Let's get it started!

Hello friends! As you all know, I had started a blog this summer that was SUPPOSED to chronicle my adventures in Japan that never happened. We're going to try this again, and this time the results should be much more successful :]

My major (Language and International Trade) requires a semester of study abroad, and the easiest destination as far as transferring credits back to the university goes is l'Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. It's a bit east of Brussels. Here's a map so you peeps can have a reference.

.... did NOT realize that was so close to Germany. Ew, Germany. Maybe I'll move to Luxembourg. Anypoodles, that's Belgium! There's lots of beer, and lots of chocolate, and lots of waffles. Nothing is open on Sunday, everyone goes home on the weekends, and they all party on like Tuesday. Or so I've heard.

To start things off on a totally sour note, Clemson is NOT persuading me to be one of those wonderful alumni who donate oodles of money to the school after graduation. AT ALL. Like, they will be lucky if I even tell people this is where I went to college. I will lie and say I went somewhere with cooler colors (purple and orange? REALLY?). This is why:

1: Because my adviser is a dirty little liar, studying abroad will put me a semester behind so I'll have to graduate in May '12 instead of December '11
2: the office ladies are rude; even my friend Kevin says so and he never says mean things about ANYONE. And he only came here for summer school! UGH.
3: these forms are difficult. You know if you're 21+ you have to get an FBI background check to apply for a student visa? Madness, all of it.

Anyway. The program I'm participating in is the French Language Immersion program, headed by one of my professors, Kelly Peebles, and I've met the head of the Belgian school, Philippe Denis, and he's really nice in a totally whimsical European man kind of way. There are only 15 Clemson kids participating in the program and I don't know any of the other 14 so this should be an interesting adventure. I haven't picked which classes I'm taking yet, but I have to do that by Monday so I should probably get moving.

As of right now, I have been fingerprinted and have sent off for my FBI background check. The cop at the police station that fingerprinted me seemed really impressed by the fact that I needed a background check, hahaha.
Cop: ...FBI background check? O_o <-- "wut" face
Me: Yup! :D
That's pretty much what happened verbatim.

This was supposed to just be an introductory post and it's getting really long so I'll stop here. We're just in the organizational phases of Study Abroad, so updates will most likely be far and few between. Next time, I'll give you the low down on classes!

-- xox