I
can’t believe it’s almost been a month since I’ve arrived in Leuven. Time
passes way too fast, and, honestly, I wish I didn’t have this “time counting
down” feeling. Honestly, these past few weeks have been rough in their ways (peep
at my previous blog post), but as time progresses, I feel like I’m growing in
ways I couldn’t be if I were back in the States. I’m more bold? I’m more
confident? I’m the happiest I’ve been in a while, and I suppose that’s a good
thing. Ha. I’ve been traveling here and there. I made trips to some Belgium
cities and then took a road trip to Paris with a PhD student in Leuven named
Hamza! We chatted for nearly the whole time to Paris (and we talked so much
that he kept missing the exits), and it was an all-around good time. I came out
of Paris with a couple of new friends as well, and they took me to the
riverside of the Seine to dance salsa till 4 AM.
Leuven’s
becoming more and more like a second home. I’m discovering new restaurants and
crannies every week, and biking is much easier now that I’ve been doing it for
nearly a month. I didn’t expect to end up with a pretty big friend group of
other IMEC and KU Leuven students, but I did. Anyone who knows me knows that
I’m a pretty reserved person who doesn’t really take the effort to socialize
because, well, it’s just so tiring and it gets boring really easily. But I
guess you make friends in the most unexpected ways? Thy make me feel like I
belong here, and… it’s just very nice. Very nice. Everyone’s just so nice that
it makes me emotional (sometimes). Grace and I have also been meeting the
locals of Leuven. It’s so nice to be able to talk to the locals about life and
their own life stories. Everyone we’ve met in Leuven have such interesting
lives and they’re all really open about their opinions and their experiences.
I
haven’t talked about my work yet. Hm. As for work, well, I do put a lot of
pressure on myself, since I have a lot of responsibility with my own project,
and also because I’m always trying to find new ideas. I do hope I make a
difference here in the last two months or so I have here, but it’s… it’s going
to be a hard journey.
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| Paris! |
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