So… I’m in Brussels! I arrived yesterday morning after a night of about 3.5 hours of sleep and went straight to work, but luckily the people I’m working with are really nice and helpful and didn’t seem to mind that I was functioning on a less-than-optimal level. Last night I got a good night’s sleep in the wonderful apartment I’m staying in, and today was a full day of work followed by a trip to the grocery store. I’m getting good at asking people if they speak English when I answer the phone at work, but the grocery store still offers up a challenge. Sometimes it takes time to figure out what I’m looking at. I can understand a bit of the French because it’s similar to Italian and of course a lot of food words are French, and the Dutch offers up some clues because it’s a lot like English, but still, it’s an adventure.

Now I’d like to present some of the interesting goodies I picked up today:

This Cote d’Or Noir spread looked so amazing. And the selection of spreads here is incredible too– not just Nutella, but chocolate spreads, nut spreads, fruit spreads… I need to take more time to examine them all, and I imagine some will come with me back to Estonia. This Noir reminded me, quite honestly, of the chocolate cream in Golden Oreos, just a bit darker. It was actually really good when I mixed it with some plain yogurt I got, since that added bitterness and actually made it seem richer.

Both of these cheeses are actually French. I’ll try to get some Belgian stuff next time. I hadn’t had goat cheese in a really long time, and the other stuff just looked good– it’s soft and mild (sorry for the lame description).

And finally, some beer. I know some hard-core beer lovers consider fruit beers sacrilegious, but I love lambics. I drank the St. Louis Kriek tonight and enjoyed the sweet flavor followed by a more sour finish. The Belle-Vue one is probably better, though; I seem to remember a more sour, refreshing taste throughout. I’ll let you know later .