Some off time Having just left DC once during my stay here really made me look forward to going to New York. Luckily, The Washington Center offered an organized trip so I jumped on it as fast as I could. After a five-hour bus trip, we were dropped off near Time Square with 6 hours to spend in New York. Because we woke up at 4 AM that day, we decided 10 AM was the ideal time for burning our palates with a NY-style slice of pizza! After being properly nourished, we decided to run around and explore the city Read More …

Those who know me know that my hair grows fast and that I need regular haircuts, or else my hairstyle starts looking like a mix between Wolverine and a mad scientist. Okay, perhaps I am over exaggerating a little, but I do care a lot about my hair. So naturally, since I don’t know DC that well yet, I was putting off going to a hairdresser. But at the point where a tube of gel started lasting me two weeks, I had to choose between spending all my money on hair gel or have my hair done by an unknown Read More …

I know there hasn’t been a blog post in quite a while – but unfortunately, nothing fascinating has been happening over the past few weeks. I feel like my life has “normalized” to the point where I just autopilot to work and back, cook, and do laundry. I obviously didn’t want to bore you with that :-). However, over the past few weeks, I have accumulated a few interesting stories worth telling. Hooray! Snow! The weather in DC is weird, and by weird I mean awful 26°C one day, -4°C the other. Last week life in the DC Metro Area Read More …

I really do apologize for not posting last week. Main reason is that it’s been so busy in the past two weeks keeping up with my internship and classes. In short: I received my grades, did some fascinating work over at my internship, joined Code For DC and FedEx’ed some love over to my girlfriend! I even had the opportunity to do a bit of tourism! Biking through DC So I’ve been in DC for about three weeks and haven’t seen anything other than my morning commute, the grocery store, and the US Capitol. My roommates planned to go out Read More …

Living on my own has been an interesting experience so far. However, I managed to do the laundry (and still have clothes!) and eat on a regular basis – not too bad, huh? To be quite honest: laundry, cooking, shopping, and cleaning are things I always took for granted. My roommates and I have been coping with a nasty cold this week as well. I managed to get over it fairly quickly, but I, unfortunately, can’t say the same about my other roommates. The weather here is mainly to blame. It was 25°C on Monday, 21°C on Tuesday and -3°C Read More …

I realize I haven’t posted anything in a while. My first week in DC was one of the most hectic weeks I have had in a long time. I had to overcome culture shock, attend classes, start work as an ITS Intern at the Brookings Institution and worst of all: miss my girlfriend and family. Being apart from them is tough, but luckily they’ve been mentally supporting me throughout every step. Yes, there have been some downs, but I also managed to do some cool stuff in DC! US Capitol To get us more familiar with the neighborhood, The Washington Read More …

We eventually arrived in DC an hour before schedule after an 8-hour long bumpy flight. My first impressions were – to say the least – quite intriguing. In my first few hours of traveling and being on American soil, I already had quite an unpleasant experience with a United flight attendant and the US Border Inspection. That aside – everything went pretty well. The Washington Center gave us a warm welcome, and after checking-in, we left the building for some grocery shopping. It is safe to say that American stores are nothing like Belgian stores. At first glance, fruit and Read More …