First couple of days

Well, I got here fine on Tuesday. The flights were nothing to write about, long and boring. I slept most of the transcontinental flight, so I arrived not as tired as I could have been. When I arrived I thought there would be a ride waiting for me, no such luck for this kid. I ended up hooking up with a few guys from Navigators who are staying in the Cycling Center house with us. They had been here before so they weren't clueless as I was.

We all jumped on the train, which btw, is lots of fun with two bags, a bike, and a backpack. We got all kinds of looks when we loaded up the doorways with everything. As soon as the train left Brussels, it cleared out and we had enough room to move to a seat. Anne (the hostess for the house) was there to pick us up at the train station, but that would have been really bad if she hadn't. I would have had to learn the bus routes real quick!!

I got to the house, was given a room, and unpacked. After that it was time for a food run. The supermarkets are very different. Luckily I already drank soy milk because I couldn't find skim milk to save my life. It took me over an hour to get the bare essentials: past, oatmeal, rice, chicken, olive oil, red vinegar, oj, bread, etc... the list goes on. I was able to get out of there spending less than 50 Euros (a major feat btw) and got enought food to tide me over for at least a week.

I wasn't permitted to sleep until 2100 so I had to find other ways to bide my time. I would have passed out if I tried to read, so I hung out in the commons area, getting to know my teammates as well as I could. all the guys seem pretty cool, I think we'll mesh well. It seems the fact that I'm military preceeded me. I got all kinds of questions about it. I did get a couple about my opinion, and I tried to stear away from that kind of thing. "My opinion doesn't really matter when I have a job to do" was my answer. We stayed up watching American TV with Dutch subtitles. Friends was on, so it felt a bit like home!!

The next day I went out for my first ride. Beautiful weather, great roads albeit narrow, but at least the Belgians know how to drive. At one point we saw a whole group of kids on bikes, it looked like it was a P.E. class. The teachers were out stopping traffic and the kids were having a great time with it. Now why can't we have that in the U.S.?! On top of that everyone seems to ride a bike around here, not exactly race bike for the majority, but a bike nonetheless. I was cool to see that an entire culture embraces the bicycle.

No cobblestones yet, maybe in the next couple of days I'll go ride those just for the fun of it. I did see some of the "hills", nothing major like the 'burgs but at least there is something, not enirely flat. It feels a lot like the farm areas of N.C. Flat and strung out for miles, but when the winds kick up, it'll be nuts.

Well that's it for now, standby for another update in a few days.