Half-Way Day

Wow. Our internship is half over already. Time has seriously flown by. I cannot believe we have been living in Brussels for almost 7 weeks.

Here's a little re-cap of our work & the European life.

What's Been Great...

• Making new friends from all over Europe
• Weekend trips to Paris, Brugge, Gent, Antwerp & Waterloo
• Waffles! 
• Learning some French and Dutch
• Shopping at all the European stores - love their clothes
• Accomplishing new "life goals" - like visiting the Eiffel Tower
• Friskis & Svettis (the Swedish version of Zumba)
• Bakeries and fresh bread
• My mom learning how to Skype all by herself
• International business experience
• Becoming a better "big-city" navigator

What's Been Difficult...

• A (mostly) rainy and gray summer
• Learning and understanding European law, in-depth
• Trying to talk to people who don't understand English
• Missing our favorite things from America
• Unreliable, smelly & irritating public transit
• Using a real map, instead of Google Maps on our phones
• Getting lost
• Living out of only 2 suitcases of clothes

What We Have to Look Forward to...

• Weekend trips to London, Ireland, Lille and the Netherlands
• A few extra vacation days we weren't expecting
• Learning a little Italian and Greek
• Exploring more of Europe on our post-internship bus trip
• Visiting family again in Germany 
• Becoming experts in the CE marking and selling products in Europe
• Receiving our Utah State University diplomas as official college graduates
• Finding real jobs in the U.S.

Overall, life is great and I really can't complain. We are so lucky to have this experience together. It's funny though - I tend to find myself focusing on the future, instead of the present. At USU, I day dreamed about life in Europe and all the adventures we would have... now that I'm here, I day dream about what our life will be like in America and where we will live when we move back. But I'm working on improving my thought process and learning to enjoy each moment we have now.

So I'm going to smile at that smelly guy on the tram, I'm going to learn 3 more phrases in French, and I'm going to love this city, even on the days when it's gray and gloomy...I'm going to make the most of it because I'm 99.9% sure, we will never have an experience like this again.