Bruxelles

Bonjour tout le monde! I arrived in Brussels safely and was met at the airport by the lovely Meera, my fellow ETA friend. It was so helpful to a friend know where to go, where to buy train tickets, help with my luggage and just follow around so I didn't have to worry after a drowsy 8 hour flight. We stored our bags at the lockers at the metro so we didn't have to wheel around 50-pound suitcases. I was lucky that Meera and her friend Nina had already found a hostel so my arrival was stress-free.

Beforehand, I was stranded at O'hare for 8 hours becuase my flight was delayed due to an air traffic controller strike. But 'Bruxelles' (in French) totally made up for it. I saw La Grande Place, which means the big square, the famous statue of the peeing boy (which was pretty anticlimatic) and walked around the park, sitting down in a nice outdoor cafe with some vin chaud and plate of cheese, olives, sausage. I didn't know that Bruxelles was known to be an ugly city. Haha it wasn't so ugly to me, but I can see where it gets its reputation with an odd mix of historic & modern buildings, an assortment of gray cathedrales and slippery cobblestone in the dreary rain. However, the random statues scattered throughout town and the hilly roads which seem to be a complex maze were an adventure. To a passerby, Bruxelles doesn't seem so bad.

Me, Meera and Nina walked to the EU building and to our surprise there was some sort of international festival going on with free food and drinks. It was pretty awesome and we got to try food from Italy, Poland, Italy, Estonia etc. Quelle chance that we should stumble upon free dinner! Well more later. Up next for today, some Belgian fries with mayo and maybe Little Africa and mussels from Brussels for dinner? Yes, you have to say the whole phrase 'mussels from Brussels.' And I'm going to Camroon tomorrow. yay. A plus tard.

2 weeks left

Il reste deux semaines...

1 week and 6 days to be exact. If you want to know what it feels like preparing for a trip and just waiting to go, it feels like craziness & idleness at the same time. Craziness because I've been out of town for almost every weekend in the past month, visiting friends, savoring my last days and saying "hello, goodbye... I'm peacing out." Idleness because I have a gigantic suitcase in my room, sitting on the floor with its menacing mouth wide open, warning me to choose my belongings wisely. Maybe another way to put this 'antsy anticipation' is that it's similar to pacing back and forth on a shoreline, waiting to set sail on the open sea.

Lyrics from a Teddy Geiger song popped into my mind:

"I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have and cannonball into the water..."

Anyways... I'm so thankful and kind of surprised that this process has been so smooth. No oppositions, really. My parents are fine with it. Any worry or concern has been expressed in the form of, "You need good shoes. Can you check out those good hiking shoes online?" Yes, okay I'll look at some Tevas. Or maybe some Chacos. Stuff that back-packers, trekkers and outdoorsy people have that I've always liked but never bought myself... yet. If anything, this trip has only been met with support. My lovely aunt would ask about my trip to "fay-jow" which refers to all of Africa in Cantonese. She (and a string of other relatives) would warn me against the mosquitoes or the extreme heat. She even gave me a donation to buy backpacks, books & school supplies for 100 children in Cameroon. whoa. I was so touched. I promised her that if it could not be spent in the form of 100 colorful backpacks jam-packed with supplies, it would be invested in child education for the local community, or contribute to projects/needs of the local area. Amazing. It gave me a more realistic responsibility to make the most of my time there, to keep my eyes peeled and to give. And it was a rather unexpected humanitarian effort and left me in awe of what my aunt envisioned charity to look like.

3 weeks to go

It's slowly sinking in that I'm going. Not quite completely... but bit-by-bit. I have my visa, check. My shots and meds, check. If I wrote out a to-do list it might include a million other things! In about 3 weeks I'm going to step on a plane and fly to a place known as the 'Africa in miniature', boasting waterfalls, a volcano, jungle, beach, desert & savanna. I have not yet started packing but that's okay... (I have a make-shift list) and I know the reality of going to Cameroon won't fully set in until the night before, when I'll be wide awake full of anticipation.

My status: all excitement. And it's so encouraging when I tell people what I'm doing and they are jumping up and down for me! Honestly I don't know what's in store, but I'm so encouraged people want to know... so follow along and I'll do my best. I'll be blogging (for the most part) and passing my experience along to you guys. I'm not an experienced blogger nor do I always write in complete sentences but this will have to do.

I'm going to the English-speaking region of Cameroon in the Northwest (a few hours outside of Bamenda, see map) as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA). I'll be there for an entire school year, 9 months from October until June. Apart from that, a lot is still up in the air like housing, my class size, teaching schedule etc... but I will look for local organizations to work with concerning HIV/AIDS or women's empowerment. I'm also reading 'Your Madness, Not Mine,' by Cameroonian author Makuchi, which are short stories illustrating the everyday lives of the young and especially the women during postcolonial times.

The two national languages are French and English, but people speak over two hundred local languages as well, varying by region. While French-speakers are the bigger majority, some people speak 'pigdin' English, which evolved when tribal people developed their own way to communicate with foreigners. I will be in the English-speaking region, while one of my friends will be in the Far North (extreme-nord), an Arabic-speaking region where Islam has a larger influence. How cool is that? Another of the ETAs will be in Bertoua in the East. We are all pretty spread out, but that will give us more reason to go visit each other and explore the rest of the country non? We each get to be in a different area and get to taste the intricate variety of culture that Cameroon has to offer.

Countdown until departure: 22 days. This is it! I've been looking forward to this opportunity since last summer when I first started the application process. It's been a blur since then and I graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in International Studies. I'm extremely thankful for this Fulbright. Minoring in French and having teaching/international experience helped with the application, but I feel like all I did was hold out my hands. This chance was just placed in my palms and I didn't expect it. I was banking on this opportunity because otherwise I probably would have gone with the PeaceCorps for 27 months. Well I am happy that I'm only going for 9.

What I'm asking for is that Cameroon teach me, just as much or even more so than me teaching a classroom as an English teacher. 'Tis all for now.

PS: Feel free to leave me comments/questions or just a message :)