Excuse me Sir, you're in my way

I will never get used to moving to the right when people are approaching on the sidewalk from the other direction. It's ingrained into me, keep left. So many times, I've almost collided with people. It's funny, you never think about little things like this that will be different.

(me after I bought warm clothing, do I look European yet? :D)

Tomorrow it will be one week since I arrived in Belgium. I feel a lot more accustomed now, or at least, I am no longer walking into supermarkets going "WOW A BELGIUM SUPERMARKET WOW BELGIAN LOLLIES WOW BELGIAN FOOD" etc :P It's been quite a stressful week.. first on the Monday, I carried my suitcases to the bank, set up my account, it started to snow by then, that was extremely exciting. Then I carried on to the reception desk for the guesthouse, or at least I went to the address on their website.. but it was shut up, no one there. Cue panic. I walked back into the main street (or one of them, unlike Brisbane, Leuven has more than one main city street), and bought a cheap mobile phone, because I was a bit panicked by then. I called the reception and it turns out they were at a completely different address, but not open until 2pm. So I went to a fast food place called Quick for lunch, it wasn't very nice, but Nicolas and Marjo both went EW when I told them I went there so..no surprise? Then I wandered around but with my suitcases it was painful so I went to sit in the Leuven Mcdonalds (which seems to half be about 10 years behind McDonalds Coorparoo, but then they have electronic order machines that you can pay on and order at, so in other ways, better). It's weird, Mcdonalds is like the most expensive food place I've seen here so far besides the really posh places. Because the food here is so cheap! Ok but back to Monday. I stood in the snow for ages when I found reception because it's this massive courtyard and I didn't know where to go. Then I asked some lady if I could wait in another building until 2 because I was freezing (after I took photos of my first snow scenes :D) So found the reception eventually, dragged my cases across yet more cobblestones, found my room, it was absolutely freezing, the heater seemed ineffective. That's when homesickness hit me the most, it was so lonely at that moment. And my arms were in so much pain from carrying all my stuff all around town. The next day no one seemed to know the problem with my adapters, though I asked everywhere, and the only person I could contact was Nicolas, he saved me from going completely crazy and having a mental breakdown or something, because it was really worrying at this point. That was the low. Then I bought a power supply for my laptop and have been connected (albeit to an awful wifi connection) ever since, so things improved. I registered at the uni/city hall etc. Yesterday it snowed so much it was more of a blizzard, at it's peak the snow almost reached my knees. I was in the middle of the city amongst all the beautiful old buildings, it felt like a scene out of a movie or something, genuinely the most magical thing I've ever seen, the snow was falling so thick and it was so fluffy on the ground, like a cloud. I've only ever seen it flattened or thicker, like it is today, a day old. Despite the absolutely icy cold temperature I couldn't resist playing in the snow, making snowballs and such.

(JESC related CDs, most exciting this ever :P)

So now I am enjoying Belgium a lot now I am more settled, I found a house (but have not moved in yet), I know my way around a bit more. I have yet to speak to anyone in Dutch, I keep losing my nerve. I'll start small, with thank you or something. Soon. Honestly. And ignore the fear I'll do it wrong (which I will, but better to try right?) One lady in a supermarket today was saying something to me when I went to pay, I had no idea what she meant, I was worried I didn't hand over enough money, but it turned out she wanted a 1c coin to round it up, but she just kept speaking in Dutch even though I said I didn't understand at first. That was a bit e

mbarrassing. Lucky I know what een means :P But I wasn't going to brave the "do it yourself" machines in the supermarket after yesterday, when I swiped my food, paid..then went to exit. Gate didn't open. Panic. Look around. Move aside to let a lady through, who says something unitelligeble in Dutch. Apparently you need to scan your receipt to exit the supermarket here, again, embarrassing moment.

Also I'm wondering how many times I'll slide along the ice slicks on the pavement and almost fall on my ass before I actually do topple over in a heap. I'll give it a day, max. :P

Leuven is a much smaller town than Brisbane (MUCH)..population wise. BUT.. Brisbane has Queen Street, and the indoor mall there, and there's the clubbing area in the Valley, Southbank.. but really not many shopping streets. Leuven has many shopping streets, it's like the heart of the city is the entire city, there's not just heaps and heaps of empty office building skyscraper streets like in Brisbane. So it seems bigger, actually. Not being in suburbia.

I am really liking that it's a student city. The university is not just 1 campus but it's located in over 400 OLD buildings all over the city, and most people here are students, so it feels like the entire town is the uni, like a big massive uni campus. Even the streets with all the pubs and stuff don't seem to be dodgy, I wouldn't want to walk around alone at night in the valley in Brisbane, but it isn't too creepy here, I'm glad.

I've been eating dinner a lot in this one restaurant where the man recognises me straight away and calls out AUSTRALIA when I walk in the door, he's really nice, and automatically speaks to me in (very poor) English, which is somewhat comforting though I suppose defeating the point of being here but, I'll branch out soon. He told me I was always smiling tonight, that's funny, considering I told Nicolas, if we're twins, I'm the glass half empty one while he's all "OMG best JESC ever, I love every song, they're all so amazing *swoons*" :D So again, food here, so cheap! Also clothes, cheap! I never thought Australia was that expensive until now when I realise Western Europe is cheaper than us. In some things anyway, not in everything. Like trains, they are ridiculously pricey here. I think the Netherlands students get free transport, but in Belgium it's only in the city you study I think, boo.

I still can't get used to wearing so many layers, it's such an effort to get dressed/undressed really, and I may as well walk around naked considering even in all the layers it's so cold it feels like I'm wearing nothing at all. :P It's weird to see even the young children dressed more stylish than most older people in Australia, well I guess winter clothes just look more stylish than our casual thongs and bikini lifestyle.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Brussels for the first time, Nicolas is coming, despite him being a Belgian native, remind me to bring a map :P Well anyway that will hopefully be fun, though everyone says "Brussels is nothing special".. I'll see. I'm looking forward to having someone to hang out with too, I've pretty much just had my own company for an entire week now. But ah well, I can't feel too sorry for myself can I, I'm in Europe :D

There's a lot more I wanted to blog about but I keep forgetting all my observations! So, I'll save them for next time (when hopefully I'll have new photos/a working camera). And omg panic, my blogspot has set itself automatically to Dutch, lovely! :D