Arriving in Belgium!

After many months of the Belgian visa application process being closed, applications were re-opened for higher ed students and other categories this summer, and my parents very kindly helped me gather all the materials while I was still at my summer camp job with little internet access. Once approved, I hopped on a plane within a week, arriving here in Belgium on October 2nd—a month late, but very grateful to be here.

The journey was nearly 24 hours all told, and included 3 flights, a surprisingly short train ride to Mechelen, and a walk through the cobblestone-ridden town with my noisy suitcase in tow (definitely outed myself as a foreigner there). Due to covid, I need to quarantine for a week, so I let myself into an empty apartment. One of the faculty at the carillon school lives out of town but has a place in Mechelen which he only stays at occasionally, and he's very graciously letting me live here for the year. Check out the pictures, it's beautiful!

My humble abode is just a 5-minute walk from Sint-Rombouts Cathedral and tower, which houses the primary instrument of the carillon school right in the center of town. It's well within earshot even when my windows are closed, so I get to hear the bells all day every day—a carillonist's dream!