To continue....

Jet lag is, well, a bitch. Anyway, the arrival in Brussels was uneventful. It is interesting to see French and Flemish (a variant of Dutch that, my current Belgian host says is so unlike "real" Dutch that the Flemish TV stations need to put subtitles on Dutch TV shows) side by side.

My Belgian hosts are wonderful. SC and his girlfriend and sister have been wonderful and I'll be out of their hair soon as I've found a room very close to the city center. (More on that later, but the landlord works for the Flemish Government....)

Evidently, cafeterias in Belgium look a lot like cafeterias in the US. I met some friends of my hosts -- one was a Pole another was from Portugal and Luxembourg. An interesting combination. Most of the time they speak French, but I'm updated and often the conversation switches to English to include me. I'm happy to have groups speak French (at least for now). I already feel some basic things coming back to me and, as I walk from place to place, I often rehearse phrases that I remember or have heard before.

For dinner I had a traditional Belgian dish: Mitralliette. It means, literally, "machine gun." It's a sandwitch of Belgian fries, meat of your choice, and vegetables topped with a sauce. It's wonderful and filling.

Today, I had a waffle as I toured part of the old city area. For 1.50 you can't go wrong. The waffle is like the NYC hotdog. You see stands all over the place and it's were high powered looking people stop to get a quick bite as they go from place to place.

That's all for now. That's the jist of what's going on. Once I'm settled in my new room over the weekend I'll update the blog with more coherent posts and get into a routine, especially as I tackle the archive itself.

The adventure continues.....