Welkom bij Leuven!
We’ve arrived in Leuven! After much planning, a pit-stop in Philadelphia, and a 7 hour flight to Brussels (Max slept like a champ!), we finally made it to Belgium on Sunday.
After being here just short of a week, this town and our new apartment are starting to feel like home.
However, getting to that point has been full of many ups and downs. Aside from the countless trips to IKEA, the second-hand store, the grocery store, the KU Leuven registration offices, the wholesale store, and the town hall, our stay has mostly been defined by the fact that our poor Max contracted hand, foot and mouth disease the second day we were here! For the last few days, we’ve been living with the crankiest, sickest, tiredest, most jet-lagged little guy we know, but despite being uncomfortable and exhausted, he still managed to smile and laugh each day.
Thankfully, he is on the upswing now, and is actually feeling much better. But in light of our little man’s recent trials and tribulations, we’ve compiled some highlights of our week into three handy categories:
Hand
Everyone we meet here keeps telling us how lucky we are to be living in the Groot Begijnhof. The Begijnhof was built in the middle ages as a convent of sorts, and it has since been converted by the university into housing for faculty and visiting scholars.
Although idyllic and picturesque on the outside, the inside needed a bit of handiwork. When not comforting Milian, we’ve been furiously assembling IKEA furniture, mopping the old ceramic tile floors, and trying to cook edible meals with only a handful of utensils and no oven.
Still, our apartment is actually quite large, larger than we thought it would be. And right out our back door is a small enclosed garden, which gives us a nice view.
Max has made himself at home: he has already discovered how fun it is to drop his food on the floor, and he has been pulling himself up to stand on all our wobbly furniture. He’ll be walking in no time.
Foot
Leuven is an incredibly walkable city. We live on the edge of town, but we are just a 10 minute walk to the center of things. We still have a lot of exploring to do, but once we leave behind the Begijnhof, Leuven quickly becomes a typical European city: squares lined with cafes, bicycles speeding by, a mixture of classical and modern architecture.
Max’s stroller already has a lot of miles on it. Amanda and Max head to the market each day to pick up what we need for dinner. Many of the roads are cobblestone, which gives Max quite a bumpy ride.
Mouth
Our greatest blessing since we’ve been here has been our friend Maria. She’s been living in Leuven for almost 20 years, and has welcomed us with incredible generosity. She stocked our fridge before we arrived, picked us up from the airport, helped us navigate the healthcare system for Max, took us shopping, and generally reassured us that we will be just fine here.
We’ve yet to dive into the Belgian food and beer offerings, but Paul made sure to have one beer as soon as we arrived. It was excellent.
We’re looking forward to celebrating Max’s birthday tomorrow: we have a great day planned, and we’ll be sure to post about it.
More to come soon …