First day of classes

My first day of class was today at Vesalius College. It's weird because Vesalius doesn't really have a campus so they mouch off the VUB campus which is a university I cannot spell, pronounce, and have never heard of. It took me a little while to find my classroom because on our tour during orientation they never pointed out where the classrooms were. Before I went to campus though, I went to the Hotel Derby, rated one of the top 10 hotels in Brussels...just kidding! I think it may be top 10 worst hotels in Brussels. I thought I was having a conversation with the manager, but it turns out it was just another guy who worked there. He called the two maids down to ask if they had seen my coats and neither of them said they had (well at least I think, I didn't actually understand anything they said). He let me go up to the room again and it wasn't there. He basically said there was nothing to do because it was a she-said, she-said thing. My program director also called (and she spoke to the manager) and said there was a miscommunication because the maids were never asked if they had seen the jackets. But I saw the guys ask the maids. Sounds a little fishy so we'll see what's up.

Back to my classes.

My first class was history of the Middle East which is taught by Professor Palo. He seems like a cool guy. We basically have a huge paper and a midterm and final. The second class was Intro to French which I'm really excited about. At first the teacher was kind of an ass to students in the class, but once she warmed up she was ok. We learned how to say what we were studying, how to order things, ask for the menu and check, and she gave us some good tips for getting along with the French.

After classes we went searching for a bank to set up my bank account and although I didnt have the correct documents, we did run into some cute Belgian bankers. :) We then went to Fat Boys, an American bar right across from the EU to watch the inauguration. It was nice enjoying the whole ceremony with fellow Americans and Europeans who probably just for off from the EU. I thought it was a pretty good speech...not sure what the soundbites will be. I'm very impressed with Obama. I think that he is very humble, yet very steadfast in his beliefs and his goals. He knows what he needs to do and he is set on doing them.