Today is the day we say goodbye to our French bread and cheese and say hello to Belgian waffles and fries! On our way to Brussels, we stopped in Bastogne to visit the Bastogne War Museum. This museum is designed to show visitors a new perspective and an interactive framework on World War II through the Battle of the Bulge. We were able to follow the story of a young boy and his family throughout the war to give us a more personal story of the war. This was done through three different movie theaters within the museum. Because of the war, the young boy was sent to live at his uncle’s house while his parents stayed behind to take care of their bike shop. Unfortunately, this was the last time he would see his parents because they were both killed in a bombing. This museum gave us a better insight into the lives of civilians during the war and how they lived before, during the occupation, and after the war.

After the museum, we stopped for a quick lunch at an Italian restaurant. In addition to getting some good food, we also learned a fun fact about one of the program participants, Abbie. She does not like cheese, but her favorite food is pepperoni pizza……I know we were all questioning this too but she says as long as there is a good cheese to pepperoni ratio, she can tolerate the cheese. After lunch we hopped back on the bus to drive the remaining two hours to get to Brussels and meet our host families.

We were greeted by our host families at a meet and greet at a local restaurant. Our group was the first to arrive so we waited eagerly by the patio as our host families began to arrive. Although we were a bit nervous to meet them, we all could not be more thrilled with the families we are going to be living with for the next month! I want to give a special shoutout to me and Harper’s host family for being so wonderful and preparing us a traditional Portuguese dinner for our first night in Brussels!