If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium - 3/11/08

Well, I survived my apartment hunting trip to Brussels.  For those who haven't been following my weekly Tuesday feature, I've been documenting my impending move from Washington DC to my firm's office in Brussels, Belgium. [There should be a list of links to previous postings following this article.]

Seems I found an apartment to live in.  I looked at nice ones in bad locations, bad ones in nice locations, ones that were way too expensive for what they provided, ones that appeared to be way too cheap until I saw their kitchens.  Ugh.  But in the end I settled on a new construction in a great spot.

First, here's my new office at the firm.  Very Euro, don't you think?  Big glass window in the back to see the daily rain (though it actually was fairly sunny when I was there).

We're on the 7th floor so mostly I'll see the buildings, but if you look down from the office window there is a nice little garden for afternoon breaks.

The view from my desk to the front of my office.  Why do I feel like making little fishy sounds? [Actually, the frosting on the glass is quite hard to see through]

Then there is the apartment.  I picked a modern building that is about a 15 minute walk from the office. Or I can take a tram that runs about a block from the apartment building and stops right in front of the office.  The apartment is very sterile at the moment - it definitely will need area rugs and plants.  Here's the living room:

And a big kitchen:

The outside is rather bland, but the location is near an area called Chatelain that is very trendy and has lots of restaurants and bars. 

It's also only a short walk to Flage, another trendy area with more shops.  And the Grand Place in the center of town is not too far away either.  Plus there are at least three people from the office who live fairly close by.

The next step is getting all my stuff from DC to Brussels.  And renting my townhouse.  And getting plane tickets to Brussels.  And finishing up some work projects before I leave.  And finishing my dissertation before I leave.  And.....

Okay, gotta go.  See you next Tuesday!