Bye, Bye, Belgium... Part I

Sometime back in fall 2008 we began to seriously think about spending several months in Belgium. It was time for a sabbatical and step one is creating a plan the college will sign off on. I knew that part of what I wanted to do was to go back to school and refresh my coursework, but the question was where?

ULB

I started looking for a school. I looked in California, in Canada and thought about pushing the envelope - so I started looking at schools in countries where I spoke the language: Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium.  That's how I found the ULB (L’Université Libre de Bruxelles). ULB was perfect. A nice mix of students from around the world (okay around Europe, but still) and what a bonanza! Some of their courses were in English! It was the place for me. We settled on Brussels for the application. All we needed was permission. That was a little more complicated. My first application was rejected; a year later I could try again.

For more than two years we lived with the idea of going to Brussels before it became reality. For two years we followed the city and the country from afar without really knowing that much about it. Then we got here, and now in what seems like the blink of an eye, we are leaving. We will miss this place. It has been a great ‘pied a terre’

From the first day there have been wonderful surprises. We got off the train from Germany and headed for the metro where they would not take our money to ride the train. “It's free today”  What a great country! It turns out we had arrived on ‘No Car Day’ in Brussels and the streets were filled with pedestrians and cyclists. A huge party and a great start.

MOOF - Museum of Original Figurines

They have not had a party for us, everyday - but there have been adventures around almost every corner. It is a great thing to spend a long - but short time, in a new place. You have enough time to do lots of things, but he still grab all the opportunities that present because you know they will not be there next year at this time.

Almost every Thursday night MC and I have visited one (sometimes two) of the dozens of museums in Brussels. They have a program ‘Les Nocturnes’ that sees a rotating collection of museums that stay open late on Thursdays, usually with special programs. We had a tour of Mannekin P’s costumes, living history in Waterloo and a flashlight tour of the ancient Palace’s basement. We’ve done a lot - are getting ready to move on.