Where I live

This is Brussels as seen from Google Maps.  I'm gonna be using it pretty often soon to let you guys know where it is and to demonstrate things like the subway trips and such.  Just for a little more perspective I'll give a comparison.  Brussels is located at Longitude 50 where New York is at Longitude 40 (about).  The equivalent city as far north as Brussels in North America is Vancouver just north of Seattle.  Also, as a measure of scale the width of the big Ring in the center is about half the length of Central Park.  This is a tiny city.  

It is relatively easy to see the big "ring" in the center with yellow lines going out.  The ring is the old town and the city proper.  This is where much of the historical and financial areas are located.  Near the south is Gare Du Midi (Noon Station... doesn't make much sense does it).  Gare Du Midi is where the Eurostar leaves, I will eventually be taking Eurostar to Paris.  The Northern portion has Centre Deux, a big shopping mall where I purchased a duvet cover and network cable my first day in town.  These are the only two landmarks I know well enough to share.  I'll say again, this is a tiny city but there is a catch.  When you begin to look more carefully at the map you'll realize there are almost no thoroughfares or boulevards.  When you look at the distance as the bird flies you have to add almost 40% to that distance to account for zig zagging your way through the city.  This makes for fun moments where you discover things you weren't planning on.  Frustrating moments occur when you realize you got onto a side street that starts south and ends north when you wanted to go only south.  I've learned at this point I'm much better off just taking the Metro and Trams every where I go because trying to traverse through certain parts of the city is just CONFUSING.

The main purpose of this first map is to show my route to work.  The Green dot is pointing to where I start my trip:  Avenue Brabanconne.  I walk south to the Cyan dot, and if you look closely you'll see a pretty cool park at the center of the trip.  I hope I'm around when the trees start to bloom because this park will be absolutely beautiful.  This park is elevated in comparison to the main city and provides an OK view.  If I were a jogger, this would probably be the start point of my trip.    The Cyan dot is my Metro stop, Schuman, and favorite waffle man; the walk from apartment to metro is around eight minutes.  From Schuman I take the metro goes to St. Catherine, the Blue dot.  The Metro ride is usually around sixteen minutes and from there I have about a six minute walk to the Red dot on Rue Des Fabriques.  The whole trip is almost exactly one half hour.  Unfortunately there aren't really any variations in the trip as every other road I take would be very very out of the way.  Walking can take up to an hour even though its barely two miles away.  We'll see what happens when the weather gets a little warmer.

I've gotten a bunch of emails so far and I'll probably do the Mail bag tomorrow but I could always use more questions for future weeks.  scott DOT corey AT gmail DOT com.

The Cell Phone

I'm gonna level with you guys. My original goal was to write one post per day. I told you my strategy (the routine) of getting home, making dinner and then writing before anything else. This week I came across a snag in my strategy. The All-Nighter. I originally assumed everyone reading my blog would know me, but that is naive now a days so I'll explain what I do. I am an architect. I work long hours for low pay. I like my job and sometimes I like my job more than sleep. Because of this, I am likely to stay awake over night. By Thursday morning of this week, I had finished more hours than most would work in a full week. My new goal is to post 7 post per week. If I get smart, I will write one or two extras and hold them back as I would like to keep a once per day thing if possible.

OK, On to the real post. Cell phones, they're different here. That much should be pretty obvious. During my first few trips to Europe I tried out 3 different things, with the 3rd being the most successful. My first trip, I rented a phone from a US company. Not an awful choice, but a little more pricey than necessary. Second trip, NO phone. I like this method because it meant I wasn't really tethered to anything at all: not time, not people. On the other hand, the off chance that I needed a phone? Out of luck... obviously. The third trip, Dublin, I did a little research before I left. Economically, the best method is to purchase the cheapest cell phone in the country you're going to and just keep it for later trips. In Europe you have a SIM card (like a memory chip) which links you to a specific country, contains your contacts and generates your phone number. If you go to another country in Europe you can swap the chip and use it there. The first day I was in Dublin I went into a phone store at random, found the cheapest phone there and bought it for around 30 Euros including a 10Euro credit.

There are two concepts to understand with a European phone, UN/Locking and "Topping Up."  It is a common practice for mobile service providers to "lock" a phone and make it usable only within their network.  This means if you get a phone through Vodaphone and go to a country without Vodaphone service, its very likely your phone will not work.  There is also a huge market for UNLOCKED phones in Europe.  A lot of times you can buy them from the store unlocked, there are also shady looking places where you can get unlocking done.  Finally, about 10 minutes of GOOGLE searching should provide you with a legal, free, easy way to unlock your phone.  "Topping Up," occurs when you refill the minutes in your phone.  Almost everyone runs their phones on pay-per-minute service and refills when necessary.  You buy a card from almost any corner store and go through a few menus on your phone.  Simple.  Except those menus are only in French or Dutch, and I don't' know French or Dutch.

My phone... I bought my phone locked through Vodaphone.  I moved to Belgium, which doesn't have a Vodaphone representation.  So I did the obligatory 10 minute Google search.  This yielded some interesting information.  Of all the phone manufacturers on the market, Motorola are some of the more difficult phones to unlock.  In addition, my ONE specific phone model is not unlockable by any of the standard means.  Usually you just put in a number on the back of the phone into a software, and the software generates a code to unlock your phone.  People produce software that works for a huge number of phones, and not a single one is compatible with my phone, awesome.  I thought, I'll go roam around and find one of those shady places that will unlock my phone for me.  I go to a phone store, the one I purchased my SIM card in to ask about unlocking phones.  He tells me, "It is illegal to Lock phones in Belgium, so there isn't a large number of options, just this guy down there street."  It is my luck to bring the only unlockable phone to the country that doesn't allow locking to begin with.  I found the guy, realized he didn't speak English and just showed him the phone.  He says, "20 Euro,"  I know this is still 10 -15 Euro cheaper than buying a new phone so just hand it over.  He takes the phone in the back, is gone for 5 minutes and then my phone works.

That is basically the end of the Phone Story.  Though an interesting event occurred a few days later, while I was in my office.  I was walking around and all of a sudden heard an awful and very loud ringing noise.  Everyone, including myself, looks around for this loud noise.  Until I realize that awful noise is centered on my pocket.  One of my co-workers says, "That is your ring? That's horrible."  "I guess that is my phone, no one has ever called me before."

WEEK 1 DONE!

So I have completed my first of 12 weeks at JDS.  I will try to bring you guys an update about what the office is like with some photos eventually, but I don't feel like being a tourist in the place I'm supposed to work... yet.  I will say this, Friday is WINE DAY!  Tonight I'll share with you two things: one subway based, one room mate based.

Exhibit 1:  On your left you see an image.  That image is a representation of me being dumb.  I decided to re-enact the events that lead to me being done in this photo.  This is my subway stop on the work side of my commute.  Maybe I'll include more photos later of my trip to and from the office, but for now this is all you get to see.  This is St. Catherine and there are two entrances.  This one, and another one really far away.  One night I heard the train coming so I thought... Oh, the escalator isn't working I'll run down the stairs and try to catch the train.  WRONG!  Clever Belgians have escalators that start moving when you step on a plate near them.  I almost tripped and fell tumbling into eternity on an upwards moving stair.  I am now beginning to understand the subtlety of the bright red circle with a line through it.

Exhibit 2:  A few people wanted to see some of my room mates, and tonight seemed to be the best possible night to introduce Kellim.  Kellim, Niall and Lynn are like my Belgian Clippy.  If you have to ask, Clippy is the wonderful animated paperclip from Microsoft products that offers useful information when you're doing things.  These three individuals have given me so much extremely necessary advice and help in my first week; I'm not sure I would have made it without them being so kind.  So, Kellim... He is an American, which is nice.  He is rather blurry, but promises it isn't contagious.  I also just finished having an hour long conversation about African Tribal War chief Staves... Oh, that's Central African Tribal Warchief Staves.  Kellim is an African art dealer, and just showed me his prized collection.  He is also an architecture fanatic and has explained how necessary it is to go to Rotterdam.  Finally... Kellim is the person quoted my first day saying "Dude... Brussels Sucks."

Spending Report: Week 1

To keep me honest (to myself and to you guys) I'm maintaining a spending Diary.  I will try my best to record every euro cent I spend while I'm out here just to get an idea of cost of living.  This first week isn't great because I've got some bigger necessities and some tourism food (i.e. overpriced) under my belt.  I'd like to get the number way down to make some future out of town trips.

Overall: 201.23

Breakdown (let me know if the math is wrong, then I know I've done the spreadsheet wrong):

Necessity: 90.99

Restaurant: 45.25

Phone: 34.00

Groceries:  24.04

Misc. Food:  5.25

Transportation: 1.70

Necessity is things like my taxi ride, which was entirely necessary because no sane human could navigate the luggage I had on subway or bus and somehow make it to the area I live in.  Also included is a Duvet cover, not a cheap thing... but at least I didn't have to get the duvet as well.  Finally is an umbrella, who doesn't bring an umbrella to Brussels?

Restaurant is a range of things from smart to dumb.  My first night in

 town I had a wonderful dinner with a beer and coffee for 12 euro in my area of town.  Last night I went on a tourist night and paid 18 (should have been 12) for an OK meal.  I found a street packed with restaurants, and it seemed like the Red Light District of restaurants.  Men stood outside trying to sell you into their restaurant "come in, its only 12.50, 3 courses and a beer ON ME!"  I roamed around for a while and decided to go into one without talking to the door man only to realize at the end of the meal it was 18 euro unless you let them convince you to come in.  Dumb tourists...

My phone.  I have a whole post on my phone, but the overall price breaks down to a SIM card, an unlocking fee and a replacement charger.

Groceries... I have a whole post for this too.  I'd like to go to another store or two before I divulge the experiences.  I will say I've cooked a few meals for myself, and they have been wonderful.  More later.

Misc. Food is my general snack budget.  This is mostly waffles for the time being, but in next weeks I will include things like chocolate and frites.  Soon I will no longer be a tourist required to purchase waffles and chocolate, just frites so maybe that number will come down.

I should write a whole post about the Metro as well, so I'll save it for later.   That 1.70 is for a single trip, I am saving money next week through the purchase of a 10 trip pass.

Expect posts like this every Sunday recapping the previous weeks spending... we'll all watch my savings go down the tubes!

French, or why I will begin to embarass myself

My quest was to leave the "easy" and stretch my boundaries to enable new learning paths.  I probably could have gone further from easy, like any Asian country, but after two days living in Brussels I've learned that there are a lot less English speakers than I had assumed.  All of my previous trips were relatively easy.  I've spent time in northern Europe (Scandinavia) and Ireland where it is hard to find someone who doesn't speak English.  In haphazardly roaming the city, it seems as though a full 25% speak absolutely no English at all.  I can barely begin to communicate with these people.

Belgium is a bilingual country comprised of Wallonia (south & French) and Flanders (north & Dutch).  Brussels resides within the northern half and while it seems almost fully french, the city is required to do everything bilingually.  This is confusing for a whole slew of reasons, but the most inconvenient is street names.  Every single street in the entire city is named twice.  As an example my new office is on Rue Des Fabriques (french)... and ALSO on Fabrieksstraat (dutch).  That doesn't look too bad on paper, but I can barely hear French yet.  The words are said quickly and smoothly so I can barely piece syllables out to look for them on my maps.  I think its time to get serious about really learning French.  Until I fully understand my office schedule I won't be paying for lessons, I will stick with Rosetta Stone.  

My sister had a blog from her experiences abroad in Argentina titled: Shanna Speaks Spanish... Hilarity Ensues.  She could probably be considered fluent BEFORE she went down there.  Maybe I should name this blog: Scott Doesn't Really Speak French... Insults Abound.

Wish me luck... 

Arrival

My new living arrangements are quite different from JC.  The main difference is instead of renting an apartment, I've rented a room and bathroom.  My comfort with the metric system clearly did not prepare me for the size of an 11 square meter room.  Had I known it was this small I would have brought one less piece of luggage (2 instead of 3).  Oh, I also didn't realize that B3D (my room number) was going to be on the 5th floor of a walk up.  This also made me wish I'd brought less luggage. On to the good: one thing I really like about the room is the window /skylight, it brings a ton of light into such a tiny room.  It also has a pretty open view to my area of the city.  I also have about 8 roommates that I share the building with.

"Dude, Brussels sucks."  I meet one of my new room mates.  Everyone shares a living room and kitchen, and the common space is nice: high ceilings, well lit, efficient.  My first afternoon/night in the building I have a short discussion with one or two of my building-mates.  "Brussels sucks," sounds like a general consensus in the building, with the amendment that Brussels is also great.  We are within a hour or two train ride from 3 major cities in 3 different countries, so it is a very convenient city for travel.  Brussels is also the home of the EU congress.  This makes it a sort of commuter community: busy during the week... empty on the weekend.  Even non-EU employees seem to travel quite a bit, apparently even the native Belgians in my building are gone one week a month.

I will spend my first few days finding things I need for my room and randomly roaming the city.  I start my new job on Monday but I'd like to get a few tourist things out of the way first, like cheep wonderful Beer (for the sake of comparison, a beer with dinner was 1.50 Euro).

5 things to do before you leave, pt. 1

Around October the move started to cast a shadow over me and I had to start making real preparations to leave.  I made one big master list of things to get done, and I'll share with you all the things that I accomplished before I left.  This is a list of things that, once completed, made me feel a lot more comfortable before I left.

1. VISA:  Make sure you know what the rules are for getting a visa where you're going.  Many of the EU countries work under the Shengen Laws which allow you to stay in a single country for up to 90 Days and you can't return to the same country until you have been out for another 90 days.  This also means you don't need a visa for stays of less than 90 days, as you can travel through out Europe on 90 day periods.

2. Passport/ID:  You should have paper copies and/or a scan of your passport so that you can reproduce the information if you happen to lose it.  In addition, its always useful to bring a bunch of extra passport sized photos for any other form of ID you want to get in the EU.

3. Driving:  I'm not big on driving, but in the off chance I want to take a road trip I don't want anything to stop me.  I got an International License from AAA.  There are plenty of websites that will get you an International License but AAA is the cheapest and easiest.  Go to their website and fill out a form, bring some passport photos and pay $15.  It took 15 minutes.

4.  Money:  I've been following the Dollar to the Euro for months, I can't rationalize it at all so I just hope and pray that while I'm using my Dollars they're worth something.  One thing I wanted and had to set up was a bank account in Belgium.  The primary method of paying rent is through the bank, so not having a bank account makes life a little more difficult.  On the same note, its not always easy to wire transfer money over seas.  My existing bank accounts (a local and ING) both had different issues with wire transferring.  You would think that because ING is a Belgian bank it would be easy to transfer and set up accounts but it is not, and the American ING does not transfer ANY money over seas.  Thus I found a bank (Citibank...) that allows me to make wire transfers ONLINE.

5.  Cancel/Sign up:  Talk to all your insurance companies BEFORE you leave so you make sure you aren't paying for insurance for no reason.  Also, BUPA is an insurance company from the UK that does pretty inexpensive insurance for expats.  Moving overseas is one of the only ways you can get out of your cell phone contract without paying a cancellation fee.  I put myself on Vacation Mode ($15 to suspend the account for 90 days) so that I keep my account for now and can turn my phone back on when I arrive back in the US.  Try to put yourself on paperless bills for all your credit card or other bills so that you get them in your email and make sure you can pay your bills online.  

Leaving the US has a lot of fun issues to deal with, and I will cover more eventually.  This was the first batch that I thought was most important to cover.  Leave questions in the comments and I will try to answer them in another post.

Making the Move

A few years back I was fortunate enough to take a short (4 days) trip to Copenhagen, Denmark.  This was my first trip to Europe, and I was amazed at how comfortable I was in such a foreign place.  Fast forward to 2008 and I am given the opportunity to work for a Danish Architecture firm whose work was inspirational to me during my first trip to Denmark.  I jumped at the chance and decide to make the move, the catch is that I need to do an internship period in Brussels, Belgium before I can move up to Copenhagen.  

This blog is meant as a recording of my experiences in moving and working as an architect abroad.  I will be documenting travel, personal development, food, work experiences and what it takes to move overseas.