14.02.11

I would seriously like to take some time to appreciate my dear friends who are all the way across the ocean from me and can still make my day. I’m not really the type to get homesick, but when I do have a bad day, it is so amazing to come home to messages and emails from everyone that seem to come from everyone and everywhere at once.

One thing that has struck me is that I’m not always talking to who I expected it would be. So many people have made the effort whereas when I left I thought I would only get updates from one or two people. I seriously underestimated everyone, but in way, I think that’s a good thing because it makes it so much more special when I get a message from someone I didn’t expect. It also makes me a little more sad when I don’t get messages from friends I thought would definitely be in contact, but I try not to dwell on that sort of thing.

The reason I’ve been thinking about friends back home so much is because I feel a little like a fish out of water in the group here in Brussels sometimes. Sometimes it seems like all the kids here do is party every single night and I’m just not that person no matter how much I’d like to hang out with them. It makes it a lot harder to find a group to hang out with because I’d rather have alone time on Tuesday night than go out to dance all night.

Another thing that makes it hard to have the international experience I really wanted is that my two classes at Vesalius are filled with Americans, not international students. Maybe 20% of the class is international, which is exactly the opposite of what was really promised and expected. It’s not like the American students are a bad crowd, they’re all very nice and likable, but the point of coming here to Brussels wasn’t to make more American friends really. Again though, if you want to hang out with the international students, you have to be willing to party…a lot. At least that’s what it seems like; I’m certain that’s not the universal truth. It’s just not my scene.

I don’t mean to be negative, because I really am having a great time, but I find that a lot of the great experiences I have are when I’m wandering around the city alone. It is nice to have almost unlimited time to be by myself, because, hey, I like spending time with just myself. It’s nice to have quiet time walking around a city I’m just learning to be really familiar with.

Anyway, my major point is that being abroad has really made me appreciate the friends I have back home who have all proved to be amazingly supportive and wonderful beyond all my expectations. So…you know, thanks. :)

 

Also: I updated my Flickr finally! Tons of pictures of the Natural History Museum because they had lots of dinosaurs. :) I’ll make a post about that maybe tomorrow or the next day – we’ll see.