La Femme Arrives

I am on my second full day and getting adjusted to the time zone nicely (thanks to a nice nap yesterday - yes, you CAN catch up on sleep when you haven't slept in 36 some hours).  The flight was good although I just couldn't get much sleep.  Can I just say that I love "Premiere" status on United?  Although the airport was crowded and it was 4pm, I had no line and people were nice to me.  Thank you Lord.  Arrival was also no problem.  I, naturally, chose the absolutely slowest customs line, but even then, got through relatively quickly and then only had to wait a few minutes for my luggage to safely arrive.  I am grateful that D suggested I lighten my load, which I did, because hauling 2 suitcases and a carry-on got to be heavy - and my biggest suitcase was only packed to 40 pounds.

So the plan was for me to take the train (train station was just downstairs from the airport - so convenient!) since D had to work and couldn't pick me up.  I have come to appreciate how spoiled I have been going to German speaking countries, now that I am in a French speaking one and know next to no French, because I felt much less confident about the train I was on.  I bought my ticket no problem and got to the track, but there was no schedule or plan that I could see that would tip me off that I was going in the right direction.  Thankfully, I had looked online at home and had a little clue, so that when I reached the 3-4 stops, I knew that I was heading south, which was right.  There was no one else on the train with me and no conductor came through (which I had kinda been counting on because they would tell me for sure if I was on the right train) so I just had to trust I got it right.  The train was right on time and since I knew that my stop, Mons, was 1 hour 16 minutes away from the airport, I was thrilled to see it appear about that time (oh, and not all the stops had signs, which made me nervous.)  So, so far so good.  Unfortunately, there were no elevators at the train stop, which means that I got a mini workout  carrying my suitcases downstairs and then upstairs again to get out.  Some very nice ladies helped me a bit and I was grateful.  I made it outside (so close to the goal now) and just needed to find a taxi to take me the last 2 kilometers to the hotel.  And although there was a taxi stand at the station, there were no taxis there.  So, as I contemplated whether I had enough information to get me to the hotel from the train, a taxi pulled up to let off a fare, and I gratefully grabbed him to take me next.

D had left the key at the front desk for me, which was lovely, and I made it to our apartment by about 10:15am.  My flight landed at 7:30am, the train left at 8:36, so all in all, it was a remarkably quick trip.  Now, given that I hadn't slept (noisy kids - not babies, kids speaking in French right behind me that I really really wanted for them to sleep so that I could sleep, but no luck) I felt very accomplished and suddenly exhausted.  D left me a note telling me not to sleep and gave me the number of his co-workers wife (Elizabeth) who was willing to come and hang out with me a bit.  After a quick granola bar snack, I gave her a call and she came and picked me up.

Elizabeth is wonderful and I look forward to hanging out with her more!  She gave me a great tour of the city - shopping areas, tourist areas, supermarket, etc - and then even treated me to a lovely late lunch, so very kind.  We  had a great conversation and hung out until about 3pm when I hit a big wall and decided that I should go back and take a small nap.  Yes, yes I did take a nap and it felt great.  It was only for an hour, so even though D was quite skeptical that I would sleep that night, I felt confident it wouldn't be a problem.

I amused myself until he got home by watching the Olympics (I found some German broadcasts, so that I could even understand what was happening) and knitting some until he got home and we went out for dinner.  So, we left about 6pm for dinner and apparently the rest of Belgium doesn't go until 8ish, so we got a great table and had the place to ourselves.  Elizabeth had suggested a nice pizza place and that sounded great to us.  There was this bizarre parade (seriously) right in front of our window of rollerbladers and bikers that had us laughing and wondering if this was normal.  Oh, and I saw more men wearing capris - yes, male capris, I thought it a myth myself, but it is true - that I have ever dreamed possible.  I also thought it bizarre to see so many rollerbladers (before we realized that they were lining up for the parade) because there are cobblestone streets here.  Rollerblading it tough enough on normal streets, but it is not pretty on cobblestone streets.

Yesterday, I slept in (a lot, we will leave it at that) and then straightened the apartment, unpacked, went to the grocery store and made dinner - veggie chili, quite good.  D and I enjoyed a lovely evening at home eating yummy food and got a good night sleep.  I am going to try and check out the hotel laundry facility today as well as the work out room.  D gets off early today (he went in early too, but I guess every Friday is an early day regardless of time in) so we are going to walk around town and get a phone card for me, but mostly check out town and enjoy being together.  Tomorrow we are planning our first excursion to Euro Disney - so exciting !!  This was D's suggestion and I am pleased, although I told him that this does not take the place of going to Disney World together (long story short - for a man who has "Aunt Disney" in the family, he has a resistance to the happiest place on earth that is unexplainable!)

Ok, there is all the news worth reporting.  More to come.