The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter

These past few weeks have been tough. I know memory is selective, but I don't recall ever studying this intensely for exams before. My first two went ok... they were both oral exams which I am not at all accustomed to. We were pummelled by questions from the prof 15 minutes after having received the case we were meant to analyse. Your entire mark boils down to how you perform in those 15 minutes. Talk about inducing utter panic. I have yet to receive my marks for those exams, but following the quizzing session, both profs said they thought I could have done better. Comforting. Thanks. I most recently suffered through my international economics exam (the one for which I hadn't attended half of the classes.) At 6pm on Friday evening we received two questions: one legal and one economic. I don't think I have ever drawn such a stark, white, BLANK upon reading an exam question. We had until 6pm the following day to send our answers in. While everyone in my house was partying in the kitchen (2 of our house mates just had a send off party), I was buried in the basement tackling the law of the WTO. (In particular, the EU's Generalized Preference System and the principle of non-discrimination between trading partners). Not fun. Somehow, despite lack of sleep and waning mental concentration, I managed to pull something together - I figured if I inserted enough economic acronyms into my text it would at least appear that I knew what I was talking about. To reward myself for a traumatizing 24 hours, I headed out to soak up the late evening sun and take in some of the Jazz Festival acts on an outdoor stage nearby. The upside to this whole sordid affair was how happy I felt after having finished it. I could not wipe the smile off my face!

On the subject of grading and evaluation, the Brussels method differs greatly from what I've become used to in Canada. Here, all grades are on 20 - the highest you can actually hope to attain is a 17 and a pass is a 12. That doesn't leave much margin between an A, B, C, or a D. Also, the system is much less anonymous. My profs in Montreal haven't the foggiest idea whose exam they are marking when they correct it. Here, you write your name on your exam and obviously for the oral evaluations the prof knows exactly who you are. Furthermore, everyone in the class finds out how everyone else has performed! I hate sharing my marks let alone finding out everyone else's so that was an unwelcome throwback to high school. All this to say - only two more left to go. Come June 4th, I will be FREE. I cannot wait.

Before you begin to feel too sorry for me, I have been making time for a little bit of fun ;) We had a 4-day weekend in honour of the Ascension so I took off to Lyon. I had forgotten what a beautiful city it is. I stayed with friends I met when I was living there in 2007. Even though I had a lot of studying to do, I spent my breaks going on trips to the market, running along the water, and meeting up with friends. I requested that we have a crêpe dinner like we used to do back in the day.

Day trip to Annecy:

Finally, I am proud to say, I completed my 1/2 marathon yesterday! My goal was to make it past the finish line in less than two hours and my official time was 1:50:08 so I was happy with that. There were bands keeping us motivated along the way and crowds lined up on either side of the path cheering for anyone and everyone. About 30,000 people ran it, so once you hit an up or a downhill you saw the most spectacular sight ahead of you. I was surprised to find that it demanded more mental concentration than physical prowess. You had to focus so hard on not tripping on the crushed water bottles and caps all over the ground or on the feet of the people in front of you who suddenly decided to stop running and walk. I almost fell trying to pass someone in a tunnel. I witnessed a couple of people go down though - it wasn't pretty. I know it sounds cheesy but events such as these really lift my spirit and renew my beliefs in the good of humanity. A mass of people from all over the world running together while being encouraged by strangers - it gives me hope.

After spending the afternoon recovering in bed, I rallied 'round to attend my friend's birthday celebrations - it was a beautiful, warm, summer evening and there was a festive mood in the air. Birthday cupcakes and chocolate-covered strawberries = yum

last night's sunset.

Today we have a public holiday due to the Pentecost (gotta love Belgium and its religious holidays). I am heading to the park with a picnic and my international criminal law notes. Nothing is going to stop me from enjoying this sunshiny day.

Academic ups and downs

This month the light course schedule I had in the first half of the semester has come back to haunt me. Remember way back when in February when I was the taught the first half of my "Law of WTO" course? Well I kept waiting to hear when the next prof would pick up where we left off. Turns out the remainder of the class is scheduled to take place every night this week from 4 to 8pm - the exact same hours that I work. If I don't pass this course I cannot graduate so I somehow have to figure out how to write an exam for which I have only attended half of the classes. If only that were my only challenge - due to the classes that were cancelled/started late in the term/public holidays, this week I have seven extra classes to attend. On top of that, I have an exam (my very first at ULB = eek) all day Friday. I am quite worried about it because I find the format very challenging: we will be given a topic at 9am and will have until 5pm to write a response to the question. The following Monday the prof will meet with each student individually to ask them questions about our written submission as well as the course material in general. All this to say I am feeling quite stressed.

On the upside, I have had some memorable moments at l'ULB these past few weeks. A guest lecturer from Cambridge came to speak to us about the complementarity principle of the International Criminal Court. (The complementarity principle means that the ICC can only try cases that states are unable or unwilling to try themselves). This actually leads to a paradox: because the ICC relies so heavily on cooperation at the state level, in reality, it can only try cases that the states are willing and able to try. Madam Justice (and Vice President) of the European Court of Human Rights, Françoise Tulkens, also dropped by to discuss the influence of extrajudicial elements on the court's decisions. I had a question to ask but of course I had the typical fear that it was a stupid one. In my bumbly French I tried to pose the question as logically as possible and much to my surprise a great hush befell the classroom. The judge didn't know what to say!

The greatest highlight by far, however, was our visit to the Hague. We caught a 6am train there in time to arrive bright and early at the International Criminal Court. It was so cool! After hearing from an intern, we were ushered into the viewing gallery to see first-hand where the trials take place. Absolutely no electronics are allowed in the gallery because there is a 1/2 hour gap between real-time action and when the proceedings are posted online. This is to allow for any names to be eliminated from the record or any other confidential information. We spoke to a lawyer who works in Chambers for a judge and he was recounting that everyone assumes international criminal trials are nail-biting and dramatic when actually, that couldn't be more far from the truth. Due to the fact that every word has to be simultaneously interpreted, there are rules about how fast one can speak. If you ask or answer a question, you have to wait 5 whole seconds for the interpreter to catch up. Once, the accused spoke a language that no interpreter on Earth knew how to speak so one had to be trained from scratch! Such basic factors as language greatly contribute to the glacial pace at which these trials proceed. After a picnic lunch in a park nearby we headed for the International Court of Justice where we heard the pleadings of Colombia regarding a land dispute it is trying to settle with Nicaragua. For some reason it surprised me that the lawyers representing both countries were not nationals of Nicaragua or of Colombia - they were British, Belgian and French. I should have realized that of course, it's like any court case- the parties want to be represented by the top dogs wherever they happen to be from. Another surprise was that the lawyers inserted jokes into their oral arguments. One even quoted Winnie the Pooh at one stage! Some judges cracked a smile while others remained completely stone-faced. It was awesome that we got to meet privately with the lawyers from both sides (separately of course) so they could tell us about what it was really like to argue on behalf of a state. It sounded like a lot of sleepless nights spent in hotel conference rooms, a ton of research, then fingers crossed for the outcome. At the end of our intellectually stimulating day we all shared some tapas at a Chinese restaurant and headed back for Brussels on the train. I was beyond exhausted when we finally arrived at 12:30am but it was definitely worth it.

(outside the ICC)

(outside the ICJ)

Even though it's now May, Spring has yet to arrive. To remind myself that it's on its way I went to see the Royal Palace greenhouses which open for only 3 weeks a year. Other than getting very irritated at the slow walkers in front of me, it was quite a pleasant experience. It was interesting seeing the king's digs (if only from the outside) and venturing into another part of Brussels altogether.

(weirdest flower I saw) The 20K is now less than a month away and I'm still going on my haphazard training runs. I haven't been for a long run in a few weeks since my last one was a bit traumatizing. I got completely lost in the forest and after having run for 1.5 hours I finally spotted a family to ask for directions. When I inquired as to my location, they just kept repeating how far I was from home. Not helpful or comforting! They told me to go back the way I came. I couldn't mentally wrap my head around heading back in the same direction knowing I had 1.5 hours of running ahead of me (thirst and hunger were beginning to kick in - I had only planned on being gone for 1.5 hours total after all). So I hitchhiked on the side of a country road back to civilization. The man who picked me up also happened to be running the 20K. He was rather amused at my predicament. I was not - especially when it still took me an hour to run home from the point where he dropped me off. The only upside I could see to this whole fiasco is that at least I now know I can run over 20k! Even though it's been raining a ton, we still get the occasional burst of sunshine which has rainbows popping up all over the place. My friend took this last week from his office window:

The Holiday

First off, signing up for the Brussels 20K definitely has had the desired effect. I feel as though my runs have a purpose now and I have managed to put together a more or less consistent training regime. Each week I go for one fast 6-8k run, one very slow and very long run (to which I add a k or two per week) and one interval training run. This week I discovered a running track where I can do my interval training so that people don't think I'm a nutter when I randomly burst into 30-second sprints. The longest run I've clocked so far has been 13k so I've got some way to go...

My courses begin again tomorrow after the two-week Easter break. I think I certainly made the most of it! Touring around Amsterdam with my parents was such fun (despite the cold and windy weather). We went to the Rijksmuseum, strolled around the artsy/fashion district and went out for some fabulous meals. It was lovely just to sit together and catch up. Here we are about to dig into our Indonesian rice table:



(outside the Rijksmuseum museum)

There were only two lowlights. The first was that we couldn’t stroll aimlessly since there was an endless stream of bikes ready to run us over at any given time. The second occurred as mum and I were calmly sipping our fresh mint teas in a nice café. Suddenly, I saw a mouse poke its head out of the kitchen! We were able to maintain our calm initially, but once we saw a second mouse scurry across the floor we were too creeped out to stay. The weirdest thing was that the servers were completely unphazed - they looked at us with astonishment: of course there are mice, they retorted, this is an old building!

The following day we set off for Brussels on a high-speed train and met up with my Uncle Michael and Aunt Claudette. I got to play tour guide to four willing victims. I'm not huge on touristy things so I showed them the essentials on the first day (making sure to stop at Pierre Marcolini - the most high end chocolate shop in town - to pick up my Easter treat) and we went out for a fabulous meal that night, enjoying kirs beforehand:



The following day I took them on a tour of my life: we picked up lunch at Place Jourdan market and I invited everyone home to consume it at my humble abode. In the lovely afternoon sunshine I managed to get them to walk all the way to the ULB campus and then further along to Bois de la Cambre where we rewarded ourselves with tea and hot chocolates. As a child, I was known as Annabel "are we there yet?" Busbridge but now the tables have turned - the adults were now the ones asking the question.

(mum and I in front of the law building)

(enjoying a break in the sun)

Since we had seen most of Brussels, I decided to take the group on a tour of Antwerp on their last day. Antwerp is a world leader on the fashion scene so us ladies had lots of fun window-shopping while the brothers chitchatted. We also went for an enjoyable "alternative" lunch at Lombardia and for a lovely walk along the water. The port in Antwerp is Europe's 4th largest. We ended our sojourn at this incredible Italian restaurant in Brussels that I'll be dreaming about for a while to come... truffle ravioli...oh my...

(us at Lombardia)

I didn't have time to feel an anti-climax after my family's departure because I set off for London the very next day. I took the bus (oh the life of a student...) but the 7.5-hour drive wasn't actually as painful as I had forecast. We drove through lovely French and English countryside and I had a completely unique experience: our bus drove into a train compartment to cross the English Channel. We weren't allowed to leave the bus and it was so strange feeling as though I was in a train while sitting in a bus! I was also happy that the large shwarma-consuming men that hopped on at Lille found places to sit other than the one next to mine. In short, I had a fabulous week in London. I met up with cousins, aunts, second cousins...I saw 23 family members in all. A highlight was spending Passover with my Jewish cousins - even though I was ready to pass out by the time we got to the eating part, I did enjoy participating in a proper Seder and listening to all the lovely Hebrew songs.

(Seder #2)



Back in Brussels I began to feel the postponed anticlimax setting in. Luckily, it was only fleeting - one of my housemates had planned a huge party for the next evening and I had a great time. I feel so lucky to have found this crew. I contributed devilled eggs and homemade dark chocolate ginger bark to our dinner. After a few sangrias and mojitos, we headed out on the town.



In effort to squeeze the last drop out of my vacay, I thought I'd take the opportunity to host an official housewarming party for my supper club crew. We started with an experimental summer appetizer of watermelon, feta and mint leaves speared with a toothpick (which I declare a success despite the lack of summertime weather – it is NOT fair that Montreal is warmer than Brussels at the moment!); followed by mushroom risotto served in cooked pepper bowls, a cinnamon-infused sweet potato boat and a funky side salad. After an adequate pause, out came the "pièce de résistance": pavlova and chocolate bark. The conversation, wine and company was lovely and I feel adequately rested and ready to get back to work.

(please ignore my posture in this pic and concentrate on the colour composition of the plate)
(dessert)

I now have my exam schedule in-hand so it's starting to sink in that I'm not in fact here on an extended holiday. I have two assignments due this week. I had better get on that...

Fries down, beer down...only waffles to go!

I'm slowly making my way through the Belgian specialties. I knocked off chocolate right away - that goes without saying - my next move was to sample the famed Belgian fries. Someone brought a cone to one of my Spanish conversation meetings so I took the liberty of tasting some. I would say they are good - the double deep-frying makes them extra crisp on the outside while maintaining a warm and squishy inside - but I'm not sure they are worth the marathon one would have to run to work them off. I think the main attraction of the Belgian fry is that it comes with a variety of dipping sauces (50 are listed at my local friterie) which are delicious (try Andalouse if you ever get the chance: no idea what it's made of but it tastes good!)



For St-Paddy's Day, I was invited to a beer tasting. I have only ever had cheap Canadian beer at hockey games and outdoor concerts so I was determined to keep an open mind and put my distaste for the beverage aside. The hostess of the event poured us each four glasses of different top-quality Belgian beers. We then proceeded to write down our comments and vote for our favourite one.


Everyone taking the beer tasting very seriously...

Having now tasted first-class beer straight from the source, I can now confirm my aversion to the drink. My comments read as follows: Beer #1: tastes like feet, Beer #2: tastes less like feet, Beer #3: Ew. Beer #4: Why drink this when you can have a glass of red wine instead? I must admit, however, that I did enjoy the bottle of raspberry beer I consumed - probably because it tasted nothing like beer at all.


Me, creepily leaning over a variety of Belgian beers, unaware of what was to follow

After fries, chocolate and beer, the only thing I have left to try are waffles. I find this one quite challenging because over here, waffles are eaten as a street snack - not at Sunday brunch. When I'm in the mood for a snack, however, I don't feel inclined to trek to the nearest truck handing out freshly baked waffles - I reach for an apple and cinnamon. I think the only solution to this conundrum is to wake up one Sunday morning and have a waffle for brunch!

Life at the house continues to go brilliantly. If I'm due for a study break and looking for some social interaction, I just have to ascend to the living room where I'm sure to find someone with whom I can share a cup of tea. I have now met the second German girl and the Franco-Italian guy and both are very nice. Last week we had two huge house dinners.



Here we are about to consume the feast. On the menu: tortillas to begin with paired with an Asian veggie stir-fry (made by me) that was too spicy for some (that would never happen with my Montreal roomy - would it Teo?!), followed by spaghetti carbonara, and apple crumble and ice cream to wash it all down. It's also great having so many hands to help with the cleaning-up.


My house mates minus Sarah who was working.


Thursday night 'anyone who is anyone' assembles at Place Luxembourg for a drink (or two). It's right by the European Commission so the crowd is quite interesting.

Last weekend, the highlight was going to an international food festival with two friends. Luckily for me, I had been pre-warned to bring tupperware containers. I have spent the week enjoying paneer masala, samosas, a Brazilian thing I can't name and a Turkish dish made with aubergines. YUM. The Belgian booth was giving away Godiva chocolates - I was beginning to wonder if they noticed me after my 3rd visit to their table...



The Easter vacation is almost upon me! Thursday evening I take off for Amsterdam were I am reuniting with the parentals. We'll frolic about town until Saturday when we come back to Brussels and meet up with my Uncle and Aunt from England. I'm so excited to show them my side of the city (and eat some fab meals at some of the restaurants I've been eyeing from afar). After that, I'm off to London for Easter/Passover. It sounds funny to say, but one of the things I'm most excited for is getting tons of hugs. When you move to a new city, you take for granted all the affection you receive from friends and family (not to mention having conversations with people who have known you for more than two months). So I'm looking forward to that.

My rash move of the week was to register for the Brussels 1/2 marathon taking place on May 27th. I felt like I needed some motivation to give my leisurely runs more of an edge. I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew - all the training programs I've seen online are at least 10 weeks long - I've only got just short of 8! So I've decided to follow the Annabelly program and just do my own thing. My goal is to do at least two 20km runs before the big day. Oh my. That does not sound enticing.

L'Auberge Espagnol

So I left you in suspense re:Carnaval. Turns out it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. It reminded me a lot of the St-Patrick's Day parade actually. To enjoy it, one must be under 5 years of age or inebriated. Unfortunately I was neither. I ditched the group I went with because we couldn't move past the small talk stage. I stationed myself front and centre at la Grande Place and read my book until the event started. I arrived early and the parade began late, so by the time I had seen my first flying orange, my feet were blocks of ice and it was going to take an impressive scene to turn my frown upside down. I was expecting an elaborate dance sequence of some sort, but all I witnessed were men and children walking by in various costumes (k those were cool) marching to the beat of drums and occasionally throwing the odd blood orange into the crowd (they weren't even soaked in alcohol as I had been told previously!) I glumly bound the train back home and took comfort upon my return in analysing the legality of Israel's military operation in Gaza in 2008 for my peace and security class.



I can also officially say that I have moved into my new place! I LOVE IT. My little room is in the basement of a 4-storey house. There are 9 rooms in all but at the moment only 7 of them are occupied. I currently have the bathroom to myself as no one is living in the room next door to mine – but that luxury surely won’t last long. I was totally wrong about the other tenants - none of them are stagiaires at the European Commission - everyone is doing their own thing. There are two Spaniards working in hotels (they had to re-train as receptionists when they could no longer find employment in their industries in Spain), one German working as a lobbyist and one whom I have yet to meet, a Latvian woman looking for a job in European affairs, and a Belgium guy working at an NGO working towards the global eradication of torture. Apparently a Franco-Italian guy is moving in this week. So far, I get along really well with everyone - we share a big kitchen and living room and often have dinner together. It's also nice to be able to retreat to my quiet room where I can study without issue. I also live next to two huge parks where I go running and a gigantic weekend market that gives out lots of free samples! I had a post-run breakfast there this AM

Me in my room:



My courses are still going fabulously - we had a judge from the International Court of Justice give a lecture last week, a judge from the International Criminal Court is stopping by tomorrow and I've already attended lots of extra conferences on a wide variety of subjects. I met the corporal who directed Belgium's participation in NATO's Libyan operation last week which was fascinating. Now I am waiting in anticipation to find out when our field trip to The Hague will be.

The library I like to study in: it's all about the view from the top floor



I mentioned that I was hoping to score a job interview at Café Belga. I did in fact get one but once the manager explained the working conditions to me, I was less enthused. 8 euros per hour and 11-hour shifts. Is that even legal? Non merci! So I posted some ads online offering to give private English or French lessons or babysit and to my utter surprise, I received a ton of offers! Last week I began teaching two individuals language lessons and best of all, I got an offer for a more regular kind of job: I'm going to help an Irish family by supervising their young teens do their homework and preparing their dinner. I spent two hours getting to know the family yesterday and they are so sweet. I was nervous to admit that I was a vegetarian and that although my cooking repertoire was vast, it was limited in domain. To my relief, the son also happens to be a vegetarian and the daughter loves salads. Phew. The father is an Irish diplomat (they live in the embassy) and the mother is a lawyer at the European Commission. Their home is a revolving door for VIPs and I'm planning on meeting some! In July, once term is over, I'm actually going to spend all day with the kids while their parents are a work, taking them on day trips, playing badminton in their giant garden and just generally making sure they’re having a good time. While this seems like a divergence from my goal of seeking an internship, I feel that this is the right move. I don't think it's realistic for me to score a stellar internship for a period just short of two-months and I do believe that everything happens for a reason. This family already seems special.

Sunny day in Brussels: a rare and lovely treat - I walk along this pond to get to school (the Canadian geese often milling about warm my little heart)



Also, I had a very profitable meeting with the Senior Policy Advisor at International Crisis Group this week and he assured me that I'm doing all the right things in setting myself up to take on the world. He advised me to get my Masters degree sooner rather than later, to always to wear a helmet while biking in Brussels and that everything would fall into place once I had my qualifications out of the way. So now I'm focusing on getting into the program I've had my eye on for years: the Masters in International Law at l'Institut des Hautes Études de Genève. The course choices look fabulous and the program is bilingual. It's a two-year ordeal though, so that means I have 4 more years of schooling ahead of me! At least we live a long time these days so I'm in no rush. I've asked one of my professors at l'ULB about getting involved in the Center for international law at school and I'm hoping to get started on that in the coming weeks.

In other news, my social life is picking up nicely (It makes quite a change from when the highlight of my first few weekends was Skyping with my parents). This weekend I went for Thai with some friends from school, attended a vegan potluck dinner organized by a Couch surfer and went for a Moroccan lunch with my Sunday supper club crew. Busy times ahead - only 3 more weeks of class until I get two weeks off for Easter. Now that I have some income on the way I'm contemplating taking a little trip : )

Thai dinner with my Swiss friend, Claudia:



Moroccan lunch at Café Kif Kif:

Settling in

First of all - turns out I'm getting a ton of practice writing in French (I've already submitted two assignments!) so I'll spare all of us much pain and agony and stick to my mother tongue.

Well, I must have settled in because I hosted my first dinner party last night. It was a wine and cheese at Robert's pad for his friends who welcomed me to their place a couple of weeks ago. On my first visit to the market I found myself feeling overwhelmed by the amount of cheeses I wanted to sample - how would I ever get through them all? That's when I thought of a solution: why not have a party and get everyone to bring a different cheese and wine to sample? Robert provided the venue and I the accoutrements. I also made a decadent dessert - a double chocolate mousse cake with raspberry coulis.



The guests - (Robert is on the far left)



Le gateau



Me, enjoying my third portion :)

My classes are going brilliantly. Everyday I'm reminded of why I chose to come to ULB - there are opportunities here that I simply would not have had back home. In one of my classes a judge from the International Court of Justice is coming to speak to us and in another, we're making a field trip to the Hague to observe an international trial first-hand. I'm finally that irritating student who passionately completes class readings way ahead of time and has to hold back from over-participating in class. One particularity that took some getting used to, was that not every class is taught every week of the term. My WTO law class, for example, is being taught by two different professors - one was visiting from Columbia University so he taught his half over two very intensely long (but interesting) days. We haven't heard yet when the other half will take place - I guess the admin wants to keep us in suspense!


@ school

I have almost locked down a place to live. The search has been quite a struggle. I despaired so much at one point I actually had to play a string of Bob Marley songs in attempt to convince myself that "every little thing" was actually going to be all right. I found a room through a friend of Robert's that is located in a house shared with 7 other people. I went to see it and it looks great! Most of the other tenants are stagiaires at the European Commission so I think it will make for a very dynamic living environment. I'm only able move in March 1st but Robert has very generously offered to let me squat until then.

Now that my lodging has almost been sorted, I've started to hunt for a part-time job. I hope it won't be too difficult to find something suitable. I've applied mostly to cafés and restaurants so far. I would love to work at this hip joint called Café Belga - I fell in love with the place my first weekend here. It was where I consumed the fresh mint tea I spoke of last time. They have live Jazz on Sunday evenings and generally, it just exudes a very cool vibe.

I have yet to figure out what I'll be doing for exercice. I'm not sure whether I want attend the exercice classes at school, join a gym nearer where I live, hunt down a squash club or just go for runs. Even though exercice is an integral part of my life, for some reason it took all the will power within me to force myself on a run last week. My only goal was to break a sweat (not so easy when it's only 3 degrees out!). My efforts were rewarded by the discovery of a random patch of forest - it has a lake and chalet in the middle of all the winding paths and reminds me so much of Mount Royal in Montreal.

Tomorrow school is cancelled due to Mardi Gras. Apparently the thing to do is to trek to the town of Binche to witness the Carnaval celebrations. I'm not sure what it entails exactly - I've only heard it involves dancing, mask-wearing people who throw alcohol-infused oranges at the crowd - sounds like a good time to me! I'm heading there by train with a group of friends from school.

So Bon Carnaval!

L'arrivée

Back by popular demand, I have accepted to blog about my experiences in Brussels. My objective is to write a least once per month and, to put a spin on things, include the occasional post in French (believe it or not, I need practice!).

My immediate arrival was fairly smooth - I have the fortune of staying at some luxurious digs while I hunt around for a more permanent abode. Robert, (occupant of luxurious digs), was away for the first 5 days so I had his whole place to myself! I fell quickly into a new routine of going for 2-hour exploration walks, organizing my life (opening bank accounts, acquiring a telephone, etc.) and searching for a place to live. Ideally, I am looking for a roommate situation in a nice apartment, situated in the quaint neighbourhood of Ixelles which is within a 20-minute walk from school. That being said, I'm getting closer to the point where I'll accept anything! Robert is being most kind, but I can't stay here forever (unfortunately).

School starts today - I'm excited and nervous. Due to the way l'Université de Montréal evaluates European credits, I have to take 6 classes here even though I would only be taking 4 were I at home. The reason I came to l'Université libre de Bruxelles was to take advantage of the specialized courses they offer in international public law. They're all at the Masters level so I hope I can keep up. I went to try and register this week but to my surprise that's not how they do things over here - everyone just shops around in the first few weeks for the courses they deem of interest, and they only officially register once exam period comes around. In theory, I'll be taking international criminal law, economics and the law of the WTO, international immigration and refugee law, current affairs in international law, international peace and security and international responsibility. Ask me again next week however, and my timetable might have changed!

I'm also looking for an internship with a major international organization. I've had my eye on International Crisis Group for a while and as luck would have it, their offices are only 5 minutes away from where I'm currently residing. Through a contact back home, I've set up a meeting with the Senior Policy Adviser there this Friday. He said that unfortunately Louise Arbour (the President and also a Montrealer) is away but that I'd meet her another time for sure. I'm determined to!

Brusselian eccentricities I've noticed so far:

- all the doors to enter a building PUSH to open. It's crazy how one becomes so accustomed to pulling open doors - I must have looked like a crazy person trying to get into the bank the other day
- instead of calling the number 90 "quatre-vingt dix", they say "nonente". When I was looking for a certain shop, I was instructed to go to numero "nonente". I thought that was its name or something. When I searched in vain for what seemed like an eternity, I momentarily suppressed my ego, and asked someone to literally tell me what number "nonente" was. Ohhhhhhhhhh. Shop found.
- they give one or three kisses on the cheek, not two.
- they don't wear hats even though it's cold! (even for this Canadian)

I promise to post a pic of me la prochaine fois, but for now, here is the fresh mint tea I sipped on yesterday while people-watching at my neighbourhood café. (The level of croissant consumption was out of control)