I've since signed up for French lessons that will start shortly, so hopefully, I'll have some French-speaking skills before I leave Brussels and hop over to Germany for the second part of my stay overseas!
One unexpected learning has actually been related to fitness. I thought running around Brussels would be a fun way to explore the city. However, while the running culture is strong here, it's usually limited to certain areas such as parks, forests and canals with designated paths. Through my running, I've observed a nuance of semantics. Depending on what part of town you're discussing with someone, they may refer to it as "Oh yes, there are lots of immigrants there," or "Oh yes, quite a few expats live there; it's lovely." Notice the change of tone? But if you think about it, immigrants...expats...they all came from somewhere else; they all immigrated. This took me a while to notice and process. However, it didn't take too long for me to notice how the crowd changed on my daily commute from the City Center to the "expat" part of town where a number of EU institutions are. It didn't take me long to realize that I am the only person of color not only in my office but also at many external events I attend (probably both a factor of working in EU matters and the battery policy industry), which is a reason that I make sure to attend as many as possible. And it definitely didn't take long for me to notice the difference among neighborhoods while on my runs.
Through connecting with people from many walks of life, I've learned about the bubbles within Brussels and the Belgian perspective on issues that I know Europe has grappled with on a larger scale.
