Belgium's National Day!

Well, it's been almost two weeks now, and we're finally starting to settle in! Jason's doing great with his new projects at work and I've been busy trying to "set up" house and explore the city! It's also come to my attention that a trip to the grocery store will probably be a part of my daily routine, as everything comes in such small portions, and it all has to be carried back to the apartment! But again, the grocery store excursions have provided me with enough material to be a plentiful blog post of their own. (coming soon)

Last week was rather wonderful since it turned out Jason only had a 3-day work week because of Belgium's National Holiday. (Like our 4th of July, basically) On Wednesday night, one of his co-workers, Geoffroy, took us on a tour of some of Brussels' nightly hot spots, which was great fun while also being super educational, ha! It was also even more proof that heels are just not an option here. I see women wearing them, but they’re usually low, huge chunky heels (cowboy boot-esque), and I own nothing like that. But the fashions here are also something that could get a post all to itself. (potentially coming soon when we have a lull in our adventures)

SO! Onward to the actual point of this post! Thursday the 21^st was Belgium’s National Day where the Royal family gets paraded around, thousands gather in front of the royal palace, and strange activities happen all day all around the city!

The Belgian Royal Palace in Brussels

Ummm, a baby on a tank? 

The theme of the day was “I think we missed it.” We didn’t really know the parade route, so by the time we got to the Palace, it was over! (but we did get to see most of it on TV, which was probably a lot better view than if we were anywhere around the palace!) So then we took a spin through the royal park which transformed into a big festival full of music, food, and... *cue the strange activities*

Yea, it was pretty weird, but so fun to see! After walking through the festival, we decided to keep exploring that part of the city, and we found the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula.

And it was even more gorgeous on the inside…

One of the coolest parts of the church was the “floating” organ. Even better, there was a special concert being presented for National Day, and visitors could just come and go as they pleased and listen to this amazing organ concert. Needless to say, Jason was in heaven. *no church pun intended… ok maybe a little* And we found out that since it’s such a renowned organ, they have concerts all through the summer/fall featuring different artists. I can only guess we’ll be back for more…

Later in the evening we started to hear fireworks, so we ran out of our flat to go see where they were, but it must have been the shortest firework show in history, because by the time we got to the palace-area (about a ten minute walk) they were over!! So, yup, we missed it! Again! But on the way back we were able to catch the annual Town Hall Light show which had music that coordinated with all of the lights in the hall. (Catch the video here!)

Overall it was amazing to get to see, experience, understand, and observe how another country and it's people show love for their culture and country! Mostly it was fun to see how some things don't change no matter which country you're in. Nothing says celebrating your country like a hotdog, beer, and fireworks :)

Tomorrow I'll be posting about our day trip to Ghent, so stay-tuned!!

Love,

The Newlyweds

So I guess that means we're Expats...

The first new word I learned upon our arrival to this beautiful, French-speaking country was not French at all, but rather our new classification for the next 5 months. The word? "Expats." The wonderful wikipedia definition would be: "An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence" And I would have to say that sounds pretty accurate! So that's us! The Expats! Apparently Brussels (and Europe in general) is full of them!


We arrived in Brussels, Belgium on Friday July 15th around 9am after an 8- hour flight that was not as bad as I thought it was going to be at all! We were picked up by Jason's new supervisor, Vlad, and taken straight to his new office to meet everyone he'll be working with for the next 5  months... which is exactly what we wanted to do after being on a plane for 8 hours... hmm. But all of his coworkers are wonderful and Jason's really excited about everything work-related!


On that note, I think it's time for some pictures!! Now, we've almost been here a week, and I've gone kind of camera crazy... so I think we'll start off easy with some of the basics!

First things first, our new HOME!

My first impression of the city? I imagine it's what living in downtown New York City would feel like... only MUCH cleaner, colder, and slightly less populated (only slightly... this place is pretty packed with people!) But the climate is very...Forks-like. (Or Seattle-like for those of you unfamiliar with the Twilight series, ha) The first day we got here it was hot and sunny but I remember Vlad saying that this was very "abnormal." So we probably shouldn't be too surprised that it's been raining every day since! Just have to be sure not to forget the umbrella on the way out!!

Another fun picture: It's kind of hilarious because we live above this ridiculous party store:

And this is our elevator... (or "Lift," I suppose)

Not to be confused with a closet...

Yea, it's a little small... it's a pretty tight squeeze just to have us both in there, so you can imagine how fun it was to get our 5 pieces of luggage to the top floor!

Aaaaaand *drumroll please* here's our apartment! (excuse me.. "flat")

It's very modern and super clean, so we're pretty happy with it!

Really love the kitchen! See that cabinet on the far right? Yea, that's a FRIDGE! A little smaller than in America, but we're getting used to it, especially since grocery shopping is so interesting here, but that's an entirely different blog post!

Alright, well, in case you didn't notice, I'm kind of new to this whole "blogging" thing, but I'm hoping it's something that'll help all of our friends and family back home keep up with all of our adventures! Aaaand it's nice to have something keep me busy while Jason's at work! We'll be posting a lot more pictures on facebook than on here, but this will mostly be for our stories and observations. So keep checking both! 

These are The Newlywed Notes! Hope you enjoy them!

Love from Belgique! <3

The Newlyweds