Buses 79 and 21, to be exact.

I attended a business event with my colleagues at our new offices in the Tractebel region of Brussels. From Troon, which is where I am currently stationed, Tractebel is pretty far. The only way to get their aside from driving is by bus.

So I logged into the SNCB (b-rail.be) website and planned my route. I like their site, it makes it fairly easy to get from place to place in Brussels. I wish they had some better mapping, but no biggie.

After I got my route together, I took hold of my jump pass and hopped on the 21. Totally uneventful except for the fact that it started to rain. It always rains when i head to a work event *sigh*. Next came the 79. Again, totally boring. But this time, at least, the bus was pretty much empty so I had more room to sit and relax. There was a pretty interesting fellow with his seeing-eye dog. I really have no idea how that works. This man, using his dog as a guide, walked right over to the open doors of the bus and up into it without troubles. He then went right over to a seat and sat down. How did he know some old lady wasn’t already sitting there? Certainly his dog couldn’t relay that info.

Anyway, I sat through a DRP (disaster recovery plan) and Business Continuity presentation from a colleague that was both very interesting and thoroughly boring. Later I ate some oddball Belgian food then got a ride by new friend Frank to Central Station.

So there you have it. The most mundane adventure yet. I hope to have more interesting things to say… at some point… hopefully…

I left for De Jacht from Troon (where I work) at a little past 17:00 to attend a work party at Albert Hall. I went into the Subway to buy a 10 voyage Lijn ticket. I’m not sure if these little tickets have an official name. So from now on, I’ll call it a “jump pass”. Mostly because it sounds cool.

I took my Jump Pass to the bus stop and got on. The bus trip from Troon to De Jacht was uneventful and totally boring. The bus was full — mostly working stiffs trying to get home I suppose. 

When I arrived in De Jacht, I was about an hour early. So I walked around a bit. The intersection at De Jacht was pretty large — something like 6 roads converging. Lots of people. Lots of cars.

I really felt that I had entered the ‘old city’. I got this sense that the structures here predate the structures I see a lot around Troon and Central Station. If I had more time and a camera, I might have investigated further. It’s great how many buildings display their year built on a sign above or beside the front door. 

They let me into Albert Hall a bit early; I was the first one there but did get a chance to talk with some of the event organizers. Before letting me in though, I had buzzed the door and a very nice older French-speaking fellow came out to meet me. I asked when I could go in. He had no idea what I said. Then he said something and I had no idea what he said. I have <em>gotta</em> learn me some French!

Eventually, we resorted to animal sounds and pointing. I pointed to me. Then the door. Then I showed him 6 fingers. Then I shrugged. Something clicked and he responded with a nod, six fingers, and then 3 sets of ten. 18:30. Got it. Merci. Dank u. 10 minutes later, he let me in. Merci. Dank u opnieuw.

The party was our 2008 kickoff event and featured many PowerPoint slides about how we’re doing and where we’re going. half the presentation was in Dutch. I understood a surprising amount of it. The English slides helped. But in IT, many of the words are simply English: Data Warehousing, Service Level Agreement, Project Management, etc…

One conversation I had with a few different colleagues was the etiquette that surrounds the Belgian Kiss. You know, when two strangers, acquaintances, or friends exchange a cheek-to-cheek ghost peck. I asked a few people if extending my hand in a hand-shake could be seen as rude.  I’m not totally comfortable with the Belgian Kiss so I avoid it. Based on my feedback, it looks like I’ll stay the course. No new strategy. Merci. Dank u.

Then the magician came out. Ugh. I find it easy to see the sleight of hand when you don’t concentrate on what the magician is saying. Misdirection is his game. But I was focused on his hands and caught some of his moves. He’s fast, but I wear glasses now and don’t speak his language.

I got home around 00:10. It was a late night. But I enjoyed my short trip to De Jacht and look forward to heading that way again some day.

I just learned today that practically right across the street from where I work (in the Troon area in Brussels) is the US Embassy building (which is in the Kunst-Wet area). I had been wondering where this was in relation to my building. I need to go to the US Embassy some day soon for my daughter’s paperwork.

It’s a lot of fun getting to know the lay of the land. I feel pretty good about the Central Station / Troon / and Kunst-Wet triangle now. I’m also a trained professional at buying cheese pizzas from the Pizza Hut around the corner.

And, to top it off, today is absolutely beautiful out. I’ve learned to really appreciate the nice days here!