photos
PHOTOS
keep hitting reload if some of the pictures don't show up

c'est bon?
well, we made it. i'm posting from a place called cyberdyn which is down the street from our house. the computer has what must be a euopean or french keyboard; half the letters are switched around... it's a mess. i hope vesalius has regular us-style keyboards.
the flight was alright. even the food wasn't too bad. yesterday was just spent unpacking and resting. today we had a little more energy; we decided to walk downtown. we saw parc leopold and the parc du bruxelles on the way. we went to some of the main touristy spots like the grand-place and the manneken-pis (a statue/fountain of a boy peeing). it has rained both days so far, but today we saw the sun for a bit... and some crazy hail.
the whole french thing is gradually sinking in. most of it is coming back to me as i hear it spoken. there have been a few awkward conversations with shopkeepers, but we will hopefully get better each day. the one daughter of our host parents said that within a few weeks i will be thinking in french. i hope so.
my host parents are very nice. mr. piette is retired and speaks english fairly well. he's been helpful in helping us find places and other small things. mrs. piette works at a beauty salon and only speaks a little english. we're trying our best to try to speak french at home, though. our host mom is a very good cook, which is nice. last night we had a big bowl of pasta and tonight we had steaks with a tomato/mushroom sauce and some fries. saturday night is her "night off", and sunday we have a 2pm meal. there are some practical house rules; nothing overbearing.
i have some good pictures that i'd like to put up, but i think i will wait until i get to a vesalius computer lab for that. these cybercafes seem to have really crazy restrictions on the computers.
well, this place is closing in a few minutes so we're going to head back home. goodnight.

First Entry
I leave on Wednesday, January 7th. It's a Continental Airlines flight and leaves at 7:00 pm from Newark Airport, non-stop to Brussels. It'll be 8:20 am (Brussels time) when we arrive.
I'll try to make an entry soon after I arrive.
My contact information is in my Profile.
If I get it to work, I'll be posting pictures on my angelfire or at&t sites.