Bonjour!

Before I left, some people asked what they speak in Belgium, and the answer is, it’s heavily French.  A funny side note, I always told Allen he was crazy for taking French and that he’d never need it, “You totally should have taken Spanish”.  Low and behold I’ve yet to travel to a country where Spanish has helped me (outside of my own). With this being my second trip to Europe, that French class would have paid off big time!

Last night I met our local VP for dinner and we did a quick walk through the town – and I mean quick.  Even being local, he wasn’t a fan of the rain and low 30s.  I have my first few pictures up of the trip and they’re of City Hall.  No, it’s not a color effect on the pictures, they light it up like that at night, and it’s amazing.  The Grand Place, as it’s called, is the area where we had dinner.  It’s an entire district of shopping, eateries and chocolatiers!  As you can imagine, one with little self control could do some damage here in no time.

From there it was off to bed… Two hours of sleep in the past 24ish hours had finally caught up to me.

Today was rise and shine at 7a – Midnight CST.  I was reminded of my reliance on my debit card today when I hailed my cab and was told they wouldn’t take debit for a trip less than 15euros.  Luckily I had stopped at the ATM in the airport and had some cash – imagine that.  I caught my taxi and made my way to the client site for a productive day with a great group of people.

During the introductions with the class, everyone asked where I was from, since I traveled all the way from the US for the training.  As soon as I said Texas everyone said “Home of President Bush!”.  After a quick laugh, I was questioned on if I voted for President-Elect Obama.  It’s interesting to see how people abroad do indeed keep up with American politics.

Class wrapped up and I walked the 3km from the office back to the hotel, enjoying the sites.  It was such an awesome walk, so many people and booths and shops that it feels like Christmas here!  I walked in to my hotel room on a high with where I was, just to find my MISSING SUITECASE!  It was dropped off during the day – how awesome is that!

I’m off to find some dinner… there’s a McDonalds and a Pizza Hut adjacent to the hotel… who’d be crazy enough to eat there?

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