Week one: the storm -- 22/08-06

It rained almost all day yesterday. I'm in Brussels. Safe and warm and dry and with family. Just in case you don't know, my aunt and her family own a hotel/restaurant/apartment block and now asian grocery store right in the heart of Brussels. And that's where I'm staying. In my cousin May's apartment within this already huge but continuously growing, workaholic-filled/fueled second home of mine. And it always does feel like that. I've come to Europe three times now and always, always, always when feeling homesick, this is the place I feel most comfortable and safest and happy :)

Anyway, so today is day three. In a few hours I will probably be going shopping for a new suitcase - not only cos mine is giant piece of crap that I can't carry, but it's also falling apart. oh and shoes. I'm going to get myself some reasonably priced sneakers... yes, not exactly what other girls have in mind when they talk about european shoes but well, I never was quite like other girls...

I spent three days in Lyon before making the long and perilous journey over here. The normally four hour train journey took me a whopping ten hours(!). These are the things that went wrong:

1. The pull strap thingy on my suitcase broke off making it even more impossible to lug half my weight in a giant black piece of crap through the train station with stairs and stairs and stairs everywhere.

2. I couldn't retrieve the tickets I'd bought online from the automatic ticket-collecting machines once I'd managed to find them (and I tried all 8 of them!) but it turned out to be my credit card...

3. Collected my tickets from ticket office ( after many more stairs) but had no-one, yes NO ONE, help me with navigating my giant piece of crap out of there...

4. Realised with dread that I only had about 40 minutes to navigate through Paris from Gare de Lyon to Gard du Nord in peak hour with my giant piece of crap...

5. Lost my faith in human kindness... (just so you know, I regained it very shortly after but that doesn't count in the list of things that went wrong)

6. Arrived in Paris, looked down the escalator to the metro and it looked back at me like Hell does, and decided it was not an option. Thought that taking a taxi was a smarter option. Saw the line of people waiting in front of me.'Twas approximately half the train. Took about 25 minutes to get into a taxi...

7. Only had 15 minutes left to get to Gare du Nord.

8. Car accident right in front of my taxi. Of course.

9. Missed my train by one minute.

10. Waited two hours for next train.

11. Guy that stands in front of the door of train as you get on watched without lifting a finger as I struggled/battled with my giant piece of crap to get it on the train while a whole long line of other passengers started piling up behind me.

12. Seated next to about 20 screaming, kicking, crying children under ten...

13. Was squirted (in the face!) with orange juice by one such screaming, kicking, crying child...

In all honesty, after leaving Lyon I was more amused than anything by the continual train of things that kept going wrong. I was anticipating them like you would the next death in a horror movie...

And I have to mention too that immediately after things that went wrong number 5, my faith in human kindness WAS restored by a little chinese-living-in-belgium-backpacker man. And also by a book. A beautiful, perfect, most wonderful present that was given to me reminding me that NOTHING is impossible!

When I arrived in Brussels, my lovely cousin May came to the station to pick me up with some extra muscle - mr chef Anatole :D I was very grateful indeedy, yes I was...

~.~

I spent a most pleasant three days in Lyon walking. Everywhere I went I had a baguette sticking out of my gorgeous black wolf backpack, a piece of cheese, an apple and a giant bottle of water. I picnic-ed where I pleased. It was most enjoyable - except I really really really missed hot food - unsure yet of where to go for cheap local food. Also, I didn't really feel like sitting in a restaurant all on my own. And, possibly a bigger issue, did I really want to be spending over EU$600 on accomodation for two weeks while waiting for the university to open? No... not really. Especially since I didn't even have a toilet in my room...

Besides that, my room in Lyon was actually quite cute and cosy, as far as two-star hotel rooms can be.. I was even in the middle of a shopping mall in the city, I had a great view (of Maccas), I had two, yes TWO, beds all to my tiny self, a tv and a very friendly hotel manager person who spoke to me in slow french every morning. The weather was perfect.

I spent day one hiking up and down the hill in Vieux Lyon, on which was perched the youth hostel I had booked online. I moved my luggage to the hotel Alexandra in three trips. It felt awesome chasing my half-empty suitcase down the hill on the last trip. It felt awesome simply working up a sweat from walking.

On day three I discovered the market and the free cheese to be had and tried, I have no idea what I ate but it was all good and all FREE ;P

I was also followed for about ten minutes by a random american-living-in-Lyon man on a bicycle who spoke about philosophy and marriage and the importance of life-experiences vs education... he spoke non-stop, I don't really think he needed me there at all, he barely took a breath he was talking so fast and so much and then just as randomly, he left...

On one of my picnics on a street bench, a youngish french man with crooked teeth tried to sell me some electronic equipment machine thingy.. I pretended I didn't speak french, so he spoke back to me in a nonsense-not-quite-chinese-not-quite-english sounding gibberish... he was making fun of me and I knew it, but I didn't really mind too much because he had such a friendly smile.. and I wasn't afraid either. I thought I should probably have felt a least a little afraid, or even indignant, but I didn't. I even let him flip through the book I was reading 'Without Reservations' and he admired it with his hands like I did when I first got it... it's such a beautiful book. Then, I guess he must've had business to do and he needed to sell his (probably stolen) machine thingy.. he left me to my lunch...

So anyway, that's been my first week away from home. It's so strange to have lost an entire day to flying...

I spent today walking Brussels. I suspect the next week will be very similar. It's hard not to call home. The rellies here are always working working working and working...

I miss computers too. I really do. I keep imagining a place just like the scc at Lyon II. And the people there just the same, just as friendly and helpful :)

I hope you're all doing splendidlydidlydidlydidly!!

xx luce