Bixler in Belgium: It's Happening!

So....

I'M HERE.

Everything happened so quickly, and I didn't really have any time to sit down and write about all of it before now.

But I'm here! And I'll be here for TWO MONTHS.

The family that I mentioned in my first post ended up deciding to hire me for the summer, and it was a crazy time planning everything after that. I'll be living with them in Brussels (and they live RIGHT in the city,) and working for them doing things around the house and helping out with their four children. The kids are in school until July, though, so during the month of June I'll just kind of be hanging out and figuring out the city and traveling on the weekends if I want/need to! I'm pretty excited about it.

I'm staying with my cousin Jo in Lourven for two nights to help with the jet lag, and her house is just incredibly beautiful. It's very modern and a very different style, but SO wonderful and so unique. It's definitely a nice place to relax before heading into the huge adventure part of my trip.

Tomorrow night, Jo and I will go to dinner at the family's house in Brussels to meet them and spend some time with them before I move in, and then I'll be with them permanently beginning on Friday. On Saturday (the day after I get to them,) we'll be leaving for their beach vacation for a week! That should definitely be interesting.

Fun fact #1: the four children I'll be in charge of (ages 10, 6, 4, and 1,) do not speak any English.

Fun fact #2: ....I don't speak a word of French.

The only thing I'm worried about with THAT dilemma is how to say "get back here right now" or "don't take candy from that man" in a way that they'll understand me! I'll guess we'll just have to play that one by ear....!

My flight left on the 18th of May and got here today (on the 19th.) It was an okay flight, and it really seemed to go by quickly! Jo picked me up from the airport and took me to a town near her house to get a few groceries. She walked me around the town for a little while, and I took some pictures of how gorgeous everything was while we were walking and talking.

Once we got back to her house, Jo made an incredible meal for us with shrimp salad, bread, cheeses, and my first real Belgian beer! It was all fresh food, and it all tasted SO good! I'll post a few of the pictures at the end of this post.

I'm SO exhausted from my flight, and the jet lag is really hitting hard, so Jo let me take a little nap after we ate. It was only supposed to be an hour long nap, but it ended up lasting for a little longer than two hours! I was so sleepy.

Jo is seeing clients in her downstairs office now (she has a private practice and does psychotherapy with her clients,) so I have a bit of free time to walk around and explore the village near her house. I need to get up and move to wake myself up, so I'm gonna go do that! I'll post a few pictures before I go, but be sure to check Facebook for all of the pictures I'll be taking!!

Love from Lourven,

Catherine