After an uneventful flight and cab ride, I finally arrived at the Hotel Infotel in Mons. Goal number one was to get on the Internet and let friends and family know that I had arrived safely. Unfortunately that proved a little difficult with the very poor Internet access in my hotel. After a little trial and error, I found that if I sit on the right side of the foot of the bed, I can get a decent connection. So as long as I don't move, I can stay on long enough to type an email.I have to admit, my first thought after arrival was "what I have gotten myself into?" The town isn't much to look at, almost no one speaks English, and I couldn't even get on the Internet to email friends and family. To top it off, the only English speaking TV stations are CNN news and BBC World, which seems to only show soccer...oops, I mean football. However, I finally took a walk around town and I'm feeling much better about things now. It may not look like much at first glance, but the town is busy with people and there are many shops, restaurants, and bars. I'm can't wait to start tasting the Belgian beer and cuisine. The only real problem is that I haven't found a single waffle stand! I'm in Belgium and I can't find a waffle anywhere!
I found a very nice little grocery store next to my hotel, so I stopped in and picked up some things to make a ham sandwich, Coke Zero, some delicious little chocolate crackers, and a bottle of wine...all for the low low price of 25 Euro, roughly $36. Ouch. I wanted to try some of the local cuisine, but since I paid so much for my ham and bread, I feel like I should finish that off first.
Tomorrow the relocation company will be picking me up at my hotel to show me several apartments in the area. Hopefully I can be in my permanent home by the end of the week. I'm also going to try to get a cell phone, which could prove very difficult unless I can find a English speaking clerk. I guess that's all part of the experience of living abroad though.
Overall, so far so good. It's pretty lonely right now until Elizabeth and Bailey join me, but I brought some movies to keep myself entertained. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some news on housing, and a phone number in case anyone wants to chat.
Posts
4 comments:
I'm glad you made it safe! That ham sangwich sounds good - but for $36 - yikes!
Let me know how that beer is! I can't wait to come out there and taste it - does that mean I will have to learn french? Cause I struggled enough with Spanish :-P
Miss ya buddy - take care, be safe and more importantly - HAVE FUN!
Hey Keith its mike yo bro, having nothing to do with belgium for the moment i was wondering if u'd like me to put virginia tech games online or even on the blog so that u can download them and view them. get bak at me cya
Mike W - hopefully by the time you come out I will know enough French to get us around town...and just so you know, the beer is awesome!
Mike S - I think Kevin has already arranged to TIVO the games and let me download them from his computer, but thanks for the offer!
No waffle stands! What did you get yourself into? Good to hear you got in safe. I'll be checking your page to see how things are going. Hope you find some waffles soon.
Post a Comment