Brussels, Belgium: Week 1

We packed up our stuff, we sold the cars, we rented our house, and after a relatively painless one-stop flight we're now in Brussels, Belgium! It's been just over a week now and we're pretty much settled in... to our hotel anyway. So far it's been non-stop check in briefs with the embassy and NATO support people to get all our paperwork straightened out and move us on our way to becoming legal Belgian residents. We looked at two really nice apartments yesterday with one realtor, and we have an appointment with another realtor today to look at a few more. We've been enjoying the food and the beer, and generally trying to get a feel for our new city. We speak French every chance we get, and then I usually stand there in dumbfounded silence when someone actually tries to speak French back to me. It can only get easier, right? We'll start our full-time French classes soon, and that will undoubtedly help, but for the time being we'll get by with broken French and English to fill in the gaps. In other news, there are only 2 weeks left until Ryan, Andy and Chris get here for Oktoberfest, and we can't wait! So far, so good!