Settling in Brussels

Good day to you all! I know I have been absent for a while, but you have to forgive me - from precarious sleeping places to intermitent internet connections, a bunch of things got on my way of sending news to you.

I am finally settling in Brussels. Today I move into the place where I will hopefully spend the whole year. I will finally have an address and a stable home.

My first couple of days on the old continent were a little messy. I arrived here on Friday at 7:30am, but for me it was like 1:30am. I really just wanted to go to bed and sleep. Dimitri, my CouchSurfing host could only receive me at 7pm, though, and wanted to go partying after that. Thank heavens that my new classmate Marta (who graciously went to pick me up at the airport with Carla) offered me her house for the day. She and her boyfriend Alberto, both from Italy, were very nice and cooked a delicious Cabonara pasta to welcome me to Brussels. I even took a nap at her place.

In the evening, I went to meet my CS host at the party. It turned out that Maja, also a CS member, was leaving Brussels and was throwing a farewell party. I managed to have fun when I decided to ignore my tiredness. I met a bunch of travelers from all around Europe. At 2am, exhausted, Prestina, another CS, offered me her place for that night. Dimitri wanted to continue the party and I just didn't have anymore energy left. Dimitri insisted he was not going to stay long, but I didn't want to risk and I went over to Prestina's for that night, against his will.

Next day I went to his place, finally, and met 6 or 7 other CouchSurfers that were all staying there. It seems that hosting is Dimitri's main hobby - he does that a lot and for that reason he has a bunch of rules for hosting. Definitely different from my own CS style. Hosted by him, all of us had to stick together because we didn't have access to a key for his place. We went to Place Jeu de balle, to scavenge the end of the Flea Market, and did a city tour, which included many shops for all kinds of things. Not really my style of tourism, but fun nonetheless.

In the Saturday evening, I wanted to go for a beer with Celia, a Spanish girl I met at Maja's party. She is going to do an undergrad exchange in psychology, also at ULB. She and her dad had also stayed at Dimitri's before. They intended to go to Delirium Café, a bar that has the most impressive choice of beers in Brussels - more than 2000 types, on tap! It turned out that Dimitri had other plans for us that night and got upset when I suggested going out. I messaged Celia about not being able to go to the bar and stayed in with all the other CouchSurfers. Dimitri is very adamant about CouchSurfers getting to know each other.

Because I was feeling a bit restricted by the CouchSurfing situation (I got the impression that people here in Europe seem to have stricter rules about sharing their couches) I wanted to find a more flexible place to stay while I searched for apartments. It was for sheer luck that I met a Brazilian family at a café who offered me some help. Celia, her husband and Lilian, their daughter, have been living in Brussels for a few years now. They were really sympathetic when they heard my adventures and introduced me to Luzia, a neighbor who was looking for a roommate. It was not something permanent, since we would be sharing a bedroom, but at least I would have a safe place where I could come and go whenever I needed - which is quite important when you have to visit apartments all the time.

Luzia, Lupercio (her son) and I became friends quickly. They are the kindest people! We have been hanging out all the time, with the other nice people in the building too. Most of them are Brazilians expats, from all kinds of backgrounds. We spent evenings playing guitar, chatting, having fun in general. They fed me Brazilian food and gave me a bunch of tips about Brussels.

On Monday I got together with Alex, a friend I met in Montreal in 2003, during my exchange year. He showed me everything on the ULB campus, including a bunch of resources to search for apartments. When I told him about my living arrangements, he offered me to stay at his place until I could find something permanent. He understood how hard my situation was because of his own experience in Montreal. I moved to Alex's place on the Tuesday and that's where I am right now, waiting for the evening to move into my new place.

I am going to share a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment with Heli, a Brazilian guy who is one of Luzia's friend. After visiting an average of 4 apartments per day during one whole week and finding nothing decent within my price range, I was getting a little worried. Worried because I cannot open a bank account without a permanent address - can you believe that the Police has to come pay you a visit to confirm that you live where you say you live? I know! Crazy rules. Anyways, without a bank account I can't receive my salary and I can't just live on my credit card forever if there is money waiting for me here. This last week was really stressful because my reserves were running out and I had not seen one single good place to rent. When Luzia told me about Heli, I decided to check out his place. I knew it was far from university (for Brussels standards, that is, 9km) but I was mostly interested in having a clean place, where I could stand without hitting my head on the ceiling (believe me, that happened for real during one visit).

I fell in love with the apartment at first sight. Super cozy, fully furnished, with a queen bed for Jon and I, decent public transportation close by, 4 or 5 grocery stores around the corner, two balconies, storage for my bike... It was the best deal ever! And Heli is flexible about the dates of the contract - I can leave after 10 months without any problems. And on top of that, he is a super sweet guy, easy going, clean and pleasant to talk to. With the only downside being the distance from University, I took the deal without thinking twice.

So, this is the story of my first week in Brussels. I haven't had much time to go sightseeing, but I did managed to squeeze in a little visit to the Grand Place, the Manneken Pis, followed by Waffels, on Friday evening. I went with Luana, a very nice girl who's also Luzia's neighbor. I will post the pictures as soon as I get them from her.

Be back soon!

Comentários

Tatiana Machado disse…
What an exciting week! It's amazing the amount of names mentioned in just one post! Can't wait for more news! Break both legs and rock Brussels for me!

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