week four

This has been a great fourth week for sure!

Sunday after returning from my mediocre weekend, I met Javier. He's my new roommate from Madrid, Spain. First impression was that he was very inquisitive about everything, trying to learn as much as he could about the VKI before starting work the following day. He is also a stagiaire in the short training program.

Monday after work we walked around the city, checking out the sites. Javier had never been. We went through some highlights like Manequin Pis and the Grand Place. We also went through the business district where they do a lot of EU business. Kan (from D.C. area) says it looks a lot like D.C., and I would have to agree.

My work project completed changed on Tuesday. The professor decided that since the part still hadn't come in from the chemical company that I should change projects to do something more useful. I am now looking at sensor data from an area to see if a power plant affects the area's temperature. It's a local warming issue. I get to study wind and the atmosphere. I will work to do mostly post-processing of the data, but at least the data is interesting to me. The answer is supposed to be "no, plant does not affect the area locally" according to my professor.

Wednesday I went into Brussels for another night of rock climbing. I think this will be a good weekly habit. It was a lot of fun once again! I looked at buying some gear (shoes and harness) so that I wouldn't have to rent while I was here. That was a fun interaction as the sales clerk didn't really speak English and my friend didn't speak French. I was able to communicate with my little knowledge of French and a lot of pointing. I didn't like any of the gear they had, so I'll be renting for the summer :-).

Thursday was spent fixing my landlord's bicycle. He told me if I fixed it I could use it. So I fixed it!

I really like my landlord. He really likes America and Americans. He is appreciative for what we did for his family during WW2. He loves American WW2 memorabilia and has lots of things in his collection. I asked him where I could buy stamps to mail some postcards. He offered to pick some up for me, and gave them to me as a thanks for fixing the bikes.

This weekend: Amsterdam / The Netherlands!

My original plan was to leave after work and goto Den Haag, but no one else was up for going. My mediocre Luxembourg trip was partially due to going alone. Also, I'm more interested in meeting people and interacting with them than I am to see a new place and check it off a list. My roommate is staying in town this weekend, so I am going to go to Brussels with him tonight.

Tomorrow I'm getting up first thing and going to Amsterdam! Woo, I'm excited :-)