More posts, more frequently now – I promise. I now have Internet at home, so I have no excuse.

Since I last wrote, a lot has happened here. I moved into a new apartment and out of the hotel. All of my clothes are permanently suitcase-creased, but it was worth the wait. The new place is amazing! Cool architecture, furnished, and right in the center of town:

Check out the awesome view of Grand Place!:

I broke the new pad in with a little party last weekend. Naturally, I wanted to put my best foot forward, so I decided to iron my shirt before everyone showed up. As soon as I plugged the iron in, all the power went out and, to make a long story short, it took 30 minutes and a trip down to the cave of a basement to get the lights back on. Luckily, only a few guests showed up before we figured it out. I mean, I like parties with music from laptop speakers and two candles for light as much as the next guy, but that would have sucked. Why do I keep having power issues?

Most people brought some alcohol to the party – more as a gift than something to drink that night. This is pretty different from the U.S. I think I actually ended up ahead because people brought so much. So it just solidifies the obvious: Having a party is almost always a good idea.

Other recent happenings include a visit from Grant, a friend from MKE. After he broke my water heater,

we hopped on a train and went to Antwerp for the afternoon,

before heading to Essen, Belgium for his girlfriend, Femke’s, graduation party. I can speak a bit of French which gets me around fine in Brussels, but I speak zero Dutch. So, it was a cool experience to see a traditional Dutch graduation party, but there was quite the language barrier.

We finished off the packed weekend with an afternoon in Amsterdam. Not really enough time to see the city, so I’ll have to go back. It’s only about 2 hrs by train from here.

Over the last couple days I’ve been working with a relocation company to find an apartment for my stay in Brussels (I’m still in the tragically located hotel).  I think I’m close to securing the the one place that really interested me out of the 8 that I saw.  It’s in the Sablon area of Brussels, right next to the Grand Place.  I don’t want to jinx it by posting pictures yet, but look for an update early this week.