Life in Brussels.: New Is Hard, But New Is Good.

I don't know where to begin. It's been less than 48 hours since my last post and so much to say. First I forgot to include one story of note from Saturday afternoon. After our bust of a bus tour, Adair, Shannon and I went to Place Jourdan to grab a quick lunch. Adair and I decided to get a slice of pizza from Mama Roma. We were set on getting your average pepperoni pizza when I noticed they had pineapple pizza, my favorite. So we both pointed to the pizza with chunks of yellow pineapple and a little bit of pink ham, or so we thought. Two bites in we realized this was not Hawaiian pizza (why I thought they would be serving it in Belgium still puzzles me). Nope, we had just purchased potato and fish pizza. Not a good choice. The crust was good, I'll leave it at that.
Luckily our post test eating experience was much better. We ventured to Place Flagey and ate at a cheap little Egyptian restaurant (there seems to be a lot of ethnic food in the area, particularly Middle Eastern influence). I had a delicious falafel and our group shared many laughs as I perfected a few French phrases, most notably "L'addition s'il vous plait" (not to be confused with "L'addition por favor" - oops). Oh how I wish I spoke French - how nice it would be to read menus and be able to communicate with people in their native tongue instead of making them speak English with me. Language differences are a bummer.
Still the language barrier didn't stop us from enjoying Brussels. Saturday night we headed down to Delirium, a famous Belgian bar near the Grand Place, for "eurostration night" our own version of registration night. It was a cool scene but super crowded.

Sunday morning Adair, Sara Beth, Theresa, and I met Dr. Nelsen and walked with him to St. Andrew's Church, a Scottish Presbyterian church. It was a pretty stone church with stain-glass windows, vaulted ceiling, and tiny, straight-backed pews. After the service we had coffee downstairs (possibly the highlight of my day since they were serving it in American sized coffee mugs) and got to meet the pastor, his wife, and a VeCo alum! Everyone was so kind and it made me wish I was going to be in Brussels for more Sundays, but travel calls. On the way home Adair and I picked up some fruits, vegetables, and bread from the market set up in Place Flagey. Felt so euro to be shopping at our local market - one guy gave me green beans "gratis" - woohoo FREE STUFF. You know I love it.
That afternoon a big group toured the Palais Royal. There wasn't much info provided, so it was a short self guided tour, but it was beautiful. Can I please have my wedding reception in the throne room? So many beautiful chandeliers, couldn't even handle it. Also there was a weird science exhibit set up in some of the rooms and a Jan Fabre exhibit where the ceiling and one of the chandeliers were covered in the cases of Thai jewel beetles - kinda creepy, looked like it should be a room in Elphaba's palace.
We returned to Rue Gray 105 for a very overwhelming time of travel planning (it's hard to plan with a big group), which led to my first touch of homesickness. Thankfully I am so blessed by family and dear friends who cheered me up.
I've learned that life here can be hard. It's hard not speaking the language, it's hard living in such close quarters. It's hard having a time difference from friends and family. But this place is incredible - it's new, intimidating, a bit rainy, but mostly it's wonderful, and for now it's my home.
Above all, I am certain that this is where the Lord wants me to be.