It was one of the longest days I've ever been through...
I took
almost the whole day traveling from one airport to another and getting
on different plane to different places. The last flight, which left from
New York to Brussels (7 hours total), was the most interesting one.
I
sat towards the middle of the plane on a two seat area by a young man
who smiled at me when I shyly said sorry and asked him to let me pass to
my assigned seat which was beside him.
His name was Ceriel (I'm not
sure that is the right spelling) and he was the first European person to
meet on this Belgium adventure I'll be going through. He was heading to
his home country (Belgium) after finishing the semester at a
university in Washington. For a total of about 4 hours, we talked on and
on about our different lives. He told me so much about what to expect
in Belgium and even made recommendations to me about what places to
visit. In four hours of talking, I ended up spilling my life story to
him. Surprisingly, he thought I was an interesting person. We talked and
ate the dinner the plane provided. At this point, I was surprised at
how genuinely nice he was. He had the best manners I had ever seen.
Whether our meting was a coincidence or not, I learned so much about him
and his culture that I thought, "I'm not even in Belgium and I already
met an amazing person. I'm so excited for what is to come." It was
incredible.
When we got to the Brussels airport, we were greeted
by some staff from the university of Ghent. As soon as I stepped off the
plane and set foot in Europe, I could feel a difference. I had just
flown across the Atlantic Ocean and made it to this side of the world.
This beautiful place I had never been to. I was exhausted from the long
flight, but I was so amazed at the European people performing simple
day to day activities.
As soon as we got to Ghent, I enjoyed a
nice meal consisting of salami, crackers, juice and wonderful cheese at
the hostel that will be my home for two weeks. After that, I went on my
first water taxi ride, then visited Ghent's city museum and then went on
a tour of Ghent. Everyone in the city looks like they just came of an
art piece. They seem like the most coolest people ever and I am excited
to get to know some of them.
--
Read more from Laura at http://lauragoestoeurope.weebly.com/
To find out more about the U of A Faculty-Led: European Agriculture-Food Chain Sustainability
program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/SUSTEurozone/
