Pinch me: am I really here?

We literally bounced out of the skies onto the runway at Brussels airport the morning of January 5th.  There were winds of over 100km/hour jostling the plane on our descent, making everyone either sick or very nervous.
It was wonderful to see Evan and Trisha Lamos there to meet me!  They are a super young couple who have helped me from the very beginning to manoeuvre my way through all the Belgium red tape and finally arrive in Brussels.
They drove me to the rental office; we signed my lease and drove to my new home on the 4th floor of rue de la Concorde 54 (more about my apartment later).  As I walked in, I wanted to pinch myself: am I really here?  Is this what I'll call home for a year?
The Internet guy arrived shortly after and connected me to the rest of the world.  It was a good feeling to know that my friends and family were now only a click away....must start setting up Skype....

Saturday I was alone.  Oh , the jetlag!  And this dumb cold.  And the rain falling.  And a chilly apartment.  Spent the day unpacking and finding homes for my things; then off to a grocery store to buy food to eat - of course, only what I could carry in my 2 hands because I have no car now! :)  I'll learn!

Sunday I got the tram to my new church family: St. Andrew's Church of Scotland (lots more about it later on).  Counted the stops and yes...got off at the right spot!  Andrew introduced me to the congregation and I met several of them after the service.  This is going to be interesting!  Andrew and Julie took me back to their home for the rest of the day and I returned home on the tram in the dark.  Now try getting off at the right stop when you can't see the names of the stops and you've never done this before.  Didn't do too badly!  I like to walk anyhow :)

Today, Monday, I shadowed Andrew on visits to 3 shut-ins, which took all day because we used public transportation - subway and trams.  Julie takes the car to work so Andrew uses public transportation all the time.  I will too because I have no car :)  I'm sure we walked one hour to see one gentleman in the hospital!  This is going to be good for me.

Tomorrow I get my residence card (have to register at the Hotel de Ville and prove that I'm here legally): hopefully I have all the legal papers required.  Belgians are sticklers for paperwork.  Then I plan to open a bank account which, apparently, is not easy for foreigners to do (???), and then I will be visited by the police to see if I'm really Nancy Craig and I really do live at this address.  Then I'll need another card to show I'm a Brussels resident.  Oh, the bureaucracy here!  And then, after lunch, Andrew wants to take me with him to visit another parishoner.  Talk about jumping in with both feet.  Oh yes, then I'll have to go to the grocery store again to get another armload of food and supplies :)

But I'm delighted to be here and glad to get started.
And that brings you up to date.  I'll probably do "theme posts" from now on because that'll be more interesting than my daily schedule.