Overwhelmed to say the least!

Well, Ross and I made it to Belgium and in record time - only about a 12 hour trip from first takeoff to final landing. I was so happy to see Jim again. He drove us home from Brussels and I was on the edge of my seat the entire ride. He's comfortable driving here now, but I'm not comfortable riding yet. I don't know what any of the road signs mean and traffic moves very quickly so I'm expecting a collision at every turn.

These first couple of days have been....well let's just say overwhelming. The language barrier is already a challenge. Ross says I'm definitely not trying to "blend in", but I know that will probably take a while. Everyone speaks some English and most speak it very well, but it means always asking someone for help. I'm determined to learn enough Flemish (Dutch) to get by and maybe enough to "blend in".

We walked around Brussels for awhile after our arrival. Our first real outing was to Antwerp, then on to the town of Knokke-Heist on the North Sea (which is about 2 hrs from Hasselt). Here's a photo of Jim and Ross in Brussels, Ross in Antwerp (drinking age in Belgium is 16!) and a photo of the sea.

The apartment we are living in is pretty small so we're slumber partying it right now. One of mine and Ross's charges is to begin looking for a little bigger place to park ourselves. Here are pictures of home sweet home for now.

Yesterday, Ross and I made our first journey about town. We figured out how to use the city bus system and successfully made it from home to Carrefour (Belgium's answer to Walmart) and back home again. Shopping is a challenge when every label is in Dutch or French and every measurement is in metrics, but we managed to get home with most of the items on our list. Mr. Clean wasn't too hard to figure out, but we decided to leave these other two behind :)

And last, here's my new favorite Frazier pic. I miss y'all already :(