Ok, so today was the beginning of the heart of the trip. I didn't sleep perfectly overnight, and part of that may have been due to the neighbor who believed that everything should be slammed and the TV should be on full volume until past midnight. After that settled down it was a bit easier to get to sleep. I set the alarm for 6am but basically took my time getting ready. I knew we would be starting later than we do in Bedford so I didn't want to show up too early that I couldn't get into the office.
I had a quick breakfast of some Greek yogurt and a very large piece of toast cut from the loaf I bought the day before. I chased that with 2 cups of coffee from a brew in the bag packaging system. After breakfast I showered and headed out the door. The train station is less than a block from the hotel I knew I basically had to get to Vilvoorde to get to the office. I got stuck behind a kid who's card wouldn't work and he didn't have enough cash to buy his ticket followed by a woman renewing a picture ID or something like that so my wait at the ticket counter seemed excessively long. I bought a ticket to get me there for 2.50 Euros. I needed to change trains at Brussel-Noord on the Brussel-MIDI line, 2 stops up. From there I needed would ride the Antwerpen line to Vilvoorde which was about 3 stops up. The train exchanges weren't too bad but I had to ask which train to take at Brussel-Noord. From the station at Vilvoorde it was a walk of about 15 minutes. Take a right out of the station and then under the second bridge take a right (you cannot continue straight there). Then follow that road to the office. It was very easy.
Apparently all the trains in Belgium are delayed all the time. I was not riding Metro trains but something like commuter lines to reach my destination. I am told the train operators strike all the time. I hope it does not affect me too much. The trains I got on were both delayed quite a few minutes not that I noticed... It turned out to be rather well timed for me.
I got in the office a bit before 9am having gotten to the train station around 8. From there I found I had 2 Hologic Belgium students as well as 2 students from France, 1 student from Italy, 1 from Israel and one from South Africa. Apparently this is a fairly easy mix of students to deal with and they seem like a good bunch.
I had to figure out some of the equipment to get through the presentations and lecturing and midmorning the internet access went down leaving me unable to check or send emails. All said for not knowing the facility too well I think the day went by reasonably well enough. Some of the hitches with the equipment changed up my methods but I got through it.
We finished up just about 4:45 and I sent the class on their way. The majority of the class is staying about 15 minutes taxi ride away from the office. They have nothing around their hotel at all they said. We also found out the hotel is more expensive than mine in Brussels. They are basically close to the airport if I understood them correctly. So they had to wait a couple minutes for a taxi and I walked back to the train station and bought my return tickets and got back to the apartment around 5:45. An hour journey with a train swap and a 10 minute delay on one train wasn't too bad in my opinion. I also figured out how to route myself to the center of town to pick up dinner on another night. For this evening I just cooked a package of soup I bought at the market and had some of the bread as well. It was simple and will be the only picture I have for today. It being work I didn't really take any pictures, not yet at least, though I did bring the camera along anyway.
The picture for day 3 can be found here (kinda seems pointless but still...).
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