En Brussels!

So I packed my bags, left for Philadephia and completed my staging for Peace Corps Rwanda!

For those who are curious about what I packed, some things did not end up making the cut in the end. I took out some things that was making my bag overweight (airline policies) and resigned to bringing everything else. My mom and I brought a scale the day before staging to make sure my bags were not overweight--and behold, they were! One of my bags was over 80 pounds, so some things had to go. All the essentials stayed though. 

It was hard saying goodbye to my parents--but not as bad as I thought. I cried to be honest, but my mom and dad didn't which was good for me. 

Philadelphia was great--I met the 36 other Peace Corps volunteers in my group, who all are great. We did some icebreakers, ran down the Peace Corps trainee agenda and had dinner. The next day it was off to the airport. 

We got to JFK at around 12:00 p.m. in the afternoon with two buses filled with luggage. All of us had at least two bags on us. Some, four. It took us about three hours to check in, get our tickets and go through security. I waited behind the group for a last minute goodbye with my sister and brother. And also to call everyone I didn't get a chance to speak to before I left. 

We were delayed in the airport for about two hours with multiple gate changes, and then again on the plane for another two hours which meant that we were going to miss our flight to Kigali from Brussels. Which also meant that we got TO SPEND A DAY IN BRUSSELS! 

We arrived in Brussels around 12:30 p.m. the next day and went to the hotel across the street from the airport. We dropped our things, took showers and headed out to the city. Brussels was amazing! I had always wanted to visit Brussels and it was crazy that I was able to do it on official business time. I had chocolate, frites with spiced mayo, and of course Delirium Tremens. It was a great time overall, we all had fun in Brussels. I had an AMAZING day in Brussels. I kinda wanted to say "En Bruges".

#listening to soccer fans cheer! Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow...