see the city, some various sites, cafés etc... it is very very old. the streets are very close together on the side streets, but the squares are very vast and grand. The buildings are very very old and have a very black pétina, or aged look. its nice. they also took me to see the atomaniun, which is Belgium's "Eifel Tower". If you don't know what it is, i have pictures posted below. its 102 meters high and is shaped like an iron molecule that has been multiplied 150 Billion times. we got to go inside and see how it was built, look through the windows at the city and eat chocolate if we liked. very fun. very good company too. It was Lieve (the mother) and her two daughters Stéphanie and Astrid, both 18. We had a very good time.
They then prepared a traditional Belgian meal of Steak-Frites and we watched 'V for Vendetta' in English with Dutch subtitles of course. I am now here typing and getting ready to post some pictures. Have a fantastic night/day everybody.
