End of the First Full Week

Tuesday: Free day, wandered around the Grand Place; toured the Royal Palace (only open until the 10th), saw a ceiling that at first looked like green velvet but was really 1.4 million jewel beetles...a lot of dead bugs but very pretty. Had a scoop of mango ice cream, probably was gelato, but it was amazing. :) And started the chocolate collection for the semester. :D
Wednesday: Bus tour of Brussels and the Royal Museum of Central Africa. The tour was great, actually saw trees and grass which I don't usually with living in the city. The museum was...interesting. All the animals were taxidermied so they were...dead. I'm used to models or was blissfully unaware of the state of the animals I was looking at. At any rate, I saw more dead butterflies and animals than I was prepared for. And turtles in jars...poor Great A'Tuin relatives.
Thursday: First day of classes! Safety talk by a police officer first thing, basically a lecture on how to avoid pickpockets. Like any of us would really walk down the street with their wallet hanging out of their pocket or purse...whatever. Then a class on the structure of Belgium's government and a guest speaker explaining the history of Belgium to 1555. My French test was awesome, she asked for those with no experience with French to raise their hands, there were 7 or so of us, and we put our names on a paper and then were done.
Friday: Went to register in the town hall of the commune (Brussels is split into 19 communes, or small communities) mine being downtown as I'm in the commune of Bruxelles, or the heart of Brussels. They seemed to be confused so I'm glad that my host father was there because he could explain things. Sara and I now have to go to the police so they can confirm I live where I say I live. Just finished a class on the origins of the EU and we finish up Belgian history this afternoon.

Everyone is planning or beginning to plan weekend trips. My problem is that I don't care about drinking, nor do I want to find ways to do such things. I'm a history person, I want to go to the tourist spots, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and museums, like the Louve. And I don't want to go to the British Isles because I'm saving those for the spring. And I've done Venice, though I suppose going back would be okay because it was pretty cool. Rome would be cool too. I've a feeling I may be traveling on my own a bit, which is okay with me because, if I do say so myself, I am excellent company. :) But don't worry Mum, I'll find people to go with so I'm in a group and thus safer. We shall see.