And so it begins...

Saturday June 12th started out fairly early, about 830am, and consisted of an early Father's Day brunch with presents and more than enough food to feed an army. My dad was going to be filled with packing, last minute mall runs, some choir rehearsal (if i felt i could fit it in), a run, and finally the airport for my flight to Paris.

It turns out the day went more like this; Wake up, breakfast, presents, activate new credit card, return shoes to the mall, look around once more for "Belgium flats", Packing, eating due to the stress of packing, cashing a cheque, transferring money, packing, showering, finishing packing, eating half a muffin on the way out the door and finally, the airport.

Upon arrival at Pearson I met up with Yasmeen and Adam who were also on the flight, we went though security (with my mother of course!) found our gate and waiting for the boarding call. My mom and I were fortunate enough to be in first class so we left Adam and Yas at the first call and took our seats, they wandered past us a little bit later into boarding. Now, normally i would be spending the flight watching the movies, eating, sleeping, some music. But today (yesterday) was different, I have an essay due the day after we return to Canada and therefore I was doing all of my research so my mom could take the books back with her to Canada and so that i didnt have to carry them around, bless that woman. I managed to get the majority of the research done as well as a movie, dinner, a nap, breakfast, and i listened to the entire new Carrie Underwood CD.

As we arrived in Paris mama left me to go catch her flight home and I waited for my two companions to join me through customs and baggage retrieval. As I was joined by Yas and Adam and all of our phones were on once again Yas received an e-mail from Dr. Brooks informing her, and the whole group that his flight had been cancelled and that Yas was in control of the group for the next two days, including waking everyone up, getting us on the right trains and at the correct venues! luckily Adam and I are there for anything she will need along the way (my job being the morning wake up calls). we then waited in line for quite awhile but it was obviously worth it, the next journey was to the train station at the other end of the terminal. Not too difficult to find, the difficult part was printing off Adam's train ticket, luckily Yas used her supreme French skills and got someone to help him, although she paid for it, this man made fun of her because she was eating her mothers homemade sandwich and she spoke with her mouth full... whoops.

finally the ticket was printed and we were on a new mission to find somewhere to sit, Adam and I discovered that Yas does not sit on floors (interesting fact) so we wound up at the Sheraton Hotel lobby in the terminal, it was a great place to spend an hour and a bit. The trains gate was posted while i was on one of my walks through the terminal so i ended it quickly and told my two companions. we made our way to the platform and waited for our delayed train.

The train ride was only about an hour and a half, although I still managed to try and get off at Lille-Europe, WHOOPS! thank goodness for the lovely woman beside Yas. we got to Brussels and went straight to what we thought was the ticket booth for the trains to Leuven, although where we were was the wrong booth and we were directed to the right one, with only 7 minutes until the train departed, we got our tickets and ran to the train, making it just on time.

After arriving in Leuven we were greeted with a breezy afternoon, the majority of the roads, and shops being closed, and a journey ahead of us. We used my Dad's walking instructions to get to the Irish College, and wandered around a little bit, got yelled at in Spanish, finally arrived at the College to find out we had to go to another Hotel to get the keys to enter, this is when Adam used his manly powers to go get them and give us a break. we got into our rooms and began ti settle in, also being reunited with Aaron <3, his hug was just what I needed. We then took off to find the rest of the group in the Gute Markit, where we indulged in some Sella and a Club Sandwich. After Dinner activities included some walking around, finding the grocery store, which is also stocked with alcohol. At about 7:30 we had our group meeting and discussed tomorrow's plans. As of now Yas and I are left in our rooms attempting to fix our Internet connection in our room ( I am stealing my roommate Magda's) Adam and Aaron are in their room working on their Internet as well as their reading preparation for tomorrow, as for the rest of the group they went out to watch the game and continue their drinking, I hope everyone enjoys 7am wake up calls, because that is the only time this alarm clock will be set.

Tomorrow we head to a meeting in Brussels at 10 followed by another meeting at 230pm, hopefully ill be able to get some shopping in because it seems, for once in my life, i UNDERPACKED!

as for now im going to catch up on some reading and get some sleep, im absolutely exhausted.

x0, surviving day 1, Nicole