My First Day!

My day started out on Tuesday, July 6th with my dad waking me up at 7:00 AM when he was leaving for work. I told him goodbye for the rest of the summer and started getting ready for a day FULL of flying. Brad's mom drove him and Jake to the San Antonio airport. They came by to pick up my mom and me around 8:30 AM. We loaded up my suitcases and headed down 410 to the airport. Kirstin was already waiting there when we arrived. Her suitcase weighed exactly 50.0 lbs! She was lucky. We checked in our bags with United airlines in preparation for our flight. Then, Brad's grandma Kathy (who works in San Antonio) showed up and surprised us. She wanted to help send us off on our trip. We went through security and then found our gate of departure. With around 2 hours to wait, Brad and Jake were craving some sweet tea. We each purchased a beverage and then boarded our first flight to Chicago O'Hare Airport. We left around 11:20 AM and arrived in Chicago around 2:00 PM.

The flight to Chicago was Brad's first time to ever fly in an airplane. Although all of our ears hurt and we were dizzy from the small plane, we survived our first flight. Brad did excellent too! When we got to Chicago, we hit the bathrooms and then found the huge board with all the flights to find out the gate that our flight to Brussels was leaving on. Luckily, it was in the same terminal and the same letter that our previous flight with United had arrived in. After we located the correct gate, we decided to find a place to sit down and eat lunch. We had to go from the C to the B area in Terminal 1. (There are 5 terminals at O'Hare). We went through a lighted tunnel full of moving conveyors which the boys had fun with. When we got to Chili's (considered Tex-Mex in Chicago, haha) we were surprised to find only 5 choices on the menu consisting of hamburgers and sandwiches. We order chips and salsa and watched the World Cup. We were able to see the Netherlands beat Uruguay 3-1. The people here in Belgium are huge fans of the Netherlands so we expect to see lots of excitement around the World Cup in Belgium.

When we finally trucked back to our gate, we found Katie there. Katie is my roommate, and we were excited to finally meet her. She is the only student from the University of Tennessee on the program. At 5:15 PM, we boarded our flight to Brussels, Belgium and after some runway delays, we left at 6:45 PM. It was an 8 hour flight!!! It was my first international flight as well. We flew on a Boening 767. It was a giant plane with nice TV screens on the back of every seat. Although we were not able to lay down in First Class, we enjoyed the extra features provided on this plane. There were seven seats in every row. We were served beverages throughout the flight, a frozen dinner, and a breakfast pastry shortly before landing in Brussels. Throughout the international flight, we were maintaining altitudes in the range of 33,000 to 35,000 feet. Additionally, we were typically travelling around 600 mph. It was a trip of over 4,000 miles. The most shocking thing was that as we travelled across the Atlantic Ocean at more than 10,000 meters altitude, the temperature dropped to nearly -60 degrees F. Luckily we were inside the plane. The 5 of us probably slept an average of 30 minutes each throughout the entire 8 hour flight.

We finally landed in Brussels at the sight of gorgeous landscapes and farmland. When we landed in Brussels, we had to go through the emigration lines where we were quizzed about why we were there and where we had come from. They stamped our passports and we headed to pick up our luggage. When we arrived at baggage claim, we saw Ann, Liz, and Derek who had just arrived via Canadian Airways. I ran to the pay phone and called my parents to let them know that I had made it safely to Europe. Then we got our bags, went through customs, and found Dr. Munster there waiting for us in the hallway. He took us down to the train station and passed out various items before we boarded the train to Leuven, the town where we are staying. The train ride was about 15 minutes. When arriving at the train station in Leuven, we had to haul our bags up and down a multitude of stair cases (not fun!) and then we hired 3 taxis to drive us to our dorm house. Dr. Munster followed on his bike. We paid the cab drivers 10 euros to drive us 10 minutes to our dorm. After we got our bags to our room, we had to leave right away to go pick up our rental bikes.

It was about a 20 minute walk to Vel0 (bike in French) to pick out our bikes for the 5 week stay. I chose a large purple women's bike. They each have a bell on them for safety reasons, and they have a small generator that rubs against the wheel at night to turn the light on. We had to put down a deposit of 60 euros for the bike. If we take the bike back with the lock in good condition in August then we get 50 euros back. Halfway back to the dorm, Katie's bike tire went flat. So, Dr. Munster went back to Velo with her to get a different bike. The rest of us (7 of us) travelled the remainder of the way back to the dorm house without getting lost. I then took the chance unpack my stuff, make my bed, and cool off. It was very hot here today. Although the humidity is low, it is still very warm and riding the bike was very hard.

I talked to my mom and dad on Skype as soon as I got my computer hooked up and connected to the internet. It was after 1:00 PM here but it was only 6:00 AM there. There is a 7 hour time difference. You see, when we were flying from Chicago to Brussels, we basically lost the 7 hours of sleeping time. So we went from it being 6:00 PM in Chicago when we departed to it being 9:20 AM on Wednesday, July 7th when we landed in Brussels (only 8 hours later).

This evening we are having a meeting at 5:00 PM out in the garden behind our student house with the housing faculty from the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven. We are in the international residents housing. There is no air conditioning in any of the buildings or dorm rooms but the windows open wide, and I have finally cooled off. Following our meeting at 5:00 PM, our entire group of 21 students are all going out to eat pizza. The department is paying for tonight's meal and only 2 other meals on the entire trip. The 13 other students on the trip (that were not in our group of 7) arrived in Brussels from Dallas/Atlanta about 20 minutes before the rest of us. So Dr. Engler and Dr. Munster split up and took us to complete the various move in tasks in two groups. So I have yet to spend much time with my friends that were in the first group from Dallas. I am looking forward to dinner tonight.

I am hungry and exhausted and have been wearing the same clothes for 2 whole days now (not exactly).... but yuck! Maybe we will even get to see Germany play in the World Cup tonight. We are planning on going to Osten on the coast of Belgium this weekend. I hope we make it there. I believe our first day of classes is on Friday, so we still have one full day of site seeing here in Leuven before school starts. The classroom is a 15 minute bike ride away from the dorm room, by the way. And as far as the electrical outlets are concerned, I brough a converter but already blew out the motor on the fan that I brought with me because the wattage or voltage was not compatible. So, I guess we will have to make due with just opening the windows. I hope it cools off at night when we go to sleep. I am going to try to take a nap now before the meeting in 3 hours. Wish me luck on my first evening here in Belgium! Stay tuned for more updates soon!