Adventures of an Archivist: Brussels and Work and Allergies and Neuhaus and Waterloo

So...remember how I live in Belgium? Oh yeah. So I should probably blog about it. Actually, I should blog about a lot of things, and especially finish The Story, but life happens, and I'm getting around to it, ok?

Anyway. So Belgium. I live right in the middle of Brussels, one block west of Grand Place, kitty-corner from the Police Station, 4 stories above a small frite and kebab shop called Snack Family. There. Now all you internet creepers can stalk me. :)

The panorama view from my window

our apartment. Tiny kitchen on the left, bathroom in left corner, bedroom straight ahead with entryway just to the left of it.

view from the top floor of the church building
(about a 25 minute walk from our flat)

While it's amazing living in Europe, it definitely doesn't feel like a vacation. 

I wake up early every day, walk 15 minutes to the archive through a sketchy part of the city, past all the corner markets and coffee shops with middle-aged men sitting outside with their newspaper, coffee, and cigarette smoke. And then I work for 8 hours, scanning and republishing antique collections from the archives of the local theatres before walking home somewhere between 4 and 5 every afternoon.

The entrance to the archive. This is inside a courtyard that's blocked off from the public.

Rockin' the T-shirt and jacket and bed-head and sticky-fingers. Yay scanning thousands of pages!

Receiving a shipment from the archives of the local Theatre Royale to add to our project.

My afternoon ritual usually includes a Belgian waffle with Nutella and strawberries, followed by a two-hour nap. Most evenings, I'm able to Skype my family and text the fiance a little bit. The 8 hour time difference makes schedules kinda hard to coordinate. Dinner is usually around 9 PM because the sun doesn't set until 10:30 PM, and then bedtime is usually around midnight or 1 AM.

Typical lunch: Crackers and brie, or bread & gouda, usually with a plum.

But don't worry. I can't get fat because I get to go up and down these several times every day. Not my favorite.

A big difference between the big cities of the U.S. and the big cities in Europe is the speed at which people live life. While Brussels is big and full of tourists, it also has a "sleepy" feel. Mornings are slow and leisurely. People don't bustle down the street in a hurry, but rather take their time, stopping to look in shop windows or light a cigarette or read a book. Dogs follow their humans without a leash. Cars stop for pedestrians. And people stay out on the street all night long. Literally.

The weather is nice, if a bit bipolar. Mornings are usually drizzly, and we walk to work wearing light jackets. Afternoons are usually sunny, and we keep the windows open most of the time. Unfortunately, I am somehow allergic to summertime in Belgium. Severely. I've never experienced allergies this bad for this long. I sneeze every day. A week ago, we went to a barbecue with some of the Young Single Adults in the area, and I almost died. Maybe literally. We were in a back yard most of the time, and I started having sneezing fits (where I sneeze every 3 seconds up to 30 or 40 times, yes, it's exhausting. yes, it makes me wish I was dead.). I went inside to blow my nose and wash my hands so that I wouldn't spread any itchiness to my eyes. Too late. Soon, my eyes were watering and getting red, splotchy patches around them. Everything itched - eyes, nose, ears, throat, everything. I started coughing and wheezing. I could barely breathe and sounded like a smoker when I tried to talk. So we left and took the bus home. It only got worse, so as soon as I got in the door, I jumped in the shower to rinse whatever I was allergic to off of me. Then I found some clean clothes and laid in bed with a cold washcloth over my swollen eyes. I felt much better by the next morning, though my voice was still pretty raspy. On the way home from work, we found an apothecary, and the lady gave me twenty pills for "city allergies". Whatever they are, they definitely work. Now I'm back to only sneezing a few times a day. Stupid allergies.

The amazing backyard where we had the bbq

and the super cool, kinda creepy room on the top floor of the house

and allergies making me pathetic and miserable.

And of course, being in Europe, I have to take advantage of the food and history and culture, right?

Well, I'm happy to report that for my birthday on Friday, we left work early and took the metro to the Neuhaus Chocolatiere. Not just a little chocolate shop, but the actually factory where they make the stuff. And the best part? The unlimited free samples of anything you could possible want to taste. Oh. My. Gosh. Lindsey and Elise took to splitting chocolates, but I just ate them whole. And I probably sampled a great majority of the collection. It takes less than 20 minutes for the intensity to hit you. People with average rich-chocolate tolerance would be sick, but I endured and was mostly just really, over-the-top happy about life. Uh...I'm pretty sure I avoided the alcohol-imbued chocolate. ;) It was a fantastic adventure, and I can't wait to go back to stock up before returning home to America.

Elise, Lindsey, and me

You really have to concentrate to make sure you get all the subtle flavors ;)

On Saturday, we were supposed to go on a beach trip with the YSAs, but the weather wasn't great, and we like our sleep, so instead, we planned an afternoon outing to Waterloo. Yes, as in the Battle of Waterloo, aka: Napoleon's downfall. So I suppose I can provide you with some pictures from that. I've gotta say, it was pretty dang cool.

Visitors' Centre, Lion Mound, and the Panorama painting

Napoleon's death mask, which is kinda cool.

Lion's Mound

And then, we missed our bus home by 20 minutes, so we had to wait 2 hours until 8 PM for the next one. Luckily, McDonald's was close by, so I got a chocolate parfait to keep me happy. :)

This week has been kinda crazy with work so far. We've run into a lot of problems with the technology and the software systems that we work with, so there's not much we can do besides deal with it. It's really slowing down our progress though. We've been working about 10 hours per day, so come Friday, I guess we'll just get off early. And on the calendar for this weekend? A trip to Brugge, one of the lace capitals of the world. :)